"I say to myself over and over again..."
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Hyungwon quietly followed Wonho to their - now - shared bedroom and the instant the two entered, the ex-hitman realized why the elder had seemed hesitant on sharing it. A single double bed. And after observing the room a little bit more, Hyungwon realized another thing; this was the bedroom the man had shared with his wife. He could tell that by the few framed photos on the walls.
"If you're really uncomfortable sharing a room, I seriously can just sleep in the living room..." Hyungwon said after his realization. Wonho turned to the younger who was standing at the door. "It's fine," Wonho said and set his bag down.
Hyungwon sighed. "It's not fine if you're not comfortable with it." He argued and crossed his arms. "Hyungwon, really. I don't mind." the older stated calmly. Hyungwon gave in and just nodded. "Fine.." he mumbled.
Maybe he was the one who was a bit iffy about this. Hyungwon set his own bags down on the floor next to the bed. "The house is nice..." The younger said, relieving the room of the slightly awkward silence. Wonho hummed quietly as a response. "It is." The man then said before he started to unpack his clothes into the closet.
Hyungwon sat down on a chair that had been tucked under a desk. It was dusty, no surprise. How long had it been since they had been there? The hitman leaned against the backrest eyeing the photos on the wall. One was from, what Hyungwon assumed to be their wedding day and another few were from dates or other events.
"She's pretty." Hyungwon quietly said. Wonho glanced at the younger and then at the framed pictures. A soft smile spread onto the man's lips as he nodded. "I know... She is the prettiest." Hyungwon spun the chair to face the older man who wasn't looking at the photos. He probably remembered every detail on them by heart.
There was a difference between them when it came to talking about their dead spouses. Wonho sounded sad yet happy thinking back on the time spent with the woman meanwhile Hyungwon was just sad even when he was reminiscing about happy memories. Maybe it was the fact that he never got to say a proper goodbye.
"How'd you meet her?" the younger asked. Wonho sat down on the bed and hummed, clearly thinking about it a little. Hyungwon then bit his tongue. What if the man wasn't comfortable talking about it?
"High school," the other soon responded, making Hyungwon relax a little after having worried over the question. "It's honestly so cliche but I was a trouble maker while she was a teacher's pet with a rich dad... We had something going on by senior year." Wonho explained, chuckling softly. "Though we parted ways after graduating but met one day downtown. I was already deep into my father's business and she was studying to become a doctor."
Hyungwon listened to the older talk. He had a glimmer in his eyes while talking about the woman and Hyungwon found it... Cute... In a way. Of course, he wouldn't say the somewhat affectionate words out loud.
Wonho straightened out his legs. "Our occupations clashed, obviously, but that spark from high school was still there. She told me that maybe being a law-abiding citizen wasn't for her." The older looked down at his lap, a gentle reminiscing smile on his pink lips.
Hyungwon listened to the man in silence, eyeing him. It clearly hurt him, knowing that those happy times would never come back but Wonho seemed to choose the path of dealing with that hurt instead of letting it bottle up inside. "When her father got a hit placed on him, she came to us, because I may or may not have blabbered about all this, to ask for protection. Now, we were never ones to protect people and stuff, but since the old man was an honest businessman my father agreed."
"After that, she kind of just... became a part of us. Like a personal doctor. She took care of everyone." Wonho sighed quietly. "Her death took a toll on all of us but since we had good memories, we were able to let her go in peace."
"That sounds... nice.." Hyugnwon mumbled, smiling softly. The story was romantic, high school sweethearts turned into partners in crime, and in a way made the older's relationship with the beautiful woman seem like a movie with an unfortunate sad ending.
"What about you. What's your story?" Wonho asked the ex-hitman whose smile instantly died down. Hyungwon's eyes lowered to the engagement ring. "Much less sweet than yours, that's for sure." he chuckled and adjusted the position he was in, dust flying into the air.
