prologue - vulnerable (1/1)

Please speak softly, for they will hear us

And they will find out why we don't trust them

Speak up, dear, cause I cannot hear you

I need to know why we don't trust them

Explain to me this conspiracy against me

And tell me how I've lost my power “What?” Wonwoo stood in the middle of the poorly lit room, his jaw hanging just a tad open as his eyes remained focused on the lean figure that showed only a man’s back, though Wonwoo was well aware of the scars that masked the man’s face, and the tattoos that hugged around his forearms.This man was no stranger to Wonwoo; during multiple occasions their groups would clash and there would be dangerous tension between them, but never enough to murder each other. Though Wonwoo’s group was way fewer and undoubtably outgunned by this man’s group, Wonwoo was confident enough to trust how smart his own henchmen were in the battlefield.Nonetheless, both heads knew that they gravely needed each other despite their internal struggle to go all out and shoot at each other. “What the fuck do you mean?” Wonwoo watches as the man—Jung Jaewon, slowly turned around to face him with that same, sick grin he had always worn. “Are you hearing yourself right now? Are you crazy?” Wonwoo carries on with a bullet of complaints shooting out of his mouth, when he was so abruptly interrupted by a familiar, low chuckle coming out of Jaewon’s mouth. It sounded that of a fiend’s, and there was no better way to describe this man than just that. Wonwoo could not fully grasp what was going on inside Jaewon’s head, but it was practically like that half the time they’ve talked, anyway. “You heard me. I want his son,” Jaewon spat. In this lighting, it only illuminated half of Jaewon’s face—the half that bore the scar that ran from his forehead, cutting all the way down to leave a slice of hairless patch on his eyebrow, barely grazing his right eye until its tip reaches just below his cheekbone. He was a few centimeters away from going blind, but that didn’t prevent him from losing sight of his morals. Jaewon and Wonwoo go way back, having done favors for each other, and has done despicable things together. Theft, arson, drug smuggling, murder.   After all, working in the black market never left your hands untainted. Jaewon was the head of a large group named One that operated in the black market. His real name was mostly unknown to the people he’s worked with, and only a few handful of people know that he goes by Jaewon. All those that are unaware of this was given no choice but to refer to him as One, and ever since, he’s been living with that alias. “Why the fuck would you want that? What did he do to you?” A darker façade gloomed over Jaewon’s face as soon as he heard Wonwoo’s question. He stood completely still as he watched Jaewon toddling over to the display of wooden, carved houses sitting on top of his table. His slender, calloused fingers smoothed along the roof of the small figurine before Jaewon proceeded to responding. “The demolition 6 years ago headed by Governor. Sound familiar?” It took him a moment to recall the event, but he remembered. 6 years ago, their newly elected Governor's first order of business was to demolish a small set of houses that homed people who were living a little under the line that considered them poverty-stricken. The houses they were living in was a project of the previous administration, and the people who occupied them had never been happier. As soon as a new governor was elected, this asshole was indecent enough to eradicate any trace of the previous administration, which included demolishing the houses given to the poor to set up a “power plant that will certainly help the city reduce its use of energy.” You see, this could have been an easily agreeable project if it weren’t for the dozens of family that the Governor left homeless. They were never promised any relocation, which devastated them. On the day of the demolishment, the families affected stood their ground and took a stand, which ended in a tragic accident. Things took a turn for the worse as the families refused to give way to the machines that will wreck their homes, and the authorities had started to resort unjust violence. The commotion left casualties, ranging from severely injured to dead. “What about it?” Wonwoo inquires, thoroughly intrigued. Jaewon looked sinister as he continues to tinker about with the small house figurine in his hand, while his the other reaches into his pocket, bringing out a silver zippo. “My sister… She was one of the casualties on that day. This motherfucker hit my poor 11-year-old sister’s head with his police cudgel. Bashed her skull. Didn’t even make it to the hospital. Fucked up world, huh?” Somewhere along his story, Wonwoo had already picked up the main reason why Jaewon wanted to do this. It was for revenge. “Why not take the governor himself, then?” “Because I want him to grieve and mourn over the death of his son for the rest of his life. He stole someone from me, and it’s time to pay the fucking price,” It was going to be hard, given the circumstances. Given the despicable character that the governor has, he was smart enough to hide the identities of his family members. Every time the media would ask about his family, he would simply say that his son was in America studying, and that his wife was living there as well. Though the governor’s enemies were far too smart to believe all that crap, and has ever since tried to investigate where his son was, and what he looked like. “You do know that nobody knows what his soon looks like, right?” Jaewon flips the zippo open and the flame catches the wooden roof of the figurine, watching it ignite with a sinister grin. Before Wonwoo could interject and complain once more, Jaewon tosses a stack of photos to the table in front of him, and Wonwoo was quick to react by picking it up, scanning each photo carefully. “…You do know what there are two people in these photos, right? Which one?” The photos were obviously taken in secret, some of them even managing to capture the silhouette of the governor with two boys hanging around him as if they were meeting in secret. After skimming through the photos, Wonwoo went against his better judgment and automatically assumed that it was the boy with brown hair and pierced ears, so he was quick to fol