“Yerin, how many times do I need to tell you that you shouldn’t be here?” Sunggyu frowned as the little girl came bounding towards him. “You need to stop coming.”

“But I like hanging out with you, ahjusshi,” Yerin said sweetly. “All the other people are busy so there’s no one to read to me or play with me.”

Sunggyu shook his head. “No, it is dangerous here, Yerin. You shouldn’t be here.”

She shook her head. “No, Sunggyu-ahjusshi is fun!”

“I’m not, Yerin.”

“You talk to me since nobody else has time. I think you’re fun.” She looked to the other side of the room. “And Woohyun-ahjusshi is nice too.”

Sunggyu glanced at Woohyun who was sitting at them and staring. “Is that right?”

Yerin nodded enthusiastically. “Because he gave my family a room to live in.”

“I see,” Sunggyu mused. Yerin came to sit in his lap and he didn’t stop her. He used to try and stop her, but she was relentless. So eventually he just gave in and let her sit on him. She was harmless anyways.

“So how come you’re not fighting with the rest of them?” Yerin asked, playing with the edges of his sleeves. “Why do you guys stay in here? Don’t you want to fight?”

Sunggyu’s lips pursed firmly as he sat a little straighter. “No. Absolutely not.”

Yerin tilted her head. “Why not? Don’t you want to save the city too?”

“No, he doesn’t,” Woohyun spoke up. Sunggyu caught his gaze heatedly as Woohyun continued. “He doesn’t want to save the city.”

“I want to save the city,” Sunggyu clarified, “but from people like you.”

Woohyun narrowed his eyes. “People like me are going to make the system fair. I don’t see why you’re trying to hold us back.”

“Because you’re trying to interfere with the peace.”

“Maybe what the city needs is a little chaos before it can get back on track.” Woohyun sniffed and looked away. “Peace can only last for so long before it just becomes an excuse to do things. Like arresting people,” he said with a bitter tone laced in his voice. “Isn’t that right, Sunggyu?”

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes. “Wrong. You’re wrong. You wouldn’t get it. None of you rebels get it.”

“You know, I might be a rebel but I would still save a guard if I needed to. But what about you? Would you save a rebel? You wouldn’t.”

“Why not, Gyu-ahjusshi?” Yerin asked suddenly, looking up at him.

Sunggyu raised an eyebrow. “Yerin, do you know what a rebel is?”

“A rebel…? I think that’s what my brothers are,” she said slowly. “I think they say something like that.”

Woohyun looked at them. “Sunggyu doesn’t like the rebels, Yerin. He hates us.”

Yerin kneeled up and held Sunggyu’s shoulders. Looking in the eye, she asked with a tilt of her head, “Do you hate me, ahjusshi?”

“Of course not,” Sunggyu told her, brushing her hair back. “I don’t hate you.”

“And you don’t hate my brother either, right?” she asked him. “If anything happens to us, you’ll protect to us. Right?”

Sunggyu’s smile turned upside down in confusion. “Protect you guys? Yerin, I-I only really know you.”

“But you have to promise to protect me,” she said. “And protecting me is protecting my family. Pinky swear?” she asked sweetly, holding up her finger.

“Yerin, I told you I don’t fight for the rebels.”

“But you’re fighting for me,” she replied. “So pinky promise?”

It took Sunggyu a few moments of conflicted silence to nod his head slowly. Biting his lip he whispered, “Okay, I promise.”

Yerin wrapped her pinky around his affectionately. It really made Sunggyu wonder how he could have gotten so close to someone so small in such a short period of time. She giggled happily and hugged him. It felt weird hugging her, almost like he shouldn’t have been allowed to. She was too innocent to be stuck in a place like this.

When she pulled away, she looked at him curiously. “Why don’t you like the rebels, ahjusshi? They’re good aren’t they?”

“I don’t know.” Sunggyu shook his head unknowingly. “I don’t like them, Yerin. I don’t.”

“So… you hate Woohyun-ahjusshi?”

“…No,” he said quietly, meeting Woohyun’s eyes. “I don’t hate him.”

“Hoya what’s going on? We’re about to go over the attack plan with the others.”

“Yeah, I know. I just need to talk to some of the guys in training,” Hoya replied. He was already walking past Dongwoo in the hall. “I need to ask one of them to step up to join one of the other teams. Mir hurt himself while training the other day.”

Dongwoo cast him a look before saying, “…Alright. Just make sure you make our meeting, okay? We’re counting on you.”

