chapter five

Eunjung thought it was a terrible idea. Whether Baekhyun felt the same, she didn’t know, because he obviously thought it was the only idea as he led the two of them towards the direction of the looming mansion.

It was slightly less unnerving to walk through the camp dressed in the uniform, even if it were uncomfortable. One close look and even an idiot would have been able to tell she wasn’t actually a soldier, but for the moment, it was not only the best disguise they could pull off but it was pretty deceiving from faraway.

Baekhyun moved fast, without looking back at her or speaking. He wove his way around the buildings, cutting across areas without a path as if he knew the place by heart. As Eunjung followed him, she couldn’t help but wonder how he, of all people, knew the place so well. Both of them had confirmed it—he was no more than a lowly ranked soldier. Perhaps he had made a deal with a deity, but the guild was full of that.

The buildings began to space out. She could see the mansion in the very near distance, and the black metal gates were visible when Baekhyun finally stopped and slipped behind one of the last buildings in a stretch of lawn. Eunjung followed his lead, and they ended up in a corner, hidden behind a large shrub.

“There’s guards,” he murmured in a low voice, “and there’s an area of completely flat lawn. There’ll be people patrolling there.”

Eunjung tried to glance around the corner, but she wasn’t nearly tall enough and didn’t dare crane her neck out in fear of being seen. “How are we going to get past, then?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “Do you have any ideas?”

She frowned at him. “Wasn’t this whole thing supposed to be thought out by you? I’m not the one who thought it was a brilliant plan.”

“The guards weren’t as tight last time, though,” he muttered. “When I came here with So—” He paused, obviously hesitating. “Anyway, they doubled the security and we probably can’t get through if we go the same way as I did last time. There has to be some sort of side door, though. There’s part of the back garden we can probably get through, if we get through this area unseen, and I think I have a pretty good idea where his second-in-command is. If all goes smoothly…” He hesitated. “We’ll probably be out in approximately an hour, give or take.”

Eunjung tilted her head at him. “Care to give me the percentage of success?”

“If you’d like a bigger number, I can give you the percentage of failure.”

“Great. What is it?”

“I’d say seventy?”

Given the fact that she’d expected higher, it wasn’t too bad a number to work with. Gesturing toward the open area, and nodded at him. “Lead the way, soldier.”

Baekhyun looked slightly amused by the reaction before his expression was wiped slate-clean agained. “Alright,” he said. “Follow closely. Let’s go.”

***

There was still a group of buildings around the area, so they travelled silently through that as they made their way towards what was supposedly the back garden of the mansion. Whether or not the security was tightened, it didn’t seem too bad, and they made their way through most of it without an issue. By the time they’d gotten to the back garden, the metal barred gates had turned into concrete walls, though it wasn’t extremely high. As open as the area was, there were no more guards patrolling either.

“We’re here,” Baekhyun said. “Now we have to climb over that wall.”

Eunjung squinted at it. “It’s more doable than the one outside the camp, but…that thing’s the same height as I am.”

“There’s a tree,” he replied. “Scale that and then try to jump inside. It should work. Would you like to go first or should I?”

There was indeed a tree, though it was willowy. The top of its branches swayed over the wall, leaning just slightly into the garden, but it was so flimsy that Eunjung didn’t even believe the trunk itself would hold her weight, or, for the matter, Baekhyun’s. She weighed the two options—if he went first, then that meant she would be left on the outside alone, with no weapon and completely out in the open. However, if he went last, she would be first to go inside the garden, and being alone in Kim Hajoon’s territory seemed worse.

“You can go first,” she decided finally. “Let’s hurry.”

They both made their way through the empty stretch of field. To Eunjung’s relief, there were no guards in the area, though by the time they were standing in front of the tree, her heart rate seemed to have doubled from nervousness. Baekhyun scanned the area once, looking much calmer than she felt, before he grabbed hold of one of the lowest branches and swung himself up into the tree. In less than ten seconds, he’d scaled the thing without breaking a sweat before balancing on the wall of the garden’s. He gestured at her briefly before jumping off, much more nimble than she would’ve been able to manage.

The standard for climbing the tree had obviously been set much higher than she could achieve. Eunjung grabbed the first branch she could reach, which bent much more than she would’ve preferred. She couldn’t see Baekhyun on the other side anymore, which was slightly unnerving, but swallowing the unease, Eunjung struggled up onto the tree.

The most worrisome part about the whole thing was most likely the fact that the tree itself wasn’t extremely sturdy, and even the trunk of the tree was too willowy to be safe to climb. Still, it was the only option.

She made it, somehow, to the top of the tree, where the wall of the mansion loomed, if not a good minute slower than Baekhyun. From that spot she could see him, waiting and alert, and Eunjung hesitated from her spot before moving hesitantly towards the wall.

While the wall wasn’t nearly as high as the one that surrounded the camp, it was still a fair bit to jump, and just jumping could very much result in a sprained ankle. Balancing precariously on the wall and the tree, Eunjung pushed herself from the branches, squinting at the distance.

Baekhyun met her eyes calmly, apparently unfazed by the drop. He’d been able to do so, but then again, he had also climbed the tree like a squirrel, so there was no telling how bad she would injure herself if she jumped. On top of that, injury definitely wasn’t something they could afford going through Kim Hajoon’s mansion.

Come on, he mouthed at her.

Before she could lose all the remaining courage, Eunjung jumped off the wall.

The landing wasn’t half as bad as she thought it would be, and she actually managed to roll to absorb the impact, though when she sat up, uniform covered in grass, there was a muted burn in her leg, around the knee. For a good moment, she sat on the ground even as Baekhyun approached her.

“Are you alright?” he asked cautiously. “We can’t stay here for long, because the whole area might be monitored. We need to find Kim Hajoon’s right hand man and get out of here fast.”

Eunjung stretched her leg in front of her. The brief pain had subsided, so she pulled herself up carefully and tested her weight on her right leg.

There was a dull throb, most likely a twist, though it really could have been much worse, so she nodded at Baekhyun, straightening and brushing pieces of debris from the uniform. “I’m fine.”

He scanned her briefly, then nodded. “We’ll have to get inside,” he said. “Any experience with breaking in through windows?”

***

The only good part must’ve been the fact that the back gardens were practically empty in comparison to the amount of guards that had been stationed at the front, though Eunjung supposed that Kim Hajoon didn’t need any of it, really. There were some pretty powerful people in the guild, and if they were still afraid of him, that meant he was that dangerous.

In front of them loomed the mansion. The architecture of it, admitting, was nice, and it was huge. One person inhabiting such a large place seemed excessive, a waste. The last time she had seen such a nice building was when she’d passed one of the cities. The place was in ruins, but parts of the city had been preserved, a picture taken of a moment frozen in time.

“Baekhyun,” she started, “supposedly, the more people use their powers the more they succumb to the sin, right? How far… has Kim Hajoon gone if he’s already that powerful?”

She didn’t miss the way that his expression tightened ever so slightly, and she realized a bit too late that it was probably a sore topic for him too. He remained silent for a while longer, though his steps had quickened ever so slightly.

Just when Eunjung was pretty sure her question was going to remain unanswered, Baekhyun turned around. “I’d say he’s nearing his limit,” h