If There Was Loyalty... ✗Sehun and Hyungseok
It had been a mistake.
Very few like to travers the moments of their greatest failures within memories, most wishing simply to graze over those times as if they had never occurred, pushing them to the back of one’s brain like gifts from lovers long past are hidden, soured emotions easily forgotten as they’re swept under the carpet of excuse and repression. Though Hyungseok was by far an unconventional being; someone who walked bluntly on the edge that separates humanity from insanity and normality from the warped and unorthodox twist that poisons a killers mind. He was still subject to this form of thinking, trying to avoid one’s own mistakes in favor of the peace forgetting had to offer. Maybe that in of itself was weak thinking, choosing to burry past events like an accidental killer would try to hide the body. In the end it was bound to be uncovered, right? Washed up onto shore or dug up when least expected. Like a germ ingested it’s only a matter of time before it and much more is expelled and brought to the surface, vomited for the world to see in a far from neat fashion.
It was this sentence that played over and over in the stone-faced man’s mind as he stood stiffly before the small assembly of high ranking Vipers that had gathered; many a hardened face glowering in his direction as he stared with blank eyes over the lot.
“It has come to our attention…” a towering man in the center was saying. “…that your loyalties with us should be questioned.”
Though Hyungseok’s expression never wavered and those words sparked anything but good feelings in the pit of his stomach, even so he felt the urge to scoff at that obvious statement…and if he had been a lesser man he may have. Of course loyalties had to be questioned; there was not a man or woman within the ranks of their gang who should be trusted entirely at any given time, especially in the dark business he himself dealt in.
On top of that Seok was a man of only partial fidelity, bound to the viper syndicate but on the loosest levels possible; more of a consulting assassin than any loyal lackey of the gang’s fold. That all being said and put into that context, the speaking man’s words seemed superfluous in a way, obvious and clearly evident…but Hyungseok was not so much of a fool as to point that out.
His expression didn’t even flicker as he watched the gathering of people; staring like a statue gazing over a crowd, the man continuing with naught a spark of emotion budging any aspect of the younger man’s cold expression.
“That all being said, we collectively believe that it is high time for an evaluation of your allegiance towards the Black Vipers.” The speaking man shifted where he stood after the words rolled on his tongue, his hand lowering to the table before him and raising once more with a black remote clutched loosely in his palm.
There was a soft click and the dimly lit room flicked as a projector on the far wall flashed into life. It took only a second, the now bright wall slowly seeping into darker colors like liquid seeps through a towel when it is placed over a spill. It only took a second, but in that second much of the blood in the hitman’s hardened features seemed to drain to his toes and his teeth clenched as his eyes that grew icy gazed forward.
Resting in the flickering projection was a shockingly familiar face for the practically friendless man, the blurry black and white image causing a conglomerate of long forgotten memories to flash like fireworks behind his eyes.
Though not a pin-prick of any thought registered in his stance or in his mask the damage was still done, long since suppressed memories oozing from their hiding places, dusting themselves off and hitting him over the head again and again with the recollection of his almost fatal mistakes.
It was only a matter of time.
There was a moment of silence in the hall that seemed to stretch on for too long, hyungseok’s cold gaze shifting from the poorly taken image to the face of the previous speaker before his lips parted and his voice carried smoothly through the air.
“Your point?”
“Our point is simple.” The previous speaker continued quickly at the chance. “A few months back this man saved your life, either because of some form of stupidity, ignorance, or more likely devotion.”
‘Preposterous.’ Seok wanted to spit out aberrantly at the man’s words, something about this whole subject seeming terribly forced even to him. It seemed thrown together and hardly thought through, the type of rubbish that had caused the dark haired killer a moment of hesitation before joining the vipers, and was only giving him a headache now.
Gangs like this had so many quabbles, almost petty sounding arguments that could linger on for years if not dealt with quickly. It was just an irritant. For Hyungseok he simply wanted to do his job, to not get caught up in their childish fighting and constant nagging about loyalties and allegiances. He was not much of a threat to them anyway; he’d always done his job without question and completed it with a very small margin for error. His work outside of the vipers had never and would never conflict with their plots, and he knew so little about the Viper’s innermost secrets or main goals that it’s not like he would be selling information. This…conversation or interrogation, whatever you want to call it…it was a hoax in his eyes, a waste of time, and Hyungseok was truly done bothering with it.
