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I'm so bored cause of quarantine

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AKD

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Time passed in a blur yet again and it was 1 more year of Jaemin being under Jeno's tutelage.

They were now eighteen years old.

By this time Jaemin's skill levels shot up to much greater heights and Jeno felt that he would be ready to undertake missions soon enough.

Along with the usual drug deals and weapon smuggling, their gang also provided assassination jobs if their clients were rich enough and willing to pay a lot. That was the field Jeno specialized in and with Jaemin's skyrocketing skills on shooting and sniping, he was sure his father would rope the guy into being an assassin too.

While Jaemin's shooting improved to the point that he could shoot two targets at once hitting them both, as well as control more powerful guns much better, and he grew in physical strength and stamina, Jeno couldn't say the same about his mental strength.

Jaemin zoned out a lot.

He didn't cry, but he lost focus.

He let Jeno nearly batter him during their martial arts training without putting up much resistance like he normally would. He grew quieter than he usually was and ate even lesser. He cried in his sleep when no one was looking (Jeno would know because after the first time it had become a sort of habit for him to sit outside Jaemin's room and listen to him.)

Jeno couldn't for his life understand what the boy was going through.

It was by unexpected chance that Jeno found out what was going on with the other boy.

It was after a particularly grueling training session, all throughout which Jaemin was out of focus and getting beat up left and right until Jeno stopped in exasperation and called it a day, threatening Jaemin to better focus the next time they met for another session. He had to begrudgingly visit his father and report that the day hadn't gone too well in training.

"I hope you're not wasting your time on a failure, Jeno," his father spoke with a mocking look all the while he left a trail of lewd touches on the woman that was seated on his lap and grinding against him, making all sorts of obscene sounds.

This was another reason why Jeno hated visiting his father.

Every time the teenager came by the room, the man had a new woman with him. It disgusted him to no end when he thought of the way his father touched these women.

"As much as I like assets joining our gang, I'm not sure I like the idea of having the son of my once-enemy under my roof."

"I assure you Jaemin has made incredible progress," Jeno said through gritted teeth, pointedly looking anywhere but his father. "He is probably just tired and losing focus. His stamina building still needs a bit of work. But I have not met another person who is so good with guns. It's only been a four but he can control the largest variety of guns I have ever seen. Usually, this type of skill takes a decade to learn, but he was already more than good a few months in"

"Well, I will take your word then," his father said with a smirk and then turned his full attention towards the woman. "Now leave, Jeno. I have work to do."

Jeno left only too gladly, wanting to do anything to erase the image of his father's tongue in the woman's mouth. He shuddered as he thought about it, wondering how his father even found pleasure in touching a woman that way.

He entered the hideout kitchen on the way, grabbing the tray of food the cook had prepared for Jaemin and quickly made his way to the teenager's bedroom.

Balancing the tray on his hip, he pulled down the handle and entered just in time to see Jaemin slit his wrist.

The tray of food met the linoleum floor with a crash as Jeno rushed forward and knocked the knife out of Jaemin's hand. He briefly wondered where he had even gotten the blade from but Jaemin didn't give him longer to contemplate as he thrashed about and struggled in Jeno's hold, splattering the blood that flowed from his wrist all around.

Jeno snarled and quickly overpowering Jaemin, pinned him to the bed. The blood immediately began soaking the sheets.

"What do you think you're doing, Jaemin?" Jeno growled, nearly livid with anger and another emotion he couldn't quite well decipher. He was suddenly aware of how fast his heart was racing. "What are you doing slitting your wrist, thinking you can die under my watch. Are you stupid?"

Jaemin stared up at him as Jeno hovered above, eyes shining with unshed tears and looking so broken that Jeno felt a punch to his chest. "I've had enough."

"So you choose the coward's way out?!" Jeno had no idea why he was so furious.

"Yes! Because dying is better than living anyway!" Jaemin shouted back and this time the tears escaped from his eyes. "I don't have anything to live for. My mom's dead and my father is too. You guys took everything from me! And I'm here, training to be one of you, you who killed my parents. I'd rather die!"

Jaemin's breathing was ragged as he finished, chest heaving up and down and tears flowing from his eyes like they had no intention of stopping.

Jeno's eyes flitted to his wrist and heave a secret sigh of relief. It wasn't deep enough to kill the boy.

He gazed back towards Jaemin's face and realized that he was still staring at him with that broken and almost pleading look. Jeno's heart twisted in a foreign yet familiar way.

"Let me go, Jeno. Let me go so that I can go to where my parents are," Jaemin whispered. "Please."

"And lose my only chance of proving my father wrong? No, thank you," Jeno let out a harsh laugh. "You're finally a decision I took without my father having to dictate it. I'm not letting you die any time soon, especially not by your own hands."

