“What do you mean she got away?”

Sehun watches Junmyeon sigh heavily in the midst of the firing squad of several gang leaders. Onew is in the middle, furious, as he demands answers.

“Xiumin has never failed us—”

“And yet he’s dead.”

Sehun doesn’t want to be here. Matter of fact, he would rather be at Jongin’s cremation again. That had been a hard dose of reality. Jongin wasn’t coming back. Jongin left him too.

Guilt and anger eat away at Sehun as he watches Junmyeon struggle in front of the other gang leaders. His hands are metaphorically tied, and Sehun resents the fact that everyone else is looking down on Junmyeon. Had everyone else been willing to help, Jongin wouldn’t be dead. Minseok wouldn’t be dead either. They weren’t angels, but they were family.

If Junmyeon hadn’t warned Sehun to keep his mouth closed, he would be pulling out his gun. He’s not the only member of EXO irritated. Kyungsoo is clenching his jaw, Jongdae is glaring at Onew, and despite Chanyeol’s usually easy easygoing personality, he is clenching his fists and digging his nails into his palms. They’re all human, despite how they act sometimes. They may be seen as devils by the outside world, but they get painful reminders of how they aren’t. Jongin is dead. Minseok is dead. Baekhyun, the poor man, was letting his insides slowly knit back together. It would have been kinder to let him die.

“It seems like you’re not serious about this. She killed so many people. She killed Tao, Kris, and Luhan in your own gang. And it seems like you don’t care.”

Junmyeon grits his teeth. “We care more than anyone. But the fact that their entire side values her so much to come to get her? We don’t have that kind of support.”

Victoria cooly crosses her legs. “Suho, we’d give it. But frankly, your gang ran SHINee into the ground and weren’t on the scene after Minho died.”

The former kings had no mercy, and EXO had watched them fall apart. When Super Junior stepped back, EXO rose to the occasion. The other gangs are benefitting from SHINee’s return and using EXO’s vulnerability to their advantage.

“We were grieving for our own members’ deaths.” Junmyeon answers with a wrinkled nose, staring Leeteuk in the eye. Super Junior had done the same, and no one was calling them out on it. “And we didn’t run them into the ground. After they disappeared after Minho’s death, we maintained their lines of work.”

Sehun knows that Junmyeon is incredibly noble, despite being a gang leader. And he feels even guiltier. Junmyeon is covering for him, because that was when Tao died and Sehun lashed out in anger. It’s times like these that he wishes that Tao is still alive. Tao had been more openly sensitive. Tao had questioned what they did.

And that’s why had died.

But with Tao, Sehun was allowed to feel more human. With Tao, he could confess that he hated the way the es looked at him with blank eyes and trembling hands, as if he was the one who forced them into the lifestyle.

Secretly, he used to toss and turn at night, his sleep disturbed by the bruises and welts and cuts marring their skin. Tao would be much more vocal about it, sometimes crying to Yifan or Sehun. It’s an unwelcome memory. Tao and Jongin are gone. They’re not coming back. They’re not here. Junmyeon is here and he’s being pressured by the other gangs on their side.

“I believe Junmyeon.” Irene cuts in, much to Sehun’s relief. “For someone who you’re claiming doesn’t care about alliances, he helped us build from the ground up. We, for one, will support them because we are grateful and disagree with everyone else’s logic.”

That creates a ton of dirty looks thrown her way, but a swelling of relief in Sehun’s chest. Without Taeyeon, SNSD doesn’t have a leader and they’re all conflicted about the current issue.

Onew clearly doesn’t look pleased, but Irene stares him down, and it’s surprising that someone so much younger and inexperienced in the gang world is challenging him.

Sehun has a vendetta against Red, though. Even with the little help that EXO is getting, Sehun wants to be the one that strikes the final blow.
 

“Do you have nightmares?”

“Look at the dark circles under my eyes and ask me that question again.” Her response would normally be snarky, but her voice is soft as she turns to Jackson.

It’