"Owwww!" An exaggerated cry was heard through the nursery room. Taeyong sighed from the corner of the room.
"Come on Haeun, it's not that painful. You've suffered through worse injuries." He rolled his eyes. I gave him an annoyed expression.
"Do you expect me to be in the same condition after 2 and a half years? Sorry to disappoint you then." I answered, beginning to ignore the pain. My brother smirked.
"I see your attitude is slowly coming back. Good. The last time we talked on the phone you seemed like the weak lead of some kdrama."
"They kidnapped me in the worst moment!" I began whining. "I was about to go out with friends! Oh right, my friends! They must be worried sick!" I began panicking as the nurse continued patching up my bruised knees. I frantically searched through the pockets of my completely ruined clothing and realised my prized possession is not there. I looked up towards Taeyong.
"Do you have my phone?" I asked, desperate. He put his hand in his pocket and looked down at the iPhone with a weird expression.
"This is kind of an old model. Dad sends you plenty of money, why don't you have a better phone?"
"It doesn't matter right now!" I yelled out and stretched out my arm. "Give it to me."
He shrugged and walked over to give me the phone in my palm. I quickly began tapping on it's cracked screen and pushing every button there was but the screen remained black. I looked into it and realised how terrible I actually looked. My face was entirely dirty, a cut on my forehead. I cringed.
"I need to contact my friends and tell them I'm okay." I told him and he shrugged.
"I'll get you a new phone. But it'll take a while since all we have here are burner phones." Taeyong said and quickly dismissed the nurse who had finished fixing up my bruised legs, stomach and arms.
It was cold, so my brother passed me a hoodie to put over my half naked body. I was only wearing a sports bra and really short shorts after all for the check up. I accepted it and put it on in an instant.
"Will mother and I have to move?" I asked as I jumped from the patient bed onto the cold tiles. He sighed.
"It would be better. But she's not willing to. Currently she's arguing with dad's secretary."
I sighed. I didn't want to move into a new house either, but I knew it was necessary.
"Just get us one in a similar location. The gang would think we went back to Busan or far away. Plus, I think they only knew where we lived." I said. "Did the tuxedo guy get caught?"
Taeyong shook his head with a grim expression. "He somehow managed to run away. Right now we're fixing up the men he left behind and we're going to make sure they talk."
He opened the door for me and we both went out into the huge hallway. I was still shock that dad has decided to make a base in Seoul. Taeyong had told me that not long after my small blackout. I had been brought here and was asleep for about an hour before i woke up.
There was a small silence as Taeyong led me towards somewhere. Then he decided to initiate the conversation that we had been delaying up until now.
"When do you think you'll come back to the gang?" He asked and I sighed.
"I'm really not in the mood to talk about this right now." I said, already unwilling to continue socializing.
"You know you'll have to come back someday. Especially when dad wants to station you here in Seoul after it becomes the main base."
"I don't know why he needs me so bad. He's got you and everyone else. There's plenty."
"You know exactly why he wants you in the team. You're a genius." He blurted out. I sighed.
"I've gotten worse. I'll never be able to catch up on those 2 years training that i missed."
"Out of everyone, you probably know the best that that's not true."
"I made a promise to Ryuwon." I stopped in my tracks, furious with tears dwelled up in my eyes. Taeyong also stopped and looked back at me silent. "I fucking promised. I'll never kill anyone again."
"Haeun, it wasn't your-"
"Yes it was." I began breaking. "And no one can deny. I was too late. And now she's laying in a fucking coffin underground." I completely lost it. The tears that I was trying to prevent fell and my brother just stared at me in silence. I began sobbing and buried my face in my hands so he doesn't see it.
Not many people have seen me cry. I've always tried to hold it in. But I just couldn't take the pressure anymore, with so many things happening lately.
I felt Taeyong's arms around me. He may seem tough and scary, but he was actually a softie. He was the best brother I could've asked for and we loved each other a lot.
"It's okay." He stroked my hair as I began calming down. "I won't ask anymore. Don't feel pressured. It's your choice."
About a minute later, my sobs stopped and I agreed to continue walking.
I had just began realising how little details make this place really beautiful. Maybe it's the beautiful outside area, or the dark colour of the shiny walls that matched the while floor. Or maybe all the automatic doors that looked out of this world.
"Dad's interior design style sure has improved." I snickered, looking at the white arcs carved into the ceiling.
"You could say so. He just wanted to go all out on this base." My brother shrugged. That moment, he turned to the right and I followed him through one of the big doors.
