Was that a motorcycle just now? No no it can’t be, he’s at the mansion looking after Chan there’s no way that was Seokmin’s motorcycle.

Jeonghan snapped out of his daze instantly when Minghao nudged him. “Boss are you alright?” he whispered gently, a glint of concern in his eyes.

“Y-yes of course” Jeonghan managed and nodded at his subordinate. He looked at the slip of paper in his hands, a crucial piece of evidence that Minghao had found and grinned to himself. Now they had the upper-hand in this situation. He was still off about both Hyungwon and Jisoo leaving the room in a hurry but as much as he wanted to know what they were really up to, he had to focus on taking down the ringleader of this whole damn charade. He watched Shownu and his men as they shifted uneasily, one of them even eyeing Minwoo suspiciously after Minghao revealed his share of evidence. Junhui was in front of their small group, his smug smile directed at the anxious landlord.

“What do you have to say for yourself Minwoo-ssi? Fess up already so we can all go home and you can rot in jail” Junhui jeered at the latter. Jeonghan almost chuckled when he saw an evil smile plastered on Junhui’s face, his subordinate was enjoying this too much.

“Fess up? Oh alright ya caught me” Minwoo regained his composure and let out a hearty chuckle. He then turned to Shownu and his men and snapped his fingers. “Alright boys, bring out the big guns.”

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The heels of Seokmin’s black oxford shoes clacked against the marble floor as he walked along the lobby of the St. Mary’s apartment. His eyes swept across his surroundings and took in the sight of the decorative wallpaper peeling off the walls, potted plants placed near the walls begging to be watered and the dingy paintings all over the lobby walls.

“Nice place you got here” Seokmin commented in a surprisingly polite tone, whistling as he continued to look around the run-down apartment.

Jisoo nodded curtly at his newfound ally, not knowing whether he was being sarcastic or not about the state of the apartment. He observed his newfound company carefully as he kept a lookout for Hyungwon, worried that he might spring out and attack suddenly without warning. The Lee siblings stayed close to Seokmin as Seungkwan trudged behind them and Jisoo brought up the rear as they made their way to the staircase. Jisoo’s eyes were fixed onto Seungkwan’s back lazily as he absentmindedly followed his uncanny allies. Seokmin took the lead and busied himself with reassuring the Lee siblings that everything will go smoothly and toning down Seungkwan’s protests regarding his new company.

“Look we don’t need your help okay? We’ve got this under control hyung and you really didn’t need to bring our clients here it’s way too dangerous.” Seungkwan whined, trudging forward and tugging on Seokmin’s suit impatiently.

Just then, Seokmin stopped walking abruptly causing Seungkwan to bump into him. He turned to face Seungkwan with a sad smile and put his hand on the younger’s shoulder. “Seungkwannie you made me worried sick, you’re already hurt enough and I don’t need you to suffer much longer.”

Seungkwan swat away his hand in annoyance and merely scoffed. “God stop babying me, besides no pain no gain right? I’m staying on this mission and that’s final.” he said firmly, crossing his arms with an unwavering glare directed at the older.

Jisoo expected Seokmin to oppose the younger boy but instead, he simply chuckled. “Sometimes I wonder where you get that determination from, it’s cute”

“I am not cute goddammit it i’m a force to be reckoned with, fear me” Seungkwan whined, stomping his feet and throwing a fit like a child.

“That just makes you so much cuter!” Seokmin cooed.

It was a pleasant sight for Jisoo, knowing that even those in the mafia could not be so scary and actually act like normal, average people. But unfortunately, Jisoo barely had time for their little group to be sidetracked. “Guys, could we um focus on the matter at hand p-please?” Jisoo raised his voice sheepishly, catching everyone’s attention immediately.

They all got the message and cautiously walked up the steps to the apartment hallways. The Lee siblings hardly talked but exchanged quick, worried whispers to one another as they walked on. Seokmin took out a revolver and warily pointed it at each apartment door they pass. “Which way do we go Jisoo-ssi?”

Jisoo was snapped from his thoughts and stuttered. “A-ah um we just keep going straight and then we turn right, my room is the first one after we round the corner. Everyone’s there at the moment, but i’m not so sure about that Hyungwon guy-”

Slash

“JISOO-SSI!!” Seungkwan cried out immediately, tending to Jisoo and ignoring the dagger that had just clattered on the ground. Their small team was in a disarray, completely oblivious to the strange man lurking behind them the entire time.

Jisoo held his cheek gingerly, wincing as he felt the fresh cut on his cheek. He turned to face the one who threw the dagger and found himself face to face with Hyungwon, a devilish smile plastered on his face.

