"Luhan?" I yelled, scrambling up onto my feet and keeping the small device on my ear as I broke out of my cover, heading straight into the building. I knew the first bit was empty.

"Unnie?" Yuri pleaded, her voice muffled. "What do I do?"

"H-hold on," I panted out, slipping sideways through a crack in the doors and skidding to a halt in the middle of the living room. I looked around wildly. How did they manage to expand this house so much without it showing from the outside? Gritting my teeth, I took the staircase on the left, sprinting up it with light feet as I ducked under a table as I heard footsteps coming my way. 

Fumbling about for a few moments, I managed to clip the device onto my ear, leaving both my hands free. There was a dull thud as the footsteps stopped, just before me.

I froze.

"Said ... huh? No, that's not what I meant, she's not there anymore!" hissed a low voice. "Find her! And get that stupid daughter back too, they'll tell everyone!" Another pause. "Yes, you idiot! Now get going!"

An angry sigh reached my ears as a small beep sounded, and I quickly put two and two together to realize that he must have been talking to someone else through an earpiece, like I had. 

"Goddamn those stupid girls ..." he muttered, stalking away.

Close shave. I breathed out shakily, wiping the sweat off my palms on my trousers, before rising and jogging down the hallway, strainginng my ears for any sound. 

"Unnie? Ji Hyo ... can I find you?" Yuri's voice was quiet. "They kinda knocked the gun out of my hands, I can't do anything, they're going to be too strong - one maybe, but there's a whole gang of them down there -"

"Down there?" I asked, stopping, reaching up and swiftly pulling away the grill to the vent, stuffing the nails into my pockets as I pulled myself up into the small tunnel, fitting the grill back in before me. "Where's "down there"?"

"I'm above a room ..." she trailed off. "And Luhan oppa ..."

I tensed. "Where are you?"

"I'll wait til I get connectio- wait. 6,7,25."

"I'm coming." I shut off my connection and began crawling through the tunnels, navigating my way the best I could. The house faced north, so 6,7,25 ... that was near the basement, on the side facing away from the street.

Hold on, I thought, quickening my pace.

*Somewhere else*

Joong Ki stared at the unconious figure on the hospital bed as he played absent-indedly with the cushion underneath him. 

He glanced at the small black wristwatch on his hand, and sighed as he felt the unwelcome familiar feeling of worry.

Jihyo noona should've come back by now, right?

"Sooyoung noona?" he called softly. The girl across him blinked, rubbing her eyes slightly. "Yea?"

"When did you last see Ji Hyo?"

Sooyoung scrunched up her face slightly. Then she slowly said, "It was all kinda fast ... I saw her when we were taking out Taeyeon. He was hiding in one of the bushes that lined the walls." Joong Ki listened. "Yuri was still in the house, I think ... Ji Hyo unnie ..." suddenly the paled. "Oh ."

"What?" Joong Ki yelped, half rising out of seat in shock. "What happened?"

"Luhan," she whispered. Joong Ki froze, paling. "What?"

"I think Luhan was in trouble. Ji Hyo was going to follow me - that was the plan - but her communication earpiece lit up, and then she just said Luhan's name and ran back inside."

"Something happened," Joong Ki muttered, sinking back into his chair. "Is that why they're not back yet?"

Sooyoung's heart broke at seeing the vunerable expression of the younger boy, and eralized that she still had to remind herself - despite everything he had been through in life, despite how strong and skilled he was, the training he goes through, his intelligence, his maturity ... he still was, really, just that - a young boy.

"They'll be back," she tried to assure him, but she couldn't stop her own voice from cracking with worry. "Look," she tried again. "They're not part of the Dogsuli for no reason." Joong Ki offered her a half grin in return, and she sighed. "They're just running a little late," she concluded. Trying to push out the nagging voice that said she was trying to convinve herself as much as she was trying to convince Joong Ki.

"Late?" There're not back yet?" Both of them looked towards the bed, surprised to see Minho struggling to sit up. Pulling himself up with the help of the bars on the sides of his bed, he locked his dark gaze onto Sooyoung. "Tell me. They're not back yet?"

"No ..." Sooyoung whispered, her hands fisted. Minho froze, then slowly, he continued,

"... When did I get here?"

Sooyoung sighed sadly, her gaze wrought with worry. "Two hours ago."

"Noona and hyung haven't come back since," Joong Ki added, not meeting anyone's gaze as he pulled at the loose threads of the hem of his black jeans. He moved his hand up, the (empty) holster where his gun should have been. "They should have come back by now."

Minho did nothing, frozen with shock. Finally, after what seemed like an hour that stretched on forever,

" that's bad."

Sooyoung threw him a dirty look, and Minho cringed slightly, but then stopped as Joong Ki gloomily replied, "No sherlock."

Sooyoung gaped at the younger at his words.

*In the Black Dagger's house*

Yuri froze as she heard the muffled thud of someone bumping into the corners of one of