♊︎Year 5067, Month 6, Day 26, Time 11:11 pm♊︎
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The clock at the far end of the wall ticks away as they all sit around the table in the meeting room with Hongjoong at the end of it.
Besides Kurenai and Candy, everyone is sitting around the table, keeping mum out of fear that they may destroy the delicate balance between them. They've been sitting here for around 10 minutes this way, watching each other in silence.
It was fairly obvious that Candy had been missing since the group that went to pick up Kurenai came back without her, but Yeosang and the others who hadn't been filled in on her abduction still held on to a string of hope that she would somehow appear.
As time passed, that hope slowly diminished for most. There was no sign of candy, and there would be no sign of Candy.
But Yeosang had yet to find that out.
He supposed that Hongjoong must've sent her off to scout out El Dorado's aftermath. It's not unusual for Hongjoong to send someone to view the area for a few days and poke around but the fact that he hadn't even heard from her over these last three days worried him.
To distract himself, he preoccupied his mind with other thoughts like what he'd eat after this or where he'd take Candy for their next date. It'd been a while since they'd gone out together, he owed her some of his time.
His thoughts are slowly cut, though, when he hears the doors to the meeting room slide open, lifting his head to see Seonghwa stroll in— alone. It confuses Yeosang who expected Candy to be with the raven-haired man, watching him take a seat next to Hongjoong that's at the head of the table and lean over to whisper something in the leader's ear.
"How's Kurenai?" Both San and Mingi blurt out the question at the same time, turning to look directly at each other and then back at Seonghwa who's just joined them. The man being questioned currently stares back at them with a blank face, pursing his lips and crossing his legs before answering.
He had restricted everyone from visiting her because of her weakened state so the least he could do was tell them how she's doing.
"I was able to treat her wounds before they got any more serious. They were starting to get infected and causing her fever. As for the burnt skin, I ended up giving her skin grafts for the really burnt parts." He pauses letting the information sink in. "I also found out that she had a deep stab wound where whatever it was that burned her seeped into it. I've gotta say, I don't know how she survived all of that. Either way, since I know you two will ask, you can probably visit the day after tomorrow at the latest."
A moment of silence passes as Seonghwa explains, his last statement. Hongjoong nods just then, clearing his throat and calling for everyone's attention.
"Ahem. Welp, now that everyone is settled and we're all here. I'd like to formally start the meeting. Is there anything anyone would like to say before we begin—?"
"Where's Candy?" Yeosang queries before Hongjoong could even finish his sentence. The hacker clamps his lips shut, lacing his fingers together and setting them down in front of him all while avoiding Yeosang's invasive gaze. "Hello? I believe I asked something important."
"Yeosang, we— I don't know where she is." He finally gets a response from the leader, but it's not one he was waiting to hear. "No one knows where she is at the moment."
"No one knows?" He repeats for clarification, leaning forward in his seat as he feels heat rising to his cheeks. "What do you possibly mean, 'No one knows'? There were literally three other people with her when I last saw her head after San. Someone must've seen her!"
"And they did." Hongjoong keeps a flat tone, trying to hide the compunction he feels as the team's leader. "Candy left with Wooyoung and Seonghwa to go catch up to Mingi and San. I left Wooyoung in charge thinking—," the hacker stops himself when he realized his mistake. He should've been the one there to help Candy and the other men catch Gemini. He never should've left Wooyoung in charge of that. "I left him in charge thinking he could get it all under control but that clearly wasn't the case. If anyone knows what happened to her, it would be Wooyoung."
"Oh, so now it's my fault she's gone?" The aforementioned man jumps in to defend himself, quirking a pierced brow.
"Nobody said that. I just said you would be the only one to know what happened to her." Hongjoong tries to clear it up, but Yeosang has already started pointing fingers.
"Well, you were there, weren't you?" Wooyoung snaps his head in his friend's direction with wide eyes when he starts to accuse him. "You were in charge of Candy. I left you with her thinking she was in safe hands! Where is she?!"
"I don't know!" Wooyoung raises his voice now that Yeosang's desperation has leaked into him.
"THEN WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?!"
