thundersquall
For: thundersquall
Title: If I Told You, I’d Have To Kill You
Pairings: YehWook, SiHanChul
Category: secretagent!au, action
Summary: This assignment is going wonderfully. That is, if you count Jongwoon tripping over the threshold, setting off the alarm, and finding out after the fact that they hadn’t even needed to set anything up (it was already done for them), wonderful, then yes, it was spectacular.
A/N: omg, sheena, i’m. this. god, it took me FOREVER. it's ridic. i hope you like it .___.’’
Jongwoon isn’t looking forward to the mission. It’s his first one, and rather than getting a trained supervisor, someone that can have his back in case he royally screws something up, he gets paired with a boy that’s just as wet behind the ears as he is.
He immediately stomps over to the manager’s room but Jongwoon should have known that anything he said wouldn’t be taken seriously when he sees the boss with his feet up on the table. Sure enough, the man laughs at him when he complains, “You think we’ll give you someone when it’s a simple reconnaissance mission? You think we have the people to spare?” He waves his foot in dismissal, “Stop your complaining and get along with the man.”
Trudging out the door, Jongwoon resists the urge to slam it behind him, and is surprised when he sees a mousy haired boy standing in front of him. “Uh, hello.”
“Hi!” The boy smiles at him and sticks out a hand. Again, the temptation calls, but Jongwoon figures he must be polite, and shakes his hand. After the obligatory etiquette was complete, Jongwoon moves to turn away, but the boy speaks up, “Are you Jongwoon?”
He lets out a sigh, “I’m supposing you’re Ryeowook, then?”
Ryeowook claps his hands together lightly, and grins up at him, “Wonderful. How long have you been here? I’ve been doing paper pushing for ages before I got a proper assignment.”
“Same here, actually. To be honest, I was hoping that we’d get someone a little more experienced,” Jongwoon sighs, he hadn’t meant his words to have as much spite in them, “but since I’ve heard it’s a simple reconnaissance, I’m sure we can do just fine.”
Ryeowook’s smile becomes strained, and his eyes lose their warmth, “That we will. And if you’ll excuse me.”
Really, Jongwoon should know by now. He can’t blame it all on being socially inept. Now he watches Ryeowook’s back as he walks away, and lets his head hit the wall, this assignment is going to be just wonderful.
This assignment is going wonderfully. That is, if you count Jongwoon tripping over the threshold, setting off the alarm, and finding out after the fact that they hadn’t even needed to set anything up (it was already done for them), wonderful, then yes, it was spectacular.
Jongwoon mopes when they get back to the hotel.
It’s a nice hotel, though. Equipped with a pool, a small hot tub, a loaded breakfast bar, and a work out area, it’s pretty much everything they could’ve imagined. The room where Ryeowook and Jongwoon are stationed is huge, has two queen size beds, a bathroom with two sinks, a shower that can comfortably fit five people - not that they’d ever need to - and a large television.
Ryeowook looks over every now and then at Jongwoon’s figure, splayed across the bed in a despondent manner, but mostly watches over the recorded video on the feed.
Jongwoon’s depression only lasts ten minutes, if that, and soon enough he’s sitting next to Ryeowook, making small notes and plans of ‘if this happens, we do this.’
In reality, Jongwoon had envisioned a life of glamour when he was promoted up. He thought it’d be about the running in with blazing guns, fraudulent politicians, scantily clad girls, and he would be the man that others would look up to at work. Instead, he’s sitting watching a blank screen, and he swears that Ryeowook will forever judge him.
Jongwoon runs his hand along his arm, and sighs aloud; only a week of this before they can go back to paper pushing. He never thought he’d look forward to the day.
It’s a surprisingly boring job. Once the week is over, and all the information has been logged, their ‘assignment’ is complete. They make a disgustingly thick report, and hand it into the boss. Youngwoon attempts to look pleased, but even he knows this was just to get them some first experience, “Well done, boys. You’re on your way to becoming part of counter intelligence. Jungsu will have you speak to Sungmin to start up a training regime to keep you in tip-top shape, and then Kyuhyun will teach you the art of phone-tapping and computer hacking. These days will be hard, they will be long, and you will wish you had never signed up for this.”
Jongwoon peeks over to see Ryeowook’s reaction, but is almost blinded by the smile. Ryeowook wants this, and it almost bowls Jongwoon over. Yeah, it’s interesting, it’s a wonderful party trick, but mostly, it’s a paycheck every other week. He works because he has to, and he’s part of the large percentage of Americans who would rather not work in the job they have. If he could, he would’ve been a psychologist, using his degree for what it was meant for, rather than going gallivanting about as a ‘counter intelligence officer.’
He has this innate sense of people, sometimes, and he hates it. He can look at someone’s face, watch how they express themselves, how they hold themselves, how they walk, talk, and know their entire life’s history. He can look at their clothes, their hair, their makeup, and pick out the little things. Jongwoon’s able to pick people apart until they’re bare, and now it’s going to be used against them.
He can already tell that Youngwoon pretends to be flamboyant because he’s afraid that people won’t take him seriously if he isn’t, that he talks loud because if he makes a mistake he can laugh it off, and pretend it was on purpose. He already knows that Ryeowook is quiet, and people brush him off, that he’s actually extremely smart, and picks up on a lot of things that he never says. He can see that Ryeowook’s self-conscious, that he folds into himself sometimes, or a wall comes down like he’s afraid for people to see his true exterior. Jongwoon sees all of this, and wishes he didn’t.
