[title track: no church in the wild]
[violence warning]

chapter 17;

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You say as steadily as you can, despite your hammering heart and the fact that you are completely aware that you are outnumbered, that you are not facing Jongdae, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Luhan, Sehun, Jongin, and Baekhyun. You are face to face with EXO. They are not your friends or your…boyfriend, not now. You eye the lipstick in his grasp and hope to God you look confused.

But a voice at the back of your mind is hell-bent on reminding you that everything is out in the open now. You’re not fooling anyone.

Baekhyun’s face twists into an awful parody of his usual smiles, his laughter coming out mocking. “I really think we should stop lying to each other.” He murmurs, his face inches away from yours, as he reaches out and gently tucks the lipstick into the pocket of your jeans, his fingers lingering there almost mockingly, his entire expression, his entire demeanor making you shiver involuntarily.

Something inside of you cracks then and you open your mouth to say something, but nothing is coming out. Your heart is in your throat and you can’t breathe. Jessica speaks from right beside you, her voice surprisingly soothing despite the hard edge to it. “And I really think you should stop touching her if you want to keep those fingers, oppa.” Jessica speaks softly but there’s no doubt she means what she’s saying. There’s no doubt it’s time to stop denying what’s obvious.

That sentence seems to snap you out of your panic and you force yourself to focus on your anger, to turn it into something with substance. Jongin looks positively pissed off and Luhan has his eyes trained on you and Jessica. You’re sure they have hidden weapons. You’re sure they’re itching to use them. You can feel Baekhyun’s eyes on you even as he responds to Jessica, his voice detached and too professional. He’s so close; you can feel his words against your skin, if that’s even possible. “Your threats are cute, Jessica-ssi. But what if it was Luhan hyung—”

You shove Baekhyun away from you and into the table, effectively cutting off his sentence and making him stumble, the sound of chairs scraping against linoleum floors reaching your ears. “Don’t you ing dare threaten Jessica with anything involving him.” You hiss, rage washing through you in waves, your eyes darting to Luhan’s deceptively innocent face before it fixes on Baekhyun.

He stares at you with dark, hard eyes and you’ve never seen an expression like that on him before. It makes your blood run cold. It makes you realize that you attacked him, that you’ve pretty much initiated a war, one without the comforts of anonymity.

“That wasn’t such a good idea, you know.” Baekhyun says, his tone laced with barely controlled anger and you just stare at him, unable to look away as his eyes bore into you.

Then Kyungsoo speaks, his wide eyes regarding you with a calculating look and you force yourself to meet his eyes. “Consider the school neutral grounds. But the moment we see you anywhere off campus…” He trails off into silence.

“Let’s just say, death would be a better option.” Jongdae finishes in a deceivingly playful tone as he taps his fingers against his chin and narrows his eyes at you, lips curling into a soft smile.

You cross your arms then because you refuse to let them threaten you. “Right back at you.” You bite out before you spin on your heels and leave the dining hall, purposefully turning your back on them to show them that they don’t scare you.

“Unnie.” Jessica whispers, after the dining hall is far, far behind you. Her fingers wrap around your wrist gently. “Are you okay?”

You’re not. You feel like crying and screaming and tearing everything apart. But you can’t do that. Not now. “I’m fine.” You respond, stiffly.

Jessica doesn’t look convinced. “What are we going to do?” She sighs, as if she’s speaking to herself.

“Stay alive.” You grit out as you take out your phone and text Minhee.

~.~.~.~.~

Minhee stares at her bandaged leg in frustration. “I can’t ing move.” She hisses, glaring at her injured leg in a way that makes you think she’s on the verge of cutting it off. “They’re going to barge in here in like five minutes and shoot me down before I can even move my big toe.”

“They’re not going to come.” Jessica cuts in, from where she’s curled up on the couch watching Pororo. She’s trying to seem casual but the television is turned down too low and you know Jessica doesn’t fully believe her own words.

“And how did you reach that conclusion?” Minhee snaps at Jessica, her nerves obviously beginning to get to her.

Jessica stares at the cartoon for a good minute before she speaks. “Kyungsoo-ssi specifically said to consider the school neutral grounds. If they wanted to shoot us down, they wouldn’t give us a safe zone.”

