C h a p t e r T W O
Carved Memories
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-Hyun Joong's POV-

My mind was about to explode. It was so painful, thinking about so many things at once. They often tell me I'm four-dimensional, always thinking of things out-of-this-world. No, they're wrong. All that troubles me is in this world. No one ever listens. Not that I needed anyone to.

I was walking up the stairs to my room that day after an early breakfast. It was about 8 in the morning, I had to go back to map out my plans. The Dragon Hounds were back.

"I could sneak in, and cause trouble to their imports." I thought as I trotted on each step of stairs, "no, I will not let the law slaughter him. It has to be with my own hands."

Just then, I saw her walking down the from the other end. What was her name? Hyobi, I think. Well, she was crying.

"Miane," she stuttered between sobs when I caught her from falling down the flight of steps. She crashed right into my chest. Her face was stained with tears and pain. I started to notice her dressing. She was in a red silk tube dress, and a ragged one at that. There were several bruises and wounds all around her, but what I could not take my eyes off was that excruciating feeling her features were screaming to me.

There was a sudden sour tug on my heart, I knew not why.

***Flashback***

"Oppa!" her voice resounded back into my mind. That voice, was a voice I'd give it my all to prevent. It was a cry, a desperate cry.

"No! Oppa, go! Don't bother about me!" metallic chains that bound her wrists and waist dug deep into her flesh. My angel was hurting, how could I even bother to wince as a knife came down on my arm. 10 other men came to surround me. The only thought that was on in my mind was that she has to be safe.

"Oppa!" her beautiful face ruined with tears and bruises, her voice sore, "please! Go!"

"Hae Eul! Remember my promise! Remember it!" I shouted to her, throwing down as many men as my ability allowed me.

"Throw him out!" he had then ordered his men to do so. She was still in his captivity, I felt her heart tore as they hit me unconscious.

***End of Flashback***

I looked at her, and she reminded me of my Hae Eul. No, no one can be like Hae Eul. I couldn't even keep that promise in the end. Hae Eul, I'm so so sorry.

-END OF POV-

-Your POV-

Gradually as time past, I think that the Blood Luster gang is rather interesting. There are so many sectors in this big organization, each has its own job. Illegal imports, raids, alliancing with other gangs, assassinations, they even have forensics, spies and things I've yet to familiar myself with yet, things like protectors, seekers, to which I'm completely oblivious. Each sector is completely independent, yet they can interlink and work together sometimes. It was all surprisingly organized and in perfect order. Even the headquarters here was surprisingly cool. It has everything! Pubs, labs, rooms, storehouses, offices, training grounds, dens, everything!

Kyu Jong and Jung Min would normally be around girls, else they'd hit the dance floor sometimes. Life's more or less the same. The only thing that changed today was Hyun Joong, he was not to himself.

Hyun Joong was sitting with Jung Min around the table, naturally girls surrounded them, eager to admire Jung Min and his poker skills. The gang named Jung Min 'Poker King', and all he seemed to do everyday was deal cards in his leisure time. But today, Hyun Joong joined him.

He was sitting beside Jung Min, careful not to touch any of the opposite- around him. His eyes were focused on the deck of cards that Jung Min was shuffling with raging speed. How should I put it? It's those times where he appears to be focusing but he's still partially thinking of something that is completely out of the world. Yeah,

Jung Min, of course, welcomed the company of Hyun Joong. Jung Min's eyes always reflected a tinge of wariness. People who knew him would say he had it naturally, until they see him around his brothers. When Hyun Joong sat beside Jung Min, the wariness left.

I sat in front of the bar again, watching the two from the corner of my eyes. It was simply breathtaking to see them smile slightly as they indulge in a simple game of cards, like two ice sculptures coming to life right in front of my eyes. Those slight smiles, I unconsciously thought, were probably priceless.

"Hyun Joong hyung," someone had walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Hyun Joong looked back, the priceless smile faded, "yes?"

"You're wanted outside."

Sipping the cocktail the bartender had made, I noticed that Hyun Joong stared at Jung Min in suspicion. The funnier thing was that Jung Min stared back with the same expression. Hyun Joong pulled himself up from his seat and followed the man while Jung Min cleared his deck of cards.

"Hey," someone meekly whispered beside me. It was Kyu Jong, who came to sit by me. "Can I..Can I join you?"

I nodded.

Kyu Jong ordered a glass of wine from the bartender, and heaved a distinct tired sigh before he drank up. "Are you bored? Maybe we shouldn't always bring you to the den."

