Chapter 7

silver | Cathartic I

They were tangled in each others arms, silent and warm. It was the first time her chest didn’t hurt.
It was the first time her heart didn’t ache.

She acted out in duty before and now she wasn’t so sure anymore. But that didn’t matter, she told herself to save the thought for later and just enjoy the moment she had never had a chance to experience before. She told herself to just relax and then gave into sleep.

///

Yuri dropped the phone. Just moments ago everything was fine – she and Jessica had woken up and she had decided to make breakfast while Jessica showered - and now everything has gone wrong.

Agent Tiffany Hwang was missing.

///

It wasn’t like she had never seen Taeyeon upset before, but this was different. It was as if the bodyguard was unhinged in the mind. It pained her heart to see Taeyeon sitting on the bed with her arms hugging her knees, staring at nothing in particular while she rocked herself back and forth, mumbling incoherently. 

She was glad she didn’t bring Jessica along – Jessica would not have been able to handle a sight like this. It was what Taeyeon was like before she left for Japan.

[flashback]

Yuri stood emotionlessly as Jessica screamed and ran into the room, leaving Yuri to stand alone in the empty hospital hallway. Yuri had not yet been able to forgive Taeyeon just yet but was also shocked at the sight of a haggard and thin Taeyeon crouched in the corner of the room, hugging her knees while she rocked back and forth on her heels. A bloody knife laid on the floor as the back of her hospital gown was soaked scarlet.
The doctor and nurses rushed in as they heard the piercing scream. Two nurses dragged a hysteric Jessica out while another pushed Yuri towards the waiting area as the others pulled Taeyeon off the floor and onto the gurney and to the emergency room.
That was the last time either of them saw Taeyeon before receiving a letter from a psychologist in Japan saying that Taeyeon was living in the top hospital in Japan and was receiving treatment for both her physical and mental trauma.

[end flashback]

Yuri walked further into the apartment and crawled onto the bed, sitting next to the other and placed a soothing hand on her back. She was at a loss as to what she should do to comfort her friend.

“She’s gone and it’s my fault.” Taeyeon’s voice was barely a whisper as she continued to rock back and forth, making the bed shift slightly with her movements.

Yuri frowned as she stopped a hand down Taeyeon’s back. It hurt Yuri to think that Taeyeon was placing blame on herself once more, much like what happened to Krystal.

Much like what Yuri was like before.

The dark hair woman shifted closer and enveloped the bodyguard in a tight hug.

“Shh… it isn’t your fault Taeyeon, nobody knew this was going to happen.”

She felt Taeyeon flinch at the thought of him. The man that had been giving her nightmares for the past four years. Yuri started to Taeyeon’s back once more, hand higher up her back. She paused once again when she felt the bumps underneath the smaller woman’s shirt. She noticed how Taeyeon winced as she touched the scars, lifting her collar aside Yuri looked down at the scars. They seemed raw and pink, as if they were just recently opened. Yuri immediately pulled away, hands holding tightly onto Taeyeon’s shoulders.

“What have you been doing to yourself Taeyeon?! Why are you still doing this?!” Yuri yelled at an impassive Taeyeon. “Why are you still cutting them?! Why won’t you just let them heal?!”

Taeyeon looked up at Yuri, eyes blank. Yuri could only look on in pain as she heard what Taeyeon said next.
“Because I don’t deserve to let them heal.”

///

Yuri had rocked Taeyeon back to a restless sleep. The poor woman had cried and rocked herself to the point of exhaustion. Taeyeon’s words replayed in her head like a mantra, she had whispered them nearly deliriously before she had fallen asleep.

“Have you ever felt that feeling where its like you can’t breath and your lungs are burning even though you’re only an inch away from the surface? Like you’re so close to making the pain stop but you just can’t seem to swim that last towards the oxygen? Like your whole body is on fire and you can’t put it out even though you’re standing right next to water? That is how I feel Yuri…it hurts…it hurts so much…”

There were no actual signs that this was agent Hwang’s apartment – no pictures, no calendars, not even a visible computer – nothing but the cell phone that was laying on the floor. Everything else was arranged rather neatly other than for the empty coffee cups and take out boxes resting on the coffee table. Nothing was out of place or seemed to have been disturbed by a forced entry and exit.

Something about this was quite odd.

