>_____<;;

“Hey,” Changmin greeted after walking in, “so I did some research overnight.”

He slipped a paper onto Namjoo’s desk with a list of different locations.

“There were fields of wheat I came across while coming here and there,” he explained, “not sure if they’re the kind of auspicious and golden glow you want.”

“Sorry for troubling you,” Namjoo apologized dragging the list toward her. “Thank you.”

“I don’t mind, I’m used to working late nights,” Changmin said. “Have fun looking around.”

“You’re almost like the brother I don’t have,” Namjoo smiled, “thanks again.”

He smiled and tapped her desk before walking out. Namjoo ran her eyes over the four different locations Changmin had scrawled down on the piece of paper.

After opting out of work she took a cab to the first location on the list and felt the breeze hit her face when she stepped out of the bus she’d taken. Scanning her eyes over the hillsides and the rice fields in the far distance she tried to focus on her emotions, but she couldn’t feel anything. The remains of Luhan that had gotten buried in the ground after his cremation wasn’t here.

Namjoo couldn’t feel anything.

A sense of hopelessness ceased the tremendous pounding of her heart and replaced it with a loss and ache. She was at the wrong place.

Why…was it so difficult trying to find him?

Namjoo felt her eyes search the field of newly grown wheat and pressed her lips together. Waiting for the bus took almost an hour and taking it back into the city took almost another hour and a half. Neither Victoria or Chorong’s car were in the driveway when she arrived back at the house, which all but told her that her sisters were still out attending their own business.

She took five steps in the house calmly listening to the door close behind her and halted in her steps when a black aura swirled less than a yard from her and a stranger popped out of nowhere. Namjoo watched his crooked eyes narrow as he smirked and held his hand out. A black orb appeared in the center of his palm spinning slowly.

“I thought I might find a sister or two here, but you’re alone?” he asked.

Namjoo felt her lips part and held out her hand on instinct. A ball of fire popped up immediately, but to her unexpectation it immediately grew twice its size in less than a second. Her hand heated up and she felt the flame overheat in her hand.

“Whoa…” the stranger muttered with wide eyes. “Well, I feel kind of bad, but here’s a greeting from my master.”

Namjoo watched him hurl the black orb through the air before disappearing on spot. On impulse she shot her fireball forward and felt her heart sink when she realize what could happen next, but it was too late. As the two orbs collided in the air a loud poof exploded and Namjoo was sent flying into the front door.

A thick air of smoke spun around in the air before it slowly dispersed leaving Namjoo coughing for air. Pressing her hand against the ground in order to pull herself up she let out a shout when she felt her hand sizzling into the carpet. When she looked down part of the carpet had burnt away and her hand had turned an orange red.

The ringing of the doorbell only made things worse the next second.

“Open the door! I saw you go in! You think you can joke around with me!?” Lee Dongsun shouted from outside. “What’d you do to my memory card!? Open the door!”

He pounded agains the door with his fist and Namjoo thought she could hear the whole house shaking from his anger. Pulling herself up she tried to reach the doorknob with her right hand and let out a shout when she felt her hand heat up against the brass doorknob.

“!” she swore underneath her breath and glanced at the door before letting out a groan and speed walked into the kitchen dismissing the black marks all over the house from the earlier explosion.

What was going on!? Why was her hand overreacting like this!?

Forgetting about her heated hand for a split second she tried to reach for the house phone only to feel the plastic melt from her touch before she dropped it. She let out another groan when she heard the phone clatter against the ground and hurried over to the sink. By now there was a small swirl of steam coming from her hand and she was sure that whatever she touched now, she’d ruin.

Turning on the faucet she stuck her hand under cold water in hopes that the heat would die down while listening to the repeated banging on the door.

>_____<;;

Suho was waiting for her near the Han River when she started down the walk away from her car. The fresh wind was gently blowing at her long hair and she could feel her anxiety come flying back to her. She really wasn’t used to doing this kind of thing, but there was no turning back now. She’d put herself there.

Chorong slightly paused for half a second before forcing herself to walk toward him. Suho turned upon sensing her presence and smiled when he stood.

“Hey,” he greeted. “It was nice hearing from you.”

Chorong pressed her lips together nervously and gave him a smile before sitting down on the rock bench. Latching her fingers together from anxiousness she remained silent while trying to fix in her mind what she really wanted to say. Her mind had suddenly gone blank, which was just great.

“How’s your day going so far?” Suho started. “I was kind of surprised by your call. I mean…not in a bad way.”

“I didn’t…b…bother you, right?” Chorong stuttered embarrassed. “I mean…I hope I didn’t call at a bad time. You…you’re ok with it, right?”

