JongYup spoke after a brief silence. “Is that so?”

Eric nodded. “Yes. I believe she’s in more capable hands if Dongwan took part of this. He is more than enough to help Hyesung.” He explained further. “The rest of us should resume on active duty and continue tracking down Sooman—“

He slammed his fist on the table, startling Eric in mid-sentence. “Are you refusing my order now Mun Junghyuk?” He questioned darkly.

“N-No, I—“

“Do you have any idea how much that girl’s life is worth?” He said. “300 billion won worth of assets, all under her name alone.”

He blanched after hearing the figure.

“And you’re telling me that she’s safe under that bastard Shin Hyesung and Kim Dongwan?! DON’T TAKE ME FOR A FOOL!” He threw his coffee mug and it smashed at the wall, narrowly missed from hitting Eric’s head. Choi JongYup was furious.

“That girl needs to live forever. She is Choi clan’s greatest asset. Without her, our organization would crumble down to pieces and we’d be living like dogs on the streets. I specifically instructed you and ALL Shinhwa members to protect her. She MUST stay alive, do you understand?”

“Sir.” He bowed his head.

“Bogeun and Junhyuk will track down Sooman. The rest of you are not allowed to perform other duties unless I order you to.”

. “Yes sir. I understand.”

“Get out,” He barked. “Before I stripped that good-looking face of yours off your skull and feed it to the stray dogs.”

He bowed one last time before he headed for the door and exited out of the office, hoping to never mess with his temper ever again. JongYup’s last line freaked him out more than anything he encountered in his life.

And he has encountered a lot.

“By the way Wangja,” Hanneul said, staring intently at Hyesung’s face. “What happened to your face? I wanted to ask you earlier but I forgot.”

Hyesung tried his best to cover his bruise, his eyes shifted nervously. “Oh, these? Oh, it’s nothing. I fell down the stairs. I was careless.”

Hanneul gasped, aghast to hear it. “Do they hurt? Do you want me to kiss them?”

“Ah, no, it’s okay. I don’t want your lips to get infected.”

“Infected?” She stared at him with wide eyes.

He nodded. “Yep, your lips will get all blue and icky and you can’t give ppoo ppoo anymore.”

She wailed. “Noooo I don’t want that to happen! I wanna give more ppoo ppoo!”

Nearby, also sitting cross-legged on the carpet like Hyesung,  Junjin was grinning in amusement.“You really love ppoo ppoo, don’t you?” He asked, his tone playful.

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! Because it makes me feel happy!” she squealed and tackled him until his back hit the floor.

He could not helped but laughed irrepressibly as she tickled his face with her lips, littering kisses all over his eyebrows, his nose, his cheeks, and his jaws.

Meanwhile, Hyesung was not pleased that the two of them were getting more friendly and comfortable with their positions.

“Okay, mistress.” His eye twitched. “You can stop kissing him now. I think he’s had enough.”

“Aahh waaaeee~”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Choongjae you sneaky bastard!”

More laughter and giggles resonated in the air as well as Hyesung’s nagging along the line.

On the other side of the room, where the bookcase was, Dongwan had just finished reading over Hanneul’s diagnosis report and grimaced at the information he had discovered.

Choi Hanneul was violated. She was a victim of a sick who took advantage of her mental conditions.

The thought of it makes his chest tightened and his blood boiled. Andy understood his sentiments. He felt the same way.

Shinhwa is team of highly-trained hit men who have murdered countless people, for the past 15 years. They weren't exactly the most civilized people out there, but it sure beats a mentally ill woman. That was low even with their standards.

He deserved more than just a period sentenced in jail. He should have gone straight to hell. Not that heaven is an option to them either.

Oh, the irony.

“You’re done with this?” Minwoo’s voice broke his ponder. He was holding the diagnosis in one hand.

“Yeah,” Dongwan nodded.

“Okay, I gotta return this to the cutie at the lobby before she gets into trouble,” he said with his back turned to them and a little wave. “Ciao~”

Minwoo left the room.

Junjin was laughing a lot. He seemed to be enjoying himself tickling Hanneul who was squealing like a little kid. Hyesung was still nagging. A familiar tune kicked in from the speakers. Dongwan turned his attention to the maknae to inquire more.

 “Where’s the kid?” He asked.

“No idea.” Andy replied. “Even Hyesung hyung has no idea about it.”

Crayon Pop’s Bar Bar Bar filled the gap during the mid-silence.

“Why do you think JongYup is keeping the girl? I mean, considering her…’state’. I doubt he does it out of love.”

“It’s probably because of this.”

Andy pulled out his smartphone from his pocket and passed the device to the older man. Earlier, he had taken the liberty to do a little research on the Net. Hopefully, it will provide the answers he wanted.

