/\/\/\
Next morning Daechul got up later than usual. He was up for most of the night, tossing and turning, with kind light brown eyes disturbing his rest whenever he tried to find sleep.
Minsoo was a captivating young man. Daechul found himself unable to look away most of the time he was in his presence. It required attention.
Minsoo was brave, he was strongly opinionated and loud. That much even Daechul could agree with.
He shook his head and decided it was time to get up. That day was important, because of his meeting with Jongil.
The man went to the bathroom to relieve himself and then took a quick, hot shower. When he was all ready, Daechul checked the time finding out he still had time to eat breakfast with everyone, as it was almost time for that anyway.
When Daechul got down the stairs and went straight to the spacious dining room, he found all of his friends and family seated, drinking coffee and talking, while patiently waiting for the cooks to bring their meals.
"Daechul, how great it is that you joined us!" Maya was obviously overjoyed, as she rushed to hug her oldest son.
The man chuckled, lightly squeezing her sides to return the gesture.
When they parted, he went to his siblings and affectionately kissed their heads in greeting.
"Sorry, mom, the past few days were too hectic to sit down and eat with you."
Maya playfully shook her head and returned to her seat.
Daechul politely greeted the heads of the house and Siwon, and shook hands with his friends.
Minsoo was smiling at him when their eyes briefly met, he nodded in turn. The siblings seemed to be less reserved towards each other, as Kimoon's spirits were obviously a lot higher than yesterday, but they still weren't talking.
When the breakfast was served, everyone fell mostly silent, focused on eating their food.
Daechul was halfway through his portion of rice and soup, when Maya decided to speak up.
She was worriedly looking at Daechul when the question left her mouth.
"That reminds me, Daechul. Is the gang giving you trouble? You said you are really busy. Is everything okay?"
It was at that exact moment, when everyone, except Daechul and his family turned their attention to silently eating Minsoo.
Hanna's expression resembled that of seeing a ghost, while Doyun looked shocked. Kimoon simply seemed sad.
Realisation dawned on Maya's face, as she frantically scrambled in her seat to quickly find another topic.
"I know everything already. It's okay, Maya."
Minsoo's calm words were an apparent red flag to the parents.
"What?" Doyun was the one to shatter tense silence.
Minsoo shrugged, continuing to eat his breakfast, but Daechul's appetite was gone. He knew all hell will break loose sooner rather than later.
"You heard me. I went there and saw everything in my own eyes. Daechul also told me he's the one in charge."
"Daechul did what?!" Doyun was furious, but Daechul managed to keep calm and collected for everyone's sake.
"It is true. Minsoo already figured everything out when I got there. There was no point in lying anymore."
Doyun abruptly stood up. Hana's quiet pleads to calm down went through his ears unheard.
Maya was white as a paper, when she silently beckoned the twins to their room, but Siwon shook his head and told her he would take care of that, and disappeared into the corridor.
By that time, Ilsung, Jinwoo and Kangnim were also excusing themselves, clearly knowing that this wasn't their business and that it was better than to leave those concerned alone. Junhyun also stood up, leaving the room.
The only people that were left were Daechul, Minsoo, Kimoon, Maya, Doyun and Hana.
"I was protecting him, Daechul! It was for his sake!"
Minsoo finished his breakfast and cleared his throat.
"Don't take this out on Daechul, when you are the ones at fault. You and mom, and Kimoon were openly lying to me everytime I asked what you are doing for your living."
Doyun opened his mouth to protest.
"I am no longer involved, Minsoo."
"That doesn't excuse the fact that you lied to me!"
"I told you, it was for your sake, dammit!"
Minsoo shook his head in disbelief.
"What about my feelings, dad? What about them?"
Doyun sighed, silent.
Maya and Hana were guiltily boring their eyes into their unfinished breakfast, while Kimoon was pushing his rice with his chopsticks, never taking a bite.
Daechul was calmly sitting in his seat, observing the situation, but deciding that it's best to keep quiet and to anger Doyun any further.
Fed up with his parent's unresponsiveness, Minsoo wiped a few angry tears, briefly stood up and ran to his room.
Everyone took that as the que that breakfast was over. Daechul was the first one to excuse himself and head straight outside, intended to drive to gang headquarters and start working.
Surprisingly, when Daechul was getting into the car, he was stopped by teary eyed Hana.
"Daechul, wait up!"
The man got out of the car, slowly closing the distance between himself and Minsoo's mother.
"Yes?"
She sighed.
"I just wanted to say that Doyun isn't angry at you. Despite talking about this protection stuff, he's actually feeling very guilty right now. Minsoo isn't his biological son, but he always tried to raise with as much love as he managed. I guess that way he became overprotective and now it got detrimental."
Daechul nodded.
"I understand him. If it was up to me, my brother would still be oblivious to all this dangerous stuff too. But he found out faster than I could prevent that, and there's nothing that I can do about that now. Love makes us controlling."
Hana sadly smiled.
"Minsoo is the only child that I gave birth to. He's everything that's left of his late father. Because of that, I am insanely protective over him too. It was actually my idea to keep him in the dark. At first Doyun disagreed, saying that this equaled a betrayal, but eventually complied because he knew where I was coming from. I regret that now. It's not even a year that we're here."
Daechul understood Hana's point. He too was fiercely protective over his family. After losing his father, that sense to be a protector only got stronger. It was one of the reasons that Daechul got into contact with mother again.
"You don't have to explain yourself to me, Hana. It's not really my business."
She nodded, as if collecting herself.
"Okay. Well, I'll leave you to it," she gestured to his car and turned to leave,"see you".
/\/\/\
It was almost noon when Daechul sat down in his office. He was fully prepared to relax and forget the breakfast fiasko while waiting for Jongil to arrive, but it seemed that the universe had other plans.
He was pouring himself some whiskey, when he heard that sound.
It was shots.
Someone from his gang was shouting, trying to notify everyone of the attack.
Daechul abandoned his drink and fished out his gun.
He silently approached the window and peared outside.
He only saw his men guarding the building, hiding behind parked cars.
The enemy was nowhere to be seen.
Daechul decided that it was pointless to hide and left his office.
When the man reached outside, he was lucky to find shelter before the shooting resumed.
Daechul angrily swiped eyes through the perimeter, trying to find the perpetrators, but found nothing. He was almost certain it was Kim Chungee and his men.
He was brought back to reality when one of his men suddenly moaned in pain and fell down, gun clattering on the pavement.
Daechul cursed under his breath, when his sharp eyes suddenly detected a movement on the left side of his peripheral vision. Determined, Daechul locked eyes with one of his men and mouthing "I'm going in, cover me". When the other gave a curt nod, Daechul took it as his sign to finally end this unwanted visit.
He stood up and fired his gun, running towards the general area where he detected the perpetrators. He fired a few more times, never stopping his fast pace.
He was almost there, when one bullet grazed his shoulder.
The man clenched his teeth in pain, but the wound wasn't that deep to completely halt him.
When Daechul finally reached the trees, everything fell silent. No more soots echoed. It was as if time had stopped. He frantically scanned his surroundings, still on high alert. He could see his men confusedly lower their guns, locking eyes with one another.
"They are still somewhere close! Don't lose your focus!", he shouted.
It was at that moment, when Daechul was looking over to his men, did he understand that this action was vital in what happened next.
Just as he was turning back, a lone shot shattered the silence.
With furrowed eyebrows, Daechul tried to distinguish where it was coming from, when his legs suddenly gave up and he collapsed on the soft grass.
It was then that the man comprehended what just took place. His whole body was flaring in pain.
Consciousness started slipping from his weak grasp. And then, the darkness came.
/\/\/\