♊︎Year 5067, Month 6, Day 23, Time 6:27 pm♊︎
☯︎︎
It hasn't been long since she talked with Hongjoong and the team on the phone, probably around 20 minutes since then. They agreed to meet up at a secondary location after the team finished with their mission which she would be in charge of sending the directions for. She only hopes they can all go unscathed and in one piece with her early warning; it's a miracle that she was even able to warn them on time about Gemini.
Now, all she had to do was find a way out of here. Easy, right?
Well, it would have been easy if the security cameras hadn't caught her leaving her room, sounding off the emergency alarms, and closing the whole floor she was on off from the rest of the building. Which brings her to her current predicament.
"Over there! She's right there!" A guard bellows from down the hall behind her. She's sure that there are at least 3 guards on her tail and many more waiting for her to make the wrong turn.
With shallow breathing and heavy steps, Kurenai lumbers onward, the white halls of the building spinning around her. Her head and the pain from the wound on her torso pulses with each of her steps, the pain not as strong as it should have been thanks to the extra morphine she found in the medicine cabinets of her room.
She had ditched the hospital gown she was clothed in earlier, sticking to just the chest bandages and spandex shorts she'd been provided with under the hospital gown. And even with that much skin exposed, she can feel her body burning up.
A fever, she thinks to herself, Great, I'm coming down with freaking fever.
Beads of sweat collect at her forehead and along her skin, giving her a sickeningly shiny look. She pushes her body to go onward, making a turn at the nearest hall and hearing the guards' boots getting closer as they squeak against the polished floors.
The smell of medical and cleaning supplies burns her nostrils and stings her eyes, causing her to tear up. Her chest begins to get constricted and her legs tremble as her body begins to fail her, but her mind is set on escaping, even as the odds pile up against her.
All she was armed with was a scalpel and the red box she found when she was abducted. It had been lying around in one of the cabinets of the room she was locked in; a lucky-unlucky charm, she guesses. She knows for a fact that in her condition she won't be able to fight her way out, not even with the little scalpel. It'll look like a plaything against the guns and tasers the MALUS security guards are provided with.
I have to get out, the voice in her head chants, I have to get to the rendezvous point. My team is waiting on me! She repeats, over and over to herself as she struggles to continue walking when a woman's voice comes over the speakers in the building, freezing Kurenai right on the spot.
"Ku-re-naiii~!" The woman's voice taunts her, filling her veins with a petrifying fear that grabs a firm hold of her limbs, gluing her feet on the ground where she stands. Snapping her head in every which way, Kurenai searches for a camera where the woman could be viewing her, finding it in the furthest corner of the hall. "Kurenai, my dear, why do you run? You look so scared."
"You know why I'm running!" The tattooed woman snaps back furiously, her hands slightly trembling from her fear. "Just let me go!"
"Oh, sweetie." The woman's voice cooed gently. "You know I can't do that."
"Why not?!" Kurenai demands, pressing her back against the wall she was leaning on for support while glaring at the camera that she's sure her Meister is stalking her through. "I just want to be left alone! Is that too much for you?!" Her voice shakes.
"You mean a lot to me, little one. I need you. You're a crucial part of MALUS's plan to—."
"SCREW YOUR PLANS!" Kurenai shouts at the top of her lungs, her whole body now shaking with a mix of rage and fear. The action causes the woman on the speaker to fall silent, building up the thick tension that fills up the empty halls. "Screw it, to hell with it all," Kurenai mumbles, wiping the hot tears that were accumulating in her eyes and moving onward when she hears the guards once again.
"There!" One of them commands the rest and she feels anxiety's hand wrap its cold fingers around her heart, giving it a squeeze that reminds her that she needs to escape.
There's no going back now. She's lost the Meisters' trust, and they've lost hers. The only difference is that now she'll have a bounty on her head. But she can live with that.
Kurenai makes a right at the next corner, dragging herself at this point in a desperate attempt to get away when she runs into a daunting, white wall; a dead end.
She whips around to see the looming shadows of the security guards as they close in on her, her heart smacking her ribs with the force of a thousand hammers and her lungs stretching as much as they can to fit in as much air as she can get. Her body is working overtime and she has nowhere to go.
She's in no shape to fight or even fend the guards off, and the Meister watching her seems to know this just as well as she does.
