“Kill?” Soojin squeaked. “He asked you to kill someone?”

“Who did he ask you to kill?” Myungsoo asked gravely.

Sunggyu gave his other two friends glances and shook his head. “Don’t know. We immediately declined his request.”

Woohyun nodded in agreement. “We told him that he was crazy asking us to do that.”

“What happened after that?” Hoya asked nervously. “Did he go mad and threaten you? Say he’ll have his revenge?”

“He laughed and said he was joking,” Dongwoo answered with shake of his head. “But I don’t think he was. I really think he was serious about killing someone.”

“N wouldn’t kill anyone,” Myungsoo interrupted with a steely look in his eyes. “He wouldn’t do something like that. It’s too risky for him. To murder someone.”

“So what happened to him? Soojin asked.

Sunggyu shrugged. “He just left. Thanked us for our time and left.”

“And while he was leaving, I thought I heard him mutter, ‘I thought as much’,” Woohyun added.

“And then you never saw him again?” Hoya murmured.

“Actually no. He came by a few more times afterwards. Kept asking us questions,” Sunggyu said while nodding.

“What kind of questions?” Myungsoo muttered, his forehead wrinkling from frowning.

“Well,” Woohyun started, looking off, trying to remember, “At first, we were wary. But the questions seemed kinda of harmless. Things like how big are your connection circles or what were our specialties.”

“They weren’t harmless,” Dongwoo growled.

Sunggyu looked at three younger people. “Dongwoo had this special dislike for the kid.”

Dongwoo shook his head. “I just didn’t trust him.”

“Anyways, after asking his questions, we never heard from him again,” Woohyun said.

“And we decided to stop with our little mission to help others. It seemed too dangerous after he asked us to kill someone,” Sunggyu added.

“You guys haven’t heard what he did, then?” Soojin asked slowly.

“What do you mean?” Sunggyu asked with furrowed eyes.

“She means that N started his own little organization based off your little group,” Hoya mumbled. “And it’s growing into something a little more dangerous than you would expect.”

“Did you know about that?” Woohyun asked his two friends.

Sunggyu shook his head no, but Dongwoo frowned deeper than before.

“N, K, and L,” he murmured.

They all turned to look at him while he brought his eyes up and looked at the crowd in front of him.

“I heard about it. I looked into N after we never heard from him. He was just too suspicious.”

“So you knew what he was doing?” Soojin asked with surprised eyes.

He shook his head. “Sort of. I knew that he started something based off what we were doing.”

“And you didn’t stop him?” Hoya shouted at him.

“I wasn’t even sure what he was doing. Plus, there was nothing I could do,” Dongwoo grimaced. “I already separated with Woohyun and Sunggyu, and I made sure that we wouldn’t contact each because our knowledge together was too dangerous. I couldn’t do anything by myself.”

“You could have asked for the other two to help you!” Myungsoo shouted. “You could have stopped him when I couldn’t.”

“No, I won’t risk it just to stop him. There are some things you shouldn’t do. And that was one of them,” Dongwoo said softly.

“Are you saying you can’t stop them or you won’t?” Myungsoo muttered darkly.

“I won’t,” Dongwoo replied calmly.

“Even with these two helping you,” Myungsoo said, glaring at the other male.

Dongwoo stared back. “I won’t stop him. Even with these two next to me. We won’t stop him. Even now.”

Myungsoo glared angrily at Dongwoo. “Fine. Watch innocent people get hurt. Watch people who know and love become endangered. You could have stopped them, but you choose not to. I hope you understand what exactly you’re doing by not doing anything.”

He took one last livid look at everyone in the room and walked out furiously, slamming the door behind him.

Hoya shook his head. “I knew they wouldn’t be any help,” he scoffed and gave a smug look at them and left the building as well.

Soojin pursed her lips and turned to look at the remaining three. “You really can’t help?”

Woohyun and Sunggyu looked at each and grinned. They sauntered over to where Soojin stood and put an arm around her on each side.

“Oh, Soojin. He said we wouldn’t stop them, but he didn’t say we wouldn’t help,” Woohyun grinned.

“That’s right. Even though this is your guys’ fight now, we can’t just sit by and watch our precious little Soojin get hurt,” Sunggyu added while nodding.

Dongwoo rolled the newspaper he was reading before up and smacked his two friends on the head with it.

They immediately let go of Soojin and rubbed their heads where they got hit, giving Dongwoo dark looks.

Dongwoo paid them no heed and scribbled out a name and a phone number on a scrap of paper. He handed it to Soojin and added, “This person was a third-party acquaintance of ours from before. She knew kind of an informant when we were wanted to know where some people were. If you asked her nicely, she would easily find people’s locations from word of mouth. Even those who took extra effort to hide themselves. Much more reliable than things you can find through the computer.”

“Thanks,’ she replied slowly, taking the scrap of paper with confused hesitation.

