The drive back to the docks was still hazy in her mind. The necklace was a bitter reminder of regrets she harbored to this day. The smiles, the scowls, the laughs, the cries, the questions, the answers; nothing made sense.
"Luna!" Mia shook her out of her daze. "We're here. Let's get out."
Luna took a deep breath and stepped out. Felix and Lily were waiting for them.
"We'll take care of them," Felix said, moving swiftly to the car along with Lily.
Mia took her sleeve and tugged her forward. They started moving fast to get to the others and-
"Holy freakin-" Mia gasped loudly.
"Nothing like tons of dead bodies to get you to focus," Luna laughed without humor.
Luna took out her phone and dialed a number while making her way through blood and bodies lying around. Occasionally, she'd glance at a tattoo on one of the guard's arms and resist the urge to empty her stomach. Her scar was itching under her mask.
"Yujin," Luna spoke on the phone, "I need a favor."
A beat later, she passed the phone to Mia who then asked Yujin for help in cleaning up the docks before sunrise.
Luna went to a storage house and scaled it, feeling better at the top. The smell was disgusting down there.
"Help Yujin, I'll meet you in a while," and she started running across roofs to where she could hear noises.
She heard the crowd before she could see it. They were relatively tame but still hostile, ready to pounce if someone came even a bit closer. Luna had the ridiculous idea to jump from the roof in front of them with some weird background noise playing.
Someone would've loved this idea.
She took the logical route: going to a roof that they could have a clear view of and shooting a revolver into the sky. The silence that followed was hella satisfying.
"I am Luna from Shadows," she started loudly, her voice resonating. "People surrounding you are either from Shadows or Stray Kids, the gang. We're here to help you and free you from Serpents. We can send you back to where you came from but for that, you need to trust us."
Luna could just whip out her dagger and chop the silence into pieces, that's how awkward it was. Thankfully, Chan started speaking.
"I'm CB97, the leader of Stray Kids," his voice was full of authority. "The only thing we demand in return for help is cooperation. Please cooperate with us and make it easier for everyone."
"I just lost my mother," a little boy around the age of 7, yelled loudly. "They shot her but no one helped! I'm not trusting anyone here. You can shoot me too for all I care!"
Luna wanted to cry.
"Every single guard here is dead because we shot most of them," Chan started, staring at the boy. "You guys tried, which was very brave of you, but your aim was nowhere near enough to get you all out of here alive."
"Listen here people," surprisingly, it was Jeongin speaking, "I was a slave too. I went through everything you guys did, I saw my family get shot point blank in front of me. I know what it feels like to see someone die." He then walked to that boy who, bless him, was ready to throw tiny fists. Jeongin raised his hands as he went on his knee, addressing everyone but looking at the boy. "I've lost everything and still managed to survive. You can too. You just have to trust us. Please."
The little boy contemplated for a moment before putting his fists down. He murmured something Luna could only guess as agreement because she couldn't hear him. Jeongin then moved forward to embrace the kid who began sobbing violently in his arms.
Luna took a look around at the crowd. Most were kids. Everyone was scared beyond wits. Some were shivering, some looked defeated, some were skeptical, and she understood every single emotion. She wasn't sure if it was the look on everyone's faces, expectant, or the cries of that child who was unknowingly representing everyone, but looking down at that crowd of roughly a hundred people, Luna decided to trust for once.
"You guys will be given accommodation for the night," she started, words flowing from her mouth before she could rethink them. "Tomorrow evening, my people will meet you individually and they'll ask about your personal information. You'll be sent back to where you came from. Till then, you'll be given all basic necessities you could possibly need. Any problem, you come to me directly. I'll be near you at all times."
Something in her was sure this was crazy. Shadows will definitely question her leadership. But she didn't care. She had much more going on behind the scenes, she could take a few people crying about a hole in their budget.
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If you asked Minho, he was not a calm person. He got fired up easily, even if he was working on it. He took a long time to analyze someone to trust them. He was skeptical about everyone and everything, and could never ever believe when someone gave sweet promises.
But something in him just felt calm and trusted Luna when she promised people freedom. And he knew everyone felt like that. Because an hour later, they ended up in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere as they were blindfolded when they entered the place. The warehouse wasn't much, a storage unit for a factory the old leader of Shadows owned, but the main attraction was the underground tunnel that led to a whole new world under that place.
It was like a movie: a huge place with an open middle courtyard with cafes and weaponry, sides with multiple levels with rooms, one corner with a few shooting ranges, a few practice ranges, and a few closed doors that looked scary. It almost reminded him of Skz's own operating base behind their portrait back at Chan's mansion.
The people were sent into rooms, escorted by Lily, Ryujin, and Yeji. The rest of them were being taken somewhere they didn't know yet through the third level walkway.
"Why are there only girls here?" asked Han.
He was true. Everywhere Minho looked, there were only girls. And they were not happy about their arrival. He could sense their respect for Luna, but he could also sense some not-so-nice words being exchanged behind her back. She didn't seem bothered though and kept on walking.
She suddely stopped, making Chan bump into Minho.
"We're about to enter a conference room," she said, her hand on the door knob. "Behave yourself, don't take anything personal, and try to keep your tempers down. I vouched for you guys and I didn't survive through everything just to get shot because a few people couldn't keep their tongues to themselves."
Before Minho could digest it all, she opened the door and entered, taking them with her.
"This is so cool," Felix whispered, and he was correct.
The conference room was huge. But that wasn't the main point. The main point was the royal aesthetic. The head chair looked like a throne, every other chair like its mini version. Green, red and gold color made it seem like they time traveled into another dimension.
Someone cleared their throat. There was now someone standing next to the throne slash chair. She was staring at them in a not-so-friendly way.
"Take your seats," she spoke. Minho hated to admit that he was scared of that lady in pink with two ponytails.
