C H A P T E R
T H I R T Y - N I N E
The 'going in' at the city this time was a lot easier than the first by so many reasons. Of course, I didn't need to travel at City 127 to arrive at the place.
I barely got any sleep last night, but it was okay. I still brought the goggles, the witchlight, and a gun that's designed to look like a hairbrush. I just need to press the right buttons to activate its gun desiand use it. I tried to do it last night in front of Yuta as a demonstration. It was one of the coolest weapons I've ever seen. Yuta told me he was supposed to discard it since the idea of the design sounded ridiculous, but his mom insisted not to. She was the first wielder of this weapon.
As I took the same path that I did when I came out of the city last time with Jungwoo, I made sure to let the goggles scan the place and add its location in the eyewear's embedded map.
The city was dead cold, but I paid the temperature no mind. Besides, I was wearing Yuta's specialized glove. A very handy gift.
The walls came into view and as I stepped closer into it, it became bigger and bigger - more intimidating. There were oval-shaped, eyeblinding lights in bright neon greens floating around the walls, seemingly looking like an alien's spaceship.
People from the city called them 'Patrol lights', because they guard the city from the darkness. While the city was sprinkled with multicolored lights that flashed like diamonds and shone like stars, the exterior of it was a vast space of darkness. That's how it earned its name: Neo City.
But people from my hometown - Baba, Grandma, and me - we called them 'fireflies'. When I was young, I used to glimpse at the city through the window every night. And they never looked like giant spaceships from far away. They looked like tiny insects glowing in the dark, decorating the sky like Christmas lights. Just like the bugs surrounding Grandma's house.
It took me less than an hour to finally arrive in the entrance to 15th-Balkon Street. The space was narrow and dark: both an advantage and a disadvantage. At least I can ensure that if the President sends a car or a cyborg here - it would be very obvious. Besides, I doubt that idea. And it's not like cars could fit in a space as narrow as this is.
I ignored the foul scent of smoke and rust in the air. The smell of ice melting also travelled to my nose, and the mixture of everything was not exactly unpleasant, but rather disturbing. It reminded that I'm in a place like nothing else.
Teetering, I finally found my way out of the tunnel-like passage. The tiles were dirtied with dusts, dry splattered paint (or wait, is that blood?) and tangled wires that's starting to form random spirals. I carefully avoided them in each steps, not wanting to trip on them or get electrocuted.
The hum of electricity was thick in the air, both low and high pressure. They battled with the current climate, clashing heat against cold. One hour in this kind of place will get you sick.
It was as if there were hot coals beneath my legs, and icecubes entrapped between my spine and blouse. Blisters were birbling across my skin but I brushed those sensations away and just headed to the door that leads to the entrance.
I rested my palm when I arrived at the spheroidical-shaped door. I sucked in a sharp breath before placing four-rhytmical taps on the door, the exact pace as Taeil thought me.
I murmured my friend's name in the darkness, waiting for a response from the other side of the door.
One, two, three.
Woosh.
I slowly backed away when the door made a guttural sound, like a giant monster breathing in a heavy substance from the air in order to suck everything in.
The darkness was soon coated with the glow of the moonlight as the door opened, a friend's voice dancing in my ear like a lulling spell.
Taeil.
I couldn't comprehend the exact words that left his lips - the door was too loud for me to hear any more than that - but I knew he was welcoming me.
And he's not alone.
I entered the city and slightly grimaced at the change of atmosphere.
Standing in front of me was Taeil, brown hair tousled with some spreckles of snow. On the far end corner near an alley was Ten, sitting in a snug way on his bike.
"Sooji." The way he said my name wasn't the usual flirty Ten-style. It was rather impatient and sharp, like an older sibling finding a fault to his younger. But the thing was, I was older than Ten by a year. And he rarely gets serious like this, only at certain times.
"What is it?" I asked while Taeil, ever the gentleman, silently hang a regal coat on my shoulder. I mouthed a soft thank you to him.
Ten began talking again, which stirred my attention.
