[fanfic] The Red Thread (1/2)

Apr 04, 2012 01:42


Title: The Red Thread (1/2)

Genre: Angst, Romance, Action, AU

Rating: NC-17 for violence

Pairing: Nichkhun/Wooyoung

Words: 5,000+

The police and the mafia - a dream for one and a destiny for the other.



A/N: OHMYGOD I finally finished this. It was like something I had to finish or else it’d impede the normal functioning of my life. This turned out to be really, really long so I split them into 4 parts inside the fic itself, two in each chapter. Not actually a chaptered fic, but like an overly-long one shot. I don’t know who’s going to go through all 11,000 words of this, but kudos to you if you’ve made it through. This fic was inspired by an anime X, and some other movie influences like The Infernal Affairs. Semi-unbeta’ed. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!!! :D

Part 1. Part 2.


Part 1 - Phlegmatic

A small village in the West of Korea.

Nichkhun: 10 years old

Wooyoung: 9 years old

The brook babbled as the two boys splashed along the river, trying to find fish to catch. It was a cool spring day with a pale blue sky. Some birds chirped and flew by, but it was barely heard over the roaring laughter of the two boys as they slipped and fell on the slippery rocks of the small stream.

“Keep up, Wooyoung! The fishes are escaping!” shrieked Nichkhun excitedly.

“Ah, hyung!” whined the younger boy as he lagged behind a little, carrying a fishing rod and a basket. His feet hurt from the day they had spent out. In his excitement to catch the fish, Nichkhun lunged and fell face first into the shallow stream, emerging from the water, dripping wet. Wooyoung laughed so hard he himself fell backwards, landing on his bottom on the cold wet rocks. “Hyung, it’s your fault, now I’ve wet my pants! What will my mom say now!”

“What about me!? I’ve wet all my clothes! Matron will kill me,” complained Nichkhun as he examined the wet clothes sticking to his body. The orphanage matron was rather rigid when it came to keeping a dignified appearance, and Nichkhun looked anything but.

“Let’s stop fishing and go dry our clothes!” suggested Wooyoung, eager to get out of the stream. Nichkhun reluctantly nodded as they both splashed out of the stream.

The two boys lay side by side on the grass, topless with their hands cushioning their heads. Their shirts were spread out beside them, drying from the gentle breeze. They wordlessly stared up at the clouds overhead.

“Hyung, what do you want to be when you grow up?” asked Wooyoung inquisitively. Nichkhun pursed his mouth as he thought seriously about this question.

“I want to be a policeman! I want to shoot and fight off the baddies. Did you know that I got a high score on the shooting game machine that day? All the boys were totally jealous!” Nichkhun grinned to himself before he shifted his head to look at Wooyoung. He was staring blankly up at the sky. “So… what about you, Wooyoung?”

“I don’t know, hyung,” he answered simply. “Nothing really seems to appeal to me at all.”

There was a pause.

“Do you believe in fate, hyung? Destiny and all that?”

“What? Of course not, where on earth do you hear about such things?”

“I don’t know, I heard about it on the TV show my mom was watching and I was wondering whether it really exists. Do you really think that our lives are already written out like a book, and we’re just living it?”

“Pish posh and nonsense, Wooyoung. We control our own lives. Don’t worry about what you’re going to be when you grow up,” laughed Nichkhun as he turned his head back to the sky and directed his attention to a cloud that looked particularly like a dinosaur. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out one day.”

*******

Nichkhun: 16 years old

Wooyoung: 15 years old

Both of them were panting hard as the climax began to die down. Wooyoung swallowed before he fell on top of Nichkhun, kissing him hungrily again and pressing himself firmly against the other boy’s body. Nichkhun wrapped his arms around Wooyoung and ran his fingers through his hair. Wooyoung sloppily sucked on Nichkhun’s lips as he felt the strength draining out of him. It wasn’t exactly Wooyoung’s first time with him, but Nichkhun had a knack for always bringing him to an utmost high, which meant his crash after the euphoria took over fast. Their school uniforms were in disarray, since neither of them had bothered to fully tear their clothes off each other before succumbing to their passions after school.

