Lucid

Chapter 15

POV: Fixer
We drove in silence, the girls all seeming confused still. It was their first experience with an act of terrorism, after all. Mine was no less off-putting. Then, as I should have expected, Gaeul starts questioning me.
"Why did you come to help us?" I glance back at her in the rear view mirror.
"You needed it."
"Did President Lee pay you?"
"He offered. I was considering it when I heard what was happening."
"And so you came because you wanted the money?"
"No. I came because no one else could protect you as well as I can."
"And what does that matter to you?" Yeah, that's a good question. Is it care? Could it really be?
"I don't know." I haven't cared about anything, not for most of my life. Is it really care? Or some phantom, something they remind me of. Or maybe a simple desire to protect the innocent. But to every one of those questions, there lies a follow up question. Each one has a slight different meaning to the question, but it is always the same- Why Them?
"Hm." Gaeul says snubly, unimpressed by my response.

I keep driving, getting closer to their dorms. When I look across to my right, I see Yujin. Her hands are moving, she seems to be pinching at herself and twirling her fingers. I've done something similar before, and it's no good. To stop her, I reach my hand across and grab ahold of hers.
"You alright?" I ask, looking at her, trying to see if how she feels is written in her face somehow. I can tell she feels uncertain, and perhaps still scared. She looks back at me for a moment, then looks down at my hand, intertwined with hers. She blushes, probably still thinking of the panic she's been through recently.

POV: Yujin

Ahhhh! He's holding my hand, oh my god. His hands are large, and they feel warm. He's not too rough, either. The way he saw me twitching and grabbed my hands to stop me, made me feel panicked in a while other way. Then, the way he gazed into my eyes as he asked me how I was, I could almost feel my heart flutter.
"I'm doing ok." I say, looking into my lap to avoid staring at him.
"Are you sure?" He sounds so sincere, too.
"I think so."
"It's been a lot of pressure on you over the last two days. Hey, all of you. I'm going to talk to your bosses and get you some time off. You need it, after the last two days." I hear him sigh, and whisper to himself, "shouldn't have been there in the first place." It feels nice to hear him worry about us.

POV: Fixer
I'll admit, I'm worried about them. Teenagers, going through two different possibly traumatic experiences within two days? Not good. We show up at the dorm, and I jump out. I make sure to open the door for them, and follow them up to their dorm. We go inside, and I walk to the kitchen first. I'll make more tea. They're already tired, but it will help calm nerves. Once I have the pot boiling, I go over and knock on Wonyoung's door, remembering I should get my boots back.
"Yes?" She sounds very blank
"It's me. Can I come in?"
"That's fine." I open the door, and see her sitting on her bed in her pajamas. I go sit down next to her, and rub my hand across her back. I can feel her spine. That's odd.
"Hey. Are you feeling alright?" She stands up, and walks to the door and closes it. Walking back to me, she stands right in front of me, with me sitting and her standing. Then, she begins to cry softly. I stand up, and grab ahold of her. One arm wraps around her shoulders, while the other I put on the back of her head and place it against my right, and caress her hair. "Hey, calm. Don't worry, don't be scared. It's over now." I try to reassure her, although I'm not the best at giving therapy. She softly cries into my shoulder, and I hold onto her, trying to be a source of stability for her. After a minute, she slowly stops crying and leans up. Her eyes are red, and I can see the tears smudged across her face. Bringing my hands up, I place them on her face and use my thumbs to wipe them away, then embrace her one more time. "Go sleep. You need it. I'll be back tomorrow." She nods, and lays down. I grab my boots and head to the door. As I open it, I hear her say quietly,
"Thank you." I pause in the doorway, then turn my head halfway and give a silent nod. Then I shut off the light and slip out.

