MINERVA

CHAPTER 2

Kim Ji Eun P.O.V.
As soon as the guy got rid of his helm he sprinted towards me. "Kim Ji Eun, you were given strict orders not to participate in any kind of combat in any situation. Even if lives were on the line. So why on earth are you bleeding again?!" I smiled at the guy. "Hello Ji Sung, good day to you as well." Ji Sung smiled at me and bowed to professor Nam Ji Hyuk. "My team will take care of her now, thank you for your help." Ji Sing lifted me up and carried me outside. Kim Seo Yeon, my team's doctor and one of my best friends was waiting next to a stretcher. She sighed. "Kim Ji Eun, you should at least try not to get hurt. And you Lee Ji Sung, you should make sure she actually follows the commands given to her, you're her second in command for god's sake." I smiled at Seo Yeon. "It's not the right moment to scold me. I'm not feeling good at all." Suddenly I heard screaming behind me and I couldn't keep my attack away anymore.

"The UN radio code. Give us the UN radio code." A man with a thick accent keeps screaming at me. Two boys are hitting me with poles. I just keep muttering. "Minerva. Soldier number 33718421. On a mission for the UN. Minerva. Soldier number 33718421. On a mission for the UN." A pole hits my chest and for a second I can't breathe. The man grabs my hair. "Tell me now. We'll kill you if you do. Then you won't have to suffer anymore. Tell me!" I spit out some blood. I can't give up. Not yet. Tae Joon hasn't even debuted yet. Min Joon hasn't even finished school. I can't leave them alone. Never. Never. Never....

"Noona! Noona!" Someone kept calling me. I was confused. Those guys didn't speak Korean. I slowly opened my eyes and I realised that I was not breathing. "Noona, I'm here, you're safe. I'm safe, hyung is safe." I tried to breathe. Why was it so hard. "Noona! Noona! You're home, you're fine. Breathe, please!" I took a breath. To my left was Min Joon, my little brother. He had been taller than me for years, but he was 9 years younger nonetheless. I was safe. My brothers were safe. My breathing became regular and my head started to hurt less. "Ji Eun, we're moving you to the hospital to get you stitched up." I nodded towards Seo Yeon and she stepped in the ambulance, giving orders to the staff. "Lee Ji Sung!" I called out. "Yes ma'am." "Please take Min Joon to his brothers, make sure they feed him well." Min Joon started protesting. "Noona! I'm going with you to the hospital. Don't even try to make me go to hyung." I sat up on my stretcher and looked at Min Joon with fiery eyes. "Go to Tae Joon for now, you can visit me tonight, stop being impossible otherwise I might send you home." Min Joon went quiet and followed Ji Sung.

Inside the hospital I was taken to the emergency room and they looked at the places I had been shot. It didn't take them long and they complimented both me and professor Nam Ji Hyuk on doing a great job with first aid. Lee Ji Sung reported the situation ten minutes after I was put in a room to rest for a bit. He greeted me and then began his report: "The man that attacked has turned out to be Kim Young Soo, a 61 year old man that used to work in a hospital as a nurse. He lost his job when the crisis hit and due to this he could no longer support his family. A bit after he was fired his son got in a car crash and the family could not pay for the surgeries he needed so the boy died. The police are interviewing the people surrounding him now and it is very certain that he will go to prison for at least 15 years." I nodded and questioned Ji Sung about the guy a bit more. "The cops are suing him for carrying a weapon and for wrecking havoc?" Ji Sung nodded. "The guy has no family left except for a sister that hates him." He added. "The man seems to have given up already, he seems to be answering every question truthfully. Sunbae, are you going to sue him?" I shook my head and looked up to my second in command. "There is no use," I told him. "That man has most likely gone insane and if he is found guilty he'll spend the rest of his life rotting in a cell." Ji Sung agreed with me and told me he needed to head off to his superiors to give reports about my situation. As he went out a doctor came in, who told me everything was fine and I could leave the hospital after I was finished taking my IV fluids.

After finishing at the hospital I took a cab to the YG entertainment building. I showed my visitors pass and went into the lift. Once upstairs I opened the room in which I thought Min Joon and Tae Joon were. Which they weren't. I bowed and apologised and looked up to see who were in the room. I then bowed bowed again to pay respect to Tae Joon's sunbae's. "Hello," I introduced myself "My name is Kim Ji Eun, I am the sister of Kim Tae Joon, the leader of YG's new boygroup Fighter." The two guys inside the room bowed and introduced themselves as Kwon Ji Yong and Kang Dae Sung. I then excused myself from the room again.

