[CONTENTID1] CHAPTER FORTY ONE - TREPIDATION [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

A/N: I'M BACK!!!! Thank you to all you beautiful people who left me kind words of encouragement. I love you guys! <3

Okay so I have the resit of that non-school related exam I failed soon and I'm totally ready for it. I REFUSE TO FAIL AGAIN!!!! My SCHOOL exams are over...until the finals in May. I got good grades!! :D I have little homework but quite a lot of assignments to do for my classes so I'll try balancing everything. I also have Rebel out now and two new stories coming out soon XDDDD I'm an idiot.

“What’s your name?” I ask the deep-voiced leader. There’s no denying that he’s handsome but then again, I haven’t met an unattractive male — or female, as a matter of fact — in a very, very long time. It’s like I’m destined to have hot men land at my feet. Whether or not they’re good people, however, is always a guessing game.

“Bang Yong Guk,” he replies but makes no move to bow. “The boy you’re holding a blade to is Junhong.” I glance at the boy again then look back at the leader. “Just tell us what you want and let him go.”

“Funny, weren’t we in an opposite situation just a few minutes ago?” Hyoyeon hums, tapping her chin sarcastically. “Huh. Weird, right? The tables have turned.” Although I’m in full agreement with her, I’d rather she not add comic to a situation such as this one.

“Stop following us,” I command Yongguk and his team. “We’re taking Junhong to the security room with us for a little bit.” Yongguk opens his mouth to object but I press my blade against Junhong’s neck. Yongguk clamps his mouth shut. “I’ll leave a couple of my people to watch you. Make any move against us and Junhong gets it.”

“Fine.”

“When we return, we’ll hand him over and we’ll go our separate ways. If we ever run into you again…” I lower my voice and hope it sounds as threatening as I want it to. “I’ll kill every last one of you myself. Clear?”

“Crystal,” he bites out. “But I want one of my men to come with you in the security room. Just to ensure you don’t do anything to Zelo.”

“Who?”

“Junhong,” he clarifies. I think it over and start to nod. I stop myself just in time and turn to Julien, implying for him to take the lead again. He rubs his chin then nods once. “Jongup, go with them.”

“Why not me?” a raven-haired male asks.

“Because you’re reckless when you’re angry,” Yongguk replies. “You’ll stay here with me, Himchan. That’s final.” The male called Himchan puffs out a breath and folds his arms. He shoots me an icy glare which I gladly return.

“Tao, go to the security room with Hyoyeon and Jungkook. Do what you gotta do,” Julien commands and the three of them nod. They bow and turn around to make their leave. Jungkook grabs Junhong and takes him with them. I start rolling my wrists to pop the air bubbles between my joints and then crack my fingers.

“Yah, don’t do that,” Julien whines, elbowing me in the ribs. “It makes me cringe.” I make a face at him and roll my eyes. For a man so burly, he sure does have some pathetic pet peeves. An awkward silence follows as we wait for the others to return. I drum my fingers on my thigh and glance around the lobby. 

“This is super awkward,” one of the males blurts out and Sehun snorts.

“Yeah because no one knew that.” I flash Sehun a glare, indicating for him to shut his mouth instead of fuel the growing fire between the opposing teams. The tension is thick enough without him adding to it. 

“I don’t recall asking for you input, ,” the same male snarls and Sehun steps towards him. I march over to him and yank him back. I glare at the both of them.

“How about shoving your back in your pants and stopping this little competition, hm?” I bark and they continue to glare at each other. It’s as if they’re not even acknowledging my presence and that makes me angry. “I’d like to end this encounter on a semi-pleasant note. So enough.”

“You’re not in charge of me,” the male says.

“Seungyoon, just shut up already,” Yongguk sighs and the younger male glances at him before scowling and retreating over to his side. Yongguk gives me a look and nods at Sehun. “If I have to keep my men in line, do your job and keep yours in line, too.”

“It’s not her job, it’s mine,” Julien corrects and he shrugs.

“I don’t care whose job it is, just one of you do it.” Another silence follows and this time, no one bothers to break it. I start counting the seconds and by the time I get to fifteen minutes, the others are returning. Hyoyeon is dashing through with an excited look on her face. 

“What did you—” She swerves past Julien and comes straight to me. 

