Title: Jade Dragon
Story Summary: The story is set in a Don't Don-esque mafia world. It revolves around Kangin, the leader of the gang and his 'family'. Each member of the family was well acquainted with the role they were to fill, but one new person's arrival throws everything off balance. It is a tale of lies, secrets, and betrayal, where no one is exactly who they seem to be.
Chapter Info:
Pairings/Characters: No specific pairings, but just about everyone makes an appearance again.
Warnings: Unbeta-ed
Rating: I'm going to rate this R, just because there is plenty of cussing and other references to naughty things.
Length: 15/?
Summary: Hyun-ok makes an escape, the end draws near.
Hyun-ok’s captors were relatively civil, all things considered. Though she was allowed no freedoms at all, she wasn’t being beaten or otherwise mistreated. She was currently sitting in a chair in what she assumed was the main room, hands still cuffed behind her back. Her arms were already starting to ache, but to uncuff her and let her move about would’ve been just plain foolish. Sungmin and Kyuhyun had both wandered off some time ago, leaving Hyun-ok in Kibum’s care. Kibum never said a word, instead looking back and forth between the security monitors before looking back to whatever he was working on with his computer.
Hyun-ok was silent as well, being far too stubborn for her own good. She could’ve screamed until her throat was sore, and there was a small chance someone on the outside might’ve heard her, but she wasn’t about to give the traitors the satisfaction of seeing her fall apart. If Sungmin or Kyuhyun had stayed to watch over her, she might’ve had some choice words for them as well, but not for Kibum. She understood his line of work more than most did, and she understood this was only a matter of business. She would’ve been foolish not to think there was a price on her head, and even more foolish to think that someone wouldn’t try to collect one day.
She and Kibum had never claimed to be friends, either. Sure, they got along well, they could function as a team better than anyone else, but their relationship had been strictly ‘professional’. There had been a silent understanding that there was never going to be a ‘let’s hang out’ moment, never an ‘I’ll watch out for you, I’ll protect you.’ They always looked after their own best interests, the only thing different now was that their interests were on two different sides of the spectrum. Hyun-ok understood that though, and that was why she left Kibum.
She’d busied herself counting the tiles in the ceiling, but she’d lost track at two hundred twenty seven. She’d just begun to count again when she heard a door open, and she lowered her eyes to look over in enough time to see Kyuhyun approaching. He grinned widely, so widely that it almost sickened Hyun-ok and made her want to smack the grin right off of his face, and headed right for her.
“The Chinese authorities have been notified that you’re in custody, they should be here by sometime tomorrow.” He reached out in an attempt to pat her shoulder then, but she twisted herself away. Kyuhyun frowned, reaching to grab onto her shoulder to force her to sit back in the chair. “Come on now, don’t be like that. You knew this would happen eventually. You should be glad it’s me doing it instead of someone else. They would’ve just killed you and been done with it.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing…” She scowled but sat back in the chair, lifting her eyes to look up fully at Kyuhyun. “I’d rather be dead than to spend five more minutes with you. I’d call you a piece of shit, but really I think that would be too nice for the likes of you.”
The grin faded from Kyuhyun’s face, a cold look washing back over it instead. “You should watch what you say, you know. You’re not in a position to argue with me. You’re absolutely helpless right now.”
Kibum looked up from his computer and over at the two, frowning. He never understood why certain people felt the need to poke at caged animals, eventually they’d snap, and Hyun-ok was no different, he knew that much. He could see her beginning to fidget in the chair but he didn’t say a word. Kyuhyun shouldn’t be poking at her like that, so it wasn’t Kibum’s fault if he had to pay the consequences. Kibum only wanted the money after all; he didn’t care what happened in the mean time.
“I argue with everyone, Kyuhyun, it’s what I do.” Hyun-ok tilted her head to the side, blinking once as she looked to him. “What, did you think I’d turn into a scared little girl if I was by myself? Did you think I’d beg and plead for forgiveness? Did you think I’d try to offer you more money to not turn me in? You’re fucking stupid if you did.”
Kyuhyun scowled, crouching down so he was eye-level with the woman. “You’re the stupid one, Jade. I’m trying to be nice here, really I am. But sometimes… sometimes I think I understand why your step-father did what he did.” He placed one hand on the back of Hyun-ok’s chair, leaning in closer as he peered into the woman’s eyes. “I mean really, as much as you bitch about everything, how else was he going to shut you up? Bitches like you eventually get what they deserve, Jade, you shouldn’t be so sour about it. You brought it on yourself.”
