Let me go
I don't wanna be your hero
I don't wanna be a big man
I just wanna fight with everyone else

You're a masquerade
I don't wanna be a part of your parade
Everyone deserves a chance to
Walk with everyone else

- Family of the Year

RECAP

A woman sat in court with her prosecutor outfit billowing with the way she moved around the courtroom. She spoke with such authority, everyone cowered under her gaze.

“Guilty,” she hissed under her breath when she stopped in front of the person in an orange jail outfit, the man waiting for his sentence. “Definitely guilty.”

Her phone suddenly rang and she reached down to answer it, people beginning to file into the courtroom for the trial.

“Mhmm... Mhm.” Her expression didn’t change. “Kidnapped? Again? How much?”

A pause.

“Jisung, too? Does his sister know?”

Another hum and she rolled her eyes, hanging up the phone to then call another person.

“Qian Kun. Where is my brother?” she demanded, Qian Kun’s voice visibly shaken by the sudden question.

“U-Uh… He’s here?”

“Really!” she barked, Qian Kun gulping when a voice echoed from the background.

“Jiejie! It’s me, Chenle!”

“Hendery, how dare you impersonate my brother?” she asked, rolling her eyes. “You had one job, Qian Kun. He’s kidnapped!”

“Kidnapped?! Again?” Kun asked, dropping the act and she ran a hand through her hair. “Does this mean you’re coming back?”

“Of course,” she snapped Kun groaning. “I want all the WayV boys there when I arrive. I’ve missed them.”

The phone call was short-lived, the woman finally texting Park Jisung’s sister just for her to stop at the message she got.

New York: I got a call too. Jaehyun and I are heading to the police station.

The woman texted back a simple ‘Who is the police caption of the area precinct?’

New York: Johnny Suh.

The woman stopped when she saw the name.

Johnny Suh.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The day after

Korea.

I visited Korea once in a while but the fact that I was there had nothing to do with a vacation and that pissed me off.

I heaved a sigh, staring into space as I waited for my luggage to arrive. I would have taken a private plane back to Korea, but I knew very well that the news would arrive to my older brother. I was back on Korean grounds, the place I spent my childhood at with Chenle, my younger brother.

Being the middle child and having an older brother eleven years older than me, I was surrounded only by a few people who I considered as family. We grew up away from the chaos of Shanghai, family heirlooms, and fights over the family will.

Chinese families were naturally big in size and the amount of fakeness in family functions was enough for me to distance myself away from my family members. It wasn’t my job, anyway. It was all my older brother’s responsibility and even he had to get married for the sake of our family business.

But Korea was Korea and it held a special place in my heart even though I left after I graduated from Vision High and continued my studies in a university in Shanghai. All I ever wanted to do was to become a lawyer and I ended being something more—a prosecutor.

But now I was back to hound my brother back from kidnappers and it made my eyes roll. Chenle had been kidnapped a couple of times… Okay, more than a couple of times. He had stopped going to Shanghai because of that and I reckoned that he was safer in Korea but I probably guessed wrong.

When my luggage arrived, I grabbed it, walking out to the exit just to see a man standing there. He had a long cloak and he didn’t look very happy to see me.

Qian Kun.

Growing up with Qian Kun had humbled me, a very special friendship I could never find with anyone else. He didn’t say anything when I reached him, the male reaching for my luggage silently when I spoke.

“Are you not going to greet me?”

“I’m afraid if I do, you’ll end up saying something I don’t want to hear.”

I studied my friend, my eyes running over his dark shadows and I reached out to tilt his head up with my finger.

“Wow, Qian Kun. The hostility is here yet so subtle. And what’s with your face? Haven’t been sleeping?” I asked, Qian Kun turning away before he slapped my hand. I made a face, Qian Kun dragging my luggage after him. I followed him, both of us walking towards the parking lot.

“Insomnia etches itself into a persons’ features, Shanghai. Don’t have to rub it in.”

“Yes, you do look like ,” I agreed, Qian Kun giving me a stink eye. Once we arrived at the car, Qian Kun unlocked it and placed my luggage at the back when I slid into the front seat.

