Super Junior AU; Various Pairings; Love/War
Title: Love/War (16/?)
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Yehsung/Ryeowook, Hankyung/Heechul, implied Tablo/Eunhyuk
Word Count: 3,178
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: This isn't the fabled chapter 16 - I added another chapter in so this was originally chapter 15. This was hard to write too \o/ Last update in a while because I'm currently failing at starting chapter 19 >:\
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16
Ryeowook pushed at Yehsung with his toes to get his attention, and then pulled his knees up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs. “Hyung,” he said softly, when Yehsung turned to look at him expectantly. “Do you think it’s really true?”
“About Siwon?” Yehsung raised an eyebrow. “If Eeteuk and Kangin say it’s true, then it must be, mustn’t it?”
“It just seems weird,” said Ryeowook, resting his chin on his knees. “Why would he - do something like that?”
“I don’t know, Wookie,” said Yehsung, wrapping his arm around his shoulder for a second, and then pulling away. Ryeowook sighed a little, but didn’t complain - he might be dating Yehsung now after almost two months of coercion, but that didn’t mean that Yehsung was exactly comfortable with it. It had taken Ryeowook this long to get this far - a sensible Yehsung was too much to ask for.
“He never struck me as someone who would betray us,” said Ryeowook. “He seemed - nice.”
“Sometimes you’re too trusting, Ryeowook,” said Yehsung with a soft smile - Ryeowook kicked him and scowled.
“I’m not!” he said indignantly. “Hyung, you trusted him too!”
“We all did,” said Yehsung quietly, looking across the room out of the window, where Kyuhyun and Sungmin were coming back from the meeting that they had had that day. “We all did.”
***
Eunhyuk muted the television as someone knocked on his bedroom door, and called out a welcome; it was Sungmin. “Oh,” said Eunhyuk, and turned away again.
Sungmin came into the room cautiously. The two of them hadn’t spoken since the showdown a month before - hadn’t spoken, that is, beyond what was necessary for their job. Sungmin had made sure that Eunhyuk had broken all contact with the man he had been in a relationship with, and after that Eunhyuk had refused to have anything to do with him - it hurt, more than anyone even thought it did.
“I suppose you’ve heard about Siwon,” said Sungmin, and he sat down on Eunhyuk’s bed. Eunhyuk sighed and turned to look at him.
“Yeah,” he said. “Is this all you’ve come to tell me?”
“Come on, Hyuk,” said Sungmin desperately. “Please, don’t be like this.”
“Don’t be like what, hyung?” Eunhyuk folded his arms. “Don’t be such a child? Well, you treat me like one.”
“You know why I had to make you do that,” said Sungmin. “Please, Hyuk. It’s not my fault!”
“I know,” said Eunhyuk softly. “I’m just - it hurts, hyung.”
“I know,” said Sungmin softly. “I know.”
“You don’t know, hyung!” protested Eunhyuk. “I - god, hyung, I loved him!”
“What did he say, when you told him?” asked Sungmin quietly, standing up in order to walk over to sit on the seat next to the sofa Eunhyuk was sitting on.
“He just accepted it,” said Eunhyuk bitterly. “God, he’s so - he likes to act like he’s so grown up and mature and he’s just a little kid inside.”
“How old was he?” Sungmin asked, honestly curious.
Eunhyuk flushed a little red. “Twenty-eight,” he said, avoiding Sungmin’s gaze.
Sungmin raised an eyebrow. He had known that there had been an age difference, that much had been obvious just from seeing the two together, but six years was rather larger than he had expected. “That’s the same age as Eeteuk,” he said. “God, Hyuk, you were going out with an old man.”
“Oh my god, hyung,” said Eunhyuk, choking down laughter, looking as though he didn’t quite want to laugh, didn’t quite want to be that close with Sungmin again just yet. It didn’t seem like he could help it, though, as he said ruefully; “He’s not old.”
“Do you want to tell me about him?” asked Sungmin quietly. “It might make it better.”
Eunhyuk was quiet for a minute or so, and then said, “I don’t know where to begin.”
