— chapter eighteen: showdown —
[trigger warning: graphic & explicit violence, blood]
donghyuck surely wasn't the only one to notice that they had been expected as he could feel everyone being tense. somehow all of nct's members were able to hide their realisation just fine while donghyuck was so stupid and let out a quiet curse. only jungwoo next to him had heard and he nudged donghyuck to be silent again.
"why are you here in seoul? i thought i had been clear enough when i said that this is nct's territory." taeyong said. his voice echoed in the big hall.
the leader of seventeen chuckled and replied "you see, where i decide to settle down is none if your business and if it interferes with your territory, that's your problem. the people don't care as long as they get their drugs and guns."
donghyuck could feel jungwoo shift next to him. he looked down and saw that the man had his hands around the gun. donghyuck mirrored his actions, finding familiarity in the feeling of the cold surface underneath his warm skin. also it stopped his hands from trembling which donghyuck was more than grateful for.
"listen mr. choi. i want to make this easy for you and i'm going to be honest. i don't want to fight you but i will if you don't leave seoul. and by the way we also kindly ask for you to not harm any innocent citizens, no matter which company pays you." taeyong said loud and clear. the last sentence was obviously about donghyuck.
"it's scoups for you, taeyong. i thought we had been there already. and i threaten and kill whoever i please. it's the lee's fault for making a deal with kim's company when the8 already had the entitlement for it." the leader said.
"that's not true." donghyuck hissed and jungwoo nudged him to stay quiet.
"i see we're not coming to an agreement mr. choi." taeyong hummed and donghyuck could see him nodding.
"i'm afraid it is that way." scoups said and shrugged.
"how come you knew of our arrival by the way? i thought we've been discreet enough." taeyong questioned. donghyuck had to applaud him for being so calm and collected since donghyuck himself was literally freaking out. his heart was beating so incredibly fast it was like he had just ran a marathon. he could hear the blood pumping through his veins and was curious whether jungwoo next to him was able to hear it too, that's how loud it was.
seventeen's leaded laughed, bringing donghyuck back to reality "it was smart to hand mingyu to the police, it was quite a bit of work to get him out of there. but he alarmed us soon enough so we were on edge. a visit from you was therefore inevitable." the man stepped away to reveal kim mingyu himself, whomst donghyuck had shot. except now he looked way less vulnerable and way more dangerous. next to him stood another and donghyuck's breath hitched as he recognised the xu minghao. the man was sassily leaning onto mingyu in a very high-class looking suit.
"surprise!" he grinned and waved with his one hand, revealing a small glock in it. mingyu and a few of the other members of seventeen laughed.
"we're going to start in three.." taeyong in the front mumbled and everyone tensed. donghyuck looked around with panic.
"start with what?" he asked jungwoo who slightly moved with his gun. donghyuck had almost squealed in panic as he understood what jungwoo meant.
"we can't just start shooting." donghyuck mumbled.
"two..."taeyong hummed.
"we have to or they will." jungwoo replied, scrunching his nose.
"one.." taeyong counted. it was a bit louder this time but still too quiet for the members of seventeen to pick it up. they were still snickering at nct's helpless position.
"go!" taeyong shouted and suddenly everyone moved. it happened way too fast for donghyuck to react so whilst everyone started shooting, the man just helplessly stood in the middle. that was until mark and jungwoo had pulled him behind one of the desks they had flipped to seek protection from the bullets flying around.
"are you insane?" mark roared at him.
"what?" donghyuck mumbled helplessly.
"why were you just standing there?! you were literally asking to get shot! is that what you want because if yes feel free to sacrifice yourself!" mark hissed. he was obviously fuming but also sounded worried.
"can we save the fighting for later?" jungwoo asked in annoyance. he kept peeking around the corner of the table and shooting. each shot made donghyuck flinch horribly.
"listen hyuck. you have a gun, you know how to use it. we've been through this hundreds if not thousands of times." mark said, a bit calmer now.
