Chapter 32: REWIND 3 <<< [--:--am]

“Byunghee,” a voice called out and Byunghee his heel, a surprised look gracing his expression as his eyes grazed Changsun’s disheveled appearance. Hair tousled in the wind, clothes askew, a wild sheen to his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Byunghee asked automatically and then immediately regretted it. The air swirled with a kind of gravity that made Byunghee’s stomach backflip.

“Don’t go,” was all Changsun said, in a strangely grave tone.

“What are you talking about?” Byunghee chuckled nervously. He knew exactly what Chansgun was talking about.

“Don’t do the job. It’s a trap.”

Byunghee’s eyes hardened. “I told you Changsun, I need this.”

“And I’m telling you that you don’t.”

“Changsun!”

“Listen to me Byunghee! This is a trap! I don’t know what you’re transporting or why for bones sake you need this job so much but you have to listen to me! I went to the BlackBeard’s hideout and listened in! This job! They’re going to-“

“You did what?!” Byunghee slammed a fist against the wall.

Changsun flinched. “I…”

“You went to the BlackBeard’s hideout?! Don’t you know how dangerous that is! They have a zero tolerance policy for sneaks!”

“I know!” Changsun retorted heatedly. “I know, but it was for you!”

“Was what for me? There’s nothing that you need to do for me other than give me your support. I need this job! I need to become one of the BlackBeards so that I can-“

Changsun cut him off. “So that you can what?” he asked, eyes flashing white gold.

Byunghee faltered. “So that I can…”

“Why Byunghee? Why are you so desperate for this job? You have brains and good looks. You could make it with any other job that is just as well paying and far less risky. What are the BlackBeards offering you that another path can’t?”

Byunghee averted his eyes.

Changsun huffed and took three steps forwards, closing the distance between the two. With one firm hand he grasped Byunghee’s chin and forced it upwards so that their eyes met. He could see the hesitation and fear swirling in Byunghee’s dark eyes.

“Byunghee,” Changsun said softly. “Tell me.”

Byunghee’s mouth parted and for a second Changsun thought he would say something, but then in one rough movement Byunghee wrenched himself away from Changsun.

“Enough!” he said. “Enough. Just stay out of this Changsun. If you won’t give me your support then do me a different favor and stay away from me. I don’t need to deal with you on top of everything else.”

Changsun let his hand drop, his injured feelings spiking throughout his system. He had no words that would pierce past his brother’s painful pride. All he could do now was watch him walk away.

***

“And that’s all?” the man asked as he examined his fingernails. They were rough-edged and chipped, signs of a lifetime of hard labor.

“Yes boss,” the heavily pierced man nodded. “I’ve told you everything. A sneak who might’ve overheard the plans for Jung Byunghee. I tried to catch him but he was as slippery as ice.”

“Tell me Kwan,” he said in an ice-cold voice. “Why was it possible that this sneak managed to overhear the plans?”

Kwan swallowed hard. “Because boss, I was telling them to Yoo Joon.”

“And tell me Kwan,” the boss asked again, leaning forwards ever so slightly and transferring his gaze from his fingernails to Kwan’s face. “Why were you telling them to Yoo Joon?”

“Because boss,” Kwan stumbled over his words. “Yoo Joon asked me. And I didn’t’ want him going round asking everyone else, so I told him to shut him up.”

The boss stared at Kwan for a few long and hard seconds. “Is that so,” was all he finally said.

“Yes boss,” Kwan lowered his head. “I didn’t mean any harm…I just…”

“You just wanted to shut that annoying rat-faced person up didn’t you? I understand.” Kwan looked up in surprise as the boss leaned back against his chair.

“B-boss?”

“What’s done is done,” he said in a blunt tone that made Kwan flinch. “There’s no going back. We can only go forwards.” Kwan watched as the boss the ring he wore around his neck on a leather strap. The ring the previous boss used to wear on her right index finger. It had been a present from their father.

“I’ll fix it boss,” Kwan promised.

The boss looked up, a slight surprised look on his face as if he had realized he was speaking to another person of flesh and blood and not a mirror. “I know you will,” he said softly, his expression changing drastically. “Fix it Kwan. Nothing can go wrong. Make sure that by tonight Jung Byunghee dies and the Christmas virus is shipped off on time. Understood?”

Kwan nodded. “Understood boss.”

“Good,” he smiled briefly. “Then go.”

Kwan gave one more quick bow before exiting. He had much to do before midnight.

In the room, Eunhyuk propped his booted feet onto the cargo box that served as his table. He lifted the silver ring to the light and watched it gleam dully. Time and oil and grease had mired its once beautiful sheen, but it was all he had to remember of Eunji.

He remembered finding her that night, the skyline lit not only by the dim lights of the mid-levels, but also by the raging fires and the smoke that billowed high. The world had been red and black and red and black and Eunhyuk had been out, drinking with some buddies from the group when the first lighting had struck.

He had barely escaped and headed straight back to the warehouse where he knew Eunji was working, up late to plan for the next shipment that was important and could mean raising the group’s status immensely.

She was going to be okay, she was going to be okay, she was going to be okay. Eunhyuk chanted those seven words again and again as he pounded across the sprawl of the city and onto the docks. The sounds of screams and gunfire had blurred to background noise and then silence when he skidded to a stop in front of the warehouse that was nothing but ruins of smoke and dust and red and black.

