Empire | ATEEZ

EPILOGUE

I closed my eyes as I let the last drops of wine trickle from the glass into my mouth, enjoying the feeling of the soft breeze as it ruffled my dress and hair along with the comfortable burn of the alcohol as it washed down my throat.

The pictures Seonghwa had shown me before we left Korea had in no way done Positano justice, I decided, letting my eyes flutter back open to reveal the endless stretches of the vineyard's land that seemed to go on forever into the distance; almost impossibly green underneath the burning sun.

"Are you enjoying the view?"

Mingi's voice echoed through my earpiece followed by a chuckle which made me roll my eyes before reaching up to touch the device, "It's nice to have a change of surroundings after having been around you all morning. Don't act like you're not lounging in a chair and enjoying the sun right now. At least we're working."

"Guilty as charged," the treasurer admitted, the far-away sound of waves adding to the background noise from his end of the call, "There's a long way down, you know," he added.

I turned around, tearing my eyes off the endless rows of grape trees and neatly arranged vines to look over the edge of the cliff, squinting slightly in the sun as I made my way over, stopping only when the grass turned to stone, I glanced down at the ocean below.

"Well, you're not wrong," I mumbled, letting the wine glass dangle from my fingers for a moment before letting go and watching it plummet toward the waves below which quickly swallowed it whole.

"Aren't you gonna go get him? If we know anything for sure, it's that he either kills them before they get a chance to speak or gets himself cornered whenever you show up too late. Besides, Jisung and Seungmin have been glaring at me for hours now because of what happened to Minho and Hyunjin and it's starting to ruin my mood. I'm on my third glass of prosecco already and-"

"Stop drinking!" I hissed, glaring out into the distance in an attempt to spot the yacht without much luck before turning back toward the main house of the vineyard, "You can't both be captain and drunk. It's one or the other, we've been over this several times-"

"He's in the basement," was all that Mingi said, and then the line went dead. I scoffed, picking up my pace a little as I reached for my gun and pushed through the door, well-aware that the Seonghwa had already cleared the house, before I headed down the stairs to the basement.

In the weeks leading up to the mission, I had improved my aim a lot, disappointed to find out that my first shot had been luck rather than skill, but Seonghwa was still the one pressing the trigger.

The same went for today, our last day in Positano before leaving for Conca Dei Marini further down the Amalfi Coast.

Jisung and Minho had been easy to find, and the latter of the two was currently enjoying a nice little swim in the middle of the ocean, courtesy of Mingi and Seonghwa who both seemed to hold a grudge toward him, as the treasurer kept moving the boast just out of reach.

Hyunjin had quickly joined him which left both Jisung and Seungmin on the boat with Mingi, all of them exhausted from anger, lack of sleep, and the constant interrogation from the two blonds.

They had cracked quicker than expected, and if it hadn't been for the horrors we had discovered on Nocturne's countless vineyards, I would probably have felt bad about handing them over to Hongjoong once we returned.

But once again, as I dove into the darkness of the basement, slipping soundlessly behind a wall of barrels and came face to face with a group of petrified women, all staring wide-eyed at me and the gun in my hand, I found myself without a single sliver of sympathy for the men behind the entire operation.