“Where did you meet?” Sungmin prompted.
Over the next hour, Eunhyuk told him everything about the man that he had struggled to keep a secret from the rest of his family. His name was Tablo, Eunhyuk told him - he was originally from America, and his parents lived there still, though his younger sister lived in here in Seoul, where she was married to a banker. They had met when Eunhyuk had gone to a court hearing about a girl who had been attacked - Sungmin knew the one, it had obviously been a member of the Choi family, but juries could be bribed and no one had been prosecuted in the end. The girl now lived in Kim territory, and Eeteuk had arranged for compensation to be paid to her. Eunhyuk had been on his way out afterwards, and in his annoyance had walked straight into Tablo.
“When I apologised for it, he just laughed at me, and asked if I wanted to get some coffee with him, as I seemed like I needed something to calm down. He didn’t click there and then who I was, that I was a member of a family. I mean, all people at court look like a family member in their suits, it’s hard to pick us out. I knew exactly who he was, he was wearing his uniform, but hyung, he was so nice and friendly, and I liked him - and he asked me out to dinner.”
“I know it was wrong, hyung. I know that. And I didn’t tell him who I was, what I was until three dates along the line, and he tried - he tried so hard, to begin with, to break it off, but I wouldn’t let him. I know - hyung, I loved him.”
“I’m sorry, Hyuk,” whispered Sungmin. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay,” said Eunhyuk quietly. “I understand, I really do. It wasn’t right, what I did. After Siwon, it’s obvious that lying isn’t the right way to go about it.”
“I’d give anything-”
“I know,” said Eunhyuk, smiling a little. “Hyung, I feel better now, now that I’ve spoken to someone about him. It feels good to get it out in the open.”
Sungmin stood up. “I’m glad,” he said, smiling back. “I’ve got to go out with Henry now, he’s asked me to train him today.”
Eunhyuk frowned. “Doesn’t Hankyung usually do that?” he asked. “Why can’t he do it today?”
“He’s in bed,” said Sungmin.
“Well, wake him,” said Eunhyuk with a laugh.
“He’s in bed with a hangover,” said Sungmin, sadness in his voice. “He and Heechul got drunk last night.”
“Oh,” said Eunhyuk, subdued as he got what Sungmin meant. Sungmin nodded and opened the bedroom door to go out into the hallway. “Hyung,” said Eunhyuk loudly, to catch his attention. Sungmin turned to look at him. “Thank you. I think I know what I have to do now.”
Sungmin smiled at him, and then shut the door after him.
***
Zhou Mi, when he was told about the truth behind Siwon, reverted back to speaking in Chinese for half an hour or so, unable to form the words in Korean. “But Siyuan was my friend,” he kept saying, staring at Eeteuk as if for an answer to his statement of fact; Eeteuk couldn’t understand what he was saying, anyway. Kyuhyun, though in shock himself, quietly pulled Zhou Mi from the room, promising that he would help him. Eeteuk buried his face in his hands again, and Kangin rubbed his shoulders comfortingly.
“The problem is,” he said, “we don’t know how much information we let Siwon privy to, confidential or otherwise.”
“He was on paperwork for most of the time,” said Shindong. “But towards the end, we were giving him some of the more important things to do.”
“This is a disaster,” groaned Eeteuk, words slightly muffled. “What he tells our secrets to the Choi family? Our account number and password at the bank, the names and address of those who help fund us - he could know any of it. He could ruin us!”
Shindong watched as Kangin murmured something into Eeteuk’s ear, clearly trying to soothe him, though Shindong could see the tense lines on Kangin’s forehead. He has been with the family long enough to notice these things about the men he calls his bosses, the men that he has pledged his undying loyalty to (and he will give them that, no matter what). He has been with the Kim family the longest out of those who don’t own the Kim name. Aged twenty-four, he has been there for seven years, since he was seventeen.
Unlike Kyuhyun, who stumbled across the family by chance, or the likes of Henry or Sungmin, who came because they had no other choice (though they welcome their place), Shindong wanted to join the family. He was the middle child of the trading Shin family; his name was Shin Donghee, although he always, without fail, went by his nickname of Shindong, given to him by his best friend when he was just six.
