“Howon, you have to listen to me. This is the only place you’re safe,” Soji said. Her voice echoed in the room and through Hoya’s ears, but he didn’t really hear. He was still in shock. She took a step towards him and stretched out a shaky hand. “Trust me, okay?”

“Trust you? The girl who disappeared twice? The girl who’s holding me captive?”

“I can explain—”

“—Explain why all this is happening!” Hoya exclaimed, cornering Soji against the concrete walls. To this, she didn’t have a response. Instead, she pulled him closer and kissed him. And for a second, all Hoya could think of was his long-lost love, back in his arms. But after that second, he pulled away. Soji wiped her lips, making Hoya slightly embarrassed of his state.

“I’m sorry,” Soji said. She walked to the other end of the room, where she the shower water for Hoya. He continued to stand in the opposite corner, in a daze.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, as she opened the door. Hoya looked at her this time and noticed her eyes were watery. She covered and let out a sniffle. “I couldn’t save the rest of Infinite. Your friends… are dead.”

-

“Buy three entrees for the price of two! Today only!” Hyemin yelled, handing out flyers for a fake restaurant Myungsoo made. Most of the hotel workers and residents passed by with nothing more than a glance, but Hyemin didn’t mind. She only stared at the nametags of the workers, searching for initials ㄷㄴㅇ or ㅅㅇ.

“Lunch special! Three f—”

A man stopped in front of Hyemin and whistled. He had dark eyes, bleached blonde hair, and a broken finger—Hyemin recognized him immediately as Daniel, the creep from last night. He had on a white coat, but Hyemin could imagine the sleazy clothes he wore beneath it. She rolled her eyes and turned away before continuing her campaign.

“Someone giving you a hard time?” Myungsoo asked through Hyemin’s earpiece. She shook her head.

“Hey, hey, hey, no need to be so cold twice,” Daniel said, putting an arm around her waist. “Your oppa’s not here to save you, is he?”

“That’s it. I’m going down there,” Sungyeol decided, standing up.

Hyemin was about to beat Daniel up herself when she noticed that he had a name tag on. It was a different color than the regular black tag other hotel workers had on. His name was written in Hangul: 대니얼.

“Da-ni-el?” Hyemin asked, pressing on her earpiece so that Myungsoo could hear. Sungyeol sat back down.

“Ah, you recognize me,” Daniel said with a chuckle. He lifted Hyemin’s chin up, raising her eyes from his nametag to his face.

“Are you impressed now because you know this oppa works for 운명?” Daniel stood back and laughed.

Hyemin’s fingers curled up and she crumpled up the remaining flyers in her hands. “Actually, oppa,” she said, biting her lip. “How could I forget you?”

Daniel stopped laughing and gave her a quizzical look.

Hyemin wrapped her arm around Daniel’s chest and whispered in his ear, “I was thinking about you all night.”

It didn’t take Daniel another second to grab her hand and bring her inside the hotel.

“Hyemin, where are you going?” Myungsoo and Sungyeol asked in unison. At the same time, Sungjong ran up behind from behind Hyemin and held her back.

“What are you—”

“Don’t tell me you’re another oppa,” Daniel said, clinging onto Hyemin tightly.

Hyemin looked down at Sungjong apologetically. “I don’t know who he is,” she said. But Sungjong wouldn’t let go.

“Yah, you heard her! You got the wrong person,” Daniel said, shoving Sungjong away. Sungjong stumbled back a few steps, but continued to look on. Hyemin continued to stare at him, as well.

From across the street, Myungsoo knew what had to be done—but couldn’t do it.

“This guy is ㄷㄴㅇ for sure—this is the only way we’re going to catch him. She has to go in,” Myungsoo said.

He buried his face in his baseball cap, unable to watch, so Sungyeol took the phone and said, “Remember our families, okay? Our mission is to save Circus Infinite.”

Sungjong’s eyes dropped to the ground. He mumbled an apology before walking away, his hands in his pockets.

Hyemin put a finger on her earpiece and said, “I can’t wait to see 대니얼 oppa’s lab in 운명.”

 “Oh! How did you know I worked in a lab?” Daniel happily asked.

“Where else would my smart oppa work?” Hyemin took one last look behind her, where Sungjong was watching her from outside.

-

“There’s no time to waste. You have to get a car now,” Sungyeol ordered. “The valet parking booth is under those umbrellas to your left. Just crash into the table, grab a pair of keys, and walk away.”

Sungjong was still paralyzed at the entrance of the hotel.

