Tao's POV

I struggled to get up, my head throbbing, but they were already gone. When I could stand up right, I walked over, pressing the heel of my hand into my temple. The nailer with the brown-red hair had hit me right in the head. I could tell he was holding back though. If he had hit me with his full strength, I would be dead. Limping towards the collapsed D.O, I shook his shoulder until he groaned and clutched his head. 

"C'mon; its almost day. We gotta get," I told him, as the dawn light was just coming through the tiny, dusty window, the only one in the little room. He just groaned again. 

"*Sweet! We gotta get!" I repeated, starting to get annoyed. We needed that money, for sure. Boss'll kill us, but we had no choice. D.O had just made the situation a whole lot worse, as he was bound to be. Just like when he had lost his temper and snapped that nailer's wrist a couple weeks ago. Nothing was stopping those streeters, and whatever gang they're in, from coming after us, now that they knew D.O's name, thanks to my idiot mouth. That, plus the nailer with the broken wrist, the SJ member that's incredibly pissed at D.O for killing his turtle, and the B.A.P member with a broken nose, made D.O, and more importantly, us, a target. Exo's way to the top of the gangs was going amazingly. Just amazingly.

D.O was a loose cannon, but Suho had demanded I take him to poker. Well, that had turned out well. But being late for meet was just making it worse. He pushed himself to his feet slowly, groaning again. I rolled my eyes, ignoring my own throbbing head, and started out the door, leaving behind the knocked over table, the scattered and trampled cards, and the place that may as well have been a trigger of war. 

It wasn't like crosses didn't happen everyday, every hour in our world. They did. It was just that D.O had a unique talent of pissing people off and making them want to down him in the most painful way possible. Really, it was a true gift. I wasn't there when he *grounded the nailer, but XuiMin was. He said the nailer looked like he was gonna down him, broke wrist or not. He had had to drag D.O away before he did. Nothing had happened with the nailer and D.O between then and now, but I know he's gonna get payback, one way or another, and I know D.O's gonna get hurt. In the hands of Super Junior, maybe, the most powerful gang in The City. Let's hope he doesn't piss of a Block B member, or a BAP. You never wanna to do that. But he was gonna get downed by the two streeters in there, so I had had to risk my to save him, and then the gunner had put him down with a tap that even Chanyeol knew how to duck. True, Chanyeol was being trained by Baekhyun, who was the best at avoiding punches and shardes and everything, but he's been with us for only a couple months, while D.O had been here, unfortunately, since we formed.

I've been on the streets for five years, while Exo was formed only two years ago. At first, I had just been on my own- A *dropper, to join gangs temperarily or kill someone in a streetwar. I worked alone for a year, and then I met Xuimin. He was a dropper too, and soon we banded together. Protecting each other, sharing our earnings, but still working those separate jobs. Then, Chen came in, bringing with him Baekhyun. Xuimin fell for Chen immediately, and vise visa. We all grew closer, and Chen and Xuimin confessed, somewhere in the space of three years. We were still individual- sometimes one of us would disappear for a couple days, then come back, with a new scar and a story. We didn't freak out when it happened. We knew that they were just caught up in the life of the gang, fighting a war, traveling somewhere, so it wasn't a suprise when Chen went missing for four days. But he didn't come back, not in a week or a month.

Xuimin broke down completely, and Baekhyun and me mourned with him. I loved him like a brother, and I know Baekhyun did too, but Xuimin loved him as his boyfriend. He did, truly, with all his heart. I could hear Baekhyun crying at night, and Xuimin all day, but I held back my tears. I had to be strong, for all of us, and so I continued to work, earning the coin for all of us. Baekhyun stayed to take care of Xuimin, who had started to wish for death, for freedom. He stayed there, in that dark place for four months, Baekhyun watching him day and night, not sleeping for weeks at a time, to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid. And, slowly, Xuimin began to heal. He started to get up, walk around, and by six months since Chen's death he hadn't tried anything with a shard or gun for a week. But his heart was still broken, the love of his life gone. I was working a job one day when I met Suho. He had introduced me to Kris, Lay, and D.O, and through me the four of them met Baekhyun and Xuimin. Five months later, there we were. Exo.

Xuimin healed over him. He can smile now, a couple times a day, although I can sometimes hear him at night, crying, and there's nothing I can do, which hurts. Nothing can heal a broken heart, not even Lay, except time. But he isn't thinking about offing himself now, I know. But he still loves him. I know that. 

