It was really a shame that she had to return the scarf. For the short while that Bomi had worn it, it had kept her nice and warm. It was just plain black and wasn’t exactly the prettiest of scarves, but it was soft and served its purpose well.

Eunji had told Bomi to think about her request, and she had. After speaking with Eunji, she had gone home with her thoughts at war with each other. Part of her wanted to accept her offer and join the team, but the other part of her wanted to stay out of any team. 

Eunji had been right. Bomi was scared of losing anyone else that she cared about. After losing four of her closest companions in the span of thirty minutes, Bomi had also lost a part of herself. It had already been two years since her failed mission, but it still hurt every morning, waking up and remembering that she had failed her team. She had been their leader, and if she could have chosen, she would have chosen to give up her life if it meant that theirs would continue on.

When Bomi woke up the next morning, her mind had been made. She would return Eunji’s scarf and reject her offer. She would work on her own to hunt down the One-Eyed Man and avenge her fallen teammates’ lives. Yet as Bomi walked to the coffee shop with Eunji’s scarf in her hands, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was making a huge mistake.

As she neared the shop, she could see Eunji through the window, sitting at her usual table with her face looking down at her phone. Bomi in a breath and quickened her pace. It would be like ripping off a bandaid, she told herself. She’d go in there, return Eunji’s scarf and reject her invitation to the team, then leave without looking back. It shouldn’t be that difficult.

She never made it inside the coffee shop, though. Before she could even reach the door, she felt a sharp jab at her back.

“Keep walking. Don’t turn around or make a sound,” a deep voice muttered in her ear. “One wrong move and this knife goes straight into you.” 

A chill ran down Bomi’s spine. She listened to the man’s orders and kept walking.

“That’s a good girl,” the man said, his lips so close to her ear that she could feel his disgusting hot breath on her neck.

The man walked her past the entrance to the coffee shop. Bomi kept her eyes on Eunji, praying that she would look up from her phone and notice them. She tried taking smaller steps, but the man pressed the knife deeper into her back and growled, “Walk faster.”

Bomi had no choice but to oblige.

Eunji...Eunji, please, Bomi pleaded. They were almost past the shop. Eunji, please just look up.

As though Eunji heard Bomi’s thoughts, the woman looked up from her phone and began looking around, undoubtedly looking for Bomi. Her eyes ultimately fell on Bomi, and Bomi saw her give her a curious look. Eunji’s eyes drifted from Bomi to the man behind her, then to his hand that was oddly close to her back. Just before Bomi and the man passed the shop, Bomi saw Eunji face light up with alert as she stood up abruptly. Bomi nearly gave a sigh of relief.

“Get into the van,” the man ordered and pushed her toward a black minivan with tinted windows.

Bomi took her time stepping into the van, but she could only stall so much. When she finished climbing into the van, she turned and faced the man. She had half-expected the man to be the One-Eyed Man that she had been looking for, but she was disappointed to see that it was merely a man whom she had never seen before.

Just as the man shut the door, Bomi saw Eunji run out of the coffee shop behind him. They locked eyes momentarily, but it was all Bomi could do before something slammed against her head and her world went black.

Bomi woke up in a metal chair with her hands bound behind her back. It seemed like she had been brought to a storage unit, because she was in a small space enclosed by four metal walls. Her surroundings were bare except for three other men and a few scattered miscellaneous items. 

She groaned. How had she been stupid enough to let herself get captured like this? Her head felt like someone had slammed a brick against it, and she knew that if she looked in a mirror, she would see an ugly bruise on the side of her forehead. 

“Rise and shine, princess,” one of the men smiled smugly. It was the same man who had forced her into the van.

“If that’s who you hoped to capture, then you have the wrong person,” Bomi said.

“Oh, no,” the man replied. “You’re who we wanted to capture, Yoon Bomi.”

Bomi should have been more unnerved by the fact that they knew her name, but, then again, she’d been attacking the Shadow Clan’s meetings for almost two years now, and she had been the only one to escape from her failed mission. She had expected them to know who she was by now. If anything, she was surprised that it had taken them this long to retaliate. 

“What do you want with me?” Bomi demanded. She didn’t actually know if they were a part of the Shadow Clan, but it seemed like the only plausible reason for her capture.

“You’ll see soon enough,” one of the other men said. He was shorter and stouter, with a pinched face.

“Which one of you knocked me out earlier? I would like to speak to him.”

“That would be me,” the other man said, a bit too proudly for Bomi’s taste. He was the tallest and skinniest of the three men.

“Yes, you had your fun, Woojin. Both you and Minseok did.” The stout man walked towards Bomi with an evil sneer. “Now that she’s awake, I get to have my fun.”

Before Bomi could say anything, the man landed a punch straight across Bomi’s cheek. The force knocked the air out of her chest, and she was still disoriented when a second punch came at her other cheek. She had no time to recover before the man struck her stomach, making her lurch forward. That made it all too easy for the man to land an uppercut to her chin.

