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They came silently, melting out of the scant shadows like hooded spirits and materialising seemingly in an instant. They surrounded the three friends gathered at the outdoor table; convenience store food piled in the middle.
Seokju jumped up, turning quickly to face the newcomers. Yeona’s other bodyguards called out, but the figures didn’t slow in their approach. Soon, they were standing right outside the small fence that separated the convenience store from the street, blocked only by the bulky men. Clad in form-fitting combat gear under regular clothes, there was something off about them. Something dangerous, a confidence in their postures that could only come from experience. Seokju moved in front of Yeona. He knew what regular, run-of-the-mill gangsters and mercenaries looked like. This was something else.
Ijin slowly stood, then, and nodded at newcomers. They lowered their hoods and raised their hands above their heads. Seokju glanced at Ijin properly and froze. The ice in his gaze was like nothing he’d ever seen before, tension emanating from every inch of Ijin’s body. That was Seokju’s first clue that this might be bigger than he first thought.
There were two males and one female, each a different shade of blonde with pale eyes locked on Ijin’s. The older two looked a few years older than Seokju, but the youngest boy looked barely Dayeon’s age – a child. Who were they, and what did they want?
Seokju was about to call out to them, but then Ijin opened his mouth.
“I was wondering when you’d show yourselves.” Huh? Ijin’s voice was tense, but… not in a way Seokju had ever heard before. He asked that like he knew them, but Seokju had never seen these people before… wait, did that mean –
“Ijin? You know them?” Yeona’s question was met with cold silence. Then the girl spoke up, with a strong accented voice like shards of glass.
“We were going to wait, but we’re on a time crunch. You know we wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t serious.” Uh, what?!
For some reason, Ijin seemed to relax minutely.
“We found something.” The older blonde male spoke up. “We found ꂵꁲꂠ ꂠꂦꁅ. And if we move quickly, we might just be able to catch him.” Uh, what?! Was that another language? Yeona and Seokju were now openly staring at Ijin in complete shock. What the hell was happening??
“What? Ijin, what’s going on?” Yeona’s voice shook with the panic of the moment, but she was ignored once again.
“You’re sure the lead is solid?” Just like that, they were reminded of how little they actually knew about their friend. That stony tone, those hard eyes, the slight accent to his speech… where did it all come from?
“I found it, we each checked it over. It lined up.” The younger boy sounded so old when he spoke, and oh he has red eyes? Red eyes that spoke volumes of pain and suffering. Now that he looked, the four all had eyes like that. Far too jaded for someone their age. Ijin…
The older blonde continued. “We’re not asking you to come, it’s just an offer. You have a life now, something worth living for.” What was that supposed to mean? Why did it sound different when he said it?
“But?” Ijin said the word casually, as if it was a simple fact that there would be something else. The girl inclined her head in… acknowledgement?... of the fact.
“But he’s not alone. The others have agreed to join forces, so we can take him down. For good.” There was such intensity in those last words, a burning hate in her eyes that chilled Seokju to the bone. He wished he didn’t know what she meant when she said it like that.
What scared him more though, was the way it was instantly reflected in the eyes of the others…and in the eyes of the friend he thought he knew. Ijin, what happened to you?
“Here.” The boy tossed a small object towards Ijin, who caught it without looking. “That’s so you can find us. It’s got everything solid we have, plus anything we’ve guessed that you might find useful. It’ll tell you where to find us, if you decide to come.”
Ijin finally took his eyes off the three to look down at the small object in his hands. He turned it over for a second, glanced back at the boy, and tossed it back.
“Huh?”
“Don’t need it.”
Ijin took out his phone, put it in his bag, and gave the whole thing to Seokju. “Give it to Dayeon, tell her I’ll be back soon, and not to worry.”
“What?!” It was all going too fast for Seokju to react. In his growing panic, he automatically reached out and took it. A second later, he wished he hadn’t. It might have kept Ijin close for a moment longer.
“Wait, what? Ijin, what’s going on? Who are they? Who are you looking for?” Ijin looked towards Yeona, and for half a moment, Seokju had hope that he might give a proper answer for once.
“It’s safer for you if you don’t know.” Then he stepped towards the new three. “When do we leave?”
The older blonde huffed a laugh. “Always the efficient one, aren’t we? Don’t you want to give this a little more thought?”
“Yeah, this one…this one’s not going to be easy.” Red-eyes chimed in, glancing away slightly. There was something else in those words, some meaning Seokju wasn’t catching. But Ijin seemed to understand exactly what the boy was trying to say.
“All the more reason to come.” Something passed between the four of them then, something that left Seokju feeling both insatiably curious and sick to his stomach. “I left you once. I’m never doing it again.”
And before Seokju could even begin to process what that meant, Ijin had hopped the fence with a last wave over his shoulder to join the blondes on the street. Seokju had a second to appreciate how together they looked, how much they suited each other. How comfortable they looked? Not quite…
But before he could puzzle out whatever it was that was putting him off, they had walked away, melting back into the shadows and dissolving into darkness.
Seokju stood, entirely blindsided, along with Yeona, Ijin’s bag, and the bodyguards. All wondering the same thing:
Who was Ijin, really?