"Please tell me you didn't do something dangerous," he said, one foot placed on the ground of snow while the other leg was curled in front of him on the bike's seat. His state of balance is crazy.
"Dangerous," I mumbled. "Too vague. Everything we put ourselves in is considered danger."
Ten waved his head. "The high-level kind of danger. The stupid one."
I was very confused. "Be more specific."
"Stealing Kwon Jeena's journal."
"No way!" I exclaimed, clutching the coat around me. "I wouldn't do that!"
Ten sighed in relief, a puff of white gas appearing from his mouth as he did so.
"I didn't steal it. I asked Jeena if I could keep it. And she was nice enough to give it to me."
"Wha-?!" he blinked his eyes rapidly and shook his head. "Do you know that the bosses are looking for it? Lee-freaking-Taeyong was very persistent!"
"Tell him it's in the right hands," I said, feeling a vein bulge against my skin at the sheer mention of Taeyong's name. I suddenly remembered everything that Yuta told me before I left.
The whole 'telling Kun to help him and framing Jeena to be dead' was clearly explained by Taeyong, to Yuta, to me. It was a second-handedly-taken information, but very believable.
"Oh god, Sooji. And there I was, defending you in front of the bosses that you're innocent."
"And I am, thank you very much."
Ten crossed his arms in front his chest, clealry unpleased from my behavior. "I wouldn't have suspicions if Taeil never mentioned to me that you were hiding a book in the room."
"Wonderful discovery," I said. Ten and Taeil glared at me with a stout face. "Oh come on, it's not like I'm going to burn this notebook or anything. It's in safe hands. Let me keep it. Tell Taeyong I can use it more than he could."
Ten was snapped back into senses. "What am I even being mad at?" he chuckled. "We have something valuable that the bosses don't have - damn - we're now above them. Hah!" he slightly turned around and faced his coadjutor.
"Let's pretend that we never know Sooji has it. Keep the word away from the bosses."
Taeil nodded with a smile. "Of course. I know it will end up to this."
Ten chuckled shortly, until he looked at me this time. "And you," he smiled; I smiled back. "Get in the bike, princess."
________
I couldn't say that my second day in the city was more productive than the previous day, but at least I learned something.
After exploring some of the Phases to check if there's no disarrangement or mayhems, we met up with some of the bosses.
Taeil told me that they needed some wires and specialized screws to repair a cyborg. And Ten, being the bosses' great source of weaponries and tools ever since, was of course contacted.
I had no choice but to tag along, and I was both grateful and ungrateful that I did.
For the former, I was grateful since I got see Sicheng once again. When we arrived at the meeting place, I had no words to describe the happiness that I felt when I saw him laughing loudly over something that Jaehyun whispered into his ears. His grin was wide and I had never seen him enjoying this much for so long.
I felt a sensation burst in my chest. No matter how dangerous the bosses are, they're truly Sicheng's circle of friends.
We talked with each other for a few while as Ten and Taeil made the exchange. For the first time ever, we talked less about the negative stuffs than the positive.
Doyoung was also super-attentive when I was telling them about the kids from DRM. His eyes would sparkle everytime I do so, as if he was a parent being informed by a teacher regarding how their children behave at school. I was also surprised that he memorized all their names. And when did they meet again - once, twice?
"And Jungwoo?" Doyoung asked, eyes almost the shape of a circle. "How is he?"
"A caterpillar at first, quiet and serene. Then a few minutes later, emerges into a butterfly," I grinned at the thought. "Hopping rooms one after one another."
Sicheng and Doyoung seemed happy at the news.
"Glad to know. It feels lonelier without him," Doyoung said with a smile that seemed sad. "But we'll get used to it eventually."
"Taeyong!" Ten's voice was so loud and high that I almost had a heart-attack. "Boss."
"Stop calling me that," said the redhead man, voice steady and piercing.
His perfect face was equipped with dark, arched brows that drew to a natural furrow and clear dark eyes, with the left eyebrow having a slit cut of two lines on the side. I never noticed that until now.
