fic: A Hundred and One Little Complications, Chapter 4
Title: A Hundred and One Little Complications, Chapter 4
Length: chaptered
Author: M_K Yujji
Rating: PG-13 (rating subject to increase in later chapters)
Genre: AU
Pairing/Characters: Doojoon, Gikwang, Yoseob, Dongwoon, ofc of the child type
Warnings: RPS
Disclaimer: Though real people are used as characters, this fic bears no resemblance to Real Life and these people are not owned by me.
Comments/Notes: Partially inspired by snb123's spy prompt and this picture. ^_^
Please forgive any oddness. :x A lot of this was written while I've been sick and in between writing drabbles.
Previously: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
Summary: Doojoon is a gay reporter with too many enemies in too many places, the divorced father of a beautiful little girl. Gikwang is his deceased ex-wife’s last husband and the closest thing he has to family since his blood relatives disowned him. When an assassination attempt almost kills them all, Gikwang calls in a favor.
As if Doojoon's life isn't already complicated enough...
~*~*~
The accident had kept Cheon out of school and at home for weeks, but it was hard to justify keeping her home any longer. Especially with Yoseob around to point out that whoever was after him was just that… after him.
The mercenary hadn’t tried to sugar coat his opinion at all. He felt that Cheon was far safer at school than hanging around the house with Doojoon.
Doojoon only allowed himself to be convinced after Yoseob had rolled his eyes and commented that the school was a sniper’s worst nightmare, full of little witnesses who had a tendency to start screaming whenever strange men with guns started traipsing the halls looking for one little girl in a sea of them. Then he’d snorted and shook his head, a vague sense of admiration in his tone when he’d pre-empted Doojoon’s fear that someone could have Cheon called to the office. Trust me, Doojoon. The principal at her school is a dragon. No one even gets on that campus without a provably valid reason to be there. And valid ID. If only you could both hide out there for the duration.
It was the voice of experience and Doojoon wasn’t sure he really wanted to know why Yoseob had been snooping around Cheon’s school.
So on Monday, Cheon returned to school.
It was a nerve wracking experience for Doojoon, far worse than he’d have thought it could be. Even her first day of kindergarden hadn’t had him biting his nails quite so badly.
By noon, he knew he was driving Yoseob crazy and he’d already called the school a handful of times just to check up on her.
When he reached for the phone once more, a large hand gripped his and took it away. “Look, I know you’re having some serious separation anxiety here, but you’re going to have the dragon lady down on your head if you bother her again.”
Yoseob’s voice was soft and sympathetic, but he’d clearly had enough.
“I just… Anything could happen…. She doesn’t even have Gikwang with her!”
“Doojoon. She’s safe.”
“You don’t understand. She’s not your daughter.”
The blonde actually flinched away, though Doojoon wasn’t sure why. His tone hadn’t been the best, perhaps, but it was nothing less than the truth.
What did Yoseob truly know about sending one’s little girl off into possible danger?
“No. But she is Gikwang’s and he trusts my judgement.” Yoseob’s eyes were hard as he pulled away from Doojoon.
The urge to apologize weighed down on Doojoon, though he wasn’t sure that he had any reason to apologize. “Yoseob…”
“Grab your shit and let’s go.”
“Yoseob.” He was really going to have to get a better handle on his reflex to reach out and grab the other man. The mercenary didn’t respond to it nearly as well this time as he had the last.
Doojoon found himself twisted around and pressed painfully against the nearest wall. “Look. Save it. You’re worried. I get it. But if you don’t start trusting me to know what I’m doing, you’re going to make my job a lot harder and it’s probably going to get all of us killed.”
The pressure against his back increased for a moment, then he was released entirely.
As he eased away from the wall, he rolled his shoulder experimentally. Most of the time he barely even thought about the fact that he’d also been in the crash. Despite a relatively minor surgery on his shoulder, his own injuries had been confined largely to bruises and bumps which had mostly faded and healed in the weeks since he’d left the hospital. Yoseob’s rough treatment was a sharp reminder, though.
“Come on,” Yoseob said from the door, his voice still tight.
“Where are we going?” Doojoon asked, aiming for casual and unruffled. He wasn’t sure how successful he actually was, though.
“Out. If we stay here all day, I’ll end up shooting you myself.”
Doojoon shut up after that.
At least until they got down to the garage and Yoseob tossed the bags he was carrying into the small, blue sedan. “Umm… I thought we couldn’t drive it?”
“…” Yoseob sighed and shook his head. “You didn’t even notice me leave the house, did you?”
He hadn’t, in fact. “Err…”
“That inattention to your environment is going to get you killed faster than your mouth.” He rolled his eyes and headed for the driver’s side door.
Doojoon thought he ought to protest that automatic presumption, but the truth was that he was a horrible driver and he didn’t much enjoy the stress of it. There was a reason Gikwang usually drove him around.
He slid into the passenger seat meekly, only flinching slightly when the seat belt pressed into his shoulder.
Yoseob’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly before he sighed again and twisted around to face Doojoon. “Let me see.”
“It’s fine,” Doojoon muttered.
“Let me see anyways.”
Big hands eased his button down off his shoulder and Doojoon just sighed and went with it, pulling a leg up on the seat and letting himself be turned towards the other. He was starting to understand that arguing with Yoseob was pointless. At least he’d thought to pull a muscle shirt on underneath.
Yoseob’s hands were gentle as they probed the area. The tip of his tongue was sticking out the corner of his mouth and his brow was wrinkled in concentration as he pushed himself up onto his knees and edged closer so that he could see the back of Doojoon’s shoulder more easily.
Though he managed to stifle most of a laugh, Doojoon still made enough of a noise that Yoseob shot him an inquisitive look. “Hmm?”
