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"I did as much searching as I could for you," Yeosang explained, handing Mari a manila file folder. She cautiously took it in her hands, examining the file closely as he continued to talk. "The Underboss was very adamant on keeping this information for himself, just in case any potential spies on the inside tried to figure out what we're planning. I was able to get my hands on it after talking to a few soldiers and associates that work closely with him, just make sure to keep this under wraps."

The file Yeosang had handed her was completely official, the mark of the Seo Faction stamped onto its cover in blood red ink. It was a deck of playing cards, though the ace card had been replaced with the figure of a viper on it. Just like the Kim Faction, they had their own insignia of sorts they used to identify themselves, but they didn't flaunt it around on accessories as the rival faction did. They only used it to make sure important information that came from the Underboss, Consigliere, or the boss themselves was authentic.

"And this is absolutely everything I need to know about those guys that attacked me at the Utopia?" Mari questioned him, standing in the doorway to her room. It had only been a day since the Utopia incident, where the fight club burned to the ground thanks to Kim Faction's destructive ways. She and her little trio had all escaped the warehouse before it finally collapsed on itself and burnt to a crisp, just barely without any more injuries.

Jongho had immediately been taken in by the Lee Faction the moment they reached the rendezvous point away from the chaos around the fight club. He was the most injured out of the distraction trio, sustaining several wounds from his opponent in the ring. Mari didn't even get to thank him for his continuous perseverance in such a horrible situation he had been placed in. The entire faction has surrounded him and their fellow harmed members in a quick frenzy, engulfing them into their ranks and quickly escaping the scene.

Mari and Wooyoung met up with San, who had been standing on the outside of the rendezvous waiting for their return. It would have been a cliche moment of them coming back together and apologizing to each other had Wooyoung decided to hang on for just a little bit longer. He had dropped his knees in a heartbeat, wheezing and coughing as he struggled to intake the clean air outside of the warehouse. The Underboss and a few other members of the faction came to his aid, helping him off the ground as he continued to cough.

He and Jongho both had been standing in the building without any protection on their faces, exposed to the fire and inhaling the fumes absentmindedly. They had held out for a while and most likely intended to make it look like they were fine until they were in private. Mari didn't know about Jongho's situation, but Wooyoung didn't last very long. They whisked her friend away immediately to try and get him the treatment he needed as soon as possible, leaving both San and Mari in the dust.

"Well... not everything," Yeosang commented, breaking her thoughts with his voice. "The group that had attacked you seems relatively new, the faction has never seen a unit like this come together to target one person like assassins. Plus due to the fact that you couldn't describe to us their facial appearances... we couldn't track them down individually. We currently only have small amounts of information that our intelligence team could actually find."

"I was wondering why this was so thin," Mari mumbled, opening her door wider so that Yeosang could enter. "I guess we have a lot to talk about then. Oh, and Wooyoung is here too but he's asleep so try not to be too loud."

"Wooyoung?" Yeosang questioned, his voice immediately adapting to Mari's request as he walked inside. He dug his hands into the pockets of his oversized jacket as he looked around for the said boy. "I thought he was supposed to be on the other side of the manor with the new doctors the boss hired? There is a makeshift hospital wing on that side until the new building for the injured is done with construction."

"Yeah I know," She shrugged, closing the door behind her as he entered. "He escaped in the middle of the night and ended up coming here asking me to hide him. I was too tired to say no so I let him in." When Mari turned to the boy, she caught him staring at her bed in slight disgust. That's where Wooyoung was, taking up half of her bed space by being sprawled out like a starfish. "I was worried when I first let him in since I didn't know if he needed any of that... oxygen mask stuff. But he jumped right in my bed and fell right asleep."

"This must be a normal occurrence," Yeosang questioned, leaning over her bed and poking at Wooyoung's face as he slept. The boy paid no mind to his pestering, his deep sleep unable to be disturbed. When he noticed that her friend wasn't going to awaken from his slumber, he shoved his hands into his giant jacket pockets and turned towards her. "Why would you let him in your bed of all things, just make him sleep on the floor."

