Incarnadine | Prequel to "Viridescence"

25

The boys sprint back to the SS house and sneak in from the back, easily making it to their room. Away from prying eyes, they quickly stuff their faces into their wardrobe and start flinging objects out. Large sports bags, big empty milk cartons and empty bottles. Many absurd containers make it onto their bed before they turn and begin stuffing everything into their huge bags.

"We've still got two hours but let's try to be quick for the next part," Hongjoong whispers to his friend. Seonghwa nods and the boys rush out the room with their bags and easily slip out the house from the back again. Instead of returning to their training grounds, they run in the direction of the city.

Seonghwa can't help but think about how much his stamina has improved. He recalls the way he would gasp for breath after running this much a few months ago, but after all the training, he feels just fine. In fact, it turns out that his agility and overall physical performance is better than Hongjoong's. The trainers at the SS house constantly comment about how Seonghwa is a very fast learner, and how he has great potential for the future. Hongjoong is also good, but Seonghwa requires only half the effort to achieve what his friend has.

He smiles to himself while jogging at the thought. He's slowly becoming the kind of person he wants to be. He knows he's only thirteen right now, but the progress makes him feel like he might actually grow up to be as strong and intimidating as he wishes he can be.

The two eventually reach a garage that appears abandoned. Overgrown grass surrounds it and litter flails around loosely through the empty car park. The garage sits on its own with no buildings around it, which already seems odd but Hongjoong and Seonghwa know that they've reached exactly where they need to be.

Hongjoong leads the way to the side of the garage and nonchalantly swings the rusty, corroded door open. A man sits inside, bobbing his head to music coming from his earphones. He's a big man, his biceps larger than Hongjoong's head. One could be intimidated by his well-built physique, but Seonghwa's first impression was, "He's so cool!"

Although the man seems occupied with repairing a red car that's beside him, the two boys don't hesitate to walk in. "Hey, we're here to collect what we discussed!" Hongjoong shouts. The man lifts his head instantly and his stern eyes soften a little. He pulls his earphones out and stands up, standing tall at over a foot taller than the boys.

Once again, Seonghwa's eyes sparkle with admiration. He eyes the tattoos covering the man's limbs and neck and finds himself imagining himself in the same position.

Meanwhile, the man eyes the bags hanging from their shoulders and nods to Hongjoong. He wordlessly walks to the corner of the garage, where there are large metal shelves. He grabs a few large plastic containers from his shelves and effortlessly carries them over.

"How much do you boys need?" His deep voice booms as an echo around the garage. Hongjoong gestures to Seonghwa and they both take out all the bottles and cartons they brought and present them in front.

"As much as we can get," Hongjoong assures. The man giggles slightly at the two young boys and shakes his head to himself, but unscrews the cap of his container anyway.

Seonghwa's nose automatically scrunches up at the intense odour of gasoline. "Are you sure no one will be able to smell this from our bags?" he worries to his younger friend. Hongjoong shrugs. "We'll just screw the lids very tightly and clean the outside of the bottles very well I guess."

Once the man finishes filling up every single container he can, all three of them work together to clean the bottles well enough to get rid of the smell.

"So, what are you children going to set on fire?" the man casually asks. Hongjoong laughs loudly and in an over exaggerated manner. "What do you mean? Of course we're only going to use this to fuel a car!" he answers. The man smiles. "You do realise that I've done this enough times, right? You're talking to a man that has been arrested for arson multiple time before."

Hongjoong freezes with momentary panic. "Please don't tell Jaehyun anything, just pretend like we're fuelling a car," he pleads. The man watches the two younger boys' wide eyes with their eyebrows turned down in an attempt to convince him and again, a loud chuckle escapes him.

"You've helped my gang members in the past, so I guess I owe this to you," he smiles. Seonghwa and Hongjoong got onto the good side of this gang leader a few weeks ago when SS sent them to help this gang out with something, adding one more gang onto the forever growing list of gangs that the boys are friends with.

Well, it's more like a business relationship to be honest.

"Stay safe and don't get caught," the man calls out to them as they are leaving the garage. They continue to leave silently with their backs turned to the man, but Hongjoong lifts his hand above his head and waves.

The two trek through the streets, this time much slower as their bags weigh them down. They don't even realise that they're struggling, huffing with each step. Seonghwa wonders to himself, would this be too much gasoline?

He eyes his partner in crime and brushes it off, deciding to put all his faith in the other. 

Today, the two boys are planning to set the whole psychiatric hospital alight into flames.

A/N
After the next chapter, the rest of the book will have many more and much bigger time-skips :0 I hope no one will be too bothered by that ('-ω-')