“So, how was it?”

Taeyang and Daesung stood in front of Jiyong. They had driven back to their city without stopping overnight. They were tired. Their eyes were bloodshot and they slouched where they stood but it was out of courtesy to their leader that they reported back before resting.

Taeyang spoke first in monotone, “The job itself was a success. They have a really good crew. Talent isn’t the issue.” He immediately regretted the slip of his tongue. He attributed it to his tired mind.

“But something else is?” Jiyong questioned. He knew the answer to the question. He just wanted a confirmation from someone else to make sure he was seeing what indeed was in front of him.

“Well, you know I don’t speak out of turn, much less about another man who’s not here to defend himself, having said that, I find the leadership to be detrimental to the crew’s future overall,” Taeyang finished robotically.

“You don’t need to say anything else. I know the value of your word.” Jiyong’s words hung in the air. He didn’t want Taeyang to feel like a gossip monger. He knew who the problem child was. He had seen it firsthand during his grade school days and the first two years of high school before he had to move to another town. Deep down all those years, he knew Kyuhyun’s obsessive and addictive personality would sooner or later catch up to him. It was now that he regretted not insisting on moving Kyuhyun closer to him. Extending the offer once or twice wasn’t enough because even though he was several months younger than Kyuhyun, he could keep him from going overboard with some careful nudging.

Daesung cleared his throat and spoke up, “Here are the earnings.” He presented a cash box to Jiyong.

Jiyong entered the lock code. He had memorized all of his cash box combination codes and could recall which number was assigned to each lock box based on the label that was pressed into the metal tag.

‘Birth certificates: 57269.’

He counted the money and divided the pile in half, foregoing taking a cut for himself. He pushed one stack to Taeyang and the other to Daesung. “Thank you, guys. Go get some rest.”  

Daesung smiled brightly at Taeyang, who tried to keep a straight face. They bowed and took their leave.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ryeowook sat on the basement couch with the phone held up to his ear. “Hey… Yeah, stop by… No, just stop on by… See you.” He hung up and nodded to Eunhyuk, who had stopped weighing a small pile of on the portable scale at the coffee table to look up at Ryeowook.

“Man, when am I ever going to get a break at this rate,” Eunhyuk complained.

“Just be grateful you’re not on door duty,” Siwon countered.

“Fair enough,” Eunhyuk conceded.

“Who let the cat out of the bag anyway?” Siwon asked Ryeowook.

“What? Did you expect us to just sit on it? Of course we have to sell it,” he answered.

“Hey, where’s Kyuhyun? He should be doing this too,” Eunhyuk remembered, hopeful to get some help with packaging. He had a lot of work ahead of him. The large packages of they stole from Heechul were not broken up into amounts that they could sell themselves. Eunhyuk was left to bag it into smaller portions.

“He went to pick up some…some… I forgot what he called it… some gun cleaning crap. You know how much that boy loves doing that stuff,” Ryeowook answered.

“I know. Did you see his face when we laid out the inventory?” Eunhyuk asked amusedly.

“Yeah. He took a special liking to Heechul’s piece. It’s like his new pet now,” Ryeowook said.

“He probably slept with it under his pillow,” Eunhyuk joked.

There was a knock on the door and Siwon got up to answer it. “Honestly, it is really nice. I was kinda hoping to get that one for myself,” he said as he walked backwards toward the door, still facing his friends.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

“That’s good but did you get a contractor for the vault room?” Heechul paused to listen to Leeteuk on the other end of the phone. “Tell Yesung to make the arrangements… Yes, cash… Well, this is what I call ‘the beauty of hindsight’ and I don’t want to be caught with my pants down again, you understand… And the shipments… That’s good. Okay, bye.” He hung up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He thought his crew would be more helpful and understand that their contact should be at a minimum. Apparently he did not make it clear enough during his epic tantrum.

He looked out of his floor-to-ceiling window. The sun was setting on the town below and street lights started to light up.

On the night of the heist, Heechul went straight to his condo to pick up Heebum and some documents. He normally rotated in which of his residences he would spend the night. That night seemed like a good night to move to the farthest of his properties within the county, a mountainside house. He wanted to be safe and he wanted to get his business back on track but his main object was to find Kyuhyun. It would be easier to accomplish if he stayed local.

