----------------------------23----------------------------

 ‘’Why did you hide it?’’

Silence filled the room after Kris finally spoke since Jenny’s confession. Both Luhan and Kris were lost even though they had a feeling she was romantically involved but being fiancé’s was a complete different story.

‘’Why the hell did you hide it?’’ He raised his voice while Jenny flinched slightly, unable to form any words while Luhan let out a small sigh, ‘’How could she just reveal it like that?’’

‘’Just like how she revealed it right now dammit!’’ A loud crash echoed  throughout the apartment while pieces of a nearby vase scattered on the floor. It was pretty clear Kris was frustrated, beyond pissed in fact. He couldn’t control his feelings, it’s like his world came crashing down for the second time in his life.

Suddenly he marched over towards Jenny, roughly grabbing her arm while yanking her towards him. A slight gasp escaped her lips while Luhan widened his eyes, ‘’Tell me why the hell you hide it from us!?’’ he barked yet again while she hesitantly looked away and he let out a frustrating sigh, quickly releasing her.

‘’Do you know where he is?’’ He eyed her intently while she shook her head, ‘’Do you remember his face?’’            ‘’Not clearly…’’ she whispered while he rubbed his temples slightly, ‘’Answer me honestly dammit!’’

‘’I’ve already told you honestly!’’ she fired back, tears cascading her pale cheeks as she rushed towards her room, hurriedly closing the door while Luhan let out a frustrating sigh, ‘’Just trust her…’’ he muttered while Kris stood there lifelessly. Every second,  minute, hour, day he spent with her flashed inside his head until suddenly the night where Feilin was murdered tore apart the memories he had with Jenny.

He eyed the wooden table in front before he ruffled up his hair, marching towards his room until her voice stopped him in his tracks.

‘’That’s right…’’ she muttered, her voice cracking at the last letter, ‘’I can’t be trusted right? Because… I’m Hero’s fiancé.’’ A humourless laugh escaped her lips, leaning herself on the closed door while the two silently stayed in place.

‘’You know, that Kim Byungjoo you were working with? He was part of Hero’s syndicate. It’s pretty clear that Byungjoo betrayed them and is after Hero himself—guessing he was after your memories too.’’

‘’No way…’’ she whispered, trying to link two and two until Kris spoke again and she felt like all the air was punched out of her gut, ‘’So that’s why you’re not allowed to continue your work.’’

And just like that the tears she held in freely cascaded down while a loud crash echoed throughout the apartment—clearly from Kris his room.

--

‘’So, spilled anything yet?’’ Suho raised a brow while Chanyeol shrugged, ‘’I can’t get in, Kris has practically locked up the whole 3^rd level’’ He groaned while Suho sighed, ‘’He’s been at it since last week, what the hell is going on?’’

‘’Nothing, he’s just pissed about not catching Hero’’ Lay muttered, his eyes trailing off to Luhan who slightly nodded, before tapping back on his computer again.           ‘’He’s beating them all one by one, he didn’t even take a damn break. How will that give us any chance on new information? We caught Hero’s men without any suicide attempts so the least we should’ve gotten by now are his whereabouts.’’ Suho let out a string of curses while the men present at their base sighed.

‘’What about Jenny? Found out anything new yet?’’ His gaze shifted off to Luhan who shrugged in return, ‘’Chen and Tao are with her right now but so far she doesn’t know anything’’                   ‘’Do you think he let her go? Like, she isn’t important anymore so he’s letting her be?’’ Sehun piped up while Kai shook his head, ‘’I doubt it. Remember the first attempt with Kanzaki Jun? He was basically the higher ups among Hero, they wouldn’t have sent him so casually, right?’’

‘’But what if Kanzaki Jun wasn’t part of Hero’s syndicate?’’

The group slightly widened their eyes as they turned to Lay who continued with whatever he was doing.

‘’What do you mean?’’ Luhan asked and he let out a small sigh, ‘’Just like how I said it’’ his focus turned back to the screen. After a few seconds, a picture was shown and Lay effortlessly zoomed it in without blurring the picture.

‘’Kim Byungjoo—codename XERO.’’ He slid the screen smoothly towards the nine, ‘’He was on top of the building next to the one we were in when Jenny was kidnapped.’’

‘’What!?’’

‘’Remember how Jun looked up for that split second before pulling the trigger? That bastard actually got a sign from XERO.’’                       ‘’To kill himself since any information wasn’t allowed to be leaked’’ Kai finished off, slightly shocked by the outcome.

‘’He was playing a ing game’’ Suho cursed as he threw the manila folder across the room, completely pissed they we’re fooled so easily.

