Chapter Thirty Seven

After completing numerous final examinations (insisted by Kris), Ileana was deemed well enough to be discharged from the hopsital the very next day.

“Ahh, fresh air and sunlight! How I missed you!” She shouted to the sky with her arms wide open. Kris looked down at her slightly concerned, though she could see he was trying to hide his amusement.

“Careful now, you don’t want to irritate your injuries.” He said, lightly taping on her neck where bruises were still healing. She winced when he made contact and immediately smacked his hand away.

“Meanie.” She stuck her tongue out, “Let me celebrate my freedom in peace.”

“Hmm, I suppose a meanie like me won’t take you out for a celebratory dinner then.” Kris shot back with a smirk and walked away. Ileana then became aware of how hungry she was. She quickly ran after Kris and hopped in front of him.

“Stop!”  She shoved her hand out and pressed it against his chest, “I will only take back my comment after you feed me.”   They exchanged piercing stares for a few seconds before Kris grabbed the hand that was pushed against his chest.

“You drive a hard bargain, but I accept.”  He then dragged her away toward a parking lot. Kris opened the door to an impressive looking car for her to enter before he got in on the driver’s side. He started the engine and off they went. It wasn’t a long drive before they were in front of a rather fancy looking building. Kris handed the valet his keys before walking around and opening Ileana’s door.  She ignored his offered hand and just stared at the building.

“Isn’t this a little too much?” She asked, not taking her eyes off the building.  She saw Kris shrug his shoulders in the corner of her eye before walking inside. She frowned and followed after him. After being on the receiving end of an evil glare from the hostess, they were seated in a private booth in the far corner of the elaborate restaurant.  Just taking one glance at the menu was enough to confuse her. She tried to figure out what was what and only drew a blank.

She sneaked a peek at Kris from above her menu. He quickly looked up from his own and met with her eyes. She flushed and looked down quickly, thinking that suddenly the third option looked appetizing. What the heck is Ji-Ji-Min-Gee? She tilted her head. She was snapped out of her thoughts when a waiter came with glasses of water and placed them on their table.

“We’ll both have your signature dish.” Kris said as he handed his menu to the waiter and the waiter held a hand out for hers. She looked between the menu, the waiter and Kris before handing it over. The waiter politely excused himself and walked away from the table. She twiddled her thumbs absentmindedly before taking a large gulp of her water.

“Sooo, “ She drawled, “What have you been up to the last three days?”

“Besides worrying over you? I made some alliances with ministers.” Kris replied and leaned back.

“Oh, that’s good. But, what do you plan to do with these alliances?” She asked.

“Well, I know the majority of the ministers aren’t happy with the current mess in the government. But they’re unable to do anything with their necks constantly threatened by Sector K’s and Sector M’s Senate. My idea is to get all the ministers to come together and to go against the entire Senate. Without any ministers, the Senate essentially loses their powers and then we can force them to resign.”

“And which ministers do you have an agreement with so far?”

“The Labour and Agriculture minister, the Citizenship and Identification’s Bureau minister and you know, the Health minister are the three from Sector M that have agreed to it. I need to figure out how to get to the others and I still don’t know how I’m going to get any of the Sector K’s ministers on board. ” Kris sighed in conclusion. She raised an eyebrow.

“Not to rain on your parade Kris, but I sure hope you don’t think you can convince all the ministers by yourself.  It’ll be too late by the time you do that.”

“Then what do you suppose I do, Miss Know It All?” Kris raised an eyebrow back. She only smirked.

“It’s all about connections, Kris. All about connections.” She nodded, “If you want to convince Sector K ministers, it’ll be a heck of a lot easier if you have people from Sector K to do the convincing for you.”

“And when I have no Sector K connections?” Kris forced a mocking smile.

“Fear not Kris, for I got a few of my own up my sleeve. I did live in Sector K long enough to make some friends, you know.” Ileana pointed at him and gave him a victorious smile.

The waiter appeared once more but with two delectable looking dishes in hand. The waiter quickly and effortless placed the dishes in front of them respectively.

