This chapter veers off from the main story a bit. The events take place during the group's travel time in chapter 17. I plan on doing these side stories every once in a while; with the hopes of introducing new characters, and adding a bit of a comedic side to the story. Let me know what you all think.

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"I thought we were supposed to keep moving?" I questioned Eli as we walked through the random town.

"We are... but we've been moving nonstop for the past twenty hours – even Liners are prone to exhaustion."

"So then why don't we find someplace to sleep instead of just walking around?" Tiffany said grumpily – it was more of a statement than a question.

"We don't have too much time." Eli responded without much thought. "Just enough time to get some food and pick up a few things..."

 

...

 

Our wandering around the strange town led us to a bookstore store that doubled as a cafe.

I decided to sit at one of the tables outside with a bottle of water while Tiffany ordered us food and Eli looked at some books – despite not being able to actually read most of them.

 

"Ugh... All I want to do is sleep right now."

From my peripherals, I noticed a somewhat short girl with a large chest eyeing me. I paid her no mind as I lay my head on the table to try and get whatever small rest I could.

 

***

 

"Hey, how much does this cost?" Eli walked up to Tiffany with a blank notebook in hand.

"That's five-thousand won, which is about five dollars" Tiffany took her eyes off the menu to view what Eli was talking about. As she turned away, Tiffany could see the cashier noticing something before heading into the backroom.

"Not too bad." Eli responded; scanning over the notebook as he did.

"Yeah, but I think we can get you a better price."

Tiffany followed Eli into the book section to try and negotiate with the clerk, but nobody was there.

"Funny, there was a woman here a second ago." Eli peered over the counter to see if anyone was behind it.

"Something doesn't feel right here." Tiffany thought out loud.

As Tiffany finished talking, the sound of something clicking came from behind them. Eli must've heard the sound too; they each turned around about the same time.

 

"Well this is awkward." Eli stated as he and Tiffany stared down the barrels of a pair of modified hand-cannons.

"Is it?" The wielder responded in perfect English. "Tell me: Why would two people with bounties on their heads be out in the open?"

"Bounty?!" exclaimed the Tiffany; shocked at the possibility of her being on anybody's bad side.

The person holding the weapons chuckled a bit, which revealed that they were a girl.

"Do you really not know?" She asked.

"Not a clue." Eli added.

"Some demons, a sheet of paper you took from them... ring any bells?"

"Stealing paper from demons? It sounds like you've been reading too much manga..."

The girl responded to Eli's joke by cocking the gun that was directly in front of his face, which caused him to flinch a bit.

"What makes you so sure that it's us these 'demons' are talking about?" Tiffany asked in hopes that they didn't have a picture of her.

"They drew a sketch that looks exactly like you, and claimed that you were working with an African American foreigner... What are the chances that there would be two sets of people fitting that exact description?"

"... I'm actually not–" Eli started to retort, but the girl put the gun closer to his face, cutting him off.

"Hmm..." The girl thought for a second. "The bounty did say there was probably another person with you... Where are they?"

"We still don't know–" Tiffany tried to interject this time, but she was likewise cut off by the cocking of a gun.

"Move."

 

***

 

My short nap was cut off by the sound of a door opening. I looked up to spot Tiffany and Eli making their way towards me with uneasy looks on their faces.

"Where's the food?" I asked; somewhat grumpy and tired from the past day without sleep.

The two of them ignored my question, and wordlessly continued to walk until they were directly in front of the table.

"Wait... this is who you're working with?" A voice came from behind the two awkwardly standing individuals.

"Huh?"

The head of a small girl with short blonde hair peered from behind Tiffany's shoulder.

After seeing me, the girl walked from behind my two companions with a torn look on her face.

"How could they expect me hand over such a cute girl to them." The blonde haired female ended her sentence with a pout.

Her pout was followed by the tapping of a large gun on her chin.

Umm...?

 

...

 

The four of us sat awkwardly at the table; the majority of us against our will. The blonde haired girl set both of her weapons on the table, and started to rub her temples.

"Aishh... being a bounty hunter is supposed to be simple." She spoke to herself. "I get a bounty, round some people up, and collect the money..." Her ramble continued for some time before Tiffany interrupted her.

"Umm... so what is going on exactly? I thought you were turning us in."

The girl her teeth in irritation. "Can't you see me thinking?" she said angrily.

"What would you get for turning us in?" I asked slowly as I tried to think of something.

"Over one-billion won..." She responded in a much nicer tone. Her voice had a certain rhythm to it.

"Whew, they really want us... or whoever you think we are." Eli still tried to play the lie off. "Well is it possible for me to collect on my own bounty?" He joked once more.

The blonde haired bounty hunter shot Eli a mean stare.

 

She surprisingly understood everything he said, despite him speaking in English. It was strange how the conversation varied from English to Korean randomly, but Eli still had the translator active on his hidden bracer, so I could understand him.

 

"How about, instead of turning us in, we help you get even more money!!" I blurted out.

"Cute and quick-thinking..." She responded excitedly. "What do you have in mind?"

"Uh..." I hadn't thought that far ahead. "Maybe... we could help you out with some other bounty." I surprised myself with how logical the idea was.

