Conceal

25. Information

A few hours ago

Jooheon didn't know whether he was allowed to look up yet, so he stayed still with a 90 degree bow. It was tiring, but staring at the ground was better than having to deal with the menacing gaze of the person he hated and feared the most right that moment.

"You have no right to call me that, traitor." Jooheon straightened his body when Flame said that. It sounded like a growl, and it was disconcerting that someone smaller than him was able to make Jooheon feel like he was the powerless prey ready to be swallowed up whole.

The desire to punch him was equal to the desire to break eye contact and run as far away as possible from the group of black robed figures in front of him. Even though Flame himself was short, his companions certainly wasn't, and under those baggy robes, Jooheon had no way of knowing the amount of vigour each person held.

However, desires were never as important as an objective, nor as strong as a sense of determination. Clenching his teeth, Jooheon hissed, "To you, I might be a traitor. But to others, I'm doing what's right. I'm not part of you anymore. You're nothing to me."

Flame looked up to the sky and laughed incredulously. The sniggers reverberated through the narrow alleyway, and each sound wave sent chills all over Jooheon's body, until he was trembling slightly as if suddenly exposed to the cold winter night.

"If I'm nothing to you, then you must be even more worthless in my eyes." Flame stared straight into Jooheon's eyes, which was able to hold Jooheon's gaze and anchor it in place. Jooheon was unable to look away. "You're just a speck of dust that I can easily ignore." The leader's voice turned into one of contempt and disgust. "Now tell me, why are you here? You're just wasting both of our time, waiting until late at night just to walk all the way here. How many times have you done this already? I guess it doesn't matter though. No one is going to help you here. The only one who can help you, is you. Of course, only if you actually want to."

Jooheon had no idea how he was still holding himself together. He thought his fear and anger — either one of them — was going to overwhelm him soon. But he stayed rooted on the ground and talked. "You better stop now." He tried not to sound pathetic, but in his heart he felt like acting tough was not going to work and he was going to have to resolve to begging in the end.

"My friends have nothing to do with me, or you." Jooheon continued. The silence around him was deafening. It took a lot of courage even to speak up and become the only source of noise in this part of the world. "You told me to put that pack of drugs into Kihyun's bag, so I did it. But it was too much. I couldn't go any further. So I left."

Before Jooheon could say anything else, Flame snorted. "If you're going to tell a story don't skip the details. You didn't just leave. You betrayed the gang and called the police. They were going to find us if you said anything more."

"Shut up!" Jooheon shouted automatically. The echo rang in his ears and he felt himself heat up from the rage. "You planned all that! Hyungwon works for you! Which one is it?! Teal? Or Hex?" Jooheon breathed out and looked away. Everything felt so surreal once he replayed it all over again in his head. "The texts about calling the police are fake too, aren't they? Is Jongho one of you as well? Is this how it is? You hacked into Kihyun's phone and sent messages to Jongho, and to make it look like a friend is helping out?"

Flame smirked, and somehow Jooheon knew it even with the mask's coverage. "So what if it is? I gave you so many chances to redeem your mistakes, but you threw them all away. I wanted to trust you, so I gave you a task. But you failed. I thought Lazarus was the problem — he started it anyway — so I got rid of him, but I guess he wasn't the issue. At least, not the only one."