"You can lie down right here," the man said, gesturing towards the wide and very pompous looking bed.

Arin had a bad feeling about everything. She felt in in her stomach but all she did was grip her bow tightly. After a few more seconds of saying nothing she decided to speak up.

"I should get back to work..." Arin finally mumbled.

She turned around and tried to open the door but she stopped as the man held her wrist gently and offered her a bright pink colored drink.

"You don't need to be nervous," he said softly.

His eyes were soft and gentle and his smile seemed caring. She shifted her gaze to stare uneasily at the drink yet she downed the whole thing in one go. Arin began to feel all warm. Regret began to creep up on her but she didn't have much time to think about it. She hiccuped a few times before she got all sleepy and her mind got hazier. Arin felt like she was falling.

"Woah there~" the guy chuckled.

He caught her smoothly and lifted her all the way to the bed. After settling her down on the bed, he placed his hands on his hips and examined her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, smiling.

She groaned in response. She was losing consciousness.

"You're weak when it comes to alcohol? Or did i just put in too much?" he chuckled to himself.

Arin didn't reply anymore.

"Ahh, I'm not used to doing anything to completely out girls," he said in a low voice. "But I really like you."

He lay down next to her and carefully brushed her bangs. Grinning mischievously, he began to get closer. his lips were almost touching hers. He paused for a bit and grinned.

"There have been so many people here. Let me see what you taste like."

He closed his eyes again and leaned in. To his surprise, there was nothing but air.

"What!?" he sat up suddenly and looked around. "Oh."

His eyes landed on the little baby on the bed wearing a white shirt and skirt. The baby looked exactly like Arin.

"You did look a bit familiar," he said, scratching his head irritably. "Now I have a problem on my hands."

He pulled out a black phone from his pocket and opened his contacts. On the top of the list was a name with a star next to it. He stared at it carefully.

“No, not yet,” he decided.

Instead, he scrolled through the list and called in someone else. Soon, someone entered the room.

“What is it? I was having a lovely time with this girl…”  grumbled a tall and broad shouldered looking man.

“Take care of this girl for me,” the man snapped. “Do anything strange and we’ll all be in trouble, you hear me?”

The tall man looked over to baby Arin and his jaw dropped in shock.

“Is she one of-“

“Don’t ask. Don’t know anything more than you need to know,” the man said darkly.

“Eros,” the tall man said somberly, “You can trust me. We’ve been partners for a long time. Longer than when you’ve been working with…” he trailed off.

Eros remained silent, still looking gloomily at baby Arin who was trying to crawl off the bed. He picked her up and carried her. She squirmed and struggled until she began to cry. Eros got up with a sigh and rocked her around until her eyelids began drooping. She finally closed her eyes completely and began her thumb gently. The two men watched her quietly.

“Zephyr, I have always thought about how nice it would be to settle down,” Eros murmured.

“I thought you gave up on that idea?”

“Well, you know our life. We’ve made decisions we can’t take back. But…” he said, eyeing Arin more closely, “I think I’m willing to make another decision.”

“You won’t be able to hide her,” Zephyr warned him.

“I can try. Always give her drinks, always make her stay. If the witch wants to take her she’ll have to go through me. In a way, this is my last rebellion.”

“The last?”

“This girl, “ he said, rocking Arin, “is a friend of Yoobin.”

Silence fell between them. Zephyr pinched the bridge of his nose.

“A dangerous friend, I see. How could you let them in?”

“I’ll admit I was careless this time around but I guess it’s about time. In fact… if we can bring her back Yoobin, she’ll at least let us keep this one.”

“I don’t think she will,” Zephyr said, shaking his head. “She’s quite greedy.”

“She’s also desperate now,” Eros said. “Yoobin was her favorite, you know? I’m willing to take the risk.”

“You dare to make a deal with the devil?” Zephyr asked, lifting his eyebrows.

“One cannot kill a god,” Eros smirked.

Zephyr sighed as he watched Eros affectionately rock the baby. He finally set baby Arin back down on the bed and they sat down on either side of her. They both stared off at something faraway and neither spoke to the other. The only sound that was made was the quiet giggle of the sleeping baby.

 

"Seunghee really cares about Arin," Hyojung said.

They were sitting on the floor in a circle in a tiny, white room.

"I want to bust out of here too," JinE whined. 

She scooted closer to Binnie and nudged her with her shoulder.

"Can't you get us out of here, Binnie? You're a smart cookie," she said, pouting.

"You're the one who should be getting us out of here. You're super strong," Binnie retorted.

"Then will you be the brain to my brawn?" JinE cooed.

"Knock it off, weirdo," Jiho grunted.

