Suho paced around in his office, his arms are crossed, fingers tapping away on his forearms. Kris used to make fun of him saying that he paced around the office floor so much, it would bore a hole and water would fill in like a ditch. But Suho had ample reason to pace so nervously up and down like that, especially after meeting his Xingie baby last night.
“Baby, are you sure of what you are saying?”
“I’m positive! There’s a huge crystal chandelier in the gallery and a beautiful fountain in front with a statue of Roman Gods. There was this terribly ugly and creepy fountain with a lady spewing blood from every socket of her face.” Yixing shuddered.
“A lady spewing blood?” Suho felt his body tense up.
“Yeah. That fountain was terrifying. I mean I’m no art aficionado but seriously that thing is probably the most grotesque thing I have ever seen. It’ll give you nightmares I swear.”
Suho couldn’t sleep that night. Three rounds of sweet love making weren’t enough to calm his nerves down. It calmed Yixing’s because he snored like a baby, but it did nothing for Suho. The description of the fountain haunted him because he knew exactly what he was talking about.
Not only that, he knew exactly which gallery it belonged to and who owns it.
“Sir,” Taemin burst in again for the umpteenth time, this time with Minho in tow. “We have the complete analysis of the papers Kris gave to us.”
“Let me see.” Suho grabbed the paper and read the whole thing. It was a slew of information, everything from detailed records of day to day office activities to financial records.
“There are 4 different bank accounts in this list.”
“Yes sir, and as you can see we have two Swiss Bank accounts, one belonging to the Industrial Bank of Korea and another is a KfW bank account, belonging to the world’s safest bank.” Minho huffed and sighed. “It’s going to take us a while to penetrate that one. Luckily one of the accounts does belong to the same number we tracked before.”
“Please tell me you know who Lee Jinyoung is.”
“No sir.”
“These are all very safe accounts. Mr. X has not gone light on his financial security. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” Suho said. “What about the recorded voicemail Kris bought home?”
“We managed to trace the origin to this number.” Minho showed his tablet where a number with a woman’s details were displayed.
“Get Kris to track down this woman.”
“Right away.” Minho tucked the tablet under his arm and darted off. He gave Taemin a little peck on his cheek. “Be right back.” Suho would have vomited at the sight but decided to ignore it instead. His thoughts went to the beautiful angel he spent last night with but shook it out of his head. Come on Suho, focus.
“From the records of day to day activities it seems like there hasn’t been much going on there. Seems like they are just staying low for the moment.” Then Taemin flashed a little smile. “We also have something that I think you will find very interesting.”
“What’s that?” Suho took another paper from Taemin.
“It’s a page out of a ledger it seems. Look at the names that are on this list.”
“The Governor of Seoul? The General of the Korean Navy? Billionaires? Politicians?” Suho’s eyes grew so wide they were ready to pop out of his sockets. Mr. X has been doing business with these important political and business people? Why, these are some of the most powerful men in the country! He felt rage seethe through his blood. So this is how he funded his little business. That mothering son of a .
“Look down a little more sir.” Taemin said. Suho could have sworn Taemin swallowed nervously. He scanned down.
Mr. Philip Wu
*****************
A few days had gone by and there is still no word of Zelo. According to Jackson, Zelo had turned up to school one day, but he barely stayed for a few hours before skipping class and running away again. Zelo didn’t turn up to practice and Tao was worried sick. What happened to his prize student? Where was he?
It was a late afternoon on a Tuesday. Tao had just dropped Jenny off at her playschool friend’s house for a play date. Tao was thinking off popping by the martial arts studio for a little while to do some paperwork when he decided to get some coffee as well. He turned the corner and was walking in a small alley behind all the other shops. Suddenly, he got a whiff of something. It made him sneeze and his nose itch. Yuck, cigarette smoke.
“Who do you think you’re messing with?”
“What?” Tao was taken aback by the gruff voice. There seems to be people just ahead of him, but he can’t tell. Normally, he would have taken the safer route and turn around and walk away, but this time instinct took over and he walked straight down.
“I say 25,000.”
“No way in hell man. I wouldn’t even spend 3000 on this .”
“This ? You think this is ?” one of the big men with tattoos all over his arm stood in front of another man and flipped him off. “I don’t sell okay, now you either take it or leave it. There’s plenty of other people on Korea who wants this so-called .”
“You drive a hard bargain.”
The man in tattoos grinned. One boy next to him handed him a suitcase which he opened and displayed the contents for the man, which Tao is guessing is the customer for some back alley business deal. The boy however, looked awfully familiar. He did have pink hair.
