"d-do you think t-they are going t-to... to k-kill me...?" chenle asked, his eyes widening as more tears welled up into them when he realised the gravity of his words.

jisung and him were still inside the aquarium's bathrooms, jisung peeking through the opening of the door to see if he could find other dark danger members.

"chenle, calm down. no one is going to get killed." jisung spoke, pulling the younger against his side to hug him and help him calm down.

chenle cried in jisung's chest once again, gripping on the younger's shirt tightly.

"i'll call my godfather. he'll pick us up. we'll escape quickly, and i'll find a way to disguise you or something, okay?" jisung placed his chin on top of chenle's head, feeling him nodding slowly.

the mafia leader pulled his phone out and composed his godfather's number, waiting for him to pick up for a few seconds.

"jisung, i thought it was your day from everything mafia related." heesun said as soon as he picked up. jisung made sure the volume was low enough so that chenle couldn't overhear anything heesun was saying.

"we're at the aquarium with chenle, and we were wondering if you could come pick us up." jisung spoke calmly.

"the aquarium?" heesun laughed. "you took a break from mafia activities to go to the aquarium? and did you just ask me to be your taxi?!" he gasped.

"yeah, there were lots of beautiful fish. oh! and we even saw octopuses. blue and dangerous ones."jisung articulated clearly, hoping his godfather would understand the message.

"octopuses? jisung, are you drunk, why are you- wait! are you trying to tell me there are members of dark danger around?!" he asked seriously.

"exactly!" jisung smiled. "at the aquarium."

"okay, so, i'm guessing chenle is around and that's why you're sounding so not like yourself. i'm taking the car right now, i'll be there in 10minutes maximum."

"great." jisung breathed out a sigh. "we'll wait for you."

"call me back if anything happens. i have heavy artillery in my boot."

"sure, see you."

jisung hung up, placing his phone back in his pocket and facing chenle.

"my godfather will be there soon. for now, we need to get out of here without getting seen, okay? you absolutely need to stay calm and not make a noise. if someone suspicious ever comes around, just bury your face into my chest as if you were hugging me, and i'll make sure to hide you the best i could, okay?"

chenle gulped, another tear leaving his eye as he nodded.

"we'll head out now, alright?"

jisung turned around again, placing his hand on the door handle and applying pressure on it to open the door. however, before he could open the door fully, chenle slid between him and the door, looking up at jisung.

"w-what if w-we don't m-make it...?" chenle asked, new tears falling from his eyes. "t-they're a-a m-mafia..."

"we will make it, chenle." jisung assured, cupping the boy's cheeks and using his thumbs to wipe his tears away. "they probably are still far, thinking that the other man is still spying on us."

"w-where is he?" chenle asked, realising that he hadn't asked how jisung had gotten rid of him.

"i... i locked him somewhere. he won't be able to escape." he informed, flashes of him drowning the man coming back to his mind.

"a-and his phone? he maybe c-called his other members." chenle shook his fear again.

"i broke his phone." jisung added. he hadn't actually done so, but he was seriously doubting the man would be able to pass a call in the state he was.

a small buzz made jisung take his phone out again.

"my godfather is almost there. we need to go." jisung said.

"i-i'm scared, jisung..." chenle mumbled, trembling under jisung's stare.

for the nth time, jisung pulled chenle in a hug, holding him close to reassure him.

"i'll always be there to protect you, chenle. i'll make sure nothing will happen to you."

⇄

"you stay home with your mother, alright?" jisung asked, standing in front of chenle's apartment door, holding the boy's shoulders firmly. "and if something isn't okay, you don't hesitate to call me."

"yes, jisung." chenle nodded. "i'm going to tell my mother. she will probably call mr hu and tell him about it. don't worry, he'll protect me." chenle explained.

"i'm not really reassured knowing the leader of dark danger is protecting you..." jisung sighed, his words meaning so much more than what chenle could understand.

"jisung... he's a mafia leader." chenle gave him a small smile. "if he cannot protect me correctly, who can?"

it took jisung all of his willpower not to say 'me', because he didn't want to get busted or to have to lie to chenle even further.

he stayed silent, heaving out a sigh as he embraced chenle in another hug. however, this time, it was a hug to reassure the chinese male. it was to reassure himself, and to make sure not to regret leaving chenle without a proper goodbye if he ever came to have a problem.

"promise me you'll be careful, okay?" jisung asked, tightening the hug even more.

