Fic: The Heist (Part IX)
Nov. 13th, 2015 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boxxsaltzTitle: The Heist
Author: Boxxsaltz
Pairing: Yoona/Yuri
Rating: R
Summary: There was no job and no money worth the kind of brokenness Yoona endured ever again…except maybe this once.
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Part IX
A nurse hovered by Seohyun's bed when Yoona returned, back turned to her and syringe in hand. Yoona shuddered. She hated needles, but Seohyun was different. She lay there peacefully, eyes closed and lips parted in sleep.
"How is she?"
The needle pierced her arm easily. "So delicate."
That voice.
Yoona surged forward, yanking the nurse away.
Too late.
The last of the serum went into Seohyun's arm.
Jessica grinned up at her. "I warned you."
Seohyun's body convulsed.
Yoona's hand curled around Jessica's neck. She squeezed. Tighter, tighter, tight-
“Yoong. Wake up.”
She jerked straight up, body lifting off the stool that clattered to the floor.
The ghastly images of her dream faded into a hospital room. Yoona calmed, taking in deep breaths to steady her heart. She didn’t like the way Seohyun was looking at her - like she was afraid of her. Or maybe she was afraid for her.
Yoona sat the stool upright and sank back down beside the bed. She spent the entire night sitting there, thinking of the next thing to do. Seohyun would ask questions if she moved her somewhere else. Yuri would still be in danger if she kept her mouth shut. The team would remain in the dark if she didn’t tell them what was happening - had been happening - right in plain sight.
A hand touched her face. Yoona flinched, something she never did. Seohyun’s fear switched to concern.
“What’s going on with you? You were mumbling in your sleep all morning.”
All morning?
Yoona looked at the clock It was well past noon. She didn’t even remember falling asleep leaned against Seohyun’s bed. She was exhausted in both body and mind. She blinked, mouth dry and heart still racing. A cold sweat coated her skin in a light sheen.
“Bad dream.”
“Tell me about it?”
She began to shake her head but stopped. She didn't want to lie anymore. “Someone was hurting you. It was my fault.”
That dream may as well have been her reality. It could happen. God, it felt so real it may as well have happened. Yoona looked down at her hands that clutched the stool between her legs. It was so easy to choke Jessica, to see her gasp and wheeze and in pain the same way she’d brought her, brought Yuri, brought the others. Seohyun was the last straw, and Yoona knew, if Jessica walked through those doors now she wouldn’t hesitate to do something to her.
"You're starting to worry me."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
"There's a lot going on.”
"Like?" Seohyun quipped. Still angry. Making up wouldn’t be the same as it used to be this time around.
Yoona sighed. "Work, you, bills-"
"-Dates." Yoona’s lips sealed shut. Seohyun reached up to trace the wire scar that led into a love bite left right beneath it. Yoona couldn’t help but shiver at her delicate touch. "You can't hide everything from me."
"It's nothing."
"You could've told me.”
Yoona took the hand away from her neck to slide her fingers into slender ones. "You know none of them last."
"This one's stayed longer."
"You've stayed the longest."
"How much longer?"
The dream, the days discovering Seohyun gasping on the floor, the nights showing at the hospital to an empty room because Seohyun had to be taken to intensive care a few times ran through Yoona’s mind all at once. The first night with Yuri in the parlor, the times spent warming at her smiles, the nights leading to backs pressed into sheets and wandering tongues ran through Yoona’s mind second.
Both sets got her heart racing. Only one truly wrecked her.
"You are first, Juhyun. Always."
"Make me believe that again."
"How?"
"Stay."
Yoona did the only thing that came to mind.
The bed creaked beneath their weight as she climbed into the sliver of space next to Seohyun to be face to face with her. Knees bumped, arms touched, breath mingled between them. So close but not too much. Seohyun’s tension mirrored Yoona’s. It was as if they were holding back. Holding back what?
Yoona looked at her. Really looked at her.
Past memories gave way to present predicaments gave way to future possibilities. The plan was still intact. It would be only two after Seohyun was well. There was no room for Yuri to fit into the picture. There was only her and there was only Seohyun. More laughs, more memories, more struggles, more whispered confessions about how neither could live without the other while beneath covers, curved into one another.
A hand curled around the back of her neck, fingers absentmindedly playing with the straggles of hair at Yoona’s nape. Two peculiar thoughts came to Yoona one right after another:
Seohyun was beautiful even in her sickness.
And she’d never tire of waking up to that face every morning, bodies flush, skin to skin, with the haze of pleasure still clinging to their eyes.
"Where are you?" She heard the same thing recently from another mouth. She hadn't been able to answer truthfully before. She could now.
"Here,” she muttered. She clutched her fingers to hide their quake.
Seohyun leaned in, face dropping into Yoona’s neck. Her hand held her in place as she pressed a kiss against the mark left on her skin. "Please, stay with me.”
Yoona shuddered. She couldn't breathe. She could only feel. And none of the things she felt were making sense.
“I’m here, I’m here, I’m here,” Yoona chanted in breaths, each one returned with a kiss to the healing scar along her neck.
She didn’t know what Seohyun was doing to her, but god did it turn her insides into fire.
Knuckles wrapped against the doorframe.
Yoona drew herself away from Seohyun and out of bed as the doctor stepped in, smile on his face. Her limbs felt rubbery and her head cloudy. Whatever spell she’d fallen under wrapped in Seohyun’s arms with her gentle lips grazing her skin lingered even when tugged back into reality.
“Is something wrong?” Yoona asked, flushed.
“Quite the opposite. We might have a donor.”
“What?” Seohyun gaped.
Yoona already knew but seeing Seohyun’s reaction made her stomach flip.
The doctor’s smile widened. “We’re still waiting, but you’re next up to receive. We’ll go over the procedure and everything you need to know about the surgery and recovery process very soon.”
Tears welled up in Seohyun’s eyes. “Thank you.”
“Hang in there, kiddo.” He bowed and left after telling them a few more medical things.
“Yoong.”
She took the hand held out for her. Seohyun pulled her in and Yoona cupped her face, smiles matching. “We’re almost there.”
“It’s really going to happen.”
“You’re going to get better.” Seohyun fell into her, arms wrapped around her waist. Yoona kissed the top of her head, holding her close. “You’re going to be okay.”
-/-/-/-
Texts from Taeyeon were...never. Her request to met her gave Yoona an odd sense of foreboding, unlike Tiffany's summons.
An old, abandoned park of rusty monkey bars and broken swings set the tone. Yoona stuffed her hands into her coat pockets, feet crunching on fallen leaves and gravel to where Taeyeon sat on a splintered bench. Her blonde hair made her look as fragile as Seohyun, but the look in her eyes said she'd already passed on to reside with the ghosts.
"Sit?"
"I'll stand."
Taeyeon ran a tongue along her bottom lip. A nervous gesture the same as Yuri's bite of the lip. Yoona's palms went clammy. She didn't feel like this meeting would end well.
“I owe you an apology.”
Yoona wasn't about drilling into those already broken, but hearing Saint Taeyeon say that after all of this, she couldn't help herself.
“Jessica came to visit me. And Seohyun. She made some pretty rich threats. I’m not sure what all you know about her, but I can tell you now that your villain traded in horns and a tail for Louboutin’s and Blanc.”
“I had suspected that-”
“Had.” Yoona snarled. “Where’s the part where you fill in the rest of your team? You throw me out there blind and expect me to be okay with that? To just figure it out? You asked me to bear it but where are you when I need my back protected?”
“I understand that you're worried, but you have to trust me." The practiced tone in her voice pissed Yoona off.
"Who the hell are you anyway?” she scoffed. “Everyone around here puts you on some almighty, cosmic sized pedestal, but all I’ve seen is you hide behind everyone else's back while we get our asses kicked."
The hands clasped in Taeyeon's lap tightened. Her knuckles, reddened from the cold, went white. "I know what it looks like, but you’re wrong. I'm doing everything I can for you, Yoona. Give me more time. I'll make all of this right."
