“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

-William Shakespeare

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“I ran away”

“You did WHAT?!”

Sohye moved a little farther from Yoojung once the girl screamed at Doyeon, Yoojung usually whiny demeanor was usually potentiated when dangerous things involved Doyeon; something that perfectly explains why she used to refuse going on missions alone or letting Doyeon go alone too.

“Listen, she took me to her penthouse and left, it was the perfect moment to leave.”- Doyeon seemed unfazed by the small girl’s outburst – “Besides, I heard the two guards on the door talking about how Sohye and Mina had escaped HQ… I just couldn’t stay there any longer”

Turns out that, as Doyeon had told them, once the redhead took her to Yeonjung she was brought to one of Yeonjung’s many owned buildings. Doyeon didn’t know what awaited there for her there and she certainly wouldn’t stay to find out. Sohye would have done the same. However, this made Sohye and Yoojung’s trip useless.

“She could be coming here as we speak…”- Both Sohye and Yoojung knew perfectly well to whom Doyeon was referring, but they didn’t comment on it.

“What about the crash? Why were you driving so fast?”- Yoojung, now calmer, questioned he friend.

“heh… I got afraid so I froze and couldn’t stop…”- Doyeon scratched the back of her head in embarrassment and Sohye had to fight back a chuckle.

“So… can we leave now then?”- Yoojung looked at Sohye, searching for her approval most likely.

“Mmm… Mina could still be here”- It was a possibility, Sohye remembers Mina telling her that she would search for Nayoung when she left… she may already have found her, she may even be in the mansion as they spoke. – “We need to make sure.”

“B-But Doyeon is hurt!”- Yoojung argued back before being interrupted.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me, I can go to the hospital once we check for Mina”- Doyeon put one of her hands on Sohye’s shoulder, reassuring her as she talked to Yoojung. Sohye just nodded, her thanks implicit in the gesture.

“Should we really move towards that place? There was an explosion just a few minutes ago…”- Yoojung was doubtful, she looked afraid even, but Sohye wouldn’t blame her, she too was scared out of her wits.

“We’ll stick to the trees; they won’t be able to see us if we remain careful.”- Doyeon, adopting the role of the voice of the reason in their now reunited little group, reassured them of their possibilities.

“If you say so…”- Yoojung, looking a little bit more confident, answered - “Let’s get moving then.”

Sohye just nodded and turned back towards the big mansion that laid in the distance, leading the party into the unknown. She was scared, that was for sure, but she wouldn’t let that stop her from helping one of her friends when they needed it.

At times like this, when she was scared of sleeping in the orphanage, fearing whatever could be lurking in the dark, she used to recite a mantra taught to her by her caretakers that would, symbolically, show her the way through that darkness.

And now, like a chant, that mantra was flowing out of , empowering each and every step she took.

“The brave is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”

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“They are near…”- Nayoung kept her eyes focused on Heehyun, whose facial expression was now far from the madman look she previously had, but she wouldn’t take any more risks.

She saw Chaeyeon about to speak when a groan made both of them momentarily forget about Heehyun. Nayoung looked back and saw Mina, who was already on her feet, helping both Jieqiong and Eunjin up as the duo grumbled and mumbled profanities, apparently afflicted by an intense headache.

“I swear if I get my hands on that …”- She heard Eunjin curse as she slowly walked up to them. – “What happened? Why is Heehyun here? Why is the main hall destroyed?!”

“There is no time for explanations, you all should go back to the basement, search for Eunchae and the rest of the girls, and get out of here using the backdoor.”- Chaeyeon spoke, not answering any of Eunjin’s questions, as she pressed them to follow her command.

“What? Why?”- It was Jieqiong the one who answered Chaeyeon – “what’s happening? Why should we leave? Aren’t you coming?”

Chaeyeon remained silent and with her eyes closed, as if she hadn’t heard the chines girl speak, so Nayoung took it up to herself to explain the situation.

