The door leading inside the mansion creaked open, revealing a sharply dressed old man. I could only guess that he was a butler. He wore a suit and gave off the aura of a man in servitude. He arched an eyebrow in our direction, staring at us through his spectacles.

“Hello. Shin Jiseok hired us,” Yuri stated. She held up the contract that the Jiseok signed as proof.

The man stared at the paper for a few seconds. He then nodded allowing us passage into the mansion. “Yes, he did say he was going to have guests.

Surprisingly, the mansion’s interior was rather simple. No extravagant decorations or large paintings of the owner to fulfill their narcissistic needs. About ten steps ahead of us were a flight of stairs that split the first floor into two hallways. The butler led us up the stairs into another hallway with several doors. Finally, he stopped at what was probably the master bedroom. He lightly knocked on the double doors. “Sir, you have guests.”

There was no answer. Even after five minutes, the double doors did not open or show any sign of opening.

The butler sighed and knocked on the door again. “Please forgive him for making you wait.” He rubbed his forehead in frustration. I guess even the butler didn’t really like our client either. Oh boy, this was going to be one fun mission.

“It’s no problem,” I reassured him. I took my blue cap off and started to play with its bill.

“Do you need us to knock the door down?” Hyoyeon asked. “We can do that for you.”

I gave her a look. She returned my look with an innocent smile. Hyoyeon was way too rash at times.  

The butler chuckled. “No need.” His expression became more serious. “But I do wonder why he signed a contract with five women.”

As I was straining my brain to develop a good enough excuse, Yuri easily answered the butler’s question. “I’m sorry but it’s under the contract guidelines that we don’t talk about our business with just anybody. However, if we come to a mutual agreement with him to tell you then we will.” She politely bowed.

“I see,” he said, nodding his head in complete understanding.

It was times like these where I wondered why I was the leader and Yuri wasn’t. Yuri was sharp, smart, and best of all, she knew what she was doing. Leader qualities that I lacked.

A few years ago, I asked all of them separately why they chose me to be the leader when I saw myself as the weakest link in the group. The strange part of the whole ordeal was that they all had the same answer: “I trust you.” Needless to say, they left me with a confused face and a very cryptic answer. I still haven’t figured much of it.

Finally, one of the double doors opened. A sloppily dressed man came out of the room, yawning. “Why did you wake me up for? The meeting’s not until six.”

“Sir, you have guests.”

“Hmm…” Jiseok mumbled. He waved the butler away in which the older man briskly walked off.

“1, 2, 3…” I said quietly enough that only the girls could hear.

“Annyeonghaseyo!” We greeted and bowed in unison. It was something Hyoyeon wanted us to do saying that it was “cool” to be in sync. I’ll admit, it was fun to do especially when our client looked like they walked into a whole different planet.

“We’re your bodyguards,” I said. “Nice to meet you.” I stuck out my hand as a friendly gesture.

Instead of taking my hand, Jiseok only sneered at me. “Is this a joke? I hired bodyguards, not women.”

“Nope. I’m pretty sure you hired us to guard you,” Sooyoung said nonchalantly. “It says in the contract.”

He scoffed, looking at us in disbelief. “You think I’m going to let women protect me? My reputation will be ruined! Let me talk to your boss. He told me he would give me bodyguards. Bodyguards! Not women!”

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like we’ve haven’t heard this a million times already.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Seohyun sincerely apologized. “But you already signed the contract,” Seohyun motioned to the piece of paper in Yuri’s hand, “meaning that you’re stuck with us.”

Hyoyeon snorted. “There’s a reason why we’re still in business.”

Sooyoung nodded in agreement. “I can tell you right now that we’re probably the best underground bodyguards you could ever find.” She rolled up her sleeve. “…I bet I could beat your right now.”

“Yah, Sooyoung,” I warned her. The last thing we needed was one pissed off client. “I’m really sorry about her behavior. It’s been a tiring day for all of us.”

