Day 16

> Mio <

I woke up so suddenly with someone shaking me aggressively. "Yah, wake up! Mio-ssi, get the hell up!"

Groaning I lazily opened my eyes, and seeing who's in front of me I screamed. They did too. "Aish, do you have to be so close up in my face?"

"Morning to you too." Sungyeol pulled the blanket away from my body, leaving me with no other choice but to sit up in the bare cold.

"What time is it? And where are we going?" I rubbed my eyes. Instead of answering he just threw in my face a pile of clothes.

"No time for questions. Be ready in 5 minutes, Sunggyu will be waiting outside." with that he left, leaving my thoughts even more confused. Nonetheless I changed into my new outfit, which was a faded maroon v-neck and dark denim, under an old leather jacket. Heading out I see Sunggyu standing outside the car; waving a little hand in the air.

"Sorry for the early wake up call, we're kind of on a tight schedule." he gave me a cup of green tea. "drink this for now, you won't be able to have breakfast."

"Ah, thank you. Green tea's actually my favorite." I say. He gave me a small smile, one that gave a sudden glint in his eye.

"Hm...small world, huh?"

>>>>><<<<<

He said that we'll be meeting with the others later, and at the mean time he was going to show me around the factory of the company. "Over half of these workers used to work at my uncles company, but once I got his position I rehired them in the drug manufacturing." he explained. I walked around the place, seeing those in white hazard suits and working diligently in front of either large machines or conveyor belts that packaged the supplies. Because I already knew about this production, the information wasn't new to me.

"How much do you make from this production?" I asked.

"Around 25 000 per year. I also gain little profit in underground streets as well, so of course the number is just an estimate."

"So, do you cooperate with people such as gangs?" I wanted to confirm. He nodded.

"Of course. They know how to run the underground areas well. Think of it as almost building an nation - the more I get the money, the less risk of getting caught for the distribution." I wasn't sure what his true motive for building off the drug selling, so I had to take that note in and settle for now. Besides, it's too early to draw conclusions.

Towards the middle of our little tour Sunggyu got a call from his cell phone. Picking it up I eavesdropped all while acting completely unaware. I glanced to see that his face suddenly became sullen. "Oi, Woohyun. You found him? Arasso, we'll be there." hanging up he turned to me. "let's go." going back to the car he sat in the back seat, for the entire ride he didn't say one word. He wasn't the only one who is wrapped up in their own thoughts either.

We arrived in the middle of a road field that was far off the bridge of the city. It seemed like a rural area. Getting out I see already the other Borderline members standing outside to what seemed like a supply storage vendor. Woohyun approached Sunggyu and whispered something quietly amongst themselves before we all gathered together.

“Okay Mio, listen well.” Sunggyu pointed a finger at me. “part of our job is to also get back any of our lost Borderline members that for some reason during their stake outs, have gone missing. We suspect that their may be one in hiding at the storage back there, and we want you to bring him back to us.”

“Wait.” I say. “Why would you take your members into doing stake outs? What is the whole purpose of that?”

“They watch if our business is running smoothly, therefore we have a couple at each of the locations that belongs to the company.” L chimed in. I nodded, more to myself, that I understood.

“Does he have any weapons?” Sunggyu asked Sungyeol. He shook his head. “okay, that's going to be the least of our worries now. Do you think you can handle this, Mio?” all attention was now on me, each of them giving the most serious expression. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, then exhaled slowly.

“Yeah,” I breathed. “yeah I can do this.”he gave me a pat on the shoulder as a good luck, and in silence the other boys moved on aside as I strode past them, heading to the storage. If there is no weapons, I should be relieved, shouldn't I? Yet my stomach is flipping at the moment, and my hands are becoming all clammy. My heart was beating so fast I swear it could explore any minute.

Hesitantly I grabbed hold of the door, and after counting to three I opened it. Entering I didn't hear anything, just the cold dripping of water from the pipes above. I turned to a corner and momentarily I hid behind a wall; but still peeked out what was in front. There was a group of men gathered together, a couple of them sitting on wooden crates or busy smoking away.

I couldn't deny the fact that in front of them was table piled with wooden clubs on top. It wasn't just that, but how they acted seemed a little...odd. They seemed more rebellious rather than confined as supposed to a worker in a high end corporation. By the looks of it none of them were wearing suits - just ripped clothing and messed tattoos that shown all throughout their exposed skin.

And that's when I realized: they weren't at all part of Borderline. This is a real gang. Which meant...they tricked me. My head swam, my thoughts bounced everywhere. Did that mean I was just their bait to use? Is that why they accepted me so easily? I knew it was all too true.

But at the same time, I also felt like it was my fault. As being part of the investigation team going this far in being undercover just seemed too easy. I blame myself for being so stupid for falling into their trap.

Just then one of them spotted me and shouted: 'intruder!'. The leader - I'm assuming the one right in the middle of their little sitting circle - saw as well and glared at my direction. In no time they managed to drag me in and forced me to speak with the threat of weapons in their hands.

"Who brought you here?" the leader said.

"Borderline. I-I'm working with Kim Sunggyu." I stammer. They all looked at each other in surprise, then back at me.

"Satan sent you here? A timid little girl like yourself?" he laughed out loud. "he must be joking. I'm sorry, but I think he's screwed up in the brain." he said.

"What do you mean by that?" I rose my voice.

"Listen kid, he came up to me once and asked if we wanted to work with him. He said he would give us at least 1/3 of the profit from selling those drugs, and eventually I agreed.

"But I stopped after a few months cause Satan took over my entire underground street as his own, like taking my own territory. Demolished it and everything. I decided to take revenge and leave with taking more than the average wage he'd given us in the beginning. Didn't think he'd find us so soon already." he muttered.

So, he's been tracking them down for this long. If Sunggyu had gotten hold of this guy then for sure he'd probably kill him as a sure way sign of letting him know he's pissed for what this gangster's done.

They all began to crowd around me, their wooden clubs held tight in their hands. With a smirk the leader stepped back and sat back down on his crate.

"Listen well. You won't make it back alive, you know that right? I have no other choice but to kill you." he crooned. As they approached closer I too stepped back, my fists balled up at my side.

"Poor gal, her young life already ending." he made a tsk-tsk sound. "any last words?"

I had my eyes glued to the ground, unsure what to say. The atmosphere became even more tense. My heart still quickened in pace.

It's now or never, Mio. "Yeah, actually. I do have something to say." I looked up slowly. "I understand how you feel. You must be really angry to feel betrayed and used by him. Go ahead and kill me - for I'm also pissed for various other reasons as well. It's irritating and I don't want to deal with them anymore. So hurry the hell up and kill me already. At least it would give you some stress relief from your situation, right?"

He stared at me for a moment, lowering his eyes in confusion and in bafflement. Without no other words he sighed and leaned back, waving a fixed hand in the air. The clubs were raised in the air, all above my head. I closed my eyes and counted to three.

Blood spilled.

The entire room was trashed.

My body felt weak and I slumped down to the floor with little oxygen entering my lungs. I felt like I was suffocating. I can't withstand this fight.

He looked at me, cruel hope in his eyes that I would be dead.

But instead of frowning I smiled.