Seungho sighed as he splashed cold water on his face.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so anxious.  His mind was running at a mile a minute and his stomach churned with unrest.  He couldn’t focus on anything and couldn’t think of anything else other than Joon.

Drying his face off, he stared at his reflection in a daze.  He stood there for several minutes as he tried to collect his thoughts.  Even though they’d found out about Jang Hyunwoo’s connection to Jang Daeho, did that even help?  Would telling the police even help?  Dara’s case had been settled so quickly that he had been suspicious there was foul play within the investigation… couldn’t that happen again for Joon?  If Jang Daeho had used his power as a rich CEO to sweep his crime under the rug, couldn’t he do that for his son? 

Taking another deep breath, Seungho hung up the towel and walked back to the living room.  He paused, however, when he noticed the dark expressions on the others’ faces.

“What?” he asked, looking at Byunghee, “Did you tell them?”

Byunghee looked at him and said tightly, “Yes…”

“And?” Seungho asked, waiting for what he’d already guessed to be true.

“They’re… not taking us seriously,” Byunghee said, sighing, “They think we’ve watched too much television-” He cut himself off and sighed again in frustration.

Silence fell as Seungho clenched his jaw.  “Did they at least start looking?” he asked.

Byunghee shook his head and replied with a heavy tone of voice, “They won’t start anything until at the person’s been missing for at least twenty four hours…”

Again, the room fell silent as all of them looked at Seungho.  He felt his anger and frustrations bubble inside of him.  Not taking them seriously?  If they wanted serious… “You know where Jang Hyunwoo is right?” he asked Cheondoong.

Cheondoong stood, as did Chulyong, and nodded.  He clenched his fists and said, “I can take you there right now.”

Seungho nodded and looked at Byunghee.  “I…” he said softly, “I can’t wait twenty four hours.  I might be crazy to be this anxious but I can’t shake this gut feeling.  I know-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Byunghee said, standing and dismissing his appeal, “Let’s just… go kick some or something.  I’m done playing fair.”  He scowled as he pushed past Seungho and slipped on his shoes.  “I’d rip that cop a new one if I could right now,” he muttered as he turned around at the other three, “Are we going or what?”

Cheondoong led the way to Hyunwoo’s hideout headquarters.  On the way there, he watched Seungho sit in silence on the bus.  Seungho had clenched and unclenched his fists continuously as he stared blankly out the window.

He was quite worried himself.  If Joon was really with Hyunwoo, and it was really because of revenge, then Joon could be in serious trouble.  And chances are, even if the police finds them, Hyunwoo would get off again scot free with his father’s help.  But if they were wrong and Joon wasn’t with Hyunwoo… they would be walking into an unnecessary fight that could lead to expulsions from school and jail time.

As they got off the bus and approached the house, Cheondoong swallowed the lump in his throat at the idea of a fight.  He wasn’t the best at them and he knew Chulyong would be quite useless too.  But still… he wanted to be here in case things got really hairy.  And with Seungho’s temper coupled with his current tension… things were going to get hairy.

“This is it?” Seungho asked as they approached the gate.  He glanced at the house and frowned.

“Yes, but-” Cheondoong began to reply but Chulyong interrupted him.

“There’s going to be a lot of them,” he muttered, “His lackeys are typically high school dropouts with nothing else to do but hang out here and share drugs.” 

Cheondoong nodded in agreement.  But before he could give out more warnings, Seungho had already busted open the gate and walked towards the front door with Byunghee right at his heels.  Sighing in exasperation, Cheondoong and Chulyong quickly followed as Seungho knocked on the door with his a clenched fist.

“He-He’s a bit scary,” Chulyong whispered to Cheondoong as he watched, wide-eyed, as Seungho knocked on door again.

“Mm,” Cheondoong agreed, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this.”  From the outside, Seungho seemed calm and collected.  But Cheondoong knew he was seeing a façade.  When Seungho fell oddly quiet, it meant that his mood was at a point of being dangerously bad.  Cheondoong was worried about when Seungho would finally bubble over…

“I’m telling you,” Chulyong muttered under his breath, “There’s something going on between-”

“Yah,” Cheondoong warned, glaring at him.  Chulyong shrugged and fell silent just as the door opened.

Cheondoong felt a tightness in his stomach as two burly teenagers greeted them with dirty looks.  Their eyes were bloodshot and their face slightly flushed… they were definitely high on something.