Even Kibum frowned at that, looking to Kyuhyun. “Knock it off, Kyu. That was uncalled for.”
“What? I’m just telling the truth.” He snorted with a bit of laughter, ignoring the way Hyun-ok continued to fidget in her chair. “Women like Jade should just give up and realize the only thing they are good for is being a warm body to fuck.” He snorted again, looking away from Kibum and back to Hyun-ok. “You’re lucky Kangin didn’t whore you out. He could’ve made so much more money off of you that way.”
Kibum frowned when he saw something drip down from behind Hyun-ok’s chair, eyes squinting a bit in order to see what it was. His frown deepened when he realized it was blood that was splattering onto the floor, and had just started to push himself up from his chair to see where it was coming from when Hyun-ok’s arms swung free. Blood splattered here and there from her right hand as she swung her fist around, knuckles connecting violently with the side of Kyuhyun’s face.
Kyuhyun fell over backwards as Hyun-ok scrambled out of her chair, practically crashing through the door when she reached it, the handcuffs still attached to her left wrist, blood staining the metal that had been attached to her right. She’d pulled so hard to get her hand out that the skin had torn, but at the moment she didn’t feel it. She could hear both Kibum and Kyuhyun shouting behind her, but she was off and running as quickly as her strong legs would take her.
She had no idea where she was at exactly, but she had a vague recollection of which way they had come to get there. She knew it was quite possible they’d catch up to her too, knowing at least Kyuhyun had his car and Sungmin and Kibum might’ve driven too, but she was far too stubborn to let that be her reason for giving up.
Everyone at the house had spent hours looking for Hyun-ok, but they’d had no luck. It was getting to the point where Kangin was half tempted to have Siwon notify the Korean authorities. Even if Hyun-ok was arrested, at least they would know she was alive.
Kangin sat in the kitchen once again, fingertips pressed to the side of his head, rubbing his temples in slow circles. Leeteuk sat in the chair next to him, gently rubbing his back. Even Leeteuk felt bad now. He felt bad for the things he’d done, he felt bad for how jealous he’d become, because as much as he hated to admit it, Hyun-ok really was like family. Just as Kangin said before about thinking it would be to quiet without Hyun-ok there, the silence in the house was almost overwhelming.
Yesung was in Heechul’s room trying to run a trace on Hyun-ok’s cell phone, but the place Kyuhyun had taken her was so far out that the phone had no signal and tracing it that way was of no use at the moment. Shindong was busy calling all of the people he knew in hopes of finding some sort of information and getting the word out on the street as to what happened. Surely someone somewhere would’ve heard something, but as of yet he wasn’t having any luck.
Heechul had gone out with Hangeng and Siwon for a third time to drive around the city to see if they could spot her, though he was positive that they’d already looked in every nook and cranny Seoul had to offer. The three of them were sitting at a stoplight with Siwon behind the wheel of Heechul’s car when the sound of some sort of commotion outside caught Heechul’s ear. He rolled the back passenger’s window down to listen to the various shouts of the people, and whatever seemed to be causing the disturbance was heading their way. It wasn’t until the source of the disturbance pushed its way rather roughly out of the crowd of people on the sidewalk that Heechul got a good look, eyes widening as his arms began to flail.
“There she is! There she is!”
The light had just turned and cars were beginning to move once more. Hyun-ok narrowly missed getting hit by one too as she darted across the street. Both Heechul and Hangeng launched themselves out of the car, leaving Siwon to drive a head to find some place to park.
Hangeng was much faster than Heechul, but even he had to struggle to keep up with Hyun-ok on the crowded streets. He’d tried shouting her name, but she didn’t slow at all. Hyun-ok wound up getting her feet tangled in the leash of some dog that had gotten away from its owner and she came crashing to the ground, tumbling on the sidewalk a bit. That was all the chance Hangeng needed to catch up with her, and he managed to scoop her up and into his arms before she had a chance to take off again. She started to struggle but he held her close to his chest, arms wrapped around her in a tight hug.
“Jade, it’s me, its okay!”
Her chest was heaving, gasping for breath as she looked up at him with wide eyes. He had no idea how long she’d been running, but she was gasping and drenched with sweat, so he was sure it’d been a while. The muscles in her legs were burning, bones were aching, and she felt a wee bit dizzy from where here head had hit the concrete when she fell. She quit struggling though, leaning in to rest her head on her brother’s chest just as Heechul managed to catch up with them, throwing his arms about her as well.
