~Chapter 3 – Flowering Traps~

            It was barely the crack of dawn, the sun hadn't even risen yet but Luhan had a job to do. Opening his eyes the first thing that Luhan registered with his sleep dulled senses aside from the lovely warmth to the side of him was the light weight on top of him, looking downwards he saw it was Yoona who somehow managed to toss and turn enough to end up on top of his stomach. He tried to move as carefully as he could so he could slip out from under the little five year old without waking her up but apparently it wasn't as careful as he thought he was because suddenly Sehun's arms had reached out and lifted Yoona up before Luhan could attempt to slip away.

            Sehun sat up and placed Yoona gently back down in her original spot on the bed, being sure to bundle her in the blanket before turning back towards Luhan who was also sitting up.

            "Thanks, I was scared I was going to wake her up," whispered Luhan as he tried climbing over Sehun to get out of bed, "You should go back to sleep too."

            "Be careful."

            The whisper that ghosted by Luhan's ear had him pausing in his movement, he was basically straddling Sehun right now with one leg on the floor and the other still on the bed while his arms rested on the younger's shoulders to keep his balance. He looked the younger in the eyes and smiled, "Don't worry Sehun I'll be back before you know it."

            "Twenty minutes. You're only doing an area scan to see if there are any shady characters around and if our route out of town will be safe to take. Do not engage in any confrontations," instructed Sehun seriously.

            "What-"

            "Those are orders Luhan."

            It was said with finality and Luhan knew he couldn't argue back, one of the top rules the academy always hammered into their heads was to never disobey their squad leader unless the order, given common sense of course, was completely irrational.

            A sigh released itself from Luhan's lips, "Understood."

            Sehun nodded waiting for Luhan to finally climb off the bed but the older did something completely unexpected. Luhan's hands that were keeping him balanced on Sehun's shoulders slid their way around the younger's back and Luhan leaned in, holding Sehun close for a moment to whisper in the younger's ear "You know, I might not be as strong as you but I am twice as fast and just as deadly. There's no need to be so restrictive."

            Sehun kept his arms firmly at his sides refusing to return the warm hug no matter how much his body ached to do it. Why was Luhan doing this to him? Couldn't the older just follow his given orders and not fight against them by doing things like this? Things that just made Sehun want nothing more than to grab Luhan and hold him close in his embrace and never let go?

            Before Sehun could put his mind back together enough to make some sort of coherent response to Luhan, the older reluctantly he pulled himself away from Sehun's warmth and made his way to the bathroom before Sehun could chide him about his actions.

            Luhan headed out minutes later, leaving Sehun wide awake, waiting until he returned.

            With Luhan out, Sehun knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep anytime soon so he decided that he needed to get the others up. Walking towards Kai's bed first, Sehun began thinking of what he found out the night before when he separated from the others.

            Sehun had been tracking for the past hour, taking in his surroundings carefully looking for any clues that would point him towards the ones who were following them. It took him quite a bit of time to finally find the trail he was sure that the shadowy figure had taken and follow it all the way to an abandoned looking building just near the outskirts of the town. Approaching it carefully, Sehun took note of the light seeping through the building's door but his eyes caught on to the light that seemed to be glowing from the roof.

            'The roof must have glass windows somewhere on top…' thought Sehun as he took advantage of the empty wooden boxes that were scattered near the sides of the building wall and climbed all the way up to the roof where he spotted a large glass window in the middle. Crouching down to the edge of it and carefully opening the glass without a sound, he could hear people speaking, it sounded like there were two of them.

            "So did you find them? I know my sources aren't wrong those brat princesses should be here," growled one man.

            "I found only one of them from the pictures you've showed me, the younger one, but they have ninja guarding them," answered back the second voice.

            "Chinhwa you moron! Of course they'll have ninja with them! You didn't get caught did you!?"

            Sehun could see the two men now, the one yelling looked burly with a large frame, muscles rippling as he yelled at the one he called Chinhwa who was about half the size of the latter.

            Chinhwa shook his head vigorously, "No! Of course not! What do you take me for Kyubok!"

