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Y/N's POV:
Jaeyun had driven me, Yungyu and semi-conscious Bigfoot back to my place on the way.
I tried and failed not to laugh as we helped his groaning and complaining ass upstairs, but I left it to Yungyu to get his hyung in the shower and went to my room. My dad was at work, Mina was at Professor Lee's, and Mum was in her study-workshop downstairs.
She'd rolled her eyes when she'd opened the door for us but I'd promised her I hadn't had anything alcoholic to drink, which was true, and an amused smile might have started to break on her lips when Kyungmin smiled at her and stumbled in for a greeting hug.
It wasn't 7:30 yet, but the dojang opened really early and I thought about whether I could still make it down there to watch Myungho complain as Jaeyun made him work through constructive training routines and martial arts techniques rather than just running impulsively head-first into trouble and hitting things like he normally did. I think Jaeyun and I had an unspoken shared understanding of that. I'm guessing Gyeo-wool did too.
I'd had a shower and brushed my teeth at Myungho's, but I changed, slipping swimmers on underneath shorts and a flowery blouse. Maybe I could go to the aquatic centre, get back into things for when I returned to school on Monday. I was still nervous, of course, but I felt better knowing that I had support from real friends and also that explanations were out in the open that didn't paint me as some homewrecking hoe.
And then there was Myungho. I felt like such a cringy bitch for being excited to spend the rest of my senior year with my boyfriend, but not cringy enough to regret feeling like that.
My phone rang as I was putting a towel in my tote bag and I went over to the bed where I'd left it, thinking it was either going to be Myungho complaining about Jae being a drill sergeant, Mina gushing about her boyfriend, or Yungyu informing me that his big brother had drowned in the shower. Other than the second possibility, the others made me smile.
It wasn't any of those three.
"Jaeyun? What's up?" I casually greeted.
"Is Myungho at your place?" He sounded stressed.
"No. Did he already leave the dojang? I thought you guys would be there for a couple of hours."
"That was the plan, but...he got a call from Jungnam when we arrived. Something's happened."
My confusion grew into worry when Jaeyun's voice started to shake.
"Jaeyun what's wrong?" I said cautiously. "What do you mean?"
"We stopped at his place before, and went to my dojang in separate cars. After the call he...he took off in a rush. By the time I got to the hospital, he'd already left. He's not answering my calls, or Gyeo-wool's. Y/N, I have no idea where he is."
We ended the call after I told him I was on my way. Heiko had just texted me that she was outside and so I rushed Yungyu and Kyungmin down and, with a quick call to Mum, we got in the car and Heiko's mum drove us to the hospital.
When we got to the hospital and rushed to the reception counter, I vaguely glimpsed a reporter speaking on the waiting room's T.V. saying something about breaking news on the beach, but I paid it little attention. The four of us got the room's location and took the elevator up, seeing Jaeyun and his parents speaking to a doctor. His mum was crying, and Jaeyun was running trembling fingers through his hair. He was still in his dobok gear.
Jungnam was sitting on the ground against the wall with his head in his hands, and before we reached them, we had to stand aside when a couple rushed past us to the nurses' desk. I recognised the couple as Yoonsung's parents. Even police officers had just come around the opposite corner.
What the hell was happening?
As Jungnam was the only one not being spoken to, Kyungmin, Yungyu and Heiko went over to him, and I was about to follow when Jaeyun noticed me and came over. I met him halfway.
"You got here quickly...thanks." Jaeyun sounded like he was still trying not to cry.
"Jaeyun, what happened?" I asked, but when Jaeyun's lip trembled I instead pulled him into a hug. He put his forehead on my shoulder, and that tremble turned into sniffling, and that sniffling turned into tears. We stayed like that for a little while, and I didn't try to ask him anything else.
"Seungie was shot," cried Jaeyun, his hitched breaths making it difficult to understand at first, but when I did I almost flinched back. "He fell into the water. The bullet hit him in the shoulder but it was close to the neck and he lost a lot of blood. He's still in surgery."
My own fear and worry threatened to bubble over but I tried to restrain it for Jaeyun's sake.
"Who did that?" I instead asked steadily.
"Changhoon. The psycho got away before the cops arrived, and so did one of his friends. But they caught the other one that...Yoonsung clipped with the car."
It was at that moment that I glanced over at the nurses' station and saw that Yoonsung's dad had to catch his wife, who had almost collapsed at whatever the nurse had told them. Yoonsung had gotten hurt too? I was so confused about what was even going on. What the hell had Changhoon been doing anywhere near those two?
But I continued to hug Jaeyun as he tried to compose himself, even when I saw Heiko move behind me and go over toward another who was crying hysterically. I couldn't tell from my peripherals, but whoever Heiko had gone to comfort sounded familiar.
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Myungho's POV:
I came to a screeching halt outside the asshole's house. I reached into the backseat, grabbed my metal bat and got out of the car, slamming the door behind me. One advantage of having Sunhyun's number was that if you wanted to have anything found out, you just had to give MNH's gossip queen a call. The grade 11 girl had called back in three minutes with the address.
