seulgi thought she felt the girl whispering to herself. her eyes opened slowly, lazily as she turned to her side until her face was near inches to the latter

 

“wannie, what are you doing?” she whispered, evidently groggy from her nap. 

 

it was too bothersome, especially at this time in the night, she lacked the effort to converse with the latter though when seeing her state, her grogginess quickly averted.

 

seungwan sat still, giving no answer nor did she contemplate the question, though when pushing herself off the bed, she gained seulgi's complete attention. 

 

“something’s not right” 

 

“what do you mean? we have the whole plan set out don’t worry, irene’s gonna be okay” she assured softly, enough to not startle seungwans already frantic mood. 

 

“not that, the plans fine it’s just- joohyun’s been quiet.” seungwan stepped closer to the bed, her eyes worryingly reaching the others. 

 

“joohyun” seulgi contemplated, her brows perked slightly “she isn’t talking to you?” 

 

seungwan sighed exasperatedly as she continued her previous action of pacing, she replied softly this time around, “i don’t know. it’s probably nothing. she just said she had a surprise for me but i haven't heard from her at all today. there’s gotta be something wrong right?” 

 

seulgi craned her neck, cracking the excess overdue of tenseness. it gave her time to think about a possible ease for the disbelief on seungwans face. 

 

however, a part of seulgi was afraid too 

 

her thoughts were suddenly distracted by a loud vibration. the sound was beginning to fill up the still bedroom. in a slow pace, seulgi grabbed the phone within her reach. She opened her phone only to cringe at the bright screen. 

 

seulgi gulped hard as she read her recent text. 

 

“find us. something’s wrong” 

 

seulgi did not know what she was doing, or rather, what her body was doing. she felt her adrenaline rush uncomfortably as it also seemingly startled seungwans heavy trance. 

 

“seul?” 

 

seulgi reread the text over and over again until the revelation hit seulgi so hard. before the girl could collect her thoughts, she ran towards her computer. 

 

seungwans grew paranoid. She noticed seulgi’s eyes were completely trained on an untraceable software. a blue map appeared on screen followed by a noticeable red dot. 

 

an unsettling look crosses seulgi's face 

 

the consecutive sounds of seulgi's typing filled the silent, dark room and to seungwan dismay, the lack of converse made her feel out of place. she voiced out to the girl, barely audible to be a whisper but well enough for seulgi to hear. 

 

in disbelief, seungwan lips frowned deeper as seulgi continued to stay silent. she thought to speak again, maybe even a little bit more louder but was interrupted from seulgi sudden stance. 

 

seulgi rushed off, grabbing her gun and other necessities and hoisted it around her waist. this both alarmed and scared seungwan as all she could do was watch the situation play out in front of her 

 

“are you coming?!” seulgi turned back before opening the door, look back at seungwan impatiently. 

 

“um- yes, yeah let’s go?” sounding more of a question than a response to seungwans curiosity, she rushed to the entrance of her house, leaving everything behind. 

 

…

 

“where are we?” seungwan enquired carefully, well aware to stay cautious around the already distressed seulgi. 

 

“do you have your gun with you?” seulgi bluntly asked, keeping her eyes focused ahead at the road leading to the forest. 

 

“no i- i didn’t bring anything” 

 

seulgi abruptly reached towards the back seat, pulling out and placing a black duffel bag on seungwan’s lap. seungwan ped with curiosity, seeing a small collection of handguns and bullets.

 

“seulgi” seungwan began suddenly, her voice thick, she cleared before continuing, “you better start explaining” 

 

seulgi flashed an apologetic look, her voice low and slow, “joy and irene are in trouble and i don’t know what it is but just take out a gun and let's figure it out.” her expression as serious as before, though her voice visibly shaking. 

 

a troubled expression befell upon seungwans face as she sat in shock.

 

seulgi then heard a sharp intake of breath from seungwan and couldn’t help but look. “are you okay?” 

 

another breath. this time long and shaky. “we’re gonna save them don’t worry” she pulled out two, making sure both cartilages were stacked. 

