Sulli's POV

"Just what exactly are we doing here?" I asked Sooyoung unnie, as we all crept in the dusty darkness that was this orphanage. It seemed that nobody's been here for ages; the entire place was ghostly dark, with occasional, run-down furniture looking forlorn and old in the musty setting. I could see my breath - along with Sooyoung unnie, Jessica unnie, Krystal, Victoria and Amber unnie, Donghae and Eunhyuk oppa, and lastly Taemin and Minho oppa - as we all crowded together in the single-file hall like an army from North Korea just waiting to happen.

"Siwon oppa said he needed us to hold captive one girl, but I don't exactly know who," Sooyoung unnie explained, biting her lip.

"Why did he choose us though?" Amber unnie asked in English. I was wondering the same thing.

"'Cause we're the strongest, right Donghae?" Eunhyuk proudly whispered. But before Donghae oppa - or anyone else for that matter - could reply, one piercing, blood-curdling scream shattered the tense, dark silence around us, freezing each and every one of us here.

“W-Was that – “ Victoria unnie began, when Minho oppa lightly clamped a palm over and whispered, “Shh~” Seeing that scene right there, in the musty darkness, made my own blood curdle again from all the anger coming back like one big burning wave. It’s been months since Victoria unnie and I kept fighting over him, but she still didn’t change and she still flirts and falls for him and his skin-ship 24/7! Doesn’t she know that group members are more important than any other guy?? And doesn’t she know how much she’s hurting me??

And...doesn’t Minho oppa know that I rejected Taemin oppa just for him??

Krystal, out of the corner of my eye, noticed my sudden fuming and gently touched my arm, basically saying, I know, but not here, Ssul.

“Hey, I think he’s about to come out,” Jessica unnie murmured, as low, menacing voices crawled out of the mysterious room, inching closer and closer to its awaiting crowd. And just like that, all of us stayed silent and cautious, holding in our breaths and words like the next one would burn us to death.

“Where are you going, Siwon?” the same menacing voice said again. With a shock, I realized the scary, gruff voice has belonged to a girl all along. 

Other people must’ve noticed too, because they also grimaced or began to tremble a bit. Krystal, after slightly leaning in towards the door, looked at me and bit my lip, mouthing, “It’s her.”

“What?” I mouthed back, confused. Krystal sighed and whispered in my ear, “Before we came here, Siwon oppa said that he knows the girl from the place we’re going, which is obviously here.”

My eyes widened as I realized that Super Junior’s Choi Siwon was actually an –

“Orphan? Siwon?” I nearly hissed out, still shocked. Krystal nodded gravely and whispered again, trying to ignore Jessica unnie’s curious glance, “Apparently, she’s the reason why he hates enemies and fighting…because she scared him and others with too much of that when he was young.”

Damn...to think that SuJu’s charismatic image person grew up in such a dark, lonesome, broken place like this...

I sighed and, grabbing Krystal’s bony wrist,  moved quietly in the darkness towards Victoria unnie to tell her about all this with Krystal...

When I remembered that I promised to myself I wouldn’t talk to her every time she crushed my feelings, again.

“Where are you going, Ssul?” she whispered curiously. Biting my lip, I shook my head and shrunk away, but right then Jessica unnie frantically waved towards all of us to join; that mysterious, scary sounding, Siwon-traumatizing girl must finally be done. Taking in a deep breath, I briefly closed my eyes to calm down before I unloaded my gun stashed tightly in my jeans pocket. A part of me felt so wrong as to even hold this black thing; all my life I never imagined I would have to step into the shoes of a kkang-pae girl and think about shooting someone.

Even if the victim did, in fact, almost kill one of my sunbaes.

The other surprising thing was that Jinki oppa actually lent me this one, since Siwon oppa ran out; since when did he hold hostage a gun? And people call him Tofu, clumsy Onew...

“Ready?” Jessica whispered. Nine heads feverishly nodded, before we all inched, crouched into position, towards the door, the girls holding guns ready to fire while guys had their fists and manly pride balled up in them. All of a sudden, the cold, the dust, the visible breaths of air, and everything scary about the place instantly vanished. Just like that, all I could think of now was helping Siwon trap and avenge this girl that not only traumatized Siwon, but also – according to some hasty whispers between the EunHae bros – killed Seohyun unnie and Kyuhyun oppa.

