Chapter Text
Takes place after Passion suite.
Ilay Riegrow has an ever growing love and passion for Jeong Taeui. After he’s become a terrorist for this man, burnt a whole forest down for this man, and gone crazy, he’s finally settled down with the love of his life. Owning their own mansion in Berlin, right where Taeui has loved it, things are perfect, and he’s even decided to propose to his beloved.
Right when things are going well, Jeong Taeui is laughing, against the sunlight on the forefront of their mansion, waiting for their personal chauffeur to take them out to dinner. Ilay only watches with his heart full and content.
Jeong Taeui is talking to Ilay, talking about how if they had a baby, the baby would look like Taeui, tan skin, dark brown eyes, but a personality like Ilay, crazy, wild and indisputable.
As soon as Ilay smirks, he hears a loud bang, and the sound of a gun cocking. Birds fly, the trees rustle against the wind, and he catches the eye of his lover. His Taeui’s eyes are wide, as he slowly looks down, to his stomach, where he’s holding his hand against it. Ilay follows his lover’s eyes, down to the blue formal fabric adorned with white dots, and watches as a red liquid soaks the t-shirt.
Jeong Taeui has been shot. His knees buckle, and before he can fall, he catches Taeui into his arms, one knee kneeling before his lover, the other flat on the ground. He watches as his lover’s eyes flutter shut, and he holds out his hand to touch Ilay. Ilay yells out loud. This wasn’t the way Ilay wanted to kneel before his lover, asking him to marry him. No it wasn’t. But fate is cruel.
“Jeong Taeui!”
── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──
The evening had been something eventful. The blur of hospital machines, patients, and doctors running around the ER, could not catch up to the madman, Rick Riegrow, or rather Ilay.
"Move!"
Ilay's voice tore through the corridors like thunder.
No one dared stand in his way. Blood soaked through his sleeves, staining the expensive black suit as he carried Taeui against his chest, one trembling hand pressing desperately against the wound in his lover's stomach.
"He's been shot!" someone shouted.
Doctors rushed forward with a gurney.
"No."
Ilay stepped back.
They hesitated.
"I am not letting go."
"Sir, if you want him to live, we have to take him."
Live. The word alone was enough to crack something inside him. Slowly, painfully, Ilay lowered Taeui onto the bed. The moment the nurses rolled him away, Ilay followed.
"Sir, you can't come any farther."
The operating room doors slammed shut between them. For the first time in years...
Ilay Riegrow stood still. Silence swallowed him.
His hands were still covered in Taeui's blood.
He stared at them.
Warm. A doctor brushed past him. Another nurse hurried inside. Every passing second stretched into eternity. Someone asked for Taeui's blood type. Someone yelled for more units. Someone mentioned internal bleeding.
Every word became another knife.
── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──
Hours earlier.
"If we had a baby..."
Taeui spoke absentmindedly, his eyes following the birds perched on the trees lining the front of the mansion. The afternoon sun settled warmly against his skin, painting everything around him in gold.
"I think they'd look like me."
Ilay turned to him.
"Hm?"
"The baby."
Taeui smiled to himself.
"Tan skin. Dark brown eyes."
"You've thought about this."
"I have."
"When?"
"I don't know." Taeui shrugged. "Sometimes."
A quiet hum escaped Ilay's throat.
"So you've been imagining having children with me."
Taeui immediately clicked his tongue.
"Don't make it sound weird."
"It is what you said."
"I didn't."
"You implied it."
"I absolutely did not."
Ilay's lips curved ever so slightly.
"You did."
Taeui sighed dramatically.
"You really have a talent for twisting people's words."
"I don't."
"You do."
"I simply listen."
"You selectively listen."
"I listen accurately."
Taeui looked at him for a long moment before shaking his head.
"...You're annoying."
"You still love me."
"I do."
The answer came so naturally that neither of them paused.
Taeui leaned against the stone railing, smiling faintly.
"I think the baby would definitely look like me."
"And?"
"And..."
He tilted his head, looking at Ilay.
"They'd have your personality."
"My personality."
"Yeah."
Ilay raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know if that's a compliment."
"It isn't."
"..."
"..."
"A little crazy," Taeui added.
"A little?"
"You are."
"I disagree."
"You burned down an entire forest."
"It was necessary."
"You became an international terrorist."
"It was necessary."
"You had people in three different countries looking for you."
"They were inefficient."
"You kidnapped me."
"I returned you safely."
"You almost killed my uncle."
"I restrained myself."
"You threatened multiple governments."
"They deserved it."
Taeui burst into laughter.
"You hear yourself, right?"
"I do."
"And you don't think that's even slightly insane?"
"No."
"You really don't?"
"No."
Taeui covered his face, laughing harder.
"See?"
"What?"
"Exactly that."
"I fail to see your point."
"My point is that our child would grow up thinking arson is a reasonable solution."
"I've only committed arson once."
"Once?"
"Perhaps twice."
"Ilay."
"I don't remember."
"You absolutely remember."
"I only remember parts."
"You remember the whole thing."
"I remember the important parts."
Taeui laughed until he had to bend forward, one hand resting on his stomach.
"I swear..."
He looked back at Ilay, eyes crinkled with amusement.
"...sometimes I genuinely wonder how your brain works."
Ilay stepped closer, brushing a loose strand of hair away from Taeui's forehead.
"It works."
"Barely."
"It works well enough."
"It works differently from normal people."
"I've never claimed to be normal."
"No." Taeui smiled softly. "You never have."
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
The breeze moved gently through the trees.
Ilay slipped one hand into the inside pocket of his coat.
His fingertips brushed against the small velvet box hidden there.
Just a little longer.
Dinner first.
Then the proposal.
Everything had been planned.
Everything.
...
Now the ring felt unbearably heavy in his pocket. Ilay reached inside and pulled out the box, the deep navy velvet was spotless. Unlike everything else. His thumb opened it, a platinum ring rested inside, simple and elegant.
Exactly what Taeui would've liked.
"I wasn't supposed to kneel like this..."
His voice barely escaped as a whisper.
The corridor remained empty.
"I was supposed to ask you after dinner." He laughed once. It sounded broken.
"You were supposed to complain that I was being too dramatic."
Nothing. No teasing smile. No warm laugh. Only fluorescent lights humming overhead.
Then, the operating room doors burst open, a surgeon stepped outside, removing his gloves.
Ilay was in front of him before the man had taken two breaths.
"Is he alive?" The doctor's expression remained carefully neutral. "The bullet narrowly missed several vital organs, but he lost a significant amount of blood. We've managed to stop the bleeding." Ilay didn't blink.
"And?"
"The next twenty-four hours are critical." Those words struck harder than any bullet. "If complications don't develop..."
The doctor paused.
"...he has a good chance." A chance, only a chance, no certainty that the sun of his life would survive.
Ilay slowly nodded. "Can I see him?"
"When he's moved to intensive care."
The doctor studied him for a moment before adding quietly,
"Whoever did this knew exactly where to aim."
Ilay's expression didn't change. Inside, something cold unfolded. This wasn't random. This wasn't a robbery. Someone had watched them. Someone had waited. Someone had chosen the exact moment Taeui was smiling. Ilay looked down at the dried blood on his hands. The ring still rested in his palm. His heart belonged to the man fighting for his life behind those walls.
But another part of him the part the world feared had already awakened. Whoever had pulled that trigger had stolen the future Ilay had imagined. And Ilay Riegrow had never forgiven anyone who took what was his.