Warning(s): action, violence, blood
Length: 8.4k words

Even after dropping Ange off at Kyungsoo’s apartment, Baekhyun’s heart can’t stop racing with anxiety. Not only does he think that Ange isn’t safe unless he’s there to protect her, Mark and Mimi’s lives hang in the balance—and it’s all thanks to one man: Oh Sehun.

Baekhyun doesn’t know how or why Sehun would kidnap Mark and Mimi of all people, but he has the gut feeling that Junmyeon is behind everything. After all, Junmyeon wasn’t above trying to bribe Mark—someone dangerously close to Baekhyun. If anything, it makes perfect sense that Junmyeon would bribe Sehun or blackmail him into doing dirty work, dirty work like kidnapping a bunch of kids. It’s just a reminder from Junmyeon that he’s good with keeping his word: something awful will happen, he said, and indeed, something awful is happening.

Within a few minutes of speeding, Baekhyun reaches the fringes of the city. Though there is no clear line separating the part of the city that’s alive from the other part that’s dead, any person with a sound mind doesn’t have trouble with identifying where the city ends and where the suburbs begin. These suburbs once thrived, but in 2060, they’re dead neighborhoods falling apart at the seams. It’s the perfect setting for anything heinous, so Baekhyun takes his gun out for protection.

While on the phone, Sehun told him to look for the house with a large, white painted 2 on the door. It’s a clear enough symbol, but Baekhyun still struggles with finding it under the heavy cover of darkness. Regardless, he does find that symbol—along with faint light glowing from within the cracks of a particular house.

Baekhyun exhales slowly to calm his nerves. In his days of petty crimes and crack houses, his experience of what occurs in a kidnapping tell him to be scared, but he pushes forward regardless of his reservations.

Fear is a weapon that only you can give your enemies. So don’t give it to them. Baekhyun still remembers his older brother saying that—coincidentally after rescuing Baekhyun from his own kidnapping. It’s advice that he will have to live by even in this moment, as he cautiously opens the unlocked house door that’s barely hanging by a thread and enters a creaky mess of what once was someone’s home.

Immediately after entering the broken house, Baekhyun’s eyes are drawn the soft glowing light farther within in one of the rooms. The throbbing source of light flickers here and there, casting moving shadows across the rotting wood and foundations of the house. Dust particles also float in the air, adding an eerier effect, and reminding Baekhyun that he’s not supposed to be here—no one is. When the neighborhoods in the forgotten suburbs started falling apart, they were condemned by the city, and though trespassing is an ignorable crime, it’s still illegal and punishable by law. Despite these things, however, Baekhyun presses and continues to make his way to the light source.

The air smells like mold and blood—a lot of blood. Baekhyun has been punched and stabbed enough to know that blood does have a sickly, metallic, iron-like smell to it. Its peculiar scent encourages him to walk further into the darkness, and he poises his gun in a position ready to shoot.

As Baekhyun rounds the corner, he’s able to peek into the room with a soft light. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust, and he doesn’t know what to look at—there’s about a million things in the room like rotting plaster, broken furniture, a mattress with springs exposed, and the light source being the flashing screen of a phone—but ultimately, Baekhyun’s gaze falls on Mark and Mimi.

Immediately after seeing the kids that he solemnly swore to protect, Baekhyun is overwhelmed with anger and concern—and failure. Mimi is sitting on a chair, seemingly unconscious, her head slumped against her shoulder, with blood dripping from her temple and onto the concrete floor. Since there is no carpet in this room, all her blood has pooled into one dangerously large puddle, and it continues to drip from her head without any signs of stopping. Her hands appear to be tied behind her back as well, signaling that someone purposely hit her until she fell unconscious. The rope wrapped around her torso is the only thing that keeps her from falling onto the floor. Fortunately, Mark isn’t bleeding from his head too, but even in the low light, it’s clear to Baekhyun that someone punched him in the face because of his bruised cheek. Like Mimi, someone tied him up to a chair and left him there.

Baekhyun turns around for a moment to survey the decaying house. Though he hasn’t secured the perimeter or checked to see if Sehun’s goons are around, he can’t waste more time. Mimi has lost too much blood, and if she’s bleeding out like that, then she must have a serious head injury.

