Chapter 20

 

Ileana tried to maintain a blank expression. She honestly did. But when Kai led into the banquet hall of the mansion, she was floored.  The scenery before her was so …sparkly and bright. She wondered how her eyes could even handle the change in light intensity.

The hall itself was massive. It was two stories, with two staircases leading up to the second floor. The main object she couldn’t keep her eyes off of was the huge chandelier that hung from the cathedral ceiling above her.  At the bottom of the staircase was an immense space that she presumed to be the dance floor and tables were placed around it. 

Kai practically dragged her with their looped arms to a table and sat her down, only then did she snap out of her stupor. 

“Kai.” She leaned over, “what do we do now?” 

“We wait until it’s our turn to perform.” He whispered through the teeth of his fake gleaming smile as he greeted the people who came to him.

She did wait and observed her surroundings as she did. Her observations told her that the type of people who shown up to the banquet were varied in size, age and gender. There was some tension between some groups, but they obviously held their tongues at such an event. However, many people kept refocusing their attention to one particular group. And she admitted that the group was worthy of attention. They had some sort of invisible shield around them, no one went close to them or greeted them. They didn’t seem like an arrogant bunch either; they gave off more of a dark suave aura. They looked fearless and could probably evoked fear on anyone who dared to impose on them.

She must have been feeling a little daring at that moment; because she concluded that she would find out what she could about that particular group of men situated a few tables down. She figured that if any group at this banquet were to be a crime group, it would be them.

“Welcome! I hope everyone is having a wonderful evening thus far!” A booming voice echoed throughout the hall. She looked up and saw at the top of the two staircases was a man smiling with a box like device in front of his mouth.

“We are very happy to be celebrating our annual Sector M banquet with you all tonight. With our hearts feeling full with your wonderful company, we hope we can fill your stomachs with the delightful feast our hospitable kitchen has made tonight. And while we are feasting, we also will have the gift of filling our eyes and ears with a great diversity of talents. I thank you all for coming and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.”  

The room clapped loudly for the man, who Ileana was told to be the highest ranking officer in Sector M and who was also hosting the entire event.  After the man finished his speech, a number of servers appeared from surrounding entrances with trays upon trays of food and placed them onto a large expense of tables.

Suddenly, a band started to play some music and melodic voices rang into the air. Tilting her head up, she was surprised to see both Baekhyun and Chen holding the microphone boxes at the top of the staircases where the high officer had been. The music continued to play and she felt like she was enchanted by their marvelous singing voices.

“Come on. We’re on after them.” Kai tugged on her arm and pulled her out of her seat. You mean we have to follow after that? She thought.  Kai continued to drag her to the edge of the dance floor at the bottom of a staircase and they patiently waited.

Baekhyun and Chen finished their duet and were rewarded with a booming applause, with Ileana quickly joining in.  She didn’t applaud them long because Kai and her song began to play. She quickly, yet casually went onto the dance floor and posed into her starting position. Her ear caught the note signaling her time to move, and she certainly moved.

She was completely focused the music... and Kai, of course. Everything was going as planned. She hit every dance move in the right way and time. Kai accompanied her as well, though his dance style was obviously different from Lay. And Kai seemed to really make that a point when he decided to take the choreography into his own hands.

She was supposed to waltz away from him at one point, but he firmly kept her planted into his embrace. She struggled slightly, trying to get back into the original dance sequence. But she only found herself becoming a puppet in Kai’s hands. He made her do things she didn’t think possible. Occasionally she found herself dancing to the original choreography when other times Kai led her on a wild dancing goose chase.

They were finished about three quarters of the song when she felt something grip her arm and spin her. She quickly found out that that something was not Kai. Her eyes nearly fell out of her sockets when she was pressed against Lay’s chest.  And Lay did not look happy…at all. She was led into a dance that involved a lot of touching she wasn’t exactly comfortable with.  She felt slightly too submissive to the tight and controlling grip on her thighs and the hands caressing down her curves.  Lay placed his face into the nape of her neck and she swore he inhaled sharply.

Lay’s little smelling session was cut short when an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her out of Lay’s possessive arms and into their's. I don’t like this game. She thought. So, she decided it was time to take matters into her own hands. She freed herself from the arms that took her and sauntered away from the two boys. They followed behind her, almost like a predator following its prey. She refused to fall prey to them.  No, they would be the ones to fall prey to her.

Whenever one would reach for her, she would dodge successfully. She would also approach them in a teasing manner but coyly dance away before they could claim her. She noticed the ending of the song was coming and tried to figure out a way to end the dance with her coming out victorious.  However, her hesitation gave Kai and Lay enough time to pounce forward. Lay wrapped an arm around her waist from behind while Kai gripped and pulled under her knee from the front. The song ended with her being firmly planted between the two boys, her back securely pressed against Lay’s chest while her thigh was hitched up on Kai’s waist. She lost. She should have known she never stood a chance.

She felt the pressure from either side of her disappear when Lay and Kai stepping away from her. She turned to face the joyous cheers of the crowd. She bowed along with Lay and Kai, shooting each of them a glare before standing up right and marching off the dance floor. Another song played and Lay started his solo dance.

Kai had followed her to their table with an undeniably cocky smirk. She crossed her arms and glared daggers at him.

“That,” She hissed, “was not part of the choreography!”  

“Nope, but it was certainly better than the original.” Kai winked at her and began eating some food that was given to them by the servers.

“Are you telling me I practiced for nothing?” She shot out quickly with what she hoped to be the sharpest tone imaginable.

“No. Practicing with Lay made you more aware of your body and how to move it. I never planned on sticking with his choreography anyways. But I thought it was best not to tell you, you would have probably tensed up or something.”

“No kidding. But why the hell did Lay popped up out of nowhere?”

