Finally, Kai entered the room. He was not in his usual suite, he was wearing a lose white shirt and military jeans; his hair was damp with rain, tiny water pearls were trapped in its strands and in his eyelashes, like a jewel from the deepest meanders of the ocean.

D.O. could watch him for hours and still not get one of his thoughts out of his head: he was cruel yet compassionate, in his eyes you could see the burning flames of Hell and the crude ice of the Arctic, you could see the love he had thrown away and the one which was ready to reborn like a phoenix.

-Were you waiting for me? (AN: I'm sorry, I couldn't resist ^-^)- he asked, sitting on his usual chair, trying to shake the water away from his head.

-I was- D.O. replied, placing his magnetic gaze on the floor –I did what you wanted me to: the man’s dead. I can still feel his throat in my hands-

Listening to his aching voice, Kai almost felt guilty for what he had made him do: taking someone’s life, something so dear and precious we fight to our bones to protect. D.O. had already been marked for the rest of his life when he had avenged his parents with his bare hands, but he had made him do it again. Like the circle of life, he had made him fall into the maelstrom of death.

Alas, he knew in his heart there was no place for guilt.

-Excellent. I’ll let you know when your next job will be-

D.O. bit his lower lip, trying to gulp down the rage: he had been bought, that was his life now and there was nothing he could say anymore or a pretty bullet hole would have appeared in his forehead. He had thought he could live for nice things, but everything felt so wrong; everything he touched was slowly rotting.

-I think I’ll have dinner in my room-

That said he got out of the room, leaving Kai alone with his silence.

Why couldn’t it be like before? Kai was the boss and he was the hitman, separated and defined. There was nothing in between if not a bound of iron-hard loyalty, but now…

-Tic tac mister police chief. Time’s passing and you are not talking-

Kai was leisurely tapping with his index finger on his watch, looking at the masked man like a beast savoring his lunch.

-I asked you to keep your men’s mouths shut and you didn’t. We fortunately got the girl who stole the information, but that leaves me with my hands full of only your empty promises-

The masked man knew his life span was getting shorter and shorter with every second ticketing away, but he was also a man of morality and he had been living among the sinners for far too long.

-I can’t give you the immunity you want this time. I’m done playing your game: you’ll be arrested and everything Exo did will get burned down-

Kai remained silent for a moment, then a smile began spreading across his lips, breaking into a laugh without sound, maniacal and gelid.

-Wonderful mister police chief-

The next thing the man knew was that he was tied to a stack of wooden sticks, just like the ones used to burn witches in Europe, while Kai was standing right in front of him with a little box in his hands. When he extracted from it the first match, he knew his life was over. The young man tossed something on his face and covered it with it, making him fall in the deepest dark. That, he knew, was the last breath he would have taken.

-Well, I usually prefer guns over fire, but since you betrayed me and since you wanted to see me burn, I said to myself, why don’t try something new. -He lit up the match and threw it on the wooden stack –Bye bye mister-

That’s right, he had to do everything in his hands to protect his family, even be cruel, even commit the ultimate sin a man could do. He had become the madman he had promised his mother never to be, but he had had to.

Nothing was like family, and that meant even the broken part of it.

Chanyeol was ready: the car was repaired, the weapons were stocked up in its trunk and his comrades were starving for revenge.

He wasn’t sure he could come back home alive the next day, but he had to go. Whenever he closed his eyes, images of his happy times with Hari appeared in his mind: all the laughs, the lame jokes and the secrets… it had been such a long time since then, but the burning hatred and feeling of suffocation was still there, hidden behind his gentle eyes and his big smiles.

That was not the time for kindness, it was the time to let his deepest monsters lose and get the revenge he was longing for since that fateful day his best friend had died the most unfair death.

He just had to start the engine…

-Rotten hell, not again!- he said, with the steering wheel in one hand.

-I hate cars-

D.O. was looking through the window at the scenery, once so full of magic and light, now dull and grey. Was that really his place? He was sure he could escape if he wanted to, but the memory of the cold and sleepless nights in the woods and the bites of rats and insects in the barn were keeping him from leaving. Well, not only that…

He felt wrong for thinking it, and yet he wanted to stay for him. He wanted to understand him, the first person who had seen potential in him, he wanted to know everything about him, but he couldn’t…

Knock knock.

-May I enter?- asked a familiar voice.

-Kai… uhm, yes, you may-

The young man was completely covered in ashes, his cheeks flustered and his eyes red from the smoke. Something had happened, but D.O. wasn’t sure he wanted to ask, so he remained silent.

-I wanted to talk- he said.

So many more were the things he wanted to say and do, but he couldn’t. There was a line nobody had traced, yet was there, and he had to seek permission to cross it. Fortunately, D.O. nodded and offered him a chair, one of the rare Chinese ones, with a beautiful bird sculpted on its backrest.

Silence stretched its back like a cat on a sunny day, sleepy and mute, but Kai had come for a reason and he needed answers.

-D.O. I… actually, tell me your real name. I’ll give you mine in exchange-

The young man looked at the other in confusion. Nobody had called him by his real name since his parent’s death, but maybe with Kai it was alright to tell.

-My name’s Kyungsoo, Do Kyungsoo-

-Kyungsoo. It sounds nice-

The way he said it, in the softest of the voices, had made his stomach do a somersault. He wanted to hear it again, maybe even just once.

-My real name’s Kim Jongin. Call me by this name from now on- he whispered –Now that I know how to call you, I wanted to know one thing: do you want to remain here? -

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to say something, but words didn’t come out. Was he offering him true freedom? If yes, he wanted it, greedily he wanted it. He wanted to run free in the outside world not caring about anything. But.

-You said I was family. Why would you ask me to leave? -

Jongin finally smiled at him. He could have been such an adorable young man, one of a kind but still normal, if life would have been fair to him. With a swift motion he stood up and got closer to Kyungsoo, sitting on his left on the bed. If he had noticed the reddening on his face, he didn’t show it.

-I have been here all my life and if there is one thing I can say to you is that life’s out there and I’m bound here. I’m not living D.O., I’m slowly decaying. If you are family, then it is only fair that I give you the opportunity to go away-

-That is not logical at all. It is the other way around: you should be the one going away and I the one to stay. Why would you want to trade places? –

Jongin shyly took his hand in his and let out a long sigh.

-Because, in a way, you and me are alike. We are both already dead, but you still have a chance to live again and if I’m the one who’s able to give it to you, I may as well do something good for once in my life and ask you-

Kyungsoo wasn’t sure if he was still breathing or air was just forcing itself in his body to keep him alive. Greedily, he wanted freedom, but he also didn’t want to leave Jongin’s hand.

-I’ll stay, for now. We can decay together, if you’ll let me—

Jongin turned his face toward him with a smile so sad it hurt to watch him, even when he leaned forward to kiss him, gently grabbing the back of his neck, letting him briefly breath to then deepen in, whispering on his mouth unrepeatable words of love and sorrow.

-It would be a pleasure-

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Sorry guys, Scarlet Heart is taking over my life. Writing romance without handsome princes and horse rides feels so weird now XD However I hope you liked at least the kiss ^__^