“Anything else that I can get for you, sir?” The waiter asked, facing Kris.

“Yes, would you be able to retrieve the documents that I requested earlier?”  Kris replied, hinting at something with his tone. The waiter immediately nodded.

“Yes, quite certainly sir.” And he bowed before zooming away.

“Documents?” She inquired, before taking a bite of her meal, “Oh my goodness, this is heaven.”  She moaned, closing her eyes as she savoured the flavour.

“You will see. Now, about your so-called connections…” Kris nudged his head to her to continue.

“Oh. Yes, my connections. Are you free tonight?”  She asked, tilting her head. Kris nodded. “Good. So, here’s my plan. After we finish here, you go to Lay’s and tell him to gather the guys from the vision, and yes, he’ll know what you’re talking about. I’ll meet up with you and the others at Lay’s office an hour after you drop me off somewhere.”

“Where and why do you want me to drop you off?” Kris stared at her, obviously not pleased with her plan. The waiter came at that moment and handed Kris a legal sized envelope. Kris thanked the waiter and shooed him away.

“The Tea Shop in Sector M.” She eyed the envelope, “I was planning to go pick up some of my connections myself. It’s the least I can do for them. And what’s that?”

“It’s for you.” Kris handed her the envelope over the table, “It’s your identification papers. You now go by the name of Lee Ileana who was orphaned due to the war. You grew up in a women’s orphanage and have been living paycheck to paycheck since you got out at the age of 16.”

She knitted her eyebrows and stared down at the envelope. She tore it open quickly and took the contents out. Inside were numerous papers, all looking extremely legal and legitimate. “Ohh, I even got an identification card now.” She pulled out a card with her photo on it. “Neat. How’d you get this?”

Kris just smirked, “I have my ways. But back to our previous topic, I’m not fond of leaving you to wander around alone.”

“Your fondness will have to be put on hold then because we’re on a time constraint here, Kris. We need to gather our connections and we need to plan everything out accordingly. Besides, now that I have an identity, things should be less worrisome.”  She took a final bite of her meal and rubbed her stomach, “Great meal. You almost done?”

Kris frowned and reluctantly finished his meal, “Okay. But if you get in trouble, I have ‘I told you so’ rights.”

“Me? Trouble? Never.” She smiled and stood up while folding the envelope into her satchel. “Come on, we should get started before the sun sets. “

Kris and Ileana exited the restaurant promptly and he reluctantly drove her to the Tea shop. She quickly debriefed him on his task before they said their good byes and were both off.

She walked down the streets, easily remembering the way to a familiar trinket shop.  The shop had it's closed sign which made her pout. She reached up to twist the doorknob and was glad to see it wasn’t locked. She pried the door open and it sounded the bell hanging above the doorway.

“Sorry, but we-“ Sehun turned around to face her and dropped the broom he was holding. She quietly walked further into the shop and closed the door behind her.  She hesitantly smiled and waved.

“Hi Sehun.” She greeted him. He didn’t say anything. He just stared at her…which was increasingly making her uncomfortable. “Usually, people reply back with a ‘oh hi-“

“I thought you were dead.” He finally said as he walked and then bolted to her. Her eyes widened at his speed and soon she was engulfed in a tight hug. “I thought you were gone.” He whispered into her ear. She sighed and dipped her head against his chest while wrapping her arms around him.

“I’m okay.” She whispered, “I’m completely fine.” And she rubbed her hands up and down his back. He finally released her after a few seconds and analyzed her. He stared at the bruises on her arms and her neck. With the expression on his face, she was glad he couldn’t see any other bruises that were covered by her clothing.

“All they said was that you destroyed the crystal. I thought you had died or gone away. And Ileana, I’m so sorry with what happened in those rooms. I wasn’t awar-“

“Shhhh.” She put a finger to his lips, “I know it’s not your fault. And calm down, I’m just fine. That aside, right now I need your help.”

