The Ripper
Title: The Ripper
Rating: PG
Pairing: Tao/Kai
Word Count: 6449
A/N: Some aspects of this story inspired by Holly Black's White Cat and the movie Dhoom 2. Title inspired by Vampire Diaries lol.
Disclaimer: This is not a vampire fic.
Kai crouches on the roof of a tall glass office tower, analyzing the situation around him. Target: building across from him, third window from the right, seventh floor. Two guards at the entrance to said building. More inside, he doesn’t doubt, and definitely right outside the room he needs to get into. Sniper on the rooftop to his right. Security cameras to his left, trained on the entrance. He won’t be able to manually get through this one. He squints, narrowing his eyes to concentrate on the window he’s been eyeing this whole time. He’ll have to move quickly so the sniper doesn’t have a chance to react. Taking a deep breath, he leaps out of his crouch, and jumps, one foot stepping out over the side of the building into thin air. The sniper swivels around, aiming for Kai’s dark shape- and finds he has no target.
Kai’s foot lands on soft carpeting and the rest of him soon follows.
There are only two guards outside the room. Big mistake, he thinks, as a roundhouse kick to the chest dispatches one while a well-aimed punch to the side of the head knocks out the second.
“Mr. Lee, sir,” says Kai bowing politely as he enters. “I’m here to bring you back to Seoul.”
Getting out is harder than getting in. He can’t Rip in front of Mr. Lee. This time he really will have to do the task manually, and with some very important baggage in tow.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to get a little dirty.”
The man nods. He’s in his early fifties, but still looks fit as ever, eyes alert yet calm despite the situation. Kai calculates that they have approximately two minutes before the remaining security realizes that they’ve lost communication with the ones still sprawled out on the floor outside the room. They should have another two minutes before someone realizes where they’ve gone.
“We’re going to be using the ventilation system,” he says, pulling out a map to show Mr. Lee. “You’ll be going first, as we are likely to be followed. There’s going to be a little bit of a drop here-“ he gestures towards a point on the map- “we’ll be coming out through the first floor at which point we’re going to have to make a run for it.”
And then he’s up, quietly moving a chair into place under a grille in the ceiling and boosting Mr. Lee up and through, ensuring the man isn’t looking before moving the chair back into place and taking another step forward so that he ends up in the duct right behind the bureaucrat, shutting the grille behind them as they maneuver the building’s internal maze. It’s been one minute. They crawl forward, Kai silent as a cat and internally cringing as Mr. Lee’s elbows bang against the metal sides of the duct. It’s been another minute and he can hear a cacophony of alarms and voices echoing through the building. He’s thankful that the noise drowns out their own. They’ve reached the first floor and he’s watching Mr. Lee attempting to jimmy the exit grille open, heart beating with impatience, but there’s just not enough space in these closed quarters for him to reach around and do it himself. Then a blast of fresh air reaches him and they’re both out, Mr. Lee sprinting as hard as he can and Kai slowing to match the older man’s pace and cover him from behind as the ring of gunshots ring out over the sirens and shouts behind them. There’s a black van waiting inconspicuously a few buildings down, and he throws Mr. Lee in before seeking refuge in the shadows between two glass skyscrapers, waiting until the van has rolled out of sight before he steps forward and Rips once more.
There’s no plush carpet to greet him this time; he’s met with slick linoleum floors and grey walls, stainless steel and glass, fluorescent lighting and blinking key padded doors.
“Kai,” a woman greets him in a sleek black suit and ponytail. “Agent Im just contacted us; Mr. Lee is safe and sound and on his way back to Seoul now. You’ve done well.”
Kai nods curtly in acknowledgement of the praise. “Do you need anything more from me today?”
“No. You can go home. We’ll call you in if we need you.”
Home is a one-bedroom flat in downtown Seoul, right in the heart of the city. Home is spotless white walls accenting spotless white floors. Home is where Kai sprawls out on his white leather couch and rests his feet on his white coffee table, his bare feet the only speck of colour present to destroy the clean canvas he’s carefully constructed around himself. Kai tilts his head back and looks at the white expanse of his ceiling, eyes starting to drift shut from the exhaustion. Hopefully they won’t need him tomorrow. Sometimes he can go months without a mission, and sometimes they come rolling in one after another. Lately it’s been the latter.
They call him the Ripper. Kai secretly thinks that it’s the most inaccurate name they could have come up with. He doesn’t really rip through space, it’s more of a step. He just needs to take one step forward, but instead of his foot landing on the ground directly in front of him, it lands some place else, anywhere in the world. There are others like him in this part of the government too. There’s the wide-eyed one who can control earth, the short smiling one who can manipulate water, and the one with a face so carefully neutral it’s no wonder the government enlisted him, who has power over the wind. They come in handy during natural disasters and extreme weather situations. Kai? Kai’s skills are used for something else. He’s the one they send out on rescue missions. It’s amazing how many high-profile bureaucrats and businessmen become hostages in silent political war, and how the government manages to cover it all up. The world plays one giant game of chess that civilians don’t know about, and Kai is South Korea’s secret ace to keep the country from resorting to blatant warfare.
It pays well.
One week goes by before another call comes in. Kai spends half his time wasting his money on a new, shiny red Lamborghini Aventador and the other half using said Aventador to pick up girls in Hongdae. It’s time well spent, he thinks. His phone starts buzzing Thursday evening and he answers right away. He knows it’s from work. No one else calls.
“Hello?”
“Kai. We need you in right now. There’s a job for you.”
He’s back at the office 0.2 seconds later.
Agent Kwon greets him again in another black suit and the same sleek ponytail. Kai wonders what her closet looks like.
“Come in,” she says, ushering him into a meeting room. “Agent Im’s already waiting on us.”
This one must be serious, he thinks. Usually they don’t bother with such airs. Usually he’s given a single plain folder with the project details and a deadline. This time, they have a presentation set up and ready to go.
“This,” says Agent Im by way of introduction, “is your next mission.”
The man on the screen is young. Not a man, more like a boy, with dark hair, a sharp nose, and the most piercing eyes Kai has ever seen.
“He doesn’t look Korean,” Kai says, curious.
“He’s not. He’s Chinese.”
“Then why am I here?”
“You’re not rescuing this one. We’ve got a little bit of a different job for you this time,” Agent Kwon says cryptically.
“You may have noticed your missions have been coming in more frequently lately,” Agent Im continues. “It’s because of this man here. I don’t know how he does it, but somehow he’s gotten away with more kidnappings for the Chinese government than any other agent they have.”
“What’s his name?”
“We only know of him as Tao.”
“So you want me to go in and figure out how exactly he’s managing all these kidnappings?”
“Well, that’s half the mission. The other half- we need you to…dispose of him. Permanently.”
Kai freezes. “You’re talking an assassination.”
“Yes,” Agent Im responds.
“That’s not in my job description.”
“It’s not your typical job, but you’ll find it can fit in just fine within the confines of your job description,” says Agent Kwon.
“I refuse.”
“You’re perfectly capable,” Agent Im points out. “You’ve completed all the necessary tracking and firearms training with very high marks.”
“I refuse.”
“You won’t,” Agent Kwon interjects dangerously. “Shall I remind you of the consequences, Kai?”
Kai grits his teeth. When he signed his contract, he signed it for life. Break the contract, and he’d immediately be declared an enemy of the state.
“Where’s the folder?” he asks resignedly.
Agent Kwon smiles and hands over a plain white folder, and the two agents walk out, leaving Kai alone in the room with Tao’s young face staring down at him. There are more pictures in the folder. Tao at the airport, Tao at a restaurant, Tao in the lobby of a hotel. There’s nothing that makes him seem like a master kidnapper, and nothing that hints as to how he gets away with it. All Kai’s got to run on are basic details. Born: 1993. Hometown: Qingdao. Current location: Beijing. Specialty: Martial Arts. Other than that, all he’s got is a deadline. One month.
Looks like he’s going to Beijing.
