“I don’t care if your bones melt,

let’s see the end to this madness.

Just like that, just like this,

let’s look at a new world, and

Point your gun to the complicated world,”

'Doom Dada', T.O.P (Big Bang), [Single]. [2013]

Knees trembling and sweat dripping, Nari and Bobby were led through a series of dark, concealed passages throughout the JYP stronghold, holding onto one another, not just to show a united front, but for each other. They were all the other had at this point, and they needed all they could get – they may never step foot out of this building alive.

Neither Bobby nor Nari wanted to cry, but keeping it together at this point was difficult enough, let alone walking through the building as the rest of their Family, friends and allies fought to the death around them. It sickened Bobby, knowing that he’d left his brothers without a decent explanation, let alone an apology. Nari only hoped that Hyerin was watching them through some obscure camera, and that soon enough, someone would come to help them.

But hope was wearing thin.

Boa was weakening by the minute, each step she took commanding a huge amount of effort that she simply couldn’t offer. Nari slipped her hand out from Bobby’s, giving him a reassuring look before falling back to help her Unnie walk. No long would she be the stubborn girl refusing to acknowledge her sister because of a tough decision she had to make – no, Nari needed to show solidarity now more than ever. Especially since JYP assumed he had Boa’s allegiance.

“Get a move on!” One of the two rear guards threatened, a woman, as she jabbed the tip of her gun into Boa’s back.

“Can’t you see her leg is wounded?!” Bobby demanded as he slipped back to help carry Boa from the other side, speeding up the process ever so slightly.

“She shouldn’t have betrayed us then,” the other guard, a male with a smooth, deep voice scoffed as he held his gun up at the trio tauntingly. Bobby fought like crazy to contain the anger that surmounted with every step they traversed.

You’ll get your chance, soon enough.

Eventually the troupe emerged into a more picturesque, serene set of corridors, clearly higher up in the building, the gunfire and explosions just out of earshot, mere vibrations along the floor and walls.

Yet walking along the hallways, Nari couldn’t help but feel eerily haunted by the stark similarities to the SM building; the traditional wooden panelling, the burnished marble floors and the clear-cut windows almost made Nari feel like she was walking through her own territory, where safety and protection was synonymous with the name SM. Yet even the authentic ornaments and artworks that line the walls boasted an arrogance, a personal touch that was absent at SM – JYP’s own, unique flair apparently.

“Like what you see?” JYP smirked from the head of the back, spinning around and walking backwards to get a full look at his victims, “Your dear friends at SM lent us their architect when we were starting up. Of course, I’ve added a few personal touches from our successful conquests since such investments ceased.”

“What investments?” Nari and Bobby demanded in unison. They both blushed when the enemies surrounding them burst into obnoxious laughter.

“How sweet,” JYP mused as he titled his head in thought, “The young lovers are pulled by the exact same strings.”

“Leave them alone,” Boa spat as she trudged on with Nari and Bobby holding her up, her eyes oozing with pure hatred and voice venomous.

JYP’s expression quickly soured, “And you- I’m disappointed. I truly believed you wanted to abolish such corruption.”

Boa’s face soon darkened at JYP’s inference, and both Bobby and Nari remained confused – yet another comment of the same type that they’d never the gain answers for.

Soon enough, they were shoved ungracefully through a set of double-armoured doors and bullet-proof glass, and thrown onto the ground of JYP’s main office as he sauntered around his desk, facing the window as is eyes loomed over the city.

Bobby wanted nothing more than to stick a knife in the man’s back, make him kneel before the true bosses of the city and pay for all the damage he’d caused. But he pressed on with newfound patience, (something he’d never thought possible) and told himself to endure whatever torture JYP had in store for them. He’d come up with a plan sooner or later.