“How? The only way I see right now is to quit."
Taeyeon was silent. No more rehearsed comebacks. No more apologies. No more justifications.
Yoona shook her head. "Maybe Jessica was right. Maybe I did trust the wrong people.”
Taeyeon looked at her. What was that? Fear? Burden? Apology? Pain? Yoona didn't know. Yoona wasn't sure she cared. Taeyeon was out of words. Yoona was out of patience. So she turned her back.
“There were six of us." her voice cracked through the silence. Yoona stopped before she could step out of the gravel as Taeyeon went on. "Me, Tiffany, Sunny, my brother, the doctor who’s now watching over Sunny, and my best friend. Kim Hyoyeon. Together we were reckless. We thought we were bigger than the world. God’s even. Hyoyeon put the life in all of us. Then I killed her.”
The last half caused her to turn around. Taeyeon hadn't moved. She stared out across bare waste and debris, eyes reeling with memories like old films.
“I wanted to do this for her. I wanted to end big just for her. I was in over my head. Now it’s all happening again.”
“There’s a problem with acting God. You’re not.”
A part of Yoona softened. She knew the feeling. She knew what it was like to seek out redemption. After too many trials, Yoona found hers. To keep Seohyun’s heart beating. What sat them apart was that Yoona needed no one else for that. Just her and Seohyun. No other lives at risk, no dangerous missions, no threats other than the bad lucks dished out by life itself.
“Tiffany says I died along with her. She’s right." Trembling lips steadied after a calming lick. And then the secrets spilled. "I can’t do this. Not without her or Sunny. I brought in Sooyoung thinking we’d start where we left off, but I wasn’t strong enough. I watched my team fall apart. My brother resented me for months, the other resigned. Tiffany tried to hold us together, but I knew she couldn’t. She was caught between being my sister and my teammate. We were terrible to Sunny. She wanted to help...she wanted to help no matter how intimate helping got.”
Puzzle pieces fell into place creating a haunting image. This team was built on brokenness and burdens, all packaged within three people who hadn't, couldn't, and didn't know how to let go. The mission was not designed for the money. It was designed for freedom. Yoona found herself asking the same question she had in the beginning. But at what cost?
“Why didn’t you stop?”
“Guilt makes people do stupid things.”
Taeyeon was harboring a wealth of it. Yoona could tell from the moment they stood on that roof together and she could tell now. It permeated so strong. It was eating at her, taking bits and bits. The fault of death of a best friend, the destruction of a team, the responsibility of it all, the risk of getting others hurt, the possibility of losing one more. Taeyeon was not a whole. She was a shell.
“We’re the ones who pay for those stupid decisions.”
“You’re right.” Long lashes fluttered. The smile she had was dead. “They say that dying is a terrible thing, but dying is easy. The worst thing is when your heart's still beating, but there’s no life left inside of you. That, I think, is the worst sort of death.”
“Yeah, well, some of us are still living for someone.”
The look in Taeyeon’s eye said she wanted to cry, but not even a trace of tears could be found. She was an empty vessel. No more tears were left to give. Dried up, barren, and worn. It showed in each of her steps as she got up and closed the distance between them, bag hanging from her shoulder. She shrugged it off and handed it over.
“It’s not as much as what we would’ve gotten on the operation, but it’s enough.”
Yoona didn't even have to open it to know what was in it. In the beginning, she would've said thank you and gone. But this? This irritated her. Stacks of bills did not replace blood, sweat, tears. It did not buy back time or the loss of a life. This was a cop out. This was an escape.
“So that’s it? We give up?”
“We resign. I won’t put you through this anymore. Not you, or the others.”
She had nothing to say to that.
Shouldering the bag, Yoona left.
-/-/-/-
Laundry weighed down her arms as she carried it up the street. Mundane tasks were the one thing that helped her maintain a sense of normality. Whatever that was. What people deemed as normal went out the window when Yoona turned eighteen and she learned secrets about her parents and the world she never wanted to know.
Shirts, pants, and more dumped onto her bed jumbled up with bedding. A fleece throw stuck out and Yoona pulled it out. It was Seohyun's favorite reading blanket. She couldn't believe they'd left it behind. Yoona folded it sat and it aside. She'd take it to the hospital.
A call from Yuri came when she was shoving sweatshirts into a drawer. She said one thing to Yoona:
"I'll be there in twenty."
Yoona waited by the window. Seohyun’s window. How many years passed without Yoona realizing how much she loved to see Seohyun curled up beside it? She missed those days of glancing at her reading in the lamplight while she cooked up a meal.
Soon, they’d have them back.
Soon, she’d have Seohyun back. All to herself. No outside world a threat.
Her phone vibrated. Yoona ignored the call and grabbed the blanket. Securing it beneath her arm, she made the trek down the steps and along the street until she found Yuri’s car waiting. Her pulse hammered the closer she got and nearly choked her when she opened the backdoor.
The car pulled off the curb when she dropped in. Yuri sat stiffly by her side, hands in her lap. Yoona had an odd sort of feeling sitting next to her. Something about the recent moments with Seohyun left her in a weird state between one and the other. She felt like she was cheating. On who? She didn't know.
"I'm sorry if you were busy, but this couldn't wait."
"Are there more pictures?"
The shake of her head knocked a strand of hair out of place. She smoothed it back behind her ear. “I’ve missed you.”
She missed Yuri, too. The mark left on her neck kept her fresh in her mind until a new pair of lips erased the ghost of her touch. And then Yuri was not much of a somebody at all.
“This was your decision.”
"I know.” Glittery, brown eyes turned to her. A hand slid across the backseat. Yoona let their fingers lazily twine together. “I don't know how to be careful with you."
She brushed a thumb over smooth knuckles. Very different from Seohyun’s. Yuri had a firm grip, knuckles rounded with wide palms. The one’s she’d held for year were a soft hold, slender fingers, and sharp knuckles that cut into the crevices of your fingers when you clenched too hard.
“We can be reckless.” She glanced at the privacy partition that hid them from Minho’s view.
She expected a lip bite, a blush, a shy turn of the head. Instead, Yuri looked her right in the eye and said,
“We should end this here.”
Caught up in the task of it all, Yoona failed to realize it before. What Yuri saw in her was a shot of possible everlasting. What Yoona saw in her was an out. This moment would’ve come regardless, but it wouldn’t have hurt as much if she hadn’t allowed herself to fall. Between dicey first meetings, to bedsheets, to lavish dates, to hearts pried open, she turned Yuri from an out into a pleasurable investment, a trusted person outside her walls. The pain of the moment was not only from Yuri’s words but the swell of guilt that hit Yoona at that moment for playing with such a soft heart.
“I have to think about-”
“-the company. What has the company done for you other than keep you from getting the life you really want?”
Yuri’s hand slipped out of hers to return to her lap. “It’s not the same.”
“It isn’t?”
“It’s too late for me.”
“You can’t keep blaming the company for everything. The only one who stopped you from getting on that plane to Japan was you.”
Yuri whipped on her, scandalized. “After what I’ve found out about you, I wouldn’t buy a ticket to follow you either. I kept looking into you. One thing leads to another, to another name, to another place. I know we all have our secrets, but I don’t know what to believe with you.”
“Believe me.”
“I don’t even know who ‘me’ is. I don’t know if I ever did.”
In Yuri’s eyes, she was a fabrication. She was right. She began this mission as a charmer, as a deceiver. Her interests were never in Yuri’s feelings until things got deep. Until things got real. Yoona showed more parts of her true self with Yuri than she had with anyone else on the outside in years. She was a comfortable confident, trust built on a mutual understanding of secrets, hidden emotions, and loneliness in places of the heart no casual friend could fill.
Yuri had every right to push her out. A risk taken on a random stranger was one thing. A risk taken on a random stranger full of nothing but lies and a past full of secrets was another.
“You did,” Yoona muttered.
