Baekhyun had done that a million times. There is only one rule when you are asked for information by someone who needs them: ask for money in advance and then not actually say anything important; if they refuse to pay before having what they wanted handed to them, then run.

That kid was not new in the long list of faces he had memorized because of his work: Park Chanyeol, reporter for one of the most influential newspaper when it came to political and economic scandals, to be dealt with pliers. The kid could bite back.

He was in one of the interrogation rooms in his headquarter, just outside the first circle of the city’s walls: bare floor, bare ceiling, soundproof walls, so that he could extort what he needed from someone without anyone knowing. He didn’t like it very much, breaking every finger one at a time, then passing onto the arms and legs, the screams were something that still woke him up at night with sweats dripping down his spine and the taste of metallic blood in his mouth.

He could close his eyes and see each one of the faces that he had morphed into distorted mask of horror and pain, every wrinkle, every shadow, every tear that drop on the gray floor… his memory was something he used to be proud of, but now it had transformed into a curse that haunted his life like a forgotten ghost.

“I gave you the money like you wanted. Now it’s my turn to ask, right?”

Chanyeol eyes were a mask of nothingness, just like a real reporter facing the worst situations. Baekhyun decided he liked the young man, despite the clear fury in his voice. If he hadn’t had the information he hoped he had, he would have killed him without hesitation, he knew it for sure, and that made everything more interesting.

“Chan, I will call you Chan because your name is long, you can ask whatever you want, but I don’t know if I have the right answers. You want to know something very hazardous, something that could get both of us killed. Am I right?”

Chanyeol just nodded, a wide look of surprise in his eyes softening his expression into a younger face, the one who belonged to the kid long buried in his youth. Baekhyun loved doing that: delving into the real person in front of him, making the real one surge from the ashes of hatred.

“Don’t be so surprised, everything concerning Exo id dangerous, but something tells me that what you want to know is extremely so. Ask and an answer will be given, but I can’t guarantee it’ll be what you want to hear”

The young men’s hands were shaking: he wanted to tear him apart and search directly into his brain for what he needed, but, of course, he couldn’t. plus, he was sure that a wrong move with the powerful art dealer would mean having a new fashionable hole in his head, right in the center of his forehead.

So he decided to lie.

“I’m actually searching for a way to become one of Exo Planet’s costumers. There is something that is going up to auction that I want, but I don’t know when it will be held and where”

Baekhyun studied him for a moment, perking his eyebrows, then sighed quietly.

“Do you know how many people ask for the same indication you are searching for just in a month? Several tens, and I never gave them any clue, because it is the only thing that could really get me in a situation worse than death, and also because I’m Kai’s blood friend. There is an oath I shall never break, so what do you have to offer that is more than my loyalty”

Chanyeol looked at Baekhyun with extreme confusion, then smiled, wider and wider, until he burst in a hoarse laugh, uglier than every sound he had ever heard.

“I didn’t know that people like you who dance with death like it was your lover could also be capable of loyalty and honorable things like the one you just mentioned. Are you also going to tell me that after killing your next victim you are going to confess in church because you feel remorse?” he said, sarcasm infused in his voice, now sharp as a blade.

Baekhyun could almost feel his eyes sparkle: that kid wasn’t even half bad. What had Exo done to him to break him that way? Pain was just like the prohibited fruit: once you get a bite, you have to finish the whole apple and he it would have been fun to witness when he would drop its core on the ground and rise once again, but, alas, he couldn’t.

“I can tell you the day, but that is the only thing you will get from me. Your little life is not worth mine to be taken by Kai’s gun.”

He took a piece of paper, scribbled something on it and gave it to Chanyeol, who took it as delicately as he could and put it in his pocket.

“Hope to see you again, Chan” Baekhyun jokingly said, right before Chanyeol left. “Possibly alive”

Kai had compiled a list: there were all the things D.O. had to do for him in the next few weeks, all the places he had to go and the people he had to meet. Normally, he would have left him with some of his men to explain how life was in the Exo Planet club, but nobody wanted to do it: the young man terrified everyone, even the ones with the most scarred body and the most battlefields in his memory. There was something about him that screamed broken and instable, but when he was with him, he just saw another victim of the cruel world, a quiet one.

As always, he was by the window, looking with his faded big eyes at something that only he could see, far in the distance. He had discovered that he couldn’t see very well so he had gotten him a pair of round glasses that shaped his face into a more mature man, giving even more the impression that he was too grown up for his age, even though he was older than Kai.

“Here” he said, tapping him on the shoulder and giving him the list “Follow this and don’t make mistakes”

He could look at him all day and he would still find only sadness in his gaze. He looked at the world as if everything had burned to ashes under his feet. D.O. pointed at something on the sheet of paper with his thin index finger.

“What does “Family dinner” means?” he asked.

“You are not a part of the family yet, but if you survive enough, you will be. I have complete trust in my family, as it is the most important thing it exist and it is a tradition to have a family dinner every time we can”

D.O. felt his stomach twist on itself, the hatred he once thought he had buried inside of him surging up to his throat.

“I already have a family; I don’t need a new one. I can work for you if this is what you want, but I’ll not come tonight”

That said he turned back to his view outside the window, ignoring Kai and the disbelief in his face.

When the young boss returned to his office he could almost taste the disappointment on his tongue. Family, he could have chosen so many other words but he had used that one, like always. Family is the most important thing, that was the thing he told everybody around him, making it a point of honor, even when everybody knew he was left alone in the world.

His whole family had a record of death at a young age, his father and mother included, so now there was only him, alone in his room. Alone when he ate, alone when he was at work. Alone, always. It was a hollow feeling, subtler than pain or fear, so discrete it could take you away in the worst moments, drowning you in the concrete below your feet, making you gasp for air when there is none left.

Kim Jongin, even if you wear the mask of Kai, the fearless boss, you are still lonely, and as that you will remain. Family dinner my , it is only you in your study room with a butler who stoically brings you food because, even if you want to bury the pain in your work, you have to eat sometimes.

Of course D.O. wouldn’t have wanted to eat with him, he was his owner, nothing more, but still… Hope is the last to die, and so is love.

And so is hatred.

Left in his room, D.O. was thinking: every day, he tried to remember how his mother and father looked like. There were no photos left, all burned, so he tried to recall all of his memories: the gentle hands of his mother, the rough beard of his father, the hugs and the kisses, the laughs and the tears… it was so difficult to remember sometimes, because happy times were now merged with the painful ones, the ones which he didn’t want to store in his mind. And yet he could see it all so clearly: the crimson blood on his mother’s throat, the hole in his father’s head, the dancing fire around them…

There was no getting over their deaths, he would carry them forever in his heart like an open wound that even the strongest medicine can't heal. Kai was the same, he had seen it in his whole body: the aching desire to relate with someone, to be able to talk with another human. it was something they were sharing in different ways, the most painful ones.

Quietly, he stepped out of his room and walked in front of Kai office, gently knocking on the door. The young boss opened it and looked at him with confusion in his eyes, not stepping out even by an inch.

“What do you want?”

“The family dinner.” He whispered, looking at him in with his soft eyes “Am I still on time?”

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Sorry, I know I promised more action but I have to do preparation for it to be an epic battle, and I can't resist a little sentimental Kaisoo lyricism. Sorry not sorry ^__^