-
Assonance
[SYNote: This is a special chapter. (Randomly added as it was not intended in the first place. This chapter in nameless and probably have a lot of mistakes...since nearly all of it was re-written and has changed A LOT from the original chapter 9. The other reason why a special chapter was added in was because...my chapters were getting too long ^^', anyways~ enjoy :D this chapter, is slightly random, but very important for future chapters :)
NEXT CHAPTER IS THE STORY'S HALF-WAY POINT! LOL!...I THINK...]
---
10 minutes later, Steph had finally got into the back office. Dust drifted into the air as she landed, causing her to almost choke. Ignoring the filthy environment, she quickly went to the main computer with her laptop in order to hack into the system. Once she hacked into the system, her next task was to locate the video file that she wanted.
As expected, the video which she was searching for was there on the screen, however, it refused to open because it was password protected. She took a glimpse at her watch, and there was only 15 more minutes to go before they checked the room. Sweat poured from her forehead as she tried all the hacking methods which she was taught.
Finally, she hacked into the video, but there was only three more minutes to go.
A window finally popped up for the video to play which went on for what seemed like years to her. The video showed two people in the basement, but somehow, one of the two seemed rather familiar to her. She knew one of them, she was positive.
Her eyes widened once she recognised the blurry figure. She watched as the murderer wrapped a rope around the victim’s neck, choking them to death.
Her body trembled at the sight as fear prevailed within her. She wasn’t afraid of watching the murdering scene; instead she was afraid of knowing who the murderer actually was. She felt like she was just a clown on show, alive just so to be humiliated by people around her. Knowing the truth had instinctively become a burden to her. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders, in her mind and heart. Like a rope which was being pulled on both ends, ready to snap at anytime – that was how she felt.
“Hey unnie, quick, you’ve got to get out of there. Anna unnie just called and the guard is heading back. We’re going to check the room in less than one minute!” Steph heard Renee exclaim frantically in her ear piece, but her mind was elsewhere.
Steph wanted to respond, but she could barely breathe, let alone talk. The feeling of being betrayed, used, tricked all rushed together and merged as one. If she was caught there and then, what difference would it make in her life? Why was she trying so hard?
Everything she did, what exactly did she do it for?
Those feelings pushed her to the edge of her sanity, until something pulled her back – a hand which was placed firmly onto her shoulder.
Her mind was practically going haywire. Was it possible that she was caught? Could it be the end of everything?
Reluctantly, she rotated her head around and instantly, she felt as if her life was about to end. She watched as they placed a finger on their lips whilst shaking their head, signalling her not to do anything irrational.
“I-I w-will be g-going...right now. I need to go somewhere though, so I’ll see you later,” Steph breathed onto her microphone as her eyes were fixed onto the owner of the hand.
Her tears were drifting down like delicate white feathers, whilst she felt thunder and lightning along with hailstone was taking over her mind.
“We should go now, before they check this room. Come with me.” Nevertheless, they smiled at her regardless of her deeds.
------------------
3 hours later
------------------
When Steph entered her dorm, all attention was on her. The girls’ faces were all sprinkled with delight once they noticed Steph. But Steph on the other hand, paid no attention to their concern.
Steph stared at Kira with her motionless expression, whilst Kira simply looked away. She then diverted her gaze to Anna, who was telling her how thankful she was to know that she wasn’t caught. Steph just sighed as she glanced at both Renee and Karen, who were obviously, oblivious to her findings.
“So, did you find the video?” Karen enquired as a hopeful glint sparkled within her chestnut orbs.
“No, I ran out of time. Sorry about this guys. All your hard work has been put to vein. I’m really tired, I think I’ll rest for awhile,” she smiled weakly before approaching her room.
“It’s okay if you didn’t get the video clip. We won’t blame you,” Renee added before Steph entered her room, yet Steph refused to reply back. The others looked at each other in silence, wondering what had actually happened during the mission, and where she actually went afterwards.
------
A week later, SHINee returned from their trip at Singapore. Once they stepped into their dorm, they were greeted with a surprise. Everything was spotless.
“I swear this was not how we left this place,” Taemin smiled radiantly as he entered with his questioning look.
“The cleaner couldn’t have done it. She should come in tomorrow.” Key eyed his surroundings suspiciously.
“Is this a hidden camera?” Minho wondered out loud whilst he checked to make sure that all his belongings were still present.
“Maybe it was a witch or a wizard!” Taemin jumped excitedly.
“You just want it to be Emma Watson,” Minho rolled his eyes, as he knew his dongsaeng a little too well at times.
“There’s nothing wrong with liking her. Emma noona is really pretty!” The younger one protested with his cutest pout.
Onew, on the other hand, went towards the sofa and smirked. “I know who it was,” he spoke in his ‘all-knowing’ tone. Everyone stared at him, anticipating on his answer. “It was Renee,” the leader concluded.
