FORTRESS 'kailisa'

o09

       I walk out of the room, I don't see Baekhyun or the tall man or the young-face around, even Yeri. Only the girl with the soft-looking features, Seulgi was quietly sat on the couch, eyes closed and hand over her eyes.

       "Excuse me?" I call out, she raises her hand a bit and her eyes travel to me. "Where is Yer —Ri." I almost say Yerim.

      It took her a while, but she sat up. "Yeri left along with Baehyun, Chanyeol and Xiumin, I was told by them that you still need to wait here for a while." Slowly, I nod my head and look around the room. It was quite plain, barely anything interesting in it and you couldn't anything from here but there was light coming through the translucent doors.

     I took a seat on the couch, near Seulgi, she was still quiet and had her eyes looking elsewhere. It took a white until we heard a knock on the door and I look its way only to see a tall figure behind it.

     I guess that's Kai.

     Seulgi stood up and I did the same, she opened the door and stepped aside. Kai was staring down at me and I stared up at him for a split second before then having my eyes travel to Seulgi, and I bow my head slightly before walking out.

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      I found it quite interesting how the streets are always full of people, I trailed behind Kai who had been walking ahead of me even as we walked out of the building. I had to focus on where he went and at the same time I also had my attention averting to places.

       Adults and children were running around, I remember the few times I've gone to avenues of Pure Seoul and barely did I see what I am seeing now, they ran around with pure smiles and grins, laughing about things care freely — The same would not be in Pure Seoul, people would go around smiling smugly, laughing at others behind their backs, kids would always be kept by their parents' sides, they held blank expressions and not showing even a small smile until their parent tapped them on the back without people noticing.

       Looking forward, I came to realise I stopped on my tracks, Kai was before me, staring away for a while until turning his head my way.

      "You'd never see something like this is Pure Seoul, would you?" He asks in a whisper, almost as if reading my mind. It took a while, but while I stared into his eyes, I look down after a second.

      "...Yea, I wouldn't." I answer. I sigh. "Where are we going?" I ask.

     Kai shrugs. "Somewhere." I pursue my lips and inhale deeply. "Just keep following me."

      "I am supposed to follow this piece of —"

      "I can hear you."

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     Kai pushed away the mantles as we entered a — what I assumed to be — working shop. The smell of Gun powder had been strong here and I remember inhaling something like this when I was feeling the burning pain on my leg, right after having something get injected on me.

      The sound of something roaring was quite loud against my ear drums and I had my hands go up to cover them.

       Finally, the sound stopped.

      "Ay, Kai!" I hear somebody call out, I turn my head to look at another slim looking male with fine features. "Where have you been bro? I looked for you everywhere this morning." He had brown hair with streaks of black and a wide smile.

     "Ah, sorry, Taemin, but I was busy going around doing errands for Joy." His hand reaches the male's in a handshake. "But anyways, I hope I am not too late." Taemin grins and shakes his head.

      "No, you're just in — and who's this?" His eyes finally find me. I stare at him before nodding my head and glance at Kai who had gone quiet for a while.

       He lets go of Taemin's hand and scratches the back of his neck. "This is Lisa."

       "How come I've never seen her before around here?"

       "She just came from base 5." I quirk an eyebrow at how quick Kai had been to lie, but I go along with it nonethless. I smile.

       "Hi." I greet, trying to make my voice as smooth as possible and natural. "I'm Lisa."

Taemin reaches for my hand and had a tight grip on it. "Nice to meet ya', Lisa, are you here to watch or participate." My brows furrow.

What?

"She's just going to watch." Kai interrupts my thoughts, then I felt my hand slowly go back to my side and so I had my eyes looking around. Dusted metals lying around and some even looking brand new, I had a look outside, on the other side of the work shop and saw two dark silver hovers like the ones we have back in Pure Seoul.

Chaeyoung would always call them floating cars, but Jisoo and Jennie would argue and call them hovers.

"I'm sure my sister wouldn't mind finally having someone to talk to." This time, Taemin had been the one to interrupt my thoughts. I looked his way to see he jogged towards a door that was not far, it was metal and looking old with the bronze taints.

"Sunmi, Kai is here for the race, come down!" He called and I just assumed Sunmi had been his sister like he had said.

It didn't take much time while Kai and Taemin were chatting, a slender beauty appeared, long, dark wavy hair tied back in a neat ponytail at the top of her head with a purple wine bandana.

Women in the capital were beauties but I was starting to think that the here in Busan were beyond that.

"Oh? And who's this?" The woman approached me, despite her youthful features, I could tell she was in her early 20s but maybe a bit older than me.

"This is Lisa, she's watching us race today." Taemin introduced before running out with Kai towards the hovers.

I turned to face Sunmi and she was grinning down at me before she casually reached and patted me on my shoulder, startling me in the slightest since I had never been so used to such casualties.

"I'm Lee Sunmi, that brat's older sister." She giggles and made a hand gesture for me to follow her. "Come on, let's watch the boys race."

"They race with hovers?" I question. Eu mi gives me a confused look and gives me an arched brow while at the same time, she opens a cupboard and pulls out a gun but I could see something red at its tip.

"Hovers?" She says and soon she starts laughing. "That's a fancy way of calling them, I guess when it comes to our garage we keep the names simple." Oh, so it's a garage.

"What do you call them?" I ask, Sunmi walks out and her skin was glowing in the sun and she looked gorgeous. She grinned at me before having her hand reach out in the air while the other covered her ear.

"Racers!"

I hadn't noticed before that Kai and Taemin had already into the Hovers, until Sunmi had pulled the trigger and a loud bang was heard in the air and at the same time, something roared loudly and powerfully like a beast.

It was by instinct how my hands came to my ears when hearing such a sound and my eyes closed, I felt what seemed like sand hit my skin and almost cutting through it and making me hold my breath.

Soon, the noise became distant and I finally had the courage to open my eyes, in shock. "What on earth was that..."

I then had Sunmi abruptly grab onto my hand. "Come on! Let's watch them from the deck!"