Sungmin is a pleasant enough guy at first. He seems well-built, somewhat small, and he has a firm voice. The first thing he does is pat Jongwoon down, feels up his muscles, asks him to flex, and laughs when nothing much happens. “It’s alright; we’ll get you up to snuff in no time.”
Jongwoon regrets that Sungmin meant every word.
The days start to blur together, and Jongwoon remembers things by incidents, now. Day one, he was brought to his knees when Sungmin threw a sucker punch to his groin, muttering, “There are no cheap shots when it’s life or death.” Day seven, Kyuhyun and Jongwoon quietly listened to a phone tap with a couple who end up shamelessly pouring out their sex fantasies. They had both shifted in their seats after the call, and Kyuhyun had leered at him, “You hear anything you wanted to try out?” Day twenty-one, Jongwoon landed a lucky punch on Sungmin’s shoulder. The next moment, he’s on his back. Day thirty-five, Jongwoon successfully completes a simple computer hack.
Jongwoon finishes two more reconnaissance missions, except he sets up the bugs himself, and has learned how to be movie-worthy. He’s paired with two more partners in other missions, Hyukjae who was much more trouble than he was worth - even Jongwoon wasn’t that bad, and that’s saying something - and a more experienced partner, Donghee, who is so quiet, he once did an entire scan of the house without Jongwoon realising he left his side.
Instead of data entry and ‘stamp, ink, repeat,’ he’s out doing things, breathing fresh air, letting the adrenaline pump through his veins, and living. So what if he’s not a psychologist? He’s learned to see data and choose whether or not to process it. Sometimes, it does lurk in the back of his brain, the ‘why does he do that?’ sort, and then he shakes his head, and pretends the thought is lost into oblivion.
Jongwoon has been working as a counter intelligence officer for three years now, has gone on multiple missions, and has been moving up the ranks. He has scars and calluses instead of a baby face and paper cuts. His arms have strengthened, and his body hardened, he’s able to confidently look in the mirror, flex his muscles and go, “Yeah, look at these babies.”
Youngwoon calls him into his office as soon as he clocks in, and lo and behold, standing in front of the desk is Ryeowook. Now, the building isn’t large enough that a single employee could be invisible for the entire time Jongwoon had been there, but he had honestly not seen the other man since they had their first mission together.
Motioning between the two of them, Youngwoon smiles, “You two have met before.”
“Hello, Ryeowook.”
“Jongwoon,” Ryeowook inclines his head slightly, and then they both turn back towards Youngwoon.
“That was wonderfully heartfelt,” Youngwoon pauses for a moment before clapping his hands together. “So, I’m assuming you’ve both heard of Kim Heechul,” without waiting for either of them to nod, he continues on, “his father, the head of Kkangpae has died, and now Heechul is its leader. Things haven’t been going over so well between the neighbouring Chinese Triad. Again, you may know about the spat Heechul and Geng had had between the newest meat, Choi Siwon.
“There have been a few disputes, but nothing too rowdy, I doubt they want to expend their pawns for something so trivial, but Geng has been upping the ante. I want the two of you to successfully get into them, find out what makes them tick. I need to bring them both down, and I don’t care what you do to get it.”
Ryeowook joins the gang first, and he contacts Jongwoon shortly after, cold, almost apathetic, and it chills Jongwoon to the bone. He only has a few words to say, “I’m in, they decided to beat me until I was coughing up blood. I’m pretty scratched up still, but I’m in.”
“Are you alright?”
“I just told you that they were beating me ‘til I coughed up blood, you think I’m fucking alright?”
Jongwoon can hear the pain in Ryeowook’s voice and remains silent for a few moments, “I’ll be in there soon, you take care of yourself, you hear?”
Silence reaches his ears, and Jongwoon thinks Ryeowook’s hung up, but a small, soft voice finally replies, “Yeah, yeah. See you soon.”
Jongwoon wants to wash the memories out of his head permanently. He keeps replaying everything over and over again.
When he came up to some of the Kkangpae members, they had sneered at him, came up and felt his muscles, “This one thinks he’s a big boy. Look how strong he is.”
They laughed, taking turns feeling him up, and Jongwoon doesn’t know what to say, what to do, so he stands there stiff - that only makes them laugh harder. “Look at him, look how scared he is, and he wants to join? I think we should toughen him up.”
Jongwoon’s eyes go wide and he’s already imagining him sitting all bloody next to Ryeowook and being comrades in pain.
“You know what I think we should do?”
“What do you think we should do?”
‘We need someone to teach that weirdo Lee kid a lesson.”
The other man grunts in agreement, and they turn towards Jonwoon with a gleam in their eyes, “You up to it?”
Jongwoon squares his shoulders, and stiffens his expression, “I’m up to anything.”
Donghae, his name is. Jongwoon wants to puke out everything that just happened. Donghae was this boy, teenager, wrapped up in his own little world. As soon as Jongwoon sees him, he knows that Donghae’s being punished because he’s different, because he rambles and has that ‘not completely there’ look in his eyes.
