The Black Dahlia

02. Who

As she walked through the hallways, almost every single student there waved at her or came over her just to get her attention. Yes, she sure was popular for mafia's heir. No one knew who she really was. She didn't let anyone cross the border-let them know about her family and herself. Once they did, she knew there was no doubt that things would get pretty messy. Her closest friend, Liv Collins, had no clue about her either. The thing was, she wasn't sure if she had any real relationship, honestly.

She went into her classroom. Spotting Liv at the back, Dahlia took a seat right next to her. Liv soon noticed her and put her phone down.

"Hey, Liv."

"Hey. Did you hear the news?"

News? Dahlia frowned a little. She was aware of all the things going on, in case it helps her family's, well, illegal activity. What kind of news could she have missed?

"No, what is it?"

Liv rolled her eyes and exclaimed.

"We have a transfer student, and I heard he's, like, damn hot."

Liv looked excited about it. She couldn't blame her ; she was basically a delusional romantic.

A transfer student.

Dahlia snickered. Part of her was relieved to know that it wasn't such important news.

"Well, let's see if he's hotter than me."

"Oh, I don't know. but I'm sure he's not as insane as you are."

Then they both broke into a quiet laugh. Liv's sarcasm and wicked sense of humor made her go along with Dahlia so well. She was straight-forward, saying what she wanted to say. Dahlia seldom wished she could tell her everything. But she knew better than to trust someone.

Suddenly, the classroom became silent. Everyone was staring at the door, so she turned around, too.

"Who is he?"

"Isn't he the transfer student?"

"God, he's so cute."

A blond, tall guy was walking through the door. His hazel eyes were inscrutable and cold. And she admit it-he was kind of her type.  But for some reason, he was making her stomach twisted. She startled. Why was he making her feel this way?

He, without paying any attention to other students, headed to the back of the classroom. And to her surprise, he sat next to her. She could feel all the kids staring at her, including Liv. Not that it mattered. 

Oh well. She attempted conversation.

"Hi. You new here?"

He met her eyes and smiled.

"Yeah. Um, I'm Black."

"Dahlia."

She smiled. Still, something wasn't right about him. She quickly scanned-her gut feeling was often right when it came to her enemies. There was nothing weird about him. Was she overthinking?

Then, she caught something in his ear.

"Nice earring."

She blurted out. Black unconsciously brushed his ears and answered without any sign of surprise or embarrassment.

"Thanks. I got it from my dad."

But she knew it wasn't an earring. She saw it dozens of time, so she immediately recognized it. 

It was an earpiece, used for communication between spies and agents.

Before she could think further, their teacher came in. She tried her best not to show her confusion, to stay completely calm.

"Okay, so everyone here? We've got a transfer student today. Mr. West?"

Black stood up. Black West, that was his name. She silently thought of murders and spies she knew, but no such name as Black West. 

He begun to introduce himself. She heard none of them. It wasn't just a normal earpiece. It had a familiar structure-she had seen it before. Probably from a big group against Minatio. What could it be? She glanced at Black's phone, and carefully took it below her desk. It was an easy crime to commit, for she was mafia boss's daughter. She knew how to unlock it. Most of the phone's password worked with simple patterns. His password was very complicated one, though. But she had done this her entire life. After failing a few times, she unlocked it. Her fingers ran on top speed. He seemed to be writing an email, full of random numbers and alphabets.

HOLPLQDWLRQ RI WKH KHLU

01010011 01000011 

Her breath caught.

No-it couldn't-it was impossible-

"-Thank you for introducing yourself, Mr.West. Now go back to your seat."

Black walked back, and Dahlia turned his phone off. She secretly placed back to where it was. Black seemed not to have noticed, just like any other did. He wouldn't even be able to know that someone had unlocked his phone. However, her heart pounded like crazy. If she used Caesar cipher and binary system altogether, it was no longer a random numbers and letters. It became a message about her.

Elimination of the heir, SC.

What had killed her mother was trying to kill her, too.

-

Dahlia Margot Garcia. Age 17, female. Enrolling in Merrymont High School.

This was precisely all he got about the target except for the picture. It said that she showed an 'outstanding grades', and was forming 'excellent relationships' between other students, but he decided they weren't the major information to know. Instead, he carefully studied the picture of her. Even though he hadn't really met any girl in his age, it was certain that her features were quite beautiful. Red-gold hair and incredibly blue eyes, which caught his eyes. He'd never seen anyone in his entire life who had this vivid shade of cobalt blue for their eyes. Black considered that a good thing, since unique features would help him find his target faster and easier.

So here he was at last. In high school, the last place he thought he would go, wearing grey hoodies and jeans. Staring at his own reflection on the mirror, he felt strange. He just looked so....normal. Just like any other boys in his age. The thing was that he wasn't, was he? He was here for work. He was here as an undercover agent to eliminate possible social threat.

Nothing really happened so far. The teacher introduced him in the class, and of course, he took a sit right next to his target. His target was the last person to think as a heir of mafia. She was popular, and very pretty. And she asked him about his earpiece, just like he expected. Why wouldn't she? She would've spent her whole life surrounded by crimes and secrets. She would recognize it right away. But he had a script for it. He couldn't just take the bait.

One thing troubled him, though. Someone had unlocked his phone in the morning. He was trained enough to know whether someone touched something that was his. But who could have? It was completely encrypted. If not a professional hacker, no one could possibly unlock his phone that fast.

Or, could it be-

No, he went too far. She can't do that. She wouldn't dare to do that-something very risky and dangerous.

Black knew something went wrong. But he decided to ignore it, since no one could be capable of doing those. Instead, he moved on to next step. In the lunch break, he skipped lunch and went to the bathroom. He was going to use the siren. He operated the fire alarm to ring exactly an hour later, so that it could distract the school and give him some space to commit his mission.

He muttered to earpiece.

"Reporting the present situation. Sunflower had been burned."

Which meant that he finished working on fire alarm. He walked out of the bathroom, leaving no trace of him. 

-

Thank you for reading episode 2! It's not a big chapter, but it's still important for the story line. I hope you enjoyed it. Please look forward to next episode!