D.O tripped over a loose brick and sprawled onto the ground. I slammed into a stop, barely avoiding stepping on him. I huffed in annoyance, and looking for any tails, I climbed up to the top of the one-story building and surveyed the street. Nothing. 

"Come on," I hissed at D.O, who was hauling himself up painfully slowly. I could see the sun's edge over the buildings, and I didn't want to be here when we were lit up like a bar at night. 

Gasping for breath, he finally got up into the roof. I took off before he could catch his breath, running across the roof. Another two sets of footsteps alerted me, and I spun around, but it was only Chanyeol and Lay. Lay immediately noticed the large bump growing on D.O's head, and our empty hands. 

"No coin?" Lay asked. 

"No, only lose some," I supplied when D.O refused to answer. 

"Ouch," Lay winced, falling into pace with me as we crossed across the wide roof, Chanyeol and D.O a little ways behind us. "He start up again?" Lay lowered his voice. 

"Yeah. Pissed off a gunner and a nailer," I also used a low voice, so D.O couldn't hear us.

Lay drew a breath. "Carge, 'e is. Gonna get downed soon. Gonna get all of us downed." I could only nod in agreement. We reached the edge of the roof and dropped down, one by one, into the crack between this roof and the next. Six feet down, the entrance to our crib.

It was lit by two lamps, and lights that Baekhyun and Chanyeol "found" at Christmastime strung up on the ceiling. Kris and Baekhyun was nowhere to be seen, but Suho was zoned out on the floor, a single game of bones in front of him, and Xuimin was passed out on the couch, snoring loudly. 

We spread out as we walked in; Chanyeol went to the food, Lay sat on the floor next to Suho to play, I sunk into a chair, and D.O collapsed on top of Xuimin, still muttering about his head. Xuimin shrieked and began groping under the couch cushions for a knife, found it, and had jammed it under D.O's chin before his eyes were fully open. D.O froze, wide eyes becoming huge, as Xuimin blinked slowly, the shard still gripped in his hand. He looked up at D.O, who was still on top of him. It must've registered that it was D.O and not some attacker, but he kept the shard where it was.

"Lay, should I down him?" He murmured sleepily, blinking owlishly. 

"Yes," Lay answered, not really looking up from his game. "Go right ahead." 

D.O made a weak sound of protest, eyes crossing as he tried to focus on the large blade under his chin. 

"Xuimin, let go of the shard," Suho answered in the same tone as Lay, like he was used to saying it every day. He probably was. 

"But I wanna down him," Xuimin protested, nose wrinkled, looking about as cute as someone could looking when they're holding a shard as long as their forearm at someone's neck.

"Xuimin, let go of the shard," Suho repeated robotically, still focused on the bones in front of him. 

"Mwah," Xuimin pouted as he released the gasping, frightened D.O from his grip. He slid the shard back under the couch but kept his hand on the grip, and closed his eyes again. D.O collapsed on the floor. 

"Careful," Lay muttered as he came dangerously close to their game. 

D.O rolled his eyes and stood up, wobbling as he walked toward me. 

"Hyung, I'm gonna get some ice," I shouted over my shoulder as I escaped the chair just in time before D.O threw himself into it. 

Suho made a noise, which I took as a yes, and I darted out, letting out a sigh of relief as I left the room and slid out the crack. Although I knew that it was good for protection to be in a gang, I sometimes missed those days with Baekhyun and Xuimin and Chen, just doing what we wanted. I sometimes missed being alone on the streets, doing what I wanted, when I wanted, taking responsibility for no one but myself. But I valued the gang; I really did, expecially the people in it. Maybe not D.O. But everyone else. 

I cut across the street, heading for the conviencance store nearby that I knew I could snitch ice from, when something caught my eye. I walked closer. It was a bar, Border Tail, a popular one that gangs often visited to slip in, maybe play a couple rounds of card or bones. But that wasn't what I saw. I saw a familiar giant-like blond and a significantly shorter brown haired one being surrounded. Kris, and Baekhyun. And they were, from the looks of it, about to be attacked. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

*Sweet: An insult, like calling someone soft. 

*dropper: a hired help

*grounded: wounded (ground: singular)

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter.... But here's Exo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Tao!!!!!!!!

And everyone else in the gang!!!!!!!

The next chapter will be SJ, so yeah.

Please comment, it really makes me happy. And subscribe if you like it!!!! THANKS!!!!!