 

seulgi heaved a sigh and she slightly shook her head, “yeah” 

 

the ride remained silent after. both stayed to themselves until a familiar ring caught seulgi’s attention. 

 

careful not to blindly go off road, she unlocked her phone, eyes suddenly adjusting to the bright screen, the big green letters of their arrival was all she needed to abruptly stop. 

 

“lets go” seungwan didn’t argue, not that she wanted too anyways. 

 

“, look” seulgi points towards a small clearing where a dark coloured vehicle stood out of place, seungwan would’ve never seen the car if not seulgi pointing it out. even when adjusting to the darkness, the nights allusive atmosphere hide the car quite well. 

 

as they drew closer, seungwan felt that familiar tightening in her chest, anxiety. the closer they got the more disturbing the sight was. the car as an absolute wreck, it barely stood intact as it seemed to be covered in scratches and dents, smoke also fuming from every crack until it blended with the air. they both figured this was a cause of a recent accident, a horrible one to be precise. 

 

seungwan brushed past seulgi and walked faster until she could feel the numbing pain coursing through her legs. as she approaches the car and peaks inside, she acknowledges someone unfamiliar against the steering wheel and when inspecting closer, the figure looked lifeless as fresh blood could be seen pouring out of their head. 

 

her attention had drifted for a moment when she heard her name being called

 

“is there anyone in there?” seulgi asked curiously, she managed to get to the backside of the vehicle before the latter could respond 

 

“someone’s dead in there but it’s not the girls” seungwan squared her jaws and clenched her fist by her side, resulting in a questionable look from the oldest. 

 

seulgi walked forwards, unconvinced, “are you sure he’s dead?”

 

seungwan laughed dryly though quickly regretted her action, “he’s been shot in the head so i’m presuming he’s-” 

 

a loud gunshot caused both girls to pull out their weapons. within professional instinct, they ran towards the inner depths of the forest, directly to where the gunshot was most loudest.  

 

a part of seungwan knew that the gunshot could’ve been done by anybody however even the slightest chance that joohyun could’ve been involved made each of her steps more faster than the other. 

 

they both sprinted with incredible speed, equally not faltering or slowing their steps for the other. it wasn’t until they saw someone in the distance that they abruptly slowed their pace, making sure the crunching of the leaves weren’t audible. 

 

seungwan inhaled in sharply and held her breath as if air would’ve risked everything in the moment.

 

they hunched, craning their backs, and with light steps, both girls made their way to a fallen tree, only a few feet from the shadows. 

 

seungwan heard a body crash onto the sides of a tree, feeling the impact as the spine hit the trees length. the body gave a sound like a kitten squeezed too tight, a kind of windless yelp. the sound pushed adrenaline into seungwans thighs and knocked the gravity of the situation into her. 

 

she heard another yelp and then a screech, a long wail that made her teeth clatter. it was joy. 

 

a few feet off to the right, joy’s entire body was draped to blanket over joohyun, her own gun on the ground by her feet, chest heaving. she couldn’t catch sight if joohyun was conscious or not, but joy had her very own bullet wound pushed deep through her arm. it swung loosely, sort of uselessly as one man had lumbered over infront of joy. his hair was messy on the top and his face looked wicked, almost like a demonic child. he was swaying a bit. 

 

“gimme the girl.” his face creased with more wrinkles as his smile grew wider. 

 

“stop!” joy yelled, “i’ll shoot” 

 

but she wouldn’t. the woods was dark and joohyun was at risk. instead joy gave distance.

 

seungwan and seulgi were now both at their heels. rising with infuriation as their heads burned like acid. seungwan reaches behind her and yanked on the handle, brining her gun to her side. every bad outcome played in her head like a broken jukebox, all being caught in seulgi eyes, the reflection of the morse code her heart was pushing out; terror. 

 

she must’ve had it written all over her face, because seulgi took the opportunity to train her shot to the man infront of joy. the wind stopped blowing as the bullet triggered, seungwan quickly followed through, marking a few on the spot. 