Hoya nodded. “Yeah, you guys are counting on me. I know.” His voice seemed shaky. “It’ll be really quick, I just need to check in with the new recruits and see which of them is the most capable to join us in the leading team.”

“Okay,” Dongwoo replied reluctantly. “Make it quick.”

Hoya nodded at him as Dongwoo walked away. How unfortunate it was that Mir got hurt right before the important day. He was one of the people who felt passionate to fight.

Dongwoo shook his head. The last week had been a surreal flurry of activity. Everybody was preparing for the surprise attack and there was no time for fooling around in this place. The atmosphere was much darker when Dongwoo arrived back to this place, but that was probably because of the shock concerning Woohyun. Dongwoo knew that Woohyun had made a bad decision – a terrible decision, really. But he didn’t hate him.

Even if he didn’t hate him, it would be difficult to convince anybody else otherwise.

Dongwoo passed the room in which Woohyun and the captain of the guard were held captive. It was upsetting to know what had happened, of course, but Dongwoo couldn’t bring himself to despise them the way Hoya did. Because in his eyes, Woohyun hadn’t sold them out or aided the captain of the guard in any way. His loyalties lay clear in Dongwoo’s eyes. But perhaps it was only Dongwoo who thought that way. After all, everybody here seemed set on being able to blame somebody and Woohyun was on the receiving end of all that.

But that still didn’t change Woohyun’s hypocritical actions. His poor decisions still remained as a testimony to how he should not have been their leader. Even Dongwoo would admit that having Woohyun as their leader was not a bright idea. But at the very core, he knew where Woohyun’s loyalties lay at the very least. He could maybe forgive him just from that.

Forgiveness was one thing, but trust was something else completely. And he didn’t plan on trusting Woohyun any time soon. Not after Hoya had told him that had originally Woohyun refused to rescue him.

Biting back a sigh, Dongwoo swung open the door to the kitchen. The kitchen seemed to be their new place for meetings. It was more comfortable than the awful office Hoya used to coop himself up in, that was for sure.

Myungsoo and Sungyeol were there already, along with Sungjong. There was a bowl of gruel in the center but Dongwoo couldn’t find it in himself to eat. He was too nervous for the next day. They were going to infiltrate the Capital Building tomorrow.

Hoya had already briefed them on the details. They were to go inside and pin down the other team one step at a time. It needed to be a surprise so that the guards didn’t have a chance to be ready to fight back. And at the core of their plan was to get to the president and take him out. Once he was out of the picture, they would be able to rise into authority and start anew.

“Hey.” Dongwoo sat down in a seat. “How are the plans going?”

“They’re going fine,” Sungjong replied, pushing a glass of juice towards him. “Have something to drink.”

Dongwoo pursed his lips at the grimy glassed and pushed it away from him. “No thanks, I’m okay. Not up for a stomachache today.”

Myungsoo nodded his head as if he understood. He spooned more gruel into his mouth though so maybe he didn’t understand.

“Dongwoo, you haven’t eaten in three days,” Sungyeol told him. “You should eat something before we set out tonight.”

They were supposed to set out late in the night, probably at two in the morning. Everybody was napping now in order to get energy for later. Everybody except for them of course. But Dongwoo continued to shake his head. “It’s okay,” he said. “If I eat anything now I’ll probably just end up barfing it up later. I’m too anxious to even eat properly.”

“We’re all anxious,” Myungsoo told him. “You’re not alone. We’re all going to be nervous as we start this invasion. It’s our first time doing something on a grand scale.”

“It is.” Sungyeol nodded.

Sungjong continued, “And we can only hope that everything goes as planned. If not, Hoya will have to call for a retreat. And that’s honestly the last thing we want.”

“Unless we need it.” Dongwoo frowned. “I hope we won’t need to retreat though. It’ll only make the Capital Building more arrogant.”

Myungsoo sat up. “But back to business. Have you figured out how we’re going to get in? We know of two entrances, right?”

“Yeah,” Sungyeol replied, nodding. “The way Hoya brought me in and the way he took me out. So there are two entrances for sure.”

“Which groups will be going through which entrance?”

“Well we have two groups going in first to take out to secure the area and make room for everyone else to come in and wreak havoc,” Myungsoo said. “Joon is leading one group. What about ours?”

