at_rainbows_end
For: at_rainbows_end
Title: need is different than want
Pairing: unrequited!Siwon/Sungmin, Hankyung/Heechul, implied Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Category: mafia!AU, angst, violence, drama
Summary: In the end, all Siwon asks for is Sungmin's gratitude.
note: a couple of lines in section 10 shamelessly ripped from Iron Man, since it's such an awesome film.
1;
Siwon's drinking with Hankyung and Heechul when the call comes through, the ringtone that he's set for Sungmin suddenly blaring in the room, cutting through their conversation. Siwon fumbles around in his pocket, can't let it ring more than three times, and manages a breathless "Hello?" into the receiver just before the third ring can begin. Heechul rolls his eyes, knocks back another shot ofsoju, and gets Hankyung to refill his glass.
Sungmin needs him, now. "Get your ass here, stat," he says, before hanging up. That's all he says, but that's all he has to say, because Siwon is already pushing his chair back with a scream of wood against tiles, picking his jacket up from the back of his chair, and heading over to the coffee machine to make himself a quick cup which will burn his mouth since he's going to have to drink it immediately. He slaps himself once to try to sober up. Heechul slings an arm over Hankyung's shoulder.
"Siwon," he slurs, "Siwon, it's your day off. Just tell our lovely boss that you can't make it."
It's easy enough for Heechul to say that, since Heechul isn't scared of anything or anyone, not even Sungmin, who runs the syndicate. Heechul isn't scared of Sungmin because Heechul had just as many connections as Sungmin and could easily be in his position, running his own mafia group, he's just really fucking lazy. Siwon, on the other hand, knows no one, has no friends outside of the Lee Organization. He can't afford to piss Sungmin off -- and quite beyond that, he doesn't want to piss Sungmin off. Sungmin is the whole reason he's alive.
Hankyung, who is by far the most sober of them, sighs, making to stand up. "I'll go, Siwon," he says, and Heechul whines. "You're too pissed to be any help."
"No!" Siwon protests, taking a gulp of coffee that peels the lining of his throat away as it goes down. "No, it's fine, I'll go, I want to go, he wants me."
Heechul yanks Hankyung back down. "He's got you by the puppet strings," he tells Siwon, "and you dance to every single damn tune he plays."
Siwon can't disagree.
2;
There's a dead body lying in Sungmin's office. Blood from the gunshot wound in its head is slowly seeping into the carpet. Siwon looks beyond the blood and brains and mess and realises that it'sSoojun , one of the newest recruits, one of the ones Hankyung had been training in martial arts on the side. Siwon will never know what the boy did to be killed, but he accepts readily, knows without even conscious thought, that he deserved it. Sungmin wouldn't kill for nothing. Sungmin is something he can believe in.
"Oh, good, you're here." Sungmin pats his arm. There's blood on his shirt. "Get rid of that for me, will you?"
"Of course," Siwon says. The body is already repulsive to him, Soojun a name that he'll hate forever. "I'll get a cleaner for the carpet."
"Yeah, do that." Sungmin peers closely at him, then clicks his tongue against his teeth. "Have you been drinking?"
"Y-yeah. With Heechul and Hankyung." Sungmin clicks again, then shakes his head and turns from him. Siwon realises with hysteria that he's disappointed him, that he's let Sungmin down. He doesn't say anything though, he just silently collects up the body and drives it to a spot where no one will ever find it in this lifetime and buries it. Then he gets back, and cleans the carpet himself, since they can't risk someone from outside coming in and wondering quite who died to create such a stain.
Getting into Sungmin's bedroom while he's sleeping is hard, but getting the blood stain out of his shirt is even harder. He leaves, freshly ironed, outside Sungmin's door, stumbles off to bed at 5am, is woken by his phone at 8am with no word on the carpet or shirt. He doesn't care. Sungmin needs him. Sungmin wants him.
3;
There's a cut on Sungmin's cheek when he climbs into the back of the van, a mark of blood which has Siwon's own blood running pale and weak, as Sungmin slumps in a chair and Heechul clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and slips off his jacket to inspect the wound on his arm, much deeper and longer than the one on Sungmin's cheek. Hankyung has a bandage already ready, like he knew Heechul would get hurt, and he slips down the chair so that he can start cleaning it, pushing Heechul's hair aside so that he can talk quietly into his ear.
