jongho burst into the room next to him, slamming the door shut as quickly as he could. he grabbed a thick four by four that had been laying in a debris pile on the floor of the warehouse and slid it between the rickety handles. his hand then darted down quickly to the wound that he was sporting on his side, pressing his fingers hard enough to try and stop the excessive bleeding. slowly collapsing to the floor, knees buckling under him as his legs finally gave out and the gun in his hand falling out of his grip. the steady drip of the blood spilling onto the concrete was ringing in his ears as he used his forearms to pull his body across the bottom of the floor.
the gaping wound in jongho's calf was splitting apart the more he moved before finally pulling himself up against the wall. his face scrunched in pain, eyebrows furrowed together as he hunched over on himself, blood mixing with sweat as it dripped down into a small puddle from his nose. soon after, tears that he had been subconsciously keeping down finally joined in the miserable cocktail. the amount of adrenaline running through jongho's veins caused his hands to vibrate with fear and rendered him unable to even pick his gun up again.
jongho leaned his head back against the wall, panting as he tried his best to catch his shaky breath. the yelling outside of the room made him cringe and want to shrink in on himself, disappearing to the point where he didn't want anyone to find him. when he pulled his right hand away from his side and grimaced at the sight of it. jongho had been injured a lot before, but nothing could compare to the wounds he scored tonight. he was losing an insane amount of blood in a time too short to tell, head already fuzzy as he tried to shake it to help clear up his swirling thoughts and make sense of the current situation.
this whole mission had been a joke. he had no reason being here, and he really had no reason dragging him here either. this had been for jongho's own selfish benefit, which he should've remedied on his own.
jongho pressed his soiled fingers against his earpiece, clearing his parched throat as he tried to whisper as gently as he could.
"hyung..."
it really was funny how he even ended up here. a smart, catholic-raised young boy who had been following the life path dictated for him and yet, by chance, swerved into one of the most powerful mafia groups in the nation. a well-known organization that had been built from the ground up, becoming widely know in only a few years. if jongho had been honest back then, he didn't even know mafias were still a thing. he thought that they were made for riveting and suspenseful movie plots rather than actually being real people who went around killing others out of their own vengeance and fear.
while jongho had his plans to go onto grad school to get his masters and then hopefully his phD to become a surgeon, none of that really ever happened. jongho didn't necessarily want to become a surgeon; he always found the visual arts more appeasing to him. but as he came from a long line of family surgeons, his future had nearly already been written for him. extremely intelligent, he had graduated university with ease and got into one of the most highly regarded medical schools to further his education. with quick wit, amazing composure under extremely difficult scenarios, and steady hands that never shook when he got nervous, jongho was the textbook example of a promising surgeon.
now, yeosang had been with jongho ever since the two were in middle school. both were extremely quiet and had lots of difficulties making friends, but thankfully found each other after their teacher had assigned them to write a few book reports together. yeosang was a special character; jongho had a hard time reading him in the first few years of their friendship and the other seemed to have an aura of secrets within him. while jongho was never the nosy type, he felt that yeosang was always hiding something from him, making him upset that the other wouldn't open up to him.
as the years went by, the two were glued to the hip. even though jongho went in a medical direction and yeosang went into the fine arts, they still managed to find time to see each other. yeosang would constantly make fun of jongho when the younger would stress and bite at his nails every time he had a chemistry exam coming up. the older of them never once took school seriously, but did take a religious approach of teasing jongho every time he would drop his pile of biology and chemistry books on the table of their shared dorm room.
"fine arts won't get you anywhere in life, sangie," jongho would always scowl at yeosang when the older would take a shot at him. "this is your future you're talking about."
"i already have my future planned out," yeosang would say as he dropped his body to the community sofa, a lollipop comfortably slack in his mouth.
"no you don't, you never complete any of your assignments or attend any of your classes."
"university isn't for everyone, jongho. some of us weren't born as gifted as you were."
yeosang made that comment every time jongho tried to express concern for the older and it never failed to make the younger frown.
