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-Teri


Chapter 10

Hyperial Tower
Apartment 1429
February 2nd, 2017
11:58 PM KST

Tick tock... tick tock... tick tock...

Art sat on her bed, occasionally glancing out the door, hoping that nobody was standing in the hallway, waiting to attack her. She continued to turn her head, her eyes slightly narrowed in order to hopefully scare any intruders. Her handgun in her hand, her phone in the other, she continued to look around until she was certain that nobody was there. She was alone in the apartment.

Besides, if someone was here, Seven would be looking out for me, right?

The entire apartment was dark, the curtains blocking the view of the city lights. The only source of light came from Art's room, where she was holding her phone, the brightness at its highest setting. She had the RFA chat open, although nobody was on, and she was constantly glancing at the time.

She had to admit it.

She was paranoid.

The faint sound of the clock was heard from her room, although the clock was hanging in the kitchen. She continued to listen to it, hoping that it would calm her nerves down in some way. Tick tock... tick tock... tick tock...

But it didn't.

She took a deep breath and looked back down at her phone again, loosening her grip on her handgun before sliding it back into her bag. She couldn't seem terrified. She had to act, and seem confident to the potential intruder in order to scare them.

11:59.

One minute until her deadline.

She tightened her ponytail, leaving her phone on the bed. Maybe this was a terrible choice. She could have done it in the cafe, and disposed of the cafe worker as well. Then, she wouldn't be stuck in this situation. This was new to her, not succeeding in a mission. And she knew perfectly well that the aftermath of her failure would be very new to her as well.

After all, she was usually the chaser. Not the one being chased.

She picked up her phone again, brushing imaginary dust off of the sheets. She shivered slightly, closing her eyes, before reaching for the lamp and turning it on. The warm glow of the lamp filled the room, making Art smile, just a little bit. For some reason, the light comforted her a bit.

She didn't know what happened in the past few days. All she knew was that she entered RFA, and somehow, just somehow, fell in love in less than three days. That was impressive. Very, very impressive. She didn't even know what caused her to fall in love with Luciel.

Was it his laughter? His jokes? Or maybe... what happened in the cafe?

"Sweetie, wait. This might come as a shock, but he has something for you."

"What's that 'something'?"

"It's called feelings, little one. He has feelings for you, and I know you do too."

The conversation with the cafe owner scared her. She had feelings for him. And he did too.

But could she live a normal life if they actually did get together? She knew the answer to that. They wouldn't. The penalties for leaving ANY was death, and she assumed it was the same for SPA. The only way she could leave peacefully, without being a target, was if she decided to retire at the age of 40. But even then, ANY would always keep track of her moves. What she said. What she did.

Her phone vibrated multiple times. She looked down at the screen.

Jumin Han has entered the chatroom.

Jumin Han: Oh, hello Art. Have you seen Assistant Kang?

Jaehee Kang has entered the chatroom.

Jaehee Kang: I see you were looking for me, Mr. Han.

Jumin Han: Yes, I was.

707 has entered the chatroom.

Zen has entered the chatroom.

Yoosung has entered the chatroom.

Art: Hm, full house.

Zen: Art?! You're still up?

Zen: A pretty lady like you should never be up this late.

Jumin Han: I was wondering if you finished the cat project.

Jaehee Kang: The cat hotel one? I did.

Jaehee Kang: I should have sent the reports to you yesterday.

Yoosung: Seven! I have a new Darius skin!

Art: Nice, Yoosung!

Art: And haha, don't worry about me, Zen. I have my own reasons for staying up late.

She looked down at her phone and managed a small smile. It was 12:00. Her deadline.

She felt... free, for some reason. Although, she didn't exactly understand why.

707: Guys!

Jumin Han: Yes?

707: I think we're going to have a slight problem here.

Art: What's wrong?

707: Um...

707: How do I explain it?

Jaehee Kang: Please hurry, Seven.

707: Okay, well... there's a security breach.

Yoosung: What?!

707: And we might face some problems...

707: Problems involving 224 new members?

Zen: WHAT?!

Jaehee Kang: What do you mean?

Jumin Han: Luciel, I want an explanation.

Art nearly dropped her phone as soon as the vibrations came.

She did her best to scan the lines, but as soon as one appeared on the screen, it immediately disappeared because of the sudden influx of people. She let the phone vibrate for a while, occasionally seeing the members start screaming their heads off (or texting their heads off? She wasn't really sure). Finally, the vibrations stopped and she glanced at the names.

498 has entered the chatroom.

576 has entered the chatroom.

727 has entered the chatroom.

738 has entered the chatroom.

These numbers...

She could connect these numbers to faces. She knew exactly what these numbers meant.

They were agent numbers.

Zen: SEVEN!

707: I know, I know;;; I'm trying.