As a trading family, the Shin family had close links with the Kim family - all trading families are closely connected to a family some way or another (and he can’t help but feel that the fact that the Han family appeared to not have one should have sent alarm bells ringing), and as a child, Shindong used to watch as men came to his father and did business with him.
Shindong was never going to take over the family, not with an older brother, but that never bothered him - he didn’t want to take over a trading family. He made his mind up when he was ten years old, when he watched the leader of the Kim family come to see his father formally about a dealing or another, and he had brought his eldest son with him, Kim Youngwoon, a boy of thirteen who had sat with Shindong while they waited and told him about life in one of the families, the Kim family, a name known throughout the world.
When Shindong was fourteen, the old ruler of the Kim family died, leaving Kim Youngwoon as the new head - Shindong heard through his father that the boy he had looked up to had changed his name to Kangin, and was ruling jointly with the head of the old Park family. When Shindong heard of the change, he made his decision: he went to Kangin and asked to be allowed to join.
Kangin laughed at him. “You’re too young,” he said.
“I’m only three years younger than you,” said Shindong. “And you’re the leader of your family.”
“Not now,” said Kangin firmly. “Maybe later, if you prove your worth.”
It makes Shindong smile now at how little it took to prove his worth. He hung around the Kim family, asking for odd jobs and things to do; the guards on the front door ended up just letting him in whenever he came because they grew so used to his face. He became known to everyone, was willing to do anything for anyone; he was given the worst jobs, the ones that no one else wanted to do, and he did them happily, because he knew that he was doing what he could for the family, and that one day he’d be given a chance of his own.
The chance to prove himself passed without his knowledge. After three years, Kangin came to him and offered him a place in the family - he had proven his loyalty and service through what he had wanted to do, and Kangin was more than happy to welcome him, Eeteuk nodding and smiling his agreement next to him.
Because Shindong has been with the family for so long, he knows exactly what to do no matter what the situation is, even if they’ve never been in the situation before. He knows how the Kim family works almost as well as Kangin and Eeteuk.
“I’ve changed the passwords on our accounts,” he said. “That green file on the desk contains the new passwords. He won’t be getting anything.”
“You are a lifesaver, Shindong,” said Eeteuk with considerable feeling. “Remind me to give you a raise or a bigger bedroom or - something, I don’t even know what.”
Shindong just smiled. He didn’t need anything: it was his job, but more than that, it was what he was born to do.
***
The bedroom was shrouded in darkness, the curtains pulled closed, their heavy material blocking out any rays of sunshine that may have attempted to make their way through. It was silent, still; the television was turned off, the radio turned off, the lights turned off. The two bodies on the bed, although awake, didn’t move, until one shifted and tangled his fingers in the others; the other gripped it as though afraid it was smoke that would drift away from him otherwise.
“It’s just us,” said Hankyung softly.
“It always has just been us,” said Heechul, voice a little hoarse. Hankyung put it down to disuse - they hadn’t spoken for over an hour - because he didn’t want to think about the alternative. “How could there have been three if the third was never real to begin with?”
“But he was real,” said Hankyung. “He was real to touch and real to kiss and real to-”
“Stop,” said Heechul, and buried his face in Hankyung’s neck; wetness stained through onto Hankyung’s skin, although Heechul was still. “God,” he said, voice faint. “I fucking hate him for making me fucking cry.”
Hankyung’s finger curled around his hip, and he laid his cheek on Heechul’s head. “How didn’t we know?” he asked, the question having been annoying him for some time. “How didn’t we know who he really was?”
“My worst enemy,” whispered Heechul. “The son of the family that I hate. And I-” He broke off; his voice grew louder. “That’s how he knew,” he said after a minute or so. “He knew about your name because he looked at his family records, not because he asked the people in our area. The Choi family - they’d know all about you.”
“They know that I’m with the Kim family,” said Hankyung softly.
