don't stop 
it's not over yet

SOMEWHERE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF DAEJEON

FOUR YEARS EARLIER

"You have the package?"

"For heaven's sake, stop calling her a package," Baekhyun muttered, pocketing a handkerchief and resting his hand against the steering wheel. "She's a girl."

"Yeah, whatever," Minho said on the other end of the line. Baekhyun heard someone shuffling about on the other side, and raised an eyebrow. "Do you have her, though? Taemin will be there in about half and hour, and you don't want to see him go empty-handed."

"I won't be seeing him empty-handed, don't worry. I'll be out of here the moment she's in the building, and Yoongi can take care of her after that," he replied, and glanced out of the window of the car. "But yes, I have her. Will have her in a few minutes, anyway."

"I wouldn't trust that druggie bastard with a kid," Minho grunted.

"You're concerned about the child? How touching."

"Shut up, Byun." Baekhyun smiled a little as he heard the words. "Jungkook can't know. You're aware?"

"Yes, I'm aware," the blond replied, sighing out the reply. He had heard the words a hundred times, maybe a thousand times in his lifetime, and he had gotten tired of them. He was aware. He was always aware. The day he found himself unaware of what was happening around him was the day he would die. "I can't play for two sides without being aware. You know that better than most."

"Never mind all that. Is she there yet?"

"Patience, grasshopper." Baekhyun rolled up the window and opened the door of the Lexus, stepping out soundlessly. The sky was turning the purple color of a bruise, and the sun was already sinking into the horizon, reminding him of a drop of color mixing in water. "Yes, she's here."

"Good. Get her in fast, and get the hell out of there. I don't want to get in any trouble because of you."

The call ended, and Baekhyun slipped the phone into the pocket of his pants. The car that had just driven up to the warehouse was a familiar one. Two figures stepped out of it, one significantly shorter than the other. Baekhyun's eyes narrowed behind his glasses.

The girl who was walking towards him was young, with soft features that adolescence hadn't sharpened out yet. Her hair was long and straight, tied up in an innocent ponytail, but her eyes were intelligent, far more than any child's should be.

Yoongi tossed him the keys before he was even within ten feet of him, and Baekhyun caught them effortlessly. The girl, he noticed, was clutching a box to her chest, eyeing him suspiciously. Baekhyun tilted his head as he looked down at her, trying to appear as less threatening as possible. It wasn't hard for him usually, but then, he had never had to deal with a child before.

"Hello," he said smoothly, holding out a hand for the girl to shake. "I'm Baekhyun. And you would be?"

The girl watched him for another moment before she answered. Yoongi had already begun to walk away without a word, an unlit cigarette hanging from between his lips. Baekhyun wasn't sorry to see him go. Things had been tense between him and the bikers ever since he'd left, though he had thought that at least Yoongi would understand. As the girl began to look away, the mint-haired man raised a lighter to his lips.

"Yeji," she finally said.

"Yeji," Baekhyun echoed curiously, looking at the girl who was trying to stand confidently in front of a stranger. He had no idea who this girl was, or where she came from, or why the Lees wanted her, but he had to deliver. All he knew was that she was supposed to be with Jungkook, and that Baekhyun was secretly sending her to the clan instead. "That's a pretty name."

She didn't reply, only watching him with her uniquely-shaped eyes, as sharp as the blade of a knife. He could tell that she was trying not to seem afraid, but her grip on the box was white-knuckle tight, and her shoulders were tense.

"Unfortunately, you'll have to wait here a moment, before someone else comes to pick you up," he said, wanting to drop the formality in his tone, but couldn't help keeping it. The girl seemed clever for her age, anyway. "I hope you don't mind me asking what you have in the box."

Yeji's eyes narrowed a fraction more, shifting across his features, and Baekhyun saw her thoughts warring with each other in her head. "A gun."

"A gun?" His eyebrows arched. He didn't want to believe her, but for some reason, he did. "May I see it?"

Her lips pursed. "I'm thirteen. I'm not stupid."

At that, Baekhyun couldn't help the tiny smile that curved his lips. "I have no doubts about that," he said slowly, pushing his glasses up by the rim. "However, I think I'll have to see it anyway. You don't want the bad guys to find it, do you?" She hesitated. Baekhyun held out his hand reassuringly. "I'll hang on to it until you get back."

Yeji clutched the box tighter, and turned her chest a little away from him. He sighed.

Baekhyun wasn't sure what he was doing here—all he was supposed to do was overlook the transaction, and Yoongi was just the only link he had with the Lee clan. Distractedly, he wondered who the girl was. Surely not just another skin for the business, if the heir had asked Baekhyun to deliver her personally—and a girl who was supposed to be under Jungkook's care, at that. Even the head of a crime family wouldn't want to go to such lengths for such an unnecessary purpose.

If he was being honest, Baekhyun wouldn't have agreed to it, either, only that they had offered him the thing he needed to most.

Protection.

It wasn't an everyday job for Baekhyun, either. He was the only one—apart from the manager himself—who knew where the girl was being kept, and smuggling her out could get him into a lot of trouble. He knew he was going to be safe, though. No one would believe he knew the Lees. Baekhyun scarcely believed it himself. If he had never been a part of the bikers, he wouldn't have known Yoongi and his addict brother, and the Lee heir wouldn't have reached out to him.

Who was this girl? He didn't want to ask her for her full name, knowing that it was possible that she herself didn't know it. And where did the gun come from? She couldn't be just another orphan, but—

"I know I'm not going to come back," Yeji said somberly.

