COLD ᝰ.ᐟ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐋𝐈𝐗

[ 5 ]

The weather outside Chan's place was awful. He'd been stuck for two days since arriving in Seoul due to severe flooding. Now, things were beginning to get better, and public transportation was back in motion.

His room was cold and damp. Inside the warmth and comfort of the bed, he'd worked out what he was going to do next. Pulling on a raincoat and shoving a change of clothes into his backpack, he ventured outside. Rain bucketed down as he ran to the bus stop. Chan waited a few minutes before the bus pulled up, and he hopped in, his shoes squelching on the lino floor. His plan was to simply get off at the stop closest to Felix's last known location.

However, finding Felix would prove to be very difficult.

"No! For shits sake, Minho. We are not going outside to look for your fucking cat!" Felix yelled in frustration.

"He could drown!" Minho screamed back, his eyes filled with worry.

"Yeah, what if Dori dies?" Jisung jumped in to defend his boyfriend.

"I don't fucking care, I'm not having you all get sick looking for his damn cat. He should've gathered them when the weather warning first went out." Felix spun on his heels and left the room before he could get more pissed at Minho.

The pelting rain outside had prevented anyone from leaving the gangs' base, and it was driving Felix mad. Since having Hyunjin look into the spy they caught the other day, Felix was becoming increasingly worried about whether their security had really been compromised.

As it turns out, the spy had been sent by a trafficking gang (the reason still unknown), and information had already been passed on. It was an unspoken rule among those in the underground that if information was to be sold, then no copies were to be ever made. The last person who'd tried that didn't meet a particularly nice end.

Thus, Felix had come to the decision to buy that information back. With a cover, the transaction would be done in darkness at exactly zero o'clock at their warehouse, similar to the deal with MX, except this was one-on-one. Felix was to exchange seven hundred grams of cocaine for a briefcase with the documents. A senior taking exams, he would be representing a small drug cartel run by high school students, simply named hApPy.

Felix pulled back his hair into a small ponytail as sweat beaded on his forehead. He'd been in the training room for almost three hours now, using the punching bag and practicing his taekwondo. Though this operation was merely a brief exchange, he had to be prepared if anything was to go wrong.

Minho sat stiffly into a chair in the briefing room, or lounge as it was more commonly known, four sets of eyes all upon him as he did so. The expression on his face was that of still pissed. Still pissed at Felix for not organizing a search party for his cat, who was stuck in the rain.

Jisung and Hyunjin had been sent out on a last-minute assassin job, so they weren't there just yet. However, no one else knew that yet. Anyway, the rest of the boys were spread out across the room, on the sofa, armchairs, and the floor. Changbin was chatting with Jeongin while Seungmin was playing with his hair when quite suddenly the door clanged open. Startled, the room fell silent.

Felix took a seat in a leather armchair, placing a folder on the oak coffee table in front.

Jeongin sighed, his soft blonde blowing away from his face. "So what are we doing here? It's only been like two days since our last job, why we got another one?"

"Also, where are Ji and the drama queen?" he added quickly after.

Felix ignored the second question and started discussing what they had to do. Who they were dealing with was Black Shag. A human and animal trafficking gang. They long had a dispute with Felix's gang since he refused to lend them shipping and transportation services for a shipment of young people being imported for slavery.

The only reason they could come up with for Black Shag to send a spy was to eliminate competition. Felix found this odd, considering his gang would never even think about getting involved in work like that. Sure, Felix wasn't a good person, but such humanitarian crimes are a whole new low.

After an hour of organizing and figuring out movements, Seungmin fabricated a whole new gang masquerade. Using it, Jeongin scored a deal with Black Shag, which left just who would fill what roles.

They were in the middle of choosing who would do what when the door crashed open a second time.

"Ayo! We back!" Jisung announced loudly, plopping himself down next Minho.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes and took a seat on the floor.

"Wassup babe?" Jisung nudged his boyfriend with a wide grin.

Minho managed a small smile but remained quiet, pointing his chin towards Felix, who was glaring at Jisung.

"Did all go well?" he asked, his voice cold.

"Oh yep, dude was dead 'n gone as soon as he stepped outside that building," Jisung said proudly.

Minho's eyes widened in realization, a frown crawling onto his face.

"You mean to tell me that they could go out and do a job in this weather, yet you wouldn't even let me go and look for my cat?!"

"Last stop; Yeonsu-dong, thank you for choosing Go-go buses. Have a nice day."

Chan let out a sigh of relief as his bus finally came to a halt. Yeonsu-dong just had to be the last stop on the bus route, and now it was around eighty-thirty in the evening.

The wind blew gently through Chan's curly blonde hair as he watched the sun set in the distance. It was winter now, and the sun set early. Beautiful as it was, he couldn't remain there forever. There was someone he needed to find.

After figuring out the map on Google, he finally started the thirty minute walk to Felix's last known location. A rusty steel building stood tall against the red, pink, and orange hues that painted the horizon. The world around was deathly quiet, traffic was nil on the outskirts of East Incheon.

Chan took a deep breath, somewhat mentally preparing himself for what may come next. After watching the gulls dancing above the warehouse for a few minutes, he zipped up his sweater and began searching for an entry.

The streetlights emitted a dim yellow beam, barely brightening its surroundings at all. A gust of wind blew through the area, a piece of metal flailed in the wind. Its creaking noise catching the attention of the man.

"Sweet," Chan smiled to himself, seeing it hanging from the side of the warehouse. He pulled down the black sleeves of his sweater to cover his hands before gripping the flimsy tin, yanking it. After a few minutes of struggling, Chan was able to climb inside. An awful tearing noise cut through the night air just as his foot set down. Chan cursed loudly, feeling a bit of material tear off his jersey. He stumbled around the dark building, trying to turn on his phone torch.