Blood Brothers II Chapter 13
Title: Blood Brothers II
Pairing: KyuTeukChul, HanChul, YeWook, EunHae, SiChulfriendship, MiMin, possible other pairings in the future.
Rating: M
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Genre: romance, action, thriller
Summary: The cycle of revenge is never-ending, unless someone learns to forgive.
Chapter 12 < -------- > Chapter 14
---
Kangin was not pleased. Leeteuk was not answering his cell phone, no matter how many times Kangin had called. He’d left several rather snippy messages that promised painful punishment for leaving like that, but it didn’t seem enough to make a difference.
He’d turned his back for one second and when he’d turned again to ask Leeteuk a question he’d seen him standing in an elevator with Kim Fucking Heechul.
When the door had closed-to him punching the door amid the wary stares of Hong Kong Trading employees-he’d momentarily panicked. He’d stepped back the moment he’d realized that the elevator door was not going to open no matter how many times he pressed the button.
The twelfth floor. Right.
It took him only two seconds to see where the elevator was stopping before he was running to the stairwell.
Kangin made it up five flights of stairs before opening the door and charging down a hallway. He pushed past a man carrying a coffee tray and ignored the fact that he caused him to drop it and spill scalding liquid all over the men standing next to him.
They were unimportant.
What was important was the sight of Kim Heechul stepping out of an elevator-without Leeteuk. Why wasn’t Jungsu with him? But there he was, Kim Heechul, standing in a crowd of employees and looking every inch the guy he was.
Dammit, how could Kangin not have noticed that he was a dude before? He’d even thought Xi Che was hot. Something must have been wrong with him that day. But it didn’t matter. What did matter was that he’d found Kim Heechul and he wasn’t letting him get away this time.
Heechul lifted a hand to rub at his chest. The pain was getting worse. Was he having a heart attack? He really needed his pain killers. But now Jungsu was on an elevator going up to his office and he’d probably be heading back down to try and catch him any moment now.
Right. He’d head back to the apartment and take his painkillers there. Call a taxi first, of course. Yes. Wait…that would involve using his cell phone…which he didn’t have. He turned and spotted one of the secretaries that had worked in his office for most of Hong Kong Trading’s existence. “I need to borrow your phone-”
And that was when he was slammed against a wall. For a moment he wondered why this was his enemy’s favorite plan of attack-first Kyuhyun, now Kangin-because really, if they were going to kill him, there were easier ways to do it.
Then again, he thought belatedly, Kim Youngwoon was doing a much better job of it than Kyuhyun, if the arm pressed against his windpipe was any indication.
Kangin continued to press his arm against Heechul’s neck, effectively using the movement to hold him against the wall. “You’re coming with me.”
“Get the fuck off.” Heechul gasped, and his chest felt like it was going to explode. Security was shouting, coworkers looked like they wanted to help Heechul but were too afraid to get anywhere near the large man that was pinning him to the wall.
“We’re getting out of here. Both of us. And we’re going to find Jungsu and the three of us are getting into a taxi and going to our suite and we’re all going to have a nice long talk.” Kangin continued in a snarl, glaring at the man.
Man. He could see it now. Clearly. Kim Heechul was not a woman. There was nothing female about him, despite his delicate features. For some reason this infuriated Kangin even more…because if he’d seen it earlier, he could have saved Jungsu so much pain.
Heechul let out another choked cough. He was going to fire every single fucking employee in this hallway. They were all just screaming and flailing around-no one was actually trying to get Kangin off of him. He couldn’t breathe. His heart was throbbing even more…as if someone was sticking a red hot needle into his chest. Something hot was bubbling up his throat and he began to get lightheaded. He blinked a few times to try and fight off the dizziness.
He coughed again, and he looked on in mild surprise at the crimson droplets that splattered against Kangin’s face.
Kangin shut his eyes as a reflex as soon as the hot liquid spurted from Heechul’s lips. He dropped him, wiping the blood from his face and cursing.