“Just do your job,” Jiseok glared at us. “Meeting’s at six so do whatever you want until then.” He promptly slammed the door in our faces.

What a gentleman.    

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After three painfully long hours, the meeting was down and over with. It was not fun at all to be sitting for three hours watching old guys talk about their problems. We were at the town hall where the meeting took place. For safety precautions, we had forced Jiseok to wear the bullet-proof vest under his suit. All five of us wore bullet-proof vests as well as concealing a pistol under our black jackets.

I slapped my right leg trying to wake it up. “It huuurts,” I whined as the burning sensation ran through my leg.

“ it up, Taeyeon,” said Hyoyeon coldly. Her frown quickly turned into a smile. Being the sweet girl that she was, Hyoyeon squeezed my leg trying to get my nerves back up and running.

“Agh…Thanks, Hyoyeon. I think my leg’s okay now.” I shook my leg around.

“Great. Come on. Everyone else already left ahead of us.” Hyoyeon grabbed my arm and proceeded to drag me out of the building.

When we arrived at the exit, Yuri was standing there holding the door for us. “What took you guys so long?” she asked.

“Taeyeon really needed to go to the bathroom but she was too scared to go alone,” said Hyoyeon with a straight face.

Yuri raised an eyebrow at me, a small smirk forming on her lips.

I shrugged. “This is Hyoyeon you’re talking to.” I lightly slapped the blonde on the back of the head.

Hyoyeon broke into laughter in mere seconds.

I smiled. “Yah. Kim Choding, quit laughing. Let’s go!”

Hyoyeon placed her arm around my shoulders as we stepped out into the darkness. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the blackness.

“I think Yuri believed me,” Hyoyeon chuckled.

“She’s really gullible, isn’t she?” I said.

“Am not!” Yuri protested.

Hyoyeon smirked. “Yah, Yuri-ah~”

“W-What?” asked Yuri hesitantly.

“You like that Jessica girl, don’t you?”

Yuri’s jaw dropped. “H-How-”

“WHAAAT?! Really?” I yelled.

Hyoyeon stared at me in disbelief. “…Why are you saying that?!” She slapped my forehead.

“I didn’t know!”

“Aigoo. It was so obvious, Taeyeon. How did you not notice?”

“I-I just didn’t,” I said. I averted my eyes from Hyoyeon’s “I pity you” gaze.

I glanced at Yuri who was turning into a million shades of red under the bright lamp post. It was interesting to see Yuri so flustered. She was usually the cool-headed one in the group.

I secretly smiled inside knowing that Jessica definitely returned Yuri’s feelings. I opened my mouth to tell Yuri the good news but instantly closed it once I remembered Jessica’s words: “Don’t tell anyone about this or I’ll make sure that you’ll die a terrible, horrible death.”

Yup, I did not want to deal with that.

I patted Yuri’s shoulder, trying to comfort her. “Don’t worry about it, Yuri. I think you guys would make a cute couple,” I said.

“I also think you and Tiffany would make a cute couple, TaeTae~” said Hyoyeon.

“R-Really? She’s very cute, right?! She’s so pretty! Ah, she’s like an angel…” I mooned.   

Hyoyeon poked my cheeks. “Aww. Yuri, do you see this? Our baby Taeyeon is lovestruck.” She slapped me, hard, on the back. “Go confess already!”

“A-Actually, I was planning to go do that…after we get back,” I said shyly.

“You are?!” Hyoyeon’s shock quickly turned into a large grin. “Well, just remember that I’m here for you when you feel like crying. Though, I doubt anyone would reject you, Taeyeon.”

I smiled softly. There was a reason why I loved Hyoyeon. Her fun, playful nature always managed to crack a smile into my face even when I was emotionally distraught. This was why she was my emotional support. I was a secretive person. It’s not like I didn’t trust them but I felt like my secrets, my problems would burden them. Eventually, all of these secrets I kept hidden overwhelmed me. One time, I was an emotional wreck. I cried for hours. Everyone tried to figure out what was wrong with me except for Hyoyeon. Instead, Hyoyeon just sat beside me while I cried my eyes out, occasionally raking her fingers through my hair like a mother would. “Taeyeon looks the best when she’s smiling,” she would tell me and then she would crack another lame joke that she thought of.

