It could've been a normal day for Bae Irene.
The morning was spent with her gang to roam around the busy streets. Then, in the afternoon, her members were all either playing cards or billiards. The atmosphere was veiled with smoke, and she's in her usual sleepy state on her "throne".
Everything was how it routinely is, except for one thing.
The gang leader of a neighbouring city was fully kneeling in front of her, and in front of all of Bae Irene's men. Behind the gang leader were her members, all looking down the floor as if to pity their leader.

"You're saying you want to form an alliance with us?" Irene echoes, as if clarifying if she heard it right.
She doesn't know who this girl is.
Sure, she had seen her in some gang fights, but she had never caught her name or even had a conversation with her.
Probably because they used to be allies of opposing groups, that's why Irene never bothered getting to know her. But there was a certain charm to her that draws her to want to know her.
She stared at the moping lady in front of her. She was taller than a few inches, wearing a baggy, gray sweatshirt, and black leggings. A single band-aid was plastered just under her right eye, some blood clotting on the middle of it.
Her bangs were chopped. Her hair was shoulder length, and from Irene's distance, she could smell what shampoo she used.
"U-Uh... I know it's too much of a request..." The lady stutters. For a notorious gang, she was a bit timid. "There won't be much benefit from forming an alliance with me... But I assure you that we'll be able to repay you guys someday in case you accept us!"
Of course, Irene wouldn't hastily just agree.
The girl said it herself; there won't be much benefits from siding with them. And they seem to be a lacking group.
Sure, the group was formed by six ladies only.
But... Irene really had seen them somewhere....
She started to recall if her side had won when she first fought with a group that was sided with this small gang. Or did they actually inflict a huge loss on them?
What could they possibly be needing right now?
"Why exactly do you need an alliance with us?" Irene asks.
The other gang leader chews on her lower lip before shyly admitting what they have done. "Earlier, we were out to have breakfast on the other city. One of my members here, Joy, bad mouthed a person whom she thought was just a civilian. Then the guy stood up and showed his 'X' tattoo on his neck..."
Irene gasped. "The Golden X..."
The leader just silently nodded.
Irene's right hand, Oh Sehun, decided to in. "If only you women kept your traps shut, right?"
Without any warning, Irene glared at Sehun. Swiftly, she stood up to hit Sehun's nether region with her knee.
As soon as the man dropped down onto the floor, Irene calmly went back up her throne and pretended as if nothing happened.
"Serves you right..." Another tall girl coming from the other gang mutters under her breath, as if unaware that she could be heard by everyone.
"So..." Irene probes the other girl to continue. "What did he say?"
"He wants to wage a gang war." The girl says. "Whenever we cross theor territory, they'll beat us up like what happened to me. But if we defeated them or if they surrender, our group will be able to make it our territory, and their men will be under our group."
Irene nods to herself. "How about this," She says as she adjusts her sitting position into a more engaging one rather than her slouched position. "We'll form an alliance, and if we defeat them, we split their men that we will own and we share territories as well?"
The lady stops for a while.
It was as if she was reluctant with agreeing to it.
Sehun grunts from the ground. "Their territories might be small and we won't be able go get much from it..."
"Shut up." Irene says, threatening to get off her seat once more. Seeing Irene in such a state made Sehun purse his mouth.
The gang leader's eyes stared for a while once more at the intruding group leader's own pair.
"Show me your mark."
The leader sighs and pulls her sweatshirt's crewneck cut downwards, revealing a tiny thunderbolt tattoo just below her left collarbone.
My God. Irene thinks to herself. What a jackpot.

---

"Thanks," The leader says. "Uh... If you don't mind, maybe you could also lend us something to use to beat them up? Even just baseball bats and brass knuckles would do..."
Irene chuckles. The two leaders decided to get out from her hideout and stroll around town, while their men (and women) try to get along for now.
She also made sure she made herself clear that none of her members should mess with the new ladies, or they'll get a painful beating from the leader herself.
"Mind telling me what they did to your eye?" Irene asks, looking at the girl's band-aid.
The lady smiles. "Oh, it's nothing to be alarmed about. It's just a simple scratch."
"It doesn' look like a scratch to me," Irene frankly says, which made them both laugh at it.
"What happened to you?" Irene asks. "I mean... You guys were so badass. I've heard stuff about your group. Why did you lose alliances and territories?"
The taller girl hopped on top of what seems to be her car and sat down.
It was black, and was a classic model. Irene wasn't good woth cars, but it was beautiful. It even had a tiny thunderbolt badge stuck on the hood, the same fashion the gang's symbol was.
"You know, the typical reason." She says. "Betrayal. A bigger group hired my allies discreetly, and before we even knew it, they had ran away with all our stuff and money, and the big group waged a gang war."
Irene could only sympathize.
"It's a funny story. Everything my group worked hard to get, they were all stolen. We lost everything, and we had to start again from square one. We knew it would be a good idea to come to you."
"Sorry to hear what happened to you." Irene says. And after a split second, she became flustered. "I-I mean, I'm not usually this soft! You should be glad I showed mercy to you!"
The other lady just laughed softly. "I do appreciate it. I promise, all our properties will be yours as well."
"Then don't you think we might as well just be a big group?" Irene stupidly suggests. But deep inside, she knew she wanted the other leader to agree.
The response was just a hum. Then came a statement after the brief silence.
"I'll think about it." She says. "My girls know nothing about sharing, so maybe I'll open the matter to them as well."
Irene raises a thumbs-up in agreement.
They silently (and awkwardly) watched people come and go — some ignoring them (the people who probably didn't know who they were), and some avoiding eye contact (civilians who had probably witnessed how harsh they treated other people.
And the moment the other gang leader caught Irene staring at her, she spoke.
"I'm Kang Seulgi, by the way."
"Nice. I'm Bae Irene."