The girl was lost in thought for a bit. "That's not a bad idea..." She finally said. "Come with me; we're going for a ride."

 

...

 

After being forced into her car, the girl told us of what we were to help her with.

"So you want us to help you collect a bounty on another bounty hunter?" Tiffany asked to make sure that she understood correctly.

"That's the gist of it... This guy has been ripping off his employers for some time, and it grew to the point that he killed a mob boss and wiped his accounts clean."

"... And we're supposed to help you catch this guy?" I questioned, suddenly feeling uneasy about going after someone so dangerous.

The girl looked at me funnily before smiling widely. "If you were able to pull one over on the demons, then I'm sure this guy won't give you any trouble."

That is true...

"What exactly do you have planned for something like this?" Eli asked.

"What makes you think I have a plan?" she responded.

"It wouldn't be a smart idea for you to throw us into your car so quickly unless you had a plan – it wouldn't be very advantageous... Plus you don't seem that reckless."

"You're a little too smart..." The girl sneered back at Eli. "... Well since you're so curious; I do have a plan."

"Let's hear it then." Tiffany added.

"We're going to bait the bounty hunter with a fake deal. I was going to use myself as bait, but then I found something better..."

"What is that?" I asked, not realizing the obvious.

"The three of you..."

 

 

None of us were thrilled about the proposed plan, but we didn't have much of a choice either.

There are three of us, and only one of her. Escaping seems like a good idea... but she hasn't taken her hand off of those guns for more than a split-second. Without even seeing her in action, I can tell that retaliation would be disastrous.

After thinking for a bit, I realized that we had zero information about our captor – not even a name.

"So what do we call you?" I finally asked, assuming she wouldn't tell us her actual name.

The girl smiled at me once again. "Well you can call me whatever you like." She spoke directly at me. "... but most people just call me Sunny."

 

 

...

 

 

"Umm..." I stared at myself in the mirror for a bit, not entirely happy with my ensemble. "Are you sure this outfit is fitting?" I questioned Sunny's choice of my wardrobe.

"What's the problem with what you're wearing?" she asked innocently.

"It's a bit... tight..." I responded flatly. "Not to mention; revealing."

"You're overreacting." Sunny waived me off as I looked at myself in the mirror once more.

I look like a waitress at a cocktail bar...

"What kind of maid actually dresses like that?" Tiffany scoffed as she entered the room; having just changed, herself.

Sunny looked at Tiffany's attire, and laughed, before making her way over to another part of the room

 

For Sunny's plan, Tiffany was forced to dress as housekeeping. Tiffany pouted as she eyed over the pale green cloth that she wore.

"Here..." Sunny said. "This will help you look the part." She handed Tiffany a scrubber and a pair of yellow latex gloves.

Tiffany responded with a sneer and stuck her tongue out at the short girl who turned away before she noticed.

"Well at least you're actually wearing clothes." I joked.

"It's honestly not that bad." Tiffany responded, her eyes scanning me over. "That outfit is the first y thing I've seen you wear."

The compliment made me blush as Tiffany smiled softly at me.

 

Our little moment was cut off when Eli walked into the room wearing a business suit.

"These things are so uncomfortable..." He spoke to himself, but stopped once he noticed what I was wearing. "Oh..."

"Why is everyone acting like they've never seen a maid outfit before?" Sunny randomly blurted out.

"Umm... I don't think actual maids wear outfits that show their stomach and legs. Correct me if I'm wrong." Eli said bluntly.

"It's the new style." Sunny lied. "Most maids nowadays were these types of clothes."

The three of us looked at her with faces that revealed our skepticism.

Sunny decided to ignore our looks, and changed the subject.

"We should focus on things that are actually important... like this bounty we're about to pull off. Do you all remember what you're supposed to be doing?"

"Of course – it's not like the plan is complicated, or anything. Tiffany and I are just supposed to look like we're busy."

"You're so smart." The bounty hunter praised once more me. "Now... do you remember your lines?" She directed this question to Eli.

"Sure... but I don't know if I can pull off a West-African accent."

"Just wing it; we don't have much time to prepare. I already called the guy, and he's on his way."

 

...

 

Within a few minutes, the house we were operating in had a visitor. Sunny went into hiding as soon as the doorbell rang, so it was up to me to open the door.

Standing at the foot of the door, was a tall, tan man wearing some grungy clothes. He appeared to not know Korean, so I motioned for him to enter the house.

The man sluggishly followed me down the hallway, which forced me to slow down, so he could keep up. We passed the bathroom in a short time, and the bounty hunter appeared to spot Tiffany – who was pretending to clean the bathroom.

"Hello." The man said in a disgruntled voice.

Instead of replying with words, Tiffany just nodded in response as she ferociously scrubbed a toilet with an annoyed look on her face.

Wow... she played that off really well.

Sunny told us earlier that this bounty hunter would most likely be very cautious... This just proved her speculations we're correct.

If Tiffany had responded any other way, the man would have immediately grown suspicious.

From what I could gather, he appeared to not have noticed anything, but he could easily just be putting on a great poker face. Even with that as a possibility, everything seemed to be following Sunny's plan.