…But, he was not so much of a fool as to let any form of annoyance illicit a reaction from him. They were testing him after all, and wouldn’t emotion speak to a guilty conscious? Most likely it would in their eyes so he chose the higher path, letting any anger melt from his thoughts as he bit hit tongue to hold back any foolish remarks bubbling there.
“Do you deny it?” The man kept pushing, arching his brow as he stared across the room at the stilled and dangerous man.
“That he saved my life?”
“Yes.”
“There would be no point.” Hyungseok said with the smallest shake of his head, feeling the urge to just walk out on them.
There was then silence in the room for a moment after he’d spoken, all eyes shifting about the space, staring at the tall young man before them with a hard expression before letting their gaze flicker almost expectantly on the previous speaker.
“Then…” the man continued as if on cue, an almost dramatic air laying heavily in his voice. “If that is indeed the case we feel that it is high time that you prove your true loyalty to the Vipers once again. We feel that it is in your best interests to pay this Oh Sehun a visit…your kind of visit.”
…And it was a statement none could argue with.
—-
Memory has always been a silly thing when it came to the professional youth whose hair changed about as much as his expression didn’t, and whose body language was about as telling as a stone.
He forgets things, memories slipping from his mind as readily as water would from a leaking glass. It was just part of the job seeing the things he did; blood and death, gore and gruesome murder being nearly an everyday sight within his line of work…and subconscious suppression was an ever present threat.
It was all just a part of his work, and on occasion, memories simply disappeared.
Hyungseok is the type of person that is able to learn and retain information quickly, but who can just as speedily let it slip from his mind when it was no longer needed and being used. It’s a handy trick in all honestly, to be able to forget and move on…but it made remembering many times a struggle.
Memory had always been a hit or miss thing when it came to the man. Though certain things stuck in his head like glue and he could retain vast amounts of numbers, dates, pictures and names if he so chose. He could just as readily forget information over time when he didn’t need it anymore. His memory is always in flux after all, taking in vast amounts of statistics and histories all for single kills before deleting it all and starting a fresh with a new person and a new biography. Though things relating to physicality and his actual work process normally stuck; fighting styles, gun uses, acting, languages, weaponry, protection, phycology, and the ever difficult to obtain sixth sense one has towards a target’s movements all permanently engraved in his mind. Things like memory, things he’d lived through, histories, and even faces…they all just melted together over time.
It was a scary thought honestly; knowing that he will likely die sooner than most because of his line of work, yet he will not being able to remember much of his life at the end due to this maddening flaw within his own mind. It’s scary to think that at the end of his life, even through the sea of blunt information he’d acquired, that he won’t be able to remember much of his time among the living…a scary prospect for sure…but one he’s never liked to let his thoughts linger on for long.
That all aside though it was still not a miracle that he could remember this particular man’s face. Even with all of the faces he’d forgotten whether purposefully or by accident. Even still this man stuck out, painted in his mind forever as the one who had saved his life.
Back up a few months and you’d fall upon that fateful meeting and nearly dire mistake.
It had been an oversight honestly, such a small thing that had quickly escalated into something much, much bigger…life threatening in fact.
Hyungseok was very good at his job; he should be after dedicating nearly his entire life wholeheartedly into the work he now strives within. But even despite all of the skill he possesses no one is perfect, and like the blade of a guillotine ready to drop, it was only a matter of time before things caught up to him.
…But in this situation, instead of nearly losing a head, he almost lost a leg.
Even months later he could still feel the sting of that injury; mangled muscle and gaping cuts running deep into his flesh as the blood drained from his face with each step and white hot pain shot upward with every movement. The wound in his leg was gushing blood even with his hand pressed firmly over it, his movements now slow and painful with a trail of red following his path. To add insult to injury it had been mostly his own fault, a mistake which had lead him to this moment, putting him in this position within no better a place but within the Red crest’s ranks. He would have been mad at himself if there had been an opportunity, his clouding mind at the moment so focused on the task at hand that much beyond that was becoming a struggle.
