She didn’t listen to the voicemail. 

She couldn’t. 

She wasn’t ready. 

All Heiran did was glare at her phone and the notification that was teasing her. 

His dogtags were tight in her hand, she hadn't gotten the chance to give them back to him.

Honestly, what could he possibly have said in that message that would make things better? She wasn’t exactly prepared to hear him apologize and tell her that he just wasn’t ready to be in Lucy’s life yet. All this time she thought he was keeping distance between them because of GOT7 and Jaebum but maybe she had read it all wrong. 

He just wasn’t ready for Lucy. 

She was already feeling pretty low, she didn’t have to hear Mark’s rumbling voice awkwardly letting her down. It didn’t take a psychic to guess what that voicemail probably held. ‘I’m sorry to hurt you. I never meant for things to get this complicated. I just think we’re better off the way we were when this all started. I just can’t be the man you need me to be.’

God just the thought of having to hear his voice say something like that made her skin crawl. She thought she was good at reading people and their intentions, especially after Jaebum. But the truth was, she had genuinely believed that the commitment and intensity wouldn’t freak him out. He knew her past, he knew what she expected out of a partner when it came to Lucy. 

And he still stuck around. 

He still kissed her, slept with her and told her how much he wanted her. 

Huffing, she pushed her phone away refusing to check her voicemail before standing and walking to her backyard for some fresh air. 

Yesterday at the race track was one of the best days she’s had that wasn’t with Lucy. She forgot how it felt on her own, not as a mother but as herself. If she could, she would spend every day with Lucy but a part of her didn’t think she knew how to be on her own. A part of her feared the day Lucy would go to college and move out because then what? What would she do with her time and with her life?

Last night she thought she saw a glimpse of what she could have. 

Last night she had made up her mind. She wanted to be with Mark. 

It was clear now that Mark didn’t want the same thing, it was her fault for letting her feelings and imagination get the best of her. But in those few hours the idea of dating Mark, of being with him or having a relationship and future with him felt right. 

She could see Friday nights with him at races. She could see them sneaking home to Lucy together and whispering to each other as they got ready for bed together. She could see Mark teaching Lucy how to drive. She could see Mark searching for her face whenever they went out. 

That night, with booze in her veins, adrenaline charging through her body and Mark’s hand on her back, she had come to an overly romantic decision. 

Mark was it for her. 

They’d work out the stuff with GOT7, they come to a compromise, she was sure they’d figure out. 

But just like every other time she gave someone her heart, it was crushed before she could blink. 

The truth was that Mark was just like every other guy, he was just better at reading her and pretending to be the kind of guy that she needed so that she’d trust him. That’s all he really wanted from her, her trust, that way it would make protecting her much easier. 

Somewhere along the way, their emotions starting influencing them, lines were blurred and then crossed. And despite every intention she had, she started to believe Mark wasn’t just some gangster who liked living on the underside of the law. She thought he wanted roots, but no, he didn’t want to be grounded or tied down. 

Men like him had wings and they wanted to fly without staying in one place for too long. 

She didn’t need to hear the voicemail to know that.

-----

Jaebum whistled a soft song to himself as he walked into his house that night.

Tossing his keys aside, he flipped on the lights to illuminate his living room before flinching, “What the , Mark?! What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in?”

Mark stared at him from his seat by the kitchen counter. “It was easy. You barely have any security.”

“Get out.” Jaebum barked.

Mark just blinked, “No, I don’t think I will.”

“What the do you want, Mark?” Jaebum snarled, walking up to him. 

When he got closer he noticed the bags under his eyes, the parlour of his skin and the tension straining his entire body, “I want a lot of things, buddy. World peace, eradicating poverty, ending racism. Oh boy, the list goes on and on. But there’s one thing I want from you, dickhead.”

“Big fan of nicknames, aren’t you?” Jaebum muttered as he pulled out a glass from his cabinet. “So, what is this thing you want from me?”

“How long have you been working with my Boss?”

It was a fraction of a second when Jaebum froze, his body stilling before he quickly recovered and lifting a crystal bottle filled with amber liquid, “I’ve been working with since I married Heiran.”

“Drop the act. I mean since when have you been going behind everyone’s backs to meet with him in private?” Mark snapped.

Jaebum set the bottle down and went to his fridge to pull out some ice cubes, “You’re not making any sense, Yi En.”

“Don’t call me that!” Mark yelled, grabbing the glass and whipping it at the wall next to Jaebum’s head. 

Jaebum ducked before staring at the glass shards that were not covering his kitchen floor with a tired sigh, “It’s been years.”