"Mind sharing?" Wonho inquired, shuffling to the side of the bed that was closer to the other dark-haired man. "Well. To start, I was living in a small town away from Gwangju... I wasn't that far since I didn't have much money due to running away from home a year prior... I was basically on the streets salvaging what I could... Honestly, I was surprised my father didn't find me and drag me back..."
Wonho stayed quiet, eyeing the other man, ready to comfort the younger if he was to get emotional. "But that's not the main part of this story, the living on the streets part comes into importance later, though," Hyungwon mumbled, shaking his head after having gone off track
"With my fake ID, I got into this bar, planning to get someone to bang just so I could stay inside for one night. Eventually met this group of guys. Hajoon and if I remember correctly Woosung and Jeff... Sorry, Jaehyeong." He explained, speaking calmly and trying to stay calm when his old friends, family, were brought into the story. "The night went on and I found out they were on a mission or something. I, to no one's surprise, don't remember much from that night, thanks to the drinks they paid for, except meeting them and going back to their place. In my eighteen-year-old mind following these strangers was a great idea. But anything was better than a cardboard box."
Hyungwon leaned his head back against the headrest of the chair, looking up at the ceiling. "I met Hajoon a few times after that around town and we got along quite well. And well... I went and caught feelings and he confessed a few weeks later and we started going out. I still wonder what he saw in me... Eventually, he gave me the choice to join or to forget our relationship. Harsh, but I understood why. Well, obviously I joined them. It would mean food, a home, and basic needs I needed to keep living." Hyungwon sighed.
Back then all of that had come to him at a perfect time. So much so that it felt too good to be true... Maybe it was.
He was on the brink of giving up and just offing himself. There wasn't much point in staying alive if he had to stay homeless. The man hadn't even considered becoming a hitman back then and he wouldn't have gone far with his middle school diploma. And if he was to make any moves on getting a job, it would definitely show up on his records and his father would have known exactly where to find him.
Going back home to the abusive household wasn't an option anymore, even if it meant leaving his mother there. Not that she would have ever agreed to leave anyway.
"And that's that. The rest is history. He proposed two years into our relationship. Maybe it was a rushed choice but we weren't getting rid of each other anyways."
Hyungwon smiled a bit sadly and glanced at the other quickly before looking away again. H e couldn't bear to hold eye contact. "It's not a magnificent love story but I was the happiest back then. I had a family and a boyfriend. A life I could enjoy... Losing all that in under 24 hours gave me a reality check of sorts..."
Wonho tilted his head a little. "You must've really loved him." The man stated quietly and Hyungwon nodded his head in agreement. It would have been obvious to anyone who asked about the deceased man. The sad, yearning glaze that came over Hyungwon's eyes whenever the topic was even slightly brought up, told it all.
"I did..." The words came out weakly, making the ex-hitman take a deep shaky breath.
Experiencing what he did, Hyungwon must be dealing with a lot. Whether it was physical issues or psychological. You don't heal from that kind of thing in a few days and if you don't get a chance to deal with it, you will never get over the events. Wonho frowned at the thought of the man having to deal with his thoughts alone. Nobody should have to handle that on their own.
"Cry if you need to. You have the right." Wonho comforted but Hyungwon shook his head. "No, I don't. His and everyone else's death was caused by a dumb mistake I made... I have no right to cry over something I caused." Hyungwon argued head hanging on his shoulders.
Wonho slowly got up and walked over to the younger male. He clearly needed some comfort, even if the walls would deny it. Years of the belief that everything was his fault carved into his conscience and he couldn't get rid of it. If the hitman couldn't kill that thought himself, he needed others to help him. "If they blamed you, you wouldn't be sitting there," Wonho said and placed his hands on Hyungwon's shoulders. The younger wouldn't raise his head. "Hyungwon..." Wonho spoke softly as he felt the man's shoulders quiver a bit.
Those were the words he fed himself occasionally. 'If they blamed you they would have killed you' or anything along those lines, but he could not bring himself to actually believe, his head always convincing that he was just lying to himself.