“You two were shot with a tranquilizer rifle, Chaeyeon and I managed to fend off the assassins and corner Heehyun here…”- She looked back after mentioning herself, mostly to check up on whatever the redhead was doing, fortunately for her, she was still standing in the same place, with the syringe in the exact same position it was before. – “But now another team is coming, one whose job is to wipe us all out, we have to leave now.”

“They are already here… I can feel the cars in the distance”- Chaeyeon ominously said. – “Get moving now”

“aren’t you coming with us?”- Jieqiong asked Chaeyeon once more.

“I won’t get very far running… besides, somebody needs to be here to stop them while you all escape”

“What?! No way! You are not staying just to die!”- Jieqiong’s voice volume rose intensely as she stomped the ground in frustration with her right foot - “I found you just less than a week ago! You are not leaving me again!”

“Jieqiong… I…”- Chaeyeon tried to speak again but Jieqiong fervently interrupted, her voice getting louder by the second.

“You are going to come with us whether you like it or not! Nayoung! Tell her that she is coming with us!”- Having said that, Jieqiong looked at Nayoung, searching for an ally amidst the argument.

However, Nayoung wasn’t really in a position to force Chaeyeon to come with them since the blind girl was the actual leader of the whole team. Moreover, based on her knowledge from her days as a spec-ops, she knew for a fact that they wouldn’t get very far before the assassins started trailing them once more if they didn’t hold them off enough time to hide their own tracks.

It wasn’t something she wanted to do, as much as she had insisted Jieqiong of leaving them to their luck and escaping, once they were in the middle of the fight, Nayoung’s righteous heart wouldn’t actually let her do something like that.

“I…”- Nayoung started, but couldn’t find the words to continue.

“Save it Nayoung, I’m staying.”- Chaeyeon cut her off before turning back, facing the place Heehyun was standing on. – “You too Heehyun… you need to leave with them.”

This seemed to snap the redhead out of whatever trance she was in seeing as, after hearing Chaeyeon talk, the girl reacted quite fiercely.

“I’m not going anywhere; I’m not leaving you here to die.”- Nayoung wouldn’t exactly trust Heehyun right now, but she figured that, if she stayed, she could at least help Chaeyeon endure a little bit more. The blind girl said nothing, instead turning back again to face Nayoung and the rest.

“Go, get the rest of the girls, I’ll trust you with their safety Nayoung.”- the fugitive cop nodded, turning back to the rest of the group.

“No! Nayoung! Tell her to come with us! Please!”- Jieqiong pleaded, but Nayoung only grabbed her hand and led her away. Jieqiong tried to protest, resisting her hold, but Nayoung remained impassive, dragging Jieqiong towards the kitchen to go to the basement while the Mina and Eunjin followed. The latter throwing a sad glance at both Chaeyeon and Heehyun.

Once they were gone, Chaeyeon spoke again.

“Are you sure you want to stay? You’ll most likely die along with me…”- her voice came out raspy, calm yet concerned.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”- Heehyun answered confidently, bringing a weird sense of calm back to Chaeyeon. – “But we are not going to die today… I have a plan.”

Heehyun looked around, searching for the backpack she threw aside once she got into the house before the fight with Chaeyeon. She located it a few meters away from her, fortuitously unscathed from the explosions that transpired less than 5 minutes ago. She jogged to it, picking it up and brushing the dust out of it before retrieving a couple of grenades from it.

“What do you have in mind?”- Chaeyeon’s voice reached her ears, making her chuckle as she deviously threw the grenade in her hand up into the air before catching it again.

“Let’s just say we’ll knock down the entire façade of the building, and with it, the entire assassin group…”- She chuckled at Chaeyeon’s lack of reaction. – “I have an explosive grenade and a smoke grenade, if the first one doesn’t kill them then the second one…”

She was about to finish her sentence when the sound of repeated gunfire rang through the air. Wasting no time, Heehyun rushed towards Chaeyeon, making her duck before a bullet broke through a window and passed exactly where she had been just a few seconds ago.

