Chapter Text
Later….
“Here we are! Any questions?” The other student said, hiding behind some sort of shipping crate, since there were some other people outside the place. Suddenly, Ji-hoon noticed something about the place. It was *that warehouse.
*“That warehouse” refers to the place where Kim was kidnapped!
He gagged, nearly alerting some nearby guards. “Shut your pie-hole, idiot! We’re gonna get caught. What are you gagging for anyway…”
“Wait, this is a stealth mission? I thought we were gonna go guns blazing, since you said we needed to beat up some dudes.”
“Yeah, but we’re gonna exert all our energy trying to fight everyone all at once. Hopefully your ability isn’t too loud.”
“I… don’t have one.”
“The hell!? Why didn’t you say so?”
“If you didn’t know who I was, then why did you get me to do this job? How do you not know??? I’ve been a prime bullying target since freshman year!”
“ You think I would catch up on school news??”
“...Fair”
They both suddenly heard an electric charge, coming from a baton. They had been so absorbed into their conversation that they didn’t realize they had alerted 4 guards. “Welp, you better be good at hand to hand then—” He would knock a tooth out of a guard with a punch.
“Try not to ask rhetoricals.” Ji-hoon tried to swing at the closest guard to him, although the guard next to him just tackled down Ji-hoon. The other student however, brung down wrath onto the furthest guard, swinging his right leg down, stomping it onto the ground, and slamming his fist into the furthest guard’s chest.
Seeing Ji-hoon pathetic as he is, he casts a ball of fire onto the guards pinning Ji-hoon, distracting the guard while giving Ji-hoon enough time to get out before the fire engulfed him.
“Well… That wasn’t very stealthy.” Said the student, seeing the chaos he had already caused.
“The hell was that for? You nearly killed me!”
“Pshhh, yeah right. I knew you would have gotten out anyway, the fire wasn’t big enough to spread beyond the 2 guards. Also, I didn’t kill them. I don’t kill. Beat up, sure, but to kill somebody? I’m pretty sure that would mess you up in the mind.”
“The flaming guards say otherwise.”
“Oh, oops.”
The student turned towards the guards, running around while on fire.
“Stop drop and roll, idiots!” he shouted out, before simply snapping. The fire dissipated, and the guards collapsed.
“How’d you do that?
“I can put out my own flames, or at least the origin. If one of my fires spread however, there’s nothing I can really do.
“I’ll keep that in mind for later. Got anything so I can defend myself? Punching hurts after a while.” Ji-hoon said, dusting himself off. The other student suddenly threw him a bat that Ji-hoon barely managed to catch.
“I was gonna use that so I didn’t have to rely off of my ability, but since you’re basically a sitting duck, I'll let you borrow this… For a price.”
“W-what kind of price?” Ji-hoon said, a little scared.
“Free, dummy. If it breaks, you owe me 15000 won. It’s a good bat. Now c’mon, we’ve got work to do.” The other student said, while running to elsewhere.
“Where are you going!?”
“You really don’t know anything, do you?”
“Not really… ”
“We already nearly sacrificed ourselves by causing that commotion. We gotta flee somewhere else so we don't have to fight any more than we already have!”
“What are you, a tactitionist?”
“It’s called common sense, dude.”
“I assumed you didn’t have any—Who hires their friend to infiltrate some warehouse anyway? Who asks a random stranger to help with some random task?”
“Hey, I thought we already went past that. I thought we were friends. So fake. Can’t believe this.” The student said, making fake crybaby eyes.
Ji-hoon scoffs, “Whatever, let’s just move.”
They snuck past guards, being careful not to cause another commotion, formulating a plan on the way to infiltration.
“You’re telling me you came in without a plan!?”
“Hey, hey, keep quiet. We don’t wanna fight again until the actual infiltration. Besides, I already had a plan! You just lightly convinced me to come up with a different one.”
“ Girl- Your plan was to break in, beat people up, and leave.”
“Yeah, and? What’s wrong with that? From what I've observed, they seem like your average mildly corrupt organization. Probably a cartel of some kind. We’ve already fought a group of goons, haven’t we? They didn’t even use any ability! They’re probably weaklings, which is why they were dressed in a ton of protective armor.”
“(I read their auras… He’s pretty spot on, but..!) Look, you don’t know what these guys are capable of. They can do some…” Ji-hoon clenches his arm. “ They can do some crazy shit.”
“Oh lookie here, just my luck. Are you saying you’ve dealt with these shit-heads before? What was that about choosing the worst possible person?”
