Chapter 13
Case EXOTIC
A/N I think there will be a super long message of me ranting on at the end....but isn't it good...an early update.
Always, thanks for the new subbies :)
Soohyun's POV
I winced as the clothes tightly hugged my cuts and bruises.
“Nearly done…” Taeyeon unnie’s voice was quiet and drained of life.
I watched her reflection in the bathroom mirror as she engrossed herself with my hair- overly engrossed actually- making sure to take in all the strands as she combed it into a high ponytail.There was a frown buried between her brows as was sealed in a tight line.
My eyes slowly shifted from Taeyeon to the girl sitting down. Her face was pale, too pale in comparison to the fully black jacket and jeans she wore. Like her clothes, her hair was also dark and was pulled back tightly away from her face, revealing her protruding cheek bones from the days of stress. Hints of fear flickered in her eyes.
Someone knocked on the bathroom door.
“Taeyeon, is Soohyun ready yet?”
It was D.O’s voice.
Taeyeon unnie’s eyes met mine in the mirror.
.........................
“Do you understand your mission?” D.O asked me.
I nodded. “Hopefully I don’t need to come see you again afterwards. I’d feel guilty as a patient to bother my doctor so often, “ I let out a little laugh to lighten up the mood.
“ Stay safe Soohyun,” D.O didn’t smile back.
........................
Unnie grabbed my wrist before I entered the car.
She still had not spoken yet.
I reached for her hands and I mustered up the most convincing smile I could.
“I’ll see you soon Taeyeon unnie.”
Hopefully....that is.
……………………
I stopped.
Before me was the door, the last barrier between me and the entire underground society. The moment I pushed open the door, there will be no turning back.
I took a moment to breathe and think.
“Lee Soohyun, is this what you really want? “ I asked myself.
Yes.
Yes, it was.
This was my only way to make my life the same as before.
This was my last chance to have a family again......at least what remains of the family....
I in a breath, and I pushed open the doors.
There was no blinding white light welcoming me as typical story lines goes.
Instead, what leaked out was a stream of heavy smoke.......tons of that overwhelming and pungent gas penetrating my lungs. And mixed with this was a sour, acidic smell of booze.
Sehun’s POV
I hated these damn meetings.
Not only was it boring but on top of that, I had to sit next to these disgusting street rats on their cheap cigarettes as if their life depended on it.
Why the did Suho spend thousands of dollars every year to hold these useless meetings.
He should just let Talon do it, they have plenty of cash to blow.
These rats were just here to eat up our hospitality anyway. All of them were getting drunk as in the broad daylight.They have no ing idea how much one bottle of those wine costs.
If it was me, I’d feed them .
On a second thought, that would be too lenient. These pathetic losers do such disgusting things that they should just be crushed and sent to hell.
A completely drunk idiot stinking of sweat and vomit made his way to us. He’s raised his glass high as he spat out something along the lines of, “ ai..ma.. mates E-EXO, le’s drink togther.”
I scrunched up my fist, ready to erase him from our sight before I felt Chanyeol hyung place a hand on my shoulder.
“Get back to your seat. The conference will start shortly,” hyung ordered him.
The man laughed , “who d’ya think ya are? My in Nanny? Do ya know who I am?....tellin’ me what to do.”
I shoved my chair back in annoyance.
“I’m gonna beat the ing out of this loser.”
“Sehun, get back down,” Chanyeol hyung ordered me.
I ignored him, but before I could make my move, two men, less drunk, and more intellectuay able, came to drag the sore loser away.
They continuously bowed to Chanyeol hyung, apologizing for the man’s misbehavior.
Finally, from the center seats, Suho began the conference. Sitting right next to him was the head of Talon, the Dragon Head.
“, this is gonna be so ing boring,” I muttered under my breath as I sank into my seat.
Chanyeol hyung chuckled darkly, “get used to it maknae.”
And so the long talk begun as the two most powerful and influential men in the underground society blabbed on about current conditions, trade, future plans....blah....blah.... while the rest of the people drowned themselves in booze.
No one was listening.