Doojoon shook his head and grinned. Somehow he didn’t think that mentioning how silly Yoseob looked like that was going to win him any favors. “Nothing.”
Though he looked suspicious, Yoseob let it go. He frowned at Doojoon’s shoulder before looking back up, regret and something else Doojoon couldn’t quite identify on his face. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Doojoon shrugged his good shoulder. “I didn’t mean to piss you off.”
“I keep forgetting you don’t know me as well as I know you.” Yoseob sighed, his tone apologetic as he shifted back to sit in his seat properly and get the car started. “It’s hard to remember that you don’t have any reason to trust me, yet.”
“I don’t have any reason to not trust you, either,” Doojoon replied. He wondered just how well Yoseob knew him. Considering how long the other had been watching him, probably better than just about anyone else. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
It had been another day of waking up with Yoseob clinging to him, though this time the younger man had been more or less fully clothed. There hadn’t been any time to linger and enjoy a lazy morning, though. Too much to get done so that Cheon could return to school and the issue of whether or not she should had been hanging over their heads all morning.
Doojoon still wasn’t sure that letting her go had been the right thing to do, but he’d been outnumbered three to one.
And he didn’t have any reason not to trust Yoseob.
Indeed, if Yoseob had been the one to extract him from the rather sticky situations he’d gotten into at the club, then just the opposite was true.
At least the tension had dissipated some, even if Doojoon’s shoulder ached again. He stretched his legs and settled back into the seat. “So… where are we going?”
The other man shrugged and backed out of the parking spot, answering the question more easily this time around. “I need to pick up some files from DW. Go over some stuff with him.”
“Ah. So I get to meet the mysterious DW after all?”
Yoseob’s lips quirked, a smug tilt of secret knowledge to his smirk that Doojoon wasn’t sure he liked at all. “Of course.”
“Oookay…” Doojoon cast an odd glance at Yoseob, but the mercenary refused to say anything more.
There was a noodle shop on the ground floor of the mixed use brick building they pulled around. A sign advertised a mixed martial arts dojo on the second.
Doojoon knew the building, though he’d never ventured further than the noodle shop.
As Yoseob led him through a back door, an elderly woman peered around a corner at them and started a tirade at the mercenary that Doojoon would have had a hard time following even if he had any clue what language she as speaking.
Yoseob answered easily in the same language, waving his hands in a universal sign of‘don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it’.
She huffed and rolled her eyes, but the torrent of verbal abuse stopped. Then she got a good look at Doojoon. Her expression went sly and she nudged Yoseob and whispered something at him.
Yoseob smiled at Doojoon and nodded. There was a slight dusting of pink along his cheeks as he said something else. Doojoon caught his name in there somewhere, but that was about it.
“Ahh…” The old woman moved forward and poked at Doojoon’s arm before addressing him with heavily accented words. “You. You be good to this boy, hear? He’s good boy.”
Bemused, Doojoon dipped a polite bow and nodded in agreement. “Yes, ma’am.”
She gave him a severe look like she didn’t quite believe him, but before she could say anything further a voice called out from the direction of the noodle shop and she rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded like it was probably a plea to the heavens for strength and patience.
She patted Yoseob’s arm on her way back past him.
The mercenary was laughing softly as he led Doojoon over to an ancient looking freight elevator.
“Who was that?” Doojoon asked, wondering if there were any more grandmotherly types waiting in the shadows to swoop in and protect Yoseob from his dastardly charms. As if it was Yoseob who needed protection from him and not the other way around.
“Nguyen Anh. The noodle shop is hers. It’s a family business.”
“You speak Vietnamese?”
Yoseob shrugged with a grin, pulling the iron wrought door of the elevator down. “Among other languages, yes.”
“Why?” Doojoon shifted uneasily and wrapped both hands around the waist high railings on the inside walls. Nothing about the elevator felt particularly safe, but Yoseob didn’t seem concerned about it.
Another shrug. “Why not?” Then he sighed as the elevator shambled and rocked its way on up the shaft. “I have an ear for accents and it’s useful in my line of work to be able to understand the people I may encounter.”
The elevator shook and wobbled slightly as it came to a stop. Doojoon was much more comfortable once Yoseob got the door open and let him off. He took an easier breath and glanced back at his companion. “How many languages do you speak?”
“Err… Bits and pieces of a lot, but fluent in…” Yoseob’s eyes went slightly distant and his brow wrinkled as he counted under his breath. “Eight? I think?”
“More like ten, Seob.”
Doojoon glanced towards the new voice, his eyes widening slightly in recognition. “You!”
The elevator had opened up into a small foyer that, in turn, opened up into a large, loft style apartment.
The tall young man leaning against the doorway between foyer and loft, grinned and tipped an imaginary hat at the reporter. His sharp, exotic features gave him a foreign look, though his accent said he was born and bred right there in the city. “Afternoon, Yoon. Been awhile.”
Yoseob just laughed, ducking under the other man’s arm and motioning for Doojoon to follow. “DW, you already know Doojoon. Doojoon, you already know DW.”
“Dongwoon.” He should have at least been somewhat suspicious as soon as he’d seen the noodle shop, but Doojoon wasn’t sure how he could have even considered that the shy, secretive Dongwoon who occasionally gave him information in exchange for food was also Yoseob’s DW.
Dongwoon’s grin only grew. “You haven’t used the intel on those bank accounts yet, I noticed.”
“I was working on that story when… “ Doojoon shrugged, sighing and scratching his head a little. He stopped in the middle of the lower half of the loft, glancing around. An open door under the stairs revealed a multitude of computer screens and other hardware. The entire place - what he could see of it - was just as neat and tidy as Doojoon’s condo now was. “Everything happened.”
