Hunted

Kyun stretched and yawned. As his eyes fluttered open, he somehow expected to see Julian, but he could only see Luo in the bed. After snoozing a bit, the Korean turned to look around the room, and as could be expected, the purple-haired fellow was nowhere to be seen.

He hadn't slept particularly well that night; seeing that building burning down had made him so angry, then so frustrated that he didn't know what to do about it. If it hadn't been for Julian, he didn't know what he'd have done... at least now, Luo was around again. He didn't know where the guy had gone the night before, and didn't want to ask. Maybe the taller Korean just needed some alone time.

There was a light tremble in his chest. Kyun wasn't quite sure whether that came from anxiety or anger, but he felt a need to be held. With no Julian around, there was only one option, but he hesitated, knowing that the local culture here didn't allow for that when he was with someone. After a few glances towards the closed door and hearing the silence, though, he moved over, laying his head to rest against Luo's chest, gently laying a hand onto the larger Korean's hip.

Several minutes - perhaps as much as half an hour - passed in that position, but eventually Kyun became too nervous about the lack of noise. Reluctantly, he moved away from his friend's warm body, getting to his feet and putting on his clothes.

The apartment was devoid of awake life. Choi was still sleeping on the couch, and apart from the used bowls on the kitchen counter, there was no trace of anyone having been awake yet. Kyun bit his lip, not wanting to get nervous about that, but after what had happened recently, that was easier said than done. As far as he could imagine, there was no way those four could hold their own if they bumped into Ramesh and his crazy brother.

No, he had to know. Kyun fished out his cell phone, and quickly dialed Julian's number. His mind was frantically searching for something to say, until he heard the phone ringing over on the coffee table. He rolled his eyes and groaned. 'That's helpful!' he thought sarcastically to himself as he pushed the quick select button for Kiyoshi's number and put the phone back up to his ear.

Nobody answered. That was quite unlike the Japanese, and Kyun was getting increasingly convinced something was wrong. His heart caught in the throat, he tried Takuya while walking back towards to the bedroom. After four rings, the guy answered.

"What woke you up? It's not spring yet!"

Kyun quirked a brow, but didn't have a mind to figure out what that was supposed to mean. "Where are you? Is Julian there?" He asked, a bit short of breath.

"Of course he is." Takuya chuckled, then added, "I'm glad you brought him around, Kyun. Julian's such a lovely guy."

With a sigh, partly out of relief, and partly out of annoyance, the Korean calmed down a little. He leant against the wall near the bedroom doorway, watching a lone kitten wander past him. Its friends were probably still asleep in that basket. "So tell me... where are you?"

"We're in the courtyard playing basket. Why?"

Such a light tone... the Japanese was apparently in a good mood. Kyun was starting to feel a bit silly; he shouldn't have expected everyone to stay inside all morning. It was good, really, that they got out a bit. "Nah, nevermind. Just don't beat that little redhead up too bad, ok?"

Takuya responded with a touch of confusion. "The little shitface? No, there's just me and Julian here. Kiyoshi is taking his miniature and that fucking dog for a walk."

