renegades [teenage mercenary]

015

Ijin's neck prickled.

He spun on his heel, causing his friends to sputter his name as they waited to understand what bothered Ijin. His eyes glazed over every head, every piece of clothing, through every window and every exit. Not again, he thought grimly after just dealing with 006. His wounds panged in response as his eyes caught a familiar stature. His lips tilted into a frown. He couldn't forget that jacket for a moment. With wide eyes, he realized that the reason he didn't originally recognize the person was that the hair had thrown him off—her hair.

Rei.

Not once had he ever seen her hair down, always kept in tight braids to keep her hair out of her face. He let out a sigh, relieved he wouldn't have to confront anyone while having to protect his friends and his identity. Her eyes met his as she walked out of the alley, allowing her long locks to fly loosely in the soft breeze of the city. She stood tall for how short she was with a loose-lipped smile. She knew she had caught him off guard.

Ijin simply blinked as Rei neatly twisted in and out of the crowd, light as a feather while donning her heavy combat boots. Yeongchan, Hyeokjin, and Jaehyeong stood to Ijin's right while Yeona and Seokju stood to his left. The whole squad was present. Maybe they'd do official introductions at this point, considering that Rei could speak Korean easier and hoping that Seokju would trust Yeona to be around her a little more.

The boys had all become curious about Rei after she joined him and Yeongchan that afternoon to look for Hyeokjin and Jaehyeong. Yeonchan for the rest of the night continued to talk about how exciting it was to watch Rei hold her ground and now Hyeokjin and Jaehyeong had been anticipating an interaction with their 'saving grace,' despite Jaehyeong exclaiming after they were saved to Ijin: "in the game of life, you're the true challenger." Apparently after finding out that Rei had helped beat up a third of the men and all the guards at the front of the building made Jaehyong second-guess his comment.

"Is that...her?" Hyeokjin asked, chin tilted as Rei made her way over. Despite Rei being small and discreet, she still had a large presence that the teenagers immediately took notice of. Yeongchan nodded and Ijin didn't miss the way Yeongchan's cheeks softly reddened, although left it no mind.

"She's so..." Jaehyeong paused as if trying to find a word for what he was looking for, "...short," then received an elbow to his side.

"Dude, really?" the bleached blond muttered, the two too deep in conversation to realize Rei was right in front of them now. "Yeona barely has a few inches on her."

"No, it's not that—I just imagined for a girl to be able to beat up a bunch of men, she wouldn't be like half their height. Or am I the only one?"

"Would you two be quiet for once? She's right there!" Yeona scolded the two, although Rei didn't pay attention to the conversation. Yeona then took a step closer to Ijin, walking from Seokju. Both the teenagers hushed in response, blushing in embarrassment, and Ijin gave an amused smile.

"Wasn't expecting to see you today," he attempted in Korean, surprised she caught them right after school in all of their uniforms.

"Kang's gone for a month and I've been bored," Rei responded without missing a beat.

Ijin nodded.

Rei did not like staying still, so it made sense for her to look around the city some more.

"We're going to the Gameroom! Wanna join?" Jaehyeong said, not hiding his excitement. All of them were free to hang out for a few hours and they had decided to make use of their time by leveling up and getting further into their games.