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Everything is loud. Too loud.
Chan is talking about something. He rarely isn’t. There’s always something to be discussed. Something to be planned. Something to be worked on. If Jisung knew that becoming part of a gang would require this much work, he would have never joined to begin with, let alone agree to help Chan run it after his father’s death.
“We got a new delivery of Barrett M82/M107 and Remington 700.”
He just wanted to pluck some eyes out and tears the trips of people who made this planet a little less breathable. He wanted to smoke what he wanted and have fun like he wanted. He wanted to mess around with what was legal and not, belong somewhere, be needed , feel the weight of a gun in the palm of his hand and shoot some people, even if that included a bit too much blood for Changbin’s liking.
This undercover collaboration with the cops allowed them to stay out of prison and afford this building. It allowed them to be not just a gang, but the mafia. He’s unsure though if the additional work really is worth the trouble.
“If you’d rather something else, we have a new merchandise of M24 and M110 on the way. I know you like those better, but we don’t have a lot of their munitions in stock. We’ll have to order more.”
For example, he wouldn’t have spent last night on this hard as rock couch if they didn’t have to do their dirty work. He never liked this basement anyway. It’s stuffy, old, smells of mold and dust and doesn’t even have a single window!
“So, which one do you want to work with?”
The ventilation system does the work, sure, but it could never compare to natural, fresh air. The artificial lights give him too many headaches to count. They also have to keep the place as casual as possible as not to attract unwanted attention, so it makes it even less comfortable. Couldn’t have Chan picked something better?
“Jisung?”
They could really use some good furniture in here. A TV could also do wonders; he wouldn’t be emptily staring at the gray, uneven ceiling if they had one. Maybe a little bit of paint too. And a bed. Please a bed. They spend too many sleepless nights her to—
“HAN JISUNG!”
Jisung jumps on his feet. He almost falls off the couch as he does so.
“Huh?”
His leader is staring back at him with a frustrated frown. Not angry, Chan’s rarely ever angry at them, but annoyed still. He’s standing behind their long meeting table, with various folders and maps sprawled in front of him. “Are you listening?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” The sniper of the team yawns behind his hand and tiredly advances towards him. On his right, Felix has a large sheepish smile on his face. He grabs a seat by his side and playfully hits the back of his head as he sits down. “You were talking about The Red Claws, the notorious organ trafficking gang.”
Jeongin scoffs. He raises an unimpressed eyebrow at him. He’s standing at the end of the table. “We’ve been talking about the OT mission for the past months.”
“And that’s why I ask myself, do I really have to be here?” Jisung rubs his eyes. “You know Hyung, I’ve memorized the plans of all their bases better than ours.”
“I know that. And I know that you’re tired, but we can’t let our guard down so close to our goal.” The leader rests his hands on the edge of the table. His white hair falls in front of his eyes to shadow the exhausted look that he’s bearing. “Seungmin is out there, trying to hack their system. We need to be ready for when he comes back.”
Jisung straightens up at the mention of their teammate. Guilt strikes his heart. Right. Seungmin is risking his life to get them inside their enemies’ base. He can’t be weak now. Can’t flatter or as much as blink. “Sorry. I'm sorry.” He clears his throat. “Is he done yet?”
“We should hear from him soon,” Felix informs with a sympathetic look on his face. He was the one charged of refilling 3racha’s coffee at the break of dawn. They had looked nothing less than zombies on their feet.
“Any news from Changbin Hyung?”
Chan sighs. “I told you they’re going to be okay Innie.”
“You don’t know that!” the younger lashes out. Stress lines crave the lines of his forehead. “Parking close to their building to hack them is a very cliché ‘how to get kidnapped by your rival gang 101’! ”
“Changbin is with him. Along with a dozen of our guys from unit 2 who are standing nearby in case of an emergency.” Jisung tries to sound more confident and collected than he feels. “Which there won’t be because he’s going to be fine. They don’t know his face and he’ll just be using his phone.”
“Keep telling yourself that. If something happens—”
Chan takes in a sharp inhale. “ Nothing will happen.”
Jeongin flexes his jaw and looks away.
The mafia leader turns to Felix. “Can you run us one more time through our armory?”
His acolyte stands up. “Sure.” He steps closer to the table and grabs a red pen. Then, he pushes some papers away to have a better look at the blueprints of The Red Claws’ theatre. He starts by encircling the secretary office, then the butlers by the entrance and the agents stationed in the corner of the main hall. He does the same for the servers in the dining room, the chef in the kitchen, and the staff working directly in the theatre. “Our undercover team will carry a suppressed handgun, most likely a HK MK23 for all silent kills. We’ll also give them a nine millimetres Glock 19 as a backup.”
He snatches a paper from a folder and underlines the guns that he just named.
“The assault team lead by Yeji and Changbin will enter through the backdoor. They will locate where they store the organs. They will carry a nine millimetres Submachine Gun, the HK MP5.”
His pen encircles all entries. “The entry team will wait until they get a confirmation that the merchandise was found before going in or if we are found. We have six doors. One in the back, one up front, and two on either sides. We’ll gear them with assault rifles, a 5.56 by 45 millimetres HK416, a Benelli M4, which is a semi-auto shotgun, and a nine millimetres pistol, the SIG P320 which is good for tight spaces.”
He moves to the plans of the nearby buildings and draws a couple of Xs. “Jisung, you and your team will be on the lookout on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings. The Red Claws will most likely be calling back up and will try to encircle us, so you’ll be there to get rid of them if they do. I recommend that you use a point 50 BMG Sniper Rifle, the Barrett M82. They are really good for stopping vehicles, which is probably what they’ll try to use against us.”
Jisung thoughtfully nods. It’s not his weapon of choice but it’ll do the job. “It’s fine with me.”
“Perfect.” Chan’s eyes fly over the marks Felix made. “We will launch the mission two weeks from now. Felix and a few of our people will attend tonight’s session undercover to give us an idea of how things run, and we’ll adjust our plan accordingly.” He looks back up at his freckled partner. “One more thing, when will your men come in?”
“Once the organs are found and the boss is killed. Your people need to be out by then.”
Jisung turns to him. Felix slithered his way in their gang so easily that Jisung often forgets that he’s still a cop. It’s easy to forget when you see the blood lust in his eyes as he dismembers their enemies for the fun of it.
“What about the sponsors and clients?”
“We need them alive to set an example and for the press.”
Chan hums in agreement. “Great. Once Seungmin is—”
The phone rings, cutting him short.
All eyes turn to it. Jisung’s stomach twirls. His palms start sweating. An uneasy feeling settles in his bones.
Chan grabs his phone from where it is discarded on his chair and quickly answers it.
“Hello?”
“—UNG! CHAN HYUNG!” Changbin screams. “CO—E R—D! DO Y—U HEAR ME? CODE RED!”
Jisung stops breathing. His heart skips a beat, and his stomach sinks at his feet. There’s no way. There’s no way .
“What happened?” Chan urgently asks. He puts his phone on speaker and signals at Jeongin to grab his laptop. “Where are you?”
“THEY TOOK HIM! I-I DON’T K-KNOW HOW THEY FOUND OUT!” He’s panting through the phone and his voice is distorted. There are muffling and ruffling sounds as if he’s running. “HE WAS ALREADY GONE WHEN I ARRIVED!”
“Calm down. I need you to keep calm.” He puts the phone between his ear and shoulder and grabs as many folders and maps as he can. Felix and Jisung follows suit. He turns around and quickly marches to the elevator. There, he clicks on the top floor. “Tell me what happened again. In as much details as you can.”
“I- I WAS AT THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE AND HE WAS WAITING IN THE PARKING LOT, LIKE PLANNED. HE SENT ME AN SOS HALF AN HOUR IN.”
Chan uses his card to get the elevator to start moving. “Did you call backup?”
“THEY WERE ATTACKED! EIGHT ARE INJURED AND FIVE ARE DEAD!”
Jisung’s blood runs cold. He spots the moment Chan's face loses its colors.
“Police are on their way,” Felix informs, he’s on a phone call himself.
“THEY SLASHED OUR TIRES AND TOOK SEUNGMIN! I’M— I'M RUNNING BUT I DON’T KNOW WHERE— HOW—”
The metallic doors open. Chan steps into the large open office. “Sana! Run code red. Seungmin was taken and unit 2 was shot,” he orders to the front desk. The woman stares at him with wide eyes, but she quickly types on her keyboard. Instantly, the screen of all computers turns black. Red bold letters appear on them, reading CODE RED: KS22 kidnapped and Unit 2 shot.
Surprised gasps and concerned chatters raise in the room.
“Lily! I want everything you can find on The Red Claws. From their date of birth to the blood type of their late grandma.” He stops by the long table in between the secretary and the desks and throws on it the folders he was holding. Felix and Jisung do the same. “Kyle, I want the background of everyone who was on duty with Seungmin and Changbin today and everyone who worked in the doctor’s office where Changbin had his appointment. Run with Peter those you find suspicious and who could have ratted us out.”
The mafia members type in a code to unlock their computers and gets to work at once.
“Haewon, take your team, unit 3 and 4. Find Changbin and try to chase after the van who took Seungmin.” He hands her his phone where Changbin is still on the line.
“I’m sending you his location right now!” Jeognin shouts from where he’s sitting on the floor and furiously typing on his laptop. Haewon thanks him quickly and rushes to the elevator. Her teammates follow her.
“Momo, I want a detailed schedule of tonight’s representation and the background of all clients, staff and sponsors who will be attending.” Sounds and movements raise in the office. Phones start to ring and keyboards whine under the sudden rushed pressure. Chan remains stern and unphased.
“I have to go. The police just arrived at the scene of the crime.” Felix finally hangs up. “I’ll be contacting our borders and making sure they don’t take him out of the country.”
“Jihoon, go with him! Get the testimony of the survivors from unit 2 and contact the family of the deceased. Lia, contact all of our allies and ask them to dispatch their men in all ports of country. Take Unit 6 and 7 to cover the rest.” The leader raises his voice to be heard amongst the noise. “San, make me a list of our weaponry! Check if we can receive the ones we ordered sooner. If not, contact other suppliers from our database. Jeongin and Ryujin, track down Seungmin’s last localisation. They probably destroyed his tracker, but we can have an idea where they’re heading.”
He throws a glare across the room. He has all of his best brains here. They might not be as physically strong as his other units, but he trusts them to be able to find a lost needle in an ocean. “Everyone else, I want you to go through all warehouses, abandoned buildings and Red Claws’ bases that you can find. Dispatch unit 5 and 8 there. I don’t care if they flew him to Mars. We’re going to find him.”
“YES BOSS,” the entire team says with the same voice.
When Chan turns back to the meeting table, he finds the leaders of each division; Jihyo, Hongjoong, Suho, S.Coups and Yeji, already reviewing the folders and maps he brought along. Thankfully, they are all at the HQ today for the run through of the OT mission. Normally, most of them don’t even set a foot in the headquarters. They are dispatched in various locations across the globe for a better contact with their suppliers, sponsors and other allies. Suho, for example, just flew back from Italy yesterday and Jihyo from Japan.
Chan’s immensely thankful towards them. It wasn’t an easy task for them to trust and respect him when he took after his father; most of them are far more experienced than he is. It was rough at first, but they all remained loyal to the gang and learned to believe in Chan’s leadership.