“…If Taeyeon’s going to confess, why won’t you do it too, Yuri?” asked Hyoyeon.

“I don’t think she would want to…I did something stupid,” Yuri covered her face with her hands.

I wanted to scream “She likes you!” so badly but I managed to contain myself. I clicked my tongue trying to think of a subtle way to tell Yuri about Jessica’s feelings. “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t hate you. Just talk to her.”

Yuri nodded, eagerly listening to my advice. 

Hyoyeon laughed as she watched Yuri. I guess I wasn’t the only one having fun watching Yuri act like this.

“Yulsic fighting!” I yelled raising my fist in the air.

“Fighting!” Hyoyeon followed, also raising her fist in the air.

Yuri was surprised, probably at my superb naming skills. She weakly raised her fist. “F-Fighting…”

“Fighting!” I heard Sooyoung yell in a squeaky voice. She had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Come on, you guys. It’s ten. Ten! Do you want to stay here until midnight?”

“Sorry. We got distracted,” apologized Hyoyeon.

Sooyoung motioned us to start walking as she ran back to Seohyun and Jiseok.

I started jogging to catch up with Sooyoung, with Hyoyeon and Yuri right behind me. As soon as my eyes were able to make out three figures a few meters ahead of me, I started to slow down.

My body halted to a full stop as a fourth figure appeared from the shadows. The figure approached Seohyun, Sooyoung, and Jiseok from the front and took something out of his pocket.

Jiseok’s piercing scream filled the air as soon as he saw the object. He desperately ran toward the other side of the street.

“Hey! Wait!” I heard Sooyoung yell. All at once, everyone started to sprint for the runaway client. The mysterious figure seemed shocked at the outcome as it took him a little longer to start chasing Jiseok. Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, and Yuri were ahead of me slowly closing in on Jiseok who was screaming for his life. He turned a sharp corner and dove into an alleyway.

“That idiot,” I mumbled.

As I ran into the alleyway, the mysterious figure was right behind me with a knife in his hand. He took a small swing in my direction. Placing my arms in front of me to protect my chest, I quickly jumped backwards. Unfortunately, my back hit the wall of the skinny alley causing the knife to slice through my left arm. “,” I groaned. The figure stepped backwards placing his back on the opposite wall. He looked…shocked?

I hurriedly grabbed my pistol with my right arm. I pointed it at the attacker but I was too slow. He hastily slapped the gun out of my hand leaving me completely defenseless.

I slid down the wall as my knees began to grow weak. I started to crawl, desperately scraping the ground in hopes of finding my pistol.

The attacker scurried over to the pistol and placed his foot on top of it. He bent down and grabbed it. “D-don’t…” I begged. I was desperate. My brain was completely jumbled. I couldn’t think straight. …I don’t want to die.

“I-I’m so sorry,” the attacker said in a shaky voice. He touched the gun with his unsteady hands. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t. I’m so sorry.” His voice was about to break into large sobs. His voice was deep. …I knew that voice. 

The attacker fled deeper into the alleyway. I laid there, dumbfounded. Why? Why him? Why? Why? Why?!

I gripped onto the small indents in the brick wall, trying to hoist myself up. I grimaced as the throbbing pain in my left arm started to worsen. I felt my blood trickle down my skin and onto the pool of blood.

Once I managed to get on my knees, I heard Seohyun yell, “Unnie! I’m sorry! He tripped me…” She ran up to me, noticing my wound. opened, unable to say anything, only mouthing off inaudible words. She rummaged through her bag grabbing a bandage roll, her hands shaking uncontrollably.  