Jongwoon beats him up in an alley, hating himself even more when he realises Donghae doesn’t make a sound, doesn’t protest, and the sight breaks his heart. It’s like he’s so used to the treatment he doesn’t bother anymore. Jongwoon acts like he’s a professional, pulls his punches and keeps the two other gangsters in his peripheral vision. He hits where he knows will heal, where damage won’t be permanent, he hits so that Donghae’s skin will easily bruise, but won’t pain him too terribly. He tries to think of himself as giving Donghae a break, but when he lays up and sees Donghae lying unconscious, he can’t think of himself as anything other than cruel. A paycheck is never worth this.
Soon, Jongwoon and Ryeowook’s days are filled with petty crime and one too many violent acts for either of them to stomach. They return to a hotel like their first mission, and when Jongwoon wakes to hear Ryeowook muffling his sobs in a pillow, he’s quick to scramble across the sheets to stand beside the other bed.
He’s awkward, swaying slightly, and trying to decide whether or not it’d be acceptable to get into the other man’s bed to comfort him.
Ryeowook ends up deciding for him: “Either come here and give me a shoulder to cry on, or go back to bed. You’re acting like a freak.”
Carefully easing himself onto the covers, Jongwoon opens his arms, and almost falls off the bed when Ryeowook rushes headlong into them. The sobs are more broken now, and they make Jongwoon want to cry too.
“I keep thinking of the people’s faces; keep seeing them over and over again. How can people do this for real? How can… how can they face themselves?” Ryeowook fists Jongwoon’s t-shirt, and visibly tries to pull himself together.
Jongwoon isn’t sure what to do, he’s never been one to willingly comfort a girl when they’ve cried, and he doesn’t know what came over him now, either. Slowly, he starts threading his fingers through Ryeowook’s hair and rocking back and forth.
It seems to work, because Ryeowook calms, and releases Jongwoon’s shirt. His arms fall limp and after a few minutes (or maybe ten, Jongwoon wasn’t counting) Ryeowook begins to snore. Jongwoon looks down at the two of them, and has no idea how to extricate himself from Ryeowook’s arms, so he carefully lays down and lets Ryeowook situate himself sleepily.
The first time Jongwoon meets Heechul, he’s stunned speechless. He had been lounging around with a few of the other Kkangpae members, Kibum in the midst of a story involving a heist at a local grocery market, when Heechul flitted in.
To be completely honest, Jongwoon had been expecting some burly hairy straight-out-of-prison looking guy, and instead a slim man shimmies towards Kibum, “Bummie,” he trails his finger along Kibum’s arm, almost as if he were attempting seduction, “Is this our newest member?”
Kibum rolls his eyes, but otherwise doesn’t move his arm out of Heechul’s grasp, “Yes, Heechul, this is Jongwoon.”
Jongwoon inclined his head towards Heechul’s presence, because really, what was he supposed to do in the face of the leader?
Heechul’s eyes turn calculating, and it almost feels as if he’ll read Jongwoon’s entire existence, know that he’s here because they’re to undermine the entire gang, and he should leave now, right this instant. They lock glares for longer than was clearly necessary, and Jongwoon blinks, unsure of what was to happen, his fight-or-flight instinct kicking in.
“Ha! I won,” Heechul grins, and walks off to bother someone else.
Ryeowook and Jongwoon get used to it. They shouldn’t, they shouldn’t have to get used to it. They shouldn’t have to walk down the streets in slung back jeans, know that they have knives in their pockets, and be ready for a fight at any moment. They shouldn’t worry about having to get shot in a random drive-by from the neighbouring gang, or even if their friends might get shot. Because, yes, they’ve made friends. They’ve befriended people who think of crime as just a way to get by, just like working a real white-collared job. They make friends who believe that this gang, this gang is a family, and if someone tries to get out, like Junsu last week, they should be killed.
Sometimes it terrifies them, but other times, it scares them more that these thoughts and ideals are starting to make sense. Youngwoon receives report after report, and as days turn into months, months turns into a year, they know they’ve gained trust, with Youngwoon, and within the gang.
Jongwoon saved Yunho from getting hit by a beer bottle someone threw out of their car window. It had shattered on Jongwoon’s shoulder; Yunho’s head had been there before.
Ryeowook ends up shanking a boy from the Chinese triad when he tried to attack Jaejoong, and Jaejoong ends up keeping Ryeowook close for the new couple weeks, “This is my boy, my boy!”
They’re putting evidence together, pictures, proof, anything really, and Ryeowook stops, one day, lays the small bag of cocaine on some of the other evidence, and stares at the pictures. “We’ve become emotionally attached, Jongwoon.”
Jongwoon’s quiet for a few seconds, and slowly fingers Kibum’s picture. “First truly serious mission and we might botch it up.”
Ryeowook sighs on his other side, “The Triad’s been quiet lately. Ever since I got one of their members, they’ve drastically slowed their numbers. We haven’t had as many disputes, or anything. I’m worried that we’re going to get some full-on attack.”
“Don’t say that. Knock on wood this instant.”
“Jong-“
“Right now.”
