Jimin Ki Archives/III: A Band of Attractive Offenders

**Daegu:** A metropolitan city in South Korea.

**IN ACTION MOVIES EXPLOSIONS ARE AWESOME.** In real life, not so much. As we dashed through the halls, a sickening feeling rose in my throat, and I grew more terrified as we got closer to the site of destruction. Panic attacks while in some ways predictable, *really aren't* predictable because anything can set them off. It just happened to be life threatening situations that triggered mine.

I tried to keep the rising bile from exiting my body as I ran, following the others who seemed to know how to navigate the place. It was infuriating, all the walls looked the same. I was shocked to see them turn corners effortlessly without a seconds hesitation. Seojun led the way, running ahead of all of us at speeds I could barely see.

We flooded into a room with me bringing up the rear, and then everyone abruptly stopped, causing me to bump into Baekhyun's back. The boy looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow before looking ahead again. I apologized sheepishly and asked what was going on.

"See for yourself," he told me, pointing at the other side of the room.

Oh.

There was a large hole in the wall, about a couple meters wide in diameter. Parts of the wall that were still intact were on the verge of crumbling and making the hole larger than it already is. My mouth hung open for a second in shock, then I closed it, and opened it again. Alice simply spoke for me.

"Wow. That's a, uh... very big hole," she mumbled, biting her lip. The rest of us nodded in agreement. "So... How did this happen?"

Natalia took that as her call to action. "See if you can find any wires or scraps of metal. My guess is that whoever did this used some type of bomb. If we're lucky, they're will be remanents of it."

Paula and Seojun went to work exploring the room when another loud *boom* erupted from another part of the building. Baekhyun stumbled back, crashing into me, who whacked Alice in the face. She let out a groan of disdain and swatted my arm away. From where she stood, Paula let out a loud dramatic sigh and placed her hands on her hips.

"Let's split up," Seojun suggested calmly. Besides Natalia, he seemed to be the only one who looked calm and put together. "One group will continue investigating here, while the other goes after that other explosion."

Natalia nodded in agreement and chose to add, "Seojun, Paula, Jimin and I will go investigate the other explosion. Sophie, Alice, and Baekhyun will stay here and keep looking."

Seojun and Paula crossed back to my side of the room, Baekhyun stood up and headed over to Alice who already stood next to Sophie. I shyly waved to the three as the rest of us took off down the hallways again.

I was getting sick of seeing peach everywhere and empty picture frames that seemed illogical where they hung. I felt ever gladder every passing moment Seojun knew where he was going because I certainly did not. I was shocked in general that he could tell the difference and remember which way to turn. This place seemed neverending.

We barreled into another room, which compared to the other room did not have a door *or* a roof. Standing in the center of the wreck were two strangers who seemed to be familiar to everyone but me. Natalia frowned, clenching her fists and the others seemed to be doing similar things. They've probably had previous encounters with these two before.

The pair in the center consisted of a boy and girl wearing identical black hoods with *LV* printed on the back. The girl's hair had been dyed white, and she appeared to be a head shorter than the boy. The boy on the other hand who looked maybe two years older than I was, had cyan colored hair and was twirling a transparent cylinder filled with liquid in his hands. While the boy's expression was neutral, the girl wore a confident smirk as she turned towards us.

"I was wondering when you would show up," she hummed, crossing her arms. "Takes you two of these—" she gestured to the thing the boy held, "—to get you to pay attention, eh?" Paula scowled, stepping forward. "Easy there, tiger," the girl laughed. "Where's the rest of the squad?"

"Somewhere. What are you doing back here again Yuna? We settled an agreement," Seojun spoke up, his voice laced with annoyance.

The girl—Yuna rolled her eyes. "Well you *broke* the agreement, so boo hoo, too bad for you."

"Is there a point to these antics?" Natalia demanded, stomping her foot to get everyone's attention.

"No, we just felt like blowing up stuff today," the boy said, finally speaking up. "Of course there is Rosie. What, you thought we woke up and were feeling cranky so we asked if we could destroy a fake mental hospital?"