            Sehun almost wanted to snort at that blatant lie but he wasn't going to risk getting himself caught in this situation.

            The muscled man, Kyubok apparently, grunted "You better not have or I'd have slit your throat."

            Chinhwa gulped as he took a step back in fear. Kyubok continued on, "What about the older one? You said that you only found the younger one."

            "I didn't see her exit the restaurant they were eating at so I assumed that she was still inside. They have a party of six, four ninja and the two princesses," answered Chinhwa hesitantly afraid that he would anger Kyubok.

            "Alright anything you can tell me about the ninja they were with? Anything distinctive or recognizable like their clan or possible village?" asked Kyubok as he took a seat at the table in the middle of the warehouse a kunai spinning between his fingers.

            "I think one of them was the Oh's youngest brat, he had white hair and had a silver bracelet around his left wrist like the rest of his family," replied Chinhwa.

            Sehun absentmindedly touched the silver band around his left wrist, everyone in the clan had one from the moment that they're born and no one ever took it off. Each were crafted differently for each individual by the clan elders and they simply made new ones when the old ones got too small. It was a symbol to others about what they were capable of, if anyone saw the silver band they would associate it with the Oh clan who were feared by many.

            Kyubok stopped spinning the kunai at once as his expression darkened, "What!? The Oh's?! As in the well known assassination specialized family feared practically everywhere?!"

            Chinhwa nodded as he eyed the kunai in Kyubok's hand with wary.

            Kyubok slammed his hand on the table, "Tch, this'll make things harder even if it is the youngest one from the family. We'll need one hell of a plan to get those princesses now."

            "What should we do? Should I notify the rest of the others back at our base in the Seotul district?" asked Chinhwa.

            Kyubok didn't respond as he thought over his options, "No… Not yet at least. I want to see them for myself first before I involve more idiots back at our hideout. We want to keep the princesses alive and unbroken when we capture them otherwise the plan won't work."

            Chinhwa nodded, "Understood. But wouldn't it be easier if we just roughed them up a bit? A few broken bones won't kill them and it'd make it easier to ensure they won't run away once we do have them."

            Sehun grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes in anger at having heard that disgusting suggestion, how dare they even consider torturing children like that.

            "Moron! Don't you think I thought about that already!? I would have done that myself but that's not going to get the King of Healer's Fields Kingdom to comply with us will it?!" growled Kyubok, "We need those princesses alive and unbroken so we can use the threat of breaking them against the King, he wouldn't want anything to happen to those precious girls of his and once we have his cooperation everything will fall in it's place and I will be able to practically rule over everything in this world. The Healer's Fields Kingdom has the most allies among the villages because of their vast knowledge in healing which is very vital to the villages so once I get my hands on it, I would become more powerful than anyone has ever became. For now prepare a few things so we can head out tomorrow, I'm sure they're not going to stay for long in this town."

            "Yes sir," replied Chinhwa as he hurried away.

            Sehun took this chance to slip away too as he got down from the roof and slipped into the darkness of the trees, heading immediately back to town in order to find his team.

            The flashback in Sehun's mind ended as he began shaking Kai awake. He was concerned about sending Luhan out alone on his own especially since he didn't get the chance to tell him about Kyubok and Chinhwa but he was confident that Luhan wouldn't act recklessly if he did encounter anything.

            Kai groaned as he felt himself slipping back into consciousness.

            "Yah, wake up we have to get going soon. Luhan's out on area scan, when he comes back I need to brief all of you on new information. Luhan told you about what happened last night before I left you guys right?" asked Sehun as quietly as he could to prevent Sooyoung or Yoona from waking up.

            "Hnnn yeah, we were briefed on it," mumbled Kai as he rolled around in his blankets.

            "Okay get up, get ready and whatever while I get Kyungsoo up," replied Sehun as he turned towards Kyungsoo's bed.

            "I'm up," mumbled the cocoon of blankets as it began unraveling, revealing a messy haired Kyungsoo that was rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

            "Thank goodness,