Over and Out

Chapter Ten

Lisa wasn't really sure how she got back to the bar; coming back from her encounter with Mr J, she felt, occurred outside of her consciousness, as if someone else was controlling her body. Her limbs felt disconnected, all of her actions carried out in autopilot—she didn't know if it was sheer luck or desperation that helped her keep her composure, stopped her from blowing her fragile cover. She had emerged from the darkness of the room, out into the main room in a dream-like state, barely keeping herself together, to five young adults who looked to be all going through a different stage of grief—Hanbin was embodying the depression part, no doubt thinking about the consequences of possibly losing her while he was in charge, while Bobby was in spaced out denial, and Jennie in glass-slamming anger. Chaeyoung was bargaining - with herself as to which flavour shot to take next, whilst Jaewon was cool acceptance, ignoring the other four. They had converged on her straight away, pulling her through the crowd, out into the cool night air. Taking a glance around it appeared as though many of his men had focused their attention closer to him as opposed to the perimeters of the club, allowing them to get out pretty easily. Lisa was thankful for the coldness of the night, that shocked some feeling back into her currently numb state.

"So?" Chaeyoung prodded, the rest turning expectedly towards her. Lisa tried to school her features into something that she hoped was reassuring.

"Look at all of you!" She laughed, out of nervousness that at least worked for her case. "I'm fine, it was literally nothing."

"You were in there for a while Lisa, and with no back-up. Don't blame us for jumping to some grim conclusions." Bobby intervened, taking a drag from a cigarette he had managed to produce from somewhere. Rolling her eyes, she reached for it, taking a long drag—she had done it a few times before, and felt that, if nothing else, it would give her something to do to avoid the looks being thrown her way.

"I know, I know. But it was really nothing bad, just... strange." She handed it back to Bobby, shivering from the slight wind. She was flushed, she could tell, seemingly from inside the club; eventually they would realise she was a little too red for it to be solely temperature related. Turning her face to the wind, she squinted around, trying to spot their cars. "Are we done here then?"

"Yeah." Hanbin nodded, typing something on his phone. "The other group found what they needed, so we're finished for the night." He ignored the protests from the two other girls. "We just have to quickly debrief once we get back."

"Oooh that'll be interesting, huh Lisa? You can't leave out any torrid details then." Jennie joked, poking her in the side. She managed a weak giggle, before reaching out to Bobby for his cig again. The deep inhalations did nothing to clear her mind of the chaos inside it, but still she smoked it down to a stub, until the cars arrived. Once they all got on, she turned away from the rest of them, closing her eyes to feign sleep, as they drove back home.

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"And how many men would you say he had with him? At the event it seemed pretty minimal, but I'm sure there were more there than we picked up on." Jinwoo asked, leaning back in his chair. He was another of the higher agents, with the face of an angel but the sadistic tendencies of quite the opposite. His quiet nature off the field sometimes gave Lisa whiplash—such seemed to be the case with many of the other agents, as if something took over, possessed them when they left the safety of home. Him and Mino were debriefing them now, still in their club-ed out states, in a spacious meeting room. They were scattered around the place on various seats and table-tops, in varying states of sobriety. Lisa herself was sprawled out across two chairs, having unconsciously distanced herself from those around her.