｡ₓ ू ₒ ु ˚ ू ₒ ु ₓ｡

Content warning: long chapter, gets violent. Consider yourself warned.

"You're stupid if you think I'm not coming with you." Jisung was running to keep up with Minho as he stormed back into the restaurant. "That's my friend in there, too."

There was a wild look in Minho's eyes, a mirror back to when they'd picked up a broken Jeongin from the side of the street. He gripped Jisung's arms in his hands.

"Do I have to beg?" His voice was shaking. "Do I have to beg you not to get involved?"

Jisung frowned and shook himself free. He started walking further into the restaurant. Minho let out a groan and gave up. He didn't have time to explain how dangerous it was to Jisung. Instead, he just pushed past the younger boy, stretching out one arm to keep him behind him.

They reached the table where they had all been sat together only minutes earlier. There was no sign they had been there at all; the plates and glasses had all been cleared away and the stained tablecloth replaced. Hyunjin and Felix were nowhere to be seen. A tall man dressed all in black spotted the two boys walking towards him.

"Good," the man said. "Follow me."

Jisung was expecting Minho to hit him. He was surprised when the older boy just grunted and followed the man through a curtain that Jisung thought was just for show. The thick fabric moved and revealed a dark staircase.

Minho and Jisung followed the man up the stairs. The curtain plunged them back into darkness as it settled over the doorway, cutting off the sounds from the restaurant into little more than a muffled buzz. Before they could reach the top, Minho turned suddenly to stare down at Jisung.

"Please, Jisung, please go back down. You can wait for me in the car, I'll get Hyunjin and Felix and be out in a moment..."

It was too late. Another man had materialised in the space behind Jisung and he prodded him sharply in the back with one outstretched finger.

"Move."

The boys moved.

The staircase opened out into a large room, the floor and walls made from bare stone, a million miles away from the luxury of the restaurant downstairs. The room was empty aside from a man sitting in a chair in the very centre. He smiled hungrily as Minho and Jisung stepped into the room. The two men who had come up the stairs with them settled into place on either side of the door and pulled it closed.

"You must be the kingpin," said the man in the chair. He spoke softly in a thick accent that Jisung struggled to understand. "What a pleasure."

Minho glared at him and stepped forward to cover Jisung's body with his own.

"What is this?" Minho snarled. There was an icy undertone to his voice that sent shivers crawling down Jisung's spine. The man in the chair's smile widened.

"This is repayment."

Jisung noticed a door behind the man, thick dark wood covered in metal panels. Is this where Hyunjin and Felix were?

"You have pretty friends," the man continued when Minho stayed silent. "I was hoping you'd bring the one from the party. I would've liked to have done some damage to him."

Realisation dawned on Minho's face. The man noticed and spoke again.

"So you do know who I am. Good. But I'm not sure of your name. You've done well to slip under my radar in this city."

"Do you need to know my name?" Minho asked. "Are you hoping to put me on your Christmas card list?"

The man seemed delighted at this. He laughed, a loud sound that boomed and echoed around the empty room. He glanced over at the men still standing by the entrance and cocked an eyebrow. As if they had been silently instructed, the men laughed, too.

"You're funny," the man said through the last of his laughter. "Your friends, too. Or they were. I shut the tall one up quickly. The short one, though... I almost couldn't bare to. He looks like a child. But then, so do you."

"What do you want?" Minho asked. "I know who you are. Park Jinyoung, isn't it? I've heard of you. Why would you bother with us?"

Park Jinyoung paused. He stood up from the chair and walked in a circle around the two boys who stood before him. Minho had to stop himself from grabbing Jisung, desperate not to identify the younger boy as someone close to him. The man completed his loop and stood in front of Minho. They stared each other out with a level gaze.

"A stupid question, surely. I've had to find three new men because of you. Don't I deserve compensation?"

Minho squinted his eyes and shook his head slowly. "I really don't know what you're talking about. I know one of my men stumbled onto your turf. It was an honest mistake and you repaid him by ripping one of his arms out of its socket. How did you lose people from that?"

There was a lull in the conversation. Park Jinyoung was staring with a frown at Minho as though he wasn't sure whether to believe him or not.

"Don't play stupid."

Minho laughed. "Enlighten me."

"Did you not tell the tall one to come back and attack my people? Did you not ask him to break every bone in their hands? I thought it was a low blow that he went for their feet, too. They were useless without hands or feet. I had to get rid of them. So do you see now why I might be... upset?"

The vein in Minho's forehead above his left eyebrow twitched and he hissed something under his breath.

"Hwang Hyunjin." It was quiet enough that only Jisung heard.

"So, how do we solve a problem like this?" mused the older man. "You took three of mine. Perhaps I take three of yours?"

"Not a chance." Minho interrupted. "Take me. It was me who orchestrated it, right? So take me."

