Doubler || NCT || Completed

17

Yujin considered going back home before she remembered that the tracker had managed to find the general area of her apartment building. Even if they weren't certain which of the buildings she lived in, they would probably go back there when they'd restart the search.

Yujin forced her legs to keep running despite her decreasing energy. She knew that in this state she couldn't keep running for much longer but she couldn't stop before she came up with a plan of some kind.

She ran past a full, loud bar. There were people standing outside, smoking and having animated conversations.

"Are you okay?" one guy asked loudly.

Yujin stopped in her tracks and glanced at the guy who was leaning against the wall with his friends who were all looking at Yujin with curious eyes. They seemed relatively sober.

"I'm running from my obsessive ex-boyfriend", the words came out between her quick exhales, as she leaned against her knees briefly. Maybe these people could help her distract the tracker - if she'd manage to convince them to hold on to something with her scent.

"That sucks, girl", one of the girls commented and offered Yujin a cigarette. Yujin declined.

"Tell me about it", she huffed, pushing bangs off of her sweaty forehead.

Pain on her left arm reminded her of the fact that one of the hunters, that woman, had probably reopened her older cut with her sharp grip.

"Hey, you're bleeding", the girl pointed out, the cigarette still between her fingers.

Yujin moved her handbag out of the way in order to shake her light taffeta trench coat off. As she was doing so, she felt sharp jab on her back before something dropped to the ground. She looked behind her and saw a tiny dart with a syringe attached to it.

Tranquillizer dart. Awesome. She had noticed the sharp pain on her back when she had escaped from the hunters but hadn't realized that whatever they'd shot her with had stuck to her back as she ran away.

Yujin wondered how much time she had before the tranquillizer would work its magic and shut her down. She didn't know much about tranquillizers so it wouldn't have helped even if she'd known specifically what they'd shot her with or how big dosage they'd used.

Knowing that staring at the dart wouldn't do anything, Yujin turned to glare at her coat with annoyance. It was already the second spring coat blood had ruined, and now she'd have to get rid of it. Carrying bloody coat around would've made everything too easy for the tracker.

"What are you doing?" the guy, who had spoken to Yujin first, asked in confusion when she proceeded to take off her blouse as well. Apparently, they hadn't noticed the dart. It was better that way; it would've been too difficult to come up with an excuse for that.

"I'm doing some damage control", she explained once she had gotten rid of the blouse which left her standing in a white t-shirt. The night was cold but Yujin would rather be cold than dead.

Yujin dropped her coat and blouse on the ground before redoing the gauze around her upper arm quickly, avoiding the curious and worried questions of the people in front of her. It was a good thing that the hunters had chased her after she had dropped by the pharmacy.

"Should we call ambulance or police for you?" the girl asked as Yujin was covering the wound that was bleeding a bit but not so much that it would seep through the new gauze right away.

"No need for that", Yujin told her with a fake smile. She should get going already. The ignored dart on the ground behind her was more worrisome than she would've cared to admit.