707: Someone call V

Jumin Han: I will.

Yoosung: Hackers! So many hackers!

294: what is this

812: I dunno; its so strange

Yoosung: THEY'RE SPEAKING!

Yoosung: Seven!

707: talk later;hacking

707: theyall come fromsame place?

Jaehee Kang: Who are you all? Where do you come from?

Jaehee Kang: Are you all related to the hacker?

Shit.

Art knew that something bad was going to happen, but she didn't know that her entire agency would suddenly join the RFA chat. She wiped a droplet of sweat from her forehead and watched as her phone was suddenly greeted by a bunch of vibrations.

306: who r u all?

512: What are we doing here?

512: Who the hell are you?

035: stay calm, all. stay calm.

104: How can we stay calm? We can't delete this app!

712: Why are we here?

Jumin Han: Be quiet and stop shitting around.

192: ohohohoho scary

Zen: What are you all doing here?!

Jaehee Kang: I agree. What are you doing in this chat?

491: OMG ARE YOU ZEN?!

408: IT IS

491: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

491: I LOVE YOU!

Zen: Thank you; I know I am beautiful.

Zen: But this is not the time;;

She sat there, hunched over her phone, her hands frozen, her eyes wide. Why? Why did this have to happen?

Her phone continued to vibrate, all of the people in this chat clearly panicking. She kept track of every single number that was speaking and then realized.

Jitae was silent. He was, in fact, the only one silent.

The messages continued to appear and disappear before she decided she needed to do something.

Art: Guys.

129: We need to solve some issues here!

Art: Guys...

961: What are we doing here?!

Art: GUYS!

Art: I INVITE YOU ALL TO SHUT UP.

Art: I WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING.

412: What are you doing here?

812: Yeah, what are you doing here, 144?

Zen: Art... you know these people?

727: Let her explain.

Art read the number over and over again, thinking that maybe she read the number wrong. However, she knew who that number was associated with. Jitae.

192: What the hell can she explain? That she's a traitor?

707: A traitor? Art... what does he mean?

192: She betrayed us. She failed and now we all have to deal with the consequences.

192: Thank you, Art. Thank you so, so much for not doing anything.

Jaehee Kang: I recommend you do not attack our members like that.

Jumin Han: I agree. Stop, 192, whoever you are.

Yoosung: Seven! How is it going?

707: I'm trying to pinpoint their location but someone's stopping me

Art: That would be all of them trying to stop you.

192: Yes, all of us are. Thanks again for doing nothing. Thanks again for bringing us here!

727: 192, I kindly remind you that your job is at risk.

727: I also kindly remind you that I can let her make you as a target.

727: Let her explain.

He didn't have to explain who "her" was. Everybody knew who she was, since word spread around the office quickly.

But Art sat there, still frozen as she stared at her keyboard. What was she going to say?

"Oh, hey guys, I'm a secret agent for ANY that was hired to kill Luciel except I sorta fell in love with him instead!"

She couldn't just do that. She looked at the chatroom, expecting more and more messages to suddenly pop up, before noticing that the entire chatroom went silent. They were probably waiting for her to type something with her shaking hands. While she didn't want to type anything and just leave, she knew that if she just left, the entire chatroom would be thrown into chaos.

Hackers and agents against a group of defenseless people.

Except for Seven, of course.

She had to do something. She took a shaky breath and began to type, her hands continuing to shake.

Art: Thank you.

Art: My number is 144. I am more commonly known as Art. And I am an agent for the Agency of New York, Group 2.

She stopped there, giving them all a chance to react. However, she continued to type once she was greeted by dead silence. Was it the good type of silence? Was it the bad type of silence? She didn't know, and maybe, she didn't want to know.

Art: I was asked to eliminate Luciel Choi without dragging too many people into this situation.

Art: Except, I failed.

V has entered the chatroom.

Art: I came to this apartment because of a little tip given to me by Unknown. How this address would be connected to Luciel's, in some strange way.

Art: And I came to realize that it was. It was connected because of this charity group, RFA.

Art: Maybe I made a mistake, I don't know. It seems like a mistake to you now, but to me... it feels right. I think I'm doing the right thing.

192: The right thing?! You think you're doing the RIGHT THING?!

298: yeah i agree. this isnt the right thing, art

Art: You guys... don't understand.

Jaehee Kang: So what you were saying is that you were sent here to kill 707?

Art: Yes, I was.

707: ...

707: These 224 people...

707: They're all from ANY?

V: I believe so.

Yoosung: V! You're here!

Zen: V!

Jumin Han: Hello, V.

471: Who?

Jaehee Kang: Hello V!

V: Hello. I see that we seem to have an issue here.

Art: Yes... we do. I'm sorry.

192: Is all you can say "I'm sorry"? Is that it?!