Yuri shook her head. “I need time, Yoona.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like you’re the only victim here. Like what was said in the car, your life and my reputation are both in danger.”
“One of those things is not like the other.”
She shouldn’t fight back like this. She should let Yuri walk out on her, put walls up against her, cut her off. To keep Yuri out of harm's way, the smart thing would be to let this end without argument, take Seohyun away, and return to a life off the radar. But pride as a wicked thing and a bruised heart was no better.
“What is happening is bigger than just you and me. I have a responsibility regardless of how I feel. I don’t want to do this, but it’s what I have to do.”
Yoona scoffed. “It was a fun fuck while it lasted.”
Yuri blinked, taken aback. “Are you finished?”
“Are we?”
“Stop the car.” They cut across traffic to idle on a curb. Yuri didn’t even look at her. “There’s the door.”
Yoona climbed out onto the curb.
Yuri drove away.
-/-/-/-
Yoona waited. She paced.
Seohyun stepped through the door just back from a meeting with the doctors. It must’ve gone well. She was smiling. It fell off as soon as she saw the white sheet that was Yoona’s face. She couldn’t feel her legs from how nervous she was. But it was now or never.
No more lies.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have to tell you something.”
“What?”
“Sit down?”
“Yoona, just tell me.”
Yoona wavered. For her sake, Seohyun moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Yoona eyed the stool but remained standing. She couldn't sit still for this.
“I’m...I haven’t been honest with you.”
Seohyun only blinked.
She had nothing else to lose. The assignment was over. Yuri was over. Nothing but the future ahead of them remained and Yoona would walk into with a clean slate.
Yoona took a breath. “It’s about our dads. They weren’t who you thought they were.”
“I know.”
“They weren’t good - they weren’t bad people either. Con artists, thieves, whatever you want to call them, that’s who they were. So was I. I helped. I was helping them the night that you think was an accident. A lot happened, and that’s why my mom was-” She shook her head. That story could wait. “I gave it all up. After that, I stopped and I did everything I could to keep us - you - safe. But you kept getting sicker and this woman, she offered me a job so I took it. I took it so I could get you help and we could get away, but that’s...that’s over now, too.”
“Yoona.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for never telling you. Your dad made me swear not to. When everything happened, I didn’t know how. I’ve wanted to. I’ve always wanted to. And I’ll understand if you hate me or our dads, but that’s who they were. That’s who I am.”
“Yoona, I could never hate you.”
“Do you hear everything I said?”
Seohyun sighed, legs pulling up to fold beneath her. “I did. I never understood why you never told me, but now it makes sense.”
Yoona paused. “Makes sense?”
“I had to clean out our house after the accident...I found things.”
“You knew?”
Her nod was slow and small. Yoona thought the realization would calm her. It did everything but. She reevaluated the past, ran through the various memories, tried to recall all of their talks. Conversations of their father came up very few and mostly around the same time of year throughout time. The first time they'd actually broached the subject deeper than before was just months ago. If Yoona thought about it, Seohyun had thrown hints even then.
“It crushed me at first, but I tried to see it from their perspective. I tried to understand why I was left out. The way you protected me, it made sense. You worked so hard. It made me guiltier. I never knew how to bring it up. I didn’t think you wanted to. What I didn’t understand was why again. Why did you start again? Now I know.”
“I had to get you better.”
Seohyun threw her own words right back at her. “At what price? Every day you walked out of the door, I couldn’t breathe just thinking about what could happen to you. What if you ended up like dad? I should be angry, but I’m not. I’m disappointed. I’m hurt, but I’m also relieved. You kept coming home, you kept coming here, you kept returning each day and I could breathe again."
"I did all of this for you."
"I know, but that doesn't make it any better, Yoong. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost someone else. Not someone I love.”
Yoona sank down to sit on the stool, head dipping to find those warm eyes. “You’re my everything, too, Ju.”
Seohyun shook her head. “No, Yoona. I love you.”
“You…” Her throat went dry, her palms prickled, her stomach filled with cement. No, no, no. She couldn't have heard right. She wasn't.
“I love you.”
The phrase was a burning match dropped onto gasoline. All of Yoona ignited. She'd been dead for so long she didn't know what it felt like to be alive.
If this was it, it was terrifying.
She couldn't stop shaking. Fingers curled around the stool. She willed herself to get a grip. Her chest felt like it was on fire and her insides felt as if they were about to burst. Literally burst. And all her entrails would come spilling out.
Like a beam of sun after a storm, there was clarity. She stared back at Seohyun. She looked just as scared as Yoona felt.
"Why're you crying?"
“I…” she shook her head. She felt too much and knew too little. This was unlike the sparks and entanglement of infatuation she’d been lost in for months.
This was real.
There were many things Yoona could describe and write off the way she was feeling, but there were very few words to encapsulate what it actually was. This awful, churning, burning, aching, eruption of affection and desire and joy and terror could only be one thing and one thing only. And the key to unlocking that was to finally release herself from the shackles of her own guilt and shame. With them gone, Seohyun swept right in to occupy the space with more than Yoona could hold in her hands.
She wiped at her face and a hand reached out, grabbing for her. She fell against Seohyun, head sinking into her chest. Her heart beat so fast - so wild. It could've been beating for two.
“I love you. More than anything.”
Her chest swelled, choking off a response in her throat. She didn’t need one. The way she clutched Seohyun, tears spilling into her sweater said it all.
What they felt was just the same and she wanted many more years to express it in ways the two never explored with one another before.
She couldn’t give up now. Not yet.
-/-/-/-
Sooyoung met her outside the hospital.
She tossed a packet of files at Yoona once she dropped into the car. “I did everything you asked. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, don’t touch me.” She swatted the hand going to poke her tear puffy away. Sooyoung smirked at her all too knowingly. Yoona sneered. “What did you find?”
“Everything. You were right. I can’t believe it either.”
As they drove, Yoona sifted through the papers. Even if she’d suspected a lot of the things she was reading through, it was still incredible to see it actually proven.
They parked in the lot of a small, private hospital. It was the kind of place Yoona wished she could’ve put Seohyun in. She deserved the best, but she’d never have enough money to drop her here.
A receptionist greeted them at the counter. Sooyoung gave a name Yoona never heard before. Seconds later, a doctor with shaggy, brown hair came down the elevator, brow pulled in when he saw Yoona.
“Tiffany didn’t put her name on the list.”
“She’s with us, Heechul. Fany knows that.”
“Leave your belongings here.” He eyed her.Yoona emptied her pockets and dropped her bag into a basket provided by the receptionist. “Make it short.”
Steering Yoona down the hall, they jumped into an elevator to the fourth floor.
“He was one of the originals, wasn’t he?” The unnamed doctor Taeyeon mentioned from before. Sooyoung looked over at her. “Taeyeon told me.”
She sighed as the doors chimed open and led the way. The room was marked with Sunny’s given name. Sooyoung delivered a series of knocks and the door opened a sliver to Tiffany’s bare face.
“Soo?”
“Hey.”
Impatient, Yoona pushed passed her and into the room.
“Miss Im-”
Yoona ignored her, eyes going right to the bed in the middle of the room. Sunny was out, body draped in thick blankets with tubes and monitors attached to her skin. Her forehead was glossy with a recent sweat and her face empty of most of its color. No matter how many times she’d seen Seohyun in the same position, it was never easy to see someone you cared about like this.
“Why are you here?”
Yoona turned around to face her still hovering by the door. Taeyeon stared up at her from where she sat silently in a chair by the window. She looked about as gaunt as Sunny did. Their conversation in the park came back to her. She was sorry for some of the things she said, but her pride wasn’t about to admit it now.
“We’re waiting.”
Yoona rolled her eyes. “Before you get up my ass, hear me and Sooyoung out.”
Tiffany turned to the tall girl standing near her. Yoona gave her a nod. It would be better for her to break it to them first.
“Jessica Jung is a Neolist.”
“What?” said Taeyeon and Tiffany both.