“But she has a price for her requests and the more complicated the request, the more hefty the price is,” Woohyun spoke up from the side. “Now, get going and save everyone.”

“Best of luck,” Sunggyu smiled lightly at her.

“Thanks,” she replied with a soft smile.

She ran out the door to catch up with the other two males that had left in a huff.

The three that were left behind were silent, watching the last leave.

Woohyun turned around and propped his elbows onto the counter. “You didn’t have to say it like that, you know.”

“That’s right,” Sunggyu said, mimicking Woohyun’s posture by propping his own elbows on the counter. “You could have simply said we couldn’t be the ones to stop him, because we don’t have that power anymore. We can only help them.”

Dongwoo chuckled softly. “True, but it’s their battle now. We can’t be the ones to stop him. We ended our reign long ago. We can only support them, even if that means spurring them on with harsh words.”

“You always did things in a roundabout way,” Woohyun laughed.

“Seriously, it made me so frustrated at times,” Sunggyu agreed.

“But now that we’re together after a long time, don’t you think this calls for a celebration?” Woohyun asked, suddenly straightening up.

“Food?” Sunggyu exclaimed excitedly.

“Guys,” Dongwoo warned.

“Yes! And this arcade, man, I haven’t been here in ages. Look! You gotten a new machine installed!” Woohyun cried out.

“You’ll be treating, won’t you?” Sunggyu asked Dongwoo with a grin.

Dongwoo was about to protest, but shooed them with his hand. “Whatever.”

They cheered and went off to play.

Dongwoo shook his head. “Why do I even bother?” He then glanced at the door. “Good luck, Soojin.”

Soojin didn’t have to run far before meeting up with Myungsoo and Hoya.

She found them both sitting on a bench in front of a convenience store. Myungsoo with his head in his hands looking forlorn and Hoya casually sipping a drink with one arm draped over the back of the bench.

He gave a head nod when he saw Soojin walk up, while she sat in between them.

“I knew this was going to be a worthless trip,” Hoya scoffed.

“I seriously thought they would help stop him,” Myungsoo mumbled with his head still down.

“Were you just planning on standing back and watching them take care of it?” Soojin asked.

Myungsoo didn’t say anything while all that could be heard was Hoya slurping up the last of his drink with his straw.

“We can’t force this upon them. They stopped their group for a reason, and I have a feeling that they don’t want to re-establish it again,” Soojin mused.

“Then what?” Hoya asked, as he started to aim his empty cup at the trashcan. “Are you saying that we’re going to go about this by ourselves?”

“That’s right,” Soojin said. “I think I know where to find them.”

Myungsoo looked up in surprise while Hoya jerked a little, causing his projectile to slightly curve and fall onto the floor instead of in the trashcan.

“What?” cried out Hoya. “You know where to find them?”

“Where? How?” Myungsoo asked with astonishment. “Even when I met up with them, it was by pure luck.”      

“What else are you holding out on us?” Hoya mumbled, shaking his head.

“Actually, I don’t know where they are now, but I have the number of someone who can,” Soojin explained. She showed them the piece of paper. “Dongwoo gave me this. They said this person knows the location of everybody. But she has a price for her requests.”

“So they are helping us,” Myungsoo mumbled, looking at the paper.

“Great,” Hoya muttered, throwing his hands into the air. “So what if we know where to find them? Wasn’t the whole point of meeting those guys to figure out a way to take N and them down?”

“Yes,” Myungsoo suddenly said. “I think the only way to stop them is to find them and talk to N. Ask him to stop.”

Hoya snorted. “You think he’ll just stop if we ask him politely?” he mocked.

“Probably not, but if I have to use force then I will,” Myungsoo replied evenly.

“What? Are you serious?” Soojin cried out, turning to look at Myungsoo.

He nodded. “I’ll try and convince them by telling them that I’ll go public about them. And if that doesn’t work… well, we’ll see.”

“I hate to break it to you, but my brother has that information already,” Hoya reminded. “He might have already set his plan in motion.”

“He may have what I wrote down, but I didn’t put down everything. I still have things about them that only I know in here,” Myungsoo replied, tapping the temple of his head.

“Okay, so the plan now is to find them,” Hoya sighed, relenting into their plans.

“Then I suppose we should get in contact with this person,” Soojin said, raising the scrap of paper up. “This BoA person.”

“You know a person is not a good one when they ask you to meet up with them at Bright Lights,” Hoya muttered, looking up and down at the building in front of them. “Especially such a suspicious place like this.”

“It doesn’t look too bad,” Soojin mumbled, eyeing the brightly lit hotel in front of them that seemed to reach the heavens.

“At least it’s only a hotel,” Myungsoo sighed. “Let’s get this over with.” He pushed opened the gold bordered doors while Hoya and Soojin followed him in.