“Pink hair…Zelo!!” Tao nearly screamed Zelo’s name out but he didn’t want to blow his cover. What was his student doing with this muscled human painting canvas?
“Where are the Dolls?”
“What?” the tattooed guy lifted his head. He held a stack of money in his hand which he was too busy counting. His hands were bruised with swollen knuckles. I doubt that’s because he’s too busy counting money.
“You know what I’m talking about. Where are the Dolls? It’s been a while since I’ve seen my precious babies.” The other men laughed at the comment, not because it was funny, but because they seem to agree with him. Tao ducked and hid behind a stack of empty beer bottles. Why does this conversation sound so familiar?
“There’s been an issue with them.”
“Issue? What issue? You promised I’d get to see them in 2 weeks time!”
“I didn’t promise anything!”
“You er. How dare you cheat on me?” Suddenly, he pulled out a gun. A shot was fired and screams filled the air. Tao jumped out of his hiding spot and into the belly of the beast. All thoughts were on Zelo. He had to save his student.
Tao’s speedy reflexes were what saved him. He pushed past the gangsters and head straight for his target. Zelo was currently going head to head with one of the gangsters from the other group who unfortunately was bigger and stronger. Tao pushed the man off his student and punched him.
“Huang Shifu!” Zelo was shocked when he saw who it was that saved him.
“Let’s go. Follow me!”
“Huang Shifu!!” Zelo was dragged by Tao out of the crowd and up the alley. Tao dragged his student and ran as fast and as far as he could before his legs gave away. He turned the corner and stopped in front of a local gift store. He panted, completely out of breath and his muscles were sore. He looked back at Zelo, who was no less of an exhausted mess himself.
“Huang Shifu…”
“Let’s go Zelo.”
“No wait, Shifu.” Zelo stopped him. There were bruises and cuts on his face. No matter how much he trained wushu, nothing prepared him for this. Nothing prepared him for a real fight.
“What is wrong with you? Let’s get out of here and get you fixed up.” Tao reached out to touch Zelo’s face but Zelo pushed his hand away. His expression was a mixture of remorse and anger.
“Shifu please, leave me alone.”
“Leave you alone? Are you mad? You got yourself into a gang fight! You could have died in there!”
“But my friends are still in there!”
“Your friends?” Tao scoffed. “These are your friends?! What’s going on with you, why are you acting like this?!”
“Shifu, you wouldn’t understand…”
“I wouldn’t understand?” he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He tried to grab him one more time but Zelo dodged away. Tao was hurt. Why is his best student doing this? Zelo was like a son to him. He was only trying to help, but why is he pushing him away?
“Shifu please…you will get hurt if you do this.”
“Zelo it’s not me that will get hurt it’s…”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me and please don’t come looking for me.”
“What about your parents? What are you going to say to that?” Suddenly Zelo’s eyes turned cold. He looked at Tao as if he was the most disgusting thing that has ever lived.
“Nothing.” He ran away and this time Tao didn’t try to stop him.
Zelo…what’s happening to you?
***********
It was a peaceful and quiet night in the boy’s apartment. Xiumin and Jongdae had gone back to their place next door. Sehun was still cramming for his makeup test while Kai, Kyungsoo and Luhan decided to watch a movie together. Kyungsoo loves Frozen. He’s seen the movie at least 6 times now but he’s not tired of it. Yet.
Baekhyun was just catching up on some reading, while Chanyeol lay next to him, tapping away on his phone. The two of them were tucked away in Chanyeol’s room, all snuggly as they laid down under the covers. After a few minutes, Chanyeol put his phone away and yawned loudly. Baekhyun lifted his head and gave him a light smile.
“Tired?”
“A little. It has been a long day.” He sat up and put an arm around Baekhyun, kissing him gently on the forehead. Baekhyun leaned his whole body a little more in Chanyeol’s embrace. He turned his head to kiss the sweet giant. Chanyeol’s lips practically ravished Baekhyun’s. His hands were placed on Baekhyun’s body, feeling the small frame below him. Then, something startled him. Through the thin material of Baekhyun’s shirt, he felt a line around Baekhyun’s hips. It felt like a scar.
“Yeollie? What’s wrong?” Baekhyun asked.
“It’s uh… it’s nothing.” It wasn’t that much of a secret, but Chanyeol didn’t like talking about Baekhyun’s past in the night club. He didn’t like talking about unhappy things, it made him uncomfortable, and for the past few months he has avoided tried to avoid talking about it with Baekhyun. His heart cracked every time he imagined his pretty Baekkie being hurt and abused. He didn’t like it. He hated it in fact.
