"We still have nine hours until we are supposed to be here," Nicolas checked his clock. "What do you want to do?"
We were in a cheap and disgusting motel a few miles away from the center of Seoul. The jet dropped us off about an hour ago. We took as many precautions as we could so that they wouldn't know we were here, but there is now way of knowing if they do or don't. Every major gang and mafia-affiliate knew what I looked like and Nicolas lived here long enough to leave a big impression, so hiding had a low chance of really helping us.
"How far is your hideout from here?"
He raised an eyebrow, "you want to go there? For all we know they could have taken them from there. Is it really safe?"
I sighed, completely beat. "No, but what other choice do we have? They are the biggest organization in this country, we can't really hide from them. Doesn't really sound like they appreciate you all that much here, so it's not like we can ask someone for help. Best we can do is go to the scene where it happened and try and figure out how it all went down. Make sure that information hasn't been stolen."
He stood up and opened the weapons bag that Mateo prepared for us. "It's about an hour from here in car. We can go now. It doesn't have any keys to it. It's password protected."
I stood up and went to fill up a glass of water. "Let's go then."
After taking a cab to a mile away from the house and walking the rest of the way, we came to a stop in front of his safe house. It was more of a cabin. It had a small porch and a lamp at the front. It looked to be made completely out of wood from the outside. I get why he used this, it looked completely inconspicuous.
Nicolas walked up to the entrance and punched in the code. I scoffed upon seeing it. "Really?"
He shrugged, "haven't been discovered, have I?"
When he opened the door, I laughed nervously. "I actually think you did."
Everything was a mess. Things were scattered across the ground, glass on the floor and broken pieces of wood. A mirror on the wall was shattered to pieces. One of the men Gabriel took with him was on the floor, his chest bleeding. He was dead.
Still, Nicolas went over and checked for pulse. He looked at me and shook his head. I took out my handgun and began looking around. "Check on your information, I'll take a look around."
He nodded, walking to the door that seemed to lead to a basement. It wasn't until he groaned that I remembered he was injured.
I made my way around the cabin. I checked the bathroom, which looked intact. I checked the back of the cabin through the window and stepped out for a moment, checking for tracks. There were none. Daylight was ending soon, was all I could think when I looked up.
I'd never been to Korea. Hell, I never wanted to come either. When I thought about places I wanted to travel, this never really came to mind. But, now, being here made it different. Standing here in the middle of the trees felt refreshing. It felt... liberating.
What the hell am I saying?
Maybe it's because I'm so tense and stressed. I've been feeling ready to burst, lately. Maybe being here in the middle of the quiet forest makes me feel like I'm in the air. Like I'm floating through the atmosphere. Weightless and completely free of worries.
The air here felt nice. It felt different. It was different than the suffocation in Sicily or the poisonous atmosphere of Germany. Despite the leader of the mafia here potentially trying to kill me, the air here felt nice.
But that meant little when I had so much to worry about. I allowed myself one more deep breath before I went back inside the cabin and kept looking around. I went to the far right of the cabin, where a closed room was. I opened the door and saw a bed. This was his bedroom. I bit my lip, feeling silly at the fact that I was questioning whether I should go in or not. I had to, to make sure nothing looked to be tampered with. Still, the queasy feeling in my stomach didn't go away.
I went to the bed and looked under, in case there were any opened boxes. He had nothing but a pair of slippers. Inside the drawers there was a mess, but not a looking-for-information type of mess, more of an I'm-a-guy type of mess. The nightstand didn't look to be messed with, mostly because the lamp was still perfectly on top and because it was right on the very small line that I know Nicolas draws to let himself know where it was before he leaves. I couldn't help but feel warm in my chest and face. I gave him that idea.
I opened the small drawer on the nightstand and found a bunch of meaningless items. A watch, some fake passports, deodorant, paperclips, some Korean won, a pack of very destroyed gum, some paper. I stopped at the last item. It was a picture of him and I.
It was folded and looked old. It was printed on computer paper, not regular picture paper. I could recognize the picture, however. I remember that day very vaguely, it was nearly two and a half years ago. After we got back together when he had broken up with me. It was a time when we went to beach since we had some time off. The picture was taken while we were sitting where the water covered our knees, a wave splashing us with water. He was giving me a kiss on the cheek, grabbing my face and laughing. I was laughing with my eyes shut. The water had gotten in my face and my arms were in the air. I looked to be nearly falling. He must have forced me to do that, because I would have never agreed to letting the water drench my clothes that way. Then again, he could've gotten me to do almost anything back then.
