Friend from the wild side ( AePete AU )

Chapter 10

"Never would I have thought someone got you leashed like a dog. You truly are something, huh, Ae."

"Tao." Ae wheezed. His chest hurt from the numerous kicks and there was metallic taste filling his mouth. He still managed to stand up and quickly spat mixture of blood and saliva on the ground. "Give me...the phone."

Tao, a tall muscular man with shaved head and tattooed face, grinned. "I don't think I will. You promised me something last year. Ah, what was it?" He tapped a finger against his chin as he pretended to think deeply. "Right!" He pointed at Ae. "You promised to keep your head straight and our men under control. No drugs and no more murder on our turf. But look at you now. Distracted by some kid!"

Tao threw Ae's phone into the fire pit and kicked over a chair. "I went to jail for you. To save your scrawny little ass! This is how you repay me? Can't even keep Inferno in check."

He whistled on two fingers and Ae watched as one of his men dragged in a beaten up person. It took him a couple of seconds that the bloodied face belonged to Cho.

"I already punished him for it." Ae said through clenched teeth.

"Clearly, it wasn't enough!" Tao raised his voice. "If he likes to play with fire so much..."

A blood curdling scream pierced through the night as Tao pushed Cho's face into the fire and stomped on it with his steel toe boot. Cho shrieked as he tried to push himself up with no success, until Tao finally removed his foot and chuckled at the sight of a man who tried to scramble away with his face half melted by the fire.

Ae swallowed. He did not want to be next.

Tao looked around. A couple of men kept their heads down, but not Ae or Pond. "Where is Jin?" He asked angrily. "Where is my brother?"

--------

Ae 13:09

'Jailbird is back.'

Lisa clutched the phone in her hand with anger. Has it already been a year since Tao went to prison? Despite him being her boyfriend's brother, she despised the guy. He lacked morals, he hated everything and everyone, and he was quick to get violent. Lisa hated what Tao did to Ae, the way he bossed him around, trying to coach him into being just as mean as him, but one thing was for certain. She knew Ae was indebted to him.

It was a freak incident when just over a year ago, Ae worked another illegal fight. Back then Jailbird Tao has bet a large sum of money on his head, and Ae won, but at what cost. His opponent was much taller man, however he lacked the skill to fight Ae off. When the referee announced Ae as the winner, the guy just laid on the ground, bleeding out. Ae didn't realise he has killed him until he heard the sirens and the crowd dispersed.

To his and Lisa's surprise, Tao dipped his hands in the guy's blood and took the blame while urging Ae to keep an eye on the gang.

Lisa knew Ae didn't mean to kill anyone, he was just too strong when it came to fist fights. She urged him to stop many times.

"Jin..." Lisa slouched on the sofa beside her boyfriend who was immersed in 'Plumbing for dummies'. "Can you put the book down for a moment?"

"Hm?" He place the book down. Seeing the worried look on his girlfriend's face he immediately took her hands to his own. "What is it? Is it the baby? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No honey, it's..." Lisa sighed. "Your brother is back." She showed him the text from her brother. "He sent this a while ago, but now I can't even call him, it's going into voicemail, I think Tao broke his phone. Jin...He won't be happy about us. And about Pete."

"I'll talk to him. He will listen to me, I-"

"Are you forgetting that I'm the girl who rejected him? And Ae got himself a boyfriend? Tao won't let this slide. Jin, I'm scared."

"Lisa..." Jin gently hugged his pregnant girlfriend, and comfortingly stroke her hair. "We'll figure something out. Tao won't stay out of prison for long. He's not nicknamed Jailbird for nothing. But first, we should warn Pete."

Lisa sniffled but agreed, and quickly dialled the boy's number. She didn't expect to be greeted by a sob.

"Miss Lisa..." Pete cried. "He broke up with meee..."

"What happened?" Lisa asked gently. "Tell me."

"He said." Pete tried to control his sniffles. "He said I'm not interesting, and that I have to stop bothering him. I don't know what I did wrong, we just made love last night, and now after we did it, he said this."

"Babyboy listen to me." Lisa said calmly. "That text wasn't from Ae. And if it was, it was to protect you and make you stay away from the Pit."

"I don't understand..."

"It's complicated. A dangerous person came back. You need to stay safe, please." Lisa sighed. "I promise Ae will come back to you."

Pete sniffled again. "Promise?"

-------

"I don't know what to do." Ae sighed as he laid in the grass with Pond by his side. Cliffside as usual proven itself to be the best place for an undisturbed private conversation, but for the first time he still felt as if the air around him was suffocating. "Lisa said Pete was crying. I hate myself for hurting him."

Pond shrugged. "Hey, I'm sure he understands. If not, you can explain it to him once things blow over. What did Lisa say anyway? Jailbird was asking for Jin..."

"She said Jin wants to talk to him. Damn, sometimes I wish-"

"-that you never got tangled with the gang?" Pond chuckled. "Me too buddy, me too. But hey, I think our time is coming, you know? Just look at the gang now. There used to be twenty of us. Now, just eight. Well, seven, since Cho is..." His voice trailed off. The image of Cho's burnt, bloodied face and the sound of his painful wails, were still too fresh.

"How is he, anyway?" Ae asked. He wasn't that keen on Cho in the first place, but seeing him tortured like that turned his stomach too.

"He's in a coma now." Pond reached for his beer. "Apparently the heat from the fire damaged a part of his brain...His mom said it's unlikely he'll ever wake up, or survive."

"Shit." Ae spat angrily. "I need to get that jerk behind bars again."

"And what that's gonna do?" Pond asked seriously. "You know he's just gonna weasel his way out of it as always. For that murder he only served a year. A year. So unless the hurts some big kahoonas, he will always be out quickly."

"Pond...I'm tired of this." Ae rubbed his eyes. "I'm tired of this life. But you know well, just asI do, that quitting is not easy."

"What if Pete helped you?" Pond spoke after a while.

"What do you mean?" Ae sat up when he noticed his friend's facial expression.

Pond crushed the empty beer can against his knee. "I've got a plan."