Monsta X: The Clan Pt. 2

5: I Am Ready

"I could easily endure anything"

"I am ready"

Kihyun:

I was almost there.

They had said that I would meet the shady men with whom I was about to do business with somewhere down this alleyway, and now that it was approaching its end, I assumed that the men were either there, or this was all some cruel joke.

I hoped it wasn't. I would hate it if I had to go through the trouble of disposing of the guard's body for nothing.

At the end of the alleyway, the narrow passage widened to reveal almost like a mini stone square for a tall apartment building. It looked it hadn't been used for ages, as it had dirty and uncleaned walls, broken windows, and rusted metal on its walls.

However, a blazing fire in a fire pit proved otherwise, as it cast as a terrifying red glow in the ghost-like alleyway. 

I could see no way to get up to the building before me, no doorway that was on ground level, which was strange. What kind of building would be built with no door?

All that I saw was an inconvenient, rusty old ladder that leaned against the wall and rested on a second story windowsill. Several rungs were missing, and the ladder was basically too unstable for anyone to climb.

I assume that it was for security reasons. Only those that knew this place could climb it safely. Anyone that climbed it was in a disadvantageous position if something went wrong and someone inside the building could easily knock the ladder to the floor and prevent all points of entry.

It was clever, and I hope they didn't mean for me to enter from there.

Sighing I dropped the body bag next to the blazing fire, and stood there, unsure of what to do next.

I was supposed to meet this guy here so he can lead me to the flowers, but I had my suspicions. 

In fact, I was second guessing this whole thing.

How was I supposed to trust some random guy off the street that lived in a shady place like this one? How many men was I supposed to meet up with? Just the main guy, or was it a gang? Was this all a set-up? What if I was attacked, kidnapped, or killed? 

There were too many unanswered questions, too many what-ifs, to say that this was safe, to say that I was going to be safe.

How was I supposed to trust that this wasn't a set-up?

It was Jooheon that had organized this after all, and I can't say that he's been the most reliant person lately.

While once a leader, now, hardly any of us could see him that way after the smoke cleared and we had been split up between those in prison and those free.

I wasn't sure what to feel about him, what I was supposed to even do with him if anything at all was needed to be done. He had changed, like all of us, like me, but I wasn't sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I'm not sure if any of our changes were good things, but it's not like we can easily reverse them. It was too late to that at this point.

I wasn't even sure how Jooheon had gotten this contact, how he had even found such a man in such a place. I wasn't sure what he needed the flowers for, or rather what we needed them for. I wasn't even sure that they were useful at this point in the first place.

It was making me doubt him more and more, the more I realized how much of an influence Jooheon has in this city, in the Capitol. Sometimes I forgot who he once was, who he is. He had always had two sides to him, two personalities. One for us, and one for this place, the center of the chaos.

He knew everyone, and everyone knew him. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

Regardless, he had somehow arranged this strange meeting, and sent me to attend it in his place, as he was too busy, doing who knows what in his fancy uniforms that I'm not sure of where he got them from.

I wish that everything could be black and white, or clearly transparent. 

There had to be a clear good and bad for anything to make sense to me. 

Yet that wasn't the case.

I wasn't even sure what color I would fall under. While I once would proudly state I belonged to the side of light and purity, now I think I fall more under the category of darkness and hopelessness. 

Or was it the other way around? Did the white and purity represent madness and extremities and the black represent acceptance, accepting failure and falling into a stable manner?

I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

I could almost feel eyes on me, staring down from the dark and broken windows on every single floor, looking down at me in interest, as I stood there like a fool.

Sighing again (something I now do more often than I used to), I pulled the key out of my back pocket. The cold metal seemed to sting my palm as I held up high above my head as if that'd help the people watching me see if better.

If there wasn't anyone watching me, then I was surely making a fool of myself.

Clearing my throat awkwardly after a few seconds, I muttered, "I'm Kihyun! Here to meet the person that lives here. I brought the key as you asked!"

My words seemed to ring through the alleyway, echoing louder and louder. I cringed at the sound.

After a few more seconds of agonizing silence, I was about to turn around and leave, when I sudden bang came from the behind the windows.

The window shutter was pushed out of the way with a loud creak, as a dark figure stuck their head out of the window.

A/N

Timestamp for this one is 1:08-1:17

Thank you so much for 2k views and 200+ votes on the first part of The Clan! And thank you to those that have stuck with me and are now in the second part!

Next update will be this Sunday, 7/15, as usual.

See you then!