///

pink | Cathartic II

Ring Ring.

Tiffany’s sleep was disturbed by the sound of her phone. She quickly picked up before the sound would awaken her guest. 

“Hello?”

It was her friend and fellow field agent, Nicole.

“Tiffany. Where are you? Didn’t you get the text? Check your contact phone, you should have received a text from him by now.”

Confused, Tiffany picked up the other phone on the night stand and opened an unnoticed encrypted text message. Reading it, Tiffany’s eyes snapped open wide.

“Now?”

“Yes. You got it right? I think you should go. Something is definitely up.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Call me when you’re done. I want to know what is going on.”

Tiffany hung up and sighed before she felt Taeyeon shift in bed. She turned to see the bleary eyed woman look up at her, trying to blink away the sleep. Tiffany her hair and gently whispered in Taeyeon’s ear, “work calls, sleep.”

With that, she quickly changed, grabbed her pistol and keys before walking out the door.
She had left her civilian phone behind.

///

She clutched at her phone, staring down at the text message she had received. An unknown number. Impossible seeing how this was her contact phone – the only way for her to reach her informant. No one knew the number other than the director, Nicole, Tiffany, and the informant. 

From: Private Number
To: Tiffany Hwang
Text: 83556396879474 
56A Main Street. 

It was the code of an informant.

///

She cautiously stepped into the small café and put a hand subtly to her pistol as she approached the only man sitting in the area. As she walked past he quietly slid a file across the table and she took it without looking at him. She quickly sat down at a far away booth behind him, making sure she could see him before glancing through the file. She then texted Nicole with the information.

Text: Do you have any info on Choi Siwon? Agent #413105SS.

She waited for a few minutes before Nicole sent her a reply and some of his files – the same as the ones he handed to her.

Text: He’s an undercover agent working in China and Korea dealing with the Triad. His last plane ticket was booked for yesterday 7:15PM and his status at the moment is as an informant. Don’t you already have an informant? Do you want me to check on him too?

Tiffany looked up to see Choi Siwon looking back at her, his head turned to face her. He gave her a small smile and waved for her to join him at his table.

Tiffany stood up and sat down across from him looking grimly at her phone as she replied.

Text: Yes. His name is Jang Wooyoung.

Something was very, very wrong.

///
silver | Cathartic III

“Taeyeon.” Yuri gently shook Taeyeon’s shoulder, trying to wake the girl. “Taeyeon, wake up.”

The bodyguard stirred and eventually blinked her eyes open as she sat up. 

“Taeyeon. Did anyone come in the room when you were asleep? Something seems odd. Did Tiffany leave or something? Don’t you think everything looks too neat to have had someone break in?”

Taeyeon shook her head, was dry and her voice raspy, “no, I heard Tiffany leave. She said she had work to do.”

“When Kan- he called you, what did he say?” Yuri asked firmly, holding onto Taeyeon’s arm as Taeyeon flinched at the memory of his voice. 

“He said that she wouldn’t be coming back. That I had to go to the warehouse if I want to see her again.”

Yuri tightened her hold as she listened to Taeyeon’s shaky voice. There was no doubt of the fear Taeyeon had for this man. Yuri knew that Taeyeon would have charged the warehouse and have destroyed everything in her fury but this man – whoever he was, Jang Joonin or not – was the one thing that all three of them – especially Taeyeon – feared. The one memory they had tried to cover had come back to haunt them.

“Taeyeon, this is Agent Hwang’s phone right?” Yuri picked up the cellphone laying at the foot of the bed. Seeing the other nod, Yuri took her own phone and texted someone before receiving a reply a minute later. Using Tiffany’s phone, Yuri dialed the number that was just given to her and waited as it rang. She put the phone on speaker when someone picked up. 

“Agent Hwang?” Yuri asked.

“Who is this? How did you get this number?”

Yuri ignored the question, “This is Yuri. Where are you?”

“I’m at a café, why?” The agent replied, confused.

Yuri glanced at Taeyeon whose eyes narrowed as she looked down at the phone.

“Hello?” Tiffany called out but was ignored.

“Yuri.” Taeyeon’s voice was suddenly cold and tense. “Where is Jessica?”

“At home. I told her not to come. Why are you –“ Yuri looked back at Taeyeon and immediately felt dread coursing through her veins.

