Ji's body refused to fight back, he just let itself controlled by Ally's guiding steps with trembling heart.

Lee’s eyes brighten up when Ally came out of the railcar, dragging JiYong along.

“I knew you wouldn’t…” Lee lowered his gun to welcome her but he choked on his smile: as soon as they reached him, she halted her gun between his eyebrows, just in time for SeungHyun's heart to bring back its beat from behind the railcar's drilled window.

Briana exhaled at ease too.

“I thought I knew you too…” Ally calmly disarmed him, “but you tried to shoot me, Lee!”

“You know I’d never…” Lee answered following his gun reaching JiYong’s chest.

At first, JiYong didn’t understand what was she doing, but when she easily poked him twice, without taking her eyes off of Lee, he gladly accepted the gun pulling its lock; he also glued it to Lee’s head.

“You’re making a mistake, Ally” Lee shook his head in disapproval.

“You did it first!” she cut him off making him kneel, with a powerful blow in his stomach.

“So? Now what?” he raised his hands to touch the back of his head, death glaring at her.

“Where are the boys?” she asked JiYong, quickly rolling her eyes around.

Ji followed her example - they were nowhere to be found, so by the looks of it, they got to run for cover just in time... or did they?

“Guys!” JiYong called for them with a bothersome heavy heart.

In a short while, SeungRi came out from behind the railcar, followed closely by DaeSung and YoungBae.

JiYong smiled but his heart didn't quite felt at ease.

“Choi SeungHyun!” Briana caught his hand when he was about to answer the friend’s call.

“?...”

“…Don’t do anything stupid…” she barely whispered.

“I won’t” he smiled switching roles, taking her hand into his to step outside.

“Bro…” JiYong tried to hide his astonishment when his half- friend walked towards them – he was wearing only the bottom half of his pajama while she was wearing the upper half.

“You thought you were the only one having fun?” SeungRi inquiringly whispered to his ear.

As hearing this, Lee’s eyes almost instantaneously got bloodshot and tones of red threads plowed them.

“Bree…” he hopelessly whispered waiting for them to approach a little more. When he estimated it was close enough he flamed out, boiling: “I came to save you! You !!” he roared dashing to her neck, ignoring any threats, with or without guns.

Sooner than anyone could react, 10 masked men dropped out from behind a row of another abandoned railcars. Seeing their boss free, the ten gunmen decided it was the right time to start fighting. They began firing all four ways.

Everybody ran for cover except for SeungHyun.

When Lee burst out to Briana’s neck, SeungHyun grabbed the back of his collar neck, pushing him away. He got his fists ready and savagely knocked him over, carrying loads of punches.

 DaeSung couldn’t waste any more time: he rushed towards one of the masked men and with one rugger movement knocked him down, disarming him. He fetched the newly obtained gun to start answering back. YoungBae followed his lead, so in no time it was two of them trying to stop the other eight.

JiYong grabbed Ally’s collar throwing her on the ground, protecting her with his own body.

"What do you think you're doing?" she gaffed at him.

He was about to answer back when his eyes suddenly widened.

She knew something bad happened so quickly rolled him over to get on top.

'Damn..." she barely managed to spell when her hand got covered in blood touching his left shoulder blade.

Two noisy bullets coming out from his gun shook one tear away from her. She rolled around to face their reason but only got to see one of Lee’s men falling down with his forehead pierced twice.

"Move!" she grabbed JiYong’s healthy arm, dragging him to cover.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" she couldn't help snapping at him.

"You" he smiled completely taken over by adrenaline.

"Don't ..." she replied through a quick kiss before pushing him to cover against one of the railcars. "Over Here" she called for the boys who were mostly out in the bullet rain.

SeungHyun wouldn't give up his fight with Lee but they seemed to share the blows equally right now.

Even if it was merely the first time they ever used real guns, DaeSung and YoungBae managed to take out four of Lee’s help while running for cover guided by Ally's voice. Before following his friends, SeungRi took a short time to arm himself. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get any of the six remaining, so, in the heat of the moment, he ran up to them, firing without a stop. Judging that they were all out of ammunition, in the short break when the bullets ceased flying around, he planned to get himself a new gun. But what you want it's not always what you get: two of the masked men were quicker than the others and loaded their guns, starting a new bullet spraying, putting him on the run. 

"Come here!" DaeSung dragged him behind the big, black cart. "Are you alright??" he promptly gave SeungRi a full body check that concluded with a smack over his head. "Are you insane?!" he flared after making sure his friend wasn't hurt.