With a velvet tread, Baekhyun makes his towards Mimi first. He pulls her chair from the wall to untie her from her restraints. As he does so, the chair’s feet scrape against the concrete flooring, causing Baekhyun to wince and for Mark to stir slowly. Already, Baekhyun is sweating in fear that someone might hear, but he can’t act with hesitation. If someone is around, then he’ll have to be faster than them and get out before they notice. Fortunately, Baekhyun is a mechanic, and he has great faith in his hands. Though he doesn’t have a clear view of the knots on the rope that holds Mimi to the chair, he can feel them and therefore undo them.

Baekhyun sets to work on untying the knots around Mimi’s hands first. He glances at the phone on the floor and realizes that it’s Mimi’s, and her numerous notifications are the cause of it flashing so frequently. Mark’s phone is also on the floor, but it’s lying facedown.

After a about a minute of feeling out the knots, Baekhyun frees Mimi, and she slumps to the side, but before she can fall to the ground into her own pool of blood, Baekhyun catches her. In his arms, Baekhyun can thankfully feel her breathe. Her breaths are soft against his palm, but her chest is moving, and she’s alive, thank goodness. Baekhyun also examines her temple to see where she may be bleeding from, and to his horror, just cradling her head exposes the fact that it’s wet with blood. Whoever hit her did it with so much force that there’s a deep, jagged gash on the back of her head.

“Mimi,” Baekhyun whispers, gently patting her cheek. “Mi. Wake up.”

Unfortunately, Mimi doesn’t wake up. Even after multiple attempts of patting her cheek pinching her arm, she doesn’t wake up, so Baekhyun leaves her on the floor, sitting against the wall, and gets to work on freeing Mark.

“Mark,” Baekhyun whispers, “Mark, wake up.”

Although Baekhyun doesn’t think that Mark will come to, he does after a few tries. At first, Mark only stirs, but his eyes open, and when they do, they open in shock. He has the logic not to yell and scream, thankfully, but he jolts upright and stares at Baekhyun in disbelief.

“Boss,” Mark sputters, “g-get out.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do—”

“No, no, no, no, no,” Mark continues. He shakes his head profusely. “Boss, it’s a trap, it’s a trap—” Mark abruptly cuts himself off to gawk at something behind Baekhyun. “Boss!” Mark screams. “Look out!”

A chill runs up Baekhyun’s spine, and he turns in time to see a dark figure lunge towards him. Baekhyun almost has no time to react, but thanks to Mark, he’s able to raise his arm in defense. The dark figure—a tall, broad man with dark hair—however, pushes Baekhyun onto the floor after catching him by surprise. He then quickly knees Baekhyun in the chest as Baekhyun tries to regain his footing. This movement leaves Baekhyun utterly breathless, and in his struggle to breathe, the man punches him right on the jaw in a cruel uppercut that gives light to who the man is.

“Sehun,” Baekhyun spits as he tumbles onto the ground once more.

“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” Sehun teases. He cracks his knuckles, takes a gun out of his jacket’s pocket, and its bullets into place before aiming it directly at Baekhyun. “You came here fast, by the way. I guess you really care about these kiddos.”

“What the do you want?” Baekhyun spits as he gets back up onto his feet.

“I don’t want anything from you,” Sehun replies with a scoff. “Come on. If I wanted anything from you, I would have taken it already.”

“Then what—”

“This is a warning,” Sehun interjects. At the mention of warning, Baekhyun is back into his last conversation with Yonny. “It looks like you already know what I’m talking about,” Sehun taunts. “Good. Then I don’t have to do anything else here.”

Although Sehun has a handgun pointed at Baekhyun’s chest, Baekhyun still wants to make a move and reach for his own gun because his mind is clouded with too much anger. In his head, Junmyeon is the one to blame for everything awful that has happened, and that includes Mark and Mimi and getting hurt in the midst of it all. To Baekhyun, the least he can do is shoot Sehun and leave the bastard for death. Unfortunately, Baekhyun underestimates Sehun.

Before Baekhyun can even draw his gun, Sehun has already shot him in the arm. Mark yells out something incoherent, and Baekhyun drops the gun before stumbling against the wall in utter shock that Sehun actually shot him first. Then the pain hits him like a punch. Baekhyun tentatively touches his upper right arm, just below his shoulder, and to his horror, he finds blood gushing forth from the wound. The throb in his arm hurts, sure, but adrenaline blocks most of the pain out, making the bullet feel more like a bad cut.

“You might be a better driver than me,” Sehun sneers, “but I’m the better shot, Baekhyun.”