While Seungkwan was busy fussing over Jisoo, Seokmin stepped in and aimed his gun at Hyungwon. The Lee siblings huddled closely behind him, eyeing Hyungwon nervously. Seokmin however, kept his composure and smiled lightly. “So you’re that Hyungwon guy huh? Why don’t you just surrender peacefully and i’ll take you to my boss, sounds good huh?”

Seungkwan joined in and snickered, sticking his tongue out. “Yeah besides all you’ve got was your little knife trick, it’s not like you’ve got anything good on you.”

As a response to that, Hyungwon’s smile only grew wider, as he brought out a pistol and aimed it right at Seungkwan menacingly. “Heh there’s more where that came from runt, got anything else to say about my cheap knife trick?”

Seungkwan merely held his tongue, hands tightening around Jisoo’s arms.

He pulled out his phone from his coat, and dialled a number with a sing-song tone “Hey boss I caught them~~”

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“So honey do you like the surprise~~” Minwoo mused as he chuckled at the dumbfounded mafia boss.

Yoon Jeonghan gaped as he bent over a huge crate filled with a never before seen collection of one of the finest set of firearms that he’s seen in quite some time. Each crate had assortments of pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns and even bags of gunpowder that took all the air out of his lungs. He unconsciously reached out to grab hold of a rifle when his hand was forcefully slapped away and the crate was shut in front of him with a loud thud.

Minwoo clicked his tongue in amusement. “Unfortunately, it’s not for you.”

After a few moments, Lee Chanhyuk and Lee Soohyun tumbled head first into the room. Right at Jeonghan’s feet where they cowered in fear before the mafia boss. Instinctively, Jeonghan crouched down to their level and met two pairs of pleading eyes.

“Ahh so you kids come crawling back to me now huh~~” Minwoo mused menacingly, switching his gaze from Chanhyuk to Soohyun.

Hyungwon, this time, took out two pistols and had each one aimed at the siblings “I found them clinging onto Seokmin-ah and saw them snooping around so I thought hey, the boss should see this sorry lot”

Jeonghan cursed under his breath.

Oh god no Seokmin I told you to stay home and look after Chan for Christ’s sake Seungkwan already sneaked off to this mission and now you too god damn it

“-it wasn’t exactly that easy to take them all down you know;” he paused and counted on his fingers. “I had to take out Seokmin-ah, Seungkwan-ah and even Jisoo-ah, our very prized informant. Sorry about that boss”

“Nah it’s fine, just a little collateral damage doesn’t harm anyone.” Minwoo replied so nonchalantly.

Hearing Minwoo and Hyungwon’s words were enough to get Jeonghan’s blood boiling that he abruptly stood up, startling everyone in the room for the nth time. “Don’t you dare treat my subordinates like collateral damage you trash.” At this point, Jeonghan couldn’t stop himself from gritting his teeth. “I don’t care about Jisoo-ssi but you have been harassing Seungkwan all night and now you’re bringing Seokmin into this?? Where the hell are my boys now.”

“Relax Jeonghan-ah they’re just out cold out here in the hallway.” Hyungwon replied, tipping his head to the right.

Jeonghan began to make his way out the door when Hyungwon simply stopped him, blocking him from exiting with a wide grin on his face. “Hey Jeonghan-ah shouldn’t you focus on the matter at hand, your subordinates are just sleeping anyway~~”

The disgruntled mafia boss was about to smack Hyungwon right in the nose when Soohyun broke the tension. “H-hey where’d you get these? They look strangely familiar...” She squeaked, as she scrambled over to one of the crates. Chanhyuk scrambled over to another crate and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Hey Minwoo-ssi what’s the meaning of this?”  

Suddenly the cogs in Jeonghan’s mind spun faster than usual and he fumbled again inside his suit for the small slip of paper that Minghao recovered. His eyes scanned over the words on the slip of paper and suddenly he has it all figured out. “The goods you were talking about here...you stole those guns from these kids didn’t you?”

Both Chanhyuk and Soohyun’s heads snapped to Minwoo’s direction, their eyes portraying evident betrayal and anger.

Chanhyuk was the first to talk after a moment of disbelief. “Look, we were already on to you for stealing our money but come on, stealing our firearms too?? I can’t believe you’d stoop to that level.”

“Welp, that’s just how sleazy this guy is.” Junhui butted in and put an arm around Minwoo to which the latter responded by pushing his arm off of him. He looked down on the two Lee siblings threateningly. “Alright so you found out my little secret so what? What are you kids gonna do about it.”

To his surprise, Soohyun bolted upwards and kicked Minwoo in the shin before he even registered what happened. With all the injuries he’d gotten throughout the night, he stumbled backwards as the girl was now the one towering over the other. “Well jerk, since you’ve been stealing money from us, Chanhyuk-oppa thought that releasing our new line of firearms would save our business but then those went missing too. And now we know where it all went.”

Minwoo put his hands up in mock surrender. “Aw~~ but all I wanted was a partnership with you kids but you two so harshly rejected me~~”

Chanhyuk crossed his arms and scoffed. “First of all, we were planning to grow as a small business first but you disrupted that, and now I don’t think we’ll ever want to have a partnership with you after tonight’s events.”
 

“See I told you Minwoo-ssi, these kids have got the finest firearms on this side of town and I knew those in the crates weren’t yours to begin with, of course I recognized it as the fine craftsmanship only done by the AKMU siblings.” Jeonghan bragged excessively, giving a little nod to the mentioned siblings.

Minwoo was sweating profusely now, even the Monsta X crew were finally beginning to realize the truth and were eyeing their boss suspiciously. Shownu was the first to speak from the bunch. “Oi have you been playing us all this time boss? Or should I even call you that.”

“Tch w-what that’s all rubbish, look.” Minwoo opened the crate and brought out a shotgun. “Where’s the proof on this one?? There’s no label saying that it’s AKMU’s right??”

There were nods and murmurs of agreement from Monsta X. Honestly how thick-headed could these sunbaenims be. Jeonghan thought, completely dumbfounded at their stupidity. That was when Soohyun boldly went up to the bunch and pouted. “Are you guys really not going to help us?? I thought everyone in the mafia is supposed to be helpful… guess only Jeonghan-ssi and his men are reliable.” In an instant, the men of Monsta X were protesting all at the same time, words barely understandable so Shownu spoke up. “Well now that I think about it-” he ripped the wooden lid of the crate, much to the surprise of everyone else.” “would that explain this weird marking on the crate lid.” As he pointed it out, everyone saw that there were the letters “YG” engraved in the corner of the crate lid.

“What’s YG??” Jooheon inquired, touching the mark engraved in the crate lid.

Chanhyuk adjusted his glasses. “It’s our franchisor, YG is basically this huge corporation that sells firearms and we recently got into a deal with them. We’re still new compared to Big Bang, iKON and the others though. Usually YG would be the one supplying the goods but we thought we’d make our own too.” He paused and pointed at the crates. “Those over there are our prototypes.”

“So we’ve been fooled huh?” The disappointment was evident in Shownu’s tone as he was cracking his knuckles. “These actually do belong to those kids.”

The rest of Monsta X sheepishly bowed to the Lee siblings out of shame. “W-we are so sorry for not realizing it sooner, please forgive us.” Jooheon stuttered out.

Both siblings smiled at them. “Oh it’s fine-”

They were cut off by Shownu, who with one swoop, grabbed Minwoo by the shirt collar and slammed him against the wall. Rage was evident on his face as he stared his prey down. “We trusted you.”

Minwoo gulped, he no longer had any tricks up his sleeve and succumbed under Shownu’s intense stare.

Shownu continued on. “You’ve been playing us this entire time, and not only us, but also these innocent kids who you just had to drag into your mess. But now, we’re done helping you clean up your messes. We’re through with you, Monsta X are no longer your body guards. From now on, we give our protection and support to the AKMU gun shop.”

Lee Chanhyuk and Lee Soohyun’s jaws were both wide open at that statement. “H-hold on you don’t have to-”

“We’ve been Minwoo’s dogs for far too long. If you two would allow it, we would want to offer you our protection in exchange for true quality service from the AKMU gun shop. Provide us with your professionally-made goods and we will swear unswerving loyalty to you both.”

The siblings looked at each other first, then looked back at Shownu. “W-woah this is so sudden um, are you sure it’s alright for you and your men?” Chanhyuk asked.

Shownu nodded earnestly. “You have our word, right boys?” they all nodded in agreement immediately.

Soohyun tugged on her brother’s arm. “Well oppa… this is a pretty unsafe part of town. It’d be nice having them around.”

Jeonghan couldn’t stop the growing smile on his face. “Well now that the case is closed, you’re coming with us Minwoo-ssi, for crimes of theft and dishonesty. I’ve heard that the police in this area are under your influence so I am personally putting you under arrest-”

“I didn’t wanna have to do this, I really don’t but for the sake of my dignity... “ Minwoo cracked one final smile, the most devious one of the night. “It’s gonna get real hot in here.” He produced a beer bottle with a cloth held in place by the bottle stopper from his coat and lit it with his lighter.

Only Junhui was fast enough to process what was happening but his words came out too late as his eyes practically popped out of his head. “OH WATCH OUT IT’S A-”

Before he could finish his statement, Minwoo had thrown the bottle onto the crate and it spontaneously erupted into flames. Everyone tried to evade the flames but to no avail. The gunpowder and the bullets made the fire worse with more explosions of fire following after and bullet caps flying everywhere. The fire was quick to spread and the acrid smell of smoke was already suffocating everyone in the room.

With ragged breaths, Minwoo still spoke. “Can’t arrest me if all the evidence is burned.”

Jeonghan cursed under his breath, but motioned for everyone to leave the room immediately for fear that if they were here any longer, the flames would consume everyone. Monsta X quickly escorted the Lee siblings through the hallways and out of the apartment, cautiously stepping over Seokmin and Seungkwan’s unconscious bodies just outside Jisoo’s room.

Hyungwon called out quickly. “H-hey Jeonghan-ah, your boys are on the ground in the hallway, sorry about that.”
 

Aish I’ll get him back when all of this is sorted out. Jeonghan thought, bringing his arm up to cover his nose and mouth.

Junhui and Minghao lifted Seokmin and Seungkwan from the ground and were escorting them out too, as they were both just beginning to come to their senses. Jeonghan was the last one out of the building, clutching Minwoo’s arm and handing him over to Shownu so he could handcuff him. As Shownu was doing just that, Jeonghan scanned his surroundings. He saw multiple ambulances and police cars take up all the space in the area. All around him was a flurry of people whose dialogues he’d drowned out because there was just too much going on. He looked back at the building behind him, and was astounded at how quickly the fire had spread throughout the building. All around him were the apartment’s residents, all coughing and cursing at their landlord for his thoughtless action of blowing up their residence. He looked further and saw his team, the Lee siblings and the rest of Monsta X being treated by medics, with a few policemen asking them about details on the sudden fire.

That’s when it hit Jeonghan, someone was missing.

He made his way through the crowd of people and found Minwoo, cuffed and being watched by Hyungwon.

“Hey where’s your right hand man? Hong Jisoo-ssi, your key informant.” Jeonghan panted, shifting his gaze between Minwoo and Hyungwon.

Hyungwon’s eyes widened immediately and he held a hand to cover his mouth. “Oh … he’s still in there. I-I left him inside another room because he was being much more of a bother than Seokmin and Seungkwan.” he said breathlessly, his eyes full of fear. “Oh god oh god oh god and the policemen said that the firemen are still on their way here but aren’t here yet because they’re from a completely different area.”

Jeonghan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “So you’re telling me… that you just left your comrade in there.”
 

Hyungwon was practically hyperventilating when Minwoo piped up. “Don’t worry about it Hyungwon-ah, like I said before, just a little collateral damage doesn’t harm anyone.”

Jeonghan wanted to strangle the landlord but quickly turned around instead and stared at the burning apartment entrance and waited for Hong Jisoo to come out. But a few minutes had already passed and the building was about to give way, and he still hasn’t appeared. Jeonghan bit his lip, he still disliked Jisoo for conspiring with Minwoo and his cronies in the apartment. But no one deserves to be abandoned and tossed aside as if they were nothing at all. He of all people should know that.

With a deep sigh, he turned to Hyungwon. “What’s the number of the room you left him in?”

Hyungwon blinked. “U-um 1031-”

“Alright, thank you.” And with that, Jeonghan took a face mask from one of the gurneys passing by and put it on, stuffing another inside his suit. He took another deep breath and quickly dashed inside the burning building, ignoring the cries of protest from numerous people and dodging those who tried to stop him from entering. As he made it inside, the apartment entrance had completely collapsed behind him and separated him from the safe haven outside. Panic surged inside him, the state of the burning building was even worse on the inside. Everything was consumed in flames and he was quickly running out of time to search for Minwoo’s so-called “prized key informant”. He sprinted through the lobby and narrowly avoided the chandelier that had almost crashed on top of him. With ragged breaths he surged on, desperately looking for room 1031 with all his might. All of a sudden, he heard strangled, persistent coughing from a landing above him. He wasn’t sure if there was anyone else trapped in the building, but his gut told him that it was Hong Jisoo, and he was definitely coming to his rescue.

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND LONG TIME NO SEE!! 

I am sincerely sorry for not updating for several months it's just, school has been really hectic so ;;;;

BUT now that it's christmas break I guess i'm back with this new chapter!! I hope to post another one this christmas break as well hehe 

subscribes, comments and upvotes are very much appreciated!!