"Aw, what's wrong? You were so confident about yourself a moment ago." The obnoxiously sweet tone pokes fun at her, making her grip around the handle of the scalpel tighten. "What is it? Have you realized how helpless you are?"
"SHUT. UP." Kurenai growls, throwing the scalpel at the glass security camera that was hanging in the corner of the dead-end she arrived at.
Just then, one of the security guards poked his head around the corner, spotting Kurenai and her injured form. A sly smile spreads across his features as he stalks toward her, slowly closing in on her as a cheetah would to a gazelle.
"There's nowhere to run now." He laughs at her, watching in amusement as she balls up her fists and gets ready to fight. "You can't fight like that. Just give up—!"
To his astonishment, Kurenai is the first to leap at him, catching him so off guard that she steals the gun from his holster and switches places with him, using his confusion to unload the first bullet into the back of his head.
The sound reverberates in her head, bouncing off of the walls of her skull and causing her brain to turn to mush as she drops to the floor; her hands subconsciously reaching out to search for any useful materials on the guard's person.
She only finds a taser, a pair of cuffs, the gun she just used to kill the security man, and his key card. Taking the card, the gun, and somehow stripping him of his windbreaker, Kurenai stands back up with much struggle when she hears the echoed stomps of the other two guards trailing her.
Looking around with wild eyes for a way to escape, she looks over at the Janitor's closet door to her right, deciding that this is her best option. Swiping the key card over the padlock, she quickly hides inside of the small, closet-sized room, holding her breath as the guards arrive at the dead-end she was just standing in a moment ago.
She hears the commotion outside as the guards call for help, thankful that they're too occupied with their dead comrade to check the Janitor's closet. She quickly stuffs the red box she was clutching onto into the pocket of the windbreaker she stole, throwing it on, and trying as best she can to eavesdrop on what's going on outside.
It becomes increasingly harder to keep her breath steady as her blood is still pumping vigorously through her veins from the adrenaline rush that she almost doesn't notice the figure that has appeared at the corner of her periphery.
Gasping and taking a step away, she lifts the gun she was holding, pointing it at the figure she saw when she's met with the sight of a younger man, probably not older than 17.
He's a tall, lanky kid with large glasses and wide eyes; a kid she instantly connects to a memory hanging loosely at the back of her mind.
It's Seonghwa. She reminds herself as the memory of her first encounter with him comes back to her. It was an old memory of her past life, one that brought a sense of guilt and nostalgia with it.
For a second, the image of the juvenile doctor before her tricks her into thinking it's the real deal which only disappoints her when she stretches out a hand to touch him, watching her hand go through the image she sees.
Her eyes begin to water again when she remembers what she did to him and Candy, already feeling a heavy burden on her shoulders even though she doesn't know the full details of what happened. Still, that doesn't change the fact that she murdered her "best friends." The lifelines to her past.
A sudden noise from beyond the door of the janitor's closet snaps the tattooed woman back into reality, reminding her that she's not done.
She listens closely to what's going on outside, hearing the sound of loud thumping that she doesn't understand and doesn't want to understand.
Sweeping her eyes across the small closet she's in, she searches for any form of an exit or anything at all that can help her escape when her eyes fall upon the shining metal frame and handle of the last thing she expected to see.
A garbage chute.
An idea crosses her mind at the sight of it, but her lips curls in disgust, already imagining the smell she'll have to withstand if she goes through with it.
From what she can gauge, she fits in the chute, but that's not what presses her; it's the sanitary levels that worry her.
But it's her only option besides fighting her way through, with which her state, she'll surely die trying.
"Jeez," she mutters, keeping it low enough so that the people on the other side of the door don't hear it and screwing up her face in a grimace. "Things just keep getting worse, don't they?"
☯︎
The car ride over to the rendezvous point the team agreed on was profusely and obstinately silent. None of the four men in the car dared to open their mouths to give even a single utterance, deciding to suffer through the tense car ride without a word.
The team had split up per Hongjoong's order, half of the group leaving with Jongho and the other half with Hongjoong as their driver since they were the ones with the cars. The blue-haired hacker had given Jongho the order to head back to their dorms as soon as the King's had been killed, but unluckily so, Vienna slipped away from their grasp along with the merchandise they were sent for.