She could hear him speaking quite excitedly, but none of it was sinking into her brain, she was far too tired. She barely even realized she was moving when Hangeng began guiding her into the car once Siwon had found them, and he climbed into the back seat with his sister, letting Heechul sit up front with Siwon this time.
Rather than going back to the house though they went to a hotel, figuring if Kyuhyun tried to come after her again the first place he would look was the house. Once they checked in and got Hyun-ok settled, the rest of the ‘family’ was called, and hardly any time at all passed before they rushed over to be with her.
Once again they took turns watching over her while the others slept. Hyun-ok slept too, for a little while anyways, but eventually the aching in her feet and legs had woken her. She glanced over to see Ryeowook sound asleep in the chair next to the bed, and she shifted carefully to slide herself out of the bed, making as little noise as possible. She hissed in a bit of pain when her feet touched the floor, limping slightly as she walked out of the bedroom area. She paused for a moment in the living room area of the suite they had rented, looking over the forms of everyone piled on the various bits of furniture, even on the floor, as they slept. The dim light coming from the kitchen caught her attention though, and she hobbled on in, doing her best to put as little stress on her sore feet as she could.
Just like always it was Kangin seated at the table, though this time it was a bottle of water held in his hands, not a cup of coffee. Hyun-ok slid into one of the chairs, slouching down so she was able to put her feet up on the chair across from her.
“And you all thought I was the one with insomnia…”
Kangin blinked, snapping himself out of his thoughts as he looked over at her. “What?”
“You all thought I was the one who had insomnia. But you sleep less than I do. You’re always up at night…”
“I’m just a night person, I suppose.”
Hyun-ok laughed softly then, slouching down a little bit further in her chair. “You should drink some of Leeteuk’s tea… it’ll knock you right out.”
Kangin blinked, mouth dropping open as he looked to Hyun-ok. “You… you knew?” She rolled her eyes, laughing once more.
“I’m not stupid, Kangin, I was able to put two and two together.”
“But… you kept drinking it! He was trying to kill you…”
“And I was trying to die…” She shrugged slightly, lowering her eyes to focus them on the table in front of her. “Drug overdoses hurt less than slicing myself open, so I didn’t complain.” Kangin blinked, not quite knowing what to say to that.
“I don’t what you to think I wanted to die because of what you did, Kangin. You and I both know I could have left any time I wanted. Even if you would have turned me in, I could have run. I ran before, I could run again, you know that. I was just… tired of running, that’s all. I still am. I’m ready for this to be over. If Kyuhyun would have just… killed me right then and there, I would have been fine with it.”
“But you’re still young… you’ve got a lot of life left to live…”
Hyun-ok rolled her eyes, snorting softly. “What kind of life is it when you’re always running? Always looking over your shoulder, always untrusting? It’s not a life; it’s just an ongoing nightmare.”
“Are you going to turn yourself in then?”
She brought her shoulders up in a bit of shrug, lifting her eyes up to stare at the ceiling. “I’ve been thinking about it. But I want to make sure nothing happens to Hangeng first. And I want to make sure nothing happens to you all, either. Kyuhyun said the Chinese authorities will be here by tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have my mind made up by then.”
She reached out to steal Kangin’s water bottle then before giving his shoulder a bit of a nudge. “Go on and try to get some sleep, tomorrow’s going to be a busy day. The bed’s empty.”
Kangin knew he probably wouldn’t get any sleep at all, but he pushed himself up from the table and did as he’d been told, curling himself up in the bed that Hyun-ok had occupied not that long ago. He could still smell her scent on the sheets and couldn’t help but to clutch one of the pillows close to his chest as he turned onto his side, a frown playing upon his lips. He didn’t want tomorrow to come, not at all, because he couldn’t shake the feeling that tomorrow would be the last time he ever saw Hyun-ok,
There was no way for him to know then, just how right those feelings were.
A/N: So the end is indeed drawing near. I imagine there's only one or two chapters left for this, possibly an epilogue, but I'm not sure.
BUT... I'm suffering from one hell of a case of writers block. I forced myself to write this, and wound up with quite a headache. I know I still have another KangTeuk one-shot to write, as well as continuing the other series, but I can't get one single thing to come out of my brain.
Someone help, please?