“What?” one of the said, his eyes darting wildly between the four of them.  He spotted Cheondoong in the back and grinned.  “Oh… back for more?” he asked, laughing.  The lackey behind him chuckled as well and cracked his knuckles.

Ignoring them, Seungho asked quietly, “Where’s Jang Hyunwoo?”  He clenched his own fists as he took a step forward.

The two teenagers’ faces contorted into something nasty as they snarled at Seungho.  “You little ,” one of the hissed, “Who the do you think you-”

“Where,” Seungho asked again, softer this time, taking another step forward, “Is Jang Hyunwoo?”

“Better get out of here, pretty boy,” the one in the back snarled, “Before you end up as Hyung’s too.”  The two laughed and closed the door.

Everything happened so quickly, Cheondoong had trouble keeping up.  There was a loud bang and the door ripped cleanly off its hinges and crashed into the two teenagers.  They yelled out in surprise as they were flung back with the weight.  Cheondoong stared, wide-eyed, as Seungho dropped his right leg and cracked his knuckles.  As he stepped inside the house, Byunghee cracked his neck and also followed.

The two younger ones stood on the porch, staring with their jaws dropped as their hyungs went inside.  Cheondoong had never seen Seungho like this before.  In all the years that Dara had dated Seungho, Cheondoong hadn’t seen him so much as raise his voice.  And now… he was kicking down doors ready to murder.  It was both thrilling and disturbing.  Snapping out of his daze, Cheondoong quickly followed them inside. 

It was a battle zone not unlike a movie.  Seungho and Byunghee had already knocked out five guys cold and were engaging with another four.  One had Seungho from behind as another pulled back to punch.  In the blink of an eye, Seungho had twisted a leg around the puncher’s neck and landed a heavy kick to his solar plexus.  Cheondoong watched as the guy’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell to the floor, out cold.  As Seungho smashed the back of his head on his captor’s forehead, he grabbed the man’s wrist and flung him towards Byunghee’s fight.  Seeing the incoming lackey, Byunghee also grabbed a lackey and flung him.  The two guys crashed into each other and collapsed to the floor in an unconscious heap. 

“Wow…” Chulyong said, from behind Cheondoong, “Those two can fight.”

“Yeah…” Cheondoong replied, dumbfounded as he watched Byunghee punch a guy so hard he flew back several feet. 

“Hyung!” Chulyong said suddenly.

Cheondoong felt a strong tug on his arm, causing him to lose balance just in time to dodge a blow to the head.  One of the lackeys had snuck around behind them and was holding a metal flashlight where Cheondoong’s head used to be.  Reflexively, Cheondoong threw out a punch that, fortunately, landed just as the lackey pulled back to swing again.  The punch dazed him long enough for Chulyong to land another kick to the groin, sending the lackey screaming and tumbling.

Grinning like a fool, Chulyong threw himself into the fight, aiming for as many groins as possible.  Cheondoong jumped in after him to make sure he wouldn’t get himself killed.  As the fight progressed, more and more bodies littered the ground as the lackeys fell unconscious.  Soon, only two were left.

Collapsing to the floor, Cheondoong winced as he rubbed his stomach and surveyed the damage.  They had suffered a few punches but were otherwise presentable.  Chulyong had a bloody nose that had stopped bleeding.  His arms were red and starting to bruise.  Byunghee exhaled in satisfaction as he dusted himself off.  Other than the ripped skin on his knuckles and a small cut on his cheekbone, he had barely suffered any damages.  Seungho, who had one of his sleeves ripped off and had gotten a bloody lip, breathed deeply and approached them.

“Look,” one of the lackeys said, “I don’t know where he is.  He-He said something about something-”

“Yeah,” the other nodded quickly, holding his hand up, “He only came in this morning to get some dope-”

“B-But he left real quick,” the other interrupted, “Said he needed to get back or something-”

“He has a dog!  Something about a dog-”

“Oh yeah!  He was going to go back and take care of some dog-”

“He hasn’t come back-”

“He was here this morning?” Seungho interrupted, looking between the two of them, “When?”

“I don’t know,” one of them said, “But he was only here for a-”

“When?” Seungho repeated, taking a step forward.

The two cowered further against the wall as one of them said in exasperation, “Look man, I don’t know!  Morning!  It was morning… maybe around ten?  It was morning-”

“You said he left quickly,” Byunghee interrupted, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, “Did he say where he was going?”

“No, man,” one of the lackeys replied, “He don’t tell us stuff like that.  All he said was something about a dog or cat or something-”

“Something about going back cause he had friends coming-” the other lackey interrupted again.

