Eli leads us through the crowd, one arm looped through Kevin's as he texted, his other hand firmly grasping mine. People seem to part like the Red Sea to let us pass. Eli seems to be leading us towards the eastern side of the room, where there are tables and waiters serving food. Kevin looks up from his phone, presses the button to lock it, and puts it in his pocket. He looks around, keeping up with Eli's pace easily since his leg's movement is not restricted by his trousers. I, on the other hand, find my movement restricted by the tight skirt of my dress, and am forced to walk exhaustingly fast to make up for it. Not to mention I'm in heels, and I'm not one of those girls with the magical ability to run in heels. I'm one of those girls who twists their heels when they try!

Finally though, we make it to the tables, and Eli sits us down at his and Kevin's table. Kevin sits down in his designated spot, and Eli pulls the chair out for me to sit at a spot reserved for Soohyun. After I sit, he pushes the chair in for me, before taking a seat in his own spot.

"Is it ok for me to sit here?" I ask. "Soohyun won't get mad?"

Eli chuckled. "No! Of course not! Soohyun hyung won't mind!" I nod, feeling the aches in my feet slowly start to fade. A waiter, seeing that our table was now occupied, came over with a notepad and pen in hand.

"Hello sirs." He bowed. "Hello miss. Can I get you anything?"

"Yes, thank you." Eli ordered a glass of wine for both himself and Kevin, before looking to me.

"I'll have a..." I try to remember something on the drink menu that wasn't alcoholic. "Strawberry Bubble Tea, please." The waiter nodded, and scribbled down our orders, before bowing again, and scurrying off to another table who had called him.

I look at Eli, finding him about to cry from holding in his laughter. "That poor man!" Eli wipes a little tear from the corner of his eye. "Having to wait on all these people from all these different business gatherings!"

"And he must have to deal with people worse than us!" Kevin joined in.

"Oh, yes!" I agree. "There are some people my father works with who I just can't stand! They're that type of people who practically injure themselves from not swearing!"

Eli and Kevin nod. "Yeah, there are loads of people like that in business." Kevin says.

"Or like lawyers!" Eli points out. "It is beyond me how they can argue for so long without swearing or making a really rude insult!"

"Yes! How are they so polite while arguing?" I ask, watching the waitor out of the corner of my eye as he darts from table to table.

"You can't trust lawyers." Kevin states. I nod as he continues. "Anyone who can win an argument without fighting dirty can't be trusted. They're the kind who'll stab you in the back."

"Anyone involved in the justice system can't be trusted." Eli furthered Kevin's argument.

"Why? Why shouldn't we trust the police?" I asked them, confused.

"Because." Kevin explained. "The police will 'make a deal' with you, which normally means that you end up in jail while they get paid big time."

"And if you don't get jail time, the police will put you, now an official snitch, back out on the streets of Seoul, a perfect target for the people you blabbed on!" Eli added to Kevin's statement.

"How do you know that?" I ask again, figuring I knew where this was coming from. Someone in their family had been put in jail for a crime they didn't commit, or had been killed after helping the police. That, or they watched too many crime dramas.

"My little brother snitched to the police about a drug smuggling ring his friend was involved in, and the police took down the bosses with the information he gave them. But then they put him back in his house, with no protection. His friend killed him." Kevin explained solemnly.

"Oh..." I say quietly, changing my faical expression to one of sympathy for Kevin. I expected as much. All they were saying was a result of grief and grudges.

"Yeah..." Kevin looks at the tablecloth, his shoulders drooping. We are silent for a few moments, before a man walks up to our table. Not the waiter, but another man. He clears his throat, and Eli and Kevin both look up at him.

"Hyung?" Eli asks. "What is it?"

"We can't wait anymore." the man says. "We have to do it now!" Eli and Kevin nod, before turning to me.

"I'm sorry, Ji-Na, but that business we were putting off to talk to you has become more urgent!" Eli explained to me. "I'm afraid we'll have to take our leave now."

