Seulgi’s eye contact with Irene faltered at the unexpected turn of events. Several thoughts ran through her head: she was too close to push in with a clinch; there would be no way she could get Irene to the ground to get into a mount position; getting to the ground in general was out of question; Brazilian jiu-jitsu wasn’t created to deal with armed altercations in the first place, as with most open-handed martial arts. As if seeing through the calculations going on in Seulgi’s head, Irene pressed down harder on Seulgi’s hand.

“Too much thinking.” A hot breath on Seulgi’s chin. “I’m intrigued as to why that pretty mouth of yours isn’t shooting off as it always does.”

The sheer material of Irene’s stockings was soft under Seulgi’s fingertips, and the heat from Irene’s palm bore down into her knuckles. Seulgi wanted to pull her hand out but couldn’t move—not because of the gun but because the contrast of sensations kept her mind grounded in the moment.

“Will my answers satisfy you?” Seulgi met Irene’s eyes again. “Because you never settle for what I give you. I thought agreeing to be tied to your side would change some of that.”

“The day after I am hunted down by sixteen assassins without a proper explanation, you decide to meet the man who sent them. I think I’m justified in suspecting your collusion with Kai.”

“I tried to dig his intentions out of him too. He has his own suspicions, and I had no explanations. He’s a very give-and-take kind of person, but there was nothing to be exchanged given my limited knowledge. That you’ll just have to take as I give it to you.”

“Shut up and eat what you throw me, is it?”

“That’s the only shot I’ve got. You have the upper hand anyway; whether you kill me now or at some later time, I’m unfortunately at your disposal.”

Irene seemed to be considering Seulgi’s words when her phone vibrated with an incoming call. Letting it ring for a few seconds, Irene slid her hand off of Seulgi’s before picking up the phone.

“Speak.”

Seulgi watched Irene carefully, paying close attention to the tightness in her shoulders. While she didn’t necessarily have an escape plan, Seulgi wasn’t going to sit still and risk Irene shooting her. She still had too much to do.

“Irene. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

Even over the receiver, Seulgi could tell it was Kai’s voice, from the way his words sharply fell after a smooth baritone delivery. Wondering why he would call Irene at this timing, she held her breath and listened.

“As far as I remember, we aren’t in the type of relationship to care about those kinds of things. What’s the purpose of this call?”

“In a hurry? I have news you might enjoy.”

Irene’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance at Kai’s unnecessary dragging out of the conversation. “And that is?”

“It seems that we’ve all been thrown into a ploy. Via external forces, of course.”

“There’s only one external force for us to consider.”

“That’s right. It’s exactly what you think.”

Irene tapped a finger twice against the table. “Siwon.”

“Does that name hold enough power to peak your interest in my conclusions?”

Glancing away from the wall, Irene made eye contact with Seulgi, whose hand was still on Irene’s knee. After a moment of silence, the gun was brought down. Seulgi exhaled quietly.

“I’ll entertain you for now but not without a reminder that you are admitting to mere speculations without sending me the evidence to give me certainty. I am going to assume you’re going to obtain it before this call ends.”

“Take it as you will, but I’ve talked to Lucas as well. No one has gained anything so far through these extraneous events, and you and I aren’t dull enough to even attempt such a thing.”

“And has Lucas told you the details of our meeting?”

“That idiot is too busy trying to save his own to plot anything. Don’t worry; he hasn’t revealed much to me. But you’ve slipped that there is indeed something of importance that I should know of.”

“What do I get in return for telling you?”

“An explanation. Can we both agree that the men sent to each other were signs of innocence? A genuine means of eliminating a threat? I can’t see you so blatantly trying to get rid of me to take over my specialization, and you know I’m much more careful than that too. Although you don’t seem to know me well enough yet, Irene.”

Irene pushed Seulgi’s hand off of her leg and stood up to stand near the door. Seulgi could barely hear Kai’s voice now. “So we were indeed thinking the same thing.” She paused. “Sixteen.” Her voice was flat.

“One comes off as more of a surprise to me. You still underestimate me after all these years, Irene. I’m only a man with pride too.”

“Enough of this.” Irene pressed her thumb into the space between her eyebrows, sighing lightly. “We’re now in agreement that we thought the other was conducting malicious activity and worked to counter it. Have you also talked to Siwon?”

“Just Lucas, as you have. Things weren’t matching up until I talked to your toy.”

Irene glanced at Seulgi, prompting the latter to blink curiously. “Ms. Kang. You are not in a relationship where you can call her otherwise.”

Seulgi pointed at herself. Irene ignored her.

“Tsk, possessive, aren’t you?”

“She has agreed to be mine.”