“We need a new plan,” he tells them. “Scratch the two weeks. We need to take down The Red Claws right now. ”
“How soon is right now? ” Suho pensively thinks. “Even if we manage to get enough weapons through other suppliers, half of our units are not available. The cops are not ready for the raid yet and we need to go through the guest lists again, the plan and their men.”
“I’m not even sure if the big boss is in the country,” Yeji chimes in.
Hongjoong looks through his papers. “The fastest we can do is a week.”
Jisung steps in. “Seungmin can’t wait a week! He might not even be alive by then!”
“They are not going to kill him,” Jihyo rolls her eyes. They might have accepted Chan as their new leader, and they do tolerate Changbin, but Jisung is a far other discussion. To them, he’s nothing but a baby who likes to pretend that he’s tough. “He is too precious of a hostage. They’ll use him to make us sing.”
“FOUND HIM!”
All eyes snap to Jeongin. He’s still sitting cross legged on the floor. “I found a CCTV still working on the 9th avenue. The others were all destroyed or turned off, but they forgot this one.” He furiously taps at his keyboard. “They are heading north in a 2021 Ford Transit 350 HD, black edition. No license plate. Sending the localisation right now.” The clicking grows quicker and more furious as his teammates receive the new information.
Jisung crouches down by his side. “Can you follow them?”
“Not yet but I'm working on it. We’ll narrow down the perimeter and track all cameras in the neighborhood. I just sent the location to Haewon’s team and unit 3 and 4.”
“I know the car. My dad used to have the same.” Ryujin stands up and continue working hunched, as if the adrenaline running through her body can’t keep up with the speed of her fingers and thoughts. “The radio is connected to nearby power polls. If I can get inside their database, I can hack it and put through something loud so that we can speak with Seungmin Oppa without them noticing.”
“How would you talk with him though?” Jisung asks
“Oppa has an emergency walkie-talkie on him at all time. It’s tiny enough to be hidden in the sole of his shoe. It’s not traceable but we can talk with him.”
“Everyone silence I think I have him on the line!” Jeongin shouts.
The room that had significantly hushed its noise entirely quietens. No one moves, no one breathes, no one taps at their keys or roll their chairs.
“Seungmin Hyung? Can you hear me?”
Distorted glitches answer him.
“Hyung? Are you there?” he tries again in a rushed whisper.
“I h... hear y—you. C—n you... hear m—me?”
“Yes. Yes, we can hear you. Where are you? Do you know where you’re heading?”
“Van’s black. Tha...That’s all I know. I don’t k—know where w—we are going either.” His breathing comes harshly, as if he’s panting and can’t quiet catch his breath. His voice is no higher than a gentle whisper.
“We are tracking you down. Just hold on, okay?”
More glitches and statics get in the line, cutting wherever he said.
Jisung leans toward the laptop. “Seungmo? Are you still there?”
“H— Hurts,” he mutters with an audible wince. “It hurts.”
Nausea twirls Jisung’s guts. “What hurts? Are you injured?”
“They s... stabbed my l— leg. I have a k—knife lodged in my thigh.”
Chan quickly approaches them. “Seungmin. Seungmin do you hear me? You need to tie your wound. Don’t remove the knife, just tie your thigh so the bleeding stops. It’s like I taught you, remember?”
“N-No. No, I can’t. I can’t do it.”
“You have to,” Chan urges, gritting between his teeth. “You’re not going to stupidly die on us like this.”
The loud radio that Ryujin had hacked suddenly turns off and the engine stops. “I have to go,” Seungmin shakily whispers before the transmission cuts off.
Hurried and worried chatters fill the room again. The loud clatter of fingers typing and clicking away engulf the office like a pack of bees.
Jisung stands up and watches their leader anxiously turn back to the table. Neither say anything.
Seungmin is a computer engineer. He is a genius at what he does. He built from scratch their entire security system and is the lead informatician and hacker of the team. What he is not, is a fighter like them. He belongs in an office, behind the scenes, and that has always worked for them. Not everyone working for the mafia or a gang is on the front line, and that is fine.
It becomes a problem when the enemy gets their hands on him, because they know he is the weakest, and yet most precious member.
“I FOUND HIM! I FOUND WHERE THEY TOOK HIM!”
The commotion halts to turn to Jun. His desk is in the second row in the back, two seats away from Ryujin who rushes to him. “15th avenue, HAR street. They have an old base there. An abandoned building who used to be a mental hospital. The upper floors were renovated into meeting rooms, but the project was never finished.”
“That’s where they store the organs. Why would they take him there?” S.Coups, the head of Jun’s division, walks up to him and grabs a handful of blueprints of the building that his teammate prints and hands him.
“It’s a trap. It must be infested with their men.” Chan rests his hands on the table and thinks hard. “We have to go there with a solid plan.”
Jisung scoffs in disbelief. He walks up to him. “A plan? We don’t have time for a plan. We have to head there right now .”
Chan doesn’t look up. “We can’t rush in. They will be waiting for us.”
“Do you have something in your ears? Did you not hear him?” the sniper raises his voice. “They stabbed him! He might not stay alive long enough for you to come up with your stupid plans!”
Chan turns to him. His jaw tenses with anger, but he remains calm. “If I order my people to go there blindly, there will be hundreds of deaths.”
“So what, the lives of your little minions are better than your friend’s life? We should just let him bleed to death and let them harvest his organs?”
“That’s not what I’m saying —”
Jisung points a threatening finger at his chest. “If something happens to him, if I l-lose him,” his voice wobbles, “I’ll never forgive you.”
He turns around and storms away.
The door to the staircase slams shut behind him.
---
Jisung was ten when he first heard of The Phantoms. He was twelve when he started hanging out with them in the dishevelled streets of his neighborhood, and he was fourteen when he officially joined them.
It had been an easy decision to make back then, one he was thrilled about. His mom had overdosed not long ago, his father was living on the meager salary of his deplorable fast-food job, and Jisung, at the tender age of nine, had inherited his mom's heroin addiction.
Chan’s family gang gave him a sense of community. Of belonging. They gave him food and sweets that didn’t taste like mold and ash. They put clothes on his back and a roof above his head that wasn’t expected to fall and crush him at any second. They made him feel important. Seen. They made a someone out of a kid who was expected to end up dead in some shady street. He met the best people in his life thanks to them, and the worst too, but that was to be expected. They even fed him enough heroin to keep him motivated.
But amongst everything, the best gift that The Phantoms gave him came in the form of two guys named Bang Chan and Seo Changbin.
Not only did they help him get clean, but Chan and Changbin brought humanity back in the eyes of a child who was taught that if he wasn’t a useful weapon, he was nothing more than a burden. They healed all the open and bleeding injuries that he forgot he was bearing. They made life oh so sweet and saved him more times than he can count.
Jisung would put a gun against his temple and pull the trigger if they as much as asked him to.
And so it comes as a surprise, more to himself than to Jeongin who’s asking him through the phone if he’s really doing this, that he’s going against Chan’s direct orders behind his back.
He trusts Chan with his life, but this is Seungmin’s life that they’re talking about. Seungmin who would sneak books and homeworks to Jisung when he was forced to drop out. Seungmin who would share his lunch with him even if he himself didn’t have much. Seungmin who called the ambulance and waited hours in the hospital when Jisung was eleven and overdosed. Seungmin who traveled for hours to come see him when he moved out to a better neighbourhood even though he was prohibited from keeping contact with him. Seungmin who never judged him or criticized him when Jisung took decisions he wished he didn’t. Seungmin, who joined the freaking mafia to keep a close eye on him and keep him safe.
Jisung would die if Seungmin died. His chest would cave in, crush his heart, and he would bleed all over his organs. For a very long time, Seungmin was the only streak of light in his life. The only person that kept him going.
What Jisung won’t do, is let him die in a world that he was brought into because of him.
He doesn’t expect anyone to get it, perhaps not even super emotionally intelligent Changbin.
Surprisingly, Jeongin seems to do.
“If Chan Hyung kills me because of this, I’m going to kill you,” he angrily whispers while tapping away at his laptop.
“I'll do your laundry for a year.” Jisung peaks around the corner, and watches as the red light of the camera located near the back door turns off. “I’ll buy you all the ugly shoes you want.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure.” His friend snickers. “You have thirty minutes to get in and out. I’ve hacked the cameras so that they show a fake tape, but I can’t keep them up for long.”
Jisung runs to the building as fast as he can as an answer. He keeps his gun close to his side as he makes his way inside.
A long and dark hallway welcomes him in. He doesn’t waste a second before closing the door behind him and rushing down it. He’s confident that he has memorized the plans of this building enough to be able to navigate his way in and out with his eyes closed.
“I'll keep a look out and warn you if I see anyone coming.” Jeongin pauses. He swallows hard. “I-I’m not as good as Seungmin Hyung s-so you stay on your guards, okay?”
Jisung makes an O.K. gesture at the nearest camera. He can’t answer and risk being heard, but he knows Jeongin is watching his every move.
“Alright. Felix will be waiting for you in a car close by when you’re done.”
Getting Felix into the plan had been more complicated than Jeongin, understandably so. Not only was he asking him to lie to Chan, but to the cops as well. Jisung wouldn’t have asked their help if he didn’t have to. If Seungmi2n’s life wasn’t on the line. He knows they are both risking a lot.
‘Safe?’ Jisung signs to another camera that he passes by, because last time one of them waited in a car, he got kidnapped.
“Yes, don’t worry about him. Lix is too well trained for them to fool us twice.”
They are mostly silent after that. Jeongin warns him twice or thrice when one of their men pass by, but they mustn’t be expecting The Phantoms anytime soon because the lower floors are pretty much desert.
He had long thought about where they would keep Seungmin. They won’t lock him close to their computers, in fear that he’ll find a way to hack them, so the upper floors are out of the question. Underground would make the most sense, somewhere close to where they stock their organs since it’s the safest place of the building.
Jisung ran the blueprints in his head again and surely enough, the solution came to him almost instantly.
The abandoned mental hospital used to have rooms in the basement kept closed by heavy metallic doors. They used to lock and keep away their most ‘dangerous’ patients. The ones they thought were contagious or mad. Surely, Seungmin must be in one of them.
Jisung takes ten whole minutes to reach them, which leaves him twenty minutes to find Seungmin and get out without being noticed. Given that the latter is injured, it could take more time than he would prefer.
“Two armed men by the door of the basement. Can’t tell their weapons,” Jeongin murmurs in his ear.
Jisung remains impossibly still on the staircase above them. He evens out his breathing and double checks that the silencer of his gun is well placed.
He counts to three and leans over the railing.
The two men don’t even have time to acknowledge his presence before a bullet is placed between their two eyes.
They fall dead like puppets.
“Nice!”
Of course, Jisung thinks to himself. He’ll resign from his title of head sniper if he missed a shot at such proximity.
He glances at his watch and speeds down the last row of stairs. The door quietly opens, then falls back shut.
Eighteen minutes left.
The basement is decorated by long and tight snake like hallways. They turn left and right to host more and more heavily locked doors. On each of them, is a small window that shows the inside of each rat sized room. The floors are obstructed by dirt and trash, making it hard for him to put a foot in front of the other.
“I can’t see inside the rooms, but the halls are clear.”
Jisung approaches the closest door to his left. Quietly, he peeks through the small window.
His heart stops.