Zhoumi is in the hospital, watching over Henry carefully. A few weeks ago, one of the Kkangpae members stabbed him in the stomach, and after several close calls, his heart rate had leveled, and the doctor’s were able to stop the internal bleeding. He was still extremely weak, and sometimes went into deliriums (the doctor’s blamed the medicine he was on.)
Han Geng stood on one side of the bed, staring at the prone boy, and his voice comes out in an angry whisper, “This has gone on too long. Heechul needs to be put down like the bitch he is.”
Jongwoon and Ryeowook are running around playing a game of basketball with Changmin, Kibum, and Yoochun when Siwon comes onto the court. His normally smiling eyes are harsh, and his words are just as clipped, “The Triad is coming.”
Immediately, Changmin, Kibum, and Yoochun drop the game and rush through the wire fencing. Jongwoon and Ryeowook exchange looks, “You should’ve knocked the goddamn wood.”
They quickly run after the other three, and ignore Siwon’s pointed glare, Ryeowook touches Jongwoon’s arms softly, his voice soft, “We need to tell Youngwoon.”
“And how are you planning on going about that?” Jongwoon sneers, rushing into the building the others came to, a secret armory near the gang’s hideout. He takes two knives and stuffs them in his boots, grabs a muted gun, and shoves it into Ryeowook’s arms. “Right now, we have to focus on keeping ourselves alive.”
Ryeowook’s stomach feels like it’s boiling in anger, and he doesn’t know whether or not to push Jongwoon up against a wall and smack the sense into him, or to shoot him with the newly acquired gun. “Fuck you, Jongwoon. We have a mission, and we’re not going to be losing sight of it because suddenly you decided that the gang is more important than the government. This is all a fantasy, we finish this up, and we go back to our cushy desk jobs before we’re sent out again. Get your head out of the clouds and think of here, think of now,” Ryeowook hisses out his words, well aware that any part of the conversation heard could pass as their death warrant.
Jongwoon immediately takes offense, and feels his body turning stiff; he angrily pushes past Ryeowook, knocking their shoulders hard together.
Han Geng loads up his gun and smiles as Zhoumi sits beside him, reloading the cartridges in his own gun.
“You really ready for this?” Zhoumi asks, his voice sad.
Geng looked at Zhoumi for a moment, almost as if he were deciding whether or not to answer, and then walks out the door.
He looks out amongst the Triad, sees how small they really are, how young some of them look, and at the way they desperately hold their weapons close to their bodies. He’s not ready for this; he should never be ready for this.
Youngwoon scrambles after he gets Ryeowook’s hurried phone call. He immediately yells for Eeteuk, “Kkangpae and the Triad, get police officers immediately, this is going to be the bust to get them taken in. We have the evidence, all the proof we need, get them now.”
The two gangs are at a deadlock. Heechul, Siwon, and Geng are standing in the middle of the street, facing each other. They aren’t talking, only staring, and Heechul and Geng have each other at gunpoint.
Kkangpae and the Triad are shifting anxiously, weapons at ease, yet everyone is tense. At any moment, Heechul, and it most likely will be him, could lash out and their momentary peace would shatter.
Suddenly, Siwon surges forward, and jerks both of the guns down. They stare at him in shock, both too surprised to have pulled a trigger, and Siwon bellows, “Why the fuck can you two not share?”
Heechul immediately retorts, “You were mine first, he can’t have you!”
“If you weren’t such a little selfish brat, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place, and you’re such a drama queen! You’re willing to place your family at risk just because you want Siwon to yourself.”
And then Heechul looks around himself, at the people he has situated around him. His face softens slightly, before a veneer quickly comes back up. “And you’re one to talk? You’ve got your little Triad buddies with you.”
“Heechul,” Geng sighs, touching Heechul’s fingertips lightly, “Please.”
It almost looks as if things were going to stop, as if the fight wasn’t going to go down after all, and then police sirens burst through the air.
Instantly, everyone scatters.
Kibum grabs Jongwoon’s arm, and drags him through the alleyway, behind them, Jaejoong pushes past them, running as fast as he can. Sungmin comes out of nowhere, and with a hidden smile, he stiff arms Jaejoong in the chest, and he falls to the ground. Youngwoon is behind him, and he slaps wrist cuffs on Jaejoong’s arms, and holds him against the wall.
“Come on, boys, want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?”
Jongwoon and Ryeowook are gathered up with the other gang members, and treated no different. Youngwoon doesn’t give the police any information, but Jongwoon and Ryeowook are released quickly, having no evidence so as to keep them in the system. Several of the other members were kept over night, Jaejoong with counts of resisting arrest, and Kibum had had a few bags of cocaine in his pockets. “Never know when you can find a sale,” he had grinned at Jongwoon when he was dragged back into the cell.
Heechul, Siwon, and Geng all had possession of illegal weaponry, and were later charged with drug trafficking, money counterfeiting, car theft, extortion, and gambling, along with several other more minor demeanours. The good news? They were put in a cell together, and made up for lost time.
Youngwoon lets Jongwoon and Ryeowook have a two week vacation, “well-earned,” he says.
Jongwoon and Ryeowook walk out of the office, a large bonus in both of their pockets. They walk for a few moments, and then Jongwoon nudges Ryeowook’s shoulder, “So what would you say if I wanted to show you my gun?”
“I’d have to say that my gun’s bigger than yours.”