"I just miss them so much..." It was a mere whisper but Wonho could hear it and quite frankly his heart broke. Hyungwon was hurting and had lived with the pain for way longer than is healthy. "I know you do." The older said and crouched down and looked at the quietly crying man, gently bringing a hand onto his cheeks. Maybe it was a bit too affectionate, but it seemed to calm the other man down slightly. "You lost them unfairly but you can avenge them. And we'll do it together." Hyungwon nodded his head and wiped away his tears. The younger sniffled a bit.
A knock on the door caught their attention. Wonho stood up. "Yes?" The man asked, the soft tone now replaced with his usual one. Minhyuk opened the door. Hyungwon spun on the chair to hide his tear-stained face, not wanting to reveal his vulnerability to others. Wonho seeing him like this was enough. "Park Sungjin and one of his men are here." The silver head informed. Wonho nodded at the guy and said that they'll be down in a minute and Minhyuk left to relay this message to the others.
"Didn't expect them to show up this quickly. Let's go down." Wonho said. Hyungwon took a deep breath and nodded before standing up. "Okay..." he responded quietly. Wonho patted the younger's back sending him a small, warm smile after. "You're really strong, Hyungwon. Many others would have given up."
Hyungwon watched as Wonho walked out of the room first. He let out a deep breath before following the older. The ex-hitman quickly reached downstairs to see the other men shaking hands and greeting each other already but didn't bother to make his presence known at the moment.
His eyes were just stuck on Sungjin and Jae, standing next to each other. The older of the two still had the same buzz cut he had years ago. Jae had discarded the blue hair, thankfully. It felt relieving seeing familiar faces in the sea of new people, especially right now. Suddenly Wonho turned to the newest addition to their crew and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you just standing there?" The leader asked, making the others' attention turn to him too. Hyungwon shuffled in his spot a little. "Just... Watching?" He said, smiling sheepishly.
Before Hyungwon could move towards the others Jae walked over and pulled the younger into a hug. "Whoa, there big man... Missed me that much?" The tall man chuckled, wrapping his hands around the elder. "Shut up, you dumb cunt." Jae muttered quietly. The ex-hitman chuckled and pat the other's back gently.
Hyungwon glanced over at Wonho who had a soft smile on his lips as he watched the two but as soon as their eyes met Wonho looked away, making Hyungwon a tad bit confused. Letting out a soft sigh, the younger of the two pulled away from the hug. Jae took a few steps back, scratching his neck a bit. "Sorry... I just.." "It's fine." Hyungwon cut him off and smiled at the other.
"You two can talk later. I think we have more important stuff to attend to." Sungjin exclaimed, making Jae turn around. "Yeah. You're right." Wonho stated and clapped his hands together. "We don't have a meeting room here but I think we'll fit in the living room."
After everyone had settled in the living room, either sitting on one of the two sofas or just standing up, the two leaders started their briefing.
"We don't have a lot of information at the moment, but we'll start working with what we have. Sadly we couldn't have members from ATEEZ here today, but I'll be in contact with Kim Hongjoong..." Wonho started, sounding very formal, and crossed his arms. "We know the Devil's Choir are planning an attack, but we don't know when. They don't know we moved so we'll know when they make their first move is when we need a full plan." The man continued.
"And our part is to try and tap into their conversations that are outside the room you see the bug in," Sungjin explained. "It'll be difficult to hack into their lines and keep the connection up since they have good firewalls but it shouldn't be impossible." Jae butted in earning a nod from his own boss. "If we're not careful, they might notice when we try to hack in and counterattack in turn getting all of our information." Wonho nodded his head. The man honestly had no clue as to how it would work, having no expertise in hacking.
"Mr. Chae isn't exactly the smartest person when it comes to planning out. He has a pattern." The ex-hitman stated, furrowing his eyebrows. "Usually it takes him a day or two until he's sure that he'll go forward with a plan and he doesn't care if they win or lose. His main goal is to cause havoc." Hyungwon then sighed deeply. "And as long as he doesn't realize I'm a part of you, he might not go to the extent he did back then."
