pointed teeth || iz*one

28

"Ch-Chaeyeon isn't replying - do you think something h-happened to them?"

Hyewon's gaze lowered to Sakura's hands clasped in her lap tightly. She saw ever so slightly the pale long fingers around her device trembling, wrist bone pressing against a corner of bandage firmly.

A drop of sweat rolled down Hyewon's temple, trailing down her cheek and stopping just shy of her jawline.

"It's gonna be okay," she breathed out. Hyewon never felt desperate for anything. She always had a way to change what she didn't like.

Until this moment.

Then both their phones buzz.

...

Eunbi: guys dont come for us

Eunbi: theres a girl in the seonggong uniform

Eunbi: turn back now

Kwangbae: eunbi

Eunbi: i mean it. turn back, she's going to kill sakura

Kkurachan: we're on the bus to the starship point train station right now just wait for us

Eunbi: we dropped our phones in the cabin

Eunbi: and im not eunbi im yena i managed to grab a random phone

Eunbi: she has us all in nooses and almost hung yuri just now

Eunbi: she promised to let us go home w

Kkurachan: what

Kkurachan: yena

Kkurachan: YENA

Eunbi: Sakura, if my squad doesn't bring you to me by this evening i will hurt one of the younger ones for every five minutes you're late

Eunbi: there is no use calling the police. we are an underworld agency and on the maps, we don't exist

Eunbi: if you get here by the requested time you won't need to worry about them being severely injured

Kkurachan: who are you

Eunbi: me?

Eunbi: a seonggong student

Kkurachan: their parents will be worried

Eunbi: don't you think we covered up the three years that your friend's brother worked here after we cast him out?

Eunbi: we have our ways. we can erase anyone from the memories everyone who's ever crossed paths with them and do the same with documents and data. so that's what we've done to your friends. until we get you their families and friends have never known of their existence and their identification cards are on hold and ready to be destroyed if it comes to that

Eunbi: tick tock

Kwangbae: wait

Kwangbae: eunbi

Kwangbae: chaeyeon minju hitomi chaewon yujin yena

Kwangbae: wonyoung yuri nako

Kwangbae: just hang in there okay

Kwangbae: you'll be safe

...

"Tsk."

The girl's frowning now.

"I have all of you kneeling with your necks in nooses. And you still have the audacity to defy me," she sighs in disappointment, in a similar tone of a mother scolding a stubborn child.

"Here." She tosses the phone randomly. It lands near Chaewon. "Have fun typing with your knees. Oh, wait. Can you do anything but breathe and jerk your heads in the position I've held everyone in?"

She lets out a laugh.

Yuri wants to throw up because it sounds so pretty and musical. How can such a lovely sound come from a person so sick?

Chaewon inches slowly towards the phone, bending her neck back so she doesn't choke on the rope.

That's when the girl kicks it out of reach.

Yujin just stares at her vehemently.

They would all still be sitting down tied up if the younger girl hadn't decided to chide their captor more. Wonyoung swears to kill her if the bureau doesn't.

Her long limbs are bound extra tight with itchy rope, and if she dares relax her chin to face forward, the rope around her neck that was ordered to be raised higher than the others will suffocate her and ultimately do the job for the bureau.

After all, no one knows of her existence besides the people in the hall and two in a bus only god knows how far from here.

Nako is so small there's no way for her to be in the same position as everyone else and not immediately hang to death, so the girl had her put into a different row.

A clear glass tank.

Is it the same material as the one I saw in the truck...? Yujin thinks, squinting to see behind the tears.

"If Sakura doesn't get her before the time I gave her is up," the girl starts, leaning against the glass on her elbow, "then the water will start flowing."

She whirls around on her heel before clapping her hands to catch everyone's attention.

"I'm going to get lunch," she chirps, before walking towards a stone wall.

She pulls a tag connected to a thin chain around her neck from her blouse, then searches for a specific spot.

When she finds it, she presses her tag flat against it and a heavy rumbling of stone growls around them as the wall splits into an opening.

"Behave well," she says with a wink, and disappears.

Nako shrieks, her cry muffled by a strip of cloth tied over her mouth tightly in a knot a boy scout would walk away from, banging her little fist against the glass. A glassy font decorates the top of one wall.

We Eliminate To Save

Eunbi squints to see it. If she could speak, she'd tell Nako to stay calm and that everything would be alright...

Chaeyeon hums a shrill note to catch Eunbi's attention.

Eunbi jerks her chin to the left and sees Chaeyeon shake her head sadly.

I know what you want to say.

But we should stop lying to them, Eunbi. We've lied enough. It isn't going to be okay.