“He could have-” Heechul stopped suddenly, and the grip of his hand on Hankyung’s grew almost too painful for Hankyung to bear. “He knew who you were, and we know how much his family stands to gain if they manage to kill you. He could easily have just - shot you, as you slept.”
“He’s been alone with Henry so many times,” said Hankyung. “And Zhou Mi, too. Why didn’t he take his chance? It makes no sense.”
Heechul let go of his hand and trailed it up his stomach to let his fingers dance over his chest. Hankyung allowed him it. “We allowed a Choi to enter the family,” he said.
“We weren’t to know,” said Hankyung. “Kangin and Eeteuk aren’t going to blame us, they were taken in too.”
“I said I liked ripping pleasant to shreds.” Heechul’s words were muffled as he pressed his mouth to Hankyung’s shoulder. “I just never realised how much I would want to rip him to shreds.”
The bed seemed too large without Siwon there. They had grown dependent on him in the short time he had been there, and without him they were unable to return to that feeling of before of not needing anyone else there. It was this feeling of there being something missing that Hankyung hated the most - they had no need for a Choi.
“What did we miss?” he asked. “What did we overlook that pointed to him being a Choi? We know what they are, Heechul, and they are nothing like him. They are vicious animals who would kill a man who looked at them wrong, and he - he wouldn’t.”
“He is quite obviously a good actor,” said Heechul, and he sat up, the sheets sliding from his torso like liquid as he hunched his shoulders and leant forward. “My head fucking hurts,” he groaned, holding it in his hands. “I need some coffee or something. Are you coming?”
“Bring me some back?” Hankyung had the feeling that if he attempted sitting up, the sharp bite of the alcohol from the previous night would rise in his throat, and he couldn’t be too sure of the consequences of such a thing.
“Fine,” said Heechul, swinging his legs from the bed and picking up the pink silk robe he wore in the mornings; Hankyung had a feeling that it was now mid-afternoon, though he hadn’t checked the clock. “God, just because you get betrayed doesn’t mean you get to treat me like a servant.”
Hankyung just groaned and waved a hand in his general direction, his eyes shut. He heard Heechul laugh softly, Hankyung’s experienced ears picking up on the strained forced quality to it, and the sound of the door being pulled open.
“Oh,” said Heechul. “You’ve got a visitor.”
Hankyung opened his eyes, just in time to watch Heechul pull Henry in by the arm, Henry fighting against him but ultimately losing. “I found him skulking,” said Heechul, patting Henry absently on the shoulder. “Black, right?” At Hankyung’s nod, he swept out of the room.
Hankyung sat up slowly, swallowing as he felt nausea rise up, before luckily subsiding. “Henry?” he asked, with a smile that he hoped was less of a grimace than it felt. “What’s wrong?”
“I was just told that Siwon was a Choi,” said Henry, looking confused. “I mean, it was Zhou Mi who told me, so it’s not like I could have misheard it, it was in Chinese. But - I mean. What?”
“It’s true,” said Hankyung with a sigh. He patted the bed next to him; Henry sat down, looking a little lost. “He tricked us somehow, into believing he was someone that he wasn’t - he’s a Choi, Henry.”
“He’s not,” protested Henry. “If he was Choi, he would have killed me!”
It always struck hard at Hankyung when he heard Henry take it for fact that a family that had never come face-to-face with him was willing, anxious in fact, to kill him. He was only seventeen years old, there was no need for anyone to want to kill him. His only crime was being unable to choose between the father that had never bothered before with him, and the brother who he loved but who had betrayed his family - he had been young, who could blame him for choosing both?
“I don’t understand,” whispered Henry.
“I know,” said Hankyung softly, hugging him. Henry struggled away.
“No, you don’t,” he said. “Ge, he loved you.”
Hankyung sighed, breath shaking as he let it out. “He didn’t, Henry. It was just a façade.”
“No, Ge,” said Henry firmly. “Ge, I saw the way he looked at you, and Heechul too. It was - ge, it was the way you look at Heechul”
Hankyung was silent; but before he could say anything, Heechul put his head in the door. “Um,” he said. “I could be mistaken, but Eunhyuk’s room - it’s not supposed to look ransacked, is it?”
