“We just dived off the top of a building, and now you’re making us climb back up another one? Gee, I thought sitting a garbage truck for ten minutes was torture enough…”

“Stop complaining, we’re almost there,”

Bobby grunted as he followed Nari’s lead and climbed the emergency ladder at god-knows-what time of night. Where exactly they were going, he didn’t know, he just pushed onwards (or upwards) through the fierce pain that pulsated through his body.

His collision with the garbage truck was painful enough, and to top it all off Nari had taken the courtesy of diving in right on top of him and forcing him to stay submerged for the entire journey. The smell of rotten waste clung to his clothes, the smell still lingering even after all this time – and the worse? Something sticky had clung to his hair, and the prospect of getting it cut out hurt him the most

Now I feel and smell like crap…

“Where exactly is ‘there’?” Bobby groaned through the stinging of his knuckles, now red and raw, as he grabbed onto the next ladder bar. His jaw still ached from the numerous punches Zelo had thrown at him, not to mention his back after colliding with the roof pockets over and over again.

“Just shut up and wait…” Nari groaned for the nth time since the two had been stuck together.

The tension between the Bobby and his companion was obvious to say the least. Not only were their companies fierce rivals who were always at each other’s throats, but something about Nari made Bobby’s skin crawl; be it her over-analytical nature, incessant need to hold him back in their brawls as well as her habit of looking down at him (despite being shorter) Bobby would be thankful for the minute their ‘alliance’ ceased.

But then again, Bobby was still processing the fact that this girl was real. He and the boys had always assumed that Song Nari was just a work of fiction by their seniors, a ruse to spur them into training harder. The child wonder, a ruthless gangster from a young age. And seeing her fight earlier, the way she so mercilessly beat down that opponent showed that she deserved every inch of the myth attached to her name. But Bobby would never admit that

Bobby looked up at Nari- then quickly forced his head back down in embarrassment, his cheeks crimson with embarrassment.

Idiot, should’ve realised the dangerous of looking up when a beautiful girl wearing a dress is climbing above you…

It was when Bobby was questioning his use of the word ‘beautiful’ that the sounds of Nari’s climbing ceased, “We’re here, so stop crying me a freaking river.”

Bobby followed Nari up and over the balcony edge to be faced with a modern, monochrome apartment. Bobby peeked through the glass sliding door at the apartment as Nari pressed her palm to a finger-print scanner,

“I’m guessing this is your place then?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Nari mumbled coldly as the pad flashed a bright blue and the door opened up before them.

Bobby noticed Nari pressing a hand to her head in pain, the signs of a wound from the brutal fight earlier still lingering. He’d almost forgotten the beating she’d taken in the fight, maybe because of how good her tough-girl act was. Bobby wondered how long that would last, but he still took the courtesy of opening the door for her – a slight pity he felt obliged to follow up on.

Nari sent him an uncertain look before stepping into her apartment. Bobby ignored the fluttering in his gut.

Bobby stared around the monochrome apartment in awe. The sheer plainness of it all would’ve made an ordinary person assume she was an accountant or real-estate agent, someone earning the big money without knowing where or how to spend it all. You would’ve never have guessed how opposite her life probably was to this mundane apartment.

But there was also a sadness to it all; there was no memorabilia, no photos, no personalisation, no hint whatsoever as to what kind of person Nari was. Not even a single plant or cacti – that was a depressing sight to ruin the aesthetic. Bobby would just have to assume that this girl really was the figure of mystery she was always made out to be.

“We can stay here a little while until we get back into contact with our teams.” Bobby snapped out of his daydream and looked back at Nari, “The weapons closet is on the right. There should be a medi-kit in there for you.” Nari pointed to a mirrored sliding door next to her bed.

“A kit for what?”

Nari looked at him as if he was an alien, “For you to get some alcohol on those wounds and stitch up that cut.”

Bobby shrugged, “They never bothered me before, give it a few weeks, they’ll go.”

Nari scoffed, “Are you kidding me? Are you that much of an amateur that you don’t realise how infected they’ll get in a few weeks if you get them all messed up?”

“Then I’ll just have to be careful then,”

Nari threw her hands in the air, evidently frustrated at Bobby’s simplistic solution. Bobby couldn’t understand what she was getting so worked up about; he’d suffered tons of wounds before, most of them worse than the few cuts and bruises he’d suffered tonight, and they’d never gotten infected. To Bobby, he wore them with honour. It would show everyone that he was an opponent who wouldn’t give up without a fight.

Nari just couldn’t seem to grasp his logic.

Sighing as she stormed into the Arms room, Bobby stood in her bedroom, awkward as the tension continued to hang in the air like deadweight. He soon got bored of the sheer nothingness of Nari’s room, and wandered out into the main area. It was a studio of sorts, the living area connected to the kitchen – but that was it. It had the same, total abundance of ‘nothing’ as the bedroom. Bobby couldn’t help but feel slightly claustrophobic with the uncomfortable emptiness of her apartment.

But like she said, she’s been busy the past three years…maybe she doesn’t have a reason to decorate…

“Can you get any more inconspicuous…” Bobby mumbled as he ran a finger along the countertop absent-mindedly.

