It is always hard to tell between day and night in this facility. White and yellow lights decorate the walls and ceilings, electronic lightings with no direct access to the sun. Sometimes Amber thought that by seeing if the scientists are taking their nap, or entering their bedroom, it’s the sign of the night. But when she check the clock, it’s usually the opposite. No one’s sleeping when they’re supposed to, and no one cares about time anyway.

After spending days in this facility, she has learnt that for these men, time is used to create stronger firewalls, hours are spent to detect any tiny suspicious movements on the cyber world, but only a few minutes they spend on themselves, to make a cup of coffee.

And this syndrome might have affected her too, because she hasn’t been away from her laptop for the last 2 days, if she counted it right.  

“Hoy hoy!” Jia appeared on her side out of nowhere, just like what she always do these days.

“Hoy...” Amber replied lazily. “Any news from them?”

Jia grabbed the spinning chair and sat next to her. “Min sent a message this morning, they found them around Europe.”

Amber stopped for a while and turned to the quirky girl, “Is he with Jung Yunho now?”

“Of course! They’re partners. Almost like a married couple I guess..” Jia laughed to her own joke, before she stopped herself and got back to Amber, “How’s your research going?”

A huge improvement, Amber thought. A few hours ago she found this interesting thing called ‘Rising Gods of The East’ between her dad’s file. Very little informations were gained about this so-called mythical brotherhood, but almost all of the data sources she could collected, show that this brotherhood consists some of the most intelligent men throughout  asia, who are said to be quite influental between the governments.

But something tells her that for now, she should keep this information to herself, though she is positive that Jia and the rest of Miss A must have already heard of this brotherhood.

“Nah, found nothing important.” she replied. “But I heard people are hunting me down on the streets, what’s with that?”

Jia chuckled, “Yeah, I think they started to realize that their lovely Raven is missing.”

“My clients?!”

“Hmmm fifty-fifty. Your clients, and your hunters.” Jia looked disturbed when saying it, “They even found your old apartment. Turns out it was a great decision moving you here immediately!”  

Amber sipped her cup, but found no coffee running down . “I need to refill my coffee..” she said, lifting her stiff after sitting more than 12 hours. Seeing Jia yawned and sat in her chair made Amber think, “By the way, what are you guys doing while I’m here?”

“Meh, pretty much blocking away people who’s trying to find you. It’s damn tiring! Do you know that your search in the internet is competing with most of idols search on google now?? It’s crazy!” Jia sounded like a mad italian man.

The fact managed to blown her away, “Wow. I’m famous.”

Jia made a cute face and grabbed Amber’s shirt. Amber’s waiting for anything, and suddenly the crazy girl screamed in front of her face, “Kyaaaa!!! Amber opppaaaa!!!”

Amber pushed her away, chuckling, “Yah! Mwoya!!”

Jia back to her normal self and giggled, “Look who’s famous now~”

The tomboy sighed, “But not that kind of famous!” but then she tried to get back on their topic, “Tell me again about my hunters?”

“Your hunters are getting smarter now.”

They both turned around and found Suzy entering to the room. She placed some photos on Amber’s bed and pointed at them, “These are a few of them. Only the henchmen though.”

Amber quickly grabbed the photo and examined them. There are 3 big guys following a couple on a downtown. She seemed to recognize the location, with that mall and the clothing stores... ”Was this taken in Dongdaemun?”

Suzy nodded, letting her go through the photos.

Jia took one from Amber’s hand, and this one was taken much further, with the 3 suspicious guys covering themselves neatly behind buildings and people. Even with very small details, she noticed them right away, and her eyes grew wider as she slapped Amber in the back, “Hey! This is Key and his girlfriend!”

Amber grabbed the photo from her and took a close look, but only their back were shown here. She then checked the rest of the photos and gulped when she spotted Nicole’s face. She turned to Suzy and the girl raised an eyebrow, “They know you’re close to him, and this is the result.”

“But you guys promised!” Amber turned to Suzy, who’s still putting on her poker face.

Suzy sighed, she knew her reaction would be this bad.

“Our man took these photos, while making sure Key and Nicole is safe. They’re safe now and the henchmen are being handled by our people. “ Suzy explained briefly.

Amber scoffed, “How could this happen..” she’s still starring on those photos, noticing the dull black jacket that Key was wearing, the one he likes to wear when he’s not in a good mood. “This is supposed to be my problem only. This is a mess, I never want it to be like this!” she backtracked to that night where she saved Key from those alley gangsters. The night that started everything and she wished those gangsters weren’t even there.

Jia patted her back, “We all don’t want it to get this ugly. Huh, trust me.”

