He visibly grabbed the steering wheel tighter while answering for the second time within a few minutes, "Yes, Wooshin, he will be fine."
Wooshin wasn't normally this worried about Xiao, after all he knew what he was doing. He was their best shooter, never missing or hitting something or someone wrong but currently it was 3AM during a Monday night (or almost morning) and him and Wooshin had just finished studying for their chemistry test on Monday as the leader had phoned his right hand about it being urgent, extremely urgent. So they had both gotten back into their clothes suitable for outside during a cold September night. He knew through own experience that Xiao was someone that really needed regular sleep. Some people, Wooshin included, could live a day or two without barely sleeping or sleeping at all and still perfectly finish their given task. It wasn't rare that Wooshin had done some business during night, drove home to take a quick shower and then already went to school without having had any sleep. He was used to it and still able to function. Xiao on the other hand was different. His concentration was lacking, his contacts not working properly due to his eyes being tired and he often had this random sleep attacks. It wasn't often that their youngest would accompany him during the night, but whenever he did Wooshin wouldn't stop being worried about him. After all they were best friends and if Xiao would miss the consequences may be huge.
"Just looking out for him.", Wooshin defended himself quickly and crossed his arms in front of his chest, now looking out of the car on his right to see where they were heading to, slowly getting out of town. He knew this way by heart. It would lead them to the local harbor within ten minutes. Looking into the mirror to his front he watched his fellow members in the back. Who would guess that guys like Jinhoo, Bitto, Sunyoul and Xiao who were playing an online game together and loudly complaining about it, would most probably take someone out in a few minutes? Hwanhee and Gyujin, who were bickering about what food to get tomorrow? Wooshin looked back to the front and started thinking like that about himself, too. Everyone thought that people in a gang were these heartless, crazy bastards who only care about drugs, theft, money and shooting people. It was true that it was a lot about money, dealing with drugs and theft, but no gang didn't have its reasons. Kuhn had started this business 3 years ago during his high school years. His mom had cancer and he tried to save her by getting money for the right treatment, because the hospital refused to give the right one without a certain amount of money. Back then, the only two who had been crazy enough to join him had been Jinhoo and Wooshin. Hwanhee and Gyujin had been too young and Bitto thought he was joking. Kuhn had had a lot of crazy ideas during their long friendship so he wasn't surprised that one day Kuhn came up to him after hockey practice.
"I need you to be serious with me", the taller had started in an unusual serious manner while Bitto got out of his sweaty shirt and threw it into his locker, giving him a short glance to signal that he was listening to him. "I might have found a way to save my mother...", he started and sat down on the bench, eyes constantly focused on his friend. Bitto raised an eyebrow at him as he got rid of most of the sweat with his towel, "Really?" Just yesterday their team leader had been desperate about not finding a way and had cried into his best friend's shoulder at midnight, "Spill it" he added and got into his black shirt.
Kuhn's eyes lit up with excitement. He trusted his best friend. He wouldn't be weirded out if he'd tell him another one of his crazy ideas, right?
"What if we'd start a gang together? With the others?" Bitto nearly choked on his water. If it would have been Jinhoo or Gyujin who would come up with this idea and tell him about it, he would have just laughed about it and brush it off, but he knew that Kuhn was being serious. Kuhn had also been serious when he had jumped off a bridge in 6th grade as a bet to see if he could survive it, he wasn't joking when he thought he was a vampire in 8th grade and even joined a cult that those blood bags from Gyujin's mom's hospital and the drugs he had done just some months ago during their 10th year had been organized by him himself. Stealing weapons, dealing with drugs, driving around in expensive cars, killing people for a living? Kuhn was being serious.
"You must be kidding...", he muttered as he put on his pants. Kuhn was just putting on his shirt and halted in his action for a moment, shaking his head like the always adrenaline driven guy he was, "No I'm serious! I read that the beginning of it all is a little hard, because you have to find the right people to get your drugs and weapons from and also it takes some time until you get clients, but for a single kill you can get a thousand of dollars!" At the end of his sentence Kuhn got a little louder due to his excitement and people started looking at them, which led to Bitto's embarrassment and he lowered his already pretty low voice even more, "I don't think you know what you are talking about. Do you know what it takes to kill another human being?"
