pointed teeth || iz*one

32

The pickup truck swerves here and there without any stops, each movement fluid and precise like Sungmin had his arms trained to turn the wheel at each exact moment.

It makes Sakura a little nauseous.

"Miyawaki, only you and Hyewon can go in later," Sungmin says, sharply jerking the wheel to the left by 45 degrees.

"Why- ow- why can't you go with us?" Sakura slides to the left and her hip hits the truck door.

"I'm not allowed to let anyone know I was a Hunter, but the twelve of you know," he says. The atmosphere shifts into something a little more grave. Hyewon turns to look out of the window, face slightly paler than usual; carsick.

"I'm going to be killed, Miyawaki," he adds softly. If Sakura had heard correctly, his voice even cracked subtly. The truck skids to a halt in the middle of a lonely road, sending the two girls lurching forward in their seats. Hyewon's arms make impact with the dashboard and she hisses.

It's a single clear path, dirt and gravel, everywhere else only trees, blotching out the sun.

It's night already, Sakura panics, I'm too late, they're dead, they're all dead and it's my fault-

"You need to hide, we can hide you when everything's okay again, in the barn. You can live with Eunbi!" Sakura says frantically. "Or I could make space in my apart-"

Sungmin turns around to face her and cuts her off gently with a hand. He lowers it.

"The Bureau has eyes and ears everywhere," he murmurs, slumping back into his seat. "I'll die regardless of what you do."

Hyewon turns around and reaches to pat Sakura's hair in an attempt to comfort her. It does very obviously no help to lessen her guilt that the man who saved her before is about to save her again.

This time, he's going to pay the price he needed to, nineteen years ago.

Then the silence breaks with a surprisingly bright chuckle from him. The tears accumulating in Sakura's eyes finally overflow and trickle down her cheeks, onto her lips, dripping off her jaw.

"Whas' so funny?" she grumbles, wiping a tear track away with the heel of her hand.

"We're here, Miyawaki," he says. "Be a good girl for me again, okay? I'll be with you."

Sakura starts bawling, adding to Hyewon's anxiousness. She tugs on the door handle and hops out of her seat. Her shoes crunch on pebbles and gravel when she lands.

None of the three hear the tiny needle flying, but they see Hyewon clap her hand over her neck like she's slapping a mosquito.

"What the fu..."

Thud.

"Miyawaki, you have to go," Sungmin pleads, "this is how you're getting in. Stay safe."

This time, only Sakura hears the zip. Before everything around her turns to darkness, she whispers, "Thank you."

...

Another truck is nearby, a smaller model and built to carry boxes. Half the back is filled by a large glass tank. Next to it is a medical kit and a rolled-up sheet of velvet tied up with a single loop of black twine.

They haul the dark-haired girl and juvenile monster onto the back where three men tie their wrist behind their backs and ankles across the other, then ties Hyewon's left hand and Sakura's right across each other.

One of them cuts the twine with something that sounds blunt (old razor blade?) and ties them to a wall of the truck back through a gap in the wood by each of their wrists. There's a pause as though he's considering something. Then he covers them with the velvet sheet.