I continued walking down the hallway and knocked on the door of another studio. I heard Tae Joon's voice and stepped inside. Tae Joon and Min Joon were inside. They were playing around with some equipment and instruments. I smiled at the boys when they looked up, both of them came running to me tripping over a bunch of wires. "Noona!" They called out. Tae Joon came to hug me and then sat me down on a chair. "If you could wait just a little bit, Min and I were working on something and so far it's sounds very nice." I sighed and rose from my chair. "I'm just gonna walk around the building for a bit. If you boys are working on something I should give you some space to work." The guys sort off nodded and went back to work.

Walking in the hallways got me thinking. Those guys had been making music together since Min Joon was about 4 years old. The two of them together could stay in a room with a guitar and a piano for hours, if not days. I smiled at the thought of my hard work paying off. Since I was 12 years old I had had part-time jobs and I paid for lessons in music and dance for the both of them. I waited for the elevator and checked my phone. I went downstairs all by myself and decided to go to a convenience store that was close by. Inside the store I walked around the aisles for a bit and read some pages in a tabloid. After about 15 minutes I crossed the street yet again and went back inside the elevator. I just stood there when suddenly the sound of the elevator triggered images of times I wanted to forget to come up again. I felt how it had gotten harder to breathe and I was trying to keep the images out and to keep breathing. I sank down to the floor, clutching myself to the bar hanging in the cabin. For some time I felt like there was no air. The short ride up felt like days. Days of torture and pain. Days of hell.

I need water. My lips feel like they will burst and my tongue has the texture of an old piece of leather. I am alone in the dark and I cannot remember where up nor down is. In an attempt to bring any moisture to my mouth my lips begin to bleed. I start to sing. I sing about anything and everything. Disco songs, old rock, pop, anything at all. I get a beating for singing, but I feel like it's the only thing keeping me alive. I keep singing. My throat hurts and I feel like dying and leaving Min Joon and Tae Joon behind would be less painful. But everytime I wanna give up I hear my little brothers sing. And it's the only thing keeping me alive right now.

Kwon Ji Yong P.O.V.
I had just finished work and was walking down the hallway. My head was filled with melodies and lyrics. I arrived at the elevator and pushed the button to go down. The lift arrived and I got startled when the doors opened. A girl was sitting in the corner of the lift. She was covering her ears with her hands and I looked as if she was having a nightmare. I hesitated for a moment, but when she fell down to the ground I stepped inside. "Excuse me?!" I turned her around so I could see her face. It was the girl I had met this afternoon, Kim Tae Joon's sister. She was crying and shaking. I shook her shoulder. "Excuse me?!" I said again. The girl didn't react. She seemed to be having trouble breathing and she looked like she could die is she didn't get any help. I lifted her up. She was as light as a feather. Outside the elevator I put her down again and called for help. "Someone help me please! Someone is dying over here!"

As soon as I shouted for help several doors opened. Dae Sung ran towards me first, but made a sudden stop when he saw the state the girl was in. Suddenly I heard a loud cry. "Noona!" Kim Tae Joon and another boy came running out of a studio and sprinted towards me. The both of them took her over. "Noona!" They told her. "Noona, everything is fine. You're safe. You're in Korea. You're home. You're safe. You're alive. Noona. Don't worry. Don't cry. Everything is fine. Everyone is safe." The girl opened her eyes, still crying. Her shaking lessened and the boy that was with Kim Tae Joon held her in his arms. He kept talking to her with a soft voice. At first I could understand some things he said, but after a while he switched to talking in Chinese. The people around me just stood in shock and started whispering. I walked over to the three people on the ground. "Excuse me," I said, "Should I call an ambulance." Kim Tae Joon immediately stood up and bowed. "Oh no, sunbaenim, there is no need. This was just a light PTSD-attack. Min Joon and I know what to do." I nodded and backed off. I stood next to Dae Sung. "Wait," he asked, "Isn't that the girl who introduced herself as Kim Tae Joon's sister a while ago? What was her name again? Kim Ji Won? Kim Ji Soo?" "Kim Ji Eun." I told him as I remembered her name. "Her name is Ji Eun."