They went to front desk while a haughty-looking man eyed the three up and down. “Yes?” he clipped, a disapproving look on his face.

“We’re here to meet BoA,” Hoya said, giving the man a judging look.

The man raised an eyebrow. “You can’t simply meet her. She has millions of people wanting to meet her. What makes you think that you simply can?”

“Look, she’s the one who told us to meet her here. Call her up and ask her yourself,” Hoya scoffed.

The man narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like your attitude, boy. I believe that you should…” He was cut off from the ringing of the phone on the counter he was behind. He picked up and answered a few “yes” and “no’s” before hanging up.

He pursed his lips. “She’ll be waiting at the top floor.” He eyed them again and looked down at papers.

“No room number?” Soojin asked nervously.

He looked up and snorted. “There’s only one room on the top floor.”

The three looked at each other and then headed to the elevator.

“God damn,” Hoya whistled. “There really is only one room.”

They stepped off the elevator and were immediately met with double doors. Large, dark wooden doors with intricate carvings stood imposing in front of them.

Soojin stepped forward and knocked.

“Come in,” a voice sang from behind the doors.

Soojin took a glance back at Hoya and Myungsoo and pulled open the doors by the golden handles.

The interior was extravagant from bottom to top with marble flooring and silver chandeliers hanging from the top.  Marble walls with gold mouldings bordering them detailed with small intricate designs.

A woman sat leisurely on an elegant white couch sipping some red wine. She was wearing a long flowing red dress with gold embellishments on the straps of the dress. Her raven hair flowed gracefully down her back.

She smiled warmly and gestured them in closer with a small movement of her manicured red-nailed fingers.

The trio inched closer, feeling awkward and wary of the imposing woman in front of them.

“Hello, it’s lovely to finally meet you. I’m BoA.” She laughed from seeing their hesitant expressions. “Do come closer. I don’t bite.” She waved them over to the couch opposite from her.

They finally sat down with straightened backs and clasped hands.

She chuckled. “No need to feel so scared, young ones. We did speak on the phone.”

Soojin gathered up her nerves and nodded. “Dongwoo and the rest said you could help.”

The woman smiled. “Ah, yes. Pity that they stopped coming to me for help. Sunggyu was such a cutie.”

“So can you help us?” Myungsoo asked.

“Of course I can. But you’ll have to help me first,” she smiled deviously.

“What do you need us to do?” Hoya asked.

She smiled and pushed a photo face-down towards them.

Soojin reached over and flipped it over, showing the rest of them. A photo of a boy somewhere around their age was looking away from the camera was pictured. He was wearing a navy blue school uniform with brown-haired bangs that stopped right over his eyes.

“What about him?” Hoya asked, looking at the woman. “Not really much, honestly.”

She laughed. “I like you,” she grinned. “That boy. I want you to help him.”

“With what exactly?” Soojin asked confusedly.

“Ah, that’ll you have to figure out yourselves,” she said mysteriously. “But I’ll tell you this, he’s a very important person to me.”

She set down her glass of wine and clasped her fingers together. “You help him, and I’ll tell you where to find those boys.”

“It is much appreciated,” Myungsoo said, standing up. The other two were surprised but followed suit. “We’ll come back with results.” He bowed and walked briskly out.

Soojin gave flustered bow to the woman and scrambled after Myungsoo to tell him to slow down. Hoya gave a slight head nod to the woman, grinned, and walked out.

“Do we even have time for this?” Hoya asked on the ride down in the elevator. “I’m afraid that if we wait too long, something bad will happen.”

Myungsoo shook his head. “We’ll just have to hope for the best. Start off step by step. Find out who this guy is and solve his problems.”

“Easier said than done,” Hoya mumbled.

“I’ll find out who he is and we’ll meet up after to discuss what we’ll do,” Myungsoo suggested.

Soojin nodded. She patted Myungsoo on the back. “We’ll get through this. We’ll stop them.”

He smiled wistfully at her. “I just hope we get there in time.”

Hoya grinned. “I know I’m ruining your touching moment, but can I say how exciting all of this?”

Myungsoo frowned. “You aren’t worried about your brother?”

“Of course I am. But he’s a patient bastard. He’ll wait until the time is right. But I haven’t had this much excitement since I left,” Hoya laughed.

“That was your downfall, wasn’t it?” Soojin mumbled softly.

Hoya’s grin fell off his face. “Yeah, it was.” But then a small smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth. “But who says I can’t enjoy this moment?”

Soojin shook her head while Myungsoo sighed.

“Let’s find this fool,” Hoya grinned as the elevator doors opened up.

A/N: Well, that wasn’t planned. I must have a habit to suddenly implement subplots. So that means a longer story?

Thanks for patiently waiting! I just had midterms, but now I have finals. But just wait, in a few weeks, I’ll be starting Winter Break. Then I can write more leisurely.

Thanks for reading!