Chapter Text
He stares at the wall since there really isn't anything else to do. After Humin showed up by his school, it became clear soon enough that nothing is safe anymore.
Sure Baekjin's first reaction was to take on the challenge, smirk in the face of Humin who dared to show up with a literal megaphone just to make the statement clear. It is war, one that Baekjin does not intend to lose.
But deep down, he has a gut feeling. Something is crumbling, he can almost hear the bricks fall around him when he closes his eyes. That's why he is here. To hear something else.
"Baekjin" an excited voice auds as the door opens and quick steps echo through the classroom.
A few small kids rush in, a little boy in the front quickly moving to Baekjin's seat and hugging him while the others ask questions that Baekjin can't quite grasp fully.
He has to smile slightly as he hugs the boy back as one of the care takers enters, a gentle smile on her face.
"Hello, Baekjin" she greets, moving to her desk and sitting down. The boy just gives a polite nod as greeting while trying to calm the kids down a bit so he can actually understand what they are asking him.
"Could you please help usss?" One of the little girls ask with puppy eyes, drawing the boy's attention.
"We need to decide how to decorate one of the new kid's welcome card before he arrives" the boy hugging Baekjin continues.
Turns out that there will be a young boy joining the orphanage soon and they want to make him feel welcomed. Baekjin himself has always had a knack for decorating things, even though he usually stuck with simple designs when it came to his own surroundings.
The teen boy suggests that maybe everyone should add a small detail to a large cardboard and they can write a message in the middle. In the end, they end up somehow convincing Baekjin himself to leave a hand print alongside theirs.
He will never live it down with the care takers that he gave in to it, but at the moment, he has no regrets.
"Baekjin" a voice calls out softly after the kids have left to play outside and the lonely boy sits in the third row, watching the cross on the wall intently. "Whatever is happening in your life right now, this is always a safe space" the woman says as she walks forward to possibily clean up after today's whatever they held there.
He doesn't say anything, just moving his gaze to his hand that's stained with grey paint from the earlier creative project. Then he stands, bows his head and leaves.
He doesn't know what to do, so he just heads to the house he will probably never actually call home. His room is what most would consider boring, grey walls, a desk, a bookshelf, white bed sheets on a simple bed, a closet, books. And then there is that one thing that someone makes the place seem like it's owned by someone.
A picture of them. Or rather, what remains of it.
Baekjin was never the type to get attached to things, not after he learned to fight at least. Since if fighting teaches you one thing, is that everything changes. Your strenght, punches, moves, patience, pain tolerance. And if you're good at it, you lose the ability to fear things. Baekjin can consider himself good, so he does not get attached to anything because that would mean he is scared to lose them.
This does not apply to his young self though. The little boy he despises everyday for how his decisions brought the consequences that Baekjin now can't dodge.
His younger self was filled with nothing but pathetic feelings. And fear was the main factor.
Fear of bullies, of his father when he was around, of failing in class, of sleep, of losing his friend.
The same friend whose torn picture sits on his desk after all this time. He must be crazy.
Baekjin is really confident in his skills, and believes that the Union can indeed win the fight against Eunjang. But something still doesn't let him rest after finally settling into bed. He stares at the ceiling.
Yeon Sieun. He is the main concern as of now, because for some reason, Sieun makes Baekjin feel like he is getting outsmarted.
"Is it even worth it at this point?" A small voice in the back of his head asks.
Humin outright said to his face that he hates him. And even after finally getting him to join the Union, he still found a way out and now will fight for his cause.
He hears the bricks again as he closes his eyes fron the exhaustion. He is tired, but it doesn't let him sleep.
One deep breath after the other, and yet he only snaps out of it when someone calls him up.
"Baekjin" Dongha's voice auds with a smirk. "Those fuckers somehow got intel and now the guys are pulling out of the fight. We no longer have a fucking lead by number" the boy fucking laughs.
Baekjin doesn't say anything and just hangs up. Standing up and moving to he closet to get his burner phone and check the Union's groupchat where intel about their burner account was leaked about 15 minutes ago.
Seongje. That kid really has no loyalty, and it makes Baekjin want to punch something hard enough to break his own knuckles.
If Seongje decided to disappear then Baekjin has no energy to try and get him. It probably doesn't matter anymore anyway. He has bigger fish to fry. He places the phone down and moves back to bed, once again staring at the ceiling.