“Right, right!” the lackey exclaimed, stumbling over his words, “They were going to adopt it or play with it or something-”

“Say something useful,” Cheondoong muttered in irritation as he stood, “Where else does he usually stay?  Do you know his home address?”

The lackeys vehemently shook their heads.  “He don’t tell us stuff like that!” one said, “We don’t know anything about him other than he’s Hyung!”

“Doesn’t he have other hangouts?” Chulyong piped up, “Like other haunted houses, shady alleys, sewer dungeons, abandoned warehouses-”

“Warehouses!” one of the lackeys interrupted, glancing nervously at Seungho, “Didn’t he say something about throwing a party in one of them warehouses?”  Lackey number one glanced at lackey number two.  “His rich old man’s got a few of them, didn’t he say that?” he asked, looking for confirmation.

“Y-Yeah!” the other confirmed, nodding fervently, “He was going to do something like that for his birthday bash.”

“Warehouse?” Byunghee muttered, glancing at Seungho, “You think…?”

“Did he mention anything about someone named Lee Joon?” Seungho asked.

“That guy that I mentioned the last time I was here,” Cheondoong pitched in, “You guys were here for that.”

They shook their heads.  One of them said, “Don’t know nothing about a Lee Joon-”

“Has he been hanging out with anyone outside of your circle lately?” Byunghee asked, “Like anybody new?”

The two guys looked at each other briefly before one said, “H-He… he’s been getting calls from somebody lately.  Usually at night-”

“A-Around eight or nine-” the other said, as Seungho opened his mouth.

“Eight?” Seungho repeated, looking at Byunghee, “Eight… is when Joon gets off work.”

“Dog…” Byunghee muttered suddenly, “What dog?  Did he always have a dog?”

One of the lackeys shook their head.  “No man,” he said, “Hyung hates animals.  That’s why it was so weird that he suddenly started talking about some dog this morning-”

“Oh man,” Chulyong murmured, his eyes wide as he stared at Seungho, “You… you don’t think…?”

Cheondoong’s jaw dropped as he met eyes with Chulyong.  Surely… Hyunwoo wasn’t talking about Joon?  He glanced at Seungho and Byunghee, who had exchanged glances as well. 

Seungho clenched his jaws and looked at one of them coldly.  “Where are these warehouses?” he asked quietly.

“We don’t know,” one of the lackeys said in desperation as Byunghee cracked his knuckles, “I told you, he don’t tell us this !”

Seungho advanced on them.  He grabbed the collar of one and slammed him into the wall.  The other lackey suddenly jumped up with a scream, ready to charge him.  With barely any effort, Byunghee grabbed him by the collar and flung him across the hall.  He rolled several times before hitting the wall and passing out.

“Where?” Seungho repeated, staring at the last lackey, “Where are the warehouses?”

“Look man,” the lackey yelled in frustration as he tried to pry Seungho’s hands from his collar, “I don’t know!  You can kill me and I still wouldn’t know!”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Byunghee said, placing a hand on Seungho’s shoulder, “Let’s take this guy to the police.”

“We’ve tried the police,” Seungho started but Byunghee interrupted.

“We did,” he agreed, seemingly to have regained his rationality after kicking some , “But this is new information.  If we tell them, they’ll find the warehouses faster than we could.”  He squeezed Seungho’s shoulder and said, “This time, we’ve really done all that we could.”

Cheondoong nodded in agreement.  “He’s right hyung,” he said softly, “There’s really nothing else we can do here…”

Gritting his teeth, Seungho released the lackey and took a step back.  After taking a few deep breaths, he sighed and said to the lackey, “You’re coming with us.”

As Seungho nudged the lackey towards the door, Byunghee said softly, “And… you should probably call that Mun Hyunsik guy.  If the police gives us anymore trouble, we might need him and KTA to back us up…”

Seungho seemed to contemplate the thought before nodding and taking out his phone.

Cheondoong followed as the five of them shuffled out of the house.  As they made their way to the bus stop, he found himself wishing that they would find something… anything that would lead them to Joon.  Seungho was clearly going out of his mind and Byunghee was being dragged along with him.  Chulyong was getting pulled into this and Joon… Cheondoong prayed that he was alright.   

Author's notes:

Here's the next installment!  Again, thanks to all my readers for getting past the confusion of the last two chapters!  And thanks for staying with the story for so long!  More's a comin!!

BTW, for those that still haven't checked it out, I've written a new JoonHo fic on Joonthology!!  It's definitely one of my favourites so check it out!!