| Chapter Sixteen — Us? |
| 📍 Carnelian's Former Hideout |
| 4 years ago |
"Suit up." Chaewon tosses a gun to Wonbin, "You can't just use fucking knives, you'll get killed in minutes."
"You know... I don't appreciate you always looking down on me." Wonbin spits, stuffing knives in his belt loop nonetheless, "I come from a life long family of—"
"Knife throwers, I know. It's pathetic." Chaewon glares at him.
"Yah." Wonbin throws the gun to the floor, getting all up in her space, jaw clenched, "You need to fucking relax and let me do what I need to do." He says, huffing, "I know what I'm fucking doing."
Chaewon just stares at him, silent. Her face holds no remorse for her words, nor does it hold sympathy.
It's only when Wonbin turns away does she begin to fall apart.
"I just can't let you get hurt."
Wonbin freezes, caught off guard. He turns around, eyes searching for some sort of answer, "What?" Is all he can say.
"I know you heard me." Chaewon sighs, brushing it off and getting her own belt set up, "Bring a little revolver, I don't care. Just don't bring only knives. Someone I know did that, and let's just say, their fate didn't end so well."
"I thought you hated me." Wonbin says, suddenly feeling vulnerable.
Chaewon closes her eyes, shoulders slumping, "I don't hate you, Park Wonbin."
"Then why have you been so rude to me?" He asks, genuine, "I've been nothing but kind to you and have tried to fit in all this time, and you're the only one that has had a problem with me. Why are you switching up all of a sudden? Where's your humanity?"
"It was lost." Chaewon says, face as straight as a board, "From the moment I lost the one person I loved the most in the world, I told myself I shouldn't ever get attached to anybody else ever again."
Wonbin's face twists, "But do you have to be angry all the time to prevent that?" He fights, "What happened to making friends? You know, talking things out with people and deciding boundaries and shit?" He sighs, "You could
even be my acquaintance, but all you do is yell at or belittle me."
"And—" Chaewon hesitates, "And I'm sorry for that. I just can't let you get hurt tonight. This fight with Cerise and Carmine could be extremely dangerous, and—"
"I'm not a child—"
"And I promised your brother I'd never let you get hurt."
Wonbin's eyes blow impossibly wide, and he's sure his heart stops.
"It was your brother, okay? He... He meant the world to me and his life was lost because of me." She admits, "He jumped in front of a fucking bullet for me.... the least I could do is return the favor of protecting you."
Wonbin stays silent, shocked.
"And I know you know that already. Shotaro's always been a blabbermouth." She groans, "Just please bring a gun. Sunghoon didn't, and that's what got him killed."
"He wasn't lying." Wonbin takes a shaky breath, "You really did know my brother."
"Shotaro's always in other people's business and is bat shit crazy, but he's never lied." Chaewon tells him, face finally morphing into an expression. She looks pained to be talking about this, "But listen, I haven't spoken about Sunghoon in years.... I don't want to get all sappy now, so please, let's stop here. Just bring a gun tonight, I'm begging you."
Wonbin takes an aborted step forward, not knowing what to respond with.
"Drop it." Chaewon says without looking at him, a deep breath taken, "Let's just try not to die tonight, okay?"
She had jinxed it— Well, half.
During the fight, Wonbin had been shot in the chest, just barely managing to pry the guy off before Chaewon put a bullet in his head. She had pushed the fucker away, dropping to her knees and immediately applying pressure to Wonbin's wound, shouting profanities at him and sobbing softly even though she hadn't cried in real tears in years.
Wonbin's okay, of course. He was still alive, as you readers have seen him already. But still, Chaewon didn't know this 4 years ago.
"I'm fine." He had said, wheezing when she pulled him into the tightest hug, "I'm wearing a vest." He pulled back his shirt to show her the evidence.
"Don't d-do that." Chaewon sobbed, arms wrapped around his neck, face stuffed into his collarbone, "Fuck, don't do that."
"I'm sorry." Wonbin said. He was still a bit clumsy, then. After all, he had just joined, "I'm sorry." He said a second time.
They both made it out alive that night.
It was when they gathered in their rooms that night did the air get tense.
"You almost died tonight." Chaewon said as she patched up a cut he'd gotten on his cheek from one of his own knives. She knew this would happen, but Wonbin was stubborn, just like Sunghoon.
"But I didn't." Wonbin sighed. They'd talked about this multiple times already.
"What if you weren't wearing that vest?" Chaewon apologized briefly at his hiss when she added the antibiotic to his scab.