She was going to be okay.

Eunhyuk found her half-buried underneath cargo, maps and scrawled bits of paper fluttering everywhere. Her eyes were closed as if she was sleeping but when he stepped further into the remains of the room, he realized that that was all that was left of her. Her head, her chest and her right arm. The rest has been blown to dust and burned with the wind.

He had sunk to his knees at the horrific realization that she wasn’t going to be okay and the blackened body in front of him was his sister, his last piece of familial attachment in this world and she was dead, dead, dead.

He’d sunk to the ground, hands clawing for some sort of purchase as the world around him slipped. A scream wrenched itself out and as Eunhyuk had reached for the remains of his sister, all he could see left of her among the red and the black was the silver gleam of her ring. And nothing more.

***

A box was flung across the floor as one booted foot connected with the wooden planks. Byunghee let out a snarl of frustration, then sunk into a crouch, his face scrunched into his hands. Everything was falling apart – not like anything had been solid before – but it was only now that Byunghee was realizing just how much Changsun’s support had meant to him.

Brothers. Not even by blood, but somehow stronger than that in a world torn apart by senseless death and meaningless revenge.

Byunghee needed this job. He needed to become one of the BlackBeards because then and only then would he have the platform he needed to orchestrate what his mother desired. Revenge. Upon the government and their twisted methods of control.

This whole world was a ratrun and Byunghee and Changsun and everyone else was trapped inside it. They could run and run and take every left turn or even break down the walls, but they would never be able to escape. Such was the fate of this advanced world.

Byunghee felt hot tears burst like stars behind his lids and he buried his face further into his palms to try and banish them. The expectations weighed down on his shoulders like an anvil and for a moment Byunghee felt like giving in and toppling over to the burden. But what would that achieve? Nothing but leaving his mother a widow with no children at all.

His mother would not survive that.

Fingernails dug into flesh in an attempt to override emotion with pain and for a brief moment it was enough to clear Byunghee’s head.

He straightened, small crescents imprinted into both palms and took in a deep breath.

“One step a time,” he said softly. One step at a time. Finish the job, become one of the pirates and then unleash terror onto the government in order to fulfil the promise his mother had sworn him to.

***

Wood clattered to the dock’s concrete floor.

“Bingo,” Changsun huffed, wiping his brow as he looked down on his discovery. Oblong packages lined the box in white military fashion, all efficiency and meticulousness evident in the way they were tucked tightly against each other to maximize the number that could be squeezed in.

Simultaneously Changsun had no idea what it was and every idea of what it might be.

A virus. But what sort?

“Oh Byunghee,” he whispered fiercely. “You don’t know just how much trouble you’re getting into…” He then replaced the lid gently, treating the cargo like a live wire and got to work. 

***

They stood on the pier of the docks, the night sky spread around them like a dark stage. No stars graced the canvas; instead the muted light of the mid-levels outer harbor lit up the skyline with murky yellow and grey colors. 

“What are you doing Changsun?” Byunghee stared him down. 

“What do you think I’m doing Byunghee?” Changsun parroted him with a mocking smirk. “I’m stopping you, that’s what.”

“You can’t stop me,” Byunghee said in something bordering on a growl.

“I can. Because this is important. You need to stop this. You have no idea how much of a fool you’re being played Byunghee!” Changsun said. “They’re using you. For more reasons that make sense, but they’re using you and that’s all that matters.”

“So what!” Byunghee snapped. “I know they’re using me!”

“What?!” Changsun took a step back, staggered. “You knew?”

“Of course I knew. What are the three things the BlackBeards are famous for? One: they accept anyone, you just have to pass their initiation test; two, they are as close to family as anything. You hurt one of their fold and they will pay out back retribution tenfold. And three: they are ruthless in whatever they do.” Byunghee recited, ticking off the three things with three fingers. “What sane pirate group allows an initiate to take care of cargo singlehandedly?”

Changsun stared at him. “So why?” was all he could say. “You knew they were going to use you, so why join them?”

“Because,” Byunghee’s said with eyes the color of flint. “I’m using them as well.”

“How?” Changsun demanded, because all he could see was them using Byunghee and naïve Byunghee not seeing anything at all.

“They’re ruthless. And that’s exactly what I need in order to achieve my goal.”

“And what is your goal Byunghee?” Changsun asked. “What’s making you go all these lengths? Do such extreme things the brother I thought I once knew would never do. Why?”

Byunghee swallowed. He remembered the swaying body and the black hair parted to reveal gleaming bone. He remembered the notice in the mail and his mother’s hollow scream echoing. And most of all he remembered her words: ‘Promise me you’ll get revenge for them’. 

“Why?” Changsun was asking again, eyes of steel staring him down.

Byunghee thought this was the moment he was going to say it. To spill out all those frustrating secrets and burdens and expectations that had been piling up and up like a hoarder’s den. He knew Changsun would understand. But he also knew that Changsun would still stop him.

So he told him another secret. Two words that they both knew so well and at the same time nothing at all about.

“Code: Red,” Byunghee said and Changsun’s heart stuttered.