Nari couldn’t help but feel further haunted at the sight of JYP standing over the city the way her was now, not so different to how her Daebu, Lee Sooman had done the day Nari returned to her Family earlier this year.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on you two for quite some time,” JYP explained as he kept his back to his victims, “Your pursuits are inspiring, believe me. Both of you, torn over the benefits of belonging to our families, longing for something more – and then you stumble across one another. You see, I am very interested in people like you.”

“Weapons that you point at back their creators?” Bobby scoffed as he straightened his back despite the pain in his knees against the floor. He wouldn’t appear weak now. Never.

JYP scoffed, “People who deserve more,” with a click of his fingers, his assassins stood to attention, awaiting their next command with utmost attention, “My friends, it’s time to make your identities known to our young friends.”

A shiver struck Nari’s spine as the assassins and mercenaries, not to different to herself, removed their masks from over their heads to conceal the true identities behind so much bloodshed in the city.

First, was a man to the right of JYP, his stance relaxed and attitude slick as he as he brushed a hand through his now-matted hair, “Those masks are a pain in the .”

“Not now, San E.” JYP grumbled, clearly not impressed with his mercenary cramping his style, “Our San E doesn’t like to boast, but he single-handedly built up our mercenary trade. You can hold him responsible for the actions of this group.”

San E sent a look to his leader, unsure whether or not the comment was a joke, as the nect revealed himself.

“G.Soul.” the second man introduced himself, a fine scar running along his jaw, carrying a tough and mean aura with him, “I lodged a bullet in the deputy mayor’s chest earlier on this year,”

“Yeah, you clearly succeeded there,” the woman on the other side of JYP scoffed, “The bastard still tries to deter our moles in the system, poor thing doesn’t realise what hit him – if you pardon the pun.” She was cat-like with small eyes and a charisma that Nari had only seen the likes of in her former ally Hyuna, or even Boa herself, “Ahn Sohee. I was a Wonder Girl, until I felt I’d be better off in private hire.”

“Same here,” another man, thin and yet clearly witty in his body language and tongue, stepped forwards from the side, “Jo Kwon – you may know me as the man who set the police commissioner’s home on fire last year.”

“That was you!?” Bobby demanded. He remembered being chased down the street for hours on end by the police that evening, clearly thinking he and his brothers were behind the attack that killed his wife and two children. Bobby bore teeth at the smirking man.

“Not just him, of course,” another man, handsome-faced and with a warm smile, added, giving Jo Kwon a friendly shove, “I drove the getaway car.”

“Rain!” Bobby could no longer contain his anger at the sight of the man who killed his Hyung in cold blood, when Bobby was just a young boy, starting fresh in this world with so much to learn. He still remembered the day like it was yesterday, just he, Hanbin and Jinhwan, the way it used to be, learning the ropes from the best until they had to pave their own way.

“What is it?” Nari asked, grabbing onto Bobby’s arm, trying to offer up what little reassurance she could. Bobby clearly had his own demons he still needed to drown – he wasn’t alone.

“They killed him,” Boa mumbled with sight nerves, “His first mentor, Se7en. They set his body on fire over the Han. I saw it myself, because I was supposed to kill them.”

Bobby’s eyes burned with the fire of a thousand suns, yet even as Boa confessed her failure he couldn’t bring herself to be angry at her. One, because to vex Boa was to hurt Nari, but also, those responsible were just within an arms’ reach.

“Let’s not act like we’re forgetting the most important person here.” A woman, fine-featured and every inch a beauty as a movie star, snarled as she stepped forth and walked around the three, kneeling victims, “Without me, you’d never have found the YG-scum in the first place.

Nari recognised the woman – a former TV actress, presumed dead after her car crashed in the Han, “Min Hyorin?”

The woman nodded.

“How are you alive?” Nari asked.

Min Hyorin shrugged, “Ask your families.”

“Stop talking in riddles!” Bobby demanded, patience wearing thin with every second, his temper threatening to burst any second now.

“I’m not,” Min Hyorin snarled, “Your beloved leaders have to thank for my death. But I’m sure you know why, Kwon Boa?”