“They are outside…”- Chaeyeon whispered once the fire ceased.

“Follow me, once they try to go in, I’ll chuck these two at them, it’ll blow them up”- Heehyun started slowly moving towards the hall that led to the rooms where they all slept, which wasn’t visible from the outside, she will throw the grenades from there, using it as cover too. – “Come on Chae, follow me, I’m not letting you die today.”

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Hurried footsteps echoed down in the basement as Nayoung sped up to go down the stairs, followed by Jieqiong and Eunjin. Nayoung had left Mina behind to guard the kitchen, which was not only connected to the main hall but also to the backroom where the backdoor was.

As soon as she put her feet touched the basement floor she stepped aside, turning towards the two that were following her to let them pass. The basement main room was still as messy as she had left it after her fight with Kyungwon, only that it seemed the blonde had stopped banging against the door and was probably doing god’s know what inside that room.

“What now?”- Eunjin asked Nayoung

“Fetch Eunchae and the rest, they should be barricaded inside the nursery room, we’ll wait for you here”- Nayoung remembers ordering Eunchae to hide, sending Eunjin to assure her that they were alright was the best idea as the small doctor probably trusted her more than she trusted Jieqiong or Nayoung.

Eunjin nodded, rushing off to enter the infirmary, leaving Nayoung and Jieqiong alone. The cop rested against a wall, lifting some weight off her wounded leg. Even with the adrenaline produced by the whole situation, it wasn’t enough to dull all the pain.

“Are you alright?”- Jieqiong finally spoke up, drawing near to her.

“Nothing too painful”- Nayoung lied, it was painful – “I just need to stitch it back again when we get to safety”

“Are we really leaving Chaeyeon behind?”- Jieqiong looked burdened, and it pained Nayoung.

“We…”- She thought carefully about her answer for a few seconds – “We don’t have much of a choice; she is doing it willingly to let us run away…”

“I… I don’t want her to die…”- Jieqiong looked down, her voice voice sounded brittle, anguish clear on each and every word.

Nayoung hissed as she forced herself to step away from the wall, making Jieqiong look up again, as she moved closer to her, surrounding her with her hands in complete silence. Although hesitant at first, Jieqiong softened in Nayoung’s arms, feeling protected.

“Neither do I Jieqiong…”

“Impossible!”- A loud, child-like voice broke the intimate atmosphere – “We are not leaving Chae behind!”

“Dani! Come back here!”- Eunjin appeared from behind the little girl, precariously restraining her as Dani trashed around.

“Let me go! She needs our help!”- Dani squirmed under Eunjin’s grasp, making it difficult for the girl to fully restrain her without having to use force.

“You are going to get yourself killed!”- Eunjin hoarsely said through her teeth as she tried to control the little girl to the best of her abilities.

“Eunjin is right, Dani, you should calm down.”- Eunchae appeared, trying to help Eunjin calm down the altered Dani.

Only then did Dani, who was sloppily trying to land a hit on Eunjin’s head to no avail, decided to stop and be obedient. After a few seconds of scrutiny, Eunjin decided to let go of the girl with a tired huff, rubbing her wrists.

“Are we really going to leave her behind though?”- Behind Eunjin and Eunchae and being supported by Yebin was Jenny.

“It was her choice”- Eunjin informed her.

“Even if we wouldn’t leave her, you are in no position to do anything.”- Yebin added, much to Jenny’s discomfort

“Are you all ready then?”- Nayoung finally spoke up, attracting the attention of everyone in the room - “Follow me, we’ll use the backdoor to leave, once outside, we’ll head for the treeline and move towards the car parking using the trees as cover, understood?”

A collective of quiet “yes” and affirmative hums was heard.

“We’ll follow you”- Jieqiong said, intertwining Nayoung’s hands with hers, gifting the older girl a smile.

