“Um…” Areum looked down at the ground. That morning, her guard was Kris. She had found him in the living room, perusing a book of maps.

“What is it?” snapped Kris. He didn’t look up.

A light blush crept on the girl’s face. “Well…”

“I don’t have all day to listen to you.” His voice was as cold as usual.

“Could you… could you get me some sanitary pads?” Her voice was a small whisper and her last word was barely audible.

Kris froze. Wide-eyed, he raised his eyes and stared at her. She peeked up at his face and was surprised at the shock on his usually-emotionless face. Feeling extremely embarrassed, she squeaked a “sorry” and dashed out of the room.

Five minutes later, Kris was at a convenience store with a box of the said item on the check-out counter. He really didn’t like the weird look the girl behind the counter was giving him. “Aish, the things I do for that girl,” he muttered as he removed his wallet from his back pocket. He hadn’t forgotten about last night. He had ended up in the same position as Lay had, dozed off, and snuck out before dawn. And thankfully, he hadn’t been caught by anyone.

When he got back, the girl was in her room, lying on her bed. “Here,” Kris mumbled. He was standing at the doorway and offered the box to her. Areum didn’t even budge.

Irritation pricked at Kris. “Areum!” he snapped. He took a few steps into the room, about to toss the box onto the bed next to her. Seeing the grimace of pain on her face, he stopped. “What’s wrong?”

“It hurts,” Areum said through gritted teeth. Sweat had drenched her bangs, which were plastered onto her forehead.

“Where?” Kris frowned.

“My stomach,” she whimpered.

Kris finally understood. He face-palmed himself. ‘It is worth more trouble keeping this girl than just letting her brother come to get her,’ he thought bitterly.

With a big sigh, he went over and sat beside her on the bed. Pointedly looking away from her, he began awkwardly rubbing her stomach with a hand. A memory sprung into his mind from over fifteen years ago. Whenever he had a stomachache, his mother would rub his stomach and he would feel a lot better. Of course, it wasn’t for the same reason as the girl’s right now, but it was the only thing he could think of.

Kris closed his eyes. Then his mother had died and he had been shipped to the horrible, sadistic orphanage. He had suffered nightmares awake for several years before escaping. He opened his eyes. He had been surprised when he found out that the girl and Joonmyeon had suffered the same terrible fate as children.

“Are you in pain, too?” Areum whispered. She had seen the wave of pain that had passed on the boy’s face. It had been just for a second, but she had seen it.

“We weren’t the ones,” Kris said in a low voice. Areum’s eyes widened. “I swear we weren’t the ones who destroyed your home and kept ambushing Exo-K. It was another gang and I did some research. I believe that the mastermind is the same gang we’re after right now. That gang seems to be also the one misleading Exo-K, leaving both of us after each other’s neck. We weren’t looking at the big picture here.”

“What are you talking about?” Areum asked.

“I’m saying that there is a gang behind our animosity. Exo-M has been tracking this gang down for years – we pretended to deliver illegal drugs from that gang in order to find out more information about its whereabouts and what it does.”

The girl’s gasped, her stomach pain momentarily forgotten. “So everything really was a set-up? What gang is it?”

Kris grimaced. “The gang’s name is Beast. It’s one of the biggest, toughest gang in the Underground World. It’s also the most malicious; it does many horrifying things: selling illegal drugs, organ-trafficking, and assassinating on behalf of rich, powerful, and corrupted people around the world. I suspect that they are the ones who killed my mom.” His face paled in anger.

Areum shuddered. “That’s horrible.”

“Exo-M and Exo-K may have misunderstood each other. I have a suspicion that Beast was trying to play both of us like pieces in a game.”

“Then…” The girl’s eyes were round.

“I’ll need to contact Joonmyeon,” Kris stated. He pulled out his phone. “You do know your brother’s number, right?”

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