He was truly losing too much blood, knowing this to be all the more apparent as an overwhelming lightness started to claw at his mind and his actions started to seep into jerky movements and uncoordinated faltering as his vision grew splotchy and pressure in his temples began to build.
His life had always been a series of actions; taking one step after another, simply doing the next thing without hesitation like a machine forever pushing forward until its gears grow rusty and its mechanics break. It’s always kept him going doing that, forcing himself to muscle through pain and hardship towards a goal he may or may not reach. And then, once that goal is realized he simply goes onto the next, and then the next forever keeping himself busy.
And it was just this mindset that he was implementing now.
Like the determined mechanics of a robot following its programing, the young assassin simply pushed on, forcing himself even through the fire burning up his leg to walk forward, the pain nothing he told himself…nothing at all.
Though memory has always been a tricky thing, and he can’t fully recall all that happened through the twist of sharp pangs in his leg…he did remember that man’s face.
The emotionless features and lidded eyes, the thin jaw and pale complexion, all of it soaking into his mind and was sponged up by his memory.
The man helped him out of that situation for reasons Hyungseok may never truly be able to justify or comprehend. Saving his life either by some spark of good intention, stupidity, or by pure and fortunate ignorance. Whatever the reason for his Good Samaritan behavior had been, Seok truly didn’t care. The man in question had taken him home, cleaned him up, and then sent him on his way without so much as a single question as to ‘why he was like this’, or ‘who he was.’
As they say ‘never look the gift horse in the mouth’. And as far as Hyungseok was concerned his short lived and brief meeting he’d once had with this man meant little in the end. Though he was grateful for it, like anything else the 20 year old would have just moved on, forgotten as best he could, and simply pretend the whole event had never transpired. But of course nothing could be that simple.
Nothing ever seemed to be ‘that simple’ when the vipers were involved.
—-
The air felt like ice in his lungs, coating his throat and chest with every breath as the black haired man walked purposefully through the nearly empty streets of the neutral zone. Night was tugging at the sky as he strode forward, bathing the world in a haunting pool of shadows as the moon hung like a silver orb in the crisp evening sky and the few stars that managed to battle the light pollution twinkled where they hung.
Two days had passed, 48 hours separating the current day from the past moments spent standing in that room with the accusing gazes of many a Viper man falling on his erect form. ‘Kill him’ they had said, the order echoing in the meeting hall like the sudden bang of a gunshot. Kill him and he would prove himself…Kill him and he would be a true viper again, a loyal man. It was all rubbish in the end. They acted as if this one kill would be able to mark him forever in their minds as someone to be trusted, when in truth, how much stock could one honestly put into a death taken by a killer’s hand? If Seok was truly a killer and a dirty, trading, spy then how hard would it be to kill this Sehun even if they were on the same side? Not hard he can assure you. Death for the most part was just a means towards an end, and if hyungseok never had any shred of loyalty in his veins then killing even people on his own side would be easy, a piece of cake in fact. This was all just rubbish…irritating, and whether from spite or some vague form of debut yet to be paid in his target’s case, Hyungseok had a hankering to misbehave which was very much unlike him.
He’d probably been hanging around Hyuna too much.
As he walked he tried to time his steps wisely, treading carefully so that hopefully his well-paced meandering would lead him to the place Seok planned to carry out his ‘gruesome mission’ just in time to catch his blissfully unaware target.
When Hyungseok reached the end of the alleyway he was roaming down he paused in the shadows of the paralleled buildings, his eyes flickering down to the digital readout of his wristwatch before staring back out into the nearly deserted road as he hid in wait for this Oh Sehun to make his greatly awaited appearance.
Luckily it didn’t take long.
There was a soft clomping of shoes on the cracked pavement up the path before Seok’s target came into view; the hitman seeping back into the inky shadows until the other came across the opening of his alley and he leaped out like a spider attacking its unsuspecting prey.
His actions were smooth and well-practiced as he hooked the other man in a crushing chokehold, arm pressing firmly on his savior’s windpipe but bracing himself greatly for the struggle his studies on the man said was sure to come. He dragged him back into the alley to get their struggles off the street, actions unrelenting as he cut off the man’s precious air.
Hopefully this wouldn’t take long.