Heechul fell to his knees, continuing to cough. The off-white floor was being stained crimson with every breathless wheeze. Someone was trying to help him up, someone else was screaming for a doctor. And distantly, as if through a fog, he could hear the sound of Leeteuk’s voice.
“Heechul! Heechul!”
Was it really him? He wasn’t sure. The world was going foggy. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he pitched forward.
---
The glass wall shattered at the impact of the bullet. The secretaries in the adjoining room let out several screams as they dove underneath their desks.
Zhou Mi grabbed the gun out of Hangeng’s hand and turned the safety on, looking around at the damage that had been done.
Sungmin had taken the moment of chaos to grab Kyuhyun and pull him out of the room toward the stairs. He knew he couldn’t take the elevator because they needed to get out of there, and fast. He didn’t know if there were other weapons on the Chinese man. Also, the moment security began barging in here, waving guns and tazers and who knows what else, it would be bad for the two of them.
People were yelling in Chinese, and Kyuhyun was yelling in Korean, but Sungmin continued toward the stairwell. Kyuhyun was practically kicking and screaming like a little child. Well, he was screaming. Loudly.
“I have to find Heechul!” Kyuhyun flailed, and the back of his hand connected with Sungmin’s jaw. The slap would have echoed if it weren’t for the screaming in the hallway. As it was, it barely even hurt. But it was enough to piss Sungmin off at Kyuhyun’s immaturity.
He slammed his hand into the back of Kyuhyun’s neck and grabbed him as he fell limp. He threw him over his shoulder and headed down the stairwell.
---
“One French vanilla cappuccino, bagel with low-fat cream cheese, and an orange.” Yesung paused in the doorway. “…why did you want low-fat cream cheese?”
Ryeowook rolled his eyes and went back to his paperwork.
Yesung placed Ryeowook’s breakfast on the edge of the desk and sat down in the chair beside his own. He opened his own breakfast and paused, feeling that someone was watching him. He looked up to see Ryeowook staring at the chip that was halfway to Yesung’s mouth.
“That’s your breakfast?”
“Yes.” Yesung said bluntly, taking a bite.
“Those are Doritos.”
Yesung grinned. “And they’re so good.” He continued snacking on his breakfast as Ryeowook turned away with an exasperated sigh and a shake of his head.
Yesung couldn’t help but smile wider at the sight. The two had become closer and closer since the morning that Yesung had woken up in Ryeowook’s apartment. Ryeowook had slowly opened up to Yesung to the point that they could talk without awkward silences or Ryeowook telling him he was a serial rapist.
Yesung was taking this all extremely well. Friendship was a good start. A very good one, and Yesung was not going to spoil it.
Yesung continued eating his Doritos, munching thoughtfully as he listened to the sound of keys clicking as Ryeowook entered some data into his computer. He’d been trying all day to think of a way to ask Ryeowook where Park Jungsu and Cho Kyuhyun were staying-without making it seem like he knew that they’d gone somewhere in the first place.
If Ryeowook knew that Yesung knew things-that he was being employed by the man that was the cause of Yumyeong Industry’s financial troubles-it wouldn’t go well. All of the work he’d done up till now to make Ryeowook trust him even the most minute bit would be for nothing.
Should he…tell Ryeowook? Relationships were built on trust, and maybe-his phone went off a second later, making him jump a bit in his chair. Ryeowook looked up from his computer screen, “…are you going to answer that?”
Yesung nodded, “Uh, yeah, sorry.” He reached into his pocket and flipped his phone open. “Hello?”
“Yesung-ssi!”
Yesung blinked. Lee Donghae? “Ah, hello.” He cleared his throat before standing, nodding at Ryeowook with a small smile before he headed out of the office. As soon as the door was closed he continued, “Donghae-ssi, what is it?”
