I Want To Live! (13/?)
Title: I Want To Live!
Pairing: (Main) KyuMin, (Side) KangTeuk, HanChul, YeWook, SiMin (one-sided only), Zhoury (friendship)
Genre: Angst, action, attempted humour (might fail miserably) and romance
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Kyumin belong to each other. I merely OWN THE STORY.
Notes: As promised, I’m back!! I’m so touched that some of you took the time to check on me and queried about when I’ll be updating. :) I was so touched!! *muax* I took on a part time job and it’s extremely time-consuming so I haven’t had the opportunity to finish this chapter till today. Have fun reading!! Words in ‘italics’ are thoughts and sometimes flashbacks.
Main Summary: Lee Sungmin is a trained hitman by the codename ‘MIN’. His only sole purpose is to kill his assignments regardless of their backgrounds. So why did, one fateful night, on the brink of death, he met Cho Kyuhyun? The one who taught him the meaning of life. But then why life, had to be so full of twisted humour?
He didn’t know how long he’d stood in front of Sir’s doors. It could have been seconds or minutes or even hours! Okay, so he exaggerated a little about the ‘hours’ part but it sure felt like an eternity! Licking his dry lips and feeling rather nauseous of the thundering sound of his racing heart hammering in his ears, he had been trying to muster the courage to lift his well-muscled arm to knock on the heavy doors. Looks like he’d been found out earlier than he’d expected and there was nothing else that he could’ve done to prevent the inevitable. The insides of his palms were all clammy and tingled slightly from the nervousness of the idea of reporting to Sir. He’d known that sooner or later he will have to face the music regarding their failed mission but he would’ve appreciated it if time didn’t tick by so quickly.
Siwon looked up at the doors from his well-polished shoes, swallowing the invisible lump in his slightly constricted throat as he fidgeted uncomfortably on his feet, shifting his weight from one side of his foot to the other. Raising his arm and curling his long fingers into a fist, he gathered all his wits about him, squeezed his eyes tightly shut and knocked onto the door in which the echoing sound made him shudder ever so slightly. Almost immediately, a cold and clipped, “Come in.” sounded from behind the door. His hand gripped the cold steel and as he heaved in a deep breath, he pushed the door open.
“Priest.”
Siwon gulped again. Just one look at the grim expression was enough to make anyone cower. It would be a good idea to run now. But he didn’t. Because he was no coward and he certainly wasn’t about to start being one now. The sense of dread tingling down his spine made him even more nervous for the amount of pressure that emitted from Sir was no joke and from that one word, he knew that he was in deep trouble. “Sir, I can explain.” He quickly offered. Although he winced at the slight crack in his voice, he believed that his knees wouldn’t buckle from the looming fear circling like vultures waiting for a moment of vulnerability. Maybe it was just his imagination and things weren’t so... bad?
“And it better be a good one.” Sir snapped, obviously irritated despite the calm exterior.
Well, one could always hope. “We were tricked.” Sir’s long fingers were drumming impatiently on the mahogany table; his lips were pursed so tightly that Siwon could see the thin white line around his lips. The dark eyes seem to sear into his soul, threatening to rip it out of his bodily shell. “And I lost Min.” The fingers stopped and Siwon braced himself for the worst.
“You lost MIN?!” One grey eyebrow raised itself as Sir studied Siwon.
Siwon gulped again and suddenly found that his shoes looked somewhat fascinating. “Yes, Sir.” He whispered softly, terrified. Despite his lowered head, Siwon managed a peek to study Sir’s body language and found that he was tense and somewhat... nervous? Agitated? He wasn’t sure because Sir had never shown a shred of humanly feelings to him or anyone else besides the fondness he had for MIN. That was the closest to a human emotion Siwon had ever seen in Sir. Even then it was a great rarity.
Sir slid off his executive chair and stepped almost predatorily towards Siwon, his back straight and his shoulders broad and proud. Almost instantly, Siwon was reminded of a great, sleek black jaguar stalking its prey. Sir was almost as tall as Siwon and very intimidating. Nobody in the right minds would even consider going against this living entity unless they were crazy. No... Crazy people wouldn’t even contemplate doing that! So that would make Kyuhyun entirely INSANE to do so or he just had a death wish to mess with the Headquarters. Siwon could feel the fine hairs on his skin standing from the cackle of angry electricity in the room but because of ego and pride, he would never allow himself to break down.