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Yehsung/Ryeowook, Hankyung/Heechul, implied Tablo/Eunhyuk
Word Count: 3,178
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: This isn't the fabled chapter 16 - I added another chapter in so this was originally chapter 15. This was hard to write too \o/ Last update in a while because I'm currently failing at starting chapter 19 >:\
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16
Ryeowook pushed at Yehsung with his toes to get his attention, and then pulled his knees up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs. “Hyung,” he said softly, when Yehsung turned to look at him expectantly. “Do you think it’s really true?”
“About Siwon?” Yehsung raised an eyebrow. “If Eeteuk and Kangin say it’s true, then it must be, mustn’t it?”
“It just seems weird,” said Ryeowook, resting his chin on his knees. “Why would he - do something like that?”
“I don’t know, Wookie,” said Yehsung, wrapping his arm around his shoulder for a second, and then pulling away. Ryeowook sighed a little, but didn’t complain - he might be dating Yehsung now after almost two months of coercion, but that didn’t mean that Yehsung was exactly comfortable with it. It had taken Ryeowook this long to get this far - a sensible Yehsung was too much to ask for.
“He never struck me as someone who would betray us,” said Ryeowook. “He seemed - nice.”
“Sometimes you’re too trusting, Ryeowook,” said Yehsung with a soft smile - Ryeowook kicked him and scowled.
“I’m not!” he said indignantly. “Hyung, you trusted him too!”
“We all did,” said Yehsung quietly, looking across the room out of the window, where Kyuhyun and Sungmin were coming back from the meeting that they had had that day. “We all did.”
***
Eunhyuk muted the television as someone knocked on his bedroom door, and called out a welcome; it was Sungmin. “Oh,” said Eunhyuk, and turned away again.
Sungmin came into the room cautiously. The two of them hadn’t spoken since the showdown a month before - hadn’t spoken, that is, beyond what was necessary for their job. Sungmin had made sure that Eunhyuk had broken all contact with the man he had been in a relationship with, and after that Eunhyuk had refused to have anything to do with him - it hurt, more than anyone even thought it did.
“I suppose you’ve heard about Siwon,” said Sungmin, and he sat down on Eunhyuk’s bed. Eunhyuk sighed and turned to look at him.
“Yeah,” he said. “Is this all you’ve come to tell me?”
“Come on, Hyuk,” said Sungmin desperately. “Please, don’t be like this.”
“Don’t be like what, hyung?” Eunhyuk folded his arms. “Don’t be such a child? Well, you treat me like one.”
“You know why I had to make you do that,” said Sungmin. “Please, Hyuk. It’s not my fault!”
“I know,” said Eunhyuk softly. “I’m just - it hurts, hyung.”
“I know,” said Sungmin softly. “I know.”
“You don’t know, hyung!” protested Eunhyuk. “I - god, hyung, I loved him!”
“What did he say, when you told him?” asked Sungmin quietly, standing up in order to walk over to sit on the seat next to the sofa Eunhyuk was sitting on.
“He just accepted it,” said Eunhyuk bitterly. “God, he’s so - he likes to act like he’s so grown up and mature and he’s just a little kid inside.”
“How old was he?” Sungmin asked, honestly curious.
Eunhyuk flushed a little red. “Twenty-eight,” he said, avoiding Sungmin’s gaze.
Sungmin raised an eyebrow. He had known that there had been an age difference, that much had been obvious just from seeing the two together, but six years was rather larger than he had expected. “That’s the same age as Eeteuk,” he said. “God, Hyuk, you were going out with an old man.”
“Oh my god, hyung,” said Eunhyuk, choking down laughter, looking as though he didn’t quite want to laugh, didn’t quite want to be that close with Sungmin again just yet. It didn’t seem like he could help it, though, as he said ruefully; “He’s not old.”
“Do you want to tell me about him?” asked Sungmin quietly. “It might make it better.”
Eunhyuk was quiet for a minute or so, and then said, “I don’t know where to begin.”
“Where did you meet?” Sungmin prompted.