“I’m sorry if I called at a bad time.” Donghae continued on the other end. “But um, I have someone who needs to ask you something.”
Yesung’s brow furrowed a bit in confusion, “Um…ok…?”
He heard the phone being passed to someone else and a younger voice, in accented Korean, spoke. “Kim Jongwoon?” The lack of the Korean didn’t make up for Yesung feeling rather offended at the absence of honorifics.
“Yes?” He snapped back informally.
There was a pause. Then the voice continued, “I need your help with something.” Formal, respectful. He’d taken the hint.
Yesung nodded to himself. “What do you need?”
“Can you hack into the security feeds of the surrounding buildings around Yumyeong?”
---
Heechul woke up feeling like he’d been kicked by a mule. He half expected to lift up his shirt and see a clear hoof print branded on his chest. He tried to sit up and was stopped by a nurse yelling at him in Chinese to lay back down.
For a moment he was disoriented and couldn’t comprehend the foreign tongue she was snapping at him in. His brain began to translate the words and he nodded, answering back, the Chinese slipping off his tongue easily as if he’d spoken Mandarin all his life.
“What happened?”
“Some shrapnel from the bullet in your chest.” The nurse answered back succinctly. “There was a small sliver of it and it lodged itself in your aorta. It moved after you fell unconscious.”
“Will I need surgery?”
“It’s still in there and it could cause problems. You’d best talk with the doctor.” The nurse nodded. “But you’re fine for now. You’ll be discharged later today.”
“Who brought me in?” Heechul reached up and rubbed his chest before he paused, looking down at the IV sticking out of his hand. Pain killers, he assumed.
“Your secretary.” The nurse continued, checking his charts.
Heechul nodded, “Send her in please.”
The nurse placed his chart on the end of his bed before heading to the door. A few seconds later his secretary walked in, looking frazzled. She relaxed a bit when she saw that Heechul was sitting up and looked healthy, but she became tense a second later when she realized that she was standing in a room with her boss.
“You called?”
“…the guy who attacked me…” he trailed off, unsure what he should say.
The secretary looked up from her PDA screen that she’d been scanning. “Ah. He was arrested. There was another man with him-”
“Arrested?” Heechul sat up straight in bed, despite the protests of the nurse in Mandarin as she ran back into the room. Heechul waved her off impatiently and turned back to his secretary. “I’m not pressing charges. Call the police station and tell them.”
The secretary nodded, even though she was staring at him like he was insane.
“Did you call Zhou Mi or Hangeng?”
“N-no.” She seemed even more unnerved with hearing about Director Zhou Mi and Manager Hangeng without titles at all. She took it in stride, however.
“Good. I knew there was a reason I kept you around. Congratulations, you’ve also been promoted. As long as you keep all of this a secret from Director Zhou Mi and Hangeng, understood?”
The secretary nodded again quickly, looking confused, pleased, and rather terrified all at the same time.
Heechul paid barely any attention as he pressed the button for the nurse and turned back to the secretary with his trademark smirk. “Good. Now call a taxi. Also, I need a new cell phone.”
---
There was one officer in the entire department that spoke Korean.
Leeteuk had gone with Kangin to the station, trying to explain to the security guards that this was all a mistake, as well as trying to ask them where Heechul had been taken. Unfortunately, not speaking any Chinese had turned the entire situation into a fiasco.
So now Leeteuk was sitting in the waiting room, trying to decide whether or not he was going to need to call his lawyer to get Kangin out. The officer had talked with him earlier and asked him about the entire train of events but well, since he had only come in as Heechul was collapsing and coughing up blood.
The thought of Heechul and blood brought back unwanted memories. He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath. His fingers-trembling-reached into his pocket and he pulled out a cell phone. Not his own, of course. No, it was slim and sleek and fashionable, and the charm on it was a little cat-what was the Japanese name for it? A Maneki Neko, that’s right.
