“We have a dilemma,” I tell the Anime Club during lunch the next day. “Operations regarding Project Cotton are taking place on Floor 38 of the Yohan building. But there’s no way to get onto that floor, and there are no cameras there, either. What do we do?”

    Annabelle ponders the question. “Maybe you could find someone who has access to that floor and pose as them?”

    I shake my head. “That probably won’t work. There’s an incredibly high level of security there. They’d probably catch us within a minute.”

    “Maybe you could... somehow get a camera on that floor,” Marcus suggests. “Plant a camera on someone who does have access to Floor 38.”

    “But there are metal detectors and you’re swept for cameras and electronics before you enter.”

    “You could interfere with the detectors,” Preet says. “Interfere with the electromagnetic field the metal detector gives off, so that it doesn’t identify the camera. And put the camera someplace really private.”

    “Hmm...,” I rub my chin. “Let me talk to Chanyeol about it.”

    “I guess we could try that,” Chanyeol says when I suggest the idea during Training. “Putting the camera somewhere private won’t really be an issue.”

    I narrow my eyes. “Why?”

    He rubs his hands together, a catlike grin appearing on his face. “Dr. Min has been making eyes at me every since I got here. It’ll be a piece of cake. Can you handle the electronics from Floor 21?”

    “Yeah. We need to time this perfectly. Our planning has to be meticulous.”

    “Hopefully it’ll work. Now, regarding the other thing you asked about.” Chanyeol clears his throat. “Baekhyun said that if our plan worked, he’d help you look into that Daniel guy. But he also said that you coming to the Cytel building is a stupid idea.”

    “Okay, so I’ll set up a private video conference for us.”

    “Alright. We’ll arrange that with Baekhyun after we break into Floor 38.”

    “If we break into Floor 38-,”

    Chanyeol snaps his fingers. “No. Be optimistic.”

    I give him a strange look. “Fine, whatever.”

    “Where’s your boyfriend?”

    “Stop calling him my boyfriend,” I snap irritably. Jungkook is notably absent from Training today. Thank god. I could barely look him in the eye after Training yesterday. A shudder runs through my body as I recall the way he overpowered me in an instant, the words he spoke in my ear.

    You’re terrified that I’m going to kill you.

    I exhale abruptly. I don’t want to think about this.

    Chanyeol and I are just about to begin another round of sparring, when a black-suited woman strides into the Training arena.

    “Ami Hwang’s presence has been requested on Floor 21,” she tells Harris in a clipped voice. After throwing me a glare- like it’s somehow my fault that I’m being called up- he gives the agent a terse nod.

    “Take me with you, please!” Chanyeol cries in his fake whiny, high-pitched voice, and I snicker.

    “What’s up, Marge?” I ask, striding off the elevator. “Are we running another mission or-,”

    “Sit.” she says coldly, pointing at a chair in front of her. My stomach drops. I slowly take a seat, warily eyeing Marge. There is a long silence as Marge looks at me with an unnerving stare.  

    “What?” I finally whisper.

    “Whatever you’re planning to do, don’t do it.”

    My jaw involuntarily drops. I sputter, “I- I don’t know what-,”

    “Cut the act, Ami. I know exactly what’s been going on the whole time.” Marge crosses her arms. “You really think that I wouldn’t be ordered to supervise you? You can’t gain Yohan’s trust that easily.”

    I’m done. Everything’s over. My body feels numb as I sit in my chair on the 21st floor of the 4 Flames’ headquarters, realizing that there is practically no way for me to get out of this situation.

    Then Marge says, “You’re lucky that I’m on your side.”

    My eyes widen.

    What the hell?

Is this a trap?

    “If I hadn’t been covering your tracks the entire time you’ve been here, you would’ve been caught by now. I’m not tricking you.”

    “What?” I utter. “How have you covered my tracks?”

    Marge pulls up a folder on her computer, titled A. Hwang. Hundreds of files- everything from video clips to voice recordings to pictures- are contained there.

    “You’re tapping my phone?” I exclaim, looking at one of the file names. “And- oh my god, you put a tracking bug on me? Where?”

