\ \ \ \ \

 

“Why weren’t you watching where you were going!?” Victoria scolded loudly pushing her way through the crowd. 

 

“There was a tear in my shirt! I didn’t see the kid coming!” Seohyun explained her innocence. “What are we going to do!? My ID is in my bag!” 

 

“Can’t you run quicker? Why are you wearing sandals with heels!?”

 

“Why are you yelling at me!?” Seohyun screamed frustrated. 

 

The hot sun was scorching Victoria’s body and she was already starting to sweat like a pig. Oh, how she hated hot summer days. She dragged her feet on and instantly felt something strange whip through her body. Was it the play of gravity? Because it definitely felt like something was dragging her aside. A second later her back was pinned against the brick wall in some thin alley at full speed. 

 

A loud gasp of exhilarated surprise fell from her lips before she stared into the stranger’s face. She didn’t recognize him but she didn’t like being treated like a weak. Snatching one of his arms and wringing it she listened as he screamed and Victoria instantly pushed him back. He, however, fought against her and turned her away from the wall making her walk backward down the alley. When Victoria realized it she wrung his hand with more strength forcing him to circle back toward the sidewalk. 

 

“Victoria!” Seohyun shouted somewhere nearby. 

 

Victoria tilted her head to look for Seohyun and opened to shout back, but discovered herself pressed against the wall again, a hand over . She glared at the perpetrator’s fragile face. 

 

“Shh!” he beckoned. “I’m not interested in molesting you nor robbing you. I was going to ask you a question but doesn’t seem like the time. Your friend’s looking for you.” 

 

Victoria narrowed her eyes at him confused by his intentions. She refused to flinch when he pressed his face nearer to her, their eyes locked into a long stare. In the end he smiled playfully at her catching her off guard. What he did next had been the most unexpected. 

 

Her breath stilled when he closed in, yet she was unable to close her eyes with him looking at her so intently. He pressed his lips against his own hand as if kissing her before smirking.

 

“See ya,” he said with a wink before turning to run down the alley.

 

She turned her head to stare after him confused before she heard Seohyun run by, stop, and tread back. 

 

“Unnie!” Seohyun called. “What are you doing?” 

 

“Oh…uh…”

 

“Is everything alright over here?” 

 

Victoria turned to see a police officer walk over with Seohyun’s bag in hand. He was handsome and had an extremely nice buff frame. Her eyes caught onto the muscles flexing underneath his shirt when he handed Seohyun’s bag back to her. 

 

“You should be careful next time,” he cautioned, “but you run pretty fast in those heels.” 

 

Victoria caught Seohyun’s shy smile and wondered if she was in awe of the police officer as well. 

 

“Are you ok?” 

 

Her eyes turned back toward the police officer and Victoria felt her blood rush. 

 

“Uh…oh yea. Yea, I’m fine,” Victoria answered nervous. 

 

“You two be careful, have a nice day now,” he shot a smile at the two of them before walking away. 

 

Victoria turned to watch him disappear around the corner and turned to look at Seohyun who was always staring after him. 

 

\ \ \ \ \

 

“Whoa! Wasn’t he just so handsome!” Seohyun squealed 15 minutes later when they found a restaurant. 

 

The clatter of dishes resounded in the air like music and the waitresses walked back and forth. Some were cheery, others were just outright rude. And both Seohyun and Victoria had gotten the outright rude waitress. 

 

It was a small medium sized restaurant, walls half white - half made of plastered wood. The large windows were currently being wiped down with some kind of lemon scented formula and customers just relentlessly walked in noisily. 

 

Behind them the rubber doors flapped open and their outright rude waitress walked out with their meals. Without a word and a grim face she set down their dishes in front of them before trotting off. 

 

“Looks so good!” Seohyun exclaimed picking up her fork. “Why aren’t you eating?” 

 

Seohyun glanced up to see Victoria staring aimlessly somewhere behind her. She twisted around to follow her gaze but couldn’t see anyone but a bunch of old men and a family. 

