Climbing Out the Abyss - part 1/2

Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction. All the characters belong to their own management company.
A/N: Written for a challenge and originally posted in my livejournal account.


The phone is vibrating again and it only makes his heart miserable again.

Once the vibration dies down, Akanishi Jin turns off the phone in hoping it can lessen the guilt, the misery and all the disturbing feelings he’s experiencing at the moment.

Jin lies down on the white sand, staring off to the vast sky under his black shades. His world feels like the black but vast sky under his shades. But in reality his shades have been removed after getting to know Yamashita Tomohisa. Tomohisa’s presence in his life back after 12 years, changes his life in a way that he never imagined.

Hate versus love.

The world that he once hated for not having anything for him to treasure isn’t that kind of black world anymore. Now that he has found a lot of things to love.

From Tomohisa he learned about treasuring the feelings of love.

When he lost his parents and younger brother to the animalistic robbers who killed them during a robbery, he hated the world. When he was brought into the organization to be trained as a hitman, he swore he would get his revenge. When he first killed a human being, there was zero guilt, not even an ounce in his heart; instead he was brimming with excitement along his spine when he pointed the gun to the target’s head. The pleading of mercy became a melodic music to his ears.

“Please, please don’t kill me. Why do you want to kill me? I didn’t do anything wrong to you. Please! Please don’t kill me.” The man, kneeling before him was begging desperately for mercy to spare his life.

The blood rushing throughout his body as his heart is pumping rapidly, he trembled in sheer thrill. He looked down into the man’s eyes.

Fear. A clear emotion. It only made him shiver more.

He pulled the trigger.

Thump thumpthump. His heart beat in absolute excitement.

BANG!

The man fell onto the ground.

“Good job, Jin!”

He was proud. “Thank you, father.”

The praise from his godfather was something that he yearned for. He was proud of himself.

That was him. A coldblooded hitman. It is a hitman’s code to be ruthless. They were never taught to show mercy when facing the target. After 12 years, what’s left was a trained cold hearted and ruthless man that can easily point a gun at someone’s head and instantly fire the gun without an ounce of guilt in his heart. He didn’t feel any emotion when he fired the gun, not even the thrill he felt the first time he killed his target.

That was him. Akanishi Jin before he met Yamashita Tomohisa again.

The night was cold and heavy rain was pouring down; a young boy was sitting at an empty bus stop, hugging a wet, dirty kitten close to his chest to block the cold wind from hitting its skinny body. When he first saw the small creature running fast to the bus stop to find refuge from the cold water, his heart fell. He could feel the warm water almost overflowing his eyes. He took the kitten under his wings.

He shivered hard, the kitten too. The night was harsh, but he was used to it, and the kitten probably was too. It was after some long hours that the rain finally stopped and the boy ran back to his sleeping place at a corner of the park not far from the bus stop, bringing the poor cat with him.

Jin jolts up from the dream and realizing he is still laying at the beach the only thing different is the sun has dropped almost passing the horizon. The sky colored with orange haze of light.

Jin sits up and pulls off his shades. After meeting Tomohisa again, he always dreamt about the little kitten he took under his wings that one cold night. He wonders if he wasn’t brought into the organization, what he would have become. Would his world be colored differently?

-

It was around four in the morning, so early in the morning but Yamapi was not the only one who’s still awake. Although he wasn’t sure if the two people in the restroom were as sober as he was. To have sex in the public restroom in the park so early in the morning, Yamapi guessed they must be too drunk to even realize he stepped in. At least one of them probably still has his mind with him when the man who was pounding the other man’s ass looked up to him, but Yamapi was in a rush to even care about them. His gallbladder almost exploded, he stepped to the nearest urinal to the door and quickly passed out a heavy stream of urine out his body.

Yamapi felt the intense stare at him and ignored it, if he even cared,he would arrest them for making out in public, but he still has other important things to do; more important than arresting two guys having gay sex. Yamapi looked up to meet the guy’s eyes and he felt his heart skip a beat. The pair of eyes has some familiarity from his old memory but he couldn’t recall it. The guy smirked at him and Yamapi turned to leave them, he didn’t want the man to have some wrong ideas why Yamapi looked at him.

