"What was Rika thinking?!" You hear Yoosung say for the umpteenth time. Zen stays quiet behind the wheels but you can tell that he was furious by the way his hands clench the wheel. You stay quiet in the backseat, mind still reeling from the events that unfolded.
Zen drops you off in front of your house and before you manage to open the gate, you hear the window being rolled down. You turn around to find Zen looking at you with an apologetic face, Yoosung leaning in with the same expression though it was mixed with fury.
"We'll try to talk Rika out of it," Zen promises you, and you nod and give them both a faint smile. You watch the car fade into nothing before entering the confines of your home. You tiptoe your way upstairs, careful not to wake your parents, and upon entering your room, plop down on the bed waiting for you. You close your eyes and try to sleep without bothering to change out of the dress but the events from earlier wouldn't leave your mind.
You wake up the next day feeling exhausted, the bags under your eyes more prominent than usual. You try not to think about what happened yesterday as you fix yourself up. You trust that Zen and Yoosung would clear up what must have been a misunderstanding with Rika.
By noon your phone rings and you pick it up to find Yoosung calling you. Biting your lip, your hands trembling, you swipe your thumb across your phone and bring it to your ear, letting out a nervous hello that you know wouldn't go unnoticed by Yoosung. You hear his voice on the other side of the phone and close your eyes as you pray for good news.
"I'm sorry," Yoosung begins. "Zen and I went back to the party after sending you off. We tried to dissuade Rika noona but…" he sighs before continuing again. "She's not really the type of person to be dissuaded easily. It's one of the qualities that made her leader of this organization."
You don't answer, tears gathering at the corners of your eyes. "Yoosung-ah," you whisper softly, "what's going to happen to me?"
The fear in your voice sent Yoosung on edge and he tries to calm you down but there was nothing to calm you down because your carefully planned out future is spilling like water and you cannot grab on to it no matter how hard you try.
You know that there was nobody else to blame but yourself. Yoosung tried to dissuade you from coming to that party but your curiosity won over every other sound judgment in your mind. You scold yourself for being curious, for not knowing better, for not staying away from that other life Yoosung didn't want to involve you in. You tell Yoosung that you need some time for yourself and end the call.
You try to keep yourself in check the night before Monday, not wanting to trouble anybody. You check yourself in the mirror to see if the stress of the situation is showing, and is satisfied to see that aside from the dark circles under your eyes, everything else seems to be in order.
You were your usual cheerful self at school, and nobody doubts the façade you've put up. Nobody except for Yoosung and Zen. Yoosung wouldn't stop looking at you with a frown on his face and Zen would send you text messages every chance he gets. It annoys you, even though you know they were acting the way they were because they worry about your well-being. You tell them to stop looking at you like a dead man and threaten to ignore them if they don't stop.
Alone in your room, you can't stop pacing around, chewing your lip and wondering what on earth Rika was planning to do. You can't bring yourself to ask Yoosung or Zen questions regarding the organization because in truth, there's still that part of you that hopes that everything was just a dream and asking either of them information about the drug syndicate would shatter that seemingly hopeless dream.
You sit on the bench alone one Tuesday morning, basking in the warmth of the sun. August was ending and with it, your hopes of a drug-free future. You fidget with your phone, thumbs hovering over the keypad. You received a message from Yoosung earlier telling you that Rika was asking for your contact info. You have no idea what Rika would want to do with your contact, but seeing as you're now a member of her organization, you expect that you'd be receiving important messages from her soon.
You concentrate on typing a simple reply that wouldn't give away your fear, and read and re-read the sentence before you decide that it was good enough. Your thumb slightly hovers above the send button and you try to calm your nerves before you send out the reply.
"Pretty sure he's waiting for your reply. Better hit that send button now." You hear someone say beside you, and you almost jumped out of your seat. You must've concentrated on your message so much you didn't notice when someone sat beside you. You turn your head to the right and see a mop of bright red hair over horn-rimmed glasses, with red headphones hanging on his neck. You remember him as the guy behind the bar that day of the party. Another member of Rika's drug syndicate.
"I never got to introduce myself," he said, offering one hand, the other grasping a can of Dr. Pepper. "I'm the Defender of Justice, Seven Zero Seven." You stare at his hand, and he lightly shakes it, telling you to take it. You reluctantly take his hand and introduce yourself. He gives you a grin and brings the can of Dr. Pepper to his lips.
Something inside of you snaps as you remember where you first saw Seven Zero Seven. The can of Dr. Pepper jogged your memory and you remember the coke thief. You point an accusing finger at him and narrowed your eyes. "You stole my coke."