As gently as she could, she rolled up my torn jacket sleeve. “Ouch!” I yelled as the friction between the jacket and my sensitive wound started to increase.

“S-Sorry,” Seohyun cried. “…Looks like the knife didn’t go in that deep.”

I winced once Seohyun had rolled up my sleeve up to my elbows. The cut stretched on my whole forearm. “This is going to leave a mark,” I weakly joked. I hissed as the cold wind made direct contact with the gash.

“Unnie,” she wailed. She wrapped the wound with the bandage roll that quickly became blood red. Seohyun grabbed a large piece of cloth out of her bag. She wrapped it around my wound and firmly tied it close to my wound. “I think the pressure’s enough to stop the bleeding. Just keep that arm in the air.”

“Thanks, Seohyun,” I panted. I d inside the bag. “Found it,” I mumbled. I grabbed the extra pistol out and I steadily stood on my feet.

“Unnie! You can’t! You’re injured!”

“I have to, Seohyun. I just have to. Sorry. Just stay there, just in case.”

I dragged myself deeper inside the alleyway, my breathing becoming more erratic by the second. Soon, the alleyway split into three pathways. “!” I cussed. I could hear Jiseok’s screams but the empty alley caused his voice to be echoed in every direction. “…Wait! Blood! Blood!” I scanned the ground trying look for possible blood tracks left by the knife. On the left pathway, the dim light post showed several blood drops in a line.

I briskly walked into the left pathway, my left arm tightly gripping the right side of my jacket. There was an open doorway where I could Jiesok yelling in between his sobs, “Don’t! Don’t! I don’t want to die! Please! Please, oh God!”

Without thinking, I ran inside the empty room pointing my gun in front of me. The attacker didn’t look at me. Or more like, he couldn’t. He was surrounded by Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, and Yuri, all brandishing a gun towards his direction. Jiseok was cowering in a corner.

Sooyoung eyed my injury. “Taeyeon…did he do that to you?” She scowled at the enemy. “You bastard…”

“Wait! Sooyoung! Don’t shoot him!” I cried. “Don’t hurt him!”

Yuri stared at me. “The hell, Taeyeon?! He hurt you! You think we’re going to let him get away scot-free?”

“H-He didn’t mean it.”

“Are you kidding me, Taeyeon?!” yelled Hyoyeon.

“Just kill the damn bastard!” Jiseok screamed.

The attacker dropped his arms to his sides and he began to tremble. “I’m so sorry. I-I only wanted to scare him. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Bull! You wanted to kill me!” cried Jiseok.

“He’s telling the truth! I know…I know him. He’s not that kind of person.”

Sooyoung scowled. “You talked to him?! Who? …Aish, it doesn’t matter. Talking to him for some minutes doesn’t tell you everything about the person! Come on! Even you know that!”

“I know! I know that! But I-I refuse to believe he would kill anyone! H-He poured his heart out, telling me his stories.” I turned to the attacker with pleading eyes. “I know you didn’t do it…store owner oppa. But why? Why?! Don’t you have a wife waiting for you? Why would you risk your life like this?!”

He tightened his fist into a ball. “S-She’s dead…He killed him.” The store owner pointed an accusing finger at Jiseok.

“He’s lying! I don’t even know who your wife was! Just accept the fact that she died of natural causes!” Jiseok yelled.

“It wasn’t natural! It was your factories! The unhealthy fumes it spit out…it made her sick! She died because of you!” His wet tears soaked his mask. “Why won’t you close them?! I don’t want to see any more deaths! Please…I beg you.”

My knees unexpectedly dropped to the ground. I bit my lower lip trying to bear with the pain; the wound was bleeding again. Hot tears slid down my face as I tried to remain conscious. My eyesight getting blurrier and I was starting lose my senses.

“Taeyeon!” Yuri screamed. She ran over to my side and crouched beside me. She stared at me with hopeless eyes, unable to fully understand what I was going through. Throughout all these years, this was the first time anyone ever received a major wound like this.