But it wasn’t the cell phone charm that was holding Leeteuk’s attention. He turned Heechul’s phone back on, surprised that there was no password lock. He began scrolling down the contacts. He was relieved that the names were in Korean and not Chinese.
The first number was Hankyung. That was Heechul’s bodyguard, wasn’t it? The one that was Director Gam’s-Zhou Mi’s-assistant as well. Why was he the first number-and the first speed dial? Second speed dial…Seasonings? Who on earth could that be?
Third number: Magnae. Fourth: Mochi. Why were all of these names just nicknames? Who were these people? He continued scrolling down and paused. He stared down at the screen and couldn’t help the small smile that began to tilt his lips.
He let out a small laugh-that loud, obnoxious laugh that Kangin and Kyuhyun always made fun of.
Cho Kyuhyun and Park Jungsu. Both numbers were in his phone-still in his phone. Heechul hadn’t deleted their numbers. It meant he still cared, right? It had to mean that. Leeteuk refused to believe it was anything else.
“Jungsu, ya, are you listening?”
Leeteuk blinked, closing the phone and shoving it in his pockets as he stood. Kangin was walking toward him with the one police officer there that spoke basic Korean. Kangin grinned at Leeteuk, “They said I can go.”
Leeteuk blinked. “What?”
“Director Gam Xi Che is not pressing charges.” The officer said in his broken Korean. “Go. You go now.” He turned away and began walking back toward his desk.
“He’s not pressing charges so…he’s alive, right?” Leeteuk asked hopefully.
The officer turned and stared at him like he was crazy. “Of course. If he were dead, that would be murder.” He walked off shaking his head and mumbling about foreigners.
“You didn’t kill him…”
“Of course I didn’t.” Kangin scoffed, “All I did was pin him to the wall. I didn’t stab him or anything.” And he motioned dramatically to his stomach. “I, on the other hand, was stabbed in the line of duty and I think-”
“That was nine months ago.” Leeteuk whispered, but he wasn’t really paying attention to Kangin’s story anyway. “Why do you think he started coughing up blood? Is he still injured from the gunshot?”
Kangin sighed. He wasn’t going to get anywhere with this conversation, it seemed. “I’m assuming we’re not telling Kyuhyun, Siwon, or Sungmin about this?
---
Siwon had just ordered himself something to eat when Sungmin came in carrying an unconscious Kyuhyun.
He pushed himself away from the bar but was stopped by Sungmin who shook his head. “I got him.” He was panting, probably from carrying Kyuhyun all the way from-“You two went to the new Hong Kong Trading building today,” Siwon breathed out. “What happened?”
“We met Zhou Mi.” Sungmin hissed out, and it was easy to see his hatred for the tall Chinese man. He stilled a bit as he placed Kyuhyun on the couch. “…and Kim Heechul’s lover.”
Siwon spit out the mouthful of water he’d just drank. He coughed, patting his chest. “W-what?”
“His lover.” Sungmin continued. “...it was something I should have predicted. Somehow I should have warned Kyuhyun about it and talked it over with him so that he’d be prepared-” He stopped, clearing his throat.
Siwon shook his head. “It’s not something you could have prevented.” He wiped a few droplets of water from his mouth and leaned back against a bar stool. “…how did Kyuhyun take it?”
“As well as we could have figured. He yelled. Got angry…probably would have cried if we hadn’t been shot at.”
Siwon spit out another mouthful of water, slamming his glass on the table. “What?”
“…Kim Heechul’s lover. He pulled a gun on us.”
Siwon was halfway to the door before Sungmin could even process that he’d moved.
“Where are you going?”
Siwon didn’t turn back as he threw the door open. “To talk with an old friend.”
---
Heechul was grading papers in his office when the boy walked in. He’d had his secretary drive him to his apartment where he’d grabbed his pills and his papers before taking him to the University. She would be back later that day with a new cell phone for him.