“A couple weeks ago, Yoona noticed something. A tan line. We thought it came from a wedding ring so Sunny was looking into it. It was, in a sense, but not the way we thought.”
Out of the files, Sooyoung drew a photo and passed it to Tiffany who walked it over to Taeyeon. Text was printed at the bottom of the panorama:
New Order 75th Division Commencement Ceremony.
Neolist members and their families clustered around in the picture. Jessica and Donghae were side-by-side, left fists extended forward to show the black and silver Neolist commencement band around their ring fingers. Across their chest, each member wore a sash adorned with the phoenix emblem. On Jessica’s other side, arm slung around her waist, was no other than a young Soojung.
“Those rings bind them to the cause,” Sooyoung explained. “Married to the service until either they die in duty or their main task is completed. The whole relationship and settle thing is a no go for them.”
“How long do you think since she’s been laid?” Yoona muttered for only Sooyoung to hear earning a glare from Tiffany and a swat in the arm from Sooyoung.
“Lee and Jung have probably known each other since diapers. Her sister was part of the 81st Division.”
“She was there the night of the attack.” And nearly choked the life out of her. If only that bullet curved a fraction to the right, she would’ve taken her out. “You said Neolist were an extremist group. They’d be after the weapons, not us. They could’ve gone straight to the source, but instead they took us out. Why? Because we were getting in the way of Jessica’s plan.”
“Her entire ploy was to get close to Kwon, make her fall in love with her. Kwon doesn’t agree with her father, so if Jung got to Kwon, she could easily convince her to force her father out.”
“But her plan backfired," said Yoona. "Yuri never took to Jessica’s advances and she’s not as invested in the company as Jessica thought. Not to mention I was thrown in which only made things worse.”
Sooyoung shrugged. “Jung probably would’ve left us alone but we were getting deep. She needed to get rid of us.”
“Of me. First. If that didn’t work, she’d take Yuri out on her own. She’s already started. My relationship with Yuri was perfect blackmail. Even if she doesn't expose the photos she has of us, she has the upper hand. Yuri would cower. Jessica could move in, and with Senior Kwon’s rep still on the fence along with his son’s, she could step in to carry both companies and eventually have them both.”
“With the power of having Z1 and Ion, the Neolist would have everything they need to execute whatever fucked up extremist plan they have.”
Yoona turned to Sooyoung. “What I’m confused about is how did no one catch Jessica before? The Jung’s and the Kwon’s have known each other for years.”
“Neolist are all about patience,” said Tiffany. She walked across the room to stand on the other side of Sunny’s bed. “They can wait in silence for days, even years, for the right moment. Who knows how long they’ve been plotting this or how wide it spreads? What you’ve discovered here is only a glimpse of a possibly bigger picture. For all we know, someone part of the Lotus Group could be one, too.”
“Maybe. To have the request come from an outside source, no one suspects foul play on the inside.”
Yoona shook her head. It was great to know that too but, “We don’t have time to figure that out now. We need a plan.”
Tiffany’s eyebrow lifted. “Plan?”
“If we’re going to quit then we quit with reason. You said it yourself,” Yoona looked to Taeyeon who held the papers in her hands. “What they’re making in there could change everything. In the hands of the Neolist, we know it’ll be a disaster. We have to stop the project.”
Tiffany rolled her eyes. “How? Blow up Ion Corp?”
Yoona grinned.
“Im.”
“Okay, not that extreme but we’re not helpless. I can get into the labs at Ion. All I need to know is how to get rid of the bio."
“Neutralize it?” Sooyoung suggested.
Tiffany shook her head. “We don’t know what form it’s in or even what it’s made of.”
“Yuri told me they had a biohazard down there a month ago.”
Sooyoung snapped her fingers. “Biohazard. Matches up with why they’d need Lee Donghae, and considering Ion’s history with infectious diseases, it’s probably another one.”
Tiffany shook her head. “Even if we get rid of that, we’ll have to wipe the information from both Ion and Z1’s database. Otherwise, they'll reboot the project.”
“Ion is easy. We’re still in. It’s Z1 where we’ll run into trouble. They’re too advanced.”
“Reverse the hack code?” asked Yoona.
Tiffany lifted her eyebrows at Sooyoung. “Can you do that?”
“I can.” Heads swiveled over to Sunny. She peered up at them through heavy eyelids. Tiffany rushed to help her prop her head beneath a thicker pillow. “I know you weren't planning a counterattack without me.”
“Can you do that? Reverse the code?”
“Hell, I can.”
Tiffany's lips pressed into a fine line. “You won’t.”
“I’m fine, Fan.”
“Sunny.”
Sunny shook her head. A silent conversation passed between them. Tiffany soon relented. “Soo, I’ll need my spare gear. We’re gonna cut that bitch off.”
Sooyoung nodded. “I’ll bring it after we’re done here.”
Tiffany frowned. “I don’t like this.”
Fingers brushed against the ones clutched around the bars of the bed. Tiffany released it to let Sunny take her hand. “Bambi’s right. If we quit, we quit with reason. We can’t just give up.”
Silence passed. Eyes shifted until they landed at Taeyeon who'd been more than silent. Yoona understood why. To think up a counterattack while they were beat was risky. There was only so much fight left in them, and it was that little bit of fight that they'd need to conjure up and use in order to be successful.
“Do you think this will work?” asked Taeyeon.
All eyes fell on Yoona. She sure as hell hoped.
“You’ll have to live to find out.”
Part X
Author: Boxxsaltz
Pairing: Yoona/Yuri
Rating: R
Summary: There was no job and no money worth the kind of brokenness Yoona endured ever again…except maybe this once.
Tracklist: Listen | Download
Part IX
A nurse hovered by Seohyun's bed when Yoona returned, back turned to her and syringe in hand. Yoona shuddered. She hated needles, but Seohyun was different. She lay there peacefully, eyes closed and lips parted in sleep.
"How is she?"
The needle pierced her arm easily. "So delicate."
That voice.
Yoona surged forward, yanking the nurse away.
Too late.
The last of the serum went into Seohyun's arm.
Jessica grinned up at her. "I warned you."
Seohyun's body convulsed.
Yoona's hand curled around Jessica's neck. She squeezed. Tighter, tighter, tight-
“Yoong. Wake up.”
She jerked straight up, body lifting off the stool that clattered to the floor.
The ghastly images of her dream faded into a hospital room. Yoona calmed, taking in deep breaths to steady her heart. She didn’t like the way Seohyun was looking at her - like she was afraid of her. Or maybe she was afraid for her.
Yoona sat the stool upright and sank back down beside the bed. She spent the entire night sitting there, thinking of the next thing to do. Seohyun would ask questions if she moved her somewhere else. Yuri would still be in danger if she kept her mouth shut. The team would remain in the dark if she didn’t tell them what was happening - had been happening - right in plain sight.
A hand touched her face. Yoona flinched, something she never did. Seohyun’s fear switched to concern.
“What’s going on with you? You were mumbling in your sleep all morning.”
All morning?
Yoona looked at the clock It was well past noon. She didn’t even remember falling asleep leaned against Seohyun’s bed. She was exhausted in both body and mind. She blinked, mouth dry and heart still racing. A cold sweat coated her skin in a light sheen.
“Bad dream.”
“Tell me about it?”
She began to shake her head but stopped. She didn't want to lie anymore. “Someone was hurting you. It was my fault.”
That dream may as well have been her reality. It could happen. God, it felt so real it may as well have happened. Yoona looked down at her hands that clutched the stool between her legs. It was so easy to choke Jessica, to see her gasp and wheeze and in pain the same way she’d brought her, brought Yuri, brought the others. Seohyun was the last straw, and Yoona knew, if Jessica walked through those doors now she wouldn’t hesitate to do something to her.
"You're starting to worry me."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
"There's a lot going on.”
"Like?" Seohyun quipped. Still angry. Making up wouldn’t be the same as it used to be this time around.
