Date. 07/29/2014
 

Minah scanned the crowd in front of her, her lips pursed tightly and her eyes narrowed. Their endless murmurings were irritating her and she scoffed softly under her breath. She was leaning back against the wall, hidden by the shadows at the back of the room as she wondered briefly why was she even required to attend such a mundane meeting. Then the voice cut through the room, along with the closing of the door, and reminded her of why.

“The yearly recruitment of new members is coming up,” the voice, belonging to Sunggyu whom was currently put in-charge of most of the mafia activities, silenced the room as everyone straightened up, listening attentively.

“The number of people who died this past year, in our activities, were more than any other year.” Sunggyu’s voice was grave as he stood in front of the crowd. His sharp eyes scanning through them and none of them dared to meet his eyes.

Her lips lifted up into a smirk as she mumbled a soft ‘cowards’ under her breath, the word repeated by a hush whisper coming from her side and she didn’t need to look at who it was to know that it was him. Nam Woohyun.

“You’re late,” she said it in a matter-of-fact tone, not bothering to sound chastising or anything as she leaned unconsciously towards him. His warmth was welcoming in the room that felt too cold.

“Not that he’ll care,” he jerked his head towards the center of the room as he wrapped his arms around her. “Aren’t you going to ask me about that mission I just went on?” his whispers were teasing and she could feel the smirk on his face, that amused expression of his.

“You’re here, obviously not dead yet,” she shrugged, trying to pass it off nonchalantly, as if she doesn’t care. “What else do I need to know?”

“Tsk,” he clucked his tongue again, and she knew that he didn’t buy her nonchalant tone. Then again, she did not know why she bothered pretending. Perhaps, it’s just to reassure them both that they were nothing more than friends. “Tonight?”

She hesitated, her mind quickly calculating everything, though she wasn’t sure again why she was hesitating. “Okay. Tonight.” she’ll check if he got any new scars. If any of those bastards managed to hurt him.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she refocused her attention to the center of the room where Sunggyu was explaining how the clan will recruit members this time round.

“I will personally be in-charged of recruiting this time round,” Sunggyu stated, his eyes meeting Minah’s and Woohyun’s, before looking back at the crowd. “So you bastards, better bring me back some worthy men.”

His words sent shivers down the spines of those in the crowd.

“Looks like we’ve got work to do,” Minah chuckled softly, an amused smile adorning her face as Woohyun groaned from behind her.

“I thought I’ll finally get a break to have fun.”

- x -

Even through the seemingly soundproof glass wall, the sound of guns firing and missing their targets reached Miseul’s ears. She stood idly to the side, watching her classmates try to hit the middle of the silhouette figures. The other classmates that were waiting with her made snide comments and it only made her want to scoff. Because they weren’t any better, at least in her opinion.

She ignored their comments and leaned against the glass. The coolness of it soothed the ache in her arm. Her thoughts wandered back to her close combat class earlier and it only served to piss off her more at how poorly she did. Although her defense was fine, being able to dodge pretty well and being fast with her movements, her attacks were weak, as always. Her face scrunched up into a frown as she remembered how she had barely managed to hurt her opponent.

Soon, the classmates inside the shooting range lowered their pistols and filed out. The professor beckoned for Miseul and the others to take their places. Miseul walked in before her classmates could crowd the doorway; she was ready for her favorite subject and even more ready to let out some steam.

The door shut behind her. The enclosed area reeked of smoke and for a moment, she was regretting not being one of the firsts ones to practice her shooting. But then it didn’t really matter. The smoke was comfortable, almost as comfortable as the weight of the pistol in her hand. This was where she shines. For the life of her, the strength in her arms would never be enough for hand-to-hand combat. It was something she needed to work on, but when it came to guns, something just clicked. She checked the chamber and reloaded it before slipping her headgear on. The last thing she needed was to blow her eardrums up.

She watched as the practice targets were exchanged for new, untarnished ones. This wasn’t a regular class where the targets stood in one spot, waiting for a student to shoot it through its invisible heart. These targets moved from side to side in an indecisive pattern. She wasn't going to bother trying to memorize the pattern. It was supposed to be an example of what would happen on a mission—humans are unpredictable; they weren’t going to run or dodge in a way that’d get them killed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can catch some of the sparks from her classmates’ pistols. They were too eager to shoot, to get the first perfect shot. But only a few makes a hole in their targets while the rest hit the back wall, adding another mistake to their record. Stretching her arm out towards the direction of the targets, she aimed down the slight barrel, her finger light against the trigger. Everything except the target faded into the background. A grin, wicked and mischievous, spread along her lips as she pulled back on the trigger. The recoil trembled through her arms but she did not care. Her eyes narrowed as she continued pulling back on the trigger with every new aim. After a while, a loud clear whistle sounded through the room and she took a step back to survey her work.

The target’s movement has stopped, the score shown clearly on the board in front of them. Her lips curved up into a smile as she placed the pistol in her hands down before stretching a little. There was no need to stay behind, it was time to move to the next area for practice.

There was no extra praises, no medals, but that was not needed, the small smile on the lips of their strict shooting teacher was enough. After all, Miseul was the only one in her class to score a perfect 10.