Characters: Kai x Baekhyun

Five years prior.

Kai wasn’t a mere legal arms dealer, he made deals with warlords, the mafia and the police respectively. He was successful even at the young age of 22. He started in the business right after high school, but he couldn’t remember how he slid into the illegal sector.

He and his twin brother Jongin worked in opposite business sectors. While Jongin worked as a florist to make people’s lives more colourful, he sold weaponry to take those lives.

The deal today should have been an easy one, but the odds weren’t in Kai’s favour. His business partner, a lowly gangster, tried to betray him. In the underworld, it was an open secret that Kai was on fairly good terms with Don Do and that’s why no-one would try to pull bull on him. But today was a different story.

“So, you’re telling me that you need those weapons for yourself and your guys to take down your boss?” Kai batted his eyelashes, a tactic to lure out more information: the naive guy selling weapons. The most important rule, after all, was not to tell why you need those weapons since people were willing to pay immense amounts of money for such juicy pieces of information.

“Yes, that boy is a nuisance and a hassle at such a young age. He only sees his younger brother before his duties,” the older man, a guy in his early forties, greasy hair, stubble on his chin, short legs and a protruding stomach, and most importantly, no family, was making eyes at Kai.

Kai started to prick up his ears. A “boy” with a younger brother? He knew only one group in the whole city and its surroundings that was fitting that description, “My, my, you’re not talking about Don Doh, do you now?” he almost gagged at his own behaviour when he winked and tilted his head for good measure. His men certainly did.

“Ha, ha, that brat of a bastard!” hatred gleamed in the man’s eyes and a whiff of cheap cognac escaped his throat. Kai’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance and he seriously tried to prevent the urge to vomit this time.

“But isn’t his brother my age? Just 22?” he tilted his head a tad further, a tight-lipped smile supporting the slightly scrunched eyes. He really started to get immensely irritated. A feeling of pure hatred churned in his stomach. Kai’s men picked up on the sudden change of atmosphere and started shifting from one leg to another, fingers twitching to grab their guns.

“Oh, you’re just 22 and he is too?” the man’s eyes glistened with lust and he his lips, giving Kai a once-over. Kai’s smile faltered and his victim couldn’t anticipate what was about to come. He pulled the trigger faster than anyone could register. Threatening either Kyungsoo or Sehun was a deadly sin in his books, especially since Sehun and Jongin became an item over a year ago.

The gangster’s lifeless body just sacked to the ground and his underlings surrendered without a fight.

“He didn’t even have the payment on him,” commented one of Kai’s men after checking the suitcase for money.

“So he intended to betray us from the very beginning, unlucky bastard. Good thing we didn’t even bring the correct goods with us,” Kai was wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand when he heard the jingling of keys before they fell to the ground.

Curiously, he turned around. 

They chose a secluded area on the outskirts of the city so they didn’t have to bank on onlookers. Luck clearly wasn’t on his side that day.

Kai spotted a young, male specimen. It wasn’t the most appropriate thought he had at that moment, but the man looked beautiful in his eyes, more so than in the photographs from the magazines he saw him in. The colour drained from the other's face, hands covering his lips, eyes wide, fear crossing his beautiful features, the sun illuminating his face and hair. At the beginning of the alleyway stood Byun Baekhyun.

One of Kai’s men was ready to take action, but he gave a dismissive wave. Within a few quick strides, Kai almost reached him, when Baekhyun stepped away, his face screaming “flight,” but his legs went limp and he slumped down to the ground.

As Kai drew nearer, purposefully slowing down his steps, his eyes glinting with darkness and his mouth twitching, the more Baekhyun visibly tensed before starting to tremble.

“What a little bird we have here,” Kai crouched down on eye level with Baekhyun and harshly grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up. Baekhyun winced under the rough treatment and tears were welling up in his eyes.

Kai intentionally blocked his view so he was unable to see what’s going on behind Kai’s back. His men were getting rid of the mess and arranging it as an internal gang quarrel.

Baekhyun’s mouth was set in a hard line when he reached up to cup Kai’s cheek, the latter was convinced he’d receive a slap. He readied himself, but his eyes went round when he felt Baekhyun’s thumb rubbing under his eyes. He grabbed his hand and pulled it down. As expected, some blood was smeared on it. Kai smirked and Baekhyun catapulted himself back into the real world and realised what he did.

He tried to pull his hand out of the grasp, but Kai pulled him forwards and he collided with his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut and prepared for the worst, holding his breath.

“Ah, ah, little bird,” Kai purred into Baekhyun’s ear, “No need to be afraid, I wouldn’t do such a cruel thing to a beautiful cardinal like you. He was just a rat that was a hazard.”

Kai ran a hand through Baekhyun’s hair before jerking his head up. He inched forward, lips almost touching. Baekhyun still didn’t say a thing, besides occasional gasping. He looked anywhere but at Kai’s eyes.

“Where do you live?”

Baekhyun pointed into the alley.

“Oh, I don’t know if I’m sorry for doing such things in front of your door--” Kai purred. 

Before he could say anything else, a shout was heard, “Kim! ing! Kai!”

Further down the road stood a man clad in a beige suit, right next to another man in a black suit. Kai raised a hand in greeting, sneering at the people he mockingly called 'hyungs'.

He slowly stood up, before giving Baekhyun a final once-over. Crouching down, Kai tilted Baekhyun’s head up, more softly now, and pressed his lips quickly to the other one’s lips, “I’m coming back for you, my little bird, you just wait for me.”

He winked one last time before stepping away and taking off into the opposite direction, laughing like a maniac, the gun in his holster glistening in the sun. Baekhyun touched his mouth. Fingers still on his lips, he looked after him, a flush creeping up his face.

Baekhyun heard fast footsteps approaching and something that sounded like a string of Chinese curses. Passing by him, one of the men took after the man called Kai.

Still out of it, Baekhyun finally felt a menacing presence near him. Looking up, a man around his height stared down at him. It was the man in the black suit. 

The sunlight was reflected on the gold-rimmed glasses, it dazzled his eyes and highlighted the brown of his irides. Baekhyun had to shield his eyes from the sun and the man was gone. And, once again, a silver gun reflected the sunlight, before the man rounded the corner, looking back at Baekhyun one last time.