Kuhn shrugged his shoulders as he had finished putting on his jeans. Bitto's dad had been in the army when the smaller one had been younger and his friend had told him a lot about it. His dad had some trauma from all the people he had seen being shot and he had shot by himself, but everyone was different. Maybe his father just didn't have the qualities for something like this. Kuhn thought he was different. He was crazy enough to do this. "But your dad isn't me.", Kuhn argued as Bitto told him about the time his father had been in a clinic for whole 2 years after leaving the army. They were now walking out of the Gym, ready to go home as they had finally finished another day of school. Bitto stopped in his tracks suddenly, eyeing his friend carefully from head to toe. "You're not doing this. You won't go through with it." He was wrong. "Shin and Jinhoo agreed to come with me!", Kuhn exclaimed to Bitto as the group met a day later during lunch break. "I ain't killing anyone though.", Wooshin threw in as a quick statement while Kuhn already wanted to continue his sentence. "You still have the chance to change your mind!", he finished with a grin towards his best friend and took a bite of his pizza. Bitto on the other hand seemed unfazed. He didn't understand why Wooshin and Jinhoo were even taking part in this, but he was sure it wouldn't work the way Kuhn was expecting it to work anyway and this whole gang would die down quickly. He dearly wished for his best friend that his mom would get better and not die like how the doctors had said she most probably would, but this was nowhere near reality anymore. He was sure nobody was able to just start a gang quickly and especially not some 18 year old high-schooler. He was wrong again.
"Ikilledsomeone", he quickly breathed into the phone. Bitto had just been woken up by the ringtone of his phone, completely confused by his best friend's words. He ran a hand through his black hair and sat up. "What is this about?"
"We- no I-I shot someone on accident."
Bitto blinked multiple times before he swallowed and answered, "On accident?" Kuhn stumbled even more upon his words, seemingly losing control about his own emotions, "He was shutting up! He kept screaming even after Wooshin had hit him multiple times! We were afraid they would try to get him and while I was threatening him to finally shut up I pulled the trigger!" Bitto was at loss of his words. 3 weeks. It had been 3 weeks since Kuhn had started this whole idea. 2 weeks since he had proudly exclaimed that they had gotten their first client and drugs in exchange for their hard work. 1 week since his first money payment. How was he able to seriously get through this? Did he even really know his best friend by now?
"I don't know what to do! We don't know what to do!", Kuhn practically yelled into the phone as Bitto hadn't sad anything for roughly a minute and heard someone throw up in the background, most probably Jinhoo. He was sensitive about gory stuff and couldn't even properly watch a good thriller.
"Where are you?", Bitto asked calmly while he put something on. He wouldn't believe his friend's story until he would see it with his own eyes. "The harbor near Yeongdong.", Kuhn explained and Bitto's eyes widened. They drove all the way from Daejeon to Yeongdong for this? He almost couldn't believe his eyes as his best friend brought him to the dead body between countless containers. Wooshin was comforting Jinhoo and just looked up at his older friend as a greeting. None of them had spoken a word since they had heard a gunshot for their first time in their lives. Bitto held his stomach and turned around. Even after this short time the body was already dead white and starting to smell. "I can't believe you ing did this!", he exclaimed in shock, but then tried to compose himself as Kuhn's eyes widened and he seemed even more guilty, "Why was he even here in the first place?!" "He is the rival of a fellow young gang we befriended", Kuhn explained, looking back between the body and his friend, "and they said they'd give us 1800€ if we give him a peace of mind. He threatened them for weeks now and he even had killed one of their youngest members! I was scared for us!" By now Bitto was sure with his friend's frantic breathing he'd hyperventilate anytime soon so he looked back to Wooshin and Jinhoo while patting his shoulders and trying to make him take deep breaths so he would calm down. Meanwhile Wooshin nodded at him quietly. He wasn't lying. "I didn't want to kill him...", Kuhn now explained as his breathing had slowed down, "I was scared because I knew from the other gang's leader what he and his fellows are capable of. I didn't want Jinhoo or Shin to get hurt."