“It’s all tangled, Amber. This is not that easy.” she took a seat on her bed, “And actually I’m here to take you somewhere. You should get change.” she said before leaving the room with the photos.

Amber turned to Jia, “What’s going on?”

Jia shook her head, “Suzy hasn’t told me anything either. Wait a second. Why haven’t she told me anything??” she jumped off the chair and dashed off the room, “Yah Suzy wait up!!”

Amber could only sigh while opening back her laptop. The datas she collected about the brotherhood were still on her screen, she immediately locked it within her system and shut down the laptop. The clock’s ticking on top of her head, and the picture of those men following Key from behind infused horrors into her.

***

“We’re here.”

Suzy got out from the car, with Amber and Jia following behind. They arrived in a somewhat quiet area in the district, with no night lives seen anywhere. The shops are closed. Only a few cars passing by. Amber followed Suzy entering a closed-sign cakery shop, with Jia guarding behind them.

As soon as they entered, a thin woman greeted them with a robotic voice, “This way, please.”

The cakery shop had its lights off, but Amber can still noticed the cake display showcase lining along this small shop. The nice scent of flour and sweets is filling the air and Amber was swayed for a while. Jia nudged her, hinting her to keep walking. Finally they entered the kitchen and from there, the thin woman left them to be on their own.

Though small, it’s a pretty crowded kitchen with ovens set up on the wall and a granite table on the center. Suzy touched something invisible on the air, and suddenly the floor beneath them revealed its glass form. Amber couldn’t move a feet when the whole floor is changing as they started to see people down there through the glass floor. Some men in suits and some other with their white lab jackets on.

“Is this... another facility?” Amber mumbled to Jia.

Suzy knocked a part of the floor near the ovens, and the level slowly move down to where those people are. Jia quickly dragged Amber and they both joined Suzy on her trip down the level.

When the floor stopped, Amber could finally see those people more clearly. But a wall of glass separates the room.

“It’s a one way glass. They can’t see us.” Suzy said, as the three of them standing behind the glass, watching those scientic-looking people working on something.

“What are we exactly doing...here?” said Amber, while trying to wave to one of the well-suited guys inside, checking if they can’t see them for real.

Suzy pointed to the right corner of the room, where a woman in her lab jacket’s guiding a girl to sit on the sofa between them. Suzy turned to Amber, “That girl is Nicole Jung.”

The name completely grabbed Amber’s attention as she got herself closer to the glass wall. She recognized her right away, with the familiar face and her shoulder-length brown hair. “You’re not joking right? What is she doing in a place like this?”

Suzy sighed, “The question should be, ‘What we are going to do with her?’”

Amber suddenly felt heavy gasses on her stomach, “What the hell! What are you doing to her?!” she kept watching the activity inside the glass. Now that Nicole is sitting on the sofa, the rest of the men in suit starting to work on their computers. The scientist-lady sat on a sofa across to her, talking to her. Amber could see Nicole was frightened, but trying her best to have a conversation with the scientist.

Jia rolled her eyes, “Eiiish...just tell her already Suzy. It’s nothing to be hid for.”

The scientist-lady took something from the saucer on the coffee table. Amber sharpened her eyes to see what the little thing is.

Amber’s eyes popped. “A tablet! What kind of tablet is that?!” She turned to both Suzy and Jia, “Really, what-is-happening-here?!”

Suzy turned to the glass wall, “They’re performing a memory-erasing prochedure on her.”

“WHAT?!” Amber yelled in response.  She’s looking back at Nicole, who’s now putting the tablet into . “YAH! STOP IT! STOP HER!!” she knocked on the glass wall wildly.

Suzy grabbed her arm, “Yah! Control yourself!”

“You don’t need to erase her memory just because my hunters happened to STALK her!” Amber felt troubled when Nicole took a glass of water to swallow the tablet. “STOP IT! PLEASE!”

But then Nicole swallowed the tablet, and the scientist-lady ordered her assistants to start the prochedure. Still panicked, Amber asked, “They’re just going to delete her memory with that henchmen, right?”

Jia jumped in, “That won’t do~ They’re erasing every memories related to you, Key, and your clubhouse friends. With a new college added in her mind.”

“Even about Key...? But they’re...” Amber got even more speechless, thinking about how Key must be suffering if he knows about this.

Suzy ignored her question and walked to the wall next to her. She push the button and revealed another room, darker than where they’re standing right now.

Amber followed her fast, “Does he know about this..?” she almost sounds hopeless.