Siwon figures that he's got that covered, but really he just doesn't even spare a thought for Heechul. Kyuhyun holds a wet cloth to Sungmin's cheek, asking how he feels. Sungmin takes it from him and pulls it away. There's a blood stain on it. He looks up, at where Siwon is staring at him in the rear view mirror. "Siwon," he snaps. "What are you waiting for?"
Siwon jumps. "Oh, right, sorry," he splutters, turns the engine on and drives out of there, away from the rival gang that Sungmin has just tried to broker a deal with, but he took Heechul as back up, so clearly the deal wasn't going to work out. Heechul is boasting about how three guys all attacked him at once, and Hankyung is smiling in a way which seems to prove that he's crazy in love and therefore just accepts that Heechul has a goddamn death wish. Siwon wants to strangle Heechul for putting Sungmin into that situation, for making him get hurt. When they arrive back at headquarters, Heechul is ushered through to get some stitches, and Zhou Mi, after making sure Kyuhyun is fine, hurries after him and Hankyung.
Siwon practically pushes Kyuhyun aside to make sure that Sungmin is okay. He can see Kyuhyun frowning at him, but can't manage to feel guilty. He's a little pissed at Kyuhyun for being able to be the one to look after Sungmin when he first arrived into the van. Like Sungmin's been dealt a mortal wound, Siwon ushers him through to his office and gets the first aid kit out from the connecting bathroom.
Sungmin is patiently letting him dab anti-sceptic on it when Siwon says quietly, "You should have let me come with you."
"Why?" Sungmin sounds curious. Siwon's dabbing becomes gentler, since he thought Sungmin would be angry at him for telling him what to do.
"Heechul-hyung is too reckless. He got you hurt." And Siwon is burning with anger because of it. His love for Heechul can't stop the anger that consumes him whenever he thinks that Heechul has done something to get Sungmin hurt, and that he's proud of it.
Sungmin covers his fingers with his own and pushes his hand away. "Siwon, you'll be sticking a Hello Kitty sticking plaster on it next," he says, and Siwon can't think of anything other than how cute that would be.
"I wouldn't have let you get hurt," Siwon insists. "The deal would have been smoother, it would have gone through, if you'd just taken me."
It's exactly the same argument that he put to Sungmin before the deal, except now he's been proven right and he's talking in the past tense. Before Sungmin had just been angry, told Siwon that if he didn't trust his decisions then he should get out of theorganization. Siwon had shut up. Leaving Sungmin is impossible.
Now, though, Sungmin just smiles peacefully. "Oh Siwon," he laughs. "You seem to think that I wanted the deal to go through."
Siwon has his mouth open, but there are no words. He doesn't know how to react to that, so he settles on, "You didn't?"
"Of course not. The fact that the Cha group were even willing to talk to us, their worst enemies from before my grandfather's time, shows that they're in trouble. We've been buying out their business, attracting away their customers, and giving their employees better deals. They can't survive for much longer."
"So why--"
"I needed to see just how desperate they were. Heechul was on top form, he was so insulting even I was impressed, and I know him well enough to be used to that kind of behaviour from him. But Siwon, they held themselves back for as long as possible, while they would have, should have, retaliated. It was a simple matter of pride, and they endured it until they could no longer handle it. Now that they've ruined the talks, they'll know they're ruined."
"And you wanted the deal to fail?"
"Of course I did. Why do you think I took Heechul, and not you?"
4;
"And by the way, Heechul got the wound on his arm because he jumped in front of someone attacking me."
5;
"Thank you, hyung, for--"
"Siwon." Heechul is curled up on an armchair in one of the libraries, bandage still wrapped around his bicep. Hankyung is up a ladder getting him a book. Heechul just looks tired. "It's my job."
It's true. It's Heechul's job to put his life on the line for Sungmin, even if there's no contract or actual job description. Funny, really, how Siwon has never considered laying his life down for Sungmin as simply part of a job.