"Here you are." I jumped back, throwing the picture inside and slamming the drawer shut with the back of my knees in a haste. The nightstand slammed against the wall roughly and the lamp fell off.
"You-You scared me!" I ran a hand through my hair and let out my breath.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "I thought that, you know, being twenty and all, you'd find a sense of professionalism. Learn not to snoop around." His teasing tone made my cheeks heat up. I looked away so he wouldn't notice.
"I'm sorry about your lamp," I went to pick it up. The bulb had shattered. "I'll get you another one."
"Not to this address, though," he walked to the bed and slowly laid down on it. "I think I might need to find a new place."
I sat on a corner of the bed, far enough. "Me too. Was anything missing?"
He looked over to me and shook his head. "Nah. I have a crazy security system down there, but with enough time anyone with enough expertise could crack it. They clearly didn't come for that."
"Do you have any idea why they did?"
He seemed to tense for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"Why they came, I mean. Do you have any idea why they would want to take Gabriel? If they maybe knew he was here? If they were the ones to blow up your apartment?"
He shook his head again. "No. I mean, I didn't have the best relationship with mister Ye-jun Seong or Seong Ye-jun mister, take your pick."
I raised an eyebrow in response to his weird reply. He sighed, "in Korea last names go first. So the way we would say his name is Ye-jun Seong, but over here last names go first so they would say Seong Ye-jun. Just like his brother. His name our way would be Jung-hee Seong, but in the Korean way would be Seong Jung-hee."
I rolled my eyes, "I know how Korean names work. I meant why don't you have a good relationship with Seong Ye-jun."
"Well," he dragged on. "He never really liked me. Thought I was too... reckless. They are very disciplined and organized. I was just kind of doing as I wanted for a while, so he didn't find that I fit with his picture, I guess. It wasn't anything too serious, just a difference in morals."
"Ah," I said. "Well, nothing seems to be missing here. It just seems like signs of struggle to me. A fight broke out and things were broken that way. Some shots were definitely fired. I saw a few bullet holes in the walls and floor."
He stayed quiet, looking to the ceiling before speaking again. "It's weird, though."
"What?"
He sighed, "they know where this was, but came when Gabriel was here. Like they knew he would be here. Something doesn't make sense to me. If they knew about this place, then they would have at least tried to get the information. Unless they wanted you to come for another reason.
That does make sense. "He sounded angry when he spoke to me. Whatever the reason, it can't be good if he's threatening to kill my men. Especially if he already killed one. He definitely knows who is who and that Gabriel and Ash are important enough to hold over my head."
He closed his eyes and sat up. "Listen, I think I know--"
"Shh," I cut him off. "Listen."
He looked over to the window in his room. We went silent, listening closely. There was a distant rustling. Whispers of footsteps. I crouched down, laying low on the floor. Nicolas did the same as soon as he saw me. I signaled for him to keep checking the mirror. I crawled to the wooden door that opened to the back of the cabin. When I checked on it earlier, I saw a small dog door. I made my way as silently as possible, with a gun in my waistline, crawling to the door.
Before I got there, I heard the sound of cars and shut off engines right on the other side of the door.
He really did find us, huh.
I looked through the dog door, there were about a dozen men. The one in the center was tall, muscular and seemed to be in charge. He wasn't Seong Ye-jun, however. I didn't recognize him. I crawled back a little to look at Nicolas, who was peeking his head through the window.
We both jumped when we heard two knock on the front door. I took my gun out and removed the safety. The person began shaking the doorknob. I aimed at the door.
My phone rang. Private Number.
"Hello?" It was hard to keep my voice at a minimum. I was nervous and agitated. My breath came loudly.
"Bianchi." I recognized the voice of the one and only Seong Ye-jun. "My men outside house. Come out no problem. Alone?"
I let out a breath of relief and laid back against the wall. "No. I'm with Nicolas Alfonsi. We'll come out with no problem. Tell your men to stand down."
"Nicolas Alfonsi? 개자식! Why?" Mr. Seong all of a sudden sounded very angry, which made me nervous. (TRANS: Son of a bitch!)