Once again, they had failed their mission, and they were all waiting in angst for what their punishment would be, if any.; although, they could probably use Yunho to help talk them all out of any consequences.
But even that didn't resolve their current issues; Kurenai and her clone. More specifically, the damage her clone made. None of them have reported any news of Candy's abduction to Yeosang, or anyone besides the ones currently riding with Hongjoong.
They all figure that that's a bridge they'll have to cross when they come to it, for now, their focus was getting Kurenai back safely.
None of them really even know if she escaped MALUS safely or not. They're just heading to the designated location on the assumption that she made it out safely and is waiting for them there, and that uncertainty alone makes San and Mingi fidgety.
There are currently four other men riding along in Hongjoong's van with him; those four being Mingi, San, Seonghwa, and Wooyoung. The first man sits upfront with their team leader who seems to be lost in his own world of thoughts and speculations, gripping onto the steering wheel until his knuckles turn a stark white. Keeping his leg in a constant state of agitation, Mingi bounces it up and down to calm his nerves, feeling his palms grow sweaty by the instant.
The second man, San, sits its the back with Wooyoung, nervously chewing on his lip ring as he rests his elbows on his knees. He keeps his head bowed the whole time, refusing to look up at the front windows out of fear of what he might see when they get to Kurenai, or lack thereof.
He still remembers the way her breath sounded erratic and strained, and how her voice was raw as if she'd been screaming or crying not so long ago. It was all getting to him, making him anxious. Just how badly was she hurt, no one knows, and that's what's eating at him.
He looks over at Seonghwa who is sitting across from him, watching him as he fidgets and pinches his wrist while throwing nervous glances out the window. The raven-haired man occasionally steals glances at San, making eye contact with him and giving him a guilty look before going back to pinching his wrists.
As he sits there and watches Seonghwa work himself up while on their way to collect Kurenai, he can't help but start to make guesses of his own.
The way Seonghwa was the only one who didn't lose his cool in their first mission or ask for the masked woman's identity.
The way Seonghwa had an antidote ready and specially made for that poison he was injected with.
The way Kurenai's clone seemed awfully comfortable with Seonghwa.
It all makes San wonder and think deeply. Kurenai had voiced her suspicions on Seonghwa before, but he never listened to her, brushing her off as paranoid and biased because of the pair's past. But it all makes sense now that he pieces it together.
Seonghwa knew who the masked woman was; San's sure of it. And he's sure that he's connected to Kurenai's clone, too. He just needs to prove it.
"Hold up, look over there!" Wooyoung, after keeping silent through the entire car ride and rolling in his own guilt, suddenly points out the driver's window.
In the distance that slowly starts to grow closer as Hongjoong continues driving down the road, a looming figure of a person becomes clearer to the five of them.
Hongjoong and Mingi who are at the front squint their eyes and lean forward, trying to make out who is staggering towards them from a couple of hundred feet away.
"Is that—?"
"Kurenai!" San cuts off Hongjoong, shouting out of overwhelming joy but also worry at seeing the woman struggle to stand. Before the blue-haired hacker could even bring the van to a halt, San had already opened the back doors, jumping out of the moving van and dashing toward the lumbering woman.
Wooyoung takes off right after him, forcing Hongjoong to stomp on the brakes for the rest of them to follow. He and Mingi hop off the van leaving only Seonghwa behind to contemplate whether he really wants to get off or not.
The other men take off in a sprint to get to Kurenai who notices them coming at her, fumbling for the gun she stole from one of the security guards and raising it with shaky arms out of confusion and fear.
"San, watch it! She's armed!" Wooyoung is the first to notice the weapon, shouting at San to keep up his defense in case she's just another clone.
"S-Stay... away! I have a gun!" Her fever has worsened since she came out of MALUS, it's a miracle that she was even able to get to the rendezvous point. She can feel her brain pulsing inside of her cranium, the pain-causing her vision to blur and her limbs to feel over exhausted. She can't even recognize the men in front of her because of how much her headache is affecting her vision, neither can she manage clear words to see who they are.
"Kurenai," San pants once he gets a handful of feet away from her, taking in her pale, clammy skin and the beads of sweat collecting at her furrowed brow. "It's me, San. C'mon, put the gun down."
The tattooed woman opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out of it. Her lips are about as pale as a corpse and her body struggles to just stand.