“Mmhmm…” Dongwoon moved around him, headed for the open kitchen. “If you need anything else for it, let me know. Tea? Soda?”
“Coke?”
“Yuck.” Yoseob reappeared, coming down the stairs with something white in his hands. “I don’t see how you guys can drink that stuff.”
Doojoon hadn’t even realized he’d gone up.
“That’s because your taste buds are wired all weird, Seob.” Dongwoon passed Doojoon a Coke and tossed Yoseob a bottled tea. “Along with the rest of you. Cute shirt, by the way. Did you steal it from some poor ten year old?”
The shirt in question was bright green with big cartoon eyes beaming from the front and a cartoon tail curling up the back. The banana yellow pants didn’t really help with the entire ‘ten-year old’ look. Doojoon had only barely noticed the outfit up until Dongwoon had pointed it out. Most of the time he’d spent with Yoseob, the younger man had been wearing something bright and flashy, often bordering on juvenile.
He supposed Dongwoon was probably more accustomed to the somber black military style outfit Yoseob had been wearing the first time Doojoon had met him.
“Hey. Respectful, brat.” Yoseob made a face. “One of these days I’m going to throw you out, seriously.”
“Sure, Seob. Keep telling yourself that.” Dongwoon didn’t seem very concerned about the threat as he disappeared into the computer room, only to reemerge moments later with a handful of files. “Then you’d have to do all the research yourself. I know who our would be killer is and who hired him.”
Even Yoseob looked startled as he dropped whatever he’d gone up and fetched over the back of the couch. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Okay, how the hell did you figure that out so fast? Last thing I knew you were bitching about him having too many enemies to narrow it down enough.”
Dongwoon held up the files. “It wasn’t that hard. The old matriarch in question is attempting to hire you to take care of both Yoon and her first assassin.”
“That’s… ironic.” Yoseob snorted and took the files, whistling low as he glanced over the contents. “She tried to be cheap and found out the hard way that you get what you pay for.”
Doojoon was starting to feel decidedly queasy at the idea that a phone call could have been the difference between having Yoseob protecting him and having Yoseob killing him. He had to remind himself that if the mercenary wanted him dead, he’d had plenty of opportunities over the years to accomplish it.
“I also got back the info on the guys tailing you. You were right. Both former military. Now they’re in the employ of one Kim Heechul. Bodyguard, investigation, whatever he needs.”
“Isn’t Kim some kind of gang lord?” Doojoon latched onto the random question, trying to force his mind away from other things.
Both men gave Doojoon a condescending look before Yoseob sighed and shook his head. “No. And I’d advise you not to call him one to his face because what he is is a bad man to have for an enemy. I wonder why he has his guard dogs following you around, though….”
“That I don’t know.”
He settled down on the couch and spread the papers over the coffee table, motioning for Doojoon to come sit next to him.
“I’ve done some work for him before. With Kim, it’s usually best to just ask rather than guess.” Yoseob shrugged and held up a black and white picture of a dour looking old woman so that Doojoon could see it. “So what’d you do to piss this one off?”
Biting his lip, Doojoon took the picture and stared at it for a long moment before shrugging. A small sticky was stuck to the bottom corner. Choi Bae Sul. “I’ve never seen this woman in my life. And I don’t recognize the name, either.”
Yoseob hesitated, clearly not having expected that answer, before pulling out another picture. “And this one?”
Ten pictures later, Doojoon had only recognized two of them even vaguely and one of those had been one of the police officers he’d had to deal with during the accident ‘investigation’, or lack thereof, as Yoseob suspected.
“So you’re not doing any stories on any of these guys?”
Doojoon shrugged apologetically. “No. Dongwoon knows what my current project is, I got a lot of my intel from him.”
“Bank fraud implicating some fairly highly placed politicians, but he’s right… nothing has pointed to any of these people or their organization.”
Sitting back, Yoseob scratched under his chin with a disgruntled look. “I suppose the why isn’t as important as the who, but it’s kind of aggravating. It’s bad enough that there are so many people with real reasons to want you dead. It’d be nice to know why other random creepers are coming out of the woodwork to take crack shots at you.”
The mercenary ran a hand over the first file Dongwoon had given him. “She hired this guy a year ago… What were you working on then?”
“Umm…” Doojoon bit his lip and thought back, trying to pinpoint a project that might have led to this. “The expose on the underground clubs… I did a piece on the prime minister… Uhh…” He shrugged. “I had a handful of things I was trying to finish up. Only half of them ever got printed. The club thing was big news for a couple of nights, but the political piece got squashed pretty hard. It ended up buried in the back of the editorial section with a big disclaimer about how the views of the reporter do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.”
“I can’t really imagine the prime minister hanging out with this crowd,” Yoseob replied with a sigh.
“You’d be surprised.”
Yoseob quirked a grin. “No, I really wouldn’t. I know the kind of contacts he cultivates and this isn’t it.”
“Hey,” Dongwoon interjected, bumping knees with Yoseob from the other side where he’d settled. “Doesn’t he still owe you?”
Doojoon blinked, glancing between them. “The prime minister owes you money?”
“Please,” Yoseob rolled his eyes. “Money is easy to come by. Favors, on the other hand…”
“I should not be hearing this.” Doojoon was tempted to cover his ears. He was an investigative reporter. It was his job to expose corruption and other crimes happening in his city.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to,” came the cheeky reply.
“You don’t answer the ones I do want the answers to, how was I supposed to know you’ll answer the one’s I don’t?”
Dongwoon laughed. “Aw, Seob, have you been giving him a hard time?” Then the younger man leaned across the mercenary to grin at Doojoon. “The trick, see, is to ask the right questions and maybe kinda sweet talk him a little. Because when it comes to you, he’s totally -” He cut off with a yelp, twisting to pout at the scowling mercenary. “What’d you do that for?”