Taking the now-ready tea, I pour five cups and begin distributing it. Leeseo seems to have internalized everything by now, and is deep in thought. Rei thanks me, even though her hands still shake a bit. Liz seems surprisingly calm, but she might be hiding it. Gaeul has already left, but I don't want to fight her tonight, she doesn't need any more stress and I might give her some. Turning to Yujin, I ask,
"Can you take this to Gaeul?"
"Alright. Are you going to stay here again tonight?" I shake my head, no.
"I have work to do. I'll be back tomorrow to check up on you." She seems alright with that, but I can see Rei turn her head to look at me.
"You aren't staying?" She asks, sounding concerned.
"Like I said, I have thing I need to do. But I'll get them done while you sleep. I'll be back before you even realize I was gone." She still seems unhappy about it, so I kneel down and bring myself to her eye level. "I'm here for you, even when you can't see me." I reach to my wrist and pull one of my combat knife. I tap the handle to decharge the blade, then run it across the edge of my armor plating. It sparks slightly, so I pull out the small sharpening unit and run it across the blade, dulling it. After a few strokes, it dulls, no longer a cutting edge. I flip it in my hand and grab the blade. "Here. Take this. Keep it as a reminder." She grabs the handle, and holds it upright, edge towards me.
"It's not very heavy."
"I made it myself, custom. It's not meant to be heavy. Hold on to it." I stand up again, and start walking towards the door. I see Yujin and Gaeul walk out of the other room. Rei looks at the knife, while Leeseo looks at me. Yujin looks at me with a strangely fond look, while Gaeul looks vaguely sad. I waive, and shut the door.

Getting back to the truck, I climb into the driver's seat and reactivate the display.
"Alright, give me all reports from every bomb site. Any evidence recovered, along with testing of the bombs or blast sites." First order of business, find who made the bombs, and find who used them. The VI starts throwing data and information across the screen and the holographics, giving me everything I can handle. "Alright, begin analysis. Find me someone to hunt." The computer begins to work on it, giving me an estimated time of 45 minutes until concluded. With that, I start heading home. On the drive, news begins coming in.
"Explosion at Go Foods Tower."
"Terror attack strikes YumYung land!"
"Police defuse bomb at Seoul City Hall!" None of them are remarkable, until one.
"Unknown hero saves MusicBank!" Tapping into that one, my Vi reads it to me.
"Earlier tonight, a military-grade explosive was found at the famous Music Bank show stage! The building was evacuated as soon as it was detected, although some say it was too little, too late. Thankfully, no one was armed due to the actions of a single unidentified individual. This person, who we assume is part of a police special operations team, was able to diffuse the explosive device before it detonated. They bravely threw themself into harm's way, and saved an estimated twenty lives, as well as fifty to sixty injured. Seoul police have refused any comment on this individual, although no people on the scene seemed to be aware of any special police units in the area. Was Id police? Military? Or someone else? We will continue to investigate!" The article ends.
"Well, shit. That's fine, it's only one spotting and article. It shouldn't do much. Arriving at home, I head upstairs. "Alright, prep the armory. I need full combat gear, but also, give me covert chase gear, packed. As I walk into the armory, I see the robotic arms installed in the ceiling, already grabbing and packing my requested equipment. Others hand me new weapon and gear, as I prepare for my hunting expedition. Once I'm fully equipped, I head to the intel room. The search results had finished a few minutes ago, and gave me three locations. "Alright, transfer the locations to navigation. Send a drone to investigate each." Upon that order, three small quadrotor UAV's took off from their pens on my roof, and departed to give me information on my targets. I returned to my garage, and jumped into my armored Land Rover. I speed out the door, through the tunnel, and to the first location, a nearly house. A few minutes later, I park my care down the street and begin to approach. I already have guns drawn, and my night vision grants me easy visibility to the lack of action outside the house. I slowly move to the front door, and use the drone to peek inside. Around the back, I can see into a window and see four people, some with guns. Guns are illegal in Korea. That means, I'm good to go. I step back, then breathe a moment. Switching my mind to fight mode, I can feel my senses recalibrate. Then, I kick down the front door, and the fun begins. I don't know who had endangered the six girls, but I knew I would make them regret it.

A/N—-
Uuugghhh I don't like these last 3 as much as the ones before that. I should stop writing stressful scenes it doesn't work. Anyways don't mind me.

Btw, I brought in 2 Kdrama easter eggs. Tell me which ones and I'll.... Yeah. I'll do something