6;
They're joking around, laughing helplessly, when Heechul says something a little close to the knuckle, something too far, maybe it's something about Hankyung's accent or face or mother, and Hankyung snaps, loses it. Next thing anyone knows, he's got his gun in Heechul's mouth, knee to his stomach and wildness in his eyes. Siwon goes so breathless that it's like there's no air in the room.
Heechul is terrified, you can see it in his eyes, but he just slowly lifts his hands, slowly so he doesn't shock Hankyung into doing something like pulling the trigger, and wraps his fingers around his wrist. The touch of skin on skin calms Hankyung down, so that he pulls the gun away and Heechul says; "It's okay, baby. It's okay." And just before Hankyung breaks down, Siwon think that it's just been proven once again that to work here, you have to be mad.
7;
Siwon deposits a bunch of paperwork onto Zhou Mi's desk. Zhou Mi starts to sort through it, then looks up at Siwon's face. "You look tired!" he says, surprised, and Siwon supposes that he must look a lot worse than he convinced himself he looked. Perhaps he should have taken a clue from the fact that he hadn't even been willing to look at himself in the mirror. Siwon nods sheepishly.
"Been up all night," he says. "Sungmin wanted it first thing this morning."
"Has he signed it?"
"No." Siwon sits down in a chair next to Zhou Mi's desk and feels his bones turn to jelly. It's going to be hard to get out of this position. "He's still asleep."
Zhou Mi's eyes flick to the digital clock on his desk, but it's pointless, he's just making sure of it. It's after midday. Siwon runs a hand over his face, groaning. "Siyuan," Zhou Mi says quietly. "You should go to sleep."
"I can't," Siwon says. "I have work to do."
"You cannot possibly do any work like this."
"I have a meeting with a couple of our business associates at two, I just need to shower and drink some coffee."
"Lots of coffee," Zhou Mi agrees.
8;
At 1.30pm, Sungmin calls him. "Siwon," he says, "you're not going to the meeting anymore."
Siwon, who was already pulling his coat on, is surprised. "But I'm ready, hyung. I can do this."
"I'm not questioning your ability to do the job, Siwon. I wouldn't have trusted you with it in the first place. Zhou Mi came to see me."
"Zhou Mi?"
"I got the paperwork." And oh, Siwon understands.
"Hyung, I'm fine, I can go!"
"No. Siwon, I'm sending Kyuhyun instead."
"Hyung--"
"Get some sleep, Siwon."
He hands up abruptly, and Siwon stands for a minute or two before shrugging out of his coat and hanging it back on his chair. He loosens his tie as he makes his way to his bed and pitches forward onto the bed and is asleep the next second.
9;
Sungmin is casual in the club, one arm slung over the back of his chair. Up on a stage in front of him, a girl dances around a pole dressed in a black lace thong and matching bodice. She hooks a leg around cold steel and swings, long black hair whipping across her face, her eyes focused entirely on Sungmin's face. He's watching her lazily, waiting for the owner of the place to arrive. Siwon shifts, uncomfortable. There's too much flesh on show. To his left, a woman is dancing around another pole dressed merely in a pair of white silk panties. To his right, a woman is straddling a man, unhooking her bra at the front. His eyes are crossed.
"Relax, Siwon," Sungmin advises, as the woman in front of them falls to her knees, set apart, her fingers dancing up the inside of her thighs and up her stomach and starts on unlacing the bodice. Sungmin shifts, but it's probably not for the same reason that Siwon did.
When the manager arrives, the woman has her thumbs hooked in the sides of her underwear and Sungmin's top button is undone. As soon as the man they've been waiting for arrives, Sungmin puts his hand on Siwon's shoulder. "Siwon," he mutters, voice husky, "I'll leave this one up to you."
He walks to the stage and holds his hand out. The girl giggles and takes it and hops down into his arms. Siwon hates her, and it only increases with every bounce of herbreasts . Sungmin walks her out with an arm around her bare waist, where they'll no doubt get into the car waiting and end up back in Sungmin's rooms. In the meanwhile, Siwon sorts through the club's finances and arranges a new collecting date for their money and sorts out a couple of problems with employees and agrees to look into a supposed new gang starting up and threatening nearby businesses.