Minhee’s already wide eyes widen almost comically. Then she groans in aggravation. “So you’re saying they’re making up rules now? You’re telling me they’re, what, playing with us?”

Jessica sinks further into the couch, dejectedly, and wraps herself in her blanket. You open your mouth to say something, anything, but all that comes out is a humorless laugh. Resentment and bitterness swells in your chest and burrows itself there. “If it’s a game they want then it’s a game they’re going to get.” You say, your voice a little hoarse.

Minhee nods once in agreement and Jessica squeezes her eyes shut, curling even further into herself.

~.~.~.~.~

“I’m happy to see that you’ve brought the money, boys.” You stand a few feet away from three men clad in dark clothes. You can see a distinct tuft of orange hair protruding from beneath one of their hoods, the one holding the dark, ordinary briefcase. You pick up one of your guns, thoughtfully. “But why should we give you these weapons? Especially when we can’t even be sure you’ll be able to pay us back the interest fees these lovely babies come with.”

“Don’t worry, noona.” The one with the bandana all the way on the left says challengingly. “As soon as we start up our business, we’ll be able to pay LILAC back in full. Maybe we’ll even be able to buy you.”

You can hear Jessica scoff from beside you and you have to agree with her. “Cute.” You say, noting the way the tall one on the right stiffens. “But before I give you the weapons, I want you to open the briefcase.”

There’s a moment of pause that’s too long before the one in the middle (the one with the orange hair) speaks, his tone casual. “You don’t trust us, noona?” He asks, even as he places the briefcase on his palm and moves to open it.

You run a hand through your loose hair, “No. I don’t.” You cross your arms across your chest, hyperaware of the gun tucked into the folds of your coat. “Now open it.”

Jessica has her gun at the ready, safety off, and you watch as the briefcase flips open with a click. He looks up at you, then, his eyes are the only visible things on his face and they seem mocking almost. “I opened it.”

You stare at the briefcase before him and something catches your eye, tucked just beneath the millions of won stuffed into its confines. “Take out all the money.” You say, steadily.

There’s another stretch of silence before the orange haired boy speaks again. “You really don’t trust us, do you?”

You exchange a glance with Jessica and she immediately pulls out her phone, no doubt texting Minhee to check their surroundings now. “I want to trust you boys, I really do. But it’s kind of hard when you’ve rigged my money with explosives.”

Bandanna Boy sounds downright incredulous and that’s all you need to know that your suspicions are true. “That’s a very serious accusation, noona. How can you be so sure?”

“Maybe it’s because I’m not stupid.” You tilt your head to the side, eyes scaling the buildings along the street. Then you lock eyes with the orange haired one, whose eyes are the only visible parts of his face. “Or maybe it’s because you’re working with EXO.”

As soon as you let EXO’s name slip, the three boys in front of you stiffen. “V, now.” The tall one calls gruffly and you barely manage to dodge the rigged briefcase being thrown at you. Jessica grabs your arm, pulling you to the side and there’s a loud explosion that makes your ears ring. You blink, brandishing your gun immediately as you look up at Jessica and she looks angry.

The three boys are gone and you grimace.

“They took it.” Jessica mutters, glaring.

You look up and down the empty street before frowning at Jessica. “Took what?”

Jessica actually gapes at you, incredulously. “The weapons case. Our weapons.”

“Oh, that.”

Jessica frowns, “What do you mean ‘oh, that’? There were machine guns in there.”

You just hook a few fingers around Jessica’s wrist, pulling her along with you. Jessica is fuming by the time you’ve started the car, windows rolled up securely. You dig through your coat pocket until you find the little gadget and drop it in Jessica’s lap. “It’s a tracker.” You say as you switch lanes.

“We’re going to follow them?” Jessica stares at you like you’ve gone senile.

You roll your eyes. “No. I’m not stupid.” You sigh. “The weapons are rigged. Just press that big red button and it’ll go off. Or if they open the lid.”

It’s silent for a moment before Jessica finally speaks, “What if someone gets hurt?”

“That’s the point.” You say, a little frigidly, rolling your eyes.

Another pause makes you fiddle with your fingers against the wheel.

“You’re right.” Jessica murmurs, but there’s an edge to her tone that makes your thoughts immediately drift to Baekhyun.