Natalia held her hand to the bridge of her nose as she took a deep breath. "You have no right to call me that anymore, S. You know that."

"Does it bother you that much? You can't ignore us forever, you are aware of that, right?" Yuna cut in. S snorted and began shaking the cylinder so the liquid inside began fizzing up.

"I had don't have time for this!" Paula exclaimed. Without a warning, she leaped up, crossing the room in mere seconds to deliver a kick to the object in S's hands, successfully knocking it away from him. S growled and roughly shoved Paula away from him, throwing her into the only intact wall in the room.

So the fight began,

Seojun and Natalia launched themselves at Yuna, who dodged their first two assaults but wasn't so lucky on the third. Meanwhile, Paula had gotten up now, but S didn't feel like giving her a break. He punched her in the jaw, sending her head to the side and elbowed her in the gut. She fell, coughing but stood back up again and managed to land a kick to his knee that caused him to crash to the ground.

The fight went on for awhile while I simply watched, unable to help due to my inexperience. After a while, I spotted the cylinder filled with liquid that S had dropped, rolling around on the ground and decided that retrieving it was the safest way I could help. I was ready to crawl over to it, but in my pursuit, a piece of roof broke off from its foundation and tumbled to the ground right in front of me. I scrambled to stand and ran around it to the door.

As much as I would love to help, I simply couldn't.

I may or may not have forgotten I didn't know how to navigate this place and stumbled around blindly throughout the Institute. While I've never had the best memory, I could usually memorize routes. This was different. On the road, I'm usually not on the verge of a panic attack. Here... I was.

I gave up on running, seeing as it wasn't making this any easier, and I was pretty sure I was farther away from the situation than I needed to be. Now I just walked at a sensible pace, looking ahead and hoping the others could hold back S and Yuna from blowing up more stuff.

I stopped at conjunction with several different hallways, unsure of which one to pick. I glanced down the right one, which looked as about as plain as the hallway I had just come from. The one continuing off of this one had nothing interesting about it whatsoever. The last one I peeked down I could see a figure at the end, and decided this was my best bet. Eager to get to the person before they went around the corner, I began running again.

And didn't stop.

I should've stopped.

Because I couldn't slow myself down quick enough, I crashed into the other person in the hallway, sending us both to the ground in a mess of limbs. I got a good view of the person's face this way, though. It was a boy wearing black framed glasses over his dark green eyes and curly auburn brown hair that framed his face and added to the overall attractiveness of the boy. He got a pretty good look at me too and pressed his lips together as if thinking hard about something.

I opened my mouth to say something but no words fell out. The boy smiled, his pink lips curling at the ends cutely. I gaped like a fish some more. And then I noticed the hood. It was black like Yuna's and S's hoods, which meant this guy was in the same league as them. *Great, I just ran into the bad guy.*

The boy gently rolled me off him and stood up before turning around to help me up. He was still smiling which me uncomfortable and suddenly a bit insecure about how drab I looked. He took my hand, hesitating a little when he noticed my shaking. I forgot to mention how hard I was shaking right now. I pulled my feet from under me and stood slowly, staring at him, mouth still agape.

For a second I forgot he was the bad guy.

I really shouldn't have done that.

In a heartbeat, the guy had me on the ground again, face down as he held my hands together. I felt the rough material of rope, and I assumed he was tying my hands together so I couldn't attack him or so he could hold me, prisoner. One of the two. He helped me stand up again and then shoved me forward.

"I didn't see you around last time," the boy remarked in an amused tone. His deep voice was bone chilling and alluring. It slightly soothed me. "Are you new?"

I nodded. I couldn't have properly said an answer at this rate, I felt very much like vomiting. But it did surprise me to hear *see you around last time.* Did this happen often? Is that why Natalia and the others knew S and Yuna's names?

"My name is Zero. What's yours?" For a guy who helps blow up buildings, Zero was awfully friendly. I wondered if he was still smiling.

I coughed, swallowing the bile in my throat and opened my mouth to speak. The first time, some type of weird gibberish that sounded nothing like Korean tumbled out of my mouth. Behind me, Zero chuckled. I tried again, and it came out in words, but not as stable. I was surprised Zero even understood me.