"That's not what friends do, Yeosang," Mari responded, giving him a skeptical glance as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I've never made him sleep on the floor, even when we were kids. They were like... sleepovers that weren't really sleepovers because Wooyoung was practically living with us like he is now. We'd stay up forever just messing around with each other until one of us knocked out or my dad and mom would force us to sleep. It was... really nice."

"Was?" He questioned, opting to lean up against the wall instead of attempting to survive the mess that was her bed. "What do you mean was?"

"For starters my mother is dead and we don't know the exact culprit of the attack," Mari replied, sarcasm dripping off of her tone. She opened the file as she spoke, only finding a few papers inside with even less information on it. There were pictures of people from the Kim Faction clipped to the papers, either circled in red or covered in question marks. These must have been all the potential suspects for the new unit the rival faction had acquired. "But when we were kids, Wooyoung's parents were also around and it quite nice for kids in elementary."

She zoned out at the thought of the two as children, an immediate warm feeling in her chest. His parents were nice when the two were younger from what she could specifically remember. His father wasn't the most significant person on the planet, in fact, his entire existence was a blur to Mari due to him clocking out once he found the chance. Wooyoung's mother was really nice to her, in certain ways the woman reminded her of his personality. "Then everything just sorta... crashed down when we hit middle school."

"Are you talking about that accident that happened a few years ago?" Yeosang questioned as he began recalling some information that he knew. "I heard about it from the Underboss not too long ago while he was visiting the Kang Manor. I think it was in relation to your mother's death? Is there really a connection between the two?"

"No, there's no connection," Wooyoung answered, making the two turn towards him in shock. He didn't make a sound earlier to alarm her off his awakening, she assumed he was stuck in his deep sleep. How much did he hear? She could assume that he most likely heard the entire conversation, waking up the moment Mari left the bed to answer the door for Yeosang. "It's just an ironic situation that's all. I guess the Kim Faction just has an affinity for murdering mothers of children right? How funny is that?"

Yeosang gave him a strained smile, clearly unsure of how to respond to his words. The corner of Wooyoung's mouth curved into a smirk at the boy's hesitance before turning towards Mari. "I interrupted, I'm sorry. Please continue, this is such an interesting topic I just couldn't help intervene."

Mari glared at the boy's knowing smile, unraveling the folder so she could open it up again. "Thank you... now back to what we were talking about before we got sidetracked. Are there any current big leads that could help us learn more about them? I'm assuming the Underboss is going to try and copy their methods so that we don't get left behind in the dust." She questioned, moving the photos of the unfamiliar suspects on paper.

"Not exactly? It's hard trying to dig up information about them. We would have gone back to the Utopia to search for clues, but the entire place is down." Yeosang answered, attempting to soothe his head of whatever headache seemed to be arising. "The Kim Faction didn't leave a single thing behind, anything that could have been used as evidence to track them is gone."

"Well... if it makes you feel any better," Mari began, quickly skimming over the folder once more. There was nothing much of interest in the papers, it sounded like a police report summary in a way how it tried to disclose as much known information as possible. Wooyoung motioned his hands towards the folder, silently asking her to give it to him. She did so absentmindedly, her attention mostly being focused on Yeosang. "During the encounter, I had with one of them they got hurt from falling debris, he's probably still injured from the impact and flame. It was on his forearms... the right arm more specifically."

"I thought you said they were covered up completely to disguise themselves?" Yeosang questioned, recalling the information she had given to the Underboss after the mission.

Mari rolled her eyes, grabbing one of her pillows and throwing it towards his face. "Fire burns idiot. Part of the ceiling was burning and fell on him, I think that would hurt a lot and, I don't know, burn his skin!" Yeosang just narrowly ducked out of the way of her pillow, letting it hit the wall inside of his head. "You're supposed to be the smart one, Yeosang. Use your head."

"Hey... Mari?" Wooyoung asked, completely out of the blue. She turned her head towards him, meeting his gaze almost as immediately. He held out his arm and tapped to his wrist while a skeptical look on his face began to grow. "Where did this come from?"

"What are you talking about?" Mari snorted, glancing towards her wrist in confusion. Though she stopped moving at the sight of the tattoo on her wrist: the small sun, moon, and stars staring right back at her. "Oh. How'd that get there?"

The girl was practically screaming inside of her head, her brain going into panic overload at the sudden situation she was in. She had totally forgotten about the permanent tattoo on her skin, going about her life as if it wasn't there to begin with. Mari never gave herself the chance to tell Wooyoung and San about it due to the moment of chaos that had ensued not long after it. Her brain must have automatically assumed that they would have never noticed. "Mari, you don't just wake up one day and suddenly you have a fresh new tattoo on your skin."

"You have a tattoo?" Yeosang questioned, an annoying smile growing on his face as he spoke. He attempted to cover his face, hiding his laughter as best as he could. "You did that without your dad's consent? I'm surprised, I really am. I know you're rather assertive with yourself but this is a whole new level of confidence."

Mari glared at Yeosang, almost growling at him to back down out of the conversation. "Look, it's okay! I mean, you guys didn't find out till now, so my dad won't figure it out any time soon either. Recently we've been kinda distant so that makes my chances of surviving without a lecture skyrocket!"

"That's not my problem," Wooyoung argued, taking her wrist in his hand and pulling her towards. "I could care less about whatever your dad says or does. My problem is that you went out and did this without telling anyone, without telling me! When did you even get this? This doesn't look like it's completely brand new." He complained, trying his best to get his point across.

Mari thought about it for a moment, trying to get her numbers right. "It's been about... a full week now? I promise, I planned on telling you and San at one point but it just didn't seem like the time. Hongjoong coaxed next into getting one as some dumb coping mechanism—"

"Hongjoong?! The biker boy? You let a boy you've barely known for a month make you get a tattoo?" Wooyoung complained. Yeosang whistled in response, watching the two argue with each other from the sidelines. He seemed slightly assumed by their bickering but thankfully kept himself out of the situation. "Mari, are you serious right now?"

"What's your problem, Wooyoung?" She snapped, snatching her wrist away from him in retaliation. "I'll have you know it's been more than a month since I've met him! It's been.... like two months.... but that's not the point. Why are you so hyped over this whole ordeal, it's not even that serious! The tattoo isn't that big and Hongjoong for the same exact as I did. Are you mad I got my first tattoo with him? Are you jealous, Wooyoung?"

Wooyoung opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. He let it hang open for a moment longer, thinking about what he was going to say next before responding. "I am not obligated to answer that question. However, I don't understand how you can trust him so easily. You said you've known him for at least two months and you went and got matching tattoos with him? What if you end up falling out in the next week? Now you've got a stupid drawing on your arm that you can't even get rid of because you trusted some random stranger too much."

Yeosang winced in response to Wooyoung's words, averting his gaze from the two to keep himself out of the situation as much as possible. Mari couldn't help but scoff, irritated with her friend and trying to contain herself from saying something bad. "You know you're being a huge asshole, right now? That's okay, I'm done. It's whatever." She told him, turning to get off of her bed and snatching up a jacket that laid on the floor.

"Mari?" Yeosang questioned, stepping forward to try and talk to her. Though she only ignored him, grabbing whatever shoes she could find and making her way towards the door. "Mari, where are you going? You have a target on your head right now, leaving alone could get you killed. Don't walk out just because of some petty fight."

"Oh no, don't worry," She told him, reaching for the door handle and giving the boys a strained smile. "My safety isn't that important to Wooyoung. He's just jealous I did something without him for once. It's fine if I end up dead on the highway he won't care. He's too busy groaning about a tattoo I got with a friend."

Wooyoung's head dropped slightly, regretting his words almost immediately after he said them. "Mari, I didn't mean—"

"Don't talk to me," She quickly interrupted, not even sparing a glance at him as she waved towards Yeosang in a lighthearted manner. Yeosang glanced between the two with worry, trying to find the right words to say before she left. "If you need me, I'll be out and about in the city. Maybe I'll even hang out with Hongjoong since Wooyoung likes him so much. Tell Jongho I said hi if you see him by the way!" She laughed, digging in her pockets for her phone and immediately powering it off completely. "Bye Wooyoung, have a nice day. Tell San I'm gone." And with those words, she closed the door.

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Here's a short chapter as
a little break from the
very long last one uvu