There was a calloused hand ruffling up the thick, dyed-brown locks of Sanghyuk’s hair which, by the way, he’d spent a good few minutes styling up to look presentable. “I told you it doesn’t matter what your hair looks like. It’ll look exactly like this at the end of the day anyway,” the harmless offender playfully responded to the whine he’d elicited from the younger man, pulling his hand back to leave the other with a neat bird nest upon his head. It was all quite amusing, both Sanghyuk’s hair and the constant grumbling coming from him, and it was all expressed through a single smile. “Hurry up, we need to go now or the traffic will get too congested,” the male spoke again, this time jabbing the younger’s side before heading towards his car. Pressed for time as they already were, Sanghyuk could only stare begrudgingly at the dishevelled tuff atop his head before following after the elder.

There were hollered greetings of “Officer Kim” and “Sanghyuk-ah” as the two men made their way past the rows of working cubicles. Roughly a year had passed since Sanghyuk had been rescued from Hongbin’s assault by Wonshik but the memory was still fresh in his head. The policeman had been so kind as to take Sanghyuk under his wing and care for him, nurse the young boy from his trauma and even let him train alongside in the police force. Sanghyuk was ever so grateful towards the other for guiding him along, looking up to him as a role model and protector though recently he’d started to notice the dawning of more mature feelings. Pushing his thoughts aside, Sanghyuk beamed brightly and returned each and every greeting sent his way, basking happily in the morning routine. His eyes peeked curiously over the elder’s shoulder as he saw him come to a halt to receive a closed clipboard. There was nothing significant on the front which divulged the contents but it didn’t deter Sanghyuk from his harmless plays.

Whether or not Wonshik had noticed Sanghyuk trailing right at his heels, he made no sign to show either stance and continued on his way to his private office. He dumped the collected forms on his organised desk and went around to the mini fridge pushed right into the back corner. Taking his chance, Sanghyuk dove into Wonshik’s seat and plucked the black folder off the desk. There was a cheeky grin splayed across his face as his fingers made deft work to open up the hard front cover but a hand slapped at his impish one before his eyes could decipher the print homogeneously lining the page beneath.  “You know that’s classified, kid,” Wonshik clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth at the younger’s antics, taking the folder off him and pushing him out of his seat. “Get back to your own seat,” Wonshik continued with a grin splayed on his sharp features, shooing his lively partner away so he could continue on with his own work. A pout fell on Sanghyuk’s lips as he lingered for a little longer, his mind trying to piece together a sharp retort; he had no choice but to trudge out the door and replace himself in his derisory cubicle. 

It wasn’t like Sanghyuk disliked his job. No, he really did find joy in what he did but he felt like a child amongst adults, wanting to play and satisfy his curiosity but without anyone who could par is sprightly cravings. He looked around him, taking in the other officers who were conscientiously at work and sighed, hand reaching out for the first paper and scanning his eyes over the uniform words. The boredom was beginning to seep into his pores and settle unpleasantly at his core; the first hour had yet to pass half way but Sanghyuk could already tell it was going to be one of those tedious, uneventful days.

On the other hand, Wonshik had sunk into his chair as Sanghyuk left. Though he had been almost a hundred percent certain when the file was handed to him there was an inkling of hope it wasn’t when he saw how close the younger had been to seeing what was inside. It really wasn’t a secret but he knew how sensitive the topic was to the other. A sigh heaved out from his chest as he flipped the clipboard open, greeted by the report summary on the first page. Most of it had been information that had already been discussed – increase in gang movement, fights resulting in casualties of innocent bystanders, conjectures as to where the next bouts of activity were going to appear, etcetera. It was nothing that Wonshik hadn’t heard before; after all,