"i don't fit the lifestyle that you and everyone else think i should. the whole business job where you sit at a desk from nine to five is never something i want to be apart of," yeosang would continue, putting his feet up on the table to illicit jongho into throwing his pencil and telling him to "mind you manners."
even though the both of them never really fit in anywhere, yeosang had been worse off than jongho. he wasn't exactly book smart, never doing terrible in school but never found something he excelled in. meanwhile jongho wasn't sociable at all in the small talk department, but he could if he had to. it helped him that he was incredibly book smart and was always tutoring people. he also knew what he was doing with his life, regardless if he liked it or not, while yeosang seemed to just float about in life.
yeosang constantly tried to convince him to break the family line, to do what he wanted to for once, but jongho refused and asserted that it really didn't bother him all that much. he never got along with his family and he wanted to be able to make it on his own without any of their help at all. as soon as he graduated and secured a financially stable job, he would cut ties with them as fast as he could. being a surgeon would provide him with that-- he would just have to bear the workload for a few more years until his dream became a reality.
while jongho would work both at the university coffee shop just a few hours a week and at his part-time internship at the local hospital, not once in his life did he ever see yeosang get a job. the older would disappear for a few days at a time and jongho would never hear from him until he came back. when he did come back, it would always be at an unimaginable hour, and jongho would pretend to be asleep just see yeosang slip into the bathroom with what looked like blood splotches on his shirt. these sudden disappearances also made sure he came back limping most of the time.
over time, the older would come back with more unexplained injuries- a black eye or a split lip- and owed it to just being clumsy. while that could have been plausible, yeosang would trip over his own two feet multiple times a day, but jongho never did believe him. he wasn't sure what was going on but he hoped that yeosang wasn't being severely bullied. he thought that was the sort of thing people tend to grow out of, especially in university, but maybe not.
not everyone evolves.. that was something yeosang would say.
the two of them had continued their lives like that for multiple years. jongho started to see yeosang less and less but he couldn't dwell on it much because he was too busy with his own work. if yeosang was in trouble, he would tell jongho, and until then, the younger would have to hold his tongue. yeosang by nature was extremely gentle, despite his resting bitch face making him look cold and unapproachable. he was so sweet and caring for his own wellbeing that it absolutely boggled jongho's mind whenever he saw yeosang with a black eye that he tried to cover up with foundation and concealer.
"where did you go?" jongho had demanded one night when he had come home late, opening the door to their shared dorm room before yeosang could even open it himself. it was then that jongho noticed that yeosang's pant leg had been ripped, a decent sized gash welled into his skin.
"shut up and close the door," he said quickly. jongho was sure that the older had half expected him to be asleep--this was one of the nights that he needed him to be. the older man was clearly in pain as he hobbled around the room to reach the sofa. his face was scrunched up as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, not even paying attention to the blood he was spreading everywhere.
when jongho noticed all the blood that was on yeosang after closing the door, he paled an icy white.
"yeosang, what the fuck?"
yeosang just shook his head in frustration, unfastening the belt around his waist to cinch it above the gash on his thigh. he then grabbed his phone from his pocket to dial a quick number and held it to his ear. he was panting and had his eyes closed in silent hope as the phone continued to ring before someone picked up on the other line.
"they found me," he said softly, licking his lips and then grimacing thickly as he gingerly brought his hand down to his leg. "got hit and they're following me. need back up now."
jongho wasn't close enough to hear what was being said on the other side of the phone, but the way that yeosang seemed to grow angrier by the moment did not settle his racing heart.
"i had nowhere else to go!" he nearly yelled into the phone, and it was then that jongho noticed that yeosang's hands were also drenched in dried blood. "fuck you mars! this isn't my fault!"
his head started spinning around with possibilities of what in the world was happening, but he forced his legs to move and find the first aid kit he had stored away in his personal room. when he came back, yeosang was no longer on the phone with whoever he was yelling at moments earlier and had thrown an arm over his eyes as he was laying down fully on the couch.
"i don't know what the fuck is going on yeosang... what the hell is this?" jongho asked sternly, he was proud of his voice for not coming out as shaky as he was. he had kneeled down by the edge of the couch and opened the first aid kit to look for alcohol swabs.
"i can't tell you, just be quiet," was all the older man responded with.
"don't give me that shit. i've been quiet about this for long enough," jongho grabbed onto yeosang's leg and grimaced at the intimidatingly giant, gashed wound. jongho has definitely seen worse wounds in his time working at the hospital, but seeing such a jagged injury on his best friend made his stomach twist into a thick knot. "you're going to tell me what is going on right this second or i fucking swear i will make this wound worse."