 

the men quickly responded, shooting back in rapid speeds with their very own heavily armoured guns. they were fast and daring. almost snipping seungwan on the head if she hadn’t curled in faster. seulgi followed seconds later. 

 

“seul!” seungwan yelled between shots, “distract them for me!” 

 

with a raised and semi-furrowed brows, seulgi asked, “you sure? how many are there?” 

 

seungwan stuck out her head, counting five not including those unarmed and wounded. the men were refilling their bullet, closing themselves away in the woods. she ducking back down, away from their line of shots. 

 

“when we find you es, we’re gonna do you raw!” a man shouted in the distance, the severity in his voice was so toxic that it made seungwan slightly disturbed.   

 

“i’d like to see you try!” seulgi exclaimed bashfully, creating enough time for both of them to open fired, shouting a throaty scream, making the men coware behind the trees. 

 

the girls bullets abruptly stopped, hearing a click indicating a desperate need of a reload

 

they crouched back down, before the others could come out. 

 

seulgi then gazed at seungwan again, her tight complexion alerted for the latters attention and seungwan didn’t miss a second, looking back at seulgi with equal persistence and simply nodded, allowing seulgi to reach into her jacket pocket and quickly pull out a hand grenade.

 

“seungwan, you’re going to have to listen to me carefully.” 

 

“yes” seungwan knew what was coming. seulgi rarely called her seungwan, aside from the first time they’ve met.

 

“listen.” her back slouched deeper against the broken trunk, “the second this lands on the ground, you run and get the girls, then we’ll regroup. remember, stay as low as you can” 

 

they shook it off with another firm nod, nor did they have time for a speech. she heard the sound of seulgis teeth making contact with the gernades ring as she pulled on it harshly. the grenade let out a single click, emphasizing for it to be thrown to which seulgi did, chucking the explosive weapon with a large swing in her arm. 

 

seungwan eyes darted at the grenades direction. the second it hit the ground, she leapt over the broken tree trunk, bolting at the joy and joohyun’s direction. the leaves crunched as her steps got heavy, alerting the goons with one yelling. 

 

“hey ! where’d you think your going” gunshots all around fired in her direction. seungwan stayed low, careful to pace her steps fast enough to dodge the incoming bullets. 

 

upon receiving a quipping pain in her upper rib cage, she managed to slip behind a large oak tree. the thick diameter of the tree was able to deflect any incoming line of shots.

 

she held her breath in until the explosive finally triggered. the sudden shock wave sent the men flying and those who were left behind let out a blood curdling scream 

 

the impact caught up to seungwan a few seconds later. a gush of powerful wind jerked her whole body forwards until she could taste the saltiness of overdrew rain from the ground's surface. she spat then used the back of hand to rub against . 

 

“c’mon” seungwan encouraged herself, feeling the painful separation from the ground as she finally brought her weight up. 

 

the momentary ringing that overtook her ears abruptly fell silent with only her breathing loosely hanging in the air. 

 

she walked closer to the wreckage destruction and, only a few steps ahead, laid sooyoung, safety far enough to not face the impact of the explosion. 

 

“joy” it came out weak and dry so she cleared it before repeating her name once again

 

“what took you so long seulgi?” the woman’s dry laugh closed into a harsh cough. 

 

“seulgi?” seungwan held her breath for a second before continuing, “let’s get you guys out of here- hey, joy?!” 

 

she let out a ghastly breath in the crisp, still air. seeing as joy was again unconscious was purely relieving more than a burden. all she needed to know was that she was still breathing.

 

“seungwan! seungwan?” the woman turns around at the sound of fast footsteps and somewhat frantic calling. 

 

her best friends presence immediately brings a tight line between her brows. seulgi stops mid way to catch her breath before loosely grabbing seungwan’s upper biceps, squeezing it slightly. 

 

seungwan watches as seulgi's jaw clench and unclench once she craned her neck to see joy. 

 

it was a feeling that swallowed hard in and stuck there like the bitter taste of blood. she could see all that confidence drain out into something soft, something vulnerable. 

 

“let’s get them to the hospital quickly” and just like that, the rushing adrenaline sprang seungwan impulsively off the ground. 