Nari and Bobby both turned to Boa for answers, but her face was wrought with despair, tears threatening to fall from her eyes as these people (clearly old faces for her) tortured her with the riddles and endless secrets.

“Tell them!” Min Hyorin demanded, holding her rifle up in Nari’s face.

“She was married to Youngbae!”

“W-What?” Bobby choked, the news regarding one of his mentor’s clearly blasphemous.

Boa panted, the confession clearly taking courage to tell, “They eloped when they were Trainees, no younger than you. Yang Hyun Suk organised her death as not lose a valuable member.”

“What does our family have to do with it though?” Nari demanded.

Boa was clearly pained to repeat the words, but it was now or never, “He could never allow it to be traced back to him, so he sought the help of SM.”

“He wouldn’t!” Bobby pleaded out loud, “The Daebu might be ruthless, but he always believes in executing his own sentences!” Bobby was beyond confused at the accusation – one of their key beliefs at YG, was that he who passes the sentence must also pass the bullet, YG would never have employed someone else to do their dirty work.

A lesson from the great Seo Taji… Bobby thought to himself.

“I know it was him! No one else would have an incentive! Tell them who did it,” Min Hyorin demanded, pointing her gun at Boa, “Tell them who fixed and broke the brakes on my car before ramming me off of the bridge, tell me who left an innocent woman left for dead, all because she fell in love with wrong man.”

Boa shook her head, tears spilling down her face in endless waterfalls. Nari’s heart ached for her Unnie, but she was also impatient to know the truth about the shady history of both her’s and Bobby’s families.

A darker, more dormant part of Nari feared that there were worse secrets to be revealed too…

“Who was it?” Bobby asked, just about holding his rage in. It still threatened to bubble over the surface.

“Say it!” Min Hyorin screamed, pointed her gun at Boa’s head now.

“It was me!” Boa screamed.

Nari and Bobby’s jaws fell to the floor. Nari because she’d never felt such distrust in her Unnie until now, Bobby because of the great, indirect role she’d played in his mentor’s death. Boa clearly felt this shame seep into her bones as she knelt, weeping, whilst JYP chuckled at the misfortune.

“I got my own on Papa-YG -stupid nickname-“ Min Hyorin scoffed as she stepped back, admiring her gun during her reverie, “By killing his most prized possession. Of course, G-Dragon would’ve been better, but I was friends with him. Next, I came after SM – Boa was in hiding, Girls Generation were becoming legitimate, and killing them would set up the government on my trail - so I had to go after the next best thing. You.”

Nari felt as if she’d been repeatedly stabbed in the stomach, burning with bile as her head began to spin. Everything made sense, and yet it didn’t, “It was- it was you? You tried to kill me three years ago?”

Min Hyorin scoffed, “If only I were so lucky. Of course, by the time I’d reached Japan, someone else had already gotten to you – let’s say, one of YG’s dodgy deals. But I’m not supposed to tell you that.”

And yet Nari’s light at the end of the tunnel faded almost as quickly as it appeared. She supposed she’d never find out who orchestrated the attempt on her life – but getting through now was more important.

“Our next project is much more interesting,” JYP announced as he finally turned to face the captives, “Our next goal, is you. What better way to destroy our enemies than to go after their children?”

“I’d rather die.”

“Not in this lifetime, .”

“Oh, why not?” JYP groaned, feigning frustration over his captives’ unwillingness, “Your families would never allow you to be together! They’d kill one of you out of spite and wait to their other finished themselves off to make their job easier! Under my leadership, however, no one would ever seek to separate the two of you again. In fact, I’d see to it”

The offer was tempting to say the least. Bobby couldn’t imagine going back on his brothers after trying, years and years on end, to get where he was today. The mere though brought a stabbing pain to him. Yet, he couldn’t help but wonder about the future JYP could offer him in comparison to YG;  YG had a habit of giving his groups hardly any missions to fulfil, as if he were se