Choi Hanneul or better known as the Fairy of Guitars is famous for her exceptional display of guitar playing onstage. The Septers (The fandom name for her band Septic V) viewed her playing as magical, hence the nickname.

Being one of the few rare sights of female guitarist in the rock band industry, she instantly gained a great number of cult followers, mostly from male demographics. Although Septic V isn’t as famous as K-POP idols, it was more than enough to have the band still active since their debut for the past three years.

Based on his research from the pictures of her in the articles, Andy doubt anyone else other than a few selective people knew about Hanneul’s conditions. Everything he saw in the photos seems normal. Well, as normal as a female rockstar can be anyway.

Her performance outfits mostly consist of leather jackets, fluffy short skirts/dresses and boots. Her make-ups were done nicely without deeming over-the-top. The winged eyeliners accentuated her eyes and her lips were mostly in pink or bright red shade. Thankfully, they kept her curls natural at its best although they were some photos where they straightened her hair.

Andy decided he liked it natural. He kept the thought to himself.

“FNC is under JongYup’s control.” Dongwan’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to piece the information in his head. “Her fame is basically giving him free money. How much do you think she’s earning?”

Andy shrugged. “No idea. Probably a lot if he’s planning to keep her around.”

“I don’t like this.” He declared suddenly. “Everyone is taking advantage of her. She was bullied and isolated. She was and even had a child from it. And JongYup is seeing her as a money-making machine just because she’s…she’s…” He found himself hesitating.

“…retarded?” Andy continued for him, his tone nonchalant.

Dongwan grimaced.

The older man has always been the most empathetic among the members. He had beaten up hundreds of men during the years but he was never the one to deal the final blow. It was usually up to him, Minwoo and Eric who put a permanent end to their lives with their guns.

Junjin was similar in that sense as well. He didn’t like killing but he has done his share of murders in order to survive from the battles he had encountered.

They are living a life where having compassion will get you killed and everything is revolved around illegal profits. Over the years, the six of them had become merciless and more desensitized with every blood that splattered, every anguish screams that howled and every bullet that pierced into a human brain.

Perhaps it has been so long that they feel anything at all.

“That’s probably why Hyesung hyung is like that with her.”

But…is that really it?

Andy himself could not help but pondered if there is more than meets the eye. Something in his gut is telling him that there is some sort of conspiracy revolving around the heiress.

Why the sudden brought up of her existence towards the rest of the Shinhwa members? Was it because of her conditions that JongYup kept quiet about it? Do Madam and Seunghyun know about this?

The sound of the elevator door opened caught his attention and a wheeled cart rattled into a doorway.

It was the nurse who guided them earlier. She stopped the cart as she sighted a certain scene in the living room. Then, Minwoo sauntered into the room along with a scowling Eric who was carrying two plastic bags in each hand.

“Hey, guys!” Minwoo called lightheartedly. “Check out what our leader-nim brought for us—“

And the two men paused as well when they saw the sight of Hanneul and Junjin in a rather compromising situation on top of one another. The former was at the top and the latter at the bottom. On the side, Hyesung was extremely unhappy.

There was a good 10 seconds of silence before the nurse finally cleared , composing herself to remain professional.

“Mistress, here is your dinner.” She placed the tray of food on the side table. “I shall leave them here so you can have it once you are done.”

“Yay! Thank you eunnie!” Hanneul cheered in blithe as she left the room.

Junjin who finally realized the position he was in, blushed at the proximity. Her legs were between his and their upper bodies touched.

“Um, hyung! It’s not what you think!” He tried to say, looking at his hyungs plus Andy’s faces upside down from the floor because of his current position.

Hanneul suddenly asked loudly. “YAH, what’s that you got there?” She pointed at the two bags Eric was carrying.

“Oh yes,” Minwoo said. “Ne, Eric-ssi. Why don’t you take them out and show them what you bought for us while you were out?”

Eric rolled his eyes but he did as what Minwoo told him. He sat in an empty area where the floor was not governed by the rugs and took out the take-out box from the plastic bag. A delicious smell wafted from the container and made Hanneul’s jaw dropped.

“YAYYY FRIED CHICKEN YAAAYYY!” she cheered, bouncing…or rather, grinding against Junjin’s hip.

Unfortunately, the action caused a certain part of him to react and his whole body went stiff. Andy took pity of him and decided to save his embarrassment by lifting the woman up by the arms and lead her to the newly arrived gourmet. Hyesung followed suit.

“Yah, Eric--” the rest of his sentence was filled with questions and expletives.

Junjin looked up to two faces from his lying position. Minwoo and Dongwan were grinning mischievously at him. His only reaction was a bashful grin.

“You brat,” The latter decided to flick his forehead.

“She can’t eat those. It’s unhealthy for her.” Hyesung nagged.

Eric rolled his eyes. “Pssh, what are you? Her mother?”

He huffed exasperatedly. “She needs to eat proper food. She can’t eat these junk!”

