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It had been a few days since the incident with the scavengers-or whoever they were-crossing the river and passing by the town. They had left no signs of trouble, and life in the town hall had settled into its usual rhythm.

The survivors had grown used to the ebb and flow of danger, but the unease of that night still lingered faintly. Some kept glancing out of windows more often, while others checked their weapons a little more frequently than usual. The idea that someone had been close enough to the town to be noticed wasn't something anyone could brush off entirely.

Y/N, however, seemed unbothered as ever. She was perched on one of the wooden railings of the first-floor balcony, her katana balanced across her lap while she cleaned the blade with meticulous care. From her vantage point, she had a perfect view of the town's edge and the trees beyond, her eyes occasionally flickering up from her work to scan the horizon.

Hobi appeared from the staircase, carrying a small bundle of supplies. "Still keeping an eye out?" he asked, coming to lean against the railing beside her.

"Always," Y/N replied without looking up. Her voice was calm, but there was a slight edge to it, one that suggested she wasn't as relaxed as she appeared.

"Nothing's happened since then," Hobi said, his tone light. "Maybe they really were just passing through."

"Maybe," Y/N allowed, though her tone remained skeptical. "Or maybe they're waiting for us to let our guard down."

Hobi sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "You really don't trust anyone, do you?"

"Not when it comes to survival," she said simply, finally looking up at him. "Trust is a luxury we can't afford. And anyway, I'm not about to let anything catch us off guard."

Down in the hall, the others were scattered about, busying themselves with various tasks. RM and Minho were going over maps on the table, pointing out potential supply routes. Jin was at the fireplace, boiling water for tea, while Taehyung leaned against the wall nearby, humming softly to himself as he sharpened a blade.

Suga walked in, holding an old notebook he'd been flipping through. "We should probably do a sweep of the surrounding area tomorrow," he suggested, glancing at RM and Minho. "Just to be sure there's no one camping nearby."

"Good idea," RM agreed. "We'll take a small group-keep it quiet."

Minho nodded in agreement, his brow furrowed as he marked a spot on the map. "I'll go. We'll need someone who knows the area."

"Add me to that list," Taehyung chimed in from his spot by the wall.

Hobi glanced down at the group from the balcony. "Looks like they're already planning tomorrow's adventure," he said, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Good," Y/N said, standing and sheathing her katana. "They should be." She turned to Hobi, her gaze steady. "Keep them sharp. If they start to relax too much, remind them why we're still alive."

Hobi gave her a small nod, his expression turning serious. "You're right. We can't afford to forget."

As Y/N turned to head inside, Hobi called after her. "Hey, you gonna let yourself relax at all?"

Y/N paused, glancing back at him with a faint smirk. "Maybe when the world stops trying to kill us."

With that, she disappeared inside, leaving Hobi shaking his head with a quiet chuckle. Down below, the others were already deep in discussion, their voices a low murmur as they planned their next move.

The quiet days were rare, but no one was naive enough to think they would last forever.

---

It was an afternoon like any other-tired bodies finally given a moment's reprieve. RM, Suga, Minho, Y/N, Hobi, Taehyung, and Jin had gathered in the hall, taking a brief break from their relentless duties. The atmosphere was heavy with exhaustion, but even in moments of rest, the weight of the world never quite left their shoulders.

The brief respite shattered when a sudden crack from the walkie-talkie pierced the air. The unmistakable sound of static buzzed loudly, followed by the eerie sound of laughter-laughing that was all too familiar.

Kang Joon.

The entire room froze. Y/N's heart skipped a beat as she reached for the walkie-talkie, the cold dread she'd feared creeping up her spine. She didn't flinch, but the tension in her posture was palpable. The others immediately looked toward her, their faces a mix of confusion and worry.

A faint laugh, twisted and mocking, echoed through the static. The same laughter that had haunted her nightmares. The voice that had stalked her every move. Kang Joon's.

"Did you think you could escape me so easily?" His voice was thick with malice. "You think you can stay hidden forever? I will find you, wherever you are."

Y/N's grip on the walkie-talkie tightened, but she kept her voice steady, her words laced with a quiet fury. "Stop this charade, Kang Joon. What is the purpose of contacting me now? And how, exactly, did you come into possession of my walkie-talkie?"

There was a brief, chilling silence before his response came, dripping with amusement. "I have my ways," he said smugly. "But as for your little group? I've captured some of them-three grown men, a woman, and a small child. The same ones you thought you could save."

Y/N's breath caught in her throat. Her hand went slack for a moment, but she recovered quickly, steeling herself. Her eyes swept the room, meeting the gazes of the others who were all listening intently, their expressions shifting from concern to confusion.

"I know you don't believe me," Kang Joon continued, his tone venomous. "But I think you'll change your mind when you hear them scream."

Before she could respond, a sharp, sudden crack split through the air. The unmistakable sound of a slap. It reverberated from the walkie-talkie, followed by the unmistakable sound of Sehun's pain-a low, audible gasp.

"You will all pay for this," Sehun's voice broke through the static, harsh and full of seething rage. His words were not a mere threat; they carried weight, conviction. "You'll regret this, Kang Joon."

