As the men approach, Yukwon feels his skin crawl. They look like kkangpae men; bald, tatted, and ready for anything. He doesn’t know why they’d be here though – his contact said this was a simple deal.

He eyes his motorcycle. Should he run? The punishment for skipping out on this deal, however, couldn’t be as bad as what these men could do. The Boss would bring down hell on Yukwon and he doesn’t want that.

He takes a deep breath and steps forward.

//

It’s 2 pm when Minhyuk wakes up and senses something’s wrong. He’s lying on the couch in the hideout, and the air is hazy with smoke. As he sits up and rubs his eyes, the coffee table with last night’s vodka and cigarettes swims into view. He remembers the poker game – it got rather heated, with Jiho and Kyung nearly ended up at each other’s throats, with only Taeil and Jihoon holding them back. Kyung had spat into Jiho’s face and all the others had gasped at the insubordination, but their leader had simply turned his head and walked away.

At that thought, Minhyuk looks over to the other couch, where Jiho is sitting, a glass in his hand. Minhyuk stands up and stretches, feels his back crack.

“What’s on the agenda for today, leader?”

Jiho looks up, a scowl on his face. “Yukwon’s meant to be doing a deal with our new contact – picking up a couple of billion won in exchange for the goods – but he hasn’t come back yet, the jjin dda.”

Minhyuk’s stomach twists. Yukwon is the most inexperienced member of the gang, having only been recruited a few weeks ago. “Why the did you send Yukwon?” He spits. He is strangely protective of the younger man who never stops smiling. Besides, it’s an unspoken rule to only send experienced members on deals of over a billion won or more.

Jiho smiles and it chills Minhyuk down to the bone. It’s that smile that they all know, when Jiho is feeling particularly evil. “Because Kyung was meant to do the deal. Do you know how much commission he was getting? And can you imagine his face when Yukwon, the newcomer, gets it instead of him? It’ll be the best thing.”

Minhyuk swears and turns away. He balls his fists and resists the urge to drive them into Jiho’s face, smashing away that stupid smug smile. Instead he takes a breath and turns back around.

“That deal was with the kkangpae. He knows that, right?” Minhyuk says, as calmly as he can. The Korean mafia is not to be ed with and often they need a certain level of diplomacy to be dealt with safely.

Jiho’s smile grows wider and again Minhyuk swallows the urge to hit him. “Nope.”

//

Yukwon’s eyes barely register the sight of the man’s fist as it hits him square in the jaw. His head ricochets around at the impact and before he can think straight he is on the ground, being kicked in the stomach. The air explodes out of him with a cough, and he writhes on the ground trying to breathe.

What did he do wrong?

//

Minhyuk kicks the coffee table clean across the room. It bangs against the wall and collapses in a pile. Taeil looks up from the other side of the room with a concerned look on his face; he already had to deal with last night’s fallout, and he really doesn’t want to deal with a new conflict today.

Jiho just laughs at the sight of the obviously distressed Minhyuk, which makes him even madder.

“You sent a newcomer, who barely knows anything about life, let alone this business, to do a multi-billion won deal with the ing kkanpae. Are you stupid? No, actually, don’t answer that. You’ve already done it for me.” Minhyuk spits, his chest heaving.

He doesn’t know where this vitriol is coming from, not really. He shouldn’t care this much about Yukwon, the stupid little newcomer with his wide grin, but he does.

“Where was the deal?”

“Some parking lot in Hongdae. Why?”

“I’m going to find him and save his from the kkanpae nutjobs, you seki.”

//

Hongdae is a big district, and it had been 10 minutes since Minhyuk had left the base. He had a few ideas as to where the deal could be happening – Jiho tended to pick parking lots that all looked very similar. Perhaps he had an obsession with architecture (or, rather, a lack of it). However, finding them was another story.

He sped through red lights on his motorcycle, with the angry horns of motorists going off all around him. He didn’t give a about traffic laws at this point in time, though. Finding Yukwon was too important. If the kkanpae had realized that Jiho had sent a newcomer, a baby, to do such a big deal, Yukwon could already be dead. Minhyuk could only hope that Yukwon gave off an air of superiority and matureness that he did not usually.

He grimaced and sped on.

//

The pain made his head spin and spots appear across his vision. He had been beat up before, but not like this, never like this. Whenever he dragged himself off the asphalt to stand up and face his attackers, one of them would floor him again with another punch. Then, when he was on the ground, they would kick him in the legs, the head, the stomach – anywhere they could reach, laughing all the while.

Except Yukwon didn’t have the energy to stand up anymore. Liquid streamed into his eyes and as he groggily wiped it away, he realized it was blood.

I’m dying, he thought.

//

The sixth parking lot Minhyuk tried was the jackpot. The moment he saw the black motorcycle, he knew this was it. As he ran towards the figure lying on the ground, surrounded by blood, his mouth tasted like bile. What if Yukwon was dead?

He skidded to a stop and dropped to his knees next to the prone body, rolling him over with care. It was as bad as he had feared; a broken nose, some teeth missing, and some serious head wounds.

“Oh, Jesus. What have they done to you?” Minhyuk murmered, cradling Yukwon’s bloody head in his lap. He could kill Jiho for doing this to him. “Please, Yukwon, wake up.”

//

He was floating in the darkness.

He was so comfortable. He didn’t want to move. He wanted the darkness’s endless beautiful embrace, and sighed as he felt himself moving towards it. He wanted to just give in, to sleep. He was tired.

He was so damn tired.

As he felt himself floating towards the blackness, felt it curl its tendrils around his arms, he heard a voice. No! He wanted to shout to it, leave me here!

The tendrils tightened as he swam backwards, towards the light.

No… Leave me here.

//

As Yukwon opened his eyes, Minhyuk’s own filled with tears.

//

As Yukwon opened his eyes, he saw Minhyuk’s face above him, and smiled. “Ah… Hyung… I was worried if you were ever going to turn up.” He croaked, his voice hoarse from where his throat had been stepped on.

Minhyuk laughed as Yukwon grinned that cheeky grin, and he knew, everything was going to be okay.