Lily of Death

what was it with the nameless and being completely insensitive and stubborn? this was the second time she’s had to deal with someone from that completely dangerous gang—although the female before her was at least a bit more tolerable than the other one. the other one was just obnoxious. but then again, the female before her was probably just the same; hell, she doesn’t even believe her when she said she wasn’t armed. “what gang member walks around unarmed?”, she couldn’t help but blurt out then.

his past few days had been.. productive, to say the least anyway. mostly in the way of a lot of death, and a lot of changes that needed to be done. be that releasing members of their duties in the only way that they deserved, or changes around his gang to make them stronger and safer. more patrolling of their borders, catching anyone that even thought they could get near them, and in general just making sure that the nameless weren’t going to be the next struck. they’d already been framed, and he wasn’t about to let anyone decide that they could just come and run them over like the snakes had. but now after a long day, a tiring day, as he makes his way slowly back to his apartment, the sound of footsteps don’t go amiss behind him. “unless you have business with me that needs attended to immediately, i suggest you turn around and walk the other way while i’m in a good mood.” it was debatable how good that mood even was, but it was good enough that he hadn’t just turned around and lashed out instead.

Her plan hadn’t exactly been to end up following her leader in an attempt to talk. The past few weeks had been unexpectedly tense but mostly boring for Liling. Everyone seemed to be dying and turning on each other but none of it had been brought directly to her door apart from a few pissed off Outlaw Bloods who had tried to corner her only to end up running away a few body parts short. It was a shame that the drama was bringing her so little entertainment. Seeing Seung did pop the idea in her head though that she actually hadn’t checked in with what her gang's situation was anymore. “You really do have the grumpiest disposition of anyone I’ve ever met.” She sighs coming to walk beside him as she swings her shopping bags lightly about her legs. “Anyway, I was only going to ask if we’re any closer to getting the Outlaw Bloods off our backs. I’m assuming the answer to that is going to be no though.”

being area leader wasn’t exactly an easy feat, and areum was at least glad that she only lead an area and not the whole gang. and now that gang tensions were high up on the scale, she’s pretty sure everyone at central are oiling up their machines and getting ready for war. and as much as she didn’t want to, she needs her area ready as well. hell, she was still angry at the trashing and the dead client issue. but now there was someone in her territory and as much as she hated confrontation, areum definitely needed to keep her area clean of rats. “if you don’t have any business here, i suggest you leave. now.”

“Oh, so many people. But if I have to only pick one…maybe an Outlaw Blood? Is that bad to say with all the drama going on? Possibly Deokhye or Minseok, they’re romance is sickening and it would be fun to watch the other one break down.”

“It’s so much fun!! So the Outlaw Bloods want to kill us even though we would never to sink to something as tacky as blood and feathers. Maybe we’d leave their members bodies in an elaborate pattern? That seems more like our style but that’s not what happened. Then the Ivory Hand hate the Wildings because of some origami, it sounds cute. Only a cute killer would leave origami and I don’t really know if cute is what the Wildings try to go for. BUT TO MAKE IT EVEN BETTER. We know have the Lost Boys involved in shit. Like yeah, the Snakes are fucked, I don’t care about them anymore, they’ll be gone before the month is out. But the Lost boys!!! Oh, they’re fucked. It won’t be long until every gang is pulling them limb from limb. I wonder when I’ll get to join in with the Lost Boy hunts??”

sera let out a chuckle before she sipped on her frappuccino. “i guess the more twist there is, the merrier? if that makes sense. it’ll put confusion to people, as well as curiosity.” normally she wouldn’t be bothered by these attacks because she thought it wasn’t necessary, but considering that this had somehow to do with her gang ( although she was pretty certain the wildlings had nothing to do with this attack at the ivory hotel ) and she had to at least pretend like she cared about it. “they probably don’t even care about the facts. as long as people buy the newspapers, that’ll be enough for them.” she wasn’t being pessimistic about journalists, but that’s what happened to a big part of them. after all this whole world was full of lies. “we’ll just have to see what’s gonna happen next then,” she huffed, leaning back in her seat.

“True. If it sells it sells, who careswho actually did it. All I know is my gang didn’t have anything to do it withit.” It wasn’t below the Nameless to carry out attacks like the one that hadhappened but what happened at the gambling halls was simply tacky. To Liling itseemed tacky anyway. A few pints of blood and the remnants of a plucked chickenthrown around - it didn’t seem like her leader’s style. “What about yours?Leaving the origami flower was a nice touch.” Her lips twitch in teasing as sheraises an eyebrow at her friend. She didn’t suspect the Wildlings but it wasalways fun to stir the pot. “Oh, whatever happens next is going to be a lot offun.”

Bae pulled a chair out from across from her, taking a seat as she spoke. “I heard something about how he was significant, but I’ve been hearing so many random names tossed around. At one point I was convinced that Zayn Malik was the one shot dead.” He grinned, taking a sip from his tea. “Imagine that conspiracy theory, how it was really like- from another irrelevant rival band member who was sent to kill him- but in actuality it was just him being forced by his management to commit the crime. Maybe they had some blackmail over him, or they were like if you dont kill him, you cant debut.” Bae rambled, piecing together his wild story as he went along. “Now that’s something they should run in the newspaper instead. In fact- im just going to start telling people that whenever they ask me if I know anything about it.”

hyuk may not be able to trust liling with his life but he can trust her words, and he’d rather have that than have to be stabbed in the back and he won’t know about it. besides, she was a good enough fighter to keep around. “come on now, gao. if we did it, we certainly wouldn’t do it with scattered feathers. we’re not heathens.” if it were up to him, he wouldn’t have picked the bloods’ gambling halls; it was child’s play and quite frankly, unclassy. the whole situation was getting on his nerves and if they didn’t play their cards right or if someone fucked up really badly, they had a whole new situation on their hands. “i already have someone looking into it. we just need to be a bit more careful before the balance tips off even further. if you do know something, please feel free to tell me so we can deal with this mess immediately.” 

