He turned to walk away first and disappeared down a yellow hallway before they were urged forward, guns at their backs. The home was simply furnished with paintings on the walls, vases filled with flowers freshly picked from the yard, and soft sofas in the room behind them. Too bad Victoria couldn’t find the chance to look around. However, as they were moved forward she discovered that the whole house was painted with a lovely yellow bringing in a happy filled atmosphere, only too bad that it was housed by a money maniac.

They were led down a white staircase and Victoria sighted various shades of blue bouncing off the wall, all moving up and down as if they were electricity. At the bottom of the staircase she discovered what those lines were.

In front of them was a large pool that took up majority of the space. Whether it was a basement or not, Victoria couldn’t tell anymore. Noh Ki Young’s voice echoed throughout the room breaking her spree of staring at the free water pool.

“If you thought I didn’t know you were on your way here, don’t be fools.” He told. “I’ve had fun with this goose chase, but it all comes to an end here. I’m sure you’ve read through Secretary Hong’s e-mails, thus you should have already concluded that I’ve done all I could with the ‘Golden Mary’ already. Businesses I want out are destroyed already and I’ve got myself all the money I want.

Memories of arriving to the suburbs of Seoul by bus and sneaking into homes splashed in Victoria’s mind.

Noh Ki Young walked around the pool and toward them. He eyed them one by one before he eventually reached Luhan who was beside Victoria. In a mere second he snatched Luhan by the collar of his shirt. 

“You fool! If you thought you could call this petty revenge, you’re just a mere piece of dirty!” he tossed Luhan toward the ground roughly.

Victoria moved an inch forward before she felt the gun at the back of her neck threatening her.

“You’ve played the game well, leading these two around like dogs.” He grasped his hands together behind his back before walking toward the side of the pool.

Noh Ki Young stared at Victoria’s maddened eyes before smirking mischievously. Yes, he’s won the game and that was a fact he knew well. He reached into his pocket and let a tiny gold key dangle from his fingers. Victoria felt her eyes go wide. She had never seen it before, this key that they’ve been after all along, neither she nor Seohyun knew what it looked like. In the end, it was just a tiny key.

“Do you want it?” he smiled. “I reached the chamber while An Kor ran around and toyed with Luhan, but I’ve gotten what I wanted. Weak businesses are just a nuisance in this big line of work. They take more money than you think.”

None of them could utter a sound while he went at it and that irked Victoria the most.

Noh Ki Young reached into his other pocket and in a split moment the water in the pool started moving and very slowly it turned into a whirlpool bath, bubbles rose to the surface and eagerly moved around in a heated circle. 

The ‘Golden Mary’ flung through the air and landed into the water with a quiet splash, “Find it before I drain the water. Oh, and the drainage system is quite large so it’ll be gone before you get to it.”

He started toward the white staircase with hands in his pockets.

“Start.”

The man at Luhan’s back whisked out a pocket knife and slowly eased it to the back of his neck.

“On your way here you must have realized that the pastures are empty,” he told, “I’ve bought the land off and am planning a slash and burn. I’m going to cultivate this land after destroying everything along with this house. Don’t be surprised if you see the house burning.”

“You wouldn’t!” Siwon budged forward, his arms gripped back by the man behind him.

“Well, if you want to get away that badly before a wild fire starts eroding this land then” Noh Ki Young spun a chain with a single key around his finger, “this is for the boat by the sea side. You may have seen it when you were dropped off.” He smiled before cocking his head. “Get rid of these weak merchants.”

His footsteps started back up the white staircase loudly before they instantly faded. Once he was gone Victoria darted her eyes toward Luhan who was unable to move under the knife at his neck. The whirlpool in front roared noisily. At this point, there was nothing else to do but look for the key first. 

Victoria twisted her arm back, grabbed the gun, and twisted it into the man’s hand before twisting her waist to the right and arched up her left leg to kick him in the guts. She fell back onto her but at least she had the gun away from her back.

“Seohyun!” she shouted before twisting hers and the man’s hand so that the gun was pointing toward the man at Seohyun’s back.

Just in time Seohyun dodged to the side, taking her opponent’s gun with her when Victoria made the shot. Noh Ki Young’s man fell to the ground and as Seohyun jumped into the pool she turned around to shoot her opponent again in order to refrain him from getting up to fight the others.

“Let go…” Victoria muttered through gritted teeth, still fighting with her opponent.

