Stronger || NCT mafia au

Chapter 40 | "never say that"

Jihyun's eyes flash open, looking down at the boy on the ground, a bullet straight through his head. Both her and Johnny turn to their left and see Jaemin standing there, his gun still raised.

Jihyun let's out a sigh of relief as she notices the other members catching up to him from down the hallway. She feels the guards behind her loosen their grip, distracted by Jaemin's gunshot.

She takes the opportunity, flipping them over her back, pulling two knives out from her sleeves and ramming them into their stomachs.

When she turns to look at Johnny, she's met with chaos. All the members are fighting, and though they're out numbered, NCT is better trained.

She seems Jaehyun fighting Doyoung, Haechan tackling Taeil. Taeyong leading the others in fighting against the guard, side by side with her trainees.

She scans the room, searching for her brother in the fray but notices Sungchan struggling against a group of guards. One kicks him hard, knocking him over. She runs forward, kicking the knife out of one's hand and shoving him away before Sungchan was stabbed.

She quickly pulls him off of the ground and he gives her a thumbs up. She nods to him and leaves him to finish off the last few.

Suddenly she's yanked backwards, a knife to her throat. She carefully tries to maneuver herself free but the guard's grip is too tight.

He presses the knife into her neck, drawing blood, when he's ripped off of her. Jihyun turns to see Jeno stabbing the guard in the back.

He runs up to her, giving her a quick hug before the two go back to back, now surrounded by 5 new guards.

"This brings back memories, doesn't it?" Jeno nervously laughs out as the guards circle them.

"Better hope for the same outcome." She whispers back as the guards lunge.

Jeno and Jihyun stay pressed back to back, skillfully dodging their attackers, working together as one fluid unit, eventually defeating all of them. They high five one another when Jihyun sees a familiar flash of brown hair in the corner of her eye.

She turns to the side, making eye contact with her brother. His eyes widen as he takes off running, yelling out to his followers. She darts after him, but is quickly blocked by the fleeing guards. She stops to let them go for now.

"Unit U and WayV, let's go! Make sure none of them turn back!" Jaehyun yells out, taking off after them with the respective units following behind him.

It's only once those member leave and the room falls silent again that Jihyun really realizes what happened. Her whole body feels numb, her mind completely blank.

Taeyong goes from member to member, checking up on 127 and the trainees. Once he finishes, he notices her staring into space. Quickly he walks over to her, pulling her into his chest and rubbing her back.

She lets him move her, still unable to feel anything.

"Ji, are you okay?" He says, looking into her eyes with concern.

"Yeah I'm fine." She responds blankly. There's no emotion in her voice, almost as if it's a robot speaking for her.

"Jihyun, you're bleeding!" Taeyong exclaims, noticing the blood dripping down her neck and arms.

"Oh, am I? Huh, I didn't notice. I guess I'll have to let Taeil check them out." Taeyong winces at her words but doesn't try and correct her.

The doors burst back open, revealing the other members, panting and out of breath.

"They're gone." Jaehyun says, "they ran out and got away before we could catch them, but they're gone."
He walks up to Jihyun and Taeyong.

"Hey Ji, you're safe now, okay?" He says, rubbing her shoulder.

"That's a lie if I've ever heard one." She deadpans, still not looking at them. Taeyong and Jaehyun recoil at her answer. "I'm a mafia girl, safety is one thing I can't kill people to get."

To their right, Jaemin stares down at Renjun's body, his bullet being fatal and killing the boy on impact. The rest of the trainees gather around the body of their friend, tears in their eyes.

"I...I killed him" Jaemin whispers out.

"You did what you had to." Chenle murmurs.

"He was going to kill her, and you know that." Jisung adds quietly.

"I know. I don't regret saving her but he....Renjun was like family." Jaemin says with tears streaming down his face.

Jeno turns to him with teary eyes before silently pulling him into a hug, Chenle and Jisung joining in.

Jihyun hears their sobs and turns her head to the side. She looks at the boys and then now and at Renjun's body, her eyes flickering back and fourth.

"I made him kill his brother" she whispers to herself.

"What, Ji?" Jaehyun asks.

"The one thing I wanted to protect them from." She continues, ignoring Jaehyun and Taeyong. "Some leader I am, that should be me on the ground." She tears her gaze away from Renjun, looking now at Taeyong. "I don't suppose Taeil can heal him, hmm?"

"Taeil is-"

"Unfortunately no, Jihyun." Taeyong cuts Jaehyun off with a warning look before clearing his throat.

"Ok everyone," he calls out loudly, all heads turning to face him, "let's head home." All the members move towards the doors mic except Jihyun, who remains rooted to her spot.

"I'll drive her home" Jaehyun offers.

"No. She's incredibly unstable right now. We need to do this carefully." Taeyong turns back to the members, searching for one boy in particular.

"Kun!" The Chinese boy turns and walks over to Taeyong. "I need you to drive her home. She needs someone like you right now."

Kun nods his head in understanding, walking over to Jihyun. He whispers into her ear and she slowly begins to follow him.

Jaehyun and Taeyong start to walk out but notice the four trainees still behind them, looking around with uncertainty.

"Follow us, guys. You're coming back to our place for now." Taeyong calls out, the boys running foreword to catch up after one last look at Renjun.

- - -

Kun begins to drive home in silence, Jihyun in the passenger seat.

"I'm a monster, Kun." She whispers out, breaking the silence.

"What do you mean?" He says carefully, giving her a pained glance.

"I only ever wanted to protect you. That's my job. Protect you so that none of you will have to go through what I did. But today I made a boy kill his brother."

"You didn't-"

"And what's worse is that I couldn't even defend myself. Pathetic."

"You're not pathetic, Jihyun."

"I'm worse. I'm worthless. Not only am I a monster, but I'm weak. The mafia would be better off without me."

"Jihyun, we need you."

"You don't. It should be me shot dead on that floor." Kun can't respond, tears starting to fall down his face listening to her words.

"Jihyun, I don't really request stuff from you much, but can you do me one favor?"

"I'm so useless, I doubt I'll actually be able to do it, but what is it?"

"Never say that again. Never say you should be dead. Ever." The car falls back into silence, neither knowing what to say as they continue to drive home.

———
I feel like y'all are gonna kill me for killing Renjun... I'm sorry y'all I didn't wanna do it but the random name picker I used chose Renjun.
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