"i've move your things in my house." joshua starts as soon as he opens the door to seungcheol's hospital room.

it has been exactly a week since he last saw jeonghan, been 6 days since seungcheol woke up and it has been 3 days since he settled to his new house.

he still owns his old apartment, however due to what had happened to the both of them, joshua thought it would be best to move out. the old apartment is still under his name but he won't be living there anymore.

buying a house further to the law firm, joshua had just settled into his new home. he bought new furnitures, new clothes and new decorations. he considered the taste of choi seungcheol and incorporated both their aesthetic in the house.

for the meantime, joshua decided for seungcheol to live with him, for the lawyer to be him at all times. he can take care of him, joshua can easily reach out to him and they would be working much closer together. the incident caused joshua to be paranoid of him that is why he is doing these great measure for the man.

however it also for his safety, no one knows his current address not even dokyeom or minghao, it' would be just him and seungcheol who would know. though they can still be followed by others, and dokyeom could easy pry to his business, it would by him some time, until seuncheol fully heals and for his friends to know they are now part of the mafia, shadow.

"before we come home to our new house, can we drop of somewhere first. i want you to meet some people." seungcheol told him.

"sure, i cleared all my schedule today, i'm free to go anywhere." joshua says carriying the basket of fruits and cheol's bag and checking if they have left something.

"ohh, hong jisoo has become affectionate and caring for choi seungcheol." cheol says chuckling as he walk towards the door.

joshua just rolled his eyes and walked quickly to catch up to the detective. as he held his bag and basket of fruits on his left arm, joshua wraps his right hand on cheol's waist, helping him stand straight while they walk towards johua's car.

"are you sure you don't want others to know? i mean you are hurt yourself too and now your assisting me. not even dokyeom?" seungcheol asks him when he notice joshua putting his stuff on the ground and breathing heavily, using his left hands to touch the side of his stomach.

"i have to endure it cheol, for me to reduced the harm i could inflinct to them i have to stop them from coming near me. and if you weren't so stubborn i would have also detached myself from you, and now here we are, aren't we?" seungcheol laughs at his annoyed face.

it was hard, dokyeom is his brother. the sunshine and the bubly being who always makes him laugh, who's always there when things gets too hard. when he called him with his adopted name, dokyeom just distance himself to him. they talked but he isn't as cheerful and as bright anymore, more reasons for joshua to not tell him.

he doesn't know if jeonghan told dokyeom to act that way, or joshua had force him to act that way. jeonghan isn't someone who would order dokyeom those things. and so the answer would be him. he caused dokyeom to distant himself to him. losing both dokyeom and jeonghan is painful. too painful to handle that all he can is to keep himself busy, that's why he had splurge so much on furnitures and decorations to his new home, just to not be reminded of the two people he longs to see.

shrugging those sad thoughts, joshua settled on the driver seat. "where to?"

"hongdae."

the drive to hongdae was loud, seungcheol is rapping some parts of the song while joshua sings the high notes. laughing along the way as they thought of their shared memories.

it has been awhile since the two of them bonded like this. the last time was when seungcheol helped joshua in a case 3 years ago, they had to do dirty work in order to solve the case.

like literally dirty work. joshua likes working with minimal people and so when they have to find a box containing evidences and money underneath a chicken coop, they had to dug with chicken poop and feather surrounding them. it was a really funny memory because cheol saw how the reserved and calm hong joshua, cursed so much and was even annoyed with the chicken for pooping so much.

"why do they keep pooping? fuck are the owners even cleaning them? do they eat this chickens? sell them? do the buyers knows how filthy they are?"

"we became close because of that case right?" seungcheol laughs at the memory of joshua overreacting.

"i think so, i opened up myself to you and even began calling you cheol, from then on we just clicked." joshua says smiling while looking at the road, remembering such precious memories.

"so who am i meeting exactly?" the lawyer changed subject, turning the volume of the radio down.

"one wants to be called tiger, he's my closest friend from prison who got me kim mingyu's information and he is also the reason why i keep saving up money. i just bailed him out days before we got hurt." joshua nodded, a friend from prison... should he expect for this man to be dangerous? a person who's tall and bulky with tatoos all over his body? but does criminals all look like that?

"the second person is someone....." the lawyer's eyebrows raise, knowing the person's value to cheol just by the way he hesitates.

"he is someone really special to me. he is a hacker and he is one of my friends from the university. he studied computer science but he currently doesn't have a stable job, but he freelances from time to time. for now he is a hacker shua."

joshua laughs at that, cheol tried so hard to make the man look good in his eyes. but no judgement, he understand them. "but why in hongdae?"