Kun then entered the car and off we went towards WayV street. I shifted on the seat, trying to feel comfortable when my eyes went down to the box by the car gears. I grabbed the box, opening it when I scoffed.

“A doctor smoking?” I raised an eyebrow, Kun grabbing the box and putting it back down where I found it.

“Please. It’s like a prosecutor committing a crime and we both know you do.”

“You guys broke up, didn’t you?” I asked, referring to Qian Kun’s long-term girlfriend. Kun and I never really talked about our own personal romance. But then again, I’ve never been in a proper relationship. Kun, on the other hand, had always had a strong grip when it came to relationships.

I had no idea how he was in one for so long.

“It’s nothing,” Qian Kun murmured but I could tell that he was bothered by my question, the male reaching out to put on the radio. “It happens.”

“You were probably a ty boyfriend,” I said to him, Kun remaining silent when the sound of the radio filled the car.

“It’s the midnight radio. Here is a popular song from a rising star, Lee Taeyong! The songs’ name is called “Daisy in a field of roses” ….”

And just like that, the song continued to play and I leaned back, looking out the window at the familiar scenery.

“Lee Taeyong.” His name was familiar and I frowned, trying to remember where I heard his name from. “Isn’t that your friend?”

“Yeah. He started off as a sound engineer then became a producer and now, he’s considered a celebrity. A friend from SM University—”

Boring.

“How is your sister?” I asked, wondering how Kun’s younger sister was.

“Jade? She’s fine. Getting married soon, like all women her age. You need to think of marriage before your family marries you off like your older brother.”

I ignored his comment. “You put on weight, by the way.”

“Like I said, Shanghai. Do not rub it in.”

I rolled my eyes at his tone, turning around slowly before I reached for the box of cigarettes. Before Kun could stop me, I rolled down the window and threw the cigarettes out of the window.

“Hey!”

“Eyes on the road, Kun.”

“Shanghai! It was a box full—”

“Eyes on the road.”

“You get on my nerves,” Kun told me and I chuckled.

“I’ve missed you too, Kun. Must I remind you that you had one job and you ed it up?”

“I won’t even bother arguing with you.”

“I’d like to see you try.” my words making Kun sigh, the male sneaking a look at me before asking me why I was putting on my sunglasses when the sun was down. “Going to nap. Wake me up when we’re there.”

“How are you sleepy? Did you not sleep on the plane?”

“Your driving is making me dizzy.”

“How—”

“Drive straight, Kun.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When we reached WayV street, I couldn’t hold a smile back. This was home, I thought to myself. We passed the Leechaiyakul’s household and I took in the spirit house that made the residence stand out among the replica of houses. We passed my own house, the house where I had harbored Lucas and Hendery for so long until we reached Kun’s house where everyone was waiting for us.

The first person I saw was Hendery, the male standing in front. I got down from the car, pushing my sunglasses up towards the top of my head to hold my hair back. I eyed Hendery, the male bowing down in front of me as if he knew what he did wrong.

“Hendery,” When I said his name, Hendery froze. “Standing in front does not make you special and…”

He straightened himself up and I glared at him, bringing my hand up to flick his forehead. Hendery yelped, reaching up to rub the center of his forehead.

“How dare you impersonate my brother?”

Hendery pouted and I moved onto Lucas.

The man stood before me and I smiled at how normal he looked as compared to when he was at high school. He was always getting into fights… with Johnny Suh and I hated it. I have seen him change the past few years every time I visited and it made me proud of him.

“Wong Yukhei.” I smiled, reaching over to hug him and Lucas patting my back softly. I had a soft spot for him and it would never go away. “I heard about your new job working in sales for the Oh company. Oh Sehun treating you well?”

“Yes, Jie.”

How I missed them calling me by their sister. It was comforting how certain things never changed.

Lucas wasn’t a talker and I knew very little of his current life and I could tell that he preferred to keep the details of his life private. It irked me but I had very little say in it so I usually let it go.

“At least you’re not getting into gang fights like you did back when you were in high school.”