Over the next hour, Eunhyuk told him everything about the man that he had struggled to keep a secret from the rest of his family. His name was Tablo, Eunhyuk told him - he was originally from America, and his parents lived there still, though his younger sister lived in here in Seoul, where she was married to a banker. They had met when Eunhyuk had gone to a court hearing about a girl who had been attacked - Sungmin knew the one, it had obviously been a member of the Choi family, but juries could be bribed and no one had been prosecuted in the end. The girl now lived in Kim territory, and Eeteuk had arranged for compensation to be paid to her. Eunhyuk had been on his way out afterwards, and in his annoyance had walked straight into Tablo.
“When I apologised for it, he just laughed at me, and asked if I wanted to get some coffee with him, as I seemed like I needed something to calm down. He didn’t click there and then who I was, that I was a member of a family. I mean, all people at court look like a family member in their suits, it’s hard to pick us out. I knew exactly who he was, he was wearing his uniform, but hyung, he was so nice and friendly, and I liked him - and he asked me out to dinner.”
“I know it was wrong, hyung. I know that. And I didn’t tell him who I was, what I was until three dates along the line, and he tried - he tried so hard, to begin with, to break it off, but I wouldn’t let him. I know - hyung, I loved him.”
“I’m sorry, Hyuk,” whispered Sungmin. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay,” said Eunhyuk quietly. “I understand, I really do. It wasn’t right, what I did. After Siwon, it’s obvious that lying isn’t the right way to go about it.”
“I’d give anything-”
“I know,” said Eunhyuk, smiling a little. “Hyung, I feel better now, now that I’ve spoken to someone about him. It feels good to get it out in the open.”
Sungmin stood up. “I’m glad,” he said, smiling back. “I’ve got to go out with Henry now, he’s asked me to train him today.”
Eunhyuk frowned. “Doesn’t Hankyung usually do that?” he asked. “Why can’t he do it today?”
“He’s in bed,” said Sungmin.
“Well, wake him,” said Eunhyuk with a laugh.
“He’s in bed with a hangover,” said Sungmin, sadness in his voice. “He and Heechul got drunk last night.”
“Oh,” said Eunhyuk, subdued as he got what Sungmin meant. Sungmin nodded and opened the bedroom door to go out into the hallway. “Hyung,” said Eunhyuk loudly, to catch his attention. Sungmin turned to look at him. “Thank you. I think I know what I have to do now.”
Sungmin smiled at him, and then shut the door after him.
***
Zhou Mi, when he was told about the truth behind Siwon, reverted back to speaking in Chinese for half an hour or so, unable to form the words in Korean. “But Siyuan was my friend,” he kept saying, staring at Eeteuk as if for an answer to his statement of fact; Eeteuk couldn’t understand what he was saying, anyway. Kyuhyun, though in shock himself, quietly pulled Zhou Mi from the room, promising that he would help him. Eeteuk buried his face in his hands again, and Kangin rubbed his shoulders comfortingly.
“The problem is,” he said, “we don’t know how much information we let Siwon privy to, confidential or otherwise.”
“He was on paperwork for most of the time,” said Shindong. “But towards the end, we were giving him some of the more important things to do.”
“This is a disaster,” groaned Eeteuk, words slightly muffled. “What he tells our secrets to the Choi family? Our account number and password at the bank, the names and address of those who help fund us - he could know any of it. He could ruin us!”
Shindong watched as Kangin murmured something into Eeteuk’s ear, clearly trying to soothe him, though Shindong could see the tense lines on Kangin’s forehead. He has been with the family long enough to notice these things about the men he calls his bosses, the men that he has pledged his undying loyalty to (and he will give them that, no matter what). He has been with the Kim family the longest out of those who don’t own the Kim name. Aged twenty-four, he has been there for seven years, since he was seventeen.
Unlike Kyuhyun, who stumbled across the family by chance, or the likes of Henry or Sungmin, who came because they had no other choice (though they welcome their place), Shindong wanted to join the family. He was the middle child of the trading Shin family; his name was Shin Donghee, although he always, without fail, went by his nickname of Shindong, given to him by his best friend when he was just six.