"But I was." Wonbin draws the words out, "You don't have to worry. Look, I'm right here, and I'm okay."
"But you—"
"Noona." Wonbin took ahold of her wrist, stopping her movements and maintaining strict eye contact, "I'm fine."
Chaewon bit her lip when it wobbled, looking down to blow it off. She focused on opening the bandage, peeling off the outer paper and lifting it to press it on his cut.
"I'm okay." Wonbin's soft tone wasn't helping either. Chaewon felt guilty, "You didn't do anything, alright? This is just a scratch, I'm just clumsy."
"But I could've—"
"I dropped talking about my brother. Now you drop talking about this." Wonbin demanded, shaking his head.
Chaewon huffed, "I'll kill you if you get hurt again." Or in other words, you're the last little bit of Sunghoon I have left... I can't lose you. Chaewon was getting attached.
Wonbin laughed, "I'm looking forward to it."
| present day |
"What do you think they're talking about?" Wonbin asks, nails between his teeth as he peeks his head around the corner, eyes on the group of people circled around the meeting room table.
"Sunbaenim is probably just apologizing." Chaewon says, tugging Wonbin away by the back of his shirt, ignoring his yelp, "And the others are probably explaining why they're here, never mind the fact that we stole their hideout." She explains, "Now stop being nosy."
"They weren't here for like 4 years. How is that stealing?" Wonbin scoffs, ignoring her, "It's politely borrowing."
"Tell them that. They look pissed." Chaewon sighs, taking a peek as well.
"Yah." Wonbin catches her wrist, pulling her away, "If I can't look, you can't look." He scoffs out in a ridiculous laugh, lips pouted outward, so distracting that Chaewon flickers her eyes down at them.
Silence.
It's been like this for years.
After the night Wonbin almost died, Chaewon's been extra protective. She doesn't want to say she's grown feelings— Thinks it's weird for her to like her former lover's brother like that. But she also knows deep down that Sunghoon would want her to be happy.
It was just weird, though.
But... But she feels something, and hates how she does. She hates the fireworks in her chest that blow up at the worst possible times, and she hates moments like these, chapters and segments that happened every once and a while between them. It made her anxious.
She doesn't want Wonbin to think she likes him only because he's related to Sunghoon, so confessing so easily wouldn't be the best option. For now, she'd settle with bottling up any sort of feeling she had.
"I, uh—" Wonbin clears his throat, letting go of her arm, "My bad."
Chaewon blinks, not answering and settling for steadying her breathing.
"Whatcha doing?" Both Wonbin and Chaewon yelp when Shotaro pokes his head from around the corner, a bright smile on his face.
"Yah!" Chaewon whisper shouts, slapping Shotaro's shoulder, "Asshole."
"What do you want?" Wonbin asks, crossing his arms and leaning on the wall.
"It's not me who wants something." Shotaro teases, booping Wonbin's nose, the younger boy scowling and tackling him to the floor like a child. Chaewon merely rolls her eyes.
"Okay, but seriously what do you want?" Chaewon asks.
Shotaro laughs and playfully nudges the girl after they both get back up, continuing nonetheless, "He needs help getting out of bed." Is all he says, "I told him to rest, but I think he overheard some members talking when he went to the bathroom earlier."
Wonbin's eyes bulge, "What? So, he knows they're here?"
Shotaro shrugs, "Guess so." He says, "All he said was that he needed to get out of bed to see something, that's the only—" Shotaro cuts himself off with his own scream, falling to the floor again in genuine surprise when a hand grabs his shoulder.
Chaewon looks at the culprit, arms crossed, "You shouldn't be up. I told you to rest."
"He's been resting for years— literally. Let him walk around." Wonbin tells her, Chaewon smacking his bicep in return.
"Why are you up, kiddo?" Chaewon sighs, blowing the others off.
"I know they're here." The voice responds.
"You're still not 100%." Chaewon hisses, trying to urge the boy away with a cringe expression, "Let's talk somewhere else. They might—"
"I don't care if they hear me." He responds, lightly nudging Chaewon out of the way and brushing past the 3 of them once Shotaro forces himself to stand.
"Yah—" But they can't stop him.
The pitter patter of soft footsteps echo through the odd chapter of silence, the strange boy clutching his chest in a short breath and walking closer and closer until—
Minghao shoots up from his seat, eyes wide.
Mingyu has visible tears in his eyes.
And the others are just stunned.
It's so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
Minghao breaks the silence first.
"Riki?"