"Don't scare them, Jihyo," Luna spoke, taking seat at the side opposite to the throne at the other head of table. Minho noted that that chair was small like other chairs.
They all sat on one side, Minho next to Luna and Chan next to Jihyo on the other side. Minho felt a hand squeezing his and he rubbed it softly. It was Han's.
"Quick introduction of names, real ones preferably, and we'll continue," Jihyo said, and they all told their names one by one.
"Luna vouched for you to hunt down the Serpents," Jihyo said, analysing them. It took every single muscle in Minho's body to not flinch under her gaze.
Luna got up, crossed the room and stood next to Jihyo.
"This is Jihyo," she pointed at Jihyo, "my senior. Shadows was originally created by Jihyo's mother and now she controls it, mostly. I'm the operations leader and I control all missions here. She's my senior and approves them."
"You can consider me as President around here," said Jihyo. "Luna's directly under me, and even if I control everything, she's looking over almsot everything. Any betrayal or disrespect to her is punishable by death."
"Now that formalities are done, we have some rules," Luna looked at Jihyo and they had some silent agreement. Jihyo just rolled her eyes and turned her eyes back to them.
"I guess you guys have basic manners to not annoy or disturb anyone here," Jihyo said, waving her hand as if getting rid of something. "Follow what Luna says and we get along just fine."
"The people now," Luna said and Jihyo's full attention turned to her. Minho let out a breath he was fully aware was stuck somewhere in his throat. "They're given accomodations for now, Lily, Ryujin and Yeji are on that right now. Extra rooms on west side. Mia and Zee are collecting people to check on them tomorrow. We send them back within four days. Yes, it will disturb this month's budget but we have enough savings to not disturb the budget."
"I guess that works," Jihyo said. Minho had a feeling they were just crashing their personal meeting.
"I pulled in a favor from Yujin and her gang to clean the harbors," Luna continued. "And we have more problems now. Lemme call in Mia and Zee first."
She took out her phone and dialled a number, going into a corner to talk. Jihyo turned to Chan.
"Your father is the Bahng guy, right?"
"Yes," Chan said.
"He's an awesome guy, honestly," Jihyo said. She sat down on the throne. "I've worked with him before. He's one of my inspirations too," she smiled.
"Thank you."
"If you're anything like your father, I trust you and your gang. Besides, Luna already trusts you guys so it's alright. The scaring part was just me analyzing you guys."
Minho wanted to laugh and push that woman off a cliff at the same time.
"I almost peed my pants," Felix said and she snorted.
The door opened and Mia and Zee entered. They were breathing heavily. Luna stood next to Jihyo.
"Now back to the problems cuz it won't be us if there are no problems," Luna said. Mia and Zee sat down infront of Minho and Han. Zee winked at Minho and he turned his head to Luna, ignoring his ears heating up.
"Hajun and Yumi have a son," Luna sat down in front of Chan, "and he knows about the Shadows hunting them down."
"What's the problem, though?" asked Mia.
"The problem is that he's undercover. No information on him yet, except a name." She took out something from her pocket and held it in front of her. It was a silver chain with a gem hanging in the middle. "This heart gem has a name carved behind it. Kai."
"So we have no information on our enemy," Zee said. "Isn't that just exciting?"
"Next problem? If Kai's toying with us, Hajun and Yumi can easily escape from under the radar while we're focused on him. Besides, he took off the car trackers and left others in a ditch intentionally," Luna put the necklace back into her pocket. "Other cars were in a different direction. They escaped. It was a ploy."
"Is there something good in all this?" Mia questioned, and Luna smiled under her mask.
"They don't know Stray Kids are with us," Luna said. "We keep them hidden and use them as a second team. They'll always expect us, but we'll attack with a little extra pizzazz."
"Course of action?" Jihyo questioned.
"None yet," Luna shrugged. "I say we send spies around the city and observe for a few days, give them an element of surprise."
"I have an idea," Jihyo said. "We send someone to join them and get insider information like that."
"Too long, too risky," Luna said. "We have limited time. Two months at best."
"Why?" Minho questioned.
"That's something confidential," Luna said. She didn't meet his eyes when she said it. Minho let it slide.
"One more thing, this base stays hidden," Jihyo said.
"Oh yes, they were blindfolded, don't worry," Luna said. "Maybe one day, I might expose the location, but for now, I want it to stay hidden. Also, our next meeting will be in your base, one week from now."
"Time?" Chan asked. "I just realized we have no way of communicating."
"Oh, don't worry about it," Luna smiled. "You don't contact us, we find you out ourselves."
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Three days later, Skz recieved a letter addressed to Jeongin at the Skz mansion that everyone was escorted to their homes except the little boy, who wanted to stay since he had nothing left to go back for. He insisted on learning how to fight and even if Shadows was operated purely by girls, they let the boy stay with them for undefined time limit.
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Two days after the letter, Han almost dropped his lunch when he saw Zee in their cafeteria. Minho, however, did drop his lunch. Makato looked at them questioningly but they just laughed it off. Zee winked at Minho and he snapped his neck down. Haruto caught on and they spent the remaining lunch time teasing Minho.
By the end of lunch break, his ears were flushed darker than Jisung's tomato salad. Before they parted for classes, Han slipped a sticky note in Minho's bag.
"I'm proud of you."
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A/N: Sorry this was a bit rushed dfghjkffgvhb.
On that note, everyone wish my little pookie @OiFelixComeHereBrao a lovely birthday <3
(You're one of those people I won't forget till I die)
Tiny Reminder:
We live on a blue planet, revolving around a fireball, with a moon that moves the seas. And you still don't believe in miracles?
(Lee minho has taken over my insta and pinterest help-)
Date: 7/4/2024.
Words: 2.4K