Contract Killer [chapter 3]
Title: Contract Killer ~ What if tomorrow never comes?
Rating: PG-13 || Genre: Romance/Drama (slight humor, angst and death) || Status: ON-GOING || Chapters: 3/?
Pairing(s): Yunho /OC / Yoochun || Junsu/OC || Yoochun/ OC
Warnings: Murder, character death and most importantly: not yaoi (Hope you give it a try anyway ^_^)
Basic Synopsis: Their purpose is simple: they kill whoever they are paid to kill. They live in the shadows of their former selves, waiting for revenge, or for love. Yunho is a killer for hire who is suddenly assigned to kill the heir of one of the richest families in the country, but this is not an average mission. There's much more to it than meets the eye.
Junsu is the son of the richest and most powerful man in the country, a man who turned his own son into an assassin. A fake cold-hearted killer, a playboy who longs for love and care.
Previous: Teaser || Prologue || 1 || 2
Why is it that sometimes what we try our best to avoid, appears in front of us constantly like it wanted us to make us remember what we want to forget the most?
Why is it that what torments us the most seems to want to make us recall that if there is something that no one can run away from is their past?
“Yunho! Are you okay?” Jaejoong asked while the men just nodded his head.
“Yunho! It’s really you! It’s been such a long time.” A girl said, while approaching the man and giving him a hug.
“Yes…hi Yoon Jae. It has been a long time indeed…”
Yunho decided to leave the dance floor and go back towards the bar, sitting on the chair where he had been previously. He was followed by Yoon Jae, a girl that was with her, Yoon Ki and Jaejoong.
“It has been almost three years now.”
“How have you been?” Yunho asked, although he was not curious at all.
“I have been well I think. How about you? What are you doing now?”
Yunho tried to look cool but something was making him fail at it “Me… well, I am studying. I attend Seoul’s university of law.
“For real? Wow… well, I should not be that impressed. You have always been a genius but I didn’t know you had gone back to school.”
“What are you doing here? Do you usually come to this place?” He asked, trying to change the topic.
“No. It’s my first time. By the way, I didn’t even introduce my friend: this is Sung Ri. It’s her birthday so I decided to bring her here.”
“Hello” The girl greeted shyly
Yunho proceeded into introducing Jaejoong and Yoon Ki also and a few minutes later, Junsu came back from the dance floor, going straight to the bar and asking for something to drink only realizing later that there were new people around Yunho and his friends.
“I hope that’s a glass of water you’re holding”
“Sure, Jaejoong hyung. This is water… Hey, Yunho hyung, who are these…?” The boy asked, notoriously tipsy.
“An old friend of mine, Yoon Jae and her friend, Sung Ri.”
“Nice to meet you both” The boy said, smiling and earning a ‘hello’ from Yoon Jae, but nothing from her friend “What about your friend? Is she shy? Or she didn’t like meeting me?”
“Junsu!” Yunho warned
“Whaaaaat ~~ ?”
“Yoon Jae, can we go now?” Her friend asked
“Sure. Yunho, can I get your number? I’d like to see you again.”
“I’m not sure if it’s a good idea…”
“Please?” The girl begged and Yunho didn’t refuse this time.
Junsu kept looking at Yunho and both girls with suspicion in his eyes since he was trying to get the situation, but was failing completely.
A little while latter, the girls left the club.
“Who are they? That one that asked your number… is she your ex-girlfriend or something?” Junsu asked as soon as he could.
“No. Just a friend.” The man said, while taking a sip of a newly ordered drink.
“Of course… I don’t believe you. C’mon, tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell. She was my brother’s girlfriend.”
Junsu widened his eyes then. He could sense something fishy there “Let me guess: you liked her and she liked you too but then you didn’t want to go out with her because of your brother… I can totally picture the drama.”
“Just shut up Junsu! I think that ‘water’ is making you kind of hyper. C’mon, I’ll take you home” Jaejoong said, pulling Junsu’s arm
“No way I’ll leave my motorbike here. I’m okay, Joongie”
The blonde twisted his nose and tried to remain calm at the sound of the nickname he hated so much, but still managed to drag Junsu from the chair he was sitting on.
“I am leaving.” Yunho announced.
“I am not!!” Junsu declared, flailing his arms around, hitting Jaejoong while at it.
Yunho smiled and waved his hand slightly, leaving then.
