(Hiatus) Carmen Sandiego One Shots

Zack x K-Pop Star! (Female) Reader Pt. 2

Zack POV

One second I was staring out of the plane window, happily eating the last bite of my sandwich, and the next my heart is dropping because Carmen has finally told us what this next caper is for. 

VILE is trying to hurt the K-Pop group that Y/N is in. Possibly even kill.

There are tears in my eyes before I can stop them, and I spit my food into a nearby trash can. My appetite is officially gone, hopefully forever. No one but Ivy knows anything about my connection to South Korea, and even then, there's very little knowledge for her to even think about. I wipe the wetness away before turning back to my friend, my sister, my mentor, to my family.

Despite my attempts, Carmen immediately sees past my emotionless mask. There's no fooling her, and her face falls as tears of her own gather on her dark lashes. "I'm so sorry, Zack," she whispers. "We'll save them, I promise. I'll do everything I can."

I give a small, bitter laugh and sit back down with my face in my hands. Of course Carmen knew, she knew everything about us. She could've passed as my sister any day, if it weren't for our obviously different heritages. "Why is VILE even doing this?" I ask, the quiver in my voice refusing to stay hidden. "They don't take to measures like this unless absolutely necessary, right?"

The thief returns my laugh with one of her own, her's being empty and hollow. "They'll take out an innocent bystander if they saw a single thing. They want to kill me because I'm better at their own game than them. They'd destroy a city's electricity supply or blow up a building full of people if it meant that they got what they want." Her hands curl into tight fists, and now I understand why she looks like she hasn't slept in days. The lives of so many people were in the hands of VILE, and Carmen felt powerless against them at those odds.

I let myself sink into devastation for just a second, imagining what it would be like if I found out VILE had killed Y/N. I'd be furious. Without having the chance to fix things between us, my heart would just... break. Because I missed her. I do. I miss the girl I had dated so few years ago. The girl I went to prom with. The girl who had made me feel real love for the first time.

I had been so angry when she told me she'd been offered to be trained by one of the biggest K-Pop companies and was considering to accept it. Not only angry at her, but at the people who wanted to take my girlfriend away from me. Some famous person who had noticed her beauty and wanted her to sing for their money.

"What do you mean, "going away"!?"

"Zack, I told you! I only have three more days to think about this. Why can't you just be happy for me?" Y/N's face was flushed with exasperation, tears of anger pricking her eyes.

"Happy? You're leaving me!" I threw my hands in the air hoping she would understand how desperately hopeless I was feeling.

Y/N suddenly got up in my face, brows furrowed. "I don't want to, Zack," she hissed. "But you know how it is. You and Ivy are going to start racing soon, to fend for yourselves. I actually have a family to take care of, I can't pass this up."

I stop and step back, her words reeling in my head. There is a piece of my heart shattering at this very moment. I know I've lost her, a small part of Y/N that I'll never get back. She would never say that to me unless she meant it. Unless this really was important to her. "Well," I mutter, my voice low and dull, a tone I had never used with her. "Then I guess you'd better go. Can't let Kyong do all the work, now can you? Not for the family." I spit the word back at her with bitter force, and she flinches. I feel a tiny glimmer of guilt, but I snuff it back quickly.

Her face falls, eyes wide as she realizes what she'd said. But then her expression turns blank. Almost unrecognizable. "Don't bring Kyong into this, Zackary."