Lucas didn’t say anything, giving me a small nod and I had to push the thought to the back of my head how he still reminded me very much of Johnny. They were always so similar.

“Yangyang.” I smiled at the youngest, the male perking up. “I listen to your podcast every Wednesday… religiously. It is rather concerning how you know all that information. You sure you aren’t a sasaeng?”

“Jiejie,” he quipped, frowning. “I came all the way from the center of Seoul to see you and this is what you say to me?”

I ignored him, moving onto the Thai boy.

“Ah, Chittaphon Ten.” I glanced at the person in front of me who gave me a bright smile. “You’re still wearing those bracelets, I see.”

“It’s my culture, Jiejie. Good to see you.”

“I wish I could say the same considering the situation at the moment,” I told him, moving to the last two who made me beam. “And last but not least, my two favorites. Sicheng and Xiaojun.”

“Years after and you still play favorites,” Kun grunted, dragging my luggage. “Well, what are you guys waiting for? Go in and get your Jiejie some water.”

And just like that, they scrambled into the living room when I followed them.

Kun already had guests and I could see New York in the living room, her face in her hands. Her husband was there and I tilted my head at him, narrowing my eyes at the male.

So, this was the guy she was crying over when we were in New York together.

I grew up in WayV street and continued my university in Shanghai, but on the second term of my sophomore year, I got an exchange program in New York.

The same university, different faculties, and I met New York in New York once again. She was always one of those women you hated when you first met her but then I realized that I was also one of those women. We were both competitive and it was a blessing we were never pitted against each other because she was in business while I was in law.

And that was why we got along.

I wasn’t surprised when Kun told me that people started calling her New York—In the end, people ended up calling me Shanghai too, and I preferred it that way.

When New York saw me, the woman stood up and I could see that her usual strong demeanor was gone and she had been crying.

“Shanghai.”

“New York,” I greeted her, taking her into my arms and rubbing her back. I knew how much she loved Jisung and I hated to sugarcoat things so when I pulled away, my only thought was that I hoped her husband knew how to comfort her after what I would say. “You must be the ex.”

“I think you mean, the husband,” Jung Jaehyun corrected me and I knew from his eyes that he had heard of me—maybe from Johnny Suh.

But it was a few years back and that wasn’t relevant now, was it?

“Ah…” I mused, giving him a tight-lipped smile. “I kind of had my money on Richard.”

The mention of New York’s old fling made Jaehyun raise an eyebrow, the male turning to his wife.

“Who is Richard?” he demanded an answer and before New York could answer, I chuckled.

“Yeah. Definitely prefer Richard.” Before the conversation would go elsewhere, I clapped my hands, the people in the room jumping. “Alright, let’s get to business. My brother is gone and if we don’t get him, Jisung may end up dead and Chenle will still be fine—”

“Shanghai.” Kun’s voice came out as a warning and I saw New York’s bottom lip quiver.

“But it’s true.” I hated that it was true but there was nothing I could do about it. “I know they asked for ransom for Jisung, New York, but the amount they asked from you guys does not amount to the amount they asked from us. This means only one thing—they wanted Chenle but Jisung was also there.”

“This means that Chenle was their target all along,” Kun said from the side and I nodded.

“I don’t blame them. An article came out two summers ago when Chenle got kidnapped. We actually paid the kidnapper and he got away with it. They must have concocted a plan from that. Happened once, can happen again… am I right?”

“What are we going to do?” New York whispered, biting down onto her finger. This has never happened to her before but I was so desensitized to it, all I wanted to do was get my brother back and go back to Shanghai.

It was a Saturday and I had a trial to handle on Monday.

“I tried to reach Johnny. He’s the police caption in the precinct of the area where Chenle was taken but he told me to wait. That he can’t do anything without an order from his directors. That it’s protocol,” New York said and my stomach burned at the mention of Johnny Suh.

I tried to hide the irritation on my face, thinking that maybe it was time to visit him.

“We can go to the police station, honey,” Jaehyun said, New York’s knees buckling and I watched as he steadied her. Poor girl. Just a few months ago, Jisung was on the news because he was held in a hostage situation on the rooftop of the MBC building, and now this?