"Oh, ok!" I stand, and bow to the two men. "It was great talking to you! I hope we can see each other again soon!" Eli and Kevin stand and bow to me as well, before saying goodbye one last time and walking away quickly with their friend. I debate whether I should stay here to wait for my bubble tea, or go find my mother and father again.

I was spared the trouble of deciding when the waitor came up to me with a platter-full of drinks balanced on his hand and and shoulder.

"Here's your bubble tea, miss!" The waiter gasps, out of breath.

"Thank you." I say as I accept my drink. "My friends won't be needing their drinks. I'm sorry for troubling you." The waitor nodded, and walked off to another table with their drinks. I hold my bubble tea in my hands as I start walking back in the direction of the bar, where I was sure to find my father.

Luck was against me though, becuase I was moving against the current of people, and as a result, I wasn't making a lot of progress in my quest to make it back to the bar. My feet were going back to killing me, but I didn't want to be one of those women who walked around at a formal event holding their heels in their hands. Eventually, the aches in my feet got to be too much, and I made a detour back to that hallway that leads to the bathrooms. Down that hallway, right outside the womens bathroom - and since it's the ladies room, inside as well! - there are a pair of comfortable chairs where I can sit.

I had similar luck in getting to the hallway. The crowd didn't seem to want to part for a short girl. I grumble curses to myself as I push through the people. Then, to top it all off, the lights go out. I don't mean the power went out. I mean the lights were shattered by a spray of bullets amid the roar of several guns firing and the screams of hundreds of women, with the chimes of glasses breaking. And if I thought that it was hard to move now....

Panic insued. Complete and total panic. Women and men alike were letting out cries as glass fell from above, everyone darting from place to place to avoid the glass shards, the only light coming from the flashes of gunpowder ignighting as the guns went off. There was a brief pause in the onslaught of bullets as the gunmen changed their magazines, but then it started right back up again. Except this time, it wasn't the lights the gunmen were shooting at.

At first, if you didn't move, you would get shoved to the ground in the panic or you would be hit by falling glass. Now, it was if you didn't move, you were shot. The shooters seemed to be placed throughout the room, and were litteraly just keeping their fingers on the trigger and spinning in circles, a gun in each hand.

I joined the frenzy, trying to move towards the exits while avoiding the bullets. Being so small, I was pushed to the ground several times, each time scrambling up quickly before I was trampled. I felt my dress tear along the seams in many places, but who would care in this situation? I couldn't see at all, and the light from the guns was barely noticable with all the bodies in the way. I wasn't sure where I was headed, which way the exit was - last time I knew where I was, the nearest exit was near the bathrooms - I knew nothing except screams and bodies falling and guns firing.

Then the guns stopped firing. The screams continued for a few seconds after, but then, it was silent. A confused type of silent, I thought to myself as I stopped moving. Where were the guns? Why did they stop firing? What was going on?

When the crowd was silent, or mostly silent, save for the cries of those shot, one of the gunmen spoke. "Alright! Here's what we're gonna do!" His voice echoes in the room, so that everyone could hear him. "No one is gonna move, got it? My buddies and I will be coming around with bags. You're gonna put everything you have on you into the bags. Earrings, wedding rings, wallets, credit cards, anything with value! It all goes in the bags! You try anything, you get a bullet in your chest, got it?" There was no response, but I doubt he was looking for one.

I stand perfectly still, surprised at how I wasn't crying yet. I mean, don't get me wrong, there was still an itch behind my eyeballs, trying to get me to cry, but no tears had escaped yet. The air was filled with the cries of those shot, the cries of distressed women, the orders of the men with guns, and the crunching of glass underneath their feet. I had thought of trying to feel my way to one of the exits, but I now realize that I would risk running into one of the armed men, and it seems like broken glass covers the floor, making a silent escape impossible.

So I resign myself to waiting for the men to come and rob me, even though I hate myself for it. My ego doesn't seem to want to let me sit still and take this lying down, but my brain tells my ego to shut it before I get killed. I can't help but tap my foot anxiously, absently tapping my fingers on my upper arms as I wait. The waiting is killing me. I just want to get this over with so I can go home....