"Jimin? I love it. The name fits you," he told me. My face flamed, and I felt immensely happy he was behind me so he couldn't see my red face.

"D-Do you m-mind... W-What are you d-doing here?" I mumbled. I looked downwards as we continued walking. I noticed even Zero seemed to know where to go. Maybe he had been here at one point. "A-And what's a... LV?"

"Ah, you're so cute," Zero laughed. I gradually started to become a living tomato. "LV is not a thing, it's a group. LV is the name of July's closest followers and comrades. We help him with things, and to an extent, we're under his rule, but we're free to go and leave as we please. We serve to protect and stop evil."

There it is again, *July.* The deity that showed up in my dream, he ordered them to come here? How was blowing up buildings protecting people and stopping evil? I didn't understand. Or maybe... I was on the wrong side of the equation. Maybe we were the bad guys and I had no idea. It was a load of random information dropped on me all on the same day and I could barely tell anything apart.

Zero let go of my hands, apparently convinced I wouldn't try to escape, and walked beside me. I was right, he was still smiling. He took one glance at my face, and the whisper of a laugh left his mouth. "You're adorable when you're confused Jimin. Do you know that?" I didn't say anything in fear of embarrassing myself. "You know, I can see July's spirit in you."

July's *what?* Why would his spirit be in me? And how do I *get it out?*

"Would it make you feel safer if I told you my real name?" Zero asked, breaking the silence. I opened my mouth to speak but instead just nodded. I was still feeling very sick and shaking uncontrollably. "Ahn Byungcheol. I'm from Daegu. Have you been there?"

I've heard of Daegu and how beautiful it is. I don't remember ever going there, however. I shook my head. "I-I live in S-Seoul..."

"I've always wanted to live in Seoul," Zero chimed. "I'm sorry if I intimidate you in any way. Biologically I'm fifteen, in terms of biological years, I'd be a little over eighty."

"H-How ca-can you be..."

"That old? By switching timelines. A perk of being an LV. Technically I was born in 1923, but you can't tell anyone that," he laughed. *1923?* That should be physically impossible. But then again, superhumans shouldn't exist so I guess it's very possible.

"How?" I gasped.

"July removed me from that century and raised me in his fortress. It's a thing they can do, the deities. Inside deity's fortresses, time slows. A day in July's fortress can equal a month in human time. It all depends on what deity you're dealing with and the location of their fortress."

"That's ama-amazing.."

"To an extent. Gets a little annoying if you're in a hurry. If you're one hour late for something, you could be a day late."

We walked around the corner, and I immediately recognized Sophie who looked like she was catching her breath. Zero grabbed my wrapped hands and held me back. In the process, I noticed he seemed to be loosening the ropes. *Why?*

"Well, until we meet again, I bid you farewell Jimin," he whispered, letting go of the loosely tied ropes. I turned my head to catch one last glimpse of his soft smile before he flipped the hood of his cloak over his head and thinned into nothing. *He turned invisible.*

Sophie straightened herself, leaning against the wall when she saw me. A relieved smile lit up her face and she jogged over to me. "Jimin!" she exclaimed.

"H-Hey Sophie..." I muttered.

"Where are the others? Are you okay? Why are your hands tied?" she asked. She untied my hands and threw the rope over her shoulder. I thought about telling her about Zero but decided against it. He may have attempted to take me prisoner but he not only let me go, but he was strangely incredibly friendly.

"I-I don't know... A-And I ran into some trouble. I-I'm okay, though," I told her. The last part was a lie. I was on the verge of spilling my half-digested lunch on the clean marble floor.

"I don't know, you know look awfully red," she argued. I found another reason to not tell her about Zero.

"Y-yeah... I'm—" Halfway through my sentence, my lunch grew impatient, and I had to turn away so I didn't get vomit on Sophie. She cringed and patted my back to soothe me.

"We should get you to the hospital wing after this."

"G-good idea."

**Next Chapter:** Hey! They Took the Smart Kid!