“It was worth asking. No offence to your dear younger brother but he is still very new to his role. There was always the possibility that the power suddenly went to his head and he decided that going for the dramatics was a good idea.” Her entire tone was filled with disrespect and they both knew it. Respect wasn’t something she truly had for anyone and her respect for the Jung brothers only extended as far as they could keep her safe. “If I knew something I’d have already told you, you know that. There’s no one in this world I want to protect more than myself and us being in this situation is putting me at risk more than I ordinarily like.” There was a hint of a threat laced into her words. A normal person wouldn’t be able to pick up on it but it was there. Being a member of the Nameless wasn’t being as useful to her as it could be. “Really you need to convince the Bloods that it wasn’t us. The longer the Bloods believe we did it the longer whoever set us up is winning.”

he’d been on the way to hyuk’s to meet his informant because he needed every information he could get before he started crafting his plans in how to best deal with the situation. sometimes, he missed those days when all he did for the nameless was to launder in money, not even bothering with bigger messes as long as they didn’t fuck up with his operations. but then his thoughts return to seung and he’s reminded that he’s doing this for his brother and no one else. when he got to the cafe, he was disappointed when it was brimming with people, annoyed that he can’t find a place to stay until he went and met with his informant. once he got his coffee in hand, he’d made to leave instead—until he saw liling by herself at a table, reading a newspaper; he could already tell it was about the attacks. “gao,” he greeted instead. “highly exaggerated although i can’t fault them for that.”

“Jung.” Liling drawls as she leans back in her seat, eyes passing over her second in commands form. Maybe other members of the gang would be intimidated by him but it took a lot to intimidate Liling. She suspected he worried more about what she could do to the gang than she ever worried about what he could do to her anyway. “To be fair to them it is a rather dramatic situation. So, did we do it?” Manicured hands move to wrap around her tea cup as her eyes sharpen on Hyuk. Maybe it would be better to talk to her actual leader about this subject bit Liling truly didn’t care enough to go looking for him and Hyuk was the second best option. Quite literally. “I must say I’m surprised if we did. I didn’t hear one thing about it from you or Seung though lets’s be honest that’s just further supporting that we didn’t do it. A better question would be who the fuck have we pissed off enough to frame us for this, hm?”

sera was so glad they had finally lifted the ban on the gangs going to hyuk’s cafe. it was one of her favorite places to go and they served sera her daily dose of caffeine, so it became a big deal when shit happened there and it affected the ones who didn’t do it ( or even barely there during that brawl ) as well. she stood in line patiently waiting for her turn and when it finally came to hers, she ordered a caramel frappuccino for takeaway. her day was about to get way better for real now. the dealer took a sip of her heavenly coffee once it was served and was just heading towards the exit door when she suddenly stopped, registering a familiar face sitting alone at this one table. sera changed her direction and aimed for the table instead of leaving like she had planned earlier, taking a seat right next to the woman. a smile began to appear on her rosy pink lips when liling brought up the recent mess. “that’s what journalists do,” she added. “they twist and turn things to make them more interesting for people to read.”

A soft smile pulled at Liling’s crimson stained lips as Sera spoke, nodding along with what the other woman said as she sipped at her drink. “As much as I understand that considering how many twists there already are in this whole thing I don’t think they truly needed to add more.” She replied with a shrug, fingers moving to fix her ponytail as her eyes skimmed the page once more. “Then again they don’t exactly know all the facts. Such as how there’s the very real threat of a full-on shoot out happening at any time in any part of the city.” Liling understood why people were upset, it wasn’t exactly pleasant to have your territory vandalised and people killed, but it didn’t mean that she cared very deeply about it. The sooner the mess was cleared up the sooner she could go back to her ordinary life, that’s what mattered to her.

When it came to the attacks directed at Outlaw Bloods and the Ivory hand- Bae had done a good job on getting all the information about it, and staying clear of any and all drama surrounding it. As long as his gang wasn’t involved, Bae found himself in the clear. Other details like if people he knew from the gangs were okay came afterwards, as friendly as he was- he needed to look after his own and make sure nothing bad happened. He found himself in Hyuk’s ordering some tea that he had missed so much from them, until he spotted a certain nameless member. When he saw her- it made him think of one member in particular. Taemin, the very man who had been the reason for his increased drinking, smoking, and lack of sleep. Nonetheless, he liked keeping his relationship with people such as herself healthy and good. And well- he didn’t see a reason not to have company. Him being alone probably wasn’t such a good idea.  By the front page header, he could make assumptions what she was talking about. “And by interesting- are they on the side of that it was some particular gangs responsible for it? Or is it some much more elaborate and wide conspiracy theory?”

“Bae! It’s been a while since I’ve seen your face around.” Liling called in a sweet tone something she knew wasn’t completely necessary when the boy was already very aware of the peculiarities that went through her head. “Apparently the guy who was killed at the Ivory Hotel was important. Significant business man I think – or politician? I don’t know, I don’t follow this countries politics.” Liling brushed away with a dramatic roll of her eyes as she scowled slightly at the paper. Her scowl half there out of annoyance at the fantasies of normal people and half because of how long it had taken her to completely understand the Korean article. “Anyway, it’s making them settle on a conspiracy theory about some corrupt party.” Her fingers run along the page for a moment before she finds the line she was referring to, turning the page ever so slightly so Bae could see it better. “It’s probably better for all of us if they stick with that theory as well.” If the media was focused on a big corruption theory instead of some petty criminals running around the streets it boded well for the gangs being able to settle the situation without too many outside complications.