A/N: I've updated a TONNNN in the last 2 days so make sure you go back like... 4-5 chapters!

I become acutely aware of a strange buzzing in my ears.

    Stop it, I think, annoyed. That's irritating.

    The buzzing intensifies and I clench my teeth. Finally, I can’t take it anymore- my eyes slowly blink open.

    White. That is what I am primarily hit with. White bedsheets, white room, white heart monitor sitting next to my bed. The smell of antiseptic wafts into my eyes. I try to get up- but a jolt of lightning-hot pain shoots through me and I drop back down onto my bed, grimacing.

    There is a mop of hair lying on my arm. I turn around and see a boy my age sleeping. His head is resting on my bed.

    “Hey,” I mumble in a raspy, dry voice. “Get up.”

    The boy jolts awake. His eyes widen as he yells, “Hey! She’s up! She’s up!”

    A half a dozen nurses and doctors fly into the room, sighing with relief and bustling around me. They check the wires that are connected to my body- I didn’t even notice them- and ask me a rapid stream of questions and thank god that I’m okay. One of the nurses holds a glass full of water below me and guides the straw to my lips. I drink greedily.

    “What’s happening?” I whisper. “Where am I?”

    “You’re at Seven Stars headquarters,” the boy says agitatedly. “My name’s Vernon. I am so, so sorry- I didn’t mean to shoot you-,”

    “Ami!” Annabelle sprints into the room, about to tackle me in a massive bear hug (until one of the doctors intercepts her embrace and firmly tells her that I’m in no condition to be giving hugs).

    “Annabelle!” I gasp. “You’re okay!”

    “I just called everyone else. They should be here within 5 minutes. Oh Ami, I was so scared, I thought you were going to die!” She rubs away tears of joy from her eyes.

    “How long have I been out?”

    “9 days.”

    “What?!”

    “When Vernon shot you, he hit your brachial artery,” one of the doctors states. “You lost so much blood that you went into shock. It was a bad situation.”

    Vernon winces. “I’m really sorry again. I was aiming for Jungkook and I wasn’t expecting-,”

    “That’s okay,” I say.

    Suddenly, someone shrieks, “Aemin Hwang!”

    Lina runs to my side, followed closely by Preet, Marge, and Chanyeol. She clutches my hands desperately.

    “Don’t ever get shot again,” Preet says in a low voice.

I manage a faint smile. “I’ll try not to. Where’s Marcus-,”

Then it hits me.

And then everything comes back in a dizzy revelation: the 4 Flames’ discovery of my true identity, Marcus’ death by Jungkook’s hand, the fight on Floor 21 with all 3 gangs. I clap my mouth with my hands, utterly nauseous.

“I know, Ami,” Marge murmurs, wrapping me into a hug. I cannot even manage to hug her back, although Marge must be feeling a million times worse than me. Not only did she witness her boyfriend get murdered by the 4 Flames, but she saw his little brother get shot as well.

“We left his body behind,” I sniffle. “In the middle of Yohan. Why didn’t we take his body?”

Lina shakes her head, her eyes watery. “It all happened so quickly- we couldn’t climb out the window with it.”

“Jungkook killed him.”

They all exchange uneasy glances.

I feel like I am about to throw up.

“We haven’t been able to talk to our parents at all,” Preet says distantly.

I think back to my own parents. They have been gone for 4 years. They’ve practically abandoned me, save for depositing money in my bank account every month.

Where are they? Do they know about this?

Do they know how terrified I am?

“What do we tell Marcus’ parents?” I whisper. Annabelle, Lina, and Preet look away.

“You 4 will have to go into hiding,” a voice says. We all look up. A slim, powerful-looking woman is standing at the front of the room, her arms cross. Lina tenses next to me.

“Mrs. Nguyen,” Vernon stutters, shooting up.

She ignores him. “You know too much. Plus, you exposed the truth behind Project Cotton- thank you for that, by the way. The 4 Flames is out for your blood.”

“So why can’t we just report them to the police and end this all?” I ask. Mrs. Nguyen curls her lip.

“You have no evidence,” she says curtly. “The U.S. government is already vouching for the 4 Flames. Do you think anyone’s going to listen to you?”

“We have Kyle’s files-,”

“The 4 Flames destroyed those when they took Annabelle, Marcus, and Preet from my daughter’s house. We have nothing.”

I swivel around. “Marge, maybe there’s some way we could hack into-,”

“Already tried,” Marge tells me glumly. “They’ve completely changed their network security systems. I think they brought in people from the goddamn NSA or something, because from the algorithm Baekhyun and I are working on, it’ll literally take us years to break in.”

“So what are we supposed to do?! We can’t just let the 4 Flames keep conducting Project Cotton- they’re too powerful and they’ve gotten completely out of hand-,”

“The Seven Stars and X.E. have decided to form a temporary alliance to combat this... problem.” Mrs. Nguyen says. “We will take care of this.”

“Great! So what can we do?”

“You four are not getting involved. Two choices.” Mrs. Nguyen holds up her fingers, ignoring my protests. “One. We give you fake identities and a sizable income, and we relocate you. We’ll make sure you’re safe, of course. You’ll have a chance to start a new life.”

