“Everything feels cold

and I’m even scared of the clear sky

If you’re not here, I’m just a corpse,

so how can I breathe?”

BTS (방탄소년단), ‘잡아줘’ [Hold Me Tight], ‘화양연화: In The Mood For Love pt.1’, [2015]

“Ding dong,” Jaebum scoffed as the explosions from far above echoed and vibrated all the way through to the sewers Nari followed him through, “That’s the welcoming party for our allies.”

Nari scoffed as a devilish smile spread across her old mentor’s face, “If that was your attempt at making light of this situation, then I’m disappointed.”

“Sweetie, I hardly find anything about this situation,” Jaebum retorted, lifting his foot out of the streams of pure brown sludge the two were forcing themselves through, “Worth making light of.”

“And this is why I brought the backpack of boots and pants,” Nari mumbled.

Nari had quickly gotten used to the smell of sheer garbage and other ungodly odours, but the endless streams only seemed to worsen, and the tunnels darken, the deeper they traversed through the sewage system.

“I doubt you’ll even get time for your little quick-change,” Jaebum sighed as they reached another closed end with a ladder leading upwards, covered in gooey, green slime on all handles. Nari cringed, “But hey, if anything puts off the bad-guys, at least it’ll be how bad you smell?”

Nari couldn’t help but laugh at Jaebum’s wry sense of humour that clearly stayed with him through the years. She hated the fact he could still make her laugh like that, and forced her smile away, “How far are we now?”

“Well,” Jaebum grunted as he made his way up the ladder, “I remember pushing Nickhun off this ladder in our Trainee days, and he fell in poop, so, not that farther. You coming?”

Nair grunted as she eyed the grimed ladder in sheer distaste. She usually prided herself in having a strong stomach, but this was an exception. She bit her tongue and managed to haul herself up the ladder quick enough to forget the texture of the ladder felt on her palms and fingers.

But Jay was right. By the time Nari had all but managed to shake of the remaining grime and goo from her fingers, they emerged on a cleaner level of the sewer, the streams running clear with water and various drainage holes dotted above their heads. Another, penultimate-looking step ladder stood at the far end of the tunnel.

Nari didn’t even have time to react to the scarily close sound of gunfire by the time Jaebum halted her in her tracks.

“Wait,” Jaebum warned as he held his arm across the front of her, eyes narrowed in suspicion, his eagle-eye instinct as sharp as ever. Nari found it easy to trust in his judgement this once – she never remembered this instinct failing him – like someone else…

Shaking her thoughts from her head, Nari watched, carefully, as Jaebum knelt down, picking up a rock, and with a quick flick of the wrist, the rock skipped across the water faster than the blink of an eye, hit the end wall. Nothing happened.

“Was something supposed to happen?” Nari raised an eyebrow bemusedly.

Jaebum grunted, “Just, stay still.” Again, he held his arm out, and cautiously, stepped his foot directly into the water flow for just a moment.

A single bead of sweat trickled down the back of Nari’s neck, her fingers ready to grasp at her guns at the slightest sign of movement, her nerves hanging on the end of a thread at this moment.

“Nothing,” Jaebum sighed, and Nari realised a breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding, “Last time I’d tried to sneak in here well- let’s just say that my guard was greeted by the couple thousand bullet from the twelve Gatling Guns that line the walls.”

Nari couldn’t help but gulp at the near-death experience, “I guess he didn’t live to tell the tale,”

“No,” Jabum scoffed, “But luckily, I did. Let’s go.”

Depsite the green light from Jaebum, Nari couldn’t help but nervously eye the walls as they quckly traversed the final stretch towards the ladder, but if any death trap was supposed to await them, none appeared.

“I guess this means Hyerin-sshi and Un- I mean, Boa-Sunbae, have done their jobs correctly? They’ve disabled the security system?”

Jaebum shrugged as he stopped in front of the ladder (notably cleaner than its predecessor), “Only one way to find out,”

As the two of them surfaced, the gunfire exploded all around them, almost making the two of them duck their heads back under. But luckily, (if you could say that) whoever shot the bullet was shot down themselves. Jaebum quickly shot whoever fired the last bullet, before pulling Nari up from the ladder.

“Thanks,” Nari panted, adrenaline immediately kicking in from the second near-death experience in less than 3-minutes. She felt groggy and gross, and nothing was more appealing right now than to change her pants and boots – but Nari knew very well she’d never get the opportunity to do that.

“Damn,” Jaebum sniffled, “We do stink,”

Nari groaned, rolling her eyes, “Never-mind­. Whereabouts are we?”

“Back quarter of the building, second floor. Don’t ask me how it lead up here, I couldn’t tell you either.”

Nari eyed the corridors carefully, trying her best to gather what little bearings she could in the building. But the first thing that struck her, was how freakishly similar the JYP interior was to their own at SM – even the damned colour palette is the same…

“We need to get to the comms room, I think.” Nari felt comfortable assuming command of her own situation once more, “You’ll know where they head offices are. We can find a way to get straight to JYP without confrontation.”

