▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

C H A P T E R    T W E N T Y – S I X
➋➏

»They didn't agree on much. In fact, they didn't agree on anything. They fought all the time and challenged each other every day. But despite their differences, they had one important thing in common. They were crazy about each other.«
– Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

────────⊲❈⊳────────

(IMPORTANT: If you have difficulties remembering the storyline, I highly recommend reading the chapter titled "previously on" first. Now have fun with the 4k words I've written as compensation for my long absence.)

Present Time.

I didn't understand the world anymore. Even in a dream, I wouldn't believe that I'd be traveling with him again after all the events in the past; and that I'd even be sitting in the same car as him.

Fate apparently wanted it that way.

I remained silent though. For a long time.

To be honest, I had simply assumed that Taeyong would drive me back to the headquarters, which is why I didn't bother to ask where we were heading to. But after a thirty-minute drive, there was still no end in sight. In addition, I was really surprised when he came off the main road and drove along an abandoned valley path. There was absolutely nothing far and wide. No people. No trees. No buildings. No nothing.

"Where are you driving to?" I wanted to know.

No answer.

"Aren't we going to the headquarters?"

No answer.

"Are we even still in Seoul?" My voice became irritated. And surprisingly, that's when Mr. Big Boss felt like answering me.

"Maybe."

I sighed. It wouldn't work like that. I had no choice but to endure the ride quietly and hope to get back to Jungwoo and the others as soon as possible.

Next time I opened my eyes, I couldn't believe them. We were parked in front of an abandoned building next to nothing. It looked like a really old building, possibly constructed in wartime. Was this where Taeyong's gun arsenal was hidden? Or worse, dead bodies maybe?

Oh my God, is he going to kill me?!

I shut my eyes again. So stupid of me. If he wanted to kill me, he'd done it a long time ago. No need to waste his precious gas to drive me here.

"Wait here," was the only comment he made, before I heard him leaving the car and shutting the door again. I opened my eyes only to see how he entered the building.

What the hell is he up to again?

I sighed and unlocked my phone, only to see that there was no signal. Frustrated, I unfastened my belt and got off the car. We were in the middle of an empty road with a vastness of dried out green fields surrounding us. I wanted to run but where would I run to? How would I even know where I was going? The sun was setting, soon it would be too dark to walk on my own, and I would just end up lost or worst, I would become roadkill. Even if I always used to convince myself of being brave enough to do about anything, this was not one of those times.

I flinched when I heard something. Without a doubt the sound of the caliber .45 ACP.

Taeyong's precious babygirl, Colt M1911!

Wait here, my ass, I thought. I wasn't going to sit in the car and wait until our holy savior Lee Taeyong finished his shooting exercises and returned to drive me back to the headquarters. That's why I took matters to my own hand and made my way to that building that looked like a warehouse, but wasn't really a warehouse. I entered the same door Taeyong used before and looking inside, expecting to see him immediately, but the truth was I had to narrow my eyes to see anything at all. The light in here was very dimmed and artificial, the air was dry and dusty.

"Taeyong?"

I heard a loud clicking noise behind me. I turned back to see that the door was closed. I tried to open the door, my bare hands pushing against the rough surface of the door. It was all in vain. The door stood stubbornly in its place. A shudder ran through me. Trapped. I was trapped. I was confined within the walls of this place. I felt claustrophobic. A metallic smell hung in the air. It reminded me somewhat of the smell of dried blood. Inside, it was pitch dark, only the flattering artificial lights hung up from the ceiling.

In the shadowy gloom of the old warehouse, there was a silhouetted figure at the other side of the building, thin and unmoving. I crouched against the tin walls taking in shallow breaths, careful not to make a sound. After a few minutes, my curiosity was peaked. No-one could be that still, not even me. Even so, I slid around in the shadows until I was closer. Now that the figure was a foot away I saw that it was utterly white, even the eyes and its stillness was rock-like, inhuman. I could breathe freely now, it was just a mannequin; one of those dummies from the stores. I creeped out and stood face to face with it, I almost laughed. It was plastic, cold to the touch and it wobbled even with a slight poke. Then my eyes fell to the skinny arm, it wore a bracelet made of dried lavender flowers. Odd. I didn't like odd things, it never meant anything good. But when I turned there was a new figure, leaning against the exit, tall and muscular, male without a doubt.

"CARMEN, RUN!" I didn't know where his shouting was coming from, my ears only heard the echo from the walls, but hearing him being as panicked as now, meant that it could be a life and death situation. Almost at the same time, the man standing at the exit got something out of his back. No time to think, I slipped from my high heels (why couldn't I wear normal chucks to the business meeting with Mr. Nakamoto? Pretty sure, he'd like them, too), I turned around, knocked the mannequin down in the process and ran down the hallway. Then the silence was shattered by a bunch of shoutings and shootings.