“The suspect is making a move,” Yamapi was informed when he got into the car again.

Quickly he grabbed the binoculars and observed the said suspect who was getting in a car and drove off.

“Follow him.”

-

Yamapi was searching through his hazy memory why those eyes felt so familiar, not just the eyes, he felt like he knew the man from somewhere; even probably from another lifetime, if it was possible. He kept looking at the man behind the bar counter. The man probably felt his stare because he looked up and met Yamapi’s, though there was a hint of slight shock in his face, a smirk formed from the man’s lips.

Yamapi definitely didn’t pass on judgments about the man’s preference; he didn’t care at all about what he witnessed a week ago and it was a pure coincidence seeing him at this bar while he was waiting for his friend, Nishikido Ryo to show up.

“This drink is on me.”

Yamapi was more than startled to see the man sitting opposite of him. Dressed in the bartender uniform, his black hair tied back. Yamapi now has a better look at his face.

“Is the thing you saw the other day bothering you?” the man asked.

“No.”

“So, I guess, I shouldn’t assume that you’re here to find me.” The guy smirked and Yamapi was a little annoyed he couldn’t remember the face or the smirk, or the eyes or who the man was.

“Oh, do you guys know each other?” a third person interrupted them.

“Ryo-chan!” the man exclaimed first. Yamapi frowned as he looked at the man pulling Ryo in an embrace. “I miss you!”

Ryo’s face uncomfortably changed color to red as he pushed the bigger guy away. The guy laughed and Yamapi can’t help but laughed too looking at Ryo’s embarrassed face.

“You know him?” Yamapi asked because if Ryo knew him then maybe that’s explained why he thought he has seen the man before.

“He’s my friend, Akanishi Jin. Jin, this is Yamapi.”

The name was another trigger to Yamapi’s kept saved memory. The old memories came rushing to his mind, his eyes started to blur as he reached out and hugged the man tight. “Jin!”

Ryo and Jin were surprised by Yamapi’s reaction. Ryo was more surprised because Jin hadn’t push Yamapi away yet when he was well aware that Jin has aphephobia, the phobia of being touched which Jin had acquired after a traumatic experience when he was raped and gang banged in high school.

Jin would have jumped out of the embrace, and even though he tensed up at the touch, if it wasn’t for the somehow familiar sound of his name coming out from Yamapi’s lips he would have made a scene.

“Jin, it’s me. Yamashita Tomohisa. You still remember me right?” Yamapi’s voice is hoarse as he felt his heart expanded and his tears flowing down his cheeks to wet Jin’s shoulder.

“Tomo! You’re ruining my uniform!”

Tomohisa lifted his head from Jin’s chest and he sniffed back his nose as he pouted. He was heartbroken but his friend cared more about his clothes than him. Tomohisa hugged his friend again burying his face into Jin’s chest.

-

“Tomo!”

Tomohisa put on full force as he pushed Jin on his back and they ended up on the floor of the rooftop with Jin on his back and Tomohisa on top of him still burying his face in Jin’s chest.

Jin gave up. He didn’t care about his clothes, but he just didn’t know how to comfort his friend. He ran his fingers through Tomohisa’s hairs; it was easier that way because he is bad at comforting people with his words. Besides it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all having Tomohisa on top of him.

“Tomohisa…” Jin cried, after so many years this has been the first time he shed his tears again.

Tomohisa’s presence helps him loosen up his tensed life. Tomohisa has always been clingy, never letting Jin be alone because Jin knows despite Tomohisa’s coldness, he is afraid of loneliness. When they were younger, Tomohisa always hanged around him, visiting his house, more often than Tomohisa being at his own house, always sleeping over at Jin’s house. Tomohisa did all of this because he treasured Jin so much, treasured their friendship and he’d feel lonely if Jin wasn’t with him.

