The Crown | myg

fifteen

Inside the other room, there is a small group of men sitting with their backs towards us. Their attention is all drawn towards the television mounted on the wall at the front of the room, the show Boys Over Flowers playing loudly.

"Everyone," Seojoon's loud voice booms throughout the room, and soon everyone is standing and facing the both of us, the tv now paused, the room silent. "Everyone please welcome, or welcome back, the best assassin we've ever had, Hyuntae."

The men in the room all begin to clap, and I can't help but look over the faces of the people standing in front of me. Namjoon, Taehyung and Yoongi are all here, as well as some people I worked with before I left all those years ago.

"I suppose we should begin with a reunion," Seojoon claps his hands together, drawing me away from my scan of the men in the room. "Hyuntae, you already know those three," he points to the men from the tattoo shop. "Plus you just met them, so you don't need to have a reunion with them."

Seojoon walks me over to a few men on the far side of the room, a group made up of men I've worked with before, and a few new ones.

"Scar, so nice to see you again," Jaesuk, also known as Digger, says to me as he opens his arms for a hug.

"It's nice to see you, too, Jaesuk," I say as I give him a hug. "It's been a long time, Salad Fingers."

There is an awkward silence that falls over the room as Jaesuk stares at me with an almost angered expression on his face. I notice from the other side of the room that the newer boys are slowly backing away from us, scared of Jaesuk.

I let out a gentle snicker and, soon, Jaesuk and the other assassins that worked with me back in the day begin laughing, Seojoon included.

"How do you still remember that?" Jaesuk snickers as he smacks my shoulder gently.

I wipe a tear from my eye. "How could I forget?"

"You're getting some strange looks from the other side of the room," Kimoon, also known as Butcher, says to me, his eyes focused on the other side of the room.

I turn to the group of new boys and cross my arms. "You can't call him Salad Fingers, only we can," I raise my eyebrow slightly. "But I can tell you the story."

They all share gentle glances with one another and nod as they turn back to us.

"On one of our most dangerous missions, taking out an Italian mob boss, we were on a steak out in the restaurant owned by the mob boss himself," I let out a soft chuckle before catching my breath. "Jaesuk had a salad thrown at him, we were caught. So, being the great assassin he is, began to stab the mobsters with spoons, only spoons, very small spoons."

The boys continue to stare at us, blank expressions are all they give us in return.

"Do you not know what Salad Fingers is?" Kimoon asks.

The boys shake their heads.

"Goddamnit!" Daehyun, also known as Wheels, exclaims. "Seriously can we fire them?"

Seojoon chuckles before lowering his voice. "Now that Hyuntae is back? Maybe."

-----

We've all been hanging out in the lounge area for about an hour, and it's been all catching up with each other and asking me about my bakery and what I've been doing with my life since I left.

"Alright, everyone," Seojoon claps his hands together and the room falls silent. "Hyuntae, I would like you to meet someone."

"You better not be trying to play matchmaker again, you know what happened last time," I remark, my legs resting on the lap of the person next to me.

"This is Choi Beomgyu," he says, and a boy walks out from behind him, a nervous expression plastered to his face.

My jaw nearly drops at the sight of him. Not that he's attractive, but that he looks like he's still a teenager at most. There's no way someone like him would last one day out on the field. He would die nearly instantly.

"You can't be serious," I scoff, pointing at the new kid. "He looks like a child. He's defenceless against anything that could come at him on any mission."

"That's why you're gonna train him, Hyuntae," Seojoon says with a cold tone. "If he's gonna survive, he needs to be trained by the best person on this team."

He's right. If this new kid is going to survive with this job, he's gonna need to be heavily trained. Maybe this is the reason Seojoon had me kidnapped and brought back to this place. He didn't need me to be an assassin, even if he did, he still wanted me to be the one to train the fresh meat that thinks they have even the slightest amount of skill.

"Excuse me, Seojoon," a voice chimes from the other side of the room. The three of us turn to see Yoongi stepping forward. "I don't think Hyuntae is the best one here."

Kimoon laughs. "Here we go."

"Sir, I think that I'm the best one here-"

"How many people have you killed?" Kimoon asks as he stands up, my legs falling to the ground as they were resting on his lap previously.

Yoongi seems taken aback. "I-" he breathes. "Five. But what does that-"

"I rest my case," Kimoon points at Yoongi as he slowly walks towards him. "Hyuntae has killed ten times that," he growls. "What makes you think that you're a better assassin than she is?"

"And don't think that just fighting alone has anything to do with being a good assassin," Jaesuk laughs. "It takes sacrifice, strength, intelligence."

"I have been sacrificing," Yoongi's voice trembles. "I've sacrificed everything since day one."

Daehyun stands up and chuckles. "Hyuntae has sacrificed much more than you have. She watched her mother die at the hands of her own father, she even sacrificed one of the most beautiful faces in all of Korea for that scar that sits there today," Daehyun breathes. "If you ever think you've sacrificed more than her, I'll make it my personal mission to prove you wrong each time."

Yoongi falls silent and he backs away from the group of boys that have gone to him to protect me.

"I want to prove myself," Yoongi says as he turns to Seojoon. "Let me fight her."

"You can fight her," he obliges with a gentle nod. "But it's your funeral."