Jaemin's face hardened at that and he violently lurched, trying to get out from underneath Jeno. "You selfish bastard."

"What? Did you expect a saint when I took you in?" Jeno cocked an eyebrow. "You really are stupid, Na Jaemin."

"What would you know?" Jaemin screamed, trying to break free but Jeno was too strong for him. "You never had your parents killed! You never got kidnapped and forced to train into being a criminal! What would you know about what I'm feeling?!"

"That's because I have no one to lose and I have absolutely no love for my father," Jeno seethed and Jaemin stopped struggling for once. "I'm probably an illegitimate child from one of those women my father is always fucking and I'm not even a son, but a tool to him. Do you think I love a father like him?! At least you had a father you could love and respect!"

Jeno had no idea why he was even talking about this.

He never talked about himself much less about his hatred for his father. Nor did he complain about a fucked up family but he was doing that now. At least it seemed to have shut Jaemin up.

"If you thought I took you in and trained you for my father, then you're dead wrong, Jaemin. I'm doing it for myself. Don't you want to kill my father too? Take revenge for killing your dad?"

"I don't care about revenge. I don't want to kill anyone," Jaemin sobbed out. "I just want to go home."

"Then let's make a deal," Jeno stated calmly. "We both train and we both get stronger. And when the time comes, I will defeat my father and you will help me win. If my father is no longer there then you can also go home."

Jaemin swallowed and turned away. Then he answered in the softest voice possible. "Okay."

"Good," Jeno climbed off of him and then helped him sit up.

Then he fetched a first aid box from the nearest washroom and helped in dressing Jaemin's wound. "You're a fucking idiot if you wanted to die. Your dad taught you how to shoot because he wanted you to survive. So survive!"

Jaemin didn't answer and when Jeno looked up, he saw the boy biting his lip and trying to hold back his tears. They spilled nevertheless and he brought up his other uninjured hand to cover his mouth. "I'm sorry."

Jeno didn't know who Jaemin was apologizing to. So he stayed silent all the while Jaemin sobbed. For some strange reason, he still held on to Jaemin's wrist even though he was done dressing and bandaging it.

As he walked out of the room after Jaemin had stopped crying and the wound was taken care of, he recalled seeing the young man slitting his wrists and spilling his blood everywhere and his heart sped up again.

Jeno had seen blood too many times to count but he had no idea why he was breaking out in cold sweat as he thought about Jaemin nearly dying.

He had never predicted the boy would try to take his own life.

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"I'll be assigning the first mission to your boy, Jeno," his father's voice sounded bored but Jeno's head nevertheless perked up. "Judging from all your reports, he sounds ready for a mission."

"Will he be doing it alone?" Jeno asked tentatively. "He's good with guns but he doesn't really have real experience killing anyone."

The man's laugh was booming and Jeno almost flinched.

"Of course, I won't send him alone!" he sneered. "I still don't trust that runt. You'll be going with him. And I know he ain't got any experience so that's why I have set a mission that's to have no attacking involved, that is if you guys are lucky. He only needs to prove how vigilant and quick he can be."

Jeno felt relieved if he were to be honest. "And so....what is the mission?"

His father smirked.

"You remember the mole we planted amongst those damned Rats? Well, he is coming back with all the info we needed tomorrow," he stated casually. "It's your and that runt's job to receive all the info from him and bring it back here safe and sound."

Jeno frowned. The job sounded too easy. But he wasn't going to disobey his father's orders yet. "Alright then, father. We will head out soon."

He walked thoughtfully towards Jaemin's room, carrying the paper with the mission details and thought back to what his father had said.

The Rats were just a nickname they gave to their enemy mafia gang. The "mole" his father had talked about had been sent as an undercover from their own gang around a year or two back because Jeno's father suspected the Rats to be smuggling some new kind of drug that could possibly threaten their own business and he needed to investigate if it was indeed true.

"Oi," Jeno called out as soon as he opened the door without knocking as usual, giving Jaemin a scare. "We finally got your first mission. You better not screw this up."

Jaemin's eyes were blown wide as he registered what the other was saying and took the paper with the mission details. "I have.....a mission? After four years?"

"Yes," Jeno deadpanned and motioned for him to read the paper. "We will be setting out at midnight because the guy is meeting us at the warehouses near the pier at 2 in the morning. So, be prepared."

Jaemin swallowed. "We won't have to.....kill anyone, will we?"

"It depends," Jeno shrugged. "Usually missions like these shouldn't be too dangerous since it only involves collecting information but the mole can also very well be followed and found out by the other gang and then they might try to attack us too. But it depends. Best to go prepared."

Jaemin went a little pale as soon as Jeno said that but he merely nodded and began reading through the paper.

Not Edited

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Song Recommendation:

"Paradise" by Derik Fein