NEO CULTURE TECHNOLOGY
MAD CITY BASE
7:21 PM, SUNDAY

3RD PERSONS VIEW。

"Should've given me a gun instead–"

"Could you please shut up?" Xiaojun grumbled as he attended to her wound, grimacing as the blackened wound seemed more horrible than he imagined. "Yikes..."

Keiko let out a deep sigh, rolling her eyes as she slumped her shoulders, "I asked for a gun and he gave me a fucking sniper rifle and told me to assassinate that fedora guy!"

"I can hear you, you know," Mark grunted from the other side of the curtain as Taeil cleaned up Mark's wound, wrapping a gauze on it to help the blood clot.

"Since when did you become a medic?" Keiko raised a brow, eyeing Xiaojun who was inspecting her wound after cleaning it.

The boy huffed, "I'm apart of the medical unit!"

Keiko scrunched nose, shaking her head, "Yeah, you act like you aren't, even end up slicing me with a knife– shit! Don't do that!" she yelped and was about to punch Xiaojun with her free hand when he got a hold of her fist.

Her balled fists perfectly in his palms, he chuckled deeply, "Well that was slow– guess your wound damaged a bit of your speed."

"Hey, Taeil-hyung? Do I need to stitch this up?"

Taeil hummed, sliding the snow-white curtains to look at them. As he did, Keiko was shocked to see Mark leaned backward, completely topless for Taeil to have a better look at the wound.

"Kun said he'll be here in a few minutes, so you don't have to worry about Keiko for now."

Xiaojun let out a relieved sigh, stepping away from her as he placed a palm over his heart, "Thank God."

Keiko cocked a brow, glaring at him to which he only stuck out his tongue at her. Mark straightened up and stifled a laugh, "What were you saying again, Keiko? You have a bad aim? Like we would believe that."

The girl only pursed her lips, knowing that what she had just said was a lame excuse to not use a rifle. It was certainly against her will to kill someone who she barely knew about– even if the person had bad intentions or so.

The main reason why she kept bothering to ask Mark what was the fedora man's fault was to make sure that they weren't targeting an innocent. Maybe they weren't, maybe they were, but does that even matter anymore? She just killed someone, what was done is done.

She only wanted to gun so that the damage wouldn't be that bad, yes, she still had hurt someone– but again, this was now the mafia world she lived in. No one in the mafia should ever be someone who's weak and softhearted.

Those were their past, no longer were these men cared for someone else other than themselves. Or at least, that's what people see them as.

Not even responding to Mark's words, the door opens and Kun walks in wearing a full-on black as a lab coat was draped on his shoulders. He gave the girl a reassuring smile before approaching her, "Do you feel a bit nauseated? Or anything?"

Keiko avoids his gaze, looking down at her wound, "It just hurts– can you please just do something about it? I still have work to do."

"Oh, you won't be going to work today." those words made her frown and lift her head up, meeting eyes with the known Underboss of NCT.

Jaehyun tilts his head, "Mon Cherie."

She looks away and went back to focus on Kun who grabbed a kit. "I'm going to stitch this up since it's deeper than we thought, Keiko. It won't hurt that bad."

"If it hurts, you can hold Dejun's hand." he joked and prepared his tools to suture her wound.

Xiaojun grumbled, "No way!" a pinkish hue residing in his cheeks before he stomped away far.

After Kun treated her wound, he wrapped the gauze, covering a large fraction of her arm. As he secured it, he tossed her a lollipop, "Here, good job kid."

Feigning a smile, she clutched the cherry flavored lollipop, "Thanks... I guess."

Mark hopped off his bed and grabbed a shirt that they had prepared for him, "See? You're good as new!"

Keiko squinted her eyes, a fire burning inside her as she shot a glare towards the boy, "You are exactly the reason why my wound worsened– I don't know why you're acting like this isn't a big deal."

The smile on Mark's face faded as uncertain emotions clouded his grim eyes, his tone shifting as he held his chin up, "Cherrie, you're involved in this mafia shit now, either way, you're going to learn more than just hold a gun and shoot."

Jaehyun lightly pushed Mark back, "Okay, that's enough. I'm borrowing Keiko for a bit and Mark? Don't even say another word." he stated before ushering the girl out of the medical unit.

.         .         .

Keiko finds her self again seated in front of Taeyong's office desk, a pile of paper stacked on top of it as the blue-haired mafia boss worked nonstop behind them. A loud hum escaped her lips as she used her palm to support her jaw, "Stop calling me and then end up staying silent for the whole time!"

Taeyong raised a finger, a sign to stay put before going back to jot a few lines onto the piece of paper. "Just wait for a few more minutes."

She sighed and waited anyways, after a couple of minutes, the male pushed away the piles of worksheets loaded on his desk and stood up to stride towards her.

Crouching down, he now looked up to her from his position, "I heard you got shot, don't worry, I asked Chenle and Renjun to take care of them anyways– although you had the guts to use a bomb and destroy a building." he stated and chortled.

An arm outstretched as he held her by her shoulder, darting his gaze onto her newly wrapped wound. "I'm sorry you had to kill that man, I know it's against your will to do so," he said simply and placed both of his hands onto the armrests, trapping her in.

Jerking backward, Keiko let out a chuckle, knowing this could probably be one of Taeyong's strategies. "What did he do anyway? Mark won't tell me."

Taeyong leaned closer, his thumb grazing her cheeks as he smiled devilishly, "He threatened to take you away from us, that's all."

"No, that is not all, and that it most certainly not the reason." she laced her hand onto Taeyong's wrist, yanking his hand off her face.

"Oh, I can't tell you the reason, unless... you promise me my promise, Keiko." he slyly told her, the corner of his lips tugging up into a playful smirk.

"I don't want to promise you anything," she gritted her teeth, "You're manipulative and you imply that I would have the upper hand when in reality– I won't be even an inch close to freedom."

Taeyong licked his lips, his blue bangs loosely above his forehead as he went closer. Keiko tried to push him off her, but with her injured arm, she was weak compared to the power the mafia boss had.

Struggling to fight back, she tried to lift her leg up, only for it to be locked down by his knee. "I can give you the world, as long as you let me—"

"Don't fucking underestimate me!" she yelled and used all of her strength to push him, but to no avail, he won't even budge.

Taeyong chuckled, noticing her struggle and backed away from her, setting her free as his little laughs evolved into manic cackles.

"I'm so sorry, Keiko. But you just drive me so crazy."

—