"SHE GOT KIDNAPPED, DAMMIT!" Slamming his fists down on the table as he shoots up from his chair, Wooyoung makes everyone jump, including Yeosang. He runs a shaky hand through his hair while looking away from Yeosang with glassy eyes, biting down hard on his lower lip to keep it from trembling. "She— She was shot and taken away by that stupid clone."
"And you didn't do anything to save her?" Yeosang grits through his teeth, glaring up at Wooyoung from where he sits.
"I tried, okay! I tried to rescue her, but he stopped me!" The blond man points a finger at the model that sits at the other end of the meeting table, making everyone turn to look at him. "It's his fault that she was taken. If he had just let me get to her, she might've come with us."
"Is that true? Did you really stop him?" Yunho interrogates, baffled that his best friend would do something like that. Mingi looks back and forth between all of the eyes trained on him, feeling like one of the many targets he's watched and scrutinized through the scope on his rifle right before the killing shot.
Only now he's the target and there are 7 other scopes on him now.
"I did," Mingi admits in all seriousness, avoiding Yeosang's gaze at all cost. Everyone in the room can feel the suffocating tension between the two men grow so strong that they all refuse to step in.
"Why did you do it?" Yeosang seethes internally but continues speaking in an eerily calm tone, gripping the armrests of his chair maniacally to keep himself from lunging at the model. The only other sign of his anger is in his eyes. "Why did you stop Wooyoung from saving her?"
"I had to." Mingi matches Yeosang's eyes with forceful ones of his own, readying himself for any reaction as he expounds. "Gemini's strength was too overwhelming even when Wooyoung, Candy, and I fought her at the same time. She had just shot Candy and was holding her hostage. If we had reacted, she would've finished Candy off."
"And how do you know that? How did you know Wooyoung wouldn't have been capable of protecting her?" Pushing his chair back to stand, Yeosang continues to argue; his bottom lip beginning to quiver. "You should've let him—."
"We would have died! Don't you understand that?" Mingi stands as well, starting to get tired of having to explain this. "We were cornered and Candy was bleeding out. If Wooyoung had lunged at Gemini, he would've been killed along with Candy. We were lucky to even escape ourselves!"
"No, shut up!" Yeosang refuses to accept it. "You decided to not let Wooyoung step in! It's your fault she's gone and we don't even know if she's alive! You did this on purpose!" He accuses the model suddenly, pausing when he connects the dots. "You did this on purpose... YOU DID THIS BECAUSE I EXPOSED YOUR ASS LAST TIME IN FRONT OF THAT CLONE! YOU COWARD!"
Yeosang lunges at Mingi with all his might, yelling curses at the top of his lungs like a mad man and climbing onto the table to get to where Mingi stands frozen with wide eyes. Knocking over the cups of water in his path along with anything else decorating the table, Yeosang's furry rolls off of him in heaps that it almost impedes the others from reacting.
It was the first time the team had seen the stoic man express any emotion so strongly; it almost scared them.
Luckily, Wooyoung snaps out of his shock first, clamping his hand around Yeosang's ankle before the latter could reach Mingi and pulls hard. The action only delays Yeosang who's too blinded by anger to realize what he's doing. Even after he falls forward, he continues to crawl in Mingi's direction.
Ultimately, it takes two more members to hold the man down, struggling to keep him under control as he thrashed and curses. His hot anger had turned into a fit of wet anger as tears stream down his reddened cheeks and his face contorts in pain as he thinks about Candy.
Evan's daughter,
His girlfriend.
His only remaining form of family.
His grunts of frustration soon turn to soft whimpers and sharp breaths as he tries to keep his feelings in, but he can't. The sounds soon evolve into sobs that steadily grow louder and heavier on everyone's ears.
They can all hear his pain-laced cries as clear as day that accuse them of this catastrophe, but they especially ring loud in Mingi and Wooyoung's ears. The last ones to have seen Candy before she was taken away.
The fault falls especially heavy on them.
Yeosang cries pinned down on top of the table, his chest heaving with each gasp, and the rest of his muscles go limp.
There's no point in fighting now. It won't bring the girl back.
