Hongbin groaned when he heard his cellphone ringing, he took it and opened his eyes looking at the screen. He sighed heavily upon seeing who it was, he thought about not answering, however, it could bring him trouble.

“Yes?” He answered the call.

“We’ll meet, I’ll send you the location, hurry up and don’t keep us waiting.”

The call was cut before he could say anything else. Well, he wasn’t surprised, Sunny wasn’t someone who was kind or considerate to begin with. Hongbin looked at the screen of his cellphone again, it was already past midnight, what could be so important that couldn’t wait until the next day? He was starting to regret having ally with those three, if things like that would become usual then he would back off for sure.

Despite his reluctance, Hongbin changed clothes and went to the location Sunny send him. Of course he expected they’d choose a creepy abandoned warehouse to meet, after all, Tiffany usually was way too dramatic. He also wasn’t impressed to realize he was the last one to arrive.

“You’re late.” Sunny pointed out, standing next to Tiffany with crossed arms.

“Well, some of us do sleep.” Hongbin answered still walking towards them.

Tiffany was sitting and had a clearly angered expression, Hongbin kind of knew what it was about. Meanwhile Wonshik was laying on the ground with closed eyes, anyone could think he wasn’t paying attention to what happened at his surroundings, but he was carefully listening to what was going on.

“Leave that for later.” Tiffany suddenly said.

Hongbin narrowed his eyes upon that, he realized Tiffany wasn’t just upset as she usually was, the girl’s voice had a taint of threat and hatred that he hadn’t heard on her before.

Seems like we’ll start to move sooner than expected.

“Then let’s get straight to the point, why did you call us here?” Sunny asked her.

Hongbin could swear that Sunny was the only person who dared to talk to Tiffany like that —aside from the leaders and the elders, obviously— he still didn’t understand what kind of relationship those two had, after all, Tiffany was a High Status demon and Sunny was just a mere Mid Status assassin, not that there was something wrong with her being that, but for Tiffany, she was the exact description of what she considered inferior and disgusting. Therefore, seeing how she wasn’t that bothered to Sunny talking to her as an equal definitely was something that confused him.

“Since I don’t want to be further humiliated, I prefer to tell you in advance, Jonghyun and Ahyoung started dating today.” Tiffany said with clear anger.

Wonshik chuckled but remain in the same position, meanwhile Hongbin didn’t know exactly what to feel, he was debating between sadness and rage. Just a few days ago, Ahyoung rejected him so easily and now she was Jonghyun’s girlfriend, despite when not even that long ago she claimed she hated the demon.

He lost against Jonghyun again. Once more he was left behind. Once again he wasn’t enough.

“Seriously, a human girl, how can he do this to me!?” Tiffany shouted and stood up, ready to punch something or someone, whatever came into her range first.

Hongbin just looked at her, then turned his attention to Sunny, who was now sitting, looking at her nails nonchalantly. It seemed the girl already knew about it.

“What did you say back then?” Sunny asked with irony. “’If that’s the game he wants to play, then let him play a while more.’? I thought you didn’t care about it.”

“Things changed.”

“If that’s the case then, why don’t we start with the plan right away?” Wonshik calmly asked.

The warehouse fell silent as the three of them looked at the boy who was still laying with closed eyes on the floor, not moving an inch.

“I agree with Wonshik.” Sunny was the first one to speak and break the silence.

Hongbin looked at her, the girl had a smirk on her face and crossed arms. He decided to remain silent, after all, they still hadn’t tell him what the so called ‘plan’ was.

“Of course you agree with him.” Tiffany narrowed her eyes towards Sunny, then looked back at Wonshik. “What do you have in mind, Wonshik?”

The vampire finally opened his eyes and stood from the floor, he smirked at Tiffany.

“We already have some people on our side, we should start recruiting more, the sooner we have more allies, the sooner we can attack.”

“It’s not that easy Wonshik, we still need something that can put the world upside down so the attention can be focused on that while we move freely on our own without being suspicious.”

“Maybe there’s something that can create the reaction you’re looking for.” Sunny said.

Everyone looked at her with confused stares, however, Sunny only looked at Tiffany with a really serious expression. It was as clear as water that they were having a silent conversation.

“But first I suggest having one more ally.” Sunny changed the topic now looking at the boys.

“Who do you have in mind?” Hongbin asked her with a frown.

“Hakyeon.” Sunny smirked.

“The assassin?” Wonshik asked confused.

“Do you know another Hakyeon?” The girl asked him with irony.

“Why would you want him on our side? Also, why would he join us?” Hongbin asked with disbelief.

“Oh trust me, he’ll join us, he won’t even put that much resistance.” Sunny answered with a smile.

“Well, if you say so.” Wonshik said.