 "Yeah!" SeungRi jumped with joy, proudly pointing towards the two masked men who came running after him, but in four hasted gunshots, they ended up hitting the ground.

Even though his perfect aim deserved compliments, he only gained another loving smack from DaeSung.

"You did well!" he smiled regaining his breath back.

"Watch out!!...” YoungBae yelled when yet another one of the armed men reached them pointing out his gun. DaeSung rolled on his heels only to meet his hangman and the three rushed bullets that couched into his stomach.

JiYong witnessed the scene with cobwebby eyes from the other end of the cart.

"Brother!!" a growl left SeungRi's mouth, wildly discharging the whole gun at that man; the same did YoungBae.

"Dae-ah!!" JiYong also dashed to his friends, closely followed by Ally.

SeungHyun got distracted by his friends' loud screams, allowing Lee to knock him down.

“What… the… … were... you... thinking?!” Lee raged adding a new blow to every word he spoke.

New gunshots robbed SeungRi's hearing ability pouring burning tears down his face:

“No, no, no…” he babbled freezing over by YoungBae’s too fast red coloring clothes.

Without minding the gunman behind him, Seungri gave up his gun to help his friend sit as comfortable as he could, ignoring the bullets flying around like they were on a battlefield.

YoungBae wanted to make it clear that it wasn't a fit time to give up, but he decided using his last drop of energy to put a hole in the head of the man who pointed his gun at SeungRi’s back.

"Help big brother" he whispered smiling.

“YoungBae-ah!” SeungRi choked on his tears when his friend's eyes closed. He shook him eagerly but got no answer. Wiping his tears he jumped up ready for revenge when a cold gun pipe landed on his forehead. He lost his breath and glued his eyelashes one over the other, panting heavily.  The gunfire shook his entire body, clenching his fists. He didn't know for sure, he just thought that he'd at least have to feel something, but if he got shot in the head why did he felt his body being knocked down?  He opened back his eyes in a split second just to see his attacker falling on top of him. Unable to comprehend what happened he blinked several times, afraid to even move from underneath that bleeding masked man.

“Kiddo!...” JiYong called bringing him back to reality. Only now he got to see Ally's smoking gun and her hand stretched out to him.

"Come on up!" she quickly said pushing the dead body away.

“Oh...” SeungRi finally understood that it wasn't him the one who died. He barely got on his knees when another desperate "NO!" left his lungs. Forgetting to even blink, he snatched Ally's pistol to vent it somewhere behind her.

Ally's first urge was to bawl at him, but, as if recently brought back to earth she remembered JiYong was behind her too, so again, something must've happened. She would’ve started the dialogue if that one bullet wouldn’t have torn JiYong's words along with his rib cage. The second bullet opened wide his mouth but only to let the blood river come out.

Ally regained her weapon and discharged it into that man’s chest, through her burning tears.

“No, no, no! Brother...no..." SeungRi hummed lost, trying to stop the blood flood.

Lee managed to catch SeungHyun underneath him, carrying one punch after the other; he seemed to have won the fight but he was still hitting on SeungHyun’s inert body until SeungRi's cries made him look around: a few of his men were still standing, closing in to Ally and the remained SeungRi. He smiled triumphantly. Not for long though because Briana caught his hair. She pulled him away from SeungHyun and even got to hit him several times.

"I am really sorry!" Ally rushed to speak to SeungRi racing to a new weapon from one of her ex-butchers. Before stepping once, she felt a weak grasp on her ankle.

She lowered her teary eyes to meet JiYong's unfocused stare; he blinked quickly several times to clean his eyes and rolled them in search of her. He tried to call her but his voice wouldn’t show up.

"Take good care of him..." Ally mostly whispered to SeungRi who already began calling his friend's name, promising to become the best men out there if he'll stay with him.

JiYong's eyes got stuck on the faceless but yet so familiar screaming voice; he rolled his eyes again trying to spot the voice calling his name but everything got blurry. Before everything getting silent he thought he could hear the name "Lee Baeck" and different loud sounds that he could reckon as police cars.

Briana was no kungfu master but Lee found it a little difficult to knock her down. Once she was on the ground, he got on top, gripping on like there was no tomorrow.

"You just wanna have fun, huh? How does it feel now??" he stuttered leaning on for a forced kiss.

"Ally!!" Briana yelled for help after she bit Lee and he slapped her.

“Lee Baeck!” Ally's strangled voice called him, running towards them.

He turned to face her and a short, quick bullet threw him numb in a large puddle of blood.

"Come on! Let's go!" she helped Briana up, focusing on the police cars almost reaching them.

"I... just..." Briana rushed to check SeungHyun’s vital signs.