"Why would he care whether you are with us or not?" Jooheon questioned, sounding confused. Had it not been mentioned to the others yet? Hyungwon glanced at Wonho, who mouthed an 'oops' at the hitman. This made the man chuckle. So only the four of them and of course, Sungjin and Jae, knew. "He wants me on his side, why else?"
"He wants his biological son to take his place when the time comes," Minhyuk spoke up, realizing that Hyungwon would just brush past the topic once again. The three men who were not aware of the news turned their heads to the hitman who just smiled crookedly. "What... This guy... What else? You're some god or something?" Kihyun joked, earning snorts from the other guys.
Hyungwon then looked up, ignoring the attempt to lighten the mood. "Never the less, I'm not hiding. If he finds out, then he does. If it happens we'll just up our defenses."
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"You haven't changed much," Jae stated and took a drag out of his cigarettes. The older had offered the other one cancer stick earlier, but he had declined. Hyungwon glanced at him. "How's that?"
Jae shrugged. "You're still smart, calm, and definitely still not polite. I honestly didn't believe it, when you called..." The man explained. Hyungwon looked down and sighed. "I guess." He stated quietly.
"Why did you join them?" The older then asked, glancing over to Wonho and Sungjin who were talking. Hyungwon laughed, recalling the events from almost two months ago. "Well, first of all, I negotiated for a few days to think after having a gun pointed at my head. I wasn't going to at first... It was a sudden decision to say yes. Can't say I regret it a lot." The man explained, but it still didn't answer the question, which the other man was still waiting for an answer to. "I guess the fact is that this life is for me. I don't feel like I'm alive if I do something else." Jae patted the man's shoulder comfortingly. "Well, I'm glad to see you in action again."
"I've been in action for a while. I've just stayed undercover." Hyungwon stated and cracked his neck. "I worked as a hitman for some years. After my injuries healed I had to find a way to keep my thoughts at bay. Working for the rich fucks seemed to do the job, for the most part. Though loneliness got to me sometimes."
The ex-hitman cleared his throat. "This got sad real quick. How're the others?" He changed the topic. Jae hummed quietly. "Wonpil's still the same and Dowoon too, though he's gotten into being our field man, surprisingly." The man explained. Hyungwon tilted his head. "And?" He asked, expecting the other to continue. "Younghyun's good. We're going strong... He got shot a few weeks ago but the bullet didn't hit anything vital." Jae spoke, a loving smile spreading onto his face in an instant.
"That's good, then," Hyungwon said quietly. He was a bit jealous. There was no doubt on that. "You're still hanging onto him?" Jae asked after a moment of silence eyeing the other man's ring. The younger saw no reason to lie and nodded his head. "I don't think I'll be able to fully move on until we bring an end to this all. But... It's gotten a little better even if it still hurts."
Jae glanced at Wonho when Hyungwon did. He let out a small huff. "I'll assume by that that these guys treat you good?" He asked earning an approving hum. "I never thought I would feel so comfortable here, honestly."
"I've only heard good things of this group. I'm happy you joined them instead of some rat gang on the streets." The statement drew a laugh out of Hyungwon. "Hyung. I have my standards." He responded followed by a joking, bratty eye roll.
"Jae, we have to go." Sungjin suddenly called for the tall man. Jae sighed and nodded his head. "Well, nice catching up with you," Hyungwon stated and from his voice, you could tell he was being honest. "You too. I'll see you around. Let's work well together." It felt odd being somewhat formal, especially since Jae was very much a close friend, or at least had been.
Hyungwon walked along with the man to the car. He did need to say bye to Sungjin, too. But to his surprise, when they reached the car, Sungjin pulled the taller into a hug. The man wasn't exactly one to show such affection, just like the man he had decided to wrap his arms around, but Hyungwon gladly hugged him back.
After the two men drove off Hyungwon sighed. "I haven't heard you laugh like that the whole time you've been here," Wonho spoke up, scaring the younger slightly. He had forgotten that the older was standing there.
