N0 B0DY, N0 CRIM3 | Bang Chan

Like father, like son

A/N: Trigger warning for graphic descriptions of violence. 

_ _ _

"This game fucking sucks," Felix grumbled. 

For the fifth time, his character had died in the game he was playing. He had insisted that he wanted to come along with Chan and watch him plan his latest scheme. Chan knew better than that, Felix just didn't want to be alone. 

So here the two of them were, hidden in the back of the Bella-Nova, back in the conference room. Chan had a red expo marker in his hand. He was making a list and plotting out different points. Later that evening, he was going to explain his plan to everyone in more detail. 

Felix was in a chair pulled up against the wooden table. He was hunched forward leaning on his elbows. With narrowed eyes, a lollipop in his mouth, he continued playing a game on his yellow Nintendo Switch. He wasn't paying attention to Chan and Chan wasn't paying attention to him. 

By the eighth time his character died, he huffed, and shut the device off. Placing it to the side, he rolled the chair back, and kicked his feet up. He crossed his ankles and began scanning Chan's words on the white board. There were a lot of lines, a lot of different colors, and a lot of words. 

He whipped the lollipop out of his mouth and licked his lips. "Whatever you're doing, it's brilliant." 

"You think so, Pup?" Chan chuckled and continued writing. 

"I know so. Whatever you do, it's always genius. When we get Kiera, what are we going to do with her? Is she going to stay in our house or here?" 

"Neither. We'll keep her at the warehouse. She doesn't need to know about our house or the art gallery. She doesn't need any information about us." 

"I have another question." 

"What is it?" 

"Usually when we kidnap someone, they get tortured for information." 

"Uh-huh." 

"Is Kiera going to get tortured?" 

"Yes, Pup." 

"But she's a girl and I thought you had a rule about that. What did she do to deserve to be tortured?" 

Chan stiffened at the whiteboard. Ever since his father died, he always had a rule that was set in stone. The rule was that they'd never torture or kill a woman unless they absolutely had to. It was only if that was their last resort. Even then, they had only resulted in those options a handful of times. 

"I suppose that sometimes plans change." 

"And she's going to be tortured because?" 

"Hopefully, she'll have some information about her father that we can use to destroy him before he destroys us. Don't worry about it, Pup, it might not even result to that. You'd be surprised what the threat of a few broken bones can do to a person." 

Felix slowly nodded and placed the sucker back into his mouth. Chan went back to writing on the whiteboard. The two sat in silence for a few more minutes until Felix spoke again. 

"Why can't we just get Changbin to assassinate Willie like someone did to his wife?" 

"It's not nearly that simple. When it comes to things like this, it's like..." he trailed off for a moment. "Baking. It's a lot like baking." 

"Baking?" Felix echoed with a raised eyebrow. 

"You can put all the ingredients together and make a batter. You can eat the batter raw, but it tastes better after it's baked. If you wait the proper amount of time, you can get a delicious baked good. If you take it out of the oven early, the mixture isn't fully baked, and it tastes bad. If you leave it in for too long, it becomes burnt, and it also tastes bad." 

"When it comes to things like this," he went on, "you want the perfect plan; the perfect recipe. The more you learn, the better you become at baking. With practice, you can become one of the greatest bakers out there. When it comes to planning someone's downfall, if you take your time, it can be sweet. If you rush it, there's no thrill, there's not a sense of justice." 

"Oh?" Felix's eyebrows were furrowed. He was trying to understand the concept, but he didn't fully get it yet. 

"Don't you want everyone to see how much of a jerk Willie Campbell is? We take out bad people and he's trying to stop us from doing our jobs. He wants to put us in jail. He wants us to stop taking down his friends even though they're nothing, but a bunch of assholes." 

"Of course, I want to take him down!" 

"Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. I don't want to hurt Kiera, but it needs to be done if we want to take down her father. If she'll work with us, nothing bad will happen to her." 

"But..." 

"Spit it out, Pup." 

"The people that get kidnapped for information, they get killed afterwards. You're really going to kill Kiera Campbell?" 

The marker slipped out of his hand and hit the floor. That was one thing he hadn't planned. He wasn't sure what would happen to Kiera once they got information out of her. It would be easier to kill her, so none of his group was at risk. At the same time, did he really want to stoop down to his father's level? 

His father didn't care who he hurt. He didn't care what it cost. His father killed out of spite and because he could. When he wasn't hired to kill people, he did it because he got a kick out of it. He'd kill for the thrill of it all and it didn't matter how it was done. A kill was a kill, no matter how messy. 

It was a spike of adrenaline that made his heart race. It didn't matter if he pulled the trigger of a gun or used his bare hands to crush a windpipe. For his father, standing over a dead corpse was a victory. What a powerful feeling. Continuing to breathe and live while another person was dead. 

It was even more thrilling when the person tried to fight back or begged for their life. When they cried out for mercy and shook like a leaf. Eyes widened and faces pale with fear. It was sick and it was twisted, but his father had lived for it all; the malice, the murder, the thrill.

Chan hadn't exactly been wired that way. His father hadn't been able to stamp out the impact of his mother. He refused to kill someone unless they truly deserved it. He planned it out, he followed through with the steps, and it made the ending so much sweeter. Most of the time, his victims ended up in jail. They only ended up dead when the justice system refused to prosecute them. 

For one reason or another, some people slipped through the cracks. Paying off lawyers and judges to hide their dirty deeds. Chan refused to let them get away with it. They'd be killed and their body would be destroyed. Time would go by and people would eventually stop caring. 

"Channie?" Felix's voice brought him back to reality. 

"Kiera Campbell has to die." 

Felix stayed silent as Chan reached down and picked up his dropped marker. He felt like he crossed some sort of invisible line. Silently, he turned on his Nintendo Switch again, and started the game back up. Chan turned back to the whiteboard and began finishing the final touches on his plan. 

At the end of the day, Chan's entire existence was just a fleeting reminder that twenty-five years ago, two people loved each other.