Inside it, is a middle-aged man and a young woman. They are sitting on opposite ends, skin darkened by dirt and clothes torn as if they were eaten by rats. Their hair cages their face in grease. Their bare feet are scratched, bruised and bleeding. The room is so small that they can only lay down vertically. There aren’t any furniture besides a hole in the ground; a mockery of a bathroom.
The woman suddenly meets his eyes and Jisung startles back.
Was Seungmin not the only one they took? Who are these two people? They look like they’ve been here for ages.
He turns around and peeks inside another room. In this one, there is a child with an old woman.
His heart picks back up its beating. It screams in his ears and hitches his breathing. He rushes to the next room than the next and the next. He’s met with women, men and children of all ages. Some cower away when they see him, others start begging for mercy or crying in fear. Many are unconscious or too drained to react.
Jisung’s hands start shaking. Jeongin anxiously asks him what’s going on but Jisung can’t process his surroundings quick enough to answer him.
He stops in the middle of a corridor somewhere two corners right and one left and pants hard. His lungs burn and his stomach threatens to spill its content on his feet. His hands are against his knees, mind going a mile a minute.
No. No, no, no, no, no .
The Red Claws aren’t just organ traffickers like they thought they were. Their merchandise isn’t collected from passed away victims. It doesn’t come from unfortunate people who have to sell their kidneys to keep food on the plates of their children. No. No, The Red Claws kidnap people from the street and lock them in the basement of an abandoned building. The Red Claws stuff them in rooms like chickens in a slaughterhouse. The Red Claws reap them open while they’re still alive to take everything they can before throwing them away in a mass grave like disposable trash.
The Red Claws are not only organ traffickers, but humans too.
And Seungmin is locked in one of these rooms.
“Call Chan Hyung,” Jisung breathlessly orders Jeongin.
----
Seungmin bites his nails, anxiously watching his cellmate pace their broom sized cell.
Hyunjin is running his hands through his buzz cut hair, as if it is still as long as it used to be when he was first taken. His hands are shaking, and his eyes are bloodshot. He’s mumbling here, then sobbing there and thundering his fist against the door as if he can get it to open.
“OPEN THIS DOOR!” he screams, voice rough and scratchy. “OPEN THIS DOOR AND BRING ME BACK MY BROTHER! BRING MINHO BACK!”
Seungmin stares at him, heart squeezing and stinging. He would have stood up and comforted him if he could. Would have thrown his hate at the door if he could. Maybe he would have hugged him and let him cry in his arms. He has only known Hyunjin for an hour or two, but locked away in a rat hole, blind and deaf to the whole world, it feels like an eternity. “Hyunjin-ah...”
Hyunjin ignores him. He bangs louder and lets out a guttural scream between anger and sorrow. His fists are bleeding from repeatedly hitting the uneven surface.
Seungmin scoots closer to him with a pained wince. He grabs his ankle. “Hyunjin...”
Hyunjin turns to him and shakes his head. Heavy tears are slitting his cheeks. “N-No. No. No. ”
Seungmin can feel his own eyes swell up with tears. How was he not able to find out that The Red Claws are trafficking humans and gutting them ? Maybe if he had, maybe if he was talented, more careful with his job, Hyunjin and his brother wouldn’t be in this situation. Maybe none of these people would be here.
Hyunjin crouches down, allowing him to comfortingly rub his arm.
“My friends are going to come get me, and we will save you and your brother.”
His cellmate shakes his head. “No one comes to save you down here.” He hides his face behind his hands and lets out a gut-wrenching sob, as if it was pulled from the depth of his bones. “I’m g-going to l-lose him and it’s a-all my fault. H-He told me not to go to that interview. H-He knew it was suspicious but I-I was so e-excited. ”
Seungmin takes in a breath that he doesn’t let out. He scoots closer to him, not sparing a look at his right thigh who had been dismissively bandaged. He wraps his arms around his shoulders and brings him close.
Hyunjin falls on his knees and cries in his new friend's shoulder. Minho used to hug him like that. He would pat his back like their mom used to do, and he would murmur reassuring lies to his ear. They knew no one would come for them. They knew that this gang only takes people like them, with no family or friends. Strays who could disappear without anyone noticing or bothering to ask questions. They knew and yet, they had wanted to believe. Had needed to believe in a knight in shining armour.
But now, Minho is gone and the saving sword they were wishing for has turned against them.
He sobs and cries as if his own arms are being torn from his body. As if he’s the one laying in a makeshift operation room, being cut open. As if the moon has crashed at his feet and the sun has burned the sky. Seungmin wishes he could comfort him. Wishes he could tell him that everything’s going to be okay, but Seungmin doesn’t know that. He doesn’t know if they will be alright. If Chan and the others will arrive in time. He doesn’t even know if Minho is already dead or not. If he will still be alive by the time they get here.
Hyunjin pulls back and sniffles. He harshly wipes his tears. “I-I’m s-sorry. You just g-got here and I got snot all over you.”
Seungmin offers him a sad smile. He pats his shoulder. “Don —”
He suddenly stops.
He leans his ear to listen. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
A whistle resonates down the hall. It comes once, then twice and thrice in a quicker pace.
Seungmin uses the wall as support and tries to push himself up on his healthy leg. Hyunjin rushes to help him. “What are you doing?”
Seungmin shushes him. They approach the door.
The whistle comes again. More pressed. Closer.
Excitement bubbles in his chest and wraps itself around his neck. Relief washes over him, bringing tears to his eyes. He knew he would come. He knew they would, but he didn’t expect them to be this quick. Chan is all about making plans before rushing headfirst into the enemy's tavern. “He’s here,” he tells him. “He came.”
“Who —”
He brings two of his fingers two his mouth and whistles back. It comes out sharp and long, then short and quick in three consecutive whistles.
There’s a moment of silence before he does it again, calling Jisung closer. Because it has to be Jisung. He knows it is.
They made up this whistling language when they still lived next to each other, two junk houses barely holding up together by poorly stitched wood. Jisung’s father worked at night and slept the entirety of the day. He got angsty because of the exhaustion and the substance he consumed. He would start throwing bottles at his son if he as much as stepped on the wrong cranky planch. Seungmin would whistle to get him out of the house, and Jisung would do it back when Seungmin moved out, like two birds beckoning each other.
The whole whistling is still something used in gangs, but this, this specific rhythm, is theirs.
It’s “I am here.”
“Come to me.”
“Let’s run away and never look back.”
They do it one more time back-to-back, before Seungmin knocks on his door to signal him his position.
A few seconds later, Jisung’s face appears through the small glass. He’s masked, but it’s unmistakably him. Their face illuminate at the same time, like two mirrors facing one another.
Jisung’s expression relaxes. He bends down and starts playing with the lock. Seungmin’s confident that he will be able to pick it in a heartbeat.
“You know him?”
He turns to Hyunjin who adjusts his hold around him to alleviate the weight off his injured leg. “Yeah. Yeah, he’s my friend.”
And it sounds so foolish. Jisung isn’t just his friend. Jisung is his best friend. His brother. His twin. The extension of himself. Jisung was there for him when no one else was. When the whole world turned against him. When his mother abandoned him with his abusive father, not caring the slightest if he would die under his hands. Jisung is — He’s Jisung. He’s someone he would die for in the blink of an eye. Someone he would jump off a cliff with. Someone he would kill for. Jisung is him and he is Jisung.
The door cracks open and it takes a stuttered heartbeat for both boys to fall in each other’s arms.
Hyunjin let go, because Jisung is enough to support the entirety of Seugmin’s weight. He has always been enough. Has always endured for him more than he had to. More than Seungmin wanted him to. “You’re okay,” Jisung breathes out in his neck. “Thank god you’re okay.” He takes a moment to take in his beating heart and his breathing. Then he steps back and scans him up and down. His eyes halt on the bloody bandage around his thigh. “You’re okay right? Does it hurt?”
Seungmin nods. “You came.” He sniffles. “You’re really here.”
Jisung laughs. He brings him back to his arms. “Of course I’m here, you baby.” He squeezes tight and pulls away again. “I wasn’t going to leave a rat tech like you in a place like this.”
Seungmin hurriedly nods. He turns back and grabs Hyunjin’s hand. “Let’s go. Let’s get out of here.”
Jisung looks between the two. “Y-Yeah. Yeah of course.” He wraps Seungmin’s arm around his shoulders before turning to the stranger. “But I’m sorry, you’re not coming with us.”
Seungmin and Hyunjin speaks with one voice, “What?”
Jisung keeps his attention entirely on the stranger. “You’re not coming,” he repeats. He seems apologetic, but he’s stoic still. “My friends will come back for you, but for now, I can only take one person with me.”
“N-No. No , I’m getting out of here.” Panic and anger deform Hyunjin’s face. He takes a step towards them, in the hope of shoving them away and running out, but the barrel of a gun suddenly meets his eyes.
“You’re not coming,” Jisung repeats, harsher.
Seungmin grabs his friend's arm and tries to pull it down. “Jisung. Jisung, stop! He’s my friend!”
Jisung lets his arm fall, but he remains unfazed. “I’m sorry Min, but I can’t take him with us. He’ll be a burden.”
Hyunjin’s throat tightens. “ Please ,” he begs. “Please, I just need to get out of here and find my brother. I won’t follow you. I’ll leave you alone.”
“Even worse! You're going to get us found out!”
Seungmin angrily frowns at his childhood friend. It’s not like Jisung to be this cold. “What’s wrong with you? He’s coming with us!”
Jisung bites his lips. He looks back at the hallway. In his ear, Jeongin says, “Tell him. He’ll know soon enough.”
He clears his throat. The more time they waste arguing, the riskier it gets. “I’m alone.”
Seungmin frowns. “What?”
“I came alone. Chan’s not here.”
His eyes widen. “What?”
“He wanted to come up with a stupid plan first! I wasn’t going to wait around until you bled to death!”
“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?”
Jisung and Hyunjin shushes him. “Keep your voice down!” the gangster scolds.
“You want to get us both killed? What were you thinking?” Seungmin angrily asks. Worry eats at his lungs, making it hard to breath.
“I got it covered. Jeongin is helping with the hacking, and Felix is waiting for us with a van.”
“But you’re still alone in here!”
Jisung rolls his eyes. “We would already be out if you weren’t arguing with me right now.”
Seungmin looks back at Hyunjin, torn and speechless.
“ Please ,” Hyunjin pleads again, voice breaking halfway through. Despair, dread and panic scorch his throat and lungs. He looks like he’s about to fall on his knees and beg. “They took my brother to the operation room. He’s not — ” he shakes his head. Tears blind his vision, making his eyes go red. “He’s not going to live long enough for you to come back.”
Jisung remains silent. His stern surface cracks.
“He's the only family I have left. Please . I promise you we won’t bother you. You won’t even know we’re there.”
The sniper hesitates. He glances at Seungmin who silently implores him.
“Make up your mind quickly!” Jeongin presses.
Jisung takes in a big inhale and sighs. “Fine.” He passes Seungmin back to Hyunjin. “I hope you know where he is.”
“I know. I know. It's just— It’s just down the hall.” Hyunjin’s shoulders deflate as the pressure is released. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Jisung ushers them out to the hall. “You’ll thank me if we get out of here alive.”
Unfortunately, their little ruckus has attracted the curiosity of the nearby cells. People start hitting their doors. They whine and implore like one, giant, dying body. Jisung, Seungmin and Hyunjin speed down the hallways as fast as they can, with Hyunjin helping support Seungmin and Jisung ahead of them, a gun secured in his hands. It tears them to leave them behind, but they’re already taking too many risks as it is. They need to get out of here in one piece if they want to save anyone.