"Ah..." Hyungwon mumbled, clearing his throat afterward. "There's nothing wrong with it. It's just good to see you not force a smile." Wonho hummed and comfortingly pat the taller on the shoulder. Hyungwon glanced at the older. "I guess." He stated and shrugged his shoulder a bit.
"It's getting chilly out here. Let's head inside." Hyungwon agreed with the man and started walking back into the house.
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Shownu walked into the living room phone in hand catching the people's attention in there, Kihyun and Wonho. "ATEEZ got attacked." The oldest said straightforwardly, looking slightly worried. The news caused visible confusion to spread onto Wonho's features.
"Who's the culprit? And why? ATEEZ is one of the calmest groups around.." The leader asked, clearly concerned. They had met up with D6 barely a week ago and their other guaranteed ally was attacked. Shownu handed the man the cellphone he was holding. "They don't know his name as he is refusing to talk, but this one of the guys they managed to catch. And the reason is unknown as for now."
Hyungwon came out of the kitchen when he heard the brought-up topic. He quietly walked up to Wonho and glanced at the screen over Wonho's shoulder and furrowed his eyebrows a little.
"Do you know him, Hyungwon?" Kihyun asked after noticing the man's expression. "He does look familiar..." Hyungwon mumbled and grabbed the phone from the shorter's hand. "Hey!" Wonho hissed only to be ignored by the taller.
The ex-hitman sapped his fingers after a few seconds. "I think I had a hit on him before, like... A few years back. He might be one of the few that actually managed to escape." Hyungwon rambled a little bit, ruffling his hair a little.
"Do you have a list of your hits?" Shownu questioned, earning a nod right away. "I took them, and the files with me. Couldn't risk leaving them at my old place, in case someone went there." Hyungwon explained and walked past the two, throwing the phone back at Wonho who barely caught the device. "I'll bring them down." He told the other two and headed upstairs.
The three older men stared at each other for a moment in silence. "Definitely can't deny that having a hitman on our team is useful. He knows the most powerful people and probably has dealt with hundreds more than we have." Shownu stated, crossing his arms. Wonho nodded his head, smiling softly. He knew his decision on asking the younger to join would not cause them disappointment. "That's why I wanted him on our side." He said nonchalantly. Shownu chuckled and hummed. "You should've done it earlier." Kihyun quietly muttered, earning a shrug from the leader. "There wasn't a good time to ask him. I barely found his contact info..."
Shownu sat down next to Kihyun, waiting for the other man to return with his papers. Minhyuk had gone out for patrol and the current shenanigans of the two youngest members were unknown by the others.
Hyungwon soon returned with a few stacks of papers stapled together. "I knew you worked a lot, but Christ," Shownu said as he watched the man place the stacks on the coffee table. Hyungwon smiled sheepishly. "At first working was, still is, a way to keep my mind busy so I took any job I could and that's how gained a name. Two years into this stuff I slept two hours a night..." The man explained and took a seat next to Wonho before starting to look through the stapled papers.
After finding the very short list of hits who managed to survive his attacks he casually ripped it out from between the other papers. None of them would want to look for the list again among the fifty or so papers in the pile. "We're lucky I only had a few escapees... Otherwise, this would be a pain." The ex-hitman sighed.
"So how do we find the right guy?" Wonho asked, taking one of the piles. "Each paper has the hit's information and probably a shitty photo on the front and that is what we need. The back has the job details and the payment I would get. Feel free to look at those if you're interested in my income." The youngest joked casually.
"They aren't in order and since I can't remember for the death of me who that guy is, we'll just have to go through these piles and find all six of these," Hyungwon said, tapping the list he had ripped out with his pointer finger.
There probably was an easier way to do this, but this seemed to be the only one to come to mind.
This drew groans out of the older men and Hyungwon couldn't help but smirk. "It's not that bad," he stated and grabbed the pile he had quickly gone through previously. "We have all day, don't we?"