“I don’t know,” He shrugged, “Ask him. But, he probably only got pissed because I wasn’t following his choreography. Maybe he thought I was issuing him another challenge.”

“And what if I made a mistake, huh? What if-“

“Would you be quiet and eat? You did fine, the hard part is over now. So just relax.” Kai cut her off looking rather annoyed. She pulled her lips back, showing her displeasure. She faced her plate and stabbed into the food viciously, hoping to let out from frustration onto the cooked meat.

As she finished her meal, she realized Kai was right. The hard part was over. All she had to do now was walk around and listen.  She managed to get a hold of a wine glass with carbonated water in it and nursed it as she ventured through the crowds. Kai was conversing with different people, unleashing his charms onto anyone he wanted. She sighed when she heard only uninteresting banter among the crowd. She made her way back to her table and slumped down in her chair.

“I can’t believe they came tonight.”

“I know, especially with the high officers wanting to bring them in.”

“It’s like they’re mocking them by showing up.”

Ileana froze in her seat and focused her hearing onto a pair of women gossiping at the table behind her. She lifted her a shiny silver plate and pretended to use it as a mirror when she really was taking a glimpse at the women. She saw that they were taking peeks at the group of men she suspected to be the criminal organization.

“Did you hear about their new leader?”

“They have a new leader? Since when?”

“A month or two ago. They said he’s going to make some big changes to the City.”

“Like what?”

“Like…war.”

“Shh! Don’t say that too loudly! What if someone heard you!”

Too late.

“What? It’s going to happen. And I even heard on how he’s going to do it.”

Bingo

“What? By who?”

“My cousin’s seeing someone who’s high up in the group. Anyways, I heard he’s going to use the crystal.”

“The crystal? But…that’s impossible.”

“That’s what I thought, but apparently-“

“Hey Ileana!”  Ileana slammed the plate she was holding down onto the table in fright and whipped around to who was calling her. There stood a glowing Baekhyun.

“Whatcha doing?” He asked and bounced down onto the seat next to her.

“Fixing my hair.” She muttered, noting the now inaudible whispers of the women behind her.  

“Really? It looks fine to me.” Baekhyun beamed at her. “Your dance was really great by the way! I never thought Kai and Lay could get so passionate over a dance. They usually play it cool but you had them hunting like wild animals.”

She flushed and shook her head, “Oh no no, it was just the nature of the dance. It had nothing to do with me.”

“If you say so…” He said with a smirk growing on his lips.

She awkwardly cleared , “Um, good job on your singing. It was really nice.”

“Nice?” He asked with a raised eyebrow, “Nice is how you would describe it?”

“Among other adjectives, but I feel like your ego is big enough.” 

“Never.” He gasped with his hand placed over his heart, “I am humble at best.”

She laughed a little and he joined in. She immediately stopped and turned around. The women she was eavesdropping on had stood up from their seats and were walking up one of the staircases.  She quickly stood up from her chair and was about to leave when a hand gripped her wrist.

“Where are you going?” Baekhyun asked. She quickly pulled her wrist out of his hand and stepped back.

“Washroom.” And she rushed after the women. When she got up to the second floor, she saw one of them walk through a door and close it behind her. She politely shoved her way through the crowd and went through the same door the woman just did.

She found herself in a rather large hallway and was super frustrated when she found no trace of the woman anywhere. She looked around the hallway some more and found a door. She stood before it for a few moments, her hand hovering over the knob. She twisted it and the door opened without a hitch.

She stepped inside the room and was surprised by its massive size. The room itself could be compared to a gymnasium with its tall ceilings and its hardwood flooring. The strange thing about the room was that its lights were deemed red.

Althought the lighting in the room was strange, what really caught her attention was a man moving with a rather sharp looking sword in the middle of it. As far as she could see, the woman she was looking for was not there. Therefore, she concluded it would be in her best interest if she were to leave the room immediately if she didn’t wish to be shish-kabobbed.

“I hear you.” A deep voice echoed out in the room. She jumped a little, considering the man hadn’t turned to face her once.

“Oh, ahaha. This isn’t the ladies room! I’m just going to go now. Carry on with what you were doing!” She stuttered out quickly and raced toward the door. When her hand touched the knob, she heard a low whistling sound before a loud thud right next to her ear.

She slowly turned her head and saw a sword that was newly planted into the door inches away from her head. She quickly jumped back and pressed her back to the door, facing the man.  He was slowly making his way toward her, picking up a rather long stick on his way. She felt her breath hitch in .

“And where you do you think you’re going?”

---

 Oh hi :)

I'm tired. So very tired. I had some last minute plans happen yesterday when I was in the middle of writing this chapter. Hence why this didn't come out until now. I am sorry. I refused to sleep until this was updated if that makes you feel better <3
Okay, typical SPEEL. 
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And author notes are here to stay. Thanks to all who voted <3

Also, I am going to DISNEY WORLD!!! WOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! You jelly? I know you jelly! I'm leaving Friday...sorry for the late notice. Anyways, it might be a few days before I can update (I'm evil, at such a part in the story too) because of me traveling all the way to Orlando and to find enough free time to type and update a chapter. I am going to try my hardest because trust me, this story is constantly on my mind, ohhhh the wonderful ideas that come to me. 

Kay, now that's done. We have a new character, can anyone guess who? (Kind of obvious I know....but meh)

And looks like I do have some Sehun shippers :D Right on. 

He's one good looking maknae...who is actually too young for me

Kay, I'm tired.

Giveaway of the day: *Throws Lay's Shampoo and Conditioner* Because Lay and his hair are:

ps: @MarianneManson - Your panda suit comment made me think of this:

Tao's going to destroy my laptop. I'm scared.