Wooyoung broke away from the kiss and looked at Nichkhun underneath him with half-lidded eyes, glazed over with the after-effects of lust and sex. He smiled weakly even then, feeling that familiar skipping of his heartbeat as he looked at Nichkhun’s face. He didn’t know if he had ever loved anyone as much as he did now. Unable to help himself, he leaned himself down and kissed him once again, this time slowly licking and sucking every inch of Nichkhun’s lips, feeling them curve into a smile.

“You’re getting better at this,” commented Nichkhun in amusement as Wooyoung flopped onto the bed beside him, exhausted.

“I learn from the best,” mumbled Wooyoung, smiling as he wrapped his arms around Nichkhun’s chest. He vaguely remembered feeling Nichkhun turning to hug him before he drifted off to sleep.

*******

Nichkhun: 18 years old

Wooyoung: 17 years old

There was an urgent rapping at the door. Wooyoung dragged his feet to open it, his eyes swollen from crying.

As soon as the door was open, the roar of the torrential rain outside seemed to magnify in volume. Nichkhun was standing on his porch, looking as if he had just swam there, drenched as he was in rainwater. It seemed like he hadn’t bothered carrying an umbrella. Seeing that it was Nichkhun, Wooyoung hurriedly opened the door and flung himself at the older boy, bursting into hysterical tears. Nichkhun embraced him and stroked his back comfortingly. His eyes were cast down in sorrow.

Nichkhun quickly tore Wooyoung off, worried that he might get wet and catch a cold. He smiled weakly at Wooyoung, but there was no happiness in his eyes. His hand stroked Wooyoung’s cheek as he rubbed away the tear stains. “Stop crying, or else your eyes are going to swell shut,” he soothed. This only incited Wooyoung into bursting into another fresh wave of tears as he launched himself into Nichkhun’s embrace again, hugging him as tightly as possible.

“I don’t want to go, hyung, I don’t want to leave you,” he sobbed barely audibly into Nichkhun’s chest.

“When do you leave?” Nichkhun asked, wrapping Wooyoung once again into a tight embrace.

“My mom says tomorrow but I’m not going with her. I don’t want to. I’ll move in with you, I’ll rent a place, I don’t care, I’m not going to leave this place if you’re not coming with me,” Wooyoung blurted out in near hysterics. Nichkhun pulled him away once again.

“You can’t leave your mom, Wooyoung. Remember what your dad made you promise him before he died?” Nichkhun reminded. Wooyoung fell silent. It had been so long ago, when he was barely out of infanthood. He didn’t even remember how or why his dad had died now, but he did clearly remember making this promise. Nichkhun brushed Wooyoung’s fringe out of his face.

“You can’t leave her,” he smiled sadly. “But I’ll stay the night if you wish.”

As soon as Nichkhun stepped out of the shower in a fresh set of dry clothes, Wooyoung hugged him tightly, his eyes continually brimming with tears. Uprooting and ripping himself away from Nichkhun was as good as ripping his life into two, and he almost felt like he’d die if forced to do it. “I don’t want to leave you,” he could only whisper helplessly, even though they both knew that it was inevitable. Nothing else could be done.

Nichkhun cupped Wooyoung’s face and made him look into his eyes. “You know I love you, right?” he asked steadily, even though his heart already felt like it was breaking. Wooyoung nodded slowly, though he was not any much comforted by this. If anything, he only felt more pained by the statement. “Forever and always, Wooyoung, don’t forget that.” Nichkhun leaned in and kissed his forehead, his thumb stroking circles on his cheek.

“I love you too, hyung,” whispered Wooyoung in a quivering voice, unable to mask his emotions as well as Nichkhun did. “Forever and always.” His arms pulled Nichkhun’s head downwards, placing a deep kiss onto his lips. The scarcity of the time they had left together quickly made the kiss urgent as Nichkhun pushed Wooyoung backwards onto the bed and began to assault his neck. He squeezed his eyes as he sniffed in his particular musk, wishing to forever remember it. He didn’t even know if or when he would ever sniff it again.