“Can you save us fifteen more minutes?” Jisung asks his earpiece. “Or at least ten?”
“Already working on it,” Jeongin hurriedly responds. “Chan Hyung wants to talk to you. He’s fuming.”
“Tell him I can’t. He’s going to get me killed if he makes me lose my focus.”
“He’s on his way with three of our units. He’ll be there in less than an hour.” He pauses, then huffs. “Pass me Seungmin. I don’t know how to extend this thing.”
Jisung does as asked before focusing back on the job at hand. He tunes out their hushed whispering.
They have left the cells and stepped into a larger corridor through heavy double doors. There aren’t that many rooms here, just a few big ones used for improvised operations.
He stops at a corner that Hyunjin indicates him and peeks around it.
Two heavily armed men are stationed by an old green door.
Jisung turns to his small makeshift team and places a finger in front of his lips. Seungmin falls silent.
“LET ME GO! GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!” a huffed scream reaches them. “I’M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS, DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU’RE ALL GOING TO PAY!”
Jisung doesn’t need to ask. Hyunjin is teary eyed, relief and worry soaking his eyes.
The sniper doesn’t waste any more time. He steps out of the corner and starts shouting. The first guy falls at once, but the second just has the time to clumsily shoot Jisung’s way before he too dies with a bullet in his mouth.
The screams have fallen silent. He gestures at his two friends to hurry.
Inside the operation room, they find two doctors and three nurses hunched around a young man who’s strapped down on a metallic table. He is shirtless with a simple torn pair of jeans on. All over his chest, are incision lines made by a marker.
Jisung doesn’t shoot right away. He simply needs to point his gun at the medical staff to make them raise their hands and back away. “Back against the wall,” he threateningly orders.
Hyunjin helps Seungmin lean against the operation table before he rushes to his brother’s side. He scans him up and down, hands shaking above his body as if he doesn’t know if he can touch him without breaking him. “Oh my god. Oh my god, you’re okay. You’re okay.”
“Hyunie. Hyunie— is it— it’s you? Is it really you?”
Hyunjin hurries to free his hands. Minho sits up in one single move and wraps his younger brother in his arms. “Oh, thank god,” he whispers in relief. “Thank god you’re okay.”
Hyunjin squeezes him back and tries not to cry. His shoulders shake all the same.
“Beautiful reunion, but we’re in a rush.”
Minho pulls back and throws a look at the masked stranger.
“His name is Jisung,” Hyunjin shakily informs. “He came to help. He will get us out of here.”
Jisung doesn’t spare them a look. He shoots all three of the nurses as if they were nothing but flies. The two doctors let out a startled scream as blood splatters all over them.
He turns to the two brothers and pulls a second gun from his pocket. He offers it to them. “If I can’t, at least you’ll get the satisfaction of getting rid of these human trash.”
Hyunjin steps away, frightened, but Minho jumps off the table and walks up to him with no hesitation. He grabs the gun, points it at the first doctor’s head, then waits for him to start begging for his life before pulling the trigger.
Blood splatters again like paints. It lands on his face.
He closes his eyes and inhales deeply in pure delight. He can finally breath.
When he throws a look to his brother, he finds him back by Seungmin’s side. He hurriedly shakes his head.
Minho shrugs and turns back. He shoots again.
“Nice,” Jisung complements, surprised but pleased.
Minho hands him back the gun but Jisung shakes his head. “It’s not over.”
Minho brings the gun back to his side. He tightens his hold around it. Its weight in the palm of his hand and the coldness of the metal against his skin are comforting.
“IN says we have less than seven minutes left.”
“Alright. Okay, we can do this.” The sniper looks at them and wonders how he ended up with not only one, but three lives depending on him.
His eyes linger on Hyunjin’s older brother. Blood is splattered on his face, but he looks as serene and put together as an unshakable pillar.
Jisung inhales sharply, feeling more encouraged than he was seconds ago. He walks up to the door, peeks outside the room and steps out.
“Let’s go!”
---
Jisung should have known that their luck would run out sooner than later. Logically speaking, there was no way that he would be able to get in, free not only one but three people, and leave without being found out.
Hidden behind an only infirmary station, bullets showering down on them, he rethinks his life choices. Maybe going behind Chan’s back wasn’t such a good idea after all.
He stands up briefly and manages to take down three men before rapidly docking down. They are hidden so it’s not his best shot, but it’ll have to do. He has to work faster and be smarter if they want to leave before more arrive.
“How many?” Seungmin pants. He’s leaning against the wall, injured leg spread in front of him and the other pulled up. He has a gun in his hand, but Seungmin has never been as good with a weapon as he is with a computer. The strict minimum he knows about self-defence and fighting were forced upon him by Chan who insisted that he learned.
Minho peeks to the left side and blasts off the hand of a guy who screams in pain. He manages to put a bullet in the throat of his friend who tried to help him. “Thirteen. Perhaps fifteen.”
A proud smirk pulls up Jisung’s lips. “I didn’t expect you to be this good with a gun.”
Minho goes back into hiding. He leans against the office. “I was training to be a cop before all of this.” He breathes out a laugh.
“Sweet. I just murdered a bunch of people in front of a cop.” The sniper recharges his gun and meticulously fires away. Three more people fall, two get heavily injured.
Someone shoots again. Their bullet misses Seungmin’s head by a few inches.
“Bastard,” Jisung curses. He turns to the enemy and puts a bullet in his stomach. He deserves to die as slowly and agonizingly as possible.
“Are you okay?” Hyunjin worryingly asks. He’s sitting by Seungmin’s side, silently shaking and recoiled on himself. He has barely said a word since they were cornered.
“I’m okay,” Seungmin reassures, but the tension in Hyunjin’s face doesn’t ease.
His breathing becomes ragged. His hands uncontrollably shake. His eyes water and he pales, his colours fading like rapidly forming snow. The shooting fills his ears and makes him dazed. He almost doesn’t hear his own voice when he asks, “We— We’re going to die, aren’t we?”
Seungmin shakes his head and says something, lips soundlessly moving. Hyunjin doesn't hear him. Can’t hear him. He tries to breath, tries to get air inside his burning chest, but the world is getting blurry at the edges and his ears are ringing. They are going to die. They are going to die . Or worse, they are going to drag them back to that cell and they will— They will—
Two cold hands cup his cheeks. They are rough and scarred but he would recognize them between thousands.
Minho’s eyes are warm. They are the colour of melted chocolate. Of cracking wood and fading leaves. “It’s okay,” he gently murmurs. “I got you. Hyung’s got you.”
He brings him into a hug, but Hyunjin’s throat only tightens further around the air that he’s trying to breath. It’s not okay. Nothing has been okay since months ago, when they were drugged and kidnapped. And they will not be. His Hyung, his only Hyung is going to die with a bullet between his eyes and it’s all Hyunjin’s fault. It’s all— Everything is—
“Can you calm him down?” Jisung frustratingly asks. He removes his mask and opens his mouth wide to breath. His forehead is pearled with sweat. “I can’t focus.”
“I’m trying, ” Minho pulls back and wipes his brother’s hair away from his face. He’s about to remind him to breath when a rough voice asks them to surrender while they’re still playing nice.
Jisung sighs and asks Seungmin to cover him. He turns to Hyunjin and scoots closer, knees collecting the dirt and dust. Minho moves aside while throwing a suspicious look to the gangster.
Jisung grabs Hyunjin’s shoulders and glues their eyes together. “What’s your name?”
Hyunjin opens his mouth, but words fail to leave his lips. He can’t breathe. Can’t breathe .
“What’s your name?” Jisung insists.
“Hy— Hyunjin.”
“And what’s your dream, Hyunjin?”
Minho throws him a look as if he lost it. “This is not really the time to—”
“What is it?”
Hyunjin inhales. “A-An investigator,” he stutters. “I- I w-want t-to be a-an investigator.”
“And you will.” Jisung grins, as if they aren’t being shot at. “You will get out of here, and you will become the best investigator out there. You will find all the bad guys like me and lock us away.”
Hyunjin eases the slightest bit. You’re not a bad, he wants to tell him, but he can’t collect enough air to speak. His hands stop shaking. Jisung looks— so sure of himself. So relaxed.
“You know why?” His eyes darken. A proud, obnoxious smirk deforms his lips. “Because I’m the best sniper out there. Not only the youngest, but the best .” He gestures behind him. “I’m only playing around with those flies.”
Hyunjin hiccups. His chest hurts. “Th-Then stop playing around. I want—” he tries to inhale. “I want to leave.”
Jisung smiles again. He lets go of his shoulders. “Roger that mate.” He grabs Seungmin’s gun from his hands and snaps back around. “Let get out of here.”
And Hyunjin doesn’t know why, but he trusts him.
No, it’s something else. Something more. He doesn’t just trust this guy. He knows he will get them out.
“When I say go, you run as fast as you can to the exist.”
“But they will shoot us at sight.” Minho throws a look at the door behind them, at the end of a very wide, and very open , corridor.
“You need to trust me on this. I will not let them hurt any of you.” Jisung quickly recharges both guns. “Take Seungmin with you and run.”
“No. No, I’m not leaving without you.” Seungmin shakes his head. “We will wait for Chan and the others. They will be here soon.”
“Twenty more minutes!” Jeongin shouts in his ear. “I can tell Felix to go in and help you.”
“No!” Jisung protests. Seungmin gave him back the earpiece several minutes ago. “Felix won’t change a thing. We need him ready to drive us away.” He raises his guns on either side of his head. “We can't wait for the others either; We’ll run out of munition before then.”
“I’m not leaving without you.” Seungmin grits.
“I’ll be right behind you.” Jisung peeks above the desk. A bullet comes flying. He dodges it and kills the shooter effortlessly. “I promise.”
Seungmin exchanges a look with Hyunjin and Minho, then he glances at his blood-soaked thigh. Not only is he a burden to Jisung in this current state but arguing more could put both Hyunjin and Minho in more danger.
“Fine,” he sighs. “Fine, tell us when.”
Jisung mentally counts how much there are left and where they are hiding. They need to go before The Red Claws’ backup reaches them.
He fires twice at the farthest corner, where two of them are hiding. When their attention switches there, he shouts, “NOW!”
Hyunjin and Minho already have Seungmin’s arms wrapped around their shoulders. They stand up and walks as fast as they can towards the door. Jisung shoots everyone who dares come out to point their gun at them. He stands up as he does so and follows his teammates, walking backward to cover their backs and act as a shield.
The human traffickers panic as they start to realize what they’re doing. They come out of their hiding in fear of having their prey slip from their fingers, making it easier for Jisung to take them down one by one. He moves fast and quick, putting each of his bullets in its target.
They are nearly close to the door when he manages to kill them all. Death covers the room in panted silence, but he doesn’t lower his guards.
“GO, GO, GO!” he shouts.
Minho leaves Seungmin's side and runs to open the back door, leaving him exposed from the left.
“Felix is here!” Jeongin says. Jisung quickly transmit the information to the others.
He has just turned around to take over Minho’s empty spot when he sees him.
A man is standing by an open closet, knife raised. He runs toward Seungmin with a war cry, but Jisung is faster. He puts himself in between them and uses the back of his gun to brutally knock the stranger's head. He then grabs his shoulders and hits him in the stomach with his knee, making him collapse without further fight.