A part of you hopes he’s the one opening the case.

The other part of you wonders why that thought scares you so much.

~.~.~.~.~

The gadget beeps incessantly and you, Jessica, and Minhee exchange a look. You can hear the sound of an explosion, car alarms blaring to life.

“Boom.” Minhee says, with a smirk. Jessica grins from next to you and your heart twists a tiny bit.

~.~.~.~.~

Lunch is when you think the game stresses you out the most. It’s when you’re sitting at the same table as them, an invisible line between LILAC and EXO. Every time you look up, Kris is staring at you, eyes calculating and you wonder why you never noticed his mafia leader vibes before. Chanyeol continues to laugh obnoxiously and Jongdae continues to make obscene jokes. They even talk to you and Jessica as if you’re not a part of rival mafias. Sehun initiates a conversation with Jessica that has her obviously confused while Jongin glares daggers at Sehun the whole time.

And then there’s Baekhyun.

He sits right next to you.

He doesn’t speak, though, not to you. He completely ignores your existence but he always chooses the seat next to you and it makes you think that lunch is infinitely worse than anything else you’ve experienced so far. It makes you angry. It makes you sad, bitter, and painfully aware of Baekhyun. You hate it.

There’s a moment where you’re sitting across from Kyungsoo, Baekhyun on your right and Jessica on your left, when you notice burns running along Kyungsoo’s forearm. You meet his gaze and he looks at you with an expression that you’re could kill you.

“Do you want to know what Kyungsoo-ah is really good at?” Luhan suddenly interrupts, making your eyes snap to him. You narrow your eyes at him and he just smiles, pleasantly, leaning forward, chin balanced on his hands.

You don’t answer him, not when the conversations at the table has stopped, not when the tension becomes suffocating instead of heavy like you’ve gotten used to it being, not when Baekhyun is actually looking at you for once.

“Tell her, Kyungsoo-ah.” Luhan says encouragingly.

Kyungsoo just rolls his wide eyes and continues eating.

“Cutting people up.” Baekhyun says, thoughtfully, from beside you. You stiffen at the sound of his voice.

You feel a little queasy when you watch Kyungsoo smile slightly, his wide eyes drifting over you innocently, but you force yourself to stay put, purposefully taking a bite of your lunch.

Then Baekhyun leans into you, his shoulder grazing against yours, and you stiffen noticeably. “Do you want him to show you, Sooyong-ah?” Baekhyun whispers in a sickly sweet voice.

It takes all your strength to ignore him completely and focus on your lunch. It takes all your concentration and willpower to stop from getting up and running away.

~.~.~.~.~

“How much for a gram?” Someone asks in a soft voice, startling you from where you’re digging through the duffel bag you tucked into a hidden nook. You’re at the street vendor stand near downtown SM that makes the best ddeokbokki in town. It’s also a place for customers to order things that are off the menu. , ecstasy, heroin, crack, , PCP, meth, shrooms, anything really. Usually you’re never actually behind the counter but your employee needed a restock and you don’t trust him enough to tell him where the warehouse is located. Besides, it’s his wedding anniversary and you decided to give him the afternoon off, telling him you hired a replacement for the night.

Another important thing to note is the fact that customers never ask for anything in such a blunt way. It’s a secret menu for a reason.

You turn on your heels, annoyed that your mask is off (since this was a secret dealing spot and you’re supposed to look like a regular old employee). You face the customer with an innocent smile, deciding you’d pretend you didn’t know what they were talking about.

Standing in front of the ddeokbokki stand, in broad daylight, is Sehun, Luhan, Tao, and Xiumin. They’re all staring at you with varying expressions on their faces but the most common theme is tension.

“I’m sorry.” You say, bowing your head slightly, a smile plastered across your face. “I can’t sell you a gram of ddeokbokki. That’s nearly impossible.” Your eyes dart down to the gun you have positioned right under the cash box and you don’t miss the way Tao tenses, eyes unblinking.

Sehun raises a brow at you, eyes blank. “I didn’t know you worked here, noona.”

“It’s temporary.” You respond, flipping the meat on the grill carefully.

“Need money that badly?” Luhan asks in a way that makes you want to punch his face in.