Suho laughed from his own tension and reached a hand up to scratch his ear as if he needed to be doing something else in order to rid of his nervousness.

“Sure,” he nodded, “I mean, no. You’re not bothering me.”

He let out another laugh before quieting. Chorong bunched her knees together and bit her lower lip. A moment of awkward silence passed by them as if both of them knew why Chorong had called. During the phonecall she hadn’t stated why she had wanted to meet. Now that she was thinking about it, she should have just said it over the phone. Meeting him in person was too much for her to handle. Telling him face to face would mean she would have to see everything appear on his face and try not to run when he gave his answer. Suddenly she really wanted to slap herself.

“Um…” Chorong cut the silence, “I wanted to talk to you…about what you said a few weeks ago…”

She watched Suho turn to look at her from the corner of her eyes and stared at the concrete embarrassed. Her feelings wavered as the wind when it came by.

“You know, I think you’re a really nice person,” Chorong began, “and I think you’re very patient and talented…but I don’t know you that well.” She paused and her lips that had quickly gone dry. “I mean…if you want to…lets start doing things together. I mean,” she felt herself blush hard, “I’d like to know you better.”

She heard Suho laugh and turned to see him grinning broadly. He clutched his hands together and timidly smile while at the same time trying to hold it back for the sake of not embarrassing himself.

“I…I’d like that,” he turned to her with his face slightly pink, “I’d really like that.”

Chorong felt her face heat up and turned away embarrassed from the joy in his face, but she thought she also felt good somewhere inside. After a second when she thought she’d drawn some courage into her she glanced up at his beaming face. For once she felt like a shy high school girl discovering love for the first time. That bliss that came with shyness swarmed over her. This tingly sensation tickled her body and she felt her heart pace a little faster than normal.

All that was what she felt that mere minute before something from out of the corner of her eye drew it all away. A sudden shape shifted out of the water and Chorong saw a man come into shape. His neck slowly twisted and he smiled toward her. She felt her lips drop apart at once.

“Oh…wow…ho…ho…” she sounded before Suho turned to her confused.

Seeing his gaze she let out a demented laugh and saw him frown before he started turning toward the direction she was looking at.

“Ha!” Chorong grabbed his arm and shifted him back to her.

“Chorong?” he asked confused. “Is something wrong? You look surprised.”

Suho tried turning toward the direction of the shape shifter and Chorong turned him back toward her more forcefully this time.

“Lets go…lets go take a walk this way,” Chorong strutted her arm out away from the river.

“Oh…ok,” Suho replied confused before he got up.

“That way, that way,” Chorong repeatedly implied pushing him away.

When Suho was safely walking away from the river she turned back to see that the man who had emerged form the water was now gone.

>_____<;;

“Really,” Officer Park crossed his arms and leaned back into his seat. “I wouldn’t imagine that he would have sent someone to you.”

Victoria stared at Officer Park with narrowed eyes, “What do you mean by that? That this is a joke?”

“No, no,” he shook his head, “I think you intimidated him, so he’s underestimating you now.”

“So what? He thinks we’re easy?”

“Well I don’t know what else that would have meant,” Officer Park replied.

Victoria let out an unfathomable snort and turned away.

“If he’s inviting you out, why hold back? You want your mother’s killer, don’t you?”

“Do you know something I don’t?” Victoria suddenly asked.

Officer Park let out a chuckle, “Why are you asking me that?”

“Huh,” Victoria heaved a sarcastic laugh, “you tell me.” She stood up mumbling to herself, “What of waste of time.”   

Victoria got out of her car and looked around for Chorong’s car when she arrived home, which was nowhere in sight. When she started up the steps she heard a car door close behind her.

“Hey, lady! Excuse me,” a voice called out.

Victoria spun around to see someone familiar walk toward her. He was tall, slim, well built, and had strong features. It didn’t take her long before she recognized him as the person she’d once bumped into at the police station. He had acted as if he knew her.

“Can I help you?” Victoria asked.

“Yea,” he held his hand out to show her a melted memory card in his hand, “your sister ruined my job. I want her out here.”

Victoria’s eyes lowered themselves to the small card in his hand before glancing at the car parked across the street. So this was the spy, Lee Dongsun, that had been sent after them.

“I thought my sister taught you a lesson already,” Victoria blatanly said.

“Excuse me?” his face contorted lost.

“Oops,” Victoria played, “I mean, I thought you would have given up already.”

“Look, I don’t have time to play around with you. Where is your sister? I want to settle this with her,” he insisted. “Where is she?”