Jiseok rose from the ground, frantically pointing at his attacker. “You think I’m just going to lose my source of money just for your sake?! You’ve gotta be kidding! Just kill yourself! Nobody would care, nobody would notice! I’m sure you would want to join your wife, right?”

The store owner stood still. Everyone stiffened as he slowly raised the pistol in the air.

“Don’t!” I screamed. “Don’t do it! You have your whole life ahead of you! Don’t do it! W-What about me?! I’d care if you died! Please! Please! Don’t!” Using only my right arm, I started to crawl my way toward him.

He wavered for a second. “…I’m sorry.” He placed the gun on the side of his head. “I guess I won’t be able to see that friend of yours…”

“Don’t!” I cried with my hoarse voice. I clawed the ground in a desperate attempt to move my weakened knees.

This didn’t have to happen. I didn’t want it to happen. He didn’t deserve it. And the more I thought about it, the more disgusted I was at the world.

Yuri grabbed me by the leg. “Stop, Taeyeon! It’s useless! It’s too late…”

“Let me go!” I tried to pull my leg away from Yuri’s grasp. Instead, my body collapsed on the ground.

The store owner tightly closed his eyes…

*BANG*

The store owner yelled in pain as he gripped his shaking hand. He…was still alive. No hole in his head nor was he bleeding. The gun was a few meters behind him.

“Unnie!” I looked behind me to see Seohyun wielding her pistol.

“D-Did you-”

Seohyun nodded, a stern expression on her face.

A smile took form on my lips. Seohyun, with her near-perfect aim, managed to shoot the gun out of the store owner’s hand before it was too late. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I crawled my way toward the store owner who was on his knees, crying. I place his hand on his shoulder. “I know it’s completely stupid of me but I forgive you. From the beginning, I knew there was something strange… But I forgive you.”

“W-Why?! Why are you so kind to me?”

I smiled weakly. “I don’t know. I’ve been told I’m a strange person. That could probably explain why.”

Sooyoung gritted her teeth. She turned to Jiseok and pointed the gun at him. “Hey. I’m getting sick of everybody complaining about your damn factories. Why can’t you just shut them down? I can tell you right now that there’s better ways of making money.”

Jiseok eyes widened. “A-Are you threatening me? I’m your client!”

Hyoyeon snorted. “We can rip up your contract any time we want. Besides, we’re doing you a favor. From what I can tell, it’s either close them down or face death.”

“…I-I was going to anyway. But don’t expect me to ever hire you guys again!”

“I’d hate to see you again,” sighed Sooyoung.

Jiseok growled. “I’ll give you your damn money!” He fumbled in his pockets for something. “And your boss wanted me to give you this too!” He stuck out a small piece of paper in his hand.

“From our boss? Seriously?” Sooyoung hastily grabbed the paper out of Jiseok’s hand.

“What’s it say?” Hyoyeon peeked at the paper.

“…The hell?” Sooyoung rotated the paper around trying to make sense of it.

“What is it?” I asked as Yuri pulled me off the ground. Seohyun had retightened the cloth on my arm and was now consoling with the store owner.

“Take a look yourself.” Hyoyeon snatched the paper out of Sooyoung’s hands and passed it to me.

Death only brings sadness. Mankind has conquered air, water, everything…except for death. But there is reason. Death is part of Mother Nature. Not everyone can simply conquer death. Only those that are worthy can obtain immortality…

“…The hell?” I said.

“Exactly,” said Sooyoung.

“Now’s not the time to think about that,” interrupted Yuri. “We have to get Taeyeon to a hospital.”

“I already called Sohee a while back. She said she can probably get here in about an hour,” informed Seohyun.

“Thank god our hospital is so close,” I sighed.

We finally completed the mission. Instead of my usual satisfaction, I was left feeling miserable and confused. What was that message all about? Why would our mysterious boss send us that? What was he planning? And why did I have this terrible feeling in my gut that something terrible was going to happen?