~_____~

Little Eun Bin watched in fear when the man who’d been bringing them food and water and allowed them to go on bathroom breaks slammed the wood against the woman who’d come for them.

“Don’t look,” one of the women hugged her close and tried to cover her eyes.

In the moment of darkness Eun Bin could hear the man dragging the woman’s body along the floor.

“Get up, all of you,” his heavy voice ordered and without opposition everyone rose to their feet.

Eun Bin had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that these women were going somewhere together to do something, but she didn’t know what. No one would tell her, but the men had been telling her it was good stuff.

“What’s the good stuff?” She’d asked.

“You’ll know when you get there.” One of them had promised.

But she’d seen discontent and fear written all over the other womens’ faces. When she asked them, they’d only put a hand on her head with forlorn expressions. No one told her what was going on.

“Stay with me,” the woman with her protectively said and took her hand even though she was old enough to walk by herself.

Without word, though, she allowed the woman to take her hand and they walked side by side outside. The light of the sun blinded her pupils the immediate second she stepped out.

Most days were spent inside the warehouse and she’d been bored for days on end, but if she complained the men would scold her. And when she heard screaming of the woman they’d take to the far end of the warehouse, she’d feel her insides twist up. Her screams were frightening and so awful. All of them had been calls for help, but little Eun Bin couldn’t understand why the men were torturing her. When she asked, the rest of the women would tremble in fear and not answer her. Even in her dreams now, she’d hear that screaming echo inside her heart.

She wanted to go home, sleep in her bed, and have her mother scold her for waking up late for school. She missed the smell of her father’s beard when he hugged her and the scent of cigarettes drifting from his clothes. She missed home so much she wanted to cry.

The women loaded themselves onto the back of the large green truck solemnly. When the 20 of them squeezed themselves in Eun Bin watched the man throw the stranger woman in. Her body clunked loudly against the metal of the floor and she lay there limp. Eun Bin thought she was dead.

The weight of the man brought the truck down when he entered the driver’s seat and turned the engine on. Some of the other girls were weeping, but no one said anything nor tried to run. It was disheartening and now Eun Bin would be further from home.

She felt the tires crush the dirt undnearth, but something loud cracked through the air and the truck suddenly halted forcefully. The girls’ bodies swayed back and forth roughly before they started murmuring.

Another one of those quick zipping sounds hit the air and the truck shook from impact.

“What’s going on!?” One of the women asked, her voice full of fear and anxiety.

Then suddenly someone ran toward them. A short haired woman appeared at the back of the truck with a rifle slung around her shoulder.

“Quick! Get down! A police team is waiting for you at the end of the road,” she ordered and upon the word ‘police’ the women scrambled from the truck.

The woman who’d been holding her all along lugged her along and as they ran hurried down the road, Eun Bin turned around to see the woman climbing into the truck to lift up the stranger who’d come for them.

~_____~

Suho’s call to her told her she had to drop all personal matters. Once he’d enlightened her with his plan, she knew she was the only one he could count on.

Saving soldiers from combat had also linked her to the combat department. As of yet, she was the only one who could dispatch units from the department other than Donghae, and obviously he was out of the picture right now.

Lay, Chorong, and Suho alone wouldn’t be enough to save those 20 or 30 girls. They didn’t know how many men there were with them after all. The men they’d captured near the brothel could have lied to them. More power would promise a higher percentage of success, so once Suho called she’d made the call to the combat department.

Namjoo had brought at least 15 men with her in two cars. She had to make sure they had a big enough vehicle to transport the girls back to Seoul, have them go through a checkup before returning them home safely. Many of them would be traumatized and would need treatment and therapy, but at least they’d be home again, especially little Park Eun Bin.

If she were Suho, she would have gone after them as well. It was regretful they hadn’t been able to save Dan Bi from her horrible fate. No one else needed to go through that. Though Donghae was a nut crack right now, she and Suho alone could do this.

“Two of you come with me,” Namjoo ordered after alighting from the vehicle. “The rest of you go aid Suho.”

Just in case, she’d tucked a handgun into her jeans and brought a rifle with her. She’d need larger mechanic that could shoot long range this time around. And when she spotted that truck ready for the run, she knew what she had to do.

It made her blood boil when those women and young girls climbed into the truck so obediently. They must have been so scared to have moved without noise or hesitation. What shocked her next was the unconscious Chorong who had been thrown into the back like a dead deer shot down during a hunt. If she was unconscious, this meant she’d been needed after all.

What made her want to shake her head even more was that that man didn’t bother to look around as if he assumed that only Lay, Suho, and Chorong had infiltrated. It was an ammature move.

Without so much as looking around he climbed into the driver’s seat and Namjoo raised her rifle. After fixating her aim she blew out the tire and then another one.

