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C H A P T E R    T H I R T E E N
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»Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.«

– Mark Twain

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I immediately spotted Jungwoo and Lucas sitting on the other end of the room, and they spotted me too, gesturing me to come over.

"Glad you changed your mind, Angel." I saw Lucas pulling out a chair for me, in the far corner of the huge room. I slowly walked towards them, feeling eyes follow me as I walked past the bar counter where three muscled guys (probably bodyguards) were discussing today's football game.

I reluctantly sat down. Lucas lifted an eyebrow at the guys, making them quickly look away. Oh, he was not a guy they wanted to mess with.

"What can I get you?" Lucas asked me, smiling sweetly as if we were actual friends. "Wine? A Mojito? Mai Tai? Pina Colada? Sex on the Beach?" He winked at the last cocktail's name.

"Water. Thank you..." I looked at him resignedly.

"Alright then." He shook his head, looking amused and turned towards the bar.

"I thought, he wouldn't be sitting with us," I complained to Jungwoo, "And what is this here?" I pointed my arms around me, "A strip club? An illegal gun and drug arsenal masked as a nightclub? A place for prostitution and murder?"

"He won't," Jungwoo answered seriously, adding, "And no... it's just a simple bar with an exclusive nightclub. Only for insiders though."

Simple bar, sure.

"Whatever, why'd you wanted to see me?" I asked, a little too harsh, what made him look at me a little hurt, "Sorry, my day was a bit stressful, I didn't mean to come off rude."

"It's okay, I understand," he waved as if it was nothing and forgotten, "I heard the first meeting with Nakamoto was successful?"

I looked around to see if I could talk undisturbed.

"It's okay, it's safe here," Jungwoo reassured.

"Yeah, it was pretty good actually." I answered him honestly, "I think Mr. Nakamoto finds me likable. We got along well. And he actually invited me to his press conference in Busan this weekend."

"He did?" Jungwoo was astonished when he heard that. "That's brilliant! Mark will be happy to hear that."

"Where's he by the way?" I wanted to know. It was unusual for Mark to miss a visit to the bar or nightclub or whatever this place was. He had become suspiciously silent in the chat, too.

"He feels guilty."

I furrowed my brows, "For what happened in the restaurant?" Jungwoo knew that I was talking about the Taeyong thing and nodded. "Good! He should!" I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms.

"Cami, when have you become so mean? It wasn't Mark's fault and he tried to reach out to you as soon as he found out Taeyong was in the same location." Jungwoo defended him, trying to reason with me.

Lucas came down with our beverages and put them on the table. I stunned, even their plain glasses of water looked fancy in here.

"What's wrong, Angel?" Lucas sat down, placing my water in front of me. His eyes softened.

"Nothing you should concern yourself with," I said sternly, looking at Jungwoo, trying to give him a signal.

"Um... Lucas?" He began hesitantly, "Is it... okay for you if I talk to Cami in private?"

"Sure," he answered, taking a long sip from his blue drink. When Lucas didn't make an attempt to get up from his seat, I looked at him, then back to Jungwoo, who looked at Lucas, then at me and back at Lucas, who finally noticed our gazes. "Oh, you want me to go?"

"Yes!" I confirmed the obvious matter. Can't you see?

"Oh..." He looked disappointed. I thought Jungwoo had talked to him before? What was the chat about? That was the only reason why I agreed to come here in the first place. Or did Lucas think I would reconsider it once I entered the location? "Okay, I'm over there, if you need me." The nodded to the other side of the room, took his drink with him and stood up. Finally.

I waited until he was out of earshot before I turned back to Jungwoo. "Honestly speaking," I leaned in over the table, supporting my weight on my elbows, "he's bipolar, isn't he?"

"Bipolar?" Jungwoo laughed at this, shaking his head, "He is just Lucas. Soon, you'll find out how he really is and I promise you, you'll like him."

"I doubt that! I hate his stupid mind games, unfunny jokes, annoying mood swings and... his whole face!" Jungwoo bit on the inner side of his cheeks, probably to stop himself from laughing again. "Stop it, don't laugh!" I complained and he nodded quickly.

I sighed and wanted to take a sip from my water, but Jungwoo acted faster, grabbing my glass of water and taking it to himself.

"What are you doing? It's mine!" I complained again.

"The way I know Lucas, this is not water," he held up my glass, "but this is." He pushed his transparent drink over. I took it in my hand and smelled it. No smell. And that's when I tasted it, just to find out that it was indeed water. I assumed Jungwoo's alcoholic beverage to be in my original water glass that Lucas gave me.

That bastard.

I grumbled annoyed, "See why I hate him? I seriously can't understand why he's your friend."

Jungwoo just smiled. He seemed to like Lucas a lot. Like Mark. And this fact annoyed me the most, no one seemed to see what I saw; they just liked him.

"Cami," I looked up from the water I drank, "Lucas isn't the only reason why your mood is so down today. Is there perhaps something else that bothers you?"

Of course there is!

"No."

"Okay, I can understand that seeing Taeyong must've been hard for you. But I can see, there's still something else." Jungwoo tried to see through me like he always did when he wanted to understand me.

"I said no."

Jungwoo made a thinking face and didn't say anything, just looking at me, waiting for me.

"Okay, there is," I admitted after what felt like an eternity, "Who was the woman?"

"Who?"

"The woman who sat at Taeyong's table. Petite figure, long mermaid hair."

"What is mermaid hair?" He asked me confused as if I had spoken in a different language.