"Shit." Kyun hung up and hurried into the bedroom. He moved over to the bed, grabbing the taller guy with both hands. With a touch of desperation in his voice, he started shaking the sleeping body. "Luo! You gotta wake up!"

~~~~

Immediately, Nele rushed to Kiyoshi's side put a hand on his back. "Shit! Oh man... Lemmie help you up..."

With his eyes closed and a pained grimace, the Japanese clutched where he was hit. He turned his head to the side, and soon he had left a sizeable puddle of vomit beside him. When he finally started breathing, he let out a strained groan which was caught in his throat. Soon he was coughing, fragments of puke escaping his mouth.

"Kiyoshi..." It was too much seeing the man he cared so much about in that pain. Nele knew it was all his own fault that it happened. He should have listened. He shouldn't have gone out at all and because of his anger and his pride... Nele rubbed Kiyoshi's back as if that would help with the coughing. "... Can you stand? We've gotta get you back to the apartment."

The Japanese was starting to get a bit of control of his breath, and forced out a few words between the coughs. "I'll... be... fine..." He reluctantly let go of his stomach, rolling over onto his side and started to push himself up. Halfway to his feet, he grimaced again, leaning against a parked car and squeezing his eyes shut.

Yeah he looked fine. Nele scowled and went to put an arm around the guy. He expected Kiyoshi to be extremely pissed at him too, but hopefully they'd be able to push that bit aside until they got somewhere safe. "Come on, I'll be a crutch..."

"Just a..." - cough - "second..." Kiyoshi fished out his cell phone, then pushed a button. Gazing at the display for a few seconds, he pushed a few buttons and held it out to Nele. "Kyun called." He strained to speak another few words. "Tell him -" he was broken off by another fit of coughs and rested his forehead on his arm.

"Okay, I'll call him." There wasn't time to worry about getting his ass kicked by Kyun. Nele took the cellphone and pressed the button to automatically dial the last caller. As he put it to his ear, he leaned against the car next to Kiyoshi and watched him with growing concern. It was all a terrible mistake, but he hadn't the faintest idea how he could fix it.

It only took a moment after the first ring before the call was answered. Kyun sounded extremely short of breath, and talked quickly and insistently in a language Nele couldn't understand.

He blinked, unable to think of how to respond at first and then figured just explaining right away would probably be the best way. "I fucked up, Kyun. The bigass prick got us and hit Kiyoshi really hard. I think he's gone now, but Kiyoshi's hurt... What do I do?"

Kyun paused and swallowed, then spoke with a fair amount of urgency in his voice. "Where are you now?"

"We're just outside. We took a left outside the front doors and only got about a block away before they caught us." Nele closed his eyes and shook his head. "He should seriously see a doctor."

Looking back towards the apartment, he saw Kyun and Luo jogging along in their direction. "Be right with you." Kyun said, then hung up. By the time the two Koreans made it there, Kiyoshi had pushed unsteadily to his feet. The shorter Korean needed just one look at his friend, before concluding through gritted teeth. "He's going to bleed for that."

Good. It was nice to hear that Kyun had every intention of doing something about it. He moved closer to the Japanese to carefully slip the cellphone back in Kiyoshi's pocket. "He's got a new friend. I swear I've never seen her before in my life, but she actually seemed to be calling the shots today. Bitch was in a school uniform! Couldn't have been older than 17."

Kyun looked with confused disbelief from one to the other, then shrugged. "That sounds ridiculous, but I'll take your word for it..." He moved closer to Kiyoshi, sliding an arm in under the Japanese's. "Come on, let's get you back to the apartment."

When they started the slow walk back to the apartment, Nele fell in line behind the other three. Kiyoshi was going to be okay. Now he was able to let the guilt and the shame consume him freely. He lowered his head as he walked, staring at the filthy sidewalk below. The sound of a loud strange noise pierced the air and startled him into jumping and spinning around. He quickly realized that sound had been a dog – likely his dog. He bit his lip, forcing himself to stay strong even if a huge part of him made him want to run and follow the sound. Not that he would be able to do anything if he did end up finding them.

Then he spotted Luo already on his way in that direction, signaling for him to come along. It was suprising; though he figured Luo would want to take Ramesh down, he hadn't expected to be invited along. As the Korean slowed down a bit for him to catch up, their gazes met for a moment. "You can take his crazy brother."

Nele nodded dumbly in agreement and then took time to consider it. "What about the girl? She's got a switchblade, but I dunno if the others have weapons or not."

While running, Luo was pulling fighting gloves out of his pocket and putting them on. "Won't matter. We can take them. Thanks for making me aware of that, though." He had a strong determination about him that Nele hadn't seen from the Korean before. Almost creepy. Then, another loud, high-pitched sound of pain echoed between the walls. Those fucking bastards...

They ran around the next corner, still following the sounds. Ahead of them a few blocks was the schoolgirl just standing there with Rex at her feet – looked like his fur was soaked with something. She was smoking a cigarette and leisurely watching them. The closer they came, the more amused she appeared. A truck started driving slowly past her. They were barely 50 meters away, but she smiled and waved and dropped the cigarette on the dog as she hopped into the back of the vehicle.

Nele shouted a curse that even he didn't understand as flames shot up from where the dog was. It yelped a strange sound and wriggled around but didn't seem to be going anywhere. As Nele ran at it, He pulled off his shirt, not having anything else to put out the flames. When he reached the struggling burning animal, he dropped his shirt over it, unable to put out the flames completely, and picked it up to run over to a sprinkler in a nearby lawn.

As the water finally reached the dog, the fire was quickly put out. The dog was a terrible sight, though. It was hard to say at this point whether it'd make it, but Nele was committed to try what he could to help. A sigh alerted him to Luo's presence beside him, and he turned his head to look at the guy. "They're just playing with us," the Korean said, as in a grim afterthought. Then his eyes narrowed. "We have to kill them."

All it took was another weary glance down at the unconscious whimpering animal in his arms to know just how right Luo was. Nele knelt down in front of the sprinkler, hoping the water would soothe Rex's burns at least a little. The fur was completely black and sticky, looking almost like tar covering red blistering and peeling flesh. "It's either them or us. I'm with you a hundred percent."

~~~~~

This is a collab, written together with Chlover. You can find her author profile here: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/authors.php?no=26260