No matter how hard she tried to twist the gun from his hand she couldn’t get him to let go and it was beginning to frustrate her. Nearly at every second she turned to glance at Luhan just to make sure his head hadn’t been cut off yet. She hated playing dirty no matter what circumstance she was in but she figured she really had no choice at the moment. As she pressed her foot into the man’s guts and leaned farther back, she lowered her foot slightly and with a slight kick pounded his bulge with her foot. His hollow scream satisfied her and she successfully pulled the gun from his hand. Slamming it across his head she turned and shot at the man at Luhan’s back.

Luhan dipped himself to the side from impact and tossed his arms over his head to protect himself. Victoria made another shot at the man’s thigh disabling him from walking before hurrying over to Luhan.

“You ok?” she asked helping him up before glancing back at his neck. “It doesn’t look too bad.”

“It’s fine.” He muttered reaching a hand back to touch his sore neck. “It stings a lot.”

Victoria smiled and patted his back.

\ \ \ \ \

As soon as Victoria made the first shot, Siwon elbowed the man behind him. Swiftly turning around he his fist forward knocking the gun out of Noh Ki Young’s man and shook his hand in pain afterward. A fist was slammed into his face when he was taken off guard and he went sliding against the ground. In a mere moment, the heavy man was on top of Siwon forcing his head back into the deep pool. Siwon’s air supply was immediately cut off and he grabbed the man’s hands with as much strength as he could summon with the hopes of prying them off his neck.

A deaf hollowness swam into his ears and Siwon almost out. The small oxygen bubbles floated from his mouth as he waved his head back and forth helplessly. His legs kicked up and down, back and forth but they leant him nothing. He was only draining his own energy under the sudden panic attack.

A sting plunged into his stomach once and twice before he thought he was dead. The sting was sharp and under the whirling water he felt his mind become a dark haze. A thick echo sounded from above the water before he was abruptly pulled out. Loud coughs reverberated through his body and wracked his chest painfully as he lie there, blood trickling out of his torso.

“Siwon! Siwon!” Victoria screamed.

He squinted his eyes narrowly before closing them.

“Are you ok? Don’t close your eyes! Wake up!” Victoria urged. 

He wasn’t sleeping nor was he going to die. There was just no strength to pull himself up and nod. Victoria pulled him up and called over for Luhan’s help. In the meantime he felt them slide him over to the wall and sit him up and after a few minutes finally opened his eyes. He was breathing really heavily, he realized, no wonder they thought he was dying.

“I’m not dead yet.” He spoke

“Of course not.” Victoria told with a worried frown. “It hurts a lot? Can you move?”

Siwon twisted his head with a low moan before nodding. “Seohyun?”

“Still searching for the key.”

Siwon nodded.

“We’ll get out of here. We will.”

\ \ \ \ \

It felt heavy. His eyelids felt really, really heavy. With a heave he sat up and rubbed the back of his head swinging up to his feet the moment he remembered seeing Victoria. Spinning around to look in all directions he realized that she’d left him behind. 

Had she planned to die? Had she planned on leaving him? Donghae shook his head. It couldn’t happen. Nothing was supposed to happen to Victoria. They were supposed to be together. She was supposed to come back to him later as promised.

His legs moved forward and he paused to stare at the house Seohyun had talked about in the text. Yes, definitely, Victoria was inside somewhere. Was she being held prisoner? Was she fighting bad guys for her life? There were so many worries that Donghae didn’t know what to do.

Of course, he had to move on impulse. He always moved on impulse. Walking forward confidently he reached for the front door and wondered if he would have to end up spending some time to pick at it. To his luck, it opened. A large room with a heavy chandelier met his view right away and he stepped in. Closing the door he inched forward with his mouth hanging open in awe.

At the end of the fat hallway with nothing but paintings of medieval aristocrats he saw a large room with rich furniture on his left. It was a very modern and bright room with various pieces of animal collections decorating it. Donghae dismissed it immediately because it was empty and walked around the hallways with more paintings of the basic flowers and gardens before he walked into the great kitchen. The walls were plastered with more yellow but the floor tiles were new and shone well underneath the light. A granite top stove sat in the middle of the room and looked so spectacular Donghae almost forgo this reason for being there. 

When he turned he saw an open door leading to what he guessed was the basement. However, as he started toward it he stopped when he heard a voice echoing off the walls, his very eyes growing wide at every second. Donghae dashed back down the hallway when Noh Ki Young started back up the stairs. And there was only one thing he had in mind.