“Want to compare?”
Title: If I Told You, I’d Have To Kill You
Pairings: YehWook, SiHanChul
Category: secretagent!au, action
Summary: This assignment is going wonderfully. That is, if you count Jongwoon tripping over the threshold, setting off the alarm, and finding out after the fact that they hadn’t even needed to set anything up (it was already done for them), wonderful, then yes, it was spectacular.
A/N: omg, sheena, i’m. this. god, it took me FOREVER. it's ridic. i hope you like it .___.’’
Jongwoon isn’t looking forward to the mission. It’s his first one, and rather than getting a trained supervisor, someone that can have his back in case he royally screws something up, he gets paired with a boy that’s just as wet behind the ears as he is.
He immediately stomps over to the manager’s room but Jongwoon should have known that anything he said wouldn’t be taken seriously when he sees the boss with his feet up on the table. Sure enough, the man laughs at him when he complains, “You think we’ll give you someone when it’s a simple reconnaissance mission? You think we have the people to spare?” He waves his foot in dismissal, “Stop your complaining and get along with the man.”
Trudging out the door, Jongwoon resists the urge to slam it behind him, and is surprised when he sees a mousy haired boy standing in front of him. “Uh, hello.”
“Hi!” The boy smiles at him and sticks out a hand. Again, the temptation calls, but Jongwoon figures he must be polite, and shakes his hand. After the obligatory etiquette was complete, Jongwoon moves to turn away, but the boy speaks up, “Are you Jongwoon?”
He lets out a sigh, “I’m supposing you’re Ryeowook, then?”
Ryeowook claps his hands together lightly, and grins up at him, “Wonderful. How long have you been here? I’ve been doing paper pushing for ages before I got a proper assignment.”
“Same here, actually. To be honest, I was hoping that we’d get someone a little more experienced,” Jongwoon sighs, he hadn’t meant his words to have as much spite in them, “but since I’ve heard it’s a simple reconnaissance, I’m sure we can do just fine.”
Ryeowook’s smile becomes strained, and his eyes lose their warmth, “That we will. And if you’ll excuse me.”
Really, Jongwoon should know by now. He can’t blame it all on being socially inept. Now he watches Ryeowook’s back as he walks away, and lets his head hit the wall, this assignment is going to be just wonderful.
This assignment is going wonderfully. That is, if you count Jongwoon tripping over the threshold, setting off the alarm, and finding out after the fact that they hadn’t even needed to set anything up (it was already done for them), wonderful, then yes, it was spectacular.
Jongwoon mopes when they get back to the hotel.
It’s a nice hotel, though. Equipped with a pool, a small hot tub, a loaded breakfast bar, and a work out area, it’s pretty much everything they could’ve imagined. The room where Ryeowook and Jongwoon are stationed is huge, has two queen size beds, a bathroom with two sinks, a shower that can comfortably fit five people - not that they’d ever need to - and a large television.
Ryeowook looks over every now and then at Jongwoon’s figure, splayed across the bed in a despondent manner, but mostly watches over the recorded video on the feed.
Jongwoon’s depression only lasts ten minutes, if that, and soon enough he’s sitting next to Ryeowook, making small notes and plans of ‘if this happens, we do this.’
In reality, Jongwoon had envisioned a life of glamour when he was promoted up. He thought it’d be about the running in with blazing guns, fraudulent politicians, scantily clad girls, and he would be the man that others would look up to at work. Instead, he’s sitting watching a blank screen, and he swears that Ryeowook will forever judge him.
Jongwoon runs his hand along his arm, and sighs aloud; only a week of this before they can go back to paper pushing. He never thought he’d look forward to the day.
It’s a surprisingly boring job. Once the week is over, and all the information has been logged, their ‘assignment’ is complete. They make a disgustingly thick report, and hand it into the boss. Youngwoon attempts to look pleased, but even he knows this was just to get them some first experience, “Well done, boys. You’re on your way to becoming part of counter intelligence. Jungsu will have you speak to Sungmin to start up a training regime to keep you in tip-top shape, and then Kyuhyun will teach you the art of phone-tapping and computer hacking. These days will be hard, they will be long, and you will wish you had never signed up for this.”
Jongwoon peeks over to see Ryeowook’s reaction, but is almost blinded by the smile. Ryeowook wants this, and it almost bowls Jongwoon over. Yeah, it’s interesting, it’s a wonderful party trick, but mostly, it’s a paycheck every other week. He works because he has to, and he’s part of the large percentage of Americans who would rather not work in the job they have. If he could, he would’ve been a psychologist, using his degree for what it was meant for, rather than going gallivanting about as a ‘counter intelligence officer.’
He has this innate sense of people, sometimes, and he hates it. He can look at someone’s face, watch how they express themselves, how they hold themselves, how they walk, talk, and know their entire life’s history. He can look at their clothes, their hair, their makeup, and pick out the little things. Jongwoon’s able to pick people apart until they’re bare, and now it’s going to be used against them.
He can already tell that Youngwoon pretends to be flamboyant because he’s afraid that people won’t take him seriously if he isn’t, that he talks loud because if he makes a mistake he can laugh it off, and pretend it was on purpose. He already knows that Ryeowook is quiet, and people brush him off, that he’s actually extremely smart, and picks up on a lot of things that he never says. He can see that Ryeowook’s self-conscious, that he folds into himself sometimes, or a wall comes down like he’s afraid for people to see his true exterior. Jongwoon sees all of this, and wishes he didn’t.