There weren’t too many stick-up crews and their M.O.’s varied greatly. If he could find a pattern and group similar hits, he would be able to distinguish signatures. But it was almost impossible to get information from the type of people he needed to talk to unless it was face to face. Most of the drug dealers or gangsters didn’t like talking about how they were played. Heechul knew this feeling. He didn’t even like to admit to himself that it happened to him. It was the ultimate embarrassment.  To make the situation worse, it happened in front of his main crew members. He had a reputation and that incident put a major stain on it. It made him question himself more than usual in the days following.

His sleep came with much effort after hours of tossing and turning. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he would do if Kyuhyun were in front of him. He smiled at the idea of how gratifying it would feel to finally get his revenge.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

A black SUV slowly drove up to a young man who walked down an empty street. It crawled to a stop when it was right next to him. He should be used to it by now. He spent almost every night doing the same thing; walking up and down the same block, receiving text messages, picking up money left in various hiding places and leaving small bags of methamphetamine in its place. He should be accustomed to the shady characters he encountered on a daily basis. But no matter how much time he spent doing this, he was still scared.

The dim, orange streetlight made it difficult for him to see the person in the car even after the passenger side window completely lowered and the driver leaned over. “Jepp?”

Hearing his nickname from an unidentified person made him all the more uneasy. His disadvantage was growing. Naturally, he went on the defensive. “Who wants to know?” the young man asked in a deep voice.

“Come closer.”

Jepp debated his next move for a moment before deciding that he couldn’t afford to show his fear. Another hesitant second on the sidewalk would be a dead giveaway. He put his hand in the front pocket of his hoodie, wrapping his hand around the grip of his revolver and prepared his face with the meanest scowl he was capable of. He cautiously leaned on the window frame of the SUV.

As soon as he was able to see the face of his questioner, the scowl fell off of his face. “S-s-sir…” He cursed himself for sounding like a scared child in the principal’s office but he had been warned about Heechul. When he was being taught about the street life, it always came up. You don’t mess with Heechul and his crew. Don’t get in their way.

“What could I help you with, sir?” The question sounded strange even to his ears. He was glad his homeboys were not there to see him fumble his way through his encounter with Heechul.

“Just a few words.”

“A`ight.”

“Wow. That’s a nasty black eye you got there,” Heechul commented on Jepp’s appearance.

“Yeah˗I mean yes. I got jumped.”

“Jumped? By who?”

“Don’t know and no one I talked to knows either. About a week ago, I was doing my thing here. Some dude about my size walks up to me. I thought he was looking for a fix so I said ‘what’s up’ and he just decks me. Next thing I know, I wake up in that alley over there, all my work is gone, my money’s gone. I got this gangsta limp now… well, that’s what it looks like but it’s only `cause he beat the out of my legs. Hitting a man when he’s down…” Jepp shook his head in disapproval.

Heechul nodded. “Did you see anything else? Could you maybe describe him better?”

“Yeah, but it did me no good. Turns out this guy’s part of a new stick-up crew. But he’s some sort of crazy, just a little more violent than the rest, like he’s got something to prove. You know? I thought my boss was gonna have a problem with me for losing his money, you know how it goes, but this guy and his crew have been playing players left and right these days. My boss would rather sweep it under the rug for now.”

“Yeah, I think I know... Describe him anyway.”

“Okay. Well, he was pale, short hair from what I could see under the hoodie, about my height but skinny, wore all black, combat boots too. Honestly, he didn’t look hard. That’s why I wasn’t too worried about him. His body language and all- I just thought he was a druggie.”

“Did he say anything?”

“No, he didn’t...”

Heechul hummed.

“Oh, yeah,” Jepp added before Heechul rolled the window back up, “he got this crazy smirk too.”

Heechul finished rolling the window up. He sat in his seat staring out into the steeet but seeing none of what was in front of him. Jepp had been more helpful than he expected but every new piece of information led to another question. All Heechul had to go on for the moment was Kyuhyun’s operation area, which seemed like a lot until he realized just how big the city was and how many wannabes were popping up.