I had questions. I had a lot of ing questions. But what I didn’t have was a chance to answer them. 

“Yo, what the ,” Mingyu said rather harshly.

“Dude chill,” I said because, you know, there’s no need to be so aggressive. “But also yeah, what the .”

“Jaehyuk was a piece of that probably deserved death,” Vernon began. My mouth dropped open along with those of Mingyu and Hoshi, while Jeonghan blinked a few times like he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. “Every single person that was here tonight probably deserved what was coming to them. They were all physically and emotionally abusive and not smart enough to amount to anything other than common street thugs.”

Disrespecting the dead was something most people took very seriously. To hear Vernon—who now seemed older than before—run his mouth of about people who were literally just massacred was unexpected, to say the least. But it didn’t stop there.

“Everyone here has faced some kind of loss; you don’t hold a monopoly on it and you shouldn’t use your experience to justify not dealing with the horrors we just saw. You also don’t need to apologise; I knew what I was signing up for when I made contact with you. I’ve made my decision and I’m not leaving.” 

I was shocked. There really was no other way to describe it. I had known Vernon for less than an hour and he had managed to surprise me every time he opened his mouth. I was trying to process what he was saying when something he said caught my attention. 

“Wait…” I trailed off. “You knew,” I accused. “You bonded with me on purpose.”

“That’s right.”

My mouth dropped open again, not expecting that answer. But I didn’t have time to reply before a distant shout caught my attention. 

“Mei!” I heard a familiar voice shout. I strained my ears and turned my head in the direction it was coming fr