He knows my name? Baekhyun is dumbfounded, and he looks at Sehun in disbelief.

“Who told you that?” Baekhyun mutters through gritted teeth. Truth be told, he knows that it had to be Junmyeon who told Sehun about his real name, but Baekhyun is trying to buy time. His switchblade is in the righthand pocket of his pants, and there’s no way he can move his wounded arm fast enough to take it out before Sehun can shoot him again.

“You know who.” Sehun draws closer to Baekhyun. If it weren’t for the constantly flashing light of Mimi’s phone, he would be covered in nothing but darkness and slivers of moonlight, but Baekhyun can still see him—and can still see how murderous he looks. “I’ve actually learned a lot about you, and I’m surprised that you’re this pathetic. I mean, look at you.” Sehun scoffs. “All it had to take was me calling you from that kid’s phone, and you came running here in record time.”

“Just let them go,” Baekhyun demands. “They’re not part of this.”

“Oh, but they are a part of this,” Sehun insists. “Because of your ineptitude to follow simple tasks, they’re here because of you.”

“I don’t know what the you’re talking about.”

“You know what I’m talking about.” Sehun kicks Baekhyun’s fallen gun so that it slides past them, right outside of the room. “The time is ticking, by the way. The longer you wait, the worse things will happen.”

“How much is Junmyeon paying you?” Baekhyun growls. “I’ll give you twice as much to let them go.” Baekhyun eyes Mimi’s still bleeding head and Mark’s struggling figure. The poor kid is still trying to get out of his restraints—a hurtful reminder that Baekhyun didn’t do enough to keep him safe. “Please,” Baekhyun falters, “just let them go.”

“, you are so pathetic.” Sehun laughs and lowers his gun. “They’re just a bunch of kids, Baekhyun. Useless ing kids. Why do you even care?” Sehun abruptly lifts his gun and shoots at Mark.

Mark screams accordingly—in a loud, pained yell—and when Baekhyun peers at him through the darkness, it’s not exactly hard to figure out why. Sehun shot Mark in the leg, and as a result, Mark has started to thrash against the ropes, crying and yelling out for Sehun’s head.

“!” Mark exclaims over and over head. “WHAT THE !”

“Shut the up before I shoot you again!” Sehun yells back, shooting several times in Mark’s direction. Though there’s a silencer on his gun that muffles most of the gunshots, it’s enough to subdue Mark into staying quiet—but not enough to stop him from glaring and seething at Sehun. “Jesus, ,” Sehun scoffs. To Baekhyun, he arches a brow. “These screamy kids are the reason why you’re so upset? You better hire yourself some real help. Preferably ones that don’t scream like a .”

“Go yourself, Sehun,” Baekhyun spits. His wounded arm is literally warm with blood now, but in a figurative sense, his blood is boiling with rage. He wants nothing more than to push Sehun against the wall and ruin everything there is about him.

“Wow, you look like you want to kill me,” Sehun taunts once more. “Why don’t you kill yourself instead? Everyone’s tired of you winning every race anyways.” Sehun shrugs his broad shoulders and nods to himself like he has offered a good suggestion. “Besides, I heard you almost did it,” Sehun derides.

“Shut up.”

“Jumping off a bridge seems like a sad move, though, don’t you think?” Sehun continues to mock. He starts chuckling. “You should have hung yourself like your brother. I’m sure that gets the job done. I mean, he died, didn’t he?”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun mutters, less forceful this time. He looks at Mark who looks right back at him, aghast at the truth. After all, Baekhyun didn’t tell Mark any of these things. As far as Mark is concerned, Baekhyun is just another tough guy with some past that’s too heavy to mention. “Shut the up,” Baekhyun says to Sehun again. “Don’t ing talk about my brother.”

“Why? Does it hurt?” Sehun chides. He shakes his head and continues with his dry laughter. “The guy was a better racer than you—or so I heard. And it seems like he was better at killing himself too because—”

It’s enough. In fact, it’s more than enough. Something snaps in Baekhyun, and without a thought and with only red in his vision, he lunges towards Sehun who seems to like the idea of getting into a fight because he tosses his gun onto the mattress nearby and readies himself for Baekhyun.

