The Crown | myg

thirty

The sounds of knives making contact with wood rings through my ears as I enter the training room, the unbearable smell of pizza obstructs my sense of smell, the bold smell of grease nearly charring my nose hairs.

I walk over to the table where the boxes of pizza sit and debate on grabbing a slice but, before I can, someone draws their attention to my presence.

"Hyuntae, you wanna join the knife-throwing competition?" Yoongi asks as he steps away from the range to let someone else throw. "First one to get a bullseye, wins."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Salad fingers voice booms from across the room.

"Shut up," Yoongi shoots back before turning back to face me. "The prize is a whopping twenty thousand."

The men in the room that have worked with me for a long period of time all stand silent, not wanting to upset Yoongi in his attempts to humiliate me in front of my coworkers. I smile willingly as I take one of the spare knives from his hand and begin to walk over to the range.

"Ladies first," I say as I look at Yoongi, one of my arms gesturing to the target on the far wall of the room. "You pick your distance and I'll double it. Add another ten thousand that says I can get a bullseye from the other side of the room."

"Deal," Yoongi agrees with almost too much confidence. He steps over to where I'm standing and picks his throwing point - a safe distance away from the target, only halfway across the room, maybe less.

Yoongi widens his stance, his eyes focusing on the wooden target placed in the center of the wall he looks at, a few spare knives stuck sporadically in the wall surrounding it. With a swift movement of his arm, he throws the knife, the airborne blade landing a few inches off-center of the target. He lost.

With hope still in his eyes, Yoongi turns to me and smiles before gesturing to the wall completely opposite the wall with the target. "You're up. You can still back out if you think you can't make it from the complete other side of the room."

"I wouldn't be so cocky so soon," I breathe as I walk over to the back wall, so far back that my back foot is touching the base of it, my back only a foot away so I have space to throw my arm over my head to make my shot.

After a few moments of calculating my shot, I quickly fix my footing before throwing the knife. A silence fills the room as the blade travels across the room, a loud thud following soon thereafter.

Without a second to spare, the other boys run to the target, Yoongi staying still in his spot, waiting for them to announce the winner. The boys all speak amongst themselves before Namjoon steps forward and crosses his arms, appearing to be disappointed.

"Yoongi," he speaks. I see Yoongi's face light up with hope, an unexplainable gleam shining through his brown eyes. "Hyuntae made a perfect bullseye, pay up."

I scoff. "Easiest thirty thousand I've ever made," I say as I walk over to the boys and grab the envelope full of twenty thousand dollars from the bets box. "If you can't afford to pay me all at once, I can let you make deposits."

"Fuck you, Hyuntae," Yoongi growls. "If all you did was come here to prove how good you are at everything, then you can leave now."

I put the envelope of money into the locker with my name on it that sits on the wall with the others. "Actually, I came here for a different reason."

"And what is that?" he asks with a cocky tone, his arms crossing over his slim frame.

"We're all in danger."