"Jinwoon didn’t look up from his screen, “DNA. I have samples, and I can test for paternity.”

Blood was not something Junsu woke up to on a regular basis, so was waking up with the other side of his bed empty- at least, not when he wasn’t expecting it to be. He was in more pain than he thought he would be. He knew he wasn’t going to come out of last night’s ordeal unscathed, he just didn’t expect this magnitude. Cuts and scratches peppered his arms, chest, neck, and face. He could feel deeper cuts on his back, but at least those would heal. He wished he could say the same for his sheets though. The stains were not something he looked forward to washing out, and he decided to just get rid of them- or not.

After a shower he went straight to work down at the shop . Jinwoon and Chansung were already setting up the afternoon shift, their only shift that day. “Good morning,” he greeted, knowing he was intruding on a private conversation between the two.

Chansung took one look at Junsu and laughed, “You look like you had a fight with a cat.”

“And lost,” Jinwoon finished. “What happened to you?”

Junsu rolled his eyes. One could say he did. “Don’t ask. What’s up?”

Chansung shrugged, “Just the usual slow day.” The smell of blood irises wafted into the air, and Chansung craned his neck around looking for Rai, until he he realized that the scent was coming from Junsu. “Why do you smell like Rai?”

Junsu found Chansung’s super nose funny, but the way the other man was staring him down actually sent a chill down his spine. Junsu was not expecting an inquisition. He cleared his throat, “What are you talking about? I have her blood all over me. She was knocked out again last night, remember? Oh, I planted a lovely tracker on Junho last night and he’s well aware. Same for Victoria.”

Jinwoon and Chansung eyed him suspiciously, and a quick exit was what he needed. There were several things he wanted to look up today, and he was certain he did not want Jinwoon’s assistance for it. Not when the youngest was staring him down from a wheelchair. “So, anyway, have you seen Nichkhun?”

Chansung was not distracted by Junsu’s segue. “What exactly happened to you?”

Junsu rolled his eyes, “I had a run in with Rai, there, happy?”

Jinwoon didn’t believe it, neither did Chansung. The two youngest members froze the eldest on the spot with their glares, leaving Junsu stuttering to himself. “What? Why are you looking at me like I’m the bad guy here? Look at my face? I’m obviously the victim. Besides, I didn’t do anything she didn’t benefit from.”

“What?!”

Junsu took one look at Jinwoon and Chansung’s faces and and quickly made an exit. He ran into Nichkhun’s side of the shop and found him there just sitting on front of his camellias. “I have a question.”

Nichkhun took one look at the medic and didn’t hide his contempt. “Jinwoon would be of better help to you.”

Junsu sighed dramatically. “Yeah, well. Anyway, I’m pretty sure you heard everything last night, so I’ll get to the point. I heard two names last night, a Suijin, and yours. Care to share?”

“You’re the smart one,” Nichkhun said, turning back to his flowers. “Figure it out.”

Another dramatic sigh and Junsu threw his hands up in the air. “Fine, was it really that bad to ask?”

He recounted his steps and once again he in front of the two people he had previously escaped from. “Alright, alright. I was only trying to help. Anyway, I need your help.”

The look Jinwoon and Chansung shared sent another, now familiar, chill up his spine. “Please?” he added.

Chansung sighed, “What is it?”

“Rai isn’t here, right? I need to see her room.”

“What for?” Jinwoon asked.

Junsu shoved his hands into his pockets. “Well, I want to know who Rai is. I mean, you know. The iris brand, Suijin person, and the thing with Nichkhun. Aren’t you interested?”

It was easier than Junsu thought, even with Jinwoon demanding to be carried up on Chansung’s back, an agreement to help him came easier than the medic had expected. They took the stairs up to Rai’s room, all the while complaining how the back stairs to her room was not handicap friendly.

Three of them stood awkwardly by the door, and Junsu slowly slid it open, revealing a near empty room. A worn out mattress lay on one side and a wooden bucket with a blood iris inflorescence next to it.