"In the bag!" I heard a gruff voice order just next to me. I froze at his proximity, ceasing to breathe, my heart hammering out an eratic beat in my chest. I hear a clattering kind of sound as the man moves the bag, and a clink as a woman's earings fall into the bag. "I want that ring too!" the man growled, and the woman started crying and wailing.

"Please! Please don't make me give it up! It's my late husband's familly ring! Please!" the woman blubbers, begging the man. I slowly turn my head to watch, but I can't see much. I can, however, hear the click of a gun being readied to fire.

"Shut up, and put the ring in the bag. Now." the man ordered as the woman let out a single, long, high-pitched whine. I hear the clink of the ring falling into the bag. "Wedding ring too." the man said, and there was another clink. Then the glass started crunching under his feet as he moved away from the woman. And closer to me.

I turned my head forward, blinking, trying to keep the tears at bay. But it was getting harder and harder as I tracked the man coming towards me by the sound of the glass shards breaking under his feet. The woman he had just left was now full-on bawling, and I wouldn't be surprised if she had crumpled into a little heap on the floor.

Then the man is right in front of me. I can tell because my eyes have adjusted enough for me to see the vague outline of a man in front of me. I look straight ahead, not at his face, but his chest. I know better than to look an armed man in the eyes, especially when I can't trust my eyes not to show how royally ticked off I am right now.

"What you got on you, sweetheart?" he asks in a low voice. I swallow, my throat feeling a bit too dry.

"Earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet." I say quietly, my hands going under my curtain of hair to undo my necklace. I take it off and hold it in my hand.

"In the bag." he hold the bag out. I drop my necklace in, and go to take out my earrings, my fingers trembling. I take out both in one ear, and drop them in the bag. But it seems I wasn't going fast enough for the man. He gives my shoulder a little poke with his gun. "Hurry it up, sweetheart. We ain't got all night!" I nod, the tears finally escaping my eyes, and I try to be quick as I take off my second set of earrings, drop them in the bag, and wriggle my hand out of the braclet. I drop it in the bag.

"That's all." I croak, wiping my tears with my hand, trying not to sniffle. The man moves the bag away, and turns to move on to the next person, but he hesitates. I cry silently, watching him, paralyzed with fear. He turns back to face me, and bends down a little so he can look me in the eye. I blink, and look to the side. He reaches out a hand to hold my chin, forcing me to look at him.

"Hey..." he says soothingly, holding a finger to his lips. "It's gonna be ok. Don't cry...." In response, I simply cried harder. "Why are you crying? We aren't gonna hurt anyone!" I glare at him.

"You already did hurt people!" I snap. "Why are you doing this?" The man moved his head back a bit.

"I... I can't..." he trailed off, still holding my chin. I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand off of me.

"Please just rob everyone and leave." I narrow my eyes at him, and try to make my tone sound as strong as I want to be. The man yanks his hand out of mine, and grabs my arm.

"Don't mess with me..." he warns me, his tone telling me to just shut up. But I can't.

"Why? Are you gonna shoot me?!" I ask, crossing my arms and shaking his hand off my arm.

Suddenly, another body is behind me, both of his hands on my arms, holding me to him. He bends his head down to whisper in my ear, "Sweetie, there are worse things we could do to you..." The threat and meaning of his words are clear. I shudder at the thought of what he was implying he'd do.

"So if I were you," the first man, the one who robbed me, said, "I'd hush up."

"I already was quiet! It was you who decided to be all nice and soothing and to try and get me not to cry!" I lash out at him before I can consider my words, or even if it was wise to speak, which it probably wasn't. "Why do you even care, anyway?!"

The man behind me gripped my arms tighter. "Yes, hyung, why do we care?"

"Because." the first man said. "Pretty young ladies like Na-Ji shouldn't be crying."
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Heyy! Thank you for checking out this story, and be sure to tell me what you think! Can I have a couple of comments to tell me how I'm doing?