Beijing is like Seoul, albeit with a twist. The ambient noise from traffic on the streets is the same, but the sidewalks ring with a softer, more slurred chatter than he’s used to. The smells of food waft through the streets, but ddeokbokkie and kimbap are replaced with steamed buns, fried dough, and kebabs. It’s a little more crowded, a little more hectic, but through the hustle and bustle Kai has his eye out for one thing, and one thing only - this Chinese stranger Tao.
He can’t let himself be known right away. Part one of the mission is to find out how Tao manages to get away with these kidnappings in the first place. Kai’s been following him for a week, and although Tao doesn’t seem to have any sort of consistent schedule, he doesn’t go anywhere out of the ordinary. What irks Kai is that every time he gets near enough to glean any real information, Tao just disappears. One day he’s grabbing lunch at a coffee shop, yet by the time Kai reaches the establishment and gets a table nearby to observe, Tao is gone. The next day Kai’s tailing him on the street surreptitiously, hoping he’ll be able to hone in on Tao’s exact place of work, and suddenly instead of Tao’s green jacket, he’s staring at some woman’s red coat. It’s infuriating.
“No, I haven’t got anything substantial to report,” Kai says exasperatedly into his phone two weeks into the project. “Yes, I know the deadline is in two more weeks; I’m going to need an extension….Yes, I know it’s top priority Agent Kwon, what do you think I’m doing while I’m here, checking out the Great Wall? There’s something about this Tao kid that sets him apart from the rest, I just haven’t found out what yet.”
“Well, I’ve got a tip that might break the plateau you hit the moment you got there,” Agent Kwon says. “His next target is a woman that goes by the name Koo Minyoung.”
“Koo Minyoung? Why does that name sound familiar?”
“She’s the daughter of the chairman of LG Electronics. She’s also a major animal rights activist, and she’ll be in Beijing next week to attend a charity gala at the Ritz-Carlton for moon bears. Sounds like a good kidnapping opportunity to me.”
“I’m on it.”
“We’ll get you on the guest list then,” Agent Kwon says, hanging up.
Kai rolls up to the event in a glossy black Bugatti Veyron (just bought of course, he would never think of a rental), eyes scanning the situation around the perimeter of the hotel. There’s already a small crowd mingling outside the doors, clad in expensive suits and designer dresses. Here we go, he thinks, waving off the valet as he finds his own parking and heads inside.
The event starts off with cocktails and appetizers, and Kai grabs a glass of champagne from a passing waiter, sipping it casually as he scans the room for Tao. He works the room, nodding and smiling to the other guests and engaging in short conversation here and there, glad he did a little bit of research on moon bears the night before. It isn’t until half an hour later that he spots Tao, leaning casually against the bar with a scotch in his hand and chatting with a pretty girl whose face he recognizes from the pictures Agent Kwon forwarded him. Koo Minyoung. Kai doesn’t approach, however. He stays where he is, smiling and nodding his way through a one-sided conversation with an ahjumma who is way more interested in him than she should be, keeping tabs on Tao and Minyoung out of the corner of his eye all the while. He’ll wait until Tao starts to lead her off somewhere, then pounce. Tao whispers something in the girl’s ear and she smiles. Kai glances back at the ahjumma giggling girlishly at him, looks back at the bar, and the couple is gone. He blinks, scanning the room desperately. Not again, there’s no way Tao can slip by him this many times. There’s something different about the boy, and tonight’s the night Kai is going to figure out what.
“Mr. Oh? Are you okay? You seem distracted.”
It takes a moment for the fake name to register. “I’m fine,” Kai responds with a charming smile. “Excuse me.”
If Tao’s gone off with Minyoung so quickly, most likely he’s taken her up to a room in the hotel somewhere before planning on relocating her. Kai exits the ballroom of the hotel as quickly as he can without attracting attention, and spots Tao’s tall figure entering an elevator in the lobby. He pauses, watching the numbers tick upwards and stop on the twelfth floor. He steps behind an artificial tree and ends up on the twelfth floor just as he sees a door down the hall shutting with a click. One more step and he’s standing on the other side of the door, pistol pointed at Tao. The other boy is already doing the same, stance ready with his own gun pointed at the door where Kai stands.
“Koo Minyoung,” Kai says, voice steady despite the hammering in his heart. This boy isn’t like the usual foe he’s had to face. One look into those piercing black eyes and Kai knows he’s dangerous.
“She’s not here,” the boy replies in accented but clear Korean. His voice is softer and higher than Kai expected, making him seem even younger than he appeared in that first photo Kai ever saw of him projected on a screen back in Seoul.
“I saw you with her.”
“She’s not here,” Tao repeats. “She’s still downstairs, in the ballroom where I left her.”
“Why are you here?” Kai asks.
“Why are you?”
“Hey, I’m the one asking the questions!” Kai responds angrily.
Tao laughs softly. It’s not a malicious sound, ringing gently in Kai’s ears. “You’re not the only one with a gun here,” he points out.
Kai doesn’t hesitate. He shoots. It’s an easy shot, close range and he’s already got his pistol aimed. Yet the bullet never reaches its target. One minute he’s pulled the trigger and the next, Tao is standing in front of him holding the bullet between his thumb and index finger.
“How…?” gasps Kai.
“Now will you listen?” Tao asks, eyes narrowing. Kai pauses, then nods, but doesn’t drop his gun.
“You’re the Korean Ripper,” Tao says, circling him and looking him up and down. “I know what you can do. You’re the one who’s been undoing all my work the past few months.”
“Work,” says Kai incredulously. “Right. Sorry I’ve foiled your career as a professional kidnapper; it was quite a noble one.”
“Those people were never in any danger,” Tao defends. “You know that. Every time you went in and ‘rescued’ someone, they were always well cared for and living in the luxury they were used to.”
Kai thinks back to his last job rescuing Mr. Lee and the swanky quarters he had found him in.
“It’s all politics, and nothing more,” Tao says.
“How do you do it?” Kai asks. “How do you get away with more kidnappings than any other agent I’ve ever encountered?”
The smile Tao gives him is like a tiger’s, dangerous and cunning and beautiful all at once, and it sends shivers down Kai’s spine. “They call you the Ripper,” he says. “They call me the Ripper, too. I’m the Chinese Ripper. I can Rip time.”
Now Kai is gaping. He knew there was something different about this boy, but he didn’t think this was it.
“…How?”
“Well it’s not really ripping, it’s more like freezing,” Tao explains. “I can freeze time. It gives me time to get away.”
“So downstairs-“
“I froze time for you.”
“Well it didn’t work,” Kai retorts. “Looks like your kidnapping failed; Koo Minyoung is still downstairs.”
“Koo Minyoung isn’t my target,” Tao breathes, stepping closer. “My target is you.”
“Me.”
“You.”
He’ll never be able to kill Tao, not with him expecting it, and not with a gun, but he could Rip. He could Rip now, and Tao would never be able to follow. Yet Kai doesn’t.
“Okay, have at me then,” he says, stepping back and putting up his hands. Tao’s gun shifts, resting over Kai’s heart, but his finger doesn’t move.
“What did you think, when they first gave you your mission?” Tao asks instead.
“What?”
“You’ve been following me around Beijing the past couple weeks, yet I didn’t have any kidnappings planned. I’m assuming I’m just as much your target as you are mine.”
“It doesn’t matter what I thought,” Kai snaps. “I didn’t have a choice, this is my job!”
“We always have a choice,” the other boy says. “I have a choice right now. I could shoot you, or I could let you go.”
“If you let me go, I’ll come back for you,” Kai threatens. “Safer to shoot me.”
“You have a choice too. If I let you go, you could come back for me. If I let you go, you could run. If I let you go, we could run.”
“We?”
“Why did you become the Ripper? Was it a choice?” Tao presses.
No, it wasn’t a choice, not really. Having someone with a power like his walking around in society was too dangerous. When the government found out, it was either work for them, or work against them.
“No, it wasn’t a choice, not really,” Kai says.
“Do you like it?”
Did he like it? Did he like the money and the cars and his multi-million won flat? Did he like that he only worked when they needed him to and that the rest of his time was filled with pretty girls and affluent clubs? Did he like that said pretty yet nameless girls made up the majority of his social interaction and that his flat only required one bedroom?
Tao takes his silence as a no.
“We could run,” Tao says urgently. “We could run, and be free of them. We could run, and I wouldn’t have to kill you.”
Kai bites his lip, staring into those piercing dark eyes just as they stare into his own.
“How do I know you’re not just going to take me in as a hostage if I say yes?” he asks suspiciously, despite his mind already being made up.
“Here,” Tao says, flicking the safety back on his gun and tossing it to Kai. “You lead the way; I’ll follow.
Tao whistles when he sees the Bugatti parked in the lot. “Very nice,” he comments, sliding into the front passenger seat. “I see being the Ripper has its perks.”
“Please, don’t tell me you don’t have your own not-so-guilty pleasure,” Kai counters.
“Watches,” Tao admits.
“Watches?” scoffs Kai, reversing out of his spot.
“Oi, don’t say it like that,” Tao says defensively. “Pretty sure I have a couple watches worth half this car.”
“Half being the key word there,” grins Kai just as his phone goes off. He ignores it, grin sliding off his face. He knows who it is.
“We need a plan,” he says tersely, heart hammering as the full extent of what they are doing finally registers with him. “They know something’s wrong.”
Tao looks at him questioningly.
“I always answer my phone,” Kai explains.
“We can go to my apartment,” Tao suggests.
“Your apartment. Yes, very wise. We’re on the run from our respective governments; they’d never think to check our apartments,” says Kai sarcastically.
“You’re on the run, because you couldn’t be bothered to pick up your phone,” Tao retorts. “My end doesn’t know anything’s up yet. Just one night, we’ll hash out a plan and take it from there. No one will find us.”
“And how can you be sure?”
“You’ve been trying to figure out where I live for the past two weeks, haven’t you? If you couldn’t do it, I doubt anyone else in your department can.”
“….what’s the address.”
“Clear and toss your phone in the dumpster behind the Japanese restaurant ten blocks from my building,” Tao instructs after giving Kai his address. They ditch the Bugatti in the underground parking lot of an expensive restaurant, where it blends in quite well. Kai gives it one last longing pat on the hood before they leave.
Where Kai’s apartment is shades of white, Tao’s is stainless steel and black granite countertops. A clock or two sits in every room, both digital and analog, all moving silently, not one accompanied by the tick tock that Kai expects.
“I don’t like to hear the time pass,” Tao explains when Kai asks.
“So how does your time freezing thing work exactly?” Kai asks conversationally over a box of the take-out they’ve just picked up. “How did Koo Minyoung not notice that one moment you were standing right next to her at the bar and the next you were halfway to the elevator?”
“When I freeze time, it’s not like the whole world around me comes to a standstill,” Tao explains. “I can only freeze time for one person at a time. For example, tonight at the gala, I froze time for you, but Minyoung and I finished up our conversation. Then I excused myself and left.”
“But,” says Kai, confused, “I was talking to someone the whole time. Wouldn’t she have noticed if I just, I don’t know, stopped moving or whatever happens when time gets frozen?”
“Not exactly. You see, time doesn’t move in a linear fashion like most people think. Every moment of your life, all the memories you have and those that are still yet to come, they’re all happening at once. It’s just that you can only experience one at a time. Even though I froze time for you, it kept going for that ahjumma, and she was experiencing one of those moments, or fragments of time. From her perspective, she was still holding up a regular conversation with you.”
“Huh,” Kai says, intrigued. “Interesting. I wonder why they call you the Ripper, then? Why don’t they just call you the Freezer?”
“Because that’s lame,” Tao says with a laugh, playfully smacking Kai on the head and getting up. “Good night,” he calls over his shoulder, heading to his room as Kai settles down on the couch.
Colour. There’s colour marring the floors, seeping out of drawers and spread across his tables. Everywhere he looks the white is interrupted by colour. His collection of DVDs is sprawled haphazardly across his carpet, clothes in shades of black and grey are no longer neatly folded and shut away in his dresser drawers. The Crong bobblehead that he usually keeps safely away tucked away stares at him from its position on his night stand as he steps in. Kai immediately goes into high alert, gun at the ready as he steps through every room of his apartment, but finds the place empty. He grabs a backpack, tossing Crong in along with some clothes and a few wads of cash hidden behind the painting of snow falling on cedars hanging over his bed, before whirling around and taking a step back to Beijing.
“Where’d you go?” Tao asks, finally awake.
“Back to my place in Seoul,” Kai says. “Someone had been there and they weren’t subtle about it; they’re going to send people looking for me. How long do you have?”
“I’m supposed to go back to headquarters with an update this evening,” Tao says slowly.
“What do I do,” Kai says, running his fingers through his hair in agitation.
“We need to keep moving,” Tao says. “Can you Rip us from place to place?”
“It doesn’t work that way; I can’t bring someone along.”
“We’ll have to travel the old-fashioned way then,” Tao says, slipping on his coat. “Wait here, I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Wait what am I supposed to-“ Kai starts, the slam of the front door cutting him off. He paces back and forth restlessly, mind a tumult. Should he run? Should he stay? How does he know he can trust Tao? He’s literally a sitting duck right now, his own government suspicious of him and Tao quite possibly bringing back up to take him down. Why is he still here, amongst the black and the steel and the soundless clocks?
Tao comes back around lunchtime, clutching a large paper envelope.
“Here,” he says, pulling out a little blue-green booklet for Kai and a red one for himself.
“Lee Taemin,” he reads, flipping to the information page. “Yah, where did you get my photo from?!”
“You were my target, remember? Obviously I had photos of you.”
“Who’re you, then?”
“Zhou Mi,” Tao answers, holding up his own fake. “You’ve already got your bag ready, right? We’re going to Tokyo.”
“You know, they won’t rest until they’ve killed me,” Kai says, gazing out over the city from their vantage point at Tokyo Tower.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Tao responds. The city is sprawled below them, a maze of roads and web of lights with the hulking form of Mount Fuji just discernible in the dusky evening gloom over his own bowl.
“So how’d they find you?” Kai asks conversationally.
“It was at a rap competition in Hong Kong,” the other remembers. Kai turns his head to look at him, surprised. “I guess they’d had tabs on me for a while, and when I won first place, they came up to me pretending to be agents for an entertainment company. Next thing I knew, I was facing either life in prison or life working for them. Not much of a difference really, but this pays better.”
Tao turns then to meet Kai’s gaze, hair ruffling in the faint breeze blowing up on the Tower. “How’d they find you?”
“I got sloppy,” Kai admits. “I was ten. One of them must have been watching.” He doesn’t elaborate.
“That’s always how they find you,” Tao sighs. “You can’t help it, you keep testing it, you want to see how far you can take it… it draws attention, when people know what to look for.”
“Come on,” Kai interrupts with a yawn. “I’m getting sleepy, let’s head back.”
“Where would you be right now, if they hadn’t found out?” Tao asks as they both stare up at the white expanse of the hotel ceiling in the dark.
Kai doesn’t answer.
“I’d be an idol,” Tao states confidently. “Rapping’s not my only talent, you know. I was learning how to play guitar as well. I stopped after they caught me. Why hold on to vestiges of the past?”
Why hold on, indeed? Kai thinks of the little Crong bobblehead safely tucked away in the side pocket of his backpack.
“It’s what I told my parents,” Tao continues speaking to the ceiling. “That I’m going away to train, that I’ll debut soon…they don’t question it when I send home gifts. They think I get a stipend from the company.”
Kai feels a familiar pang of guilt shoot through him.
“I was ten,” he says again softly. “One of them must have been watching.” He hears Tao’s bed squeak as the other turns over on to his side to look at him. “I was outside my dance studio. I used to do ballet. I had a big recital coming up, and I’d just finished rehearsal, and my mom had gone to buy me an ice cream as a treat. That’s when a government official came up to me and told me I could either come with him, or be declared an enemy of the state. I haven’t been in touch with family since. I thought it would be easier for them if they forgot they ever had a son.”
A short silence follows.
“You were ten,” breathes Tao, shocked. “I was seventeen when they found me…”
“I’d be dancing,” Kai says. “I’d be dancing, if they hadn’t found out.” He turns over, back to Tao, and closes his eyes.
Dinner is oddly silent between the two of them, with Tao looking pensive over his plate. He looks up suddenly, and Kai sees a question burning in the other’s eyes.
“I know what your mission was,” Tao starts, “…but the first time you shot at me in that hotel room…were you aiming to kill?”
The question catches Kai off-guard. “…Yes,” he admits truthfully, and sees Tao tense.
“Were you glad you didn’t?”
“…Yes.”
Tao relaxes.
“My job was to find out your secret, and then kill you. If I had killed you right away, I would have only done half my job.”
Tao tenses again.
“Well now you haven’t done any of it.”
“I know.”
“Do you regret it?”
“…No.”
Tao grins and they both relax, conversation switching gears.
“We need to leave Tokyo soon,” Kai says.
“Itchy feet already? Must be the teleporter in you.”
“It’s been a week, Tao.”
“I know; you’re right…how about Hawaii?”
“Hawaii sounds nice,” a voice cuts in, and Kai turns his head to see a blond-haired waiter fill up their water glasses just as Tao jumps back in his chair with a sharp intake of breathe.
“You.”
“Me,” the waiter answers, deadpan, “and I’d take my hand off that gun, Tao, if you’d like to avoid a shoot-out in the middle of the restaurant.” The waiter shifts and Kai sees a familiar gleam of metal inside his suit jacket.
Kai sees Tao shift his hand from his pants pocket just as he feels a vibration in his own.
“What are you doing here, Kris?” he hears Tao ask the blond boy, as he furtively glances at his phone. Leave, the text reads, he’s frozen.
“Remember, Taozi? Wherever you go, I can fly and meet you there,” Kris says, glaring at Tao with narrowed eyes. Kai sees Tao’s jaw clench, and the boy turns and glares at Kai. A split second passes and then Kai realizes what’s happening and jumps out of his chair, walking as briskly as he can out of the restaurant without drawing attention.
They’d decided to go subtle with a simple silver Audi A8 this time, and Kai jumps into the driver’s seat, checking the rearview mirror and seeing Kris and Tao walk out together, Kris looking furious. He watches in confusion as Tao slides into a blue BMW M5 next to Kris and then his brain clears as the familiar adrenaline kicks in, and he’s off, engine revving loudly as he flies out of the parking lot with the M5 on his heels.
It’s been a while since he’s had a high-speed car chase, and he can’t help but smile, letting the thrill take over and push down any feelings of anger and betrayal. He switches gears, swerving and cutting off a taxi full of drunk club-goers, the lights of the Tokyo blurring into thin white-and-yellow lines streaming past his window as he peels out of the city to one place where he thinks he might have an advantage.
Another switch of gears and his foot on the gas sends a surge of power through his legs and to his fingertips as he hits the incline, climbing up Japan’s mountain roads with the M5 starting to lag behind him. He’d been considering trying this, drifting, while he was in Tokyo. He just didn’t expect it to be quite this way, racing for his life with a foe or friend - he wasn’t sure which at this point - clearly visible in his rearview mirror.
Kris can drive. Each time Kai whips around a turn, he half-hopes the M5 will veer off the road and down the steep incline of the mountain, but each time, he sees that blond head right behind him in the mirror. After the fourth turn he goes around, climbing higher and higher up the mountain, he glances up to see Tao leaning out the passenger window with something shiny in his hands.
He feels it before he hears it. The calm, constant vibration of the seat beneath him changes into a violent bumping, the smooth purr of his engine is overwritten by a thud thud thud, and suddenly his steering wheel is useless in his hands as his Audi starts veering. The speed he was going at is too great for him to gain back control, and he has no choice - he whips open the car door and throws himself out as the Audi goes flying over the edge of a cliff.
“What are you doing!” he growls at Tao, skidding on the ground as he lands from such a sloppy Rip.
“I’m sorry,” Tao says, pointing that shiny object at Kai one more time and not hesitating. Kai hears the shots, feels three small, sharp blows to his chest, and suddenly there’s a warm wetness spreading across his front as he drops. Tao’s blurred face is the last thing he sees, dark hair over dark eyes, his gun still pointed at Kai.
“You did it, Taozi,” says Kris, sounding slightly surprised. “Here we all thought you were bailing on us, and it turns out you had a plan all along.”
“Why did they send you, Kris,” Tao says between gritted teeth. “I had this under control.”
“Nobody sent me, Tao. Is it so wrong for your mentor to be looking out for you?”
“Just go. Go! I need to clean up this mess I’ve made.”
“Fine. I’ll go notify HQ the mission’s complete.”
Kai wakes up to a dingy-looking ceiling and Tao’s face leaning over him.
“How are you?!” Tao asks, sounding worried.
“You shot me!” Kai gasps, sitting up and feeling pain shoot through his abdomen.
“Rubber bullets,” Tao explains, eyebrows still furrowed as he helps Kai lean back onto his pillows. “I’m sorry. I knew it would still hurt.”
“Why though?”
“I’m sorry,” Tao apologizes again. “I had to fake your death, with Kris as a witness. You’re free now, Kai! News will have gotten to Korea you’re dead. You don’t have to run from your government anymore.”
“And you?” Kai shoots back. “I may be free, but what about you? What am I going to do with freedom if I have to live it on my own?”
Tao looks at him for a moment, surprised, and Kai suddenly feels his face getting warm after his little outburst.
“I’ll never be fully safe,” Tao says. “But I have Kris. He owes me, and I trust him. He’ll cover for us, and warn me if they ever get close.”
“Who is Kris to you, Tao? What was he doing there and why does he owe you?”
“That’s a story I promise I’ll tell you in the future. For now, I have just one question for you - are you willing to run with me? You have your freedom now, Kai, and if you want to live your life on your own, you can now, however you want. There’s no need for you to risk your future with someone who’ll always be on the run, someone who could cost you your freedom.”
“No,” Kai says, reaching out and gripping Tao’s hand with his own. “Didn’t I just say? What am I going to do with freedom if I have to live it on my own? Wherever we go, we’ll go together.”
Three years later, a tall, blond man walks into the EXO Studio for Performing Arts in San Francisco.
“What are you doing here, Kris?” Tao asks, surprised.
“Remember, Taozi?” Kris says with a smile. “Wherever you go, I can fly and meet you there. I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“We’re doing fine,” Tao says, throwing his arm around Kai’s shoulders. “Jongin’s teaching dance and I teach wushu. The studio’s doing well.”
“I’m glad. I’m happy for you two,” Kris says, looking almost wistful. “The investigation on you is still nowhere close. You’re safe.”
Jongin watches Kris’ back as he heads out the door into the bright California sun. A contented feeling spreads over him. His apartment may still need one bedroom, but it’s filled with colour as he and Tao build a new life for themselves. He pats the little Crong bobblehead sitting on the studio reception desk as he turns with a smile to get ready for his next class.
--
A/N: So I do apologize for the mediocre ending. I’d been working on this for so long I just wanted it wrapped up by the end :P
Kris and Tao’s background story: Kris was Tao’s rap mentor and they developed a very special, trusting bond. Kris really cared for Tao, but he worked for the government as well (his special ability is flying) and felt terrible when he had to tell the government about Tao’s abilities. Tao, of course, was furious and upset, despite Kris vowing he’d keep him safe no matter what. Basically, after the whole fiasco, Kris’ priorities shifted from his job to Tao’s wellbeing (this is why Tao said Kris owed him), partly because he felt guilty, and partly because Tao will always hold a special spot for him.
