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CHAPTERTWELEVE

❝IT'SNOTOVERYET❞

"So...?" Hoya drawled out, looking over at his partner. Both he and Dongwoo were hiding behind a parked car not too far from Sunggyu, Woohyun, and Tao.

Oh, and Chen, who was on the ground dead, as well.

“So what?” Dongwoo gave Hoya a confused look.

“Shouldn’t we help them?” He tilted his head towards their comrades. “That guy just killed his own partner.”

“I think Sunggyu and Woohyun can handle Tao,” Dongwoo smiled. He had confidence in his leader and new friend.

“Okay, maybe Sunggyu could stand a chance, but I highly doubt Woohyun would last even a second against that man! I mean, look at the guy,” he pointed to Woohyun. “It looks like he’s about to have a mental breakdown.”

Dongwoo had to agree with Hoya. Woohyun looked like he was on verge of tears. The shock of everything that has happened to him so far today had probably begun to sink in.

“Can you blame him, though?” Dongwoo glanced back at his friend. “The guy is from a different time, a time where there is no war, where people aren’t murdered left and right. He comes from a peaceful time. He’s not used to seeing so much chaos and destruction.”

“You honestly believe he’s from the past?”

“I do,” Dongwoo answered simply. “Don’t you?”

“Honestly, I don’t what to believe these days. Anything’s possible, I guess.”

They both grew quiet as they watched Sunggyu and Tao ready their weapons. They watched as Woohyun slowly backed away from the scene, not wanting to get caught up in the crossfire.

“So,” Dongwoo spoke, tearing his eyes away from the scene and looking back at Hoya. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to help them, right?”

“I guess,” Hoya looked back at Dongwoo.

“You can go first, though.”

“Because I’m such a kind gentleman, I’ll let you go first.”

“No, that’s okay. I’m sure you’re dying to be one of the first to throw a punch.”

“That may be so, but you’re my elder, and elders should go first,” Hoya smiled, his eye twitching a bit.

“How about we go help at the same time?”

“Fine. On the count of three then.”

“One,” Dongwoo started.

“Two,” Hoya continued.

“Three!” They both yelled.

Neither of them actually made a move, though.

“Maybe we should let–”

“–Sunggyu handle this?”

They both nodded at each other and turned their attention back to the others, neither making an effort to help.

“I wonder who will come out on top,” Tao mused, pressing a few buttons on his weapon that was perched up on his shoulder. The grenade launcher rumbled as it began to come to life. A bright light collected around the muzzle of the launcher.

“It won’t be you, that’s for sure,” Sunggyu responded. The resistance leader looked to Woohyun and quickly jutted his head to the side.

Woohyun nodded. Sunggyu wanted him out of harm’s way. Even though the fight was between the two of them, if Tao got his hands on Woohyun, he would probably use him against Sunggyu. The brunet ran down the street and hid behind a lamppost–which, in all reality, did not do a good job in hiding him.

Sunggyu looked back at Tao, trying to determine his next moves. He needed to end this as soon as possible. He couldn’t afford to lose to the mercenary. So much was at stake. Not just this mission, which he was willing to abort, or his life and the lives of his comrades (and no, Woohyun did not fall under that category. Sunggyu saw him as more of a who claims he came from the past), but if he lost to Tao today, it would be the end of INFINITE and the end of whatever chance South Hallow had at a better future.

Sunggyu had to win.

The caramel haired cocked the barrel of his pistol. He kept his finger on the trigger, waiting for Tao to make the first move.

“We’ll see about that, Sunggyu!” Tao snapped.

Using the hand that was not holding the grenade launcher, the mercenary swiftly reached for the holster around his waist and pulled out a short barrel pistol. He aimed at Sunggyu and pulled the trigger.

Sunggyu quickly dived to the ground and rolled, evading the bullets as they whizzed through the air in his direction. He got back to his feet and ran towards Tao, gripping his pistol and fired a rapid-fire blast of bullets at the mercenary.

Tao darted away, ducking behind one of the various building debris that littered the streets, avoiding the constant stream of bullets. He checked his grenade launcher to see its process of recharging. After chasing and shooting at Dongwoo and Hoya earlier, he had, unfortunately, ran out of rockets by the time he was approached by Chen. Luckily, for him, his grenade launcher produced grenades/rockets on its own (using the materials that were stored within the weapon itself) during set intervals. Tao would just have to hold Sunggyu off for a few more minutes before he could blow him to pieces.