"No, it's alright. There's no where else I can go anyway."

"No where else?" his tone turned into one of disbelief, "don't you want to go and have fun somewhere else?"

At the same corner of my eyes I saw Jung Min getting up when he heard he too was wanted outside.

I shrugged.

"Why? Why do you want to stay in this corrupted den and live in corrupt?" his perfect features was made more extravagant with his slight frowning, "why do you want to be involved in the underground society?"

"What's wrong? My foster parents were too from the secret society, that's how they knew Uncle Kim, right?"

"But right now when you have a chance, don't you want to-" Kyu Jong was suddenly aware of the frustration he made no effort to disguise, "-sorry. Maybe I've talked too much."

He sighed again as he got up from his chair, leaving behind only an empty wine glass and tons of questions that were now injected into my head. These thoughts never left me for that whole entire day. Why was he so uptight? What was he trying to mean? I sat there the whole entire time trying to see through his thoughts, but I couldn't comprehend it.

All I know was that Hyun Joong and Jung Min never returned back.
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Kyu Jong retreated back into his room right after he left me with Steward Choi, I realised it has been sometime since he brought women home. I remember he used to do it every other day until..until a few days ago when he came home drunk.

As I walked past the spiral staircase towards my room, I was just asking myself if Hyun Joong or Jung Min had been home. It was then that the phrase "speaking of the devil" came into place. I noticed Hyun Joong sitting underneath the spiral stairs, where the light from the chandeliers could not reach him. His eyes were closed, as though he was taking a nap. A magnetic force pulled me towards him.

"Hyun Joong?" I called gently, before his eyelids flutter open.

"Why are you sitting there?" I asked. Hyun Joong continued to stare at me with blank eyes.

"Are you okay?"

He continued to look at me.

"Hyun Joong-sshi?"

He looked to the floor, probably showing signs of irritation, I was not sure. But then he stood up and just walked past me silently up the stairs.

-END OF POV-
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Immediately as Kyu Jong entered his room, he took off his coat and set it upon his chair. Flinging himself onto the bed, he laid down facing the decorated ceilings. As he took a deep breath, his chest puffed up with air before a heavy sigh was heaved. He let his shoulders fall and closed his eyes.

***FLASHBACK***

"Foster father!" Kyu Jong called to his foster-father, he was 6 then. "Do not worry! When I grow up, I will take care of Hyun Joong, Jung Min, and you, foster father! I will take care of the gang, and make it prosper well!"

***END OF FLASHBACK***

Kyu Jong got up from his bed and walked over to his favourite arched window. He drew up the curtains and gazed at the large starry skies above.

This has always been his secret habit. As long as there was something bothering him, he would turn to the sky. He easily related himself to the dark bleak openess, agreeing that no one was as widely-open as it was; and nothing as bright and hopeful as the stars. Therefore the stars were his friends. He remembered he used to stand in an open space, voicing his thoughts out loud to the moon, but that was before he realised his foster-father had been eavesdropping out of concern.

Of course a talk with his quiet and understanding brother Hyun Joong was always an inviting idea, however Hyun Joong himself would have his own troubles to fend. This, he was surer than anyone else.

The moon was big and bright, it wasn't a full moon. "You, too, are with flaw," he smiled to it as he thought aloud. He counted the number of stars, there were exactly twenty-seven.

***FLASHBACK***

"Oppa, look at the stars!" she had squealed as she sat beside him on an open field.

"1, 2, 3, 4.." Kyu Jong smiled, pointing at each star as he counted.

"Thirty-one, I've counted, Oppa, there are thirty-one."

"29, 30, 31, Heori-ah, you're wrong. There are 32, you missed one."

Heori frowned as she counted the stars again, "where's the last one?"

"You can't see it? Ah, only someone as smart as me can see it," Kyu Jong threw her a mischievious grin.

"Where! Why don't I see it!"

"You want me to tell you?" Kyu Jong asked, "I will if I get a kiss."

"Oppa!" Heori crossed her arms and pouted.

Kyu Jong pointed his index finger at his cheek.

She sighed and laughed softly before she stretched over and planted a kiss on his cheeks, "now, hurry and tell me!"

"It's you," Kyu Joong replied with the widest grin, "you're my brightest and prettiest star."

Heori giggled, giving him a playful hit, "Oppa! That's cheating!"

"That's not cheating," Kyu Jong laughed, pulling her towards his chest, "I mean it."

