AREA 17

Prologue

I had never thought of our odd number of lost boys to be a shining beacon that drew in misfortune. Instead, we even used it to our advantage until we were the ones who bent it according to our will like young-blooded heralds of chaos.

But now as we stood by the deckhands of a smuggled ship, contempt started to consume me as I watch the seaside hotel burn into cinders, thinking that maybe the two headed snake of misfortune finally decided to bite us back in the ass to rain karma over all our misdeeds.

"Our client better be honest about the billion won bounty. I just got a hunch that my wanted reward shot up." Jeonghan voiced in impeding dread.

"We've been bamboozled." I blankly muttered to myself. A miserable aura slowly started to envelop the ship, and it slowly slinked into my veins like a sickly miasma upon the weight of my admission.

Jeonghan shook his head, refusing to believe it, at the works of comforting me. "I know it wasn't our finest. But we made it out in one piece and with the mark in our hands.  Plus, we have some cash to spare  to make up for the damage. Doesn't that count as a victory?"

His words did little to rein my frustration in. I could not disregard my lenience in choosing to ignore the ill omens that suddenly arose. "No, it doesnt." I gritted out. "We may not have left some concrete evidence but now everyone knows it's our handiwork. Thanks to that damn signal that rigged our spybugs! The bombs! The drones! Even woozi's program!  We have no cash to spare because if you summed up the whole amount of all our sentences hung around our neck like a noose. What do you think would be the total!?"

Jeonghan reeled back at my rare display of panic. Flabbergasted, he turned away from me raising his eyes up to the sky in thought, hands shoved inside his pockets to stop it from fidgeting nervously. A few minutes of silence dragged in between us, until I felt him grow rigid beside me before facing me again with a fearful look of understanding.

With a grave nod, I said, "Exactly. At least a billion won. I never thought I'd say this but our hands are tied. We can't buy our way out when the bounty has skyrocketed in a price that we couldn't afford an exit out of this mess we got into. We wouldn't be able to fake new identities to casually insert ourselves back to normal society. What are the odds the criminal underworld  would expose us when we seek aid to them?"

My right hand man gulped noisily, the pupils of his eyes dilating in panic. "What do we do?"

Dropping my gaze to the floor as if the answer to my problems was found in the rusty steel walkway, an idea somehow divinely struck me as I gazed for quite a long time at it. "We open the crate and see what we have in our hands. We can use it as ransom to our client."

"Good plan." He commented with a nod and stared back the burning inferno that looked no more than a speck from where we floated adrift.

I blew out a half-hearted grunt,  my confidence shrivelling as I reflected on the decisions I made. "It'll do for now."

"Where will be heading at the meantime?" He asked again, as if I wasn't experiencing a major existential crisis. But there wasn't much choice at the moment, I was the leader, I had to suck it up.

"Remember that place we got ourselves stranded in? The one caper where we ran into pirates at sea and we all just jumped off the boat we used with completely nothing in our hands and somehow made a living there?"

"Yeaah?" Jeonghan said unsure.

"Do you think the ahjummas there would still recognize us?"

Jeonghan blew out a raspberry and scoffed out a laugh. "They adore Mingyu. We'll just maroon him over their place while we set up camp."

Allowing myself to laugh and relieve some tension I quipped back, "Such a ladies man."

Dismissing him with an order to inform Hansol and Jun to change course, I was left alone at the deck with only my thoughts as a companion and the huge iron vault that sat dead center.

I glared murderously on its huge wheeled knob knowing that whatever lies inside was the one to turn my plan into shambles with the signal it was spreading.