Jonghyun was deep in thought once he heard her name again. He still couldn’t forgive himself since he felt that he caused Renee to be fired. Also, the fact that he hadn’t seen her since that night worried him.
“I can smell her!” Onew announced proudly.
“What are you? A bloodhound?” Key chuckled at he jumped onto the sofa.
“Don’t listen to him. Even I know its Renee. She’s the only one who bothers to align the DVDs and actually sort them out in alphabetical order,” Minho crossed his arms with his charismatic smile. All the boys felt like they were detectives as they picked up traces of Renee.
Without them even knowing, Jonghyun had already dashed out of the dorm.
Running aimlessly, he tried to search for Renee. Ignoring the attention he got from people on the streets, he continued to search for her. Surely it was easier to just go to her dorm and just wait there until she turned up. However, Jonghyun’s brain didn’t seem to think of that, nor did it come up with the possibility that Renee wasn’t on the streets to begin with.
His heart was pounding against his chest as he panicked. He closed his eyes in order to calm his mind whilst he prayed. Praying was like his string of hope. If it worked, his heart would be safe. If it didn’t, if the string snapped, his heart would plunge into nothingness. It wouldn’t even break, because when you break something, as long as you have all the pieces, it could still be repaired. Even though it wouldn’t be exactly the same, it could still be fixed. But in his case, if his prayer didn’t work, then his heart wouldn’t deserve the right to break, it would just be taken away.
“If I open my eyes and I can’t find Renee within 5 seconds, I’ll go back to my dorm. If I open my eyes, and she’s there, then God, you are telling me that we are meant to be together.”
When he opened his eyes again, he immediately began his search. In his heart, he began to countdown.
‘5…’ he began, and his eyes landed on a shop.
‘…4…’ he continued. His head turned towards a café. Through the glass, his eyes searched for her, but she wasn’t there either.
‘…3…’ this time, he looked straight ahead where the round-a-bout was. Once again, Renee wasn’t there.
‘…2…’ his eyes scanned one last time before he decided to give up. He decided not to count to ‘1’, as it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but it was like a thread from the string which was still helping him to cling on.
Despondently, he turned around, heading back to his dorm. The moment he spun his head, a certain individual caught his eye. He stood there in a daze, blinking rapidly to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
“1,” he whispered to himself in delight. Automatically, his body sprung towards the traffic lights.
The green light was on, signally the residents to cross the road. Renee was already at the road’s half way point, until she felt someone grab her by the wrist.
Jonghyun grabbed her by the wrist to spin her around. Once she faced him, he locked her in her position. One of his hands held her neck whilst the other arm was wrapped around her waist. Then, he pressed his lips against hers.
Fan girls took out their mobiles to capture the moment, whilst pass-byers gasped at the scene. Paparazzi immediately swooped into action with their cameras, creating a realm of flashing lights around the couple.
Renee was shocked by the kiss. She tried to push him away, but the kiss just grew more passionate until she finally gave in.
When the lights finally changed red; the paparazzi had enough dignity to stop taking pictures in order to let the cars past. The drivers didn’t even bother pressing their horns to remind the couple that they should leave. Instead, they just went around them.
Finally, Jonghyun broke the kiss to face the confused Renee.
“Did you just…?” She blinked in bewilderment, but Jonghyun didn’t seem to notice her perplexity as he just continued with the speech he practiced within his head.
“I don’t care about the pictures. I just…I just…” Renee waited patiently as it seemed that it pained him to continue his sentence. However, she knew that she wouldn’t want to hear it, because she knew that she would just end up hurting him.
“Have you…I mean…Do you…like me? Love me?” He stammered incoherently.
“I…I…” She stuttered inarticulately.
“Yes or no? Do you or do you not?”
Her breathing rate increased as she felt as if her left brain was battling with the right. ‘Say no Renee! Say no! Push him away! Now!’ Her conscious screamed in her mind.
“Well?” Jonghyun was obviously getting impatient.
“I do! I love you okay? I do. I do. I do!” She gasped at her own answer. Before she could explain, she was pulled into is arms once again.
‘What’s wrong with me?’ She thought to herself. ‘I should’ve said ‘no’, I should’ve said ‘no’!’
--------
Meanwhile, Steph had sneakily snuck into Kira’s room without her knowing. She swiftly checked through her books and cupboards until her hands ran across the item she had been searching. A small bottle which was no larger than a lipstick container, yet it was able to determine whether a certain individual lived or not: Lee Anna.
After examining the object, she gently placed it back to its original place before she scanned the pictures which decorated the room. All the pictures which were shown showed the bonding between Kira and Anna.
“I have no right to stop you, but you can’t stop me either,” Steph smiled briskly before she left.
------------------
FLASHBACK
------------------
Steph laid the last sheet of paper onto the desk once she had finished reading its contents.