Park Jinyoung grinned. He cleared his throat and glanced at the men behind Minho and Jisung. The door Jisung had spotted before swung open. Hyunjin and Felix were thrown through it, blonde hair matted with streaks of red that created patterns across their skin and clothes, too. Both were unconscious and they hit the floor like a bag of bricks.

Jisung whimpered. Subconsciously, Minho reached behind himself to brush his fingers against Jisung's. This was a mistake.

"Oh, I was wondering why you were hiding him," Park Jinyoung said gleefully.

Jisung was trembling as the man leaned over to tilt his face upwards with his fingertips.

"You're the prettiest yet," Park Jinyoung said sweetly. "Maybe I should take you, instead."

Minho couldn't stop himself. The man staggered backwards as Minho swung a fist into his jaw, bone hitting bone. When Park Jinyoung stood back up, he was still smiling. He wiped a trace of blood from his lip and looked at Minho.

"That was a mistake."

Before they even knew it was happening, Minho was thrown to the floor, and five more men had rushed into the room. Each was bigger than the last. Jisung was crying now as one man pushed him to his knees and grabbed him by the hair. He froze when he felt the cool blade of a knife press against the now bared skin of his throat.

Two of the men had picked up Hyunjin and Felix, holding limp bodies in their arms and standing menacingly behind Park Jinyoung. No one had hold of Minho, though. Someone had jabbed him sharply in the ribs and winded him so he was bent double on the floor. He looked up and Park Jinyoung expected their eyes to meet again; Minho looked past him, his eyes resting on Hyunjin.

"I'm a fair man, kid. You took three of mine. Now I have what I want. You can leave."

Minho turned to meet Jisung's eyes behind him. His heart dropped as he saw the flash of the blade at his lover's throat. Jisung looked surprisingly calm.

"Minho, go." Jisung tried to keep his voice low so his throat wouldn't bump against the knife's edge. "He's letting you leave."

Minho couldn't believe what he was hearing. He shot an incredulous look at Jisung before turning to finally meet Park Jinyoung's gaze. The man cocked an eyebrow, clearly anticipating Minho's decision. He couldn't hide his surprise when Minho simply shrugged and turned on one heel. Jisung felt an invisible weight lift from his shoulders as Minho walked past him towards the door they had first came through. If he's safe, Jisung reassured himself, that's what matters.

Before he could cross the threshold, Minho said something over his shoulder.

"It's okay. Even monkeys fall from trees."

A bang from the other side of the room echoed off the stone walls. Hyunjin had leaped upwards, throwing himself away from the man who had thought he was unconscious into the man holding Felix. Both men hit the ground. At the same time, Minho had swung around and knotted his fingers into the hair of the man who still had Jisung by the throat. He grabbed the knife from stunned hands and threw the man backwards, his head hitting the floor with a sickening crack.

A fight that could've come from a film scene ensued. Minho took on the two men by the door whilst Hyunjin defended himself and Felix from the two on the other side of the room. Jisung looked up from where he was still kneeling on the floor. Park Jinyoung locked his eyes onto him, and pointed at him with a skeletal finger.

"Him," he said simply.

Three men descended on Jisung, kicking at his ribs and throwing punches wherever they could possibly land. Jisung tried to fight back but it was pointless. He was overpowered. Everything started to go dark, a sharp pain spreading slowly down one side of his abdomen. Before he could black out, the pain seemed to stop.

"Play dead," whispered an unfamiliar voice in his ear.

Jisung didn't need much encouragement. Something twisted in his ribcage and his body went weak. He lay unconscious on the stone floor as the fight continued around him.

"Felix!" Hyunjin shrieked. "Here!"

The tall blonde pushed the chair in the centre of the room to Felix. It was almost as big as the small boy's frame, but he wielded it wildly, glancing with nervous eyes at the men he was trying to hold off. Hyunjin and Minho were doing most of the work.

Minho had taken control of the knife and he was slashing at anyone who dared to come near him. Park Jinyoung watched as more and more of his men fell, none dead, but many seriously hurt. A scowl wrenched of the features of a usually composed face.

"You are children," he howled as he rushed at Minho, who just rolled his eyes.

The boy stepped to one side and in his rage, Park Jinyoung went flying past him through the open door in the wall. The sound of his body flying down the stairs created a rhythm that Minho noted subconsciously in his head.

There were only two more men standing, and one went running down the stairs after his boss. Felix was about to go after the other one with the chair in his hands before Hyunjin stopped him, bent double and gasping for breath. Blood trickled from his nose into his mouth and his face was painted with bruises.

"He's with us," Hyunjin panted. "He's one of ours."

Minho bent down over Jisung and took the boys face in his hands.

"I told him to play dead," explained the undercover man on their side. "He's fine."

"Jisung, baby..." Minho murmured. The boy didn't stir.

One glance down and Minho froze.

A pool of blood had started to spread across Jisung's stomach.

｡ₓ ू ₒ ु ˚ ू ₒ ु ₓ｡

i am so sorry for the long chapters i get so carried away!!