 

once her knees locked, she cursed loudly, pointedly, feeling the life being out of her as she her ribcage. her back craned and her vision blurred, feeling the light touches of tears run down her cheeks. 

 

“what happened to you? jesus seungwan, you’re bleeding” seulgi was now approaching the youngest, having to slow down from the extra weight on her back, she then called out to the latter 

 

“i’m fine” her hands straightened to block seulgi from approaching closer, “get her out of here i’m coming” she saw a mix of hesitation and curiousness drawn into seulgi's eyes, having to every so often readjust joy’s position so she could crane against her shoulders, then she shuffled in closer till her hands wrapped around seungwan’s wrist and gave it a squeeze.

 

“i’m not letting you die out here you know that right?” seungwan gave her a reassuring nod, “you need to stay with me okay. i need you to get joohyun so we can get out of here and find help.” 

 

she finally loosened her grip around the girl, allowing seungwan to hesitantly push off her knees and oblige to seulgi's demands.

 

she ce to see seulgi, eyes wide, a temporary pout around her face like a giant baby. 

then continuing on the opposite direction. about five feet off. joohyun laid unconscious. 

 

seungwan gripped her bullet wound, feeling as her hand was soaked in her own thick blood. 

it was oddly numb at this point in time, she knew this was a problem for another time. now she needed to get joohyun. she came closer and shadowed over the unconscious actress. joohyun looked fragile. her pale skin glowed softly, followed by an overwhelming stench of alcohol. it didn’t sit well with the younger as she held her breath. 

 

seungwan places her hands underneath joohyun’s dainty body, feeling all her strength drain as she picked both joohyun and herself off the ground and placing her over her shoulders. 

 

she saw as seulgi's hands tightened once again around her wrist and then they began to run. 

 

they were gone from the small clearing and into the darkest part of the woods before the sun was fully up. seungwan could feel the warmth of joohyun’s breathing gently brush against her neck and sending some sort of personal heat to the tips of her ears. 

 

she snapped out of it almost immediately as the trees opened and the moon poured into the clearing before the crash site. 

 

they both slowed down to assess the perimeter before turning their backs on them,  

like how they’ve both been trained to do. they gradually fastened their pace after looking around. 

 

just as they were about to leave the clearing, a sound of low footsteps snapped their heads back. seungwans ears perked, letting her legs sink deeper in her spot. 

 

the footsteps continued, this time more faster. 

 

“” she aired a groan as she took joohyun off her shoulders and against a tree trunk. “stay here with them, there’s someone here.” seulgi face scrunched like she was offended, her eyes lowered itself to the dark red splotch on her friends ribs. knowing what she meant, seungwan pleaded. 

 

“just- please. i’ll be fine” the noises alarmed the two once again. the steps were now more distant than before causing seungwan to run after it. 

 

it suddenly stopped and so did seungwan. her steps were gentle and she sneaks up behind the figure and put her gun to his spine. 

 

“oh .” 

 

the man raised his hands in the air. a gun held in his right. 

 

“drop the gun” she shouted, pressing her gun deeper against his back

 

he did as she said, “what do you? take the gun. it’s on the ground” she reaches for it in a swift motion, hoisting it behind her back on her buckle. 

 

“i don’t want the damn gun. i want to know what you want with joohyun.”

 

he turned then, curiosity getting the better of fear. he took in her appearance, from her short dark hair to the gun she held in a steady grip. 

 

“look what we have here, you’re that girl from the club.” he laughed dryly, almost as if he was mocking her. 

 

and right then and there, seungwan recognized the bulky interior of this man who dressed sharply in a classic black suit and a matching earpiece that lowered to his back. joohyun bodyguard. the one who talked to suho in the club and the one who’s facing her right here right now. seungwan felt slightly small with gun in hand. his whole demeanour shadowed over her as if she stood victim.

 

“what do want from her” she repeated, barely an audible whisper. 

 

he shrugged his shoulders and chuckled without mirth. “what do you think. this is a money making business. fast money. and that princess of yours is gonna get us that money. and then game over, she’s done.” 