‘’What do you expect? XERO was part of Hero’s syndicate—the damn captain to be fair. He had built his own small syndicate within Hero’s group so that they could betray him for the ultimate power’’  Lay stretched out his arms before he slid the screen back to him.    ‘’The ultimate power, why would he want that?’’ Xiumin eyed them while Baekhyun eyed the screen with XERO-- Byungjoo’s picture.

‘’Ruling the underworld gives you such a thrill right?’’ He smirked while Xiumin widened his eyes. ‘’In other words, he wanted to be in Hero’s shoes. Ruling the underworld in Korea, China, Japan and US—now that’s a ing dream all these bastards want to achieve.’’

‘’So where does that leave us?’’  Kyungsoo looked at the nine who shrugged in return, ‘’We will get our revenge, we didn’t hunt him down all these years for nothing.’’ Suho eyed the screen in front of him with all the security cameras. His eyes landed on the 3^rd one to his right and he let out an inaudible sigh as he watched Kris beat the sh*t out of Hero’s men. The thing he had been doing all week, was he really loosing his mind or was revenge everything he ever wanted?

--

‘’Do… you still love him?’’

The question that lingered inside her head all morning. Jenny confronted Jieun about her issue—leaving out her feelings for Kris and that steamy kiss—it was more about how she finally told them that Hero used to be her fiancé. Of course Jieun asked if there were still feelings involved and here she was, hearing the same question from Luhan.

She shook her head slightly while a small smile tugged at her lips, ‘’Not at all, the feelings I ever had are completely gone…’’ she whispered as she stared ahead at the building in front.

The restaurant where it all started.

‘’I was a new employee that set a goal of gathering cash as soon as possible. Things didn’t go well at home and I wanted to escape, far away from all the troubles. It was impossible back then, without any money I couldn’t have gone far.’’ Jenny let out a small sigh as she eyed her surroundings.

‘’After graduating, I wanted to go to the US.’’ She mumbled, walking over towards the bench while both Jieun, Lay and Luhan followed her, taking a seat right next to her.

‘’The relationship I had with Go Eun was strangled, she didn’t allow me much and I sort of rebelled against that… so I got myself a job at this restaurant. It paid well and I figured I could gather up as much as money needed easily, if I worked continuously.’’

‘’I was becoming a bit better but then one day I had to serve a table of four..’’ Jenny muttered and a small smile took over Jieun’s lips,  ‘’And that’s where you met Kim Jaejoong.’’

‘’Mhmm.’’ A gentle smile cascaded her lips, a genuine smile with happy memories behind them. Luhan stared at her silently while Lay stared at her amazed.

‘’I somehow managed to drop the food I carried all over Jaejoong, and I was so scared especially since it looked like an high elite four, you know a group my boss wanted to please at all costs? I feared my job, apologized constantly but one of them lashed out and I honestly didn’t know what to do but then… Jaejoong got up, dismissed the whole issue like nothing ever happened…’’

‘’He said his knee accidentally bumped in to me so I lost balance…’’ she rubbed her palms together as she thought carefully about it. Just days ago these memories were nowhere to be found, and just like that they were crystal clear, like her whole memory loss never took place.

‘’After that, he asked me out for diner—that had been our very first date.’’

‘’What did Hero talk about with you?’’ Jieun turned to look at her while she shrugged, ‘’He was quiet mostly, I always had to do the talking’’ she let out a small laugh as she remembered It, ‘’Slowly but surely, he opened up to me. I think rather than seeing Hero, I saw Kim Jaejoong as a whole. Just purely him, nothing else.’’

‘’It’s so silly but I fell in love so easily with him, everything felt so right about it till he had to leave for America—something related to his trading business’’ she mumbled and Laysighed, ‘’His syndicate’s business basically.’’

‘’So all in all, you never had an idea about his underworld business, did you?’’ Jieun asked her and she shook her head slightly. ‘’After that, somehow we both had gotten serious and he offered to take me with him to America. At first, I thought I shouldn’t leave everything behind but then the feelings between us were getting stronger, so I tagged along.’’

‘’Nothing was different, our relationship grew stronger, I continued my studies and had a side job to get the bills going—I guess basically that was it. Like any other, our relationship went on like that…’’

‘’So out of all the places, why did we find you in New York?’’

The question that left Jenny’s head spinning as she eyed the three. Up till now she always thought about it hard, but nothing made sense to her. why was it New York out of all the places? Why was she between Hero’s people that faithful night Kris and Tao had found her?

‘’That’s the only thing I can’t remember.’’