As everyone watches with their head slightly bowed and with a morose taste settling on their tongues, they're too caught up in the moment to notice the woman that just entered the room. It isn't until she makes a sound that's barely even audible that they realize she's there.
The sound she made was a strangled cough, startling everyone in the room except for Yeosang who continues to cry now that Yunho has helped him back to his seat.
She remembers the last words she uttered in a heated argument to the girl, feeling guilt coiling around her throat in a suffocating manner as she recalls her last words.
Well then don't come crying if that trust stabs your ass behind your back.
Kurenai had said it in the heat of the moment, not thinking about the consequences her words might have. She feels, in a way, that she jinxed or manifested what happened to Candy inadvertently and when she thinks about it, it's sick.
It's twisted how true her words turned out in the way that the woman Candy trusted, Kurenai, ended up betraying her through a clone, Gemini. And how the Meisters— how her own father— betrayed her in such a manner.
"The Meisters..." Kurenai says absentmindedly, looking around the room with bloodshot eyes to see their sullen faces hanging heavy with defeat and pity for Yeosang who's buried his face in his hands. She watches silently as his shoulders jerk up and down with each sob of his.
"What about them?" Yeosang's voice comes out sharp and bitter, it pierces Kurenai's heart to hear the usually sweet man this way.
"My clone's name is Gemini. I think the Meisters created her. If she took Candy, then Candy should be with the Meisters." Kurenai reasons, her feet planted at the doorway. She feels too guilty to take a step into the room, an invisible force keeping her where she is and not permitting her to move.
"And how do you know that?" Wooyoung responds, his voice laced with incredulity but also suspicion. "Only Mingi and I were there when we saw your clone leave with Candy in her arms. And even then I was the only one who caught the MALUS seal on the helicopter that took them away."
"Evan t-told me they created her when— when I was..." she trails off and Seonghwa finishes for her.
"Punished."
"No, When she was tortured." San clenches his fists, his jaw tensing and his shoulder hunching up almost to his ears. "That was no punishment, we all know their only form of punishment for breaking a rule is death. Her getting into an affair with Mingi merited death not— not what they did to her."
"Whatever it was, it doesn't matter. What matters is that they made a clone of me and took Candy. For what? I don't know, but we need to find out soon." Memories of the endless nights she'd hear the couple chatting with each other back when it was just her and Yeosang as partners resurface, pulling at her heartstrings.
She had felt a sudden need to regroup with all of the members, so she made her way around the building when she caught Seonghwa turning a corner and decided to follow him, falling a couple of times in the process and hiding just beyond the wall of the meeting room to hear the whole discussion.
Now she knows why everyone looked so somber. Why there was something misplaced, but she couldn't tell what.
It was because Candy was gone. The cheery girl that Kurenai never cared to spend time with was gone. The girl that everyone who knows about her past claims that they were best friends was gone. And she has no idea if she's still even alive.
"How much of this did you hear?" Mingi queries surprised to see her here. He walks on over to where she stands, extending his hands to stabilize her.
"I heard everything," Kurenai answers quietly, trying to take a step toward him but struggling to even do that simple task without holding on to something. It's a good thing she brought the IV pole with her, it would've been disastrous if she hadn't. That pole saved her a couple of times from falling on her ass completely. "If I can, I'd like to join the meeting."
"Kurenai, I don't think it's good for your to be up and about—!" Mingi is quick to catch her when she wobbles this time, one of his strong arms snaking around her waist and the other slinging her free arm around his shoulders. He leads her silently toward her chair with ease, the knot that was building up in his throat from when he first saw her condition loosening up.
Kurenai quickly thanks him, turning back to face the rest of the group who were staring at her as if they'd seen a ghost.
It's been a while since she's felt that way, the last time being when she first met the team in the dorm's living area. To her, it feels like a repetition of that day only now there hangs a heavy consciousness above all of them from the recent events.
"You shouldn't be up yet," Seonghwa speaks up suddenly, startling everyone with the icy tone in his voice. He doesn't look up from his lap, finding the stitching of his jeans more interesting than her. "One of your stitches might reopen or worse. But then again, you don't take orders well."
"My bad. I couldn't help being cooped up in the infirmary all alone."