“And the second option?”

“We keep you under lockdown here. You won’t have access to any missions or information. You’ll get to perform menial tasks, have various amenities, but apart from that- nothing.” She crosses her arms. “Lina’s decision has already been made. Now it’s up to you three.”

We all look at Lina in shock. “Lina, what are you going to do?”

She is fiercely glaring at her mother. “I’m being forced to stay here.”

Preet inhales. “What? But-,”

“If Lina’s staying, then I’m staying, too,” Annabelle says, grabbing Lina’s hand. “I don’t want her to be alone.”

Mrs. Nguyen coolly appraises Annabelle. “I see. How about you, Mr. Chopra?”

Preet is gaping at Annabelle and Lina, appalled. He looks like he’s about to scream.

“Why does Lina have to stay here?” he demands. “Why can’t she leave, too?”

Mrs. Nguyen’s nostrils flare. “She’s my daughter. It’s time that she learns the family business.”

“I’m never going to be a part of... this,” Lina hisses, gesturing around her. “These gangs are the reason why Marcus is dead and our lives are ruined. You can imprison me here, but just know- I’m not going to do anything.”

Lina and her mother engage in an intense staredown. Chanyeol and I exchange nervous looks.

And then Vernon clears his throat.

“It’s not that bad, Lina.”

Lina whips her head around and focuses the full force of her ire on him. He shrinks back.

“I know the types of disgusting things the Seven Stars does, Vernon,” she spits. “You’re criminals. Annabelle, Preet, Ami- you can’t stay here. Get out and live your lives.

“Lina-,” Mrs. Nguyen says exasperatedly, but Marge cuts in, “She’s right. You’re just kids. Don’t worry, I’m staying at the Seven Stars, too. I’ll take care of Lina.”

“Same here,” Chanyeol pipes up. “I’ll make sure our little princess is- oof!” He winces as Lina elbows him in the gut.

“I’m not okay with this,” I say. “If we leave, then we’ll never be able to even talk to Lina again- or Marge, or Chanyeol, or Baekhyun, or anyone else.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that.” Mrs. Nguyen tells me in a clipped tone. “So are you leaving or not?”

Lina draws us all into a group hug. “Leave,” she urges us. “Do it for your own good.”

In a lower voice, she says, “We’ll keep in touch.”

My eyes widen as I draw away from her. She flashes me a sunny smile.

“We’ll leave,” I tell Mrs. Nguyen dazedly.

“Right.”

“Can we have the room?” Lina asks her mother without looking at her. “I want to talk to Ami.”

Mrs. Nguyen gives her a terse nod. “Don’t get any ideas,” she says as she strides out of the room. Preet and I exchange a knowing look as he leads Annabelle out. Finally, the doctors and nurses leave, along with Marge- who ruffles my hair affectionately- and Chanyeol, who is making snide comments to a perturbed Vernon.

Finally, it is just me and Lina.

She takes a seat on my bed. “I guess this is all kinda my fault.”

“How?”

“I asked you to hack that 4 Flames website for us,” she sighs. “That’s when all of this... started.”

“Hey, no. It was my choice to hack it. I mean, at one point, I realized that this wasn’t some site you guys wanted me to break into-,”

“Hey!” Lina protests. “We never said anything about !”

“Yeah, but I kinda just assumed,” I giggle. “Just out of curiosity, how did you find that site? It was in the middle of the Deep Web.”

Lina fidgets with her shirt. “I might’ve coerced DK- our resident tech genius- into giving me the site location.”

“Ah.”  

“That was the only other time I brought the Seven Stars into this,” she says quickly. “That and... Kyle’s files.”

“I see.”

Lina exhales loudly, flopping face-down onto my bed.

“Are you going to miss him?” she asks.

The smile slides off my lips.

    “He killed Marcus,” I say tonelessly. “I’ll never forgive him.”

    “I know.”

    “I wish I’d never met him.”

    “I know.”

    “I hate him.”

    “Do you really?”

    I look at her. “How about you and Yoongi?”

    “What about us?”

    “Do you two really hate each other?”

    “Of course,” Lina says, but she falters just a little.

    We sit in silence. The only noise in the air comes from my beeping heart monitor.

    “I’ll leave after Marcus’ funeral,” I say.

    “Where do you want to go?”

    “I don’t know. I kinda want to get out of the suburbs, maybe move to a big city.”

    “Lucky.”

    I turn to Lina. “One day, we’ll both get out of here, and go travel the world and do great things. Hopefully by that point, you and X.E. will have terminated Project Cotton, and we can all live happy lives.”

    “Are you going to be okay, Ami? I mean, you won’t be able to help with anything-,”

    “I’ll be fine. Maybe I do need to get away from all this. I need a break.”

    Lina smiles and wraps my into a tight hug. “We’ll set up an encrypted phone line or something so we can keep talking.”

    “You got it, Lina.”

    “Ami?”

    “Hm?”

    Lina gives me a long look. “Good luck.”

A/N: THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR COMMENTING HAHAHAH YOUR COMMENTS MAKE MY DAY <3