--

‘’Dead end alright’’ Chen groaned, leaning his head back on the sofa with Xiumin nodding, ‘’Even after Kris beat them up constantly, they spilled nothing’’ he groaned as he remembered the session from earlier. They all decided to join Kris—after he finally unlocked the doors—and did some thorough interrogation but it all went to waste, all these men were nowhere close to the upper ones.

‘’He might’ve known, he took all the low members amidst being present there, why would he risk himself with weaklings beside him?’’ Lay eyed the males carefully while they shrugged, ‘’He either didn’t care or had an escape route perfectly planned out’’                  ‘’Impossible because that was a messy exit’’ Kris joined the five, ruffling up his wet hair with a towel. ‘’What do you mean messy exit?’’ Luhan peered at him curiously while he shrugged, opening a can of beer.

‘’The boat was left not so far from the place he escaped from, if I had chased him I would’ve have gotten to him in no time’’ Kris murmured, ‘’He didn’t know how to handle the boat he went in to because the people he was supposed to take were in our hands’’

‘’So in the end he didn’t expect it at all?’’ Lay eyed him while Kris slowly nodded, ‘’The plan for them was to bail out the deal—in some twisted way Hero’s syndicate might’ve had a plan to betray them, although I think it’s highly a wrong assumption.’’ He scratched the slight stumble on his chin while the rest eyed him curiously.

‘’What do you mean?’’ Tao asked this time and a small smirk took over his lips.

‘’Simple. What if Hero’s syndicate and the group we invaded—wasn’t the only ones present?’’

‘’You mean…’’                     

 ‘’Exactly. XERO’s followers we’re there too.’’ He finished off and suddenly everything started to make sense.    ‘’So Hero’s plan might’ve actually contained erasing Kim Byungjoo and his followers off the face of this earth-…’’             ‘’Or he wanted to catch them for the betrayals they caused within his syndicate.’’

‘’So XERO isn’t the only one whose trying something, they’re both trying to catch each other?’’             ‘’While we’re trying to catch H---.’’

A loud shriek erupted and Kris his eyes widened once he realized who the voice belonged to. In just seconds was he in front of Jenny’s door before abruptly opening it. The moment he did though, his eyes widened. Jenny was shaking badly as she hugged herself, tears clearly evident on her face as she tried to sooth herself down.

It was pretty clear that she had woken up to a bad dream and he started to wonder, what kind of dream was it really?

You naega sseureojilddae
Jeoldae heundeullimeopsi

Her lips curled upwards as she looked in the crystal clear mirror, eyes turning in to crescent moon shapes. Her plump red lips hummed to the song as the comb slid through her soft brown curly locks.

She smiled thinking about it, thinking about him.

Ganghan nunbicheuro
Myeotbeonigo nal ileukyeojweo

The smile never leaving her face, her lips never missing a word of her favourite song. She checked her make-up once again, touching it up quickly as she looked at the time. He would be here soon and she would surprise him, the smile he would give was something she loved, something she wanted to see every day.

And you, na himae gyeoulddae
Seulpeumeul byeolang kkeutkkaji ddo uhgimeopsi
Chajawa du son japeun geudaeyegae

Hurriedly getting up, she placed everything neatly back, leaving no trace of her being there. Faint footsteps we’re heard and her heart skipped several beats, he was finally here. Quickly looking around, she decided to go to the nearest place, the built in closet.

Waeroun bami chajaolddaen
Na salmyeosi nooneul gamayo
Geudaeye soomgyeoli nal aneulddae
Mueotdo duryeopji anjyo

‘’So you finally caught me’’ a husky voice was heard and she blinked several times, her smile slowly leaving her face.

‘’The order is to kill you, it ends right here’’ the other male replied with a snicker following. ‘’We can talk this through’’            ‘’No we can’t, it ends right here’’ a clicking sound was heard and the female widened her eyes, she could see everything  through the slight creak in the closet door.

E saesang geu eoddeon nugudo
Geudaereul daeshin halsueopjyo
You're the only one
And I'll be there for you, baby

She felt faint the moment she realized what clicked, something she completely didn’t expect, something she never saw in her life besides in movies. The gun was moved around till a click was followed and her breathing completely stopped.

The gunshot reeled itself in her mind like a broken record—and there he was, the love of her life lying lifelessly on the floor.

They killed Kim Jaejoong.

He was no more in this world.

Woot! Another update. Im getting back to this story since Ive gotten the feel again, how do you guys like it so far? Did I rush or nah? Most of the things are out of the door now but that doesnt mean its over, there's plenty more action to come! Please subscribe, comment and upvote!