The 8th floor is desolate, empty. Sparse lighting illuminates tall black doors interspersed down the hallway. When I arrive at the door of my mother’s suite, I tersely knock twice.

    “The door’s open,” my mother calls from inside. Steeling myself, I walk in.

    She is sitting at a desk, tapping away on a laptop. Her back is to the door. She does not bother to look over at me.

    I stride over to her and fling the papers down in front of her. “Mrs. Nguyen asked me to give these to you,” I spit out in an acidic tone.

    “I already have copies of these files,” my mother responds coldly. I narrow my eyes. Dammit, Mrs. Nguyen.

    “While I’m here, why don’t I ask you something that’s really been pissing me off?” I cross my arms. “How the hell did you join Cyntel in the first place?”

    My mother pauses. “They scouted me,” she says monotonously. “After reviewing my performance record at Apple, they invited me in for an interview. Told me that I would be making double my salary within 2 years... as long as I was fine dealing with another side of business.”

    “And you just said yes? You agreed to work for a gang?”

    She turns to me, contempt in her eyes. “Do you know how much money I make?”

    I scoff. “So it was for the money. You sold yourself out to a criminal organization for money. And you put Dad and I in danger, too. What if the 4 Flames or Seven Stars had sent someone to hurt Dad or me, just to get back at you?”

    “That would have never happened. I cut all ties with you and your father after I joined X.E. And I ensured that my personal life was kept strictly under wraps. Even Baekhyun didn’t know that I was keeping tabs on you and your father. I told him you two would not need any additional protection. He left you alone. I surveilled you myself.”

    My heart is aching. So she chose her career over Dad and me?

I pull myself together and snap, “If you surveilled me yourself, then why did you let all of those things with the 4 Flames happen to me all those years ago? You should’ve protected me, or done something-,”

    “I didn’t know you were going to do something as stupid as hack into the 4 Flames’ site,” she retaliates. “As far as I knew, you had no friends or contacts. Lina Nguyen was nothing more than an acquaintance. By the time I discovered what you had done, it was too late.”

    “But it’s not like you still couldn’t have stepped in and-,”

    “I was about to. Then, I realized that I could use this as an opportunity.”

    “What opportunity?!”

    “To see how well you did in the midst of the gang world.”

    “Are you ing joking right now?”

    “You failed miserably.” My mother continues as if I have not said anything. “You mishandled sticky situations, you acted immaturely and purely on emotion, and your tryst with that Jeon boy was painful to witness.”

    My chest tightens and I have to stop myself before I lunge out and hit my own mother in the face. How dare she.

“You’re a heartless monster,” I hiss, sticking my face right in front of hers. “And I’m not just a ing pawn. I will never, ever do anything for you after all of this is over.”

    And before I can control myself, I shove all of the papers off my mother’s desk- and then storm out of the room. There are angry tears in my eyes as I stomp into the elevator and jab the “Basement” button to go to the Training rooms. She’s my own mother. She’s powerful and a mastermind and cutthroat, yes, but she’s still supposed to love me and care for me and want to protect me.

But why is she acting this way? Why is she so selfish? I want to curl up in a ball and hold my head between my hands and scream. Is she really telling me that she’s watched me all these years, but hasn’t even bothered picking up the phone and calling me once? Does she know how hard it’s been on Dad, too? Does she know anything?!

    Suddenly, the elevator door slides open. I freeze in the middle of wiping the tears from my eyes. Kyungsoo and Fei are staring at me, stunned looks on their faces.

    “Oh my god,” I breathe, a look of mortification spreading over my features. “Uh, hi guys. Sorry.”

    “Mimi, are you okay?” Kyungsoo says, immediately grabbing my hands. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

    “It’s nothing,” I laugh, mentally berating myself. I’m such an idiot. I swore to myself long ago that I would never, ever show weakness in front of anyone ever again. And yet it seems like that is the only thing I have been doing for the past few days.

    Hurriedly changing the topic, I ask, “Were you two going somewhere?”

    “The cafeteria,” Fei tells me. “We realized that we didn’t get a chance to finish lunch after our little reunion.”

    “Here, get on,” I chuckle, gesturing them into the elevator. “Fei, this must all be so weird for you. I never would’ve expected that you were the girl Kyungsoo was seeing.”

    She chortles. “It’s truly a small world. eHarmony must have some sort of algorithm that determines if two people are weirdly connected.”

    “Weirdly connected is one way to say it.” Kyungsoo shakes his head. “This is all so strange. And to top it all off, Fei worked with Kris, of all people.”

    Fei’s expression drops at the mention of Kris. I look at her sympathetically. “Fei, it’s fine. He’ll stop acting so idiotic in a few days, trust me.”