“I’ve never been in Rai’s room before,” Chansung said, slowly stepping into the room.

“Me either,” Jinwoon echoed.

Junsu froze one more time as the two looked at him with glacial stares. “Don’t look at me, I’ve never been here before either.”

They walked around the empty room finding nothing of worth. “Well, this was useful.” Junsu muttered, more to himself than to his companions. “So, someone want to tell me why she has this iris branded on her?”

Jinwoon shared another look with Chansung first before answering. “Last night, the kids you guys rescued, Rai was one of them long ago. Same group.”

Junsu shrugged, not really surprised to hear that. “And this Suijin?”

Jinwoon released a big puff of air before answering. “I think it’s better if we did this downstairs.”

It was a quick explanation, partly because there wasn’t a lot to explain. Junsu took everything in without question, but Jinwoon did not have the answers he needed. “So we have her starting point with Fortuna, I don’t really care about what happens in between, I just want to know who Suijin is.”

Jinwoon sighed again. He purposely left out the last piece of information he and Chansung discovered the night before. Junsu didn’t need to know that he and Rai were related, although it was very bad for their bishop. Jinwoon was feeling even more protective of Rai with the discovery that they shared the same father- Staunton. He and Chansung agreed that that was exactly the reason Renzaki Mamoru had no qualms about putting her through that experiment, but how was their Staunton involved? That meant their unit leader had a connection to either Fortuna itself or Renzaki Mamoru.

Speaking of Rai, none of them had heard from her today, and Jinwoon pulled up his live feed to locate her. The results shocked him once again. “Rai’s on the way to the southern coastline. With Junho.”

“What?” Both Junsu and Chansung were surprised to hear that.

Sighing, Jinwoon ran a hand across his face. “Junsu, could you come over here please?”

Junsu did as he was told and kneeled in front of Jinwoon, and once again, fist met face. Junsu said nothing as he stood up. “Alright, maybe I deserved that.”

“So,” Chansung started, “Rai and Junho. Where exactly are they going? I didn’t even know they knew each other that well.”

“They probably do, and Rai’s on her way back to where it all started for her.” Nichkhun walked into the room and dropped an arrangement of flowers on the only table. “This is from Rai.”

Chansung picked it up and sighed. The arrangement only consisted of three flowers, an iris, a hydrangea, and a peony all bunched together with a green cord. “She couldn’t do a better job? This is a very sad arrangement.”

Jinwoon smiled seeing the message Rai left behind. At least he knew she was safe, and that she would return. An iris meant her, but now it also meant that they could trust Junho. Another way to look at it was she was trying to find herself. The hydrangea may have meant pride, but it also meant to ask someone to wait for their return. The peony was a symbol of strength- Hell’s flower. Rai was coming back, and they shouldn’t question her loyalty.

“That is by far the worst arrangement I have ever seen.” Junsu quipped.

Chansung sent him a glare before turning back to Nichkhun. “So what exactly went down between you and Rai?”

“Will my Suijin question be answered now?”

“The reason Rai wants to kill me is because I killed Suijin. Suijin was to her as June was to me, now he goes by Kazuki. He created the dopplegangers, that’s why Eric Mun died in Park Yoochun’s place before, why I had thought I had killed Kazuki before. He’s been Fortuna all along, or at least for a while without Rai knowing.”

“But why did you kill him?”

“Kazuki tried to kill June, I recognized the sound of his gunblade. June’s notes mentioned a similar weapon and I followed the trail to the Southern Coast- also, Kwon sent me. He said I would find him there.”

Jinwoon blinked several times unsure of how to take the information. “Kwon? This was after you got recruited?”

Nichkhun nodded. “A little side mission to keep their end of the bargain. I only joined Hell to go after the man who attacked June.”

“Yet you stayed.” Chansung meant it as a statement, not a question. They knew why Nichkhun was in Hell, it was never a secret he was out for revenge. If Nichkhun had been out to kill June’s attacker, then why hadn’t he left once that was done?

“Because I realized I needed to bring the whole thing down.”