192: If you just picked up the knife and just stabbed him...

707: ...

192: We wouldn't be here now!

Art read the last message, over and over again to herself. She was starting to rock back and forth, back and forth, unable to contain her frustration.

They didn't understand.

She didn't know what she was feeling, too. Frustration was definitely one of them. Guilt was also another. But she felt so much more than just those two, although she couldn't connect those emotions with words. She was holding the phone so close to her face that the screen was even starting to fog up.

V: 192, please calm down. Nothing will be solved if you keep screaming.

727: I agree. Thank you, V.

Hm. V and Eric... they would actually probably get along quite well.

192: Calm down?! I can't calm down if we suddenly have an app that we can't delete.

192: What's going to happen now, hm? A sudden code blue because of some threat from the same person that asked you to kill him?

192: You were given such an easy job, Art.

192: So easy...

She nearly screamed. It wasn't easy. Not at all. It was one of the most difficult missions because...

Art: Try calling it easy if you've accidentally fallen in love with him.

Dead silence.

Nobody dared to react to her statement. Nobody. None of the agents, none of the RFA members, nobody. Just silence.

This was strange to her, because she could even feel the silence and tension in the air, even though they were all so far away from each other. So far away, and yet, she could tell what they were all feeling.

All the frustration and anger from before dissipated, leaving her alone with guilt and shame.

Art: I-I'm sorry. I said too much.

Art: I'll delete the app or something... I'm sorry. It's all my fault.

Art: And - I promise - I'm going to fix it all.

Art has left the chatroom.

She put her head in her hands and wiped the tears that she didn't notice were there in the first place. She knew that ANY would never let her back into the agency without killing her. She knew that, probably, RFA wasn't going to accept her after this incident.

She was all on her own now.

And that hurt more than anything else.

Her phone vibrated, and she looked up, the tears all wiped from her eyes and face. Trying her best not to cry any more, she reached for her phone and took a look at who sent the messages.

Was it the chatroom? Because if it was, she would ignore it.

She blinked a couple of times, reading the notifications.

It wasn't from RFA.

The person, whoever it was, directly messaged her. She knew exactly who the person was.

It was Unknown.

Unknown: All your fault.

Unknown: All you had to do was stab him, hm? You could have done it in the cafe. Easy.

He knew.

Unknown knew that she was in the cafe with Seven. So how much more did he know? How much did he know about ANY? How much information did he have access to? Art felt her head spinning as she tried to process this information.

Art: I could have. You wouldn't understand, though.

Unknown: Tsk tsk. You fell in love with him. What is there not to understand about the situation?

Unknown: You fell in love with your target. That is something to be ashamed of.

Unknown: You're an agent. You should know better than to love.

She took a sharp intake of breath. He was telling her what to do.

How to be an agent.

How to be a proper agent.

How bad love was for agents.

She couldn't stand this. She didn't want to have someone else trying to control her emotions or feelings.

She felt all the stress and tension from before, as well as the sudden frustration she felt, cause her to snap.

Art: You can't relate because you've never been loved. Nor have you ever loved anyone.

Art: You can't relate because you're probably one of the coldest people in the world.

Art: Going after a charity organization. An organization dedicated to helping all.

Art: You should know better than to hate on harmless groups.

Unknown: Ha! You're telling me what to do?

Unknown: RFA isn't as harmless as you think. There are secrets hidden behind it... evil secrets.

Art: What the hell do you mean?

Unknown: You're not in the position to ask questions right now.

Unknown: Remember that everyone: RFA, ANY, you...

Unknown: You're all at my mercy.

Unknown: Get some sleep, little bird.

Art: Why? And why do you keep calling me "little bird"?

Unknown: Oh, don't worry.

Unknown: Just know that today's going to be a long day for you.

She locked her phone, putting it on the nearby drawer.

Today's going to be a long day for you.

What the hell did he mean?

She put her handgun right next to her phone, putting the blanket over herself and trying her best to sleep.

Her heart was still beating quickly. She was still sweating, just slightly. She knew she was still shaking, and that tears were trying its best to not spill from her eyes. She closed her eyes in hopes of containing the tears, and in hopes of sleeping as soon as possible.

The phone started to vibrate nonstop again.

She turned so that the back of her head was facing the phone, and curled up into a ball under the perfectly white sheets. She wouldn't touch her phone. She couldn't join the chat again.

She didn't want to make their lives even more miserable than it was already.

Besides, she couldn't do anything. She was helpless.

All she could do was watch.

Watch as everyone suffered.

Watch as everyone died.

Watch as everyone left her because of her actions. Her emotions.

But...

She opened her eyes wide, seeing the bright light of her phone illuminating the ceiling. They were still a little damp, but there seemed to be a sparkle in them. She blinked a few times, smiling just a little bit.

What if I could do something?