Notorious ⊷ Haechan

1 ⊷ Headlines

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"Why are people so loud when they die?" Ji-yoon asked under a sigh. "It's bothersome."

"P-please, give me--"

She stepped onto his leg, the heel of her foot pressing into the fresh gunshot wound. Blood trickled out of it, smeared over the ground, soaked into his clothes.

It smelled gross. 

"I gave you a second chance. I also believe I told you that it would be your last one."

She turned her foot a little. Pain-filled groans crept through the room. They were breathless and dull, the man had no energy left to even cry out loud properly. His misery was just a whisper.

Just silent white noise, not to be noticed by anyone around. Not that there was anyone around to begin with. 

"If you let me live I will do whatever you want," he offered in panic.

She laughed. It sounded so amusing to her, like a joke. 

It was a bad joke though. Tasteless.

"The only thing I want from you now," she began, crouching down next to his head as she whispered, "is to see you die."

His eyes widened and he tried to crawl away.

It was useless though. She had her gun aimed, finger on the trigger.

She sighed.

Then pulled the trigger.

"AH!" 

Yangyang cried out in pain after getting his head flicked. He frowned, eyes on Ten. "Don't do that."

Ji-yoon smiled sympathetically. "You are getting yourself in harm's way by writing articles like that and yet you are so whiny?"

The boy, however, fully convinced of his own capability and strengths, merely hummed.

"You don't know me well enough," he mumbled.

"That's not true," Ten noted from the sidelines. "So? How's your article coming along?"

"It's all done, I'm just not sure about the title," he said. 

Ten nodded understandingly. "What do you have so far?"

"Okay, so I was thinking, something along the lines of...

Crazy psychopath murderer strikes again!
What is the government hiding?

Does that sound good? It's captivating, right?" Yangyang asked, genuinely curious. 

There was a sparkle in his eyes, proud and enthusiastic and happy to publish an article about such an interesting, albeit gruesome and serious, topic. 

It sparked public interest and Yangyang had gotten insider information on the case.

"You know the police is going to question you," Ten said.

"Everything I have to say is in the article," Yangyang retorted and looked up at the older one before he let his gaze wander over to Ji-yoon whose legs were lying on the boy's lap, his laptop sitting on her knees. "And they can't force me to reveal my source."

She hummed. "Just do your thing," she said. "Doesn't matter if the title is a little over the top as long as the information is correct." 

Yangyang clapped his hands together once and pointed at her. "Right?!"

"You'll get in trouble," Ten noted.

"Don't worry," Ji-yoon reassured. "It'll be fine. We have each other." 

"As long as I don't get killed, I'm good," Yangyang said with a flick of his fingers. 

Meanwhile, Ten rolled his eyes. "You are taking this too lightly. You don't know what you are getting yourself into." 

"Exactly," Yangyang agreed. "Isn't that exciting?"

Ten looked at the girl. "I blame this on you," he said bluntly. 

"You call him your baby but blame me for faults in his upbringing," she sighed. "Idiot." 

He scrunched his nose. "Had I met you earlier then I would have taught you proper manners. Taemin really messed that up." 

"Woah," she exhaled in disbelief. "Eleven's grandpa is really talking big today." 

Yangyang clapped twice, made them stop. "Can you guys stop bickering already?" 

"He started," Ji-yoon mumbled which earned her a soft slap on the leg as Yangyang shook his head disapprovingly. 

It was, of course, a light-hearted moment. Friendly bickering. A joke, if not less than that. Talking for the sake of having noise fill the air. 

Because without that noise, Ten would have soon changed the topic to a heavier one. A more unpleasant one than bickering was. Just worries and orders and 'promise me's. 

And Ji-yoon really didn't need those and neither did Yangyang. 

"I know you don't want to hear it, but please be careful," Ten said. Both of them quickly nodded. 

"By the way, Ji-yoon," Yangyang asked right after that, "What are you going to do now?" 

That was a good question. There were a couple of things she wanted to focus on and managing all at once was going to be difficult. 

Difficult but not impossible. 

Still, there was one thing that kept bothering her. It wasn't that she didn't know who ordered to kill those people or why. 

But it was the fact that somehow no one cared. 

"Who knows?" she asked with an amused smirk on her face. "Maybe I will try to become a proper law-abiding citizen and team up with the good guys." 

As much of a joke this was meant to be, she was also awfully sincere about this. Both boys couldn't help that nervous feeling in the pit of their stomachs. 

Ten exhaled flatly. "She's going to do something dumb."

Headlines ⊶

Since Luminous is almost finished I thought of starting a new story. I'm really looking forward to this & I hope it will be enjoyable! 

Stay safe, ily~ 💚