DEPUTY - woosan

045

The coffee machine brewed, the silence in the station making the machine sound all the more louder. He scrolled mindlessly on his phone in the very dark room. Changbin paid no mind to the blinding screen on his phone. When the machine finished brewing only 5 minutes later, the click of the device shutting off welcomed the deafening silence as Changbin returned to the cubicle area. Ignoring the dent in the hallway while doing so. On any other occasions he'd look out the window and notice the snow piling up outside. This day however, he didn't even acknowledge it. His mind was consumed with Wooyoung alone, and how he blamed himself.

He settled down on the chair in his cubicle, a coffee cup filled to the very very brim to avoid any more breaks from work to refill. Changbin cracked his knuckles and stretched his fingers before drowning himself in work yet again. Motivation solely fueled by the chance that Wooyoung is out there somewhere, and that one day, he's gonna be brought home.

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San's eyes fluttered open to the dazzling lights of the Shax nursery. He rubbed his eyes and attempted to sit up, only to be gently pressed back down onto the bed by a figure he couldn't quite make out.

His vision was blurred, and his hearing was still dull. He hadn't fully regained consciousness. The eerie silence was in sharp contrast to the chaos that had erupted just a few hours earlier when Hongjoong, Kai, Han, and Hyunjin had burst into the medical lab, where the medic who normally attended to the gang members was already waiting.

" Lay down. " Huening Kai spoke calmly.

Kai, at the tender age of 21, had already been entrenched in the workings of Shax for four years, having joined the gang at the age of 18. His tumultuous journey began when his battle with drug addiction led to his expulsion from his family home, plunging him into poverty. Thrust into the gang's fold, he took on the responsibility of looking after his fellow gang members, who became like brothers and sisters to him. Despite the hardships, Kai has made significant strides in reclaiming control over his life. Now, he finds himself in a much more stable emotional state than during his darkest days on the streets.

He'd found his brothers and sisters who raised him like their own, taught him the way of the gangsters and showed him what true trust and loyalty is. Between gang members, trust runs far deeper than colleagues, or friends. Gang members are brothers and sisters, they trust eachother and put loyalty first like siblings. If you mess with one of them, you mess with all of them.

Intrigued by this, Kai was drawn to the community, and after proving himself worthy. He became the Shax's medic. One who stored all the necessary antibiotics, treated wounded brothers or sisters, and other nurse duties.

With a groan, San laid down on his back again. His world spinning. " Where am I? " San muttered out hoarsely, his nose stuffy from having cried earlier.  " You're at Shax's base. In the medical room. " Kai replied nonchalantly, rummaging through the shelf beside San.

San's vision became clearer, and he realized that he was infact, at the Shax base, inside the medical room. He met eyes with Kai and groaned, feeling instantly embarrassed that he was stuck to the bed and being taken care of. " This is unnecessary, you know I can take care of myself. " San complained, and Kai raised an eyebrow.

" Really? When Kai, Han and Hyunjin carried you in here you were barely conscious. Barely breathing. You were millimeters away from dying. " Kai recalled, and San furrows his eyebrows.