The purplish blue sky showed signs of the rising new dawn, birds beginning to wake and start singing. At this point of time most people lay asleep, except for the rare few like one Park Jungsoo. Jungsoo lay awake on his bed thinking, his glasses by his bedside table he rubbed his eyes grimacing. His parents’ faces zoomed in his mind’s eye, again he was able to picture that fateful night when he had come back from school picking up his younger brother from kindergarten only to find their demolished house and burnt dead bodies of their parents.

Thinking of his brother, his mind’s eye conjured up Donghae’s picture. He remembered all those times he had to give up his childhood pleasures in order to look after his younger brother. His brother… his brother who had given him a reason to live. Suddenly Donghae’s image was replaced by Heechul’s, his soft brown waves falling on his beautiful pale skin.

Shaking his head Jungsoo let out a small grin; even though the person that his mind conjured up hated his guts (he didn’t know why), said person never failed to bring a smile on his lips with his fiery and challenging attitude.

Shrugging off his bed covers; he got off bed and slowly put on his glasses before checking the time. It had only just turned 6 am; sighing he scratched his neck as he made his way to the kitchen. He only had to wake his brother Donghae up by 7 at any rate, he might as well prepare their breakfast, he had enough money for lunch.

He was surprised however to see that his always reluctant to wake up younger brother was up and  drinking coffee (a drink that he usually hated) by the kitchen counter.

‘Hae-ah? What are you doing so early?’ Jungsoo asked gently when he woke Donghae up from his stupor. He immediately noticed the dark circles under Donghae’s eyes. His usually chirpy younger brother was now quiet…too quiet.

‘Huh?...Nothing hyung…I’m ok…’ He said as if in a daze. Not answering the actual question, he placed his half full cup on the kitchen counter as he walked past Jungsoo without paying any heed. Jungsoo followed his brother’s movements with his eyes, a dark glint in his eyes.

Simply shrugging his shoulders he heated Donghae’s cup of coffee in the microwave before consuming it himself. Looking at the time, he closed his eyes in deep thought.

9 am…university campus…

Unlike the other days Jungsoo did not wish Donghae a good day nor did he tell him to take care offering his beautiful dimpled smile. On the other hand Donghae himself was acting odd, as if he wanted to avoid his brother to the extent that he did not even want to see his brother’s face. Just when Jungsoo was about to say something after he saw Donghae to his campus, Donghae nodded his head slightly walking off quickly before any words could be exchanged.

Siwon stood by the gate watching the wordless awkward exchange between the usually close brothers.  Jungsoo dropped his hand that he had raised to ruffle Donghae’s hair as usual. Hiding his sadness he quickly ran off to his campus. Hearing his brothers fading footsteps, Donghae finally raised his head; his eyes tinted red and dark circles appearing.

‘Why were you acting so odd with your brother? And what’s with your look?’ Siwon asked quietly as he reached Donghae.

‘I didn’t sleep..…If I saw Soo hyung’s face…I would have burst into tears…it is possible that this could be our very last mission…I agreed to this readily but…the mere thought of not being able to live with my brother is killing me..’ Donghae sighed. Before going to his class, he turned his head slightly ‘Yah Siwon? You better not mention this to anyone else…’

12 pm…Common Canteen…

The members of Athena gang slowly came and gathered by their table which was under a large tree by the corner of the canteen offering them enough shade. The seven members sat waiting for the ‘meeting’ to begin. Late last night they had decided that the members of the Sapphire Jades and Athena would have a meeting to decide what would be happening.

After around 10 minutes had passed Heechul started cursing…something about a fake gang who could not live up to their names. Just when he was about to leave and dismiss the other members as well, he heard the footsteps of someone approaching. Turning around he saw that it was only Sungmin with a slightly taller dark haired man that he couldn’t recognise.

However something was different with the both of them; the usual cheerful and bright Sungmin now had cold, uncaring expression, as if he was bored to be where he was right now. Getting closer to their table the both of them sat down without asking. Just when Donghae was about to question one of his closest friends, Sungmin started to speak.