Sungmin is a pleasant enough guy at first. He seems well-built, somewhat small, and he has a firm voice. The first thing he does is pat Jongwoon down, feels up his muscles, asks him to flex, and laughs when nothing much happens. “It’s alright; we’ll get you up to snuff in no time.”
Jongwoon regrets that Sungmin meant every word.
The days start to blur together, and Jongwoon remembers things by incidents, now. Day one, he was brought to his knees when Sungmin threw a sucker punch to his groin, muttering, “There are no cheap shots when it’s life or death.” Day seven, Kyuhyun and Jongwoon quietly listened to a phone tap with a couple who end up shamelessly pouring out their sex fantasies. They had both shifted in their seats after the call, and Kyuhyun had leered at him, “You hear anything you wanted to try out?” Day twenty-one, Jongwoon landed a lucky punch on Sungmin’s shoulder. The next moment, he’s on his back. Day thirty-five, Jongwoon successfully completes a simple computer hack.
Jongwoon finishes two more reconnaissance missions, except he sets up the bugs himself, and has learned how to be movie-worthy. He’s paired with two more partners in other missions, Hyukjae who was much more trouble than he was worth - even Jongwoon wasn’t that bad, and that’s saying something - and a more experienced partner, Donghee, who is so quiet, he once did an entire scan of the house without Jongwoon realising he left his side.
Instead of data entry and ‘stamp, ink, repeat,’ he’s out doing things, breathing fresh air, letting the adrenaline pump through his veins, and living. So what if he’s not a psychologist? He’s learned to see data and choose whether or not to process it. Sometimes, it does lurk in the back of his brain, the ‘why does he do that?’ sort, and then he shakes his head, and pretends the thought is lost into oblivion.
Jongwoon has been working as a counter intelligence officer for three years now, has gone on multiple missions, and has been moving up the ranks. He has scars and calluses instead of a baby face and paper cuts. His arms have strengthened, and his body hardened, he’s able to confidently look in the mirror, flex his muscles and go, “Yeah, look at these babies.”
Youngwoon calls him into his office as soon as he clocks in, and lo and behold, standing in front of the desk is Ryeowook. Now, the building isn’t large enough that a single employee could be invisible for the entire time Jongwoon had been there, but he had honestly not seen the other man since they had their first mission together.
Motioning between the two of them, Youngwoon smiles, “You two have met before.”
“Hello, Ryeowook.”
“Jongwoon,” Ryeowook inclines his head slightly, and then they both turn back towards Youngwoon.
“That was wonderfully heartfelt,” Youngwoon pauses for a moment before clapping his hands together. “So, I’m assuming you’ve both heard of Kim Heechul,” without waiting for either of them to nod, he continues on, “his father, the head of Kkangpae has died, and now Heechul is its leader. Things haven’t been going over so well between the neighbouring Chinese Triad. Again, you may know about the spat Heechul and Geng had had between the newest meat, Choi Siwon.
“There have been a few disputes, but nothing too rowdy, I doubt they want to expend their pawns for something so trivial, but Geng has been upping the ante. I want the two of you to successfully get into them, find out what makes them tick. I need to bring them both down, and I don’t care what you do to get it.”
Ryeowook joins the gang first, and he contacts Jongwoon shortly after, cold, almost apathetic, and it chills Jongwoon to the bone. He only has a few words to say, “I’m in, they decided to beat me until I was coughing up blood. I’m pretty scratched up still, but I’m in.”
“Are you alright?”
“I just told you that they were beating me ‘til I coughed up blood, you think I’m fucking alright?”
Jongwoon can hear the pain in Ryeowook’s voice and remains silent for a few moments, “I’ll be in there soon, you take care of yourself, you hear?”
Silence reaches his ears, and Jongwoon thinks Ryeowook’s hung up, but a small, soft voice finally replies, “Yeah, yeah. See you soon.”
Jongwoon wants to wash the memories out of his head permanently. He keeps replaying everything over and over again.
When he came up to some of the Kkangpae members, they had sneered at him, came up and felt his muscles, “This one thinks he’s a big boy. Look how strong he is.”
They laughed, taking turns feeling him up, and Jongwoon doesn’t know what to say, what to do, so he stands there stiff - that only makes them laugh harder. “Look at him, look how scared he is, and he wants to join? I think we should toughen him up.”
Jongwoon’s eyes go wide and he’s already imagining him sitting all bloody next to Ryeowook and being comrades in pain.
“You know what I think we should do?”
“What do you think we should do?”
‘We need someone to teach that weirdo Lee kid a lesson.”
The other man grunts in agreement, and they turn towards Jonwoon with a gleam in their eyes, “You up to it?”
Jongwoon squares his shoulders, and stiffens his expression, “I’m up to anything.”
Donghae, his name is. Jongwoon wants to puke out everything that just happened. Donghae was this boy, teenager, wrapped up in his own little world. As soon as Jongwoon sees him, he knows that Donghae’s being punished because he’s different, because he rambles and has that ‘not completely there’ look in his eyes.
