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16. The Uncovered Villains

Once Somin had gotten out of Hyun Joong’s view, he took off in the opposite direction. He didn’t like the sight of his girl kicking and screaming in another man’s arms, but right now more important thoughts were invading his mind. He doesn’t know how this mess was created and was angry his team had been so careless and set them in danger.

If their Head gets to know about this failed mission, severe punishment will be given to each and every involved in the case. It’s been years since he had made a mistake in handling a case given to him, and failing after so many years makes him feel weak and powerless. He shouldn’t have failed. THEY shouldn’t have made this mistake. Most of all, he blames Young Saeng for giving others the opportunity to get a hold of his weakness. If Young Saeng hadn’t been so careless, they would’ve had finished for the night already.

Hyun Joong ran up the stairs, since the elevators were out, and kicked several doors- only to find the rooms empty. He didn’t know where the commotion was happening, but knew he needed to get there in time - before everything gets screwed.

Hadn’t he been in a good physical condition, he would’ve fell to the ground out of tiredness, but since he’s trained and experienced, he continues running down the dark hall room, until he gets to the third floor, where the lights surprisingly aren’t off. This was planned carefully, he thinks to himself. The whole point off blackening the other floors were to get the distractions out and divert the East Coasters’ attention. It had probably worked too, because those who were on guarding duty had divided and rushed to different directions after hearing guns going off- they should’ve not split. That’s where they did wrong.

He slowed down in a corner and typed a quick message.

Overview of numbers?

Not long after came the reply.

Girls at guard, 8EC+ 12O on 3rd floor

“” He punched a wall, they’re outnumbered.

More backup

Ok

He continued walking and was almost convinced he had gotten wrong floor when he heard people talking and tension flying in the clammy air. He immediately recognized the voices that belonged to his friends and teammates.

He made one swift and soundless turn around a corner, and was greeted with the scene that created a bile in his throat:

His eyes scanned the hall in a hurried manner, and left him a great overview. There were twelve of East Coast’s opponents, and they were all pointing guns to Hyun Joong’s team. Two of the opponent’s guards raised their pistols at Hyun Joong when they noticed him walking towards them in a slow, but troubled manner.

“Boss!” One of them called out to their leader who was in the middle of conversing with Young Saeng. He turned around to face Hyun Joong. He had a dark and sly expression on his face and a scared and whimpering girl in his arms; Haera.

“Ahh, finally” The man chuckles, and tightens the hold he has around the girl’s neck when she tries prying his hands off her. “Kim Hyun Joong, my friend, you are here!”

Haera sends her roommate’s boyfriend a desperate and pleading look when their eyes meet and he can’t help but clench his fists. It surely is no good sight to see his best friend’s girlfriend and his girlfriend’s best friend being captured by this disgusting, cruel-looking man - whom they all knew held good experience in the field of crime.

A little hope rises in the girl’s heart when she spots the newcomer sending daggers towards her capturer. Earlier, she had lost hope that her boyfriend would save her, since he had been standing like a powerless and dead soul the past 5 minutes they’ve been here, but now, hope is arising. She has seen how Hyun Joong is when he is being protective over Somin, and she knows by his face now, that he is being protective over her too. It is strange, but his presence gives her a belief that she’ll be secured and safe very soon.

Hyun Joong hates to admit it, but he is feeling scared and nervous at the moment. He hasn’t been scared for years now, but this sight is triggering something inside of him. He feels sorry for the girl, and is only thinking about how he can get her out of the room safely. If something happens to her, Somin won’t be happy and she will hate them all for causing this to her bestie. Hyun Joong doesn’t want his girlfriend to be hurt and has decided that he will do everything in his power to make sure Haera is not damaged in any way.

Nervousness and fright are not the only two emotions he is feeling, and maybe it’s wrong and sinful to feel this, but he is relived in some way. He is happy in some crazy way that Haera is not Somin. Somin is not the one in danger. And he knows the fact that if this would have been Somin in front of him, he would’ve go crazily mental. Everything inside of him would have busted like firecrackers and he’d get everyone else in the room killed in the process. He sends a silent thanks to whichever God Somin prays to for shielding her from this situation. If their customers got Young Saeng’s girlfriend, they could have gotten his too without a problem, but they didn’t. And he is thankful beyond words.

“What do you want?” He barks at Billy, whom he has dealt with through the past years, but not tonight. He was supposed to be Young Saeng’s party's customer tonight,

Billy laughs again, evilly, and the girl cringes in his arms. “Kim Hyun Joong, how are you my friend?”

“Cut the crap!” Hyun Joong shouts exasperated “What is this?!”

