Seunghyun smooths out the piece of paper that had been crumpled in his fist during the entire car ride back. He had picked up the crumpled ball lying in the grass without Shira noticing, because her focus had been on her brother.
 

And when he had tried to unfold the paper, he saw the word ‘Red’ crossed out with a picture of Big Bang also crossed out underneath. The piece of paper was signed by SHINee, and he had crumpled the piece of paper back up. It was only then did he realize that the dirt around the tree looked loose and his anger flared up. Shira, though, had been looking up at the tree with fondness-and dare he say love?-on her face, and he had hoped she wouldn’t notice.

SHINee had somehow found where Jay’s ashes had been scattered, and messed with the area to rile Shira up. And it would rile Shira up.

Which is why Seunghyun hadn’t said a single word about it to Shira.

But after Shira had slipped out of the car to drive her own back to the apartment, Jiyong turns to Seunghyun. “You noticed, didn’t you?”

“The dirt? Yeah,” Seunghyun shows him the piece of paper that SHINee had signed, and Jiyong’s hands tighten around the wheel of the car.

“How?”

“I don’t know. But the fact that they didn’t have a picture of Shira on here is a good sign,” Seunghyun taps at the paper. But he had no explanation of how they found the spot.

“If they found Jay’s spot, they can find her,” Jiyong points out quietly. “There’s no guarantees anymore.”

Jay Park had the Korean underworld’s best secret. He hadn’t been part of Big Bang, but they worked together so often that it was to be mistaken as otherwise. When he left 2PM, he became a free agent. But there was no mistaking what he did; he was the best assassin that any of them had ever seen.
 

He was a good person driven to do the unspeakable. No one really knew about him, and he was hidden from the world. Whispers of his name here and there sometimes popped up, but he became something akin to an urban myth.

If they didn’t know better, they would think that he was still alive. Whenever an unexplained event or death happened, everyone would say that it was Jay Park. But no, he was very much dead. Because he died in Shira’s arms.

“I’ll look through all of the traffic cams surrounding the park and try to track SHINee,” Seunghyun offers. That was all he could do.

Jiyong nods. “I’ll see if they’ve made any weapons deals recently, because they probably had nothing in their stockpile for the last few years.”

“They might have gotten their stock from EXO or Super Junior.”

Jiyong shakes his head, “SHINee has too much pride to do that, even if Super Junior is older. If they want something, they’ll get it themselves.”

“Speaking of Super Junior, shouldn’t they be coming after us and Shira just as much as SHINee?” Seunghyun frowns.

“Yeah, they should be, with Kibum and Han Geng gone.” He didn’t bother to add that Heechul left on his own terms, but they would probably be blamed for that too. Super Junior was good at biding their time though, choosing the right moment to strike.

“Any news on SNSD?” Seunghyun asks.

“Well Taeyeon is dead for sure, and they’re not too happy about that. With Jessica gone, they’re down to seven.”

“Do they know who did it?”

“You think Bangtan would still be around if they did?” Jiyong tilts his head slightly as he takes a turn into the underground parking lot of their main nightclub. “EXO is probably on the hunt for Shira and Taehyung at this very moment.”

“Byun Baekhyun and Taeyeon.”

“I didn’t expect that either.”

“We shouldn’t let Shira out, even with her disguise, unless if she’s in her other identity,” Seunghyun presses. It was for her safety.

Jiyong snorts, wrinkling his nose at the thought, “She enjoys her freedom too much. We can’t stop her from doing anything.”
 

“Why?”
 

“Why not?” Sehun’s feet feel much lighter after the meeting, and Yixing is quietly comforting his wife.

“You knew that Key was going to kill her,” Jongin murmurs, his eyes analyzing the situation and flickering between Sehun’s face and the terrified female. “So you pulled a gun on her.”

Sehun shrugs, “People like him want blood, and if he doesn’t even have to get his hands dirty, even better. I just proposed we take her back to the brothel and kill her where her kind is most revered.”

“You implied that she’s a .”

Almost every female that Sehun had seen in the last few years was a , so it almost feels like second nature to imply that much.

“She’s still alive, isn’t she?” Sehun’s gaze is level with Jongin’s, and he can’t really understand why Jongin looks so uncomfortable. “You think Yixing could have pleaded for her life?”

“Sehun, but it wasn’t your—”

“Key only sees her as a possession. And I guess I do too. Because she’s not one of us,” Sehun jerks his face toward her. She’s following him with her hands curling into Yixing’s jacket, which he put over her shoulders. Yixing was right. She is pretty, but she’s naïve and didn’t belong in this world. “Yixing will have to protect her if he wants her to live. Can you imagine him begging for her life and actually succeeding?”

And at that moment, Yixing looks up, looking incredibly hesitant when his eyes meets Sehun’s.
 

Shira is in a very good mood. And her target practice reflects that. The bullet holes are closely packed around the heart of the humanoid target and she puts the gun down, stretching and slipping off her protective headphones.

Another allied meeting is about to happen, and this time, she would watch from a screen because of what had happened on her last two missions. For some reason, she doesn’t mind this time.

Seungri slips off his headphones too, eyes raking over the target. “You’ve gotten good.”

“I’ve been good.” She says simply with a slight smile before pulling on mask.

“I have to head to the meeting.” Seungri puts his equipment away before turning to her. Seungri is rather easy to understand, and the fact that he wants Shira to come is written all over his face. But orders are orders, and they are to keep her out of sight.

“I know.” She repeats. She heads through the backdoor and up the staircase before plopping herself down in Seunghyun’s room and turning on the monitor, which is wired to the camera in the meeting room.

Most of the gangs are already there, and Jiyong starts to speak over the crowd.

“As most of you might know, Taeyeon from SNSD has been taken out. This was because she got a comprehensive list of several members of the alliance, except for the newest gang, and their frequented areas. So the said newest gang in our alliance took care of her.”

The light applause carries through the speakers and Shira watches Bangtan as they shift uneasily. Taehyung’s face is turned away from the camera, so she can’t see his reaction.

“Unfortunately, there were some complications. Unknown to us, she was dating Byun Baekhyun, so now EXO is involved. However, we are confident that the list was not passed to anyone in SNSD or EXO, so the pressing crisis was averted.”

CL calls out, interrupting Jiyong in the pause of his speech. “How are you sure?”

Big Bang has a bit of a softer spot for 2NE1. That much is obvious because no one else but 2NE1 would dare to interrupt Big Bang, and Big Bang would let them.

“They would be after quite of few of us, and the war would have already started. EXO isn’t the kind to slowly bide their time, especially because we have intel that Sehun and Chen are injured.”

CL just nods, accepting the answer. Shira's li