{TWENTY- ONE}

Month 03 Day 19

An uneventful week had passed for Kyungsoo since the unfortunate event where Baekhyun's father turned psychotic and almost killed him. He was lucky his friends burst in at the right timing. Nothing at that moment mattered, just seeing his friends standing at the doorway made him feel so relieved. The memory of the horrible scene was so clear, it was horrible that he could remember every single detail of it.

Half an hour went by, how many times they had whipped Kyungsoo, he had no strength to count anymore. Everything was hopeless, he was even too weak to speak. Dusk was approaching, and the chances of them leaving him here in the dark to starve was most likely. He would've been obliged to punch Baekhyun's father in the face again, since all the man could ever do was clap when he was getting whipped by his men.

He hated that round of proud laughter the man would let out, followed by his loud applauds when the whip slashed across his back. This man definitely enjoyed watching people suffer. Perhaps, he must've been some sort of sadist in his past life!

"When are you going to stop?" Kyungsoo uttered, panting, "I'm not just some human punching bag you can mess around with whenever you like, so let me go already!"

"Woah, woah, not so fast," Mr. Byun shook his head as he gave Kyungsoo an irritatingly sounding laugh, "Imagine if we were to let you go, what consequences we would suffer for doing such a foolish act like that? Of course, it is certain you'll go to the media once we let you go, sprouting all of these words with your useless little mouth. What better way is there to get rid of the evidence than murder?"

Murder. The man was suggesting murder, right infront of Kyungsoo. This man, who was Byun Baekhyun's father, his friend's father, wanted to kill him right now. He wasn't the only one though, Sehun's father probably wanted to do the same too. 

"A slow and painful death, or one shot and you're out?" 

Kyungsoo stared at the man with disgusted eyes. He didn't answer, he didn't know what to say. It was going to stupid to choose either one of the deaths, because there was no way he was going to choose how he was going to die in the hands of this man. He still had so many things to do, dying now would be so uncalled for... All his friends would suffer because of him, he couldn't die now. Absolutely no.

When Kyungsoo didn't answer, the man swiftly pulled out a gun from his coat, shocking everyone around him, even the men who were whipping Kyungsoo earlier. No one knew how he had gotten his hands on the fatal weapon, but the rich could afford anything, so no one asked.

As Mr. Byun aimed his gun at Kyungsoo, one of his men spoke up, "S-Sir, aren't you going a bit too far? After all, you said you would only whip this kid, and then release him." This stoic bodyguard knew how to give mercy after all.

"SILENCE! WHEN I SAY I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING, I NEVER GO BACK ON MY WORDS! I'm not afraid to kill..." Mr. Byun's fingers trembled, hesitating to pull on the trigger. His hands were trembling while he held the gun, it was obvious to many that he was frightened. He had no guts to shoot Kyungsoo right here and now.

"Shoot me," Kyungsoo beckoned, suddenly finding it amusing on how the elder man who was so cocky a minute before didn't dare to shoot him. It wouldn't be fun if he didn't mock him, although it could've been risky.

For a second, Mr. Byun seemed taken aback, "W-What? Y-You really want me to shoot you?"

"Didn't you hear what I said, or do you have some sort of hearing disorder? Hurry up and shoot me, unless you're too scared?" Kyungsoo snickered.

"I w-will shoot you!" Mr. Byun gritted his teeth, but before he could act on his words, the gigantic doors of the warehouse, revealing three high school students Kyungsoo knew all too well.

"Holy s-s-, is your dad holding a gun--" Baekhyun elbowed Chanyeol in the waist, causing the giant to shrink back behind him.

"Stop it, you old man! What the heck do you think you're doing?!" Kyungsoo saw the disappointment in Baekhyun's eyes when he saw his own father pointing his gun at Kyungsoo, "I know you like giving people punishments, but if it's to this extent... then I really can't consider you as my... family..."

"Byun Baekhyun... you..."

"Dad," Everyone widened their eyes when the word rolled off Baekhyun's mouth with much effort, even the men seemed to look shocked. They had never heard the boy call his father 'dad' in a long time. He continued, "Listen... I know this is happening because you want me to take over your company, but I just can't. It's not what I want to do, dad, it's not what my dream is. And I'm contented with whatever I'm doing with my friends right now, eventhough you view it as immoral, but yeah... the situation turned out like this... I never thought I would ever say this to you, but I'm sorry. You've never been such a good father to me, but I admit, I've never been such a good son ever, and that's why I'm apologising right now. Someday, dad, I'll find a way to repay you, so could you just trust me for now?"

Basically, they had a teary father and son reunion, where Mr. Byun finally understood his what his son's dreams were. Kyungsoo felt happy to see them reconcile, it warmed a part of his heart. 

And there was a part of him that felt a tiny bit jealous. Just a tiny bit.

But he was too exhausted to do anything, and he out on the spot.

"Do Kyungsoo, are you alright?" Mr. Gu's voice rang through his ears, causing the boy to look forward instead of wincing from the pain on his back, "You look as if you're in pain, do you need to see the nurse?"

"... Excuse me, sir..." Kyungsoo stood up, all eyes were on him, "I'll go to the infirmary, since I'm not feeling well." He was the only person in the room with sweat falling profusely from his forehead. Everyone looked fine, except him. He walked limply to the doorway, almost stumbling as his vision began to blur.

"Hey, Kyungsoo, you alright-" He held up his hand, stopping Chanyeol from rising from his seat. The giant looked hesitant, but settled back down in his seat, knowing that his friend was going to be stubborn if he followed.

Kyungsoo hadn't talked to anyone for the whole week, or maybe it was more like, he barely said anything. Whenever his friends wanted to drag him along with them to Hongdae, he rejected, saying he had other things to do. The other day, Baekhyun had told him about an available gang fight offering a few million, but he rejected that too.

Really, he didn't feel like doing anything.

The unendurable pain on his back from the whips were already driving him crazy. He was too occupied with other things to tend to them, so he just left the wounds there for a whole week. He never told anyone about them. When Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Minjae, Minseok or Luhan asked him about what had happened, he simply said Mr. Byun had punched him 'weakly' a few times in the face. He also never told anyone he'd been fighting other gangs by himself for the whole week, he'd already managed to gather an extra 50 million, even having the guts to track their hideouts and looting all their money in one go.

Trouble was all around him, it stuck to him like glue. Back at North, and here, there wasn't a month he would find peaceful. All because of his damned father, and those stu