Bora did not sleep well. She tossed and turned in her bed that felt too big, waiting for a sign that the Trials would start. The silence of the night was only ruptured by the humming of the air vents. Occasionally, the sound would be accompanied by what she guessed were little animals scampering through the pipes. Mice, maybe.

She dozed off a few times but never for too long. Each time she went under, her mind pulled her back to Jackson. 

Do you know what it feels like to lose a loved one? 

He sure did and she wanted to slap herself across the face. Jackson was knee-deep in Division’s business. Of course he would have seen death.

In hindsight, she felt stupid. No one had a monopoly on pain, on heartbreak, or on death.

He had lost a loved one. The woman he’d loved was dead on a mission. Everything he had told her about grief came rushing back to her.

What you’re doing is a distraction. Grief needs closure. 

Maybe he was right. Maybe a few years from now, when she’d look back at what had happened to her and all the decisions she’d taken this past week, she’d regret.

She couldn’t know.

The only thing she was sure of was that she’d certainly regret not doing anything. She needed the power of Division behind her to get to Seonmin. The man who had a part in her mother’s assassination.

There was no doubt left for her. She would participate in the Trials.

Whatever the cost.

A knock at the door.

Finally.

Two agents of Division, a woman and a man in their mid-twenties who adorned matching sets of dark uniforms stood to attention when she eased open the double doors.

They informed her that the first of the three Trials was today and walked her to the garage where she had last left Jackson. As they threaded through the corridors of Cloud Nine, she tried to engage conversation with them but they weren’t very receptive. Bora wondered if they’d been given specific instructions. 

When they emerged in the garage, dozens of vans were aligned, and agents of Division were getting ready. Some were all geared up and a group was loading one of the vans with equipment worthy of a broadcasting network.

The place thrummed with an atmosphere tantamount to the one preceding an important football game. When she entered the place flanked by a guard on each side, she felt gazes shifting in her direction, bodies tensing. Although she’d become the center of attention with her mere presence, no one dared address her. She was like an animal in a zoo.

A familiar head appeared in her line of sight. Bambam. He was busy in deep conversation with—

“Woobin?”

Bora had to do a double take at the person standing next to Bambam. Her best friend seemed absolutely in whatever conversation they were having.

“Pinch me now,” she walked up to them. She almost forgot the stress of the first Trial. “Why do you look like you’re having the time of your life in here?”

Woobin grinned at her upon her arrival. 

He looked on a high.

“Bora, do you know who this guy is?” He motioned to Bambam. “He’s Bambam!” He cut her before she could even open . 

“Yeah…” she looked at him unsure of what to say. “I know.”

“No, Bambam.” He insisted like saying it again would get another reaction from her. 

She closed her eyes, a headache beginning to throb in the back of her head. “How does you saying it a second time change anything?”

“Do you even listen to me when I talk to you? I told you about him!”

Come to think of it, the name did ring some bell. Woobin so often blabbered about legendary hackers but she never retained their names. 

“He’s—”

Bambam sprang out a hand and let it rest on Woobin’s shoulder. 

“Allow me to make it short,” he turned to Bora “He’s like the most-wanted hacker out there. He hacked into the Pentagon’s systems when he was a teen. There was a whole movie about it. He—” 

“You often talk about yourself in third person?” Bora cut him.

“You’re missing the point.” He gritted out. 

“And you have a God complex”, she looked at him dead in the eye. “You realize that, right?”

A lazy smile drew on Bambam’s lips as he peered at Bora below his sunglasses. She felt he was a hair breadth away from flipping his hair back.

Bora sighed out loud and brought a hand to her temple trying to relieve her headache. 

“I need you to get Woobin out of here,” she looked at Bambam. “Get him back to Seoul and erase any trace of his presence around Division. It must be a piece of cake for someone who hacked into the Pentagon.”

Surely that would be child’s play for Bambam. 

Bora was convinced that the more Woobin knew, the more danger he would be in. But then again, he already knew about Division and how it was using receipts on the Ghost Unit to blackmail the government. 

Bambam scrunched up his nose in distaste. “This is too lowly a task for someone who hacked into the Pentagon. I’m not some tour operator.” 

A loud laughter escaped Woobin. “I’m not leaving you here, Bora.” He looked at her in bewilderment. 

“But your job—”

“I took my leave.” 

“But—”

“I’m not leaving you here on your own. End of discussion.” He added when she opened to protest.

“You’re not leaving me here or you’re not leaving him?” Bora squinted her eyes suspiciously at her friend. 

He gave her a toothy grin before slipping an arm around her shoulders.

“Ah, comrade. What mess did you get yourself into again?” He smoothly dodged her question. “I’m kind of into it this time.”

Bora couldn’t believe her ears. It was like her world had been turned upside down in a few days.

A loud laugh escaped her despite herself. She knew he wouldn’t back down, and deep down knowing he was by her side was comforting, as selfish as it was. 

He rubbed the crown of her head with his knuckles. She let out a strangled noise and pushed him away. She bumped into something hard. She turned around, the shadow of a smile still on her lips and froze. 