"you don't understand. stay out of this. you're gonna get yourself into something you don't want to," yeosang gritted out. his face was much paler now, his eyes dilated as he had trouble focusing on one object even for a short period of time.
"i don't fucking care. who's blood is this? is this all yours? did you kill someone?" jongho's voice had increased in its volume. he grabbed what little supplies he had readily available, trying his best to sort out everything that he would need. his brain was still spinning around in utter confusion because why the hell was his best friend who would never hurt a butterfly, covered in blood?
"no, not all of it," came the rasped-out answer, and he completely ignored jongho's last question. yeosang tried his best to sit up, ignoring the pain in his thigh as he checked his phone again and swore under his breath.
right as jongho opened the small little packet for the alcohol wipe, a loud banging sound came from the door. yeosang whipped his head around and swore once again, grabbing a well-placed gun that had been completely hidden around his chest and held it close to him.
"we need to go right now," he said sternly, moving to get up off the couch before checking his phone once more and stumbling around the room as he looked around.
"what the fuc--" he was cut off when yeosang slapped a hand over his mouth before he could continue to say anything else.
"don't say anything. if they know you're with me then you'll be a target too."
jongho tried to bite yeosang's hand in retaliation because he deserved to know who was banging at their door at this hour and why yeosang seemed so desperate to try and escape them. he deserved to know all these things and still, yeosang refused to tell him.
the older yanked him off the floor while the banging on the door grew louder and louder and for a moment jongho worried that the door was going to crumble into pieces. when yeosang had dragged him into the living room, he pressed the younger up against the wall, still having his hand over his mouth.
"take that chair and break the window," yeosang whispered very quietly, he was staring right into jongho's eyes with such intensity that he looked like a completely different person. the tiny bits of dried blood that seemed to have been scattered across his face made jongho question if he even knew who his life long best friend was.
"i'm not gonna break the fucking window--" yeosang immediately shushed him, an irritated but nervous look on his face.
"listen, either you break that window or you aren't getting out of here alive, okay?"
jongho froze, a cold sweat creeping down his back. what had yeosang got himself into? were the police after him? maybe he got caught up in gang activities, that might explain everything if he had.
"that's your only way of escaping. break it and run away from here as quickly as you can, do you understand me?"
yeosang was staring at him with even more intensity than before and the slight crack of the front door made the both of them jump. yeosang let go of him and roughly pushed him towards the window before he rushed back into the other room.
"don't look back! just keep running!" was the last thing he heard from yeosang before he heard another loud bang against the door and then what sounded like a handle being smashed into the drywall.
scared out of his mind, jongho found himself panicking. he looked around the room for a chair, his legs shaking as he tried his best to move quickly. he could hear things being broken and smashed in the other room and a big part of him was worried that yeosang was getting caught up in that.
the first attempt he had to break the window did not go well. he hadn't swung the chair hard enough against the glass and it only alerted the intruders of his current position that yeosang seemed so desperate to keep secret. when a man dressed entirely in a black suit from head to toe, rounded the corner into the room where jungho was trying his best just to break the window as gently as he could, he nearly screamed as the man came rushing towards him.
"got another one!" he called loudly over his left shoulder, announcing to the rest of his company that yeosang wasn't the only one in the room.
the pure shot of adrenaline helped supplied jongho's next swing as the chair finally shattered the window completely, glass flying everywhere. jongho then threw the chair at the man that was still coming at him, who had no regard for the shattered glass everywhere. he tried his best to avoid the shards of glass that were still attached to the window frame as he climbed into the seal, but it was all for nothing as the man grabbed onto his arm and yanked him back into the room. the shards of glass slicing through both his sweats and his skin, the shrill of pain making him scream.
"jongho!" he heard yeosang yell, his friend finally making it back into the room. he now was sporting a giant gash just above his eyebrow, the blood definitely seemed to have gotten into his eye. yeosang looked like he was a little bit off his balance, the chance that he had just gotten a terrible head injury was becoming more apparent with every wobbly step he took. but he still managed to raise his gun up, and before the man that had dragged jongho across the broken glass even had time to reach for his gun, yeosang already had his finger pressing into the trigger to fire a shot. the bullet that he had shot somehow managed to hit the man in the head, the spray of blood that followed left jongho nearly passing out.
when the man dropped down completely, jongho found another shriek leave his mouth. yeosang hadn't even batted an eye at the sound of the gun, while it left jongho shriveled in fear with his ears ringing.