The beating hurt like hell, but Bomi refused to beg them to stop. Not when her teammates had endured far worse. 

She turned her head to the side and spat out blood. “You hit like a grandma.”

The man’s face twisted with anger, and he struck her so hard that she fell onto her side. The metal chair hit the concrete floor with a loud clang.

Bomi looked up at the men staring down at her. “What does your group want from me?”

“How are you so sure that we’re with the Shadow Clan?” the stout man sneered smugly.

It was Bomi’s turn to appear smug. “I never specified which group.”

“Jinwoo, you idiot!” Minseok yelled. The sound of a slap echoed off the walls of the storage unit, but it wasn’t Bomi who had been slapped.

So it was confirmed. It was the Shadow Clan that had captured her. That still didn’t give Bomi a sense of victory. She was still tied up and very possibly about to die, and she still didn’t know what they wanted from her.

“So,” Bomi asked again, “what does the Shadow Clan want from me?”

“You’ll find out later,” Jinwoo repeated. “When our boss gets here.”

“Your boss?” The leader of the Shadow Clan was a highly wanted person among the royal family secret agents. Not only did they not know their name or face, but they also didn't know if they were a man or woman. The Shadow Clan wasn’t a very easily trackable group; they had no main base, staged no public demonstrations, and had no distinguishing features. They could be hiding among normal civilians for all they knew. They only appeared when they attacked, and when they finished their business, they would slip away like a shadow that had never been there―thus their name, the Shadow Clan. Bomi had only been able to track down a few of their meetings by gathering intel from several sources.

“Don’t bother,” said Minseok. “You won’t be getting information about our Clan from us.”

“What does your boss want from me?”

Minseok kicked her right in the stomach, forcing a painful gasp out of . “What did I just say, damn it!”

Bomi gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the pain that currently laced through her entire body. What did the leader of the Shadow Clan want from her? Sure, she had been disrupting several of her meetings, but how did that make her special enough for their leader to risk their identity to personally meet her? Even when her team had been caught spying on the Clan, the leader did not come. So why was Bomi so different?

Woojin squatted down in front of Bomi. He lifted her chin up, forcing her to look straight at his face. “Are you praying that your friends will come rescue you?”

Woojin’s words sent a tremor of fear down her body.

 Eunji. 

She had forgotten what she had seen right before she had been knocked out. Eunji had seen her being taken away, and knowing her, she had chased after them. Had they caught her? And if they had, what had they done with her? Two new fears grew in Bomi’s chest: one, Eunji’s safety and two, the mere fact that she feared for Eunji.

Still, Bomi didn’t know if they were referring to Eunji or not, so she gathered herself and replied, “I work alone.” Then she spat out blood at Woojin’s face.

Woojin roared and struck her, cursing and calling her foul names. The other punches and jabs followed so quickly that they began to merge together, and Bomi couldn’t even discern which punch was coming from who. Her vision began to blur, and the overwhelming pain numbed her to the point that she could feel the men striking her, but she no longer felt the pain that came with it.

Bomi found herself hoping that Eunji had followed them without being caught and was on her way to rescue Bomi from this beating. She hated that she was hoping for this, but she had been stupid enough to get herself into this situation. She had no weapons, no plan, and no companions to help her.

Suddenly, Bomi heard the screeching of the door being lifted up, and light from outside washed into the drab storage unit. She shut her eyes to block out the sudden brightness. The beatings stopped, and she heard Minseok say, “Finally. Our leader has―”

Minseok’s words ended in an abrupt stifled gasp, and when Bomi opened her eyes, she saw Eunji, illuminated by the light behind her, fighting Jinwoo and Woojin. Minseok lay on the floor with a knife in his heart.

Bomi watched as Eunji easily dodged Jinwoo’s punch and deflected Woojin’s knife at the same time. In one movement, Eunji disarmed Woojin, caught his knife, and wedged it into his chest. He fell with a scream trapped in his throat. Jinwoo began to charge at Eunji from behind, and Bomi was about to warn her, but Eunji had been one step ahead of both of them. She yanked the knife out of Woojin’s body and drove it straight into Jinwoo’s heart before he could even touch her.

Jinwoo’s body collapsed to the floor, and Eunji stepped back, casually wiping the blood off her hands in disgust, as if she was simply wiping dirt off her hands.

Eunji retrieved her knife from Minseok’s chest and quickly ran over to Bomi’s side. She cut through the ropes that bound Bomi’s hands and legs and helped her out of the chair. 

“Bbom-ah, are you okay?” Eunji asked worriedly, gently cradling Bomi’s head in her lap. Bomi nodded and watched Eunji’s face relax with relief. 

“Alright,” Bomi said weakly, “you win. Take me to your team.”

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