“ARE YOU OKAY?” Seungmin worryingly asks.
“I’M FINE!” Jisung screams back. They step out of the building. “RUN!”
A black van arrives just then.
“GET IN!” Felix shouts.
Minho opens the back doors and climbs in. Hyunjin and Seungmin follows behind, not without a pained wince from the latter. A flash of white, soaring pain, shoots up his leg. He closes his eyes, waiting for it to fade.
“IS EVERYONE IN?” Felix asks.
“NO!” Minho warns. “JISUNG IS STILL—”
He never finishes his sentence. A surprised gasp strangles his throat, followed by a similar sound from Hyunjin.
Seungmin hurriedly opens his eyes to see what the fuss is about.
A few feet away from the van, is Jisung.
He’s standing there, eyes wide open in shock and face as pale as paper. He looks like he just saw a ghost. As if he’s stuck in time. As if he’s a game character on pause. Seungmin is about to scream at him to just get in when he notices the growing patch of red forming in his stomach.
No.
No.
His brain short circuit.
“NO!” he screeches, knives slitting his throat.
He jumps from the car and lands on his injured leg. Someone screams something but he doesn’t even spare a second to acknowledge the pain that makes dark spot appear in his vision.
He rushes in time to catch Jisung’s head before it slams against the gravel. He props his upper body in his lap and cages his head in his arms. “No. No, no, no, no, no. Y-You’re okay. Shhh, you’re okay. Nothing happened. You’re okay.” He presses his hand against his stomach in a hope to stop the bleeding, but the blood only stains his palm and slithers in between his fingers. Jisung whimpers, like a doll running out of batteries. “Get up. Get up, you’re okay. You’re fine.” He tries to make him stand up, but Jisung’s sluggish body brings them back done. “GET UP!”
Felix, Minho and Hyunjin hurriedly steps out of the car. They stand around them and watches them, eyes shaking almost as badly as their hands. Heart beating almost as quickly as the blood rushing through their veins.
“GET HIM IN THE CAR!” Felix runs back to the front seat. He pulls out a cop’s siren and places it on the roof of the vehicle.
Seungmin and Minho hurries to lift Jisung off the floor. The injured man strangles himself on a pained cry, but he doesn’t seem lucid or strong enough to protest.
Hyunjin slams the door shuts behind them and Felix speeds away at the sound. The sirens scream above their heads.
Seungmin scoots back to Jisung’s side and adjusts him back in his arms. “We're almost there,” he tells him. “You’re going to be okay.”
Jisung makes a goggling sound as a response, as if he’s making bubbles with the blood filling the back of his throat. His eyes are absently staring at the roof. He’s spasming all over, like a flag resisting the pull of a furious wind carried by a raging sea.
People are talking around him, but Jisung can’t hear them. His ears are ringing, and he wonders then, if this is how Hyunjin felt a few minutes ago. If air left his body in such a way and if his lungs burned with such force.
“—on’t you dare!” Seungmin is screaming. His voice reaches him like a distorted, muffled SOS call from a deserted island. “Don’t you dare do this to me, Han Jisung.” He cuddles his head to his chest and rests his chin on the top of his head. “Y-You promised that you wouldn’t leave me behind,” he sobs. “You promised! ”
His tears find their way to Jisung’s skin, and ah he has done it. He has made Seungmin cry.
They were so young when he had sworn on his life that he would never make him cry. They were so young when he cuddled Seungmin’s shivering and bruised body in his arms. They were so young when Seungmin’s mom abandoned him with his abusive father. So young when Jisung had promised that he would never leave him behind. That they would get out of this hole and make it far in life.
Now Jisung is dying without getting to make that foolish dream come true. He grew up with guns and drugs and he’s going to die amongst them. He’s going to bleed to death in the back of a shady van, killed by an equally shady dude. He’s going to die , and all people will remember him by is the drug addict kid who shoots well. The kid who joined a gang and got killed in the same way that everyone had sworn he would.
“I’m — sorry.” He breathes out. “I’m— s-so sorry.”
Seungmin leans back to look at him. He shakes his head. Tears pool down his cheeks. He sobs and snot drowning his face. Why is he apologizing? What is there to be sorry for? This is all his fault. This is all—
“FASTER!” Minho screeches to Felix who’s speeding through the roads and streets. Panic is making his voice shake.
“Please,” Seungmin pleads. He cups Jisung’s cheek with his hand, staining it red. “Please, hold on. Please, I can’t lose you.”
Jisung closes his eyes. He can’t find the strength to keep them open. Everything is so heavy. He can’t feel the burn in his stomach anymore. Can’t feel the numbness in his legs. Can’t feel or see or hear much of anything. Seungmin is shaking him, sobbing and screaming at him to keep his eyes open, but Jisung can’t obligate despite the terror that shakes Seungmin's voice.
He regrets it. He regrets every promise he made him. Every hug he gave him. Every laugh he shared with him. Every minute, every second, that they spent glued to the hip. Maybe if they had cared about each other less, maybe Seungmin wouldn’t be in this much pain. Maybe his best friend wouldn’t be bleeding to death in his arms.
The world fades away. It darkens, taking away all its light and sounds.
He’s out before he realizes it.
---
Seungmin’s hands are bloody.
The waiting room is clean, and the hospital is awfully quiet but at least, Seungmin’s hands are bloody.
The red light above ‘Operation Theatre’ is still glowing and Chan is anxiously pacing the hall, but at least, Seungmin’s hands are bloody.
Jisung is lying on a cold table, surrounded by doctors and nurses, but at least, Seungmin’s hands are bloody.
Jisung might be dead soon, but at least, Seungmin’s hand are bloody. At least his best friend’s blood is staining his hands. At least, he’s still with him, in a macabre, messed up way. He won’t wash them. He’ll leave his hands this way, until the blood has all dried out and turned his skin red. Until it gets tattooed on him. This way, Jisung will never leave. He’ll always be with him.
Felix and Jeongin comes running. They stop by the stairs and stand straight like two soldiers.
“Hyunjin and Minho are being looked after. They are severely malnourished and dehydrated,” Jeongin informs. “They have a few infected wounds and will go through a scan to see which organs and tissues were removed. They will be treated accordingly.”
“The rest of the victims are being transferred and will receive similar treatments,” Felix adds. “The police will collect everyone’s testimony when the time is right. The SWAT invaded all of The Red Claws known bases, but most of their members already flew.”
Chan shortly nods. He doesn’t look at them. “You can leave.”
Felix and Jeongin remain still. They exchange a look before bowing at ninety degrees. “We deeply apologize.” The youngest swallows hard through a lump in his throat. “We should have told you.”
Chan refuses to meet their eyes. He gives them his back, body tense and hands hidden in the pockets of his jeans. “I said leave .”
Felix and Jeongin refuse to move. “Our misjudgement and disobedience led to something like this.” Felix’s voice shakes. “We’ll accept and comply with any punishment that you deem fit.”
The Phantoms’ leader scoffs. He finally turns to them. “What use will it be?” he stares them down. “Huh? What’s the point of punishing you two if I have to burry my own brother in a few hours?”
Tension raises and dread spreads. The silence is like an axe above their heads.
The undercover cop and the hacker remain bowed. They shake ever so slightly under repressed tears.
“Go, before I say or do things I will regret,” Chan orders, fists clenched by his side, nails dug in his palms.
Felix and Jeongin stand up and scatter away.
Seungmin hears their footsteps disappear down the hall. He can’t pull himself to feel bad for them. He can’t feel anything other than eating dread and grief. He focuses back on his bloody hands.
On Jisung’s blood, he recorrects himself. Jisung’s. Jisung. Jisung. Jisung. Han Jisung. His best friend. His brother. His soulmate. His twin. Jisung. Jisung. Jisung. Warm smiles and sunshine like personality. Bubbly excitement and sharp like talent. Goofy pranks and a steady shoulder to hold up all of Seungmin’s pain and burden. Jisung. Jisung. Jisung. His Jisung. His Jisung who took a knife for him.
A shadow hovers above his wheelchair. Changbin crouches down before him. He has a rag and a bowl of water cupped in his hands. He puts them on the seat next to him and grabs his wrist.
Seungmin brutally pulls away.
Changbin tries again but he gets the same reaction. He sighs. “You should get properly treated. Rest in a room.”
Seungmin silently shakes his head. His kidnappers had already healed his injury because an infected leg would only get in their way when it would be time to collect his organs. He had refused to be looked after furthermore when he arrived in Chan’s family hospital. A nurse had cleaned his would and changed his bandage, but that’s about it. He will stay by Jisung’s side. He has to.
Changbin grabs his wrist again and this time around, he doesn’t let him pull away. “It’s not your fault,” he tells him.
Seungmin doesn’t respond. It is.
“It’s not your fault,” the older repeats.
Seungmin’s empty eyes stare up at him. He replays the scene in his head. He sees again the guy run to him with the knife. Sees Jisung stand in front of him.
“It’s not your fault.”
Sees Jisung, by the van, staring at Seungmin with a dumbfounded and surprised look on his face. He sees the patch of red spreading. Sees him fall and never stand back up.
“It’s not your fault.” Changbin wets the rag and gently wipes Seungmin’s hands. Jisung’s blood soak the white material, leaving his skin. Leaving him. He’s leaving him.
“It’s not your fault.”
But it is.
His throat sours and tightens. His vision blurs and he makes a weird sound as he starts crying.
It is his fault for being weak enough to get captured and injured. It is his fault for insisting that they take Hyunjin with them and save his brother even when Jisung told him that they didn’t have enough time and manpower to. It is Chan’s fault for not having foreseen Jisung’s actions and noticed his absence. It is Jeongin’s and Felix’s fault for agreeing to help him without telling Chan. It’s all of their fault. He’s losing his best friend and it’s all because of a collection of their wrongdoings.
“It’s The Red Claws’ fault. Do you hear me? It’s all their fault.”
The blood has been entirely cleaned now. Does it matter? The Red Claws have ran away and Jisung could be buried six feet under in a few hours. It doesn’t matter if they were the ones who started it all because Jisung is still— He is still—
The red light turns off and a doctor steps out.
Seungmin makes a move to stand up, forgetting about his leg. Changbin puts a hand on his shoulder to keep him seated.
“How is he?” Chan rushingly asks. “Is he— Is he going—”
“The surgery was successful, but he lost a lot of blood, and the wound was deep.” The doctor pulls down his mask and removes his gloves. “Thankfully, his brain wasn’t affected, but we’re not sure when he will wake up.”
“But he will wake up, right?” Changbin presses.
“There’s a seventy percent chance that he will, but the chances that he might not are not null. I recommend that you prepare yourself in case things don’t go as planned, but I’m optimist that he will be alright.”
Seungmin is frozen. His heart is beating loudly in his ears. He doesn’t know how to feel. He’s torn between fear and relief.
“S-So he’s in a coma?”
The doctor nods to Changbin. “Unfortunately.”
“When can we see him?”
“He will be placed in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit for the time being and will be moved to the ICU later in the day. You will be able to visit him then.”
Adrenaline washes away from Seungmin’s body. Dizziness takes over. The doctor is still talking, and his teammates are still asking questions, but their voices don’t reach him anymore. His vision darkens and he slumps to the side.
The last thing he hears is Changbin’s panicked call of his name and his warm hands as he tries to support him up.