"get out of here!" yeosang yelled, waving his arm at him. he was stumbling even more now and shaking his head as he tried to clear up his vision.
moving and thinking just on pure instinct now, jongho was able to scramble to his feet to climb into the window. just before he slipped through the opening, he looked back to see a man come up behind yeosang and hit him on the top of his head with the back of the stock of his own gun.
jongho watched yeosang drop heavily to the floor with a loud thump, his stomach dropping instantly into his own feet. when the man turned his attention to jongho, he didn't hesitate to raise his gun at him. before the man even had time to shoot, jongho had literally flung himself out of the window. luckily they were only on the second floor, so colliding to the ground below only left him with jammed ankle joints and potentially sprained knees. but none of that pain was even present as he scrambled to his feet, struggling as he did so.
when he finally found his footing, jongho ran away as fast as he could down the alleyway. he didn't have his phone or wallet with him, not having time to grab any of that before his and yeosang's dorm room was utterly destroyed. he tried his best to not look back, scared out of his mind that people were following after him.
he heard some yelling behind him, but he still didn't dare to look back. the fleeting worry about whether or not yeosang was still alive was circling around in the back of his mind, his stomach turning rather violently each time. the echoing of his feet slapping against the wet pavement ricocheted off the surrounding buildings, his lungs were burning as he continued to run down the alley. what he had witnessed was settling thick in his guts, seeing yeosang like that scared him more than anything had, there was no way that was really the man he grew up with.
he kept running and running, not even aware of the tears sliding down his cheeks. jongho could now see the end of the alleyway as it opened up into the highway that ran by their dorm building. he stumbled along, the pain finally starting to register at the back of his mind as his ankles were starting to ache terribly.
right before he thought he was able to get away, a slick black car screeched to a stop in front of him, blocking his only exit. as if his night couldn't have gotten any worse, the doors shot open and two men ran past him with guns in their hands. jongho just dropped to his knees on the pavement, if these were still bad people there was no way he could get away now, just best to accept death here in the moment. when the last door of the car that hadn't been opened yet finally did, two more men stepped out.
the tallest between the two, pressed his fingers to his earpiece that was snug in his ear.
"retrieve him if he's still alive, make it quick," he said, his voice was stern and thick with command. he then turned his attention down to jongho, who was still kneeling and shaking on the ground. the taller tilted his head backward and looked down to the smaller man next to him, the unspoken conversation between the two of them was brief before the taller turned his attention back to jongho.
the two men had their faces covered, black scarfs drooped over their noses and mouths. the taller reached between his coat jacket and black shirt to pull out a handgun that was smaller than the one yeosang had, before walking the few steps to be right in front of jongho. he put the barrel of the gun right under his jaw and forced the smaller to look up at him, keeping the opening right up against his jugular.
"who are you?" he asked, his voice an octave deeper than the moment before.
jongho was frozen again, the cold metal pressed against his skin did nothing to calm the tears that still continued to spill from his eyes. he just closed his eyes and shook his head, the blood in his veins was pumping very quickly it made him so light-headed that he couldn't think of any words to speak.
"i like it when they cry," the man said. it wasn't spoken to jongho, the man had tilted his head back to look at the other behind him when he said it. when he turned back to jongho, he pressed the gun into his skin with even more force. "as much as i'd like to make you cry more, i need an answer before i shoot your throat out."
jongho felt a cry leave his throat, this wasn't how it was supposed to end. he had so much more he wanted to do with his life, so much more he wanted to experience all on his own. this really wasn't supposed to be how it ended for him.
he figured that these people knew yeosang. whether they liked him or not was up for a gamble; either they'd kill him instantly or they might let him go. those were the only choices he had.
"with yeosang," he said, his voice so soft and scratchy. he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the click in the barrel before his inevitable doom. but the click never came, and the gun that had been snuggled up against his throat pulled away and was replaced with a gloved hand instead.
jongho opened his eyes, blinking the tears away as he looked up to meet the man's gaze. he shivered as he did, the sheer dominance that was radiating off of him made jongho hold his breath when the taller leaned down near his face.
"you know our yeosangie? it's your lucky day."