Yoona sighed. "Work, you, bills-"
"-Dates." Yoona’s lips sealed shut. Seohyun reached up to trace the wire scar that led into a love bite left right beneath it. Yoona couldn’t help but shiver at her delicate touch. "You can't hide everything from me."
"It's nothing."
"You could've told me.”
Yoona took the hand away from her neck to slide her fingers into slender ones. "You know none of them last."
"This one's stayed longer."
"You've stayed the longest."
"How much longer?"
The dream, the days discovering Seohyun gasping on the floor, the nights showing at the hospital to an empty room because Seohyun had to be taken to intensive care a few times ran through Yoona’s mind all at once. The first night with Yuri in the parlor, the times spent warming at her smiles, the nights leading to backs pressed into sheets and wandering tongues ran through Yoona’s mind second.
Both sets got her heart racing. Only one truly wrecked her.
"You are first, Juhyun. Always."
"Make me believe that again."
"How?"
"Stay."
Yoona did the only thing that came to mind.
The bed creaked beneath their weight as she climbed into the sliver of space next to Seohyun to be face to face with her. Knees bumped, arms touched, breath mingled between them. So close but not too much. Seohyun’s tension mirrored Yoona’s. It was as if they were holding back. Holding back what?
Yoona looked at her. Really looked at her.
Past memories gave way to present predicaments gave way to future possibilities. The plan was still intact. It would be only two after Seohyun was well. There was no room for Yuri to fit into the picture. There was only her and there was only Seohyun. More laughs, more memories, more struggles, more whispered confessions about how neither could live without the other while beneath covers, curved into one another.
A hand curled around the back of her neck, fingers absentmindedly playing with the straggles of hair at Yoona’s nape. Two peculiar thoughts came to Yoona one right after another:
Seohyun was beautiful even in her sickness.
And she’d never tire of waking up to that face every morning, bodies flush, skin to skin, with the haze of pleasure still clinging to their eyes.
"Where are you?" She heard the same thing recently from another mouth. She hadn't been able to answer truthfully before. She could now.
"Here,” she muttered. She clutched her fingers to hide their quake.
Seohyun leaned in, face dropping into Yoona’s neck. Her hand held her in place as she pressed a kiss against the mark left on her skin. "Please, stay with me.”
Yoona shuddered. She couldn't breathe. She could only feel. And none of the things she felt were making sense.
“I’m here, I’m here, I’m here,” Yoona chanted in breaths, each one returned with a kiss to the healing scar along her neck.
She didn’t know what Seohyun was doing to her, but god did it turn her insides into fire.
Knuckles wrapped against the doorframe.
Yoona drew herself away from Seohyun and out of bed as the doctor stepped in, smile on his face. Her limbs felt rubbery and her head cloudy. Whatever spell she’d fallen under wrapped in Seohyun’s arms with her gentle lips grazing her skin lingered even when tugged back into reality.
“Is something wrong?” Yoona asked, flushed.
“Quite the opposite. We might have a donor.”
“What?” Seohyun gaped.
Yoona already knew but seeing Seohyun’s reaction made her stomach flip.
The doctor’s smile widened. “We’re still waiting, but you’re next up to receive. We’ll go over the procedure and everything you need to know about the surgery and recovery process very soon.”
Tears welled up in Seohyun’s eyes. “Thank you.”
“Hang in there, kiddo.” He bowed and left after telling them a few more medical things.
“Yoong.”
She took the hand held out for her. Seohyun pulled her in and Yoona cupped her face, smiles matching. “We’re almost there.”
“It’s really going to happen.”
“You’re going to get better.” Seohyun fell into her, arms wrapped around her waist. Yoona kissed the top of her head, holding her close. “You’re going to be okay.”
-/-/-/-
Texts from Taeyeon were...never. Her request to met her gave Yoona an odd sense of foreboding, unlike Tiffany's summons.
An old, abandoned park of rusty monkey bars and broken swings set the tone. Yoona stuffed her hands into her coat pockets, feet crunching on fallen leaves and gravel to where Taeyeon sat on a splintered bench. Her blonde hair made her look as fragile as Seohyun, but the look in her eyes said she'd already passed on to reside with the ghosts.
"Sit?"
"I'll stand."
Taeyeon ran a tongue along her bottom lip. A nervous gesture the same as Yuri's bite of the lip. Yoona's palms went clammy. She didn't feel like this meeting would end well.
“I owe you an apology.”
Yoona wasn't about drilling into those already broken, but hearing Saint Taeyeon say that after all of this, she couldn't help herself.
“Jessica came to visit me. And Seohyun. She made some pretty rich threats. I’m not sure what all you know about her, but I can tell you now that your villain traded in horns and a tail for Louboutin’s and Blanc.”
“I had suspected that-”
“Had.” Yoona snarled. “Where’s the part where you fill in the rest of your team? You throw me out there blind and expect me to be okay with that? To just figure it out? You asked me to bear it but where are you when I need my back protected?”
“I understand that you're worried, but you have to trust me." The practiced tone in her voice pissed Yoona off.
"Who the hell are you anyway?” she scoffed. “Everyone around here puts you on some almighty, cosmic sized pedestal, but all I’ve seen is you hide behind everyone else's back while we get our asses kicked."
The hands clasped in Taeyeon's lap tightened. Her knuckles, reddened from the cold, went white. "I know what it looks like, but you’re wrong. I'm doing everything I can for you, Yoona. Give me more time. I'll make all of this right."
“How? The only way I see right now is to quit."
Taeyeon was silent. No more rehearsed comebacks. No more apologies. No more justifications.
Yoona shook her head. "Maybe Jessica was right. Maybe I did trust the wrong people.”
Taeyeon looked at her. What was that? Fear? Burden? Apology? Pain? Yoona didn't know. Yoona wasn't sure she cared. Taeyeon was out of words. Yoona was out of patience. So she turned her back.
“There were six of us." her voice cracked through the silence. Yoona stopped before she could step out of the gravel as Taeyeon went on. "Me, Tiffany, Sunny, my brother, the doctor who’s now watching over Sunny, and my best friend. Kim Hyoyeon. Together we were reckless. We thought we were bigger than the world. God’s even. Hyoyeon put the life in all of us. Then I killed her.”
The last half caused her to turn around. Taeyeon hadn't moved. She stared out across bare waste and debris, eyes reeling with memories like old films.
“I wanted to do this for her. I wanted to end big just for her. I was in over my head. Now it’s all happening again.”
“There’s a problem with acting God. You’re not.”
A part of Yoona softened. She knew the feeling. She knew what it was like to seek out redemption. After too many trials, Yoona found hers. To keep Seohyun’s heart beating. What sat them apart was that Yoona needed no one else for that. Just her and Seohyun. No other lives at risk, no dangerous missions, no threats other than the bad lucks dished out by life itself.
“Tiffany says I died along with her. She’s right." Trembling lips steadied after a calming lick. And then the secrets spilled. "I can’t do this. Not without her or Sunny. I brought in Sooyoung thinking we’d start where we left off, but I wasn’t strong enough. I watched my team fall apart. My brother resented me for months, the other resigned. Tiffany tried to hold us together, but I knew she couldn’t. She was caught between being my sister and my teammate. We were terrible to Sunny. She wanted to help...she wanted to help no matter how intimate helping got.”
Puzzle pieces fell into place creating a haunting image. This team was built on brokenness and burdens, all packaged within three people who hadn't, couldn't, and didn't know how to let go. The mission was not designed for the money. It was designed for freedom. Yoona found herself asking the same question she had in the beginning. But at what cost?
“Why didn’t you stop?”
“Guilt makes people do stupid things.”
Taeyeon was harboring a wealth of it. Yoona could tell from the moment they stood on that roof together and she could tell now. It permeated so strong. It was eating at her, taking bits and bits. The fault of death of a best friend, the destruction of a team, the responsibility of it all, the risk of getting others hurt, the possibility of losing one more. Taeyeon was not a whole. She was a shell.
