Doubler || NCT || Completed

14

"I don't see them anymore", Jeno huffed, looking over his shoulder.

Yujin glanced back to see if he was right. It was true, their tail was no longer in sight. That, however, didn't mean that they were safe.

People were looking at them with both curiosity and disdain, as they zigzagged around passers-by, sometimes running through bigger groups  and pushing them aside. Some older people were cursing at them and one guy shook his fist when Yujin bumped into him and didn't apologize.

"In that case we should split up now. If they have a tracker with them, it'll confuse them and buy us time", Yujin panted. Her eyes darted around as she tried to fathom where they were. There were a lot of people walking and chattering, dressed mostly in business attire. Huge corporate buildings surrounded them and neatly dressed office workers swarmed out from their immaculate glass doors. It was the lunch time.

"Are you sure we should split up? We're stronger together", Jeno argued with her plan.

Yujin ignored his question.

"Okay", she said instead, and pointed at the crowded crosswalk over the multi-lane street they were running towards. "You go in that direction, there seems to be a lot of people going there. Try to not stand out too much even though you're running."

"I don't think that we should - ", Jeno tried to argue once more.

"Don't die, okay?" Yujin interrupted him again.

They were still running so she couldn't really look into his eyes. Instead, she searched for his hand with her own. It was warm while hers was cold, both were sweaty. She squeezed his hand once and he returned the gesture.

"Stay safe", she adjured before letting go of his hand. Then she circled around a herd of loud businessmen, leaving Jeno behind.

Running on her own felt safer, even though Yujin couldn't stop herself from feeling guilty over leaving Jeno on his own so abruptly. He had never done anything like this, what if he'd get himself killed? Yujin had looked quickly over her shoulder before turning from an intersection, and hadn't seen him, so she was hopeful that he had listened to her and run to even busier area.

While Jeno had seemed to think that they might've already lost their chasers, Yujin wasn't as optimistic. Sure, it was possible that they had underestimated Jeno's quick legs but she didn't believe that their escape was over. She ducked to another street, hoping to disappear entirely so that they couldn't find her.

Shifting into her animal form wasn't an option. While hiding as a harvest mouse would've been piece of cake - as she could've hidden underneath a candy wrapper - it would've been a curse as well. Anyone could kill her in her animal form, even accidentally. Besides, she could never get home as a harvest mouse since she was so far away, and she couldn't shift back to human in the middle of the crowded city.

Yujin kept turning from intersections and crossroads aimlessly, trying to get as far as possible, while glancing over her shoulder every now and then. No one had caught her eye in a long time but that didn't drown the uneasiness she felt in her gut.

"Mind your manners!" an old woman croaked when Yujin stepped on her toes.

"Sorry", she huffed in response and ran past her.

Yujin was starting to feel exhausted. She hadn't been paying any attention to her breathing and had been inhaling too quickly, draining herself. Jeno's coat was still hanging over her arm and now even its weight started to feel too much. Maybe it was just the fact that it restrained her from moving her right arm freely.

Yujin exhaled deeply, emptying her lungs, before running across the street and turning left.

After a couple more turns, Yujin's heart lurched.