As Tao ducked behind a crumbling wall within a destroyed building, everything suddenly grew quiet. He didn’t hear Sunggyu running after him. He didn’t hear gunshots anymore. Everything was quiet. Tao figured that Sunggyu hid behind some debris, waiting for Tao to come back out so that he could get him. The mercenary smirked, thinking that Sunggyu was a fool. He wouldn’t fall for such a cheap trick like that. He would wait for the resistance leader to come to him.

He checked his rocket launcher to see how much longer he would have to wait to use it. It read ten minutes. He lowered it to ground. Tao gripped his pistol that was in his other hand and waited to hear any noise indicating that Sunggyu was approaching him.

Tao waited and waited. But no one came. He heard nothing. He didn’t dare look behind, though. But he did grow impatient quickly. He waited for a few more minutes before giving up on his initial plan and come out from his hiding spot.

The mercenary took a deep breath and calmed himself. He placed his finger against the trigger of his pistol and quietly walked to the edge of the wall. He took one more deep breath and quickly stuck his head out from behind the wall with gun aimed in front of him. His brows furrowed when he was met with an empty and desolate street.

Well, it wasn’t completely empty. He saw Woohyun still hiding behind the streetlight in the distance.

“Where did he go?” Tao mumbled aloud. He lowered his gun, confused. He was sure the man was right behind him before he hid behind the wall. How did he disappear so quickly? Tao ducked behind the wall again, contemplating his next move. Should he go out there and find Sunggyu himself and get this over with or wait it out–.

The sound of a rock hitting the ground grabbed Tao’s attention. Thinking it was Sunggyu finally making his move, the mercenary jumped out from behind the wall completely and shot a few rounds blindly.

When he ran out of bullets, he lowered his guard and threw it to the ground. It was useless to him now since he ran out of bullets. His eyes widen when he realize that no one was in front of him. He didn’t hit anything. Sunggyu was nowhere in sight. He had just wasted his bullets for nothing. He eyed his surroundings carefully, looking for anything that stood out.

Sunggyu must’ve purposely gained his attention to reveal himself. “,” Tao muttered under his breath and turned around to go back to his hiding spot but instead came face-to-face with Sunggyu himself.

“Hello!” Sunggyu smirked.

“Wha–” Tao didn’t get a chance to finish vocalizing his thoughts, for Sunggyu smashed the of his pistol against Tao face. The mercenary yelped in pain, staggering backwards. He felt blood gushed out of his now-broken nose.

Sunggyu grabbed the stumbling man by the collar of his shirt, pulling him back towards him. He then landed an uppercut, launching Tao into the air. He landed on the ground a few feet away from Sunggyu, but he quickly got back up to his feet. He lunged towards Sunggyu with a manic scream. He threw a punch at Sunggyu, who easily blocked it but had a harder time against the rising elbow strike that came immediately afterwards.

Woohyun cringed as he watched Tao deliver a kick to Sunggyu, knocking the caramel haired man down. He thought Sunggyu was going to come out on top during this fight as he watched Sunggyu sneak up on the mercenary the way he did. But it was quite obvious Tao could hold his own. He was beating the crap out of Sunggyu as much as Sunggyu was to him.

The brunet covered his eyes in fear and horror as Sunggyu jumped in the air and did a fast diving kick, stunning Tao for a moment. Woohyun could have sworn he heard a few bones crack from that move. To Woohyun, the way these two fought was similar to fights in movies. They kept throwing more and more punches and kicks, but neither backed down, neither gave up, neither stopped fighting.

Despite Tao killing his own partner and trying to kill them, Woohyun did not want Sunggyu to kill him. And he didn’t want Tao to kill Sunggyu. He didn’t want anyone else die today. He wasn’t sure he could handle it. Until he came here, Woohyun never encountered so much violence and death before. But what could he do? What could Woohyun do to convince Sunggyu and Tao to stop fighting?

Woohyun cringed again when Sunggyu landed a punch to Tao’s gut.

“You know, you’re not so bad,” Tao commented, wiping away so of the blood that was still trickling from his nose. He backed–more like wobbled–away slightly from Sunggyu, needing to catch his breath a bit.

“I could say the same about you,” Sunggyu spat out a wad of blood.

Tao rolled his eyes at the remark. Tao took a deep breath, readying to throw more moves at