---
Seungmin wakes up dizzy and disoriented. Sounds and shapes take a while to come into focus, and his memories a while longer.
He startles into a sitting position the moment they do, heart pounding in his throat. He tries to stand up, but an electrifying pain runs through his injured leg. He lets out a sharp cry and his vision darkens. He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to contain the agonizing burn.
“Stop moving so much,” a familiar voice scolds. “You want them to cut that leg off?”
He reopens his eyes and finds Minho approaching his bed. He’s wearing an ugly green hospital gown and is clutching an IV pole. “You don’t need to tell me that I look ridiculous, I already know.”
Seungmin looks down at his leg as a stinging throb calls for his attention. There are two pieces of metal on either side of his thigh. A large and thick bandage is wrapped around it to keep them in place. “What— Where—”
Minho leans his weight against the windowsill. It’s wide enough for him to sit on it. “You passed out. Your wound got infected.”
Seungmin dismisses the information. “H-How’s Jisung? Where is he? Did he wake up? Can I see him?”
Minho sighs. He points with his chin Seungmin’s right side.
He snaps around. On the bed next to him, is Jisung. He’s lying unconscious still, pale and plugged to multiple machines. An oxygen mask is placed on his mouth.
Seungmin whimpers like an injured animal. He goes to stand up, but Minho hurriedly places a hand on his shoulder. “I told you to stop moving,” he scolds again. “Was it not enough that you infected your leg badly enough to end up stuck with us in the ICU?”
Seungmin takes a moment to force his gaze away from his childhood’s friend. His eyes find two more bed facing his and Jisung’s. The one in front of him is empty, probably Minho’s, but the one in front of Han’s has an asleep Hyunjin on it. He doesn’t doubt that Chan requested the medical staff to put all four of them in the same room.
“How is he?” he asks, eyes still trailed on Hyunjin. He was so preoccupied with Jisung that he didn’t take into consideration how Hyunjin and Minho must be doing. How they must be feeling. They were sequestrated for months.
Minho follows his gaze. He sighs. “They ran a scan.” He pushes a button on Seungmin’s bed. The upper half raises, allowing its occupant to lay his back on it. “He has a missing kidney and a—” he chocks on his words. Seungmin turns to look at him. He is blinking rapidly to chase away the forming tears. “A missing lung.”
“A missing lung?” Seungmin gasps, eyes widening. “Can he— Can he live without one?”
“He can but his physical endurance will be severely impacted, and he will likely develop breathing problems.” Minho wipes his eyes and looks away. “We didn’t know what they took when they would take us to the operation room. I knew they did something to him. I knew they took something, but I never thought—” he sucks in air that he doesn’t let out. He never finishes his sentence.
Seungmin lets a respectful silence settle between them to allow him to collect himself.
“What about you?” he fixes his eyes in his. “What did they steal from you?”
“A kidney, a part of my liver and bone marrow and my spleen,” the apprentice cop dismissively informs, as if it isn’t near as concerning or important. “And before you ask, yes, I will live. My missing spleen and bone barrow will weaken by immune system and increase risks of infections, but the doctors said I’ll be fine with the right treatment.”
“I’m sorry,” Seungmin apologizes. Nausea churns his guts. “Since you were both alive, I didn’t think they would have taken anything.”
Minho shakes his head. “They keep us alive to take as much of our organs and tissues for as long as possible. They milk us like cows until we can’t give anymore, and then they reap our hearts out and what’s left of us when they’re done.”
The door opens and comes Changbin, heavy on his footsteps. He visibly lightens when he makes eye contact with Seungmin and Minho. “Thank god, you’re both okay.” He quickly approaches them. “How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Should I call a nurse?”
Minho seems surprised and touched by the worry thrown his way, but he masks it with a teasing smirk. “I didn’t think that the Mafia could actually own and run a hospital.”
Changbin awkwardly laughs. “I don’t know what you’re—”
“Oh please.” Minho rolls his eyes. “Your sniper literally shot a bunch of people in front of us and your leader was ordering around a bunch of doctors as if they were his puppets. And that goes without mentioning the people in suit walking around the hospital as if they’re guarding the queen herself.”
Seungmin realizes then that he never explained to Hyunjin or Minho who they are. “It’s true that we are the Mafia,” he easily lets him know. “We were formed as a gang named The Phantoms, but after the old boss died and power was transferred to his son, we developed into Mafia, which is a more structed and wealthy version of a gang.”
“I think that’s enough information,” Changbin warns.
“We work mostly with the cops. We stain our hands in their stead. Kind of like fight evil with evil.”
“Seungmin!”
The hacker rolls his side. “Who doesn’t know us anyway?”
“He’s a cop!”
“A soon to be cop,” Minho corrects.
“We work with the cops,” Seungmin argues.
Changbin huffs but he looks like he already gave up. “It’s a top-secret collaboration.”
“You saved my and my brother’s life. You really think I’m going to run my mouth about you guys? About the guy who’s lying half dead over there because of me?”
Changbin turns red. He rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed. “N-No. No, of course not. That’s not what I—”
“ NO!”
They snap around at once, heart in their throat.
Hyunjin is thrashing in his sheets, eyes closed, and face deformed. “NO! M-MINHO HYUNG! MINHO HYUNG!”
Minho runs to him. He’s by his side in a heartbeat. “I’m here. Hyunie, I’m right here.” He shakes him, trying to tear him away from his nightmare but Hyunjin continues to scream.
“H-HYUNG! NO! L-LET H-HIM G-GO!”
Minho digs his fingers in his arms and shakes him harder. “HYUNJIN!”
His younger brother startles awake. He pants hard, eyes frightfully looking around him before they finally stop on Minho. “H-Hyung?” he cries out.
“I’m here baby. I’m right here.”
Hyunjin lunches himself in his arms. Minho effortlessly catches him. He sits on the bed next to him and tightens his hold around him as he sobs in the crook of his neck.
“You’re okay. You’re safe now. No one is going to hurt you.”
“T-They took you,” Hyunjin cries. “Th-They—”
“They are gone.” Minho kisses the side of his head. He rubs his back up and down. “It’s over. It’s all over.”
He hears someone close the curtains around Hyunjin’s bed; probably Changbin. He appreciates the privacy. It’s the most they had in forever.
Hyunjin inhales sharply as he tries to calm down. He looks like he’s being torn apart all over again. Minho steps back and tries to wipe his tears but he starts crying himself. His vision becomes too blurry to do much help. “It’s okay,” he softly whispers between hiccups. It’s not okay and it never will be, but he needs to lie for his brother. He needs to make him believe in a lie that sounds too foolish to his own ears. Hyunjin’s lung is missing. His kidney is gone. “It’s okay,” he repeats.
Hyunjin is unconcealable. His lips turn purple and his eyes pain to stay open.
“Hyunie. Hyunie, baby, look at me.” Minho cups his cheeks in his hands as panic threatens to take over. “Look at me. There you are.” He smiles, but it comes out shaky. He grabs the oxygen mask that he had ripped during his nightmare and helps him put it back on. “Remember to take deep breathes in. Yeah, just like that. In, then out. Slowly. Take your time.”
Hyunjin hiccups in his mask. His breathing is ragged and he’s whizzing.
Minho wipes his eyes again. “Remember what the doctor told you? You need to stay strong. Crying with one lung is harder than with two and it could trigger more panic attacks.” A tear rolls down his cheek. “So you need to be strong, okay? No more crying.”
Hyunjin nods. He leans against his Hyung’s chest and rests his cheek on his shoulder. His older brother comfortingly rubs his back.
He can do it. If Minho is by his side, he can live with half a heart if he has to. He just needs— He needs him with him. Nothing else matters.
---
Changbin is holding Jisung’s hand. It’s cold. He cups it with his other hand and tries to warm it.
Chan and Felix are explaining something to Hyunjin and Minho across the room, but Changbin tunes their voice in and out. Jisung has been in a coma for the past three days. Three days. 72 hours. 4 320 minutes. 259 200 seconds.
“The government can help you find a new apartment and will cover half the rent,” Felix is saying. “He will also give you about 500 dollars a month each for the next three months.”
“But in the name of The Phantoms, we offer you a second option,” Chan continues by Hyunjin’s bed. Minho is sitting right beside him. “We’re offering you an apartment of your choice in our private condo complex. Our members live there, and our HQ is there as well, so I understand if you don’t feel comfortable living amongst us,” he sympathizes. “If you do agree though, know that we have a 24/7 security system that will ensure your safety. We will also cover all your living expenses such as food, clothing, bills and clothes for the next three years.”
Hyunjin’s eyes widen. He turns to his Hyung who’s suspiciously looking at the mafia boss. “What about rent?”
“The apartment is yours, so you won’t have to worry about it as long as you don’t rat us out, plot with our enemy, or rent or sell the apartment to someone else.”
Minho narrows his eyes. “What’s the price?”
Chan raises an eyebrow. “I just said it’s free.”
“But there must be a catch somewhere.”
He shakes his head and smiles sadly. “If you don’t mind living amongst the Mafia, then there’s absolutely no catch.”
Minho frowns. “But why? Do you just let in your base every human trafficked victim?”
“Jisung risked his life to save you two.” Chan sadly looks back at his brother in crime. At the way Changbin is clutching his hand as if he’s scared that he might run away. “He could have left you two behind. He knew he was risking a lot by saving you, but he still did it and is paying the price for it.” He brings his attention back to the brothers. “Finishing what he started is the least we can do.”
Minho and Hyunjin exchange a look. They expected Chan to hate them for it, not offer to spend a gruesome amount of money on helping them out.
Minho wants to accept, but he needs to carefully thinks this through. He knows Hyunjin will go with whatever he decides. They were just kidnapped by a gang, moving with one would be like playing with fire, but The Phantoms saved them, and they do work with the police.
Besides, it’s not like they have much choice. Their landlord kicked them out and sold all their stuff. They were fired from their part time jobs and kicked out of their courses. Some of their bank accounts were even closed because of inactivity. They have nothing left to their name and what the police is offering them is nowhere near enough.
“I don’t mind either option Hyung,” Hyunjin softly tells him. He squeezes his hand. “I trust your decision.”
Torment ravages Minho’s eyes. He glances at Chan, then at Seungmin who’s absently staring at Jisung from where he’s sitting on a wheelchair.
“We want an apartment next to Seungmin or Jisung.”
Chan and Felix raise their eyebrows at him in surprise.
“And I want all of this written in a contract. I also want you to give us a month to move out if you decide to suddenly kick us out. If that were to happen, I want you to rehouse us at your expenses and cover rent for at least six months.”
“Sure. Sure, of course.” The leader hurriedly nods. “We have an available apartment on the same floor as Seungmin’s and Jisung’s, so it won’t be a problem, but why these two?” He grins, amused. “I would have thought that after everything, you would want to keep your distance. We have floors only occupied by the families of our members so you might feel safer there.”
Hyunjin shakes his head. “We might not trust you a hundred percent yet, but we trust those two.”
“Don’t tell Seungmin we said that,” Minho asks with a smile. “He’ll never let us live it down.”
“I heard you!”
“No you did not!” Minho shouts back. “You’re hallucinating. Oooouuuo!”
Felix laughs and Chan fondly smiles. “Jeongin!” he calls.