“Get him,” she directed, “if he tries to escape, feel free to shoot, but don’t kill him.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The soldiers nodded accordingly before hurrying forward while she headed toward the back of the truck.

When she directed the girls toward the unit waiting for them she climbed into the back. The left side of Chorong’s face was now a shade of blue. Namjoo couldn’t imagine how uncomfortable she’d be when she woke up, but at least nothing had been done to her. In any case, they had to hurry back to get her checked up on. Namjoo wasn’t an expert in the medical aspect. She couldn’t tell whether Chorong had gotten internally injured or not.

“Chorong,” Namjoo lifted her up. “Chorong, wake up. Are you ok?”

Chorong opened her lids slightly and her eyeballs rolled back as her head eased back. She mumbled a few words Namjoo couldn’t understand.

“We’ve secured the man,” one of the soldiers reported. “Suho and Lay are on their way.”

While waiting for an ambulance to arrive for Chorong, Namjoo met with a bruised Suho and Lay in the yard almost 5 minutes later.

“Thank God, you came at the perfect time,” Lay heaved a sigh of relief. He looked almost calm and relaxed compared to the stress apparent on his face earlier. “I thought we were doomed for a second.”

Namjoo threw him a voluntary smile, “I’m glad we made it in time too. Everyone’s safe. The unit’s prepared to take the girls to Seoul. I’m just waiting for an ambulance to arrive for Chorong. Once we have her checked up, we can head back too.”

“By then, I bet news will have gotten to Donghae and Victoria,” Lay mused then looked worried. “What’ll we do then?”

Before Suho could speak up, Namjoo cut in, “Suho and I will deal with it. For now, you and Chorong should stay quiet.”

Upon the entrance of the ambulance they all turned.

“You brought a car?” Namjoo swerved back to look at Suho, who nodded. “Then,” Namjoo turned to Lay, “You want to ride in the ambulance with Chorong? Suho and I will follow in the car.”

Once the unit and ambulance were out of sight Namjoo and Suho slowly walked toward the car he and the others had driven there in.

“You’re not hurt too badly, are you?” Namjoo first worried. “Maybe you should have gone with Chorong.”

“I’m fine, it’s not too bad,” Suho assured, though the cut on his nose and the bruise surrounding it looked worse in color over time.

“If it hurts more, get it checked up when we reach the hospital,” Namjoo told. “For now, I need to talk to you.” When they reached the car she held her hand out for the keys, “I’ll drive.”

Suho handed them to her without argument and when they both got in she turned to look at him. It’d been a long day and they were tired. She was sure, though, that Suho had had it harder.

“Lets catch up when we go back,” Namjoo began, “but I have breaking news to share with you.”

A bitter smile came onto Suho’s face. It looked sour, but he seemed to push his disappointment with how much trouble they were having back. Namjoo also felt quite sorry for him. They were busy running back and forth before their sudden break, but even break didn’t seem like a break. Her nerves had been hot on end with all her thoughts and even now so many things were happening all at once.

Balancing her private life and work had never been so hard, especially due to the sole fact that their personal lives were entertwining with work now.

“Eunhyuk has a twin, Suho.”

He immediately swiveled in his seat to stare at her sharing the same wave of emotions she’d first experienced upon discovering the daunting fact.

“I found a picture in Eunhyuk’s apartment,” Namjoo explained, “Donghae didn’t know either. Now he thinks Eunhyuk has been toying with him.”

“Then who are we really after?”

“Donghae thinks both of them are in it together,” Namjoo told. “And they’re out to get him. He’s jumping to crazy assumptions that everything is linked to them or Eunhyuk, who is leading the ring. Or Hyukjae, who stole Eunhyuk’s identity, or whatever.”

However confusing it seemed Suho seemed to follow along.

“I know,” Suho nodded, “he assumed Hyukjae left Dan Bi’s body as a threat to him. I think they left her there because they didn’t know where to leave her.”

“Donghae wants us to keep our mouths shut about this,” Namjoo went on, “but I’m having a bad feeling, Suho. He wants to go out there alone and put his hands around Eunhyuk…or Hyukjae’s throat.”

There was a moment of silence when a large semi-truck passed them. As if the boht of them needed peace and quiet to sink everything in. The weight wasn’t Namjoo’s alone now that she was talking to Suho. They would both have to deal with everything together.

“Honestly, I don’t think Eunhyuk is involved with this,” Namjoo opionated, “I think something’s happened to him and his brother is taking his identity. That’s what I think for now.”

“There are so many possibilities,” Suho commented quietly. “It’s going to be even harder for Victoria’s team now.”

“Before we talk about that,” Namjoo started, “we should find Hyukjae before Donghae does. Remember what I told you before the brothel mission?”

Namjoo turned to watch Suho try to remember and switched her attention back to the road.

“Donghae’s not supposed to find him,” Suho recalled.