***END OF FLASHBACK***

Kyu Jong sighed, when there were thirty-one stars, he could pass it off as thirty-two; when there were eight, he could pass it off as nine; even when there was none, he could say there was one -- her. Yet now, now as he looked up to the sky and recounted the stars, he saw twenty-seven, and that's all there will be tonight.

Kyu Jong pulled his eyes away from the skies and looked at the garden two floors down. There was Jung Min, he was often there. Jung Min's not-so-secret hobby was drawing, he had a gift for it. Kyu Jong looked sympathatically at Jung Min's figure below. Jung Min too had problems of his own.

"Wait," Kyu Jong said to himself, "isn't that..Hyobi?"
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-YOUR POV-

***FLASHBACK***

"There's no where else I can go anyway." I had said earlier to Kyu Jong.

"No where else? Don't you want to go and have fun outside?"

I shook my head.

"Why? Why do you want to stay in this corrupted den and live in corrupt? Why do you want to be involved in the underground society?"

"What's wrong? My foster parents were too from the secret society, that's how they knew Uncle Kim, right?"

"But right now when you have a chance, don't you want to-"

***END OF FLASHBACK

Unconsciously, my thoughts brought me out into the garden. I was too engrossed, therefore I forgot that Jung Min was there. Today, he was doodling on the soil. Out of curiosity, I walked closer.

I've always thought Jung Min's pair of hands were skillfully agile when it comes to wielding a weapon or dealing a deck of cards. They were always fast, bold and witty. However, this was the first time I was able to watch him draw so closely. His agile hands evolved into one with so much gentleness.

His hands were like water as he clutched onto a tree branch and scraped drawings out from the soil. There were many to his drawing, and the lighting from the garden lamps were too dim, I could not make out what was drawn. However there was one word he wrote that was easy to comprehend. The word was 'debt'.

The branch Jung Min held suddenly fell to the ground, placing a big mark across his drawing. Jung Min shot his head around and within seconds I found his eyes focusing on mine. It was those murderous pair of eyes. "What are you doing here?" he asked in displease.

"I was thinking of taking a walk when I found you here, drawing," I replied.

Jung Min took up the branch again, and with a swipe across the soil, he erased his sketch. "And you decided to peek," Jung Min accused.

"No, no, it's not like that, Jung Min sshi, I-"

"Don't you know it's rude to poke your nose into someone elses' business?" Jung Min asked, annoyed.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Are you one of them too?" he smirked, "ah, I should have known."

"One of who?"

"Don't feign ignorance. This is why you came into our household in the first place, isn't it? You made use of foster father's compassion and sympathy, and what more, the ties your foster parents had with him," Jung Min spoke, "you're greeding on our wealth. You want money and riches, don't you? So you can live a confortable life."

"Jung Min-sshi," I exclaimed, "I'm not like that!"

"You're just like the s Kyu and I keep, it's money and love you're after. It's just that you're even more scheming. You tried to hook Kyu and even Hyun Joong's drawing close to you," Jung Min carried on, "I won't be fooled by you."

"Jung Min-sshi, I-I-I'm not like that!"

Jung Min stood up and lashed the tree branch onto the ground. He looked at me and gave me a bitter smirk. "Suit yourself," he said, nonchalantly, as he walked past me and back into the mansion.
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***FLASHBACK***

"You're just like the s Kyu and I keep, it's money and love you're after. You tried to hook Kyu and even Hyun Joong's drawing close to you."

***END OF FLASHBACK***

Jung Min's statement could not stop resounding in my head as I walked up the stairs. It's true. It's all true. Kyu Jong that night, it almost happened. My mind shouted within as a sharp pain hit my heart. And Hyun Joong, I...I don't know how to explain. Everytime I see him, it feels like the world is safe again. Those deep tender dark eyes, like the ones of a newly born baby out to see the world. In them there is no hatred, no killing, no laws, no secret society. Is this love? But.. he's completely indifferent towards me.

As I walked down the corridors leading to different rooms, I came upon Hyun Joong's. A deep pleasant aroma brushed past me as I realise they came out from the slit opening of his doors. Looking closer, I could see Hyun Joong. He was sitting against the door, with his back against the slit opening. I could somewhat figure out that his knees were pulled close to his chest and he buried his head down.

I walked closer to peek, still attempting to create a suitable distance. The deep red theme of his luxurious room made it difficult to see what was inside. I noticed that besides his guitar and violin, which were out of their cases, everything else was in place. Everything except a book that was deliberately thrown onto the ground beside him.
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C h a p t e r E N D