“Don’t you have work? Why are you here anyway?” Jin asked as he was getting ready to work. Working at a bar, he didn’t have to be at work until after lunch hour.

“Its lunch hour and I’m being nice by bringing you food,” Yamapi said.

“Oh really? I would’ve thought you missed me,” Jin chided.

Yamapi grinned as he flung an arm around Jin’s shoulder, “I’ve missed you for more than 10 years.”

Jin grinned back, “Glad to know you missed me.”

Losing Jin from his life for more than ten years, and meeting Jin again after all these years, Tomohisa appreciates their friendship more than anything else in this world.

Jin knows the feeling too, because he also treasured Tomohisa once, losing him, missing him everyday until he gradually stopped missing Tomohisa because his heart slowly died and meeting Tomohisa again, he remembers all the warm memories between them when they were together and he somehow wishes they could go back to the time when their world only harbored those sweet memories.

-

In the black world of his, Jin is grateful Tomohisa comes to give some colors, but it certainly isn’t enough to put his heart at peace, because the reality is Jin is a hitman while Tomohisa is a law enforcement officer which ironically they are in the opposite sides of the law.

He and Tomohisa were like parallel lines that will always walk side by side but will never cross. But they did. Their fates crossed each other once and they met again after more than twelve years.

He couldn’t tell Tomohisa about his actual profession and Tomohisa didn’t need to know that part of his life. Somehow it felt suffocated when he thought he was lying to Tomohisa.

They were sitting in the living room; it felt more comfortable; as they ate the take outs Tomohisa brought with him while watching whatever was on TV. They don’t pay much attention to the TV anyway as they are talking about a lot of random things.

“Police are still investigating the murder of the heir of Johnny & Associate Inc., Domoto Koichi. The murder shook the business industry as the Johnny & Associates is Japan’s most influential corporation. When asked about the murder, the president refused to comment and leave the case to be investigated by the police.”

“Are you involved with this investigation?” Jin asked, turning his attention from the TV to Tomohisa who was still focusing on the news.

“Yeah, although I faced a lot of murder cases throughout these years, I just can’t believe someone can be so ruthless and killed another human being. It’s just so cruel!” Tomohisa replies.

Jin’s heart was stabbed cruelly to hear Tomohisa’s comment.“Nowadays, people kill because of everything. Jealousy, rivalry…”

“It’s still not a reason to take another person’s life! There is not a single reason to allow a person to take another person’s life!” Tomohisa’s statement forcefully shoved an unsettling and disturbing feeling into Jin’s heart.

“How about the people who killed other people without reason, shouldn’t they deserve to be killed? By whom ever?” Jin remembered his parents and younger brother who were killed after the robbery. Jin was alive because at that time, one of the robbers pushed him hard; he hit the wall and lost consciousness. Although it wasn’t all that lucky when he had to witness with his own eyes his parents and brother sprawled on the floor with blood all over their cold bodies.

“It’s still not a reason to kill those people. Our country has laws and regulations…”

“It’s easy for you to say that because you’re a cop. For me who lost my parents and brother because of those people and justice has done nothing to avenge them for me, I can’t settle with that…”

Tomohisa looked into Jin’s eyes and what he saw not only sadness, angry and un-satisfaction over that fact, but also hatred and betrayal.

“I’m not talking just as a police officer. Even as a human being, I believe in karma. What they did is unforgivable, even if they didn’t get the punishment by the law, they’ll get the retribution in a way or another… It isn’t someone’s right to do the justice by killing them.”

Tomohisa’s touch was gentle when he took Jin’s hand in his as if he wanted to get his belief across to Jin who was hurting by the reality of what happened to his family.

As much as he hated his friend’s principle in that matter, the moment Tomohisa held his hand, Jin felt like he can live with that because in his life Tomohisa is more important than his vengeance.

“I used to hate the world…”

Tomohisa pulled Jin into his embrace because he knew Jin was hurting.