‘Heechul hyung please take a seat. As you should have guessed by now I am a member of the Sapphire Jades, so is Jongwoon hyung, I believe Siwon-shi knows who he is. Anyway putting aside the formalities our leader has decided that tonight by the abandoned warehouse down the road from here would be a good place to meet up. So what would you like? Would you like a show down or a peaceful treaty?’ Sungmin asked looking straight at Heechul.

The others on the other hand were unable to comprehend what was going on, especially Donghae, Siwon and Hangeng. Their close friends were actually their enemies? Those they had to kill in order to remain alive? Tightening their fists and biting their teeth in determination they decided to do what was necessary by following their leader that they trusted.

‘Excuse me?! Peaceful treaty?! So that you can stab us in our backs?! F$%k no! You think I’m stupid?! I live with backstabbers, I know how you guys work!’ Heechul replied back fiercely, speaking aloud what the others felt.

To the surprise of everyone instead of retorting with something equally as rude, Sungmin just chuckled and shook his head. ‘Hyung said you would do this as well. Alright then I’ll inform our leader that you have agreed to a showdown. We’ll be expecting you at 11 pm this evening.’ He said, as both he and Jongwoon got up to leave. Before leaving he said quietly, ‘If you are not in time we’ll be raiding your headquarters.’

9 pm…somewhere unknown….

‘Father are you seriously going to do it?’ Ju Myeok asked his father who was staring at his computer screen interested. His screen was presenting the secret camera foot tape of his daughter’s headquarters.

‘Of course. I didn’t want to kill her soon, but don’t underestimate her, now that she know that you are alive she will try something. Before that we have to exterminate her.’ His father let a cynical grin saying those words, as if they weren’t disturbing at all. ‘We now know that they are planning on meeting this “Sapphire Jades” or whatever! They probably are just some kids trying to play some. We can use that…get her and her group and obviously the credit goes to the Sapphire Jades…’ He explained chuckling darkly.

Instead of being disgusted by his father’s behaviour like usual people, Ju Myeok gave an equally disturbing grin.

10.58 pm….rundown warehouse….

‘So they tell us that we better not be late and yet they are?!’ Kibum asked annoyed as he watched his watch striking 11pm.

‘Actually we’re not late. If you had paid attention…which I doubt you had…you should know that we were meant to meet at 11…and the time now is…hmm let me see….oh! Its 11.’ A snarky young man around the age of 21 said.  He walked over slowly smirking at them and sat carefully on one of the random barrels. Closely following him was Sungmin.

Suddenly the members of Athena felt a bit underdressed, for they were wearing what they were usually wearing casual jeans and trainers (sneakers), ready for work, whereas so far the members of the Sapphire Jades seemed to be wearing Mafia outfits, in other words suits and dress shoes. The only difference seemed to be the colour of their shirts. The one who spoke seemed to be wearing an olive coloured shirt, whereas Sungmin wore red, unlike his usual pink loving self he look uninterested.

Heechul tensed, ears twitching he noticed out of his peripheral vision that two groups of men had them surrounded from the two exits, but unlike the members in front of him they were not wearing suits, they simply wore normal clothes. He was about to curse himself for being so foolish and trusting a gang to not fight dirty when he recognised one of the men; he was his father’s henchman. Biting his teeth hard he realised with anger that his father had decided to end him and this seemed to be the best possibility, foolish of him to think that he could change his father’s view of him. With relief he saw that Hangeng, Donghae and Siwon had also noticed and were ready.

Before any of them could move, the men barged into the warehouse firing shots. The shots rang throughout, as Heechul tried to reach for his gun. Noticing that he did not possess it, he turned around to see that the man he had recognised, his father’s favourite henchman was standing before him pointing his gun at his own forehead.

The man grinned maniacally, ‘Too bad you have to die as a guy…’ He started to pull the trigger when he dropped the gun and fell sideways. Heechul’s eyes widened to see a bright red spot appearing by his temporal lobe. He looked around wildly to see who had fired the shot to find no one. A sniper… 

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Guys I'm sooooooo sorry for updating so late....I had 4 tests to prepare last week, 4 this week as well. I'm really sorry, but I'll update the next chapter soon. Thank you everyone for subscring and commenting. And a special thank you for _Cieca_ for getting me to get this done quickly :)

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