He raises a perfect red brow and looks at you like you're about to go nuts. "Okay… if you say so. Sure." He says in that tone that suggests he thinks you're losing your mind. Before you argue any further though, his face turns serious.
"Anyway, back to business." He says, and you notice the change in his tone of voice. "Rika wants your contact, am I right?" He looks at you and you give him a little nod of the head. He fishes something out of his pocket and brings out a red phone and waves it at you. "Since you're now a member of the organization, she'd probably want to enter you to the organization's private chat. Open your phone. I'm going to send you the chat's apk." As he says this, Seven Zero Seven's thumbs fly over his phone screen. You do as you are told and install the apk once you receive it.
"From now on, if you have anything to say about the organization, say it here." He instructs you. "All business transactions will be sent directly to Rika's computer so make sure you do everything properly."
You stare at him, golden orbs clashing against golden orbs, and ask him, "What if I want out?" Seven Zero Seven raises an eyebrow again and he shakes his head.
"Has Yoosungie not told you?" He lowers his voice and leans in close to you. "Once you enter the organization, you can't get out. The organization's deeply tied to a bunch of VIPs not just in this country, but in the entire continent. The only way out would be to cease to exist."
The fear that has you prisoner ever since the party tightens its hold on your gut but you try not to let it show on your face. "Fine." You tell him, like the fact doesn't bother you one bit. "What do I have to do then?"
The redhead motions to your phone with his head. "Not sure what Rika would want you to do. She'd tell you herself in the messenger. My brother and I mostly handle the RFA's tech stuff by the way. So if you have any questions regarding the messenger, ask me."
Your eyebrows knit in confusion. "RFA? What does that mean?"
"Has Yoosung really not told you anything?" he asks back. "RFA stands for Rika's Fundraising Association."
"Fundraising?" You repeat, the word sounding foreign in your mouth. "What do we raise funds for?" You mentally cringe at your choice of pronoun.
"You'll see." Seven Zero Seven replies, standing up. "I have to go. I have physics class at two and I can't afford to be late. I'll see you around." He takes one last sip of the Dr. Pepper and walks away, playing with his red headphones' cord.
You stare at the app, the private messenger now installed on your phone, and decided to check it when you're safely alone inside your room. You wonder just how big of an operation RFA does and what kind of fundraising it actually does, and you guess that the RFA probably has other businesses you don't know about.
You lie on your bed with your phone hovering a foot from your face. You continue to stare at the app Seven Zero Seven has given you earlier in the day and wonder if you should actually open it. You snap out of your reverie when you feel your phone vibrate and a notification pops out of your screen that informs you that you have received a new message from an unknown number. You open it and read the message.
The message inside was so simple. A sentence: "Open the messenger Seven has sent you." The simple message caused your heart to palpitate and your phone slipped a few inches from your hands. You sit up and stare at the screen again before opening the app. The app requires you to put in a username and you type your name. It then lets you proceed to the messenger.
You see a chatroom open and you enter it, letting out a sigh of relief when you see that Zen and Yoosung are both online as well. Upon reading the words "Park Joohyun has joined the chat", both men sent a couple dozen of messages to you, spamming the whole chatroom. You remain silent though, waiting for Rika to tell you what to do, and both Yoosung and Zen gradually stop trying to make conversation with you.
You see another person is online, someone named Kang Jaehee, but you don't bother introducing yourself to her. Instead, you let Yoosung introduce you to the chatroom. You continue to read their conversation, impatiently waiting for Rika to show up, but she doesn't. Their conversation has drifted from ecstasy to the newly opened bar in Hongdae to the decline of stocks in the stock market.
You were about to hit the leave chatroom button after thirty minutes of reading their senseless conversation (for you anyway) when she finally went online. The words "Rika has joined the chat" made you feel on edge.
She entered the word "hello" and you felt that the message was really meant for you. You typed out a short "Hello Rika" with your shaking fingers and wait for her to reply.
"Hello Joohyun." She typed out. "It's nice to finally see you here." Her words made you cringe and you stare at her display picture (it was a picture of herself with an angelic smile plastered on her face), and you wonder how you came to be afraid of a fragile-looking girl. You have to remind yourself that this fragile-looking girl is the leader of a drug syndicate servicing VIPs not just in Korea, but in all of Asia. Before you can type out a response, the blonde continued with another message that says "We're going to have a transaction this Saturday at one pm."
Yoosung asks her who is going to do the transaction and Rika replied with "Zen." You were just about to release a sigh of relief when she sent another message saying "and Joohyun". The breath you were going to release caught up in your throat as you stare unbelievingly at your screen.
