“Remember, just like we went over. Donghae, I can’t stress enough- stay alert. We shouldn’t take long.” Kyuhyun took a deep breath and did the sign of the cross. ‘In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.’ He looked back at his three man crew. He gave Eunhyuk and Siwon a nod and pulled his wolf mask over his face. Eunhyuk wore his gorilla mask. Siwon slid his lamb mask over his face from where it rested on top of his head.

They walked up to the house with their heads held low. The music was blaring from inside the house.

Once at the door, they bum rushed into the house, pointing handguns at everyone at the party. One of the strippers startled at the sudden intrusion and fell off of the living room table. She sat up and scooted back as she tried to get as far away from the masked men as possible. Eunhyuk horse-collared a man that tried to escape deeper into the house. The man lost his balance and was now on the floor next to the fallen stripper. Siwon yanked the stereo plug from the wall socket and the loud music stopped instantly.

That's when Kyuhyun barked his orders. “ON THE FLOOR. NO RUNNIN'. THAT WON'T HELP YOU.” They obeyed. “I WANT MONEY, JEWELRY, ALL OF IT.”

Siwon proceeded to pat down the men's pockets. He took their cell phones, wallets, watches and violently pulled chains from their necks. He then stomped on the cell phones, smashing them to shreds under his boot.

Eunhyuk removed the jewelry worn by the three strippers. Then he proceeded to collect the drugs that were on the table.

Kyuhyun kept watch while his partners went about their duties. He noticed one of the men lying on his belly squirming. He quickly went over and violently jammed his knee into the man's back, earning a cry from the man. “What do we have here?” he said mockingly as he pulled a gun from the man's waistband. “Oh, I get it. You just wanted to give this to us, right? You weren't actually gonna use it on us, am I right?” Kyuhyun pistol whipped the frightened man with the gun he had just recovered. Addressing Eunhyuk and Siwon, he said, “These ers think they're gangsters! Check for weapons!”

“Yo, wolf,” Siwon called for Kyuhyun and pointed at one of the men’s hands. He was wearing a gold wedding ring.

Kyuhyun’s mask hid his displeasure. He scrunched his nose before slowly approaching the man. He lifted the man’s left hand up to his face as if expecting the ring not to be there upon inspecting it closer.

It was there.

“Does your wife know you’re here?” The man, face still in the carpet floor, just shook his head, too scared to look up at his tormentor. “You won’t be needing this tonight then, pimp.” Kyuhyun pulled the ring off of the man’s swollen finger. He let the man’s hand drop and made sure to step on it as he walked away, crunching his fingers under his combat boot.

“Time!” Eunhyuk announced after checking his watch.

“Wrap it up, boys. Let’s go,” Kyuhyun ordered his partners. He turned back to his victims, “I better not see you running out of here. Give yourself enough time or I’ll pop a capsule between your eyes.”

They still had their guns trained on the partiers. They backed up to the front door. Eunhyuk was the first one that made it to the door. He peeked through a crack and gave the all clear. Siwon exited next, followed by Kyuhyun. They ran to the car where Donghae was still waiting.

As soon as Kyuhyun was in the car, Donghae drove off calmly so as to not draw attention to them. They knew they had a few minutes before the police would make it to the scene but they wanted to be out of the neighborhood by then.

They pulled their masks off and looked at each other, silently making sure that each member was alright. Other than the sweat that was dripping down their faces and panting from the adrenaline rush, they were just fine.

As they approached the highway, the mood changed. Feeling the distance between them and the crashed house party, Eunhyuk pat Siwon on the back roughly. Siwon and Donghae started laughing and a big grin spread across Kyuhyun’s face.

They made it back to base, which was a house that the four in the car shared with Ryeowook.

They were always careful to be quiet even though they didn’t live in the best neighborhood and their neighbors wouldn’t say anything about their nefarious activity. There was always retribution for snitches. All the same, it was in their best interest to disappear in plain sight.

Ryeowook opened the garage door as he saw their car pulling into the driveway. He waited in the garage to greet them. “Hey, how’d it go?” he asked as the garage door closed behind them. His friends were smiling like children in an amusement park. Donghae put his arm around Eunhyuk’s shoulder and jumped up and down as they made their way into the house. Based on their expressions he assumed everything went well but he still waited for an answer.

Kyuhyun, still smiling, turned to Ryeowook, “Couldn’t have gone better.”

The five friends gathered in the basement. Donghae was on his laptop, trying his hand at the DJ software he had downloaded a few days previous. Eunhyuk bounced to the music while seated on the arm of the long couch. Kyuhyun sat back on the same couch but at the opposite end with his legs spread wide open and his arms extended, one resting on the arm and the other across the back of the couch. Siwon sat back on the two-seater next to Donghae. He held a short glass of iced rum in one hand.

Ryeowook wore latex gloves as he took stock of their haul at the coffee table. They made off with the handgun that Kyuhyun confiscated, a .38 special revolver that Siwon found on another man at the party, and a semi-automatic tactical rifle that Eunhyuk found in one of the bedrooms. Between the drugs they found on the table and in the strippers’ purses, they had a street worth of one thousand dollars in and MDMA. From the 11 men and 3 women at the party, they collected just under 9 thousand dollars in cash. Ryeowook had yet to appraise the jewelry.