“We’re the ones who pay for those stupid decisions.”
“You’re right.” Long lashes fluttered. The smile she had was dead. “They say that dying is a terrible thing, but dying is easy. The worst thing is when your heart's still beating, but there’s no life left inside of you. That, I think, is the worst sort of death.”
“Yeah, well, some of us are still living for someone.”
The look in Taeyeon’s eye said she wanted to cry, but not even a trace of tears could be found. She was an empty vessel. No more tears were left to give. Dried up, barren, and worn. It showed in each of her steps as she got up and closed the distance between them, bag hanging from her shoulder. She shrugged it off and handed it over.
“It’s not as much as what we would’ve gotten on the operation, but it’s enough.”
Yoona didn't even have to open it to know what was in it. In the beginning, she would've said thank you and gone. But this? This irritated her. Stacks of bills did not replace blood, sweat, tears. It did not buy back time or the loss of a life. This was a cop out. This was an escape.
“So that’s it? We give up?”
“We resign. I won’t put you through this anymore. Not you, or the others.”
She had nothing to say to that.
Shouldering the bag, Yoona left.
-/-/-/-
Laundry weighed down her arms as she carried it up the street. Mundane tasks were the one thing that helped her maintain a sense of normality. Whatever that was. What people deemed as normal went out the window when Yoona turned eighteen and she learned secrets about her parents and the world she never wanted to know.
Shirts, pants, and more dumped onto her bed jumbled up with bedding. A fleece throw stuck out and Yoona pulled it out. It was Seohyun's favorite reading blanket. She couldn't believe they'd left it behind. Yoona folded it sat and it aside. She'd take it to the hospital.
A call from Yuri came when she was shoving sweatshirts into a drawer. She said one thing to Yoona:
"I'll be there in twenty."
Yoona waited by the window. Seohyun’s window. How many years passed without Yoona realizing how much she loved to see Seohyun curled up beside it? She missed those days of glancing at her reading in the lamplight while she cooked up a meal.
Soon, they’d have them back.
Soon, she’d have Seohyun back. All to herself. No outside world a threat.
Her phone vibrated. Yoona ignored the call and grabbed the blanket. Securing it beneath her arm, she made the trek down the steps and along the street until she found Yuri’s car waiting. Her pulse hammered the closer she got and nearly choked her when she opened the backdoor.
The car pulled off the curb when she dropped in. Yuri sat stiffly by her side, hands in her lap. Yoona had an odd sort of feeling sitting next to her. Something about the recent moments with Seohyun left her in a weird state between one and the other. She felt like she was cheating. On who? She didn't know.
"I'm sorry if you were busy, but this couldn't wait."
"Are there more pictures?"
The shake of her head knocked a strand of hair out of place. She smoothed it back behind her ear. “I’ve missed you.”
She missed Yuri, too. The mark left on her neck kept her fresh in her mind until a new pair of lips erased the ghost of her touch. And then Yuri was not much of a somebody at all.
“This was your decision.”
"I know.” Glittery, brown eyes turned to her. A hand slid across the backseat. Yoona let their fingers lazily twine together. “I don't know how to be careful with you."
She brushed a thumb over smooth knuckles. Very different from Seohyun’s. Yuri had a firm grip, knuckles rounded with wide palms. The one’s she’d held for year were a soft hold, slender fingers, and sharp knuckles that cut into the crevices of your fingers when you clenched too hard.
“We can be reckless.” She glanced at the privacy partition that hid them from Minho’s view.
She expected a lip bite, a blush, a shy turn of the head. Instead, Yuri looked her right in the eye and said,
“We should end this here.”
Caught up in the task of it all, Yoona failed to realize it before. What Yuri saw in her was a shot of possible everlasting. What Yoona saw in her was an out. This moment would’ve come regardless, but it wouldn’t have hurt as much if she hadn’t allowed herself to fall. Between dicey first meetings, to bedsheets, to lavish dates, to hearts pried open, she turned Yuri from an out into a pleasurable investment, a trusted person outside her walls. The pain of the moment was not only from Yuri’s words but the swell of guilt that hit Yoona at that moment for playing with such a soft heart.
“I have to think about-”
“-the company. What has the company done for you other than keep you from getting the life you really want?”
Yuri’s hand slipped out of hers to return to her lap. “It’s not the same.”
“It isn’t?”
“It’s too late for me.”
“You can’t keep blaming the company for everything. The only one who stopped you from getting on that plane to Japan was you.”
Yuri whipped on her, scandalized. “After what I’ve found out about you, I wouldn’t buy a ticket to follow you either. I kept looking into you. One thing leads to another, to another name, to another place. I know we all have our secrets, but I don’t know what to believe with you.”
“Believe me.”
“I don’t even know who ‘me’ is. I don’t know if I ever did.”
In Yuri’s eyes, she was a fabrication. She was right. She began this mission as a charmer, as a deceiver. Her interests were never in Yuri’s feelings until things got deep. Until things got real. Yoona showed more parts of her true self with Yuri than she had with anyone else on the outside in years. She was a comfortable confident, trust built on a mutual understanding of secrets, hidden emotions, and loneliness in places of the heart no casual friend could fill.
Yuri had every right to push her out. A risk taken on a random stranger was one thing. A risk taken on a random stranger full of nothing but lies and a past full of secrets was another.
“You did,” Yoona muttered.
Yuri shook her head. “I need time, Yoona.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like you’re the only victim here. Like what was said in the car, your life and my reputation are both in danger.”
“One of those things is not like the other.”
She shouldn’t fight back like this. She should let Yuri walk out on her, put walls up against her, cut her off. To keep Yuri out of harm's way, the smart thing would be to let this end without argument, take Seohyun away, and return to a life off the radar. But pride as a wicked thing and a bruised heart was no better.
“What is happening is bigger than just you and me. I have a responsibility regardless of how I feel. I don’t want to do this, but it’s what I have to do.”
Yoona scoffed. “It was a fun fuck while it lasted.”
Yuri blinked, taken aback. “Are you finished?”
“Are we?”
“Stop the car.” They cut across traffic to idle on a curb. Yuri didn’t even look at her. “There’s the door.”
Yoona climbed out onto the curb.
Yuri drove away.
-/-/-/-
Yoona waited. She paced.
Seohyun stepped through the door just back from a meeting with the doctors. It must’ve gone well. She was smiling. It fell off as soon as she saw the white sheet that was Yoona’s face. She couldn’t feel her legs from how nervous she was. But it was now or never.
No more lies.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have to tell you something.”
“What?”
“Sit down?”
“Yoona, just tell me.”
Yoona wavered. For her sake, Seohyun moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Yoona eyed the stool but remained standing. She couldn't sit still for this.
“I’m...I haven’t been honest with you.”
Seohyun only blinked.
She had nothing else to lose. The assignment was over. Yuri was over. Nothing but the future ahead of them remained and Yoona would walk into with a clean slate.
Yoona took a breath. “It’s about our dads. They weren’t who you thought they were.”
“I know.”
“They weren’t good - they weren’t bad people either. Con artists, thieves, whatever you want to call them, that’s who they were. So was I. I helped. I was helping them the night that you think was an accident. A lot happened, and that’s why my mom was-” She shook her head. That story could wait. “I gave it all up. After that, I stopped and I did everything I could to keep us - you - safe. But you kept getting sicker and this woman, she offered me a job so I took it. I took it so I could get you help and we could get away, but that’s...that’s over now, too.”
“Yoona.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for never telling you. Your dad made me swear not to. When everything happened, I didn’t know how. I’ve wanted to. I’ve always wanted to. And I’ll understand if you hate me or our dads, but that’s who they were. That’s who I am.”
“Yoona, I could never hate you.”
“Do you hear everything I said?”
Seohyun sighed, legs pulling up to fold beneath her. “I did. I never understood why you never told me, but now it makes sense.”
Yoona paused. “Makes sense?”