“Isn’t there work you should be doing?”
“So violent…” Dongwoon sounded more amused than anything as he pushed himself up. “I do, actually. Did you bring it?”
“Yeah, hold on,” Yoseob left the couch and went to grab one of the bags he’d brought from Doojoon’s. A pair of suspeciously familiar external drives were pulled out and passed to Dongwoon along with a third. “That’s everything I could find. Anything else is still in his head.”
“Hey, aren’t those mine?” He scrambled up after them, hoping he was wrong, but pretty sure he wasn’t.
“Yup.”
Neither men seemed the least bit apologetic about the fact that they were basically stealing a life’s worth of hard work and research.
“Guys?”
Yoseob waved Dongwoon along and stopped Doojoon from following him into the computer room. “He’ll be careful with them and when he’s done cross referencing everything, he’ll give them back.”
“But you already know who’s after me, right? So you can just… go… do whatever it is you do… and make them go away, right?” Wasn’t that how this entire scenario was supposed to work? Yoseob finds the bad guys, deals with them, and then goes on his merry way so that Doojoon and Cheon - and Gikwang - could get back to their lives without looking over their shoulders every minute of every day?
“It’s not that easy,” Yoseob replied, amusement on his face as he shook his head. “Just because we think Choi is the head of this, doesn’t mean that she’s acting alone or that she isn’t just a front for someone else. And the whole lack of motive thing is going to annoy the crap out of me until we figure out what’s going on. DW’ll set up a meeting between me and Choi… Until then, the more we know, the better off we are.”
“Wait, what?” Doojoon pulled away, alarmed. “You’re actually going to .. I thought you were supposed to protect us, not-”
“Doojoon!” Yoseob’s hands settled on his hips and he scowled at the older man. “Seriously, calm down. I’m not taking a contract to kill you. But it will give me more information about this first assassin and maybe about why you’re being targeted in the first place.”
It was all too confusing for Doojoon. Both Yoseob and Dongwoon seemed to take it for granted that he had any idea what they were talking about, their explanations for anything half-assed at best and leaving him with more questions than they answered.
He took a deep breath and brushed a hand over his eyes.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I just… I’m tired of being scared.”
He’d never had to deal with this sort of thing before. Accidents, heat of the moment fire fights… Most of the dangers in his life were the kind that jumped at him without warning, giving him no time to really think about the danger until it had passed. This kind of slow boil while he drove himself insane with paranoia and fear for his family was completely out of his realm of experience.
Gentle hands pulled his down before settling on his waist and pulling him close. Yoseob’s face was soft with sympathy and concern as he edged up into Doojoon’s personal space. “I know. It’ll be okay, though. I promise.”
Doojoon sighed, a little unsteady, and let himself rest against Yoseob’s strength for a moment. He wanted to believe that Yoseob could keep that promise. “Will it?”
He hated the needy thread to his voice, hated more than anything that this entire situation had taken away his ability to stand on his own two feet and protect and provide for his daughter the way he was supposed to be able to.
He hated that he had to rely on Yoseob’s ability to fulfill such a promise when he should have been able to take care of himself.
One of Yoseob’s hands came up to brush his hair back and Doojoon got caught up in the depths and sincerity of those dark eyes. “Yes. It will.”
Swallowing hard, Doojoon held still as Yoseob angled up to kiss him softly. It wasn’t the teasing exploration of their first kiss or the cheerful peck of their second. It wasn’t a kiss that spoke of in the moment availability. It was soft and sweet and full of all kinds of promises.
It was the kind of kiss you gave someone when you meant it, not when you were looking for a good time.
“As much as I hate to interrupt, I’ve got some phone calls to make and you guys have a kid to pick up.”
Doojoon jerked back at the sound of Dongwoon’s apologetic voice, his eyes widening and his face flushing.
What was it about Yoseob that he kept losing control of himself like this? Hadn’t he already decided that attractive or not, willing or not, this was one place he really did not need to be going?
And how could he have really let himself forget, even for a second, that his daughter was still at school without any protection other than whatever the school itself offered? He’d barely thought of her since they’d arrived and that was all kinds of unforgivable.
Yoseob’s face had closed down though his breath was slightly ragged. He shut his eyes and rubbed a hand through his hair. “Right. Call me when the meet is set up. And call Taec. See if he’s available.”
“Will do.” Dongwoon tapped his head and aimed a salute towards Yoseob. “You manage to get all my babies all positioned and on?”
“Yeah, I finished this morning. We’ll test them through once we get back to the condo. After dinner, probably.”
“Babies?” Doojoon arched a brow, his mind drawn back to the conversation and away from the blonde finally.
Dongwoon grinned. “You know. Surveillance spy stuff. Cameras, bugs, stuff like that. My babies. I try to keep up with all the latest in-”
“DW, we have got to get you a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Your techno-obsession borders on unhealthy.” Yoseob sighed and shook his head. “Come on, Doojoon. If you let him get started, he never really stops.”
That got a snicker out of Dongwoon. “Oh yeah, like you have any room to talk about obsessiveness, Seob. Maybe I should just tell Doojoon here all about-”
“And now we’re going,” Yoseob said hastily grabbing Doojoon’s arm and dragging him bodily towards the door. “Before I have to kill my partner for stupidity.”
“Umm..” Doojoon let himself be pulled along, but really, he was kind of curious to know what it was that Yoseob was so intent on hiding from him. He already knew the mercenary occasionally killed people and apparently had a hand in the dark side of their government. How much worse could it really be, after all?
“Bye, guys~” He glanced back to see Dongwoon wiggling fingers at him in a semblance of a wave and waved back with the hand that Yoseob wasn’t currently trying to separate from his body in his haste to get the reporter out of the room.
