SEIZED ㅡ chapter 09

"WHOA, WHAT'S TAKING THEM SO LONG?" dawon asked, teasingly wiggling his eyebrows making both hwiyoung and rowoon chuckle.

it has been over an hour that they've been waiting in their seats, talking to each other while they eat and watch inseong's coffee went cold.

now the shop's closing in ten minutes.

"i'm calling hyung." hwiyoung stated, searching for inseong's number and calling him.

with the empty café with no costumers, they could hear a familiar ringtone just at the other side of the door to where the waitress lead inseong.

they all exchanged confused expressions with each other as they listen to the ringtone play.

"should weㅡ" dawon stated but got interrupted when hwiyoung was already sprinting towards the door. "hwiyoung no- it's only for personnel-"

too late, he has opened the door.

rowoon and dawon quickly followed after him. hwiyoung completely swung the door open.

the locker room was empty and there on one of the benches was inseong's phone along with a piece of paper.

the three immediately exchanged a mixture of expressions. confusion, worry and panic.

hwiyoung hurried over to pick it up and read it out loud for the others. " 'see you in your next mi-mission. -v.' "

he stuttered, eyes shaking.

his eyes widen as his hands started to shake. "di-did..."

dawon and rowoon knew what that meant.

they have inseong.

               inseong's eyes slowly flutter open at the feeling of discomfort over his body. as soon as he started gaining his consciousness, cold wrapped around his freezing form.

he felt crammed, cramped and tense all over his body. he must've been staying in one very uncomfortable position for hours.

he slowly sat up straight, hearing some of his bones crack. he groaned.

"you're awake."

inseong's eyes quickly shot up to the direction of the voice that made an eerie echo. bright light from a lamp above him made him squint his eyes in order to see.

from the dark shadows surrounding the room other than his spot, stepped a tall man in and squated in front of him so they could look at each other in the eyes.

the man was young, younger than inseong. he was searching something in inseong's face. what? he doesn't know.
one thing was eye catching about the unknown man though, his eyebrows. they were pretty unique.

"who are you-"

"chancler, call for her." he interrupted inseong by telling a possible other man. this made the ranger to look at the direction of a footstep only to see a back of another guy then the closing of the big black door.

"how are you feeling?"

inseong brought his gaze back at the first man. he didn't speak but instead tried to comprehend what was going on.

"let me go." was what came out of the ranger's mouth.

the other man chuckled, "that won't be happening so soon."

"who are you?"

"i'm-" the first man was about to speak, only to be interrupted by the opening of the door. "there goes your answers." he said, standing up and backing away.

inseong averted his gaze to the sound of boots making its way nearer to him. it was way too dark to see who it was. the footsteps went louder and louder as it came closer.

then the ranger could see who it was now.
the waitress - no - victoria.

his expression immediately showed despise at the sight of her.

"you're awake." was her first words.

" i've been told." inseong retorted, earning a chuckle from her.

she stepped closer to stand in front of him, he had to look up to meet her eyes but he didn't.

"you know, i must say, i was quite impressed that you recognised me by my eyes." she started. "i've been told that you're extremely observant and i had to be careful around you so i wore this... mask.. to keep a low profile."

inseong looked up to her in confusion. what mask?

"watch, it's really satisfying." she told him, grabbing the skin of her chin.

slowly, she ripped it off her like rubber glued onto her skin. it was elastic and rubbery yet it looked real. inseong watched with wide eyes at the oddly satisfying sight. she took off the face of the waitress... off her face..

'what the fuck...' was what inseong thought throughout the painfully slow process. it was like a snake shedding off its epidermis.

along the prosthetic mask was the wig that shook inseong even more. he watched as she dropped the rubbery skin to the ground with wide eyes.

"cross out that girl mr. officer." victoria told him, making him look up to meet her eyes.

he was greeted by a new face. the same v shaped and ivory skinned lady from the masquerade ball, with dark red hair and golden hazel eyes.