But then Amber stopped when she heard sobbings on the corner of the room. Her eyes wildly looked through the dark, and she saw a figure leaning on the glass wall.

“Hyeong...” Amber could feel her whole body trembling seeing him. His face was dead pale and he looked like he got no more soul inside.

Key’s leaning his shoulder on the glass wall and his tired eyes are watching every moments of goodbye to Nicole’s memories. He turned weakly to Suzy and his eyes grew wider when his glance fell on Amber. He limply got up and threw all his weight on her shoulder, sobbing even harder, “Ammberrr...!!!”

Amber was left speechless by his sudden reaction and slowly hugging him back, “Gg..gwaenchana hyeong.. gwaenchana...” she said, died a little inside as she’s listening to his sorrowful sobs.

***

[Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland -DAY]

“Standby...” Min whispered through her communicator, while monitoring Fei on her wired PSP. She has been pretending to press those gaming buttons with earphones plugged in her ears for the last 30 minutes. The only song in her ears were Fei’s voice, and the donut on her plate is getting cold and already half-eaten. She will have to move to another cafe before someone notices her presence.

On the screen, Fei is making her way up to the first floor of the art gallery, passing a flock of hanging heads on top of her, a magnificent sculpture of heads with different expressions, each hanging down from the rigging of the ceiling greeting the visitors below them. While dressed in a casual set of jeans and brown cardigan, she’s admiring the Italian paintings displayed on the right wing of the museum.

“He is standing in front of Botticelli. He noticed you.” Fei heard Min through her communicator.

Fei made her steps to the neat guy, who smiled when she stopped to admire the painting right next to him. He greeted her without moving his eyes off the painting, “Spending summer in Glasgow huh?  What a nice vacation gift from JYP.”

Fei examined him from head to toe and noticed an odd-looking fold on his pants around the knee. “How’s your leg, Changmin-ssi?”

Max smiled, “Better than ever.” He peeked over the flawless spy and looked around, “I see you’re not with your fellow girls today.” he paused, then continued, “So what do you want to talk about?”

Fei walked closer toward him and locked her arm around his waist, leaning her head on his shoulder, “You’ve been a bad boy, you know. Stealing from an innocent girl like Amber...”

Max joined her play as he started to walk to another painting, while putting his arm around her waist, keeping them as a sweet couple. “I believe I didn’t steal anything from her.”

Before he knew it, her hand had reached into the pocket of his jacket and found Amber’s missing gps-patch inside. “So that’s why we couldn’t find her that time. Still not admitting your crime?”

Max stared at the patch, smiling,”That’s not counted as stealing.”

“Yunho will be here soon, you have 5 minutes left.” Min warned her, and Fei slowly releasing their side hug, “Let me ask you a quick question.”

Max released their hug and is waiting for her next words.

“The letter you gave Amber from her late father, can you tell me it’s not a fake one, while looking straight into my eyes?” Fei shot a sharp but calm glance into his eyes, freezing his movement for a second.

Max didn’t answer right away, and she sensed a hint of fear from his slightly twitching eyes. She smiled victoriously and patted his cheek to mock him, “Well, so it’s true. It’s good chatting with you, Changmin-ssi. Enjoy your summer!” she said, and putting the patch back into his pocket, “Keep it. You know you’ll miss that patch.” leaving Max frozen, completely beaten.

“Good job! Now get out of there! I’m sending your conversation to the HQ right away.” Min’s voice once again heard and Fei’s swiftly making her way down to the ground floor. She was alerted when she saw Yunho coming out of the bathroom, heading toward Max’s direction. She quickly stepped down the stairs, taking advantage of the hanging heads to cover her face. She didn’t look back and kept walking as natural as she could, until she was out of the building.

“I saw you out of the building. Great! Mission accomplished.”

Fei exhaled, “Pheeew... that wasn’t so hard. See you at the hotel then.”

***

Yunho checked his watch and cursed when he realized they had less than 15 minutes to make it to the meeting on time. He approached Max, “We’re going to be late, let’s go! Our car is waiting outside!”

“Uh? Oh, oh alright!” Max, still in a shock by what Fei just did to him, nodded fast and trailed behind Yunho to the main entrance. His eyes are still searching for her, but he knows she’s not here anymore. He nervously checked Yunho’s expression, afraid that he might got caught. Surely, Yunho will be in rage when he knows about what happened.

He picked out the patch and was going to throw it to the trash can, but then he realized something about not-throwing-the-patch away.

“If that’s what you want, then let’s have a second date with me,Miss A.”

***

to be continued...

It was fun writing Fei's part~XD

(Don't ask me about the title,  I'm out of ideas for the title XDD)

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