Oui :3
Rating: PG
Pairing: Tao/Kai
Word Count: 6449
A/N: Some aspects of this story inspired by Holly Black's White Cat and the movie Dhoom 2. Title inspired by Vampire Diaries lol.
Disclaimer: This is not a vampire fic.
Kai crouches on the roof of a tall glass office tower, analyzing the situation around him. Target: building across from him, third window from the right, seventh floor. Two guards at the entrance to said building. More inside, he doesn’t doubt, and definitely right outside the room he needs to get into. Sniper on the rooftop to his right. Security cameras to his left, trained on the entrance. He won’t be able to manually get through this one. He squints, narrowing his eyes to concentrate on the window he’s been eyeing this whole time. He’ll have to move quickly so the sniper doesn’t have a chance to react. Taking a deep breath, he leaps out of his crouch, and jumps, one foot stepping out over the side of the building into thin air. The sniper swivels around, aiming for Kai’s dark shape- and finds he has no target.
Kai’s foot lands on soft carpeting and the rest of him soon follows.
There are only two guards outside the room. Big mistake, he thinks, as a roundhouse kick to the chest dispatches one while a well-aimed punch to the side of the head knocks out the second.
“Mr. Lee, sir,” says Kai bowing politely as he enters. “I’m here to bring you back to Seoul.”
Getting out is harder than getting in. He can’t Rip in front of Mr. Lee. This time he really will have to do the task manually, and with some very important baggage in tow.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to get a little dirty.”
The man nods. He’s in his early fifties, but still looks fit as ever, eyes alert yet calm despite the situation. Kai calculates that they have approximately two minutes before the remaining security realizes that they’ve lost communication with the ones still sprawled out on the floor outside the room. They should have another two minutes before someone realizes where they’ve gone.
“We’re going to be using the ventilation system,” he says, pulling out a map to show Mr. Lee. “You’ll be going first, as we are likely to be followed. There’s going to be a little bit of a drop here-“ he gestures towards a point on the map- “we’ll be coming out through the first floor at which point we’re going to have to make a run for it.”
And then he’s up, quietly moving a chair into place under a grille in the ceiling and boosting Mr. Lee up and through, ensuring the man isn’t looking before moving the chair back into place and taking another step forward so that he ends up in the duct right behind the bureaucrat, shutting the grille behind them as they maneuver the building’s internal maze. It’s been one minute. They crawl forward, Kai silent as a cat and internally cringing as Mr. Lee’s elbows bang against the metal sides of the duct. It’s been another minute and he can hear a cacophony of alarms and voices echoing through the building. He’s thankful that the noise drowns out their own. They’ve reached the first floor and he’s watching Mr. Lee attempting to jimmy the exit grille open, heart beating with impatience, but there’s just not enough space in these closed quarters for him to reach around and do it himself. Then a blast of fresh air reaches him and they’re both out, Mr. Lee sprinting as hard as he can and Kai slowing to match the older man’s pace and cover him from behind as the ring of gunshots ring out over the sirens and shouts behind them. There’s a black van waiting inconspicuously a few buildings down, and he throws Mr. Lee in before seeking refuge in the shadows between two glass skyscrapers, waiting until the van has rolled out of sight before he steps forward and Rips once more.
There’s no plush carpet to greet him this time; he’s met with slick linoleum floors and grey walls, stainless steel and glass, fluorescent lighting and blinking key padded doors.
“Kai,” a woman greets him in a sleek black suit and ponytail. “Agent Im just contacted us; Mr. Lee is safe and sound and on his way back to Seoul now. You’ve done well.”
Kai nods curtly in acknowledgement of the praise. “Do you need anything more from me today?”
“No. You can go home. We’ll call you in if we need you.”
Home is a one-bedroom flat in downtown Seoul, right in the heart of the city. Home is spotless white walls accenting spotless white floors. Home is where Kai sprawls out on his white leather couch and rests his feet on his white coffee table, his bare feet the only speck of colour present to destroy the clean canvas he’s carefully constructed around himself. Kai tilts his head back and looks at the white expanse of his ceiling, eyes starting to drift shut from the exhaustion. Hopefully they won’t need him tomorrow. Sometimes he can go months without a mission, and sometimes they come rolling in one after another. Lately it’s been the latter.
They call him the Ripper. Kai secretly thinks that it’s the most inaccurate name they could have come up with. He doesn’t really rip through space, it’s more of a step. He just needs to take one step forward, but instead of his foot landing on the ground directly in front of him, it lands some place else, anywhere in the world. There are others like him in this part of the government too. There’s the wide-eyed one who can control earth, the short smiling one who can manipulate water, and the one with a face so carefully neutral it’s no wonder the government enlisted him, who has power over the wind. They come in handy during natural disasters and extreme weather situations. Kai? Kai’s skills are used for something else. He’s the one they send out on rescue missions. It’s amazing how many high-profile bureaucrats and businessmen become hostages in silent political war, and how the government manages to cover it all up. The world plays one giant game of chess that civilians don’t know about, and Kai is South Korea’s secret ace to keep the country from resorting to blatant warfare.
It pays well.
One week goes by before another call comes in. Kai spends half his time wasting his money on a new, shiny red Lamborghini Aventador and the other half using said Aventador to pick up girls in Hongdae. It’s time well spent, he thinks. His phone starts buzzing Thursday evening and he answers right away. He knows it’s from work. No one else calls.
“Hello?”
“Kai. We need you in right now. There’s a job for you.”
He’s back at the office 0.2 seconds later.
Agent Kwon greets him again in another black suit and the same sleek ponytail. Kai wonders what her closet looks like.
“Come in,” she says, ushering him into a meeting room. “Agent Im’s already waiting on us.”
This one must be serious, he thinks. Usually they don’t bother with such airs. Usually he’s given a single plain folder with the project details and a deadline. This time, they have a presentation set up and ready to go.
“This,” says Agent Im by way of introduction, “is your next mission.”
The man on the screen is young. Not a man, more like a boy, with dark hair, a sharp nose, and the most piercing eyes Kai has ever seen.
“He doesn’t look Korean,” Kai says, curious.
“He’s not. He’s Chinese.”
“Then why am I here?”
“You’re not rescuing this one. We’ve got a little bit of a different job for you this time,” Agent Kwon says cryptically.
“You may have noticed your missions have been coming in more frequently lately,” Agent Im continues. “It’s because of this man here. I don’t know how he does it, but somehow he’s gotten away with more kidnappings for the Chinese government than any other agent they have.”
“What’s his name?”
“We only know of him as Tao.”
“So you want me to go in and figure out how exactly he’s managing all these kidnappings?”
“Well, that’s half the mission. The other half- we need you to…dispose of him. Permanently.”
Kai freezes. “You’re talking an assassination.”
“Yes,” Agent Im responds.
“That’s not in my job description.”
“It’s not your typical job, but you’ll find it can fit in just fine within the confines of your job description,” says Agent Kwon.
“I refuse.”
“You’re perfectly capable,” Agent Im points out. “You’ve completed all the necessary tracking and firearms training with very high marks.”
“I refuse.”
“You won’t,” Agent Kwon interjects dangerously. “Shall I remind you of the consequences, Kai?”
Kai grits his teeth. When he signed his contract, he signed it for life. Break the contract, and he’d immediately be declared an enemy of the state.
“Where’s the folder?” he asks resignedly.
Agent Kwon smiles and hands over a plain white folder, and the two agents walk out, leaving Kai alone in the room with Tao’s young face staring down at him. There are more pictures in the folder. Tao at the airport, Tao at a restaurant, Tao in the lobby of a hotel. There’s nothing that makes him seem like a master kidnapper, and nothing that hints as to how he gets away with it. All Kai’s got to run on are basic details. Born: 1993. Hometown: Qingdao. Current location: Beijing. Specialty: Martial Arts. Other than that, all he’s got is a deadline. One month.
Looks like he’s going to Beijing.
Beijing is like Seoul, albeit with a twist. The ambient noise from traffic on the streets is the same, but the sidewalks ring with a softer, more slurred chatter than he’s used to. The smells of food waft through the streets, but ddeokbokkie and kimbap are replaced with steamed buns, fried dough, and kebabs. It’s a little more crowded, a little more hectic, but through the hustle and bustle Kai has his eye out for one thing, and one thing only - this Chinese stranger Tao.
He can’t let himself be known right away. Part one of the mission is to find out how Tao manages to get away with these kidnappings in the first place. Kai’s been following him for a week, and although Tao doesn’t seem to have any sort of consistent schedule, he doesn’t go anywhere out of the ordinary. What irks Kai is that every time he gets near enough to glean any real information, Tao just disappears. One day he’s grabbing lunch at a coffee shop, yet by the time Kai reaches the establishment and gets a table nearby to observe, Tao is gone. The next day Kai’s tailing him on the street surreptitiously, hoping he’ll be able to hone in on Tao’s exact place of work, and suddenly instead of Tao’s green jacket, he’s staring at some woman’s red coat. It’s infuriating.
“No, I haven’t got anything substantial to report,” Kai says exasperatedly into his phone two weeks into the project. “Yes, I know the deadline is in two more weeks; I’m going to need an extension….Yes, I know it’s top priority Agent Kwon, what do you think I’m doing while I’m here, checking out the Great Wall? There’s something about this Tao kid that sets him apart from the rest, I just haven’t found out what yet.”
“Well, I’ve got a tip that might break the plateau you hit the moment you got there,” Agent Kwon says. “His next target is a woman that goes by the name Koo Minyoung.”
“Koo Minyoung? Why does that name sound familiar?”
“She’s the daughter of the chairman of LG Electronics. She’s also a major animal rights activist, and she’ll be in Beijing next week to attend a charity gala at the Ritz-Carlton for moon bears. Sounds like a good kidnapping opportunity to me.”
“I’m on it.”
“We’ll get you on the guest list then,” Agent Kwon says, hanging up.
Kai rolls up to the event in a glossy black Bugatti Veyron (just bought of course, he would never think of a rental), eyes scanning the situation around the perimeter of the hotel. There’s already a small crowd mingling outside the doors, clad in expensive suits and designer dresses. Here we go, he thinks, waving off the valet as he finds his own parking and heads inside.
The event starts off with cocktails and appetizers, and Kai grabs a glass of champagne from a passing waiter, sipping it casually as he scans the room for Tao. He works the room, nodding and smiling to the other guests and engaging in short conversation here and there, glad he did a little bit of research on moon bears the night before. It isn’t until half an hour later that he spots Tao, leaning casually against the bar with a scotch in his hand and chatting with a pretty girl whose face he recognizes from the pictures Agent Kwon forwarded him. Koo Minyoung. Kai doesn’t approach, however. He stays where he is, smiling and nodding his way through a one-sided conversation with an ahjumma who is way more interested in him than she should be, keeping tabs on Tao and Minyoung out of the corner of his eye all the while. He’ll wait until Tao starts to lead her off somewhere, then pounce. Tao whispers something in the girl’s ear and she smiles. Kai glances back at the ahjumma giggling girlishly at him, looks back at the bar, and the couple is gone. He blinks, scanning the room desperately. Not again, there’s no way Tao can slip by him this many times. There’s something different about the boy, and tonight’s the night Kai is going to figure out what.
“Mr. Oh? Are you okay? You seem distracted.”
It takes a moment for the fake name to register. “I’m fine,” Kai responds with a charming smile. “Excuse me.”
If Tao’s gone off with Minyoung so quickly, most likely he’s taken her up to a room in the hotel somewhere before planning on relocating her. Kai exits the ballroom of the hotel as quickly as he can without attracting attention, and spots Tao’s tall figure entering an elevator in the lobby. He pauses, watching the numbers tick upwards and stop on the twelfth floor. He steps behind an artificial tree and ends up on the twelfth floor just as he sees a door down the hall shutting with a click. One more step and he’s standing on the other side of the door, pistol pointed at Tao. The other boy is already doing the same, stance ready with his own gun pointed at the door where Kai stands.
“Koo Minyoung,” Kai says, voice steady despite the hammering in his heart. This boy isn’t like the usual foe he’s had to face. One look into those piercing black eyes and Kai knows he’s dangerous.
“She’s not here,” the boy replies in accented but clear Korean. His voice is softer and higher than Kai expected, making him seem even younger than he appeared in that first photo Kai ever saw of him projected on a screen back in Seoul.
“I saw you with her.”
“She’s not here,” Tao repeats. “She’s still downstairs, in the ballroom where I left her.”
“Why are you here?” Kai asks.
“Why are you?”
“Hey, I’m the one asking the questions!” Kai responds angrily.
Tao laughs softly. It’s not a malicious sound, ringing gently in Kai’s ears. “You’re not the only one with a gun here,” he points out.
Kai doesn’t hesitate. He shoots. It’s an easy shot, close range and he’s already got his pistol aimed. Yet the bullet never reaches its target. One minute he’s pulled the trigger and the next, Tao is standing in front of him holding the bullet between his thumb and index finger.
“How…?” gasps Kai.
“Now will you listen?” Tao asks, eyes narrowing. Kai pauses, then nods, but doesn’t drop his gun.
“You’re the Korean Ripper,” Tao says, circling him and looking him up and down. “I know what you can do. You’re the one who’s been undoing all my work the past few months.”
“Work,” says Kai incredulously. “Right. Sorry I’ve foiled your career as a professional kidnapper; it was quite a noble one.”
“Those people were never in any danger,” Tao defends. “You know that. Every time you went in and ‘rescued’ someone, they were always well cared for and living in the luxury they were used to.”
Kai thinks back to his last job rescuing Mr. Lee and the swanky quarters he had found him in.
“It’s all politics, and nothing more,” Tao says.
“How do you do it?” Kai asks. “How do you get away with more kidnappings than any other agent I’ve ever encountered?”
The smile Tao gives him is like a tiger’s, dangerous and cunning and beautiful all at once, and it sends shivers down Kai’s spine. “They call you the Ripper,” he says. “They call me the Ripper, too. I’m the Chinese Ripper. I can Rip time.”
Now Kai is gaping. He knew there was something different about this boy, but he didn’t think this was it.
“…How?”
“Well it’s not really ripping, it’s more like freezing,” Tao explains. “I can freeze time. It gives me time to get away.”
“So downstairs-“
“I froze time for you.”
“Well it didn’t work,” Kai retorts. “Looks like your kidnapping failed; Koo Minyoung is still downstairs.”
“Koo Minyoung isn’t my target,” Tao breathes, stepping closer. “My target is you.”
“Me.”
“You.”
He’ll never be able to kill Tao, not with him expecting it, and not with a gun, but he could Rip. He could Rip now, and Tao would never be able to follow. Yet Kai doesn’t.
“Okay, have at me then,” he says, stepping back and putting up his hands. Tao’s gun shifts, resting over Kai’s heart, but his finger doesn’t move.
“What did you think, when they first gave you your mission?” Tao asks instead.
“What?”
“You’ve been following me around Beijing the past couple weeks, yet I didn’t have any kidnappings planned. I’m assuming I’m just as much your target as you are mine.”
“It doesn’t matter what I thought,” Kai snaps. “I didn’t have a choice, this is my job!”
“We always have a choice,” the other boy says. “I have a choice right now. I could shoot you, or I could let you go.”
“If you let me go, I’ll come back for you,” Kai threatens. “Safer to shoot me.”
“You have a choice too. If I let you go, you could come back for me. If I let you go, you could run. If I let you go, we could run.”
“We?”
“Why did you become the Ripper? Was it a choice?” Tao presses.
No, it wasn’t a choice, not really. Having someone with a power like his walking around in society was too dangerous. When the government found out, it was either work for them, or work against them.
“No, it wasn’t a choice, not really,” Kai says.
“Do you like it?”