The case targeted, in particular, man by the name of “Lee Hongbin”. It was a ‘kill two birds with one stone’ scenario for Wonshik – he’d be able to take out the said man and get away with it. In Wonshik’s opinion, the other gang leader’s decision to expose himself without a guise to protect himself with was completely and utterly foolish, but then again, he thanked the luxury of ease it brought him to ruin the man. A smirk curled up the corner of his lip, his eyes quickly scanning through the remaining pages. It had been as he expected – nothing knew, but at least now he could push forward with less secrecy and more resources without bestowing suspicion upon himself.

~~~

The real trouble came when an urgent meeting was called together, just when Wonshik and Sanghyuk were about to go home too. On one hand, Sanghyuk was ecstatic about it – this was (probably) the most exciting event that had happened in his short and growing police career; on the other Wonshik was dreading it, already knowing what it was going to be about. He tried to pull the younger aside and talk him out of attending the meeting but it seemed that the more confidence Sanghyuk gained, the stubborner he became. It ended in the said boy pushing Wonshik away with a glare and stomping into the meeting room without a second glance.

“We have evidence that our primary target, Lee Hongbin, has been working with another gang lead by a man who goes by the name Ravi,” the presenter addressed, his words back up by a series of pictures and pins, drawn lines and strings all over the wall and projector screen. There was only one man who Sanghyuk could focus on; the same man who they had been actively pursuing for a couple of years, Sanghyuk had learned when he was introduced into the case. He couldn’t decipher how he felt when he saw that face, the same opacity he’d seen directed at him that night captured in the still-shots of the photographs. Hate? No, he didn’t know if he was capable of something so… vulgar. Love? Not that either. How could he still love someone tore him inside and out? And yet, Sanghyuk couldn’t deny that there were some still some lingering feelings. That was the reason he’d had jumped at the opportunity to be involved in the case.

“Although we have yet to find out what his face looks like, we’ve seen one of his most active members, Lee Jaehwan also known as Ken, amongst the major crime scenes caused by Hongbin,” the man continued, clicking through the slides and images to prove his point further. Right beside Sanghyuk, Wonshik suddenly grew tense. But he held back, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible and hoping he looked focus and not disinterested. His eyes found themselves going towards the officer next to him. He knew that look on the younger’s face – the indecisiveness, the lost glaze of nostalgia, the haunting ache… it was the same every time Hongbin was brought up, in any way, in front of the younger. He couldn’t say anything though, he never could, not unless he wanted to make Sanghyuk hostile towards him.

“Our immediate plan from now on will be to focus on detaining both Lee Hongbin and Ravi. On that note, our priority will be to capture Ravi’s face which will, hopefully, turn this wild goose chase into a straight sprint,” the speaking figure looked around the room, scanning over the faces of the officers involved in the case. The purposeful moment of silence was taken advantage of by a number of suggestions being thrown around: attempts to track both parties via their forms of electronic communication, finding patterns in both major and minor incidents to predict where the next happening would occur and increasing patrols there; Wonshik resisted the urge to scoff and roll his eyes. Nothing was going to work as long as he was there but he wasn’t about to let anyone in the room know.

“Sanghyuk,” Wonshik pulled the younger man aside as soon as they exited the meeting room. He knew that the other’s mood had been exacerbated when they’d asked him for any suggestions. “Are you… okay?” Just by searching the eyes that made every effort to avoid his own Wonshik already knew the answer that never came. He could only sigh and pull Sanghyuk towards him, embracing him in his arms to shield him, even if it were just momentarily, from reality’s merciless austerity. A sigh a relief fell from his lips when the other accepted and leaned into his hold, finding comfort in Wonshik’s arms. “Let’s go home,” the elder male murmured just for Sanghyuk to hear, waiting for that slight nod before leading him back to his car.

The ride back was silent and Wonshik knew that it was the only thing he could offer the younger as comfort for the time being – taciturnity to drown in his thoughts. He himself wished that Sanghyuk was willing to talk to him about it but then again, he was a different person who took different approaches to overcoming raised walls. “Aren’t you coming down?” Sanghyuk asked once he’d come back around. The older man had parked the car, engine on, in front of the apartment complex for close to a minute – maybe two – now, but Sanghyuk had just broken out of his viscous reflections and returned to reality.

“No,” Wonshik shook his head, trying to offer a smile of consolidation when he saw Sanghyuk’s face fall at the answer. “I have something I need to do first. You know we’ve just made a break through with the case, I think I might be able to take it another step forward,” He tried to explain himself, feeling somewhat disheartened when Sanghyuk only returned a heavy sigh and exited. Being the gentleman he (somewhat) was, Wonshik waited until the other had gone through the front entrance and not exited for a couple of minutes before driving off; his hands tightened on the steering wheel, knuckled white as the vehicle lurched forward in expression of his supressed rage slowly leaking at the torn seams.