Mingi and Hongjoong arrive at San's side, also taking in Kurenai's current state. There are a couple of bruises along her legs and a couple of scrapes, but they can't see any grave wounds on her because of the large windbreaker she has on. It's the standard windbreaker given to security guards back at MALUS which makes them wonder how she got her hands on it.
"H-How do I... How do I know it's you?" Kurenai finally vocalizes what she had been meaning to say, contorting her face into a grimace with her eyes shut tight when another wave of pain flows through her body.
San looks over his shoulder to see Seonghwa hesitantly making his way toward them and then turns to Mingi who's fists are shaking as he glares at Kurenai. They all knew she had gone through a lot, but they never expected her to look so... terrible.
"Do you... remember when we went to the park?" San asks her with a gentle tone, taking a step forward. Wooyoung reaches out to hold him back but the man gives the blond man a reassuring look before he continues. "Remember how I almost scared the crap out of you when I drove the motorcycle and how we watched the sunset together that day?"
He takes a couple more steps in her direction, watching as her scrunched-up face loosens slightly and setting a hand on the barrel of the gun.
"And how we saw our younger selves there? Dancing together?" She slowly remembers and he smiles warmly although he doesn't know if she can see it.
"Yes. That, too." He sets his free hand on her wrist, gingerly prying the gun from her finger and passing it to Wooyoung who empties the magazine for safety. San keeps hold of both of her wrists, inspecting her now that he's closer to her.
Although she keeps her head bowed while San holds her wrists up, they can all tell that she's started to cry because of the light sniffles and stifled whimpers. Immediately, San pulls her toward him, wrapping his arms around her frame and pressing her against his chest to muffle her sobs
When he lifts his hand to caress her head, her legs give out from under her and he struggles to keep her upright, falling to the floor along with her. She clutches onto his shirt for dear life, her nails digging into his skin as she buries her face.
"Thank god, you're all okay." She breathes into his chest, hiccuping. "I was so worried when Evan told me he was going to kill you and Mingi. I was so scared. I'm still scared."
"It's okay. We're all gonna be okay now." He tries to comfort her, rubbing circles into her back. The way she trembles and her heartbreaking sobs cause his heart to sink and the other member's eyes to turn downcast.
Even Seonghwa, who should be laughing at the fact that his enemy is hurt, feels pity for the woman.
Suddenly, the sound of Hongjoong's ringtone fills the silence that had befallen them, and he answers it.
"Hello?" The others wait to hear what else he has to say. "Yeah, we got her... okay... We're on our way." Hongjoong hangs up, taking a deep breath and walking over to set a hand on San's shoulder. He's still kneeling on the ground with Kurenai, letting her cry out her relief and pain.
"Who was it?" San inquires stiffly.
"Yunho. He says the rest of the team is waiting for us back at the dorms."
"Woah, Woah, wait a minute." Wooyoung butts in, lifting a hand to hold them off. "We're taking her back to the dorms?"
"Yeah? Why wouldn't we?" Hongjoong retorts dubiously, noticing Wooyoung's dumbfound expression.
"She just escaped the Meisters and knows more than she should. She's been blacklisted, see!" Wooyoung raises his own phone to reveal the message sent to him by MALUS's secret number.
This makes Kurenai pause her crying that had died down a bit, lifting her head to see what Wooyoung means. Sadly, he was telling the truth.
All of the men except for San take out their phones to view the message, seeing what the blond man's worry was all about. The same message appears on their screens in all caps.
SUBJECT # 10911505
KURENAI
STATUS: BLACKLISTED
ANYONE THAT COMES INTO CONTACT WITH THE SUBJECT MUST REPORT IT TO MALUS AND ITS MEISTERS IMMEDIATELY. ANY AND EVERY FORM OF COMMUNICATION WITH SUBJECT 10911505 IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED FROM THIS DAY ONWARD. YOU MAY ONLY APPROACH TO APPREHEND OR ERADICATE IT. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN GRAVE PUNISHMENT OF ANY WHO DEFIES THIS ORDINANCE.
Kurenai's face falls into an expression of terror when they all turn to look at her, knowing what this means.
She's been ordered to hunt down blacklisted subjects before but it feels completely different to be the one that's blacklisted.
She slowly shrinks away from the 3 pairs of eyes on her, feeling naked under their stoic glares.