“You’ll never guess what we found!” she squeals and I grab her shoulders, trying to calm her down. She’s bouncing up and down like an energised rabbit. She abruptly stops and stares right into my soul — or at least, that’s what it feels like. “So turns out the hotel had a buckload of electricity left so we drained it all.”

“What does that mean for Tao?” I ask, interrupting her. She scowls as Tao and Jungkook walk over to explain.

“Basically, Tao is like superman right now and it’s gonna last a long time,” Jungkook replies and I nod, my lips forming an ‘o’ shape. “But that’s not even the cool part. What’s cool is all the neat tricks he can perform now.”

“Yah, stop stealing me thunder!” Hyoyeon whines, tugging on my arm to get my attention. I giggle and turn to her again. “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted,” she shoots Jungkook a glare, “Tao managed to pick up a signal and he got in touch with Hakyeon.”

“Mwo?” I gasp. Julien and Sehun immediately walk over, obvious interest in their eyes. “What did he say? Was he with the others? Are they okay? Is anyone dead?”

Hyoyeon shakes her head. “Ani, they’re all alive and well — ish. When they got back to the camp, the people there were angry that they lost Tao so they basically chased them out.”

“The ,” Julien mutters under his breath. “Didn’t that AI guy try to help? I forgot his name.”

“No, he turned against them,” Jungkook answers in Hyoyeon’s place.

“He didn’t turn against them, per say,” Tao interjects. “He just made a decision that would increase his chances of survival. Had he tried to stick up for them, the civilians would’ve kicked him out of the camp as well.”

“But he’s an AI. Why didn’t he join the others and kick their asses or something?” I ask. Surely a bunch of AIs could handle a herd of civilians. I mean, they’re robots and the civilians are human. They are biologically superior in strength.

“The civilians had all the weapons, remember?” Tao continues and I grunt. “That and your team refused to harm any of them. They thought it would be best to just walk away. Besides, they’re looking for us.”

“They are?” Sehun asks.

“I knew it!” Hyoyeon exclaims, clapping her hands.

“Where are they?” I question, excitement beginning to bubble in the pit of my stomach.

“They’re in Boryeong at the moment, they got there by ferry,” he answers. “They had to bargain with that peeing boy and his friends but in the end, they let them on their boat. They’ve been stopping at every seaside city to look for us.” Hyoyeon squeals again even though she’s already heard all of this. But I can’t exactly blame her for being so happy — I’m also elated to hear about our friends. I do wish I got to speak to them, though.

“So they’re all together?” Sehun asks and Tao nods. “Who exactly are ‘they’?”

“I don’t know all their names—”

Hyoyeon cuts in. “Jackson, Kyu-oppa, Daehyun,” she beams at his name, “Bora-ssi, Daeho, Karim, Youngjae, Mino, the twins…err, let’s see…Jiyong, Jimin. There’s Hakyeon, the AI, the AI and the mini- AI.” Neon, Taeyeon and Jade. I’m about to say something when I remember that we’re not alone.

I really hope they didn’t hear all of that. I grab a silent Junhong by the arm and drag him over to his group. I shove him into Yongguk and my own teammates draw their weapons in trepidation. I do a formal bow.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” I say. I turn around but before I can walk away, someone grabs me. I turn back to face Yongguk. “What? We settled everything, did we not?”

“We still have a dead friend and it’s one of your people’s faults,” he reminds me and I close my eyes briefly to take a deep breath. “Whether or not he was bitten, it wasn’t your say to if he got to live or die.”

“From the way he spoke, we did him a favour,” I reply but the comment has no effect on the deep-voiced man.

“That’s none of your business. What is your business is how you’re going to compensate for our loss.” I snort but the look on his face tells me that he is completely — dare I say deadly — serious. “Seokjin was a huge asset to our sanctuary.” A sanctuary, huh? “Now he’s gone and we need someone to replace him.”

“I don’t know why you’re telling me any of this since there’s nothing I can do about it,” I say and he clenches his jaw. His eyes are penetrative and his hold on me is almost painful. He looks like a predator but…also a prey. What has him scared? Is he even scared or am I looking too much into this?

“You need to either find us someone new with the same medical experience as Seokjin or you give up one of your members,” he declares and I hear Hyoyeon laugh ludicrously from behind me.

“This guy is definitely tripping,” she giggles, probably