“And tell me, Priest. How did you lose MIN? I’m pretty sure that I trained both of you well to avoid...” Sir looked straight into Siwon’s eye, threatening to break some bones if he didn’t give a satisfactory answer, “...unwanted situations.” He spat with disgust. “I seem to remember sending you both to kill the Young Master and you dare to come back alone?!”
“The Young Master is Cho Kyuhyun.” Siwon quickly said, hoping that, even if he couldn’t escape the dreaded punishments that would soon follow, he could at least temper the sizzling anger. “He is the one who set it all up.”
“What!?” From the widening eyes and Sir’s genuine surprised tone, this information had managed to elude even the unbeatable Headquarters’ Intelligence. Sir appeared confused, “Are you telling me that ‘he’ is the very same Cho Kyuhyun that Min was shackled up with for the past few weeks?” He asked and Siwon nodded. There was some sort of uncertainty that flashed through Sir’s eyes before he quickly turned his head away, making Siwon extremely intrigued. There is something going on here. Something BIG.
And that greatly boosted Siwon’s courage to take another step into uncharted territory. “It was as if they knew we were coming and they were waiting for us. We didn’t even have the chance to fight back.” Siwon explained, hoping that he didn’t sound like he was giving lame excuses. Seeing that Sir wasn’t reacting much, Siwon decided to be braver and spill everything. “The Death Princess was also there.” Sir’s body tensed. “He was the one who attacked me.”
For a moment, Siwon thought that Sir wasn’t going to move from his spot but before he could blink, Sir let out a roar of laughter, clutching his lean stomach. Siwon’s forehead wrinkled with confusion because he didn’t find this situation funny at all with Sungmin being a captive and that that scoundrel had outwitted him! Reflecting on what had happened, Siwon had blamed himself relentlessly for being too lax, trusting that nobody could outdo his skills and had paid a heavy price. Sungmin.
The laughter died down and Sir whirled back around to face Siwon, surprising the younger man. “Come.” He beckoned. “We have a job to do.” Without waiting for Siwon, Sir strolled briskly out of his room in long, purposeful strides before Siwon snapped out of his reverie and jogged slightly to keep up with him.
So what could make Sir this happy? He wondered as he followed Sir out of the room and down the corridor. They walked down along the maze-like hallways, passing by a sea of the Headquarters’ staffs that parted to the sides like how Moses parted the sea into half, stopped and bowed their heads in greeting but Sir just ignored them, as if nobody else existed around him. No, his face looked as if he had a mission to accomplish and nothing will stop him till he gets it done with. “What is this job, Sir?” Siwon finally asked, curious.
“You’ll see.” Sir’s amused voice confused Siwon even more. Sir was never in a good mood whenever he was with Siwon but he surprisingly lightened up whenever Sungmin was around. The thing is, Sungmin isn’t here. They’ve stopped in front an elevator. A very ordinary looking elevator. The type that everyone uses to get from one floor to the other. Both of them stepped in when it dinged open and when the doors silently shut itself, Sir reached inside his pocket and pulled out a metallic card and slipped it in a card slot just below all the elevator buttons. A red light flashed and a hidden compartment slid open, revealing a white button. Siwon was itching all over to ask what the hell was going on but he pressed his tongue in his cheek, not wanting to appear like a lost little lamb.
Sir sensed this uneasiness but remained quiet. Siwon was always the impatient one and this was just an act of mental punishment for such a careless mistake. The elevator whirred downwards at a rather scary speed. The few seconds that ticked away made Siwon even more agitated and combined with the fact that he was in a very narrow space with Sir did no justice to his already frazzled nerves. He didn’t like the feeling one bit. By the time the doors dinged open again, he’d found themselves to be at a floor that he’d never seen before; it was all white and squeaky clean. The emptiness of the corridor sent chills down Siwon’s skin and he thought jokingly that a ghost’s head might pop out from the walls any minute now.