“Where did you get all this? Who exactly…are you?” She uttered lifelessly as her eyes remained fixed onto the sheets of paper on the desk.
“It’s…a long story,” Lee So Man exhaled heavily whilst he stood up and orbited around his office.
“I’ve got time,” she quickly added, since she felt like she deserved a right to know what was actually happening.
“A long time ago, I was friends with the CEO of the Headquarters. I was one of the founders of that organisation. Things were going very well, as we looked after people who needed us as well as making them elites in a specific area, so they could feel that they were of some use. Things started to get out of control when the idea of ‘experimentation’ was dropped in by the government – an idea which I was really against, so I left the organisation along with a few trainees who acknowledged that. Because we formed a little organisation ourselves, Mr Hiew reported us to the government.
“We wanted to save other trainees in there, so we couldn’t let our organisation wither that easily. Therefore, we came up with the idea of training talents, such as singing, dancing and acting. Luckily, we were only fined a little amount of money, but somehow our lie became true. You know, some of them even became idols, such as Kangta, Jung Yunho, Park Jungsu, Lee Sungmin, BoA and my niece,” he explained.
“All of them…used to be a member of the Headquarters?”
“Yes. By doing this, the government doesn’t bother giving us any trouble, because they believe that we’re all working when in reality, we’re still trying to stop the experimentations from going on, which is why they want to destroy SM before we can succeed. Are you…still thinking of staying in the Headquarters, or will you join us?”
“Why should I trust you people?” She asked bitterly. What difference would her decision make?
“Because you have no one else to trust, and we’re your only help to save your friends.”
----------------------------
END FLASHBACK
----------------------------
---------------------------------------------
FAST FORWARD: YEAR 2009
---------------------------------------------
Anna invited Super Junior to the girl’s dorm for a little ‘party’ she prepared, to congratulate them on their success for the third album. Coincidently, Sungmin was the first one to arrive, so they were alone in the dorm.
Whilst Anna was busily preparing in the kitchen, Sungmin was wandering around until something caught his eye: a black leather folder. Curiously, he picked it up and opened it to read ‘ASSONANCE’ printed in bold writing. His fingers glided across the large embedded words, before his fingers gathered towards his palm, forming a fist.
The familiar format had finally hit him, hard on the head.
“Sungmin, can you…” Anna began as she walked out to see Sungmin holding the folder. She swallowed hard, not knowing how to explain it to him.
“Anna, what’s this for? ‘ASSONANCE’?”
“Oh, it’s just…a project I’m working on,” she quickly lied, but Sungmin saw right through her.
“You can’t lie to me Anna,” he grinned slyly at her before it transformed into a sinister frown. “HOW LONG DO PEOPLE IN THIS DORM PLAN ON FOOLING US!” He bellowed furiously as he threw the folder onto the ground, causing the loose paper to scatter everywhere. “The Headquarters, huh? That explains the murdered trainee, the pictures and all the strange things that had been occurring! How long do you plan on lying to me?”
Anna was frightened by his rage, but nevertheless tamed her emotions.
“Don’t blame the other girls. It was me all along. If you need to blame someone, then just blame me. Besides, how did you know about the Headquarters?” She tried to put on her ‘challenging’ tone, although she sounded somewhat cocky instead.
“I used to be a member of the Headquarters. I left my family simply because I wanted to escape from that organisation! My father was friends with the CEO! I despised them! I hated it! Why you?! Why must you join them? Don’t you know they’re evil?! They’ll destroy you!”
“No, it’s not like that!” Anna refused to believe it. Kira wouldn’t lie to her, neither would the other girls. If they said that the Headquarters were an organisation for justice, then that was what it was. It couldn’t be like what Sungmin described.
“Fine, you continue being in that organisation, but we’re over. I, Lee Sungmin, refuse to have any interactions with that organisation,” he spat contemptuously. “My mother nearly died because of them,” he murmured before leaving the dorm. He felt betrayed and deceived. It was something out of his expectations. Even though he never mentioned the Headquarters to her, he didn’t expect her to be in it.
Anna on the other hand, felt crushed. She was glad she was of some help to the girls, since she was able to protect them. However, her heart refused to accept that Sungmin had broken up with her. Surely he would forgive her soon, right?
On the other side of her spectrum of emotions, was an intense amount of uneasiness. She was beginning to doubt whether she had lived the past two years in a bundle of lies. Was she deceived as well? In the end, who would she believe? They can’t be all telling the truth, and she can’t believe them all.
-----------------------
How was it?? >__< I tried to cut down A LOT just so I wouldn't bore you guys or make it TOO jumpy at times...Although I think it was very jumpy at the end ><
Oh wells~
The usual~
R e a d | C o m m e n t | S u b s c r i b e
Thank you~
Comments