Billy and his eleven other mates chuckled in satisfaction, and that disgusted Hyun Joong. "I knew she would be of big help when both of you lovebirds entered," Billy admitted shamelessly, now turning to cast a brief look at Young Saeng. He had known since the beginning of the evening that this girl was special to Young Saeng, or else he would never have brought her here as a date. Not long after had he figured out that he could use his girl to blackmail him in order to get the drugs for a minor price, or for free even. 

“Name your wish”

“Hmmmm” Billy seems to think as he presses the girl’s back harshly to his chest. “I actually want a lot of things, what about you my friend?”

“The girl” Hyun Joong answers breathlessly, and Haera’s face lights up at his response. He really wants to save me.

“You want the girl?” Billy’s team laugh loudly, like they’re having some kind of silent joke amongst themselves.

“Then it’s simple, I want the profit you’ve made today and my Coca for free and you want her, so let us trade.”

Hyun Joong opened his mouth so say something, but Jung Min beat him to it with a harsh and rippled tone. “Like hell we are trading!” He spat in anger and glared at Haera. He was upset with their customers being able to get to their weak side. Family and girlfriends were their weaknesses, that's why he stayed away from both and advised his friends the same. 

Young Saeng chokes on his own spit upon hearing his friend refuse the offer of releasing his girlfriend. He knows there is a lot of money they are talking about here, but how can Jung Min be so cruel and not think of his friend’s feelings and love towards the victimized girl?

Haera wants to rip off Jung Min’s head, because she thought they had developed mutual understanding towards each other, but now it only looks like Jung Min doesn’t care about her at all. He hasn’t been sending her his ugly stares, like the ones he always sends to Somin, but she understands now that he likes her no more or less than Somin herself. He is cruel, not only to Somin, but to her also.

“Yeah, we ain’t up to no trading” An unfamiliar man amongst several others, joins in.

“Shut up” Hyun Joong barks at the two, before sending the helpless and frozen Young Saeng an understanding and pitiful look. He knows the guy isn’t speaking because he is in shock. He is sentimental and for sure caught up in all bad feelings right now. As his best friend, Hyun Joong needs to take over his role.

“Looks like you’re having divided opinions, would you like some time to discuss this thoroughly?” One of Billy’s mates says and smirks knowingly.

“No” Jung Min is the one to speak again “It’s not gonna happen, you take her.”

Both guys in the favour of the girl snarls at him angrily.

“Mmmm, are you sure?” Billy mumbles and dips his head down to meet her bare shoulder. “Because I can make great use of this babe too,” He’ll travel back to Hong Kong and sell her. He knows he’ll only gain whether they trade or not, he is in a win-win situation.

“ing son of a !” Young Saeng finally screams from behind when he sees his girlfriend being harassed by the disgusting animal. He steps forwards to stop him, but his partners pull him back- aware of the guns pointed at them. One careless movement and blood would be shed. East Coast is outnumbered, and attacking is not a wise option.

“One wrong move and the girl is gone” Billy’s mates warn Young Saeng.

Hyun Joong grits his teeth at the sight of Billy trailing kisses down Haera’s throat and the sound of Haera whimpering and shifting uncomfortably in her skin makes him see Somin’s face. He hates such assaults, it reminds him of the night where Somin was struggling between those debauchees. He wants to tear Billy’s bones and flesh apart, it feels like he is touching Somin. He can’t tolerate the sight, and is fighting against himself. He doesn’t know what to do, but he can’t step forwards either- it’ll put their lives at risk.

“Rawwwrrr” Billy sniggers and nips at her neck while she trashes in his hold. This is so humiliating; she has never experienced being touched like this. She didn’t know humans could be such beasts and she wishes nothing but hell upon them. Each of his touches are like fuel to the fire. His lips and teeth are grazing her, as if he is some sort of pig and she the worm. Nasty, utterly gruesome.

“Motherer stop!” Young Saeng barks again, but without moving this time because of Billy’s revolver pressed to his girlfriend’s temple. He fears for her life and works with the little self-control he has left.  

Haera’s tears are reminding Hyun Joong of Somin’s. They squeeze his heart so painfully. She is helpless. “Let’s trade, give me the girl and I’ll give you the crack.”

“That only?” The assaulter raises his eyebrow. “I want the money too.”

“You ain’t getting no nothing”

Young Saeng glares at his junior, how dare he talk?!

“Alright alright,” Another of Billy’s mate tries getting everybody’s attention. “You get one whole minute to make a decision amongst yourselves. Either you give us the substances and the cash, or we take the girl. One minute.”

