seunghoon
"THE ATTACK yesterday has impacted everyone," Director Hamada speaks at the front of the long, metal table. "Not only are people talking about it in the fourth sector, but in neighboring sectors, also. People are wondering how we could've missed these clear warning signs. But they're mostly wondering how we couldn't protect those eighteen innocent humans who lost their lives.
"We lost thirty eight men and women yesterday. During a single Noctura attack. Thirty-eight. We went into that square with sixty people and thirty-eight of them did not make it out alive. People aren't okay with this. We aren't okay with this. We're the AAN. We are the soldiers who fight against the Nocturas, who protect the humans. We're not very good protectors if we let eighteen innocent people and thirty-eight of our own soldiers die, are we?"
No one says a word. Everyone sitting around the table is silent.
"I'm making some new rules," the director continues. "Every member of the AAN will receive new, better training. And training will be continued every three months. Extra training time is optional, but at least fifty hours of training need to be completed every three months, for any rank. Leaders will need to complete sixty hours of training. We are not going to have another incident like the clock tower square incident. Does everyone understand?"
"Yes, Director," we all say in unison.
"You are dismissed."
Everyone gets up and begins filing out of the meeting room.
I move over toward Teagan and begin walking with her.
"Fifty hours of training every three months." Teagan lets her breath out.
"I think it'll be good," I say. "We need to know what to do. We have to be better prepared for an attack like that. Director's right. We can't let that happen again."
Teagan nods. "I agree, it was a terrible attack. But I think the reason it was so terrible extends beyond the amount of training."
I sigh. "Yeah."
We move over to Teagan's desk and she settles down into her seat, pulling up her computer and putting her glasses on.
"Do you wanna go to dinner?" I suddenly ask.
Teagan gives me a confused look. "Tonight?"
"No," I tell her. "Not tonight. Unless you get off work early tonight."
She gives a small laugh. "Unfortunately..."
"Not tonight," I repeat with a smile. "But one night. One night you don't have to work late. We can go anywhere you'd like."
Teagan organizes some of her papers. "Seunghoon... I work late every night."
"Come on," I beg. "You've got to be able to take off or switch shifts at least once. Why don't you?"
She sighs. "Seunghoon, I'd love to, but... my work just means a lot to me and..."
"And you don't want to be distracted by anything else?" I ask.
"It's not that. I just..." she trails off.
"You don't want to be in a relationship?"
She looks up at me. She stares at me with her bright blue eyes. Then she takes a deep breath, saying, "I like you, Seunghoon, I really do. But my last relationship wasn't a good one and I just... I don't think it's a good idea."
"It doesn't have to be a date," I tell her. "We can just go to dinner as friends. Or if dinner is too formal then let me take you to lunch. We'll go as friends and you can tell me about your last relationship."
She gives me a small smile. "Seunghoon, I don't think that's a good idea."
"Come on, please?" I ask. "Just give me a chance. One lunch date."
She sighs, shaking her head. "Fine. One lunch, but it's not a date."
"Right, right, not a date." I wink at her. "Meet me at the front of the building tomorrow around noon. We'll go wherever you want to go."
"I'll have some places in mind."
I smile at her. "Have a good night, Teagan."
She smiles back. "You too, Seunghoon."
I leave the building in a bit of a better mood.
That meeting was pretty intense. And now I have to complete fifty hours of this new training every three months. But I don't think it's a bad thing.
What happened at the clock tower square was awful. Absolutely terrible. We can't have something like that happen again. We can't lose so many people.
The Cobras need to be stopped. And the Malums.
And this new group... the Alliance.
I've been doing a little bit of my own research on the Alliance, as much as I can. I haven't found a whole lot about it, but they seem to have been around for a while, now. Their symbol has been found on buildings up to three years ago. I'm not sure how much they do for Nocturas, but it doesn't matter. They still need to be stopped.
Some of the riots they've had have put AAN members in the hospital, or even killed them. They're evil just like the rest of these gangs.
I walk through the streets, heading toward my house.
I wonder what Minho's up to. I haven't seen him for a while. I dropped by his house that one night and we had some wine, but we haven't hung out for a while. Maybe I should ask him to go bowling or to a bar or something.
Once I get home, I head into my house and move up the stairs. I go into my bedroom and change into a new, more casual shirt. I check myself in the mirror and see my black hair is somewhat messily falling over my forehead, but it doesn't look bad. At least, I don't think so.
I go back downstairs and head out the door, crossing the lawn over onto Minho's property.
I walk up to the door and knock three times.
A few moments later, Minho hasn't answered. I'm about to try knocking again when the door suddenly opens.
Minho stands there, the door halfway open.
"Seunghoon," he greets.
"Hey, Minho," I say with a smile. "What's up, man?"
"Oh, nothing much," he returns my smile. "You?"
"Same old," I tell him. "I was actually wondering if you were doing anything and if you wanted to hang out. They've got that bowling place open, or we could head out to a bar."