As soon as the man got to his car, he drove his way to his apartment. Once inside the house, he took off his jacket and his cell phone rang. Looking at the screen he could see the name displayed there: «Yoon Jae».
“Hello.” He said, as soon as he pressed the button.
“Oh, hi. It’s Yoon Jae” She was stating the obvious and Yunho didn’t even bother to reply to that. “Are you home yet?”
“Yes, why?”
“Nothing… I was just trying to make out something to say. Er… do you have something important to do tomorrow?” she asked
“Yoon Jae, are you trying to tell me something?” Yunho inquired, obviously being impatient at her pointless conversation but she didn’t answer “I am tired now. Tomorrow I have a lot to do so…”
“Oh, I see. It’s okay I guess. You didn’t get mad because I called, right?”
“[Yes] No. I’ll hang up now okay? Good night.”
Yunho sighed as he hung up, throwing his cell phone to his bed. He started unbuttoning his shirt then and in front of the mirror he had in his bedroom, his reflection revealed his naked upper body marked by a few scars. From fights, from the years of training, from some risky missions and yet one of them was more evident than all the others: near his heart, carved into his skin but even more in his mind.
Every day for the past three years he wished that bullet got a few millimetres higher, straight to his heart, but now that scar made sure to remind him everyday that life was anything but perfect and that happiness was nothing but a word made out by idiots that didn’t know how life truly was.
A saddened look onto the frame carefully placed on his bed table; a memory of someone he had sworn to protect and in the end… the opposite happened.
Yunho took the frame into his hands and lay down on his bed. He put the object by his side, on the other pillow and kept staring at it until unknowingly falling in a slumber and once again his subconscious took him to the past… until that fateful day, three years ago.
~*~
“Ji Woo, hurry up!” Yunho yelled from the kitchen “Breakfast is ready. What is that boy doing? Ji Woo? No, not in the bathroom… Ji W…”
“Really?You really told him that? Haha”
Typical scenario: every morning Yunho woke up his brother and the boy would get up and take his bath, but for some reason every time Yunho called him again he would be somewhere in the house, talking on his phone. It wasn’t difficult to guess who he was talking to: Yoon Jae, of course. Both of them were dating for two years already and Yunho still didn’t understand how those two had so much to talk with each other early in the morning. Not to mention that they would meet again as soon as Ji Woo got to school.
“Ji Woo…” Yunho called, tapping his foot, while looking at the boy.
“Oh, hyung! I’m sorry my brother is here so we will see each other in a while okay? I lo… I love you” The last part was said in between whispers although Yunho still heard them and scoffed at it at once.
“You don’t have to whisper. It’s not like I am not use to you guys being mushy.”
“It’s not ‘mushy’, it’s love! You have to get a girlfriend, you know that? You are getting old and you never had a girlfriend.”
Yunho smacked his head at once and made him be quiet for the time being. Both of them headed to the kitchen then and while having breakfast, Yunho kept telling his brother how late it actually was.
“Where are you going so early in the morning, hyung?” The younger asked.
“To work, of course. I told you I was looking for a new part-time job.”
Ji Woo’s expression saddened at once then “Sorry…”
“For what?” Yunho questioned.
“For making you work so hard for me. I know you are tired and now you are getting two jobs at once to manage the house and me and I can’t do a thing but I promise that I’ll work hard as soon as high school is over.”
“What nonsense are you saying?” Yunho inquired, rough tone in his voice. “You will keep studying and you’ll get into college. You are going to the college you have always wanted to and follow your dream to be a great prosecutor. We have had this conversation several times now and you won’t argue with me on it. You know our parents would want the same for you don’t you?”
Ji Woo nodded.
“It’s not because they are not here anymore that you will have to give up on what you want to do and I won’t allow it either. Now finish your breakfast and don’t be late. I’ll go straight from the first part-time to the other but I’ll call you in-between schedules, okay?”
“Alright. Good luck on the first day” Ji Woo said, as he waved him goodbye while the older got ready to leave.
Yunho left and headed to the bus stop. Along the way he crossed paths with a boy that headed on the opposite direction and for a second, he looked familiar to him since he could have swore he had seen him somewhere, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on where.
He decided to ignore the strange feeling and keep walking.
