Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

“Um, can I sit here?” She found herself asking as she stood behind the chair facing Mr. Spectacular Jaw. He smiled down at his drink and didn’t offer her an answer for a few moments. After awkwardly standing there for a while, he finally peered up at her.

“I was wondering if you’d come back.” He replied with a hint of mischief shining through his gaze. She pulled the chair and quickly sat down.

“So, you recognize me?”

“I do. It’s not every day a white screen shows you an image of a strange and rather untidy woman. By the way, you clean up well.” He took a sip of his tea and swiped his thumb around the rim of his cup.

“Thanks…I think.” She mumbled, looking off to the side. “I’m Ileana by the way.”

“Chen.” He promptly replied with a curt nod and took another swing of his tea. He put his mug back on the table and smiled toward the window, looking completely content. She never really met a man like him before. He had such an easy-going air to him, almost too easy going.

“Good tea?” She asked, attempting to start the wheels on the conversation.

“The best. It really clears the mind.” Chen said, not taking his eyes off the window. She raised an eyebrow.

“Do you have a lot on your mind?” She prodded, hoping to find something that would tell her the reason as to why he was so important to the mission.

“You could say that.” He sighed and leaned back into his chair. He turned his sharp gaze toward her, “I think it’s safe to say I’m not the only one.”

She tried hard to maintain her neutral expression. She felt like he was trying to initiate a round of mind games or something. She didn't have time for that, especially with her time constraint.

“Chen. Who are you?” She asked, not breaking eye contact with him.

“An average Sector M citizen, though I did originate in Sector K.” He smirked. She was not happy.

“Yes, but who are you to me?”

“Shouldn’t you know that?” He drawled, leaning in close to her. She exhaled sharply.

“I don’t.” She stately firmly, “I’m trying to find out, but you’re making it difficult.”

“I’m answering your questions, aren’t I?”

“In a roundabout and snarky way, yes.” She replied in exasperation, rubbing the side of her temple with one hand.

“But I’m answering them.”

“Okay. Keep answering them. Why did you move to Sector M?”

“This tea shop.” He replied with his eyes lighting up with amusement.

“Not good enough.” She snarled back. His eyes froze on hers before they became void of any emotion.

“I have some friends in high places that said it’d be in my best interest to move into Sector M.” He replied. She felt like thanking the gods for some sort of progress.

“And did they tell you the reason?” She pressed on.

“We’re friends, not close confidants. I either take what they tell me or leave it. But I already had an idea why.”

“Which is?”

“I’m sure you have the idea as well. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” He took another sip on his tea. She tightened her fists in her lap.

“You know why I’m here?” She once again tried to maintain a straight face. This guy was really trying to play her.

“I have an educated guess.” He nodded, throwing her a smile that she did not return. She was done with this.

“Chen. I can’t stay here and play games with you. Can we get to the point already?”

“And that point is…?” He eyed her playfully. She stood up rapidly and pulled up her sleeve.

“See this?” She pointed to her tattoo, “This started to die when I walked away from you. I need to figure out a way-“ Chen surprised her when he quickly reached over and pulled her sleeve back down.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” He whispered harshly, pulling her back into her seat, “I know what that is and that can get us both in trouble. So don’t pull it out so recklessly!”

“But I was told no one knows what it is.” She whispered back, matching his hush tone.

“To the average citizen, yes. But the ones you have to watch out for are the people who do know what that mark is.”

“What about you?” She shot back. Any trace of Chen’s easy going atmosphere completely faded and was replaced with something much more heavy.

“I left that life behind ages ago and I don’t intend to go back to it.” He replied in a firm but still soft tone. He looked completely displeased. He quickly picked up his mug and took another swing of his tea.

“Chen, I need to know what that life was.”

“No you don’t. I was a part of something that I later realized to be destructive. I’m forever tied to the organization, but they agreed to let me roam freely with certain restrictions. And that mark you were waving around...that's one of the perfect reasons for them to take that freedom away and ruin my chance at ever living a close to average existence.” Chen voice dropped a few octaves and began a raspy drawl. He was beginning to frighten her. His stare was hard and his jaw was becoming tenser.

