Free Soul | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 23: sneaky spies with sneakers squeaking on the floor

Whilst riding a car, oftentimes when we close our eyes and try to fall asleep, there is always this certain state in the borderland between consciousness and unconsciousness. We hear the muffled sounds coming from outside the vehicle, we feel every bump and turn it takes, we are still alert enough to know when it definitively stops.

And still we're caught in a thick fog of a confusing illusory reality, where everything is a dream which is built on the pillars of corporeality, where sensory shapes are only faded shadows amidst the gray veils. We're swaying between the doors to intangible wonderless lands and bittersweet physical existence.

Hyunjae was no exception, in borderland whilst riding the car. She could have blamed it on the mayhem of a sleep schedule she had, but it was certainly due to the previous events which plunged her into a state of constant high alert. Because of the anxiety, the fear, and the dread and nervosity. There was no solution helping her drift into sleep.

All Hyunjae could do was rest her foggy mind by reducing the usage of her senses; her eyes were shut, her mouth was clasped, her breath shallow. Her intuition was the only sense to have been sharpened by her entire being. Each and every tingle would make her freeze and stay careful until it faded away. She wasn't sure about whether Steve had it too, this sixth sense.

It hadn't been of much use anyway; they arrived at the hospital quicker than Hyunjae had thought it would take them. And yet Steve didn't even need to nudge her that her hand was already on the handle of her door. She got out while pulling her hood on her head as he joined her on the sidewalk.

With their hands stuffed in their pockets and their suits left in the backseat of the car, they stepped in the sanitized sick air of the white and gloomy building. From then on, Hyunjae solely followed the Captain in his hasty footsteps, up the stairway and fastly past any worker or patient or any stranger. Albeit the hurry blurring the details, she soon recognized the corridors and the route they were taking; it was closer to a death she still couldn't believe that it happened. It couldn't be real.

And before she could even spell the proverb haste makes waste, Steve was standing still in front of a vending machine. Seconds flowed and let the confusion insinuate in Hyunjae's understanding. She glanced up at the blonde only to see the slight panic straining his features. It was until she felt Natasha behind them, and heard her chewing gum.

Natasha.

It was an odd feeling which seized the inside of Hyunjae's middle, to twist and twist and tighten them in an excited nervosity. But seeing those red hair and green eyes after all which had happened, a secure solace laced her chest to spread relief within. It however couldn't be developed further as Steve spun around to grab Natasha's arms.

He pushed her in the room right behind them and back against the wall in a harsh thud. Hyunjae herself snapped out of her contemplation to storm inside in a sudden surge of irritation. She seized his shoulder before furiously pulling him away from the Russian, a terrifying scowl forming a warning for him not to ever do that again. Ever. And this, my friends, was her instinct acting.

Hyunjae's instinct was to protect Natasha, thereby her ire had gotten triggered like an explosive eruption of a volcano.

But it would never be enough to calm Steve's anger. It in fact further proved that he couldn't completely trust Hyunjae, because Hyunjae would always blindly join Natasha's side. Thus he took a step forward and ignored the fierce look of the Korean hovering above him, on his aflame left side.

"Where is it?" He started off in a murmur with controlled aggravation.

"Safe." She bluntly replied in a manner he solely understood as foxy. A lie, lie, lie. He was already distrustful of Natasha after their prior mission. All he could think about was, Natasha was lying to him again.