 

“Are you in a bad mood?” Seohyun asked. “Because my bag got stolen and we lost some time?” 

 

Victoria didn’t reply. Seohyun pressed her lips together and grabbed Victoria’s fork forcing it into her hand. 

 

“Eat! So we can start on our job!” 

 

Victoria picked at her food and took a bite of her omelet. 

 

“By the way, what were you doing in that alley? Were you with someone?” Seohyun wondered munching on her hash browns. 

 

“No!” Victoria suddenly exclaimed before noticing the surprise in Seohyun’s large eyes. Quickly lowering her eyes she said, “A humongous stock owner, who owns more than half the stocks in Montblanc division of watches, has a home in the west end of town. You heard of it? They manufacture a variety of products from watches, jewelries, leather, and pens. This guy’s another one of the big ones.”

 

“Where do you get all these information?” 

 

“Kangta’s been sending me lists of big business owners, we just need to choose wisely,” Victoria replied. “It’d be a lot easier if we could just talk open about the ‘Golden Mary’ and go from there, but it’s such a secret that it’s a pain in the sneaking around like a criminal.” 

 

“Makes us look like thieves, huh?” Seohyun smiled excited. “But this is so fun. This is the first time we can unleash our abilities after training for years! Sorry for interrupting. Go on.”

 

“I forgot what I was saying,” Victoria stopped chewing and slightly glanced up at the ceiling. “Oh right, about the Montblanc stock owner, Hong Chong Il. He was one of those men invited to the banquet that night. It might be in his home somewhere. He’s also known for collecting a wide variety of historical items. If it was him who took it, it’s gotta be there somewhere. We’ll be there at midnight sharp.”

 

“Then we have all day to finally go around Seoul?” Seohyun asked then clapped her hands together. “Wah! It’s been so long since I’ve felt like a normal city girl! I should definitely take this to my advantage! What should we do? I feel like shopping!” 

 

\ \ \ \ \

 

“Eh!?” Hyukjae’s loud squeak climbed up into the high ceiling. 

 

At the front of a small auditorium Donghae sat on the stairs counting away at the precious slips of money in his hands. With head hung down ignoring the empty velvety seats to his left he flipped through the money with a thumb professionally. His long time friend, Hyukjae, a twerky nerd, paced back and forth behind him. While Hyukjae’s loud footsteps echoed off the walls Donghae lifted up his head and slightly turned.  

 

“You know where Hong Chong Il lives, don’t you?” Donghae questioned. 

 

Hyukjae paused and quickly ran over crouching down to place a hand on his friend’s shoulder. 

 

“The pure jade plate in the newspaper, are you sure he bought it?” 

 

“Of course!” Donghae nodded. “So, tell me, where does he live?” 

 

“Donghae!” Hyukjae whined with a scowl. “We were supposed to drink at your new place tonight!” 

 

“Business first,” Donghae held up a finger. “So, I’m going to infiltrate tonight. Where does he live?” 

 

\ \ \ \ \

 

A crow flew overhead when Victoria and Seohyun, in dark wear, climbed over the brick wall landing into a few bushes. Seohyun slowly poked her head out of the now dark bushes to observe their surroundings. 

 

A large green yard loomed ahead and the only light she could see was the one on the front porch beside the door. The large home loomed high over them with brilliant black tiles and a fabulous chimney. 

 

“Clear.” Seohyun whispered crouching forward onto her knees. 

 

Victoria appeared beside her turning her head around to double check and nodded. Together the two started toward the back of the home first peering through the dark curtains to make sure there was no life inside. Scurrying past the second window they stopped at the back door, backs pressed against the house. 

 

The two turned to glance at each other before spinning around to check for any open windows. They quietly and very gently pushed the windows up and on the third try found that one of the windows in the kitchen had been left unlocked. 

 

Seohyun climbed in after Victoria and they found themselves standing inside a beautiful kitchen with new floor tiles, a silver two door fridge, and an oven built into the wall. A large rectangular table stole the spotlight in the middle of the room with dishes neatly stacked in place by the large sinks. 