Their coupling was bittersweet at best, with the inevitability of separation hanging above them. Even as they lay in bed in each other’s embrace, neither of them could sleep. Neither of them wanted to sleep. Time was precious now that there was so little left of it. There was nothing more they could do besides enjoy the last they could of each other, before time was up.

In the morning, the moving van came. Nichkhun helped with the boxes and luggages. With a final kiss and a heart-wrenching farewell, Wooyoung and his mother were gone.

Part 2 - Supine

10 years later.

The lights in the meeting room dimmed as the men and women settled down in their seats. At the front of the large seminar room, an elderly man in uniform was setting up the presentation on the screen and adjusting the microphone. A projector whirred into life and a bright light displayed an image of the current desktop on the computer, on a screen behind the man.

“Let’s start,” he declared authoritatively. The rustling of whispers in the meeting room quietened down into dead silence.

“Before we start our monthly briefing proper, I’d firstly like to give a big welcome to the newest addition to our ranks - Detective Inspector Jang Wooyoung,” said the elderly man. There was some warm applause around the meeting room as a young man seated near the front stood up and bowed towards his colleagues. He didn’t seem to have many friends.

“For those of you who haven’t met him yet, Inspector Jang has just transferred here from the Busan Police Corps only three weeks ago and already he has played a crucial role in helping his colleagues solve a kidnapping case, a murder case and fitted in the final piece of the puzzle in a major crackdown of a drug syndicate, one of the biggest cases on our hands this month. We hope to see more of such stellar and outstanding work from you, Inspector Jang.” Again, there was renewed applause around the room, but the young man merely bowed once more without showing much change in expression.

“Now, let’s move on to our briefing,” continued the elderly man, clicking on the slides. He began to elaborate on new kidnapping cases, as well as an unsolved murder case from almost half a year ago. Wooyoung didn’t pay much attention throughout all these. Though he wouldn’t proclaim to know the solutions to all these cases, but the most likely accurate thread of investigation to take was so glaringly obvious to him that he wondered why they were still unsolved in the first place. After many more of these tedious cases, the elderly man finally began talking about something that caught Wooyoung’s interest.

“There has been further activity by Codename #7381, and time is not on our side, boys. For the benefit of Inspector Jang as well as some of our newer colleagues who may not be familiar with the workings of this department, I will now briefly review the known criminal history of #7381. It might do the rest of you some good to keep in mind how dangerous this man is, too.”

Another click of the slides. Appearing on screen now was some fuzzy security camera still photographs. Wooyoung squinted, but he could only barely make out a silhouette in the backseat of a car, and from the small dot of light in the middle of darkness, this person appeared to be smoking.

“#7381 first came to our attention only 3 months ago. He was found to be directly responsible for the shooting of a man outside a bank, as we can see from this security camera video,” The elderly man clicked the remote and the photograph skipped into life. A car whizzed by in the foreground of the video, but the one in which the silhouette sat was parked by the curb. There were several passers-by walking along blissfully oblivious to what was evidently about to happen around them. A heavy-looking man in a suit appeared in the foreground of the video. Smoothly, with not even the slightest second of hesitation and almost like a choreographed step, a hand stretched out of the open car window, holding a pistol. Bang! Bang! came the muffled sound of gunshots through the security camera. Wooyoung didn’t even flinch as he saw the man in the suit fall to the ground with bullet wounds through his chest and abdomen. There was generalized screaming and panick as the passers-by rushed for safety. The gun was withdrawn as quickly as it came, the car screeched to life and zoomed off out of the vision of the security camera. When the video stopped playing, Wooyoung leaned back and steepled his fingers. This criminal seemed interesting. There had been none of the trembling hands that he saw all too often even in the most experienced of criminals who were too scared to take a life.