“You have to hurry. I can only track Woohyun and Dongwoo’s van for so much longer,” Myungsoo said. At this, Sungjong snapped back into reality. He did exactly what Sungyeol told him to, and opened up the doors of a sleek Audi in no time.

“I’m sending you directions on your phone right now,” Myungsoo said. “You have to hurry.

Sungjong pressed on the gas until he was going 50, 60, 90 miles per hour on surface streets until he caught up with the black van.

“Keep a safe distance. You don’t want to be noticed,” Sungyeol warned.

“I know,” Sungjong said, clicking his tongue. However, he didn’t have to be worried about getting caught. The gangsters were through an affluent neighborhood, where sports cars fancier than his Audi wove between Sungjong and the gangsters.

When they pulled up at a large mansion, Sungjong parked around the corner. He had to climb over the side gate to enter the residential area, and by then, Woohyun and Dongwoo were already making their way to the front doors. Sungjong quickly surveyed the yard for gangsters as he jogged up to the house.

Before he made it to the back window, he heard a woman screaming.

“Please! We’ve done nothing!”

Sungjong peered through the kitchen window to watch the scene unfold.

A man stepped in front of his wife and, with a booming voice, asked, “Who are you working for? How much are they paying—”

A gunshot fired. The woman screamed again as her husband fell to the floor, blood rushing out of his chest.

“Please,” she cried, “just don’t hurt the children.”

Sungjong was ready to rush inside and save the woman when he saw two figures nearing her, with both their guns aimed at her heart.

“Just don’t hurt th—”

With one click, another shot was fired, and the woman fell back this time. Sungjong was shaking, partly because of the two deaths he had just witnessed, but more because of who was firing the guns.

Inside the house, Woohyun and Dongwoo lowered their guns at last. Woohyun took out a walkie-talkie to confirm the deaths to the gangsters in the van. Dongwoo walked around the dead bodies and started making his way to the kitchen. Sungjong hesitated between confronting them and fleeing, but was saved from the choice when more cries could be heard in the house.

“The children,” Sungjong whispered, in a faint voice. He didn’t notice it, but tears were streaming down his face. “The children,” he repeated. Dongwoo and Woohyun looked at each other before rushing after the cries.

Sungjong no longer wanted to stay. He ran—sprinted—across the lawn and leaped over the gates to get back into his car. At the same time, Myungsoo sent him a text: Call me after you reach them. Sungjong read the text and threw his phone down. He turned the engine on, but broke down crying over the steering wheel.

They’ve turned… just like that… absorbed into Gi Company.

From his rearview mirror, he could see the black van zip by him. Then, he saw the smoke rising from the mansion.

There is no Infinite.

-

Woohyun and Dongwoo were silent in the van. Woohyun stood up completely straight, with his eyes gazing out the windows blankly, while Dongwoo slouched over and twiddled with his fingers. Woohyun’s right hand would not stop twiching.

“Now, that wasn’t that bad, was it?” one of the gangsters laughed, patting Woohyun on the shoulder. “Especially you, kid. We told you that they just needed to be wounded, but you got ‘em straight in the heart! I guess your aim’s pretty off, or else we got ourselves a cold-blooded killer—and I like that!” He and the driver laughed heartily at the joke, but Woohyun could barely breathe.

Maybe if I had shot myself instead…

A small boy sitting across from Woohyun began crying at the gangster’s loud laughter.

“YAH!” the driver yelled, his expression suddenly changing. “What did I tell you about crying?”

“Jimin, just stop,” another boy said, shaking the smaller one’s shoulders. “Stop crying. You know better.”

“Hyung, I-I thought w-we were being r-r-rescu-ed,” Jimin cried.

Dongwoo noticed that the older boy looked at his younger brother with cold, distant eyes. Jimin stopped crying immediately.

“How old are you?” Dongwoo asked.

“Five,” Jimin replied in a sniffly voice. He looked over to his hyung. “And Adam hyung is twelve.” The hyung crossed his arms, refusing to even look at Dongwoo.

Twelve, huh? Dongwoo thought. That means twelve years… in that house…

On the way to the mansion, Woohyun and Dongwoo were introduced to the husband and wife’s background stories.

“He acts like a police officer and does the kidnapping, usually at daycares or nanny centers for young children ages 3 to 5,” the gangster said, holding up a picture of the husband. “And she… directs the ography.” He held up a picture of the wife. “They’ve been in this business for over ten years, and have made billions, if not more, out of the business. They always keep 2 to 6 kids with them at a time, until they reach puberty.”

“What happens then?” Woohyun asked.