As a trading family, the Shin family had close links with the Kim family - all trading families are closely connected to a family some way or another (and he can’t help but feel that the fact that the Han family appeared to not have one should have sent alarm bells ringing), and as a child, Shindong used to watch as men came to his father and did business with him.
Shindong was never going to take over the family, not with an older brother, but that never bothered him - he didn’t want to take over a trading family. He made his mind up when he was ten years old, when he watched the leader of the Kim family come to see his father formally about a dealing or another, and he had brought his eldest son with him, Kim Youngwoon, a boy of thirteen who had sat with Shindong while they waited and told him about life in one of the families, the Kim family, a name known throughout the world.
When Shindong was fourteen, the old ruler of the Kim family died, leaving Kim Youngwoon as the new head - Shindong heard through his father that the boy he had looked up to had changed his name to Kangin, and was ruling jointly with the head of the old Park family. When Shindong heard of the change, he made his decision: he went to Kangin and asked to be allowed to join.
Kangin laughed at him. “You’re too young,” he said.
“I’m only three years younger than you,” said Shindong. “And you’re the leader of your family.”
“Not now,” said Kangin firmly. “Maybe later, if you prove your worth.”
It makes Shindong smile now at how little it took to prove his worth. He hung around the Kim family, asking for odd jobs and things to do; the guards on the front door ended up just letting him in whenever he came because they grew so used to his face. He became known to everyone, was willing to do anything for anyone; he was given the worst jobs, the ones that no one else wanted to do, and he did them happily, because he knew that he was doing what he could for the family, and that one day he’d be given a chance of his own.
The chance to prove himself passed without his knowledge. After three years, Kangin came to him and offered him a place in the family - he had proven his loyalty and service through what he had wanted to do, and Kangin was more than happy to welcome him, Eeteuk nodding and smiling his agreement next to him.
Because Shindong has been with the family for so long, he knows exactly what to do no matter what the situation is, even if they’ve never been in the situation before. He knows how the Kim family works almost as well as Kangin and Eeteuk.
“I’ve changed the passwords on our accounts,” he said. “That green file on the desk contains the new passwords. He won’t be getting anything.”
“You are a lifesaver, Shindong,” said Eeteuk with considerable feeling. “Remind me to give you a raise or a bigger bedroom or - something, I don’t even know what.”
Shindong just smiled. He didn’t need anything: it was his job, but more than that, it was what he was born to do.
***
The bedroom was shrouded in darkness, the curtains pulled closed, their heavy material blocking out any rays of sunshine that may have attempted to make their way through. It was silent, still; the television was turned off, the radio turned off, the lights turned off. The two bodies on the bed, although awake, didn’t move, until one shifted and tangled his fingers in the others; the other gripped it as though afraid it was smoke that would drift away from him otherwise.
“It’s just us,” said Hankyung softly.
“It always has just been us,” said Heechul, voice a little hoarse. Hankyung put it down to disuse - they hadn’t spoken for over an hour - because he didn’t want to think about the alternative. “How could there have been three if the third was never real to begin with?”
“But he was real,” said Hankyung. “He was real to touch and real to kiss and real to-”
“Stop,” said Heechul, and buried his face in Hankyung’s neck; wetness stained through onto Hankyung’s skin, although Heechul was still. “God,” he said, voice faint. “I fucking hate him for making me fucking cry.”
Hankyung’s finger curled around his hip, and he laid his cheek on Heechul’s head. “How didn’t we know?” he asked, the question having been annoying him for some time. “How didn’t we know who he really was?”
“My worst enemy,” whispered Heechul. “The son of the family that I hate. And I-” He broke off; his voice grew louder. “That’s how he knew,” he said after a minute or so. “He knew about your name because he looked at his family records, not because he asked the people in our area. The Choi family - they’d know all about you.”
“They know that I’m with the Kim family,” said Hankyung softly.
“He could have-” Heechul stopped suddenly, and the grip of his hand on Hankyung’s grew almost too painful for Hankyung to bear. “He knew who you were, and we know how much his family stands to gain if they manage to kill you. He could easily have just - shot you, as you slept.”