10;
Next morning. Sungmin is in his office early, after the news of the collapse of the Cha Organization comes through. He's got spare businesses to snap up, sudden new advantages to milk. Siwon lets himself into Sungmin's bedroom, where the girl is standing, wrapped in abedsheet , looking out of the window. Siwon clears his throat. She jumps around and gives him a haughty look. "Where's Sungmin-oppa?" she asks, and there's something in her voice, something proud and arrogant and she doesn't sound like she even remembers that last night, Siwon saw her stripping on a dimly lit stage, getting paid next to nothing for selling her body.
"Mr Lee," Siwon says, emphasising his name, because she should not be so familiar, "is busy. He's asked me to escort you out of the grounds."
The proud look on her face falters; Siwon can see the dreams melting away, the shining futures fading back into the dirty present, wishes destroyed with words. "But I thought--"
"No." Siwon is a little sorry for her, but it's marred by the bitterness of knowing what she did with the man that Siwon has known for most of his life, a man which she has known for a matter of hours. Will she consider it odd if Siwon asks her what Sungmin's mouth tastes like? "I'm afraid not. If you'd like to come with me..."
Once she's dressed in a shirt and skirt that Siwon has borrowed from the wife of one of their members, she looks strange, like Siwon's just seen a prostitute he paid for at her day job as a secretary. As he leads her out of the side entrance to a car waiting to take her home, wherever that might be, he hands her a piece of paper and tells her to take the clothing to the dry cleaners at the address written on it. "It will be paid for in advance, and I will pick them up later. There will be no need for you to return here."
She's clearly feeling just as bitter as him because she says, a little bitchy, "Is that your job, picking up dry cleaning?"
"I do whatever Mr Lee wants of me, including occasionally taking out the trash." He smiles as the words hit home, then closes the car door in her face.
11;
"Did you know her name?"
"Don't be silly, Siwon. Here, finish this off for me, will you?"
It was Sooyoung. Siwon asked at the meeting, after watching Sungmin walk away with her. Siwon believes in knowing the names of your enemies.
12;
Siwon is walking behind Sungmin down a street lined with their businesses, one hand always on his gun as Sungmin nods his head to all the owners and employees who recognise him. "You can relax," Sungmin throws over his shoulder. "It's not like I'm in danger here."
"You never know," Siwon tells him.
"Besides, it's not like I can't defend myself."
"I know. But it's better to be safe than sorry."
13;
"You think I'm weak."
Siwon frowns in confusion, at Sungmin sitting at his desk and glaring at him. Sungmin had called him to him after once again interrupting a drinking session with Hankyung and Heechul. "I don't," he protests. He doesn't. He sometimes wishes Sungmin was weaker, so that Siwon could be of more use to him.
"Don't lie to me, Siwon. You think I'm weak, and that I need protection."
"You do need protection. You're the head of the Lee Organization."
"I can protect myself."
"I know you can."
"Then start fucking acting like it."
Siwon feels like he can't do anything right. He's just been doing his job. "Hyung, I just thought--"
"Well, don't, Siwon, and let me get on with it."
Something is bubbling in Siwon's stomach, something that he's never had around Sungmin and so he finds it strange that he's angry. He's done everything he can for Sungmin, he's been the best damn employee Sungmin has ever had. He does all the tiny jobs that most people would find annoying, would consider below them, simply because he wants to be useful. He wants to do all he can to thank Sungmin for taking him in, and nothing is ever fucking good enough.
He opens his mouth to start something, something angry and loud and something he would have regretted, when he hears something outside. Sungmin stands up, before Siwon is throwing him forward and covering Sungmin with his body, just as gunshots fire through the window, smashing through the glass and showering the floor. Siwon yanks him down but not before damage is done, a bullet in Siwon's shoulder.
He's just glad it hasn't hit Sungmin.
14;
The pain is ripping through him.
He focuses on Sungmin shouting his name instead.
15;
He wakes up a week later in a hospital bed. There's no one there, but there are fresh flowers, and just before the doctors arrive to tell him the damage, he finds a note from Sungmin. He thanks him for saving his life.