The elderly man continued, “Later, we found out that the deceased was a money launderer that was associated with the Korean mafia, but had later on embezzled some funds. We assume that his assassination was then ordered. We had at first thought that #7381 was merely a henchman of the mafia, sent to do its dirty work, but later evidence has told us that #7381 is in fact a highly-ranked member of the mafia. We have since found out that #7381 can, in fact, be linked to almost 50 different cases that we have had on our hands for the past half a year, much less if we attempted to dig out his activities in the past.” Wooyoung wanted to question why they hadn’t realized these 50 cases were linked before they discovered the existence of this person, but he had to remind himself that he was new and wasn’t in the position to ask too many questions yet.

“Thus, we believe that by arresting him, we can not only put a halt to all his criminal activities which, no doubt, contribute a fair deal to the activities of the mafia as a whole, and also get information and insight from the inner circles,” announced the elderly man. Wooyoung pursed his lips. The mafia was elusive. They usually left their dirty work to be done by their many, many subsidiary branches. They were so elusive, it was very easy to forget that more than half of the criminal syndicates in the nation was under them. It was easy to forget that they existed in the first place; that is, until the rare instance when the police was awarded a brief glimpse into the unimaginably extensive criminal network that was held and controlled by the mafia, and the silent, ruthless way its leaders held sway over their thousands and thousands of minions.

“We have not yet been able to establish a clear pictorial description of #7381 yet, but here’s the clearest image we have of him so far based on security cameras,” said the elderly man, before he flipped the slides. A large black and white picture appeared, though it was only but a mass of mosaic blocks. With an interval of a few seconds, it loaded again, the mosaic blocks getting smaller and smaller each time, clarifying the picture with every round. Wooyoung sat up in his seat. With the final load of the picture, Wooyoung widened his eyes at the face on screen. It was still a little blurry, and not to mention, he was wearing large black shades, but Wooyoung wouldn’t have mistaken that face, that jawline, and that pale skin anywhere. It was Nichkhun.

“From what little observations we’ve gathered of #7381, he seems to be a young man only in his late 20’s, which is unusual for someone so high-ranking in the mafia but also garners him the least suspicion amongst police officers. He is often seen wearing black, which also helps him to blend in amongst the crowd of people in the metropolis. He almost always doesn’t do his own dirty work, preferring to let his minion do the violent extorting for him, but from what some of our detainees from the mafia have testified about him, it seems that #7381 is a personage to be feared in the mafia.

“Recently, we have received a tip-off about some tentative plans #7381 might have in extorting more money from the government. We’re not exactly sure how he might go about doing it, but it is said that the central institution involved in this plan is the Central Bank. We will be keeping a close eye on the transactions and dealings of the Central Bank, and hopefully we will be able to crack down on #7381 and his gang. Detective Inspector Choi has transferred to another department since the irresolution of the previous case with #7381 when he escaped from underneath our noses, so we shall need…”

“I’ll take it,” Wooyoung raised his hand without expression, still staring at the picture on screen. Nichkhun looked like he hadn’t aged a day since 10 years ago. Had he been the one that had shot the man in the security camera video? Wooyoung felt like he was in a dream, but his eyes steadied as he looked at the elderly man. “I’ll take the case.”

*******

“Sir,” greeted the man in a suit solemnly as the car door opened. He bowed deeply before he stepped into the car and it drove off.

Thin, blue smoke from the cigarette curled upwards into the air, forming wispy patterns before they dispersed into nothingness. The man in the car exhaled another puff of blue smoke in the shape of a ring. He was dressed in an all-black suit, his legs crossed as he drummed his fingers in a slow, random fashion on the armrest. In the closed darkness of the car with tinted windows, it sounded quietly sinister. The passenger gulped as silently as he could.

“What news do you have for me today?” asked Nichkhun, sucking in another puff of his cigarette.

Bowing again, the passenger withdrew a manila folder from his thin briefcase and presented it respectfully towards Nichkhun, who took it from him. The folder was opened, and Nichkhun stared at the information in front of him wordlessly. No expression was etched on his face.

