The moment Seonghwa stepped onto the dusty roads of the tiny town he was meeting their friend in, the shutters of a window loudly shut. Nonplussed, he lifted his eyebrow into an unspecific direction.

"Seems like they aren't too fond of visitors. It might be the shotgun," San commented dryly while he just stopped yawning. Yeosang had nearly finished his cycle by now, but even in his last two days, he kept wearing their poor alpha out. It was not his fault that his body craved the embrace of an alpha over that of a beta, after all. Yunho gave his best to help him, too.

"Would you rather I fight any possible predator with my fists?"

"Damn, manly. Maybe next time." His chair creaked audibly as he leaned back. Some crunching gave his snacking away. Seonghwa stopped himself from nagging him to cook some actual food. Not as if San wouldn't just roll his eyes at him anyway.

Seonghwa ignored the apparent dismissal of him being here as he fearlessly stepped further into the little rural town. He led his bike with him at his side and tried to ignore the curious eyes watching him hatefully through tiny gaps and slits on the houses. The town was brown. Lonely footballs that were half-deflated rested forgotten on the streets. Some merchant stalls seemed to have been closed long ago.

Lonely posters fluttered in the warm wind.

Seonghwa's black boots stepped through the sandy streets. Above him, there were drying racks lined between the narrow houses. The washed-out carpets hanging down from them were stained far too intensely for their original colours to ever see the light of day again.

The sandy road crunched underneath his bike as he dragged it through the big gate leading to the centre of the town. Right up ahead, he could see a matte black jeep. Seonghwa rounded the dried out fountain in the middle of the plaza calmly. A group of white doves fluttered away from the church in front of him.

Seonghwa arrived at the driver's side and kicked the stand of his bike down before gently knocking on the door. Despite the jeep's top being open anyway and the window also having been rolled down, he decided to stay polite. No need to get a bullet to the head because he decided to poke some fun.

The person on the driver's seat lazily cracked his eyes open, a crooked smirk lifting the right corner of his mouth up.

"Hey there," Seonghwa greeted him first as he mirrored the other's smile. He stuck his hand through the window so they could shake hands comfortably. The driver's fingers were delicate and soft in Seonghwa's rough and leather-clad hands.

"Those streets were not deserted a moment ago." The man spoke in a deep timbre as he let go of Seonghwa's hand and moved to open the door between them. Seonghwa stepped aside so that he could get out comfortably.

"I've been trying so hard to blend in. I hope I'm the one who frightens them and not something else. The silence seems eerie, don't you think?"

"Expecting someone?" He stepped out of the car to stretch his long limbs, standing about an inch taller than Seonghwa. Seonghwa inconspicuously glanced around, finding just some broken pottery and brittle wooden balconies.

"An old friend, yes. He invited me here, and I'm sure he won't miss out on giving me a grand welcome. I hope you're bulletproof, Bang."

Yongguk threw his head back with laughter, his brooding face brightening with his smile. Seonghwa's shoulders relaxed a bit at the sight. Seeing their old friend still carefree like that despite the weird businesses, Seonghwa kept pulling him in kind of alleviated him.

"I'm glad that this is not the first time we've met under such conditions. I'm pretty sure they will politely wait for us right outside."

Seonghwa sighed as he looked over the circular plaza they stood on. Perfect for an ambush.

As if on cue, San piped up in his ear.

"Hey, you got visitors."

Yongguk slipped back into his car right when in the distance, a rumbling sound became loud. It appeared to grow closer, and soon, Seonghwa could define it as the sound of wood splintering. It seemed like those imbeciles again paid no respect to the surroundings they were in.

"We'll meet at the street in the northeast. I'll distract a few of them for you." Yongguk nonchalantly reached down into the legroom of the seat next to him and pulled up a sleek black suitcase. When he snapped it open, Seonghwa could see two shiny silver pistols inside.

Yongguk handed him one and checked the magazine of the other for himself.

"Bring it back without a scratch. Those are for a customer."

Seonghwa giggled at him while he swung his leather-clad leg over his machine. As he twisted the key, it came to life beneath him with a roar. Feeling its powerful vibrations between his legs, Seonghwa kicked the stand away again, just as another black jeep appeared in the entrance Seonghwa had come through.

"I'll try." With that, he took off without caring for his helmet. Yongguk fled through the west gate while Seonghwa raced away right next to the newcomer car, delivering a few shots to the inside. Men cursed, then they hit the brakes.

Seonghwa kept the gun in his hand as he ducked low over his red and black bike. Alerted, he pricked his ears for any sounds of enemies as he crossed through the narrow streets. Now, he was thankful they were so empty. There would have been no place for people and his bike here.

They had men on motorcycles, too.

Far quieter than any car, one of them suddenly crossed Seonghwa's path, making the man jerk his own bike to the left. He narrowly dodged the stranger, but he also saw the pistol in his hand quite late.