"He's my right hand man. He has to be with me. Is there a problem?"
"I said alone," he barked over the phone.
"You said to come," I gritted my teeth. "I did."
"Not with him. Goodbye." He hung up on me.
Before I could question Nicolas on why Mr. Seong had such disdain for him, someone banged on the front door. I looked to Nicolas. My phone dinged.
Move the table leaning next to the wall. remove the back. put on the vest.
I crawled to the table he told me about, placing my gun on the floor near me. I pulled at the back until it came off. Sure enough, there was a bulletproof vest and a collection of short barreled rifles and small pistols. As the banging on the door continued and shouts in Korean surrounded the entire house, as well as the sound of more cars arriving, I put the vest over myself. I stuffed a few of the small pistols wherever I could think of; in my waistline, my bra, pockets and straps. If we had to shoot ourselves out of here, I would have back-ups. I grabbed a short barreled rifle in each of my hands and went back to the backdoor.
I looked over to Nicolas and saw him doing the same thing I had done. He had another hiding spot under the floorboards of his bed. He had a vest and was grabbing guns to stock.
"No more chances!" The man shouted in Korean before he kicked down the door and let a rainfall of bullets open holes in the wall I was leaning on. I rolled over to Nicolas' room and shut the door, standing with our guns pointed at it. Multiple footsteps got closer and closer and closer until they stopped. The shadows of their feet peeked through the hole at the bottom of the doorway, the breathing of multiple men keeping us on edge.
"하나," the man said in a taunting tone. If only I knew what the fuck he said. "둘," I heard opening of the back door. "셋." (TRANS: One. Two. Three.)
The kicked down the other door too. We ran to the closet in his room, it was big enough to fit us both. The bullets followed us closely, one hitting the wall, a centimetre away from my head. Nicolas pushed me into the closet, shutting the door and bolting it from top to bottom. "Come on," he ushered.
We got to an empty shelf. "Cover me," he whispered. I turned around and pointed at the door. The bullets were making holes in the door, but they hadn't torn it down yet.
I heard a ding sound and realized Nicolas was opening up a panic room. "Come on, come on, come on," he chanted as he entered the pass code to the second door.
He didn't get the chance to finish because the door to the closet flew across, and four men entered, guns pointed at us. Nicolas turned around, lifting both his guns. Four guns against four guns.
"Guns down," one of them said. It was the voice of the one who screamed before he tore down the front door. He spoke in English.
"You first." One of my guns was pointed at him.
He laughed, "you're in no position to order around here. Guns down."
"Your boss and I agreed on a peaceful reunion. What the hell is this?"
The man looked over to Nicolas. "Without him. Guns down or they die."
The man took out his phone and dialed a number. Mr. Seong picked up immediately. They spoke in Korean. When the man in front of me, clearly the one leading the armed men, hung up the phone, he sighed.
"Mr. Seong Ye-jun says to leave peacefully. We will put our guns down."
I waited until they did. All four men put their guns down, tucking them away. I looked to Nicolas and nodded, we did the same. "This way," the man in charge said. We followed him out.
The backyard was surrounded with cars all around. There had to be at least ten of them. One thing was for sure, Seong Ye-jun didn't lack power in his country. He could defend himself. I needed to get the alliance with him back however I could. I needed as much of Asia to be mine as possible.
"So, which car do we--" I cut off when I saw one of the men knock out Nicolas by hitting him on the back of his head with the butt of the gun. He fell to the ground immediately. I had time to only take out one gun. I pointed it at the man, but all their guns pointed just at me. There had to be at least forty men. Looked like more.
"Gun down," the man in charge told me.
"This look like peace to you?" I pointed my gun at him.
"Peace with you, yes. Not him."
I removed the safety and got closer to him, gun to his chest because he was too tall for me. "What do you have against him?"
I never got my answer. I passed out right after I felt the sting of the tranquilizer the injected into my neck.
***
Holy moly, shiz getting real up in this hoe!
I just finished watching Crash Landing on You and boy, I am a wreck right now. Life is unfair. Never fall in love guys, it's not worth it. (Kidding!)
Anyway, we are getting to the part of the story where we are in a hole, but I choose to dig us into a deeper hole for the sake of good storytelling and then I will later on complain about how sad and hard their lives are.
Please, bear with me.