"i will." chenle nodded, his fluffy hair tickling jisung's face.

the younger boy let go the hug after a while, smiling at chenle.

"bye, see you soon." he told. "i really enjoyed going to the aquarium with you. independently from... all of this."

"i enjoyed it too." chenle replied with a blush tinting his cheeks.

jisung stayed in front of chenle, not moving an inch.

he was admiring the older boy, and making his heartbeat accelerate slowly in his chest.

it wasn't healthy, but he couldn't help it.

a honking sound woke him up from his daze, and as he turned around, he saw his godfather signalling him to come back.

"bye lele, take care." jisung sighed.

"bye jisung."

and with that said, chenle closed and locked the door of his house, and jisung got in the passenger seat of his godfather's car.

"where are we going?" heesun asked.

"the park." jisung answered simply.

the first five minutes of the ride were completely silent, making the atmosphere even more tense than it actually was.

heesun hadn't even dared switching the radio on to make a background sound.

"they have chenle's family." jisung spoke, looking at the landscape outside the window.

"dark danger?"

"yeah." jisung sighed.

"to which extent?" heesun asked.

"their leader came to their house and explained to chenle and his mother that our mafia was going to try kidnapping chenle to get money from his rich parents." jisung said.

"this is actually brilliant. chenle's parents could really provide tons of money for their son. and when we'll need money- "

"never ever." jisung cut his godfather. "chenle isn't part of this world, and we won't bring him in. we have plenty of money, and we don't need to play him and his family dirty for a few millions more." he added sternly.

heesun rolled his eyes at his godson playfully, a part of his mind registering what he was witnessing: jisung was getting kind of protective over chenle.

"anyway, dark danger is supposedly protecting chenle. and today, at the aquarium, they sent one of their men to feint an attack on chenle, so that he would think death park is a bad mafia." jisung explained.

"what happened to that man?" heesun frowned.

"i drowned him." jisung told, unphased.

heesun chuckled. "should have expected it."

"i took his wallet with his ids. and chenle also told me the name of dark danger's leader. but i'm doubting he told them his real name. it would be very stupid of them..."

"what's the name?" heesun asked.

"hu ilsung." jisung stated.

his godfather shrugged. "never heard of him."

jisung stayed silent for a while again, looking into the void and slowly processing everything that had happened today.

the life of a mafia leader wasn't easy every day.

but the life of and idol, secretely being at the head of a mafia was even harder.

and let alone the detail that another group member was involved in mafia shit with their rival mafia.

"alright, let's go." heesun informed, parking the car and stopping the engine.

"heesun, they have chenle's family..." jisung sighed, looking at his godfather, distress evident in his eyes.

"they have almost everyone at that point." his godfather replied.

"but you don't understand..." jisung groaned. "they have chenle. he's with the enemy. he's persuaded we're the bad guys."

"jisung, you've been living in this world for almost 20 years... you know that innocents will get corrupted and killed. that's the way things are, and you were taught not to care. that's your strength."heesun explained slowly.

"no, but.... chenle..." jisung rubbed his temples. "chenle is not only innocent, but he's also too precious for this corrupted world. he cannot be involved in all of this... it will taint him, and i'm not sure he'll even recover from the amount of shock and stress mafias will bring into his life. i can't let dark dangerstay with him. i have to intervene... chenle is going to get hurt, and he absolutely doesn't deserve that... i want him to grow up in a perfect world, where everything would be fine, and he wouldn't be corrupted. i don't want him to see how awful the world i belong to is. he's going to hate me for it, and that's the last thing i want..."

heesun looked at jisung with a blank face, listening carefully to every of his words.

this whole situation was so messed up, and he was realising it himself.

jisung cared for chenle too much. he was growing strong feelings for the boy. and this was dangerous...

let's be honest, heesun absolutely loved his godson, he even considered him as his own son. all he wanted was jisung's happiness. and he knew that his happiness necessarily passed by the people he hung out with, and those he would create a special bond with.

and heesun wasn't stupid. he could see in the interviews and reality shows that jisung and chenle had a particular bond. that is why he had teased jisung about it at the new year eve's party. he wanted jisung to find someone pure and perfect to balance the bad aspects the mafia. but all of that was before his parents' death.

now that he was the head of the mafia, he couldn't be weak, or show weaknesses, because his rivals would use it to against them to destroy the whole mafia.

it pained heesun a lot to know he would need to hurt jisung to make him understand the problem. he didn't want to do it. but he knew that he needed to knock some sense into the mafia leader.

jisung was slowly getting pulled away from this dark universe because of chenle, and heesun needed to plunge him back in. this didn't mean he would forbid jisung to see chenle or to grow feelings for him. of course not.

it only meant that he would make jisung realise his true feelings and how they were slowly affecting all of them. and he hated the sole thought of it.