The sound of Sehun's voice seemed to crack something deep within Y/N. Her heart pounded with a fierce, protective instinct-an overwhelming surge of fury at what Kang Joon had done.

The room was silent for a beat, the tension thick and unbearable. Then, Kang Joon's voice cut through the silence again, but this time it was calmer, almost sickeningly so.

"You think you're going to rescue them, Y/N?" His tone was almost too calm, as if he were speaking to someone far beneath him. "That's cute. But you're missing the bigger picture, aren't you?"

Y/N's grip on the walkie-talkie tightened, her knuckles white. She knew what he was about to say.

He continued, his voice taking on an almost mocking gentleness. "All of this? The games with your little group? The people you care about? It's all just a means to an end, my dear."

The words hit like a punch to the gut. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if trying to block out the sickening realization. The group's anger seemed to swell with every passing second, feeding off the truth Kang Joon had just revealed.

He chuckled darkly, the sound sending a shiver down Y/N's spine. "I don't need to kill your precious people, Y/N. I just need you. You're the one I've been after from the beginning. Once I have you, everything else will fall into place. But for now..."

He let the pause hang, drawing it out just long enough to raise the stakes. "You'll watch your little family suffer. And all you'll be able to do is run after them, knowing you could have saved them-if only you'd agreed to come to me."

The room seemed to collectively hold its breath, the full weight of Kang Joon's words sinking in like lead. Y/N's eyes were burning, her heart racing, but there was no more time for hesitation. Kang Joon had crossed a line. He wasn't just trying to break them physically. This was a personal attack-one that threatened the lives of everyone she cared about.

Minho was the first to break the silence, his voice low and filled with disbelief. "Wait... three grown men?"

Suga's gaze turned sharp as he looked at Y/N. "A woman... and a child?" His voice trembled slightly with the weight of recognition. "Could it be...?"

The atmosphere shifted. Their eyes all found Y/N, and then flickered around the room as they pieced together the haunting truth.

Jimin. Jungkook. Sehun. Jiwoo. And little Haru.

Each name hit harder than the last. The realization seemed to crystallize in the air, and the room grew heavy with the weight of it. Kang Joon had them. He had captured the very people they were fighting to protect. Y/N's family. Her closest friends.

Her heart pounded in her chest, but she refused to let fear overtake her. She couldn't. Not when they needed her to remain strong.

"This bastard... He thinks he can break us?" Taehyung's fists clenched, his jaw tight. "He's toying with us, using them against us."

Hoseok's expression was steely, his eyes flashing with the kind of anger that could set the world ablaze. "He's been pulling the strings from the start. But now? He's made a grave mistake."

Jin, who had been silent until now, spoke in a voice thick with controlled fury. "He'll regret this. We don't back down. We never have."

Y/N's eyes were burning, her heart racing, but there was no more time for hesitation. Kang Joon had crossed a line. He had taken their loved ones-but that wouldn't be the end. They would fight back, and they would win.

Taehyung furrowed his brow, voice thick with doubt. "If Kang Joon has them, he must've crossed the river. But Lay and Zitao haven't seen anyone else crossing since then. Something doesn't add up."

Suga crossed his arms, a perplexed expression clouding his face. "If he didn't cross, then who did? Or maybe he sent someone else..."

RM glanced at the map, his fingers tracing the river's edge as his eyes narrowed, deep in thought. "Wait... the people we saw crossing the river a few days ago, the woman and two men-what if they're the ones who captured Jimin, Jungkook, Sehun, Jiwoo, and Haru when they were heading back to the townhall?"

Y/N's head snapped up, her voice cutting through the murmur of conversation. "That's exactly it. They're the ones. They've been here all along. And they're still on this side of the river. No one else has crossed since then. They never went back."

Minho's eyes widened in sudden realization. "So, they never crossed the river. They stayed here... and captured our people while they were heading here?"

Jin's face hardened, a wave of anger washing over him. "They've been hiding right under our noses this whole time, playing us for fools."

Hoseok clenched his jaw, his voice low but urgent. "That means Kang Joon's still on this side too. And they're using our people as leverage."

Taehyung cursed under his breath, fists clenched tightly at his sides. "We've been watching the wrong side of the river. We thought they were on the other side, but they've been here the whole time."

Y/N's voice was steady, but there was an edge of finality to her words. "No, we are not on the wrong side of the river. And Kang Joon is not here. He hasn't made contact with our friends at all. His men are the ones who captured them, but Kang Joon himself hasn't come into direct contact with them."

Minho furrowed his brow, his confusion evident as he tried to piece together the situation. "Wait, if he hasn't been in contact with them, then how could he have slapped Sehun? We heard his voice, didn't we?"

Y/N took a deep breath, her eyes narrowing in thought. She scanned the room, her mind running through every detail, trying to make sense of the puzzle. "I'm not entirely sure what happened with Sehun, but I do know this-those three people, they never crossed to the other side. They've been staying on this side of the river the entire time. Kang Joon, or anyone from his group, hasn't come this way. Our friends have been kept here."