Sungjong crossed his arms and said, “Joon’s team is more experienced with stealth, that’s why they’re all together. I think we should have them go through the exit so that they can sneak in. Hoya’s group is better at combat so they should go through the front and take on any guards there. That’s Hoya’s plan.”

“It sounds solid to me,” Myungsoo stated. “Once we’ve gotten inside, we can make sure everyone else gets in safely too.”

Dongwoo nodded. “I think the plan we have now is fine. Another question we need to address is, if our plan works, who will be… taking the torch, so to speak. Who’s going to start the reform?”

Everybody exchanged glances slowly and Sungyeol began, “I think it’s safe to say… that Hoya would be the one taking responsibility afterwards.”

“Hoya seems to be the only option,” Myungsoo said gruffly. “If he leads us to victory then it’s only right that he leads the new movement.

“Well, only if you all feel that way.”

Everybody looked up to find Hoya speaking from the doorway of the kitchen. He sauntered over but even Myungsoo could see that his gaze was shaking slightly. Sitting down at the table, Hoya took in a sharp breath. “You all think I should take control once the president is eliminated?”

“Are there any other options?” Dongwoo asked him. “Sungyeol and Myungsoo are leaving afterwards, right?”

“Yes.” Myungsoo nodded.

“And Sungjong?” Dongwoo looked pointedly at the younger.

Sungjong uncrossed his arms and sighed. “I think… I will be opening up a hospital afterwards. There will be lots of injured people afterwards and I think what this city needs most is a hospital that is accessible to all.”

Hoya blinked and replied, “That’s a good idea.”

“So it sounds like we’ve worked most of the important details out,” Dongwoo said. “Are there any objections?”

Sungyeol glanced over at Myungsoo who shook his head with his eyes trained on the table. Sungyeol shook his head as well.
“No objections?” Hoya repeated. There was no noise yet again and he bit his lip. “I guess it’s settled then. I… will be taking over once we impeach the president from his position.”

They all nodded but Hoya couldn’t help but notice that Myungsoo was nodding half-heartedly. He threw the notion away with a subtle shake of his head – Myungsoo’s opinion wouldn’t matter much longer. After he and Sungyeol left the city, they would be irrelevant.

Hoya took a deep breath to himself as the area cleared out. Dongwoo had given him a solid pat on the back before leaving as well. They all needed to get rest. Their invasion would start in a few hours. But Hoya couldn’t get those ever present butterflies out of his stomach.

“Do you hear that?”

“I do, Woohyun.”

“That’s the rebels going out to regain the Capital Building.”

“It was never theirs to begin with.”

“They’re going to get it, hyung. They’re going to succeed.”

“I still don’t get why you’re staying. They don’t need you – they’re obviously going to battle with or without you by their side. Why do you still stick around?”

“Because I want to see them succeed.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“You’re never going to help them, are you? With all the power you have to do something, you’d never help us.”

“You can’t bet I wouldn’t.”

“Alright, but believe me Sunggyu – there’ll be a time where you will.”

“There’s no way.”

“Just you wait, hyung. The will be a time.”

“The only one I’ll help is Yerin.”

“I know that.”

Sungyeol was livid. He was beyond mad and he didn’t care for the words Myungsoo was shouting at him to calm down. He pushed through the people in his group to find their captain.

They were right in front of the entrance to the Capital Building before Sungyeol had realized something that set his anger ablaze. He had to push Myungsoo off of him because standing in his squadron of fighters was his brother. His brother who he thought was safely with the back-up troops. That he thought was out of harm’s way.

“Hoya!” he barked.

He yanked Daeyeol along roughly, who was struggling to protest. “Hyung!”

Hoya turned to look at him with a raise of his eyebrow. “What is it?”

Sungyeol pulled Daeyeol forward and pointed at him. “What in the name of hell is my brother doing here?! He’s supposed to be a part of the back-up troops!”

“Mir broke his arm and couldn’t fight so I needed someone to fill in his spot! Your brother happens to be the most talented out of the new recruits. He fights as if he’s on our level.”

“That doesn’t matter! He has no experience at the front lines at all! What gave you the idea to put him here?! Why didn’t you just fill the spot with someone else?!”

Myungsoo came up behind him, putting a hand on Sungyeol’s shoulder. “Hey, babe – what’s done is done. We have to work with what we got.”

Sungyeol pushed his hand off violently. “I refuse to let my baby brother be in the face of danger!”

“Hyung, I can fight!” Daeyeol told him, embarrassed of all the gazes boring into him. “Hoya picked me for a reason, I can do this!”