Jongwoon beats him up in an alley, hating himself even more when he realises Donghae doesn’t make a sound, doesn’t protest, and the sight breaks his heart. It’s like he’s so used to the treatment he doesn’t bother anymore. Jongwoon acts like he’s a professional, pulls his punches and keeps the two other gangsters in his peripheral vision. He hits where he knows will heal, where damage won’t be permanent, he hits so that Donghae’s skin will easily bruise, but won’t pain him too terribly. He tries to think of himself as giving Donghae a break, but when he lays up and sees Donghae lying unconscious, he can’t think of himself as anything other than cruel. A paycheck is never worth this.
Soon, Jongwoon and Ryeowook’s days are filled with petty crime and one too many violent acts for either of them to stomach. They return to a hotel like their first mission, and when Jongwoon wakes to hear Ryeowook muffling his sobs in a pillow, he’s quick to scramble across the sheets to stand beside the other bed.
He’s awkward, swaying slightly, and trying to decide whether or not it’d be acceptable to get into the other man’s bed to comfort him.
Ryeowook ends up deciding for him: “Either come here and give me a shoulder to cry on, or go back to bed. You’re acting like a freak.”
Carefully easing himself onto the covers, Jongwoon opens his arms, and almost falls off the bed when Ryeowook rushes headlong into them. The sobs are more broken now, and they make Jongwoon want to cry too.
“I keep thinking of the people’s faces; keep seeing them over and over again. How can people do this for real? How can… how can they face themselves?” Ryeowook fists Jongwoon’s t-shirt, and visibly tries to pull himself together.
Jongwoon isn’t sure what to do, he’s never been one to willingly comfort a girl when they’ve cried, and he doesn’t know what came over him now, either. Slowly, he starts threading his fingers through Ryeowook’s hair and rocking back and forth.
It seems to work, because Ryeowook calms, and releases Jongwoon’s shirt. His arms fall limp and after a few minutes (or maybe ten, Jongwoon wasn’t counting) Ryeowook begins to snore. Jongwoon looks down at the two of them, and has no idea how to extricate himself from Ryeowook’s arms, so he carefully lays down and lets Ryeowook situate himself sleepily.
The first time Jongwoon meets Heechul, he’s stunned speechless. He had been lounging around with a few of the other Kkangpae members, Kibum in the midst of a story involving a heist at a local grocery market, when Heechul flitted in.
To be completely honest, Jongwoon had been expecting some burly hairy straight-out-of-prison looking guy, and instead a slim man shimmies towards Kibum, “Bummie,” he trails his finger along Kibum’s arm, almost as if he were attempting seduction, “Is this our newest member?”
Kibum rolls his eyes, but otherwise doesn’t move his arm out of Heechul’s grasp, “Yes, Heechul, this is Jongwoon.”
Jongwoon inclined his head towards Heechul’s presence, because really, what was he supposed to do in the face of the leader?
Heechul’s eyes turn calculating, and it almost feels as if he’ll read Jongwoon’s entire existence, know that he’s here because they’re to undermine the entire gang, and he should leave now, right this instant. They lock glares for longer than was clearly necessary, and Jongwoon blinks, unsure of what was to happen, his fight-or-flight instinct kicking in.
“Ha! I won,” Heechul grins, and walks off to bother someone else.
Ryeowook and Jongwoon get used to it. They shouldn’t, they shouldn’t have to get used to it. They shouldn’t have to walk down the streets in slung back jeans, know that they have knives in their pockets, and be ready for a fight at any moment. They shouldn’t worry about having to get shot in a random drive-by from the neighbouring gang, or even if their friends might get shot. Because, yes, they’ve made friends. They’ve befriended people who think of crime as just a way to get by, just like working a real white-collared job. They make friends who believe that this gang, this gang is a family, and if someone tries to get out, like Junsu last week, they should be killed.
Sometimes it terrifies them, but other times, it scares them more that these thoughts and ideals are starting to make sense. Youngwoon receives report after report, and as days turn into months, months turns into a year, they know they’ve gained trust, with Youngwoon, and within the gang.
Jongwoon saved Yunho from getting hit by a beer bottle someone threw out of their car window. It had shattered on Jongwoon’s shoulder; Yunho’s head had been there before.
Ryeowook ends up shanking a boy from the Chinese triad when he tried to attack Jaejoong, and Jaejoong ends up keeping Ryeowook close for the new couple weeks, “This is my boy, my boy!”
They’re putting evidence together, pictures, proof, anything really, and Ryeowook stops, one day, lays the small bag of cocaine on some of the other evidence, and stares at the pictures. “We’ve become emotionally attached, Jongwoon.”
Jongwoon’s quiet for a few seconds, and slowly fingers Kibum’s picture. “First truly serious mission and we might botch it up.”
Ryeowook sighs on his other side, “The Triad’s been quiet lately. Ever since I got one of their members, they’ve drastically slowed their numbers. We haven’t had as many disputes, or anything. I’m worried that we’re going to get some full-on attack.”
“Don’t say that. Knock on wood this instant.”
“Jong-“
“Right now.”
