“Nothing looks out of the unordinary,” Suho said.

“If something happened,” Namjoo estimated, “it couldn’t have been on the first floor. This club is pretty big.” She turned to look behind them where countless halls loomed on and continued, “It’s probably where businesses, private or formal, meet perhaps. That means the private sections are here on the second floor.”

Suho turned to glance behind them. There were people dancing by the railing; others calmly chilling and chatting away. Some of them had sophisticated airs about them, like they were just out for a night of relaxation before returning to their life of stress. Like downstairs, there was a crowd, yet the wilder life seemed to be misplaced on the first floor.    

“Yea, the VIP area is up here,” Suho nodded his head toward their left upon noticing a sign forbidding entrance.

Namjoo followed his gaze and turned to look at the friendly crowd too immersed in their enjoyment.

“We should check it out.”

Suho grabbed her arm when she took a step forward, “Don’t use your gun, Namjoo. It’s going to alert everyone. We don’t need to be explaining to Victoria what we were doing here in the middle of the night.”

“Alright,” she agreed.

They checked around the empty hallway for any security guard that may be present, but found none. Without hesitating they entered the looming hallway with a various amount of closed doors on every side. The pounding music from downstairs seemed more and more distant now.

The carpet was a dark gray and the walls a shade of some almost black color. Rays of dim lights from overhead shone atop the crowns of their heads and all remained deathly silence. There was a stench of liquor and air freshener swimming through the air. His guts barely twisted from the obnoxious smell.

The white doors made him feel like they were walking down some hospital institute. It made him feel nervous with his hair standing on edge. Each door they passed offered a stealthy silence and he couldn’t even imagine what happened behind each blockade of the wall. Was there some mischief on the other end or was there really important meetings and celebrations taking place?

He watched Namjoo press her ear gently against a door and step back with a shake of her head. Withholding a sigh they continued on.

“Should we go back?” Suho suggested when they reached the middle of the hallway where there was an intersection.

From down the hallway opposite them Suho could hear loud laughter and cheering. The life of the night club was reaching back to his ears, but Namjoo seemed to be staring at something.

“What?”

“I’m going to go wash my hands. I got them dirty from wiping her makeup off earlier.”

“The bathroom’s out of order,” Suho told gesturing his head toward the sign in front of the women’s bathroom. “We can go downstairs to look for the other one.”

“I’m just going to wash my hand,” Namjoo pressed on. “I’ll be quick.”

“Ok. I’ll wait here for you.”

~_____~

Namjoo was feeling sick, in a queasy way and it wasn’t a very pleasant feeling. Her mind wasn’t swirling, but something was spinning inside her stomach and her abdomen hurt a little, for some reason she couldn’t decipher.

Pushing the door open she walked toward the sink and immediately the water. Grabbing the sink she leaned forward, heaving a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm her sickness. She feared that if this sickness didn’t go away she’d have to leave the searching to Suho, but she didn’t want him to do it alone. A sudden noise of some sort of loud thump caught her attention before her head immediately swerved to her left where the toilet stalls were.

No one should be in the bathroom since it was under maintenance. Alarmed, she turned the water off and slowly backtracked in her steps, with her eyes on the white stalls. A second later she spotted a pair of black heels and legs, but before she could do anything someone lunged out at her.

Namjoo was first tackled to the ground. In less than a second she found herself at war with a man sitting on her, who was currently struggling to clasp his hand over her lips in order to shut her.

Twisting her head every which way she screamed as loud as she could, “Suho!!”

His hand swerved every which way to follow her turning head and gathering her focus, managed to grab his hand. With a call of some strength she twisted his hand a bit and upon his pain reckoned screams of mercy, she tossed him aside.

Suho had not yet arrived when she pulled herself up. The pain in her abdomen was slowly increasing in extent and she didn’t think she was able to take this man down alone. She needed Suho.

Her head shot backward when she took a step forward and felt excruciating pain melting throughout her head. With her hair in his hold he pulled her back, slamming her into the wall. The rush of pain drowned her into a black sea. As Namjoo slid to the ground with her mind in a black jumbled mess she heard something slam loudly before she was roughly hoisted to her feet. In a moment’s time when she regained focus she saw someone standing before her.

Suho still had his hand around her arm and continued pushing her back ever so slightly. Namjoo finally realized why when she saw the bloody pocket knife wielded by the man in front of them. If Suho hadn’t come in time she could’ve gotten injured and Namjoo didn’t want to think about what might happen after that.