“What’s the organization?” She whispered in her lowest voice, trying to ignore her instinct to back down. Chen looked away and stared out the shop window.

“Your tea’s getting cold.” Was her only reply.

“Chen-“

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

That’s when she realized Chen was done talking. But what was important was she wasn’t.

“Okay, I get it Chen. But I’m not giving up yet.” She stood up in her seat, “But I still have some questions for you. Where can I contact you?”

Chen gave her a look of disbelief, “I thought I made it clear that I was done answering your questions.”

“You did. But I have other questions. Some of them you might be able to answer. And I can't exactly force you to answer all my questions if you're unwilling.” Chen looked her up and down before sighing. He grabbed a pen like device for his pocket and wrote down a series of numbers on a napkin before handing it to her.

“What's this?” She asking, observing the number as if it were some kind of code.

“My COMM number.”

“You’re what number?”

“My communicator?” He supplied, pulling out a cell phone looking device from another pocket. She nodded and noted to ask Sehun or Kai to further explain what communicator was and how they worked.

She folded the napkin and put it into her back pocket. She grabbed her items and bowed her head slightly to Chen. “Nice meeting you.” She felt herself politely saying before walking out the tea shop.

She practically ran back to Sehun’s shop, hoping that time didn’t actually fly by as fast as it felt it did. When she entered the shop, she saw Kai pacing back and forth in front of the door. His head snapped towards her and he let out a sigh of relief.

“What took you so long?” He asked, marching toward her.

“A big line up.” She tossed him the change purse and quickly walked away before he could say anymore. She made her way up the stairs and into Sehun’s apartment. She quickly kicked off her boots and quietly tiptoed down the entrance way. She was about to turn into the hallway that led to Sehun’s room when Sehun appeared out of the hallway while rubbing his eyes. He stopped when he saw her and took in her appearance.

“You went out?” He asked, with a slight edge to his voice.

“Oh hush. I just went out to get some breakfast.” She replied with a small pout.

“Did Kai go with you?” He shot back.

“In a way.” He wasn’t pleased with that answer, “But enough about that. You have some explaining to do and I think it’s best to do it over breakfast. So let’s get our butts into the kitchen!” She quickly rushed past him before he could show any signs of protest.

She placed the two traveling cups on the kitchen table along with the box that contained the food. She quickly rummaged through the cabinets and draws in order to find the plates and utensils. She had the table set by the time Sehun had entered the kitchen. She took the time to observe him. His face gained back most or not all of its original color. He wasn’t showing any signs of being in pain either. He was wearing the same blood stained pants as the night before but he was considerate enough to put on another shirt before leaving his room.

They took a seat at the table and opened the box. It appeared to be some sort of pastry with stuffing. Sehun stared at the pastry in shock.

“Did Kai tell you?” He asked, raising a confused eyebrow.

“Tell me what?”

“That this is my favourite food…” Sehun reached over and took the pastry from the box. He bit his lip and looked up at her, obviously trying very hard not to devour it in front of her.

“Nope. I just guessed. Looks like you were lucky.” She gave him a lopsided smile before grabbing her own pastry. They quietly ate their food and drank their tea. Whatever the item she ordered was, she decided it was now her new favourite food... well, it was after Sehun and Luhan’s cooking.

She took a sip of her tea, fully enjoying the warmth it gave her. She looked over at Sehun doing the same. “So, how’s your side?”

“It’s fine.” He promptly replied. She looked down to the side in question.

“Does it need to be re-bandaged?”

“No, it’s almost healed.”

She found this hard to believe. He was stabbed pretty deeply. “You can’t be serious. There’s no way it could have healed that fas-“

Sehun lifted his shirt a little and she saw that in the place of a bloodied bandage, was a pinkish scar. She immediately smacked her lips together, trying to play it cool while taking a sip of her tea.

