Ten hours before Taekwoon’s shut down and Hakyeon is sitting on the couch, Wonshik storms out of his room, hands full of cables, a black box, he burn his finger on something, trips over a wire but he is going to the middle of the room.

Granny is very pale, and everytime Hakyeon looks at her, he feels guilt pooling up in the pitch of his stomach.

“Ok, so here’s the deal,” he says moving things, almost kicking the cat by accident, ripping Hongbin’s pen drive off the panel and plugging in the black box. “This is sort of working, but I may or may not have warned the mainframe in the process, so we are all going on a trip.” He says and runs to his room once again. Granny blinks a few times.

“What?” she looks at him as her eyebrows slowly knit together.

He comes bag with bags, and boxes and his cellband attached to his wrist.

“It’s hard to explain, but the police is coming, and we must leave. Right now .” He says, pilling everything by the door. “It’d be nice if you packed your things. In case you wanna take anything of course.”

“Are you suggesting that we pack our things and run? From the police? From the Central?” Hakyeon wants to empathize the last part as much as possible.

“They are after me, don’t worry.” He says, coming in and out of the rooms. “And maybe Taekwoon for letting me storm in here, but they don't know anything about Hongbin or Hakyeon, Taekwoon is holding them off for now.”

Granny gets up and straighten her clothes. “Ok. Hakyeon let’s pack our things.”

Hakyeon mumbles a quiet alright, and gets up. “What about Woonie?” he hears Granny asking Wonshik from her room.

“He will come with us.” And then there it was, the sound of metal being smashed, Hakyeon gets out of his room in time to see Wonshik tearingsomething directly from Taekwoon’s hardware. All the lights turn off and Hakyeon’s eyes go wide.

“What are you doing?!” Hakyeon all but screams, and Granny goes out of her room to witness Wonshik cutting wires with a kitchen knife, and holds Hakyeon by the hand, before he takes any other step.

“Improvising.” Wonshik stuffs his pocket with the shattered piece of machinery. “Do you have a hammer?” he asks, walking around taking the hardware off the wall socket, carrying it to the kitchen.

Hakyeon does not punch him solely because he is physically incapable of doing so.

“Are you insane?!” Hakyeon is like he is ready to set himself on fire and hug Wonshik, and Wonshik looks at Granny, rushing her to get a hold onto Hakyeon because they have to leave .

“Trust him, Hakyeonnie. We have to go.” She is far too calm.

Hakyeon finishes packing with the sound of Taekwoon’s hardware being smashed with a hammer.

~+~

They all enter this car. And go off.

He has no idea at all of what the hell is going to happen. But he still very much wants to punch Wonshik in the face.

And he can’t.

They have being driving for at least one hour when Wonshik says.

“I’ll have to open you up, Hakyeon.”

Hakyeon raised his eyes from the spot were he had being mopping the entire trip, because Grammy told him not to worry and he trusts her, and trusts Wonshik on some levels too but he just saw him smash Taekwoon with a hammer . He is now in pieces, on a box, in the trunk.

Wonshik assures him everything is fine, but nothing seems fine. Not even close to that, and if Taekwoon died because of him…

If Taekwoon died because of him…

God help them all.

“Excuse me?” Hakyeon is cautious, squinting his eyes, will he “open him up” with a hammer too? He bites that part back.

“I have to remove your tracker.” He is too calm, however Hakyeon sees them leaving the town, and he is not so sure himself. “But I need to stop on a place first.”

Wonshik takes stops suddenly, under a bridge, and leave the car. Hakyeon looks at Granny on the backseat, she looks as composed as ever, if a little tired. She looks at Hakyeon and smiles and he have to ask her. “Aren’t you worried?”

He shakes her head and sighs. “My husband and I had our fair share of impulsive decisions before settling down, and I trust Wonshikie. He’s a good boy.” 

Wonshik is talking to a guy that seems much younger than him, and then he walks back to the trunk, taking a box out, but not any box, the box containing Taekwoon parts in it.

Hakyeon leaves the car in the blink of an eye.

“What are you doing? Again.” he asks, serious, looking from Wonshik to the other kid like he is seriously thinking about stopping them if they give the wrong answer.

“Giving Sanghyuk Taekwoon’s pieces.” He gives this boy, Sanghyunk, the box, that he immediately takes away, to his own car, opening the passenger door to put the pieces inside, securing it with the seat-belt.