"well i don't know if you've noticed but this is real life!" donghyuck screamed. he was kind of freaking out right now.
mark grabbed him by the collar and for a quick second the irrational thought crossed donghyuck's mind that mark was going to kiss him. but of course he didn't. instead he shook donghyuck and said "imagine this is practice okay? you got this." he grabbed donghyuck's hand, squeezed it tightly and then stood up and sprinted away to one of the doors behind which taeyong had seeked protection. the two were currently shooting at mingyu and scoups who were located behind another door about ten meters apart.
suddenly jungwoo screamed put donghyuck's name and the latter turned around just right enough to see someone sprinting at him. he quickly jumped away and unlocked his gun.
"where are you going, donghyuck?" the man asked and donghyuck's mouth fell open as he recognized wen junhui.
"i thought you were dead or something..." he mumbled.
"more or something than dead." jun smirked. donghyuck noticed the man wasn't actually carrying a gun. he should be happy but in all honesty it scared him.
suddenly donghyuck saw jungwoo behind jun and then a loud crack was heard. donghyuck who had closed his eyes opened them again to see jungwoo standing over jun. the tall man had a broken glass bottle in his hand and donghyuck didn't have to take a guess where the rest of the glass bottle had went. he could see some small pieces splattered all over the floor but most of it was located in jun's scalp. the man was bleeding and laying unconscious on the floor. as much as donghyuck wanted to feel sorry for him, he really didn't.
"thank you." he said to jungwoo who smiled. it was the cute, innocent jungwoo-smile which highly irritated donghyuck as jungwoo looked anything but cute and innocent right now. some piece of glass had hit him and left a few scratches on his cheeks which started to bleed. his hair was messier too.
"jungwoo, donghyuck get down!" taeil screamed at them from another corner of the huge hall. the two got down to the floor just in time as bullets were flying over the egde of the table they were crouching behind.
"holy shit." donghyuck cursed as he stared at jun. he placed his hand on the floor to keep his body steady but regretted it immediately as he felt the broken glass cut right into his palm. he squeezed his hand, feeling a bit dizzy at the sight of blood oozing out of the little cuts. he saw it dropping to the floor, building a little red puddle between the pieces of broken glass.
"are you okay?" jungwoo asked worried as he watched donghyuck's hand bleed.
"yeah, i think so. it's just some little cuts." donghyuck replied. with his other hand he unlocked the gun and peeked over the table.
the whole hall was a mess. chairs and desk were spread all around, a few of nct's members hiding behind them and trying to get a good shot at seventeen's members who had entrenched themselves behind the doors. there was a few bodies laying on the floor but donghyuck told himself not to look at them. he was pretty sure he could not bear the sight of any nct members being seriously hurt or even worse.
"we got the leader." taeyong yelled from somewhere. donghyuck's and jungwoo's heads ripped their heads around. taeyong was kneeling behind another desk, mark and yuta next to him.
"is he-" donghyuck mumbled.
"i guess." jungwoo whispered back.
"listen here. we got your leader, he's dead. so i suggested you surrender." taeyong yelled loud enough so his voice would be heard by the seventeen members behind the doors. however everything kept silent.
suddenly taeyong's phone beeped. he picked up and silently spoke to whoever was on the line. since he was whispering donghyuck and jungwoo couldn't hear what he was saying but he had his face in a big frown. mark had now raised himself up, coming out of the protection behind the flipped table. it seemed pretty safe as there was nobody shooting anymore.
without warning one of the doors slammed open. donghyuck, who had been standing as well, quickly lowered down again.
"where are the other's?" a man's voice was heard. donghyuck peeked around and halted his movements as he saw kim mingyu. the man looked fine besides a wound at his shoulder. donghyuck wondered how he was holding up as it looked like someone shot a bullet right through him.
mark ,who was still standing, immediately pulled out his gun and pointed it at mingyu.
"they left." he said and mingyu's mouth fell open in shock.
"no. they wouldn't do that. they wouldn't leave without me." he said, raising his voice at the last sentence. donghyuck could see a gun in the holster around the man's waist.
"mark, he's armed." he yelled which gained both mark's and mingyu's attention. mark gave donghyuck a quick silencing look but mingyu smirked.
"you. you were the one who shot me." he pointed out. donghyuck gulped and nodded.