"Come on!!" Ally eagerly pointed towards the color-switching police sirens that already turned everything around blue and red.

"Freeze! Put your hands up!!" a rusty male voice timed its shouts with one warning shotgun that brought new tears in SeungRi's eyes.

"Here!! Right here!!" he yelled for help, allowing Ally to grab Briana's hand and vanish behind the old, wooden railcar.

"Sir!" other male voices came flying by.

"Are you alright?"...

"What happened here?"...

"Someone escaped the scene!"...

"Found more over here..." came the voices over and over unbalancing SeungRi's body who begun bleeding from his nose.

"Here! Over here! Quickly!..." were the last words he heard before he hit the cold dirt and everything turned silent for him too.

A wonderful warm august night brought a calm numbness over Seoul city, except in this one, big, nosy clubhouse.

“Happy birthday!” everybody shouted at once clapping and cheering.

At the other end of the table, JiYong smiled politely. He wouldn't want to pose as rude but he had merely a few months since he got discharged from the hospital and sometimes it still was difficult for him to breathe without pain.

“It’s been a tough year… especially though for us…” he started his speech, raising up his glass. “We all got our second chance and we don’t plan on wasting it… We’re alive and breathing, and eager to give out best!...” he ended with a short sip, stealing away sour smiles from his friends.

SeungRi rushed to hug him and he sweetly answered back.

"Cheers!!" DaeSung loudly cheered throwing the crowd into a new happy rumble.

"Everything will be alright" YoungBae whispered to his friend, toasting. "We're all alive, aren't we?" he smiled to chase away the sadness in Ji's eyes.

"Are we?" JiYong smiled back.

SeungHyun also walked up to them, raising his glass.

"What's up?" he asked emptying it with one single big sip.

"We were just congratulating each other for being alive" SeungRi hugged him too.

"Ah... yes..." SeungHyun smiled looking for another glass to hide the blush that Briana's flashes put on his face every single time she popped in his mind.

"Do you sometimes think about her?" JiYong asked but not quietly enough so to be heard only by him as he wanted.

"No" SeungHyun lied, again hiding his face inside the champagne glass. "I'm just happy it all ended well" he added.

"Yeah..."Ji weakly replied.

The memory of young SeungRi pleading for him to stay alive and Ally's last words were still so fresh in his memory that he still had dreams about that night. Even now they brought a grey shade in his eyes. He poured another glass to follow SeungHyun and try meddling in the dancing crowd as he suggested.

His phone beeped on the table and its screen turned white announcing a new WhatsApp message. 

"Another happy birthday to me" he rolled his eyes, ready to turn it off.

"How's it from?" SeungHyun got curious too.

The sender had no name, just a phone number.

"Let me see" JiYong replied accessing it.

SeungHyun's glass left his hand landing into million pieces of the floor.

JiYong couldn't realize anymore if the trembling image was because of his hands shaking or because of the air that violently denied to pierce through his lungs making it painful. He thought he'd imagining things but for that, he needed confirmation. His eyes quickly hung on SeungHyun's and lost all hopes: his friend was battling some stubborn tears that wet his vision making it cobwebby.

SeungHyun shook his head twice clearing it a little before snatching the phone to make sure he saw it well: Ally and Briana's smile outshone the glamour of the high-class building they were posing in front of - the very club JiYong's birthday party was being held just now. 

The message below the picture made JiYong's legs start walking on their own. SeungHyun obliviously followed him.

"What's going on?" YoungBae asked when they wouldn't stop even if they bumped into people. But there was no one that could answer. He eye-followed both of his friends wobbling towards the exit. Planning to go after them he rolled on his heels and almost stepped the cellphone on the ground. At first, his eyes glued for a short while on the shattered glass on the floor when the phone announced another message. He picked it up and read: " Happy Birthday, daddy! I wish you a good life!" followed by the new kisses emoji and couple of hearts. 

JiYong reached the empty street in front of the building, panting heavily. He rolled around: except for SeungHyun there was nobody else around.

Ally's written words and the picture of the two of them smiling brightly right on that street, spun his head more and more as he fully began to understand their postures: happily holding onto rather small but visible pregnancy bellies.  He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words that wouldn’t come out anyway, felt the need to quickly cover his lips and push hard the back of his hand on them because otherwise, he'd only wet the ground with all the liquor he's been ingesting all night. 

"Do you think they'll be looking for us?" Briana put on some black oversized glasses, gazing at the restless JiYong on the alley several meters in front.

"They'll try" Ally smiled turning on the keys, stepping the gas lever to the ground so the car's wheels screeched.

THE END