///

pink | Cathartic IV

Tiffany hung up the phone after Yuri called. The never told her what exactly was going on but she knew that Jessica was in trouble somehow. She needed to get to them and figure out what had happened.

“Siwon-shii, do you know a Jang Wooyoung?” Tiffany asked, blurting out the question and surprising the young man.
“No, I can’t say I do. Is he part of this case? I only know of a Jang Joonin who is part of this case but he has been dead of four years.”

She bit her lip, thinking of what to do when her phone began to ring, interrupting her thoughts. She checked the number to see that it was Nicole.

“Bad news Tiffany, I forwarded his file to you. Everything on his file checks out but…”

“But?”

“Jang Wooyoung isn’t supposed to be your informant Tiffany. He couldn’t have been. He is listed as a deserter from the army and is Jang Joonin’s biological brother. He wouldn’t have passed the screening to be an informer for this case. He is too close to one of the subjects.”

Tiffany dropped the phone. Realization hitting her. Siwon stood up, leaning over the table, “are you alright Tiffany-shii?”

“I-I need to go.” Tiffany picked up her phone and grabbed her purse. “Call Nicole Jung and HQ, I know where Jang Wooyoung is.”

///

Tiffany rushed out of her car, phone in hand as she dialed the number to her civilian phone, praying that Taeyeon and Yuri had it with them. 

“Taeye-“ 

A man in a hat and suit approached her from the side, Tiffany instinctively reached for her pistol when the man lifted his head, showing his face that was hidden under his hat.

“Wooyoung?!”

Tiffany felt a sharp, throbbing pain at the underside of her skull before everything turned black.

///
silver | Cathartic V

Yuri and Taeyeon rushed back to the apartment, only to find unconscious guards and the door wide open.
Yuri stood still as she watched Taeyeon fall to her knees, shaking. Yuri herself could only look in silent shock. It was as if ice had replaced the blood in her veins, she could not move. Her mind felt numb and hazy as she walked slowly past the overturned coffee table where they had dinner just last night and towards the dining table where Jessica’s glasses laid over a pile of loose papers. Yuri froze when she saw the note amongst the paper, weighed down by the glasses.

Look out the window. Maybe you’ll see something.

Yuri cautiously approached the half open window and looked outside, down at the street. Her eyes widened when she recognized agent Hwang’s Audi. 

Yuri heard a phone ring behind her and saw Taeyeon slowly picking up the phone they had brought from the agent’s apartment.

Yuri turned back to the window. Tiffany stepped out of the car and Yuri could only watch helplessly as she saw two men approach her, one with a hat on from the right and the other from behind the car. The man with hat seemed to have revealed his face, making Tiffany stop her movements as the other man knocked the agent out with police baton.

“Tiffany!” Yuri cried out, making the man with the hat look up at her. Yuri couldn’t make out the face but could guess that the man was smiling at her as the other man dragged the unconscious girl into an unmarked van.

Yuri turned back around to see an expressionless Taeyeon holding the phone up to her ear. Yuri stood close enough to hear the voice on the phone.

“So Kim Taeyeon, what does rage feel like to you? Helplessness? Adrenaline? A murderous rampage? Tell me, Kim Taeyeon, what does rage feel like when you’re on your knees before the brother of the man that ruined your life? What does it feel like to see that the two lives you want to protect so badly are taken away from your reach?”

Yuri could hear Taeyeon’s breath caught in at the familiarity of the voice.

“What does it feel like to have two lives to choose from again?”

The line went dead and Yuri stood up straight, looking at Taeyeon worriedly. 

“Taeyeon…” Yuri said as the other girl stood with the phone still up to her ear. 

“Taeyeon?” Yuri moved around to look Taeyeon straight in the eye. Taeyeon’s eyes went from being filled with fear to what Yuri recognized as rage. “Taeyeon! Don’t do this. Don’t let him goad you into this.” Yuri tried to reason, “don’t…”

Yuri watched as Taeyeon tightened her grip on the phone, crushing the sides before dropping it onto the floor, further breaking it apart. 

“I can’t do this anymore.” Taeyeon replied monotonously, “I need to make it stop.”

“What do you mean Taeyeon?” Yuri said, nearly in tears. She grabbed onto both of Taeyeon’s arms, afraid that she would leave and do something rash.

“I want it to stop hurting.” 

+++++++++