“Touché. Very useful girl, that journalist.” A clicking sound from over the phone. “Ah, excuse me. Just needed a smoke.”

“Must have used a lot of brainpower.” Irene’s tone was belittling. “I don’t have all day, especially if we need to figure out future courses of action.”

“You know, you being in such a rush makes me think that perhaps you have some busy business with Ms. Kang. Your relationship is quite inexplicable to us outsiders, after all. One can only assume she’s yours in more than just paper.”

“None of your business and unnecessary to this conversation. Where do Siwon and Kang Seulgi come into this?”

Seulgi raised her eyebrows and pointed at herself again. Irene stared openly at her, making Seulgi slump meekly.

“So Lucas and I have confirmed that neither of us were ordering our men to conduct activities in each other’s territory. I would have contacted Siwon, but I knew you already had without knowing the purpose for it. If it was to set us up in this manner, Siwon would have moved after taking your call. But based on what I’ve gathered from Ms. Kang, you didn’t meet up with him after that, so there was nothing for him to relay to you.”

“Or he purposely didn’t move.” Irene leaned against the wall. “Which wouldn’t make sense if one of us had acted independently to ruin the balance of the system.”

“Bingo.”

There was a long moment of silence in which Seulgi noticed Irene continuously clenched and unclenched her jaw, as if trying to keep her anger under control. Her eyes showed nothing though, and that was what reminded Seulgi that Irene was truly a dangerous person. Assuming that Irene’s trust in her couldn’t have regressed with this call and risking it doing so with what she was about to do, Seulgi made her way to Irene and sat her down on the nearby decorative nightstand, standing between her legs. Irene flinched slightly, uncharacteristically, at Seulgi’s cold hands on her waist but let Seulgi hold her.

“You must have called me with a plan…”

“I think it would be in the best of both of our interests to team up—”

“—but I am going to turn down your proposal right now.”

“What?” Kai’s voice was partly confused, partly angry. “On what premises?”

“I won’t disagree with you that his behaviour is irregular. But like I’ve mentioned, you have no evidence. Do you really plan to keep a threat in that position after knowing this?”

“Well then, what is your suggestion? Don’t tell me you’ve already thought up some grand plan of collecting evidence against Siwon without attracting his attention.”

“Oh but I have. And it has already been put into action.”

“What?”

“What Lucas didn’t tell you.” A pause. “I absorbed his trade.”

“Don’t talk in riddles now.”

Irene ran a finger down the teeth of the zipper on Seulgi’s jacket. “Not officially. It was intentionally also done as a ploy and to stay on top of the situation, but we can use it to our advantage. Siwon most likely wants us to suspect each other and absorb other trades so he can use it against us for whatever reason. We’ll play things his way.”

“You want to absorb my trade too.”

“Again, only on the surface. You will still have access to all the transactions.”

Kai hummed, followed by the sound of a cigarette tapping on an ashtray. “We’ll have to be secretive about this. If he knows of anything other than the final action of you absorbing the trade, he’ll be getting an upper hand in a situation we don’t have enough information about.”

“It will have to happen over the course of a few days. I will meet with you and Lucas soon.”

“I hold the same sentiment. The Vision should be confidential enough so long as you don’t bring company cars.”

“I will take care of that. You focus on baiting him to another location.”

With that, Irene hung up the call, not giving Kai space to continue the discussion. Seulgi didn’t say anything, letting Irene organize the thoughts in her head before she spoke to her. Despite the similarities to previous events, there were more things that had come into the light now, so taking the same courses of action as before wouldn’t work.

“You’ll be coming with me.”

“Isn’t that expected, given our contract?”

Irene tilted her head back slightly so she wasn’t looking up at Seulgi. “The safety was on.”

Seulgi squeezed Irene’s waist softly. “This is a lot more than I expected to get involved with.”

“Such are the woes of interdependency.”

“How do you know I trust you as much as you trust me?”

Irene placed her hands on Seulgi’s forearms. “Do you trust that I’ll protect you no matter what?”

Seulgi pushed down the past memories of Irene jumping into action to keep Seulgi’s hands clean. “Still part of our contract.”

“Seulgi.” Just her name again. Irene slid her hands up to Seulgi’s upper arms. “I’ve come too far to not save you unconditionally.”

Heart thumping with every click of Irene’s heels, Seulgi stood alone in the room after Irene left, wondering what Irene meant. The heat of Irene’s fingers lingered on her arms; it made the untouched skin of everywhere else chilly. Irene’s perfume drifted around her—an inhale filled Seulgi with the sensation of heat and addiction.

She couldn’t shake off the feeling that Irene was the embodiment of danger itself. And yet she wanted to push her body further into the grips of this world—that shimmering surface of transparent foreboding sheathed by the dark