“For now let’s focus on that, find an accurate moment to recruit him.” Tiffany instructed. “We’ll have another meeting on Monday.”

Wonshik didn’t say anything else and turned around to start going out of the warehouse. Hongbin sighed and also turned around, making it seem as if he was also going away, however, he noticed that Sunny and Tiffany gave each other the same look of moments ago when Sunny mentioned there was something that could put the world upside down. So he went out of the warehouse but tried to find a spot from where he could at least hear their conversation. Maybe he could use that information for his own interests later.

“Please, please spare me, I promise I won’t do something against you again.”

Seohyun looked down to the woman that was now pleading for her life. She found her reaction funny. She and Leeteuk finally discovered who the traitor was among their people. They caught her just in time when she was trying to escape in the middle of the night. They tied her hands and brought her down to a secret dungeon they had in the lowest levels of the house.

“Spare you?” Seohyun now chuckled. “You for sure knew what you were getting into when you agreed to betray us, didn’t you?”

The woman looked down, Seohyun thought that she now finally understood her position, however, the woman started to laugh, which took Seohyun aback.

“What’s so funny?” Leeteuk asked, he was leaning on the wall with crossed arms, looking at that woman with a frown.

The woman lifted her face and smirked, under the light of candles, her expression looked dangerously confident.

“How did your dear daughter react to the truth?” She asked venomously.

Seohyun huffed and narrowed her eyes towards her.

“What truth?” Seohyun asked back to her.

The woman laughed again and then sighed.

“Oh well, seems like I failed in my mission.” She then looked at Leeteuk. “So the little girl is still unaware of everything?”

“Who’s your boss?” Leeteuk asked her, ignoring her intrigues.

“I wonder… what are you willing to give me in order for me to tell you that?”

“Tell us your price.” Seohyun answered her with a serious tone.

“Price?” The woman laughed again. “You can’t afford it.”

“Don’t test your luck, we aren’t as nice as everyone thinks.” Leeteuk said with a dark tone.

“Oh, of course I know that.” She looked at Seohyun. “Seohyun, one of the two genius assassin sisters, along Sooyoung.” Then put her eyes on Leeteuk. “And Leeteuk, known as the most bloodthirsty assassin in 100 years. Though I got to know a few years ago that there may be someone who has already surpassed you; Sanghyuk, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Good thing you know about us.” Leeteuk answered, walking towards her and stopping beside Seohyun. “That’ll make things easier.”

“Scary, leader Leeteuk.” She answered with a smile.

“Start speaking, who’s the one pulling the threads behind you?” Seohyun asked her once again, taking out a dagger and keeping it in her hand.

“You really don’t have even a suspicion about who is it?” The woman asked in disbelief. “I can’t acknowledge that, she’s pretty obvious after all.”

“She?” Leeteuk asked narrowing his eyes.

“Oops.” The woman put her hands over for a moment with a false surprised expression. “Seems like I accidentally dropped a clue to you.”

Yeah sure, ‘accidentally’, neither Seohyun nor Leeteuk believed that. It was more than obvious that ‘slip’ was more than planned.

Seohyun got impatient and squatted in front of the woman, then grabbed her by the collar, bringing her close to her own face and with the other hand put the dagger against her neck.

“Speak, or else we won’t keep being this kind with you.” Seohyun hissed.

“Too bad your time is over.” The woman answered with a smirk.

Seohyun could now detect it, the coppery smell that escaped from that woman’s mouth. Seohyun frowned to her but before she could ask anything, the woman’s face twisted in a grimace of pain, Seohyun reacted just in time to avoid the mouthful of blood the woman coughed.

Venom! The leader thought with surprise.

“Damn it!” Seohyun said and quickly grabbed the woman again by the collar. “Speak! Who sent you?!”

The woman smiled at her, the blood tainting her teeth gave the scene a disturbing sight.

“Too late.”

Those were the last words the woman said before her head lolled down, lifeless. Seohyun was still throwing questions at her despite knowing it was pointless.

“Seohyun, enough, she’s dead.” Leeteuk put a hand over his wife’s shoulder.

Only then Seohyun left the woman on the ground and she stood angrily.

“Who the hell is it?!” She screamed in frustration.

Leeteuk sighed heavily and walked to her, he pulled her into an embrace and started to caress her hair.

“You’re aware that’s the least thing you should be doing right now?” Seohyun asked him.

“Yes. But I also know it’s exactly what you need to calm down.”

Seohyun snorted. Her husband knew her all too well, he was aware he and Ahyoung were the only two people she wouldn’t reject a hug despite how angry she was. Just as Leeteuk said, she started to calm down, it would have been a warm and cute sight if not for the fact that they had the corpse of a woman right behind them. Seohyun then broke the embrace and directed her gaze towards the woman again.