“I had to clean out our house after the accident...I found things.”
“You knew?”
Her nod was slow and small. Yoona thought the realization would calm her. It did everything but. She reevaluated the past, ran through the various memories, tried to recall all of their talks. Conversations of their father came up very few and mostly around the same time of year throughout time. The first time they'd actually broached the subject deeper than before was just months ago. If Yoona thought about it, Seohyun had thrown hints even then.
“It crushed me at first, but I tried to see it from their perspective. I tried to understand why I was left out. The way you protected me, it made sense. You worked so hard. It made me guiltier. I never knew how to bring it up. I didn’t think you wanted to. What I didn’t understand was why again. Why did you start again? Now I know.”
“I had to get you better.”
Seohyun threw her own words right back at her. “At what price? Every day you walked out of the door, I couldn’t breathe just thinking about what could happen to you. What if you ended up like dad? I should be angry, but I’m not. I’m disappointed. I’m hurt, but I’m also relieved. You kept coming home, you kept coming here, you kept returning each day and I could breathe again."
"I did all of this for you."
"I know, but that doesn't make it any better, Yoong. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost someone else. Not someone I love.”
Yoona sank down to sit on the stool, head dipping to find those warm eyes. “You’re my everything, too, Ju.”
Seohyun shook her head. “No, Yoona. I love you.”
“You…” Her throat went dry, her palms prickled, her stomach filled with cement. No, no, no. She couldn't have heard right. She wasn't.
“I love you.”
The phrase was a burning match dropped onto gasoline. All of Yoona ignited. She'd been dead for so long she didn't know what it felt like to be alive.
If this was it, it was terrifying.
She couldn't stop shaking. Fingers curled around the stool. She willed herself to get a grip. Her chest felt like it was on fire and her insides felt as if they were about to burst. Literally burst. And all her entrails would come spilling out.
Like a beam of sun after a storm, there was clarity. She stared back at Seohyun. She looked just as scared as Yoona felt.
"Why're you crying?"
“I…” she shook her head. She felt too much and knew too little. This was unlike the sparks and entanglement of infatuation she’d been lost in for months.
This was real.
There were many things Yoona could describe and write off the way she was feeling, but there were very few words to encapsulate what it actually was. This awful, churning, burning, aching, eruption of affection and desire and joy and terror could only be one thing and one thing only. And the key to unlocking that was to finally release herself from the shackles of her own guilt and shame. With them gone, Seohyun swept right in to occupy the space with more than Yoona could hold in her hands.
She wiped at her face and a hand reached out, grabbing for her. She fell against Seohyun, head sinking into her chest. Her heart beat so fast - so wild. It could've been beating for two.
“I love you. More than anything.”
Her chest swelled, choking off a response in her throat. She didn’t need one. The way she clutched Seohyun, tears spilling into her sweater said it all.
What they felt was just the same and she wanted many more years to express it in ways the two never explored with one another before.
She couldn’t give up now. Not yet.
-/-/-/-
Sooyoung met her outside the hospital.
She tossed a packet of files at Yoona once she dropped into the car. “I did everything you asked. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, don’t touch me.” She swatted the hand going to poke her tear puffy away. Sooyoung smirked at her all too knowingly. Yoona sneered. “What did you find?”
“Everything. You were right. I can’t believe it either.”
As they drove, Yoona sifted through the papers. Even if she’d suspected a lot of the things she was reading through, it was still incredible to see it actually proven.
They parked in the lot of a small, private hospital. It was the kind of place Yoona wished she could’ve put Seohyun in. She deserved the best, but she’d never have enough money to drop her here.
A receptionist greeted them at the counter. Sooyoung gave a name Yoona never heard before. Seconds later, a doctor with shaggy, brown hair came down the elevator, brow pulled in when he saw Yoona.
“Tiffany didn’t put her name on the list.”
“She’s with us, Heechul. Fany knows that.”
“Leave your belongings here.” He eyed her.Yoona emptied her pockets and dropped her bag into a basket provided by the receptionist. “Make it short.”
Steering Yoona down the hall, they jumped into an elevator to the fourth floor.
“He was one of the originals, wasn’t he?” The unnamed doctor Taeyeon mentioned from before. Sooyoung looked over at her. “Taeyeon told me.”
She sighed as the doors chimed open and led the way. The room was marked with Sunny’s given name. Sooyoung delivered a series of knocks and the door opened a sliver to Tiffany’s bare face.
“Soo?”
“Hey.”
Impatient, Yoona pushed passed her and into the room.
“Miss Im-”
Yoona ignored her, eyes going right to the bed in the middle of the room. Sunny was out, body draped in thick blankets with tubes and monitors attached to her skin. Her forehead was glossy with a recent sweat and her face empty of most of its color. No matter how many times she’d seen Seohyun in the same position, it was never easy to see someone you cared about like this.
“Why are you here?”
Yoona turned around to face her still hovering by the door. Taeyeon stared up at her from where she sat silently in a chair by the window. She looked about as gaunt as Sunny did. Their conversation in the park came back to her. She was sorry for some of the things she said, but her pride wasn’t about to admit it now.
“We’re waiting.”
Yoona rolled her eyes. “Before you get up my ass, hear me and Sooyoung out.”
Tiffany turned to the tall girl standing near her. Yoona gave her a nod. It would be better for her to break it to them first.
“Jessica Jung is a Neolist.”
“What?” said Taeyeon and Tiffany both.
“A couple weeks ago, Yoona noticed something. A tan line. We thought it came from a wedding ring so Sunny was looking into it. It was, in a sense, but not the way we thought.”
Out of the files, Sooyoung drew a photo and passed it to Tiffany who walked it over to Taeyeon. Text was printed at the bottom of the panorama:
New Order 75th Division Commencement Ceremony.
Neolist members and their families clustered around in the picture. Jessica and Donghae were side-by-side, left fists extended forward to show the black and silver Neolist commencement band around their ring fingers. Across their chest, each member wore a sash adorned with the phoenix emblem. On Jessica’s other side, arm slung around her waist, was no other than a young Soojung.
“Those rings bind them to the cause,” Sooyoung explained. “Married to the service until either they die in duty or their main task is completed. The whole relationship and settle thing is a no go for them.”
“How long do you think since she’s been laid?” Yoona muttered for only Sooyoung to hear earning a glare from Tiffany and a swat in the arm from Sooyoung.
“Lee and Jung have probably known each other since diapers. Her sister was part of the 81st Division.”
“She was there the night of the attack.” And nearly choked the life out of her. If only that bullet curved a fraction to the right, she would’ve taken her out. “You said Neolist were an extremist group. They’d be after the weapons, not us. They could’ve gone straight to the source, but instead they took us out. Why? Because we were getting in the way of Jessica’s plan.”
“Her entire ploy was to get close to Kwon, make her fall in love with her. Kwon doesn’t agree with her father, so if Jung got to Kwon, she could easily convince her to force her father out.”
“But her plan backfired," said Yoona. "Yuri never took to Jessica’s advances and she’s not as invested in the company as Jessica thought. Not to mention I was thrown in which only made things worse.”
Sooyoung shrugged. “Jung probably would’ve left us alone but we were getting deep. She needed to get rid of us.”
“Of me. First. If that didn’t work, she’d take Yuri out on her own. She’s already started. My relationship with Yuri was perfect blackmail. Even if she doesn't expose the photos she has of us, she has the upper hand. Yuri would cower. Jessica could move in, and with Senior Kwon’s rep still on the fence along with his son’s, she could step in to carry both companies and eventually have them both.”
“With the power of having Z1 and Ion, the Neolist would have everything they need to execute whatever fucked up extremist plan they have.”
Yoona turned to Sooyoung. “What I’m confused about is how did no one catch Jessica before? The Jung’s and the Kwon’s have known each other for years.”
