Wanting to Help You

After ruminating about it for a long time, Lukas decided that it would be kinder for him to wait for Wu Shen instead of going back alone.

Standing around in boredom, his hands slid into his pockets and fished for something, only to realise that it wasn't there.

'Now that I think about it, when was the last time I had a lollipop?'

From what he could recall, he might have stopped after 'that' incident... or perhaps was it after they had hijacked the trucks...? He honestly had no idea.

*plop*

Something wet splashed on the tip of his nose. Lukas looked up and saw that the sky had begun to grumble, covering the blue with a gloomy grey.

'Shouldn't have waited for that guy.'

Luckily for him, the heavens were merciful and it wasn't an outright downpour; merely a tickling drizzle.

Standing alone without any other distractions, standing alone with nothing but the light rain, Lukas entered a state of calm. How long had it been since he truly felt like this? Lukas closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly, drowning out everything unnecessary. Everything painful, of utter importance, and even the happy moments, were dropped and swept away. What remained was a mind at peace.

That was, of course, until he heard the low mutters of a male approaching him.

Lukas' eyes fluttered opened reluctantly, droplets of crystals dangling from the tips of his eyelashes. He turned, with some annoyance, to the smug fool that was Wu Shen.

"What are you chuckling about?"

Wu Shen stopped smirking to himself immediately as he saw Lukas standing before him.

"Huh? What are you doing here?"

"Does that matter? What were you doing?" Lukas would never admit that he had stood in the rain waiting for the delinquent.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you!-" Wu Shen jogged towards Lukas and held up something to his face.

"I got that guy's phone, but I realised that I couldn't enter it, so I went back to get the password out of him."

Lukas expressionlessly gave him a thumbs up.

"But that guy, seriously. He must've thought I was some pushover or something. Actually tried telling me the wrong code. Thought I was stupid. All I had to do was test it out right there and then."

Lukas raised his eyebrows. "Oh? How did you get it out of him then?"

Wu Shen froze for a millisecond before smoothly answering, "With some gentle persuasion."

Lukas smiled faintly as he nodded.

'B*llsh*t'

Wu Shen sweat-dropped. His instincts told him that Lukas knew what he did, but no matter what happened, he would never admit that he had fished the half-drowned man out of the river and resuscitated him, only to punch and kick him in the gut enough times 'till he pound the freaking code out of him. Not to mention how he actually threw the man back into the river when he had the information he wanted.

'It was the only way.'

"You know," Wu Shen tuned out of his thoughts and turned to Lukas. "I thought you had meekened a lot, but I guess that was all in my imagination."

Wu Shen chuckled as they began to head back.

"How could I not, with you threatening to beat me every time I showed some attitude?"

"I guess the great bully Wu Shen hasn't disappeared after all." Lukas smirked as he took in Wu Shen's disgruntled expression.

"F*ck! You're still gonna talk about that? I thought we dealt with this already?"

"I've always wondered what made you do what you did. You're much older than Yu Jing yet you did all that to him. Seriously, have you no shame?"

"Hah? He was the one that asked to be my lackey."

"...Hmm?" It took a few seconds for Lukas to comprehend what was just said to him.

"Yeah, that's right."

The small voice of Yu Jing echoed in Wu Shen's ear.

- Could you take me in, great boss?

- I have enough money. I can pay for all of you. You don't have to worry yourselves over this.

-Great boss, I can...

-Great boss, let me...

-Great boss, if it's fine with you...

- Senior Wu, please don't throw me away.

Wu Shen spoke as his eyes looked straight ahead. "He was like dog sh*t. Step on it accidentally, and the smell, the feel and the embarrassment sticks to you forever. That's what his existence was to me. He just wouldn't leave, and soon, I guess we just took out our anger on him. Looking back at it, I guess he just wanted people to hang out with. Don't know why he came to us, but, you know? I feel bad about it now."

Lukas spoke quietly, "It isn't my place to judge you, and I don't the full story, so, I can't really say much. I know that Yu Jing can be a bit too sticky sometimes. He appeared that way to me at first as well. And to be honest, with your temper, I'm surprised you held out for that long. But in the end, he's just another lonely child.That kid, is pure. You don't have to befriend him, you don't have to understand him. Hells, you don't even have to talk to him. But, no matter what you do, don't hurt him anymore."

"Yeah." Wu Shen's gaze lowered. "I know."

. . .

When they neared the warehouse, they could hear the tell-tale wails of men in agony. The boys glanced at each other and hurried inside.

There, they found the men sitting, bound with rope in the middle of the warehouse with the boys standing wearily around them.

Lukas let out a sigh. He had really hoped that the shots would just kill them, but given the aim and accuracy of the others, it was nothing but a pipe dream.

"What do we do with them?" Wu Shen kicked one of the men who then growled angrily and attempted to bite his leg.

'Wild animals'

Getting no response from Lukas, Wu Shen looked around for the loud-mouthed b*st*rd but could not locate him. Finally, he had to ask the boys,

"Where's Mike?"

Someone piped up, "He's snooping around the place for some useful loot."

Another remarked, "He looks pretty used to these things."

"Yeah, I heard he dabbled in this sort of thing in the past."

"Speak for yourself, look at you now-"

"Everyone, shut the hell up. Where's Tingting." At the sound of Lukas' agitated voice, the boys muted themselves and one brave soldier sacrificed himself to answer the question.

"Umm, she and big sis Xiaozhi took a bus into the city and planned on going shopping..."

Wu Shen reacted faster than Lukas. "The f*ck? At a time like this? Oh how I will never come close to comprehending what goes on in the female mind."

Even Lukas had no idea what they could possibly be doing and so remained silent.

*Thump*

After a while of standing around and wondering what to do with life, Mike emerged from deeper within the warehouse and threw a bulky bag onto the floor before Lukas.

"Looked everywhere, but found nothing but this."

Mike's tone that held a hint of disappointment sparked Wu Shen's curiousity which led him to peak inside the bag.

"Sh*t! We're loaded!"

From Wu Shen's reaction, Lukas surmised that there was probably only cash in the bag.

"You guys can take as much as you want. Think of it as a reward or consolation fee for all the difficulties you've faced up until now."

"Woohoo!"

"Money!"

The nameless ones went mad with glee.

Wu Shen couldn't help but get jealous at the accomplishment Mike made and so boasted,

"Well, we got the old man's phone and pin. We can access the information stored on his device and everything. Don't get ahead of yourself!"

"Ok, yeah. Whatever."

x3 Critical hit to Wu Shen's fragile heart.

Mike ignored Wu Shen's howls and turned to Lukas, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the injured men.

"What do we do about them?"

Lukas shrugged. "I already said that I have no idea-"

"We're back!" Two feminine voices filled the room and everyone turned to look at the two girls at the entrance.

A mere glance at them caused Wu Shen to cry out,

"F*ck! What happened to you two!?"