“Ugh, whatever. Look, sorry I said that, it’s not like I wanted you to know I’ve dealt with them before. “
“Hm? and what’s that?” The student gave a devious smile. “Have you really dealt with them, or have you had deals with them? You apart of their lollygagging group?”
“ No, I just-“
“ I could tell from the way you hesitated about revealing info. It’s all good though. I don’t really care what your business was with them, as long as you have some sort of background info. I won’t hesitate to beat the hell out of you if you give me false inf, though.”
“ Oh… Ok. (This dude is dangerous. Something feels off about his aura —I felt it when we were fighting earlier. I thought he was a mid-tier, but the second he actually started fighting his power spiked near instantaneously. Can he control it..?) “
“ So then… Any ideas? Clearly, you’re more of the executor of ideas than the making of them.” The student asked, peeking around a corner to check for more guards.
“ Well I think that-“
“ We’re in the clear. Oh, sorry, you were saying?” He dashed across a concrete field, making it just close enough to the entrance to dash through.
Catching up with the student, and also mildly out of breath, Ji-hoon starts to brainstorm ideas. “Well, first of all, we’re not going through the front entrance. That’s like… The worst way we could get in.”
“So… Break down the wall beside it????”
“No, dumbass.” Ji-hoon, slightly annoyed says. “ We could go through a side entrance, or try climbing through a vent. (What is it with this guy? he was acting smart just a second ago… Is it just a front? I can’t figure this guy out, he’s like a total wild card.)“
“Good idea, but how would we even enter through the vent without making a lot of noise? Also, vents are NOTHING like the movies. They’re always filled with dust, exposed nails, and other nasty stuff. not that I would know…”
“ And you’re knowledgeable on this topic because..?”
“I mean, if you MUST know, I used to sneak in a lot of places through vents. I would only ever be free at night, when I was finished hanging out with.. NEVERMIND! We should get back on task.”
“ Isn’t that like,,, super illegal though?”
“ ‘IsN’t ThAt LiKe SuPeR iLlEgaL tHoUgH?’ Isn’t agreeing to break into somewhere to beat people up ALSO super illegal?”
“ You’re the one who coerced me into doing so…???”
“SHHSHSHH we don’t talk about that!!!”
Ji-hoon rubbed his forehead in annoyance.
“Whatever—Let’s just go through the vents already. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?”
“Sure. But where do we go from there?”
“We could try getting some disguises? We’re both sticking out like a sore thumb.”
“Sure, we could try. I’ll be honest, 선배-”
“선배? Don’t you mean 안녕? Aren’t you an upperclassman?”
“ No? I’m a freshman. 15. I’m flattered you think I'm older, though.”
The student put on a flashy face, looking like the front cover of a romance Manhwha.
“o h”
“Besides that, are you sure about the disguise thing? Now that we’re nearing the final points of our plan, one screw up could lead to us getting caught, or worse. “ The Student suddenly put on a somewhat concerned face. “I’ve seen what a failed stealth mission looks like, “ The student looked to the side, as if remembering something painful. “ It’s not pretty. Think this through, 선배.” The student seemed to be biting his nails.
“(What’s up with him..? Did something happen to them in the past?) Well,” Ji-hoon stopped for a moment, weighing their options. He took a sharp breath before continuing. “ Now that I think about it, what we’re doing here is a little too cliche. Something straight out of a novel or movie.”
“Get to the point.”
“ My point is, most of the options we have here— Breaking in or using disguises, are too far-fetched and would most likely result in getting us caught, “
“Right, and I think we both know what that entails.”
“Yeah… But I don’t know if we really have more options. Do we really have a choice in the first place?”
The student stopped to think, before snapping accidentally making more noise than he needed to. “You might be right, but I do think you just might be over thinking this a little too much, you know?”
“I am thinking over this the exact right amount! This is a HEIST god damn it!”
The student shushed Ji-hoon, before continuing. “Hey, hey, keep it down!-”
“You just snapped like 2 seconds ago!...” Ji-hoon took a deep breath, before sighing. His face showed slight annoyance, though he was willing to listen. “ Whatever.. Just continue.”
“ As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by somebody rudely interrupted me, Ji-hoon: hey you do that all the time!) you’re overthinking this. Yes, it is a heist. Yes, this is a high stakes mission. But I've seen this conversation go down a million times before… Ok not really–this is like my 2nd time i’ve had this conversation and I just wanted to drive in the point,” The student sucked in a big breath. “ But the main point is that over-complicating things will roundabout us into failing this mission.”
“Ok, I guess so. Let’s just… Go. Alright?”
”Now that’s the spirit!!! I bet I could get through before you do.”
“How’s that fair at all!? The vent’s only one person at a time..”
…