Baekhyun knows how to fight because he’s had it beaten into him, and he thinks that he’ll catch Sehun by surprise, but Sehun retaliates quickly. Before Baekhyun can even push Sehun, Sehun has already taken advantage of Baekhyun’s wounded arm by grabbing and squeezing it harshly. Pain instantly shoots up Baekhyun’s arm, and that agony paired with the loud SQUELCH of his blood almost makes him gag. He drops that arm back to his side while he fists Sehun’s shirt with his left hand.

“I love squeezing fruit,” Sehun mutters through gritted teeth. He digs his fingertips into Baekhyun’s arm even harder, amplifying the pain into something a thousand times worse. “You feel exactly like a pomegranate, do you know that?”

“Bite me,” Baekhyun growls, and he knees Sehun.

Baekhyun’s knee, unfortunately, only makes contact with Sehun’s leg since he reacts too quickly. Sehun seems to have a better understanding of how to fight and what to expect in a fight because even after dodging Baekhyun’s attempt to knee him in the groin, Sehun is already on the offensive. With his hand still on Baekhyun’s arm, he slams his forehead into Baekhyun’s nose. The headbutt causes Baekhyun to stumble back and clutch at his nose. Thankfully, his nose doesn’t seem to be broken, but Sehun takes advantage of the momentary pause and proceeds to give him another uppercut, just below the chin.

With his head snapping back, Baekhyun’s neck is exposed to Sehun, and Sehun isn’t slow to take more advantage of that fact. He grabs Baekhyun by the neck and shoves him against the wall. Baekhyun coughs, having the wind knocked out of him for the second time, but it hurts—just like his arm, nose, and face—and there’s nothing he can do but claw at Sehun’s hand.

“Bite you, huh?” Sehun teases. His breaths tickle against Baekhyun’s aching nose. “What if I you instead?”

Baekhyun can’t answer with a witty comeback since Sehun has his hand wrapped around his throat and squeezing him to a literal death. The most that Baekhyun can do is muster all of his strength into a kick that hits Sehun in the hips.

It’s finally Sehun’s turn to stumble back, and in doing so, he releases his grasp on Baekhyun. Finally catching a breath, Baekhyun doesn’t hesitate in lunging for Sehun once more, but this time, Baekhyun takes out his switchblade and disengages the lock so that its blade is ready and out to cut. The pain in Baekhyun’s wounded arm throbs harder than it did before, but with anger raging in his blood, it’s manageable, and he can still wield a knife with relative ease.

Baekhyun aims to stab Sehun right in the stomach, but before he can do so, Sehun regains his composure and grabs Baekhyun by his wrist. Through gritted teeth, Baekhyun struggles against Sehun to push the knife into his stomach anyways, but Sehun fights back just as hard, rendering Baekhyun’s attempt futile. There’s just no way he can stab Sehun with a wounded arm. Even when Baekhyun adds his left hand into the mix and tries to force the knife into Sehun, it’s clear that Sehun has more strength to him that Baekhyun thought. And without a free hand, Baekhyun is left vulnerable, and Sehun swipes at his leg with a foot. Though it’s not enough to make Baekhyun fall, he still loses his balance.

Stumbling slightly to the side, Baekhyun tries to stand upright, but Sehun grabs him by his wounded arm and pulls with a force so harsh that Baekhyun feels something POP. As if literal exclamation points are flashing in his head, Baekhyun sees red and white in his eyes as pain shoots down his arm and right into his neck. The abrupt, searing pain in his shoulder cuts into him like a hot knife into a stick of butter. Pain.

So. Much. -ing. Pain.

And it doesn’t stop there. Sehun kicks Baekhyun square in the chest, causing him to fall backwards onto Mark. The chair where Mark had been sitting on immediately breaks into pieces, and Baekhyun rolls off in more pain at having landed onto his wounded arm.

“Looks like I popped your shoulder. Sorry,” Sehun muses without much apology. “Here, let me get that for you.”

Too weak to fight back against an opponent with too much experience, Baekhyun doesn’t much to defend himself against Sehun when he pulls his arm again. For some reason, the movement does lessen the pain, and the terrible, awful feeling in Baekhyun’s shoulder fades away into something more manageable. Sehun, of course, has to punch Baekhyun cruelly on the shoulder even after resetting his dislocated joint, but the pain that comes from that is somewhat a miracle in disguise.

Baekhyun collapses and kneels over in agony, but with his forehead pressed against the floor, he finds his dropped switchblade.

“You’re good at driving,” Sehun quips over Baekhyun, “but not so much at fighting, huh?”

Grasping the hilt of the blade wi