Chapter Fifty-Six

It was dawn when Sunny tried to sneak out of Taeyeon’s house, but Taeyeon appeared right in front of her the moment she stepped out of the premise.

“You’re leaving?” Taeyeon eyed her friend suspiciously.

“Yeah.” Sunny answered nonchalantly. “I know you never like accompaniment, so I told Narsha unnie I’m not going to stay here and torture you anymore. And also, you’re an old lady now. I believe you’re mature enough to think of your actions’ consequences. Anyway, Narsha unnie also said that they discovered two Aurales members, I guess it’s about time for me to leave you alone and join the others too.”

Taeyeon crossed her arms and narrowed her gaze at her friend.

“What?” Sunny took a small step back. She was a little terrified by Taeyeon’s sudden intensive gaze.

“You’re babbling non-stop.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going back to bed.” Taeyeon’s reply wasn’t helping at all. And to make it worse, she teleported back to her room without giving the confused Sunny a chance to digest and process through what she had just said.

Whatever.

Sunny thought to herself.

Let’s just get this done quickly and save Taeyeon from all her struggles.

*

Tiffany was driving the car. Yoona was sitting next to her, arms hugging onto her katana, gaze on the wild scenery running outside the window, looking out for any suspicious figures moving in the woods.

There was zero interaction between these two hunters even before they board the car.

And this was killing Tiffany.

The cold hunter tightened her grips on the wheel as she tried her best to focus on the road. Nothing was heard except for the engines running under the hood and the sounds from the air-conditioner blowing towards them.

Tiffany wanted to talk to Yoona badly.

But she didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable.

“Unnie, I’m sorry.”

The apology, which was voiced out without prior notice, gave the cold hunter a shock, and Tiffany almost lost control of the car had she not gripped onto the wheel tightly. She took a quick glance at the dong-saeng next to her. Yoona was still staring outside the window and her position was the same as the last time she checked on her.

Illusion?

Tiffany shook her head mentally.

How desperate must she be to be hallucinating Yoona’s voice?

“Unnie,” It was as if Yoona read Tiffany’s thoughts, she spoke again. “I’ve been wanting to apologize to you all these while. I’m sorry for shouting at you. I should have believe you when you were explaining to me. I’m sorry for even suspecting you.” This time round, Tiffany felt Yoona’s gaze fixed on her even without looking back at the latter. “Unnie, I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?”

It took Tiffany a few seconds to register Yoona’s words and realized that she was not hallucinating. A wide smile could be seen on her face finally after so long. Tiffany released one of her hands from the wheel and held Yoona’s hand in hers. “Silly girl! I’m never mad at you.” Yoona was her beloved dong-saeng, she would forgive her no matter what she did. And as her unnie, it was her responsibility to guide her dong-saeng instead of getting mad at her. So if there was anything, Tiffany would blame herself instead of getting angry at Yoona.

“Unnie…” Yoona squeezed Tiffany’s hand gently. The more she saw Tiffany like this, the guiltier she felt. “I’m sorry, but I promise I won’t do this again.” Tears were fighting along the border of her eyes. Yoona bit onto her bottom lip as she tried to push them back in. “I… I was just…” She stammered, mind searching for suitable words to express herself. “… I’m just worried you were doing wrong things. You are my role model, the unnie who I love and respect the most. I was just scared that you… you…”

“Hush Yoona,” Seeing that her dong-saeng was getting nervous, Tiffany quickly comforted the girl with her unusual gentle voice. “I’m not angry. I know you care about me and I’m really happy about it.”

“Unnie…”

“I’ll forgive you for every single mistake you made.”

Tiffany suddenly turned and flashed Yoona her ever most genuine and sincere smile.

“’Cause you’re also the dong-saeng who I love the most.”

Yoona thought her heart had missed a beat.

When Yoona regained her composure, Tiffany had already released her hand and was focusing on the road. Although she wasn’t smiling like before anymore, Yoona could tell Tiffany was in a very good mood.

A smile crept onto Yoona’s face uncontrollably at the thought of that.

“Unnie…” Yoona called out to Tiffany again.

It was time to clear all the misunderstandings between them.

Tiffany took a quick glance at Yoona before shifting her gaze back to the road again, “Yes?”

“Why did you want to kill Jessica unnie the other day?”

Tiffany was surprised at the question, seeing how close everyone was with Jessica, she thought no one would ever ask her about it.

“Why did you ask?” The radiant on her face was completely gone.

She just never liked it whenever she heard any topic regarding to Jessica.

“I want to understand you,” Yoona paused for a second before continuing, “I want to stand along with you and assist you whenever there’s a problem. I don’t want to accuse and misunderstand you anymore. I hate our fights and most importantly, I hate it when you always keep everything to yourself and suffer alone.” The misunderstanding between them had pretty much taught Yoona a lesson. Whenever she tried to put herself in Tiffany’s shoes and observed the situations they had been through, Yoona felt nothing but pain in her chest.

Tiffany did not deserve this at all.

Tiffany inhaled a deep breath but said nothing. She wasn’t sure if she should tell Yoona what she saw. What if Yoona confronted Jessica? What if Jessica was really a threat? Telling Yoona the truth might bring harm to the girl and she certainly did not wish to see that happen.

“Unnie…” Yoona nudged Tiffany. She nibbled onto her lower lip and gazed at Tiffany with soft, but hurtful eyes. “Don’t keep things to yourself anymore. You’re not alone. Share your responsibility with me, please?”