    “Half of the stuff in this folder completely falsified,” she informs me. “And there’s a reason that I gave you the surveillance footage from Jaemi Kim. I thought you would handle it appropriately. Instead, you created a massive virus. Great job.”

    I wince. “I kind of freaked out.”

    “You need to stop being so reckless. And you need to listen to me when I tell you to let go of whatever other agenda you have. Otherwise, you will eventually get caught, no matter how hard I try to help you.”

    “Why are you vouching for me?” I ask Marge.

    Her eyes harden. “Because,” she says. “I don’t want you to make the same mistakes as I did.” Marge’s voice cracks at the end of her sentence.

I lean towards her. “Then why don’t you help me? All I want to know is why my friend’s brother died. Then I’ll leave the 4 Flames.”

“Don’t you understand, Ami?!” Marge shouts, slamming her fist down on the table. “You can’t leave the 4 Flames! You’re stuck here forever, inspected under a microscope, and one small screwup leads to termination. If they find out you know more than you’re supposed to...,”

“But Marge-,”

“If you don’t want to listen to me, you can just find out what Yohan does to its enemies the hard way.” She glares furiously at me. “They’re going to catch you.”

    “You know, I would’ve considered stopping earlier,” I tell her angrily. “But apparently, my friend’s brother’s death was just the tip of the iceberg. Erasing? A deranged 17-year-old assassin? And they’ve hurt you, too. I’m going to figure out what’s going on, get hard evidence, and shut down this place!”

“A deranged 17-year-old- Ami, are you talking about Jungkook?”

I look away.

Marge is quiet for a good minute. She stares at me with a blank expression on her face.

And then she slowly shakes her head.

“You don’t know what he’s been through,” she says quietly. “He’s done so much to look out for you, and you think of him as nothing more than a murderer? Did you know that he was the one who asked Command if we could bring you into the 4 Flames? BTS was originally tasked to kill you after you hacked into our website.”

I blink. “What? Really?”

Marge’s voice is steadily rising. “Jungkook genuinely cares about you. I haven’t seen him give a damn about anyone other than his squad. And you’re just going to dismiss him as a psychotic killer? Because of that one file that stupid X.E. agent sent you?”

Guilt is welling up inside my stomach. “Jungkook never explained anything to me, so I-,”

“He wanted to wait until the right time,” Marge tells me furiously. “And then Chanyeol Park outed him. I don’t have the right to tell you about Jungkook’s past, so I’m going to leave it to him. But Ami, you can’t sacrifice all the effort he’s put in to make sure you were safe by carrying out this wild attempt to expose Yohan. It won’t work.”

She hurriedly strides out of the room, leaving me sitting in my chair in silence.

I am sitting in 3rd period History before the bell has rung, trying to program a homework machine (which is totally not working), when Jimin sprints into the room.

“Ami!” he shouts. I look up in shock.

“What’s wrong?” I ask urgently, standing up. “Is it a mission? Did something happen to Jungkook-,”

Jimin shakes his head. “No! Yoongi and Lina Nguyen are having a fight right now!”

“What?!”

“They’re both arguing in the hallway, and it’s really scary, and I feel like I’m going to die because I swear both of them are about to kill each other, and I don’t really know what to do, and I really need to get to class, and also, I’m kind of hungry- what do you think the cafeteria’s serving for lunch today-,”

“Okay, stop!” I jump out of my seat and sprint out of the classroom. “Where are they?”

“Here!” Jimin leads me to the main hallway, where a throng of people have gathered to watch something in front of them in awe. I push my way through the crowd with much effort. Suddenly, I spot a flash of brown hair.

    “Christina!” I hiss. Christina Valdez turns around.

    “Ami!” she gasps when she sees me. “Dude. You’ve missed way too much.”

“What’s happening?” I question agitatedly. Christina gestures to the scene in front of us with a worried expression.

Lina and Yoongi are coolly apprehending each other with piercing glares. It feels like a frosty wind has just passed through the area; their looks are deadly. The rest of BTS stands behind Yoongi- including, I realize with a twinge, Jungkook. Everyone else is keeping a good 5 foot distance from them. I hurriedly push my way up to the front of the crowd, so that I am behind Lina.