 

With careful movement they tiptoed into the next room, the dining room. A large vase of a variety of flowers sat in the center of the room, a red fireplace at the front. Seohyun felt gape open in awe at the luxurious sight and ran her eyes over the large portraits on the walls. 

 

“Seohyun!” Victoria snapped catching her attention. 

 

She turned to find Victoria already peering into the next room and wondered if Victoria was not at all interested in the home. Quickly catching up to her they ran the rest of the way upstairs after deciding that the first floor had nothing important in store for them. The large wooden staircase was just as new as the tiles in the kitchen, there was not one creak with every unbalanced step Seohyun made. At the top of the stairs they were met with two hallways, one of the left, the other on their right. 

 

Seohyun glanced around to see a light coming from a room and tapped Victoria on the shoulder. 

 

“Do you think someone’s awake?” Seohyun asked. 

 

Victoria followed her gaze to discover that there was really a golden light coming from one of the rooms at their far left. 

 

“Do you think that’s the room?” Seohyun asked. 

 

“No,” Victoria replied, “he wouldn’t foolishly leave on an light. Someone’s probably awake and moving around. Lets go the other way.” 

 

Seohyun nodded and quickly ran after Victoria with her quietest footsteps and they discovered another corridor at the end of the hallway. Along the way Seohyun peered at each of the closed off rooms wondering what each of the held. She quickly came to a conclusion that there wasn’t much to see in the house. 

 

Pressing her lips together she crept around the corner and peered into a kitchen a lot small than the one downstairs. There were four cupboards above the sink and two more down near the ground with a small square table beside the long window to the right. Seohyun stepped in and walked around to discover that it would lead them back to the hallway they had come from. 

 

Through all the silence in the room while they looked around Seohyun swore she couldn’t even hear their breathing. 

 

“There’s nothing here,” Seohyun concluded. “I believe it’s in the opposite hallway.”

 

With a nod, Victoria followed Seohyun back into the hallway only to come to a quick halt when they spotted a boy standing in the middle of the hallway, a backpack strap slung over his shoulder. Seohyun’s eyes widened, her heartbeat quickening. She hadn’t expected for them to be discovered so soon. Seohyun believed Victoria had gotten a scare as well because neither of them moved for a while as seconds elapsed.

 

The boy was of average height with light hair color, that Seohyun could tell. There was something about his eyes that seemed familiar. While they continued to stare at each other surprised by the other’s appearances Seohyun gained recognition immediately. 

 

“Seo…” he stared, eyes widening at the exact same moment but was cut off with a loud gunshot from downstairs. 

 

The three of them froze in spot staring at the stairs. There were suddenly very light footsteps at the bottom of the stairs. Whispering and muttering echoed into the air before the boy they’d ran into started backing up toward them. 

 

“Just perfect,” Victoria muttered from behind. 

 

Seohyun turned to look at her wondering how they’d get out of the building like this. 

 

“Seohyun, lets split up here,” Victoria suggested quietly, “it’ll be difficult for us to escape if we continue to stick together. We’ll meet back at the apartment.” 

 

“Ok.” 

 

“Be careful.” 

 

“You too.” 

 

With that Victoria dashed back into the kitchen leaving Seohyun to stand there with the boy they’d met. 

 

“Seohyun, what are…” the boy whispered when he paused beside her. 

 

“Shh! Shut up before I cut off your tongue,” Seohyun threatened.

 

With silence now re-gathering into the air, Seohyun was finally able to concentrate on the footsteps again. She pushed the boy into one of the doors hoping they’d stay hidden in the shadows until the men approached. Seohyun could hear three men chuckling when they turned toward them. Behind them in the depths of darkness Seohyun could see Victoria making a run for the stairs quickly disappearing. 

 

Grabbing the boy’s wrist she dragged him into the kitchen and waited for the infiltrators to come. With hear quietly pounding within her chest, all Seohyun could do was hold her breath. When one of the men appeared Seohyun moved out, grabbed his arm, and flipped him onto the ground. 

