True to his word, Luhan found a house in the middle of a quiet neighborhood in Seoul. It was expensive enough to have adequate rooming and comfortable facilities but not expensive enough to have too much security around. The neighbors were known to be quiet people who minded their own businesses. There was no sign of gang activity nearby, and it was in the suburban.

There were six rooms with a bunk bed in each. Areum was assigned to share a room with her brother because of her constant nightmares, and Sehun was unfortunate as to have the living room as his room, since he was the youngest. In order to quiet his squabbling, D.O., who was in charge of the gang’s money, had made sure to buy a couch comfortable enough to sleep on.

The very day after the two gangs moved in, the two leaders, their right-hand men, and the gangs’ best fighters left to find more information about Beast. “You must know your enemy well before attacking, or you’ll be no better than a blind person,” Kris said before he left. “Exo-M has been digging up some top secret info on them for a while now, but with two gangs, we’ll be more effective.”

Kai and Chen were told by their leaders to keep an extra close eye on Areum. The two elders had promised that they’d be back by the end of the next day, with more information. The gangsters who didn’t go assumed that Exo-M was going to check out the Underground World’s news warehouse while Exo-K was going to Barter with a few gangs to catch tidbits that could be important.

“Sorry, Areum,” Chanyeol said sadly. He gazed at the girl, who was sitting on the couch with a bored expression on her face. “I forgot to bring my books, since this is just a temporary hideout.”

“It’s fine.” Her reply was almost absent-minded. Her thoughts seemed to be wandering.

Chen was staring at her as if she were from the zoo. “I didn’t know girls were so quiet. Beats having a bunch of guys around fighting and arguing about little things like who gets the tuna-and-mayo sandwich for lunch.”

“Have you even seen a girl before?” Xiumin scoffed.

Shaking his head slowly, Chen didn’t turn his gaze away from Areum. “Maybe I have when I was at school. However, before I graduated high school, I hung out with you guys all the time. And after I was done with school, well, I’ve never left Exo-M.”

“I never got to graduate.” Those words slipped out of the girl’s mouth before she could think.

Kai frowned. “I’m sorry, Areum. Since we were so busy, we’ve never thought about how you’d feel practically caged inside the house all day.”

Areum looked alarmed. “I’m sorry!” she squeaked. “It just popped out of my mouth! I’m really grateful that you guys are here protecting me and I know that I can’t go to school right now if I want to stay with my brother. I guess I just miss school. A little bit.” She bit her lip.

“It’s fine. We understand.” Chanyeol reached over and patted the girl’s hand. “Sometimes we feel sorry for Sehun because we’ve all graduated high school save him.” Then he thought for a moment. “However, I think he’d rather be with you than finish school.” He smirked. No one saw Kai stiffen.

“Wouldn’t the easiest way be to eliminate the whole gang?” Tao piped up.

Kris rolled his eyes at the Exo-M’s maknae. “Wonderful. And please tell me how you’re going to do that.”

Joonmyeon placed his chin on his folded hands. “I think that we should find their base and attack it directly. It’s better than waiting for decades gathering information secretly and foiling their delivery plans. What we need is a good information source and a sturdy back-up.”

Baekhyun nodded. “True. We should start by eliminating the gang’s source of power. Then we can deal with them directly. Also, once their business falls, they’ll have less support from the Underground World.”

“What you’re talking about is mission impossible,” Luhan snarled. “The reason why we were so secretive with our plans these years was because of Beast’s immense forces. They have chains of their business everywhere. You can’t just bomb a base – there has to be more.”

“They have three main bases. One for illegal drugs, another is for organ-harvesting, and the other is their military base,” Kris spoke out. Luhan glanced at his leader in surprise. “Source is a secret,” Kris muttered.

Luhan narrowed his eyes. “When did you Barter and with whom?” he asked. Kris ignored him.

“Do you know where? We have to act fast before they get the upper hand. You know, Areum’s at risk,” Sehun cried out.

“We’re all at risk,” Luhan snapped. “Our lives, our homes, all our work up until now are at risk, not just some girl.”

Before Sehun could retort back, Baekhyun spoke out. “Let’s start with the facts. Do you know where the bases are located?” he addressed Kris.

“Just the one for illegal drugs, since we handled the deliveries coming from there. It’s near Busan.”

“It’s always Busan,” Baekhyun muttered. “That was why you guys were always at Busan.”

“That’s why you guys nearly always gave us trouble at Busan,” Luhan snarled.

“It’s where one of the biggest ports in Korea is,” Joonmyeon admitted. “It’s the most popular place for gangs to receive deliveries from overseas.”

Kris cracked his knuckles. “We’ve never risked directly attacking the warehouse since we wanted to stay low and gather more information for a while, but it’s too late now. News will spread to Beast that we’ve collaborated. I have no clue how this piece of news reached the ears of Daehyun of BAP, but if everything’s so transparent in the Underground World, I’m pretty sure that Areum is in deep trouble, too.”

Baekhyun nodded. “Yeah, obviously, Beast somehow knew of her. Why else would they send a weird text to draw her out that night?”

“Do you think we should smuggle her out of the country?” Joonmyeon looked conflicted.

Luhan shook his head. “She won’t be able to make it even to the airport,” he muttered. “And who knows; some gang might contact an overseas gang they’re friendly with and you might never see her again. Since everything’s out now, the best thing to do is to keep her in sight and guard her as well as we can.” He frowned. “It’s annoying that a girl got into this mess. She can’t even defend herself.”

Sehun made fists and stepped forward, but Baekhyun pulled him back by the tail of his shirt. “Calm down,” he grumbled. “Could you act like an adult for once? You’re freakin’ eighteen!”

Thank you for reading the latest chapter! I love to see feedback, so make sure to comment! :)