Chill

[Kwak Jung Su]

"The fuck you say?!" Jung Su kicked aside the upturned bucket that served as a footstool. It clattered noisily away into a corner of the hideout as the others leaned forward with varying degrees of interest, thinking that a fight was imminent. If it involved Jung Su, usually a fight did break out.

"What?" Brick's dumbfounded expression would've been laughable on any normal day. Today, right now, it pissed Jung Su off. He stepped forward aggressively and while Brick didn't back off, he did look uncomfortable. "Just asked if... I can get a loan off your little bro too," he muttered defensively as he finally looked off to the side, signaling that he didn't want a fight.

"Shut your fucking mouth, dumb fuck," Jung Su hissed. Everybody knew not to talk about Devlin around him. Everybody knew to stay away from him, to keep his name out of their mouths. Whatever they did, whatever rackets they ran, all of that stayed separate. As far as Devlin or anybody else knew, Jung Su was out all day doing odd jobs. He brought back just enough money to make that seem plausible--not too much, not too little. 

But Brick thought he was being funny. Or clever. Or... was there something else? Even the stray thought made that nasty, sweeping heat pool in his gut. Jung Su stepped right up to Brick and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, hauling on it hard. He was skinny but that didn't mean shit. He was still strong, he was wiry and tough and fierce. Nobody contested that; those who did probably didn't want to live a good life by getting on his bad side. "You stay the fuck away from him. You don't talk about him. You don't talk to him. Get me?"

"Hey, hey man. Chill out." Levi's lazy drawl sounded amused. He reached out a long, lanky arm and laid a gentle hand on Jung Su's shoulder. "Brick was just joking around. Weren't ya, fella? He's sorry, look, he's sorry. No need to fight with your own gang member, ey?"

Jung Su scowled and shook off the hand of their leader. He let go of Brick's shirt and stepped away, snorting through his nose at the idea of Brick telling jokes. Like there were enough brains in there to even begin thinking of one. Knock knock jokes left Brick baffled, shit. Jung Su flung himself back onto the stack of crates that formed his makeshift seat and glared hotly at Brick, who was muttering something to Thatch seated next to him. Thatch's expression didn't change but when he caught Jung Su's eye, he tilted his head off to one side slightly.

The fuck did that mean? Jung Su snorted again and studied a hangnail on his index finger.

"So!" Levi's voice was chipper now as he slid between Jung Su and Brick, effectively blocking the latter from sight. "You got the stuff from Portland right?"

"Yeah." Jung Su's reply was surly, low. "Hid it at my house. I can get it any time."

"Nobody else knows? Not even--er." Levi's sunny smile made Jung Su want to kick his teeth in. "You know."

"No. Nobody knows about the prystal so you can get off my ass about it already. I'll get the money too. Soon."

"Excellent!" Levi clapped his hands together. "I'll get in touch with our distributors. Folks are mighty keen to get their hands on a fresh batch."

Jung Su shrugged. As long as the money came in, he didn't care if 'folks' were 'mighty keen' or not. Fucking druggies disgusted him to the core. Imagine getting hooked on that shit and losing control of your life. Pathetic. Jung Su wouldn't ever fall into that trap. The only vice he had was smoking but that wasn't nearly as habit-forming as the drug that those witches cooked up.

Viciously he ripped off the hangnail, barely flinching as a stab of pain shot up his hand. Blood oozed out from the side of his torn skin and he squeezed it, letting it slide and pool against his finger.