Bitto nodded at him. He was still in shock about what had just happened a few minutes ago and he definitely would need some time to recover from this and everything he was experiencing now, but after all he was his best friend and they were all friends since elementary school. When he had promised to get through thick and thin he hadn't meant helping them to drown the body in the harbor, but it suddenly fell under this category and soon he was part of their small gang, seriously making a living out of it with high payments, but their life always at risk.
Wooshin was unpleasantly woken up from his daydreaming in memories as his head had hit the cold window due to them driving over some uneven road. While rubbing the spot on his head he went back to his earlier thoughts. He was a popular student in school, known for being a sweetheart and helping everyone in need despite the rumors that rose up from time to time. In the end students were swooning for him and teachers were avoiding him. He loved helping the others in school; his nature was kind, protecting and giving like that and he would never be able to hurt anybody, but as he had joined Kuhn's gang he had developed some kind of other side to him. During their job he has learned to kill someone without blinking an eye, learned how to properly hide bodies and is the best in direct combat since he had taken Taekwondo classes when he was younger. Every punch was directed for his well-being, even if it meant to kill somebody. This gruesome behavior let him pay his university spot. and feed his younger siblings during tough times. They were never struggling with having no food anymore, the electricity turned off or almost being thrown out. Wooshin was able to save his brothers through this three years ago and now there was no way of turning back from this. Maybe developing this kind of alter ago made him be able to cope with everything he witnessed. Everyone was thinking how cool it would be to join a gang and get into fights, stealing for others and killing someone. It wasn't fun at all and if Wooshin wouldn't have these two reasons and Kuhn killing him if he leaves, he would have quit this bullsh*t already. It wasn't easy. Sometimes things happened so suddenly, he wasn't able to switch of his true personality and turn into this cold-hearted machine he had become. He cried himself to sleep after Xiao had gotten hurt the first time, he had thrown up multiple times after seeing someone's brain pour out of their head and he couldn't even count the amount of times he had broken some bone during a combat. It wasn't fun at all.
As Kuhn turned off the car's engine, Wooshin came back to reality and got out of the car like everyone else.
"Do we have to take him out?", Bitto while everyone excluding him grabbed their pistols and Kuhn his shotgun. Bitto was part of the team since then, but refused to kill or hurt someone. Everyone had their role in the gang and he was both their technician and whistleblower, taking care of the guns and cars, but also checking the finances and getting the information out of their targets. The only time he had actually used a gun had been two years ago as he had successfully defended himself from a killer who wanted to specifically take him out as one of their most important members. The others knew a fair share about guns, especially Xiao and Kuhn's hobby was repairing cars, but it was nothing compared to Bitto's knowledge and nobody was a skilled as him with his words. It wasn't rare that either him or, Wooshin or Xiao became the target.
"We promised. Or otherwise they'll take us out.", Kuhn explained as they walked away from their van and started walking to the most known place for gang meet ups. The harbor.
"Whom is this even about?", Xiao now asked as he was trying to center his left contact lense again. "Coffox.", Kuhn answered quickly as they drew nearer and already heard voices, him instantly hearing the leader. The relationship between them and Coffox was hard to explain. They helped each other out in need and where in debt, which put them into today's situation. Coffox's leader Kiyoung demanded their debt to be taken into use right now or otherwise, he said, it would have consequences. Kuhn hated the fact that he couldn't say no and just not show up. Coffox were older, way more experienced, bigger and one of the other top gangs next to Kuhn's. They weren't playing around with those threats and he couldn't risk anyone of his friends to get hurt, especially not the youngest ones.
"You finally made it."
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Double update for today since I almost didn't post the second chapter for a week now! This is some kind of throw back and I didn't want to wait any longer to introduce the actual gang and let you all know from the start. Until you/Miyeon gets to know about them though will take some time. Fun fact: Coffox is a real gang