And somehow, the grip upon my gun became tighter. I guess, the one thing I hated more than careless, boyfriend [well, almost]-stealing, heart-crushing unnies were murderers. Especially, when they were only a year or so older than me.

“NOW!” Jessica and Donghae yelled within the dark, and we all knocked the creaky, wooden door down and barged in, slightly stumbling but nevertheless keeping our poses steady. Krystal was slightly panting in fear and anger besides me, as my eyes surveyed the new scene laid out before me. Just like outside, this place also held in possession the dark, musty, almost evil feeling this haunted orphanage thrived in. Except in here, there were plastic-wrapped furniture and lamps that looked ghostly under the pure white moonlight, and almost seemed to call out for and tempt for bloodstains.

I shivered as my eyes stumbled upon a very dark, gothic, tomboy-ish looking girl, trying to regain her balance against one of the cobweb-filled walls, which draped down the black walls like curtains. Three yards in front of her, I realized with a lurch in my stomach that it was Siwon oppa, panting as his blood-stained fists didn’t back down one bit. This image, coupled up with a moonlight resembling see-through snow, cobwebs, and a pure, threatening darkness? Not the best sight for a 17-year-old.

“Oh my gawd,” I heard Vic unnie mumble. I rolled my eyes, and then bit my tongue as I witnessed Minho give her a reassuring smile before we all lifted our guns and weapons, letting our boss know we were ready.

“Tch, so this is your backup? More idols I can just kill again, later on?” she scoffed, sneering despite how weak she looked. Donghae and Eunhyuk oppa, getting mad, were about to lunge on her had it not been for Donghae’s cute Dino Twin Amber Liu stopping both of them.

“Not yet, you idiots!” she cursed in Chinese. But apparently, someone didn’t understand what she said, because...

“Shut up, you’re the one who killed our side anyway!” Sooyoung screeched in the ringing darkness, stepping ahead bravely and boldly, so much that even Siwon oppa backed down. My breath got caught in my throat as I realized that indeed Sooyoung did figure out that this girl actually killed her sweet little maknae. I shuddered thinking how tormented she would be...“What do you have against us anyway, you !? What did Kyu-ppa or Joo-hyun ever do to a piece of trash like you that you did this to SNSD and SuJu!?”

A tense silence suffocated the room for a full minute almost, before the girl, her voice raspy from who knows what, explained, “I’m just getting revenge on those who deserve it, Sooyoung-ssi…did Joo-hyun ever tell you that she tried to kill her own adopted sister that she specifically requested herself?”

…WHAT!?

“What?” Sooyoung asked, confused. But the momentary confusion was quickly forgotten as she added, “Dude, stop trying to mess with even me, you ! You don’t know how strong I – “

“Wait, noona, listen!” Taemin oppa suddenly cut in, looking torn as he gazed at an unfazed murderer. Oh, how corrupted his mind must be…

“Wae, Taemin-ah?” she asked, a bit wearily, not taking her eyes off of the girl.

“That adopted girl,” he asked, looking straight at the girl killer, “Is you…right? Joo-hyun noona tried to kill…you?”

“I don’t see why not,” Victoria unnie spat out, stupidly. Suppressing a groan, I harshly stepped onto her foot, making her curse a quick, “!” before she glared at me and quieted down.

Meanwhile, the girl chuckled menacingly in the dark, and said, “Finally, someone gets it, even if he is a young pretty boy. Yeah, dammit, she tried to kill me, just because her boyfriend Kyuhyun was nice to me, unlike someone.”

“Why did she adopt you anyway?” Jessica unnie asked, frowning.

“Was this before debut?” Minho oppa curiously asked, looking confused but tall and strong and a bit threatening with his fit body. The girl nodded at Minho’s question, making me start to look at Joo-hyun unnie from a slightly different angle as my hand trembled with the gun that was now so tempted to just shut her off…before I could start slowly pending to her side.

“I don’t know why she adopted me, Jessica-ssi,” the girl responded, a slight tinge, less visible than even the bleak moonlight leaking through the windows, of sadness resounding in her voice. “She said…she wanted a little sister and so…her rich parents brought me out of my hellhole of a house and took me to her mansion but…one look and she hated me.” Hearing that, not one of us knew how to react and just stayed silent, although I was tempted to ask this girl for more. Luckily, she continued, saying, “I don’t even know why the hell she hated me so much; I guess she expected someone like SNSD, where they were pretty and liked makeup, shopping, and even studying, if she wanted…”

“W-What about Kyuhyun? How’d you get to know…him?” Donghae stammered, looking at anywhere else but the girl. I don’t know when this suddenly turned into a confession/story-telling time, but it sure was better than spilling blood anywhere in this creepy room.