My mind began to zone out until I realized that the room had gotten weirdly mute all of a sudden.
I looked up.
What the .
What the hell is she doing here?
That girl had made her way to the center of the room.
Does she know where the hell she was?
For gods sake, all the most violent, brutal, fiflthy men in the underground society were gathered in this room, and she just walked into the ing center of the room like it's nothing.
Did the doctor not give her a ing brain check this morning?
I quickly turned towards the Dragon Head whose eyes were wide in anger.
Next to him, Suho hyung’s face leaked no emotions.
What the was going on?
“I want to make a deal.”
I turned my focus to Soohyun who spoke.
Her face was stern and fearless just like the first time I met her.
“The deal is open to everyone in this room.”
What the hell is she doing.
I gripped the side of my chair.
She lifted the suitcase in her hands and tipped it open.
Three black packets landed on the floor.
My eyes widened.
What the hell?
Soohyun’s POV
My heart was racing as I felt the million pairs of eyes watching my every move.
I felt the tremble in my hands as I tipped the contents I had stolen from the Dragon Head onto the floor.
“You!”
I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand up in shock.
I tried to put on the bravest face I could.
The Dragon Head, not far from me, had stood up from his seat and was pointing at me in anger.
His men instinctively followed their master and locked all theirs guns onto my head.
Oh boy....good job Soohyun......you are doing fricken great.
One of these men, standing closest to the Dragon Head, had a snake tattoo slithering across half of his face.
That man ironically was called Snake.
And he was going to play an important role tonight.
“YOU LITTLE . HOW DARE HAVE THE GUTS TO APPEAR BEFORE ME AGAIN! KILL HER!” The Dragon Head roared across the room.
“Wait,” my voice came out less powerful than I wanted it to. My throat felt dry as I spoke.....
“Before you kill me, wouldn’t you want to know who hired me?”
The Dragon Head froze. His eyes narrowed onto mine.
“Who hired you? Tell me,” he demanded in a low voice.
I my cracked lips, “he’s in this room right now.”
Flash back
D.O handed me a photograph, “this man. It’s quite easy to notice him for that giant snake tattoo across his face.”
“It looks disgusting,” I commented in all honesty.
“I’d agree,” D.O nodded before continuing, “his name is Snake. He is currently the Dragon Head’s right handed man.”
I laughed, “the names these gangster’s come up with.”
D.O somewhat smiled, the first time for the past half an hour.
It didn’t help with him being quite serious in general.
“He commands many sub divisions under Talon. So tonight, he will be your target.”
"Sub divisions? Is Talon not like one big gang like EXO?" I asked curiously.
" No, Talon is powerful because it is made up of many, many gangs of all sorts. Their numbers is one of their strongest assests. And from this, you can also imagine how cunning the Dragon Head is..to be able to control so many men below him."
“Do I need to kill him? Snake?” I asked cautiously.
“ No. You won’t need to. Just call him out and the rest hopefully will go according to Suho’s plan.”
Back to Soohyun’s POV
“ Who is it? Speak you little !” The Dragon Head yelled across at me.
The tension in the room was growing. I bet everyone in the room already knew or had a vague idea about me stealing the contents from the Dragon Head. I had become not only target for the Dragon Head....but after this....I bet I’ll be infamous.
“I’m afraid that if I speak the truth, my boss would kill me,” I replied.
The Dragon Head clenched his fist, “don’t play games with me girl, or I will kill you myself.”
He extracted a gun from his suit, unlocked the safety lock, and positioned the gun right at my head.
At that moment, I couldn’t tell what I had felt by his threat.
So I laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” This time it was Suho who asked that question.
The Dragon Head was now frowning at me while his mouth shut in a tight line.
I took in Suho’s poker face. I must say, he had the best poker face I’ve ever seen. He looked like a completely new person from compared to when we were in the hospital.
My hand motioned to the Dragon Head’s men.
“There’s already a dozen guns pointed at me. If they we’re to fire, I’d die many times over already. Do you honestly believe that one extra bullet is going to make me spit out the truth?”