East Coast is not used to having the lower hand; they’ve always been those who overpower others, so all of them feel embarrassed by being supressed like this. The Head won’t be too happy about the situation either and all of them will have to deal with consequences of putting East Coast’s name at shame. So much for being an East Coaster….

While East Coasters are thinking with conflicted minds, Billy takes the chance to enjoy the pained look on Hyun Joong’s face. He has eternally seen the man as one successful guy, his mere presence has always screamed perfection. He never made mistakes in their business, so it was fascinating to finally see him weak, failed. Billy had mainly been out to take Young Saeng tonight, but seeing Hyun Joong being effected too just made him hit two birds with one stone. He was delighted by the situation, and not to mention the bomb in his embrace. He’ll make great use of her himself if they by chance chose to send her off.

Billy moves his hands over the girl’s exposed collarbone and enjoys every second of a certain person cursing loudly behind him and one guy gritting his teeth in rage in front of him. He loves defeating others, and the growing anger on the guy’s face is giving him satisfaction, so he continues violating the girl.

Young Saeng and Hyun Joong should use the minute they have been given to decide what to do and come up with a plan, but they don’t. Both are frozen on their spot, and ready to kill when Billy makes his next move.

He slides his hand over and down the woman’s collarbone, he is confident he can do anything to her without East Coasters being able to budge- they were outnumbered after all. Haera stops breathing when his warm hand move dangerously close to her chest and she looks at Hyun Joong with a horrified expression, eyes wide and mouth agape when the man slides his touch into her neckless dress. He is moving slow- to provoke the guys, and when his hand finally moves inside her bra and cups her , she lets out a harsh, heart wrenching breath. Young Saeng stiffens in his frame, he can’t see what is happening, but he knows by the sound his girlfriend just made.

Haera feels assaulted, weak and useless. She wishes to die rather than being touched like this.  

A disturbing image pops up in Hyun Joong's mind. Only for a moment, he imagines the girl being his Somin and then, just like that- everything inside of him explodes. The illusion of this man groping Somin makes him lose self-control. Haera is Somin’s best friend after all, so they resemble each other to certain extends.

It’s silent for a second, but then a loud cry is heard from behind Billy’s back, obviously coming from the shocked Young Saeng, and not long after, Hyun Joong has raised his gun at Billy in a very swift motion. He doesn’t care who dies tonight. What Billy had done to this innocent girl, was not tolerable. It had set him on the edge, and he has no self-control any longer. If he or his friends were to die tonight, then so be it.

Nobody was able to react before Hyun Joong had pulled off the safe of his gun and pressed the trigger. It made a blasting noise, the bullet fled right through the assaulter’s forehead and he went limp in his spot, slowly falling backwards and hitting his head to the ground. The girl’s scream echoed through the room, she had never seen anybody being killed, let alone so close to her very being.

Everything happens in a blur after that. Gunshots going off everywhere, several others joining the fight and screaming about the cops having arrived and roars of pain from those who had been unlucky – amongst them, their own. Hyun Joong ran through the bodies flailing here and there, shielded the girl behind his larger frame and breathed out in relief when he saw that she was breathing. But still, through the whole encounter, he can’t seem to get that image out of his mind: The girl looked so weak and defenceless, but what if that had been Somin? What would he have done if Haera was replaced by his dearest Somin? Their places could have been switched so easily! And then he would have been screwed for the rest of his life. His thoughts were leading him on dangerous paths without him realizing. Paths which would now affect their lives badly.

Haera clutched his shirt from behind- as if trying to tell him something, before she passed out and went limp as soon as he had managed to turn around and look at her. The night would change several lives forever. And grief and heartbreaks would for sure be a big part of the change.

* * * * * 

Later that night, Somin sat anxiously in front of the television and watched the breaking news about Conrad Hotel where she and her friends had been only hours ago. Haneul had dropped her off to her and Haera’s dorm, but she had felt so scared of being alone in the room, knowing that her roommate was in danger, that she couldn’t stop herself from calling another friend and asking her to come over.

Mira had rushed out of the club and into her two friends’ dorm and she was worried by the scene of Somin wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, all soaked, with a running nose and a burning forehead. What worried her more; was the way Somin went hysterical after watching the breaking news - with a very captivating headline.

Nine bodies found dead at the most awaited university ball of all times,

The girls sobbed loudly in each other’s arms, though the one was more hysterical and berserk than the other. The only thought that was running in her mind was that her boyfriend, her roommate and friends of theirs were dead, and the fact that none of the feared for picked up her calls, only confirmed her suspicion. They were dead, and she knew it.

“Relax Somin, it might not be them, just pray!”

The advice was not taken; it only made her weep louder. “W-wh-ats t-the p-point of p-raying when t-they are de-ad a-al-ready!!”

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