In the end, Siwon is happy just with gratitude.
Title: need is different than want
Pairing: unrequited!Siwon/Sungmin, Hankyung/Heechul, implied Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Category: mafia!AU, angst, violence, drama
Summary: In the end, all Siwon asks for is Sungmin's gratitude.
note: a couple of lines in section 10 shamelessly ripped from Iron Man, since it's such an awesome film.
1;
Siwon's drinking with Hankyung and Heechul when the call comes through, the ringtone that he's set for Sungmin suddenly blaring in the room, cutting through their conversation. Siwon fumbles around in his pocket, can't let it ring more than three times, and manages a breathless "Hello?" into the receiver just before the third ring can begin. Heechul rolls his eyes, knocks back another shot ofsoju, and gets Hankyung to refill his glass.
Sungmin needs him, now. "Get your ass here, stat," he says, before hanging up. That's all he says, but that's all he has to say, because Siwon is already pushing his chair back with a scream of wood against tiles, picking his jacket up from the back of his chair, and heading over to the coffee machine to make himself a quick cup which will burn his mouth since he's going to have to drink it immediately. He slaps himself once to try to sober up. Heechul slings an arm over Hankyung's shoulder.
"Siwon," he slurs, "Siwon, it's your day off. Just tell our lovely boss that you can't make it."
It's easy enough for Heechul to say that, since Heechul isn't scared of anything or anyone, not even Sungmin, who runs the syndicate. Heechul isn't scared of Sungmin because Heechul had just as many connections as Sungmin and could easily be in his position, running his own mafia group, he's just really fucking lazy. Siwon, on the other hand, knows no one, has no friends outside of the Lee Organization. He can't afford to piss Sungmin off -- and quite beyond that, he doesn't want to piss Sungmin off. Sungmin is the whole reason he's alive.
Hankyung, who is by far the most sober of them, sighs, making to stand up. "I'll go, Siwon," he says, and Heechul whines. "You're too pissed to be any help."
"No!" Siwon protests, taking a gulp of coffee that peels the lining of his throat away as it goes down. "No, it's fine, I'll go, I want to go, he wants me."
Heechul yanks Hankyung back down. "He's got you by the puppet strings," he tells Siwon, "and you dance to every single damn tune he plays."
Siwon can't disagree.
2;
There's a dead body lying in Sungmin's office. Blood from the gunshot wound in its head is slowly seeping into the carpet. Siwon looks beyond the blood and brains and mess and realises that it'sSoojun , one of the newest recruits, one of the ones Hankyung had been training in martial arts on the side. Siwon will never know what the boy did to be killed, but he accepts readily, knows without even conscious thought, that he deserved it. Sungmin wouldn't kill for nothing. Sungmin is something he can believe in.
"Oh, good, you're here." Sungmin pats his arm. There's blood on his shirt. "Get rid of that for me, will you?"
"Of course," Siwon says. The body is already repulsive to him, Soojun a name that he'll hate forever. "I'll get a cleaner for the carpet."
"Yeah, do that." Sungmin peers closely at him, then clicks his tongue against his teeth. "Have you been drinking?"
"Y-yeah. With Heechul and Hankyung." Sungmin clicks again, then shakes his head and turns from him. Siwon realises with hysteria that he's disappointed him, that he's let Sungmin down. He doesn't say anything though, he just silently collects up the body and drives it to a spot where no one will ever find it in this lifetime and buries it. Then he gets back, and cleans the carpet himself, since they can't risk someone from outside coming in and wondering quite who died to create such a stain.
Getting into Sungmin's bedroom while he's sleeping is hard, but getting the blood stain out of his shirt is even harder. He leaves, freshly ironed, outside Sungmin's door, stumbles off to bed at 5am, is woken by his phone at 8am with no word on the carpet or shirt. He doesn't care. Sungmin needs him. Sungmin wants him.
3;
There's a cut on Sungmin's cheek when he climbs into the back of the van, a mark of blood which has Siwon's own blood running pale and weak, as Sungmin slumps in a chair and Heechul clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and slips off his jacket to inspect the wound on his arm, much deeper and longer than the one on Sungmin's cheek. Hankyung has a bandage already ready, like he knew Heechul would get hurt, and he slips down the chair so that he can start cleaning it, pushing Heechul's hair aside so that he can talk quietly into his ear.