“Shut up. You don’t know anything about me or what the hell I’ve gone through these years.” Mark seethed, his hands fisted, “And answer my damn question.”

Jaebum faced him with a scowl, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh yeah? Then what did you talk to him about when you met him at the GOT7 headquarters in the middle of the night yesterday?”

Jaebum’s eye twitched, “You saw?”

Mark raised a brow, “That’s not an answer.”

“Huh, well, if you’re so curious, why don’t you go ask your Boss?” When Mark pursed his lips in response, Jaebum’s lip twitched up, “Oh, it looks like the right-hand man doesn’t trust his Boss anymore. That’s an unexpected turn of events.”

Mark pulled his gun out and cocked it before pointing it straight at Jaebum, “I’m not messing around Jaebum. Just tell me what the hell is going on. Why are the two of you meeting in secret?”

“You’re not going to shoot me Mark.” Jaebum said smugly.

Mark blinked at him before pointing his gun at Jaebum’s arm and shooting his arm. Jaebum yelled and stumbled back against his fridge before sliding to the ground. “What the is wrong with you?!”

Mark tucked his gun into his belt before crouching down in front of Jaebum and pulling his sleeve up, “It’s not a deep wound, you’ll live.”

Jaebum panted as Mark grabbed a dish towel and wrapped it around his wound. Jaebum couldn’t mask the bewildered look in his eyes, “I can’t believe you actually shot me.”

“You stabbed me. I think we can call it even.” Mark muttered before sitting back on his haunches to stare at Jaebum who was wincing and grimacing in pain, “Are you working with him?”

Jaebum blinked up at Mark through his hair that hung over his eyes, “You’ve changed, Mark.”

“Yeah, I have.” Mark said quietly, “I’m not that little boy that let you beat on him just so you could get clout. I learned to fight back. I don’t pull my punches anymore.”

Jaebum scoffed, “You can’t still be hung up on that. That was over a decade ago!”

“I thought we were friends.” Mark growled. 

Jaebum just stared, “Friends? Mark, do you honestly think that under DS we could’ve stayed friends? The Bunker would’ve done this to us eventually, no matter how hard we tried. If anything, I did you a favour because you didn’t have to spend your entire adult life kissing up to a sociopath.” 

“You know what I went through.” Mark said softly, “I needed you and you abandoned me. you for acting like you did me a favour.”

Jaebum’s eyes widened before softening a fraction, “Well, I offered you a position with me.”

“Yeah.” Mark said with a dry laugh, “Because that’s what I wanted the most. To go back to you and DS and have to walk past The Bunker.”

Jaebum leaned his head back against the fridge, “Right, because GOT7 is so great. Because your Boss would never hurt you and always looks out for your best interests, right?”

Mark jaw tightened when Jaebum chuckled roughly, “You want to know about your great Boss? The one I meet with in secret? Fine. He’s trafficking.”

“Don’t lie.” He grunted.

“You think I give a about lying to you? You think I care enough? Your Boss wants his territory to expand his business. He’s had the system for the last few years, selling people to the highest bidder. He was making more money from trafficking alone than he was with the rest of his operations combined. That’s why he’s growing so fast.” Jaebum explained. 

Mark’s hands started to shake and his heart raced as his skin began to grow cold, “No. That’s bull. You’re trying to get in my head. He wouldn’t go into trafficking. H-He swore he wouldn’t or else I’d walk. Of all the things he’d do, it would never be human trafficking.”

“Mar—“

He gripped Jaebum around the neck and squeezed, “Why were you meeting with him?”

“I can’t tell you.” He breathed out.

Mark tightened his hold before brandishing his gun with the other, “You don’t want to hold out on me. I can kill you and hide your body before any of your men notice you’re missing.”

Jaebum glared at him before his eyes darted to the gun, ", fine. I made a deal with your Boss. I’d give up some of his territory if he could get me back into Heiran life.”

Silence washed over Mark before his entire face darkened, “Are you joking? Is this some sort of a joke?”

“No.” Jaebum said, his shoulders falling, “He approached me first with the deal. He knew that I dated Heiran in the past. He must’ve been keeping an eye on her. He also knew that the relationship fell apart because of me. And he knew that I still had feelings for her so he offered me a chance at connecting with her again.”

“That’s…that’s insane. You thought that threatening her and making her think she was in danger would help her forgive you?” Mark asked, stunned.

Jaebum glared, “No. I was planning on scaring her and then coming to the rescue to try to save her and bring her under my care but then you kept getting in the way.”

