“You did not.”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Guys!” Eric piped up. “Could you not? Honestly, you sound like a couple of third-graders having a fight on the playground.”

“I will, as soon as Hwan admits that he didn’t knock out two of the guys that were chasing him, and broke the nose of the one that stabbed him.” Tatsuo said.

“I di-”

“We weren’t there, so Hwan can tell the story any way he wants.” Eric said exasperatedly.

“So! I mean, yeah!”

“It’s not like anyone will believe him anyway.” Eric said under his breath to Tatsuo, who was just about to open his mouth in protest. Now pacified, he said nothing.

The boys were on their way home. Tatsuo, from his construction gig, Daichi and Eric from college, and Hwan from his job as a waiter at a sushi restaurant. Daichi had suggested that they take a shortcut home so as to avoid trouble. The others had agreed, even though they all knew trouble had a tendency of following them, but so far it seemed to be working. They had yet to run into anything too-

“Wait.” Daichi said. The boys stopped. “Did you hear that?” Pausing, the others listened for whatever “that” was. Then they heard it. A faint, distant, yet distinctly audible scream. The brothers looked at each other, unsure what if any, action to take.

Tatsuo, getting impatient, said “Let’s go see what it is.”

“We shouldn’t.” Daichi protested, though he sounded unsure.

“Why not? Someone is getting hurt!”

“It’ll just lead to a fight.”

“So?!”

“Yeah, I mean, would that be such a bad thing?” Hwan interjected. “With all four of us there’s no way we could lose, and we could be like a family of superheroes! Just like-”

“For the last time Hwan, we are not The Incredibles.” Tatsuo snapped.

“Not yet.”

“Not ever.” Said Daichi. “Anyway, you all remember what Dad said. No more fights.”

“We wouldn’t be getting into a fight.” Eric said, speaking up for the first time since they heard the scream.

“What?” Daichi asked.

“What?” Tatsuo asked.

“We’ll go see what’s going on. If say, someone hurt themselves, we’ll help them. If someone is hurting them, we’ll call the police. No fighting required.”

Tatsuo and Hwan seemed accepting of this idea (if unhappy about it) but Daichi still seemed conflicted. “No matter what we know something is wrong, so we’re obligated to at least try to help. Not to mention we’re wasting time discussing it over here.” Eric said gently, eyes on Daichi.

A pause. Then Daichi nodded. “Alright. Let’s go.” Daichi led the way down the alley where the sound seemed to be coming from, stoically ignoring Hwan pumping his fist.

It didn’t take long to find the source of the noise. Three people appeared to be dragging a fourth person away somewhere. Just as Tatsuo and Hwan looked like they were getting ready to barrel out, Daichi and Eric pulled them back. “Remember what we agreed on.” Daichi hissed. Once they had been properly restrained, Eric pulled out his phone to call 911.

“Uh, guys?” Hwan whisper-yelled. “You might wanna come see this.”

“What?” Tatsuo asked.

“What” quickly became apparent when the other three poked their heads out from around the corner and saw the three masked people dragging the fourth person into a hole that had seemingly appeared from nowhere. “If we do call the police, I don’t think they’re gonna be able to find ‘em, guys.” Hwan said.

“Ok, yeah.” Eric said. “Maybe we stop getting into fights next week.”

“Agreed.” Tatsuo replied.

“Yup.” Said Hwan.

Daichi said nothing, but followed the others as they pursued the criminals down into the abyss.