~*~*~
go to Chapter 5
Length: chaptered
Author: M_K Yujji
Rating: PG-13 (rating subject to increase in later chapters)
Genre: AU
Pairing/Characters: Doojoon, Gikwang, Yoseob, Dongwoon, ofc of the child type
Warnings: RPS
Disclaimer: Though real people are used as characters, this fic bears no resemblance to Real Life and these people are not owned by me.
Comments/Notes: Partially inspired by snb123's spy prompt and this picture. ^_^
Please forgive any oddness. :x A lot of this was written while I've been sick and in between writing drabbles.
Previously: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
Summary: Doojoon is a gay reporter with too many enemies in too many places, the divorced father of a beautiful little girl. Gikwang is his deceased ex-wife’s last husband and the closest thing he has to family since his blood relatives disowned him. When an assassination attempt almost kills them all, Gikwang calls in a favor.
As if Doojoon's life isn't already complicated enough...
~*~*~
The accident had kept Cheon out of school and at home for weeks, but it was hard to justify keeping her home any longer. Especially with Yoseob around to point out that whoever was after him was just that… after him.
The mercenary hadn’t tried to sugar coat his opinion at all. He felt that Cheon was far safer at school than hanging around the house with Doojoon.
Doojoon only allowed himself to be convinced after Yoseob had rolled his eyes and commented that the school was a sniper’s worst nightmare, full of little witnesses who had a tendency to start screaming whenever strange men with guns started traipsing the halls looking for one little girl in a sea of them. Then he’d snorted and shook his head, a vague sense of admiration in his tone when he’d pre-empted Doojoon’s fear that someone could have Cheon called to the office. Trust me, Doojoon. The principal at her school is a dragon. No one even gets on that campus without a provably valid reason to be there. And valid ID. If only you could both hide out there for the duration.
It was the voice of experience and Doojoon wasn’t sure he really wanted to know why Yoseob had been snooping around Cheon’s school.
So on Monday, Cheon returned to school.
It was a nerve wracking experience for Doojoon, far worse than he’d have thought it could be. Even her first day of kindergarden hadn’t had him biting his nails quite so badly.
By noon, he knew he was driving Yoseob crazy and he’d already called the school a handful of times just to check up on her.
When he reached for the phone once more, a large hand gripped his and took it away. “Look, I know you’re having some serious separation anxiety here, but you’re going to have the dragon lady down on your head if you bother her again.”
Yoseob’s voice was soft and sympathetic, but he’d clearly had enough.
“I just… Anything could happen…. She doesn’t even have Gikwang with her!”
“Doojoon. She’s safe.”
“You don’t understand. She’s not your daughter.”
The blonde actually flinched away, though Doojoon wasn’t sure why. His tone hadn’t been the best, perhaps, but it was nothing less than the truth.
What did Yoseob truly know about sending one’s little girl off into possible danger?
“No. But she is Gikwang’s and he trusts my judgement.” Yoseob’s eyes were hard as he pulled away from Doojoon.
The urge to apologize weighed down on Doojoon, though he wasn’t sure that he had any reason to apologize. “Yoseob…”
“Grab your shit and let’s go.”
“Yoseob.” He was really going to have to get a better handle on his reflex to reach out and grab the other man. The mercenary didn’t respond to it nearly as well this time as he had the last.
Doojoon found himself twisted around and pressed painfully against the nearest wall. “Look. Save it. You’re worried. I get it. But if you don’t start trusting me to know what I’m doing, you’re going to make my job a lot harder and it’s probably going to get all of us killed.”
The pressure against his back increased for a moment, then he was released entirely.
As he eased away from the wall, he rolled his shoulder experimentally. Most of the time he barely even thought about the fact that he’d also been in the crash. Despite a relatively minor surgery on his shoulder, his own injuries had been confined largely to bruises and bumps which had mostly faded and healed in the weeks since he’d left the hospital. Yoseob’s rough treatment was a sharp reminder, though.
“Come on,” Yoseob said from the door, his voice still tight.
“Where are we going?” Doojoon asked, aiming for casual and unruffled. He wasn’t sure how successful he actually was, though.
“Out. If we stay here all day, I’ll end up shooting you myself.”
Doojoon shut up after that.
At least until they got down to the garage and Yoseob tossed the bags he was carrying into the small, blue sedan. “Umm… I thought we couldn’t drive it?”
“…” Yoseob sighed and shook his head. “You didn’t even notice me leave the house, did you?”
He hadn’t, in fact. “Err…”
“That inattention to your environment is going to get you killed faster than your mouth.” He rolled his eyes and headed for the driver’s side door.
Doojoon thought he ought to protest that automatic presumption, but the truth was that he was a horrible driver and he didn’t much enjoy the stress of it. There was a reason Gikwang usually drove him around.
He slid into the passenger seat meekly, only flinching slightly when the seat belt pressed into his shoulder.
Yoseob’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly before he sighed again and twisted around to face Doojoon. “Let me see.”
“It’s fine,” Doojoon muttered.
“Let me see anyways.”
Big hands eased his button down off his shoulder and Doojoon just sighed and went with it, pulling a leg up on the seat and letting himself be turned towards the other. He was starting to understand that arguing with Yoseob was pointless. At least he’d thought to pull a muscle shirt on underneath.
Yoseob’s hands were gentle as they probed the area. The tip of his tongue was sticking out the corner of his mouth and his brow was wrinkled in concentration as he pushed himself up onto his knees and edged closer so that he could see the back of Doojoon’s shoulder more easily.
Though he managed to stifle most of a laugh, Doojoon still made enough of a noise that Yoseob shot him an inquisitive look. “Hmm?”
