Beneath the City ✔️

Façade

I stood beneath a glowing lampost in the Spiderweb. I looked up at it. It appeared to be powered by fairy dust, which was unusual; although the area I was in looked quite impressive. The normally cracked concrete was smooth, and the walls of the alleys were clean and well lit, illuminated in a golden light. The evening air was surprisingly warm, like a spring day's.

It was almost 7, when I was supposed to meet Mr Jung. I pulled of my jumper, and put it in my pocket. As I looked up I saw a young man dressed in smart suit walked towards me.

'Miss y/n?' He asked.

'That's me,' I confirmed, 'and are you Mr Jung?' I asked. He laughed, shaking his head.

'No, my name is Zico, but Mr Jung is my colleague. You'll be introduced later.'

'Ok.' I replied. 'Where abouts?' I prompted.He laughed again before speaking.

'Unfortunately I'm not at liberty to say, and I will have to blindfold you.' I nodded. 'But first I just need to check you are who you say you are.'

'Here.' I said, showing him the business card, 'how's this?' He nods slowly.

'That's good.' He responds, pulling out his own. Then he walks over, taking a length of crimson cloth from inside his jacket pocket. I turn my back on him, and he wraps it around my head. I wiggle my nose, as it presses uncomfortably against the bridge. I feel him place his hands firmly on my shoulders, as he guides me down the cobbled alley. I have to make a conscious effort to not trip over the uneven floor.

As time passed, I began to lose any sense of where we were headed. I thought at first we were headed east, but we'd turned back and forth so often I'd lost track of our whereabouts entirely. I was pulled back sharply. 'There are some steps here.' Zico warned

'Okay.' I replied, feeling the ground in front of me with my foot. It hit something, and I raised my foot until I found the ledge. I made my way slowly up the rest of the steps, then stopped, as Zico removed his hands from my shoulders.

'We're here.' He said, and the pressure from the blindfold began to fall away. For a brief moment, the sudden return of light blinded, and I squinted into the light. As my eyes adjusted, I gasped. Before me was a grand house, built from white marble. I'd never even heard of such a beautiful house underground, yet here I was on the front steps to the door. I turned back to face Zico. I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it again. I couldn't find the right words. He laughed. 'Impressive, isn't it?'

'That's an understatement.' I said. 'How is it secret?' I asked. He shrugged.

'That'd be telling.' He answered. I looked back up in awe. I heard Zico's footsteps tap on the stone behind me.

'Would you like to ring the doorbell?' He asked. I grinned like a kid. Even the bell felt important, with it placed on a metallic plate. I reached up and pressed it once. From deep within the house, I heard a ding dong echo. I looked back at Zico, and suddenly began to feel nervous. I rubbed my hands on my jeans, in an attempt to get rid of the sweat.

The door swung open, and another young man in a suit stood before me. I suddenly felt incredibly underdressed in my frayed jumper. He beamed down at me.

'Y/f/n y/l/n, correct?' He asked.

'That's me.' I replied.

'I'm Jung Hoseok.' He stated with a smile. I began to smile too, his grin was quite infectious. 'Would you like to come in?' He asked kindly.

'Thank you Mr Jung.' I said nodding. I walked towards the entrance.

'Please just call me Hoseok.' He said. 'While you're with us, you're both a colleague and a friend.' I smiled again.

'Ok.' I agreed. He turned around and walked into his house, and I followed closely behind him. Zico closed the door behind us, and for the second time in five minutes, I was left speechless. Similar to the outer walls, the floor and walls were built from white marble. An ornate stairway stretched up to another floor. I gazed up at it as we walked past and into another room. This room was mostly empty, with a fancy looking lightbulb in the centre of the room. It was surrounded by fragments of glass, that sent the light dancing about the room.

'That's a chandelier.' I heard Zico say quietly behind me. He must've noticed my staring. I mouthed the word to myself. The shape of it felt unfamiliar in my mouth. Hoseok turned around.

'I am hosting a party tomorrow, and one of the guests has been... difficult, recently, and I need you to get him away from the party, for me to confront him.'

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Author's note

I return from the dead. It's been a while since I've done more than edit chapters, although I still have zero reads on most chapters but hey, someone might see this eventually. I'm really enjoying where this is headed. Got me some good plot coming along nicely in my head, so long as I remember it all when it comes to writing it. I also almost wrote my own name into this. Oops. I then keep capitalising random nouns. (I'm learning german, so I keep writing nouns with capital letters.)

Uhhh...

Cool, thanks for reading.

Blue