‘But you just give me a reason to treasure my life…’

-

“The second son of the president of Johnny & Associates was killed last night. The body was found in his own office with a clear shot straight to the head. According to the police commissioner, the motive of the murder is still unclear and further investigation will be held as a special unit is made to–”

Jin pressed the off button on the remote control and walked to the kitchen. Taking out some beers from the fridge, Jin then headed to the rooftop. He needed something to forget what had happened although he doubted the beers could help him.

Jin sat on the edge of the rooftop gazing off blankly at the busy streets that glowed with neon lights. He chunked a can of beer and while taking a sip from the cold beer, his mind wandered off.

“Did you ever kill someone?”

Jin asked the question one day to Tomohisa when they lay on their back on the rooftop staring at the beautiful full moon far above them.

He can feel Tomohisa turn and stare at him for a while, probably wondering why all of a sudden he brought up the question; but Jin kept his eyes on the sky.

Tomohisa gazed at the sky again and murmured a quiet, “Yes.”

“How did it feel after you fired your gun?”

He heard Tomohisa take a deep breath as if the memory was painful;probably it was, because when Tomohisa replied he could almost feel the torn emotion in his voice. “The worst…I couldn’t sleep for a few weeks and needed to get some counseling from a shrink.”

Jin thought about Tomohisa’s stand about there’s not a single reason to kill another human being. Tomohisa fired his gun because of his job as a cop and it left an impact in his life in comparison to him who killed people because of his job as a hitman. Jin wondered how he lived his life all those years when he took other people’s lives without any guilt feelings.

“If you can make another choice, do you think you’d be a cop after all?”

Tomohisa seemed to ponder over the question for a while, “I think I’d still be a cop.”

“Jin!”

Jin knew his best friend’s voice very well.

“I knew you’d be here. I went to your house, but you weren’t there,” Tomohisa said as he walked up to him and sat beside him on the railing.

“What happened? Why are you so quiet?” Tomohisa asked feeling that Jin seemed not interested in engaging a conversation.

Jin didn’t answer instead he offered a beer to Tomohisa.

Tomohisa took it and let silence befall between them as he was taking in the night view of the Tokyo Metropolitan ahead of them. Perhaps Jin wanted some time to think, he always comes to the rooftop for that. Tomohisa didn’t mind the silence even a bit; it always feels natural and comfortable whenever he was around Jin.

Jin turned to Tomohisa, staring at his friend’s face. From Tomohisa he had learned a lot about love and the love he has for Tomohisa was one of those loves.

“Pi, have you ever fallen in love?” Jin asked breaking the silence between them as he turned around and stared off into the starry night sky. The stars weren’t as half bright as the neon lights yet Tomohisa still thought they were special.

Jin’s question kind of threw Tomohisa off. “Why are you asking? Did you fall in love with someone?” He feigned a grin because his heart ached at the mere thought of the idea.

Jin laughed bitterly, “No, I just wanted to know how it felt when you love someone. I remember once you cried to me after you broke up with that girl in your class, did you really love her at that time?”

“You can’t compare that to love. It was just a mere crush. After I cried out to you, I thought how stupid I was.” Tomohisa laughed remembering that moment. The truth was after Jin first shouted at him that he ruined his school uniform, he didn’t care about that girl anymore, he was more concerned in making Jin more annoyed at him, but what Jin did after that wasn’t even in his expectation. When Jin gently threaded his hair, he felt his heart race but it was soothing and eventually he fell asleep under the magical touch.

“Haven’t you ever loved someone?” Tomohisa asked, observing keenly for Jin’s reaction.

Sad, lonely, bitter.

“No…maybe because no one really ever taught me how to love someone.” True, no one ever taught him to love, since he was young, he was taught how to be emotionless, how to kill without showing any mercy, how to ignore the targets’ crying and begging to spare their lives.

“When you love someone, you’d care about them. You’d treasure them, you’d never want to hurt them, you’d never let them shed tears of pain. You’d want to be the reason for their smile, you’d want to bring happiness to them, you’d do anything for them…” Tomohisa paused.

If he was being honest with his feelings that moment, he would say ‘I want to do all that for you because I love you.’