The living room was soon filled with the sound of paper rustling and the annoyed sighed of the two oldest members, while Kihyun and Hyungwon, having the better patience, eyed the papers in utter silence. "You've gotten tens of thousands for some of these. Why'd you only ask for five thousand when I hired you?" Wonho suddenly questioned after they had been in silence for a fair 20 minutes. Hyungwon chuckled. "I was very much drunk and knew I couldn't quarantine a clean job or, I had to leave the body for your people to take care of... Plus I had done a job for 15k that night already."
"The hell did you do with all this money?" Kihyun muttered, flabbergasted by the sheer amount of money the youngest had acquired. Hyungwon glanced at him and hummed. "Guns and things like that are hard to get in Korea since the laws are so strict. You all should know that. And I didn't have stable connections so it was even more expensive. That's where most of it went and new clothes, cars, and other things of course." He stated calmly.
An hour and a half later, the other three got a little carried away reading the papers and the more detailed info so more time had gone by, they had found the six profiles and laid them out on the table. "Couldn't your employer's given you shittier photos?" Shownu grumbled, looking at the assortment of blurry and shaky photos. Hyungwon shrugged. "Not everyone has a portrait shot. If you look up my files in the police database, it's a photo from high school..." Kihyun commented, grimacing at the thought.
Wonho took out the phone again. "Hongjoong texted me that the guy has a snake tattoo around his wrist." the man said before pulling up the picture of the captured man. "Snake tattoo..." Hyungwon muttered eyes scanning over the six profiles.
"Ah. This guy." Hyungwon said picking out one of the papers. The photo was blurry and you couldn't really see the guy's face in it. "He almost broke my jaw." The ex-hitman tsked distastefully. "Kang Cheson. Tattoo of a snake on his wrist and a scar on his left cheek." Hyungwon read the description of the man on the paper. "Around 185 centimeters in height and well built. Ask them if that matches with him."
Wonho started typing out the message as Hyungwon turned the paper around to see the details. "The description matches perfectly," Wonho informed after a while. Hyungwon nodded. "He's a member of the Blood Cobras." Hyungwon read out from the paper and sighed after.
The Blood Cobras large group focused in Seoul but the reason as to why they would attack a group like ATEEZ was still unconfirmed. Once again, a group whose bad side you definitely do not want to get on.
"They are in fact associates with the Devil's Choir. Not sure if this is connected to what is going on currently, but quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised if they attacked them because Devil's Choir knows they're connected to us. But then again, why send another group when you could do it yourself..." Shownu stated suddenly and the two younger men turned their heads to him. The man still had his head buried into the files but he had clearly been listening. Apparently, the simple things had caught the elder's interest.
"They didn't hurt anyone too badly, only a few got shot. I think it was an attempt to scare the smaller group. A common way to try and force smaller groups to join hands with the more powerful ones." Wonho sighed softly, still slightly confused by the reasoning behind all of this.
"Should we go meet this guy?" Shownu asked then, finally turning to look at the leader. "I think Hongjoong will deal with it. Unless he wants us to go there." Wonho stated and tilted his head. "And honestly, it would be a risk to go at this time. ATEEZ are basically in the heart of the city, we can't be seen going to meet them." The leader then explained after thinking about it a little bit more.
Hyungwon straightened out his legs. "Now I'm glad I kept these papers. Honestly, I thought they were a waste of space." he hummed, leaning his head back a little.
"Can I keep them? I mean, they could be useful in the future if we need to get our hands on some of your old clients." Shownu asked. Hyungwon glanced at the older and nodded his head. "Sure. I don't need them any longer so feel free to do whatever." He stated leaving over to the paper stacks to push them closer to the man interested in them.
Kihyun sighed and stood up. "I'll try and go reach Kyun and Joo. They've been out for a while..." The man stated and pulled out his phone. Wonho glanced at the man and nodded.
"I'm sure they're fine but... You know... Can't help but to worry."
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"I'm okay today..."