"remember this face really well, so you'll know who to look for when you miraculously get out of here." she taunted.

inseong only stared at her in pure shock and awe. never has he met someone that looks like her. she looks native and foreign at the same time. the way her nose is tall and pointy, the way her almond - almost fox eyes look at his.

he must admit, she's strikingly gorgeous.

"mr. officer, i'll let you in our little game plan so heads up and remember everything i say." victoria started, knowing that it will somehow hurt inseong's pride. "tomorrow, troop065 and ranger93 will be at chiu's penthouse - without you. that mission will be.. successful."

inseong's expression scrunched up to a confused one.

"why? because she's not our target - atleast not this cult's. in other words, they'll be facing styna and your department will succeed."

"so?" inseong retorted, his shell clammed around him like protection to her words.

victoria chuckled. " 'so'?. so that means that if they succeed, they will not care about you and you'll be kicked out of the department - because you failed the last mission."

inseong is now understanding where she's getting to, he just needs one last missing detail.

"yes, your uncle is recovering."

"then you don't need me here."

"i wasn't done explaining." she immediately sassed at him, making him purse his lips and roll his eyes. "who said that your uncle's gonna completely recover?"

"who said that he's gonna live long enough to see you out of here?" victoria stepped closer.

she paused, lips curling to a taunting smirk.

"you see, he signed an interminable contract that only a remaining family member can take over the department. you're the only remaining one."

"no your wrong. my cousinㅡ"

"oh your cousin! aha- don't get me started on poor doyum. he hasn't contacted you for like half a year now am i right? can you guess what possibly happened?"

his eyes widen. realisation and hate slowly invading his emotions, making him feel aggravated and stupid.

"i'd like to report a murder mr. officer. it's kim doyum's case, found dead in his apartment in moscow, russia with stabs all over his body." her smirk grew wider and wider as inseong grew angrier and angrier. "date and time of death: august 22, 2018, 22:46."

she pulled a page of a newspaper. it wasn't in korean, but in russian. he understood nothing but the picture shows it all. a black and white photo of a body covered in blood.

inseong wanted to yell on top of his lungs so badly. he wanted to have an adrenaline rush and break out of the chains his tied up with - but he couldn't.

what would that do anyways?

he knew that they're lethal, but they know so much that inseong isn't sure if he'll be breathing the next day or what.

"i'm guessing you have a bit of an idea of what you're in the middle of right now." victoria said, her every word lessening inseong's hope.

victoria squatted a bit to level inseong just a bit over him to get that superior angle when she looks down.

"your uncle doesn't care about you, but why do you think he accepted you to the department?" she told him. "he knew that his son died and he needed you to be ready as soon as possible."

a faint sound of metallic crashing was heard outside the door. victoria stands up properly, before turning and walking away.

just before inseong could yell out her name again, another figure stepped in front of him.

"h-hwiyoung?" inseong's voice was shaking. "what are you doing here?"

hwiyoung said nothing but just stared down at his fellow ranger.

"n-no.." in disbelief, inseong leaned back in defeat and confusion. "don't tell me you'reㅡ"

it makes sense now.

i mean, he got accepted right after the masquerade ball incident.

"yeah. i am, hyung." was what hwiyoung said. his face straight and expressionless.

they looked at each other's eyes for a solid minute before hwiyoung broke it by kneeling down to look at inseong.

"hyung, i'm supposed to be arrogant and cold to you but you've been really good to me that you don't deserve it." hwiyoung started. "i'm just telling you that we have connections everywhere. one wrong move and a life is on the line. in this case, it's.... your grandparents."

inseong's eyes widen. h-how did they- no-he... know? inseong has never told anyone. not even rowoon and dawon know about his grandparents who are both in the hospital right now.

"so it's best if you cooperate." hwiyoung finished, standing up.

he turn away and walked out of the room dark room.

"it's for the best."

UNEDITED.