CHAPTER 39: RESURRECTION

CODENAME: EOS
NAME: SATO AI 
AGENCY: NJC 

I could hear her voice singing the soft lullaby, my mother had a beautiful voice. The velvet tone hugged me as I struggled to keep my eyes awake and focused on the glow in the dark stars scattered across the ceiling.

“Hana. Hana, what are you doing, didn’t you take your pills, why are you awake?” my father’s muted voice cut through to my numbing mind.

My mother has stopped singing. Why did she stop? I’ve never heard her sing before. “No, no, I gave it to the devil child, I gave them all to her. She’ll sleep forever now and you’ll love me again, I’ll be all better once the devil child is gone.”

“You didn’t. You didn’t. You mental woman, you didn’t, my daughter!” And that’s the last thing I heard.

Grandma was beside me when I woke up, the wrinkles on his face sagged in exhaustion. The stars on my veiling was replaced with the plain white walls, and there was a burning pain in my wrist, a tube of some sort. He whispered into my ears about how beautiful I was, about how he was so glad that at least I was okay. That I was the only one he had left.

“Hey sweet heart, you’re going to stay with Grams now, okay?”

I understood what happened, sometimes when mommy got especially mean to me, father and I would go stay with grandpa while mother went to go feel better. I was okay with mother being mean though. I was used to it.

“When is father coming back for me?”

Grandmother sighed, “He’s not sweetheart. Your Daddy got really angry with your mom for hurting you, and did something really mean. So he’s gone to the place for bad men okay.”

I only had five or six years with my grandmother. I could barely remember the face of my parent’s and my grandmother had been sick long before they were gone. I could barely remember when she was healthy enough to take care of me. My parents moved on, my grandmother moved on, so I would move on as well. It was only three or four years later that the NJC found me and offered to train me. 

I lived my life for the NJC. There was nothing for me outside of it, no one. And I was okay with that. It was a simple truth that I had accepted and made my peace with. So why do I have this burning longing in my heart now?

I was beside him, Jaejoong. I was intensely aware of his presence, and the thought that his eyes could even remotely land on me for the briefest of moments sent the hairs of my neck into a frenzy. 

When Taeyang, in all his inexperienced nervousness, reached for the trigger at Jaejoong’s ill thought out escape plan I should have been relieved that the NJC’s new recruit had at least the basic instinct of a field agent. Instead I panicked, I flew at him.

His voice, so touched by my protectiveness, called out to me “Ai.” I was confused. What had I done? Why had I done it? He leaned in to plant a small kiss on my forehead.

In horror, I kneed him in the gut.

I knew what he wanted then. He hoped that I would escape with him. He even bet his life on it. But I was simply a shard of a broken mirror. The person I was, the person I could have been, was shattered long ago. I had nothing for him.

The NJC was the only thing I had.

But now, Taeyang is telling me that Styx is dead. That Nesoi was in battle with U-Know and has yet to respond after so long – likely dead as well, or worse, captured.

I crumpled to the ground, my arm instinctively gripped around Jaejoong’s knee has he rushed toward me.

Mere moments later, a group of three men rushed on to the scene. The other rebel guard, was shot and killed instantly, Taeyang managed to shoot one of their men before a much older agent shot him down as well.

Jaejoong, whose hand was resting on the top of my head opened his mouth, “Father.”

My eyes flickered up, this man whose face was stern and movements so controlled was careless Jaejoong’s father?

“The girl’s an NJC agent.”

“No, no father listen to me. She’s a civilian. She was just blackmailed, look at her, she’s in cuffs just like myself. Father, she saved my life earlier from when one of the two guards was going to shoot me. It’s my fault she’s here, it’s because I was close with her in school.”

After everything. Why was Jaejoong protecting me?

A smaller squeamish boy piped out from behind Jaejoong’s father. “What are you talking about Hero? Ai claimed that Rin was her sister, and Ava literally had a shooting match with her”

“Changmin,” Jaejoong uttered in surprise, “what the heck are you doing on field? But yeah, she didn’t have anything to do with it. Rin isn’t related to her. She was just forced into everything, I wouldn’t have even been able to break the code for the NJC Mickey rescue if it weren’t for her help.”

Somehow, even when Jaejoong was protecting me, he was still pissing me off.

I couldn’t help it then.

I started to giggle.

Jaejoong, first surprised kneeled down to me and grinned. “Come on, Ai. Stand up.”

I used his shoulders to support myself off the ground, and as I stood straight and looked him straight in the eye for the first time without fear, or guilt, or even anger I could feel myself grow lighter.

“Ai, the NJC are finished now. You’re free to start your life again, and maybe, you can start it with me in it. You have a second chance. Take it.” Jaejoong’s voice was gentle but firm.

I couldn’t help but raise a single eyebrow at the absurdity of his offer, or this entire situation, “my Hero”

Jaejoong chuckled. Before his hands found its way on either side of my neck and kissed me. I found myself kissing him back.

He pulled away from me and turned to smile at his father, but then his face twisted into confusion. My eyes followed his to the miniature figure of a girl standing barely a hundred feet away from Jaejoong’s father and his flimsy partner, unmistakably, she had a gun pointed at Jaejoong’s father.

I could hear the sound of the echoing gunshot as Jaejoong screamed.

“Father!” 

Author's Note: So, this is Amaya's writing and as you can see, the romance scene is cringe-worthy. I blame topumasum for this for wanting this chapter in it's unedited state. But, it wasn't like I was going to spend much editing either.... so... ya. Win win? 

Cordially, 
Hisoka