When Sir stepped off the elevator and strode down the white endless corridor, Siwon meekly followed with a mixture of uncertainty, agitation and curiosity, all blended into a recipe that spelt trouble. He didn’t like the sounds of their footsteps echoing hollowly from the emptiness of the corridor of this unknown floor. His eyes stared at the back of Sir’s head so intensely, almost as if he wanted to drill a hole into it to find out what he wanted but he held back. If Sir wanted to give answers, he will do so. If not, then he will just have to observe and find out about the truth later.
Sir’s pace slowed down as they almost reached the end of the white corridor. There was a pair of doors and two masked guards. Heavily armed. And the doors looked heavy and sealed shut. “Ever since the Death Princess’s disappearance and apparent betrayal, I have implemented this mandatory rule of installing tracking chips...” Sir paused for a moment and with a flick of his hand, the masked guards bowed and jogged away. “...under everyone’s skin.” Pressing his right palm into a semi-transparent silicone-like pad on the side of the wall, the small screen beeped softly, verifying Sir’s identity before another hidden compartment slid open and an intercom appeared. Sir bent down and said, “Open.”
The semi-detached mechanical voice of a woman then responded, “Voice identification, confirmed. Codename: Sir.” The air-tight doors slid open and a small cool breeze blew past them. “Welcome back, Sir.” Siwon couldn’t help hiding his awe at what was spread out before him.
The entire room was so big! No... It was enormous!! And the walls were so white till it was blinding from the light being reflected. Once his eyes adjusted to the brightness, his mind quickly registered what laid before him; it was like some sort of futuristic world or something, with numerous flat screen monitors attached to a maze of circular and skeletal-like iron beams - each with different muted images of its own, wires and cables hung above like thick jungle vines and right down at the centre of all these mechanical splendour was a big circular table laden with computers and laptops of the latest kinds, and there were two male figures typing furiously away on their own computers. Their backs were facing Sir and Siwon and hadn’t shown any signs of hearing them come in, judging from the headphones they had on.
“The White Room.” Sir presented, as if knowing that Siwon would’ve wanted some confirmation.
Siwon had heard of this room but he’d thought it to be a myth within the Headquarters. Rumour had it that it was a hidden control room that hid all of Sir’s treasures from his plundering during his younger days but nobody had ever seen it or even come close to it. Until now. Sir chose to ignore Siwon’s awe and with quick strides of his long legs, he approached the centre of the White Room where there were two males; one with dark hair and the other was almost golden brown, whose attentions were so fixated at the screens in front of them. “Status?”
“Normal and no irregularities.” The taller Asian man replied, not even bothering to turn his head around to acknowledge both Sir’s and Siwon’s presence. “All assassins are within their designated assigned areas except MIN and Priest who is standing here.” He finally turned around and Siwon could see that, despite the stupid grin plastered on his mouth, the tall Asian man had really sharp and distinctive features that were sought after in male models and eyes that were wise beyond his years.
“Code name: The Hackers.” The two Chinese men bowed low as they were introduced. Siwon bowed back out of politeness, eyes blinking owlishly with tinge of alertness. “They will be helping you with whatever information you need to get to MIN.”
The taller man flashed him the brightest smile he’d ever seen. He wondered if the smile grew wider, would the upper half of his head fall off? “I’m Zhou Mi and this little guy here is Henry.” He introduced as he patted Henry’s messy hair.
“Ge!” Henry swatted the friendly hand away and scowled almost childishly at the man called Zhou Mi. “I’m not small! You’re all... just abnormally tall!” He huffed indignantly before he realized that everyone’s attention was at him. Henry’s eyes widened slightly and his mocha-like cheeks reddened in embarrassment from his short outburst, causing Zhou Mi to chuckle and a small smile played on Siwon’s mouth. This reminded him of something he and Sungmin didn’t have; outspokenness.
Sir cleared his throat and everyone’s attention turned back to him, dead serious and no more joking. “Their existences are a secret to the rest of the organisation of the world but a selected few. Nobody can know about them without my consent.” Sir’s eyes hardened as he focused on Siwon who nodded in understanding. “Then, I will leave you all to do what you must. Bring your friends - The Siamese Twins, as you call them, and work on this in the highest secrecy. I expect a report every hour on this matter.” As Sir turned on his heels to leave the white room, his back still emitting the powerful aura of authority, “And Priest, bring MIN home.”
