𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐎𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐥 - 𝐒𝐤𝐳/ 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐠

-Never again-

It was all too much, everything that had happened in the past few days was all too much. Chan didn't know what to feel, the death of his brother sometimes he was angry, but most of the time he was just sad. The death of his younger brother was all too much to bear and he was struggling to cope. Chan had never felt this way before, he didn't know what it was like to lose someone until now. For most of his life, he had been tiptoeing around the edge of death waiting for the day to come where he slips over the side. He had been expecting it to happen to him, not his brother who still had so much life left to live. I suppose that's what happens when you are a part of the mafia, you don't know who could get dragged into that crazy little game of yours. 

Jisung had been calling him for the past five minutes, trying to grab his attention. Chan snapped out of his daydream of rage and turned to look at the younger who had a look of concern splashed across his face. "Are you alright? you've been out of it these past few days". Jisung said. "I'm fine, just thinking about a lot of things" The elder replied. They had been living in the dingy apartment for a few days now, surviving on takeout and the brownies that Felix would drop by occasionally. "Have you come up with a plan yet? the longer we leave it the more time that JYP has to get us" Jisung commented. Chan sighed and glanced back to the random pages and letters he had sprawled out in front of him. "I've tried contacting got7 to see if they could help us but they've dropped off the grid, probably doing what we are- Hiding" He laughed. Jisung bit his bottom lip in thought, they knew that they didn't have much time before he came looking for them. Jisung was in even more danger than he realized as his ex-best friend has been given a contract to assassinate him.

Speaking of which...

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Minho took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock on the door, he had been standing outside for the past five minutes memorizing lines in his head. He had prepared a speech a few hours before but it all went to shit as he stumbled upon his words. "Get it together Minho" He whispered to himself. He raised his hand to knock on the door again but he didn't need to as it swung open. Chan stared at him and raised an eyebrow, Jisung doing the same from where he was seated on the couch. "We need to talk" Minho finally said after a strange stare-down. Chan gestured for him to come in, Jisung straightened up and shoved the chips he was eating behind a pillow which earnt him a glare from his 'roommate. Minho half-smiled at the stupidity of Jisung but then stopped quickly remembering why he was there in the first place. He took a seat on the couch next to him and Chan leaned against the wall waiting for him to speak. "I know what happened to Lucas, Jinyoung picked me up last Thursday and told me I'm really sorry Chan," Minho said. Chan cast his gaze downwards but still gave an appreciative nod to say thanks. "I didn't take him seriously like you both told me, he is more dangerous than I realized, he offered me a contract which I stupidly took but you are going to want to hear the terms of it".

Chan decided that the wall wasn't very comfortable and he shoved Jisung over so that he could take a seat next to him. "He gave me a target to eliminate in return for Hannah's freedom-" Minho was cut off by chan. "Well that's great, give me the name of the person and I'll go kill the son of a bitch now," He said standing up. Minho remained quiet but turned to look at Jisung. The younger gave a confused stare back but it then dawned upon him. "Oh...." He trailed off. Soon after Chan got the memo as well, Jisung was the one who had to die for his sister to be released. "Well- we will have to rescue Hannah another way. I can think of one- I just need time" Chan was becoming a mess, he was pacing back and forth randomly spurting out sentences. There was no way in hell he was going to kill Jisung, he had just lost a brother and he wasn't going to lose another one. Jisung had said nothing, he was twisting a ring around his finger nervously while he drilled holes into the couch cushion. "I'll get my team together and we will figure a way around this Chan I promise-". 

"No" Jisung interrupted. "There isn't another way around this, he wants me dead if that's the only way to bring Hannah back then that's what must happen," He said. Chan rapidly shook his head. "No jisung, you can't I won't let you" he blurted. Minho gave him a worried look, he was really losing his shit. "Listen Minho there's something I have to tell you, that day that I left you in that alley was one of the worst days of my life, I knew I shouldn't have done it but I did and there's no coming back from it. If I could go back and change it all I would but we don't live in some fantasy, this is the real world." Jisung said he had this calm demeanor around him. Minho could feel himself tearing up, he was finally going to get an answer. "The truth is that it was your dad who paid me to kill you, he said it was my life or yours and I selfishly chose mine but I couldn't do it, you meant everything to me so when I left you that wasn't a choice, I didn't want to be the one who did it, but those guys that were there that day weren't called by me, they worked for someone else"

"I moved to Japan and I started over, I knew you were alive so I kept tabs on you, I was so fucking grateful that you weren't dead but I knew you wanted nothing to do with me so I stayed away, I thought you hated me which is why I never came back but Minho you have to believe me that your dad is the one who wanted you dead it was never me," Jisung said. Minho had tears rolling down his face, what a confession. "Jisung the cruelest thing you can do to another person is pretend you care about them more than you really do, I did hate you but I still loved you, I know that what you think your doing is right but there is another way around this," he said. Jisung shook his head. "I need to do this for Chan" he whispered. Before Minho could stop him he had disappeared. Chan ran after him and Minho followed, the apartment halls were empty and Chan screamed out in frustration. "You know the truth now, you know it all and now you have to help me get him back please Minho I'm begging you" Chan begged.

Minho had a thin line between right and wrong and he always managed to tip himself over to the wrong side but this was different. He finally knew the truth, after many years of self-pity and overbearing emotions he knew. And although his mind was screaming at him not to, his heart was telling him to forgive and forget, he had to do the right thing and save Jisung.