“Are you sure? It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
“It’s fine Baekkie, let’s just go to sleep.”
“No,” Baekhyun stopped Chanyeol from pulling away from him. Baekhyun was a pretty good judge of character, or maybe Chanyeol is just a bad liar. He knows something is up. Something is bugging Chanyeol.
“Baekkie please…”
“Tell me what’s wrong. Please?”
Chanyeol sighed. He didn’t know where to begin. It was like opening Pandora’s Box. How do you want me to tell you? I know you are heavily abused when you are in the club so I’m taking it slow and avoiding all sorts of intimate physical contact because I don’t want to hurt you? Or the fact that I’m slightly haunted by the fact that you were a child e?
“It’s about me, isn’t it?” Baekhyun said. “It’s about my past. Are you uncomfortable with it?”
“Well it’s not exactly something anyone can be comfortable with…” that was probably not the best response, because a sense of hurt flashed upon Baekhyun’s face.
“Are you disgusted by me? Is that way you stopped kissing me?”
“No no no!!” Chanyeol vehemently denied. “No, of course not! How can I be disgusted by you? You’re the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” Chanyeol bluntly said. That was really the core of it all.
“Hurt me?”
“Yes. Baekkie, I will be honest with you okay?” Chanyeol started. “I know you were a child e. I know you have suffered greatly over the years. Call me crazy; call me paranoid but every time I think of that, I get scared. I get urges thinking about you and it worries me. I feel guilty and ashamed. I hate myself for feeling this way. For being…ually attracted to you.”
“Chanyeol…”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I want to protect you so that you will never get hurt again, but my biggest fear is that I may turn out to be like one of them. I could hurt you too. What if something happens to you and it’s because of me? I don’t want you to suffer again.”
“Chanyeol…” Baekhyun lifted Chanyeol’s head to look at him. “You won’t hurt me.”
“How sure are you? What if I…”
“You won’t. I know you. All those men who hurt me, I was afraid of them. But I’m not afraid of you. If you wanted to hurt me, or take advantage of me, you would have done so months ago. You wouldn’t have held back your urges, you wouldn’t feel guilty for being ually attracted to me, and you wouldn’t be scared to touch me.” Baekhyun held Chanyeol’s hand. “I trust you. You’ve changed my world, Chanyeol. You’ve helped me see the light, that not all men and women in this world are cruel. You’ve helped me see that love is possible if you believe in it. I believe, especially in you.”
“Baek…” Baekhyun stepped off the bed and rose to his feet. Then, he peeled off his shirt and took off his shorts. He stepped out of his boxers and stood there in front of Chanyeol, bare and , with his scars on full display. Chanyeol’s hand was raised to his mouth as he stared at Baekhyun’s body for the first time. Baekhyun waited for a response.
There wasn’t any.
Chanyeol leaned forward to take Baekhyun’s hand. His eyes were watery and glassy. His heart ached at the terrible sight of these ugly scars tainting the otherwise beautiful body. Those monsters! Those evil devils! My Baekkie, my beautiful Baekkie.
“Why…why are you doing this?” he asked breathlessly, trying to contain his tears.
“I don’t want you to be scared of my past, Yeollie. Yes, these scars are ugly, but now you’ve seen them and you didn’t run away.” He sat back down on the bed and held tightly onto Chanyeol’s hand.Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Baekhyun didn’t want to suffer anymore. He wants to be happy. Being with Chanyeol makes him happy. Chanyeol, makes him happy.
“Baekkie…”
“Touch me Chanyeol, please.”
Chanyeol reached out to touch a patch of skin Baekhyun’s chest. The smaller one pulled Chanyeol’s arms to wrap around himself and they just stayed that way. No words, but in a comfortable silence. No movements, but they have never felt so breathless before. No kiss, but they could feel the love. Baekhyun trusted Chanyeol. Courage is a choice. He has never felt more safe and secure before.
“Kiss me.”
And kiss him he did. Chanyeol kissed Baekhyun, his heart surging with emotions. His kiss was hot and raw, full of unspoken words and untouched emotions. Baekhyun could feel the sadness, the hate, the fear, the rage and the love Chanyeol bore for months. Yet he stayed. Baekhyun wasn’t scared, in fact, he felt braver. He loved Chanyeol more now.
Chanyeol stopped and panted, looking at the boy below him. He felt different. He didn’t feel worried, scared, or angry. He felt strong, with an unknown pit of emotion rolling around in his stomach.
. Possession.
That night would mark the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. One that would change their lives forever.