When they reached the cars, which were all parked a street or so from her own car, they split up into their assigned vehicles and North carefully placed Sang into the front seat of a black SUV that must've belonged to The Academy. She thanked him and buckled up her seatbelt, keeping her ankle slightly elevated under the pretence of it being a legitimate injury. Sean came round and took position in the drivers seat, starting the engine of the car.
"So the plan is to get you fixed up and then drive you back so that you can take your car and get home safely – not that we're telling you what to do, but it gets pretty dangerous around these areas, especially for a pretty girl like yourself. I mean, who knows what could happen." Said Sean, shuddering slightly at the thought. He pulled out and began driving down the road, the guys in the other cars followed suit. Sang contemplated his statement for a moment, the word 'dangerous' particularly stood out to her; for all she knew the very men she was with right now could do these dangerous things. Her mother had ingrained in Sang's brain from a young age that all men were terrible, terrible people and that it was improper for a girl such as herself to go alone anywhere by herself. She was to have at least one person from the family with her whenever she chose to go out, and that usually meant Marie, as her mother seldom left the house and her father was away most of the time. Unfortunately for Sang, this meant many painful trips to simple places such as the park or the supermarket accompanied by her grumpy sister who would never let her be at peace. When Sang finally got out of her mothers suffocating grip and was recruited by TIBI, she had been so grateful and was ready to become the independent young woman she had always craved to be. Sang had learnt over the years that not all men were as her mother painted them to be as shown by her own TIBI family – Agent Grayson and Matt. They had been very welcoming and kind towards her, never showing her any hostility and truly being the family she'd never had. She was bummed that Marie had been recruited also, but got over that as soon as she realised they would lead separate lives and would have minimal contact within the agency.
Sang thought back to the time she had been out with her mother when she was seven years old. Back when her mother was less sick than she was now, she had allowed Sang to go shopping with her in the local Walmart. As she and her mother walked through the toy section of the store, Sang had seen a pink art set on a high shelf in the store and had stayed behind while her mother went on to the end of the isle without her. Noticing a member of staff in the store, she pulled on his pant leg and asked him if he could get it for her. He was rather young, probably early-twenties Sang realised, and he had had a mop of blonde hair and playful blue eyes. He had smiled at the sudden small girl with a timid disposition asking him to get the set down for her. He had obliged happily and was just handing it over to her when her mother came barging down the isle, forcefully pulling Sang away by tugging and almost ripping her old jumper. She rushed Sang down the isle, shooting the Walmart worker a murderous glare as she did so.
"We absolutely do NOT talk to men. I cannot believe you just did that you senile, filthy girl!" her mother spat out, glaring at Sang.
"But I just wanted the-" Sang remembered being cut off mid-sentence.
"Just shut your mouth! If you ever think I'm bringing you here again you must be severely deluded! I specifically told you before we came that you were to stick to my side and not wander off. And what did you do? You wandered off and I found you talking to a MAN no less!" she had seen her mother angry before, but this was much worse. She knew she would be punished severely for this and felt sick to the stomach. Realising apologies would fall upon deaf ears, she had stayed silent and kept her head down for the rest of their trip, dreading the moment she got home and would have to succumb to a cruel punishment.
Sang was torn out of her flashback by a hand waving in front of her face.
"You really zoned out for a bit there didn't you? You sure you didn't hit your head when you took that fall?" asked Sean apprehensively.
Sang shook her head no and rubbed a hand over her face to clear her thoughts. She hated re-visiting the past but past memories sprung up on her more often than not as they were so distinct and although so long ago, she couldn't help but be reminded of where she was and why. If it were not for TIBI, who knows what she would be doing right now.
"You'll probably need to check out everything, Dr. Green..." said North from the backseat. Gabriel had been remarkably quiet thus far and Sang could tell he was about to address a question to her. Only seconds after she'd thought it, Gabriel cleared his throat. "So Sang, when I met you before, you said you-"
"Wait, what? When did you meet her before?" piped North.
"I kind of ran into her, technically I scared her shitless, before we...uh...had our meet-up with our... friends at that place...." Gabriel trailed off. North and Sean both knew what he was getting at, but little did they know Sang also knew what they were talking about. Playing dumb she agreed and said sheepishly, "I met him when I was a few streets down from where I got chased and tripped. He did scare me a little but I'm just a jumpy person so I guess it's not entirely his fault."
"Hold up, did you just say you were getting chased? I remember you saying that before too, you were waiting for you friend, right?" inquired North. Sang couldn't see his expression from her position in the front seat but could tell he was probably grimacing.
"Y-yeah her name's Karen. We were supposed to be hanging out and she lives in that area so I decided to pick her up. I was walking towards her house when I spotted some burly-looking guys heading my way. I started to walk in the opposite direction but they were gaining on me so I had to run. I ran as far as I could but then, as you know, I tripped and hurt my ankle." Sang said. She was lying through her teeth but being used to twisting the truth and being a spy for TIBI, she had become accustomed to it and was very convincing when she wanted to be.
"Makes sense." Said Gabriel thoughtfully. "I hate this neighbourhood. It's dangerous and unsafe and if you were meeting up with your friend it probably would've been a better idea to stay inside your car and wait rather than getting out."
"That's true. I'll bear that in mind next time." She said.