“…when you love someone, you’d scold them when they make mistakes and your heart aches because of it.”

Jin’s heart skipped a beat. He wondered if he ever told Tomohisa the truth about his job, what’d be Tomohisa’s reaction. What would happen to their friendship? Would Tomohisa leave him alone?

-

Yamapi sighs again when the call enters the voicemails and he almost throws his phone out of frustration. It’s been two days since Jin started avoiding him, ignoring his calls and emails and he has no idea if he has done something wrong to make Jin mad at him.

Yamapi goes to meet Ryo at his office at the J&A building.

“Pi!” Ryo steps inside his office room to see Yamapi sitting on the couch. “What are you doing here? Do you have information about the murderer?”

Yamapi shakes his head, “I’m not here because of the case, but… do you by any chance know where Jin is?”

Ryo looks at him incredulously. “What do you mean you don’t know where Jin is?”

“He’s been ignoring me and I don’t know why. He isn’t at his house or at the bar and he turned off his phone. I don’t know where I can find him…” Yamapi feels defeated.

Ryo thinks for a few moments, “I don’t know either… If he isn’t at his house and not at the bar, then I don’t know where he is.”

Yamapi sighs.

-

“You shouldn’t do that to Yamapi.”

Jin turns to his side and sees Ryo walking towards him.

Jin sits up from where he is laying down on the beach and Ryo sits beside him. “Are you mad or something at Yamapi?”

Jin shakes his head.

“Then you shouldn’t do that to him.” Ryo says.

“Do what?” Jin asks.

“Ignore him. Not returning his calls or emails. He is worried about you,” Ryo tells him.

“I need some time…to figure out… something…”

“Your feelings towards him?” Ryo guesses. He can read it clearly from Jin’s face that Jin is thinking about Tomohisa.

Jin takes a deep breath, “Tomohisa is…special… he is just different…” Perhaps because he has known Tomohisa since they were kids, perhaps because Tomohisa has changed his life and his overview about life, that’s why he thinks his feelings towards Tomohisa is deeper than he ever experienced before.

“And you wonder if you love him…” Ryo supplies his thought. “You should tell him that you love him. I’m sure he feels the same about you,” Ryo pats Jin’s shoulder as he stands, “I can’t stay longer, I have to go to Osaka. I just came to check on you because Yamapi is dead worried about you. Take my advice and tell him.” Ryo says as he walks away from Jin.

“As if it’s as easy as that,” Jin chuckles to himself. Whether he loves Tomohisa or not has become a second issue. The important thing for him is whether he can live with that lie about his job while Tomohisa is in his heart, because the fact about him as a hitman who has killed hundreds of innocent lives, makes him feel dirty and he doesn’t deserved Tomohisa’s love because of it.

-

Jin is sitting in front of him in his own living room and yet Yamapi isn’t sure how he should ask Jin. They’re best friends, it should be easy to ask Jin, but because they’re best friends it feels hard for him to ask and not sound like a sulking girlfriend.

“Where did you go? You just ignored my calls and emails.”

Jin chuckles, if that is an indicator of Tomohisa’s feelings for him like what Ryo told him, he surely can see Tomohisa is too worried about him.

“I’m sorry… ” is the only thing Jin can say.

It’s enough for Yamapi to know that Jin isn’t going to tell him any further. “Are you hungry? Do you want to go grab something to eat? We can just order for a delivery if you want.”

“Can we just order for a delivery?”

“Sure,” Yamapi makes a call to order for a delivery as Jin is channel surfing, trying to find something to watch.

“So, how did you become friends with Ryo-chan? You never told me about that,” Yamapi asks as he flips close his phone and takes a seat beside Jin.

“How did you know Jin anyway?” Yamapi asked Ryo when he was at Ryo’s office the day before. He has wanted to ask that question since the first day he knew Ryo and Jin are friends, but the opportunity never came.