“We have a new police officer on our case, sir,” began the passenger, who looked like he was attempting to suppress the discomfort he felt at being in the presence of Nichkhun. “He’s just transferred from Busan Police Corps, and from what I hear, he is gaining quite a reputation in the Seoul Police Department even though he’s only been there for a month. He’s helped them crack a few cases already and so, they’ve put him in charge of our case last week. His name is…”

“Jang Wooyoung,” completed Nichkhun as he continued staring at the profile picture on the file. It was a sneakily taken shot of Wooyoung when he was exiting the police department, but he didn’t look any different from a decade ago. The detailed personal information that his henchmen had gathered about Wooyoung were nothing new to Nichkhun, except maybe for the dates of his admission into the Busan Police Academy and so on. He admittedly also did a double take when he read that both of Wooyoung’s parents were dead, and that now he had no other family and was not married. Nichkhun closed the folder and slipped it into the seat pocket in front of him. He merely said stoically, “Interesting.”

“It is well to be on our guard, sir, we have no idea how strongly this new police officer might come down on us,” encouraged the passenger. Nichkhun turned to him, his eyes hardened.

“You would do well to remember your position,” he stated calmly, the ghost of a frown on his eyebrows.

“Most definitely, sir,” the passenger could only hurriedly agree, as he fell into an uneasy silence. A bead of sweat formed on his brow, as he counted the minutes before he would be allowed to alight from the car and away from Nichkhun’s suffocating presence. More than one henchmen that had disobeyed the rules of the mafia had breathed their last in the very seat the passenger was sitting in at the moment. Nichkhun had long been known for killing whoever he must with no forewarning, without even the slightest change in expression. It was only one of the reasons why he possessed such a fearsome reputation in the mafia.

“We must give our new policeman a proper welcome party,” a sneer curled his lips as he uttered these words. “There will be a slight change of plans…”

*******

Wooyoung’s footsteps echoed around the stairwell as he carefully prodded his way up the Central Bank back-staircase. What, or rather, who would he found at the rooftop? He already knew the answer, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to meet him.

The mission was to be a top secret. They had received tips that #7381 and his men were to have a meeting with an official of the Central Bank. Wooyoung and his team’s mission was to stop and intercept any transaction of funds between the mafia and the government. Even the Central Bank officers were not informed about the involvement of the police for their own protection. Wooyoung and his team were dressed in plain clothes today, and all their actions were to be done in absolute secrecy to prevent the scene from spiralling downwards into a hostage situation.

At first, the mission had gone on smoothly. They had observed the mafia’s entrance into the building without being detected themselves. Some of Wooyoung’s men were to be disguised as regular office workers, and they had kept each other updated on where #7381 and his men were. It was only when #7381 and his men walked past the reception area towards the office of the Central Bank director that things had gone awry.

When the door was burst open by Wooyoung and his team, they only found an unpleasantly agitated director seated at his desk, apparently busy with some paperwork. There was no one else in the room. It was the first time Wooyoung had felt a sense of defeat in years, and he resented it. Even more so that he knew who was behind it. Everything had been executed perfectly, there could have been no loophole that they did not check. What had gone wrong, and where were the mafia now? Had Wooyoung and his men moved in too early?

“Wooyoung-sshi,” came an all too familiar voice over his communication earpiece. Wooyoung stiffened, his heart racing as he pressed the earpiece into his ear. He did not reply. From the blank looks of his colleagues, they did not appear to be hearing this message. “If you please, come by yourself to the rooftop. If you bring anyone else, it is at their own peril.”

There was a click and the usual static came back once more. Wooyoung looked around him at his oblivious colleagues. He sighed, “Stay here, I need to attend to something. If I don’t come back within the next 15 minutes, call reinforcements first before you come find me at the rooftop.” His colleagues looked alarmed at this sudden urgent declaration but knew better than to ask why at this crucial point in time. They only nodded solemnly at him as he slipped his gun into his holster, slipped on a blazer to cover it and walked away.

