Crossroads | Sookai

Prologue

They say 3 AM is the devil's hour, right? The hour where evil is its most powerful and wonders the streets. In an alleyway somewhere downtown, stands a group of men taking vengeance on a man that wronged them this late in the night. A man can be heard coughing violently on the ground, with drops of blood hitting the pavement. He clutches his ribs tightly and groans in pain, before more damage can be done, their leader takes a look at the injured man and speaks up. "That's enough, we should get going," he says with a low soft voice. They quickly leave the alleyway, leaving behind their victim and letting the sounds of the nighttime street drown out any more coughs. An awkward tension soon lies upon their group, making it hard for anyone to get a word in.

After a long silence, a harsh voice breaks it. "We could've finished him off y'know," He looks at their leader with disappointment, obviously holding back the urge to snap at him. Their leader exhaled, his breath showing in the cold of the night. He tries to hold a bold face.

"It's far too risky anyway. Besides, we hurt enough people, don't you think?" His tone was assertive, hoping that the group would understand. Unfortunately, he was met with groans and sighs

"What happened to the Choi Soobin we know???" one of them demanded.

"Mercy wouldn't even be an option if things were like before..." Another member grumbled, turning his head away.

Their leader sighed, looking down. In his past, he was indeed more merciless but he changed his ways greatly. He's been meaning to leave his group for a while now be he knows the great risk it'll pose to him and the ones he loves, so he's been showing his much softer ways recently. He hopes this will eventually get the rest of the group to also become more empathetic or just kick him out entirely, but sadly his attempts don't seem to be working as his members seem to be keen on having him as their leader and not willing to change their ways. He's not too sure how much longer he can tolerate being in the mafia since he's at a point where he wants to take his life more seriously. He's in his last year of college and it seems that he will have a promising future. It always left him conflicted, how much longer could he tolerate this life? Was this his fate? Was he meant to leave it after all? 

He looks at the moon, letting the light shimmer on his skin. He prayed for the day he could live a normal life, a life with no violence and peace. He shakes off the thoughts and continues walking down the dark road.

  ~~~~~

In a brighter part of the city, far from the evil that lurks in the street,  sits a student in his room, studying for a quiz he had the following day. An open textbook can be seen on his desk along with study guides and an open laptop. His eyes felt very strained from looking at a screen for so long which disappointed him since he had blue light glasses. He contemplated if they even worked in the first place but then again, he wasn't too surprised since he did get it from a nearby dollar store.  He took a deep breath and unlocked his phone, checking the time.

3 AM already? I should be sleeping huh...

Before he can do anything about it, he hears a familiar repetitive knock on his door which was opened not too long after. His roommate enters the door with disheveled hair and rubbing his eyes.

"Huening Kai...What are you still doing up in this hour?? It's 3 freaking AM??" His concerned roommate scolds. He walks over to him, making it obvious that he didn't wake up too long ago. Kai closed his laptop and looked at him with a pout.

"Oh I'm just studying Taehyun, I can't afford to fail the quiz later this week..." Kai's tone is filled with anxiety. Taehyun signed and stood next to his troubled roommate, rubbing his back to comfort him. 

"I'm sure you'll do fine Kai...Your grades in your other classes are pretty good, who says you can't bring up this one?" Even though he was pretty tired, he gave Kai a comforting smile. Kai mirrors the smile but he lets out a soft sigh.

"I don't know...Not even Yeonjun or Beomgyu could even help me...Hell, Gyu called me a lost cause" Kai buries his face in his hands while Taehyun continues to rub his back.

"Okay but y'know Gyu...he's just mean like that, and Yeonjun has a worse grade than you do, so for now don't worry too much about it. You have the rest of the semester to save your grade so no more staying up this late okay?" Kai nods and lifts his head from his hands.

"Fine fine...I'll sleep now" 

Taehyun smiles at his roommate gently, "Alright, goodnight Kai" He then makes his way too the door.

"Night Taehyun," Huening Kai replies as Taehyun leaves the room. He organizes the papers on his desk and turns off the lights, the only thing lighting up the room being the moonlight. He sits by his window, trying to calm down after a long night of studying. He noticed the peacefulness of the city, leaving him wondering what else was going on under the cover of darkness. But he brushes it off and gets ready for bed, not knowing a similar path would soon cross with his...

A/N: ty for reading !!! I swear it gets better from here ;-;