The realization hit everyone at once. Hoseok 's eyes flickered with a sudden understanding, his hand rubbing his chin as he processed the information. "So, Kang Joon hasn't come here... but he's still giving orders from a distance. He's been planning something at the riverside."

Y/N nodded, her jaw tightening as she absorbed the implications. "Exactly. Kang Joon is likely preparing to come across the river, and he's ordered his men to bring our friends there, too. But he's been keeping himself separate from it all-he doesn't want us to know that he's involved directly."

A heavy silence fell over the room, everyone absorbing the weight of what Y/N had just revealed. Jin's voice broke the quiet, his tone filled with skepticism. "But if Kang Joon hasn't been in contact with our walkie-talkie directly, then how did he manage to speak to us? How did he even get access to it?"

Suga and RM exchanged a quick glance, their minds quickly working through the possible scenarios. RM was the first to speak, his voice calm but calculating. "It's possible... those three people we've been dealing with could have their own walkie-talkies connected to Kang Joon's. They might have taken ours-perhaps from Sehun, who could have borrowed one from Minho just in case. They could've activated our line without us realizing, making it appear as though Kang Joon was the one communicating with us, when in reality, it was just one of his men."

Suga's expression hardened as he connected the dots. His voice was low, but it carried the weight of realization. "So, you're saying one of them was holding two walkie-talkies-one to communicate with Kang Joon and the other to relay messages to Y/N, making it look like both sides were speaking directly to each other while they weren't even on the other side?"

Y/N's eyes widened, the pieces of the puzzle clicking together in her mind. "Yes, exactly. Kang Joon never had them. But his men had our walkie-talkie, and they've been using it to deceive us into thinking he was in control. When Sehun got slapped, it wasn't Kang Joon doing it-it was someone else in that group. The person holding the walkie-talkie would've been the one who slapped Sehun and orchestrated the entire thing."

The realization left a lingering silence in the room, as everyone processed the gravity of the situation. The deception had been much more elaborate than they had first suspected. RM broke the quiet, his voice steady but filled with resolve. "So, Kang Joon is still on the other side of the river, pulling the strings from afar. He hasn't made direct contact, but his men are operating here-under our noses-and it's all part of his plan."

Minho's fists clenched, a flash of frustration and determination crossing his face. His voice was low, tight with anger. "We've been played. And now we're running out of time to stop him."

Jin's voice rang out sharply, cutting through the tension. "We need to figure out where they're taking our people, and we need to stop them before Kang Joon makes his move. We can't afford to let them get any further."

Taehyung's gaze was intense as he looked around the room, his voice confident despite the dire circumstances. "It's not too late. We still have the upper hand. We just need to stay one step ahead of them. We can't afford to make mistakes now."

Y/N's eyes burned with a fierce determination as she looked at each of them, her voice firm. "We will figure this out. But we have to be smart about it. We need to anticipate their next move. No more mistakes. This time, we do it right."

The weight of her words settled heavily on the group, the air thick with resolve. There was no more room for doubt, no more room for error. They had to outmaneuver Kang Joon and his men-there was no other option.

---

The afternoon sun hung high, casting long shadows over the yard as the group made their final preparations. The mission was simple, but the risks were high. Every step, every decision, would be crucial to the success of the operation.

Minho moved quietly, the steady clink of his sword against his back blending with the sounds of his boots hitting the ground. He adjusted the knives in his boots, ensuring they were ready, and secured his gun at his side, checking the ammo. His expression was grim, every muscle in his body alert.

RM slid his daggers into his belt with practiced ease, the gun at his side secured. His movements were methodical, calm, almost detached. His mind raced with possibilities, each one leading him down a different path, but there was no time to dwell on what-ifs.

Suga adjusted his katana, resting it against his back, the hilt barely visible as it disappeared beneath his jacket. The rifle slung across his shoulder was a comforting weight, and the dagger at his waist was a reminder of his preparedness for close combat. His sharp eyes scanned the surroundings, always on alert, knowing that in their world, things could go from quiet to chaotic in the blink of an eye.

Taehyung grabbed his shotgun and holstered a pair of daggers to his thighs. His face was stoic, focused. He glanced over to Y/N, giving her a nod, and then double-checked his gear. The task ahead was dangerous, but it was a fight they had to take on if they had any hope of saving their friends.

Hoseok's rifle was secured to his back, and his utility belt held multiple daggers, each one within easy reach. His usual smile was absent, replaced by a determination that matched the seriousness of the mission. He adjusted his gear one last time before turning to look at Y/N.

Jin, the strategist, had a rifle in one hand and a knife strapped to his side. His movements were calm, almost methodical, but his mind was already planning for every possible outcome. His role was critical-coordinating their efforts, keeping in constant communication, and guiding them through the terrain.

Y/N, the leader, was the last to finish preparing. A dagger was fastened to her waist, her katana gleaming in the sunlight as it rested against her back. A pistol was securely holstered on her thigh, and her movements were quick as she attached a small walkie-talkie to her belt. