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"You do realize... I don't have to go right now?" Mari said, her tone light as if she was too cautious she might somehow hurt Hongjoong. It was the day after yesterday and the two were sitting on the patio sofa of Mingi's backyard, the same place Mari had escaped to in the middle of the night to get her mind off of things. Hongjoong's head was resting on her shoulder, his eyes closed and his arms crossed as he attempted to relax there. The boy seemed stressed, an emotion she never thought would dawn the optimist's face. "I know Mingi had already stalled for you by saying I was going home later today... but if your dad makes you that uncomfortable I can always stay longer."

"You're fine, don't worry," Hongjoong refused, lifting his head up slightly from her shoulder as he thoughtto himself before speaking again. "I mean, you sounded rather stressed about your own problems, that being you had ran from your friend without letting anyone know where you were. I'm sure your own father is probably worried so I shouldn't keep you held up here any longer than I already have."

"Yeah but he can wait," Mari urged, forcing him off of her shoulder completely to turn face to face with him. "I haven't thought of an excuse to give him either... nor how to start a conversation with Wooyoung after our argument. So this would just help me think about what I'm going to say."

Hongjoong snorted, a half hearted smile playing on his lips. "Yeah, like you haven't had an entire four days to think about what you were going to say to them. We've been distracting you from the more serious questions you're trying to figure out since you arrived. Who says we don't just do the same thing again?"

"Because all I need to do is bat my eyes at you a few times and say please and you'll leave me alone," Mari explained, a smirk growing on her face. "You either fall for my charms or become so disgusted by them that you'll leave me alone."

"Touché." Hongjoong shrugged, finding reason in her words. "But I'm being serious, Mari. You haven't be able to contact your family or your friends at all due to the fact that you have no phone. They're probably worried sick, they might think you're actually kidnapped or worse, dead."

Mari rolled her eyes at his warnings, clearly not taking him seriously. "Oh please, if they really believed I was dead, there would be a lot more chaos ensuing right now. My friends can easily convince my father that I'm alive and well, I don't kick the bucket that easily. I'm like a diamond, you can only scratch me with another diamond."

"Still," Hongjoong insisted, taking out his phone and holding it out to her. "At least call them and tell them you're coming home and that you're okay. As much as I like teasing your friend when he isn't here to defend himself, I know he's got to be awfully worried about you."

Mari stared at the phone handed to her, reluctant to take it out of his grasp. "You said Wooyoung is your close friend, your childhood friend even? There's no way he's not reeling at the thought that you might have gone missing somehow without having apologized for your fight. Your father may be fine with whatever they convinced him with, but your friend definitely isn't going to be."

The girl unwillingly took his phone, biting her lip as she stared at the black screen that soon illuminated her face with its bright light. If only she knew San's phone number by heart, maybe she could possibly get away with avoiding Wooyoung for just a little bit longer. "You know I'm only doing this because you told me to, not because I actually want to." She spoke, giving him a hard stare when she looked up from his phone screen.

"If your friend is as strong as you say he is," Hongjoong taunted, resting his head in his hands as he watched her. "I would rather not piss him once he finds out I've been keeping you hauled up at my friends house for longer than I need to be."

"I thought you weren't afraid of him?" Mari asked, raising a brow at the boy's words as she unlocked his phone to reach his contacts. "Suddenly change your mind about there being "more than what meets the eye" huh? That was rather fast... it only took a few days for you to go back on your word."

"I didn't go back on my word," Hongjoong hissed, "I just don't want your friend to try and fight me when I take you home. I'd like to return back to my own room without scratches from a jealous boy's cat fight with me."

"Touché Hongjoong..." Mari mumbled, a small smile playing on her lips as she dialed her friends phone number. "I wouldn't say that I'd like to see a fight like that between the two of you because I think it would be funny... but then I'd just be straight up lying to you. And you wouldn't like me lying would you?"

"I thought you'd never return, Mari," Yeosang greeted, a knowing smile on his face as he stood in front of the Seo Manor doors. The girl closed the door to the Rolls-Royce between her, rolling her eyes at the boy's words as she approached him. Hongjoong had dropped her off unwillingly at the playground they had first found each other in and had practically begged her to let him take her the rest of the way home. He clearly didn't trust her being alone at the moment, seeing as the last him she was going unsupervised she was almost kidnapped and killed.

The girl had to reassure him that now she was on familiar grounds, meaning that no one would try to hurt her now that she was in her own territory. The Seo Faction had the area around the manor on complete lockdown, if anyone tried to harm her there then they'd meet the business end of a semi automatic pistol. Of course she didn't tell Hongjoong all of that information, it seemed like enough information to make her seem skeptical in his eyes.

Plus, Mari had remembered Yeosang's phone number in a clutch moment when she was still at Mingi's house. She ended up calling the consigliere's son and asking him to send her a ride back to the manor so that she wasn't alone for good. The girl didn't want to walk all that way back to her home and she would be lying if she said she wasn't slightly paranoid of another attack when she was alone.

"Five days of being away from the faction... that's a new record, completely smashing the old record of one singular night," He teased, trailing behind Mari as she opened the doors of the manor. There weren't many people inside of the building, just a few men scattered about the area in their own little factions of people and carrying out their daily lives. She must have arrived on a slow. When Yeosang realized she wasn't going to respond, he cleared his throat to continue on with the more important business.

"Wooyoung covered for you while you were gone. I don't know what the reason he made was, but whatever he said was good enough for you father to take and leave you be." He informed her, holding his hands behind his back as he caught up and stood next to her. "I haven't told your father what you said on our call due to Wooyoung's fib being in place at the moment, so I haven't done any background checks on the women you asked about."

Mari nodded his words, taking in the somewhat serious atmosphere so she could focus on her task at hand. "Her name was Jung something... Jung Chaeyeon I believe. She claimed to be a Caporegime for the Kim Faction and threatened me with her position of power. I think she works directly under the rival faction's head leader, seeing as she said she was taking some sort of orders from him to seek me out and had that same group from the Utopia under her wing."

"What'd I tell you?" Yeosang questioned, giving her a side glare as he began to think to himself. "You have a target on your head, an even bigger one than I had expected. Leaving the manor the way you did almost got you killed, though I won't lie it did give us some more information to go on to uncover some of the mysteries about the unit the Kim Faction has put together."

Mari turned to Yeosang with an intrigued glint in her eyes. She had assumed by now that the Seo Faction would have found and revealed tons of mysteries surrounding the Kim Faction's unit. The Consigliere's son pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, as if all his past stress began to pile up on him. "We haven't gotten any new information on the group despite the numerous and thorough searches we've conducted. The Kim Faction has hidden their information on this unit very well, it might not be documented in any way in order to keep us away from them."

"So you don't even know how many of them there are?" She asked him, and the boy shrugged his shoulders in defeat. He seems utterly clueless on the subject. "For all we know there could be an entire army of them preparing themselves behind the Kim Faction... and the mere fact that I seem to be their current target is even more worrisome than I'd like it to be."

"For now," Yeosang continued,"I've placed that on the back burner, though hopefully the information you gave me will help my investigation with the intelligence team. Our current plan of action is infiltrating a place called The Wonderland, as some of our associates reported that they've spotted Kim Faction members slugging around that area but aren't clear on what their intention of being there was."

Mari groaned, letting out a deep sigh at the mention of a skeptical building. "Another infiltrate and disrupt objective? With the way the Utopia ended, you'd think my father would take a moment of rest instead of jumping right back into it again."

"Oh don't worry," Yeosang reassured her, flashing her an oddly warm yet teasing smile. "The Wonderland is a nightclub, no one under the age of twenty one is allowed in. So that means no minors are allowed to attend that mission."

"Mari!" A voice called, catching her attention almost immediately. At the top of the stairs stood a familiar young smile, waving his hands towards her in a friendly manner. "It's been a moment since I've seen you, hasn't it? Where'd you go? Every time I came over here with the Lee Faction, you weren't here."

"Jongho," Mari called back, pleased look on her face at the sight of the former fighter. He seemed to be in healthy condition after his round in the Utopia cages, his wounds healed significantly and his attitude taking a complete one eighty at the sight of her. "It's good to see you're doing well. What are you doing here at the Seo Manor?" She asked him as he hurried down the stairs to meet her.

"The Lee Faction stopped by for a visit again." Jongho answered,"When you were gone, the Lee and Seo Faction officially made a deal and became true allies with each other. It's a shame you missed it, it's the very first time the Lee Faction has ever chosen a side when it comes to the Seo and Kim Faction rivalries."

"He's right,"Yeosang backed him up, taking Jongho off guard for a moment. The last time the two had interacted with each other was when Jongho was being held against his will by Seo Faction. It makes sense as to why he's still just slightly hesitant around the Consigliere's son. "The Lee Faction is notorious for making extremely short time partnerships with others before ending them completely. They don't usually stick with one faction in order to keep themselves out of the rivalries that could ensue. But the Lee Faction made a long term agreement to become our allies. So not only is the Japanese Yakuza on our side, but so is the Lee Faction."

"Slowly, we're outnumbering the Kim Faction in terms of men," Mari nodded, acknowledging this potential lead on the opposite faction. "What about the Chinese Triad? Are they on the Kims side or are they still considered neutral when it comes to our affairs."

"No one knows," San's voice echoed through the all, making them all turn their heads towards the staircase to the upper floor. The boy stood there with his hands shoved deep within his pockets and a bright smile on his face at the sight of Mari. His facial expression was drastically different from the seriousness of the topic he chose to join in on. "No one in the faction can get into contact with the Chinese Triad. It's almost as if they're isolating themselves, even from the Japanese Yakuza."

Standing to the very bright friend of hers was Wooyoung, a rather conflicted expression on his face as his eyes landed on her. Mari returned the stare, not one to be flustered so easily despite knowing she exactly had any ideas on how she was going to approach him. She had made up so many scenarios in her mind about how this confrontation between the two of them could play out, she just didn't know which would leave them both in one piece.

San seemed to have picked up on the slowly rising tension between the two of them, his eyes darting between his two friends in slight worry. He nudged Wooyoung forward, as if trying to force him to take the initiative in the situation while he still could. Though the boy didn't budge from the position he was standing in, keeping god awfully strong eye contact and a stoic expression as he looked down on her.

"Wooyoung—" Mari called, taking one step towards him before the boy immediately turned in his heel and began walking in the opposite direction. The girl's hands squeezed info with a tight fist and groaned in frustration as she instinctively started chasing after him, abandoning the conversation she had started with Jongho and Yeosang. "Wooyoung, can we talk for just one second, please? I know you want to avoid this as much as I do, but I don't think that's going to help us right now."

Once she had climbed to the top of the stairs, San stopped her from going any further, grabbing her arm and making her face him. "Are you sure you want to do this right now," He asked her, a knowing expression on his face signaling that he was up to date on the current events. "Things have happened since you've been away, it'll just cause more unnecessary stress for everyone."

"If I don't do it now, it won't be done at all," Mari insisted. "I've had five days to think about how I want this to go down, and at this point I just want to work this whole ordeal out with him. I can't live with myself knowing that I said things that shouldn't have ever come out of mouth. I can't live with the fact that I've hurt my best friend, San, not anymore at least."

San seemed conflicted, his brain running through all the possibilities and outcomes of Mari confronting him the way she was trying to approach him. Though thanks to his other half of his brain cell storming off at the sight of Mari, he had to think a little harder than normal. "Well don't hurt him anymore then he already has been. It's been a rough few days for him and without your shoulder to cry on, I've become his tissue box."

Mari raised a brow in slight interest and worry, tensing slightly as she turned to face him. "What happened... while I was away....?"

"Two days ago, some of our men had reported back from a quick mission. The details of their mission isn't that important to the story, but it's what they found while returning back from their objective." Yeosang interjected, breaking into the conversation he couldn't help but hear. "They had found the body of a man, seemingly killed ruthlessly with at least one bullet to the heart and two into his chest, even scars of what seemed to be a power struggle. It was on the very edge of Kim Faction territory, so they were going to ignore it at first."

"Someone in the unit had identified the man's body," San spoke, his eyes unable to reach Mari's confused ones. "Due to their striking resemblance to Wooyoung. It was his father, Mari, even Wooyoung himself confirmed it. The Kim Faction had gotten ahold of his father and they murdered him."

"You're joking?" Mari questioned, her eyes widening as her brain processes the information she was receiving. She felt like she should be happy at the news she had received. Her childhood friend's deadbeat father who had already caused a good amount of trauma for Wooyoung had finally been rid of the world. If she was being honest, she was practically praying for him to be taken out some way or another in revenge for hurting her friend at such a young age. Thought preferably it would be under her foot instead of someone else's.

Yet even so, this was still Wooyoung's last family living member. And his life had been stolen by the same people who had taken his mother's life away as well.

Before San could even retaliate and finish his words, the girl had begun sprinting down the hallway Wooyoung had taken. "Mari, hold on!" The boy yelled, trying to run after her but ultimately giving up in the end. It's not that Mari was too fast for him to catch, but this was a very personal matter to both of them. Her childhood friend had lost the last remaining connection to his mother, and Mari wasn't even there to comfort him. Just a few days before that he had gotten into an argument with no apologies yet either. It was just terrible timing really.

Thankfully the boy hadn't gone far, so Mari was able to catch up with him rather quickly. Once she had caught up to him, she wrapped her arms around him without warning, nearly giving him a heart attack with the sudden back hug. "What are you doing?" He questioned, only making her hold him tighter in retaliation.

"I'm sorry," She mumbled, digging her nails into her arms as she held him tighter. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. If I hadn't gotten so heated in that argument, I wouldn't have said all those things and left. As much as I hate him for leaving you the way he did, maybe we could have stopped the Kim Faction before they slaughter your father. I know losing your mother was an extremely hard time for you and he was the last bit of your childhood you had left."

"Mari..." Wooyoung began, forcing her to let go of him so he could turn around and face her. Though she immediately wrapped her arms around him again, holding him as tightly as she'd fly away at any given moment. "It's okay, I'm okay."

"Don't tell me you're okay! I didn't even try and check up on you while I was away, I was too prideful to even try and see if something was wrong," She admitted, her voice slightly muffled thanks to her nearly burying her entire head in his neck. "I wasn't there when you needed me to be, and I'm never going to live that down. But it's alright, because I'm here now."

His arms wrapped around Mari as he started speaking, though his voice shaking with every syllable that escaped his mouth. "It's okay," Wooyoung choked out, digging his nails into his own skin as he finally accepted the sudden embrace Mari had willingly given him. "I don't even know why I care so much when he never did in the first place. It's just... ironic." He was trembling in her grasp, a sniffle here and there followed along by the quiet splatter of tears that fell from his eyes. "It's all just really ironic to me."

"You deserve so much more than what's given to you," Mari whispered, her heart aching at the sniveling and whimpering thundering in her ears. "I'm sorry, Wooyoung."

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hopefully domino will
be back on track now
that I've gotten the
motivation back! Thank
you for waiting so long
and remember to eat the
rich and that Black
Lives Matter :D!!