The abode that Wonshik pulled in front of next was almost identical to the one he’d just left – tall and modern; apartments really lacked a sense of uniqueness nowadays. It was perfect for him though – another layer to wear on his disguise. It was against the rules for Wonshik to park his car in front right where he was, but rules be damned in his current, rampant mood. When he entered the apartment situated on the top floor, the stale silence made him wonder if the more permanent resident had been cowering in fear or had simply chosen to ignore the storming footsteps thundering up the flights of stairs and the echoing bang of the front door against the adjacent wall as he stormed inside; Wonshik was willing to wager his life for the latter.

“Lee Jaehwan!” Wonshik shouted, his anger seething from every syllable and heavy breath. The red filter across his vision condensed into an obstructing haze as soon as the called-for man appeared, made no better by the nonchalant grin adorning his full lips.

“Ravi~” Jaehwan responded, skipping right up to the enraged gang leader as though he weren’t as equally dangerous as an outraged, untamed beast.

“You er,” – was Wonshik’s immediate response, his strong arms propelling Jaehwan back against the pristine wall with a sound thump when the other tried to initiate a ‘friendly’ hug. The low grunt from Jaehwan’s lips at the impact didn’t deter Wonshik from pulling him off and shoving him back against the solid surface once more, finding just the slightest relief in the sight of the said man in pain. The bare moment was short lived when Jaehwan smirked instead, earning him a growl from the angered male as he was dragged further into the living room. His body made a compact sound as it was thrown on the glass coffee table, barely flinching when a fist landed not millimetres from his face against the transparent surface.

For seconds only Wonshik’s laboured breathing and Jaehwan’s mischievousness rung through the viscid atmosphere; and then Jaehwan had his fingers tangled in the mused locks of the man hovering above him, thick thighs clamping tight around his waist as he turned them over for a change in position. Unfortunately, for Wonshik, the table hadn’t been wide enough to support the change, resulting in the fighter rolling to the ground with the added weight of his right-hand man sitting on him.

“Shikkie,” Jaehwan called out, his voice light and clear with friskiness just before he jutted out his bottom lip to form a pout. Wonshik had no other choice than to calm down, knowing that Jaehwan wouldn’t have let him up so easily now that he’d gained – almost literally – the upper hand. “Why are you so mad. I didn’t do anything wrong,” he continued talking, his hands finally moving so his fingers could caress the peaks of the other’s cheekbones and define jawline. It made the male laying down close his eyes and breathe in shakily, his irritation rippling like a second skin from being put at the mercy of the impish gangster.

“You got caught,” Wonshik ground out from behind his teeth, dark eyes even darker as he suppressed his anger in favour of upholding a (somewhat) proper conversation. His words had Jaehwan tilting his head slightly, a moment of silence that Wonshik quickly grasped onto as his chance to keep talking. “I told you that the police were right on Hongbin’s tail and yet you rode on his back. Now they’re on us too. Do you have any ing idea how much more difficult this makes it for me?” The volume of the Wonshik’s voice grew louder and louder but the addressee barely seemed fazed at the imminent threat; Wonshik was never a real threat to Jaehwan anyway.

It should have had some influence, was what Wonshik had been hoping, but Jaehwan’s attitude seemed unaffected despite the reprimanding he’d received. “But Wonshik,” he whined, earning himself a vexed sound from the back of the so-called man’s throat. “You barely come here or to the hideout anymore. You don’t know how lonely I’ve been without you,” Jaehwan continued whining but his face started to close the proximity between them until he no longer needed to use more than a whisper to be heard. It was true, Wonshik thought. He couldn’t deny that the intensity of the case burdened on his shoulders kept him from his primary occupation but, it was absolutely necessary for him to accomplish his goal. Jaehwan knew that.

“I missed you,” the simple phrase was paired with a brush of Jaehwan’s lips against the pair of those he was talking to, keeping the slight action only as brief as it’d been implied. “You spend all your time with your new toy. I’m jealous,” he admitted, striking a jolt of culpability through Wonshik when he couldn’t even deny the guilt-fodder being fed to him. It was difficult though, with the innocent younger clinging onto him with the promise he’d made a little more than a year ago. The fragile trust he’d slowly constructed could so easily be lost and Wonshik couldn’t risk it.

“I didn’t hide anything from you,” Wonshik tried to defend himself, fingers digging into the muscular limbs tightfitting his waist. “You should know better than to act so rash,” he kept going, sitting up and then pushing the other man onto his back, pinning his wrists above his head to keep him immobilised. Jaehwan stared up at him, eyes barely blinking as they locked gazes. He could have easily escaped, or switched their physical positions once again but there was a growing heat between and within them that had the two frisking in a sort of extended . “I’ll get rid of him as soon as I’m done,” Wonshik promised aloud as he finally succumbed to the lack of attention he’d been giving and receiving from Jaehwan; his lips crashed against the other’s but were met with mutual ardency, lips stained with blood from the force of the initiation and skin with mounting desire.