“He came over a lot, since he liked Joo-hyun a lot,” she bluntly stated, looking at oppa straight in the eye, “he used to always blush, even in front of me when she wasn’t there, just thinking about her…kinda like what you’re doing right now.” My eyebrows raised as Krystal fought a giggle at Donghae’s flustered expression, but the girl continued as if nothing had happened, “But, even if he was so nice to me…he still liked her, more than he would ever care about me…that’s why, eventually, after he became a trainee, he persuaded Joo-hyun to join him, not me…sure he saved me from being dead from Joo-hyun’s knife, but that was about it…everything else was just a game. He just played with me. As if I didn’t have enough bull in my life…”

“But, that’s still no reason to kill both of them just because you’re lonely,” Siwon oppa icily cut in, making the hairs on my neck prickle up. He then whipped around to us and hissed, “What are you waiting for!? Go to her! Keep her down until I get the police! Now that we have all the information we need, it’s not like she’ll be any use.”

Oh great, the time has come…

But wait…did I just hear some footsteps outside? Briefly, just for a moment, I looked behind me, but I saw or heard nothing else, as if I’ve been imagining it all along.

"Jinli unnie, hurry up!” Krystal hissed, before she too, joined the now huge mob cornering the poor girl. Pushing all emotions aside, I ran in there and grabbed both of the girl’s cold, hard wrists, wriggling her shiny grey gun out of her furious grip to throw out to the farthest depths of the room. The deadly grey instrument clattered across the worn wooden floor, its tingling sound still reverberating once it landed.

But that wasn’t the least of it. All around me it was chaos as Jessica and Sooyoung kept abusing her by hitting her and crying out why she did this and that, while Donghae and Eunhyuk kept her pinned down to the cold, hard ground. Krystal and Amber unnie kept her legs down from kicking any one of us, while butthole Victoria unnie and flaming charisma Minho looked out the window and the door in case any intruders came in. Meanwhile, Siwon oppa was standing a good ten yards away from us, blasting his head off into his phone after dialing 1-1-9. I didn't even get to hear what he said due to this girl's constant, loud demands to let her go, which of course none of us were ever going to do. Especially since, for me,Taemin oppa held down the girl’s other wrist, giving me less work to do but more time to look into his eyes. With a pang, I knew that no matter what he said to his hyungs and noonas, he was still waiting for me. Waiting for me to let go of Minho oppa, forget, and just give him a chance…

But you know what? That’s exactly how this girl is feeling right now, too.

Love sure is cruel, isn’t it?

Maybe this is why Taemin oppa and I are so reluctant to participate in this gruesome life-or-death game. Maybe this is why I constantly get so fired up at Victoria unnie whenever I see chemistry happen between her and Minho oppa. Maybe this is why that girl went to such a far extent to avenge our sunbaes.

Because we all want a chance....

But then…I guess sometimes life will give you chances in other areas of your life, where you’ll need it more. At least, that was the case for this murdering girl we held in our hands…because, just like my ears never failed to lie, so did my eyes, which laid upon the Indie Band group CNBlue’s leader Jung Yonghwa, actually stepping in here – in this one hell of a dark, chaotic, haunted room - and actually pushing all of us aside and…

Actually saving that girl.

And, I realized, as Jung Yonghwa managed to scurry away with the girl, who I heard was named Jiyeon, without getting a single scratch from either one of us…chances, when given, last a long time.

But unfortunately, only for those who don’t deserve it.

Like her actually getting away after killing two successful sunbaes of SME, like getting poor, traumatized, desperate Siwon oppa fail once more at making life pure and simple again, like Taemin oppa still suffering because of his lasting love for me, like Vic unnie still receiving warm hugs of comfort and assurance from Minho oppa when I’m right there…Plus, now this wild goose chase for death is gonna continue for how long, even if we all have various promotions, some of them not even in Korea but in Japan or China! As if death is a welcoming soul to greet…

And lastly…like me getting the next bait for death, when in fact all I did so far was suffer.

~*