I knew Changhoon would be a little harder to find, but his teammate, Deok-su, who also happened to be the creep that had tried to grab Y/N, was as stupid as they came. The cops would no doubt be here any minute, but I was hoping Deok-su would be stupid enough to return to his home, and that I would have time alone with him first.
As I jumped the fence and went around the back, my mind still went back to when I'd arrived at the hospital. I didn't blame Ahyeon for reacting that way, because I had deserved a lot worse than the words she spat at me before hitting me. I would've let her hit me again, but Jungnam had held her back.
I knew it was my fault which is why I had to do something.
It was a large backyard, but I heard something coming from the shed before it opened and Deok-su exited with a duffle bag. When he spotted me he tried to make a run for it past me, but I swung and caught him hard in the ribs. The idiot snapped back, winded, and fell like a dumb sack of potatoes. He tried to hold a hand out to brace himself but I swung again and caught him in the shoulder and he cried out over the loud crack of the bat against his jacket.
"Please stop!" he pleaded. "I didn't even do anything—"
"Where is he?" I couldn't care less about any other words that came out of his mouth.
"I don't know—"
Holding his ribs, he came to a stand and when he was standing I punched him across the jaw.
"Are you insane?" he accused, trying to sound undaunted. His voice shook, though. "You think you're some badass cop leading an interrogation? You're a little bitc—"
Once again I didn't care to let him finish and swung the bat to his knee and he yelped and collapsed again and I stood on his throat. "No I know I'll get arrested just like you but first I'm going to kill Changhoon." His eyes widened and I pressed my shoe more firmly against his windpipe. "If you don't want me to beat you to death too then you'll tell me where he is."
"You wouldn't dare," he rasped out.
"I wouldn't test me right now, Deok-su." As if to emphasise that statement, the first sirens could be heard distantly. I looked back down to Deok-su. "Where is he?"
I tightened my grip on the bat but eased the pressure of my foot when it looked like I'd convinced Deok-su. He coughed and spluttered.
"There's a small accountant store near the cliffs on the other side of the bay. Changhoon hangs out there sometimes. I don't know why but he said something about his uncle owning it. Please don't hit my legs again."
I was tempted to toss the bat aside and just beat this prick until he was a bleeding, twitching mess on the lawn, but I didn't have time right now. So I left Deok-su in the backyard and sped off in the opposite direction the sirens were coming from.
I laughed when my dad called again. Like the other four times, I didn't pick up. Well, good luck to him now because it didn't matter how mad he got, he'd have a hard time trying to beat the hell out of me while I was in prison for assault and soon-to-be first-degree murder. At this point though, if I were face-to-face with my loving father, I wouldn't have let him lay another hand on me. I picked up the speed as I went through the city, zigzagging through streets and taking shortcuts out of the main areas where I could.
I only wished I could've spent more time with Y/N. She'd done so much for me and I didn't deserve her, but I was still selfish for hoping that she would never realise she could do better. When I'd burned those files and she'd handed the USB over to the police after amazingly stealing them back from the Dragons, I had felt genuine gladness and relief for the first time in...I couldn't remember.
Then my baseball deals, then Y/N and I...
I was worried she was going to regret everything the morning after, but when she smiled at me like that in bed, and touched my lips to let me know she was serious, I'd let myself buy into all of it. I didn't think things could get so perfect.
But I was stupid. And it was my fault. Why didn't you insist they all sleep over, Myungho? Especially when it started raining.
My knuckles were a little bruised from how hard I'd hit Deok-su across the jaw, but I only held the steering wheel tighter and sped up.
Until my phone rang again. I fully intended to ignore it, but when it rang again and I glanced over, I saw that it was Y/N. Before it went to voicemail again I answered it but kept it on the seat and just put it on speaker.
"Myungho? Where are you?"
"I'm busy, I can't stay on too long, Y/N." If I talk to you too long I'll come to find you instead, which will give Changhoon time to flee.
"You're going to find Changhoon, aren't you?"
She read my mind. She spoke again when I remained silent.
"Myungho, don't do anything thoughtlessly. It wasn't your fault. How could you think that? It was Changhoon and his asshole friends' fault and no one elses."
It was my fault almost as much as Changhoon's. "Y/N. I'm trying to fix it, okay? So please just stop." At least I can do something useful like getting rid of that waste of oxygen before I get my comeuppance.
Someone beeped at me when I ran a red light.
Y/N didn't speak for a moment. The silence was weighted. "Then pick me up so I can come too."
I almost scoffed at the request. What, so I can get someone else I love killed?
As much as I didn't want to I hung up on Y/N and turned off my phone. Most of his higher-ups had been arrested, so Helios was most likely far away from here, waiting for things to cool down. That meant if Changhoon was hiding out, he'd be alone. He had a gun, but I had one of the world's fasted sports cars that I had no qualms about crashing into a fake store owned by the White Dragons at full speed.
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Who do you think was killed at the beach? When I tell you I went through the five stages of grief trying to decide who to kill off when I first came up with the storyline, bitch I WENT THROUGH THEM HARD 😭
~ Daci (who wishes she was rich enough to crash multiple expensive cars and not even stress the bill)