Beyond Alteration

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22 September 2018

"What are we celebrating?" Junha asked curiously after exchanging an excited glance with Dohyeon. 

After the huge party Hansung had thrown to everyone to 'celebrate' Jeongguk's first 'death anniversary', they hadn't been to a restaurant as huge and luxurious as this. 

"Something," Banshin said and ushered the kids in. "You kids can live without knowing," he said and exchanged a smile with Hansung who hadn't stopped smiling ever since he had hung up on a certain monster after giving him one of the biggest punishments possible to someone who was repenting their mistakes. 

Because now Jeongguk had no chance to show his repentance to Hansung. He could not show how badly he'd like to turn things back. 

Hansung had taken that chance away from him. He had taken away his chance for redemption. And he couldn't feel prouder of himself. 

Without using any violent means, he had done something that he could pat himself on his back for. He hadn't got down to the monster's level to get his revenge on him. 

But he wasn't too satisfied with it. One part of his heart wanted to burn that man up and watch him as he turned to ashes. To sit and rejoice in the scene of the man screaming for mercy. For life. 

But the other part of him wanted peace of mind. 

He had his Bannie with him. He had his Junha with him. He now had a beautiful family. One that he had always dreamt of having. Did he really have to seek that monster out and resort to means lower than that man just to get the satisfaction of a successful revenge?

He had already complained to the cops about Jeongguk. He knew the cops wouldn't care too much about him unless Hansung paid them his weight in money, but still, something was better than nothing, right?

His only worry was how his body and mind would react if he ever happened to meet that man again. A shudder passed through him just at the thought of that happening. 

"Hannie, baby, you okay?" Banshin brought Hansung out of his thoughts with a hand on his shoulder. Hansung blinked at him for a couple of seconds and then graced him with a pretty smile. "Yeah, sorry, let's go," he signed before walking up to the table that he had reserved for their huge family. 

The dinner was wonderful, eye-crinkling, stomach-squeezing and cheek-wrinkling, but all of that came to an end when Yoongi and Hoseok left along with the Kims to stay at their house for the night and Junha demanded ice cream on their way back home. 

They stopped at a roadside stall and got out in all excitement only to find Jeongguk sitting on one of the open seats around the stall and crying his heart out. 

Hansung froze mid-step and grabbed Banshin so hard that it had him wincing in pain. He whimpered and stepped behind him before Banshin could do anything. Still, Banshin reached out and pecked him on his forehead before clearing his throat loudly. 

Jeongguk didn't even look up. So Banshin looked at Junha, who looked relatively calmer than Hansung. "We'll go back home?" he whispered and Junha nodded fervently. He didn't even know why Banshin had tried to catch Jeongguk's attention in the first place. 

Banshin turned around and wrapped Hansung in a hug before leading him back to their car with a soft whisper, "let's go."

They almost made it to the car, thanking all gods up in the sky for almost escaping a disaster, but they were taking all the thanks back soon when they heard Jeongguk call Junha out like he couldn't really believe it was him. 

They froze and Banshin and Junha exchanged a nervous look. 'Let's just go,' Banshin mouthed and they kept walking like they didn't know who 'Junha' was, only to freeze again when they heard a loud crash. 

Hansung jumped and turned around with his eyes as wide as footballs, realizing immediately that Jeongguk had picked up a stool and thrown it to the floor in anger at their 'rude' behaviour. 

"Who the fuck is this, huh? Why do I keep seeing him with you all the time?" Jeongguk asked Hansung angrily. 

Hansung gulped, not knowing how to reply, or if he even needed to reply in the first place. 

He had a feeling this wasn't going to end well. His heart jumped to his throat at the angry tone Jeongguk was using at him. His throat was already tingling from what his brain thought it was going to feel soon - the fingers of Jeongguk's fingers around his throat. 

Still, he was neither scared nor ashamed of his relationship with Banshin, so he collected his voice and breath and opened his mouth with his wide eyes fixed on Jeongguk's angry ones. 

"My 'usband," his voice was just above a whisper, but he held his face and chest up in pride. There had not been a single moment he regretted marrying Banshin, after all, unlike someone else who had made him regret his marriage every time he breathed.

He saw the exact moment something snapped in Jeongguk. And he immediately took another step behind Banshin, bracing himself for whatever was about to come. 

"You couldn't have enough with me, so you went out and found someone else who looks like me, you slut? Why did you call me this afternoon, then? You aren't having enough with him too?" 

Hansung was crying, Junha was crying and Banshin......

....Banshin was just breathing. 

Breathing deeply in shock and rage and murder in his mind.

Because if this was how Jeongguk talked when he was sober and 'repenting', he couldn't even begin to imagine how much Hansung would have endured when they were still married. 

The only difference between him and a mad bull was the fact that he didn't kick his foot behind before charging at Jeongguk with smoke coming out of his nose and ears. 

"NO!!" Hansung tried to yell at him, knowing just how strong Jeongguk was, but his voice only came out in a loud whisper that in turn hurt his throat and sent him into a painful coughing fit. 

Junha stood torn between helping Hansung and Banshin. Before he could come to a conclusion and run to help Banshin, however, Jeongguk quite literally sent Banshin flying towards the hard stools of the roadside stall. 

Hansung, who had just recovered from his coughing fit, gasped and looked at the stall owner for help, almost sobbing when he noticed the man ignoring the fight on purpose. 

He looked back at Banshin, who looked like he was trying his best to stop himself from passing out. It had been a tough hit and crash, after all. 

In all franticness, he looked at Jeongguk, who was marching towards Banshin with murder in his eyes, and something just snapped in him. 

He could take whatever Jeongguk wanted to do with him, he could even let him kill him, but he couldn't bear him hurting his love. He couldn't bear Jeongguk causing Banshin, his sweet and adorable and lovely Bannie, any kind of pain. 

He couldn't imagine Banshin going through any of the things that he had endured from Jeongguk and his anger.

And so, before he could even realize it, he was charging at Jeongguk, his body disconnected from his mind and purely fueled by sheer adrenaline running through his veins.

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