"Appreciation" (1/1)

The next morning, Karam was approached by Jay. “I heard what happened last night. Um…”Karam shook his head. “It’s not your business, Jihwan. We got into a fight. I don’t get into your fights with Mika, do I?” He cut his dongsaeng off. He never used Jay’s birth name unless he was annoyed. “Well, Mika and I haven’t gotten in a fight, since we’ve been together. But hyung, is everything okay?” Jay smiled at him. “I mean, it might help to…”Karam shook his head again. “No, it won’t. He’s being rude to Seon and I won’t stand for it. Jay, he accused Seon of not being trustworthy, just because he used compulsion to get us out of jail. Minho should’ve either let it go or simply thanked Seon for getting us out.” He sighed. “It’ll be okay, once he actually thinks about it and realizes that Seon wasn’t in the wrong. It’s not like he goes around controlling everyone. See what I mean?”Jay nodded. “Yeah, I do. It’ll blow over. I’m sorry for meddling. I’m just concerned.”Karam smiled at him. “I know, and I’m sorry for being grouchy. It’s just irritating to argue.”Jay frowned. “Arguments do suck. It’ll be okay.” He grinned at Karam in encouragement. “Thanks, Jay,” Karam pulled out his knife, looking at it. “No, I’m not using it on anyone. I’m going to go clean it. I’ll see you in a while.” While he walked into the equipment room, Karam looked at his knife. It had gone through a lot of use. The blade was jagged and worn, a reminder of the killing he had done. He was thinking of having a talk with Minho to see if he really did want to get caught us in this world, because it wasn’t pretty. There were many things that they had to deal with that would chase away the normal person that didn’t have the mindset for it. He remembered that Taehee had mentioned that it was in his blood, which meant that it was in Minho’s, also. Scrubbing the cracked blade, he tried to wash the old blood off of it, but it wouldn’t come off. It reminded him of the year before when they had lost Siwoo. Walking to Taehee’s office, he knocked on the door. When he was invited in, he noticed Minho in the room. Looking at Taehee, Karam smiled. “Hey, do you think I could have a new knife? This on has been used so much that I think it’s worn out.”Taehee smiled at him. “Ready for a change, huh? Here,” he said, reaching in a drawer and pulling out a fresh knife. It was gleaming silver and ready for use. “Trade me. I’ll throw that one away for you.”“Thank you,” Karam handed him the old knife and inspected the new one. It had a nice weight and look to it. “I’ll try to keep this one a little cleaner than that one.” He glanced at Minho, who looked away. “You’re welcome,” Taehee looked at his phone. He had a text from Yooseung. “It looks like that new blade is going to get some use. There was a report of a Light attack. We need to go check it out.” He turned to Minho. “I’m sorry, but neither of us will be of much use against them, since we don’t have powers. We’ll send in the Lights team.”Minho nodded, still not uttering a word. He smiled awkwardly at Karam, who smiled back. The smile didn’t reach his eyes, though.  Seon, who was in charge of the Lights team, made sure that everyone had the proper equipment for this job. Jonghyun was held back, since the Lights would know he was there. He was kept by Seon, so his brother could take them out if he needed to. When they arrived, Karam immediately felt like something was wrong, so he turned to Seon. “Hey, something doesn’t feel quite right. I can’t place it.”Seon nodded, pulling out his gun with the silver bullets in it. “Yeah. This is odd. The air feels different.” He turned to the others. “Be very careful. I don’t think we’re only dealing with Lights. Stay on your