 

...

 

We arrived in the main room shortly. Eli was sitting behind a large desk with a brown envelope in his hands.

I closed the door behind me as Eli gave me the go ahead to leave. As I turned around, Tiffany peered from the bathroom. I gestured towards her to let her know that everything was going well.

"Was he acting strangely or anything?" Tiffany quietly asked as she crawled over to the door.

"He seemed pretty normal... well, for a bounty hunter, that is."

 

The both of us became silent once a conversation in the main room started. Since I couldn't speak English, I had Tiffany translate what they were saying...

*

"This is a nice house you have here." The man grumbled.
"Yes... I've worked very hard to be able to live comfortably." Eli spoke with a questionable accent.

"So what does a business man like yourself, need with my services?" The bounty hunter randomly his teeth.

"Well it just so happens that someone is trying to interfere with my way of life... I need them taken care of." Eli's accent changed a bit as he handed the envelope to the man.

The bounty hunter must've caught wind of the change in Eli's, because he suddenly started acting differently.

"Hmm... what's the actual reason you called me hear?" The man's voice suddenly became much more clear and confident.

"I umm... I don't know you mean?"

"It's too late to play dumb – I can sense the presence of those two girls sitting outside of the door."

He can sense presences?!

"So are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

Tiffany and I responded at the same time by busting the door open. The bounty hunter was standing still and had slipped a black glove onto his right hand.

 

Simply by relation, learning how to hide my presence made it easier for me to distinguish someone else's.

 

I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I could tell that this bounty hunters presence was acting strangely. It was obvious that Tiffany and Eli sensed it too just by reading their faces.

 

 

Moments before the tan man (lol) was going to make his move, Sunny jumped from a random vent in the room and drop-kicked him in the back of the neck; using as much force as she could muster.

 

"Did you just kill him?" I asked; shocked by what just happened.

"Ha, no... That barely knocked him out. It would have gotten ugly if I had waited any longer."

"What in the world was that?" Eli added in his question.

Instead of responding to his question, Sunny picked up the unconscious man's body and started to walk outside. "Good work team." She said with a cheeky smile.

 

...

 

"Welp... I guess you guys are off the hook." Sunny said, somewhat sadly, as we stood in front of the large house we used for the operation.

"I would say it was nice working with you... but it really wasn't..." Tiffany said flatly, which was extremely funny to me, for some reason.

Sunny carefully placed the unconscious man into the car, and hopped into the driver's seat. She started the car, but got back out and walked over to me.

"Here... call me if you need help, or you ever want to have a little fun." The short blonde winked at me as she handed me a card with her number on it.

With that, she got back into the car and drove off.

 

 

"I'm so confused..." I thought out loud.

"What do you mean?" Tiffany asked.

"Wasn't she going to turn us in for a bounty? Why did she randomly decide not to? Not to mention, the clothes she made me wear and the strange way she acted towards me.

"You really don't know?" Eli added. His bracer was on once again, so I could understand him.

"Know what?"

"She had a crush on you..." Tiffany finally said.

"What?!" The realization surprised me more than anything.

"You really are dense aren't you?" Tiffany seemed almost annoyed by something.

"Wow, someone's jealous." Eli laughed as he spoke.

Tiffany's cheeks turned a rosy red color, and she refused to look at Eli or myself.

I'm even more confused than I was before...

"So how are we supposed to get back without a car?" Eli questioned, looking towards the large field of grass on our right.

"I guess we have to walk..." I became more discouraged as I spoke; realizing that we had to walk a few miles despite not having slept the past day, or having eaten anything recently. "Ugh... let's just get this over with." I grumbled as I started dragging my feet.

 

 

 

***

 

Tiffany decided that the conversation had most likely died down, so she wouldn't have to explain herself.

"Okay, so how are we going to get out of here?" Tiffany asked to apparently no one as she turned around.

She looked around for some time, and saw two figures walking slowly on the large field. It was obvious to her that the two people were Eli and Taeyeon, and they must've started walking while she was ignoring them.

As she was about to yell for the two of them to stop, Tiffany noticed an expensive sports car pull up in front of her.

A slim man in an equally expensive suit stepped out of the car and looked at her quizzically.

"Excuse me miss, what are you doing at my house?"

"Um..."

"... And why is my front door open?"

Tiffany turned around to see that they had forgotten to close the door.

Of course this wasn't Sunny's house. She thought

"Well there's a good explanation for all of this."

"You can do your explaining to the police." The man said angrily as he pulled out a cell phone.

Tiffany, realizing that being booked by the police would completely hinder their mission, did what she thought she had to do.

"I'm sorry." She said as she grabbed the man's phone and threw it onto the driveway before running in the same direction as the rest of her group.

 

It wasn't long before Tiffany realized that the man had simply picked the phone up from the floor and began dialing the police.

 

"I'm really am very sorry." Tiffany appeared in front of the man again, and repeated the process from before. This time, she made sure to stomp on the phone multiple times until she knew it was broken. She then ran off towards her group once more, who happened to be walking in the direction of the sunset.

 

"Wait for me!!!"