Roulette ♧ 엑소

n i n e

$ n i n e $

Shin went into the house with the members following behind him. He was brooding as he ignored everyone and made his way straight to the bedroom he shared with his wife, where they had laid seemingly happy that morning. Takuya followed after him, instructing the other members to check the house for anything that might have been stolen.

The leader of the Nightmares entered the room and went straight for a wedding photograph on the night stand. He was there with a smiling face while she stood beside him with a forced smile. Her make up was slightly smudged and she looked unhappy, not that she was marrying him, but that she wasn't getting to marry Yifan. The picture mocked him every time he entered the room. But he kept it there as a reminder. To remind himself that she had married him, even if she didn't love him the way that he wanted.

He hadn't loved her either, at the time that they got married. He had merely offered to take Yifan's place because he was her friend and he felt pity for her. He wanted to spare her the shame of being dumped at the altar. But as time went on, he ended up falling in love with Terada Mitsuki, even though he knew the same could not be said for her.

Now he looked at the picture with resentment and threw it onto the ground, where it shattered into a million pieces. He went to the closet next and slammed the door open.

He wanted no remains of her presence there.

He grabbed all her clothes and dumped them on the bed, going to the phone next and dialing the extension for the cleaning staff. "Come up to the master bedroom. I need you to pick up some things and burn them." Without giving the staff a chance to reply, he hung up the phone just as Takuya entered the room. Shin paid no attention to his best friend and returned to the closet, tearing out more hangers with her clothes on them and tossing them into the pile.

"What are you doing, Shin?" He asked, looking at the pile of clothes that was forming on the bed. Though it was already obvious what was happening.

"I don't want her things in my bedroom." Shin informed him, words bitter and full of hurt. When he finished with her clothes, her shoes were next, then he moved onto anything he saw in that room that belonged to her.

"We're gonna get her back. Just have patience, senchou." Takuya assured him. He had vowed to himself that they would get their revenge, and this time, they wouldn't go so easy on the Coven. A slow and painful death had been a bad idea from the start. They needed to be eliminated, taken out of the way as soon as possible to prevent things to go wrong.

But Shin only gave a firm shake of his head, his eyes were glazed over, and he was trying hard to keep himself from crying. "There's no point in bringing her back if she doesn't want to be here. She chose them, over us, Takuya. Him, over me. From now on, she's dead to us. Tell the others not to mention her in my presence or there will be consequences."

"But Shin--" Takuya tried to reason with him.

"But nothing." Shin refused to listen. He was too hurt to hear any explanations. "Now please go call in the cleaning staff and tell them to bring a lot of trash bags. I don't want this stuff in my house. Tell them to dispose of all her portraits too. I don't want to see anything that reminds me of her."

Takuya nodded, knowing that his leader would not listen to reason. He excused himself from the room and went to find the cleaning staff. As he made his way down the hallway, he heard his friend's laments from inside the master bedroom.

"Mitsuki..." His voice broke as he said her name.

-

With Mitsuki crying into Yifan's arms in the back of the van, Junmyeon decided instead to call the Jackals. They helped them get a private jet that would get them to China, and then to Korea after making sure that the members of the Coven would be okay. Yifan had been too distracted, cradling Mitsuki in his arms and offering her comfort to notice Junmyeon and Hani were sitting together in the van as well. 

They arrived in China by mid afternoon and arriving at the Coven's house brought back awful memories for the members. The house appeared dark and abandoned. At the very front were heavy blood stains of Jongdae's blood covering the cement which no one had ever cleaned up. The blood covered sign was still on the floor too, and a swarm of flies had gathered there. The others couldn't look, their eyes averting the horrible scene. It brought them painful memories from when they thought their brother had perished.

The members of the Pack knew nothing of it, but they still felt bad at the sight, since they figured it was the blood of their former brothers staining the pavement. 

The Pack members and Jongdae helped the weakened Coven members into the house, where there was more destruction in their wake. The house appeared ransacked, from when the Nightmares had been looking for the women who were hiding while the men stayed and fought.

As they passed the kitchen on their way to the stairs, they saw more blood, and Jongdae was glad he had convinced Mariel to stay behind. It was a gruesome scene that he didn't want her to look at. He knew she would relive the horrible memories of that night if she saw him. Little did he know that she still had nightmares of him, laying lifeless on the ground and being dragged away by the enemy like a common object. 

She'd always wake up in a cold sweat and crying. But now she'd have Jongdae to provide her with comfort. And she would comfort him when he had nightmares of his own.

He still had them sometimes.

Nightmares of Ruo Lan, the woman who had loved him so much that she killed herself. In each dream he tried to return home quick enough after her having called him and him missing her call. But each time it was too late and by the time he entered the room, she was laying there lifeless with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand. Some nights the nightmare was altered, and it was Mariel who had taken those sleeping pills instead. On those nights he woke up screaming and crying. The memories that flooded his mind were magnified when he woke up in the same room, the same bed, that he had shared with Ruo Lan at the Coven's house.

The pack helped them get upstairs to the bedrooms, and Yifan led Mitsuki to one of the unoccupied ones near the end of the hall. He led her to the bed and sat her down on it, taking care of her even though he was weak and tired himself.

With a sigh, he told her, "You can stay here as long as you want. You did save us after all, and I'm grateful to you. I will always owe you that."

"I didn't do it so that you'd owe me anything." She informed him in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I know." He nodded his head in understanding. "If you want to be a part of our family from now on...I wouldn't mind either."

Mitsuki looked up at him, a hope flashing in her eyes.

There was a pause of silence between them before he made another offer to her. "And I can stay here with you tonight if you want the company." He said sheepishly. 

Mitsuki nodded her head slowly. "Thanks Fan."

-

another little update because im feeling really inspired right now with this story. thank you all so so much for reading. im going to try and upload another update for the q&a session when i get home from work tomorrow. 

so please stay tuned for that. i hope you're all having a wonderful week!

-clary