prettier than flowers (jookyun) [✔]

13

jieun nodded and changkyun internally sighed with relief. he was fine with that. as long as jooheon had the heart and plan to leave he was happy. changkyun was fine with waiting. he was fine as long as he had jooheon.

jooheon sighed as he sat on an old and broken sofa. he had his legs up as he waited impatiently. every second that ticked by made him angrier. he felt angry at himself, for leaving changkyun alone on their first night of being together.

the door opened and jooheon's eyes trailed to the figure walking in. his frown deepened.

"what are you doing here?"

"i got an order and so i'm just doing what i'm supposed to do"

jooheon sighed.

"okay, what is it youngjae?"

youngjae stared at the boy sitting on the sofa, his face was mostly expressionless yet he felt a sense of pity for him. everyone knew of jooheon's distaste for being in a gang and that had stirred a lot of trouble for him, outside and within the gang. youngjae himself had turned the cold shoulder on jooheon but he understood. being in a gang wasn't exacly something everyone wanted to do from birth. it was usually extremely difficult circumstances that forced you to be in one, and that was the case for the both of them. 

youngjae was only 14 when he joined the gang. his father was a drug addict and his mother had died running away from all his father's troubles. without a safe house to stay in, money for food and any sense of hope, youngjae had turned to sleeping in alley ways and eating food that people had thrown away. that was when he met J, the big boss. youngjae had gotten caught by J's gang for stealing their fries but J had taken pity on the small boy, taking him in and fed, housed and clothed him.

shortly after, he had met jooheon on the streets. the boy looked so distraught and was stealing from a small stand on the side of the street. jooheon had gotten caught and started running towards youngjae's direction. youngjae didn't know what had gotten into him but when the boy passed him, he had started running with him, leading him into a darker alleyway away from the chasing man.

it turned out that jooheon had stole a few pink pins, for his sister. from that day on, jooheon had entered the gang and the two boys worked together as they gained both power and money. jooheon had even saved J in one fight, getting a heavy wound but also gaining respect from fellow gang members.

then, jooheon said he wanted to quit. it shocked everyone. youngjae had been expecting it though, he didn't know it would come so soon but he knew jooheon wasn't fit for a gang. he had too much of a soft heart. but he also knew that it wouldn't be easy for jooheon to leave. a gang wasn't a place where you could come and go as you liked. there were things called rules. so, after a long discussion with J himself, they agreed that jooheon would stay in the gang for 10 more missions. after that, jooheon would have to stay away from all gang related events and would have to return half the wealth he had obtained. it was fine for jooheon, he just wanted to leave on good terms.

"so what's the last mission?", jooheon asked.

youngjae sighed as he sat down on a wooden chair opposite jooheon so that they faced each other.

"some business dude that just came back from the states", youngjae said casually, "haven't received orders on what to do to him yet but apparently he's been laundering money or something. can't tell if J wants us to steal the money or do something to the man. they say the man is pretty influential and you know those drugs that red group was selling? they say it's from that man"

 jooheon nodded as he took in the information youngjae had just told him. the red group was their rival group and J hated them. J and the red group's leader, minwoon had started off in the same gang but minwoon had gotten kicked out after it was found that he had been selling drugs and alcohol to minors. although a gang is always a gang, there were rules, and minwoon had gone over the line.

minwoon had then started his own gang, one that dealt with illegal things behind the scenes for big business people. 

"we'll have to wait for orders on what to do", youngjae said slowly, "but...you leaving after this?"

jooheon looked up, a little surprised by the question.

jooheon's eyes filled with guilt as he just grunted a response. 

youngjae nodded a little before he stood up again.

"it's this dude", he said before putting a few papers on the chair he has been sitting on. with that youngjae walked out the door leaving jooheon feeling a sense of emptiness.

sighing, jooheon reached his arm out to grab the papers. he looked at it as he read the information out loud.

"lee howon" 

jooheon repeated the name again and again. ruffling through the papers, jooheon stopped as he saw the face of this man.

"uncle..."

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can anyone guess which youngjae i'm referring to ;)