Siwon figures that he's got that covered, but really he just doesn't even spare a thought for Heechul. Kyuhyun holds a wet cloth to Sungmin's cheek, asking how he feels. Sungmin takes it from him and pulls it away. There's a blood stain on it. He looks up, at where Siwon is staring at him in the rear view mirror. "Siwon," he snaps. "What are you waiting for?"
Siwon jumps. "Oh, right, sorry," he splutters, turns the engine on and drives out of there, away from the rival gang that Sungmin has just tried to broker a deal with, but he took Heechul as back up, so clearly the deal wasn't going to work out. Heechul is boasting about how three guys all attacked him at once, and Hankyung is smiling in a way which seems to prove that he's crazy in love and therefore just accepts that Heechul has a goddamn death wish. Siwon wants to strangle Heechul for putting Sungmin into that situation, for making him get hurt. When they arrive back at headquarters, Heechul is ushered through to get some stitches, and Zhou Mi, after making sure Kyuhyun is fine, hurries after him and Hankyung.
Siwon practically pushes Kyuhyun aside to make sure that Sungmin is okay. He can see Kyuhyun frowning at him, but can't manage to feel guilty. He's a little pissed at Kyuhyun for being able to be the one to look after Sungmin when he first arrived into the van. Like Sungmin's been dealt a mortal wound, Siwon ushers him through to his office and gets the first aid kit out from the connecting bathroom.
Sungmin is patiently letting him dab anti-sceptic on it when Siwon says quietly, "You should have let me come with you."
"Why?" Sungmin sounds curious. Siwon's dabbing becomes gentler, since he thought Sungmin would be angry at him for telling him what to do.
"Heechul-hyung is too reckless. He got you hurt." And Siwon is burning with anger because of it. His love for Heechul can't stop the anger that consumes him whenever he thinks that Heechul has done something to get Sungmin hurt, and that he's proud of it.
Sungmin covers his fingers with his own and pushes his hand away. "Siwon, you'll be sticking a Hello Kitty sticking plaster on it next," he says, and Siwon can't think of anything other than how cute that would be.
"I wouldn't have let you get hurt," Siwon insists. "The deal would have been smoother, it would have gone through, if you'd just taken me."
It's exactly the same argument that he put to Sungmin before the deal, except now he's been proven right and he's talking in the past tense. Before Sungmin had just been angry, told Siwon that if he didn't trust his decisions then he should get out of theorganization. Siwon had shut up. Leaving Sungmin is impossible.
Now, though, Sungmin just smiles peacefully. "Oh Siwon," he laughs. "You seem to think that I wanted the deal to go through."
Siwon has his mouth open, but there are no words. He doesn't know how to react to that, so he settles on, "You didn't?"
"Of course not. The fact that the Cha group were even willing to talk to us, their worst enemies from before my grandfather's time, shows that they're in trouble. We've been buying out their business, attracting away their customers, and giving their employees better deals. They can't survive for much longer."
"So why--"
"I needed to see just how desperate they were. Heechul was on top form, he was so insulting even I was impressed, and I know him well enough to be used to that kind of behaviour from him. But Siwon, they held themselves back for as long as possible, while they would have, should have, retaliated. It was a simple matter of pride, and they endured it until they could no longer handle it. Now that they've ruined the talks, they'll know they're ruined."
"And you wanted the deal to fail?"
"Of course I did. Why do you think I took Heechul, and not you?"
4;
"And by the way, Heechul got the wound on his arm because he jumped in front of someone attacking me."
5;
"Thank you, hyung, for--"
"Siwon." Heechul is curled up on an armchair in one of the libraries, bandage still wrapped around his bicep. Hankyung is up a ladder getting him a book. Heechul just looks tired. "It's my job."
It's true. It's Heechul's job to put his life on the line for Sungmin, even if there's no contract or actual job description. Funny, really, how Siwon has never considered laying his life down for Sungmin as simply part of a job.