"you grew feelings for him." heesun stated, his voice emotionless and flat.

"he's my friend, it's normal." jisung replied.

"he's not just your friend, and you know it."

jisung looked away from heesun, gulping.

yeah, maybe his godfather was right.

chenle wasn't just a friend.

and this explained why everything was so different with chenle. and this would definitely explain why he had been so obsessed with him these past weeks.

"i remember you being the one to tell me to find someone." jisung looked back at his godfather. "don't you recall? you told me it would make me more powerful, and give me a reason to fight and to stay alive."

"i do remember what i said, jisung." heesun nodded. "and my sentence had started by 'having a lover sure makes you vulnerable'." he added.

"but- "

"don't you see what chenle is doing to you?" heesung cut his godson, furrowing his brows as his tone became harsher. doing this was hurting him so much, but he had no other choice. the mafia world wasn't a pleasant one. "he's taking all of your time and attention. when he's with you, and even when he's not."

"t-this is n-not true..." jisung stuttered through gritted teeth.

"then how can you explain that you didn't notice me pulling my gun out and threatening you?"

jisung suddenly looked down, seeing his godfather holding his gun centimetres away from jisung's hip. his eyes widened as he stayed frozen on his seat in the car.

"he's making you weak." heesun declared, pulling his gun away. he had just proved his point.

"h-he's not..." jisung shook his head, his vision getting blurry.

"you're crying."

"you're hurting me!" jisung yelled, anger evident in his voice as he tried hiding his sadness.

"i know." heesun nodded. "but, i love you jisung. and i don't want to lose you stupidly because you were thinking about your crush rather than paying attention to someone pulling the trigger on you..."

jisung gulped loudly, swallowing the lump in his throat and holding himself the best he could from crying.

"i'm sorry jisung, but as long as chenle messes with your mind like that, you need to forget about him. otherwise, you're going to do something stupid, and not only could this get you killed, but it could be the end of the whole mafia, and you know as well as me that dark danger can't become the most powerful mafia, otherwise it would be the end of the world as we know it." heesun spoke harshly before walking out of the car and slamming the door behind him, leaving jisung alone with his sadness, his anger, his discomfort, his remorse, and mostly, his heartbreak...

⇄

jisung laid down on his back on his bed, his room plunged in eternal darkness as his blinds had been closed for a week straight.

it had been seven full days since the incident at the aquarium, and it had been seven whole days since his godfather had made him realise how wrong everything he was doing was.

and this caused jisung to be very depressed.

a knock was heard on his door, and the tall boy stood up lazily, dragging himself towards the door.

he unlocked the door and opened it to see who was on the other side.

his heart somehow broke at the sight of a smiling chenle with a pillow.

"my mom is at my aunt's tonight. so, i'm sleeping at the dorms. we're going to spend a good night- "

"go sleep with jeno." jisung cut him. "i'm not in the mood." he added, closing the door right in front of his face and locking it right after, going back to being depressed, sad and broken.

on the other side of the door, chenle sighed, his smile disappearing slowly.

it had been a whole week since they had had a proper conversation, and he couldn't understand what was wrong with jisung.

that day, after his godfather had brought them back to chenle's house, jisung had seemed so protective, and so caring for chenle, it had made the older feel so good. it had even started to make him think that jisung would be able to return his feelings.

but it was as if he had done ten steps back right now. jisung wouldn't talk to him, or leave his room at the dorms. when they were practicing, he would stay alone, and avoid chenle at all costs.

this hurt chenle a lot.

despite jisung giving him the cold shoulder, chenle couldn't help but be helplessly in love with him. it seemed like it had made chenle fall even deeper for the boy...

he wanted to help him; he really did. jisung didn't seem okay these days.

but it seemed like the younger boy didn't need him.

and who was chenle not to respect his crush's decision?

so, chenle contented of crying his eyes out, just like he had been doing for the past week, sitting against the door of jisung's bedroom.