Yunho called his brother at his lunch break, but for some reason the younger’s phone seemed to be disconnected. It was weird because he knew Ji Woo was on his lunch break also but maybe the device had ran out of battery so he decided to ring Yoon Jae instead.
“Hello? Yoon Jae, this is Yunho. Can I talk to Ji Woo, please? He is with you, right?”
“With Ji Woo? But he said he was not coming to school today.”
Yunho’s heart sank suddenly. “But he was ready this morning. Did he tell you why he was not going to school?”
“No. He just told me that something important had come up and he could be here today. Did something happen to him?”
“No, nothing happened. He must have forgotten to warn me. Well, thanks for the information anyway.”
Yunho couldn’t leave his job to go look for Ji Woo, so he kept trying to reach him through his cell phone but to no avail. When he got out, he tried once again and miraculously the ‘bip’ started and a couple of seconds later a familiar voice picked up the call. “Hyung?”
“YAH! Ji Woo! What happened? Why was your phone disconnected the entire day? And more importantly why did you ditch school?
“Something urgent came up and…”
Yunho cut his brother off immediately “Where are you now?”
“At the snack bar, near the docks.”
“What the hell are you doing at such a place? Never mind that, I’ll go get you right now.”
“No hyung, you don’t have t-”
“It’s okay, he can come” Yunho heard a strange voice say
“Is someone there with you?” The older one asked.
Ji Woo took a bit to speak again “Yeah, a friend.”
Yunho disconnected the call immediately. He didn’t know why he was getting all paranoid but somehow he felt like something was wrong.
Yunho reached Ji Woo’s location in a matter of minutes and when he got to the snack-bar he saw his brother sitting with someone in front of him. Someone that looked familiar to him.
The ‘stranger’ bowed his head as soon as Yunho approached their table but the man ignored him.
“What are you doing here? This is a dangerous neighbourhood. And what happened that was so important for you to miss school?”
“Sit down, please.” Ji Woo asked his brother and Yunho complied “Do you remember him?” Ji Woo asked, pointing at the boy in front of him.
“He is somehow familiar, but I can’t say I know him”
“It’s okay, I am a bit different after all and two years passed since the last time you saw me. I was Ji Woo’s best friend.” The boy said.
“You ARE my best friend. Don’t talk like you aren’t anymore.”
Yunho looked at the boy completely puzzled. So that’s why he looked so familiar to him but he was so different, that he’d never be able to remember his face if he didn’t know who he was. That boy had been his brother’s best friend since they were eight years old but suddenly, two years ago the boy had disappeared mysteriously and no one ever knew what ever happened to him. Ji Woo was depressed for awhile and suffered a lot after his friend’s disappearance.
“You… disappeared then and now…” Yunho tried
“I had to leave town. My family had a lot of debts and my father got money from loan sharks but they started threatening us and we had to run away. I couldn’t call anyone or say where I was then. Not until now.”
“He came by our house this morning. Now you understand right, hyung?”
Yunho remained silent. He kept looking at that boy in front of him and getting shivers. He didn’t seem like the same boy from two years ago; his eyes were empty like there was no life in them. Was he really just imagining all those things?
“Hyung, can he stay with us for today please?” Ji Woo asked, interrupting Yunho’s thoughts.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea given the fact that -”
“Hyung, please.”
Yunho gave up. He was not able to refuse anything his brother asked him after all. “Do your parents know where you are?”
“Yes.”
“Listen, I am doing this because my brother is asking me to, but I want to make clear that I don’t agree that he hangs out with you even though you are his best friend. I don’t want you to put him in danger.” Yunho warned him and the boy nodded.
The three of them left the place then and headed to Yunho and Ji Woo’s house. Ji Woo was smiling like an eight year old kid and even though Yunho didn’t agree with his friend’s presence, he was happy to see his brother’s genuine smile.
After getting home, Yunho headed to the kitchen in order to prepare dinner, being followed by the two boys.
“Can I help you? I’m good at doing that” The boy said, pointing at the vegetables that Yunho was cutting.
“Sure” Yunho said, while observing his brother’s friend and seeing how adept he was with the knife, cutting all the vegetables perfectly and quickly. “Wow. You look like a professional doing that, huh?”
The boy laughed then, while spinning the knife with his fingers “Almost, almost.”
