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chapter 48 : keep your
chin up, we got your back

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this was stage one. mingi and san followed discreetly like ninjas behind yeosang and the disguised hongjoong. their mission was to send hongjoong off with kaiga, then hongjoong would attack him with backup from the others.

meanwhile, jongho and wooyoung were tasked to monitor the surroundings. kaiga could always prepare a trap or an escape plan to trick ateez, so they were on the lookout. lastly, yunho stayed with kyunghee in the large car to protect her while yeosang was doing work.

so the whole mission began as yeosang and hongjoong walked up to the yoshikawa's house and knocked on kaiga's bedroom window. kaiga was prepared for them, and opened up right away.

"i see you brought my precious kyunghee." he nodded. "give her over."

"first, where's seonghwa?" belligerently, yeosang asked.

"he's in the guest room. give me her first, and i'll grab your friend." kaiga tried to persuade them, but yeosang shook his head.

yeosang told him, "i'm not dumb. we'll switch off at the same time."

"fine." kaiga nodded. "i'll be right back."

in the car, yunho and kyunghee sat next to each other silently. she played with her thumbs in a ft of nervousness, not knowing how else to calm herself.

"i hope they'll be okay. i hope seonghwa's okay." kyunghee softly told yunho.

he shrugged, "don't worry. it's park seonghwa, he'll be fine."

with a shard of hope, kyunghee nodded back and closed her eyes, beginning to soundlessly pray.

kaiga returned with an ill-looking, bruised seonghwa. he didn't seem his usual self, and that made yeosang shudder.

but without word, hongjoong used the window to enter kaiga's room, and yeosang had to help seonghwa exit.

"our work is done. we must never speak of this." was what kaiga finally said to them as he shut his window. god knows what he was going to try on "kyunghee" now.

san and mingi emerged from their hiding spots and approached them. their black outfits hid them well in the dim moonlight.

"let's enter through the back window." san suggested.

mingi nodded, "let's give it a second. hongjoong might be acting for a while. yeosang, get seonghwa in the car fast... he doesn't look too good."

then, yeosang nodded, supporting seonghwa with his arms and facilitated him to walk. seonghwa, being starved all of that time and occasionally hurt by kaiga and others from cloud 9, he became weak.

seonghwa wasn't one to get hurt easily. he was a tough guy, being a gang, enduring family problems, and all. somehow this was different for him. maybe it was because he had gone too soft.

they opened the door to the car. at that moment, kyunghee and seonghwa locked eyes monumentally. she gasped and covered her mouth quickly, staring at him in awe.

"seonghwa," she called his name and wrapped her arms around him as soon as he got into his seat. he managed to put his arms around her loosely, almost struggling due to pain.

a faint smile appeared on seonghwa's face as he fainted. her face dulled, looking over his pale state and squeezing his hands.

yunho told her before she would freak out, "it's okay, kyunghee. he's been through a lot and he's hungry. we'll doctor him up as soon as we get out of here."

"he fainted. help him!" a worried expression crossed her face.

yeosang nodded, "when he wakes up later, we'll help him. for now, it's probably best if he's unconscious so he won't hurt as bad."

wincing at the unsettling words, kyunghee sustained a nod. she looked away from her boyfriend, though she still held his hand, unable to see him like that.

san and mingi unlatched the back rightmost window of the house. they both gave a thumbs-up to wooyoung and jongho, who were acting as scouts.

they silently moved though the house. at kaiga's door, they swung it open violently, clutching their personalized weapons.

but the sight they saw was not one that they anticipated or wanted in the slightest. hongjoong was pinned against the wall by kaiga. also, his gang members were gathered around, either ready to attack or they were going through hongjoong's belongings.

kaiga evilly chuckled as he saw the two enter, "your plan didn't work, did it? try harder next time."

san spun the handle of his dagger and waited to pounce. mingi crossed his arms, "maybe we will."

he finally let go of hongjoong's neck, the poor boy dropping to the ground and gasping for air like a fish. hongjoong tried to reach for his own glock, but kaiga was too quick.

now kaiga wielded hongjoong's only weapon with a smirk on his face. san and mingi scowled then lunged forward.

mingi attacked kaiga with a police-grade baton, holding him down on the floor with all of his might. conversely, san went forward to the five members of cloud 9 who accompanied kaiga.

san and mingi fought to their greatest abilities, but it was too difficult. unfortunately, cloud 9 had upgraded their combat skills since the last time ateez encountered them. they were both down, fighting back now.

then there was a knock on the door amongst the noisy bustling of their fight. kaiga and his members paused, still restraining san and mingi, and stared at the door.

a sugar-sweet voice of a girl called on the other side of the door, "may i come in?"

"who is that?" one of the cloud 9 members worriedly asked.

hongjoong strained his voice to say, "it better not be kyunghee..."

kaiga assigned his guys to hold down the three ateez members while he would open the door. hesitantly, he opened it and laid his eyes upon four gorgeous girls in pretty pastel skirts and ruffled tops.

"hi, i'm yang jangmi." one of the girls with long chocolate-brown hair said. suddenly, she unsheathed a customized pink wakizashi, a short samurai sword. again, jangmi giggled as the rest of the girls grabbed their weapons of choice too.

there was no time to speak for kaiga, as ryeo eun, who double-wielded knives, ran towards him and attacked. in a matter of seconds, they were all battling cloud 9, and succeeded. mingi, joong, and san were astonished at how quickly the girls had beat them.

white wings was there to save the day. mingi, san, and joong chuckled in disbelief, finding the strength to keep fighting. they got up, and tried to help where they could.

eun shook her head and commanded them, "we got it. go take care of yourselves and we'll be there in a second."

nodding, the three boys ran out, letting white wings do their thing. the sound of flicking sharp blades and lots of footsteps were heard as they escaped off to the black car.

but they stopped abruptly when they saw little kyunghee, clad in a black. she was carrying one of the shorter swords that jangmi lent her as a welcoming gift and running towards kaiga's house.

she had already entered the front door when san shouted in terror, "no, no, no, kyunghee!"

he was going to run after her, but yeosang from the car told them, "she's been training with white wings for a while, let her have her fun. and besides, eun would never let her get hurt."

they hesitantly nodded, "you sure? it's kyunghee we're talking about..."

"i'm sure. she's a lot tougher than she seems. she's seonghwa's girlfriend after all."