Jaebum sighed as he began to carefully tread his way through the corridors, “And here I thought that would be something to look forwards to.”

Much to Nari’s surprise, she and Jaebum faced no obvious form of opposition as they stalked the (apparently) deserted corridors of the JYP stronghold. Nari almost shivered from how hauntingly similar the JYP interior was to their own at SM – she almost felt as if she knew her way around here, as if her sense of direction was merely based on a familiarity she never experienced.

How can they possibly be so similar?

Yet, as they made their way further through the nerve system of the building, Nari was comforted by the series of electronic controlled doors that consistently opened up before their eyes, without the need to crack any doors codes or steal a name tag off of a dead corpse nearby.

“I guess your girl’s made it in alright,” Jaebum said quietly as yet another door slid open before their eyes, sliding up and over their heads without any sign of resistance, “If I weren’t any smarter and knew she was in that control room, I’d say someone above is working in our favour.”

Nari wasn’t one for faith and religion, life was too brutal for it to be true. A smile found its way onto her lips, “She’s the biggest computer freak I’ve ever met. Of course she’d be able to do it.”

Jaebum scoffed, “I knew someone like that – led them to an early grave.”

A scowl quickly appeared on Nari’s face at Jaebum’s awfully well-timed inference. But before she could even scold or threaten him for making her uneasy like that, Nari and Jaebum turned the corner to be greeted by the strange (albeit welcome sight) of two young girls, tied up on the floor, mouths gagged and ankles duct-taped, against the wall, staring up, panicked, at the two of them, their eyes watering from tears and horror.

“Well, well,” Jaebum scoffed, suddenly pocketing his gun again, apparently not seeing any immediate threat about the two girls on the floor. Nari wasn’t buying it for a second. Jaebum may have been comfortable in his old stomping ground, but Nari certainly wasn’t. She kept her guns trained on the two girls sat before her.

“Who are they?” Nari demanded, sweat trickling down the ie of her temple – nerve she wished she wasn’t feeling right now.

Jaebum knelt on the floor besides the two girls, staring at him out of sheer shock and horror, their terrified eyes juxtaposing their cute faces. Nari realised that this may have been the first time these girls had seen Jaebum alive – I know the feeling too.

“Baek Yerin,” Jaebum smiled devilishly as he ungagged the first girl, before stepping over her to get the other, “Park Jimin,”

Baek Yerin stared up at him with murderous eyes that finally saw through a lie that had dragged on for over 6 years, “I saw you die.”

“Through a camera screen no less,” Jaebum scoffed, “And now I’m here to show how difficult I am to kill.”

“You won’t make it,” Park Jimin cried out, apparently more hurt over Jaebum’s apparent resurrection than her partner, so much so that she couldn’t even bring herself to say anything more. Nari pitied her – she was in the same boat but a few hours ago.

But the other girl, Baek Yerin, seemed to have stronger opinions, “You’d never get past the groups we’ve gathered! You don’t have what it takes.” She smirked.

“You don’t know the allies we’ve gathered,” Nari spat, taking a step forwards at the girl’s sheer arrogance – it reminded of herself, strangely enough, only earlier on in the year when she’d said similar words to Bobby.

Nari cursed herself for faltering as soon as thoughts about him plagued her mind, but Baek Yerin picked up on this hesitation, and made sure to use it well, “I guess even the great Song Nari isn’t so sure about her alliances. Typical, you SM folk put your eggs in every basket, but don’t even check over them to make sure they’re remaining!”

Nari was beyond confused at the girl’s apparent direct accusation – it sounded strangely similar to the sort of things she’d been hearing ever since this mess with JYP began. Nari lowered her guns.

“What is she talking about?” she demanded from Jaebum.

“I don’t know,” he sighed, keeping his gaze on the two girls before leaning forwards to tape Baek Yerin’s mouth back up, “But I liked her better when she didn’t talk.”

“More freaking mysteries for me to discover…” Nari grumbled as she sulked her way towards the door to the control room, which had already slid open upon her approaching it. Nari didn’t know whether to be thankful or creeped out that Hyerin was watching over her so closely.

Jaebum, however, was clearly taking his time to tie up loose ends with his restrained, old allies, (if you pardon the pun).

“I mourned for you.” Park Jimin sniffled as Jaebum knelt down beside her, “Why did you leave without saying goodbye?”

Nari felt a haunting wave of nostalgia overwhelm her when the girl muttered the exact same words she herself had said mere hours ago. No matter how badly she also wanted to spin around and deny answers herself, Nari knew her retribution would come sooner or later – this would be Park Jimin’s only chance.

Jaebum sighed, “I’m sorry, but this has to end.”

Nari couldn’t bear to hear anymore, so continued on through to the control room. She couldn’t help but feel a sudden, dreadful sinking feeling in her gut, not only at the exchange that had just taken place, but also her lingering thoughts on Bobby.

Nari hated how easily that boy creeped into her mind, more so, how easily she let him have a hold on her in such a way that could jeopardise the task. She wished the aching in her chest could go, but she didn’t think it would so long as they were apart.

“Unnie?”

Nari