DaeHyun stared at the bright red sign with a sigh. HimChan walked over and smiled at him, patting him on the back as he sat down next to him.

“How is she?” he whispered quietly, indicating to the sleepy EunWoo against DaeHyun’s shoulder.

“Stressed…but fine otherwise…” DaeHyun responded, stilling staring at the bright light.

“…JunHong will be fine. Our doctors are the best…you should know that…” HimChan reassured, knowing exactly what DaeHyun was thinking.

“It’s all my fault, Hyung…if it wasn’t for me…JunHong wouldn’t have gotten shot…EunWoo wouldn’t be in the mess…” DaeHyun mumbled absentmindedly.

“DaeHyunnie…don’t blame yourself for these things…JunHong might be our magnae but he knows the dangers of being in B.A.P…he’s our brave, tough magnae who has gone through most of the things we have gone through to get to where we are now. We did our best to protect him, but he’s done his fair share of protecting us, too,” HimChan smiled, reminiscing on JunHong’s excited voice whenever he managed to one shot his targets, keeping other members of B.A.P out of harm’s way. “And EunWoo…really cares about you. …I have no idea why, but she does…so she probably would have gotten herself into this mess anyways.”

DaeHyun took a deep breath.

“I’m tired of people getting hurt because of me.”

~

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

She looked down at her watch with a moving green dot. A sly smirk adorned her face for a mere moment before she replaced it with a concerned façade. She silenced her watch as she entered the room. Surprised by how empty it was, she cautiously entered, knocking on the door entrance.

“Ah, you scared me.”

She turned to the blond male in the room and bowed while apologizing.

“Ah, Jung DaeHyun-sshi!” she called out, recognizing his face from the picture she had.

“Neh?”

“One of the other doctors is doing a quick check up on each of the members in the surprise attack. Could you come with me for a moment?” she informed as she looked down at the clipboard in her hand.

“Ah, is that so? As long as it’s quick,” he answered, following her in suite as she exited the room.

When he could no longer see her face, the sly grin returned to her face.

~

“Start talking,” DaeHee commanded as she stared at HoWon, indicating with her voice that she didn’t have time to fish the answers out of him. “Who is Arcane to you?”

He turned his head away and focused on the ceiling with a sigh.

“He’s my father’s older brother.”

DaeHee’s eyes widened at his confession, but nonetheless waited for him to continue.

“Growing up, my dad has always been favored by their parents because my uncle was always a little…strange. No one seemed to pay attention to him, so my dad always encouraged my uncle to strive to do his best despite their parents’ obvious favoritism. He became a doctor…married his college sweetheart…and eventually became the director of one of the top hospitals in Seoul.”

HoWon chuckled, “They even had a son.”

His eyes suddenly darkened.

“He lost everything at once. While he was away on one of his business trips, his wife and son got into an accident and didn’t make it. He blamed the doctors for their incompetence and attacked the head doctor with a scalpel. Needless to say, he was revoked from his position,” he sighed, checking DaeHee’s expression for a moment before moving on.

“He drank…and didn’t stop…for a week…my dad tried to stop him, but there was no use. My uncle started to go insane…then…he got this idea. He was going to bring his family back to life. He hired two groups of people: scientists to research for him and…assassins to silence those that became suspicious of him.”

DaeHee’s eyes flared at the mention of researchers, but kept quiet by biting her lip.

“He told the scientists the research was for the greater good…to stop pain and suffering of people in the future. But he needed test subjects as well…so he worked on the side in small hospitals…” HoWon closed his eyes before continuing. “…because people were less likely to complain if people went missing in them…”

“Anyone that questioned them…his assassins took care of…”

“HoWon…why…why would you only tell someone now…all this…” DaeHee choked as she her tears in. “Why only now…”

“When…he…my uncle…was very kind to me…because I reminded him of his son…and he…would try to help me…but he created an image for me…that made me seem like a demon…people around me…that bullied me…they’d disappear. I didn’t know…but when I did, I tried to hide it. Everyone’s stares…they were penetrating…” HoWon confessed, shaking his head. DaeHee grinded her teeth and slapped him across the face.

“People were DYING and you had the nerve to think about yourself?!” she screamed in anger. She scoffed, “So typical. That’s so typical…I hate you rich asses! You’re just like the rest of them.”

She turned to leave, but was pulled back by HoWon.

“See?! You’re judging me too! You don’t know what it’s like! To be judged so harshly you can’t be yourself! It’s…so painful…” he countered. DaeHee yanked her hand out of his arm.