“What’s that?” Nari asked as she quickly hurried back into the room. She was carrying a medical kit and an array of ammunition and guns in her hands, but Bobby was surprised to find that she hadn’t bothered sorting her battered face or torn dress out. Clearly her priority was in getting the two of them prepared for the worst.

“I was admiring your interior decorating skills,”

“Don’t be sarcastic, ,” Nari narrowed her eyes at Bobby as she clicked a magazine in a pistol before sliding it across the table, “Here, try that out.”

Bobby picked up the gun and immediately began to navigate it – he was disappointed at how well it balanced in his hands compared to his standard gun, “You SM-folk sure do pay attention to detail.” Bobby mumbled as he eyed the elegant design of the sleek gun.

“That’s no SM gun, I get mine sourced…elsewhere.”

“You scared they’ll blow up on you?” Bobby chuckled as he clicked the magazine in and out of the gun.

“Something like that.”

After Bobby had enough of admiring the artisan handgun, he watched Nari closely as she expertly cleaned her gun out. Over and over again, she’d take the same parts out, clean them and re-insert them. It began to annoy him, ”You nervous?”

“No.”

“Then why do you keep doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Cleaning your gun over and over again?”

“Will you stop asking questions?”

“Get down!”

As soon as the little green, laser dot appeared on Nari’s chest, Bobby followed his immediate instinct and tackled Nari to the floor – just as bullets rained through her apartment windows, shattering into a thousand tiny shards around them.

Bobby groaned in pain as they kept their heads down and crawled behind the counter. Sitting up and pressing their backs against the counter, Bobby’s arm throbbed as his face twanged in pain.

“The glass is supposed to be bulletproof!” Nari cursed, “Did you get hurt?” Nari asked concernedly over the gunfire, her eyes both pain and apprehensive.

“A little,” Bobby grunted as he pressed a hand to the bullet lodged in his arm.

Nari removed his fingers from the now-bleeding wound, their skin-to-skin contact electric as she examined the wound. But the fluttering in Bobby’s stomach was severely overwhelmed by the pain that surmounted by the second.

Nari’s eyes widened in shock as the blood seeped out of his arm, “Take your jacket off.”

Bobby did a double take, “This is hardly the time-“

“Just take off your jacket!”

Following her orders, Bobby flinched ever so slightly as Nari helped to remove his jacket, “Careful with that, I spent all day getting it fit-“

Nari cut him off by ripping the blazer down the middle. Bobby’s breath caught in the throat as she quickly and expertly tied a tourniquet around his arm, “Sorry not sorry,” She shrugged, “Any ideas about get out of here?” She asked as she tried to peek around the counter, only to be met with the relentless bullet-fire from the building across the street.

Bobby pulled a face, “Out? Why would we want to get out? We should just wait out the gunfire, surely?”

Nari chuckled nervously, “The attack will have triggered SM’s lockdown procedure. The building, phone lines, everything will get cut off until safety can be confirmed with command.”

“Can’t you just call your buddies up and tell them we’re A-Okay?”

“One; we’re not okay. Two; I lost touch with the team as soon as I stepped foot out of the building. Three; I’d rather not be stuck here, with you, waiting for a rescue that will probably take a good twenty-four hours.”

Bobby made an ‘o’ shape with his lips.

He had an idea, “This is gonna’ sound crazy, but I can bring you to my place?”

Nari grumbled, “As in the YG Residences? On the other side of the city?”

Bobby nodded, “We could get in a taxi that will take us there.”

Nari’s eyes widened in horror, “You’re joking again, right?”

“Nope.” Bobby shook his head, “You happen to live in the liveliest part of the city, there’s people everywhere. In fact, I’m surprised no one’s noticed the attack on your home. Conveniently, it’s peak time for party-goers right now. Hiding in plain sight is the best way to avoid the enemy.”

Nari hit her head back against the counter in frustration, “Fine. First, we need to get out of here.”

Bobby’s eyes lit up with yet another bright idea, “You got a garbage chute?”

“Under the sink there- oh god no, again?”

It was only when the two emerged at the bottom end of the apartment block that Nari really looked as if she were contemplating killing Bobby then and there. As they brushed off the dirt and grime that clung to their clothes and bodies, the faint popping of gunfire continuing in the distance.

“What is it with you and waste disposal units?” Nari asked him as Bobby slammed the lid for the waste unit shut.

“I like getting my hands dirty in a job, makes me satisfied.” He replied as they began to tread their way through the garbage piles before emerging through the back alleys.

“What happens when we get out there?” Nari asked – for once, she had uncertainty in her voice.

As they traversed further and further through the alley and back towards civilisation, Bobby could hear the vivid hustle and bustle of the city, music of distant bars and nightclubs and the sense of the city Bobby loved so much.

“We act natural, like we’ve come back from a bar crawl. Hail a cab and go on from there.”

Bobby didn’t expect the plan to be executed with such ease, but the two pressed onwards anyway. As they fully emerged from the alley, they were met with hordes of party-goers and drunken you