“Who do you think is the one pulling the threads?”

Leeteuk also looked at the lifeless woman and frowned.

“Don’t know, a couple of names come to my head, according to the ones who know, but each one as improbable as the other.”

“Same here, it’s supposed that no one knows about Ahyoung’s secret, beside the ones who were with you that day, but this woman knew it.”

“Do you think we can trust her words of that person being a woman?”

Seohyun sighed heavily and closed her eyes for a moment to then open them again before answering.

“I’m not sure, it could be the truth or it could be a false lead.”

“What if we take Ahyoung back to the human world?”

Seohyun denied with her head, eyes still glued on the woman on the floor.

“No matter where we go, someone knows Ahyoung’s secret, which means she’ll be hunted despite where she is. She’s safer here than in the human world.”

“Makes sense.” Leeteuk agreed with her. “We have to make a strategy, we’re exposed while our enemy is in the shadows.”

“Well, it’s not the first time we fight this way.” Seohyun looked at him with confidence. “This time, we’ll put an end to this mess.”

Leeteuk nodded to her, Seohyun then called one of the guards and told him to get rid of the woman. She and Leeteuk went back to her husband’s studio to analyze the situation and come up with possible solutions and plans.

Hongbin found the perfect spot to hide, it was near a broken window which had a piece of cloth covering it, so he couldn’t be seen, at least not clearly, since he was able to still see the silhouettes of the girls.

“So will you finally tell me the secret that will bring down the families?” Tiffany asked Sunny.

“Well, I guess you waited enough, it’s time for you to know it.”

“Seems fair, I’ve been putting up with you for far enough.”

“You won’t get rid of me even if I reveal this secret to you, there are still a lot of things you don’t know that I do.”

Tiffany huffed before answering.

“That’s as clear as water, you’re one of the most secretive people I know.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Hongbin frowned, he was completely confused. He thought that Tiffany was the one to know all the details of the plan they were making, but it seemed that the one under control of all the crucial information was Sunny.

Well, that explains why Tiffany allows her to be by her side and regards her as an equal.

“Despite the fact that you’re going to still hide things from me, I assume the secret you’re going to reveal to me is pretty big, since you wanted neither Wonshik nor Hongbin to know about it.” Tiffany said and sat while crossing her arms.

“You’re right. I’m even not sure if it’s the right decision to tell you about it right now, since it’s going to be a huge blow to you and you may want to go and make something stupid, ruining all our plans. But I’ll trust that you’re smart enough to know we can use this in a better way.”

“You’re being way too dramatic, just spit it out.”

Hongbin saw how Sunny approached Tiffany more, he assumed she was going to lower her voice so he approached the window more and closed his eyes, in order to focus all his attention in listening to what the assassin was going to say.

As he expected, Sunny lowered her voice, fortunately not enough for him to not be able to hear her. With each word being said, Hongbin less could believe what he was hearing. By the time Sunny finished speaking, Tiffany raised her voice.

“Nonsense!” Hongbin’s eyes snapped open and looked at the window again, Tiffany was now standing. “That can’t be true!”

“Why would I lie to you about such a thing?” Sunny asked her in a calm tone.

“But- That’s- It can’t-“

It was the first time Hongbin heard Tiffany at a loss of words and stuttering, however, he wasn’t impressed, even he couldn’t believe what he just heard, it was completely ridiculous.

“I know it can be hard to accept but that’s the truth. That’s Ahyoung’s secret.” Sunny tried to reason with the demon. “Think about it for a second, I bet that after knowing this, there are things that now make sense to you.”

Tiffany remained silent for some seconds, as if thinking about something.

“Now that you mention it, there are. There definitely are.” She answered in a thoughtful way.

“What do you want to do with this information?” Sunny asked her.

“I don’t know. It’s way too early to think how to handle it. Let me think about it for some days.”

It was one of the smartest answers Hongbin has heard Tiffany say.

“Alright then, think about it during the weekend, let me know in advance if we’re going to tell Wonshik and Hongbin about it.” Sunny made a pause. “Want me to you home?”

Tiffany snorted before answering her.

“What am I, a toddler? I can go there by myself.”

Hongbin heard how the two girls went away. Once the steps faded away, he leaned on the wall and let himself slide against it until he was sitting on the floor.

He couldn’t believe his ears, he even pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. He expected everything in the world but that. But just as Sunny said, if he thought about it, then a lot of things made sense, the puzzle pieces now perfectly fitted.

But damn it was really hard to believe.

It absolutely was something he could use to his own advantage later. However, he’d wait to hear what Tiffany wanted to do with that secret. He was eager to see how things would develop from that point on.

A/N: As always, thank you so so much for reading, comments are appreciated ^^ stay safe and have a beautiful day <3