My whole body was on fire. Chest heaving at a fast pace, legs burning as they screamed for me to stop as I sprinted, turning sharp corners as I nearly slammed into the wall. But I couldn't; I stopped running and it was the end for me. Right now, I needed to find a way to get out of this building.

A scream left my throat when I felt a hand wrap around my wrist, yanking me into a nearby dark room. It was quickly muffled by a hand clamping over my mouth.

"Shh," a familiar voice hushed me, making me reach up and grip onto the arm tightly that held me against his body. The place was a small, cramped closet, the only light coming from the hallway peaking through the bottom of the door.

Taeyong's grip grew tighter, the nearer the noises got. Loud running footsteps filled my ears, heart race picking up as I tried to hold my breath.

"Find them! Don't let them escape!" A man shouted from a distance and more footsteps ran down the hallway. One sound and it could be over for Taeyong and me. I straightened my posture, the two of us trying to press as close to the wall as we could. I could feel his heart pounding violently into my shoulder blade, his harsh breathing through his nose tickling my neck and I squeezed my eyes shut.

Then, nothing but silence. I was afraid to look, feeling Taeyong's hand slip from over my mouth he kept a secure arm around my body as he pressed his ear to the door. He scrunched his face in concentration trying to focus on the outside noises but yet there were none. Still a bit skeptical he quietly cracked open the door, peeking an eye out before sticking out his whole head to see the halls were completely empty.

"Come on," his voice was a whisper as his hand moved to grab my own, pulling me tightly behind him as we both slipped out of the closet. The halls were dark, the setting sun casting some rays of yellow and orange through the busted and dirty windows barely causing a path of view but it would give us two enough to locate the exit again.

Both of us moved quickly and smoothly, doing our best to avoid shards of glass and crumpled up papers and leaves. Who knew where the men in black were currently at. I went stumbling into Taeyong's back, hand gripping his shirt to prevent the two of us from falling over. I followed his gaze, eyes widening as I spotted the beard of 20 or so armored men at the end of the hall.

Taeyong urged me backward, taking two steps at a time as we moved towards the corner I just rounded. My body stopped moving and it felt as if the whole world went frozen as Taeyong's leather shoes let out a high pitch squeak echoing throughout the whole building.

Dozens of heads turned to look at the two of us, loud shouts and reloading firearms ripping through the air.

"Go, go, GO!"

I took off sprinting, glancing behind me to see Taeyong following closely behind. That familiar burning sensation rose again as we two pushed to move faster as the double doors came into sight.

Within ten feet away, the door on the right flew ajar and my body got flung to the side, the wind knocked out of me as I slid. Standing there was a man with a butcher's knife in his hand. Blood was dripping from the knife. My mind took a second to process what had happened, eyes staring in shock at the man quickly moving towards me with a tight grip on my ankle. Violently, I kicked at him, hands trying to reach for my handgun but every time I moved, the closer his knife got to my flesh. I flinched at the sound of a gun going off, blood splattering across my face and clothes, and the man's ear-splitting scream as I scrambled to get up with Taeyong's intense tugs, pulling me out the building and slamming the doors closed, whose locks he had shot through.

"Get me that stick!" I grunted as I picked up the heavy branch, helping Taeyong wedge it between the door handles tightly. I jumped back as men slammed into the glass, beating and shooting as the doors opened a smidge but quickly closed. My breathing was fast, trying to calm down my racing heart as I ran my hands down my face.

Taeyong turned towards me, grabbing my arm as he pulled me towards the car. He forced me to sit down in the passenger seat. He closed the car door, hurrying around to the other side of the car, casting a glance at the warehouse doors that thankfully remained shut. Taeyong tossed something that looked like a small package into the backseat, turning the heat on as he pulled out of the lot and onto the road again. Still panting, I focussed my eyes on the road in front of us. I wasn't sure what just happened, not sure where he was going, and not sure what exactly the plan was.

"Are you hurt?" He asked, side-eyeing me.

"Y-yeah." Speaking without thinking. I cleared my throat, realizing what I had just said, "I mean, No. No, I'm not hurt. I'm good."

He gave me an examining look, but at the sight of no blood, Taeyong finally breathed properly. "Good," he commented. "Siri, call Mark!" was the next thing he said, both hands on the steering wheel.

There's no signal, I wanted to say when the well-known dial tone could be heard. And only two seconds later, Mark picked up his phone.

"Yes, Boss?"

"What kind of motherfucker did the research?! It was a fucking ambush!" That was what Taeyong's ice-cold voice angrily shouted into the speaker, obviously startling Mark who didn't respond for a few more seconds.

"I..." Mark gulped.

"I don't wanna hear excuses, Mark. I'm sending you the coordinates," Taeyong clicked on the display of his dashboard. "Make sure our men hunt each and every one of them down."