All the warm feelings that had been burgeoning inside her died down at the sight of Jackson. He was accompanied by Solar and Mark. His face let nothing show. But Bora couldn’t stop thinking about his expression when she’d told him You’re a coward.

He'd looked a mix of hurt, rage and something else too. Something she couldn't describe. Now he was back to his nonchalant self, like nothing had happened, like he hadn’t let something slip through the cracks.

Bora was the first to break their proximity. She took a step back and cleared . 

“We’re going to Seoul, kids!” Bambam’s voice grounded her back into reality.

Jackson rolled his eyes and Bora had to admit that the prospect of going back to Seoul wasn’t really appealing.

“But first,” he eyed Bora and Mark. “I need you to give me all the weapons you carry. And take these instead.” He pushed on the table two identical backpacks.

While Mark stripped himself of his — many — weapons, Bora took the backpack and opened it to analyze the content. A nine-millimeter and a safety harness. She did not like where this was going.

The gun was real and the harness… What for? The Trial would involve climbing? Hopefully she wasn’t afraid of heights but she still didn’t feel comfortable with what seemed to be awaiting her.

She smoothed her face into neutrality. She zipped the backpack to a close again, slung it over her shoulder, then pulled out the only weapon she had. Celeste the dagger.

She dropped it on the metal tabletop with a loud clang.

Bambam’s eyes zeroed in on the dagger. “Where the hell did you get this?”

Nairin and Mark froze next to her as they inspected the weapon she’d handed and she clasped a hand over a strap of her backpack, feeling her heartbeat pick up.

Why did it feel like she’d done something wrong?

She eyed Jackson hesitantly. His body was taut and he wasn’t looking at her, his eyes fixed on the dagger.

She hesitated. “I—” 

“I gave it to her,” Jackson cut her to the chase. He extended an arm and swiped the dagger off the tabletop. “And I’m taking it back.” 

She noticed Nairin and Mark exchanging glances.

“You gave it to her?” Bambam repeated dumbfounded.

She peered at Jackson quizzically. His lips tightened and he still refused to look at her in the eye.

Nairin’s eyes went between her brother and Bora like she was trying to solve a particularly complex math problem.

“Is something the matter?” Solar intervened and Bora almost wanted to thank her.

Jackson was the first one to break the tension. “No. We’re about to set off. Right, Bam?”

Without waiting for Bambam’s reply he stalked off to the line of vans.

Something was definitely the matter. 

***

It was insanity. She could make it end. She could opt out. Forfeit. Everybody expected it from her. They were all waiting for her to give up. 

She could see it, feel it. 

She sensed it in the way they all looked at her after Bambam had given them instructions for the Trial. Everybody looked straight at her, assessing her next move. They didn’t look at Mark that way.

He must have done crazier stuff in his lifetime than scaling to the top of the Seoul Tower.

Because that was the Trial. 

Climbing to the top of the Seoul Tower.

When Bambam had given the instructions, she could swear she’d lived an out-of-body experience. A part of her brain locked her muscles and forced her to display a neutral façade. The other part was going berserk.

An invisible rope had s its way around , and she had to focus really hard to keep on breathing. 

A black flag hung at the tip of the antenna of the Tower. Bora had no idea how Bambam had managed to get it up there and that was the least of her concerns. 

How the hell was she supposed to get up there?

“You do realize you have to climb at some point, right?” Nairin’s voice pulled Bora out of her thoughts. “That’s what the harness is for.”

They were in a disused warehouse that served as a temporary base of operations for Division. It was located at the foot of the hill leading to the Tower. The agents who had accompanied came and went to make sure that the Trial would run smoothly and that no hassle would come to perturbate the entertainment.

The Trial would start at noon, leaving them a full hour to think and plan. Bora was sitting on a dusty crate with Nairin and Woobin on each side. She twirled her gun in her hand, again and again, the motion weirdly soothing her like some sort of meditation technique.

“I know, Nairin.”

She hoped she sounded more convinced than how she felt.

It all felt like a giant joke. Like even the members of Division knew what sort of madness this was and they were only testing her limits, to see if she would go all the way through.

Surely, this couldn’t be real. It was just a test of bravery. They just wanted to see if she had the guts to do it. And once she would step inside the Tower, they’d stop her, tell her it’s madness and that she’d won.

Right?

“There are two main platforms on the tower,” Nairin continued going through the layout of the Tower as she scribbled down a rough sketch, unaware of Bora’s train of thoughts. “There's a first platform and then the observation decks and then the second platform. And the tower gets thinner and thinner until you reach the antenna.”

Bora craned her neck and her eyes scanned the sketch. 

First platform. 

Observation deck. 

Second platform. 

Antenna. 

“And don't forget it's a race. Any way can get you to the top but you'll have to pick the fastest. Not the safest, not the easiest. Everything we’re thinking of right now, Mark is thinking of it too, and maybe even more. We have to be smarter than him.”

Mark was nowhere in sight. He’d gone to God only knew where as soon as Bambam had announced what the Trial would consist i