Tiffany wouldn’t look at Yoona, “Yoona…” She had made a decision. She would not risk her beloved dong-saeng’s life.

“Unnie, please?” Yoona nudged Tiffany again, but Tiffany remained irresponsive and only focused on the road. Yoona knew right away Tiffany had made up her mind. “Well at least give me a hint, so I’ll know what to do and what to take note of.”

That was the least she expected.

“Yoona…” Tiffany let out a sigh, “I––Hold on tight!” Tiffany suddenly stepped on the brake and turned her wheel, causing the car to swerve to her side. The unprepared Yoona was thrown back to her seat harshly and before she could see what was going on, a loud crash caught her by surprise and the next thing she knew was the passenger seat behind Tiffany was concaved by a huge ice boulder from the outside.

“UNNIE!” Yoona screamed out in fear. Tiffany could have lost her life if the boulder hit the front instead.

Tiffany ignored Yoona’s cries and hastily unbuckled her seat belt for her. “Yoona, get out of the car now!” She unbuckled her seat belt as well and jumped out of the car.

Yoona did as instructed. The moment she got out of the car, another round of attack was launched at them again. Fortunately, the attacker had only aimed at their car. Both Tiffany and Yoona threw themselves on the ground and successfully dodged the icicles that were now stuck in their car.

However, that was not the end. Stinky odor entered their noses almost immediately and the hunters found themselves surrounded by numerous mutants.

Tiffany gritted her teeth and pulled out her blades. She made use of their wreaked car and leaped across to the other side where Yoona stood. Yoona had just pulled out her katana and was ready to tackle when Tiffany suddenly stopped her.

“Unnie!”

“Yoona, someone’s out there.”

Tiffany observed their surroundings with narrowed eyes.

“Be careful and look out for him.”

Yoona gave Tiffany a firm nod.

It felt like the last time when Yoona was still Tiffany’s assistant. At the mental count of three, both hunters disappeared from their positions in unison and several mutants, which were standing near to them, were severed into two or more pieces in the blink of an eye.

Unlike Tiffany’s offensive and fury attacks, Yoona’s attack was light but deadly. By just swinging her long blade gently across the air, the impact created was more than enough to pierce through the bodies of the mutants and left them with nothing but death.

While on the other hand, Tiffany was going through an unusually tough battle as compared to Yoona. For some odd reasons, most of the mutants seemed to be gathering around her. Even those who were standing near Yoona abandoned their target and dashed towards Tiffany’s direction and attacked her instead. Although Tiffany was more than willing to handle these mutants for Yoona, but the increasing amount of mutants was a little too much for her.

Even God rest when he was tired, moreover Tiffany is only a human being.

Something was piercing through the air.

Tiffany withdrew her blades hastily and tilted her body to the side, avoiding the deadly icicles just in time as they flew past her a few centimeters away from her face.

“Unnie!”

Yoona noticed the unusualness too. It was as though someone was targeting Tiffany.

Gritting her teeth, Yoona suddenly stopped her attack as she withdrew her katana and stood firmly on the ground. Then, she raised her arm, holding her katana high up into the air, pointing at the clear blue sky.

“Stars of David!”

The mutants were about to charge at the still hunter when Yoona suddenly disappeared from the ground. The sound of wind was evident in their ears, as though someone was running through past them here and then, but they could see nothing except beings of their own kinds which were also searching for the hunter who was gone from her previous spot.

“Looking for me?”

All the mutants turned towards the source of the voice in unison and finally spotted the hunter they were looking for, standing at a far distance away from them. All of them picked up their feet, readying to charge at the hunter again when a smirk was spread across Yoona’s face as the one syllabus word escaped .

“Down.”

An invisible force exploded from below them and the mutants were all eliminated by it instantly. As the dust – created by the explosion – started to disperse, a large pentagram could be seen on the ground with a large circle drawn around it.

Yoona frowned when she felt an excessive amount of her energy was gone. “This skill takes up too much of my energy––” She stopped suddenly when the corner of her eyes captured the horrifying scene happening before her.

The mutants were nowhere to be seen, but Tiffany was lying on the ground. However, that wasn’t the worst part. Right before Tiffany, there were numerous icicles flying towards her in lightning speed as she tried to get up from the ground.

“Unnie!” Yoona screamed in horror as she leaped as fast as she could and unleashed her katana at the icicles.

“Arts of the Samurai!”

Yoona swung her katana at the icicles’ direction. Glowing forces grew from the edge of the blade and flew towards the icicles’ directions.

“Unnie! Are you alright?”

Yoona held her katana in one hand and reached for Tiffany. Her slashes hit the icicles at the same time she helped Tiffany up from the ground.

“I’m okay.”

Tiffany gently removed herself from Yoona’s hold and turned towards the icicles’ direction only to find them shattered on the ground. She frowned at the sight of that scene. She had tried doing the same thing when the previous icicles flew at her, but instead of shattering like how it should be right now, the icicles, which were split by her attack, simply flew towards different directions before directing themselves at her again. And there was no stop to it unless they hit her.

So how did Yoona do that?

Tiffany diverted her gaze towards Yoona suddenly, surprising the young hunter with her strong gaze.
 

Author Notes: Kindly ignore the attacks' name. I'm bad at coming out with names orz