when you wake up | sunki

eleven.

Riki seems to return to his previous routine of going to the rooftop every night, except Sunoo doesn't find him sitting on the parapet anymore. He is usually seated on the low ledge, or pacing and playing with his Switch when the older boy gets to the rooftop. Sunoo even saw him kick around a football one of the nights.

His memory doesn't improve, but he seems to be more receptive towards Sunoo every day. He still asks the older boy for his name, but there's something more gentle in his voice. As if, even if he can't put a name to the face, he knows he trusts Sunoo.

"I have the second verse of Hikaru Nara ready," Sunoo says, settling down beside him with his guitar. "Want to hear it?"

"I forgot to sleep, and the sun that came out to meet me was so stingingly bright

But even I forgot the tenseness of my headache when I saw you

This stillness is romantic, like sugar melting in black tea

While your voice runs through my whole body."

"I like this song," Riki says.

"You say that every time I sing this for you."

"How many times have you sung this for me?"

"Twice, now. It's alright that you don't remember. I'll sing it for you every night, if that's what it takes to make you happy."

─

Diary. I will not write 'Dear' because that's quite stupid.

09-08-21.

Tonight I met Sunoo at the rooftop for the ?th time.

─

"I have some information you might be interested in," Jay says as he meets Sunoo at the lobby of the apartment building one of the days in the coming weeks. "Can we go up to your place and discuss it? I don't like to talk about these things in front of Jungwon."

Jay has a file in a white envelope that he removes and opens on Sunoo's dining room table. The front of the file is emblazoned with "TSUNAMI-TAKAHASHI ALLIANCE", and immediately Sunoo knows there's more than meets the eye. He's not familiar with the underworld as Jay is, but even he knows they're facing a formidable rival.

"The alliance originated from the Takahashi-gumi in Okayama," he begins. "The family was established around 1997, one of the newer ones. Some of their members shifted to Korea in 2002 and started a small subdivision of the Takahashi-gumi that eventually became known as TSUNAMI in Seoul. Many people think they're unrelated, but they're actually two families under the same entity."

"What do they have against the Nakagawa-kai?"

"The Nakagawa-kai and the Takahashi-gumi were two strong yakuza families in the same city, so it wasn't surprising that they ran into conflict. I got some intel from one of my reps in Japan that there was a mass attack operation on the Takahashi-gumi by a joint force of eleven yakuza families in the city, after one of the leaders murdered fifteen civilians. They called it the 2007 Okayama Revolt. Riki's parents were part of that joint force, leading the entire operation; Nishimura Sen and Yamazaki Keiko, prominent leaders of their own clan. They were likely traced and identified by members of the TSUNAMI subdivision when they came to Korea, for some kind of revenge-killing mission, and they were taken out successfully this year."

"Just for visualization's sake," Sunoo pipes up. "How many members are under the TSUNAMI subdivision?"

"About 300 or so is what I've heard so far," Jay answers. "Nothing special. AUREUM is about five times their size in terms of manpower, and the Nakagawa-kai is more than that. It was a bad idea to mess with us, but I suppose angry people don't always make the best judgment."

"Have you found their stronghold?" Sunoo continues. "I'll let Riki know."

"My people are working on it," Jay says. "It won't be more than a week until we find out where they're hiding. Tell Riki to be prepared, when the time comes."