    “No, he won’t,” Kyungsoo scowls. “Kris Wu will always be a disgusting, self-centered scumbag. Fei, forget about him. He’s an evil man who sold us all out-,”

    Fei nervously glances at me and I clear my throat. Kyungsoo seems to sense the uncomfortable atmosphere in the elevator and awkwardly cuts himself short. Thankfully, we are all saved the trouble of attempting to fix the mood by the ding! of the elevator. We have reached the 1st floor, where the cafeteria is located.

    “Well, I’ll see you two later,” I smile. “I’ll be Training downstairs. Wish me luck!”

    “I’ll come and join you in a little bit!” Kyungsoo exclaims. “And maybe I’ll bring Fei along, too.”

    “Hell no,” Fei barks. “If I get within a ten-foot radius of a treadmill, I’ll break out in hives. It’s a fact.”

    I dissolve into laughter. As the elevator door slides shut again, I can hear Kyungsoo musing, “How do you stay so fit if you hate working out?”

    By the end of the afternoon, however, I think I understand why Fei despises working out so much. Joshua and Chanyeol (who have apparently been in the training rooms all day) make me do 10 400-meter sprints and 100 jumping jacks- just as a warmup. After an hour of intense cardio, they spend the next hour pummelling the out of me.

    “We’re going easy on you,” Joshua tells me after Chanyeol slams a knee into my stomach and causes me to repeatedly dry-heave. “The only reason I’m not making you do more is because you told me who Kyungsoo’s eHarmony girlfriend is. It’s such a funny coincidence. Oh, Kyungsoo, you stupid bastard. That fool thinks he-,”

    “Get back to training, Joshua!” Chanyeol shouts. Joshua sighs and then roundhouse kicks me in the ribs.

    “Shouldn’t we,” I wheeze, “be concentrating... on how I’m... going to fight them?”

    Chanyeol grimaces. “You won’t be able to do that, Ami. We can’t teach you how to beat a 4 Flames agent in a week... much less a member of BTS.”

    “We’re teaching you endurance,” Joshua states solemnly. “Sorry for being pessimistic, but-,”

    I shake my head. “I... I get it. Keep going.”

    And for the next few days, I continue serving as Kyungsoo, Joshua, and Chanyeol’s punching bag. The week goes by in a blur; I wake up early in the morning, train with the three of them (sometimes they’ll bring other members of X.E. or Seventeen in to give me more practice), hurriedly scarf down lunch with Preet, Lina, and Annabelle (while ignoring Annabelle’s whining that my training is making her feel guilty about not exercising), chat with Fei and Kris (separately, although I’m positive I’ve almost convinced Kris to talk to Fei), and training more and more. Occasionally, Baekhyun and Marge will pull me out to assist on creating the false virus they will implant in the 4 Flames database while I am at the party. Those are the times that I feel the most grateful for my coding knowledge.

    I mean, yeah, helping Baekhyun and Marge execute the plan is pretty cool, but I’m mostly grateful for the chair I get to sit on and the respite I receive from Joshua’s blows.

    By the third day, the aching of my muscles resides.

    By the fourth day, I’ve managed to block most of their hits.

    By the final day, I land a blow on Kyungsoo.

    I’m not prepared.

    But I’m in much better shape than I was a week ago.

    This Boot Camp from Hell has certainly helped.

    And then before I know it, it is the night before the party. T-22 hours until the execution of our plan- and the start of the takedown of Yohan.

I lie flat on my back, staring up at the darkness. My mind is travelling at the speed of light,

jumping from one jumbled thought to another. I don’t know what I’m thinking about, and I don’t know what to think about.

    I shoot up, turn on the lamp next to my bed, and grab a pen and notepad from the dresser.

    List, I write, and then beneath it, I scrawl:

• See Dad again

• Make everything okay between EXO and Kris

• Make Kris and Fei okay again

• Say goodbye to Preet, Anna, and Lina

• Say goodbye to Baekhyun and Chanyeol

• Say goodbye to Joshua and Kyungsoo

• Never see my mother again

• Do something for Marge

    I pause. There is something else tugging at my mind; another insane yet deep-seated need that I have to fulfill.

    See Brookhaven again, I add to my list.

    That will never happen. I’ll probably scratch it out in the morning. It doesn’t matter.

    I peer at my list once more.

    I know I am missing something; in fact, I know exactly what I am missing.

    But if I write it down, it will make it real. It will be me admitting it, saying it aloud.

    You have nothing to lose, a voice whispers in the back of my head. It’ll all be over soon. No one will see this list except for you.

    My hand is trembling as I write:

• Tell Jungkook that I love him and goodbye.

A/N: my first day of school was today and honestly it was awful i hate everything lmfao i hate school so much.

BTW THIS NEW POSTER IS BY ANNASHADOW AND SHE IS WONDERFUL I LOVE HER SO MUCH OMG LAKSDFALSDKF