“I’m a student, aren’t I?” You respond, smiling at an innocent pedestrian who glances at the ddeokbokki stand longingly.

“I could give you a much better job.” Luhan responds leaning against the counter and getting entirely too close. “We have very flexible hours and quite a bit of diversity regarding customers. I’m sure Baekhyun-ah would—”

“Get off the counter, Luhan-ssi.” You interrupt in a dangerous tone that has him smirking like a cat.

“Are you sure you want to talk to me like that? We’re not on campus anymore.” Luhan reminds you, smiling innocently although his eyes are sharp.

You take a moment to turn the meat on the grill before you lock eyes with him. “Touch me and I’ll rip your off. Twice.” You pierce a piece of meat with the grilling stick a little menacingly, earning a scrunched nose from Xiumin and a tiny smirk from Sehun. “Once for what you did to Jessica and the second time for touching me.”

Luhan laughs then, face contorted with glee. He glances back at Xiumin, Tao, and Sehun and you roll your eyes. The next thing you know, there are fingers twisted in your hair, tight grip ready to tear your strands from its roots, and hot heat radiating against your cheek. You can feel the sting already and your skin hasn’t even come in contact with the grill.

You’re staring at the ddeokbokki grill, your nose barely a few centimeters from it. You can feel the heat hitting your face in waves, sweat beginning to pool and drip into your eyes. You struggle against the grip on your head but it’s too strong, holding you against the grill steadily, your body hovering too close and your heart beating loudly. You look up then, smoke clouding your vision, and you see Tao leaning forward, looking at you with a blank expression.

“You’ve got guts, Sooyong-ah. I’ll give you that.” Luhan murmurs into your ear, his hot breath strangely cool against your ear, especially compared to the heat of the grill. “But I don’t tolerate people speaking to me like that.”

Someone reaches out and tugs at your hand, almost gently. He tugs at the hand you have clasped onto the side of the counter to keep you from tipping forward. Tao’s accented voice reaches your ears, “And I haven’t forgiven you for letting Jessica-ssi shoot my leg, jiejie. I hold grudges. It’s a great flaw in my character.” He’s pulling your fingers up and stretching out your palm so they’re situated above the grill, the only thing keeping you balanced is Luhan’s grip on your head and your own right hand. Your palm sweats at the heat and you’re terrified, unconsciously trying to grasp Tao’s hand which only makes him pull at your fingers harder, stretching your fingers almost painfully.

Your head begins to hurt from Luhan’s grip and your face begins to feel dry and blistery. You get the sudden urge to cry, eyes stinging and nose itching. But you won’t. You can’t. You can hear other voices murmuring beyond the ddeokbokki stand, but you know no one will try to help you. No one’s that stupid.

“What. What do you want?” You ask, your voice hitching a little. “If you want to kill me, then just do it. Stop playing around.”

There’s another twist and you close your eyes when your face is pushed even closer to the grill, your cheek just a hairsbreadth away from getting burned. “You destroyed our warehouses. You released my girls. You hurt the family, in more ways than one. You don’t deserve death just yet, sweetie.” Luhan hisses into your ear, pulling at your roots. And then you’re pulled up and away from the grill, cool air a relief against your face. “Besides, Baekhyun’s got dibs on killing you. We’re only allowed to play.” He tells you, sparkling doe eyes flickering between yours. You try to harden your expression but it’s obvious his words and actions have affected you. Xiumin looks at you with something akin to pity.

Luhan lets go of your head just as Tao presses your forearm into the grill for exactly three long seconds, staring at you as your expression contorts into pain and you have to bite down on your lip to stop from screaming out. Your nerves are on fire and you jerk, trying to pull your hand out of his grasp. You can’t stop the involuntary whimper and that’s when Tao finally lets go of your hand and you immediately cradle your throbbing arm to your chest, realizing that you’ve bit your bottom lip so hard, it’s bleeding. Tao grins, “Consider that revenge for the leg.”

Xiumin sighs, then, curling his fingers around the back of Luhan’s collar and pulling him back. He throws a look at Tao who grudgingly steps back, “How about we get back to the main reason we came here?” Xiumin asks rhetorically before looking at you, his expression friendly. You don’t relax, you just watch him, adrenaline rushing through you, eyes darting to the gun under the cashbox.

