Let's Hunt Her (Book #2)

₵Ⱨ₳₱₮ɆⱤ ₴ɆVɆ₦₮ɆɆ₦

Rosé, Lisa, Sehun, and I sit around a rustic dining room tabled in Vietnamese food that Rosé made from scratch. Not only it is delicious, but she wore an apron while cooking and used all kinds of culinary jargon that I've never heard before as she bossed Lisa around the kitchen. I've been side-eyeing her ever since. I really don't know what to make of her and her deeply layered personality. Even Sehun seemed impressed.

"You guys are completely useless," Rosé says, and pushes her plate away from her, which I'm assuming means she's done eating and someone else should clear.

"Ah yes, we're the problem," Sehun retorts. "Meanwhile you've been spouting utter brilliance all morning."

"I know," Rosé says, and sighs theatrically. "The burdens I must bear."

We're all feeling the pressure of time. We went to bed last night at four a.m. after talking in delirious circles for hours with the hope that everything would make more sense if we slept on it. But here are at lunch without a complete plan and only one before the ball.

The only person who looks relaxed is Lisa, who's eaten twice as much as the rest of us and is smiling faintly at Rosé's drama.

"Even if we can sneak onto the property, the only way this is going to work," Sehun says, leaning forward, "is if we have a way to distract or disorient a couple of guards. Knocking them unconscious is out of the question. Their absence would immediately be noticed and it would be a clear indicator that there were uninvited guests. And imitating them is also out of the question. We run too much risk of being recognized."

"We're talking about well-trained Strategia guards and hired thugs. Anything we do will be spotted for what it is and probably be just as obvious as knocking out a couple of guards," Rosé says. "At least if we take out the guards we buy ourselves ten minutes or so."

"Ten minutes if we're lucky," Sehun says. "And we don't even know what we're looking in there. We may go through all the effort of getting in just to have to bolt before we find whatever Suzy's dad wanted her to see."

I shift nervously in my seat at the thought of being this close to appa but with no clear idea how to get to him.

"And we're back to square effing one," Rosé says, sitting back in her chair, exasperated. "If we keep this up, we're not going to the ball at all."

"Cinderella," I say reflexively.

Rosé grunts. "If only we had a fairy godmother or, I don't know, Professor Hisakawa to brew us up a concoction."

I freeze, her words triggering the memory of a near forgotten conversation. "Jungkook!" I blurt out.

"I have no idea what you mean," Rosé says. "But I'm definitely intrigued by a plan where Jungkook is the fairy godmother."

"Actually, he might be," I say, unsure how much I can say and still keep my word to him. "I went to see Jungkook before Sehun and I left the Academy to ask him-actually, more like implore him-to help in any way he could."

Sehun looks at me questioningly.

I don't meet his eyes, feeling guilty that I didn't find a time to tell him. "Jungkook gave me the contact information for an apothecary here in Incheon, but -"

Sehun opens his mouth, but before he can get a word out, Rosé smacks the table. "Are you kidding me? You have a contact for an Eagle apothecary? Why didn't you lead with this information?"

"Jungkook made me given him my word that I wouldn't share the contact with anyone," I say, briefly stealing a look at Sehun.

"Extenuating circumstances," Rosé says, like that's a reason. "Besides being able to get us something to sneak into the ball, an apothecary is without a doubt one of the best resources for acquiring something that will kill Taecyeon."