Lawbreakers (YoonMin)

Prologue

Magnolia walls; freshly mopped wooden floor; magazines strewn across the coffee table; a mug of half-drunk stone-cold coffee placed on a heart-shaped coaster; a pool of deep red blood, still spreading from in front of the sofa.

His chest caved in at the sight. His heart dropped about 1000 ft to the depths of his stomach. He dropped to his knees, the little silver chain tumbling out of his hand, her blood slowly seeping into his black trousers. He lifted a hand to her head, stroking her soft black hair gently, blood collecting on his fingers and under his nails. She was cold to the touch and pale – so pale. Despite the supposed peace of death, her expression was pained. It was a face he'd never forget. Heat pricked at his eyes in place of tears as he knelt beside the one person who had stayed with him through everything: the one light in his life. And it had been cruelly extinguished. Her beautiful soul had been extinguished.

His hands shook uncontrollably as he took her limp hand in his own, placing a delicate finger on her cheek to brush a few strands of hair out of her face. He stood up slowly, the reality of the situation dawning on him, and backed up against the sofa.

"No," he mumbled, repeating the word over and over, edging away from the body and towards the door. "No, no, no."

Suddenly a whimper broke him out of his trance. His eyes darted to the corner where a small, light brown dog cowered. "Sagwa," he whispered. He quickly checked that no one was outside before bending down and trying to coax the dog towards him. "Come here, boy! Come on!" When the dog didn't move, he grabbed a lead from the hook by the door and waved it. "Walkies, come on!" The dog refused to budge and continued to cower. He closed his eyes in frustration as they burned up again. "Sagwa, please," he begged, his voice cracking. The dog stopped shaking and stared at him inquisitively, taking a tentative step. "That's it, boy, come here. We have to go," his voice broke again, and the dog picked up the pace. When he reached him, he clipped on the lead and stroked Sagwa's head softly. "Good boy," he whispered.

Sirens wailed, seeming to come from every direction, as his feet pounded across the concrete. He felt an unfamiliar sting in his eyes being exacerbated by the wind, but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop, it wasn't possible. He kept running, no longer knowing where he was, despite knowing Seoul like the back of his hand. His vision was too clouded to recognise anywhere and the lights from shops and streetlights burned his eyes – even starlight in the darkest streets was too bright for him that night. His chest was beginning to hurt, and it was getting harder to breathe. He slowed down, no idea how far he'd run, but the sirens were in the distance now. It was safer to slow down, so he moved into the shadows by the wall of a house to get his breath back, focusing on nothing but replenishing his lungs with oxygen. If his mind were to drift back to what he'd seen, he would surely break down.

Satisfied that he could breathe well enough again, he pushed himself away from the wall and continued walking, or stumbling, down the street. His eyes were on the ground, not watching where he was going, which is why he didn't notice the two boys walking towards him until he walked straight into one. The boy fell to the ground with a thud and a hiss of pain. The wanderer's trance was briefly broken as he looked with surprise at the boy he'd knocked down. It was almost pitch black, but their eyes met, and both could read each other's thoughts in that moment. There was an unspoken understanding between them.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" The boy's friend snapped, helping him up.

The boy put his hand out to stop his friend from pushing the stranger, still staring at the equally wide-eyed young man who'd walked into him. "No, leave it. It's fine. Come on."

The two boys moved on, the smaller one throwing one last glance over his shoulder at the young man who was still stood there and watched as he fell to his knees in the middle of the street, a scream that he knew he couldn't release welling up in his throat, and his head throbbing.