warm like a gun | ot23 nct; ot5 red velvet

Chapter 19

"Yerim-ah." Yerim startles, nearly dropping the almost-complete braid she's working on.

"You scared me, Mercy," she mumbles softly, finishing the last couple stitches and searching around for a hair-tie.

"My apologies. Your father wants to see you and your sisters in the dining room," Mercy says.

Yerim frowns, standing. "Did he say why?"

"No."

Her father had found out about the security breach right away, of course. Luckily, Jungwoo was better than his whole security team combined, so they hadn't been able to recover anything. They also hadn't stolen anything, which was a relief to her father but also made them difficult to track. And, of course, there was the matter of the dead guards, found inside the locked room, without their memory chips.

Yerim had felt a small ping of guilt when her father immediately ruled out the possibility that she or her sisters could have willingly broken in, but she brushed it aside quickly. He only assumed none of them could possibly betray him because he viewed them as incapable, perhaps even a little stupid—certainly unable to pull off something so big, let alone think for themselves. Yoorim and Yerim had been the only two out of the house that night, both staying with friends. As Yerim had told him she was staying with Joohyun, her father had also immediately dismissed her as a possibility; Joohyun wouldn't betray him, either. Besides, Joohyun's building had no signs of a security breach or break-in that night.

Yoorim's friend stayed in a much less secure area of town, so it was possible someone could've broken into her friend's home, knocked her out, and dragged her down to the room to unlock the door. When they'd done a scan, Yoorim's blood had traces of some kind of sedative in it; Yerim was clear.

"It could've been me," Yoorim fretted to Yerim after they'd gotten their results. "I have no idea. Ami's older brother offered us some edibles, but maybe that's what was in them. We did both go to sleep pretty quickly after we ate them, and didn't wake up until late in the morning." She pressed her lips together, frown deepening. "Do you think I should tell Father?"

"No," Yerim said softly. She debated telling Yoorim what she had done, but quickly dismissed the idea. She didn't need to know yet, and Yerim was worried it might put her in even more danger. Besides, Yoorim was more afraid of their father than Yerim was; she might crack and tell him if he pressed her. "I don't think that was it. I mean, sure, Ami's family doesn't have the best security, but I feel like there would've been some sign that something had happened. Besides, where on earth would Ami's brother get those kind of drugs? He's a teaching assistant."

"I suppose," Yoorim agreed. "But what if it's true?"

"I really, really don't think it is," Yerim said. "If you tell him, you'll just be getting Ami's family in trouble, which they don't need. Besides, what would they want with UltraViolet? Whoever it was didn't steal anything. That seems like way too big of a risk for the average citizen, you know?"

Yoorim nodded, and Yerim hoped she would keep her mouth shut.

Yerim's littler sisters are already there when she arrives in the dining room; as usual, they are much better behaved than their older counterparts. Yoorim trails in after her. They slide into their seats; their father paces at the head of the table.

"I hate to do this," he says, "but I'm afraid I must institute a curfew."

"What?" Yoorim asks. Yerim feels fear spark through her.

"Why?" Yerim asks softly. "Did something else happen with the company?"

"No," her father replies, "thankfully. No, it's this—" he waves his hand around "—thing with that news anchor. There are some people who believe that his death was not a suicide, but instead some kind of assassination in an effort to cover something up, or perhaps to punish him for failing to censor the live interview with that family."