He was already at the door of the rooftop. It was taking a greater effort than usual to stop his hand from shaking as he grabbed hold of the doorknob and twisted it. The rooftop was bathed in the bright glaring sunlight, reflected by the light-coloured concrete floor. Wooyoung squinted as he stepped out of the dark stairwell into the light. He walked slowly across the rooftop, every muscle tense and every sense he had on a high alert. So far, he couldn’t see anyone but that only made him all the more on edge.

It was only after he rounded a corner that Wooyoung saw him; a lone figure looking over the parapet of the rooftop at the skyline of Seoul. He was dressed in an all-black suit as always. Wooyoung found his heart to be pounding even faster and harder than it was already doing at this point. He almost couldn’t believe that he was laying eyes once again on Nichkhun after all these years, but yet, as he bitterly reminded himself, under such circumstances. He had thought they would never meet again, but yet here they were, meeting on two different sides of the law.

“Wooyoung,” said Nichkhun, as Wooyoung walked closer towards him. He turned around and took off his shades at the same time. Wooyoung felt a clenching of his heart that he couldn’t suppress as he looked upon the face that hadn’t seemed to change despite the passage of ten years. He felt an upsurge of memories, but it was quickly quenched by the jarring difference of expression on Nichkhun’s face. It was the same, but - different? Nichkhun had used to be cheerful, light-hearted and optimistic, the one in front of him now was none of that. His expression was frigid, cold and hard. The warm brown eyes had turned into hard, cruel ones. If Nichkhun experienced any similar reminiscence at the sight of Wooyoung, he showed absolutely no signs of it. His face remained expressionless and as cold as before. Wooyoung swallowed back some involuntary tears.

“Nichkhun-sshi,” said Wooyoung, trying to sound as firm and unemotional as he could. Nichkhun smiled, but it was an empty, mocking smile.

“I thought it used to be ‘hyung’,” Nichkhun said, his words oozing with sarcasm. His present self only seemed to be a cruel mockery of all the memories that were surfacing constantly in Wooyoung’s mind. Wooyoung bristled inwardly but did not reply. “I can see that you’ve done well these past ten years. Detective Inspector now, isn’t it?”

“Yes. But what about you, Nichkhun-sshi?” questioned Wooyoung, frowning at Nichkhun. He added in a softer undertone. “I’d never have expected you to join the mafia.”

Nichkhun laughed boisterously. “There’ve always been a lot of things you didn’t know about me, Wooyoung.”Again, Wooyoung felt a clenching in his chest. He felt like the memories and the history that he had treasured and held so dear for the past ten years were slowly falling apart.

“How did your mother die?” asked Nichkhun suddenly. Wooyoung looked up, surprised that he even knew this.

“When we were en route towards Busan ten years ago. She caught an illness and got sick very fast,” Wooyoung briefly explained, hoping for just an instant that it might bring back the old Nichkhun. But he only nodded slowly, letting out a short bitter laugh. Was he mocking her death? Wooyoung was completely bewildered, not even sure if he should’ve felt offended. He was still in a state of disbelief at this new side of Nichkhun that Wooyoung had never thought he was capable of.

Nichkhun began to close the distance between himself and Wooyoung. Despite himself, Wooyoung flinched, fighting the urge to back away. When had they come to this? For the past 10 years, he had imagined so many different scenarios for this moment, when he would once again meet Nichkhun. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought he’d actually want to run away from him, and that he would look upon him as he did now - with utmost disgust.

“Since we’ve been such good friends and go a long time back, let me give you a piece of advice,” continued Nichkhun as he stood in front of Wooyoung, a small mocking smile playing on his lips all the time. “Go back to Busan. Seoul is too big for you, kid.” Wooyoung tightened his jaws and in a pique of anger, withdrew his gun from his holster and pointed it at Nichkhun’s face. Instead of cowering, or backing away, Nichkhun stood his ground and grinned.

“Do it,” he said simply. Wooyoung stared at him, panting in anxiety, his hand shaking. The buzz of adrenaline rang in his ears, the decision running to and fro in his head. Shoot him - and the case would be over. He wasn’t even resisting anyway. Did he welcome death, or did he simply think Wooyoung wouldn’t have the guts to do it? The thought only incited Wooyoung to cock his gun and take a better aim. Nichkhun’s grin grew wider. There was something twisted about the expression in his eyes now, as if he truly relished this moment, where Wooyoung was forced to make a decision. Wooyoung’s eyes darted here and there in panick, before he gritted his teeth, and squeezed the trigger.