Jeongin comes running. He has been avoiding him, understandably so, but he was persistent on remaining close by until Jisung woke up. Chan let him camp in the ICU and asked the medical staff not to mention anything about it.
“Y-Yes?”
“Prepare the necessary papers so that Minho and Hyunjin can move to the apartment next to Jisung’s and Seungmin’s. Take a few men with you and buy everything they might need, like food, clothes and furniture. I want the most expensive things you can find.”
“That’s really not necessary,” Minho protests. “Anything will—”
“ Expensive , Jeongin.”
“Copy!”
“Felix, I want you to go to security and tell them to double, no triple surveillance around and in the building. Place additional security devices in Minho’s and Hyunjin’s apartment,” Chan orders. “I know you’re probably busy, so you can rely the task to Momo or Wooyoung.”
Felix shakes his head. “No, I will make sure to do it myself.”
Seungmin zones out of Chan’s conversation. He reaches to grab Jisung’s other hand. If Changbin is warming his right hand, surely the left one needs to be warmed up too.
He wonders if they’re making too much noise. Will Jisung wake up to scold them if they’re loud enough? Can he hear them? Is he standing by them like a ghost in one of those movies where the main character falls into a coma? Is he seeing a stupid light at the end of a stupid tunnel?
“Don’t follow it,” he murmurs as he rubs the back of his friend’s hand with his thumb. “Don’t follow it, Jisung-ah...”
Jisung’s finger suddenly twitch.
Seungmin’s eyes widen.
Did he see this right?
He waits for two heavy heartbeats. He carefully surveys his hand.
Changbin suddenly jumps from his seat. “DID YOU SEE THAT?”
Seungmin snaps his head up. All conversations quieten.
“What?” Jeongin hurries to his side. “What happened?”
Jisung’s fingers move again, this time in Seungmin’s hold. “He moved his fingers!” he shouts. “He just moved them!”
Minho, Hyunjin, Felix and Chan rush to them.
“Maybe it was an unvoluntary nerve movement,” Felix hesitantly suggests.
“He moved both his hands!” Hope strangles Seungmin’s throat. “Changbin Hyung and I both saw it!”
“LOOK!” Hyunjin shouts. “H-His eyes—”
Jisung’s eyelids are stuttering open, as if he’s not sure if he wants to wake up just yet or not. His head turns to the side, and a pained grunt leaves his lips.
“CALL A NURSE!” Chan screams.
Changbin and Felix scramble to the hallway.
Seungmin squeezes Jisung’s hand. Tears cloud his eyes. “Wake up,” he pleads as Jisung fights to pull himself to consciousness. “Wake up Ji. You have to wake up.”
Two nurses come running. “Please leave the room!”
One of them opens his eyelids and shine her flashlight in his eyes. The other starts looking over the various monitors he’s plugged into. “Page Doctor Jeong!”
Minho grabs Seungmin’s wheelchair and pulls it backwards, forcing him to drop Jisung’s hand. He wants to protest, wants to beg him to leave him by his side, but he’s forced with the rest in the hallway.
“He’s going to be okay, right Hyung?” he hears Changbin ask Chan, and he sounds so young , so scared , so unlike the strong gangster that he knows him to be. In this instant, he sounds like a child pleading his older brother to make everything alright again.
Hyunjin kneels in front of Seungmin’s wheelchair. “He’s going to be okay.” He brings his finger up to his cheek to collect his tears. He hadn’t noticed that he was crying. “Jisung is not going to leave you behind.”
Seungmin only cries harder. His shoulders violently shake.
Jeongin approaches him to squeeze his shoulder, and Chan ruffles his hair. Minho rubs his arm up and down and Felix hands him tissues. Changbin repeats a mantra of ‘He’s waking up. He’s okay, he’s just waking up,’ but Seungmin doesn’t want any of their reassurances. He wants Jisung to wake up and tell them that he’s okay. That Seungmin was silly for worrying this much.
They wait for a while longer, perhaps thirty or forty minutes before the nurses and the doctor step out of the room.
“His vitals are great, and he seems to be recovering pretty quickly,” the doctor tells them. A collective sigh of relief is exhaled at once. Seungmin feels like his heart has just been allowed to beat again. Like he was drowning this entire time and was granted permission to swim back to the surface.
“Can we see him?”
“Yes, but only two or three at a time. Don’t overwhelm him. He still needs to rest and sleep some more.”
Chan bows. The others quickly follow. “Thank you, Doctor.”
The man nods before walking away.
They all turn to Chan who looks back at Seungmin. He smiles to him. It’s light. “You go first.” He points at Hyunjin and Minho with his chin. “Take these two with you.”
Minho doesn’t waste a second more to push Seungmin’s chair back in the room. Hyunjin quickly follows them.
They find Jisung waiting for them when they walk back in. The upper half of his bed is elevated, allowing him to lay back. He looks exhausted still, but he has gained some colours back in his cheeks. “Hey,” he softly calls with a small smile.
Seungmin pushes himself on his uninjured leg when he reaches his bed and lets himself fall in his arms. “You idiot .”
Jisung lets out a surprised huff accompanied by a short-breathed laugh. “Ow, ow, ow!”
“Be careful,” Minho lightly scolds while helping Seungmin sit on the bed.
Seungmin leans back. He runs his eyes through Jisung’s face. He’s smiling. He’s alive and smiling .
“Stop looking at me like I came back from the dead,” he laughs. “It takes more than a stupid knife to get rid of me.”
Seungmin sniffles, then starts hiccupping as his sobs resurface. He hides himself back in Jisung's arms. “I th-thought I lost you,” he cries. “I thought you were gone.”
Jisung tightens his arms around him. “Don’t cry,” he shakily pleads. “Don’t cry, you’re an ugly crier.”
Minho takes a seat on a chair close by and Hyunjin sits at the foot of the bed.
“Minho Hyung and Hyunjin are going to make fun of you.”
“Oh I definitely will,” Minho lightly teases.
Jisung leans back. “How’s your leg?”
Seungmin harmlessly flickers his forehead.
“Ouch!”
“How’s your stomach, you dumbass?” he wipes his eyes. “You’re stupid. So stupid .”
“Alright, I think we all heard about how stupid I am,” the sniper throws an apologetic smile to their new friends. “I promise we’re usually not cry-babies.”
“It’s alright, I cried a bunch since I was admitted.” Hyunjin points at Seungmin. “He wiped enough of my tears and snot for a lifetime.”
Jisung only then seems to realize that Minho and Hyunjin are dressed in hospital attires as well. “Oh my god, are you two okay?”
The brothers exchange a brief look. Minho clears his throat. “We are okay. We just— We just want to properly thank you and apologize for— well for everything.”
They both bow their heads.
Jisung turns red. He hurriedly shakes his hands. “O-Oh n-no! It’s nothing! Don’t be like that, please!”
“I insisted so much that you take us with you even though you said that it was too risky.” Hyunjin looks down at his hands. “I don’t regret it but I’m still sorry and immensely thankful. If you left us, we probably wouldn’t have— Hyung would have—”
Minho stands up and side hugs his brother who leans in the embrace, face hidden in his chest. “Thank you,” Minho repeats, face stern and serious, eyes drowning in emotions none of them could even begin to put words into.
Jisung smiles at them. “I would do it all over again if I could.” He puts a finger in front of his lips. “But don’t tell Channi Hyung that I said that.”
“It’s not either of your fault.” Seungmin reassures. “He was hurt because of me.”
Jisung hits the back of his head. “It’s no one’s fault. What are we? The self-blaming troop?”
They laugh it out.
A comfortable silence settles in.
Hyunjin stands up. “We’re going to run to the cafeteria really quick.” He turns to Minho who nods. “We’ll tell the others that they can come in.”
Jisung grunts. “The others as in Chan Hyung?”
Seungmin hugs him tightly one more time. “You know what?” He sits back in his wheelchair. “I’m coming with you.”
“Hey! Traitors!” Jisung shouts at their retreating backs. “Don’t leave me alone with him! He’s going to kill me!”
The door falls shut behind Seungmin’s evil laugh.
Jisung sighs and leans back. The silence is comforting, but strange. He already wants to go back to work, with Jeongin’s and Seungmin’s voices in his earpiece and the sound of gunshots echoing around him.
“Han-ah!” Changbin’s broken voice calls as he steps in the room.
Jisung sits up. Changbin’s teary red eyes welcome him. Jisung’s taken aback for a moment. He rarely ever saw his Hyung cry. “Hyung...”
Changbin carefully sits beside him and engulfs him in his arms. They envelop him so easily as if they can hide him from the entire world. Jisung finds his throat sour and his eyes sting without knowing why. “Hyung...” he repeats, and this time, it comes out more strained, more tired, more pleading.
Changbin scratches the back of his head. “Hyung is here. I got you. I’m right here.”
Chan approaches him from the other side and ever so gently holds his hand. “You’re okay,” he murmurs with his own set of teary eyes.
Something in Jisung breaks.
The tears overflow like a castor bridge breaking and letting the river rush to its downfall. He didn’t even know that he wanted or needed to cry until Changbin’s warmness enveloped him, and Chan’s consoling smile shadowed him. And he doesn’t— he doesn’t even know why . He doesn’t regret taking that knife for Seungmin. He would do it again if he had to. It was just— It was scary. Going in there alone was scary. Having the burden of three men’s lives on his shoulders was scary. Bleeding in the back of Felix’s van was scary. He thought— He really thought that he was going to die. He thought he was going to leave them. Going to leave Seungmin.
“I’m sorry,” Chan apologizes, crouched on the ground with his forehead pressed against Jisung’s hand. “I’m so sorry.”
And it hurts. It hurts even more knowing Chan will hate himself for what happened. That Seungmin will never stop blaming himself. That any of them will think that this is their fault. That his failure and weakness was their fault. He should have done better. He should have been better.
He muffles his cries in Changbin’s neck. He wants the ground to swallow him whole.
Changbin and Chan holds him until his sobs turn to sniffles and exhaustion takes over. They stay with him until he falls asleep, and this time around, he knows that when he will wake up, they will be there.
---
“THREE MONTHS?” Jisung shouts in the front of Jeongin’s black SUV. “You’re actually kidding.”
Jeongin nods solemnly, as if he just announced him someone’s death. “A three-month suspension. For both of us.”
“Six for you,” Felix adds with a wide Cheshire grin without lifting his eyes from his Nintendo Switch. “Taking you back home is our last mission for a while, actually.”
“So what, we can’t— work for The Phantoms anymore? For the next three to six months? What am I even going to do with my life?”
Felix’s Nintendo falls on his lap. He sits straight. “Oh, but that’s not all.” He lowers his voice to an evil timber. “They suspend our access to the condominium, which means that we can’t go home anymore.”
“Shut up.”
“I swear to god.”
“SHUT UP!”
“They rented us a hotel room each.”
Jisung leans back against his seat and runs a hand through his hair. “I knew there would be a punishment, but this is going too far.” He huffs in disbelief. “It better be a presidential suit at a five-star hotel.”
“We’re not even done yet,” Jeongin smirks, and Jisung wonders what’s so funny about all of this. “They froze our bank accounts.”
“NO!” Jisung shouts, making Felix and Jeongin explode in loud laughers. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY FROZE OUR ACCOU —?” he stops mid-sentence, hand against his wound. He winces in pain “Ow.”
“Stop moving so much!” Felix stops laughing immediately, but Jeongin continues all the same. “You’re going to reopen your stitches! You woke up only four days ago.”
