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It had been 7 full days since Jaewon joined Park. 7 seemed so long, honestly, a lot longer than it actually was.
Dongho remembers the day vividly. It was their final battle, or at least it seemed to be. They found Park huddled in a motel, somewhere near the outskirts of some obscure part of up north California, somewhere near Dunsmuir.
“You can’t back out of this now,” Dongho had laughed dryly, pointing a long, pale finger numbed with the cold, “You’re done, Park.”
Park only laughed, his deep voice penetrating their brains. He should know by now, his little mind control power didn’t work on them. Apparently, he didn’t. He frowned, realizing the four were only watching him, ready to end this all here and now. Here and now, what funny concepts! Everything’s funny to a troublemaker. Funny until it’s killing them and about to shove a twenty centimeter dagger laced with some kind of venom into their chest.
It’s never that easy though, is it? Out of all the times Dongho had tried playing video games, ready to compare the fiction to his reality, they’re usually right about one thing. A ‘hero’ never wins easy. There’s always something.
Thing is, in the fake life, you’ve got chances. No matter how many times you die, how many times the zombies spot you or the flying mosquito girl eats your soul, you get to try again. They’ll even suggest you lower the difficulty, when you’ve tried to many times.
Hah. If Dongho were to ever get his soul eaten by a mosquito girl, there’d be nothing but screaming and darkness. No Game Over for him. Perhaps that’s better, to be fair, on his end. It’s like falling asleep. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the same for his three other friends.
In fact, aren’t they the most dependent on him? Without him, there’d be much less of a chance of winning. Not to brag, of course, the other three were all far more powerful than he, in their respective ways, but...They don’t cooperate in the best ways.
Minsoo was a crazy guy, to be frank. The concept of there being others in his group wasn’t wildly unfamiliar to him of course, but took some time getting used to. It was always “wait up” and “hold on” with him.
Daehyun was pretty much the opposite. He’d wait for approval, for some kind of validation that he was doing right.
“Should I wait for you to go first, hyung?”
“Sure, Dae.”
It’s not like Dongho really helped it anyway. He’d go along with it, too lazy to correct him about his constant habit. What a terrible decision.
Now Jaewon...Jaewon was a quiet individual. Always polite, cooperative, and worked hard. But nobody ever knew what he was thinking. Not even in the most desperate of times would he share his strategy. Not out of self-centered motivation, Dongho could assume, he wasn’t that kind of person, but because he simply believed that they clicked on their own. Whatever Minsoo did would set off Daehyun, with Jaewon in support, and Dongho could come in and make sure they were all doing things right, with a little bit of help on the side.
That must’ve been what made this happen, wasn’t it? Jaewon standing alongside Park, steely glint of malice in his eye. That’s never happened before.
Jaewon had become a ‘hero’ because of his mother. Because of her eyes. She was slowly going blind, he had heard, and Jaewon was determined to stop it using any means necessary.
And yet why did he never think that ‘any means necessary’ really meant any means necessary ?
Maybe that false hope that the ‘power of friendship’ or some shit would save them. Who’s he joking, Jaewon’s a complete mama’s boy, he’d blow up the moon if it meant saving her.
And so now, Daehyun and Minsoo dead in their graves, looking down and Dongho with energy that could rival a nuclear explosion, He stands in front of the two again.
He’s got no hope, he knows.
“D.Min,” Park teases, sickly tones wavering in happiness, “What do you think you’re doing back here? You’re weak, and you’ve lost.”
Dongho doesn’t smile, frown, cry, or even lose himself in a rage as protagonists usually do in boss fights. No, the boss fight is over. He’s come to lose himself. If you can’t beat em, join em, right? Or die trying at least. It’s not being a coward, it’s being smart. What kind of moron sticks to their morals in this kind of situation? He’d be hunted for miles around by every villain that could breathe. Kang Dongho, former leader of MAYHEM, one of the most dangerous hero groups of the century, loses his team in a freak battle. Perfect press, isn’t it?
“No.” Jaewon speaks from Park’s side, pulling out something, “You’ve lost.”
The black-haired male reveals a switch knife. Minsung’s. Now why did he still have that? He rams the blade into the King’s neck, twisting and wiggling it as much as he could with numbed hands, slowly gaining the color in his face again.
Blood, all over the carpets of the stable they found themselves in. A stable. What a strange place to become the new King, strongest villain of the world. It was like earning a championship belt.
Dongho’s at a loss for words. What could he possibly say about this, this situation? Congratulations?
Here in front of him, bloody face and all, stands the new King, someone he used to work alongside of, someone he used to call a friend.
“So that’s how it is?”
“Yeah.” He states, hiding his blade once again and walking off.
“You’re not gonna kill me, huh?”
Jaewon turns to look at him briefly, and Dongho swore for the rest of his life he saw a glimpse of the old Jaewon he had known. Mind, the old Jaewon and the new Jaewon were different, but real in themselves. There was no mask put on with him, Dongho could tell.
“No. You were my friend. I don’t kill friends.”
“Bullshit.”
“I didn’t kill them, Dongho. Jaewon didn’t kill them. Jaewon doesn’t know that this happened. That they’re dead. And he’s not going to know.”
Dongho suddenly realized what it was that he was seeing. Indeed, this wasn’t the Jaewon he knew before. It’s Minsung. Minsung, the man that he thought had died years ago, that lost his soul to the dark pits of hell. Minsung, the love of his life he had spent grieving for, believing he’d never be able to live without him.
“Jaewon and I shared his body for the past two years, and no one ever found out. I won’t kill you,” He states, turning away, “I still love you. But this is it for us. I’m sorry.”
He smiles. Not a Jaewon smile, the one he was just now beginning to miss. A Minsung smile, something he’d thought he’d never see again.
He lost them both that day. He lost them all.
He even lost himself, too.