~~~

There were times when even Jaehwan regretted his spontaneous decisions, clearly not thought through thoroughly or considered properly like he’d been told to do countless times.  Another fist collided with the square of his jaw, another hit commendably landed by the aesthetic leader of his opposing gang. He hadn’t meant for it to escalate into a fight. Going against Wonshik’s warning, Jaehwan had gone ahead and taken a number of men with him to stalk Hongbin – again. This time though, Hongbin had expected it and trapped the cunning man. Whilst he was glad that he’d brought people to back him up, Jaehwan also knew that doing so had blown a simple shadowing into a violent brawl; Hongbin wasn’t going to let him go that easily this time.

Another jab just beneath his ribs, right in the centre of his body, had Jaehwan falling over onto the filthy alleyway floor. Winded, he couldn’t fight off the hands prying his phone from his pocket, or the foot pressing, but not crushing, his neck to keep him locked in place. The eyes that looked down upon him were as petrifying as they were beautiful; the smooth, baritone voice taunted and tempted the person on the other side of the call the same way the receiver had done to him.

“Why don’t you ask him for help, Ken?” Hongbin seemed to offer, but Jaehwan knew better than to take it as something so generous. There was no such thing in this kind of life. He tried his best to keep the potent glare in his eyes despite the cooling blood running thin streams down his face from various cuts and wounds. A dry laugh fell from Hongbin’s lips, and as terrifying as it was to admit it, Jaehwan knew it was a genuine sound – one that spawned from the worrying shouts he could hear from the speaker of his phone just before the device was flung to the sully, brick wall behind him. There were times when Jaehwan had felt fear and he could confidently admit that he was not an avid fan of such emotions. Wonshik had always been there to guide and protect him, no matter how rough his methods were. However, at the hands of the man who hated Wonshik the most, Jaehwan felt no more significant than a rag doll created for the purpose of being torn apart to shreds.

~~~

Wonshik’s ringtone felt more like an alarm when it cut through the stillness of the night. He’d never received a call this far into the moonlit time of day, thus never having a reason to ever put his phone on silent during his slumber. The man jolted up at the abrupt sound, hand grabbing the device tightly as he answered the call without a word; the voice that came through had been just as unexpected as the call itself but even more repulsive.

“I hear you have a lover,” the other spoke to him, forcing Wonshik to sit up and clench his phone with a strength just below breaking point at the distantly familiar words. “Jaehwan if I remember correctly,” the deep voice continued, taking on a maliciously taunting tone, “he’s quite a looker, you know? I wouldn’t mind having a little taste my—”

“Don’t you ing dare!” Wonshik cut him off before he could finish off the sentence. On the other side, Hongbin chuckled as though to ask him, ‘how does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine?’ His phone made a journey through the air, breaking as it collided with the wall but Wonshik couldn’t give even half a about that. Though he hadn’t heard his significant other asking for help like he’d been ordered to, Wonshik knew that the shaky breathes barely making it to his end of the call belonged to him. The livid man was up and tugging his clothes on whilst hastily escaping his room and barging into that of the younger who resided with him.

“Get up. We need to get going,” Wonshik flicked the light on as he came into Sanghyuk’s room, pulling the covers right off the younger and dragging him by the arm. Sanghyuk barely had time to process what was happening. His stumbling, cold feet out the corridor and down the stairs honestly acted as a much better wakeup call than the older male himself.

“W-Wonshik slow down,” Sanghyuk stuttered, trying to penetrate the elder’s impervious shield of apprehension as he was dragged down barefoot all the way to the bitter concrete of the underground carpark. It seemed like he went unheard by his partner when he didn’t even get the choice to choose where he sat; instead, being thrown into the back seat with seconds to right himself and buckle in before the car lurched forward with an unnerving screech. The buildings and lights merged into a single, dynamic blur as Wonshik drove them through the urban maze blindly. Sanghyuk had no idea why he’d been dragged out like this but he knew that asking wouldn’t get an answer out of the other man. He could only sit and pray that Wonshik was as good of a driver as he’d boasted.

Never had Sanghyuk beseeched so hard to a god he had absolutely no faith in; he shouldn’t have been so disappointed when his pleads fell onto deaf ears. There were bodies scattered just at the mouth of a narrow alleyway, one that Sanghyuk had been hoping with whatever luck he’d had left in his life was remote from whatever Wonshik had been so fervently searching for. Wonshik pulled the car to a wrenching stop right at the dim backstreet and, almost literally, reeled out, running into the dusty dimness with his parting words – “call for back up”. Sanghyuk’s hands were quaking as he fished for the radio from the glove box, his short breaths making it hard for him to think and process his oncoming actions thoroughly enough to complete them with the corresponding body parts.

