'LIES', Big Bang, 'Remember', [2008]

Nari couldn’t help but feel as if someone had been watching her.

She felt for her gun inside her jacket, discreetly, its presence bringing comfort as she continued through the busy district of Dongdaemun, keeping her hood up over her head as the rain beat down overhead. Ever since the war with JYP had come to its long-awaited close, Nari had felt a little too comfortable.

Lee Sooman had given her leave for as long as she please, free from the responsibility of cleaning up messes (that he created), thanks to her work in uniting the families. But Nari couldn’t help but think her leave served another purpose.

Ever since JYP’s brutal warning to her, The blood runs strong in this one. Ask your Daebu about your parents.

The rain burned against her skin with painful memories of a time long gone – a time with Bobby at her side, protecting each other from the lies and horrors that encircled both their families. No matter how hard she’d tried, forgetting about it just wasn’t easy. She’d see and remember him in whatever she did, even moving back into her old apartment brought back painful memories of the night they first met and took shelter there.

Shaking the painful memories out of her, Nari forced herself to get on with the task at hand.

Nari had made use of her spare time, trying to find clues about her parents dying in the fire that burned her home to the ground; not only was her memory from her childhood buried too deep for her reach out for, but it was almost as if her family never existed in the first place. There were no articles, no records, not even a birth certificate that could provide any indication for who Nari really was.

She’d never let it get to her before – she’d constantly told herself that her new Family were all that mattered.

But the snake’s words made her curious; like Eve reaching for that forbidden apple, Nari was searching for something she knew would bring her no good. She made her way through the crowded district, heading towards the City Archives, trying her best to get away from the shadow she constantly felt was creeping over her.

She felt her cell phone buzz in her pocket, and looked at the caller ID; Xiumin.

Nari sighed in relief. As soon as she’d began to felt the seeds of JYP’s planted suspicion grow inside her, she had no idea who to turn to. Everyone at the building that day had told her not to listen to the man’s lies, telling her he was just trying to get inside her head the same way he had done with his own family members.

Except EXO.

Arriving back from China, recently getting over their own losses, they were happy to help someone else atone for their own – especially since they had no mercy for JYP’s knowledge.

“What?” Nari asked Xiumin as she spared a suspicious glance over her shoulder. She wondered whether or not the boys could see her from their apartment on this very street now. She always envied their position in the city centre. She placed the phone back inside her jacket pocket, using the discreet, standard mic-earpiece that SM issued to their members.

It’s what you get for being SM’s most coveted group.

“You’re on loudspeaker,” Xiumin announced as Nari drew closer to the City Archives, “Sehun’s got into the cameras inside the building, and we’ve tracked down the reference year your family were born. We should help you get there.”

“Thank you, Oppas,” Nari smiled warmly, ever thankful for her close bond with the boys throughout the year, “I can’t explain my gratitude,”

“But Nari,” Chanyeol spoke up, “There’s something else you need to know.”

Chanyeol was always particularly protective over Nari, even in her childhood. For a while until Woo Ji Ho showed up, it looked as if the two were going to end up being promised for one another the same way Sulli and Minho and even Yoona and Siwon had once been. Thankfully, it had never gotten awkward. Or so Nari thought.

“What? I’m nearly there?”

“When we tried to access the files for your family, they were blocked,”

“Of course they’d be, there was no record of them after it happened,” Nari scoffed in anger as she ascended the steps leading up to the City Archives, a monstrously tall building that stretched the entire block, containing details about every family, every major event and every crime taking place in the city for as long as records began.

I’d hate to be their Admin chief…

“No, that’s not it,” Sehun interjected, clearly getting frustrated with his Hyung’s inability to get to the point, “They were there. I even used the Family’s registration code to get through – but they were blocked.”

“Wh-What?” Nari froze in the doorway, unable to move any further as the revelation came to light. It was like every step she’d take forwards she’d take two more backwards, as if this was some sick carousel she’d see no hope of getting off.

“Look,” Suho, ever the voice of reason, piped up at Nari’s evidently ensuing panic, “Whatever- or whoever blocked those files, has no idea you’re about to find the real ones. We’ve got eyes on you, so keep going for now.”

“I can direct you to where you need to go,” Sehun reassured Nari.

Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, Nari stepped forth and into the building that held countless secrets and stories, one of which, could finally give her what she’d strived after for so long – truth.

“Take a left,” Sehun instructed down the line, and Nari obeyed. Heading away from the information kiosk, Nari made her way past all manner of scholarly adults, law students and even high-schoolers on a trip here, basking in wonder at the entire history of the city that was stored inside this building. She stuck out like a sore thumb in her entirely casual wear.

“Head up those curving stairs – there should be a rope but you can climb it.”

“I don’t like sending her in their without backup,” Chanyeol, ever the protective one, groaned down the line.

Nari couldn’t help but smile, “Ropes and danger have never stopped me before, Oppa.”

“Yeah, we know,”

“Where now?” Nari pressed on as the boys all began to roast Chanyeol for being so over-protective – she was not in the mood for her Oppas’ antics right now. She tip-toed her way up the stairs, taking care that no one had glimpsed her, sticking to the shadows before hopping over the red rope that lined the top.

“Uhh- head over to that window,”

“Which one? There’s multiple?” Nari groaned at the techie’s lack of common sense.

“The big one opposite the desks,”

Nari followed Sehun’s instructions carefully and casually made her way towards said window, not drawing any attention to herself, keeping inconspicuous. Yet no wonder how calm she tried to keep herself, her chest was slowly beginning to close in on itself, as if there was a shadow slowly slipping a noose around her neck.

“Okay…this is criminal records history.” Sehun announced as Nari stood by the window and looked down an awfully long line of shelves lined with countless tomes.

Nari raised an eyebrow, “Are you trying to suggest something?”

Her parents were not criminals – they couldn’t be.

“Good luck getting out of this one man,” Chen chuckled down the line at Sehun’s back-handed insult to Nari.

“Not what I mean,” Sehun groaned as the boys began to for his faulty tongue, “The fact that the files about your family have been kept out of public domain clearly shows that someone wanted to keep you from finding out about them – that what happened was no accident.”

Nari couldn’t help but hitch her breath in . She’d had her suspicions, but when Sehun put it like that-

She had to find out what happened, and nothing would stand in her way.

“There’s someone coming up the stairs,” Lay warned down the line, his eagle eyes definitely working at the moment as he worked alongside Sehun at the computers.

Nari jumped slightly at sighting, and fought with everything she had in her not to look back. Reaching for her gun was a little too instinctive, but it was an instinct she couldn’t risk here. 

“What do I do?” Nari asked, the strains of panic getting to her straight away.

“Walk down the line – it’s all in date order so go back to the year you joined SM.” Sehun instructed as his fingers typed endlessly away on the key-pad, “What’s the follower doing?”

“Nothing much,” Lay grunted, “But he’s eyeing up the place around – stay out of his sight, Nari.”

“I’m heading over there,” Chanyeol announced over the line, his fierce protectiveness evident as ever, “Stay put.”

“Don’t”, Nari begged him as he eyes ran over the countless year-labels lining each cabinet that she passed, “I’m not letting you get in danger because of my goose-chase,”

“And I’m not getting you killed out of stubbornness!” Chanyeol groaned down the phone, clearly getting agitated over Nari’s persistence.

“Chanyeol-ah,” Baekhyun sighed, “She can handle herself – she’s come this far without us.”

Chanyeol groaned at his best friend’s comment – a comment that was correct, “Fine. Keep going Nari. But the second something goes wrong-“

“I know, I know,” Nari chuckled as she came further and further forwards down the timeline, approaching this century with a strange mix of curiosity and excitement, “You’ll burn down the building with your pyromaniac tendencies.”

“I mean it,” Chanyeol grunted, evidently peeved as the boys began to berate him for being too protective over Nari.

But she wasn’t listening. Halting in her tracks, Nari stared up at the towering cabinet that was marked with the year her parents died – the year her life changed forever.

Taking shaky steps up to the cabinet, Nari dragged a ladder over from nearby, and ascended the steps, carefully, (and dreadful) climbing her way up to the truth. Sliding the cabinet window open at the highest level, Nari coughed as wafts of dusts spewed into her eyes and lugs. She greedily reached in and grabbed the huge tome from that month and year, before hungrily wrenching it open and