Baekhyun looked at the girl in masked surprise. She was looking at the ground, and her lips were pursed childishly, but she wasn't holding on to the box so tightly anymore.

"I'm not going to come back," she said, and sniffled, looking at the box. "And I don't even know how to use this stupid gun. I know I'm never coming back, I'm not stupid."

Baekhyun's lips thinned. For the first time in years, he had no idea what to say.

"Keep it." She thrust the gun out at him, meeting his eyes defiantly, and he saw the dying sunlight shimmer in her glossy eyes. "You'll probably have better use for it."

Gingerly, he took the box, and she turned away. Baekhyun glanced at her—she wasn't crying, but it looked like she was using all of her willpower not to—and opened the box. Yes, there was a gun all right.

"Baekhyun!" He looked up as Yoongi called him, and noticed the car that appeared in the street in the distance. His blood went cold.

Yoongi ran up to him and grabbed the girl's wrist, giving Baekhyun a meaningful look. "It's one of Jeon's men," he said. "I'm taking her into the warehouse. You know what to do."

Baekhyun nodded, watching the two go into the warehouse, Yoongi's mint green hair like a beacon against the dull gray surroundings. The girl didn't turn around once.

Slowly, he turned and walked to the Lexus, sitting in the driver's seat and placing the gun on the seat beside him. All of a sudden, it looked like a depressing picture, a prophecy and a threat and a warning. There was something off about the whole thing—why the girl? And why him?

The car pulled up next to his, a matte black Camaro Panther Baekhyun recognized from the drag racing strips of Seoul. He'd only seen it unmanned once, in one of the hidden garages behind The Dragon's Tail, a gleaming, monstrous thing as alert and gorgeous as its owner.

The window rolled down, and Baekhyun glanced away from the gun.

"Didn't know you were paying a visit," Vernon said.

"Didn't know I was going to do it myself," Baekhyun replied, the lie rolling off his tongue smoothly. He liked talking to the right hand. They were both great liars; it kept him on his toes. "The bikers needed me."

"Don't we all?" Vernon said softly, and Baekhyun's eyes narrowed by a tenth of a millimeter. "Speaking of the bikers, though, I needed your help on some insider info. You know the head, right? Hyojong?"

"Much better than I'd like to admit," the blond said, tapping the curve of the steering wheel once. "What is this about? The person you were supposed to keep an eye on?" He had a foggy memory of Vernon's assignment, the one he had been carrying out for almost a year, on orders that had kept the brunet away from Seoul for quite a long time. "How may I help?"

Vernon raised an eyebrow, the car idling for a few more seconds before he turned the engine off. "I don't know if you can," he said lowly. "It's just facts I need. Basic profiles. The leader, and that brother of his." He frowned. "How long were you with the bikers again?"

"Long enough." Baekhyun didn't want the man to delve into his past. He trusted him, but knew that he couldn't give him more information than he could be trusted with. "Do you want to know about the brothers, or the others as well?"

"Just the two. For now."

"Well." Baekhyun made a show of thinking, as if trying to remember, but the memories were fresh in his mind. "Hyojong can be slightly...unstable," he said, lips curling a little. "We called him High Jack. Mostly harmless, unless you piss him off."

"And the brother?"

"Yoongi's all right. In comparison to his brother, he's something of a saint," he murmured. "Your assignment is part of the bikers?"

Vernon nodded. "Thought you might know something about her."

Her. So it was a she. This was how Baekhyun collected his knowledge, in tiny bits, and built from there on. It got tiring sometimes, though. "Unfortunately, the bikers are a close-knit group. Outsiders don't get to know much about them, and the members don't like associating with clans or bigger gangs," he said. "You seem disturbed."

Vernon was quiet for a few seconds. "I'm worried about her."

Emotional attachment. Baekhyun nodded, pretending not to notice the slight tightening of the man's face when he spoke. "A troublesome one, it seems," he said. "I'd ask you who she was, but I assume you won't be so liberal with your knowledge."

"You assume correctly."

Baekhyun smiled thinly, eyes unfeeling. Another mystery girl, he thought, and Vernon nodded once, rolling up the window. They mostly kept out of each other's business, but Baekhyun was curious, always too curious. If the right-hand man himself had been assigned to the girl, she was important. Perhaps Jungkook was being paid liberally.

Baekhyun pushed the thoughts out of his mind and picked up the gun once again, turning it over in his hands. The light caught a groove in the handle—Baekhyun's eyes glossed past it, assuming it to be a part of the metal, but when his fingers touched the surface, it was sharp.

He cocked his head, and looked at the gun again. It had been modified—not in a way that helped its performance, but a modification as harmless and inconsequential as mindless scrawls on a school table. Or so he thought.

On the handle, someone had carved their initials:

L.J.Y.

──────

sound familiar?

bet you didn't see that coming eyy

TO CLEAR UP IF YOU'RE STILL CONFUSED: this happened FOUR years previous to the current events, and the mc only joined the racers THREE years ago. the 'mystery girl' vernon is following is the mc, and baekhyun doesn't know anything about her yet—she's with the bikers rn, and that's why yoongi's alive (he's about to die tho). at this point, baek is working with the Lees, AND the racers, and has already left the bikers. the biker gang doesn't associate w/ him anymore, but yoongi is like the link connecting him to the Lees, since hyojong used to be a part of the kim clan.

i know this isn't the most professional pov switch but i swear i'll work it out in the second draft lol. for now this just needed to be here. trust me. it's important. the already thicc plot thiccens, and shall keep thiccening further.

sorry for getting your hopes up if i did, baek is gone........but he shall forever remain an integral part of the plot (and in our hearts, of course)

love,
Manx.