He didn’t want to be at home when Hangeng and Zhou Mi returned. He didn’t feel like he’d be able to handle that right now. He was still flustered and his chest hurt and well, he was a little afraid of what the doctor had told him.
Surgery was the best option. Highly recommended. They couldn’t do it if Heechul didn’t consent, of course, but he’d been certain the doctors were going to tie him to a bed and do the surgery then and there.
Heechul had told the doctor that he needed to talk with his family first. The doctors had bought it. It wasn’t that Heechul wasn’t going to get the surgery done. He would, but not now. Not when he would be fine for a while and there were so many other things he needed to deal with.
The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in a hospital and unable to escape when Kyuhyun and Leeteuk finally tracked him down.
Also, he needed to lecture Siwon about his surgery skills. Seriously, it was his fault the shrapnel was there in the first place, right? He laughed to himself. That would be an interesting talk. No, he wouldn’t tell Siwon at all. The younger boy would cry and feel guilty and that was not something he wanted.
Speaking of younger boys…the student was standing in front of him and shifting nervously, eyes darting around the office and at everything but Heechul himself.
Heechul slipped off his reading glasses, “Are you here to talk about your paper?”
“Hm?”T he boy-Zhu Jianjun-fidgeted, blinked, and shook his head. “No, I thought I did fine on my paper.”
“Well, I guess that works if we’re all settling for ‘fine’ or ‘satisfactory’ these days. Until you get a perfect score on one of my essays, there’s always something to ask.” Then again, Heechul had never given anyone a perfect score on an essay. He shook his head, “Well, what is it then?”
“I like you.”
Well that hadn't been what he was expecting. Heechul blinked. “Hm?”
“I know you probably…probably don’t like boys and that you’ll think I’m sick but I like you! I can’t stop thinking about you. I…” Jianjun was panicking now, sweating. He was pale, but his eyes glowed with fervent, innocent passion and determination.
“I like boys.”
“Huh?” Jianjun blinked, his determination and passion flickering like a candle at Heechul’s admission.
“I like boys.” Heechul repeated, leaning back in his chair. “But not boys that are my students.”
“I’ll drop your class!” Jianjun continued in a rush, hopeful. “I won’t tell anyone. I swear I won’t. If it’s just because I’m your student I’ll-”
“I have a boyfriend already.” Heechul amended calmly. “And don’t ever disappoint me again by saying you’ll drop my class for a date.”
“A…boyfriend? Who?”
“Him.” Heechul said cheerfully, pointing to the man that had just walked into his room.
Siwon bowed hurriedly, “Sorry to interrupt, I didn’t know you were having a meeting-what?” He’d barely caught on to the last part of Heechul’s comment.
“We’re about to go out for something to eat. I’m sorry Jianjun. Now how about we both forget this ever happened, alright? You’re one of my brightest students. I wouldn’t want what we just talked about to ruin your chances of a better education. It won’t change the way I teach, so I hope it won’t change the way you learn. Understand?”
Jianjun looked lost, humiliated, angry. Heechul refused to meet his gaze. This was the best way. He didn’t want to give the boy false hopes-and Jianjun was one of his best and most promising students. He actually studied-Heechul didn’t like to think that it was all just to impress him.
He hoped they could put this behind them. He grabbed Siwon’s arm and steered him out the door and down the hall before anyone else could say anything more.
They were walking down the steps of the main lecture hall when Siwon finally spoke. “You’re awfully nice to your students.”
“Those kids will be running the world one day. I’d rather they be educated when they take over. I don’t want an idiot destroying the world while I’m stuck in some retirement home.”
“That’s selfish of you.”
“I’m a selfish kind of guy…” Heechul trailed off. “Now where are we going to eat? Want Chinese?”
“I’m also not your boyfriend.” Siwon huffed. That’s right, he’d come here to talk to Heechul about this whole ‘lover’ business…
Heechul gave a rakish grin. “Want to be for today?” And he looped his arm through his and dragged him toward his car.