when you wake up | sunki

ten.

"I'm so sorry for all the trouble," are Jay's first words to Sunoo, and his next few sentences are all something of a similar sort. "Thank you so much for all your help last minute, I don't know what I would have done without you."

"It's alright," Sunoo offers effacingly. "You paid for all of it, I just made a few calls."

"I suppose I owe you an explanation," the older man says. "It's not fair to keep you in the dark about this matter anymore, but I need you to keep this between us. It won't be safe for you if information of this sort gets out."

"I understand," Sunoo agrees. "I'll keep quiet. What is it?"

Bit by bit, in the sitting room of apartment #01-01, Jay puts the puzzle pieces together, and another mystery unravels itself for Sunoo.

Jay is the CEO of law firm JURIS in downtown Seoul, but part of his firm is a front, for his second occupation. By night he's one of the three mob bosses of AUREUM, the family that takes care of this part of town, as well as the area around it. For lack of a better term, Jay tells Sunoo straight up that he's the leader of a mafia family. Along with two others, people he only mentions by name as Sunghoon and Jake, he leads AUREUM in keeping the peace in their part of Seoul, and protects the civilians from the movements of other prominent families in the vicinity.

"I had reason to believe there was a hit put out on my apartment last night," he says finally. "I needed my family to be taken away to somewhere safe, but the rest of us were on our way back from the US and I was running out of time. Thank you for your help, Sunoo. AUREUM will be behind you should you need anything, from now on."

"That's..." Sunoo trails off. "A complicated story. I'm glad I was able to help you last night, then. There is something I hoped you could help me with, though."

"What is it?" Jay asks immediately. "Anything, name it."

"Could you look into which families in Seoul have a hit out on members of the Nakagawa-kai?"

─

"Hi Jungwonie!"

Sunoo is punctual for his first lesson with Jungwon, which for various miscellaneous reasons has been postponed until now. The younger boy is excited to see his hyung, happily running to his room to get his new guitar. They sit in the living room, Sunoo with his large guitar and Jungwon with his small one, and he teaches him the beginning chords for the Pororo theme song.

Jungwon, on his part, has a flair for music. He picks up the basics without much trouble, eager to learn and play, willingly listens to Sunoo's corrections and little instructions.

"Sunoo-hyung," the boy says suddenly, looking up from his guitar for a second. "Do you think memory is important?"

Sunoo gives him a curious look. "That's sudden, Jungwonie. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking of the boy who lives upstairs," he says, frowning. "I can't imagine what it's like to have no family, and to not remember every day that passes."

Sunoo can't even bring himself to say that Jungwon and Riki have more in common than the younger boy would have thought. "I can't imagine it, either. And to answer your question, yes, it's important. I wish it wasn't."