“We were classmate in high school,” Ryo answered as a matter of factly, but it wasn’t what Yamapi was interested to know. He was curious about Jin and Ryo’s relationship because they seem so close and he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous towards their closeness.

“You and Jin seem close, is there something going on between you guys?”

“Are you jealous?” Ryo asked amused. “You are jealous!” he exclaimed when he saw how Yamapi’s face changed in reaction to his question.

“I don’t think you can handle the jealousy if you ever know what we have in common.” Ryo said casually, hiding a smirk.

What Ryo said disturbed him and he couldn’t help it but feel the jealousy getting stronger especially when Ryo called him the night before, telling him Jin is alright and Jin is at the usual place, while he has no idea at all what or where the ‘usual place’ was.

“We were classmates in high school,” Jin answers simply.

Yamapi almost yells out in frustration because he couldn’t place the right question in words and he doesn’t know if he can ask the right question without clearly showing he is jealous.

“He saved me once…”

Fortunately Jin continues.

“…when we were in high school, I was terribly bullied by the seniors and he saved me…”

Yamapi’s heart fell and amongst what he felt that moment was pity for Jin and regret because he wasn’t there by Jin’s side when the terrible thing happened.

-

Nishikido Ryo is one of the significant existences in Jin’s life. They knew each other when they were studying in the same high school. Jin didn’t like his high school years. His seniors always bullied him and his weak physical body despite the harsh training to be a hitman and the fact that he liked to be alone were most likely the reasons why those seniors always harassed him.

Those seniors raped him when Ryo saved him. Jin was surprised when Ryo despite his small frame pushed through the group of seniors to save him. Ryo was beaten half to death before Jin’s seniors from the organization, Ueda and Nakamaru came to save them.

Although he was grateful to Ueda and Nakamaru, he was more indebted to Ryo who he hardly knew but still risked his life for him. They became friends after that and perhaps without him realizing Ryo has become an important part of his life.

When he got the new assignment and learned that his target is Nishikido Ryo, he trembled. It couldn’t get any worst than knowing that he has to take his friend’s life. He couldn’t accept the job and he couldn’t refuse either. Refusing a mission means Ryo will die for sure but if he accepted it, he needs to do something to spare his friend’s life; he couldn’t take Ryo’s life with his own hands.

-

The Fraud and Corporate Crime Investigation Department is as busy as always, especially with all the high profile cases that they are investigating.

“We have done the profiling, Nishikido Ryo-san stands the highest probability to be the next target.” Officer Kato Shigeaki hands a file to Yamapi.

Yamapi scans through the file. They have been investigating the case after the murder of the eldest son of the president of Johnny & Associates, Domoto Koichi two months ago. Due to the murder of the second son, Imai Tsubasa two weeks ago, the police have made a special squad to investigate the murder.

The investigation led them to believe that the motive of the murders might be related to a business deal worth a few billion dollars that the corporation will finalize in a few days.

“Nishikido Ryo is the youngest son, why would he be the possible target?” Officer Masuda Takahisa asks.

The president of Johnny & Associates, Johnny-san has adopted five orphan boys to train to be his heirs, because he didn’t have his own son.

“It seems that Nishikido-san will continue the business deal, which puts him in the highest risk to be the target.” Officer Kato reports.

“Regardless, we need a team to protect the other two sons, Takizawa Hideaki and Matsumoto Jun.” Yamapi orders. “Koyama and Shige will lead the team. Massu and Tegoshi, I want you to investigate the corporation’s contract and the companies bidding for the contract. Find everything that could lead us and also get in touch with homicide department about their investigation. We need to know if they have found something new that can help us.”

“How about Nishikido-san, Officer Yamashita?” Koyama asks out of his concern nature.

“For now, we’ll have to lay low. If they’re really targeting Nishikido, we should make sure they don’t know we have his back.” Yamapi says. “I’ll protect him.”

They all nodded, because they know Yamapi and Nishikido are friends. It’ll be safer to lay low.

-

“Akanishi!”

Jin knows the tone. That angry tone would only mean he will be forced to face their boss soon enough. The second boss or rather the boss’s boyfriend marches over to Jin and in a flash move grabs his collar tightly.