"They're already on the way, Boss."

"And call an urgent meeting, I want everyone to be there," Taeyong ordered strictly.

"Okay, will do so."

I looked at Taeyong's side-profile, how he clearly seemed to calm down and pleased with Mark's answers. "Good, and assign Doyoung to withdraw the indictment."

"Against Jungwoo's and Cami's father? Alright." I frowned and mouthed a silent what? Taeyong only made a soothing hand gesture, and probably wanted me to ignore it.

"Oh, and Boss," Mark said on the other end of the phone call, "Another topic. I can't reach Cami, the last thing I know is she was at Vision's before storming off. But even the others don't know where she is right now. I might fear she quit the mission and-" I rolled my eyes.

Taeyong cut him off with a simple, "She's with me."

Absolute silence, except for the car's engine.

"She's with... you?" I could totally imagine what Mark's face looked like, based on his voice.

"I'm here, Mark. Safe and sound." I answered sighing, noticing Taeyong's gaze on my profile.

"Um... Oh... err, okay? T-That's err, that's good. Yes, I'm glad to hear that."

Now it was Taeyong's turn to roll his eyes annoyedly, "Spare us with your enthusiasm, I'm heading to the old HQ now. I want increased security measures, do you hear me?"

"Sure, I'll double them."

"Triple them."

"Yes, Boss!"

With that, Taeyong ended the call.

"What kind of indictment against my father?" I wanted to know, turning my upper body to him, studying his body language for any answer.

"Nothing you should worry about." I didn't even want to start with his impenetrable expression. Daredevil; the perfected version of Pinocchio.

"What do you mean nothing you should worry about? He's my father after all and I want to know what you accuse him with."

"It's nothing, Carmen. It's not the first ambush happening lately and I've suspected Jinseong to be the person behind it. Apparently my accusation is false, that's why I want Doyoung to withdraw it."

"How do you know?" I didn't know myself which question I had asked and which answer I wanted to hear: How do you know as in how do you know my father could be suspected or how do you know as in how do you know he's innocent?

His eyes went between me and the road while he was talking. "Today, I had you with me and both of us got attacked. If your father was behind the ambush, he wouldn't let them harm you."

I frowned. I felt as if I had fallen in ice-cold polar water and the thick mist that had clogged my common sense seemed to be clearing. The wheels in my head rattled again and I stared at him in disbelief.

"And before you ask how he could've known you're back: Your father monitors and watches your every step." Without taking his eyes off the street, Taeyong leaned forward with one arm and opened the glove compartment in front of me, revealing a dozen pictures of myself. Me in front of my apartment's window, me in university, me while grocery shopping, me in the park, me at my neighbor's dinner table, me... throughout the last two years. I gulped. "As you can imagine, he obviously knows you're with me right now. And like I said, if he was behind the ambush, he wouldn't let harm come to you."

I didn't know what was worse: That Mr. Paranoia Taeyong suspected my father of setting up an ambush? That my father had apparently kept me under surveillance for the past two years? That Taeyong kept those photos of me in the glove compartment of his own car? That we had nearly lost our lives not even ten minutes ago? Or that Taeyong had used me to test his dumb theory? He had intentionally taken me along the way because he was convinced that my father wouldn't do anything if I was there. But since we were attacked, he concluded that someone else had to be his enemy instead of my father. I had been just there to play the role of the subject.

"Taeyong," I pressed through clenched teeth and stared at him with anger, "you goddamned, superficial, horrible, arrogant...-" I instantly paused in my curses as he removed his left hand from the steering wheel and ran his fingers briefly through his ruffled, midnight black hair; with a superior smile on his face, he wanted to endure my insults as if he had been waiting for them.

I licked my lips, suddenly completely consumed by something. "Are you bleeding?"

He significantly raised an eyebrow and for a moment he seemed confused by the sudden topic change. He looked at me suspiciously, his eyes darting over my face, lingering for a moment on my lips, before focusing back on the road ahead.

I swallowed. His white shirt had visible red stains in the shoulder area, the spot getting bigger and making its grey patterns almost invisible; its pearl-white color slowly turned dark crimson, with a discreet, metallic scent. As red as bitter wine, maybe even darker the more the fabric soaked in the blood from his wound. Almost blackish.

"What'd you do?" Completely thoughtless and eaten away by my curiosity, I clasped his arm to have a better view on his shoulder.

"What the..."

He fell silent, seemingly completely perplexed and totally taken by surprise by my reaction.

"Tell me, did you get shot, you idiot?" I asked harshly, curling my brow.

Taeyong struggled, but I gave him no opportunity to protest. This time my grip was iron; I really felt like Hulk for a moment, because he seemingly couldn't free himself from it without letting go of the steering wheel.

