Chapter 45 – Go

And then we walked. After making sure Changkyun wasn't following me for the next twenty minutes I focused on observing the people around me. There was not one member of Seventeen as they were probably sticking with Seungcheol and his opinions, but that didn't change the fact that most of Namjoon's followers were familiar faces of my age or younger.

They were too young to start this. They didn't know a thing about fighting except for their fights over food on the streets maybe. And also half of the people present had their families waiting for them at home. Just because they were gangs didn't mean they were orphans or runaways. Jooheon, for example, was neither. I couldn't suppress my frustrated sighs, kicking the gravel with furrowed brows from time to time. One mistake and we're all done for.

I favored Namjoon's plan. It was time for us to rise. But this wasn't how I had imagined it. Compared to me these guys here were naïve children. They couldn't convince me of the opposite, I was the war machine while they didn't even know-

I never really held a gun in my hands, I remembered Changkyun's words and glanced at Jungkook who was walking beside Taehyung chattering away. They don't know what awaits them.

I was drowning in baseless feelings of guilt for having riled them up the other day. It probably wouldn't have turned out differently, Namjoon would have convinced them sooner or later anyway, but I felt like it was still my fault. Guilt is a nasty feeling, it can keep you busy for hours, even days.

That's why I didn't notice how time went by, how the first people started complaining about aching feet, how my stomach growled or how the sun set. I stopped only when Namjoon put a hand on my arm and told me to rest. Jin and Jimin had brought gigantic backpacks and they put them down with exhausted sighs, opening them to reveal nothing but sandwiches and water. Lots of them. Everybody let out sounds of amazement while I sat on the nearby curbside, cocking my head to the side when Jin started handing out the small meals with the help of Jimin.

The latter got to me after a few minutes and I examined the sandwich he gave me with a frown. “That's what you two took along? For everyone?”

Jimin nodded. “I can't stay until the raid. My parents expect me to be at a family dinner tomorrow so I'll have to head back in a minute. Jin has university so he said preparing food was the least we could do for you.”

I hummed and we sat in silence for a while until I started unwrapping the bread with a sigh. “Thanks.”

“No probs. Eat up.” Jimin stood up and went to say goodbye to his friends while I ate as slowly as possible. They were all sticking together to make this raid a success in their own ways and I had to think of Minhyuk. He had to take care of the Clan so he couldn't come with me. We had our own fronts to fight at and it would all help us with forming a group.

Sandwiches, fights, drugs. What a weird combination.

We were told to sleep for a few hours around midnight. Our surroundings had changed from tall suburban houses to flatter countryside houses. There were two or three households Namjoon had talked to before that let us sleep in their houses so that we wouldn't have to be out in the cold and I was surprised by his foresight.

Then I was woken up at five, got up and kept walking, still not talking to anyone. Looks like everybody was too tense and too lost in thought to notice me trailing behind them with some distance. It was better that way. The fewer people noticed me the less I'd grow attached to all of them.

We reached our destination around noon – another city like the one I had been living in for the past months. But it was a bit louder. I could hear more cars in the area, it was obvious that there was something of importance located there. A rather high tower standing a bit out of town left no doubt – this was our target. Namjoon divided the group into several smaller ones and sent them to different places where they would be introduced to their part of the plan. Walking into the city with more than twenty people would have been rather suspicious after all and I nodded to myself.

“Where do I go?”, I mumbled, dodging when Namjoon tried to throw an arm around my shoulders.

“You're coming with me. I'll get you to our mastermind. I swear you'll be surprised.”

“Mastermind? How do I deserve that?”, I retorted, making sure to keep the mistrusting tone of voice to a minimum so that Namjoon wouldn't notice my discontent.

“You've made this whole thing a lot easier. Convincing people and stuff. And I heard you were good at combat or else you wouldn't have become Minhyuk's right-hand man. We could use that.”

I fell silent as soon as Minhyuk's name was mentioned, occupying myself with who that mastermind was and why the hell I should be surprised. We walked through several small alleys and entered something like a mall, taking the escalators down the stairs. I was prepared for everything when we made our way through the basement. An old grandpa wanting to revive the times of the Korean War from sixty years ago. A guy around our age with overflowing confidence but lacking tactical knowledge. An abused woman that was seeking revenge in any way possible. I was close to it but I'd never have guessed the completely right answer.

Namjoon knocked on a metal door with a certain pattern and it opened a few seconds later. He shot me another glance with a confident smile as he entered the room. “I brought Hyungwon, the guy I talked to you about before.”