It led us into a fancy living room space. It had a coffee table in the middle, with 2 big couches on the sides and a giant single chair at the end. The big window shone light into the entire room. The walls were white, but had a wall of water going down in front of it. They water never splashed out of place. The room was also entirely covered by plants, making it really natural looking.
In the middle, I recognised my mom and my dad's secretary clearly having an argument. When Taeyong and I entered the room, they both looked this way and my mom immediately stood up. She ran over to me and hugged me.
"You're okay, thank god!" She said, with relief in her voice. I was still unused to her being so nice and protective of me. She quickly let go and embraced my brother, who after a little bit of hesitation hugged her back.
After the situation, all of us went back and sat down at the couches. The secretary just pretended it all didn't happen and continued.
"Ma'am, you need to leave the house-"
"What about my job?" Mother said through her teeth. "You know how long it took me to get it? It'll be highly uncomfortable for me to move and leave it."
"That's why we're suggesting you move into an apartment in a similar location."
"But why do we need to move, you should've already gotten that pathetic gang over with-"
"Mom, let's just move." I blurted out. The room became silent and everyone looked to me.
"What are you saying?"
"The leader is still alive. That means that the gang hierarchy remained for the most part and they won't hesitate to make a comeback. Just imagine you didn't have that watch on you to call backup." I said soullessy while staring at my mother. "The apartment complex they're offering is much more safer and there are generally better conditions than in the house."
The room remained quiet as everyone looked at my mother. She thought for a while with an unreadable expression.
Finally she sighed.
"Fine." Her tone indicated that she was completely done with the situation. She glared at the secretary. "This better not happen again. I signed a contract to be safe and not be involved in this anymore. This is the last time I'll take it." She said through her teeth.
"I deeply apologise ma'am. I'll make sure this won't happen again." The secretary said.
As the 2 elder women began discussing the terms for the apartment, I got pulled out of the room by Taeyong. He decided to show me around the base.
It was beautiful and massive. Majority of it was done, although there were some parts that were not accessible yet.
We walked down to the lower grounds and got met with a shooting range. Taeyong smirked at me.
"Wanna try it out?"
I smiled. "Let's see if I'm still better at aiming than you, dumbass."
"We'll see."
We went into the armory next to the shooting range and I was met by all kinds of machinery.
I looked around and tried on some of the guns, but in the end chose a Ruger 10/22 rifle. It fit perfectly and was the best of my liking. I looked to the other side of the room and saw Taryong loading a basic AK-47.
"I see you're not getting very creative there." I said sarcastically beginning to load my gun as well.
"Sometimes basics can be deadly." He answered. "Besides, seeing you haven't shot a gun for over 2 years comforts me, so I rather not take risks."
"I'll still kick your ass."
"You can try. Anyway, how many shots are we going for?" He looked up at me with his gun fully loaded.
"Let's take it easy. 10 shots and whomever has the best accuracy wins. You'll need to buy me ice cream." I said with a smirk. He laughed.
"Bold of you to assume that I'll be the one buying YOU ice cream." Taeyong grinned and ushered me to the shooting range.
We both put on noise cancelling headphones and glasses and began aiming at the targets. I felt this rush of adrenaline and excitement that I haven't felt in so long. Blood rushed up to my ears, but I contained my emotions and focused on the dot in the middle. I felt the rifle become a part of me as I adjusted it in my hands.
I drowned myself into the silence caused my the headphones and...
Shot
I barely heard any noise, not only because of the noise cancelling headphones, but also because of the silencer on the rifle. I smiled to myself as I saw the bullet hole right by the red hole in the middle.
The next one was the same. And the next. With each I got closer to the dot in the middle.
And as I shot my last 3 bullets, they all hit bulls eye. It was amazing.
I heard Taeyong from next to me fire his last shot, so I took off my noise cancelling headphones. I felt my heart beating excitedly after the returned memories of those 10 shots.
He was the first to look at my target. His eyes widened in disbelief but then he smiled.
"I knew it... genius never goes away nor changes. I guess 3 of the shots hit bulls eye?" He asked, obviously knowing the answer anyway. I peaked at his.
"Wow, your aim has improved a lot. 2 years ago you would sometimes put holes through the walls." I giggled and he rolled his eyes.
"Fine. Ice cream for you it is."
I jumped up and down like a little kid and Taeyong giggled.
"Let's go put these away before the closest convenience store closes." He said and I nodded, already knowing which ice creams I wanna get.