I roll to the opposite shelf and swipe my leg under the man that appeared just a second later. He tumbles down and smashes his head against the corner of the freezer where they usually keep the ice creams, effectively knocking him out. His gun slips away from his hand and I kick it towards... who was he again? Well towards brown hair deep eyes guy and he instantly picks it up and juts it under the jaw of the first guy on his side. I look away and hear the gunshot instead of seeing it. A sharp blow hits the back of my head and I fall to the ground and immediately roll to my front.

Unfortunately, I guess that’s what the attacker wanted. The heavily suited guy straddles me and pins my hand with the gun on the side of my head with one strong arm and punches my face with the other. I briefly wonder through the pain that filled my mind if the tiny crack I just heard could be my jaw breaking. I try to break my hand free as I continuously thrash my feet. I didn’t think I was doing a very good job at it though because by now I was starting to see stars and my eyesight was going dark. I never thought I’d die through a series of punches.

BANG

His bald head jerks for a moment in the most unnatural angle before he falls down on me, blood starting to drip from the gunshot wound on placed neatly between his eyebrows. I grunt as I lift his heavy body away from mine and escape from below him. The first guy had regained his bearing and was standing groggily beside me. I immediately shoot him and he drops to the floor with a thud. You shouldn’t have woken up, I thought. Then maybe I wouldn’t have killed him.

“You still okay over there?” I hear towards brown hair deep eyes guy ask from the other side of the shelf. I sit up and see him peering through the top of the shelves, his gun visible in view. He had obviously shot the guy on top of me earlier. “Yeah I’m okay. I’m finished here. You?” I ask him as I stood up.

“Just a sec---”

He immediately went down. I hear a grunt and a thud. I quickly stand up and rush to his side. He was being choked to death by a large guy who looked really similar to the guy who was punching me to death earlier. They had the same bald head, identical faces and same lightning shaped tattoo on the side of their heads. Except this guy was two times his built. Brown hair black eyes guy was bleeding more profusely now and he was flailing rather weakly. I immediately snap out what reverie I was in and shoot the guy choking him and he drops dead in the next second. I run and press my hand against the wound on his arm.

“This is not looking so good right now.” I say and he grimaces at the pain as I apply more pressure to stop the bleeding. “Battle scars are hot aren’t they? Don’t you think I look pretty good right now?” he asks with a chuckle. I can’t help but laugh, this guy is ridiculous.

“I think I prefer a healthier man, thank you.” I reply as I remove the scarf around my neck and tie it over the bleeding. We hear a silent hum of a car arriving and the shutting of an engine.

“, you stay here. I’ll deal with this.” I say as I pick up a fallen gun from the floor. It must have been from the enemy but at least it contains more ammo than mine. He grips my arm and stops me from going.

“You won’t be able to handle that one. Trust me.” He says without letting me go. I shrug his grip off. “I’m a good fighter, okay. And I can most definitely shoot an easy target. He won’t even know what hit him.” I say as I roll my eyes.

“Oh he will. That guy has ears and eyes sharper than a cat’s. I’m not sure you’ll know what hit you if you go out there.” He says. We both fall silent as we hear the wind chime sing, signaling the entrance of the newcomer. I move away and get ready for an ambush attack. I hear the footsteps grow louder.

Suddenly, a hand pulls my gun hand and spreads it out. How the did he managed to get behind me? My arm is now parallel to his and I instinctively (and uselessly) pull the trigger. He twists my arm to my back and I drop the gun while I feel the cold metal of the barrel of his gun on my temple. This is not a good day for me at all.

“You okay there Jackson?” the guy behind me asks.

“Yeah hyung, just a small scratch on my arm.” brown hair deep eyes guy--- Jackson--- answers. What the hell?

“Let her go, hyung. She helped me. Err--- she’s with me.” Jackson continues. The guy behind me is silent for a second. Jackson looks at him for one, two, three--- five seconds. Is there some telepathic conversation happening that I’m not hearing right now?

“You don’t plan on bringing her with us right?” the older guy asks, although his grip on my hand actually loosens. Jackson smiles a kind of cute ? playful ? smile. Did I just really think cute? What the hell is wrong with me today?

“Ah, that’s why you asked for transport. I was wondering why you’d signal for me all of a sudden. I thought you were in danger, stupid, but I see you were being considerate to your friend here.” He continues as he releases me and heads to Jackson, helping him up.

“You’re dead meat I swear.” He says as he pats Jackson on the back.

“Hyung, I’m not even bleeding that much what are you talking about.” Jackson laughs.

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.” Older guy says his eyes shift to me. I notice two distinct moles just under his right eyebrow.

“ I know. But what do you expect me to do… I just can’t leave her. And let her die here.” Jackson responds seriously. Older guy opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something and closes it again. He sighs and pulls out a… phone from his pocket and quickly dials a number. Who in the world are these guys and how do they have an access on cellphones. When the whole war started three years ago, communications were the first to go, effectively isolating everyone, This became one of the biggest factors that caused what had come next, which was when man turned against man, driven by their own natural instinct to survive.

“Leader reporting to Junior, I’ve got King. We’re heading back, and he has a, um, package with him.” He says over the phone and quickly ends the call. “Come on, let’s get you home. Let’s hope Jinyoung doesn’t cook you for breakfast.” He says with a grin.

“Hyung, you’re letting Jinyoung cook again? You’re cooking right? JB hyung!” Jackson says as he watches JB walk past the both of us and out of the store.

“Don’t worry. Jinyoung won’t cook us for breakfast. He won’t.” Jackson says, I think more to himself than to me. It kind of sounded as if he didn’t quite believe what he said himself.

“Who mentioned about cooking me? I believe that guy said you were being cooked for breakfast.” I grinned at him. Jackson laughs as we both follow JB out.

“I told you to trust me earlier when I told you to not attack JB hyung earlier, didn’t I? But you didn’t.” he says looking at JB who was behind the steering wheel of a black car. He opens the door and waits for me to go out before continuing, “Then trust me this time around when I say if Jinyoung cooks me for breakfast, you’re not going to survive even for a second.” He smiles at me. “But don’t worry that won’t happen, you’ve got me.”

He walks towards the car and opens the backseat door for me. “That’s not reassuring considering you’re a candidate for breakfast food.” I grumble. And he laughs again as he slips in beside me. JB reverses then shifts gear to drive. He floors the accelerator and takes us to god knows where. And it’s a long time before I remember that I wanted to take Jackson as a hostage. But why did it feel as if I was the one with a gun in my head right now?