“Okay. What happened last night?” She bluntly asked, having enough of the walking around the bush game for one day.

“We met with our sources. They were able to give us some information before we were ambushed.” Sehun once again supplied her without hesitation. She was glad. She felt that if she needed someone’s full trust with this mission, it would be his.

“What was the information you got? Who ambushed you?” She quickly shot back questions.

“They told Luhan and myself that the war was getting ready to start up any day now. But they said they’re waiting for or needing something in order to actually start it. No one knows what that something is yet.” She nodded, biting her lips while she processed the information. “We were in the middle of trying to piece together who were fronting it when we got ambushed. That’s when we got our answer.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, if the war was being prepared by the government, we would have been ambushed by the government guard. We weren’t ambushed by the guard.” Sehun explained, his fists growing tighter and whiter.

“Then who were you ambushed by?” She asked, confused.

“I know they're a well-organized group and they’re from Sector M due to what I could hear from their dialect.”

“A group is Sector M is fronting the war?” She asked in disbelief, “But…I thought Sector K’s government wanted to overthrow Sector M’s overlords.”

“They do. But it looks like that group from Sector M has gotten a few steps in front of them. “

“And they’re not connected in Sector M’s government in anyway?”

“I don’t think so. It looked like they were going on their own personal agendas.” Sehun shook his head and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “There was this one guy leading them. He is most definitely not government trained. His weapon was a Dao, which are rare weapons and are typically only used by the best in any of EXO's criminal organizations.”

“Okay. To summarize: You’re telling me a criminal organization from Sector M is behind this war, and they are waiting for or needing something in order to start it?”

“Yes.” Sehun confirmed. She let out a shuddering breath. She was not happy with this change of plans. Facing a government was hard enough, but a criminal organization? That was a whole different playing field.

“Did everyone make it out okay?” She asked. Sehun bit his lip.

“Some of our sources were killed; I think they’re holding some captive.”

“Oh....” She mumbled out, “But at least you and Luhan got out all right.” She nodded, her thoughts turning toward the cheerful boy.

“Ileana.”

His tone sent shivers through her body. She looked to the side and bite hard into her bottom lip. She stared at the wall for a few more seconds before exhaling and finally meeting Sehun’s tortured eyes.

“They have Luhan, Ileana.”

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Back with another chapter! I didn't want to update this until tomorrow, but with tumblr being populated with the very y and new booklet pictures of EXO..oh em geee, drools annnndd Of course, EXOM&K HAVE OFFICIALLY DEBUTED ON A STAGE AND THEIR MINI ALBUMS ARE OUT. These things easily got me excited and wanted me to write another chapter. Like so:

EQUALS

(Lay needs some love, he frigging ROCKED this photoshot (wait...he rocks every photo shoot D:))

So my thoughts on both albums - ING AWESOME. However, Two Moons was sort of butchered :( There was no rolling like a buffalo in it!! Oh my god, I will never know how to roll like a buffalo noooooowww. I may understand why they would crop it out for EXO-K, but EXO-M has Kris who rapped the verse. I DUN GET IT.
Machine is a nice treat :) I do like dubstep but I had no idea how they were going to make it into a song. It doesn't sound like the teaser at all or all that much. No dubstep within hearing distance and it's awesomely catchy. Soooo goooood.

As for their debut stages, everyone's throwing a fit about the EXO-M controversy. I think it's absolutely terrible for there to be bad press going around them already but I'm not going to go ranting and pointing fingers at the wrongdo-ers. Right now I think EXO-M needs positive reenforcement and not vicious defensive fangirls potentially giving them a bad name. SO, EXO-M HWAITING~~! You did fantastic!!!!
As for EXO-K, OH my god! Baekhyun got hurt! That's three members hurt now!! Baekhyun, Kai and Tao, take care of yourself and I hope you heal quickly <3 Good job on your debut!!

Just remember: