~_____~

Victoria’s unit arrived in Yeongwol shortly after setting out. As instructed, Lay left their car by a convenient store in one of the shopping districts. The car would be safer there, Victoria strategized. Besides, they couldn’t take the risk getting tracked by anyone who was onto them.

“Where do we go from here?” Lay questioned as they walked away from the car.

“We hitch a cab,” Victoria inquired.

“Where exactly are we going?” Chorong wondered.

“There’s an inn behind the brothel,” Victoria explained, observing their surroundings cautiously.

There were men and women cruising around, others filling the street up as the lights gave way for them. Pop music churned out from inside a store as the doors opened for those exiting and entering. Everyone was tending their own business on this late morning.

“Hyukjae may go by two names,” Victoria went on, “Lee Hyun and Jae.”

“Really?” Lay seemed astounded by the news.

“There can’t be that many persons involved,” Victoria thought out, “Eunhyuk has been dealing with debt, none of which belong to him. Hyukjae runs human trafficking circles, may even need money to keep those girls alive or build his own factories to accumulate drugs. Where would he get that money? Loansharks if he doesn’t want a record written on him by the bank. How would he keep his identity safe from getting run down by those sharks, you tell me.”

“By coming up with an alias,” Chorong finished.

“Exactly,” Victoria stared straight ahead in the direction of the brothel.

A long street of busy cars coming back and forth extended beyond sight. She could feel her nerves stand on end as she thought about Hyukjae.

“That would make sense,” Lay agreed, “but what about Eunhyuk? How could he be linked to Hyukjae?”

“I don’t know,” Victoria hated admitting it. “Donghae has never shown me what Eunhyuk looks like. Now don’t you think there’s something hidden there?”

Lay and Chorong glanced at each other as if surprised they’d never thought of the subjective possibility.

“Then Suho and Namjoo…” Lay hesitantly began, “is that why you don’t trust them?”

“Keep in mind,” Victoria reminded, “in this kind of work, you should always watch your back.”

She stuck her arm out for an oncoming cab which slowly pulled up to the curb.

“Talk later,” Victoria instructed and pulled the passenger door open to get in.

Lay and Chorong followed suit into the backseat.

~_____~

Lay recalled everything being calm, going just as planned. Victoria seemed uptight in the seat in front of him, but she had been uptight ever since clashing with Donghae. Everything she’d said made sense and was logical. However much he wanted to deny Suho and Namjoo hiding anything from them, he had to admit that Victoria had made very good points.

Lay was now perpetuated and more worried than ever. If they all were supposed to be united as a team, how were they to confront Suho and Namjoo without making them out to be the evil ones?

He could still clearly recall how Victoria had pointed her finger at both Suho and Namjoo, labeling them traitors. If Victoria harbored such contempt toward them…how was all this supposed to fix out?

His thougths flew out of line when he jerked forward in his seat. His eyes clamped shut intstinctively as he hit Victoria’s head cushion and Chorong slid into him. Just within a few seconds he could make out sounds of the windows shattering. Throwing his arms up to shield himself he felt his body heavily shake from the spinning car as screams outside infiltrated the car. Within another split second Lay felt something pound into his side; his head leaning in toward the window fast and he literally felt his organs make movement. Everything became a quick blur again before another loud crash echoed as the driver’s side clashed into a long electric pole.

Silence filled in at such rate that he found himself in a daze, barely able to focus. His body remained slumped forward into Victoria’s chair, the windows in all ruins. There was still screaming outside and gasps of horror before numerous footsteps approached. At the back of his head he felt relieved that the public citizens were coming to help, but his door never opened for him at all.

Voices…male voices echoed inside his head and he tried looking up, but his lids hung low lazily making it difficult. A whoosh of air from the passenger’s door breezed into his face and he saw them pulling Victoria out of her seat. An alarm rung inside his head and he urged for his to open the door. They shook weakly as they moved for the bar and finally after what seemed like a long fight finally grasped it.

