Four Years Ago

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lay and Xiumin asked one another as they sat across from each other in a bar. The place was crowded, dark, and smoky. The smell of cigarettes was heavy in the air and the amount of smoke coming from the counter was making it practically impossible for Lay and Xiumin to see one another, even if they were a good distance away from the smokers.

            “Why not?” Xiumin asked shrugging his shoulders. “Aren’t we both going to do this together?”

            “Maybe,” Lay said shrugging his shoulders as he took a swig of his alcohol. It burned the back of his throat with the bitterness since he wasn’t entirely used to drinking yet. He had only begun it because of Xiumin, and partially as a social thing.

            “Maybe? We’ve been planning this for a while and you tell me maybe?” Xiumin asked in disbelief. “I thought we were in this together.”

            “We are,” Lay said nodding his head to make sure that Xiumin knew his dedication to the cause. “We’re in this together, but enough speaking about what we’re going to do for a night.” Lay wanted to change the subject; he didn’t want to have to keep talking about the situation that they were both in and the mission that they were both going to complete. Their lives did revolve around things other than that.

            “Okay then,” Xiumin said shrugging his shoulders. “How is your family lately?”

            “Can I even call them my family?” he bitterly asked as he looked at another drunken man falling out of his stool.

            “They’re your family whether you accept them or not, take it from someone like me.”

            “Your life is different,” Lay said thinking about Xiumin’s life compared to his.

            Lay wondered what he did to deserve such a life. Sure it may have seemed like a normal life, but somehow it wasn’t. At least it wasn’t a normal life to him. Things seemed to be completely different and Lay wondered if somehow Xiumin and he could’ve switched places and then their lives would’ve ended up differently. However, Lay also wondered if it was worth it to think about switching lives because their lives weren’t both up to par.

            “Not so much,” Xiumin muttered as he took a long drink of his alcohol. “We’re both in this boat together, that’s how we became friends.”

            “Strange pairing, us together, right?” Lay asked laughing at the absurd thought of their age difference.

            “Strange pairing indeed,” Xiumin said nodding his head.

            The two became best friends under strange circumstances, one that no one would ever find normal and somehow they liked the strangeness of it. They liked how it seemed like they both belonged in a world that said that they didn’t belong. They were defying other people and they enjoyed doing that. Of course, other people would’ve said that they perfectly belonged; it was the people that mattered the most to them that were the ones that always dragged them down.

            “Well, back to talking about work,” Xiumin said as he pushed his alcohol aside. They didn’t need alcohol to talk about this; it was already a numbing subject for the both of them.

            “I don’t want to,” Lay said objecting completely to talking about the plan, at least for one night. Lay wanted one night where he wasn’t going to talk about the plan. Just one night was all he asked for, one simple night and then he would be focused on the work that he and Xiumin had to do.

            “That’s the whole reason why we’re meeting here,” Xiumin said reiterating the reason why they decided to go to the bar in the first place. It was a very public place for the work that they were going to discuss. They both decided to go out on a limb and go to a bar where anyone could overhear them and anyone could report what they were talking about. It was a risk, but it was a risk that they were willing to take.

            “Still,” Lay said shrugging his shoulders. “I just wanted to come out and try some alcohol.”

            “Oh well,” he said as he took a deep drink of his beer.

            “I just wanted to come out and have a good time.”

            “We have to do it, though, everything is already getting prepared.”

            “I know, but still…I know,” Lay said sighing. He didn’t know what else to do, he had to do it, he wanted to do it. He and Xiumin both wanted this to happen, it had to happen, for everyone’s wellbeing.

            “You know though,” Xiumin began, “there is a possibility that we could just abort it if you really don’t want to do it.”

            “I’m doing it for you, though. I’m helping you. The stories that you told me…I have to do it.”

            “Well then, thank you,” Xiumin said nodding his head. He was thankful for Lay for wanting to help him. They were there for each other; they had a brotherly bond with one another so they were both going to be in everything together. Through thick or thin, they were brothers, what more was there?

            Without uttering a word about their plan, their whole purpose for going to the bar, Lay and Xiumin ended up going separate ways. “I’ll see you one week from now, okay?” Xiumin asked looking at Lay once more before they both separately walked down the street.

            “Okay,” Lay said nodding his head. There was no turning back, there never was. He was going to do it and that was final.

            “Now, I’ll contact you and give you all of the information that you need, otherwise, we won’t be seeing each other for a week. I’ll see you then.”

            “I’ll see you then,” he said before both men turned separate ways and went into the darkness.

It didn’t take long for the week to pass. Xiumin was able to contact Lay and give him all of the information that he needed in order to understand what was going to happen the night that their mission was going to be fulfilled. There were no others, only them two completing the mission. There was no one else involved, there couldn’t have been. Xiumin didn’t want to risk anyone else knowing about anything. He only trusted Lay for reasons he didn’t understand. The rest of his family couldn’t be trusted.

