CHAPTER TEN ; THE UNTOLD TRUTH

"I got him—NO!" Daehyun shrieked in distress, his eyes were fixed on the laptop screen. The rest of the Black Eagles rushed towards his side.

"What the hell just happened?" Yongguk gravelly asked. The red dot on the screen was marking on a place, giving them the exact clue of where Kris could have gone to. Before it had disappeared, two seconds after.

"Guess he found the tracker." Yongguk huffed; furious was written all over his face. "We'll find him."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jieun slung her mini-bag across her body as she reached for the house and Kris' car key off the coffee table; she then made her way to the front door.

 "Luhan! You scared me!" Jieun blurted out, completely taken aback by the sight of the familiar man standing on the porch. “W-what are you doing here?”

Luhan leaned his head back, as he looked at Jieun up and down. Through the little amount of light that was only accompanied by the moon, Luhan could still recognized her behaviour - that sort of a fidgety reaction - when Jieun was on to something. “Are you running away?” He asked her.

"Y-yeah." She nodded her head innocently. "No, I mean—I'm going to meet my colleague."

"Where’s Kris?"

“He’s sleeping.” She lied.

“And you’re going out with his car?”

"That's the plan." Jieun shrugged.

Luhan shook his head and grabbed her wrist, leading her into the passenger's side of his car. "Get in." He told her as he held the door open.

Once Luhan started driving back out of the wood, he turned to look at her. "Why didn't you call me, if you were going to go out on your own?" He asked her.

"I didn't want to bother you—"

Luhan pulled a face of rejection. "Bother me? Seriously, Jieun? You’re not familiar with this area and it’s dark. In this wood, you can barely see anything at night."

"I'm sorry." She said, lowering her head down. It was the first time Jieun had heard Luhan sounded so strict.

"Is Kris really asleep?"

She turned her face towards him. “I—kind of put him to sleep.”

"Well, it looked like you've given him the chance to talk." He paused, keeping his vision on the path.

"I guess I did. After I’ve released all my anger." She muttered. And I let him kissed me. "But I haven't forgiven him yet."

 

It was just past one o'clock in the morning when Jieun had decided to drop by her house; Luhan tagged along behind her. She was surprised to see that the light was still on. Maybe grandma Joo is still awake, she thought. Though, her movements were abruptly stopped when her foot stumbled over something on the floor - a pair of men's trainers and a pair of black heeled ankle boots next to it.

Suspiciously, Jieun looked at Luhan before her hand made its way to her mini bag. She then carefully pulled the gun out and moved ever so stealthily.

She heard a noise from the inside of the house, an overtake footstep. She leaned her back on the wall that had separated the front hallway and the living room, before her other hand had motioned a stop sign to Luhan.

Jieun made a quick move as she popped herself up in the living room. She pointed the gun in her hand forward.

"Sunbae?!"

"Jieun!"

Kim Himchan automatically lowered his gun but Jieun was still holding onto hers firmly, directing it straight to her senior workmate. "I thought I told you to meet me at Gangdong Bridge?" She asked the man, strictly out of curiosity.

"Yes, you did."

If Himchan's presence in Jieun's house at the time wasn't doubtful enough, the sudden appearance of Hyomin coming out of Rina's room almost made Jieun pulled the trigger.  

"Jieun, she's—" Luhan bursted.

Jieun took a quick glance at Luhan, noticing his round eyes in the middle of his befuddle face.

"She works for—some bad guy." Luhan revealed what was in his mind. He had detected Hyomin's face being one of Mr Black's people - during the time when he was looking out for Kris, few years ago.

"Sunbae. I was going to tell you about her. Do you know that she's working for Mr Black?" asked Jieun. The gun in her hand moved from Himchan to Hyomin.

Himchan nodded his head. "I do. And she's doing it for me." Himchan had told her carefully, averting his eyes from Jieun's face and towards the gun in Jieun's hand. "But Jieun, I can explain."

Dubiously, Jieun nodded her head. "Ok, go on—"

"First of all, you need to know that I'm here to get Rina and my mother to a safe place."

"But I didn't ask—what did you say?” Jieun’s eyebrows were sewn together, slowly losing her trust in her senior. Or anyone. The next thing she knew, Luhan could be holding a gun behind her back.  

As though they had acted it all out in advance, it was then Grandma Joo's turn to come out of Rina's room. She stood herself agilely beside Himchan. "Jieun ah, Himchan is my son. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you sooner." She looked at the younger woman submissively.

Jieun couldn't help and finally lowered her gun. Even if Grandma Joo turned out to be someone who Jieun couldn't trust on anymore, she had always protected her like her own mother. Jieun let out a deep breath as she felt the sudden rush of wooziness in her head.

"Jieun, I've been meaning to tell you my side of story but all this while—I thought you only choose to be in this undercover because you wanted to get your revenge on Kris. Are you?" Himchan asked Jieun.

"Not entirely." She replied him, shaking her head weakly.

"Ok—then please let me explain." Himchan moved forward to get Jieun to sit on the sofa, when Luhan moved himself closer to Jieun.

"I won't hurt her, Luhan." Himchan reassured the other guy as he had included Luhan's name in the sentence, as if he had known him for a long time.

Meanwhile, Grandma Joo had gone back into her room to pack her stuff and the four of them - Jieun, Himchan, Luhan and Hyomin - gathered themselves in the living room.

"Jieun." Himchan breathed out as he began to explain. "Hyomin and I—we've been friends for quite a long time. And now you know that your Grandma Joo is my mother, but you should also know that Mr Black is my father."

Jieun's mouth hung with surprised as she stared at Himchan.  

Himchan nodded as he continued, "My father...he left me and my mother when I was 12. He was never a good man, Jieun. He always hurt both of us. We were his first victims." Himchan paused, releasing a short breath. His head used to hurt every time he thought of his painful past, but he had learnt to survive it. "When I was 17, I had joined in the military. I got myself into NPA two years after. My goal was to get him locked up. And Hyomin—" He turned to look at Hyomin and back at Jieun. "Hyomin has decided to help me. She started working for Mr Black in order for me to know my father's movements. That was almost 5 years ago—when everything started." Himchan paused yet again, as he tried to recall the timeline of the event. "During that time, Kris was in the crew as well. That's how we know who you are. And you too, Luhan." Himchan averted his eyes from Jieun to Luhan.

"Ok. But wait." Jieun spouted. "So, that means, when I was with Kris...he was already working for Mr Black?" She asked as her eyes moved back and forth between Hyomin, Himchan and even Luhan.

"Jieun, I didn't know then. I swear." Luhan shook his head, defending himself as soon as Jieun’s eyes landed on him. “I only found out that he’s working for some guy called Mr. Black after you guys broke up.”

"Kris was fairly new though at that time." Hyomin cued in, as if she was bac