“Relax, she’s only eating them once in a while,” Dongwan tried to placate. “I’m sure she’s gotten sick of hospital food, right Hanni?”

Hanneul didn’t caught what Dongwan had said and instead looked at him confusingly, the chicken bone wing hanging between her teeth. Dongwan nodded several times until she nodded along with him. Needlessly to say, Hyesung was not pleased. She fetched a new piece of drumstick after devouring the chicken wing.

Hyesung took away the take-outs before poor Minwoo could pick a new piece.

“Yah!”

“Mistress, I think that’s enough chicken for today.”

“What?!” She gave him a petulant stare. “Whyyyy? I wanna eat moooooreee!”

Hyesung shook his head. “No, mistress. These food are bad if you ate too many of it. You can die if you overeat them.” He placed the take-outs on the kitchen counter, away from anyone’s reach.

“Yah!” It was Eric this time. ing Hyesung wouldn’t let him get his chicken.

“Yah, don’t be stupid!” Hanneul scolded him. “If people can die from eating fried chicken then they shouldn’t sell them at all! Why would they wanna kill more people when they are many people getting killed as it is!”

However, Hyesung stood firm with his protest. “No, mistress. You already ate plenty enough as it is. No more. Go eat your dinner that Nurse Ye-Ri prepared for you.”

“No.”

“Mistress—“

“No, I don’t want to! I wanna eat fried chicken! You eat those!”

“But Mistress--!” He carried her tray towards her.

Hanneul crawled towards Andy and took cover behind him. “NO! You can’t force me!”

“Mistress, please!”

Andy started to get nervous. He really did not want to get in between them. “Ne, Hyung. Can’t you just let her off the hook this once? It seems like she really wants to eat the fried chicken…”

“No! She’s had enough of those! She needs to eat proper dinner.”

She shook her head stubbornly. “Don’t wanna!”

The bantering was causing Andy to get stuck in between and the rest of them unable to feast on the fried chickens. Eric of course, was getting extremely irritated.

“Shin Hyesung, you hand over those chickens right now!” he shouted.

“No!”

Eric got up from his seat and stomped to the kitchen to fetch the take-outs but Hyesung stood in front of him, not letting him take a step further towards the chicken.

“No one’s getting the chickens until she eats her dinner.”

He tried to sneak past him but the prince managed to block his every advance.

“What the hell—“

“No.”

He was still unable to reach the chickens.

“ing—!“

His defense was still impenetrable. Cue Eric to get pissed. He grabbed his collar and was about to punch him. Dongwan and Junjin scrambled frantically on their feet to stop the leader on time.

The water and oil couple was shouting expletives while the other two were trying to prevent them from landing blows against each other. The situation in other word, become chaotic. And it was all because of fried chickens.

Minwoo decided to make his move before the situation got out of control. He approached the heiress gently.

 “Ne, Hanneul.” He smiled.

Hanneul gazed at him distractedly, wondering how his eyes became so small all of a sudden.

“Don’t you feel sorry for Wangja?” He asked.

“…what do you mean?”

“Look at him.” He pointed to the said man who was still shouting expletives at the leader and not being prince-like at all. “He is trying so hard to take care of you. Shouldn’t you listen to him?”

She paused for a moment, thinking. Minwoo could almost see the gears turning in her head. He prodded further.

“Do you want to be strong and healthy?”

She nodded.

“Then, you should eat the dinner that the nurse has prepared for you okay? You shouldn’t waste your food.”

Hanneul gazed at him again. “Then you eat it.”

“I want to but I can’t.”

She tilted her head to one side, confused. “Why is that?”

Minwoo pulled the tray towards him and appreciated the refined looking vegetable soup and bi bim bap on it for a moment. Honestly, if these were the kinds of food that they served here, he wouldn’t mind staying here at this hospital but he digress.

 Minwoo pretended that he couldn’t reach the food due to some invincible force field.

“See?” He faked his reach again. “I can’t. Only the princess can eat these.”

“…I’m a princess.”

“Yes, you are. And these dishes are only befitted to your mouth only your highness.”

Hanneul liked his answer. She sat cross-legged in front of the food and began eating the bi bim bap. Andy quickly got on his feet and pulled out a new piece of chicken happily.

Minwoo petted her head softly, pleased that his tactic worked. She really is like a child. He wiped a grain of rice on her cheek with his thumb.

Finally, the argument stopped and the two wordlessly decided to eat their dinner separately. Hyesung took his portions and sat next to Hanneul as he accompanied her with her dinner while the rest of them took comfort in eating them at the counters.

Eric grumbled incoherently as he chewed his piece. Something about shoving the bones up Hyesung’s if he took away the food like that again.

“Wait,” Hanneul said suddenly, causing the men to place their attentions on her. “Does that mean you all are going to die?”