The path beneath his feet was coarsened by injured and unconscious bodies but they could barely have been considered obstructions with the way Wonshik trodden over them so effortlessly. His momentum was gathered and focused on tackling the adversary away from his most trusted member, a Spartan-like cry flying out from his mouth as they brawled on the grungy floor. The first few blows were relatively easily to land since he’d managed to catch Hongbin off guard: a hit to his face, one to his jaw and another on the side of his rib. Though they were sturdy strikes, it wasn’t enough to keep the other man down for long.

Hongbin shoved Wonshik’s shoulders with enough force to extricate himself from the attacking man, but his opponent was quick on his feet to avoid being pinned as he had been. There was a smirk on the fair-faced man’s busted lips as he realised how serious the other took this. And all it took was a little bit of foul play to motivate him. Now he could understand why Wonshik had chosen to advance with such a morally abysmal and subjectively exorbitant technique – it was thrilling to watch the person you hated the most fight for something so pathetically, like a fish struggling on land to get back in the water; no matter how hard it tried there was no way an animal made to survive in the water could travel on land. Revenge was so sweet, the closest he knew he’d ever come to paradise.

Taking advantage of his lengthy legs, Hongbin lashed out at Wonshik in an attempt to get him before he could regain is balance. Wonshik was agile, jumping back just before the kick could make contact with his body then lunging back forward, his arm drawn back and swinging forward for another solid punch. The move was too wide, allowing Hongbin to catch his fist before he could harm him again and use the energy of the motion to swing the other around and throw him back against the wall. Wonshik was left temporarily winded but took that trifling moment to catch his breath and wait for his opponent to come closer, raising his leg as soon as he came close enough and driving it forward to shove the other leader against the opposite wall.

The air rippled with pulled tension as the two stared each other off. Wonshik was the first to come forward again but Hongbin let the other throw the first punch at his face so he could land a couple along his torso. There was pain blooming across various parts of their bodies but the thirst for violence and the appetite to inflict agony upon each other overwhelmingly overcame any other feeling. Hongbin let himself take another hit to his battered face, awaiting the open moment to ram Wonshik back against the surface he’d been pushed against previously. He raised his knee, succeeding a strike of the bony joint against the vulnerable abdomen of his foe.

A metal click, one they were both familiar with, sound along with their ragged breaths. Wonshik raised his head, eyes wide when he saw where the weapon had been aimed at. “You shouldn’t have messed with me, Ravi,” Hongbin laughed, the sound even more horrific to Wonshik than his own words repeated from the mouth of the other’s. Perhaps a step or two away from them, Wonshik could see Jaehwan curled on the ground, heaving in pain. His eyes were barely open but Wonshik could see the mixture of fear and relief in the lidded orbs. There was a plea sitting on the tip of the gang leader’s tongue, and maybe if he had gotten it out quick enough he could have spared his lover’s life.

Back in the car, Sanghyuk’s eyes continued to dart between the passing time above the radio and the handheld one in his hand. He’d received affirmation that reinforcement was on its way but it shouldn’t have taken this long. Even at this hour of the night there should have been officers on standby for situations like this. A gunshot sliced the crisp air, making its way into the metal structure that Sanghyuk was waiting in. The young male could feel his heart pounding at the base of his throat as he stepped out of the car cautiously, avoiding as many limbs as he could and only walking in the dark alley as far as he needed to catch a glimpse of the veiled happenings.

“No!” Sanghyuk could barely recognise the sound torn from his voice box as he took in the sight of Wonshik hunched over and holding a limp figure in his arms; behind him, the man who tore apart his heart about to take the life of the man who’d begun piecing him together once again. It was odd – how the one that Sanghyuk was coming to loathe looked up at him instead of the person he’d called out for, but Sanghyuk was too blinded by a flurry of fear, hatred and anxiety to notice. There were so many words the young officer had to say, so plenteous that they’d clogged up his throat and none could come through. His eyes were drawn to the face that ruined him a year ago, surprised to find relief when he’d let their gazes meet accidentally. The reunion was short lived when the gun in Hongbin’s hand shot the grieving Wonshik, the murdered man’s blood spurting out to cover the side facing him.

Sanghyuk fell to his knees, mouth agape and eyes wide with a lack of emotion purely because he hadn’t known what to feel in that moment. There were hands tugging at his arms, voices trying to break him out of his horrified stupor; Sanghyuk could only look at the three salient figures, two of which had fallen. More men filled and barred the focused sight and the hands continued to pull him back, stealing him from the scene unfolding before him. It was fast enough though. Sanghyuk watched, unable to tear his eyes away as Hongbin raised the weapon to his own head, falling to the tainted ground at the sadistic bellow of another life-snatching gun shot.