“I told you that your first battle wasn’t going to be in the heat of all the action!” Sungyeol told him harshly. “You can’t be risking your life like that!”

“Then why do you get to?!” Daeyeol retorted. “You’re risking your life just as much as I am!”

“Daeyeol, you’re going to have to take care of your sisters if mom and dad don’t come back! Or if I don’t come back!”

“You both need to calm down,” Myungsoo told them, gripping Sungyeol’s wrist fiercely. “What’s done is done – it’s too late to send him back now, Sungyeol. And we need to keep going right now if we’re going to stick to our plan’s timeline. We can’t risk to fail this if you want to get your parents back. Remember?”

“I remember, Myungsoo,” Sungyeol breathed out harshly. “But bringing my brother into this was not part of the plan.”

“Then you’re going to need to adapt,” Myungsoo said. “We can’t have this little problem mess up our plan. Okay?”

Sungyeol huffed out of his nose, not answering.

“Okay?” Myungsoo repeated.

“Okay,” Sungyeol agreed reluctantly. He let go of his brother’s wrist and brought his hand up to his brother’s hair instead. He shook it gently. “Sorry for my outburst. You better watch your back then, kiddo. I can’t look after you and myself at the same time.”

Daeyeol’s face relaxed and he almost broke into a smile. “Will do.”

Hoya let out a breath of relief that he didn’t even realize he was holding in. He gave Myungsoo a short nod of thanks for sorting that issue without him having to get involved directly. Hoya hadn’t realized he had chosen Sungyeol’s brother – he only saw the kid as a talented fighter that he could temporarily replace Mir with. He wished he had Dongwoo by his side but Dongwoo was a part of Joon’s stealth group along with Sungjong.

“Let’s keep going,” Sungyeol said breathily. “It’s okay now.”

“You sure?” Hoya asked.

Sungyeol nodded. “I’m sure. I can’t do anything about this right now, so let’s go. If we’re late, the other team will be disadvantaged.”

“You’re right, of course. I’ll open the grate to the sewer and you guys will go down first, okay?” he said, speaking to the group as a whole. Everyone nodded together and Hoya pursed his lips in nervous. “Let’s get going. Dongwoo will never let me hear the end of it if we’re late…”

Sungyeol watched as Hoya opened the grate to the same underground tunnel that they had used to save Dongwoo the first time around. When they had gone, it was dark and there were nearly no guards on duty that day. And if there were, they were all distracted.

But this time around when they went through the underground tunnel, there were close to no guards there. Actually, there weren’t any guards at all. Sungyeol could feel everybody’s confusion start to seep into the atmosphere as they ventured further but still without any sign of a single guard. It was strange and almost… eerie.

“Something isn’t right…” Hoya muttered. “There should be some sort of lookout at the very least… The president knows where we are and he said he was expecting us. So why isn’t there anyone here?”

“I’m not… I’m not sure,” Sungyeol said to him quietly. He was almost as awestruck as everyone else at the pure silence. “They didn’t get to the stealth team first, did they? Or maybe our timing is just a bit off…”

Myungsoo’s eyes narrowed as he motioned for Sungyeol to be quieter. “Something is definitely wrong,” he muttered.

Their entire team crouched lower as they heard footsteps coming towards them from around the corner. Preparing to fight, they all pulled their masks tighter and waited patiently for battle. But when Joon suddenly rounded the corner, Sungyeol couldn’t hide the confusion on his face.

“Joon?” he asked. “What… what are you guys doing here?”

“I was going to ask the same thing!” Joon replied. “You guys didn’t take out all the guards yet by any chance, right?”

“We haven’t seen a single one,” Hoya responded, equally confused. “Are there no guards here today?”

“But that wouldn’t make sense.” Sungyeol shook his head. “There’s got to be someone hiding somewhere… or waiting–”

Joon’s eyes narrowed and he repeated, “Waiting.”

Hoya blinked. “You don’t think–”

“Get down!” Sungjong screamed suddenly.

But they all heard the gunshots before they could see them.

“Do you hear that?”

“I do, Sunggyu.”

“That’s the sound of frenzy – of chaos. And we both know that it’s too early for the troops to be back already.”

“I… know that.”

“That’s the sound of the reinforcements being dispatched. And we both know what that means.”

“I do know.”

“That means the rebels need help. Which means they’re losing.”

“T-They… they can pull through.”

“I think you and I both know that the rebels are losing. They’re not going to win this.”