Throughout the whole dinner, things were going smoothly while Ji Woo and his friend did most of the talking. Yunho just felt tired, he just wanted to sleep. Maybe two jobs were too much for him to handle after all and he only realized that he had fallen asleep after waking up, with a pain on his back from being bended over the table and having his face leaning on his arm. He looked at the time: almost midnight.
Dinner was practically left uneaten while the dishes were still on the table.
Why did no one eat that? Why was he feeling like something was not right? Why was he feeling an urge to look for Ji Woo?
[What the hell is going on here? Ji Woo never leaves anything on his plate…] The man thought while climbing the stairs that lead to the bedrooms. It could be just him being paranoid but still he needed to see if there was something going on.
Suddenly something took his attention; something that got on his hand when he put it on the banister while going up the stairs: sticky… red… blood.
His pace became frenetic, like his breathing and as soon as Yunho got to Ji Woo’s room and opened the door, he saw what he didn’t want to. His brother pinned against the room’s wall, having his shirt, stained red from his own blood, several cuts to his arms and chest and two hands around his neck.
“JI WOO! What are you doing, you devil?” Yunho quickly headed for Ji Woo’s friend, somehow managing to make him let go of his brother who fell on the floor, coughing and trying hard to breathe again.
Both Yunho and the other man fought, rolling around on the floor and Yunho managed to realize that although he was older than that boy, he was much stronger than him. His best option was to get his brother and escape so he was able to gather all his strength to hit him hard and throwing him to the farthest corner of the room, pick up Ji Woo and drag him out of the room and down the stairs, heading for the exit that would lead them to the backyard of the house.
“Stop right there!” Yunho heard as soon as he and his brother managed to go through the exit door.
“What do you want?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” The man asked “I want his life and yours by the way.”
“Why…are…you d-doing…this…” Ji Woo tried to say, although he was too weak to go on and his throat hurt from earlier. Instead of going on talking, he released himself from Yunho’s arms and approached his friend that looking at their distance getting short, pointed the gun at him.
Yunho decided to grab his brother again and get him far from the man again.
“You are my… friend.” The boy managed to say.
“I have no friends.”
“He is a devil, can’t you see that Ji Woo? He’s not your friend, he planned this whole thing when he came to our house and -”
“You talk too much” The man pointed his gun to Yunho then and suddenly a gunshot sound was heard. “Aish! Why did you have to get in the way now?” The man said, while Ji Woo’s body fell limply on the floor.
Yunho screamed his brother’s name as he saw what he had done and hurried to grab him in his arms while trying to make the boy talk to him. His eyes hurt like hell and he could feel the tears starting to fall onto his brother’s face.
“Hyung… are you… crying?”
“YOU!” Yunho shouted, while still crying his eyes out, but this time getting up and approaching his brother’s killer and a second gunshot was heard. This time there was no one to block it for him; a clean shot, clearly aimed at his heart. The intentions were clear and as soon as Yunho’s body fell on the floor, he could sense that his attacker was already gone.
For a second he managed to open his eyes although his vision was blurry and he was able to drag himself t where Ji Woo’s body was and grabbed his hand. He was not able to call him; his brother was dying and there was nothing he could do. Not entirely knowing how, he got out his cell phone from his pocket and opened it dialling ‘911’ with his long, shaky fingers but he never heard any reply coming from the other side of the line. His strength abandoned him before that.
Yunho woke up in a room with white walls, surrounded by machines that made so much noise that gave him a headache. He tried to talk, but he was weak and he could only see the startled nurses running back and forth, telling him that it was a miracle that he was alive. The bullet that hit him had missed his heart by only three millimetres and he had been in a coma for a whole month. It was truly a miracle.
Unfortunately that miracle was short lived and his world came crumbling down when a teary and completely transfigured Yoon Jae told him that God had looked after him but not his brother. Ji Woo had died even before getting to the hospital.
Two months later, after getting out of the hospital, Yoon Jae took him to where Ji Woo was buried and right there, in front of an eighteen ear old girl, he cried like there was no tomorrow, until there were no more tears left in him. He shed tears of anger, cursing himself for not being able to save the only person who mattered in his life, he cried for not knowing how to live from that moment on and most of all he cursed his own existence and the miracle that made him live.
~*~
“AH!” A whisper followed the frightening sensation he had after waking up with tears running down his cheeks. “Again the same dream.” He sighed.
If only it wasn’t a dream…
A/N: Chapter 3 is done. Can I get some feedback, please? *offers cookies*