"Wooyoung is right," Seonghwa speaks up when he sees her shrink away, deciding that it would be easier for him to do what Gemini requested of him if he convinced the team to turn their backs on her. "We can't harbor a blacklisted subject. We'll be executed if we do. You know that."
"So then what do we do?" Mingi jumps in, his fingers curling around his phone tightly in anger. "We can't just leave her here the way she is. She's hurt! And she's our teammate—!"
"She doesn't even see us that way so why should we?!"
"Enough!" Hongjoong shouts to silence the quarreling men, shoving his phone in his pocket. He glances over at Kurenai who's eyes are puffy and red, irritated from crying; her tears crawling down her pale cheeks and her lips quivering. "San and Mingi will decide what we do with her since they're the ones that were being hunted down because of her. I'll be waiting in the van once you've reached your decision."
The short man turns on his heel, walking back to take his place at the driver's seat and ignoring the troubled looks on Wooyoung and Seonghwa's faces.
Seonghwa follows Hongjoong to try to convince him to change his mind and Wooyoung stays behind, watching San closely.
It's obvious why Hongjoong decided to leave the decision up to San and Mingi, but even with the result being so obvious, the blond man hopes they decide to leave her. It's wrong, he knows that, but they need to stay alive.
"So?" Wooyoung begins, watching San look directly at Mingi with determination written on his face as clear as day. A silent agreement passes between them and San moves his arms, startling Kurenai who was waiting with anticipation balling up in her stomach.
"W-What are you doing? Please, don't leave me!" She frantically claws at San's biceps and he has to calm her down, grabbing one of her hands to place it against his chest just like the last time.
"I'm not going anywhere I promise." San soothes her, letting her relax as she feels his heartbeat. "Can you stand?" She shakes her head and San snakes a hand under her legs, picking her up bridal style.
She hesitantly holds onto him, craning her neck to look at Mingi who grins at her, and then at Wooyoung who gives her an uncertain grimace.
"Are you guys sure about this? We're going to be completely killed if they find out about her."
"We won't." Mingi's voice comes out, strong and fortifying. "Trust us."
San takes Kurenai around the back, making a small chat with Kurenai to keep her calm when he looks up to see Seonghwa looking at him guiltily from inside the van. They have a standoff of sorts, but it was really one-sided with San's piercing glare.
"You're going to heal her and make sure she recovers fully. If you lay even one wrong finger, I'll make sure to shove them up your—."
"I get it. I'll heal her. It's not like I have a choice." Seonghwa takes the tattooed woman who feels lighter than he remembers from San's arms, laying her on the floor of the van before asking her to take off the windbreaker so he can check her.
By this time, all of the men, except for Hongjoong, have gathered around to see what's making her look like hell.
Kurenai looks around, her finger clumsily undoing the buttons of the windbreaker to reveal the soaked gauzes at her stomach.
Seonghwa gulps when he sees the crimson red and yellow gauze pads, sliding on some gloves Hongjoong handed him and lifting the pads that had begun to stick to her skin.
She hisses when he peels off the pads and shuts her eyes, her hand reaching out for San who quickly comes to her side to hold it. She squeezes his arms surprisingly tight until she hears him suck in his breath, peeking through her closed eyes to see the horrified look on all of their faces.
Seonghwa quickly places the gauze pad back over the wound and stares at her for a solid minute, making her panic.
"What's wrong?" He shakes his head, looking at San, then Mingi, then Wooyoung.
"I can't treat her here. We need to get back to the dorms. Now." Without a moment to lose, the others climb into the van, shouting at Hongjoong to step on it.
They all take off in the van, Seonghwa hurriedly fussing over Kurenai and calling Yunho to tell one of the members to prep the infirmary.
Mingi moves upfront where Hongjoong sits to guide the way back to the dorms since they had to cut off the GPS in case MALUS decided to track them. Wooyoung sits off to the side, playing with his thumbs as he looks on in worry and San stays by Kurenai's side to whisper words of comfort.
It all seems surreal to Kurenai to see her team members after the hell she was put through.
The familiar faces all bring an odd form of comfort to her, knowing that she's back and safe— that they're safe.
San and Mingi.
Everyone.
Now, she can finally drift peacefully off to sleep, focusing solely on San's calming voice.
It's gonna be okay.