It was more of a demand than an order and they all knew that they will have no rest until MIN is back within the security of the Headquarters’ four walls. “Sir!” Siwon called out, surprising even himself. The older man stopped but didn’t turn around, waiting for Siwon to ask the question that he’d known the young assassin would ask. “You said a chip.” The idea of knowing that there was a foreign object inside his body almost made him lurch. Furthermore, he had not known about it till today. “Do I have one?”
“Everyone has one. The medical bay had its orders. It is times like this that it’ll come in handy.” For a short moment there, Siwon thought he’d heard concern in Sir’s voice but quickly dismissed it when Sir left. The three of them bowed and kept their heads down until Sir left the room. “So...” Perching onto the table, Henry was the first one to break the silence, “What are we doing?”
Siwon pursed his lips grimly and was still looking at the place where Sir had been standing moments earlier. Even though the planting of the tracking chip had been done without their knowledge, it was for the benefit of the organisation. This will help locate MIN. It didn’t matter that it was an act of intrusion, they, as the assassins groomed by the Headquarters had long given up whatever sort of their rights they had as human beings when they were recruited. They were just mere puppets. To be used and thrown away as soon as their usefulness is long gone. But while they’re still useful, they had a mission. “We are just going to take back what belongs to us rightfully.”
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It’d been four days since he’d seen Kyuhyun. His legs had long lost its strength to carry the weight of his malnourished body. As he leaned heavily on the farthest corner of the room from the door, Sungmin couldn’t deny that he’d missed seeing the stupid man. Ever since Heechul pulled his I.V. drip of his arm, his body had been slowly but surely, returning to its senses and within a day, he was up and about, checking out every nook and corner of the room even though he knew that there will be no escape route. His meals will be pushed through the narrow vertical slit just below the door in which he ignored, refusing to neither eat nor drink out of sheer stubbornness.
On the second day, he had stared straight at the CCTV that faced the direction of his bed and scowled at it, knowing that Kyuhyun was looking at him. He’d declared loudly that if Kyuhyun refused to talk to him face to face, he would rather starve to death than live within confined walls and once that was said, he’d done just that. All the meals remained untouched and he’d even refused to drink a single drop of water! By the third day, he was feeling slightly lethargic but this was nothing compared to the time where he’d gone for a week without food and water because he was in the midst of stalking his prey.
After the fourth day, Sungmin could almost no longer move from where he was laying on the cold floor. Was this because that his body is trying to heal itself that he had become so weak so fast? His stomach growled hungrily, as if scolding its owner for being so stupid and not filling it with food. Sungmin tried to wet his dried lips but his throat was so parched that he couldn’t even produce anymore saliva. The room seemed to be spinning and he felt like puking; problem is that there was nothing in his stomach to be emptied out. He felt completely wretched and in dismal that that stupid Kyuhyun didn’t bother coming earlier to relieve him of his misery. The familiar sting in his eyes had returned and he could feel that tears were starting to form from under closed lids.
Suddenly, the door burst open and Sungmin’s wet eyes flickered open to see a pair of very expensive-looking shoes in front of his face. Even though his vision was slightly blurred, he could always tell who it was in front of him. He could feel his consciousness seeping out into the darkness which was calling for him longingly but he wasn’t about to go out without giving this man a piece of his mind. “Took you long enough, sick bastard...” And he fell into the comfort of the oblivion that welcomed him with open arms.
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A/N: Yay!! Still alive and kicking!! After my exams were over, I quickly went into writing this chapter for all my lovelies who were waiting patiently. Thank you for still being here after two months!! And for those who are still new to the story, welcome! I hoped you enjoyed it. ^^
Not much development of Kyumin in this chapter but Zhoury finally appeared! Although they’re not a couple but the interactions between them are going to be very cute and fluffy, leading everyone to the mistaken belief that they are a couple. Hehehe... There’s a reason why ‘The White Room’ is a highly guarded secret by the Headquarters that only a handful people know about which will be revealed later. All the highly capable people will now be working together to retrieve Sungmin...
Till then~~
Harajunko.