Nayoung just nodded. Even though, at first, she would have really left them to their own, now she was not so sure. Leading the group to safety was a responsibility she did not want, but now that she saw how willing Chaeyeon was to sacrifice herself for the good of her entire group…

She’d honor her, at least for now, by taking the entire group to safety, and that included Jieqiong.

She wouldn’t let anything happen to her, even if it costed her life.

“Let’s move”

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“We are almost there”- Minkyung spoke quietly – “Ready your gun”

“Why are you so silent when Yebin just made a grand entrance shooting the entire front of the house?”

“Idiot, they don’t know we split up!”

“Oh… right”

“Open my backpack”- The assassin commanded

“What? Why?”

“Just do it, you’ll know when you see it.”

Chungha complied, taking hold of Minkyung’s backpack as she opened it. Sliding her hand down it, Chungha started feeling the interior of it, raising an eyebrow when she felt something soft and elastic inside of it, characteristics that weren’t shared with anything they were supposed to bring. She grasped the unknown object on her hand a brought it out of it, flinching as she saw it.

“What the is this doing here?”- Chungha hurled the parrot mask back to Minkyung after closing the backpack - “Okay, now I’m officially creeped out. Why do you carry this around?”

“It strikes fear in the heart of my enemies and, dare I say, it worked when I used against you, didn’t it?”- Minkyung, finding the situation amusing apparently, started talking in a rather pompous tone of voice, mimicking that of a haughty person.

“Don’t remind me about that”- Chungha rolled her eyes, not giving into Minkyung’s antics.

“Okay, on the count of three…”- Minkyung abruptly stopped with the teasing, putting on the mask (which, based on Chungha perspective now that she was closer to Minkyung, made her look completely stupid)

“One…”

Chungha readied her gun.

“Two…”

She got ready to charge.

“Three!”

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“Everything good over here?”- Nayoung talked to Mina as she finished climbing the last couple of steps, bringing the absent-minded girl back to reality.

“Oh… yeah…”- She answers, although it’s obvious to Nayoung that she is concerned with something. Still, she was not going to pry.

“I assume you’ll come with us until we reach somewhere safe, then I guess it’s up to you to decide what you do or where you go”- With her right hand on Mina’s shoulder, Nayoung calms the girl, trying to hopefully get rid of whatever was troubling her.

“Sure”- Mina answers confidently, a smile beginning to form on her face, although she adds with a mumble a few seconds later - “I still don’t know how I managed to get into this mess…”

“Happens to the best of us kid”- Nayoung removes the hand off her should with one last pat before urging her to move and join the rest, who were all moving towards the door that led to the backroom. - “Let’s get moving now”

Mina nods and both of them start walking. Once everyone finishes entering the room, Nayoung goes to the front and checks the door.

Unlocked, good.

She turns back to count everyone, they were eight in total, so moving in two groups of four towards the cars would be a wise idea. She quickly analyzes the pros and cons of splitting up vs going together. In the end, the first idea is the one that would ensure more people reach the car’s parking place safely.

“Everyone ready?”- She raised her gaze, counting them once again just to be sure – “Let’s go then”

They begin exiting the place with Nayoung acting as the leader of the group. They don’t get to move that much, however, as two figures quickly surround them, approaching menacingly with two assault rifles on their hands. It certainly takes Nayoung by surprise, who backs down, protectively standing in front of the younger ones as she silently gestured for them to move back in.

“Long time no see, Nayoung…”- A voice broke the silent atmosphere, a voice that tensed every muscle in Nayoung’s body, a voice that she knew very well.

“Chungha…”- She can’t believe her name is leaving her lips once more, she thought she’d never see her again- “so you were working for them after all”

“You left me no choice.”- Chungha says simply, apparently calm with the whole situation, but Nayoung knew better.

She had known Chungha since her teenage years, she knew the woman, however calm she may look, was a second away from bursting into a whirlwind of anger.

“I left you no choice?! You chose to betray your own values by siding with t…!”- Nayoung’s accusation was cut short.

*Boom*

T