Since the situation had gotten this severe, Namjoo quietly reached for the gun in her jacket struggling for a solution out of this mess. Suho had advised her not to use the gun, but what if it was their only way out?

~_____~

No one would get hurt, Suho would make sure of that.

The blade of the pocket knife glided smoothly throughout the air as if it were performing a dance. It was threatening and taunting. Suho would have to stay focused if he were to defend them.

The blaze glazed forward ever so swiftly Suho shot back surprised from the sudden move. Remaining cautious he raised his hand up with eyes following the silver blade back and forth through the air. If he was quick enough he’d be able to grab a hold of the man’s wrist to permit his movement. It’d give him an advantage to knock the man down.

Swerving to the side suddenly Suho lunged his arm out for the knife coming at them. Without expecting it, the man pulled it back before chucking it in the other direction. The speed of his smooth movements showed that he’d had played with knives too often.  Dodging back too slowly Suho felt the cool blade cut through his arm before the split surprise attack finally pulled him back.  

“Step back,” he warned shoot his head back.

“What are you going to do?”

“I have a plan.”

Namjoo shot a frown at him and he heard her do so.

Upon analyzing the man’s movements, even if he was fast at chucking the knife forward he was slow at pulling back. If Suho caught him in time it was over. First, he’d have to lure the attacker.

Suho wavered in step, cautiously eyeing the knife then the man before suddenly lunging forward. To his expectation, the knife was struck forward just right at him. Suho caught the widening of the man’s eyes when he ran right at him, realizing that the attack had been a folly. When he tried to pull back, Suho sought for his luck in speed and finally snatched the man’s hand.

His grip on the knife was strong and Suho felt himself sweat as he tried to twist it out of his hand. When that didn’t work about after a minute Suho pushed him into the wall by the hand dryer and started knocking his elbow into the man’s throat. Grunts filled the restroom and Suho found himself pulling the man forward before ramming him back into the wall repeatedly. The battle seemed unending until the hand dryer suddenly went off with a loud slam and the man slid to the floor.

Stepping back in dumbfounded shock Suho stared down at the knocked out stranger, “Did I…kill him?”

He heard Namjoo step forward to look at him before swiping the knife up. Slitting a part of her shirt with the edge of the knife she pulled off a part of her shirt. Pushing a button to return the blade into the handle she slipped it into her pocket.

“Forget him, get the girl,” Namjoo grabbed his arm to tie the rag around his injury to first stop the bleeding.

“Your shirt…”

“I have another one the car.” Namjoo spoke as she turned away.  

Confused, Suho followed.

In the stall they found a young woman of pale skin and long hair lying on the bathroom floor with her dress pulled above her hips. Namjoo was already observing her when Suho approached.

“Doesn’t look like he assaulted her,” Namjoo clarified, “but she’s bleeding.”

“Bleeding?” Suho repeated surprised as Namjoo pulled her dress back down. “There was blood on the knife…I thought he hurt you.”

“Looks like the blood’s from her,” Namjoo stated and twisted her head back to look up at him, “you think you can carry her out of here?”

“What about him?” Suho gestured his head back.

“I’ll alert security that there’s a ert in here,” Namjoo told.

They finally left the night club and found themselves at the hospital less than an hour later. They were standing in the empty corridor by the ER anxiously waiting for the doctor. They’d given the nurses a phony reason about why their friend was hurt. Seemingly they were having a night out when a thief tried threatening them and stabbed her before running off. The nurse had suggested they contact the police right away and they quickly promised to do so after the operation.

“What do you think happened?” Suho asked.

“I don’t know,” Namjoo shook her head. “There was a cut right by her kidney, as if he was going to cut her open.”

“Are you sure?”

Looking right at him she nodded, “I’ve seen surgical pictures before. I’m pretty sure it was right there.”

“But why would he want her kidney?”

“That’s what I can’t make sense of. Hyukjae isn’t after organs or body parts,” Namjoo pointed out. “Maybe this is just a crime of someone fooling around.”

“Do you think?”

“I’m not sure. I want it to be.”

After a few minutes of their long waiting the doctor finally walked out. He’d closed up the cut, which was luckily not too deep so there was no serious damage. They found the woman sleeping on a bed secluded from the others a few minutes later. Color had flushed back into her skin and now she looked like she was just sleeping as well as any other normal night. It didn’t look like she was going to wake up any time soon, so they would have to wait for her friend to arrive.