"Oh, Jungwoo!" I groaned. "You know what I mean, colorful, blues, pinks, violets... mermaid hair!"

"Ahhhhh," he remembered, "now I know what you mean with that."

"So, who's she?" I asked curiously.

He hesitated and broke our eye contact by looking at his drink, "You won't like the answer."

I raised a brow and leaned forward some more. "Do I know her?"

Jungwoo nodded.

"Do I hate her?"

He didn't show a reaction, meaning yes, I hated her.

"Oh my God, Jungwoo, just tell me the name!"

"Nalin." One simple name that made my stomach turn in an instant.

"KYE NALIN?!" The few heads in the room turned to us, but I didn't care. Slowly, Jungwoo nodded. I quickly took a huge sip of my water to calm myself down and almost choked on it.

Jungwoo gave me a moment to comprehend and process the news before he continued, "It might sound strange to you, but Nalin is actually a part of our team."

"How could you!?" I hissed, "She's crazy and can't be trusted!"

He didn't look like he believed my words, "When did you see her for the last time?"

"Don't know. Probably when I went to High School," I shrugged.

"Correct. You know, things change in such a long period of time, Cami. Nalin isn't the problem here."

I cut him off scoffing, "Yeah, right. I'm the problem!"

"No. Why are you always like this? Just let me talk without interrupting me, and maybe you'll understand what's going on."

"It's a sensitive topic for me!" I defended myself.

"Everything is sensitive for you! You know what? Fuck Taeyong!" I looked up. It was so rare to hear Jungwoo cursing. And it was even rarer that he cursed at Taeyong; I don't think I've heard him say that before.

"In the end, he's living his life while you obviously aren't able to move on from the past and now you even start to hate other people because of him!"

"Nalin is a completely different topic! I don't hate her because of him. You don't know what happened!"

"I don't care what happened," Jungwoo's voice was slightly raised, "I only care about you and now listen closely, because I'm gonna tell you what to do to let Taeyong go: Think of the bad things he did!" I meet his gaze. "How he treated you before you started a relationship, think of his anger problems, and how he made you cry so often, even when you were together? Don't tell no one I said this, but think of the monster that lingers deep inside him."

I didn't say anything.

"Cami, I don't wanna judge you, but... love makes blind. And you were soooo blind, trust me. I actually think you blended out his bad habits so that you only have the prince in shining armor in your memory... but try to see it from a neutral perspective. Try to see how he really was."

I wanted to close the topic. Talking about Taeyong made me feel sick. "I'll keep your words in mind, but I can just repeat myself: My dislike regarding Nalin isn't because of him."

"Then tell me where your dislike comes from."

"It was around 5 years ago." I started, thinking back.

"Five? So, it's not about the thing?" I shuddered when he mentioned the thing. Why did he even think about that?

"The thing? No! Can you please stop it? We vowed not to talk about it ever again. I also remember Mark mentioning it, when he'd explained to me what the files were about, but thank God, I only found one article about it in the files and it had nothing to do with Mr. Nakamoto himself, making it irrelevant for the mission. The thing never happened, is that clear?"

"Hmm..." Jungwoo made a thinking face, "That's what Doyoung said, too. But do you never think about it?" His curious gaze was on me.

"I try not to. And you shouldn't either." He nodded slowly, and for a minute none of us said anything. "Okay, sorry, you were saying? What happened five years ago?"

"I did a mistake," I admitted, "which showed me that Nalin is more dangerous than you could imagine."

He raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure? How old was she back then? 14? 15? She was a child, Cami."

"A monster!" I insisted.

I thought back to that energetic teenager who was two years my junior and always greeted me in school, whenever she saw me. Friendly, really nice, but also kinda crazy.

She used to be that girl with short, blonde curls who always wore dresses, no matter the season. She was the kind of person who asked you what you were doing, just so that you'd ask the question back, so that she could thoughtfully wrap the strands of her short blond hair around her finger, then make chewing gum bubbles, before shrugging and always replying with: "Hm, nothing much. I'm just getting bored." Always the same answer.

"And what am I supposed to do about it?" I had replied one day. It sounded more irritated than I had intended.

Nalin's eyes had widened. Her fingers had disappeared in her mouth and she had pulled the chewing gum, wrapped it around her finger and then sucked it back into her mouth.

"Did I miss anything?", she had asked thoughtfully, surely addressing my not so very polite tone. I had shaken my head.

Nalin and I hadn't really been friends. After all, I hadn't even known her that long. She used to have an open and a little affectionate personality without having a sense of shame. Sometimes she'd simply sat down at a table with strangers, hooked into the conversations and then disappeared again.

It had been the same with me. But I guess she had known very well who I was back then. Jungwoo's twin sister. The same Jungwoo, who happened to be one of Lee Taeyong's very best friends.

And she - who would've thought? - somehow had a crush on him. Apparently she had thought she could've gotten closer to him through me, but Taeyong and I never used to hang out together; in fact, we couldn't stand each other back then and just had decided to ignore the other in public. Other than that, Nalin, being her lively, open-minded self wouldn't have needed anyone to stick to Taeyong's butt in my opinion. That's what I thought, until one certain night.

"Now I'm curious," Jungwoo leaned over the table to me, "Are you going to tell me what happened, or...?"

I took a long breath and nodded, "So, five years ago-..."

"Do I smell some tea?" We heard a person calling in our direction, startling me slightly and making me look behind me.

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A/N

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