"Show me. That must be bad if there's so much blood." I ripped open his shirt's buttons and gently pulled down the textile on his collar over his shoulder, careful not to hurt him and paused when I saw the bullet wound in his shoulder.

I was caught off-guard when I noticed the messily sewed stitches that had began to come loose, meaning it had to be an old wound. I was inwardly happy about the fact that he hadn't caught a bullet today. But the adrenaline must have reopened his stitches, which was rather suboptimal, considering he was the one driving. Damn, it was pretty long... and deep? Maybe. I couldn't say for sure, because there was already blood spilling from the wound again.

"Shit, what did you do?" A small trickle of blood made its way to his chest, but I reacted in a flash and carefully dabbed it with my sleeve.

"For heaven's sake, tell me." Slowly his cold silence made me angry. Had he suddenly mutated into one of the three wise monkeys from Nikkō, or why didn't he answer? As if an impenetrable seal was on his lips.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

As soon as this short, for him quite a typical sentence left his lips, a loud clap echoed through the quiet car, which made me involuntarily flinch. I gasped and a slight tingling spread on the back of my hand, until it, a few heartbeats later, passed on to an unpleasant burning sensation.

"Don't you ever touch me again, is that clear? It's none of your fucking business what shit did or didn't happen."

It seemed to me that the hold on my back, the strength from my arms and the wind in my sails had simply evaporated. I felt like standing in front of the cliff, fluttering with my arms like a madman to regain my balance.

"Fuck, I'm driving! The last thing I need now is a car crash!" He changed the subject.

I sat there, really feeling like the biggest idiot on earth, because I had shown genuine interest in his well-being.

It scraped so incredibly at my ego and made me feel pathetic and infinitely angry. Wasn't it unbelievably crazy that such simple words — such insignificant words coming from his mouth — triggered such an emotional turmoil within me? That wasn't normal. Hell, that wasn't normal at all.

I sighed softly, straightened my shoulders and tapped the imaginary dust off my clothes. No reason to panic. You ultimately learn from your mistakes, right? Should he ever have an accident, I'd make myself comfortable on the couch, enjoy the view with a bowl of popcorn in my lap and watch him die a miserable death. All good. Damn good.

"At least I show some empathy. Can't expect nothing from an insensitive manwhore, can you?" It was out before I could swallow it. And honestly, I didn't want to swallow it either; very bitter the taste. As if swallowing vomit again, when it had already climbed up the throat.

Anger flashed in his jet-black eyes. "Carmen", he growled and it sounded beyond normalcy. Animalistic.

Some strange goosebumps climbed up my back and gently brushed my arms. I shuddered for a moment, trying not to show that he had scared the hell out of me by his unnatural voice.

Finally, my own anxiety animated me to go further into it. I clenched my right hand into a fist and I stubbornly kept my chin up. "What?" I snapped, glaring at him indifferently.

"What is your fucking problem?" His raging voice tore me from my thoughts.

"My problem?" Extremely annoyed, I tapped my index finger on his right upper arm. He involuntarily tensed up his muscles. "You are my problem, are you even listening? You are arrogant and narcissistic and a promiscuous and manipulative man who has no regard for his sexual partners or the emotional value of his relationships. Damn, you are using me for your sick games you have with my father, although you know exactly that I'm only here to help Mark, and even make me feel bad for actually showing sincere interest in looking after your fucked up wound!" I reached out and slapped his injured shoulder, making it clear to him that that was exactly why I got so worked up...because I worried and wanted to help.

"Are you stupid?" He flinched when my flat hand hit his wound with verve. "You know what? And you are my problem." He seethed like a volcano; evidently a short moment away from breaking out. "I hate your annoying quirks that you always have something to complain about, and never listen and think you know what you're doing when clearly you don't." He ripped the bottom part of his shirt and squeezed the cloth against his wound. A deep frown drew in his side profile, lips were pressed together, forming a narrow line and again, his extremely tensed muscles came out. You could say what you wanted, but he had an incredible body.

Focus, girl!

"Oh really? My annoying quirks?" I made an exaggerated hand gesture. "Which one of us used to turn on every damn light switch he passed, huh? Bet you still do that. You probably think that some three-headed gnome crawls out of the darkness and attacks you to nibble on your spoiled ass, don't you?" I internally hit my forehead.

Great counter, stupid Carmen, brilliant performance. If this was a sitcom, you'd get applause for this one.

He was about to speak, wanted to retort something and I knew that he would break my neck with his next words because he seemed to have gotten at that point now. But one ringtone, too familiar to me, interrupted him before he could start: One of his allies who wanted to hear Taeyong's opinion on a specific assignment. With that our conversation was officially ended and I wouldn't exchange a word with him anymore; I knew only too well that this would be mutual. Instead, the idea in my head of resting my eyes a little sounded too pleasing. And before I knew, the little rest turned into a little nap.

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

to be continued.