"before i went to hide in your apartment i asked tiger to get my hacker guy and bring him to hongdae, if ever they would be targetted too. tiger can easily hide them both with the many people present."

arriving to the place, he places his hands on cheol's shoulder while cheol support himself by clinging to joshua's waist. they stopped at a hotel room at its 13th floor.

"kwon hoshi it's me." seungcheol says knocking softly.

the door opened with man shorter than the two of them, his face small and eyes like a hamster. his black mullet hair styled. is this the friend from prison or the special hacker friend?

when they were told to enter, joshua saw another man, standing beside the bed, hair cut shorter than theirs, skin milky white and glowing. lee jihoon?

"jihoon-ah." he says confuse. is he the special friend?

"you know each other shua? woozi?" cheool stood between them both, face confuse as hell.

woozi?

"jihoon is my other informant cheol, the hacker one." joshua informed him.

"what? so the person i have been curious about is you?" seungcheol says at jihoon.

"i didn't know you work for him scoups, i just thought you worked for an old man at the firm. i was already working for joshua since i graduated from university, he provided for my tuition and cost of living." jihoon explains looking at both joshua and seungcheol.

"so you go way back too?" cheol asks joshua to which the lawyer nodded.

"jihoon is the son of my family's mansion caretaker before, when his father died he asked me to provide for jihoon inexchange of jihoon also working for me." joshua explained, remembering how jihoon's father begged him to take his son to work for him. but joshua was also young at that time, he was 20 and he was just starting to be an adult that he was teaching himself to be independet without any one serving him, so he just told the father that he will provide jihoon's tuition to finish high school and until he graduated computer science, which was jihoon's real interest.

"shua hyung told me that it was alright not to work for him but i still insisted which led me being his informant." jihoon added, his eye grateful for the man.

"wow! what a small world! you lovebirds would have met much sooner and developed much faster if you only knew." kwon hoshi commented behind him, clapping his hands and his eyes dissapearing. there is no such tiger in his personality.

"mr. hong joshua, i'm kwon hoshi but my real name is kwon soonyoung. i'm a martial artist, black belter in taekwando, judo and karate. and would also like to work for you." he offered his hand to which joshua shooked. shamelessly demanding the lawyer to accept him.

"hong joshua. a lawyer. i'm not quite sure what i could use you for and how you will work for me." joshua says slowly, looking at both seungcheol and jihoon for help.

"i can be your bodyguard, i'm good at self defense and attacking. i can steal for you. i can spy someone for you. i can be an informant, i have many connections underground. i can do many things." hoshi counts using his hands, smiling as he looks at joshua.

the lawyer nodded, acknowleging his credentials. "i'll think of what you can do for me, sure i can take you in my care. but only if seungcheol and jihoon tell me you can be trusted and if both of them tell me what is the real score between them." the lawyer looks at seungcheol talking to him with his eyes.

joshua stares at jihoon who is scratching the back of his neck. "i don't think hoshi can contribute anything anyways, shua hyung don't mind him." he says, looking at both the lawyer and seungcheol.

"yeah shua, he cannot be trusted." joshua smiled at that, they are both teasing hoshi and also concealing their relationship.

"hey!" hoshi shouts, walking towards seungcheol and placing his arms around his shoulder.

"are we not friends? yeah i helped you out remember. who introduced you to my cousin?" hoshi says talking about jihoon.

"you're cousins?" joshua asks confuse evident, his eyebrows furrowing.

"no hyung, but our family knows each other from when we were young. he likes to claim we are family by being cousins." jihoon explains, rollimg his eyes at hoshi, who in return just gave him a sheepish smile.

how small can the world get?

they are all just connected to one another by faith. if seungcheol and jihoon are close to them like this then hoshi is welcomed to his care. another person to add to his team of who will be willing to be harmed.

"alright, i'll take you in." the lawyer informs after a minute of silence from him, it would be hard to keep them all safe but joshua needs people not just for his revenge but also for his sanity. he has to also give up jihoon, seungcheol and seungkwan to the shadows for evaluation. he would be left alone until they come back, he needs hoshi to be with him.

"wow thank you, finally i can get back to business." hoshi took his hand to shake again, smiling while his eyes disappears.

"but will you be alright with getting hurt, like how i and cheol have experienced." he had to know, hoshi's life is on the line if he wants to get tangled in joshua's business.

"i've been in the brink of death countless of times mr. lawyer, nothing i can't get through." hoshi assures him.

"welcome to the team then kwon hoshi. do you know how to drive?" joshua says, smile welcoming.

"ehh??" hoshi reacted not expecting his job.

"goodluck driving for him, he can be a pain in the ass when he is in his lawyer mode." seungcheol says patting hoshi's back.

"really cheol." joshua raised his eyebrows offended by what he had heard.

seungcheol just laughed at him and his reaction, subtly wrapping jihoon's waist.