Doojoon shook his head and grinned. Somehow he didn’t think that mentioning how silly Yoseob looked like that was going to win him any favors. “Nothing.”
Though he looked suspicious, Yoseob let it go. He frowned at Doojoon’s shoulder before looking back up, regret and something else Doojoon couldn’t quite identify on his face. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Doojoon shrugged his good shoulder. “I didn’t mean to piss you off.”
“I keep forgetting you don’t know me as well as I know you.” Yoseob sighed, his tone apologetic as he shifted back to sit in his seat properly and get the car started. “It’s hard to remember that you don’t have any reason to trust me, yet.”
“I don’t have any reason to not trust you, either,” Doojoon replied. He wondered just how well Yoseob knew him. Considering how long the other had been watching him, probably better than just about anyone else. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
It had been another day of waking up with Yoseob clinging to him, though this time the younger man had been more or less fully clothed. There hadn’t been any time to linger and enjoy a lazy morning, though. Too much to get done so that Cheon could return to school and the issue of whether or not she should had been hanging over their heads all morning.
Doojoon still wasn’t sure that letting her go had been the right thing to do, but he’d been outnumbered three to one.
And he didn’t have any reason not to trust Yoseob.
Indeed, if Yoseob had been the one to extract him from the rather sticky situations he’d gotten into at the club, then just the opposite was true.
At least the tension had dissipated some, even if Doojoon’s shoulder ached again. He stretched his legs and settled back into the seat. “So… where are we going?”
The other man shrugged and backed out of the parking spot, answering the question more easily this time around. “I need to pick up some files from DW. Go over some stuff with him.”
“Ah. So I get to meet the mysterious DW after all?”
Yoseob’s lips quirked, a smug tilt of secret knowledge to his smirk that Doojoon wasn’t sure he liked at all. “Of course.”
“Oookay…” Doojoon cast an odd glance at Yoseob, but the mercenary refused to say anything more.
There was a noodle shop on the ground floor of the mixed use brick building they pulled around. A sign advertised a mixed martial arts dojo on the second.
Doojoon knew the building, though he’d never ventured further than the noodle shop.
As Yoseob led him through a back door, an elderly woman peered around a corner at them and started a tirade at the mercenary that Doojoon would have had a hard time following even if he had any clue what language she as speaking.
Yoseob answered easily in the same language, waving his hands in a universal sign of‘don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it’.
She huffed and rolled her eyes, but the torrent of verbal abuse stopped. Then she got a good look at Doojoon. Her expression went sly and she nudged Yoseob and whispered something at him.
Yoseob smiled at Doojoon and nodded. There was a slight dusting of pink along his cheeks as he said something else. Doojoon caught his name in there somewhere, but that was about it.
“Ahh…” The old woman moved forward and poked at Doojoon’s arm before addressing him with heavily accented words. “You. You be good to this boy, hear? He’s good boy.”
Bemused, Doojoon dipped a polite bow and nodded in agreement. “Yes, ma’am.”
She gave him a severe look like she didn’t quite believe him, but before she could say anything further a voice called out from the direction of the noodle shop and she rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded like it was probably a plea to the heavens for strength and patience.
She patted Yoseob’s arm on her way back past him.
The mercenary was laughing softly as he led Doojoon over to an ancient looking freight elevator.
“Who was that?” Doojoon asked, wondering if there were any more grandmotherly types waiting in the shadows to swoop in and protect Yoseob from his dastardly charms. As if it was Yoseob who needed protection from him and not the other way around.
“Nguyen Anh. The noodle shop is hers. It’s a family business.”
“You speak Vietnamese?”
Yoseob shrugged with a grin, pulling the iron wrought door of the elevator down. “Among other languages, yes.”
“Why?” Doojoon shifted uneasily and wrapped both hands around the waist high railings on the inside walls. Nothing about the elevator felt particularly safe, but Yoseob didn’t seem concerned about it.
Another shrug. “Why not?” Then he sighed as the elevator shambled and rocked its way on up the shaft. “I have an ear for accents and it’s useful in my line of work to be able to understand the people I may encounter.”
The elevator shook and wobbled slightly as it came to a stop. Doojoon was much more comfortable once Yoseob got the door open and let him off. He took an easier breath and glanced back at his companion. “How many languages do you speak?”
“Err… Bits and pieces of a lot, but fluent in…” Yoseob’s eyes went slightly distant and his brow wrinkled as he counted under his breath. “Eight? I think?”
“More like ten, Seob.”
Doojoon glanced towards the new voice, his eyes widening slightly in recognition. “You!”
The elevator had opened up into a small foyer that, in turn, opened up into a large, loft style apartment.
The tall young man leaning against the doorway between foyer and loft, grinned and tipped an imaginary hat at the reporter. His sharp, exotic features gave him a foreign look, though his accent said he was born and bred right there in the city. “Afternoon, Yoon. Been awhile.”
Yoseob just laughed, ducking under the other man’s arm and motioning for Doojoon to follow. “DW, you already know Doojoon. Doojoon, you already know DW.”
“Dongwoon.” He should have at least been somewhat suspicious as soon as he’d seen the noodle shop, but Doojoon wasn’t sure how he could have even considered that the shy, secretive Dongwoon who occasionally gave him information in exchange for food was also Yoseob’s DW.
Dongwoon’s grin only grew. “You haven’t used the intel on those bank accounts yet, I noticed.”
“I was working on that story when… “ Doojoon shrugged, sighing and scratching his head a little. He stopped in the middle of the lower half of the loft, glancing around. An open door under the stairs revealed a multitude of computer screens and other hardware. The entire place - what he could see of it - was just as neat and tidy as Doojoon’s condo now was. “Everything happened.”
“Mmhmm…” Dongwoon moved around him, headed for the open kitchen. “If you need anything else for it, let me know. Tea? Soda?”