Myungsoo couldn’t get a grasp of what was happening. The silence of their confusion had been interrupted violently by a barrage of bullets and guards and it had sent them scrambling for cover. They were on the defense and Myungsoo wasn’t even sure if they could recover to an offensive position. Hoya had already signaled for back up and Myungsoo just hoped that no one was getting too hurt.

But the bullets kept coming and they were being cornered. Eventually, Hoya had barked out a command to get out. It didn’t matter what happened, they just all needed to retreat and save themselves because it was clear that this surprise attack was not going to end in their favor.

Though through the panic and flurry, Myungsoo was yelling out for Sungyeol, trying to make sure that his boyfriend was alright.

“Sungyeol!” he yelled out. “Sungyeol!”

“I’m here, Myungsoo, I’m here!”

Myungsoo’s eyes searched around the crowd frantically for his boyfriend, but with so many people stampeding in one direction, it was difficult. He cringed at the sound of bullets being fired once again and for the first time in his life, he was actually scared.

“Yeol! Sungyeol!”

“Myungsoo!”

Then, finally, out of the corner of his eye he found his boyfriend. Sungyeol was running away desperately as well, but Myungsoo wanted to do nothing but run over and kiss him just because he was safe.

But his relief was short-lived because he heard the bullet before he could see it. And he saw the bullet before Sungyeol could. Myungsoo’s eyes opened wide and his heart dropped as he heard the unmistakable sound of Sungyeol screaming. And through the flurry and rush of everybody escaping, he could see Sungyeol’s eyes brim with tears as Daeyeol fell to the floor, bleeding.

Myungsoo felt frozen in time as he watched Sungyeol fall to his knees and clutch at Daeyeol’s chest. Daeyeol’s eyes were open but his chest was heaving up and down irregularly. Sungyeol was screaming out for Sungjong and was applying as much pressure to the bullet wound as he could. But even Myungsoo could see that the bullet had punctured a vital area and Daeyeol was bleeding out much too quickly.

He rushed over to their side in a heartbeat, taking off his jacket to help slow the bleeding. Sungyeol was crying and panicking and Myungsoo had to do all he could to calm him down. Sungjong appeared and did as much as he could to stop the bleeding on the scene. But now they had to carry him back to the compound, and they weren’t sure if Daeyeol would make it.

Daeyeol was coughing up blood, shaking and trying to make sense of the chaos around him. But his eyelids drooped and his breath was heavy as they were rushing him back to the base. Sungyeol was muttering words of comfort to him in his own panic and it was if he was trying to calm down both Daeyeol and himself.

Myungsoo was preparing himself for the worst.

“Ahjusshi! Ahjusshi!”

Sunggyu and Woohyun both looked up at the sound of the shrill crying. Giving each other confused glances, they both stood up immediately because they both knew the owner of that high pitched voice.

They weren’t even able to reach the door before it swung open on its own, and Yerin came bounding at them with tears staining her cheeks.

“Yerin…?” Sunggyu murmured. “What’s the matter…? Why are you crying?”

Woohyun bent down and wiped a couple tears away but to no avail. “Hey little girl, what’s wrong?”

Yerin pulled at their sleeves while trying to speak through her hiccups. “Y-You have to come help me! Daeyeol, my brother–!”

“Calm down, Yerin,” Sunggyu told her gently.

She only tugged at his hand harder. “Sunggyu-ahjusshi, you promised to protect my family, right? Please help me, my brother needs your protection!”

“Yerin, what are you talking about–”

“Please, please – you need to protect my brother!”

Sunggyu allowed her to yank him out of the room with Woohyun following close behind. She kept crying, asking him to protect her brother and that he promised so he had to. Sunggyu wasn’t sure what to make of her words.

But then Sunggyu and Woohyun were pulled into her room and their eyes were suddenly greeted with the sight of blood and many people. There were three grown boys hovering over a younger one, who was bleeding profusely. They were trying desperately to stop the bleeding but it just kept getting worse. Their hands were getting stained and their teary faces were a testament of how hard they were trying to keep this boy alive. This boy that Yerin said was her brother.

Woohyun gasped behind him quietly. “Oh no…” he muttered. “Oh no, this is awful. Not Daeyeol, not that innocent kid.”

No one seemed to notice their entrance but Sunggyu was still shocked to his very core at the scene. It didn’t matter which side he fought for – the death of an innocent was never a welcome sight.