Xiumin looks at you seriously, “If you touch the gun underneath the cashbox, I won’t be able to stop Luhan or Tao.” He stares at you until you realize he’s waiting for you to give your consent. You think maybe you shouldn’t just give in, but you can’t do anything right now. You were caught off guard. You’re injured. You’re scared. So you nod at him, stiffly. He smiles then and it’s friendly. “Step out of the booth, please.” You hesitate for just a moment before you listen to him, holding on to as much dignity as you can.

You watch as he steps into the booth, pulling out the duffel bag and the cashbox. You feel like you’re having an out of body experience as you watch him casually take LILAC’s things. You know you look like a mess, face red and hair tangled and forearm blistering. Fingers brush against your upper arm and Sehun is wordlessly handing you a bottle of water. You look at him, full of confusion, and he rolls his eyes before he uncaps the water bottle and pours water over the burn along your left forearm. You hiss, your skin aching under the cool water. “Fix that unless you want it to get infected.” Sehun says in bland tone.

“What are you doing?” You ask, blinking because you don’t understand.

“We can’t have you dying because of an infection. Killing you is our job.” Luhan says in a clipped tone, from beside Sehun.

As Xiumin shoulders your duffle bag and twirls your gun, you get the urge to scream. Xiumin actually ruffles your hair before turning his back on you, four skewers of grilled chicken in his hand.

~.~.~.~.~

Minhee kisses your forehead, softly, as she wraps up your stinging forearm with long, white bandages. “Don’t let them get to you.” She says in a tone that reminds you that she hasn’t actually seen any of them yet, because of her leg. She’s been holed up in your apartment the entire time. She hasn’t experienced any of this yet. You resent her a bit for that.

Jessica, on the other hand, purses her lips and looks at you with a knowing gaze, the expression in her eyes mirroring the emotions you feel.

~.~.~.~.~

You smile at Soojung pleasantly and she grins back, eyes continuously flickering over your shoulder (at Amber no doubt). You roll your eyes. “If you want to go dance with Amber, then go.” You say over the bass of the thumping music, sipping your drink and eyeing the club around you. There are sweaty bodies everywhere and the pulsing lights are almost hypnotic.

Soojung pouts slightly, “Am I that obvious?”

“A little.” You say, wiggling your eyebrows suggestively. You laugh when Soojung shoves your shoulder playfully.

“No, I’m not.” Soojung whines. You watch as she gets up off the bar stool, straightening her short black dress before she begins to stumble off, obviously a little too drunk already. Soojung pauses and looks back at you. “Be careful, okay? Call me when you get home. If I don’t pick up…” Soojung winks, suggestively, and you laugh.

“You loser.” You call after her and she just throws a rude gesture at you before swaying through the crowd of sweaty bodies, strategically angling away from any unwanted hands groping at her. You sip at your drink and wonder if coming to a club was actually a good idea, but Soojung and Amber had insisted since Qian, Sunyoung, and Jinri were out of town and Soojung needed a ‘wing woman’ ignoring your insistence at the fact that Soojung really didn’t need a wing woman when it came to Amber. But Soojung’s stubborn, so here you are, sitting at the bar of a downtown club, too strung up to wind down.

You swivel in your bar stool and decide you need to use the bathroom, if only to get away from all these sweaty bodies. You’re a bit tipsy but, at this point, you don’t really feel like getting drunk.

A hand wraps around your shoulders and you immediately twist away, shoving the person into the wall at the back of the club, uninjured forearm pressed up against their esophagus.

Your tight grip loosens, involuntarily, when you realize who tried to grab you.

It’s Byun Baekhyun.

He’s frowning at you, his eyes dark.

---

a/n: i decided to up the dangerous mafia thing and w e l l yea i was extremely stressed writing half of this omg they're scary

(yes i did put the bangtan boys and f(x) in here lol)

once again, the deal from last chapter is still on: 50 upvotes = a chapter from baekhyun's pov 

tell me what you thought please!

all i've gotta tell you is that exo obviously outnumbers lilac but they're going to put up a fight

and baekhyun's still mad ofc

As always, comment, subscribe, and upvote!!! <3

xo