Infuriated, the Dragon Head waved for his men to put down his guns.
“Speak.” The Dragon Head ordered.
“I’ve told you before that it was your men who hired me,”
The Dragon Head slammed the table, “NONSENSE! MY MEN WILL NOT DARE TO BETRAY ME.”
A thin layer of cold sweat covered my back.
I bit my lips.
I had to keep this up.
I had to act convincingly.
“Well, that’s funny because I can see him standing right next to you. I can’t really forget that kind of face.”
The Dragon Head immediately turned to the side.
I raised my hand and let my finger hover at that figure next to the Dragon Head, hover on Snake.
Snake’s eyes immediately widened and he panicked under the false accusation, “master it’s not me! I won’t ever betray you! You must believe me master!”
Snake turned his eyes on me cold and hard.
“YOU!” He sprinted across the room towards me and immediately grabbed me by my throat.
“YOU ING ! TRYING TO FRAME ME! I’LL KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!”
He was strong, so strong, as he lifted me into the air by the throat.
I was immediately deprived of air and I started to choke. My fingers dug down into his skin and my feet kicked frantically but he did not budge.
Air.... I needed air.....
“Stop,” it was the Dragon Head’s voice, “release her!”
I dropped onto the ground like a ragged doll. My breathing was short and sharp as my lungs struggled for air. My heart raced inside of me as my body ached in pain.
....the wounds reopened again....
Clenching my teeth together, I pushed myself off the ground.
“I told you,” I coughed, “I told you he would try to kill me.”
Snake yanked me by the hair and pulled me close to him.
Close up, he looked fairly young, possibly good looking almost, but that snake tattoo completely ruined it.
“Stop lying,” he hissed at me.
I pushed him away.
“Well, as you can all see. By tonight I’m probably dead meat.”
I heard a few dark chuckles from the audience.
“ So here is my trade.” I picked up one of the dark packets onto the floor. “I’m told that the contents in one of these bags I stole are worth thousands.....”
Hearing the large sum of money involved, all attention was once drawn back onto me.
“So..... I’m willing to trade all three of these packets for just one simple thing that won’t cost you a penny.”
Suho’s eyes suddenly dropped onto me as he frowned.
I know, I wasn’t going according to his plan.
“What the hell are you planning?” The Dragon Head glared at me.
I ignored the Dragon Head as well as Suho.
Although Suho had promised me protection after tonight, the most important thing was for me to actually make it out of this room alive.
Honestly, from the looks of it, my chance of surviving out of this room wasn’t very high.
There’s already a dozen guns on me.
This was my only way.
“What do you want,” Suho asked in a firm tone. This time, it carried a sense of threat to it.
“I want protection. I want to live,” I replied bluntly. He knew exactly what I was doing.
“Don’t you think that’s quite a fair deal. I just need one vow and I’ll hand over tens of thousands of dollars.
"Oh yes, and the offer is open to everyone,” I provoked Suho even more.
“How the hell do we know if its real?” I heard someone yell.
“Well-“ I was immediately cut off by the Dragon Head.
“That’s enough nonsense from you!” He raised his gun to my head, “goodb-“
“Sir,” one of his minions suddenly raced to his side and whispered something into his ear.
The Dragon Head’s eyes widened in anger as his eyes quickly flickered onto Snake.
“YOU! HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME!” The Dragon Head’s gun shifted from me onto the man beside me- Snake.
“MASTER, I SWEAR I DID NOT BETRAY YOU! I'M BEING FRAMED! THIS GIRL IS FRAMING ME!”
“HOW DARE YOU CONTINUE TO LIE WHEN IVE FOUND EVIDENCE. THEY FOUND THE DAMN SEED IN YOUR ROOM.”
Snake’s eyes widened in horror, “NO SIR YOU MUST-“
BANG
I felt something grab onto my pants.
My feet were frozen to the ground.
My hands were trembling.
Slowly, I looked down.
A pair of white eyes, wide open, were staring back at me.
His mouth was opened wide as if he was letting out a scream.
He did not scream.
I did.
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