"But you usually like being alone, what's the difference now? Are you scared now that you've been blacklisted—?"
"Seonghwa." Hongjoong steps in when he sees where the raven-haired man is going with this, stopping his rant before he does any damage. "She wanted to join us for a team meeting. As a member of our team, she deserves to be here."
"Yeah, a blacklisted member of our team." Seonghwa scoffs, looking up at her for a short moment. Although he only glances at her briefly, that was all Kurenai needed to see the pained look in his eyes. He's still not over their conversation a few days ago and if she's being honest, neither is she. "Ahem, well." He coughs to dismantle the tension that had filled the room between them, standing up and beginning to walk in the direction of the door. "It's been quite the chat, but I think I must get going."
"Wait a minute, Seonghwa we haven't even gotten to the important part of the meeting—!"
"Leave him," Kurenai advises Wooyoung, knowing that he won't stay no matter who or what begs. "I think he needs some space." She offers a tight-lipped smile at the blond man who stares back at her uncertainly, opening his mouth to protest when he's cut off.
"Why have you been blacklisted?" The question comes from Jongho who hasn't said a word until now. It was fairly straightforward so it caught Kurenai a bit off guard, leaving her searching for a satisfactory response.
"I'm— Because I escaped MALUS in the middle of a punishment. I guess it can be considered as rebellion which would be breaking the 2nd rule." She says offers, shrugging.
"Why did they abduct you in the first place?"
"They abducted me because I killed—," Kurenai pauses, thinking about why she was kidnapped. There were three reasons she could think of off the top of her head but they were all things she'd rather not admit. Instead of finishing her answer, the tattooed woman takes a loud gulp.
All of the men in the room stare at her, their minds running at a hundred miles per hour as they try to come up with ideas as to what she was about to say.
"Because you killed...?" Hongjoong prods, pressuring her to finish her sentence.
She opens and closes her mouth a few times, looking like a fish out of water; her grip on the armrests of the chair she's sitting in becoming increasingly tighter. It isn't until Mingi sets a light hand over hers that she's relaxed her grip, casting her eyes down to see the dents she's made in the chairs.
The dents surprise her for a moment and Mingi catches them as well, his brows furrowing in confusion when they're interrupted once again by Hongjoong who's watching them closely.
"Kurenai, we know you're not used to this whole team thing, but something that really makes this team work is trust and communication. You've been blacklisted which means that most of the members don't trust you so well at the moment. If you put your trust in us and tell us why you've been blacklisted, we can trust you in return."
"And what if the reason I was blacklisted makes you trust me less?" She shoots back with another question, silencing him only for another member to respond.
"Then that'll be left for us to decide." San declares, a comforting look in his eyes when he looks over at Kurenai. "All you have to do is take the first step in trusting us." He offers a small, encouraging smile.
Chewing on the inside of her cheek, Kurenai looks down at her nails, digging out the dirt from under them. It's obvious that she's nervous— one could even go as far as saying that she was scared— but she knows she has to tell them at some point. She only wishes it could've been under better circumstances.
"I killed... I killed Max." She keeps her head down, too ashamed to look at any of the members in the eye. They all gawk at her revelation, some of them not believing the fact that she did something so severe. "It wasn't— I never meant to kill him. I didn't go to him to kill him, it just happened."
"What you mean 'it just happened'? Pulling the trigger on someone doesn't just 'happen'." Wooyoung argues and the woman is thankful that Seonghwa wasn't here to hear.
"I don't know. I went to visit him after I found a note that was directed to Seonghwa—."
"Oh, so you snooped through one of our member's mail and then killed one of our Meisters?"
"It wasn't supposed to happen!" Kurenai snaps at Yunho, who joined in on attacking her, getting taken aback by the sudden change. "I went to him to ask him some questions. It wasn't my fault he asked me to kill him."
Her glassy eyes are filled to the brim with new tears that have found their way there along with a small tremble in her hands that lets them know she's almost at her breaking point.
None of them knew the exact details about how their Meister had died, but now the answer sits in front of them. They don't even know how to react or if there's even a way to react to this.
"Why would Max ask you to kill him? He was a Meister. He had it all." Yunho presses, still trying to push her over the edge.