            “Ready?” Xiumin asked Lay as they were both sneaking outside of the house.

            “I’m positive, are you sure it’s okay?” Lay hesitantly asked. He wasn’t starting to have second thoughts, but more like uncertainties about whether or not he would be able to successfully do what he had to do, what he and Xiumin had to do.

            “I’m positive, there’s no one home besides her,” Xiumin said. “I made sure of that.”

            “How?”

            “I have my ways.”

            Lay didn’t doubt Xiumin. There was no way he’d be able to. Xiumin was able to do things that Lay would never dream of doing and how he was able to do them was still a complete mystery.

            Xiumin and Lay waited for a couple of minutes before starting to move in the darkness. It was already midnight and Xiumin was sure that the people inside were sleeping. The only person inside was the person that they needed. All others were out of the house safely without knowing what was even going to happen.

            Adrenaline raced through Lay’s body. He was new to this whole thing, as it was his first time to do something of the sort. As for Xiumin, he was used to doing things like that. He had to survive somehow and that was his way of surviving, by living like that. Lay wasn’t entirely sure he would ever do this type of thing again. He was already shaking from the nervousness.

            “Don’t be nervous,” Xiumin whispered. He remembered the first time he had done something like that. He remembered how nervous he was and how badly his knees shook and his heart was racing, but he lived through it. He lived through it and he had to deal with it if he wanted to live a good life for the few people that he actually cared about.

            “Got it,” Lay whispered nodding his head as he attempted to shake all of the nerves out of him.

            It didn’t take long for Xiumin to enter the house; after all, he had a key. It wasn’t going to be that hard for them to do what they needed; at least it wasn’t supposed to be that hard.

            The door opened with ease and Xiumin and Lay snuck inside of the house, slowly closing the door behind them to make it look like nothing happened or that nothing was going to happen. Xiumin already knew the layout of the house with ease. He already knew where everything was placed and specifically knew where all of the doors and possible escape routes were. It was in his blood so it wasn’t that hard for him not to know where everything was.

            Slowly sneaking up the stairs, Xiumin was the one to open the bedroom door. He was the one to beckon Lay inside of the room to stand next to him to watch the woman sleeping on the bed.

            “She…she looks peaceful,” Lay said as he looked at her.

            “She may look peaceful now, but when she’s awake, everything breaks loose,” Xiumin said scowling at the sleeping woman who knew nothing of what was going on.

            “Are you sure we need to do this?” Lay asked with uncertainty in his voice. Even though it was dark, he could still see the woman because of the shining moonlight. The bed just so happened to be placed near a window, not to mention that it was a full moon out.

            “We have to, do you want to live like this forever?” Xiumin asked him. “Now, on the count of three, we do as we planned, alright?”

            “Alright,” Lay said taking a deep breath and swallowing hard. He knew that there wasn’t a way out. That was it, it was right there, right in front of him. It was going to happen, no matter what, right there in front of his eyes and he was going to have a part of it.

            “One,” Xiumin said beginning the count as Lay handed Xiumin the cloth. “Two…three.”

            It happened before anyone knew of anything. It happened before Xiumin and Lay realized it. One moment they were going to do it and the next they were both lying on the ground. Lay was on the ground because of shock, but the same couldn’t have been said for Xiumin.

            “Hey, hey,” Lay said hurriedly making his way over to Xiumin’s body as he began to shake him. Lay didn’t know what was happening, but he knew that it wasn’t supposed to be a part of their plan. As he continued shaking him, Lay noticed the warm liquid seeping out through his fingers and heavy breathing.

            “He’s not going to wake up,” a woman’s voice said causing Lay to abruptly turn around and stare at the woman that was just lying in bed a moment ago.

            “You aren’t so sure,” Lay said. It took all of the courage that he had to be able to say those words to her. He was scared out of his wits already.

            “If you knew what was good for you, I’ll never see you or him around here ever again…sons,” she said as she looked at Lay and Xiumin’s body that was losing a lot of blood every second. “And don’t come looking for me,” she continued as she began making her way out after grabbing a coat. “You’ll never be able to find my family again. You’re not a part of it so I don’t know why you think you are.”

            With that, the woman left leaving Lay there with Xiumin’s bleeding body. “Stay with me, stay with me,” Lay muttered as he attempted to grab his phone and dial for the ambulance. “You have to stay with me, I can’t lose you…you’re my brother.”

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Who are Xiumin and Lay? What were they trying to do? What happened to the both of them? Who was the woman? Are they really related to one another?

Here is Chapter 16. Hope you enjoyed :D

And I know I finally updated after such a very long time, but thanks for being patient as I adjusted to my new college lifestyle :)

And I know that Lay and Xiumin's ages aren't right, but for this story's sake, Xiumin is older than Lay by like...a while? I haven't thought of the actual ages for them, but Xiumin is older than Lay by quite a number of years.