 

“Whoa! What the…” the others, alarmed, backed up. 

 

Seohyun turned to glance at them elbowing the next in the neck, linked her foot around his, and with as much strength as she could summon she pulled his arm forward before tripping him backwards. 

 

A high pitched scream resonated upstairs from downstairs catching Seohyun caught off guard. For a moment she thought it was Victoria before remembering that Victoria never screamed. Had they really stolen into the house during the wrong time? 

 

“Yah! Watch out!” the boy screamed grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the gun in the next man’s hand. “I know a way out of here, lets go!” 

 

A whirl of confusion swept her mind when he dragged her after him. 

 

\ \ \ \ \

 

Victoria was forced to a stop at the bottom of the stairs when she saw a man holding a gun up to what seemed like one of the late night maid’s head. She could only groan and swear inside her head wondering why she was suddenly stuck here with this situation. During the moment they stared each other down Victoria was able to observe his figure in the dark. He was buff, big arms, a big belly, short legs, a heavy torso, and a round head full of hair. 

 

“Well, what do we have here?” teased the man. “Move or I’ll shoot.” 

 

Victoria could only stare and back up a little as she ran all the humiliating possibilities running through her head. She took another step back and in a split second ran forward ing her leg high into the air kicking away the gun. The maid screamed again and cowered to the ground. Victoria wanted to punch her and tell her to shut up. 

 

“Run!” Victoria screamed.

 

The man shook his hand out of pain and ran at Victoria pulling a small knife hidden within his pocket. Victoria dodged her head to the side when he tried to stab at her, but the maid was still screaming. Rolling her eyes Victoria ran toward the maid to pull her up. 

 

“I said RUN!” Victoria screamed. 

 

Still screaming like a lunatic, Victoria watched as she ran for the front door and paused immediately when the man locked his arm around her neck, the knife at her temple. 

 

\ \ \ \ \

 

“, , !” Donghae swore as he raced down the stairs, bag in hand. “Crap!” 

 

He quickly stopped when saw a man, a knife, and a woman. Donghae crept up the stairs and glanced toward them again. This time with a better view, he noticed that the man had the woman locked in his arms with no chance of escape. His eyes tilted toward the bag in hand, if he helped he’d lose the plate in his bag. 

 

He gulped, debated, and gulped again. He’d lose thousands of dollars if he left the plate, but how was he going to help the woman get away if he was still on the stairs? Donghae really didn’t want to leave the plate behind and forsake it for a girl he didn’t know. But he’d feel guilty if she died because of him. The decisions hurt his head as well as his little heart. 

 

In the end he set down the bag, ped it, and grabbed the heavy plate out. 

 

“You’re going to regret this the rest of your life,” Donghae whispered to himself before glancing back up. 

 

If he aimed right, he’d knock the knife out of the man’s hand. He’d been a perfect aimer when he was in high school and he could only hope that his skills hadn’t dulled. Holding it out within his fingers he swung it back and forth to adjust his aim before watching it fly through the air. 

 

\ \ \ \ \

 

Victoria was about ready to kick some real this time. She was readying to kick her leg up and smash the front of her shoe into his head but heard something abnormal in the air. In a split second, she heard what sounded like plates clattering against each other. 

 

“Argh!” the man screamed as a large object knocked the knife out of his hand instants before it landed on the ground shattering to pieces. 

 

Grabbing her chance, she elbowed him in the ribs, took a step to the side before slamming her fist into his face. While she kicked him to the ground she turned to search around the darkness. Where the heck had that object come from? She stared around some more, turned away, and quickly turned back when she caught a face on the stairs. 

 

A frown suddenly covered her face. The surprise in their eyes obviously at hiding the fact that they both recognized each other.  

---

***Woohoot! Both Vic & Seo both met ppl they know!  And their timing really , don't you think? They're not getting any closer to the 'Golden Mary' at this rate! Their search has been getting interrupted each time so far! And suddenly, Siwon has become the eye candy for both Vic & Seo ;)

 

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