He was going to get that key from the old man.

\ \ \ \ \

Seohyun’s heart flushed. The water was hotter than she’d expected. It was almost like a hot bath and the heat of it tingled her skin red. Sweat formed against her forehead and she had to keep riding up to the surface of the pool to wipe them away even if all she touched was the water itself. The chlorine was doing her no good as well. It was burning her eyes and it was starting to get hard to see.  

“Seohyun!” Victoria called out.

She turned around to see a bloody Siwon leaning against the wall. Her poor man looked so worn out and tired. If she didn’t keep it up they would never be able to escape.

“I’ll try again!” Seohyun called out before diving back in without waiting to hear Victoria retort. 

\ \ \ \ \

“I’ll go help Seohyun.” Luhan offered taking a step forward.

“No, you’re injured!” Victoria reached for his arm to stop him.

Luhan turned around to look at her, “I’m ok. Stop worrying about me, I’m not a kid you know.”

He watched Victoria bite her bottom lip before he walked out of her grasp and jumped into the pool.

The water was hot and the back of his neck stung, but it didn’t feel too bad. He was becoming numb to the pain with time. Luhan darted his eyes around the swirling water but had to give up before his eyes burned themselves. When he flew back up to the surface he gulped for more air and spun around in the water.

When Luhan dove back in he saw something sparkle in the midst of the spiraling water. Hurdling himself toward it he extended an arm out before grasping it within his palm and flew back up to the surface with arm high up in the air.

“I found it!” he screamed breathlessly, a wide smile across his lips.

Victoria let out a loud shout and Seohyun reached for his arm to pull him back toward the floor.

“We have to get out!” she shouted. “The water’s hot, and if he’s going to set a fire there might just be an explosion.”

Luhan crawled out with Victoria’s help and turned to look at the whirling pool. It finally looked really scary.

“The water hasn’t gone down one bit,” Seohyun breathlessly explained, “there’s going to be a lot of pressure when it begins to evaporate. Lets get out of here. Even if we don’t get on that boat, we should get near the sea.” 

While Seohyun and Victoria pulled Siwon up to his feet Luhan couldn’t help but glance back at the heated pool. His father had really intended on killing him. He would have been the first to go if Victoria hadn’t saved him first.

\ \ \ \ \

There was cackling coming up from the stairs. Donghae had paused by it while following the old man down the hall. If his intuition was right, the fire had started from the second floor. Noh Ki Young was planning to crush them in the basement and let them disappear along with it.

Donghae’s heart wrenched into tight knots of anger. He was planning on murdering Victoria and her friends.

Not once had Donghae used his pride to attack an elderly, but this was a different opportunity that called for it. Speeding from around the corner Donghae tackled the man to the ground and felt him struggle from underneath. To his surprise, Noh Ki Young was strong. He shifted Donghae off immediately before Donghae regained himself and plunged forward on top of the old man.

“Where’s the key to the boat!?” Donghae demanded wrestling to hold his arms down.

Noh Ki Young’s strength we fair and strong. He held Donghae’s hands up fairly well.

“Another rascal?” he questioned. 

“Your father, more like!” Donghae spat.

“Fool!” Noh Ki Young pushed him back before reaching into his pocket for a black stick.

Before Donghae caught sight of it he felt a sharp sting in his belly and let out a small shout.

“You should die here as well.” Noh Ki Young muttered before getting to his feet.

Donghae pressed a hand against his gut and held it out. For sure, a stream of red was coming out. The pain vibrated through his every cell as he stared at the old man’s back. He wasn’t going to escape. No way.

Struggling to his shaking legs he took a large leap and wrapped his arms around Noh Ki Young who shook back and forth in a fight to get him off. Donghae held on for his life.

“Why you! Just how long are you going to keep this up!?”

“The key…until you give me the key!” Donghae tightened his long arms around Noh Ki Young’s torso and tried to reach for the pocket knife in his hands.

The fight was endless and Donghae’s body was screaming from pain. A shout after another rang from his mouth when Noh Ki Young stabbed at his hand. Donghae fiercely bit down on his bottom lip urging himself to hold on longer.

Reaching for the old man’s hand with his uninjured hand he grasped onto the handle and felt the sharp knife dig deeper into his muscle and fought back another harsh scream coming his way. He wouldn’t let it end there. No, he couldn’t. Not until he got the key, not until he was sure Victoria and the others were safe. 

***Next chapter is the finale, guys~