-Are you ready?- asked Chen with a husky voice.

The gambler was in full crimson tailored suite, just like Kai had ordered, and was now peeking into his partner’s room to see if he had put on his, but something was wrong: Xiumin didn’t answer, he was staring at himself in the mirror of their changing room, makeup brushes thrown on the floor and a pair of binoculars clutched in his fist.

The young gambler slowly entered and looked at him with worry: it had been since they had gone to visit the new kid that he was behaving weirdly, shutting himself off from his world, not saying a word when he would normally be giving smart and funny comments. Chen didn’t know what to do, he wanted to make him talk but he couldn’t force him, he wanted him to open to him but he couldn’t touch him.

Who was he kidding, it was like this right from the start: they had never been anything more than Xiumin and the man who had bought him. every time the young man had spoken, there had been so much resentment for what he had done that couldn’t be suppressed even if they both wanted it.

Chen wanted to be loved but he didn’t know how, Xiumin wanted to be free but was a slave to money. They had desperately clung to what seemed like the only escape, the family Kai worshipped so much, for protection against the big bad world but no one can escape fate. It always finds you.

-Jongdae I…-

It was the first time Xiumin was using his real name and Chen was so taken aback he could barely feel his nails digging into the flash of his fist.

-This will be the last auction-

Xiumin finally turned to look at him, dark tears in his eyes and smudges of eyeliner.

-My father is on the guest list. Do you understand what this means?-

Oh, of course he understood. It meant losing to the man who had sold him so that Xiumin could get the freedom he had always dreamed about. It meant him leaving, it meant be left rotting in the tiny room no one wanted to check, the one in which he had grown up and had learned just how cruel life can be.

-You’re leaving me behind- he said, his voice nearly cracking.

Xiumin stepped towards him, stretching his arms and in a split second, they were intertwined in an embrace no one of them wanted to break.

-I’m not. You are coming with me real soon, but if Exo sees us both leave at the same time, they will kill us for sure. I have to be bought and you have to be freed. Don’t worry, everything will be alright. I didn’t plan all of this for it to backfire-

And that’s when they crossed the line, like stars quietly colliding, because in space there is no sound, no echo. Their kiss was not hungry, not greedy nor lustful, they had all the time they needed and they wanted to spend it together, fingers lost in soft locks of hair and eyes closed, letting their mouths speak the language they could both understand.

I love you. I need you. Don’t leave me. They are just words until you say them, but if you can’t, you have to find another code to express what only your heart knows. And they were drinking just every letter of that new and beautiful alphabet like ambrosia.

-The auction will start soon- whispered Xiumin on Jongdae’s mouth, making them both laugh.

How silly were they? Kissing in the changing room, right five minutes’ prior the most illegal event of the year. And yet, they knew it was the right thing to do.

-Well, soon is not now, is it?-

A roll of the dice and, ladies and gentlemen, they show is starting. Expensive dresses and white masks, glasses of the most crimson wine and dollar bills being tossed in the air like fireworks from their ringed hands.

This is the Exo Planet.

Kyungsoo was right at the entrance, keeping an eye on every guest in his new black outfit, generously gifted from Baekhyun before suspiciously leaving like fire was creeping behind him (Not sure if this is right, it’s an Italian saying). Kai had given him a camera he had to use when the roster’s fights would have begun and he was clutching it with his slender fingers, hoping some of the young man’s warmth was still lingering on the sharp metal.

He was watching him from afar: handsome and fierce, his hair sleeked back and his face bright with a courage he now knew didn’t belong to Jongin, but entirely to Kai, Exo’s boss. Why was he there? No one was even looking at him, he could simply leave, silently, but something was keeping him there.

He had promised, he had promised to be there and decay with him, because death is just a little bit less terrifying when you are not alone. He knew that was the last day, he could smell the sweet perfume of the end in the air. 

He remembered all the nights at the barn, the rain eating his way between the wooden boards of the roof and wetting his already frozen body. He could still feel the blood on his skin, thick and sticky on his clothes, on his hands, and the smell… God, the smell, it had haunted him for days. Still, he was there. The memory of his parents was what had kept him alive, their voices chanting into his ears words of encouragement. 

Keep on going, walk toward your future and create your own path along the others. He had lost the meaning, but the feeling that lingered in them was still as powerful as when they had said it to him. All that love he had lost in lees than an instant, it was not something he could comprehend, no matter how much time would pass, but now he was receiving a new and different kind of affection: it was deep and sorrowful, it was quiet and shady, it was all he needed and wanted, but it also meant taking Death under his arm.

Surprisingly, he was okay about it. It was... nice.  

And then Kai turned to look at him.

In less than a second, he transformed back to Jongin, giving him the most beautiful of the smiles, and then again, the other way around, to greet some new valued customers.

The end was near and he wasn’t even sad about it. Comical.

It was in that moment that something went wrong. One of Kai’s guards rushed to Jongin and whispered something into his ears, something about two guys not being on the list. That was the moment they entered, when Jongdae, hair all over the place and his shirt hastily tucked in his pants, was preparing for his match against Xiumin’s father and his partner was watching him from the stands, his trusty earpiece and microphone in his hands; when Kai was just about to open the real auction, every guest with his or her ears cooked to listen and Kyungsoo had just climbed on the roster’s cages to record the first fight. That was the moment they entered.

Four young men, each one in his different costume, each with a different weapon in hand and each with their grief heavy and hungry on their shoulders. Suho, with his trusty spiked club, Sehun and Lay, still in their disguise, with two short fighting sticks and Chanyeol, scars all over his soft face, with a gun in one hand and a phone in the other.

This, Kyungsoo thought, is the end.

Now, now it was the time to seek revenge.

Now, they were going to pay in blood and tears, money in flames and flash on the floor.

They had just hit the lotto and nobody was going to deprive them from their victory.

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New chapter, after fighting with my homework cough*ing assignments*cough, I finally found the life force to write. I feel so sleepy I actually fell asleep on the keyboard, hence the deleting of many lines of FFFFFFF all over the page. Sorry, I beginning to ramble, so I'll leave you here. Hope you enjoyed it ^__^