“Exactly,” Namjoo nodded. “They’re going to try to stop us again, not because they want to run, but Donghae isn’t meant to find Hyukjae. There’s a secret hidden somewhere and they’re going to try even harder to make us stop. They could try to kill Donghae.”

Suho glanced at her before staring out the windshield. “Then we have to find Hyukjae without letting Donghae know.”

Namjoo pressed her lips together, “Victoria asked Kris to search Eunhyuk’s background secretly. She’s going to be on our tail too.”

“Victoria?” Suho repeated surprised. “Of all people? Then after all, she has reasons to be suspicious of us. This is going to cause a friction in our work.”

After a second he added, “There’s probably already friction in our group work, looking from how Donghae has been treating her.”

“So,” Namjoo trailed them back onto topic, “what should we do? Excluding Donghae, should we let the others know?”

“Letting them know could benefit us,” Suho weighed the options out, “it would lessen our workload, but then Victoria won’t be willing to trust us one-hundred-percent now. But if so many of us focus on finding Hyukjae’s whereabouts, we’re going to lose focus with the goal of the mission. It won’t do them good pulling them into extra trouble either. After all, their careers aren’t in this line of work. Victoria’s team will have more to lose than we do.”

She waited for him to continue.

“We can do this,” Suho finished. “I’m sure the two of us can handle it for Donghae’s sake. I don’t want to pull the rest of the group down if we can’t protect Donghae even from this much.”

~_____~

Tao was still feeling overjoyed from Namjoo’s earlier visit. His heart was still ramming against his chest and all could he could think of as he sat there with the TV blaring in front of him was how he’d held her. The comfort of her mere presence had the ability to do so much for him it was amazing.

The sky had darkened by now and Donghae hadn’t returned from where he’d gone. Recalling Namjoo’s earlier worry he wondered if Donghae had matters on his mind he couldn’t talk to anyone about. What had happened to him in Daegu after he’d been told to leave?

It was with these thoughts when the phone Donghae had purchased for him started ringing. He didn’t recognize the number of the caller.

“Officer Choi reporting,” Officer Choi spoke through the phone. “Is Lee Donghae there?”

“No,” Tao answered ransacking his memory for who Officer Choi was and if they’d met before and how he had his number.

“I need you to notify him that a group of girls have been found in the outskirts of Yeongwol, they’re on their way to the Seoul Hospital. If he wants to question them he’ll have to wait till morning. In half an hour the combat unit is going to be delivering a gang to the detention hall and if he wants to see them he’ll have to wait too. I won’t have my men opening the doors for him,” Officer Choi went on and Tao wasn’t sure whether he could remember this much. “I’m not sure on details, which I’m pretty sure he’ll demand for, so if he has questions he’ll have to talk to Suho and the others who are on their way back. This is all.” 

~_____~

Kris had tastelessly dealt with stuffing dinner down his throat. Now after a shower he was ready to relax. Propped up on his couch he was just waiting for an old TV show to start airing. The commercial breaks were going on forever and he was about to get irritated when his phone rang.

Usually he wouldn’t have expected a call from anyone at this time. The sun had gone down over an hour ago, but then what if it was someone returning a missed call…someone like Namjoo?

Quickly getting up he snatched his phone off the coffee table. To his disappointment the call was coming from the Detention Center. Why was he getting a call from them? And now?

“This is Officer Choi speaking,” the man started, “seeing as I’m unable to contact Victoria and your groupmates aren’t available, I’d like you to relay a message as quick as possible to her.”

This perked up his attention.

“Yes,” he nodded alarmed about what was taking place or what had happened for this call to have been made.

And after he hung up all that ran through his mind was what had gone down in Yeongwol. Everyone would be assembling at headquarters within the hour and he wanted to be there, especially if Namjoo was going to show up.

What was most important was where Victoria was and why she hadn’t received Officer Choi’s call. While he hurried into his room to dress into more appropriate clothes he dialed and redialed for Victoria. 

***Confrontation with Donghae next chapter - is he going to be angry or not? What's going to be Victoria's stance on this? 

***Suho and Namjoo have teamed up! Since the two know Donghae best and have met Eunhyuk before they have an advantage over the others in searching for Eunhyuk/Hyukjae. Lets remember that Chorong, Lay, and Kris work in a place where they'll have to face severe consequences if they disobey orders much less rules. But Suho and Namjoo have a different relationship with Donghae where they each carry their own tasks; however, they're also risking their jobs/lives to protect Donghae. And Victoria doubts Donghae's team as a whole even if she is sincere about working together with them. 

***Keep in mind we aren't sure whether Hyukjae really is the ring leader right now, we're only going off what Cho Chin Ho has said; that they receive orders from Hyukjae behind the scenes. So there's a lot of doubt here. 

***There's so much more to come! I'll try to work more with their romance conflicts. I'll get something going with Chorong - Lay - Suho.