“V…Vi…” Lay muttered actually meaning to scream, but it felt like blood was swirling around his brain.

Upon pushing the door open he first fell out landing on the street clumsily. There were voices of panic before a gunshot echoed into the air hushing everyone, even the birds. Lay jumped and fought to lift himself up. A blurred vision of two men and Victoria’s long hair hanging like a towel meant to dry entered his sight.

“Lay!” Chorong screamed, grabbing his arm to pull him up.

Standing on wobbly feet Lay reached up to grab his head, as if to help steady his focus.

“Victoria,” he weakly mumbled.

“I know,” Chorong nodded, “but the driver…”

With his eyes half shut he glanced toward the car that no longer looked like one. The doors were dented and unidentifiable. The driver, a man in a casual blue tee lay unconscious with his head hanging out the window.

Realizing that this was no time to lose energy he shook his head and forcibly blinked his eyes for better focus.

“Call an ambulance,” Lay breathed out heavily, “I’m going after Victoria.”

“But…”

“Do it,” Lay demanded with urgency. “We don’t have time to waste. After you call the cops, then come after me.”

When he turned to Chorong he finally caught sight of the blood streaking down her face and bit his lower lip. They were in a bad situation, but the two gunshots up ahead quickly stole his attention.

“Hurry!” He urged and limped ahead to go after Victoria.

Lay could literally feel his legs sinking into the ground as his knees gave way, but still fought to run forward. Those two men and Victoria were getting further and further from his view. Those who’d been out strutting around for daily enjoyment or tending to personal tasks were now cowering by the buildings, but he couldn’t help them.

However much he dragged his legs forward it only seemed like he was the one getting further from Victoria and those two men. Finally pausing he bent forward to catch his breath and every one he took made his right side sore. His ribcage might be broken if that was the worse case scenario.

Raising his head he squinted his eyes and fought to capture the license plate of the car the men were getting into.

~_____~

“Sir! Sir!” Chorong screamed, lightly shaking their unconscious driver.

It wasn’t working, he wasn’t waking and she was afraid to try for his pulse. She didn’t want to know that he was dead…that he’d died because of them.

Climbing out of the car she turned to look back down the road fileld with overwhelming frustration. She wanted to cry and stomp her feet.

“Why aren’t the cops coming!” She groaned and brushed her face with her hand only to discover that her head was bleeding.

Impatiently staring down the road Lay had gone down she wondered how he was faring. She needed to go help him. Turning to look around she spotted a middle aged woman hugging herself by the stairs of a department store to her left. With no choice, Chorong hurried toward her.

“Miss,” Chorong approached her; slightly kneeling on the ground, “I need you to do me a favor.”

The woman screamed in fear and pushed herself back into the staircase as if trying to make herself invisible.

“I’m,” Chorong wiped her hair away from her eyes only to cover her fingers in more blood, “a cop. It’s ok, I’m a cop.” Taking a breath to calm herself she explained, “I need you to watch over that man. You saw what happened earlier?”

The woman quickly nodded; her eyes wide with fear.

“And that car over there,” Chorong pointed to the one they’d slammed into, “make sure you explain everything to the cops, get anyone injured into the ambulance. My name is Park Chorong, Park Chorong, remember that. I’m the officer in charge. Watch over them for me, please.”

The woman repeatedly nodded her head at such rate that Chorong had no choice, but to trust in her. Getting up she turned to dash down the road after Lay, frantically looking around for him. Her heart was pulsating so fast she didn’t think there was enough blood flow in her system. Anxiety was getting the best of her and Chorong could sense a panic attack coming on fast.

Nothing…nothing like this had happened before. She was suddenly afraid.

What could she do on her own? What could she do?

Victoria was suddenly missing, someone could be dead, and Lay had gone without her.

What was she going to do?!

“Chorong,” she heard someone call out quietly.

Turning to her left she saw Lay slumped against a post looking pale, but at least he was standing up on his own now. Filled with relief she immediately dashed toward him.

“Lay!” She grabbed his arm. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” Lay assured, “but Victoria…”

Chorong glanced down the suddenly empty road.

