SEVEN

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CHAPTER SEVEN
not enough

     KAORI had been shot in the arm

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KAORI had been shot in the arm. She had been running as fast as she could, yet, the tagger had been meticulous enough to touch her body with a bullet.

She hissed in pain when she reached for the area covered in blood, trying to locate where the wound was. She grimaced when she touched it, right above the elbow. Luckily for her, the bullet had not touched any bone, more so scratching her skin.

At least, I don't have a bullet stuck inside of me...

She ripped the sleeves of her shirt, silently groaning in pain —wondering how painful it would have been if she had gotten more seriously injured, and proceeded to wipe most of the blood that had been trickling down her arm, spotting droplets falling from her fingertips.

She tied another piece of fabric tightly around the wound, praying it would stop the bleeding.

More gun shots echoed, not that far away from her, making her lean forward against the railing. The tagger was still on the fifth floor and shooting at someone —she could not figure out who the person was from her point of view, who seemed to be on the fourth floor.

Kaori frowned, why the hell would he shoot from that far off? The guy's been stabbed way too many times to be an average human being, got hit in the head with a fire extinguisher twice and was still steady enough to shoot me but he can't find the strength to go downstairs to kill someone who never wanted to play that game in the first place? That's sketchy...

But, now, she wondered how they would find the safezone. Their time was limited, the building was huge and Kaori didn't feel like searching on her own with the threat of a tagger lurking behind every corner.

She sat down against a wall, sighing in defeat. She recalled the rush of excitement bubbling inside of her when she had followed Asuka blindly —knowing their lives could end at any moment if they ever faced the tagger.

She had loved the feeling, the way it had sparkled in her chest, somehow comparable to the butterflies she had felt a few times when falling in love with someone. This feeling was never something she was comfortable with —too uncontrollable for her own liking, but she could not deny the enjoyment that came with it when she had learned to let go of control.

Truth was, Kaori loved being in control of everything. Her schedule, her friendships, her opinions, her persona... Maybe it had something to do with the childhood she had spent hiding her true self behind the closed door of her bedroom —knowing all too well that if she didn't fit into the mold it would backfire on her, but being in control was an actual breath of fresh air for her.

So her natural response to love originally was to push the feelings away until they would eventually disappear. It had worked a few times, painfully. She had dated a few people in her life, some for longer than others, some harder and stronger, but love had always been an internal battle with herself.

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