He cast a skeptical glance over my direction, one eyebrow raised - the one that has a strange cut. I didn't break the eye contact and just stared at him. More like glared.
Then he looked away, as if my presence was less important than the tools that Ten was about to present.
Everytime I looked at him, I couldn't help but to think of two words.
Perfect liar.
A talented one at that too, able to manipulate stuffs as he wish. Just like how he did with Kun. The memory of the DRMs telling me that Taeyong often came in their headquarters to make sure that they're okay went inside my head. It's no surprise that he arrived there yesterday when I wasn't around.
________
"It was a test for Kun," Yuta told me a few hours ago, when we were still in that living room that's so cold as if we're entrapped in a freezer.
"A test?" I asked. "What kind of test? To see if he's capable enough to manipulate everyone? To hide a girl's body?"
"Not that," Yuta said. "But that's what he wanted Kun to believe in. It's a part of the test. To see what his next move will be."
"What?" I asked, almost dumbfounded.
"Kwon Jeena is dead. The one who got buried - it was really her. You could even see the medical records to see if the virus really killed her, because it actually did."
My breath hitched. So Kwon Jeena's dead afterall.
"And what was that thing that Kun told us? Was he lying?"
"I already told you. Being honest isn't the same thing as being right. Kun was telling the truth, but his own belief is wrong. Taeyong played a trick on him. He lied to Kun about the Jeena being a survivor."
"So it's like an experiment? Taeyong acted in front of Kun as if saving Jeena was possible, in order to see what his response will be?"
Yuta nodded. "Exactly."
"But why would he do that?"
"He knows Kun originated from 116. Taeyong wants to find out whether he will betray him with the information or not. That is, if he tells someone connected to the president himself the falls news of another person surviving the virus. He comes to see if Kun is really on our side or not."
"And what did he find out?" I asked, feeling my chest tighten.
Yuta looked at me squarely in the eyes. "The magician wouldn't be alive by now if he was found out as a traitor. Kun is a real comrade. Our ace of phantasm."
_______
My senses went back into reality when I felt Taeil nudging on my shoulder, telling me that it's time for us to go.
I urgently looked at Ten and Taeyong's direction to see if the procedures went on smoothly, and got surprised when their exchange was already finished. Almost finished.
Ten brought a chip scanner with him and hovered it above the redhead's wrist. There were small clicking sounds as a beam of neon green light softly appeared at the space between the machine and Taeyong's skin. It's rich people's method of payment.
TRANSACTION
COMPLETE !
80,000 NEONS HAVE
SUCCESSFULLY BEEN
TRANSFERRED INTO
CHITTAPHON
LEECHAIYAPORNKUL'S
CHIP.
After the transaction was over, the two sorta "businessmen" bid each other goodbye. I also said goobye to Jaehyun, Doyoung and Sicheng.
"I'll see you guys next time!" I waved. The bosses responded with an equal amount of sincerity and eagerness. Except for one person.
As I made my way into the exit, I felt Taeyong's eyes bore into my back, as if he was following my movements. The thought alone made my skin crawl and my stomach churn. I thought it couldn't get any worse, not until he spoke.
"Farewell, Champion."
The way he said it felt as if he was determined to avoid letting me into his head as much as I don't want him to enter mine too.
Farewell never sounded this threatening.
_______
A/n:
Great news! I have already outlined the chapter summaries up until Chapter Sixty (aka the finale) which means I have already built the whole framework for Champion ;-; This means that my updates will be more frequent :")) Yesss! But I won't make any promises. I just want you guys to know that I'm happy to have been able to outline this book which at first I thought was extremely difficult to do. I can't wait to tell you guys what happens next! :D
And when I put in the disclaimer that "this story might make you cry pt2" then I wasn't lying :)))))
PS I can only reply to your messages when it's weekend so pls understand :( I can't access the internet freely during weekdays. I'm just timed today lol. I'll promise to make it up with you guys this fri :**
Xoxo,
Lumi