“Kim Wonshik you are testing limits today,” Hakyeon says and he is so very much tempted to at least say something , because he can’t do anything.

“Hakyeon, I can’t keep him, the police will eventually storm in our house and he can’t be our software, but I know how much you…” he makes a gesture with his hands to symbolize Hakyeon’s feelings before going on again. “ care about him and all, so I’ll give him to Sanghyuk. He will rebuild him and he will be back eventually.”  He says, and he is squinting his eyes at the sun and he looks a little out of breath.

So maybe he is not all that calm.

“ Eventually.” Hakyeon repeats because eventually can be a long time.

Granny gets out of the car and looks at them with serious eyes. “Why is he taking my boy?” she asks, looking at Wonshik, and he walks to her and holds her hand.

“I’m giving him to Sanghyuk for now. He’ll be fine, I trust him.” And he looks at Hakyeon who had being standing in the same spot looking as sour as he was from the moment he saw him ripping Taekwoon’s circuit apart. “It doesn’t matter if he is back, if you are deactivated, Hakyeon. I can’t let that happen.” He says, and he looks really sorry for everything, for the first time in almost 30 hours, and maybe it’s the adrenaline going down, letting him think .

“But its my fault, Wonshik!” he screams and Sanghyuk looks at him with the same neutral expression he had been wearing from the second he got out of the car. “ I did this ! All this! He is paying for what I did!”

Wonshik straightens his back and blinks once. “Then consider this your punishment, for the time being at least.” He nods to Sanghyuk, who gets inside the car and takes off without another word. Granny looks at him go with heavy eyes, she looks far more hurt by this than she verbalizes, and when she goes inside, Hakyeon hears her sobbing once, just this once, and then go completely silent.

Hakyeon goes back to the car feeling worse than he was when they left, Wonshik rests his head against the steering wheel looking stressed, his knuckles white and his eyes closed, breathing in deep and holding the air inside.

“Ok. I’m fine, let’s go.”

They don’t speak for the rest of the trip.

~+~

Chapter Text

Somehow Wonshik manages to convince the police that they left because he was tired of the old software that didn’t work properly. That he was going to contact the Central and ask for a new one that works this time, that he is sorry for scaring them, he did ask him to go offline, for turning him off earlier so they could move out.

He can pay the fine for breaking the law, yes.

Wonshik looks miserable enough once he closes the door for Hakyeon to let it slide. Granny sips her tea tiredly, and when Wonshik leaves the room she looks up at Hakyeon with something like grief in her eyes.

“I miss my boy, Hakyeonnie.” she says, barely a whisper, and her voice sounds like mourn, sounds like funerals, and Hakyeon feels sick all over again. He doesn’t say he’s sorry because he does not want to say anything right now, he hugs her in silence and rests his chin on top of her head.

She knows Wonshik does what he must, but that does not stop her from missing him all the same, and from the sound of glasses and bottles in the kitchen, and the sound of Wonshik’s steps, too strong on the floor, Hakyeon knows he is not much better.

After all, Taekwoon was already the house software when Wonshik was a kid, so Hakyeon does not ask, he keeps his venom inside and swallow the bitterness he feels creeping in, like he is supposed to.

Hakyeon puts Granny to sleep that night, stays with her until she difts off, and closes the door like he was never there;  he meets Wonshik in the kitchen, Hongbin’s pen drive on one hand, and a half-full glass of whiskey on the other. Hakyeon offers a hand and his shoulder because Wonshik’s eyes are extremely red - be it from the lack of sleep or held back tears - and Wonshik lowers his gaze, drowns the rest of his cup and stands up. They look at each other in silence for a few seconds, and Wonshik is walking away, probably he will just sleep on the couch tonight.

He never knew about this house, he doesn’t ask, just sits alone in the chair Wonshik previously was and looks at the blisterings on his hands, feeling lonely, feeling a half of himself missing. Taekwoon’s folder empty inside his brain, he can’t touch it, can’t remove it, he will be there, as untouchable as Taekwoon was, and Hakyeon chokes down a sob he has being holding for days, and the lack of tears does not stop him from crumbling over the table, as quiet as possible as to not warn anybody. He will mourn in silence, for he does not know if he need to mourn in the first place.

But this silence, this silence threatens to swallow him whole.

A/N: ONE MORE CHAPTER AND IT'S DONE

hold on friends have faith