The room was as large as the convenience store I had worked at, but there wasn't much light and it was rather empty except for some chairs, boxes and a gigantic table in the middle with maps spread on it. I scanned the people: two women, four men excluding Namjoon and me. So these were the main manipulators? Who was the mastermind?

“Alright, let's see what we've got here”, one of the men said, standing up from the table and stepping towards me. It was a middle-aged man, wearing an unobtrusive outfit with a gun tucked into his belt. He was overtowering me by several centimeters and I couldn't stop my eyes from widening when I finally recognized him. It was him, the mastermind.

Namjoon was right: I was surprised. No, to say I was surprised was an understatement.

This was Kwangsu.

Minhyuk let his fingers creak with a sigh. “Okay, question number fifteen: A person you want to meet someday?”

I raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“Ah, you really are something. Someone you'd call your idol. I know you'll ask me back so I'm telling you it's Beyoncé for me. Your ultimate idol, who is it?”

“Beyon- wow, that's poor.” Minhyuk pouted, ready to defend his idol but I my lips with a hum to have him stop. I didn't like how he always had something to say. “There's that guy. Lee Kwangsu. I'd like to meet him one day. He's a legend.”

Lee Kwangsu, the police chef that had been caught a few months ago during his last rebellion against the Chinese government – according to the newspapers. The one I had always wanted to meet because he seemed to be that much of a hero. “Now, what are you made of, young man?”, he whispered dangerously low, bringing me back to reality.

The alarms when off in my head when his hand went to his belt and I knew he was going to test me. It was something I had undergone several times and it didn't faze me the slightest. I was quick to push him away and retrieve the gun in one swift motion before he could even blink. Kwangsu smirked and reached out for a gun that had been lying on a nearby table, unnoticed by me, and I hissed, moving to press my gun's barrel against his throat while sliding the second gun out of his reach with my free hand.

I held my breath, not daring to acknowledge how close I was standing to him, and the remaining people shot up from their seats to help their 'mastermind' when a deep chuckle emitted from Kwangsu's throat. He hadn't been completely serious but I could tell his combat skills weren't developed as much as mine. I found it hard to believe but I was better at fighting than Lee Kwangsu. It had me frown. “We have a sly fox here, everyone. Don't worry, you may let me go, boy.” He raised his hands in defeat and we stared at each other for a few more seconds before I took a step back and gave him the gun.

“How did you escape the Chinese? I read you were caught.”

The tall man smirked at me. “All lies. I got away but they pretended that didn't happen and faked an interview. No big deal.”

“I see.” He might not have been the best at fighting but he was still a person I had admired for several years. “It's...it's a pleasure finally meeting you.” I nodded and low-key glared at Namjoon when he put a hand on my shoulder.

“I didn't know you were that good”, he mumbled while Kwangsu crossed his arms, walking back to his seat with a smirk.

“Now tell me, fox, how did you learn close combat? It's not self-taught.”

“My name is Chae Hyungwon”, I clarified but he was having none of that.

“And if your name was Saekki Yang, I wouldn't care. You'd still be a sly fox. So tell me, foxy, where did you learn?” Not another animal again, please.

He was uncompromising and hard-boiled, it had me fall back into army patterns and I straightened my back unwittingly, clearing my throat. I didn't like his tone of voice, it had me on edge from the start.

“I was trained to be an assassin in the name of China several years ago. Everything I learned there is still of use now.”

“An assassin? How did you get out of the army?” Kwangsu didn't look impressed but I only smirked confidently, hiding my racing thoughts behind a well-practiced mask. The less I liked someone the easier it got to hide my true emotions. And Kwangsu had kicked himself from my idol spot in a matter of minutes. Now he was just some overly confident guy.

“I ran. It's as simple as that. I killed a superior on my run three years ago and stopped assassinating as soon as I set foot out of that hell. That's all.”

There was no lie in my narrative, not a single one. All I did was leave out certain...details. Like the tattoo on my side, branding me. Or that I had become a spy after they caught me trying to run away. That the son of one of the most important generals was my most precious memory of that time. That I was still welcome in their rows. But Kwangsu simply didn't need to know and I didn't say anything when he nodded, already satisfied with what I had told him. “Sounds good”, he said, looking at Namjoon, “I like that fox you brought, Namjoon. Well done.”

“It was mere coincidence”, he replied, bowing his head with a smile while I kept standing motionless until Kwangsu waved me closer, his dark eyes on me. I could see hatred in them, confidence and power. But more the anything I could see a broken man. So this was the man I had wanted to meet so bad? That one guy I had labeled my idol because he would finally make a difference? His image fell apart with every minute I spent in that basement.

“Say, how much do you know about infiltrating buildings?”

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