Did he like it? Did he like the money and the cars and his multi-million won flat? Did he like that he only worked when they needed him to and that the rest of his time was filled with pretty girls and affluent clubs? Did he like that said pretty yet nameless girls made up the majority of his social interaction and that his flat only required one bedroom?
Tao takes his silence as a no.
“We could run,” Tao says urgently. “We could run, and be free of them. We could run, and I wouldn’t have to kill you.”
Kai bites his lip, staring into those piercing dark eyes just as they stare into his own.
“How do I know you’re not just going to take me in as a hostage if I say yes?” he asks suspiciously, despite his mind already being made up.
“Here,” Tao says, flicking the safety back on his gun and tossing it to Kai. “You lead the way; I’ll follow.
Tao whistles when he sees the Bugatti parked in the lot. “Very nice,” he comments, sliding into the front passenger seat. “I see being the Ripper has its perks.”
“Please, don’t tell me you don’t have your own not-so-guilty pleasure,” Kai counters.
“Watches,” Tao admits.
“Watches?” scoffs Kai, reversing out of his spot.
“Oi, don’t say it like that,” Tao says defensively. “Pretty sure I have a couple watches worth half this car.”
“Half being the key word there,” grins Kai just as his phone goes off. He ignores it, grin sliding off his face. He knows who it is.
“We need a plan,” he says tersely, heart hammering as the full extent of what they are doing finally registers with him. “They know something’s wrong.”
Tao looks at him questioningly.
“I always answer my phone,” Kai explains.
“We can go to my apartment,” Tao suggests.
“Your apartment. Yes, very wise. We’re on the run from our respective governments; they’d never think to check our apartments,” says Kai sarcastically.
“You’re on the run, because you couldn’t be bothered to pick up your phone,” Tao retorts. “My end doesn’t know anything’s up yet. Just one night, we’ll hash out a plan and take it from there. No one will find us.”
“And how can you be sure?”
“You’ve been trying to figure out where I live for the past two weeks, haven’t you? If you couldn’t do it, I doubt anyone else in your department can.”
“….what’s the address.”
“Clear and toss your phone in the dumpster behind the Japanese restaurant ten blocks from my building,” Tao instructs after giving Kai his address. They ditch the Bugatti in the underground parking lot of an expensive restaurant, where it blends in quite well. Kai gives it one last longing pat on the hood before they leave.
Where Kai’s apartment is shades of white, Tao’s is stainless steel and black granite countertops. A clock or two sits in every room, both digital and analog, all moving silently, not one accompanied by the tick tock that Kai expects.
“I don’t like to hear the time pass,” Tao explains when Kai asks.
“So how does your time freezing thing work exactly?” Kai asks conversationally over a box of the take-out they’ve just picked up. “How did Koo Minyoung not notice that one moment you were standing right next to her at the bar and the next you were halfway to the elevator?”
“When I freeze time, it’s not like the whole world around me comes to a standstill,” Tao explains. “I can only freeze time for one person at a time. For example, tonight at the gala, I froze time for you, but Minyoung and I finished up our conversation. Then I excused myself and left.”
“But,” says Kai, confused, “I was talking to someone the whole time. Wouldn’t she have noticed if I just, I don’t know, stopped moving or whatever happens when time gets frozen?”
“Not exactly. You see, time doesn’t move in a linear fashion like most people think. Every moment of your life, all the memories you have and those that are still yet to come, they’re all happening at once. It’s just that you can only experience one at a time. Even though I froze time for you, it kept going for that ahjumma, and she was experiencing one of those moments, or fragments of time. From her perspective, she was still holding up a regular conversation with you.”
“Huh,” Kai says, intrigued. “Interesting. I wonder why they call you the Ripper, then? Why don’t they just call you the Freezer?”
“Because that’s lame,” Tao says with a laugh, playfully smacking Kai on the head and getting up. “Good night,” he calls over his shoulder, heading to his room as Kai settles down on the couch.
Colour. There’s colour marring the floors, seeping out of drawers and spread across his tables. Everywhere he looks the white is interrupted by colour. His collection of DVDs is sprawled haphazardly across his carpet, clothes in shades of black and grey are no longer neatly folded and shut away in his dresser drawers. The Crong bobblehead that he usually keeps safely away tucked away stares at him from its position on his night stand as he steps in. Kai immediately goes into high alert, gun at the ready as he steps through every room of his apartment, but finds the place empty. He grabs a backpack, tossing Crong in along with some clothes and a few wads of cash hidden behind the painting of snow falling on cedars hanging over his bed, before whirling around and taking a step back to Beijing.
“Where’d you go?” Tao asks, finally awake.
“Back to my place in Seoul,” Kai says. “Someone had been there and they weren’t subtle about it; they’re going to send people looking for me. How long do you have?”
“I’m supposed to go back to headquarters with an update this evening,” Tao says slowly.
“What do I do,” Kai says, running his fingers through his hair in agitation.
“We need to keep moving,” Tao says. “Can you Rip us from place to place?”
“It doesn’t work that way; I can’t bring someone along.”
“We’ll have to travel the old-fashioned way then,” Tao says, slipping on his coat. “Wait here, I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Wait what am I supposed to-“ Kai starts, the slam of the front door cutting him off. He paces back and forth restlessly, mind a tumult. Should he run? Should he stay? How does he know he can trust Tao? He’s literally a sitting duck right now, his own government suspicious of him and Tao quite possibly bringing back up to take him down. Why is he still here, amongst the black and the steel and the soundless clocks?
Tao comes back around lunchtime, clutching a large paper envelope.
“Here,” he says, pulling out a little blue-green booklet for Kai and a red one for himself.
“Lee Taemin,” he reads, flipping to the information page. “Yah, where did you get my photo from?!”
“You were my target, remember? Obviously I had photos of you.”
“Who’re you, then?”
“Zhou Mi,” Tao answers, holding up his own fake. “You’ve already got your bag ready, right? We’re going to Tokyo.”
“You know, they won’t rest until they’ve killed me,” Kai says, gazing out over the city from their vantage point at Tokyo Tower.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Tao responds. The city is sprawled below them, a maze of roads and web of lights with the hulking form of Mount Fuji just discernible in the dusky evening gloom over his own bowl.
“So how’d they find you?” Kai asks conversationally.
“It was at a rap competition in Hong Kong,” the other remembers. Kai turns his head to look at him, surprised. “I guess they’d had tabs on me for a while, and when I won first place, they came up to me pretending to be agents for an entertainment company. Next thing I knew, I was facing either life in prison or life working for them. Not much of a difference really, but this pays better.”
Tao turns then to meet Kai’s gaze, hair ruffling in the faint breeze blowing up on the Tower. “How’d they find you?”
“I got sloppy,” Kai admits. “I was ten. One of them must have been watching.” He doesn’t elaborate.
“That’s always how they find you,” Tao sighs. “You can’t help it, you keep testing it, you want to see how far you can take it… it draws attention, when people know what to look for.”
“Come on,” Kai interrupts with a yawn. “I’m getting sleepy, let’s head back.”
“Where would you be right now, if they hadn’t found out?” Tao asks as they both stare up at the white expanse of the hotel ceiling in the dark.
Kai doesn’t answer.
“I’d be an idol,” Tao states confidently. “Rapping’s not my only talent, you know. I was learning how to play guitar as well. I stopped after they caught me. Why hold on to vestiges of the past?”
Why hold on, indeed? Kai thinks of the little Crong bobblehead safely tucked away in the side pocket of his backpack.
“It’s what I told my parents,” Tao continues speaking to the ceiling. “That I’m going away to train, that I’ll debut soon…they don’t question it when I send home gifts. They think I get a stipend from the company.”
Kai feels a familiar pang of guilt shoot through him.