 

she hit him on his head with the gun, a cheap shot, so angry she couldn’t hold it in. 

 

“who’s operating this!? who the is doing this !” her voice wry. thick and straight to the point. it took him a minute to catch his breath. she wounds up to punch him in his side before he put a hand up to stop her.

 

“who else do you think” he insisted, irking her to answer as he faces her 

 

“i don’t know! suho?” 

 

her gun twitched in her hands upon his lengthy chuckle. then she did punch him. he fell to his side and placed both arms behind to protect his fall. 

 

“he’s just a pond in this game. a useless pond.” he wounds up to spit blood. “the only person that can actually get away with this is her own goddamn father.” 

 

seungwan paced in a small circle, hands on the back of her head, gun clattering against her skull, then reeled back to the bodyguard, who was still resting against his hands, eyes following her. “i don’t believe you!”

 

“listen” he gradually stands, slowly approaching her, “i’m on your side here. i didn’t want this” he steps even closer, hands against his chest as if wanting sympathy, “i want her to live and achieve great heights in career, but her stubborn old father couldn’t accept her for who she is.” 

 

she pointed her gun at his direction once again before his hands forcefully pushed against her chest, gun disarming as she fell. 

 

“she ran away from home with her sister.” seungwan winced when pulling herself off the ground. “leaving her dad to run his empire on his own.” his large hands in closed tightly around neck. grasped under his thick arm, legs reaching off the ground. “just so she can become an actor. so she can live off her dreams with her sisters idiotic club in hand. do you understand how that feels!” 

 

she gasped loudly, legs kicking the air as she reached to punch the man. he looked highly offended at the act. “you’re gonna die !”

 

her eyes watered at the dry attempt in realeasing his hands and she could feel as her vision grew blurry, then slowly black. 

 

it suddenly dawned upon her. his gun, tucked away on her back buckle, just close enough for her to reach. in one swift motion as she could feel the life being out of her, she hoisted the weapon and pushed it against his chest, taking the shot. 

 

the gunshot created some sort of ripple effect as the wind went still and all she could hear is the loud cry’s of the bodyguard, back stretched against the ground where he sank in his own blood. 

 

“you ” he spat loudly, “you shot me.” his statement brought a small frown on seungwans face.

 

“yeah, no . people like you deserve worse then this. you’re being let off easy” 

 

“easy” he repeated her words as if it tasted bitter in his mouth, “one way or another, joohyun’s gonna find out how easy it is to get rid of her. she’s gonna die a long painful—“ 

 

her gun alined steadily between his eyes and she took the shot, blowing him backwards and killing him entirely. 

 

it is as if time resumed, and so did the wind. the way it played with the tops of her hair to the tips of her tears as it slowly trickled down, damping her cheeks until her vision crystallized. 

 

her hand remained structured at the direction of his dead body. she thought that if she moved, if she left this moment right here, time would leave past her and take away everything that she loves. 

 

“wannie!” her tears were hastily wiped before she turned back to seulgi. 

 

“where are they?” seungwan cracked 

 

“i locked them in my car” 

 

“both of them?” seungwan can only imagine how hard that must’ve been. 

 

“yeah let’s hurry. we need to get to the hospital” 

 

she suddenly remember why she stopped moving. why she stood there watching seulgi looking at her patiently. as if all that baggage that she carried was in those hands that was reached out for seungwan. that moment she reached back to grasp seulgis hand, it felt like all her burden slipped to somewhere too far to reach. all that was left was pure love. to her friendship with seulgi. to everyone she had in her life and to joohyun. 

 

she needed her now more then ever so she can hold her tightly and tell her that ‘everything’s going be alright. i’m gonna be there for you every step of the way. i’m gonna protect you’ it must’ve been the numbness of her brain from losing so much blood talking, but it all felt too real. she needed to be there for her friends and get out of this goddamn spot. and so she did. 

 

“let’s go”

… 

A/N: in honour of psycho's release, ive decided to release a new chapter. this has more action in it
> < but if you liked it, please subrscibe and upvote for more!