Yoosung sent out a stream of complaints towards his cousin, his anger showing in the way the font size keeps getting bigger in every message he sends. But even her own cousin couldn't keep her from changing her mind. Rika sent another message that says "I'll send you both more information later. Be ready." before signing off.
You let out a raspy breath, your fingers still trembling. Yoosung asks you if you're okay but you don't bother answering and log off the chat as well. Your phone rings three minutes later and you weren't surprised to see Yoosung's name on the screen.
Yoosung's worried voice fills your ear as you answer his call, assuring you that it won't be too bad, that Zen would handle most of the transaction and that all you had to do was sit in the shotgun seat and watch while it happens. You let out a small smile and tell him that you're okay, hoping that Yoosung wouldn't hear your worries through the phone.
Rika texts you the location and the name of the customer you and Zen will be meeting a few minutes after Yoosung ends the call. You lie on the bed, staring at your screen, reading the text Rika sent you over and over again, hoping that Saturday would never come.
On Saturday you try to dress as inconspicuous as you can. Zen waits for you in front of your gate, leaning on the car and looking like a male model about to go to a photoshoot. You pass by your parents on the way to Zen and they ask you who the person waiting outside is but you ignore the question and inform them that you'll be back by five.
You flash Zen a smile once you see him and he opens the shotgun door for you. You get inside and fumble with the seatbelt for a while before Zen helps you with it as soon as he gets inside the car. You hear the satisfying click of the seatbelt and Zen revs the engine.
You stare at the window during the drive, watching the Hangang River as Zen drives past one of the bridges connecting the islands of Seoul.
"Are you nervous?" you hear Zen ask. You see his reflection by the window watching you through his periphery. You give him a slight nod and he lets out a small smile. "Don't worry," he tells you. "Yoosung has already told you hasn't he? I'm not going to let whoever it is we're meeting see you. You'll stay inside this car, okay?"
You turn your head and give Zen a grateful smile. You know that Zen wouldn't let you be in danger and you're thankful for his company. You have no idea what you'd do if you were sent with someone you don't know. You secretly thank Rika for at least partnering you with someone you're on speaking terms with.
The car stops at the location Rika has sent you – an abandoned warehouse in a secluded part of Seoul. Zen steps out of the car and leans on it, checking his watch. You wait inside the car, chewing on your lips. "Zen," you call his name in a whisper, and he turns his attention to you. "What kind of person are we meeting today?"
"Rika told me he's the son of a politician," Zen replies with a shrug. "Not sure who though. Rika doesn't tell those kinds of information to us. I bet we won't be meeting the guy himself. We never do. They usually just send out some of their bodyguards or whatever to do the transaction." He takes a box of cigarettes from one pocket and pops out a stick before placing it back inside. He places the stick between his lips and takes out a lighter from another pocket and lights it. The smoke from the cigarette creates a trail that goes upwards. You both hear the squealing of car tires and turn your attention to where it came from. You see a black BMW parking five feet in front of you. A man wearing a business suit comes out and Zen straightens himself. He walks to the back of your car and pops the hood, grabbing a black suitcase you were sure was full of the deadly substance. You see the man drag a suitcase identical to the one Zen was carrying out of the BMW.
You watch their brief exchange before Zen makes his way back to you, the suitcase he was carrying now full of money. He enters the car and places the suitcase in the backseat before starting the engine. The BMW went out first and Zen waits a few minutes before he rolls the car out.
"Joohyun, kindly tell Rika that the transaction was a success. Tell her the exact time the transaction took place and how much the buyer paid."
"How much did the buyer pay?" you ask as you whip your phone out to do as you were told.
"Three million won in cash." He informed you and you almost choked on your own saliva, your eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
"They paid that much for the drugs?" you ask him, failing to keep the incredulity out of your voice. Zen shrugs as if it was nothing.
"Those rich assholes are willing to pay a lot to get their hands on these," he tells you, eyes never leaving the windshield. "and you don't have to worry. I'm pretty sure they paid the exact amount of cash."
"How can you be so sure? You checked it?"
"Nope. But they know what's going to happen to them if they don't keep their part of the transaction.
A/N: I didn't get to say hi in the first chapter so here. Hi everyone! Welcome to Iridescence. Please love this story as much as I did. I'll be posting the next chapter if I get enough reviews. If I don't, then I'll just have to scrap this fanfiction. Lol. Forgive me for my grammatical errors. I couldn't read through this whole fic because it's 25k+ words and it's not even halfway done. Lololol. Thank you for giving this fic your time! ^^
-olympicmayhem