Although he was satisfied with their haul that night, Kyuhyun knew that if he wanted to make a name for himself he would have to do better than that.

Speaking in his normal, gentle voice, a complete contrast to the way he sounded when he was barking orders during the invasion, he addressed his crew, “We need to hit something bigger and badder one of these days. For now, Donghae, I want you to tail the Block B crew. You are what you eat, boys. Let’s put ambition on the menu.”

“Here-here,” Donghae expressed his agreement. Eunhyuk hollered in excitement. Ryeowook smiled and nodded. Siwon leaned forward to the table and prepared a drink for Kyuhyun.

The loud music traveled through every inch of the club, sending vibrations up through the clubbers’ feet every time the bass pounded the subwoofers.

Heechul sat back on a leather bench seat with legs crossed and his back erect on the backrest. He had his sunglasses on, further darkening the room for himself and providing good cover for his bored eyes. He kept his arms loosely around the girls he had on either side. He tapped the girl to his right’s shoulder every once in a while to signal her to bring his drink up and adjust the straw to his lips.

‘This is good for me. This is what I need. My image depends on it,’ he tried to convince himself every time one of the girls rubbed up against him.

A touch on his chin brought him out of his contemplations. He furrowed his brow and turned to see one of the girls caressing his face. ‘Wait˗ the frown is out of place here.’ He quickly changed it to a seductive smile. She giggled in his ear, sending chills down his back. All he wanted to do was get away from them and the loud music, which was giving him a headache.

Movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention. He lifted his eyes from the girl’s smiling face to see man speed walking toward them. Sungmin, who had not taken a seat since they entered the club, tensed up. He extended his arm to stop the man before he could get any closer to Heechul’s table. The man was dramatically waving his arms and then motioned toward Heechul. Shindong leaned in and stopped just a few inches away from Heechul’s face. “That’s Mickey, our new guy.”

“Did you not tell him?” Heechul tried to sound annoyed but the truth was he was grateful for the distraction.

“No, I told him.”

“Then why the is he here?”

“I don’t know. Just… go easy on him please. He’s new.”

“Fine.” Heechul raised his voice, “Sungmin!” He motioned for Sungmin to let the man through.

The man took a few more steps and stood in front of Heechul’s table. “Thank you, sir. You know I wouldn’t do this unless it was really important.”

Heechul scanned the man called Mickey up and down. He noticed very large sweat stains under the man’s arms. “What brings you here?”

“Well, you see. I got a friend that works security at the amphitheater. Anyway he called and said they were looking to get hooked up for a really big order. Big, big, big- from a celebrity, a rock star!” he said this wanting to impress Heechul but he continued when it didn’t have the effect he was going for. “I want to make a good impression. You know, to build my cred.”

“Mickey? As in Mickey Mouse?” Heechul asked nonchalantly, “For cheese?”

Mickey nodded enthusiastically.

“How astute,” Heechul said sarcastically. “How much?”

“Five grand’s worth,” he said proudly.

“Okay, Mickey. I got just what you need.” Heechul turned to Kangin. “Get him his work. Make sure the five is all there… and take Shindong with you.”

“Thank you, sir. Really. Thank you.” Mickey bowed several times before being pulled away by Kangin.

Heechul watched Kangin, Shindong, and Mickey walk away. He stayed seated for a few moments before excusing himself to the restroom. Sungmin followed him with his eyes as far as he could until he was out of his line of sight. Taking advantage of the coverage, Heechul made a b-line from the route to the restroom to the back exit.

He welcomed the cold air that hit him as soon as he pushed the heavy door open and let himself out of the club. He could see his breath under the streetlight as he exhaled. He tilted his head back to stretch his neck muscles and relaxed in the relative silence, broken only by the sound of cars driving by. He inhaled and exhaled deeply several times.

His peace was short-lived. Heechul felt his cell phone vibrating in his blazer pocket. He took it out and saw the name on the screen. At the same time, he heard the door open harshly behind him and Leeteuk tumbled out of the club. ‘Speak of the devil,’ he thought to himself.

“There you are, Heechul! Sungmin is freaking out inside.” Leeteuk hung up his unanswered call to Heechul and pressed the next number on his speed dial. “I better let him know I found you out back.”

Heechul rolled his eyes.

“Hello...? Yes. He was out back… In the back alley… I don’t know. Anyway, we’re on our way back.” Leeteuk ended his call with Sungmin. He turned to Heechul, “Ready?”

Heechul didn’t want to go back but he took the first step toward the door to the club. “The hell do you guys take me for?”

“Well, there’s not a shortage of people who want to take you out.”

“Of course there isn’t. I’m very attractive.”

“That’s not what I meant. I meant… you know what I meant.”

Heechul pulled into the single car garage of his condo. He pushed the button that closed the garage door behind his black BMW.

Before he climbed out of his car, he reached behind his back and pulled out his Beretta 92fs and deactivated the safety mechanism. The familiar feeling of the grip on his palm gave him comfort. He cleared the garage and moved to the laundry room. Room by room, he walked through, making sure there was no one in his home.

Once he was satisfied, he set his gun down on the living room coffee table. He sunk his tense body into the suede couch and turned the television on. It was set to the default channel he had synced with his security cameras. He let his cat jump onto his lap.

“Heebum, you’re much better company.”