“He’s been alone with Henry so many times,” said Hankyung. “And Zhou Mi, too. Why didn’t he take his chance? It makes no sense.”
Heechul let go of his hand and trailed it up his stomach to let his fingers dance over his chest. Hankyung allowed him it. “We allowed a Choi to enter the family,” he said.
“We weren’t to know,” said Hankyung. “Kangin and Eeteuk aren’t going to blame us, they were taken in too.”
“I said I liked ripping pleasant to shreds.” Heechul’s words were muffled as he pressed his mouth to Hankyung’s shoulder. “I just never realised how much I would want to rip him to shreds.”
The bed seemed too large without Siwon there. They had grown dependent on him in the short time he had been there, and without him they were unable to return to that feeling of before of not needing anyone else there. It was this feeling of there being something missing that Hankyung hated the most - they had no need for a Choi.
“What did we miss?” he asked. “What did we overlook that pointed to him being a Choi? We know what they are, Heechul, and they are nothing like him. They are vicious animals who would kill a man who looked at them wrong, and he - he wouldn’t.”
“He is quite obviously a good actor,” said Heechul, and he sat up, the sheets sliding from his torso like liquid as he hunched his shoulders and leant forward. “My head fucking hurts,” he groaned, holding it in his hands. “I need some coffee or something. Are you coming?”
“Bring me some back?” Hankyung had the feeling that if he attempted sitting up, the sharp bite of the alcohol from the previous night would rise in his throat, and he couldn’t be too sure of the consequences of such a thing.
“Fine,” said Heechul, swinging his legs from the bed and picking up the pink silk robe he wore in the mornings; Hankyung had a feeling that it was now mid-afternoon, though he hadn’t checked the clock. “God, just because you get betrayed doesn’t mean you get to treat me like a servant.”
Hankyung just groaned and waved a hand in his general direction, his eyes shut. He heard Heechul laugh softly, Hankyung’s experienced ears picking up on the strained forced quality to it, and the sound of the door being pulled open.
“Oh,” said Heechul. “You’ve got a visitor.”
Hankyung opened his eyes, just in time to watch Heechul pull Henry in by the arm, Henry fighting against him but ultimately losing. “I found him skulking,” said Heechul, patting Henry absently on the shoulder. “Black, right?” At Hankyung’s nod, he swept out of the room.
Hankyung sat up slowly, swallowing as he felt nausea rise up, before luckily subsiding. “Henry?” he asked, with a smile that he hoped was less of a grimace than it felt. “What’s wrong?”
“I was just told that Siwon was a Choi,” said Henry, looking confused. “I mean, it was Zhou Mi who told me, so it’s not like I could have misheard it, it was in Chinese. But - I mean. What?”
“It’s true,” said Hankyung with a sigh. He patted the bed next to him; Henry sat down, looking a little lost. “He tricked us somehow, into believing he was someone that he wasn’t - he’s a Choi, Henry.”
“He’s not,” protested Henry. “If he was Choi, he would have killed me!”
It always struck hard at Hankyung when he heard Henry take it for fact that a family that had never come face-to-face with him was willing, anxious in fact, to kill him. He was only seventeen years old, there was no need for anyone to want to kill him. His only crime was being unable to choose between the father that had never bothered before with him, and the brother who he loved but who had betrayed his family - he had been young, who could blame him for choosing both?
“I don’t understand,” whispered Henry.
“I know,” said Hankyung softly, hugging him. Henry struggled away.
“No, you don’t,” he said. “Ge, he loved you.”
Hankyung sighed, breath shaking as he let it out. “He didn’t, Henry. It was just a façade.”
“No, Ge,” said Henry firmly. “Ge, I saw the way he looked at you, and Heechul too. It was - ge, it was the way you look at Heechul”
Hankyung was silent; but before he could say anything, Heechul put his head in the door. “Um,” he said. “I could be mistaken, but Eunhyuk’s room - it’s not supposed to look ransacked, is it?”