Jisung just attracted trouble, didn’t he?

“I still think we need help from the police. I’m not worried about Chenle. Like all the other times, his big fat head is pretty much safe,” I told them, Jaehyun chewing on his bottom lip before nodding. He was worried about his wife and I knew that it would take some time for her to compose herself until she would let herself go and lose it so I decided to take matters into my own hands. “How about I give it a head start? You can follow up if he still refuses. Maybe under pressure, he’ll break.”

Yeah, Johnny Suh was never a solid man in my eyes.

New York looked at me hopefully and I could almost hear her thoughts.

“If there is one person who can get to Johnny, it might as well be you,” she said softly and I hated how it sounded because it wasn’t true. If it was true, he would have listened to me when I told him to, years ago.

Kun placed a hand on my shoulder and I controlled my thoughts, Kun telling me that if we wanted to catch him, we had to reach the precinct before his shift ended.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Qian Kun snuck a look at me as he drove the car forward, his eyebrows furrowing when he spoke.

“You okay seeing Johnny Suh again after all this time?”

I scoffed, looking away. My eyes ran over the empty roads as we headed towards the police station.

“Please. It’s not like we dated.”

“Shanghai, you know what hurts more than a breakup sometimes?”

“What?”

“Losing a friend.”

“People come and go, Kun,” I replied, refusing to look at him. “That’s the way of life. No point of holding on to a past that does not exist in the present now, does it?”

“There you go with the negativity,” he remarked and I frowned at him.

“I’m not a negative person, if I’m negative, what does that make New York?”

In my head, New York and I weren’t very different when it came to our personalities. We both did what we could do to survive, we were very diligent, and we always knew how to put our people first. I knew how she was and here Kun was telling me I was negative? I wasn’t negative—I was a realist.

“New York is a skeptic,” Kun told me, focusing on the road. “She doesn’t trust people easily but when proven wrong, she’s flexible enough to change her thinking. You are a plain , Shanghai. A negative .”

“Wow, thanks for not sugar-coating your opinion of me.”

“I learned from the best,” Kun told me, shrugging. “And as much as I respect the way you are, you are one hard person to get along with. Do you feed off fear? Do you enjoy telling people they are wrong and watching them suffer?”

“Do I look like I enjoy watching people suffer?”

“I actually have a theory that you’re a sadist but that’s another conversation for another day.”

I scoffed once more, shaking my head at him. I ran my fingers through my hair with frustration.

“I am not a sadist, Kun. I just hold grudges and I don’t like being wrong. If I’m wrong then that means there is someone else who is right and why would I want to be wrong when I can be right?” I asked, Kun raising a hand into the air to tell me to stop talking. “What?”

“You can’t always be right, Shanghai,” he told me and I blinked. I hated it. I hated that I knew that it was true but I couldn’t say anything to counter that. “And there will be moments when you are wrong.”

“Whatever,” I grumbled, the police station nearing and Kun telling me to get down. “What? Here? Aren’t you coming with me?”

“What’s with the panic? I have to park,” he told me, unlocking the door from his side. “Why? You worried about facing Johnny alone?”

“Why would I?” I said back a little bit too quickly. I did feel nervous, but I knew that seeing Johnny again was going to piss me off enough to forget the nervousness so I wasn’t very worried. “Park straight, Kun.”

Kun shooed me out of the car and I stepped down, heading towards the police station. There were so many people sitting by their desks and walked down the hall to head to the main area where all the detectives and policemen and women sat. I was still thinking of ways to talk to Johnny, telling myself that I didn’t have to be civil.

That he was a stranger to me when I bumped into a woman, the female letting out a soft gasp. When I looked up, I recognized her as Lucas’ girlfriend and I smiled. I liked her. She grounded Lucas and she was best friends with Hendery’s girlfriend—both of them humbled those two boys and I appreciated them for it.

“Jiejie,” she greeted me when I reached up to pat her head. Pretty little thing, I thought to myself as I smiled at her adoringly. “I knew you were back… What are you doing here? Oh, right.”