Bam! Nichkhun staggered backwards from the force of the shot. Wooyoung couldn’t even see the blood that was presently dripping down the front of Nichkhun’s black blazer, from the wound in his left shoulder. A non-fatal wound. Nichkhun involuntarily winced for a brief instant before the emotion was over and his face remained back to its placid state. Wooyoung lowered his smoking gun. “Enough,” he announced, a certain note of exasperation in his tone. He was tired of these mind games. Nichkhun chortled as he shook his head.

“Tsk tsk tsk. Just a little lower, Wooyoung,” his encouragement was laced with mockery, as he placed his hand over his heart, smiling warpedly at Wooyoung. “Just a little lower, and you’d have found your mark. You could’ve gotten rid of me forever.”

“Not today,” hissed Wooyoung through his teeth. Nichkhun opened his mouth to retort, but then his eyes flicked upwards to fix on an object behind Wooyoung. Wooyoung turned around.

A familiar young face was obliviously walking around the corner into their sight. It was Inspector Kim, his second-in-charge, a precocious young man who was not long graduated from the Police Academy. Wooyoung’s eyes widened at the sight of him - hadn’t he specifically ordered them to stay behind? Admittedly when he had given the order, he was half-hearted about it, not sure what to expect. Now, having witnessed the full metamorphosis of Nichkhun, he knew the peril that Nichkhun had warned him of was very real. Wooyoung turned back to Nichkhun, only to stare straight into the empty browness of his eyes.

No words were exchanged between them. Nichkhun’s hand reached into his blazer and withdrew a black pistol. Wooyoung was horror-struck as he watched Nichkhun extend his arm. “Stop,” he whispered urgently, beads of sweat forming on his brow. Nichkhun’s eyes were still trained on Wooyoung, though his pistol was aiming in another direction all together.

Nichkhun scoffed. “You didn’t keep to your word, Wooyoung,” he stated.

Bang! There was no forestalling of the moment, no hesitation whatsoever. It had been as smooth, as cold, as devoid of any emotion as in the security camera video that Wooyoung had watched. The resounding gunshot echoed like thunder in Wooyoung’s ears before he could even reply. Wooyoung spun around only to see the inspector fall backwards as if in slow motion, the floor behind him a mess of blood splatters. Nichkhun’s aim was true; a single wound in the chest. A fatal wound. The inspector was dead before he hit the ground.

Wooyoung felt like all the breath had been knocked out of him as he stared, horror-struck, at the lifeless body of the inspector, who had only just transferred to their department not more than two months ago. His life had been so bright, so promising. And here, at the whim of another, it had been snuffed out just - like that. When Wooyoung turned back, his eyes brimmed with the disappointment, the wrath and the absolute disgust he held for Nichkhun now, even hoping now that he would notice this now and wake up. Hoping that he would turn back even just a little bit into the Nichkhun he once knew. But Nichkhun’s expression only hardened further, as if to prevent any semblance of emotion from penetrating his shell.

The gun was kept away as casually as it had just been a pen that Nichkhun had taken out. There was no indication either from his expression or his actions that he had just been responsible for the end of a life that was now lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor of the rooftop. “You live to fight another day, Wooyoung,” shrugged Nichkhun as if the entire scene had been a mere conte. He shoved his hands into his pockets and strolled away.

Wooyoung stood where he was, still as a statue, for a few minutes even after Nichkhun had exited the rooftop. His world as he knew it seemed to be crumbling down around him at that moment. Since his mother’s death, Nichkhun’s memory, and the hope that he was still alive and well had been the only thing he had been holding onto for the past 10 years. Now… everything was devastated.

pairing: nichkhun/wooyoung, type: chaptered, genre: action, genre: romance, rating: nc-17, type: au, genre: angst

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