“Coke?”
“Yuck.” Yoseob reappeared, coming down the stairs with something white in his hands. “I don’t see how you guys can drink that stuff.”
Doojoon hadn’t even realized he’d gone up.
“That’s because your taste buds are wired all weird, Seob.” Dongwoon passed Doojoon a Coke and tossed Yoseob a bottled tea. “Along with the rest of you. Cute shirt, by the way. Did you steal it from some poor ten year old?”
The shirt in question was bright green with big cartoon eyes beaming from the front and a cartoon tail curling up the back. The banana yellow pants didn’t really help with the entire ‘ten-year old’ look. Doojoon had only barely noticed the outfit up until Dongwoon had pointed it out. Most of the time he’d spent with Yoseob, the younger man had been wearing something bright and flashy, often bordering on juvenile.
He supposed Dongwoon was probably more accustomed to the somber black military style outfit Yoseob had been wearing the first time Doojoon had met him.
“Hey. Respectful, brat.” Yoseob made a face. “One of these days I’m going to throw you out, seriously.”
“Sure, Seob. Keep telling yourself that.” Dongwoon didn’t seem very concerned about the threat as he disappeared into the computer room, only to reemerge moments later with a handful of files. “Then you’d have to do all the research yourself. I know who our would be killer is and who hired him.”
Even Yoseob looked startled as he dropped whatever he’d gone up and fetched over the back of the couch. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Okay, how the hell did you figure that out so fast? Last thing I knew you were bitching about him having too many enemies to narrow it down enough.”
Dongwoon held up the files. “It wasn’t that hard. The old matriarch in question is attempting to hire you to take care of both Yoon and her first assassin.”
“That’s… ironic.” Yoseob snorted and took the files, whistling low as he glanced over the contents. “She tried to be cheap and found out the hard way that you get what you pay for.”
Doojoon was starting to feel decidedly queasy at the idea that a phone call could have been the difference between having Yoseob protecting him and having Yoseob killing him. He had to remind himself that if the mercenary wanted him dead, he’d had plenty of opportunities over the years to accomplish it.
“I also got back the info on the guys tailing you. You were right. Both former military. Now they’re in the employ of one Kim Heechul. Bodyguard, investigation, whatever he needs.”
“Isn’t Kim some kind of gang lord?” Doojoon latched onto the random question, trying to force his mind away from other things.
Both men gave Doojoon a condescending look before Yoseob sighed and shook his head. “No. And I’d advise you not to call him one to his face because what he is is a bad man to have for an enemy. I wonder why he has his guard dogs following you around, though….”
“That I don’t know.”
He settled down on the couch and spread the papers over the coffee table, motioning for Doojoon to come sit next to him.
“I’ve done some work for him before. With Kim, it’s usually best to just ask rather than guess.” Yoseob shrugged and held up a black and white picture of a dour looking old woman so that Doojoon could see it. “So what’d you do to piss this one off?”
Biting his lip, Doojoon took the picture and stared at it for a long moment before shrugging. A small sticky was stuck to the bottom corner. Choi Bae Sul. “I’ve never seen this woman in my life. And I don’t recognize the name, either.”
Yoseob hesitated, clearly not having expected that answer, before pulling out another picture. “And this one?”
Ten pictures later, Doojoon had only recognized two of them even vaguely and one of those had been one of the police officers he’d had to deal with during the accident ‘investigation’, or lack thereof, as Yoseob suspected.
“So you’re not doing any stories on any of these guys?”
Doojoon shrugged apologetically. “No. Dongwoon knows what my current project is, I got a lot of my intel from him.”
“Bank fraud implicating some fairly highly placed politicians, but he’s right… nothing has pointed to any of these people or their organization.”
Sitting back, Yoseob scratched under his chin with a disgruntled look. “I suppose the why isn’t as important as the who, but it’s kind of aggravating. It’s bad enough that there are so many people with real reasons to want you dead. It’d be nice to know why other random creepers are coming out of the woodwork to take crack shots at you.”
The mercenary ran a hand over the first file Dongwoon had given him. “She hired this guy a year ago… What were you working on then?”
“Umm…” Doojoon bit his lip and thought back, trying to pinpoint a project that might have led to this. “The expose on the underground clubs… I did a piece on the prime minister… Uhh…” He shrugged. “I had a handful of things I was trying to finish up. Only half of them ever got printed. The club thing was big news for a couple of nights, but the political piece got squashed pretty hard. It ended up buried in the back of the editorial section with a big disclaimer about how the views of the reporter do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.”
“I can’t really imagine the prime minister hanging out with this crowd,” Yoseob replied with a sigh.
“You’d be surprised.”
Yoseob quirked a grin. “No, I really wouldn’t. I know the kind of contacts he cultivates and this isn’t it.”
“Hey,” Dongwoon interjected, bumping knees with Yoseob from the other side where he’d settled. “Doesn’t he still owe you?”
Doojoon blinked, glancing between them. “The prime minister owes you money?”
“Please,” Yoseob rolled his eyes. “Money is easy to come by. Favors, on the other hand…”
“I should not be hearing this.” Doojoon was tempted to cover his ears. He was an investigative reporter. It was his job to expose corruption and other crimes happening in his city.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to,” came the cheeky reply.
“You don’t answer the ones I do want the answers to, how was I supposed to know you’ll answer the one’s I don’t?”
Dongwoon laughed. “Aw, Seob, have you been giving him a hard time?” Then the younger man leaned across the mercenary to grin at Doojoon. “The trick, see, is to ask the right questions and maybe kinda sweet talk him a little. Because when it comes to you, he’s totally -” He cut off with a yelp, twisting to pout at the scowling mercenary. “What’d you do that for?”