Mark felt his head spin, “What about the threats? The guy that shot at her car, the kidnapping, your allies coming after her.”

“None of it was true. I orchestrated all of it with the help of her father.”

He was going to be sick, “So…your man being arrested because we didn’t clean the money…”

“Didn’t happen. There was no threat. Heiran wasn’t ever in any danger, there are no allies coming after her. Nothing. She was perfectly fine. We made it all up as your Boss’s side of the deal.” Jaebum admitted. 

Mark loosened his hold on Jaebum throat and closed his eyes, “When someone broke into her house?”

“It was just to scare her. I was supposed to drive by and make her think I scared the guy away but then you came running in your ing socks.” Jaebum grumbled. "I don't know why your boss assigned you to help her because it just made my life harder."

Mark squeezed his eyes, “Two of your men tried dragging her off.” 

“They weren’t supposed to be rough with her. I wanted them to bring her to me so I could talk to her.” He said. 

Mark dropped from the heels of his feet to his knees, “You were willing to let GOT7 traffic in more territory just to get your ex-girlfriend back?”

“I was planning on double-crossing your Boss. Once Heiran trusted me, I was going to tell her what I knew about her father trafficking and I knew she’d go to the police.” Jaebum defended. "I'd take over GOT7's territory after."

He shook his head, “You got her to marry you.”

“There was no other way I could one up you. You had everything I wanted with her.” Jaebum shifted, hissing while gripping his arm. “If I married her, I’d have time to make it right with her. To show her how much I’ve changed and how much I loved her. And you wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it.

“I don’t believe you.”

Jaebum scoffed, “Well, I don’t know what to ing tell you. I love her.”

“You might be telling the truth about what you did to Heiran but GOT7 isn’t into trafficking. You’re full of .”

“Look into it yourself, you’ll see. I tried to warn you, Mark. I told you once. I tried to get you out of there. You’re not my best friend anymore and I know you wouldn’t show up to my funeral if I died, but I was looking out for you.”

Mark looked away, his vision swimming. No. Jaebum always tried manipulating him. He knew how weak and desperate Mark had been as a kid. How desperate he had been to be a part of something where he belonged. He was just trying to turn him against his Boss by using an old wound. 

He couldn’t let him get into his head. 

Mark turned back to face him. No longer did he see the intimidating leader of DS he had grown up with. He just saw a pathetic snivelling man who didn’t know when to let someone go.

“Her father never really wanted to reconcile with her, did he? It was just an act to get you into her life again. So he could control the situation and Heiran.”

Jaebum’s eyelids were heavy, “I don’t know. He never said anything to me about it.”

“But why would he play along? This entire thing was a lie but it got Heiran fired. He lost his biggest source for cleaning money. Without Heiran, he can’t use her company which means he can’t clean any money. Why would he risk all of that just for some territory?” It didn’t make sense to him. These were two of the biggest crime lords in the country, would they make such an uneven deal just based on their emotions?

Jaebum shrugged, “He never told me. He made the offer and I accepted. I didn’t ask questions, especially ones that could make him reconsider.”

Mark massaged his temples as he took a breath. This wasn’t what he had expected when he came here looking for answers. 

“Don’t tell Heiran, please.” Jaebum whispered.

“But you don’t even love her.” Mark said slowly, almost like a child.

Jaebum’s brows knit together, “What the hell are you talking about? Yes I do.”

“No, you don’t. Cause what you did? That isn’t love.” Mark said. 

Jaebum narrowed his eyes, “And what the hell do you know about love? You’ve never loved anyone in your life. Not even yourself.”

Mark stood and pulled Jaebum’s phone out of his jacket pocket and pressed it into his hand. He made a choice not to make any promises, “You should probably call someone for help before you bleed out.”

-----

“Hey! I was actually just about to call you. Boss told me that you called in sick, which I think might be the second time in like 15 years. I was thinking about driving some soup over. What are you craving?” Jinyoung chirped.

Mark was pulling a sweater over his head before heading back out to his car, “Jinyoung—“

“Why do people even eat soup when they’re sick? I don’t think there’s actual scientific proof that it cures you. It’s just slightly nutritious hot liqui—“

“Jinyoung.” 

“What? Were you saying something?” Jinyoung asked, ending his rant short.

Mark jumped into his car and pulled out of the parking lot, “I’m not sick. I lied.”

“Oh.” He said before pausing, “Why?”

He tapped his fingers against the wheel, “I-It’s hard to explain right now. I need to confirm something f