Zhoumi is in the hospital, watching over Henry carefully. A few weeks ago, one of the Kkangpae members stabbed him in the stomach, and after several close calls, his heart rate had leveled, and the doctor’s were able to stop the internal bleeding. He was still extremely weak, and sometimes went into deliriums (the doctor’s blamed the medicine he was on.)
Han Geng stood on one side of the bed, staring at the prone boy, and his voice comes out in an angry whisper, “This has gone on too long. Heechul needs to be put down like the bitch he is.”
Jongwoon and Ryeowook are running around playing a game of basketball with Changmin, Kibum, and Yoochun when Siwon comes onto the court. His normally smiling eyes are harsh, and his words are just as clipped, “The Triad is coming.”
Immediately, Changmin, Kibum, and Yoochun drop the game and rush through the wire fencing. Jongwoon and Ryeowook exchange looks, “You should’ve knocked the goddamn wood.”
They quickly run after the other three, and ignore Siwon’s pointed glare, Ryeowook touches Jongwoon’s arms softly, his voice soft, “We need to tell Youngwoon.”
“And how are you planning on going about that?” Jongwoon sneers, rushing into the building the others came to, a secret armory near the gang’s hideout. He takes two knives and stuffs them in his boots, grabs a muted gun, and shoves it into Ryeowook’s arms. “Right now, we have to focus on keeping ourselves alive.”
Ryeowook’s stomach feels like it’s boiling in anger, and he doesn’t know whether or not to push Jongwoon up against a wall and smack the sense into him, or to shoot him with the newly acquired gun. “Fuck you, Jongwoon. We have a mission, and we’re not going to be losing sight of it because suddenly you decided that the gang is more important than the government. This is all a fantasy, we finish this up, and we go back to our cushy desk jobs before we’re sent out again. Get your head out of the clouds and think of here, think of now,” Ryeowook hisses out his words, well aware that any part of the conversation heard could pass as their death warrant.
Jongwoon immediately takes offense, and feels his body turning stiff; he angrily pushes past Ryeowook, knocking their shoulders hard together.
Han Geng loads up his gun and smiles as Zhoumi sits beside him, reloading the cartridges in his own gun.
“You really ready for this?” Zhoumi asks, his voice sad.
Geng looked at Zhoumi for a moment, almost as if he were deciding whether or not to answer, and then walks out the door.
He looks out amongst the Triad, sees how small they really are, how young some of them look, and at the way they desperately hold their weapons close to their bodies. He’s not ready for this; he should never be ready for this.
Youngwoon scrambles after he gets Ryeowook’s hurried phone call. He immediately yells for Eeteuk, “Kkangpae and the Triad, get police officers immediately, this is going to be the bust to get them taken in. We have the evidence, all the proof we need, get them now.”
The two gangs are at a deadlock. Heechul, Siwon, and Geng are standing in the middle of the street, facing each other. They aren’t talking, only staring, and Heechul and Geng have each other at gunpoint.
Kkangpae and the Triad are shifting anxiously, weapons at ease, yet everyone is tense. At any moment, Heechul, and it most likely will be him, could lash out and their momentary peace would shatter.
Suddenly, Siwon surges forward, and jerks both of the guns down. They stare at him in shock, both too surprised to have pulled a trigger, and Siwon bellows, “Why the fuck can you two not share?”
Heechul immediately retorts, “You were mine first, he can’t have you!”
“If you weren’t such a little selfish brat, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place, and you’re such a drama queen! You’re willing to place your family at risk just because you want Siwon to yourself.”
And then Heechul looks around himself, at the people he has situated around him. His face softens slightly, before a veneer quickly comes back up. “And you’re one to talk? You’ve got your little Triad buddies with you.”
“Heechul,” Geng sighs, touching Heechul’s fingertips lightly, “Please.”
It almost looks as if things were going to stop, as if the fight wasn’t going to go down after all, and then police sirens burst through the air.
Instantly, everyone scatters.
Kibum grabs Jongwoon’s arm, and drags him through the alleyway, behind them, Jaejoong pushes past them, running as fast as he can. Sungmin comes out of nowhere, and with a hidden smile, he stiff arms Jaejoong in the chest, and he falls to the ground. Youngwoon is behind him, and he slaps wrist cuffs on Jaejoong’s arms, and holds him against the wall.
“Come on, boys, want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?”
Jongwoon and Ryeowook are gathered up with the other gang members, and treated no different. Youngwoon doesn’t give the police any information, but Jongwoon and Ryeowook are released quickly, having no evidence so as to keep them in the system. Several of the other members were kept over night, Jaejoong with counts of resisting arrest, and Kibum had had a few bags of cocaine in his pockets. “Never know when you can find a sale,” he had grinned at Jongwoon when he was dragged back into the cell.
Heechul, Siwon, and Geng all had possession of illegal weaponry, and were later charged with drug trafficking, money counterfeiting, car theft, extortion, and gambling, along with several other more minor demeanours. The good news? They were put in a cell together, and made up for lost time.
Youngwoon lets Jongwoon and Ryeowook have a two week vacation, “well-earned,” he says.
Jongwoon and Ryeowook walk out of the office, a large bonus in both of their pockets. They walk for a few moments, and then Jongwoon nudges Ryeowook’s shoulder, “So what would you say if I wanted to show you my gun?”
“I’d have to say that my gun’s bigger than yours.”
“Want to compare?”