"Oh, actually, I'm kind of busy right now," he tells me. "I've got this, thing, you know."
I give him a confused look and then let out a small laugh. "A thing? Are you alright, Minho?"
"Yeah, yeah," he smiles coolly. "I'm fine."
"Okay," I say, a little unsure. "You wanna take a rain check?"
"Yeah," he answers. "I'll take a rain check."
"Alright," I say. "I'll see you around, then?"
He nods. "Yeah, see you around, Seunghoon."
After that, he closes the door.
A little confused, I head back over to my house, going inside and heading into the kitchen.
I get out a protein bar and begin chewing on it.
Why was Minho acting so weird?
He didn't seem like the normal Minho. And he usually loves going places and hanging out with me. He rarely denies my invitations.
Maybe there's something going on with him.
I don't know, who knows?
As Minho and I have gotten older, obviously we've grown apart some, since we have our own lives, but we've still remained best friends.
I finish eating my protein bar and throw the wrapper in the trash.
I head out of the house and start walking back toward the city. I walk for a little over five minutes and reach a nice park, right in the city.
There are some people walking around, sitting on the benches, or sitting in the grass. I see some couples walking around holding hands, giving each other kisses.
I've never really had a serious girlfriend before. I mean, yeah, I dated some girls on and off in high school, but it was never serious. After I started working for the AAN, I didn't really think much about dating.
Teagan is smart and pretty. She knew all this stuff about the Alliance, and she even knew some stuff about the Cobras.
I should've listened to her yesterday. She was right to question the Cobras more than I did.
I stuff my hands in my jeans pockets and follow the sidewalk around the park, looking around at the scenery as I walk.
There are trees around here, big ones, but their leaves aren't very green. Nothing is very green here. It's greenish and yellowish, with some brown here and there. Since we don't really get that much sunlight, plants don't grow wonderfully. They still grow, though, and they do love the rain, I'm sure.
I wonder what it was like when the sun would shine all the time and there weren't clouds constantly covering the sky. I wonder what the sky looks like. In our history books, it's always depicted as a bright blue.
I wonder just how bright that blue is.
Maybe it's bright blue like Teagan's eyes. That would be a beautiful color in the sky.
As I'm walking around the park, I start walking past some buildings. There are alleys in between the buildings and some trees next to the walls of the buildings.
A park right in the middle of the city.
I look over to the buildings on my right.
Out of the corner of my eye, in one of the alleyways, I see a figure.
I stop walking and look closer.
No, not one figure. Two figures.
One of the figures is pressing the other to the wall.
My eyes widen.
A Noctura?
Quickly, I head over toward the alley, pulling my pistol out of its holster.
I step into the alleyway and can see more clearly. A man is holding a woman's wrists against the building, speaking to her in a low voice.
I bring my gun up and aim at the man. "Hey!"
Both of the people quickly look over at me.
The man's eyes are black and violet.
Without thinking twice about it, I fire.
The woman screams. The man falls to the ground in front of her.
I quickly walk over to her, but she runs over to me first.
"Are you alright?" I ask.
She nods, tears in her eyes. "He, he was trying to kill me, he—"
"It's okay, you're okay now," I tell her. "Just go, okay? I'll take care of this."
She nods and then turns the other way, heading out of the alley, back toward the park.
I turn around and see the Noctura standing up.
I bring my gun up again but he runs at me, knocking the gun out of my hands.
The gun clatters to the ground as the Noctura knocks me over.
I quickly block his face by pressing my forearm against his throat. I reach for my knife in the holster and bring it out, but the Noctura presses my arm against the ground.
He snarls down at me. "She was gonna taste better. But I guess you'll do."
He grabs my left arm, the one pressed against his throat, with his right hand. He tries pulling it away from his throat so he can lower his head, but I keep my arm pressed up against him.
I begin twisting my right arm, trying to get my knife blade toward his arm.
Finally, I twist my arm enough and stab the knife into his wrist.
He yelps with pain and jumps back.
I kick him in the chest and quickly get onto my feet, moving on top of the Noctura.
He tries to block my hands with his own, but I quickly push them away and slit my knife across his throat.
He tries to choke for air for a few seconds, but after that, he's gone.
I let go of him as his head lolls back and his mouth opens in death.
That's when I see the snake tattoo on his neck.
A Cobra.
He stares up at the clouds with his evil eyes and I get off of him, pocketing my knife and walking over to grab my gun.
Then I get my phone out, calling the AAN cleanup crew.
"This is senior officer Lee Seunghoon," I say into the phone. "I've just killed a Noctura. A Cobra. I'm near the central park, in an alleyway.
"We're on our way."
They hang up and I take one last look at the Noctura before leaving the alley, heading back toward the park.
My second kill. And this time, only the Noctura died. I saved that woman.
I smile to myself.
This is what the AAN is for. We protect people. We save people.
We kill Nocturas.