“Ileana!” She heard someone shout from behind Sehun.  She stepped off to the side and saw a wide eyed Kai. “You’re alive!” He exclaimed as he rushed over and took her in his arms quickly. He released her and his eyes immediately went to her neck. He stiffed and continued to stare down on it, “I…did that, didn’t I?”

She took a deep breath, unsure how to answer at first. “No. You didn’t. The crystal did that.” She reassured him. She could see him clench his fist and his arms shook.

“No. No, I did that to you. I hurt you. I tried to fight it, I really did. I tried to override the program they installed, but it was too complex and it kept rewriting itself-“

“Enough Kai. What’s done is done. Right now, we have bigger fish to fry.” She looked between Sehun and Kai. “The crystal might be destroyed but that doesn’t mean the war has been prevented. We need to take down the two Senates and I need your help in order to do so. Are you in?”

Sehun and Kai looked to each other before returning their determined gazes to her, “We’re definitely in.” Sehun told her through gritted teeth. “Those scum need to be taken care of.”

“Great, glad to have you onboard.” She smiled and clapped both of them on the shoulder, “Now, we have to go to Lay’s and meet the others.”

“Others?” Kai asked.

“I’ll explain everything on the walk there.” She grabbed each of their hands and pulled them toward the shop door. They didn’t fight her.

On the walk to Lay’s, she explained what happened at the end of the tests with Kris and how she destroyed the crystal. She also explained how she didn’t have a filter and thus, did not die as a result from the energy explosion. She hid the fact that she did hit her head hard enough to land herself in the hospital for a few days. No need to worry them over nothing, right? She then finally described how they planned to stop the war with allying themselves with all of the ministers and force the entire Senate to resign.

They finally reached Lay’s office and Ileana was pleased to see that everyone was there.

“Ileana!” She was greeted by numerous voices. She was glomped by a rather tall man before she could speak.

“I missed you.” A familiar deep voice hit her ears. She laughed and patted Chanyeol on the back.

“I missed you too.” She whispered. She lightly pushed him off and greeted everyone.  Luhan patted her on the back and gave her a pleasant smile, saying he was glad she was okay. Suho and D.O congratulated her on destroying the crystal (D.O added it was exactly as he predicted). She nodded to Chen and Tao and smiled to Baekhyun and Xiumin.  She looked past the group that crowded around her and saw that Kris and Lay were standing further away.

“I trust you told them everything we discussed earlier.” Ileana directed towards Kris, who nodded back. “Fantastic. Now, shall we get organized?”

_______________________________________________________________________________

Boom, Bam BAP. Updation. Was everything explained okay? I hope so. If you have any questions, the comments are always a thing and I reply to like every comment ahaha. 

But yeah. Basically how the government works: Each Sector has a Senate (which is the main controlling body that basically controls everything) and then they have their own ministers which have a certain field they oversee (for example: Health, Labour & Agriculture). 
Their plan?Get all those ministers on their side and BAM, Senate without ministers is powerless. Although I made the ministers kind of look useless, there are some ministers that are more important in later chapters. Like, real important. Hint: If you control the military, you control the government. LAA DEE DAHH, that's what I was told one history class. Teehee.
Also, am I fully knowledgable in how politics and governments work? Pft, no. I'm not a fan really. I interested myself in what each party has to offer in my home country Canada and vote according to the platform I prefer. That's all.

Okay, so I finished my timeline for the story and I'd say I have about 10ish chapters left...which is still quite a number in my opinion.  Just saying. 

Kay, soooo thanks for all subbies and commenters <3. I love you like..........my cat likes to sleep. Honestly. I swear everytime I write a chapter, my cat is sleeping right next to me on my bed. (Yes, I write on my laptop in my bed...I so cosy, no need to be jelly ya'll) LOVEE TO ALLL <3 *claps like a crazy seal to show mah everlasting love*

Okay, I'm tireddd as I usually am cause I update like so late at night. Giveaway of the day? *Throws Kris* Cause he wants hugs. 

Kay see you <3

(ps: Oh my goodness, isn't Tao's smile so precious? Lemme hug you and squeeze you and love youuuu)