“I was ten,” he says again softly. “One of them must have been watching.” He hears Tao’s bed squeak as the other turns over on to his side to look at him. “I was outside my dance studio. I used to do ballet. I had a big recital coming up, and I’d just finished rehearsal, and my mom had gone to buy me an ice cream as a treat. That’s when a government official came up to me and told me I could either come with him, or be declared an enemy of the state. I haven’t been in touch with family since. I thought it would be easier for them if they forgot they ever had a son.”
A short silence follows.
“You were ten,” breathes Tao, shocked. “I was seventeen when they found me…”
“I’d be dancing,” Kai says. “I’d be dancing, if they hadn’t found out.” He turns over, back to Tao, and closes his eyes.
Dinner is oddly silent between the two of them, with Tao looking pensive over his plate. He looks up suddenly, and Kai sees a question burning in the other’s eyes.
“I know what your mission was,” Tao starts, “…but the first time you shot at me in that hotel room…were you aiming to kill?”
The question catches Kai off-guard. “…Yes,” he admits truthfully, and sees Tao tense.
“Were you glad you didn’t?”
“…Yes.”
Tao relaxes.
“My job was to find out your secret, and then kill you. If I had killed you right away, I would have only done half my job.”
Tao tenses again.
“Well now you haven’t done any of it.”
“I know.”
“Do you regret it?”
“…No.”
Tao grins and they both relax, conversation switching gears.
“We need to leave Tokyo soon,” Kai says.
“Itchy feet already? Must be the teleporter in you.”
“It’s been a week, Tao.”
“I know; you’re right…how about Hawaii?”
“Hawaii sounds nice,” a voice cuts in, and Kai turns his head to see a blond-haired waiter fill up their water glasses just as Tao jumps back in his chair with a sharp intake of breathe.
“You.”
“Me,” the waiter answers, deadpan, “and I’d take my hand off that gun, Tao, if you’d like to avoid a shoot-out in the middle of the restaurant.” The waiter shifts and Kai sees a familiar gleam of metal inside his suit jacket.
Kai sees Tao shift his hand from his pants pocket just as he feels a vibration in his own.
“What are you doing here, Kris?” he hears Tao ask the blond boy, as he furtively glances at his phone. Leave, the text reads, he’s frozen.
“Remember, Taozi? Wherever you go, I can fly and meet you there,” Kris says, glaring at Tao with narrowed eyes. Kai sees Tao’s jaw clench, and the boy turns and glares at Kai. A split second passes and then Kai realizes what’s happening and jumps out of his chair, walking as briskly as he can out of the restaurant without drawing attention.
They’d decided to go subtle with a simple silver Audi A8 this time, and Kai jumps into the driver’s seat, checking the rearview mirror and seeing Kris and Tao walk out together, Kris looking furious. He watches in confusion as Tao slides into a blue BMW M5 next to Kris and then his brain clears as the familiar adrenaline kicks in, and he’s off, engine revving loudly as he flies out of the parking lot with the M5 on his heels.
It’s been a while since he’s had a high-speed car chase, and he can’t help but smile, letting the thrill take over and push down any feelings of anger and betrayal. He switches gears, swerving and cutting off a taxi full of drunk club-goers, the lights of the Tokyo blurring into thin white-and-yellow lines streaming past his window as he peels out of the city to one place where he thinks he might have an advantage.
Another switch of gears and his foot on the gas sends a surge of power through his legs and to his fingertips as he hits the incline, climbing up Japan’s mountain roads with the M5 starting to lag behind him. He’d been considering trying this, drifting, while he was in Tokyo. He just didn’t expect it to be quite this way, racing for his life with a foe or friend - he wasn’t sure which at this point - clearly visible in his rearview mirror.
Kris can drive. Each time Kai whips around a turn, he half-hopes the M5 will veer off the road and down the steep incline of the mountain, but each time, he sees that blond head right behind him in the mirror. After the fourth turn he goes around, climbing higher and higher up the mountain, he glances up to see Tao leaning out the passenger window with something shiny in his hands.
He feels it before he hears it. The calm, constant vibration of the seat beneath him changes into a violent bumping, the smooth purr of his engine is overwritten by a thud thud thud, and suddenly his steering wheel is useless in his hands as his Audi starts veering. The speed he was going at is too great for him to gain back control, and he has no choice - he whips open the car door and throws himself out as the Audi goes flying over the edge of a cliff.
“What are you doing!” he growls at Tao, skidding on the ground as he lands from such a sloppy Rip.
“I’m sorry,” Tao says, pointing that shiny object at Kai one more time and not hesitating. Kai hears the shots, feels three small, sharp blows to his chest, and suddenly there’s a warm wetness spreading across his front as he drops. Tao’s blurred face is the last thing he sees, dark hair over dark eyes, his gun still pointed at Kai.
“You did it, Taozi,” says Kris, sounding slightly surprised. “Here we all thought you were bailing on us, and it turns out you had a plan all along.”
“Why did they send you, Kris,” Tao says between gritted teeth. “I had this under control.”
“Nobody sent me, Tao. Is it so wrong for your mentor to be looking out for you?”
“Just go. Go! I need to clean up this mess I’ve made.”
“Fine. I’ll go notify HQ the mission’s complete.”
Kai wakes up to a dingy-looking ceiling and Tao’s face leaning over him.
“How are you?!” Tao asks, sounding worried.
“You shot me!” Kai gasps, sitting up and feeling pain shoot through his abdomen.
“Rubber bullets,” Tao explains, eyebrows still furrowed as he helps Kai lean back onto his pillows. “I’m sorry. I knew it would still hurt.”
“Why though?”
“I’m sorry,” Tao apologizes again. “I had to fake your death, with Kris as a witness. You’re free now, Kai! News will have gotten to Korea you’re dead. You don’t have to run from your government anymore.”
“And you?” Kai shoots back. “I may be free, but what about you? What am I going to do with freedom if I have to live it on my own?”
Tao looks at him for a moment, surprised, and Kai suddenly feels his face getting warm after his little outburst.
“I’ll never be fully safe,” Tao says. “But I have Kris. He owes me, and I trust him. He’ll cover for us, and warn me if they ever get close.”
“Who is Kris to you, Tao? What was he doing there and why does he owe you?”
“That’s a story I promise I’ll tell you in the future. For now, I have just one question for you - are you willing to run with me? You have your freedom now, Kai, and if you want to live your life on your own, you can now, however you want. There’s no need for you to risk your future with someone who’ll always be on the run, someone who could cost you your freedom.”
“No,” Kai says, reaching out and gripping Tao’s hand with his own. “Didn’t I just say? What am I going to do with freedom if I have to live it on my own? Wherever we go, we’ll go together.”
Three years later, a tall, blond man walks into the EXO Studio for Performing Arts in San Francisco.
“What are you doing here, Kris?” Tao asks, surprised.
“Remember, Taozi?” Kris says with a smile. “Wherever you go, I can fly and meet you there. I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“We’re doing fine,” Tao says, throwing his arm around Kai’s shoulders. “Jongin’s teaching dance and I teach wushu. The studio’s doing well.”
“I’m glad. I’m happy for you two,” Kris says, looking almost wistful. “The investigation on you is still nowhere close. You’re safe.”
Jongin watches Kris’ back as he heads out the door into the bright California sun. A contented feeling spreads over him. His apartment may still need one bedroom, but it’s filled with colour as he and Tao build a new life for themselves. He pats the little Crong bobblehead sitting on the studio reception desk as he turns with a smile to get ready for his next class.
--
A/N: So I do apologize for the mediocre ending. I’d been working on this for so long I just wanted it wrapped up by the end :P
Kris and Tao’s background story: Kris was Tao’s rap mentor and they developed a very special, trusting bond. Kris really cared for Tao, but he worked for the government as well (his special ability is flying) and felt terrible when he had to tell the government about Tao’s abilities. Tao, of course, was furious and upset, despite Kris vowing he’d keep him safe no matter what. Basically, after the whole fiasco, Kris’ priorities shifted from his job to Tao’s wellbeing (this is why Tao said Kris owed him), partly because he felt guilty, and partly because Tao will always hold a special spot for him.
Oui :3