6;
They're joking around, laughing helplessly, when Heechul says something a little close to the knuckle, something too far, maybe it's something about Hankyung's accent or face or mother, and Hankyung snaps, loses it. Next thing anyone knows, he's got his gun in Heechul's mouth, knee to his stomach and wildness in his eyes. Siwon goes so breathless that it's like there's no air in the room.
Heechul is terrified, you can see it in his eyes, but he just slowly lifts his hands, slowly so he doesn't shock Hankyung into doing something like pulling the trigger, and wraps his fingers around his wrist. The touch of skin on skin calms Hankyung down, so that he pulls the gun away and Heechul says; "It's okay, baby. It's okay." And just before Hankyung breaks down, Siwon think that it's just been proven once again that to work here, you have to be mad.
7;
Siwon deposits a bunch of paperwork onto Zhou Mi's desk. Zhou Mi starts to sort through it, then looks up at Siwon's face. "You look tired!" he says, surprised, and Siwon supposes that he must look a lot worse than he convinced himself he looked. Perhaps he should have taken a clue from the fact that he hadn't even been willing to look at himself in the mirror. Siwon nods sheepishly.
"Been up all night," he says. "Sungmin wanted it first thing this morning."
"Has he signed it?"
"No." Siwon sits down in a chair next to Zhou Mi's desk and feels his bones turn to jelly. It's going to be hard to get out of this position. "He's still asleep."
Zhou Mi's eyes flick to the digital clock on his desk, but it's pointless, he's just making sure of it. It's after midday. Siwon runs a hand over his face, groaning. "Siyuan," Zhou Mi says quietly. "You should go to sleep."
"I can't," Siwon says. "I have work to do."
"You cannot possibly do any work like this."
"I have a meeting with a couple of our business associates at two, I just need to shower and drink some coffee."
"Lots of coffee," Zhou Mi agrees.
8;
At 1.30pm, Sungmin calls him. "Siwon," he says, "you're not going to the meeting anymore."
Siwon, who was already pulling his coat on, is surprised. "But I'm ready, hyung. I can do this."
"I'm not questioning your ability to do the job, Siwon. I wouldn't have trusted you with it in the first place. Zhou Mi came to see me."
"Zhou Mi?"
"I got the paperwork." And oh, Siwon understands.
"Hyung, I'm fine, I can go!"
"No. Siwon, I'm sending Kyuhyun instead."
"Hyung--"
"Get some sleep, Siwon."
He hands up abruptly, and Siwon stands for a minute or two before shrugging out of his coat and hanging it back on his chair. He loosens his tie as he makes his way to his bed and pitches forward onto the bed and is asleep the next second.
9;
Sungmin is casual in the club, one arm slung over the back of his chair. Up on a stage in front of him, a girl dances around a pole dressed in a black lace thong and matching bodice. She hooks a leg around cold steel and swings, long black hair whipping across her face, her eyes focused entirely on Sungmin's face. He's watching her lazily, waiting for the owner of the place to arrive. Siwon shifts, uncomfortable. There's too much flesh on show. To his left, a woman is dancing around another pole dressed merely in a pair of white silk panties. To his right, a woman is straddling a man, unhooking her bra at the front. His eyes are crossed.
"Relax, Siwon," Sungmin advises, as the woman in front of them falls to her knees, set apart, her fingers dancing up the inside of her thighs and up her stomach and starts on unlacing the bodice. Sungmin shifts, but it's probably not for the same reason that Siwon did.
When the manager arrives, the woman has her thumbs hooked in the sides of her underwear and Sungmin's top button is undone. As soon as the man they've been waiting for arrives, Sungmin puts his hand on Siwon's shoulder. "Siwon," he mutters, voice husky, "I'll leave this one up to you."
He walks to the stage and holds his hand out. The girl giggles and takes it and hops down into his arms. Siwon hates her, and it only increases with every bounce of herbreasts . Sungmin walks her out with an arm around her bare waist, where they'll no doubt get into the car waiting and end up back in Sungmin's rooms. In the meanwhile, Siwon sorts through the club's finances and arranges a new collecting date for their money and sorts out a couple of problems with employees and agrees to look into a supposed new gang starting up and threatening nearby businesses.