"Are you jealous?" JinE said, wrapping her arms around Binnie's arm.

Binnie suddenly remembered JinE's strange behavior a few hours earlier.

"JinE..." she began.

"What is it?" 

Binnie noticed the others were listening so she instead chose to wait until next time to discuss it.

"We can work together but I can't do anything with these collars," she said instead.

Before anybody else could speak, a small hole appeared and from it flew a small remote.

"It's the collar remote!" Binnie exclaimed, immediately recognizing it.

"Then, there's no need to hold back!" JinE said, standing up. 

Hyojung stood up as well and pursed her lips.

"Are you going to object?" YooA asked, getting up as well.

"Of course not," Hyojung said. "We have to rescue our teammate!"

"The boss will be so pissed," JinE laughed.

Jiho looked hesitant but Binnie took her hand and pulled her up.

"Let's go."

 

Mimi had parked the car in front of the place and the two were waiting for... something?

"Dude, what are we waiting for?" Mimi asked.

"Like I know we're supposed to rescue Arin... but how do we do that?"

"SEUNGHEE, THIS IS WHAT I WAS ASKING YOU ABOUT?" 

"Calm down. I'm kidding," Seunghee laughed. "I think I have a plan."

"Does this plan involve just barging in and asking for Arin?" Mimi asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

"So maybe I should have brought Binnie but I didn't! Just stick with this plan!" Seunghee said, turning red.

They both ran out of the car and kicked down the main door. It was quiet. They ran down the stairs to the main area. They looked around but all they saw wasted people, lying down on the floor.

"W-What's wrong with them all?" Mimi asked, growing nervous.

"Is someone still up?" a lazy voice drawled.

They were startled to see it was the charismatic man. He was not so charismatic now but he simply seemed lazy and annoyed.

"Oh, it's you two," he said, acting surprised. "Well," he continued sweetly, "She's not here."

"How did you know we were looking for someone?" Seunghee asked defensively.

"Well, I saw you all leave together except for one," he said, shrugging. "She probably had too much fun with someone and ran off with him," he winked.

The two tensed up, waiting for something to happen. The man just stood there, waiting as well. Finally, he moved back into the room from where he came from.

“Hey, wait!”

The two chased after him, stepping on a ton of squishy bodies and tried to catch up with him. They followed him into the room which had more inner rooms until they finally stopped in a room with a huge bed.

“Is it just the two of you?” he said, lying down.

It seemed as if he had his guard down completely.

“Where’s Arin?” Seunghee said seriously.

“Arin?” he echoed. “That’s a cute name.”

“I wasn’t asking for you opinion of her name,” Seunghee said, growing impatient.

All of a sudden, the man’s body came to life and lunged at them. They were surprised but managed to avoid him just in time. He swung his fist at Seunghee who blocked it. At the same time the man managed to aim a kick at Mimi who simply jumped out of the way. He continued to fight with them, 2 vs 1. Seunghee and Mimi grew increasingly nervous as his moves grew faster and stronger. He finally got a good hit on Mimi, who cried out in pain. He looked at Seunghee before turning away to get something. They watched as he downed a bright colored drink and his pupils somewhat became bigger. He seemed to buzz with energy. He laughed loudly and set down the glass. He reached out for something on the wall and the girls were horrified to see that it was a crossbow.

“Okay, how did we not see that!??” Seunghee screamed.

“Oh, god…” Mimi mumbled, as she fell over.

“AN ARROW TO THE KNEE!!!” Seunghee cried out in panic.

“’Tis but a scratch,” Mimi laughed before passing out.

“Well, that was strange,” Seunghee muttered. 

Now it was 1 on 1.

“Do you think you can beat me? I am Eros, a god. I am immortal,” he laughed loudly.

His words echoed off the walls and rang in Seunghee’s ears.  His laugh rattled her. Just as she was about to speak she heard a different laugh. It was tiny and adorable and it was approaching them.

“No!” a deep voice cried out.

Seunghee gaped as she saw a toddler who looked just like Arin wobble into the room. She was immediately followed and picked up by a tall man. Seunghee couldn’t tear her eyes away from the toddler. Her mind was reeling back to a time where...

“Zephyr, I told you to take care of her!” Eros said angrily.

“Well, when they grow up they get more rebellious,” Zephyr said in a matter-of-fact tone while trying to keep the squirming toddler in his arms.

“W-What did you do to Arin!?” Seunghee stammered angrily, snapping out of her thoughts.

Seunghee felt a drop of cold sweat fall from her face. The tall man said nothing as he produced a baby bottle full of the bright colored drink and she watched horrified as the toddler drank it happily. They watched as she hiccupped a few times before growing smaller, back into baby form.

