The girl draped her blazer over the back of something similar to a church pew and collapsed onto a large leather ottoman.
"Mmh," she tugged off a combat boot, "that's better. I'm sorry, I really am. My squad was definitely not supposed to destroy anything. We were supposed to just retrieve our target.
"Is there anything I can do right now to make your stay here comfortable as my team repairs your home? I'll get a truck to deliver everyone safely back once they're done."
"H-How about letting me breathe?" Yuri wheezed, struggling against the restraint of a thick rope around her neck.
The girl simply sighed lazily and crossed her legs.
"Let her go," she said boredly. The sound of a lever being lifted up with a heavy grunt filled the room and ended with a loud echo of metal against stone.
Yuri crumpled to the ground, landing heavily on her knees with a sharp wince before slumping over. She brought her tied hands to her red throat, taking in deep shaky breaths and coughing.
"I was kidding just now. I'm not going to kill anyone," the girl sighed.
Yujin raised her hand. (Student reflexes?)
"Do you want to say something?"
Yujin nodded. "If you aren't going to kill any of us, could you let us go home?"
"Sure. In a while though, your barn is still being repaired. It shouldn't take too long."
The girl moved in a sophisticated manner. She did look expensive, though the school blouse and skirt were slightly dusted with soot. She made her way to Yujin and got down on one knee.
"But honestly, child? If the bureau granted us the privilege to kill, I'd have impaled all of the little ones - and that includes you - in a single shish kebab as a warning to Sakura by now before stabbing one of the older girls every ten minutes she takes to come." She tapped Yujin's cheek softly with her palm as she shot a devilish look at Hitomi.
"Could you also untie us?" Yujin said, trying not to bite the girl's hand. Her thumb was close to her lips; it would've been easy to jerk forward and snap the tip of it.
The girl stood up. "No."
She scanned the group of hostages. The elder ones seemed less concerned about themselves, rather taking care of the smaller ones.
She made her way back to her ottoman, looking bored. "I guess you're all wondering where you are.
"You are safe in the execution hall of one and only South Korean Monster Hunter Bureau."
"Sakura has sharp teeth! She'll rip the skin off your face!" Chaewon said, attempting to lurch forward.
"If you let us go we won't tell anyone that you damaged property and kidnapped minors!" Yena called out.
She received an icy glare.
The girl brought her index finger to her lips.
"Play games with me again and I bring one of you up to the rope." She jabbed a thumb in the direction of a large metal beam attached to the ends of two walls. Multiple nooses made of thick, durable rope hung down from it.
Attached to a lever, the nooses could be loosened and tightened, brought higher or lower depending on how it was pulled.
Yuri decided to keep still for now. Her windpipe felt bruised and crushed.
...
"Hyewon-ah," Sakura said shakily. A sliver of black tongue darted out to wet her lips.
"You okay?" Hyewon whispered.
"Ch-Chaeyeon isn't replying - do you think something h-happened to them?"
Hyewon's gaze lowered to Sakura's hands clasped in her lap tightly. She saw ever so slightly the pale long fingers around her device trembling, wrist bone pressing against a corner of bandage firmly.
A drop of sweat rolled down Hyewon's temple, trailing down her cheek and stopping just shy of her jawline.
"It's gonna be okay," she breathed out. Hyewon never felt desperate for anything. She always had a way to change what she didn't like.
Until this moment.
Then both their phones buzz.
...
Eunbi: guys dont come for us
Eunbi: theres a girl in the seonggong uniform
Eunbi: turn back now
Kwangbae: eunbi
Eunbi: i mean it. turn back, she's going to kill sakura
Kkurachan: we're on the bus to the starship point train station right now just wait for us
Eunbi: we dropped our phones in the cabin
Eunbi: and im not eunbi im yena i managed to grab a random phone
Eunbi: she has us all in nooses and almost hung yuri just now
Eunbi: she promised to let us go home w
Kkurachan: what
Kkurachan: yena
Kkurachan: YENA
Eunbi: Sakura, if my squad doesn't bring you to me by this evening i will hurt one of the younger ones for every five minutes you're late
Eunbi: there is no use calling the police. we are an underworld agency and on the maps, we don't exist
Eunbi: if you get here by the requested time you won't need to worry about them being severely injured
Kkurachan: who are you
Eunbi: me?
Eunbi: a seonggong student
Kkurachan: their parents will be worried
Eunbi: don't you think we covered up the three years that your friend's brother worked here after we cast him out?
Eunbi: we have our ways. we can erase anyone from the memories everyone who's ever crossed paths with them and do the same with documents and data. so that's what we've done to your friends. until we get you their families and friends have never known of their existence and their identification cards are on hold and ready to be destroyed if it comes to that
Eunbi: tick tock
Kwangbae: wait
Kwangbae: eunbi
Kwangbae: chaeyeon minju hitomi chaewon yujin yena
Kwangbae: wonyoung yuri nako
Kwangbae: just hang in there okay
Kwangbae: you'll be safe
...
"Tsk."
The girl's frowning now.
"I have all of you kneeling with your necks in nooses. And you still have the audacity to defy me," she sighs in disappointment, in a similar tone of a mother scolding a stubborn child.
"Here." She tosses the phone randomly. It lands near Chaewon. "Have fun typing with your knees. Oh, wait. Can you do anything but breathe and jerk your heads in the position I've held everyone in?"
She lets out a laugh.
Yuri wants to throw up because it sounds so pretty and musical. How can such a lovely sound come from a person so sick?
Chaewon inches slowly towards the phone, bending her neck back so she doesn't choke on the rope.
That's when the girl kicks it out of reach.
Yujin just stares at her vehemently.
They would all still be sitting down tied up if the younger girl hadn't decided to chide their captor more. Wonyoung swears to kill her if the bureau doesn't.
Her long limbs are bound extra tight with itchy rope, and if she dares relax her chin to face forward, the rope around her neck that was ordered to be raised higher than the others will suffocate her and ultimately do the job for the bureau.
After all, no one knows of her existence besides the people in the hall and two in a bus only god knows how far from here.
Nako is so small there's no way for her to be in the same position as everyone else and not immediately hang to death, so the girl had her put into a different row.
A clear glass tank.
Is it the same material as the one I saw in the truck...? Yujin thinks, squinting to see behind the tears.
"If Sakura doesn't get her before the time I gave her is up," the girl starts, leaning against the glass on her elbow, "then the water will start flowing."
She whirls around on her heel before clapping her hands to catch everyone's attention.
"I'm going to get lunch," she chirps, before walking towards a stone wall.
She pulls a tag connected to a thin chain around her neck from her blouse, then searches for a specific spot.
When she finds it, she presses her tag flat against it and a heavy rumbling of stone growls around them as the wall splits into an opening.
"Behave well," she says with a wink, and disappears.
Nako shrieks, her cry muffled by a strip of cloth tied over her mouth tightly in a knot a boy scout would walk away from, banging her little fist against the glass. A glassy font decorates the top of one wall.
We Eliminate To Save
Eunbi squints to see it. If she could speak, she'd tell Nako to stay calm and that everything would be alright...
Chaeyeon hums a shrill note to catch Eunbi's attention.
Eunbi jerks her chin to the left and sees Chaeyeon shake her head sadly.
I know what you want to say.
But we should stop lying to them, Eunbi. We've lied enough. It isn't going to be okay.