“Neolist are all about patience,” said Tiffany. She walked across the room to stand on the other side of Sunny’s bed. “They can wait in silence for days, even years, for the right moment. Who knows how long they’ve been plotting this or how wide it spreads? What you’ve discovered here is only a glimpse of a possibly bigger picture. For all we know, someone part of the Lotus Group could be one, too.”
“Maybe. To have the request come from an outside source, no one suspects foul play on the inside.”
Yoona shook her head. It was great to know that too but, “We don’t have time to figure that out now. We need a plan.”
Tiffany’s eyebrow lifted. “Plan?”
“If we’re going to quit then we quit with reason. You said it yourself,” Yoona looked to Taeyeon who held the papers in her hands. “What they’re making in there could change everything. In the hands of the Neolist, we know it’ll be a disaster. We have to stop the project.”
Tiffany rolled her eyes. “How? Blow up Ion Corp?”
Yoona grinned.
“Im.”
“Okay, not that extreme but we’re not helpless. I can get into the labs at Ion. All I need to know is how to get rid of the bio."
“Neutralize it?” Sooyoung suggested.
Tiffany shook her head. “We don’t know what form it’s in or even what it’s made of.”
“Yuri told me they had a biohazard down there a month ago.”
Sooyoung snapped her fingers. “Biohazard. Matches up with why they’d need Lee Donghae, and considering Ion’s history with infectious diseases, it’s probably another one.”
Tiffany shook her head. “Even if we get rid of that, we’ll have to wipe the information from both Ion and Z1’s database. Otherwise, they'll reboot the project.”
“Ion is easy. We’re still in. It’s Z1 where we’ll run into trouble. They’re too advanced.”
“Reverse the hack code?” asked Yoona.
Tiffany lifted her eyebrows at Sooyoung. “Can you do that?”
“I can.” Heads swiveled over to Sunny. She peered up at them through heavy eyelids. Tiffany rushed to help her prop her head beneath a thicker pillow. “I know you weren't planning a counterattack without me.”
“Can you do that? Reverse the code?”
“Hell, I can.”
Tiffany's lips pressed into a fine line. “You won’t.”
“I’m fine, Fan.”
“Sunny.”
Sunny shook her head. A silent conversation passed between them. Tiffany soon relented. “Soo, I’ll need my spare gear. We’re gonna cut that bitch off.”
Sooyoung nodded. “I’ll bring it after we’re done here.”
Tiffany frowned. “I don’t like this.”
Fingers brushed against the ones clutched around the bars of the bed. Tiffany released it to let Sunny take her hand. “Bambi’s right. If we quit, we quit with reason. We can’t just give up.”
Silence passed. Eyes shifted until they landed at Taeyeon who'd been more than silent. Yoona understood why. To think up a counterattack while they were beat was risky. There was only so much fight left in them, and it was that little bit of fight that they'd need to conjure up and use in order to be successful.
“Do you think this will work?” asked Taeyeon.
All eyes fell on Yoona. She sure as hell hoped.
“You’ll have to live to find out.”
Part X
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-11-14 05:51 am (UTC)I'm so glad that Seohyun has a donor but I feel like you're gonna fuck that part up for me by making it Yuri or something but I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later yes?
Other than that it was quite an emotional ride in those hospital scenes and these chapters are making me teary so far, I'll probably be an emotional wreck by the end.
Then again all of your stories make me that way.
Fuck you Boxxy
*Sobs in Corner*
--
I'll be awaiting the next chapter!
My tissue box awaits and my heart is ready to be broken.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-14 03:51 pm (UTC)Even though there was a possibility of Jessica going that far.
And wow, despite it being so heartbreaking, I'm glad Yoona came clean to Seohyun. Still hiding some, but at least she's mostly honest. Seohyun too, she's honest to Yoona about how she's always known the situation. That's why honesty is important lol
and talking about honesty...
OMG Seohyun's confession......................
and YoonHyun's moment in this chapter..........
I can't not feel the urge to ship them lol THE FEELS ARE STRONG it's overpowering me.
and Seohyun got donor like finally T_T <3 hope everything go well (would it?)
YoonHyun is going strong and YoonYul is faltering lol how could this be (well, how YoonYul happened was because of motives)
Yoona also got some explanations from Taeyeon herself. This chapter feels so relieving in its own way haha
I'm so excited for the team!!! This is much more challenging and they're kinda like heroes now omg
With Sunny's survival too, team got in action again ;)
More teamwork, more adrenaline rush, more love(?), and just moreeeee everything :D
no subject
Date: 2015-11-14 05:20 pm (UTC)More later... Maybe
YAAAS (09)!!
Date: 2015-11-18 05:10 am (UTC)Okay, but really, the whole point to the last paragraph of fangirl rant: I’m happy that yoonhyun might possibly be back and are becoming more honest with each other about everything. Does that mean a BoxxPunch to the heart is coming and 1 of the 2 (or both) or gonna bite the dust? Probably, but until then, I will savor the potential Yoonhyun happily ever after.
The YK crew’s backstory is so sad. They just took on this job to try to forget the past. Dang. So TaeNySun threesome is really a thing then -- or that’s what I got from that “intimate” line ;P? Nah, seriously though, that line is really heartbreaking. I hope they all can heal and move on by successfully completing the mission and saving the world without anyone on their team (or anyone they care for) becoming casualties in the crossfire
Thank you for the update! Super stoked for the next!
no subject
Date: 2015-11-18 05:41 pm (UTC)WHAT UP WHAT UP, BOXXY. I should be working on a project rn, buuuuuut fic tho. >_>
Even though many things were revealed, this had the vibe of a transitional chapter. Which is completely cool. I went, “Oh snap!” (cues Fergie song) a few times, but most of this reading venture involved me scratching my chin, appearing highly intelligent to those around me. //humble
ANYWAYS. LET’S START. WITH THE YOONSIC SCENE. YoonSic is real in this D@ He1$t because even in Yoona’s dreams, she wants her hands on our sexy villain. Kinky asphyxiation is a thing, after all.
This line: traded in horns and a tail for Louboutin’s and Blanc—AYYYYYYY EQUATE DEM BISHES. LEMMIE GO GRAB MY BLANC SUNNIES SO I CAN FEEL HIP.
Another line that already had me like, KIIIIISSSSS!!!!: Yoona let their fingers lazily twine together. “I don't know how to be careful with you.”—Gawwwd that’s insanely romantic. Mmmmmmm dem neck kissies. Yum yummmm~
Lemmie just fly on a not-so-tangent and acknowledge your Of Life & Love-like reveal of YoonHyun. As I already told you yesterday, I WASN’T SURPRISED. I KNOW YOU. Not to mention that YoonYul’s relationship foundation was built on lies. I really can’t imagine a scenario where Yuri wouldn’t (rightfully) feel utterly betrayed. Sad time, though. YoonYul was hot.
THE CUBE CREW. ;______; TEAMING UP, ALBEIT IN A DISMAL MOOD.
“How long do you think since she’s been laid?” Yoona muttered for only Sooyoung to hear—Yoona should’ve at least…tried to seduce Jessica. >_> *salty*
SUNNY’S IN IT TO WIN IT. SHE BETTER SURVIVE THIS OMG SHE’S BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH IN THIS FIC AND BLOODLINE. YES, I’M COMBINING CHARACTERS. THESE BISHES NEED SUNNY OR ELSE, THEY’RE SCREWED. DON’T GIVE UP. ;____;
no subject
Date: 2015-11-20 03:38 am (UTC)sorry, Yulbb;.;.;.; I bet Seo is going to end up being a Neolist. #ripyoonhyundrimIt all makes sense, she also killed Hyo bcos she was tired of her bs. I got it. 🤓🤓👌🏼
Jessica being the villain is unnnnnnf. God, that woman is just... :Q_______
My baby Taeng. Come here, bb, let me hug you. I'll make it go away. OTL
I don't know what's going down, but I know it'll be some live or die shizz. And I'm sooooo ready. Tho, if you kill Taeng... I'm out. ;___;
Good day, boxxy-nim