Jisung rolls his eyes. He has had enough of all the doting and walking on eggshells around him. “How are we going to live without money anyway?” He goes on as if Felix never said anything. “Do I have to take a part time job at the local drug store? Or go back to my roots and sell drugs on the street?”
“They will give us 1K a month. No more, no less.”
He frowns, then deflates. “Oh. Well, that doesn’t sound too bad?”
“In my old gang, you would get a hundred whiplash for disobeying.” Jeongin tears his eyes from the road to glance at him. “If I’m being honest, this sounds more like a little vacation than a punishment. No work, a paid hotel, and free money.”
“Channi Hyung probably had to give us a sanction because of the pressure of the other team leaders. It would set a bad example if he just let us go.”
Jisung sighs. He knows. Of course he knows, and he hates for having put Chan, Jeongin and Felix in such a situation. “I’m sorry you guys.”
Jeongin rolls his eyes. “We are two grown men. We knew what we were getting ourselves into.”
Felix goes back to his game. “As long as he puts us in the same hotel, I think we’re actually going to have quite some fun.”
“But what about your job with the police?”
“He made them give me an unpaid leave. Some intern is going to replace me.” His speech is sluggish, as if he can’t be bothered but is still annoyed about it.
Jisung hums in understanding. He focuses on the road. “Where are we going then?”
“We’re going home.” Jeongin turns right at a stop. “Lix and I have two weeks to pack, and you have three.” He glares down at his injury in disdain. “Because of your wound and all.”
“Nice! I’m going to play sick for as long as possible.”
“Oh you’re coming with us. I don’t care if I have to drag you bloody and all.”
Felix and Jisung laughs.
He relaxes more in his seat.
This is okay.
He’s going to be okay.
---
Hyunjin and Minho leave the hospital a week later.
Jisung and Seungmin are sprawled on their sofa, throwing orders left and right to Changbin, Felix and Jeongin. One uses his leg as an excuse to be lazy, and the other his stomach.
“Everything needs to be perfect! ” Jisung shouts as Jeongin and Changbin move the brand-new table to the dining room. “I can’t believe this isn't already done! They will be here in ten minutes .”
“We had our hands full!” Felix complains while pulling out of the dryer the bed sheets and blankets. He runs to Minho’s bedroom to cover the naked mattress, then to Hyunjin’s.
“Honestly, shame on us. We’re going to give them wrinkled sheets,” Seungmin stresses out. “WRINKLED!”
Jeongin runs to get lunch, and perhaps dinner too, off the stove. Changbin hurries to fill the fridge more than it already is. “Help us if you’re that worried about it!”
“OW!” Seungmin fake winces. “Did you feel that just know Ji?”
"You bet I did.” Jisung’s voice is flat, not fooling anyone. “I’m in so much agony that I’m thinking of going back to the hospital.”
Changbin rolls his eyes as the childhood friends exchange a high-five.
The sound of the code being put in echoes in the apartment.
“Oh my god! They are here! They are here!” Jisung shoots up on his legs. “Everyone stops moving!”
Seungmin stands up as well. He grabs his crutches to lean on them.
“-ou can set your own code of course. Or you can change it to a simple lock if you’re more comfortable with that.” Chan’s voice reaches them as he opens the door.
They all move to the entrance to welcome them.
Hyunjin and Minho steps in the apartment. They stop short when they see them.
They look dead on their feet and reek of the anesthetic smell of the hospital. Jisung can only imagine how exhausting it must be to be hospitalized for this long and having to undergo all those different treatments and tests after such a traumatic experience. He heard from Felix that they had to testify multiple times too.
“Welcome home!” They all shout at the same time, arms awkwardly spread and a wobbly smile on their faces.
“It’s not much but we prepared some food for you guys so that you don’t have to cook!” Felix points at the kitchen. “If you don’t like our cooking, we are pretty bad, we put a handful of uber eats coupons on the table.”
“We washed all the new clothes that we bought you; they are in each of your wardrobes,” Jeongin adds.
Seungmin adjusts himself on his crutches. “We also bought some gift cards from a couple fashion stores in case you don’t like what Jeongin and Lix choose or if anything doesn’t fit.”
Changbin raises his hands. He has a Hello Kitty apron on that he borrowed from Chaeryeong’s kitchen. “And we were only here to clean and get everything ready for you. If you want to hire someone to check for micros or hidden cameras, please feel free to. We’ll pay for it.”
Jisung hurriedly nods. “We don’t want to cause you any more stress. We know that it will be hard for you to trust us after— well after everything.”
Minho and Hyunjin blink at them, eyes wide in shock.
“Th-Thank you. That’s— That’s a lot,” Hyunjin stutters.
Minho’s eyes fill with tears, but he repeatedly blinks them away. “You really did a lot.”
“It’s nothing.” Chan pats his shoulder. “If you don’t like what they bought, just throw everything out and buy whatever you want. You have my card.”
“Thank you.” Minho thanks again. He inhales sharply and tries to remain collected. “We really— We really appreciate it.”
“We’ll let you shower and rest, okay?” Chan silently gestures at his teammates to get out. They hurriedly scatter to collect their stuff and put their shoes on. “You wrote down our numbers on a notebook in the kitchen. You can add them in the new phones that we bought you; they should be in the living room. Of course, if you don’t trust them and think they are bugged, you can use the card I gave you to replace them.”
Minho and Hyunjin remove their shoes and step further in their new home. “I think you’re going a bit far Hyung,” the younger brother laughs.
“Because of our job, we understand what it’s like to not be able to trust someone,” the leader sympathizes. “We want to make you feel as comfortable and at home as possible.”
“And we are.” Minho thankfully smiles. His eyes look more alight. More alive. “Thank you for everything.”
“Ah! One more thing!” Felix calls while being pushed out of the apartment by his leader. “There is a red button under the counter, your beds, and the bathroom’s sink. If you push it in case of an emergency, like a hostage or an invader situation, it will alert us immediately! Don’t hesitate to use it if needed!”
“Will do!” Hyunjin chuckles.
“See you!” Jisung shouts when Chan has successfully kicked them all out. “Let’s hang out later!”
“You’re not hanging out anywhere, you are suspended,” Changbin faint voice says in the hallway.
“I’m suspended, not house arrested!” Jisung argues back.
“Call me if you need anything else,” Chan whispers before closing the door behind him with a last parting smile.
The two brothers are left alone in the silence of their new apartment.
They turn around and let their eyes scan the place.
“I think it could be a home,” Hyunjin says, full of hope.
Minho looks at him. He was beginning to think that he will never get to see again that light that make his eyes sparkle. “One step at a time.”
Hyunjin looks back at him. He grins. “One step at a time,” he echoes.
---
Two months later, Minho and Hyunjin are close enough with the close-knit friend group to visit Jisung, Felix and Jeongin in their hotel, or like they call it, their luxurious jail.
Jisung is the most excited to see them, but he seems even more thrilled about the snacks and the takeout that they bring along.
They find Seungmin already in Jisung’s room, munching chips and typing away at his laptop. He has spent most of his free time with him, either because he feels guilty still, or because these two have always been glued to the hip to begin with. It’s likely that it's both.
There’s also the fact that Seungmin has been having very bad nightmares revolving Jisung’s injury, but that’s something he promised Hyunjin to keep quiet on.
“Our savors!” Jisung takes the bags from their hands and knocks twice on Felix’s door to his right and on Jeongin’s to his left. They didn’t get presidential suits like they hoped they would, but Chan had the decency to get each of them rooms of four so that they can have more space. He also requested connected rooms, which made hanging out far easier.
“Food is here!”
“Coming!” Chan calls from Felix’s room. They have been spending ungodly hours playing video games.
Jeongin leaves his room to step in Jisung’s. “Smells good! Is Changbin Hyung here soon?”
“In five.” Minho throws himself on the bed next to Seungmin while Hyunjin starts unpacking the food.
Chan and Felix walk up to the group. They take place on the second king bed.
“How did your job interview go Hyung?” the cop asks.
Minho lightens. “Good! She said that I can start working part time until I recover. I’ll be starting next week.”
A chorus of congratulations and excited shouts wash over the room. “That’s amazing! Will you be working undercover with us like Lix?” Jisung asks.
Minho smirks. “You bet I am. Following the rules all the time is boring.”
They laugh about it, but Chan makes sure to add, “Don’t feel pressured to!”
“It’s the only thing motivating me to graduate.” Hyunjin distributes the food amongst them. “Being an investigator and working undercover with the Mafia? And the famous Phantoms at that? What an absolute dream .”
“Careful! You’re becoming too much of a fan!” Seugmin teases.
There are two knocks on the door. Jisung goes to open it.
Changbin walks in with a welcoming, “You better left some for me! I’m starving .”
The rest of the night goes well.
Tonight, they aren’t some high-class gangsters. Tonight, they aren’t the Mafia. Tonight, no one was shot or stabbed. No one was trafficked. No one had their organs reaped from their bodies. Tonight, they are just eight friends, hanging out around fried chicken and noodles.
Somewhere into the night, when half of them are already fast asleep in the many beds or aimlessly scrolling through their phones, Jisung finds Seungmin in the balcony, forearms against the railing and eyes lost in the lights illuminating the dark city. “Are you okay?”
Seungmin glances at him. “I’m okay,” he mutters.
Jisung goes to stand by his side. He looks at him, but Seungmin doesn’t look back. “You know you can go back home, right? I’m the one who was suspended, not you.”
“I know.”
He sighs. “Seungmo...”
“You know, when you were— when you got hurt.” There’s a pause. “All I could think about was how I was so young, and my life was already over.” Seungmin laughs, but it’s dry. “Funny, isn’t it? You were the one dying in my arms, but I kept thinking how over my life was. Surely, the world was ending.”
Jisung finds himself at a loss of words. He didn’t think that his sacrifice would affect his friend this much. He should have known. Seungmin and him are the extension of one another. They are two souls put into two different bodies.
“I’m sorry.”
Seungmin huffs in frustration. “I don’t want your apology. I want you to tell me that you won’t do something stupid like that again.”
Jisung runs his hand through his hair and looks away. “I can’t.”
Seungmin grabs his arm and turns him around. “Jisung!”
“I CAN’T!” Jisung shouts. His voice wobbles, then breaks. There’s a moment of silence. “I-I can promise to be more careful, but I can’t— I can’t lie to your face and tell you that I won’t risk my life for you if it ever came down to it again.”
His best friend’s eyes fill with tears. “You have to.”
Jisung shakes his head. “I can’t. I can’t.” He pulls his arm back. “If it was me who was about to get shot or stabbed, and you could do something about it, wouldn’t you do the same?”
He doesn’t receive an answer.
“I know you would Min. I know you would do far worse for me, risk far more, so you have to understand.”
The younger man hits his shoulder with his fist. “Then be stronger you dumbass,” he orders. “Be stronger and don’t let some nobody hurt you. Didn’t you tell Hyunjin that you are the best of your generation?”
Jisung laughs. “Sure. Sure, I’ll work harder.” He wraps an arm around his shoulders, receiving an annoyed grunt from him. “Say, how worried were you?” he adds with a teasing grin.
“Leave me alone.”
“How much did you cry? Did you prepare a speech for my funeral or something?”
“I’m going to pluck your eyes out.”
They go back in the room, and even if their bickering and laughers wake everyone up, no one is upset about it.