“Well I’m not calling her out,” Victoria shook her head before she eyed his car and opened the door with her eyes. “It’s getting dark soon, there are burglars around, you know.”

“Look here, Missy,” he pointed a finger at her and Victoria squinted her eyes before beeping the horn of his car.

“Warned you,” Victoria said and watched him turn around.

“What the…” he muttered and turned back to shoot her a stare to which Victoria replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

Once he started running down the stairs she entered the house.

“Namjoo?!” she shouted.

She heard someone groan from the kitchen, “Over here!”

Victoria paused after a few steps and stared around at the scorches on the walls and the stairs. It didn’t take long for her eyes to widen at the sight.

“What the heck happened here?” she questioned walking into the kitchen to find Namjoo by the sink with the water running. “What are you doing?”

Namjoo heaved a deep sigh of annoyance before lifting her orange red hand up, “This.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed, “Whoa…what’s that?”

“My hand,” Namjoo muttered, “what else would it be?”

Victoria shook her head, “I mean…what happened?”

“Well seems like we got a visitor who dropped in without word,” Namjoo began, “and boom! Our powers collided and my hand is overreacting with heat from the huge fireball I didn’t call out. Now as if that wasn’t great enough, I also burned a few things in the house.”

Victoria’s head turned when Namjoo pointed to the melted phone sitting on the floor.

“You know how you always wanted a portable stove when camping?” Namjoo ranted on and turned her hand repeatedly. “Well I think we got one here.”

Victoria rolled her eyes before picking up the phone and set it on the table with a face.

“Is it bad?” she asked walking over to her sister.

Namjoo was running her hand under cold water again and Victoria wondered if her hand wasn’t any chance numb by now.

“After almost two hours of standing here, I don’t think I can go in for work tomorrow unless I want to be burning the whole building down.”

“Don’t exaggerate,” Victoria said before she heard the door open.

“Guys!” Chorong called out.

“Yep!” Victoria called out.

Chorong walked into the kitchen and stopped by the doorway, “Did we by any chance…dirty the house after a fight? You two didn’t start a war in the house, did you?”

“Ha, funny,” Namjoo commented.

“No,” Victoria turned to look at Chorong, “Namjoo got into a fight and her powers are still out of control.”

“Wow…so I hope you’re cleaning up that mess,” Chorong put a hand on her hip.

Namjoo made a face and shook her head before turning back to the sink.

“What are you doing over there?” Chorong questioned and Victoria pointed to the melted phone sitting on the kitchen table. “Oh…”

“Yea,” Victoria nodded. “So, where’ve you been?”

“Uh…”

“On a date?” Namjoo abruptly spun around.

Chorong shot Namjoo a frown.

“Really?” Victoria’s face dropped into disbelief. “On a date?”

Chorong listened to Victoria laughed mockingly and slap her thigh from the thrill of it.

“Oh my god! You finally got together!” Victoria laughed. “I knew it would happen!”

“The hell is your problem?” Chorong continued frowning at Victoria.

Pressing her lips together Victoria calmed down, “This…is just something new.”

“Forget that!” Chorong slightly raised her voice. “Someone came out from the river today.”

“What?” Namjoo asked.

“You heard me,” Chorong said, “I don’t know who, but he shifted out of the water.”

“Lee Shin Il?” Victoria asked her earlier excitement now gone. “Are you serious?”

“I don’t know if it was him,” Chorong pointed out, “I never met the dude. Maybe he knows we’re coming for him.”

“He should know that,” Victoria corrected. “He invited us in the first place.”

Chorong half rolled her eyes, “So what did Officer Park have to say?”

“He’s not related to the minion,” Victoria stated, “and he’s telling us to go for the kill.”

“So we’re committing suicide?” Chorong asked.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Namjoo commented.  

“If you’re forgetting,” Victoria said, “he is after us anyway. If not to steal our gems, of what use would we be to him? It’s only a good thing this is a two-way fight. He wants us and we want him.”

“What do you mean that’s good?” Chorong asked.

“If we were the only ones chasing, we wouldn’t know where to find him,” Victoria emphasized, “but he’s chasing us as well, which only makes it easier to target him.”

“His targeting us is just as bad, Victoria.”

“Not really,” Victoria shook her head, “Chorong, calm down for sec. We need Lee Shin Il in one place and he’s ready to tackle us on, but it’s not like we aren’t prepared either. When he attacks us, we counterattack.”

“I don’t get it. Is this the so-called plan you two devised without me knowing?”

“Go with the flow,” Victoria persuaded, “and everything will work out.” 

***Lee Shin Il vs the Girls next! Plus, Victoria's sudden dilemma!