"what are you doing, stupid?" jungwoo hissed behind him but donghyuck ignored the man and kept his eye contact with mingyu.
"come out. don't worry, i can't harm you." mingyu said. his voice somehow sounded very broken, donghyuck thought. while his brain screamed at him to not go, his body was standing up and walking up to the two until he stopped next to mark.
"you know when you shot me i thought i failed." mingyu said lowly. but the whole hall was dead silent so every word was heard.
"not because i failed to capture you, that too but it wasn't the main reason. i thought i, or we, accidentally missed the car with you inside. you acted just like the others, just like another mafia member. so i thought i failed. it was not a very nice feeling." mingyu said. donghyuck tensed. what was the man on about?
"ever since then it's been going downhill. your leader brought me to the police. i got bailed in but scoups convinced the other members to bail me out. i'm pretty sure he has saved my life." mingyu said. he was becoming more quiet with each word, almost like he was talking to himself. so when he raised his voice all of the sudden donghyuck flinched "and now i can't even thank him for it."
something was heard in the distance. it sounded like door slamming but donghyuck didn't care at the moment. what he did care about was the man in front of him who was now yelling "i can't thank the man who saved my life. but you know what? i can revenge him."
and then everything happened really fast. a loud shot was heard, almost immediately followed by another door slamming. the sounds were almost so synced that one muted out the other. donghyuck watched as mingyu smirked and ran to the door. he hadn't understood what had happened yet.
but when the first screams reached his ears he turned around to look at mark only to find the man suddenly on the floor. his eyes switched from the man's face down to his torso where a red stain was visible.
"donghyuck, run!" someone yelled and tried to pull him with them. but donghyuck shook them off and lowered down to mark. the man's eyes were barely open.
"donghyuck, come!" taeyong yelled. he hectically gestured towards the doors. why did taeyong want him to go? they had to care for mark, save his life! finally donghyuck whipped his head around to see what taeyong was fanatically pointing at. at the entrance of the big hall which they had used to enter where now standing men. many men. way too many then for them to be seventeen or any mafia at that. it was the police, many officers with vests and guns.
donghyuck looked back at taeyong and understood. but he only shook his head and looked down to mark. he pressed his hand over the wound, feeling the blood escape mark's body under his skin.
"i'm sorry mark. i'll stay to protect you." he whispered as he watched mark whimper at the pain. whilst his one hand was pressing down on the wound the other took mark's in his own.
"donghyuck!" someone yelled. donghyuck looked up and watched as taeyong gave him one last look before following his members in escaping through the offices.
he heard loud sirens and many people shouting at him to raise his hands. he did but did not look at them. instead he looked at mark, his sight blurring in tears at how vulnerable and hurt the man looked.
"my sun." mark whispered and donghyuck's breath hitched.
"you're still conscious? god, mark you need to stay awake, do you hear me?! stay awake!" he yelled as he felt someone cuffing his hands.
"you're my sun, donghyuck." mark said. donghyuck cried out, trying to free himself from the man who was raising him up. he cried out mark's name but the police officer turned him around and dragged him.
"you have to help him!" donghyuck cried "no matter what you do, you have to help him! please listen!" he yelled at the man who was guiding him. he still tried to wiggle free, tried to get back to mark to help him but it was useless. the officer was way stronger than him.
they arrived at a car outside the big hall. the cold air hit donghyuck's skin and he shivered. it was freezing, especially in the palm of his hand since it was still wet with blood. on the whole way donghyuck cried and screamed but only met onto deaf ears. he got pressed onto the back seat of a car.
"we need to silence him." one officer said.
"just knock him out." replied the officer who had dragged donghyuck to the car.
donghyuck saw the man opening the car door again and tried to get as far away from him as possible. the man however scoffed and aggressively pulled donghyuck close enough so he could inject something into the vein of donghyuck's neck.
"noo!" donghyuck cried but then suddenly felt a familiar darkness around him. knowing he stood no chance against it, he just let it overtake him.
[a/n: feel free to ask any questions if this chapter was unclear! however i'll also explain more in the next chapters. btw nct2020 finally dropped and i? love? the? album? so? much? stream the make a wish mv!!]