Right, she must have heard from Lucas.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon,” I told her, grabbing her hand to squeeze it. “How are you, Midnight? How is Lucas doing? I know that boy lies to me.”

My statement made her tinge pink, Midnight telling me that he has been doing well. She kept him out of trouble but Lucas was still Lucas and he had a knack for getting involved in things I didn’t want him to get involved with.

“And Gucci and Hendery?” I asked, Midnight telling me that those two were still going strong. That Hendery is still very much in love with her and that made me nod. I have made peace that I would never find something like this because as Kun always said, ‘I was a hard person to get along with.’.

But that was good, right? Because then there wouldn’t be any disappointment.

“I have to go to work, Jiejie,” she told me. “If you do run into Gucci, do give her a hug.”

I found myself waving and I thinking to myself how funny it was that Lucas and Hendery always got into trouble and their girlfriends were working for law enforcement. Midnight worked as a crime scene investigator and Gucci was a data analyst for the police.

Smart girls. I liked smart girls.

I reminded myself that I had to find Johnny Suh and I walked to where he would be. He was a police captain now. Even if I never talked to him since our falling out, I had heard it from the grapevine and I didn’t expect him to even become a police officer. In my mind, I always thought that even if I told him that he wouldn’t amount to anything, he would achieve his dreams.

And being a police officer wasn’t it.

I spotted him from afar, Johnny sitting in front of the computer. He looked exactly the same, except more mature. I couldn’t help but pause, watching his bottom lip jut out, his eyebrows furrowing as he stared at the screen. He looked stressed and I remembered a memory of both of us when we were still friends.

“I’m here. In front of the library of SM University,” he told me and I nodded, skipping towards the entrance of SM University. “Are you sure we can stay in this library? We’re high school students, you know.”

“Johnny, it’s a place to study. Of course, we can,” I spoke on the phone when I spotted him. He was wearing a casual T-Shirt and he chuckled.

I wondered how long it has been since I have seen him smile.

I walked towards him, Johnny giving me a one-armed hug as a greeting when we entered the library. We were both in our junior year and we both sat down. I placed all the books we needed to study for the university entrance exam when Johnny spoke.

“You know, they put me in Personality Development this semester,” he said and I frowned. “It’s a class, for students who are known to be troubled or some sort.”

I didn’t want to mention it, but Johnny had changed a few weeks ago. He would disappear and he would come back, battered up. Nothing serious. He told me that it was rugby but I was pretty sure he was part of the E-Sports club in EXO High and not in rugby. I didn’t think of it much and I knew that he would tell me when the time had come—I remember thinking that it wasn’t like he was up into shady business.

“Why?” my voice rang through the library. I eyed him suspiciously, Johnny giving me a meek smile. “Johnny, you’re not troubled! I heard about that class, they keep saying that those in EXO High who go to that class is because there are weird rumors about them and I haven’t heard rumors about you yet.”

“You’re rambling,” Johnny observed and I stood up, crossing my arms across my chest, glaring at him. “Woah, no need to take it personally.”

“Johnny! You’re not troubled!” I repeated a little bit too hotly. “We’re going to be lawyers, Johnny! Lawyers! We’ll get into university together and we’ll study our way up! You remember our promise—”

“Yes. I do. Sit down,” Johnny told me, pulling me to sit down beside him. “We can’t be lawyers if you’re screaming at me instead of studying.”

He glanced at my face, reaching out to pinch my cheek before patting my head.

“Smile. Irritation doesn’t look good on you.”

I smiled, Johnny smiling back and asking me where we should start.

And a few weeks after, that was when the rumors started.

Except they weren’t rumors, they were true.

“Ma’am…” A voice said and I snapped back into reality, focusing my eyes in front of me, blinking just to see a random intern asking me if I needed anything. I cleared my throat, looking over to see that Johnny was still there, typing away and I told the intern that I found what I needed.

I walked to Johnny, sliding in between desks before I stood beside him, waiting for him to notice my presence. Johnny’s long fingers slowed down and I watched as