“They get sold into other ion rings, usually still in the ography field, since, you know, they’ve been in front of the camera since age 3.” Both Woohyun and Dongwoo cringed when they heard this.

“But why do you guys care? I’m sure there’s someone in Gi Company that does some twisted like that,” Woohyun spat.

“Look, they’ve gone through classrooms of kids in the last few decades. After a few years, they even started ranking the kids—not just by age, but by what class and reputation their parents had. As in, what future the kid would’ve had.” The gangster tossed Woohyun a folder full of children’s mugshots. After the first few pages, there were increasingly more pictures for each child, with more background information. Woohyun felt like puking after seeing just one.

“They took a child from Gi Company, didn’t they?” Dongwoo asked. The gangster didn’t need to reply. He found a picture of a child, of the name Gi Somin, and made the connection immediately.

“Don’t you agree that these bastards deserve nothing less than death?”

Neither Dongwoo nor Woohyun could reply.

When they pulled up to the mansion, Dongwoo and Woohyun were given a walkie-talkie and a loaded gun each. Before they could step out, though, they were also strapped with explosives on their legs.

“Just in case you don’t listen to orders,” the gangster winked. “Also, make sure that there’s an accidental gas explosion before we leave. We don’t want to have to bribe the police again.”

Dongwoo and Woohyun were left alone to do the job.

“What do we do?” Dongwoo asked, fidgeting with the gun in his hands.

“What else can we do?” Woohyun asked.

“This—I—what have we gotten ourselves into?” Dongwoo sighed and stared up at the sky, but it was an overcast day.

Woohyun put his hand on the front door and looked at Dongwoo before they entered. “Just think about these three things: The cruelty of the couple, the bombs on our ankles, and the family we need to get back to.”

Dongwoo backed away from the front porch and whimpered. “I’m not strong enough—”

Woohyun grabbed his hyung’s hand. “We’re in this together. And we’re getting back to Infinite together, right?” Dongwoo tightened the grip on Woohyun’s hand and nodded. All that mattered was getting back to Infinite, and then everything would be alright again.

Woohyun and Dongwoo kicked down the front doors. The couple was in the kitchen, right in front of their eyes.

The wife immediately hid a laptop that was on the kitchen counter. “Please! We’ve done nothing!”

The husband took out a fake police badge and demanded, “Who are you working for? How much are they paying—” Woohyun couldn’t take any more of his disgusting lies, and the click came easier than he thought. Though he aimed for the right shoulder, the bullet hit the man directly in the heart.

The woman rushed forward and pleaded with them, “Please, just don’t hurt the children. Just don’t hurt th—”

Woohyun shot again, but his aim was still off. He closed his left eye to see if his vision had returned in his right, but it still hadn’t. He slightly cursed under his breath. He took out his walkie-talkie and said, “It’s done.”

“You got them… through the heart,” Dongwoo whispered, as he neared the bodies.

Just then, a boy began crying upstairs. Dongwoo and Woohyun rushed to the second story, only to find room after room fitted to be a studio.

“They’re not here!” Dongwoo cried. “Kids, where are you?” He yelled down the hall, cupping his hands together.

“Here!” one yelled. The voice was still above them, but there was no third floor.

“The attic!” Woohyun exclaimed. He found a pull-out staircase above his head and immediately pulled it down. Dongwoo and Woohyun rushed into the dark, musty attic, where two boys scrambled towards them.

“Is there anyone else?” Dongwoo asked, lifting Jimin onto his shoulders.

“N-not anymore,” he replied.

Dongwoo brought Jimin and Adam down the stairs swiftly, as both were light—far too light for their age. Woohyun double-checked the attic with his phone as a flashlight and found something in the far corner. The entire attic smelled of human waste, but that corner must’ve had something else.

“It’s only you two, right?” Dongwoo asked to confirm again. But Jimin shook his head.

“There were three.”

In the far corner, next to piles of diarrhea and vomit, laid a child’s dead body.

“Somin left us weeks ago,” Adam plainly said, staring blankly at a wall.

As he finished his words, Woohyun came down the stairs, carrying Somin, wrapped in a blanket. No one said any more until they were in the car.

“How old was Somin?” Dongwoo asked Jimin, after he stopped crying.

“Ni—”

“There was no one of that name,” the gangster ordered, his loud voice filling up the entire van. “We only found two kids. Two.”

Woohyun looked down at his hands, then back at the window. He couldn't care less about lying to Gi Company about Somin, but he couldn't get over what he had just done. The gangster had forced him to leave Somin at the house, to burn.