---

It wasn't official yet that Irene's group would be helping Seulgi's. The two never met after that day, and Irene thought that she was either kidding her about asking help, or was too shy to come back to her place.
Because of that, an impulsive thought came to her, and so she asked about a third of her members to come with her to where she knows Seulgi's teritorry is.
She had commanded her men to prepare meals to bring it to Seulgi's group to have lunch with them.
Don't get her wrong, she only thought of it as a friendly gesture. No hidden agendas from it. She even gave one of her members an uppercut when he said she had never done it to anyone before, implying with his tone that Irene was trying to win Seulgi's love as well.
Three cars zoomed through the roads going to Seulgi's city. Irene was in the back seat of the first car, looking through the windows.
As soon as they reached the city itself, Irene asked her members to park their cars somewhere and asked people around if they saw someone with chopped bangs and a wounded face.

A scared civilian carefully guided Irene's group — who earned questioning gazes from passersby — towards a simple looking house.
The house was all white; it almost looked dull with the eerie atmosphere. The windows may be big, but when you peek from the blinds inside, it was dark.
Irene asked the civilian if he was sure there was anyone inside, or if he was sure that the girl she was looking for really was here.
Strangely, the man just nodded and instructed Irene to do knock on the door thrice or ring the doorbell, and someone will answer the call.
Some of Irene's men escorted the civilian away, and the leader did her business of following what she was told to do.
She knocked on the door, and within the minute, a simple-looking girl who looks like a casual maid.
"Uhm, which are you looking for..?" She timidly asks.
Irene looked at her men, and then back to the girl. "What do you mean by 'which', exactly?"
"The family who lives here," She says. "Or... Miss Kang Seulgi?"
Irene beamed. "I'm looking for Kang Seulgi."
"Oh," The girl says. "Uh, Miss Kang asked me that if someone was to look for her, the person must show a... tattoo..? She never told me what it was for, but she required it before I lead guests to where she is."
The short leader nodded to her men, and almost as if they had practiced to be synchronized, they all raised their shirts up at the same time, to reveal a small butterfly tattoo on their waists.
The girl took out a piece of paper out her pocket and scanned what was on it. "Uhm... La Papillon?"
Irene nodded. "Some of my men will follow in a few. For now, please take us to Kang Seulgi."
"Yes Ma'am."

After going through countless passages and avoiding some traps, Irene started to wonder if they were still inside the same house they went through earlier.
From what the maid said, this was the house's underground.
She said she couldn't go any further from the final door, since she was just a 'normal person' who didn't belong to any groups. From there, Irene can simply just knock on the polished, mahogany door and Miss Kang Seulgi herself will open it.
As soon as the maid had climbed back up to do her duties for the family she serves for, Irene knocked and patiently waited for someone to open it.
She wouldn't deny the way her heart skipped a beat when the knob turned.
The door was opened, and the girl she was looking for was suddenly in her presence.
Seulgi was wearing a navy blue soccer shirt and teal summer shorts. She was barefoot, which made Irene observe how clean the floor was (it was as if they swept it every hour of the day — that clean). Irene also noticed that a new band-aid was over her wound.
As soon as Irene and Seulgi locked eyes, the bubblegum that Seulgi was blowing when she opened the door suddenly popped.
Panic was plastered on the taller girl's face. "A-Ah! Please come in! We're sorry we don't have anything with us right now, but we could go out and grab some drinks for you guys if you want!"
Irene smiled. "It's fine, we brought lunch so we could eat together. I thought this could be a way to make all of us closer."
Some of Irene's men started to cough, as if trying to send Seulgi a message. Probably to tease Irene again on how she never did this kind of gesture until now.
So that it wouldn't be obvious — and to get Seulgi's mind off it, Irene asked if she could just be the one to buy some drinks. The other leader agreed, and offered to accompany her to the nearest convenience store.
Before they even left, one of Seulgi's members spoke.
"Your leader's a bit off, huh?"
And it made the rest hum to agree.

---

They arrived at a convenience store. People in it were making way for Seulgi (or rather, avoiding getting in her way) either out of fear or out of respect.
Irene remembered that she was in Seulgi's base, that's why everyone there knew, or at least heard, things about Seulgi and how rad she is.
"Would two bottles of soda be enough?" She asks.
"I think we should get three. I have three more men who haven't gone to your hideout yet. I think they're looking for a place to park at."
Seulgi grabbed another one of the same drink.
They went to the counter to pay it.
The cashier seems to know who Seulgi is, too. He simply just grinned as he bagged the drinks Seulgi was going to buy.
While Seulgi was handing him some of the coins in her pockets, the cashier decided to tease the lady.
"You got a new girlfriend, huh?"
And that left Seulgi to be flustered as she defended herself that