Using their proximity, Seonghwa kicked the bike as strong as his leg allowed him to, sending it tilting away. Out of control, it crashed into a wall, taking the driver right with it, while Seonghwa settled back on his own bike again.

"Phew, that was close."

"Write me a poem about the times I've narrowly escaped death until I come home, please." Seonghwa spared not another breath as he returned to the breakneck situation: getting out of this city in one piece.

Seonghwa shot down another rider shortly after when he appeared behind him. They were clearly slowed down by his hazardous route, but they didn't seem to give up yet.

With grit teeth, Seonghwa cursed Hongjoong inwardly. He hoped this would be worth it.

"Direct me out of here. Is Yongguk's signal on?"

"It's not, as usual, but I can find his pursuers. Turn left."

Seonghwa did, sharply taking the corner and nearly landing on the floor with how much he was leaning to the side. He immediately would have crashed into a barrel right after, but he only scraped its edge instead, devious splinters of wood harmlessly hitting his leather jacket.

It was far too hot for activities like these.

"Go straight and then right at the fifth corner."

Seonghwa sometimes wondered what he would do without San. Die, probably.

Weaving through the alleys of the city, Seonghwa tried to keep the damage to the town to a minimum, but some of those mercenaries fell just too clumsily. Seonghwa hoped that the townspeople would find them before they could get away and maybe release them from their wallets.

Seonghwa found the street Yongguk had been speaking of after some time. He saw the imprints of multiple cars on the sand, indicating that Yongguk might still have been followed. Seonghwa paused to put on his glasses before taking up the hunt.

The dusty streets made operating the bike difficult, but he managed out of sheer luck and some skill. The way he was taking was decorated with some fallen bikers and one smoking car. Yongguk had left a trail of destruction. For a beta as gentle as him, this was great work. Seonghwa gave a respectful nod.

He followed the trail of destruction leading further away from the town. San assured him that he was on the right path even when it was quite obvious where he had gone.

For a few minutes, it was just him. Him, the dirty streets of Peru's outback, and several groaning bikers on the ground. Seonghwa wondered if anybody would come for them or if they were exchangeable like that.

The sound of water in the distance soon overpowered the roar of Seonghwa's bike. It seemed like a big river was coming up, and Seonghwa slowed down carefully when he took notice of the fragile-looking bridge.

Or rather, what was left of it. Clearly, it had been too weak to hold the heavy jeeps crossing over it. The right part of the once broad bridge had broken off. Some jagged wooden planks held it together, but apart from that, there was just a massive hole in the side. Seonghwa guessed that he would be able to see a jeep or at least a few indicators of a vehicle if he looked down there.

He sure hoped it wasn't Yongguk's jeep, though. But based on the lack of other pursuers, he guessed that so far, he had escaped them.

Seonghwa drove over the creaking bridge slowly. There was still enough space for a car to pass over here without getting too close to the edge; yet, Seonghwa was not too fond of pushing his odd luck even further.

He was back on track after a few careful seconds.

Soon, he also found the tip of the trail of strangers that hung to Yongguk like some klutz. There were a few slower bikers that battled with Seonghwa for a few life-threatening seconds. When he had gotten rid of them with only a few scratches left behind on his body, he finally took on the three jeeps trailing Yongguk.

It was a tad more tricky to get rid of those. They were curving left and right in order to dodge him, and sometimes a person appeared on one of the tinted windows to try and shoot him.

In the end, Seonghwa was left with no other option but to shoot their tires. With the first one veering off, Seonghwa gained a few more meters on Yongguk again. The man was also trying to dodge any bullet to his abilities, but he seldomly had the chance to fire at them. Rather, he stayed cautious of the streets.

Seonghwa tried to find a helpful spot to weave into. He avoided the gap right between the two massive jeeps as it would have been far too easy for them to smash him to pieces there. But then again, every jeep veering off poised a risk to him also.

In the end, he still risked it, seeing as they were getting nowhere while driving through the dusty clouds their vehicles kicked up.

Shooting at the tires again, Seonghwa tried to take out the front outer ones at least so they would just crash somewhere on the sides. One of the drivers struggled enough to nearly smash Seonghwa with how he was making a sharp turn to avoid landing in the ditch.

With a few more curses and one of the drivers yelling at Seonghwa, he finally managed to break free of the situation, leaving both jeeps rendered useless behind them. He caught up to Yongguk's side quickly and gave him an exhausted thumbs up. The other man gave a grave nod before pointing just straight ahead, motioning for Seonghwa to follow him.

Seonghwa let him lead the way and spared no glance back to the mess they had created.

He hoped that this was all of the strangers that had been involved. He wished to be alone with Hongjoong and battle him only like he was asking for. There was no more playing around now. Seonghwa would not allow him to take this job away from him too.