“We just gave her a drink,” Eros shrugged. “Whatever happened to her after she drank it wasn’t what we had in mind. It’s… a part of her nature.”

"What do you mean by-"

“Would you say that you’re in a team with this girl?” Zephyr asked.

Seunghee was a bit taken aback to be suddenly questioned by the newcomer but she gritted her teeth and answered him.

“Y-Yes. More than that, I’m her protector,” Seunghee said, almost growling.

“Eros could do much better than you. He knows her more than you do as well.,” Zephyr stated blandly.

“You’ve just met her!” Seunghee exclaimed angrily.

“I’ve met her before,” Eros pointed out. “Also, even if I’ve spent less time with her than you did, I know more about her. You don’t even know about her condition, her history.”

“And what exactly would that be?” Seunghee asked warily.

“Why don’t you ask Yoobin? She’s on the same team with you, right?”

“Yoobin?” Seunghee asked, puzzled.

Eros and Zephyr looked at each other and stayed quiet. Eros slowly moved his eyes back to Seunghee, gripping the crossbow tighter. The three people remained stiff and tense as if anything could happen at any moment. And within a few seconds, something did happen.

“EVERYBODY PUT YOUR HANDS UP!”

The three people were startled and the baby Arin found this opportunity to escape from Zephyr’s arms and crawl away.

“The baby!” Eros cried out.

“Is that supposed to be Arin?” Jiho asked, surprised, jumping out of the way.

The baby was unexpectedly fast and was growing into a toddler, eventually getting up and toddling away.

“Hey, wait up!!!” Seunghee shouted.

Seunghee, Eros and Zephyr began to race after the baby pushing aside the 5 other girls who had just arrived.

“We should go after them too!” Binnie cried out.

“Hey, it’s Mimi!” YooA said, suddenly noticing Mimi’s limp body on the floor.

“Is she okay?” Hyojung asked, coming over to Mimi.

“The po-po can’t catch me and my sweet ride…” Mimi mumbled.

“Ugh, I think she is,” JinE said, crinkling her nose.

“I’ll take care of her,” YooA volunteered. “You guys help Seunghee.”

The four girls nodded and began running after the others who were actually quite far off already. They could hear shouting and the sounds of people being stepped on.

“Why is she so fast?” Eros yelled angrily.

The baby Arin was laughing and toddling around, probably around 3 or 4 years old.

The baby had made its way to the exit and everybody stopped to see her crawl into the arms of, none other than, the boss.

“We have a warrant for your arrest,” she said, her voice overflowing with authority.

Behind her stood Archer and together they seemed like an impossibly powerful duo. Eros and Zephyr looked at them carefully.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Eros said, smiling. “I think that we should just negotiate.”

“People in debt don’t have a right to negotiate,” the boss said coldly.

“What if we’re both in debt?” Eros said, smirking.

The boss stared down at him yet didn’t answer.

“What I want is that Zephyr, that girl and I get away from all this unharmed and never to be seen again. That’s all,” Eros said, raising his hands.

“What will you do if I don’t agree?” the boss said, returning a smirk.

Eros slowly put down his hand and brought out a black phone.

“I’ve got her on speed dial.”

The young girls were left confused at the tension between the four adults. They were surprised when the phone was obliterated and crushed to a million pieces. JinE stood there, unmoving, as the pieces of the phone fell to the ground. Suddenly, there was a gunshot and a fist swing and a shout but that’s all they could make out as bright colored powder was thrown into the air, making everyone’s vision blurred.

“Don’t breathe it in!” they heard JinE cry out.

They heard her cough as they rushed to cover their nose and mouth.

“Arin, go!” they heard the boss lady say.

The baby Arin then jumped into the hazy area.

“JinE!” they heard a tiny voice say. “Left! Right! Up! Down! Forward! Forward!”

The voice grew bigger and smaller and sometimes it was just a baby’s gibberish. Whatever the boss had planned, it was working. They heard male grunts and exclamations of pain until there was nothing more to be heard. The powdered air began to clear and out of it emerged a triumphant looking JinE carrying a 5 or 6 year old Arin on her shoulders. The young Arin was laughing and pulling JinE's hair. JinE didn't seem to mind this at all. Other men came from the entrance and ran to where Eros and Zephyr lay crumbled on the floor. They were hauled up and handcuffed.

"Take them away," the boss lady said.

They two were guided towards the exit but Eros stopped in front of the girls. He scanned them for a moment and smirked.

"Yoobin, she misses you," he said, staring intensely at Binnie.