10;
Next morning. Sungmin is in his office early, after the news of the collapse of the Cha Organization comes through. He's got spare businesses to snap up, sudden new advantages to milk. Siwon lets himself into Sungmin's bedroom, where the girl is standing, wrapped in abedsheet , looking out of the window. Siwon clears his throat. She jumps around and gives him a haughty look. "Where's Sungmin-oppa?" she asks, and there's something in her voice, something proud and arrogant and she doesn't sound like she even remembers that last night, Siwon saw her stripping on a dimly lit stage, getting paid next to nothing for selling her body.
"Mr Lee," Siwon says, emphasising his name, because she should not be so familiar, "is busy. He's asked me to escort you out of the grounds."
The proud look on her face falters; Siwon can see the dreams melting away, the shining futures fading back into the dirty present, wishes destroyed with words. "But I thought--"
"No." Siwon is a little sorry for her, but it's marred by the bitterness of knowing what she did with the man that Siwon has known for most of his life, a man which she has known for a matter of hours. Will she consider it odd if Siwon asks her what Sungmin's mouth tastes like? "I'm afraid not. If you'd like to come with me..."
Once she's dressed in a shirt and skirt that Siwon has borrowed from the wife of one of their members, she looks strange, like Siwon's just seen a prostitute he paid for at her day job as a secretary. As he leads her out of the side entrance to a car waiting to take her home, wherever that might be, he hands her a piece of paper and tells her to take the clothing to the dry cleaners at the address written on it. "It will be paid for in advance, and I will pick them up later. There will be no need for you to return here."
She's clearly feeling just as bitter as him because she says, a little bitchy, "Is that your job, picking up dry cleaning?"
"I do whatever Mr Lee wants of me, including occasionally taking out the trash." He smiles as the words hit home, then closes the car door in her face.
11;
"Did you know her name?"
"Don't be silly, Siwon. Here, finish this off for me, will you?"
It was Sooyoung. Siwon asked at the meeting, after watching Sungmin walk away with her. Siwon believes in knowing the names of your enemies.
12;
Siwon is walking behind Sungmin down a street lined with their businesses, one hand always on his gun as Sungmin nods his head to all the owners and employees who recognise him. "You can relax," Sungmin throws over his shoulder. "It's not like I'm in danger here."
"You never know," Siwon tells him.
"Besides, it's not like I can't defend myself."
"I know. But it's better to be safe than sorry."
13;
"You think I'm weak."
Siwon frowns in confusion, at Sungmin sitting at his desk and glaring at him. Sungmin had called him to him after once again interrupting a drinking session with Hankyung and Heechul. "I don't," he protests. He doesn't. He sometimes wishes Sungmin was weaker, so that Siwon could be of more use to him.
"Don't lie to me, Siwon. You think I'm weak, and that I need protection."
"You do need protection. You're the head of the Lee Organization."
"I can protect myself."
"I know you can."
"Then start fucking acting like it."
Siwon feels like he can't do anything right. He's just been doing his job. "Hyung, I just thought--"
"Well, don't, Siwon, and let me get on with it."
Something is bubbling in Siwon's stomach, something that he's never had around Sungmin and so he finds it strange that he's angry. He's done everything he can for Sungmin, he's been the best damn employee Sungmin has ever had. He does all the tiny jobs that most people would find annoying, would consider below them, simply because he wants to be useful. He wants to do all he can to thank Sungmin for taking him in, and nothing is ever fucking good enough.
He opens his mouth to start something, something angry and loud and something he would have regretted, when he hears something outside. Sungmin stands up, before Siwon is throwing him forward and covering Sungmin with his body, just as gunshots fire through the window, smashing through the glass and showering the floor. Siwon yanks him down but not before damage is done, a bullet in Siwon's shoulder.
He's just glad it hasn't hit Sungmin.
14;
The pain is ripping through him.
He focuses on Sungmin shouting his name instead.
15;
He wakes up a week later in a hospital bed. There's no one there, but there are fresh flowers, and just before the doctors arrive to tell him the damage, he finds a note from Sungmin. He thanks him for saving his life.
In the end, Siwon is happy just with gratitude.