“Painful? Do you even know what pain is?!” she pushed him back. “Pain is the scars that cover your whole back reminding you of all the horrible things you’ve been through for the rest of your LIFE.” Another push. “Pain is starving for a week wondering if you’ll survive the next day because you don’t have the MONEY to buy any food!” A harder shove. “Pain is having your LOVED ones SHOT right in front of your face AND WATCHING THEM DIE IN YOUR ARMS!”

“YOU DO NOT LECTURE ME ABOUT WHAT PAIN IS!”

She panted heavily as the tears streamed down her face.

“I have suffered…DaeHyun and I…for years! Because…because of you…because you destroyed all that evidence…how could you…” she choked, covering her face. His eyes flashed immense guilt and pain.

“…I’m…sorry…”

~

“Right this way, DaeHyun-sshi,” she instructed, leading him into one of the rooms. He sat on the table and waited for her to close the door. She pulled out a needle and grinned widely.

“This will only take a second.”

Swiftly, she jammed the syringe into his neck.

Ping.

Her eyes widened as the needle snapped off. With a smirk, ‘DaeHyun’ grabbed her wrist and twisted behind her back, handcuffing her hands together as a pair of metallic arms tightly wrapped around the shoulder down to her waist.

“You assassins are so predictable~” A voice flitted in as the door opened. She stared intently at the newcomer, analyzing his every move. “Impressive, isn’t he? Perfect replica: moves and talks just like a real human. I can even change his faces. You like it? Made it myself~”

She scoffed, “Oh goodie, a tech snob.”

“That’s Mr. Tech Snob to you,” YoungJae corrected with a smirk. “So Little Miss Assassin, why don’t we have a little chat?”

He picked up the syringe that she had dropped when the android grabbed her wrist.

“What’s your story? Or should I just sedate you now and keep you as hostage?” he questioned, twirling the syringe around.

She laughed, “Oh please, I’m disposable. Keeping me hostage would only be detrimental on your part. Why don’t you just go straight to eliminating me? I have no interest in telling you anything.”

“At least give me some hints~” YoungJae whined with a pout. “What’s Arcane’s next move?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t talk to me about him. That guy’s an idiot.”

YoungJae raised an eyebrow at that.

“What are you talking about? Isn’t Arcane the one sending out the troops?”

She smiled, “Of course~”

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her.

~

“I can’t believe this…” DaeHee mumbled as she massaged her forehead. She paused for a moment while her eyes flared open.

“Hold on…did you say your uncle is interested in bringing his family back to life?”

“Yeah…he’s spent years researching…” HoWon nodded.

“What did he call the research?” DaeHee inquired.

“Bloodbots?”

“That’s impossible,” she accused. “Bloodbots can’t bring people back to life. They can only make people who are living immortal.”

“…what are you talking about? That’s all my uncle cares about…he doesn’t give a damn about immortality,” HoWon countered, shaking his head.

“If you’re sure they’re called bloodbots, then I’m hell as sure that’s not what they’re for! You can’t bring people back to life with bloodbots! My parents are the ones that created the first viable sample of them!” DaeHee yelled back. She stared at HoWon. “…someone else is behind all this. Your uncle is being manipulated into researching something he’s not interested in. Bloodbots cannot and will never be able to bring the dead back to life.”

“…then…who is responsible for all this?”

DaeHee stared into space for a moment before looking up at HoWon.

“All the information you erased…please tell me you managed to save everything somewhere…” DaeHee begged.

He nodded, “SungKyu-hyung is having Bekah bring it over right now.”

~

“If Arcane…is an idiot, then who’s the real mastermind?” questioned YoungJae.

“Of course, Appa’s smarter than that bozo,” she answered vaguely.

“Appa?”

She cackled, “You know, instead of interrogating me, you should probably be keeping an eye on Jung DaeHyun. Do you really think we would have only sent out one assassin?”

YoungJae’s eyes widened.

“Besides…”

She smirked sinisterly as the android exploded behind her, metal pieces of the robot embedding into her back.

“…you greatly underestimate me…Mr. Tech Snob…”

Without any changes in her expression, she removed a shard from her back and chucked it at YoungJae’s head. He just barely dodged it from inflicting any serious damage although the sharp object grazed his cheek. With one swallow, he eyed her carefully as she giggled cutely with a tilt of her head despite her back dripping blood onto the floor.

“Now then, Mr. Tech Snob…shall we see how good you are with close combat?”

=====================================================================

…umm…yeah…

…

No comment.

~Kira :3

P.S. You can’t accuse me of not revealing anything now! :D Mwahahahahahaha!