“Call Donghae,” Lay breathed out weakly and clutched onto his side, pain transgressing onto his face. “We’re going to need them.”

~_____~

Trapped in the local police office Donghae found himself pacing around relentlessly for about twenty minutes now after sitting down for an hour and a half. He was quickly becoming restless. Who knew that such paperwork would take so long?!

Donghae was running out of patience and he was worrying about what Victoria may be up to now. He needed to keep his eye on her.

The clock ticked a whole minute by before his phone started ringing.

“Oh, Chorong,” Donghae answered.

“Victoria’s missing,” Chorong started without beating around the bush, “We need you in Yeongwol.”

“Yeongwol!?” Donghae barely screamed before staring at the officer ahead of him. Turning around he asked in a hushed tone, “What are you doing there?”

“We were…” Chorong began before Lay grabbed the phone from her.

“I have the license plate of the people who took her,” Lay cut the subject off. “We can talk everything after, but we need to go after Victoria first.”

“Alright, what is it,” Donghae stated.

After hanging up he walked over to the police officer, “I need you to fax the earlier information I requested to the MIU. I need you to track something for me.”

“I can’t, Sir,” the officer apologized. “The system is running through all the files right now. If I stop it now, it’ll take a whole 24 hours to sort through it again.”

Donghae could feel himself losing it. The back of his head literally burst open.

He waited around the counter and looked around for antoher officer. There was one collecting phonecalls and Donghae started toward him.

“Can you do tracking?” Donghae asked.

Pressing his hand against the receiver the officer looked up at him clueless, “I’m sorry, Sir. I’m still new here. If you go over there…”

Groaning Donghae walked around the office and found another officer marking something down in a binder.

“Excuse me,” Donghae began.

“Please wait a moment,” the officer excused.

Literally grabbing the stack of newspaper sitting on the countertop Donghae threw it, loudly exclaiming, “Isn’t there anyone here who can do some kind of work!?”

~_____~

There was food, a various amount of food sitting in his apartment as he walked in. He could feel the empty pit in his stomach growing deeper as his mouth gaped open in awe. No one had ever made him food and waited for him to come home from work. Seeing this felt like a dream.

Suho wanted food and so much more food.

Walking excitedly into his apartment he spotted a sandwich with ham and melted cheese in the middle. As drool escalated down his throat he urgently reached for it unable to hold himself back from the anxiousness. The moment he opened his mouth to savor the mouth watering food he jumped upon the ring of his phone.

Reality of the computer lab appeared before him before he lifted his head up tiredly. He’d fallen asleep in front of the computer. Rubbing his sore neck he glanced down to see a small puddle of his drool in front of the keyboard. Closing his eyes from exhaustion he reached for the phone.

“Yes?” His voice cracked as he answered.

“Hello,” the friendly female voice replied, “I’m calling from Hankook Hospital.”

“Hospital?” Suho repeated suddenly awake.  

“Yes,” the woman answered, “I’m calling to inform you that Tao and Kris have been transported to the hospital.”

Suho felt his mouth drop open, “What? Why? Are they ok?”

“Yes,” the woman told calmly.

“Ok, alright,” Suho nodded, “I’ll be there.”

After hanging up he wiped the drool off the table with his sleeve and turned the monitor off. Getting up he stretched and turned to see Namjoo sleeping on the couch by the door. The two of them had knocked out after Victoria left. Their research hadn’t made much progress and he didn’t think they needed to be very worried about Lee Hyun.

On the other hand, now that Kris and Tao were somehow at the hospital he and Namjoo would have to get going again.

“Namjoo, wake up,” Suho urged gently shaking her.

Like him, she shot up sleepily and rubbed her eyes.

“We should go,” Suho told.

“Oh…yea,” Namjoo leaned her face into her hands as if to gather herself before standing.

“Kris and Tao are in the hospital,” Suho explained. “Come on.” 

***Sorry for disappearing, I decided to start something else but came back to this eventually i~i