“I think I remember that day. Rai joined just a few days later. Did you realize that?” Jinwoon asked.

Nichkhun nodded again. “Of course. I have no doubts Kwon found her too. There’s no such thing as a coincidence. Staunton might as well be pitting us against each other.”

Jinwoon didn’t want to believe it. As far as he was concerned, Rai was brought in because she was Staunton’s daughter, and Nichkhun because June had been their King. “Rai doesn’know about Sui-Kazuki then. And when he reappeared last night, things got out of control.”

“So that mark, she’s not Fortuna, and neither is Junho. They’re just two kids who got the short end of the stick. Junho made his way to the Academy, and Rai...became...” Junsu shrugged not knowing how to end that sentence.

“A shinobi.” Jinwoon finished.

Junsu’s brows shot up. “I thought the shinobi were a legend. Aren’t they some kind of secret ninja clan brought up from childhood trained to accomplish one mission under one master alone?”

Chansung rolled his eyes again. “It never occurred to you how legendary Rai is? She blends into the shadows.”

Junsu leaned against the wall behind him. “So, we have a real, true to life ninja. I still don’t get it.”

Chansung marched right up to Junsu and smacked him upside the head. “Remember, we hate you more because of what you did to her last night.”

This time Junsu rolled his eyes as he rubbed the spot Chansung hit. He was becoming the team’s monkey, and he was not liking it. “Nichkhun slaps her, and nearly kills her, but I...one night, one night to comfort her the only way I know how, and seriously she needed it, and you’re all acting like her brothers or something. Besides, it was obviously not her first time-” he stopped midway seeing Chansung and Jinwoon shaking in anger. Yes, Junsu was afraid of a boy in a wheelchair and a boy who falls off motorcycles.

Thankfully the door swung open, and in came Kass. “So, what I miss last night?”

To distract himself from killing Junsu, Chansung walked back to the table, picked up the flowers and tossed them to Kass.

She took one look and threw them back on the table. “What the hell is that? Anyway, I’m here to convince everyone that we really need to see what the Weather Station has on us”

...

When Junho woke up that morning he was not expecting to see Rai standing at the foot of his bed. He wanted to see her, yes, but he hoped it was him coming to find her and not the other way around. He sat up, fully awake, he waited for her to speak, but the sight of her bleeding again had him scurrying out of bed and depositing her in it instead.

He rummaged the drawers in the room for anything and everything he could use. Rai sat there patiently as he pulled out several pieces of gauze, disinfectant, a large transdermal patch. It was business as usual, and Junho methodically cleaned her wound as if he had been doing it for years. Rai did not speak, but he could feel her eyes on him.

He was suddenly conscious of his bare upper body, and his hand slightly shook as he stuck the pad on her side. “Good morning,” he blurted out.

“You know who I am. Ayame, that name. Suijin called me by that name. Who are you?”

Junho smiled softly, she was still as icy as he remembered her to be. “You don’t remember me? We were in the same orphanage together. You, Yuu-kun, Takuya, and Kazuki. You guys loved to pick on me.”

“You know Kazuki too?!”

His smile never faded and he looked down at the brand on his hip, “You don’t really remember?”

Rai’s eyes widened at the iris branded onto his skin. Was this the reason why Junho had been taken into custody? The details were all blurred in her mind, that night all she knew was that she had to help him too. “You’re like me.” she whispered.

Junho only nodded. “We were in the same orphanage, after we got saved they left us there. You don’t remember how you got that either, do you?

“Orphanage?”

“By the beach?”

“Take me there.”

Hours later, there Junho was on one of the spare motorcycles in the Fourth Avenue garage. Rai was behind him, still silent as he drove off to the old orphanage by the beach where they grew up. It now made sense that Rai didn’t recognize him the first time they saw each other again that day Choi Zara’s building blew up. Junho was ecstatic to see her again, happy to see she was well. He had been working on finding her, on working out the mystery of what happened to them all those years ago. Now they both were going to unravel the mystery together.