“Isn’t there work you should be doing?”
“So violent…” Dongwoon sounded more amused than anything as he pushed himself up. “I do, actually. Did you bring it?”
“Yeah, hold on,” Yoseob left the couch and went to grab one of the bags he’d brought from Doojoon’s. A pair of suspeciously familiar external drives were pulled out and passed to Dongwoon along with a third. “That’s everything I could find. Anything else is still in his head.”
“Hey, aren’t those mine?” He scrambled up after them, hoping he was wrong, but pretty sure he wasn’t.
“Yup.”
Neither men seemed the least bit apologetic about the fact that they were basically stealing a life’s worth of hard work and research.
“Guys?”
Yoseob waved Dongwoon along and stopped Doojoon from following him into the computer room. “He’ll be careful with them and when he’s done cross referencing everything, he’ll give them back.”
“But you already know who’s after me, right? So you can just… go… do whatever it is you do… and make them go away, right?” Wasn’t that how this entire scenario was supposed to work? Yoseob finds the bad guys, deals with them, and then goes on his merry way so that Doojoon and Cheon - and Gikwang - could get back to their lives without looking over their shoulders every minute of every day?
“It’s not that easy,” Yoseob replied, amusement on his face as he shook his head. “Just because we think Choi is the head of this, doesn’t mean that she’s acting alone or that she isn’t just a front for someone else. And the whole lack of motive thing is going to annoy the crap out of me until we figure out what’s going on. DW’ll set up a meeting between me and Choi… Until then, the more we know, the better off we are.”
“Wait, what?” Doojoon pulled away, alarmed. “You’re actually going to .. I thought you were supposed to protect us, not-”
“Doojoon!” Yoseob’s hands settled on his hips and he scowled at the older man. “Seriously, calm down. I’m not taking a contract to kill you. But it will give me more information about this first assassin and maybe about why you’re being targeted in the first place.”
It was all too confusing for Doojoon. Both Yoseob and Dongwoon seemed to take it for granted that he had any idea what they were talking about, their explanations for anything half-assed at best and leaving him with more questions than they answered.
He took a deep breath and brushed a hand over his eyes.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I just… I’m tired of being scared.”
He’d never had to deal with this sort of thing before. Accidents, heat of the moment fire fights… Most of the dangers in his life were the kind that jumped at him without warning, giving him no time to really think about the danger until it had passed. This kind of slow boil while he drove himself insane with paranoia and fear for his family was completely out of his realm of experience.
Gentle hands pulled his down before settling on his waist and pulling him close. Yoseob’s face was soft with sympathy and concern as he edged up into Doojoon’s personal space. “I know. It’ll be okay, though. I promise.”
Doojoon sighed, a little unsteady, and let himself rest against Yoseob’s strength for a moment. He wanted to believe that Yoseob could keep that promise. “Will it?”
He hated the needy thread to his voice, hated more than anything that this entire situation had taken away his ability to stand on his own two feet and protect and provide for his daughter the way he was supposed to be able to.
He hated that he had to rely on Yoseob’s ability to fulfill such a promise when he should have been able to take care of himself.
One of Yoseob’s hands came up to brush his hair back and Doojoon got caught up in the depths and sincerity of those dark eyes. “Yes. It will.”
Swallowing hard, Doojoon held still as Yoseob angled up to kiss him softly. It wasn’t the teasing exploration of their first kiss or the cheerful peck of their second. It wasn’t a kiss that spoke of in the moment availability. It was soft and sweet and full of all kinds of promises.
It was the kind of kiss you gave someone when you meant it, not when you were looking for a good time.
“As much as I hate to interrupt, I’ve got some phone calls to make and you guys have a kid to pick up.”
Doojoon jerked back at the sound of Dongwoon’s apologetic voice, his eyes widening and his face flushing.
What was it about Yoseob that he kept losing control of himself like this? Hadn’t he already decided that attractive or not, willing or not, this was one place he really did not need to be going?
And how could he have really let himself forget, even for a second, that his daughter was still at school without any protection other than whatever the school itself offered? He’d barely thought of her since they’d arrived and that was all kinds of unforgivable.
Yoseob’s face had closed down though his breath was slightly ragged. He shut his eyes and rubbed a hand through his hair. “Right. Call me when the meet is set up. And call Taec. See if he’s available.”
“Will do.” Dongwoon tapped his head and aimed a salute towards Yoseob. “You manage to get all my babies all positioned and on?”
“Yeah, I finished this morning. We’ll test them through once we get back to the condo. After dinner, probably.”
“Babies?” Doojoon arched a brow, his mind drawn back to the conversation and away from the blonde finally.
Dongwoon grinned. “You know. Surveillance spy stuff. Cameras, bugs, stuff like that. My babies. I try to keep up with all the latest in-”
“DW, we have got to get you a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Your techno-obsession borders on unhealthy.” Yoseob sighed and shook his head. “Come on, Doojoon. If you let him get started, he never really stops.”
That got a snicker out of Dongwoon. “Oh yeah, like you have any room to talk about obsessiveness, Seob. Maybe I should just tell Doojoon here all about-”
“And now we’re going,” Yoseob said hastily grabbing Doojoon’s arm and dragging him bodily towards the door. “Before I have to kill my partner for stupidity.”
“Umm..” Doojoon let himself be pulled along, but really, he was kind of curious to know what it was that Yoseob was so intent on hiding from him. He already knew the mercenary occasionally killed people and apparently had a hand in the dark side of their government. How much worse could it really be, after all?
“Bye, guys~” He glanced back to see Dongwoon wiggling fingers at him in a semblance of a wave and waved back with the hand that Yoseob wasn’t currently trying to separate from his body in his haste to get the reporter out of the room.
~*~*~
go to Chapter 5