"He didn't specify a reason he just— he just ordered me to do it. I couldn't go against him, you have to understand." She pleas, her voice breaking a bit at the end.
"I understand." Hongjoong sympathizes with her, earning the confusion of all of the members. "It was an order. You would've been defying a Meister's direct order if you had chosen not to."
"But she killed him!" Wooyoung protests. "That being an order doesn't justify that she chose to follow through with it."
"Then what would you have done in her position?" San jumps in to defend Kurenai with Mingi supporting him. "It's easy to say you wouldn't have done something without being there in that moment."
"He's right." Mingi seconds, shutting up any counterarguments for good.
"Besides," Jongho speaks up, clearing up part of the tension. "We promised Kurenai that if she told us what happened we would decide on whether or not to believe her." He turns to Kurenai, looking at her right in the eye with a firm glare. "Regardless of why you killed him or why he asked you to kill him, it takes a lot of guts to admit something like that knowing we could turn you in." He pauses. "You still have a lot to prove to us, but as of right now, I think it's safe to say I trust you."
The words bounce off of the silent walls and play into her ears, filling her up with a relief she thought she'd never see. Crazy how much some words can have such a deep effect.
"Me, too." Hongjoong decides after a moment, Mingi and San echoing soon after.
The only person left who hadn't definitely decided was Yeosang.
Feeling everyone's eyes pinned on his person, the light-brown-haired man finally lifts his head from the somber posture he had taken on.
"I've known Kurenai for probably a year now." He begins through light sniffles, small signs of his prior mourning. "She's probably the only person on this team besides Wooyoung and Candy that I'd trust anything with. Whether she's blacklisted or not, I will always welcome her. And if she's here, then I can rest assured that Candy will be brought back."
Their eyes meet for a millisecond but that's all they need for the silent comprehension to pass between them. Since the moment they met each other they didn't need words to communicate— a small glance or a slight hand movement being enough for them to understand each other.
They saw eye to eye, Yeosang and Kurenai, they understood each other and their shared loneliness in a way that others couldn't. The glance they shared now was proof of it. It was enough to tell her that Yeosang was counting on her, and she on him.
"There we have it. A 5-to-2 decision." Hongjoong states, taking control of things once again. "If we include Seonghwa who would be on the opposing side of keeping Kurenai, it'd be 5-to-3 and we would still have the lead so she's staying."
"But—!"
"She's staying." Hongjoong repeats for Wooyoung who was already throwing in buts. "It doesn't matter if she's blacklisted, she's going to stay at least until she gets back to her feet where she can decide what she wants to do on her own."
"But the Meisters might send someone in to make sure we're not hiding her. What then?" Yunho queries this time and Hongjoong sighs.
"Then we'll have to hide her, duh." The smaller man rebuttals with extra sass. "Besides, you're the sweet-talker, are you not? We can depend on you and Wooyoung to... lead them away, right?"
"Ughhh!" Wooyoung groans at Hongjoong's idea, a million terrible scenarios of what might happen flying through his mind. "Don't bring me into this. If anyone asks, I know nothing of this."
"Perfect." Hongjoong smiles, glancing over at Kurenai to see a worn-out expression on her face before pursing his lips. "I know we all have plenty of questions for Kurenai at the moment, but I think she'll need some time to collect herself, we already pried enough out of her. So for now, this meeting is dismissed."
Everyone except for Kurenai and San stands up to leave the room, hurrying to get away from there. A brief moment passes where Hongjoong and Kurenai's eyes meet and she mouths a small 'thank you,' which the leader responds to with a nod.
She's been given a chance. A once in a lifetime chance at redemption, for what reason, she doesn't know.
It was easy to tell how biased Hongjoong was throughout the decisions he took, and she was utterly grateful for it. She can't even begin to comprehend why any of them would want her around still when she's only brought them catastrophe after catastrophe, but it doesn't matter to her at the moment.
Maybe, it was because the team felt pity for her.
Maybe, it was fate taking its course.
Maybe, it was her luck.
Whatever it was, she's determined to make it count, even if it's the last thing she'll do. She has to make it up.