When BTS sees me, they give me uneasy looks; except for Jungkook, who curls his lip at the sight of me. My chest tightens. I force myself to look away.  

    “From what I heard, Lina was walking to 3rd period, and she passed Yoongi,” I hear someone whispers. “He made some comment about Ami Hwang, and now they’re having a showdown in the middle of the hallway.”

“I would hate to be in between that fight,” someone else mumbles. “Both of them look absolutely vicious.”    

    I grit my teeth. I don’t care if Yoongi hates me, but he cannot screw with my friends.  

    “Who do you think you’re talking to?” Yoongi tells Lina in a low voice. “You’re a complete loser. You don’t have friends, you contribute nothing to this school, and nobody likes you.”

    “It’s better than being a narcissistic douchebag who thinks he’s all that because his daddy’s rich,” Lina calmly retorts. Yoongi gives her a malicious smirk and steps closer towards her.

“You’re talking about my rich father?” He leans down towards Lina, and whispers in her ear in a voice so soft that I have to strain to hear it, “Whose mommy is the chairwoman of Fulton & Park?”

Lina jerks backwards, her eyes wide. Fulton & Park, the multinational law firm? It was #28 on the Forbes Top 100 list last year. Is Yoongi telling the truth?  

Judging by the smug look on Yoongi’s face, he knows he’s hit Lina’s weak spot. “And whose mommy,” he continues in a soft, venomous voice, “is the-,”

“Stop it.” I say, stepping in front of Lina. “If you have a problem with me, Yoongi, you can say it to my face. Don’t drag others into it.”

Lina looks at me in shock. “Ami,” she breathes.

Yoongi’s lip curls. “Well, well. It’s Ami Hwang in the flesh. I can’t believe you’ve managed to separate yourself from your laptop long enough to talk to someone!”

Titters rise from the crowd. Hoseok grabs Yoongi’s arm. “Dude, cut it out,” Hoseok mutters. Yoongi pushes him away.

“You think you can get away with using Jungkook?” he growls. “Please. You should be eternally grateful that he was willing to put up with you for so long. He always talked about how annoying you were.”

My eyes dart to Jungkook, who is staring at me impassively. A lump grows in my throat, but I make sure my face shows no emotion.

“That’s not true-,” Namjoon protests, but Jungkook cuts him off.

“He’s not lying,” Jungkook says coldly. “Dealing with you was such a burden.”

I become acutely aware of the people around us, all gaping with shock at this scene. My face starts to heat up.

“No one forced you to do anything,” I state.

“I know. But I wanted to be nice.” Jungkook’s glare feels like it’s burning a hole through me. “I didn’t know how much of a you really were.”

Immediately after he says that, his eyes widen. There is a sharp intake of breath from Lina. Even Yoongi appears taken aback. Different levels of indignation and disbelief are present on BTS’ faces.

No one says anything. Jungkook stares at me, stricken, his mouth slightly open.

Then someone places a hand on my shoulder. “If Ami’s a , then I’m a fairy princess.”

I whirl around. Marcus is standing behind me, a stolid expression on his face. Preet and Annabelle are next to him, glaring furiously at BTS.

Jungkook blanches.

“You’re absolutely pathetic,” Marcus tells Jungkook, approaching him. Although he is a few inches shorter than him, Marcus doesn’t cower. He looks Jungkook straight in the eye. “Stop trying to put Ami down.”

    Lina grabs my hand. “Let’s go,” she murmurs. “I hope you’re happy, Yoongi.”

“Ami,” Jungkook whispers, but I don’t turn back around. Marcus, Annabelle, Preet, and Lina shield me from everyone’s stares as we walk away. My body feels numb.

Well, at least one good thing has come out of today.

All my reservations about breaking into Floor 38 have completely disappeared.

A/N: guys omg if ami leaves the anime club thats not going to magically make her life wonderful.... like being a part of the 4 flames is not a good thing its a gang LOL but i'll you'll see more about that in upcoming chapters i dont think ive really gone in depth about all the they do

anyway, jungkook is totally iceing (iceing? icing?) ami out.... lol. also im sorry for making yoongi such an a-hole but dont worry