MASQUERADE ⋮ markhyuck

⥼e i g h t e e n⥽

Even if Taeyong didn't want Donghyuck to have anything related to the business of the mafia, it didn't mean he was keeping the boy away from it. He never let Donghyuck be a part of it — that's why he protected and hid his son in the first place, but there were still things of which Donghyuck was aware.

"You're holding it wrong," Taeyong sighed and walked around his sixteen yeard old son only to correct his grip around the gun. "If you keep doing this, your enemy will be able to take it out of your hands."

"I saw a killer holding it like this," Donghyuck wiggled out of Taeyong's embrace and showed his newly learned pose — a sassy one with a gun to his lips.

Taeyong chuckled.

"This pose won't save you. Someone will shoot you right away."

"Why would they want to shoot me? I can't even handle the gun properly. I'm not threatening them."

"It doesn't matter if you don't want to hurt them, because they want to hurt you, Donghyuck."

Donghyuck couldn't continue the talk. He knew that the dad was right, he always was after all. Donghyuck was a mere target, everyone could take him down pretty easily. That's why he should get stronger. As Taeyong said, he won't be on his side all life, neither will Johnny and who else will protect Donghyuck if not Donghyuck himself?

At first, Donghyuck learned how to hold the gun and how should he stand to be able to shoot properly. Then his first training began during which Donghyuck had to shoot some homemade targets — simple cans. It was hard to aim at the very center, especially when Donghyuck was still new and lacked a lot of experience. Though with Taeyong's intense training, he managed to shoot five out of six targets.

"Right at the center," Donghyuck whistled and turned to his dad with a cocky smile. "I'm a genius," he added, the whiff of his hot breath left his mouth and got absorbed by the coldness around.

"Six seconds... Impressive."

It was seven in the morning, the middle of fall, on top of that, Monday, which meant Donghyuck had to go to school right after his training.

"You're doing way better than I expected," Taeyong went to his son and ruffled his hair. "I can't believe that last week you were shooting trees."

"I'm a fast learner dad," Donghyuck rolled his eyes and went to his backpack, thinking about leaving. "Where should I put the gun?"

"We're not finished yet."

'You said I need to shoot six targets, so I did."

"You got only five."

"But it was way faster than before, so I did great."

Taeyong raised his head up and looked at the sky colored in beautiful colors of the dawn. Well, Donghyuck thought that his dad was looking at the sky. He knew that he was wrong when his dad looked back at him with a serious expression.

"If you're that confident, it won't be hard to shoot another target, right?"

Doghyuck groaned and went back into his position to shoot some cans, but Taeyong just scoffed at that.

"I mean, a real target, Donghyuck."

"Where will I find one? Do I possibly shoot you or a squirrel?" Donghyuck turned it into a joke, but the face of his dad never changed and that meant only one thing — he was serious.

"There's a nest of birds right above our heads. I think you know what to do."

Donghyuck looked up and saw a messy nest in the poor-looking grey tree. He spotted a black crow feeding his little kids and looked back at his dad with a nervous gaze.