“You didn’t do your job! You fucking asshole!!”

Jin just stares right back at the man. This bitch always acts like he’s the boss, Jin grunts in his mind.

“Kame-chan~” a voice calls out.

The boss, Koki, walks up to them. Jin feels sick looking at how their boss turns submissive towards the bitchy slut. After their godfather died a few years back, Koki took the role to be the leader of the organization as he is the most senior, the first one that was adopted by the legendary hitman.

Kamenashi releases Jin from his grip and turns to leave them.

Koki turns to Jin.

“Are you fucking playing with me?!!” Koki’s voice is harsh as he grips the front of Jin’s collar tight. “This is not the first time you defy me. I don’t care about it, but this is the first time you didn’t complete your job!”

Koki releases his grip and before Jin gets to steady himself, a hard punch hit his stomach and another hard blow on his jaw, Jin stumbles backward and his back hits a desk adding to his pain.

“Akanishi, this is a last warning!! I give you three days to complete your task. If you can’t complete it, you know what you’ll be facing!”

Jin shudders but he tries to stay composed.

Koki gives him a piercing stare, to show that he is serious and turns around leaving him.

Jin walks back to the lounging room where most of the other team members are loafing around.

“Yo!” Nakamaru, who is talking with Ueda and Taguchi, greets him. Both the other boys turn to him.

Jin gives a small nod to them. He walks into the room and dives onto the couch, practically hitting his forehead to the armrest but ignores the pain.

The three boys exchange looks.

“Kamenashi get on your nerves again?” Taguchi asks, oblivious of Jin’s ‘back off or die’ aura.

However Jin isn’t in the mood to argue, there are too many things to be concerned than Taguchi. He rolls to lie on his back and puts his arm on his forehead, eyes squeeze shut.

Nakamaru and Ueda exchanges concern glances. As the oldest they were concerned about Jin, because Jin has his own way of doing things, which frequently puts him in trouble with the current boss and his boyfriend; but Jin also is one of the best, which makes him so valuable; so they’re always concerned about their younger brother. They walk up to the couch.

“Do you need help in your task?” Ueda asks.

Jin abruptly opens his eyes. “Hell no!!”

Help means the task will be completed and a complete task means Ryo will die. He couldn’t let Ryo die but he is running out of time in stalling for the worst.

“Do you have any personal issues with your target?” Nakamaru asks.

“What?”

“Dude, usually you could finish your job in just seconds, but now it’s been a week. Our client has been bitchy about it and they can’t wait anymore. What is refraining you from doing your job?” Nakamaru asks concerned more than being annoyed.

“Do you know your target personally?” Ueda butts in.

Jin considers if he should answer the question truthfully. If he tells them who is his target, they would surely be shocked because they know Ryo too although they aren’t friends. “No,” he couldn’t risk it. If the boss knows about it, the task will be given to someone else and he has no way to save Ryo’s life. But, even now, he couldn’t think of any way to save Ryo’s life.

-

Their investigation and information from the homicide department brings them to believe that the murderer is from an organization. Homicide Department has been investigating a few cases involving the organization for years but they lack of evidence to charge them as the organization have covered their tracks well.

“Officer Yamashita, we believe you know one of the assassins.”

Yamapi is frowning as he looks at the officer flipping the file to a page and puts it in front of Yamapi.

“Akanishi Jin.”

“It’s impossible. There’s no way Jin is an assassin.” Yamapi’s heart beats rapidly as he reads the information.

“We’ve been investigating the organization for years, there’s no mistake in our information. We hope you can cooperate and help us to-”

“Wait!” Yamapi can’t believe what he heard and he doesn’t want to believe unless he heard it from Jin himself.

“We understand it’s hard for you to believe, but we have reliable sources.”

‘No, there must be mistake somewhere, Jin wouldn’t do that!’ Yamapi’s heart screams.

-
continue on part 2 http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1822503-Climbing-Out-the-Abyss---p...