The other members looked a bit puzzled, all except for JinE. She stood there with cold looking eyes.

"Also," he said, turning away, "You looked better with long hair."

After that he continued to walk, not  waiting for the men to push him along. Zephyr followed him quietly. Everybody was quite surprised to see the boss punch Eros' jaw. Eros didn't seem surprised though.

"Don't talk to my girls as if you know them," the boss said coldly, wiping her fist with a red handkerchief. "There's no Yoobin here."

Eros laughed heartily and the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"How long do you have to live a lie before it becomes real?"

He didn't wait for an answer and simply continued to laugh until they could no longer see him. 

"That man was extremely weird," Seunghee said irritably. "Did he hurt you!?" Seunghee suddenly said, transitioning to a worried older sister.

"He didn't," 5 year old Arin said. "He was actually really nice. I got a good rest thanks to him."

"Well, that's fine," Seunghee grumbled. "But would you mind telling us what the hell happened to you???"

"If there's anything you need to know," the boss answered, "I will tell you."

"Then tell us," Seunghee challenged.

The boss shrugged and sighed out.

"Arin's special skill is becoming smaller. When she gets smaller she also gets younger but she still maintains her current state of mind."

"But I also get affected by what I should be affected especially if I stay in a certain state for a long time. I easily got sleepy when he rocked me in his arms~" Arin smiled, resting her chin on JinE's head.

"Aww, she's so cute~!!!: Hyojung exclaimed. "I wish I had my camera~!!!"

"You don't know anything about life outside the mountains. Why do you know about cameras?" Jiho asked skeptically.

"I have one back at home. I can't remember right now where I got it though..." Hyojung said trailing off.

"Well, I guess I'll have to take care of you better now," Seunghee breathed. "I'm sorry for not doing my best."

"You'll also be sorry because you're going to have a punishment," the boss lady interjected. "You escaped."

"Ah but I-!" Seunghee tried to defend herself but Hyojung cut her off.

"If Seunghee gets in trouble, we all do. We all escaped," Hyojung said firmly, stepping in front of Seunghee.

"Hyojung..." Seunghee said in awe.

"There's no need for that. She started it anyways. How will it be a punishment if all of you do it? I'm only going to ask her to clean all the toilets on your floor," the boss lady grumbled.

"Then we can do it together," Hyojung replied quickly. "We're a team and we do things together."

The boss sighed.

"Did you ask your members if they wanted to do it too?"

:Ah! I'm sorry!" Hyojung said, turning to the members. "I got carried away and-"

"We'll do it."

"You guys..." Seunghee said. "You don't have to..."

"We're all in this together~~!!!" Hyojung cried happily, slinging her arm around Seunghee.

Everybody laughed and for that moment in time, everything seemed well.

 

"Seunghee unnie! Where are you going?"

"Taro, I just have some stuff to take care of."

"Unnie, no one will take care of me if you're not around!"

He was crying now. He was only wiping his eyes with one hand because the other was in a cast. He was crying and he was in a cast because of me. It's all my fault.

"Seunghee unnie?"

"Yes, Taro?" 

"Will you be back in time for my birthday?"

I won't promise him anything anymore. I just ruffled his hair. He's a smart kid though.

"You have to promise it."

Taro... he's making it hard on me. 

"I promise I'll be back on your birthday."

I'm smiling and it's not real. I'm lying to Taro. Taro is only five years old. How can he be so observant? He's too nice.

"I'll do my best to become stronger, Seunghee unnie. By the time you see me, I'll become a very big and strong Taro!!!"

His smile is so genuine and cute. It's so bright. I want to cry but I can't cry in front of him. I give him one last pet on the head.

"See you around, kiddo."

"Seunghee, wake up," a quiet voice says.

"W-what? Who's there??" Seunghee says sniffing.

"You were crying in your sleep."

Quickly adjusting to the darkness, Seunghee saw Arin peering worriedly at her. Seunghee immediately sat up and felt her face. It was wet. 

"Ah... Sorry, did I wake you?" Seunghee asked, smiling up at Arin.

"Not really," Arin said.

She paused for a while before moving Seunghee to the side tto get in bed with her.

"I just couldn't get much sleep after everything that happened," she said, holding the blanket tight.

Seunghee smiled and patted her head.

"Then let's get more sleep now."

She gently pushed Arin down and they both lay down facing each other.

"Thanks for rescuing me," Arin whispered.

Seunghee felt something catch in and she couldn't find the words to reply. Instead, she simply petted Arin's head.

 

"Thanks for rescuing me, Seunghee unnie!"

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to everyone who waited patiently for this haha

They still have more adventures to come so hang in there~

 

Author, out ;)