The sudden shift in number makes his thoughts spiral. He wonders what strategy could win this for him. It will probably all come down to a fight between him and Humin anyway, and he feels like he has a decent chance if winning that.
There is no need for a back up plan, since he will just simply win the duel. Or at least that's what he tells himself, because deep down he knows that even if he came up with a plan, no one was there to help him adjust the mistakes or add other ideas, so there is no way to create a back up plan. He can't trust anyone with a plan anyway, they only fear him, no one stands by his side for real.
"Good" he thinks, more loudly than his consciousness' whisper that this will be the end of him.
He closes eyes and stands in front of the crumbling brick walls again.
For a moment, he considers the fact that Humin is probably discussing plans with his fighters. Maybe even coming up with back up plans since he is aware that Baekjin might win the duel. Maybe Sieun is by his side, suggesting things, or even having a little board, like in the movies, to write and illustrate the strategies on.
He shakes his head and opens his eyes.
It really looks like he won't fall asleep anytime soon, so he jsut moves to his desk and starts whatever material can get his mind off these things the quickest, which happens to be math, as always.
Sometimes he feels like he really can trust his own skills and nothing else. Other times he wonders what caused him to get where he is now. What he did wrong.
The world of numbers quickly does its job, distracting Baekjin fron the truth.
...
It's a rainy day. The sky filled with clouds that cry as if someone gave them a reason. The Union members wait by the battle field as discussed.
Baekjin opens his umbrella and takes the longest route he could find. It's mostly to silence his mind, but it's also to delay what's about to come.
He knows he is in the wrong. He knows he should've never ever accepted the post he has to fight for right now. It's just how things had to be, he had no choice.
If he loses, he will most likely die. Not fron the injuries he might have to endure during this clash, but because there is always someone in a higher position, and he has been on thin ice lately.
He turns on the corner and his mind clears. As to what the reason is for that, Humin stands just next to the barrier, staring down onto the city. A simple black umbrella in his hand, his school uniform on.
Baekjin takes the first few steps carefully before realizing that he is being ridiculous. He just walks past Humin, staring right ahead as to face his goal instead of the subject of his desire.
Neither of them look at each other.
Upon arrival, Baekjin is greeted by the Union members before he sits down. Many will get hurt today and he knows that he needs to win this, even though deep down he wants a way to escape this situation. Maybe not for the Union to fully end, but to catch a break.
"A cigarette would be great" he thinks, but it's not serious. It often crosses his mind to finally light a cigarette, maybe it will fix his problems and calm him, but he always knows that he will never get to the point where he will even take a drag, because it won't fix shit.
As this train of thought slowly travels through his mind, footsteps mirror the rain's pattering.
It's Eunjang. With Humin at the front, like the real leader he is.
He gets up, opens his umbrella and walks out into the rain, a long distance seperating both of the leaders as if they weren't once closer than the sun and moon during solar eclipse through men's gaze.
"Na Baekjin!" Humin yells "If you lose today, that will be the end of the Union. Understand?"
Baekjin doesn't reply, he just stares his only friend down as if the other boy was really in the wrong. Who knew the day would come that they have to face each other like this. Certainly not the younger self of Baekjin whom he hates so much. And oh how he hates himself for feeling that way, because if Humin likes even a small part of him, then it has to be that little boy who had no idea how to defend himself.
He has to win this, but he knows that Humin is right for wanting it to end. Humin says something to those by his side and Baekjin just tries the best to remain as tough as he has to be to end this once and for all.
"Kill them all" Baekjin orders quietly. The wording is stupid, he doesn't want any of them dead. No one actually wants anyone dead here, but if he loses, he will die. He wishes that Humin knew that. Maybe that way he would pull his punches as much as Baekjin will.
Then they all rush into battle while Baekjin stay behind, watching the chaos and finding the strenght to finally drop his umbrella and take his usual confident steps, taking down anyone that's willing to in his way, while watching no one but Humin.
He will beat him, no matter what, because he has to. May God be on his side, and he pushes every thought about the children at the orphanage away, because that would just weaken him. He might never see them again, huh? He acts like he doesn't care and punches the first unlucky guy who comes close enough.
God, he is so tired.