The wait wasn’t long.

The curtain flew aside just a few moments later before the woman from earlier finally arrived with a jacket draped around her arm. She’d cleaned up, Suho realized when he looked at her.

“Is she ok?” The woman asked concerned.

“It’s nothing serious,” he replied.

“Here’s the jacket you asked for. It’s my brother’s, but he doesn’t use it anymore.”

“Thanks.”

“What happened?” She questioned walking toward the bed to gaze down at her friend with concern eroding her eyes.

“You said he talked to you two about a corporation,” Namjoo started. “What corporation? Where?”

“I…I don’t know. He didn’t specify. He just said…we’d get a lot of money…”

“Did he say he works for this corporation?” Suho asked.

“Yes…”

“He didn’t give out a business card?” Namjoo shook her head as she asked.

The young woman turned to them as if suddenly overwhelmed by their frightening questions.

“W…why?”

Stepping forward to mean business Namjoo looked right at her, “I need you to tell me. I hope you’ve remembered by now. When you woke up, what was he doing to you?”

Suho noticed her eyes switch from Namjoo’s to him very quickly as if she was embarrassed.

“Should I step out?” He asked.

“No, it’s ok,” her voice dropped its tone and she looked down as if she was ashamed.

She was silent for a few seconds and they quietly waited. It was almost as if they were staring at an exotic animal, waiting for it to speak or say something in their own language. It wasn’t a total good feeling, but there was nothing else to do but wait. And Suho realized this information might be crucial from all perspectives for them in order to solve what happened tonight, for the girls’ dignities, and if this had to do with Hyukjae.

This all could link together.

“The business is here in town, that’s what he said. So we wouldn’t have to go very far from home to work and it would be easy. We asked about what kind of job it was because we want to do something that we’re studying for, but he wouldn’t tell us. He just told us it’s not a bad job,” the girl went on. “And then he bought us drinks. I really don’t remember what happened after that, I really don’t.”

Her eyes looked like they were pleading them not to ask about what happened anymore.

“That’s ok,” Namjoo comforted with a nod of the head. “Go on.”

“Then…then we weren’t downstairs anymore. We were in a quiet room. I couldn’t find Hee Young when I woke up, but I could feel him trying to take my dress off,” she looked like she was going to cry again.

Suho and Namjoo turned to glance at each other at the realization that the conversation had taken place in the noisy public.

“You can stop,” Namjoo patted her shoulder.

The girl took a deep breath and Namjoo asked, “Did you see anything else in the room? A knife? Any weapon?”

The girl raised her head up after wiping a falling tear, “What do you mean?”

“There was an incision on your friend,” Namjoo told, “right by her kidney. Like you, she wasn’t assaulted, but undressed.”

“What?” Her voice broke out in almost utmost fear.

“Lets stop, Namjoo.” Suho suggested and turned to her. “Do you remember how many men there were?”

“Three.”

Again Namjoo and Suho turned to look at each other.

“Do you have a pen and piece of paper in your purse?” He asked.

Nodding she grabbed her bag before handing him a pen and a little notepad. Taking it from her Suho scribbled their numbers down before handing it back.

“Here’s mine and Namjoo’s numbers. Call us if anything happens,” Suho instructed and turned to look at the clock.

“But…who are you guys?”

“Good guys,” Suho smiled and slid on the jacket as he and Namjoo walked out.

“You holding up?” He asked her on their way toward the front doors.

“I’m fine.”

“Lets run, I’m not sure we can make it in time for work. We better hurry.”

~_____~

Victoria had arrived earlier than usual. She just had that feeling that since she was in charge now she should take attendance. She had to make sure everyone was on time and in place before she would initiate her plan.

As expected Lay, Kris, and Chorong arrived a little after another. Tao was next to arrive, but there was no one else after him.

“Where’s Donghae?” Victoria started.

“He said he had something important to do.” Tao answered without much sincerity about it.

Victoria shot him a look of disapproval and raised her wrist up to look at her watch. Almost half an hour had passed since they were in the meeting room waiting for order.

“Tao, why is your team so late?” Victoria asked with a hint of annoyance.

Tao turned with a short glare.

“Where are Namjoo and Suho?” 

***So I watched You're All Surrounded today and LOL Detective Seo's mad driving skills at the beginning reminded me soo much of Suho in this story xDD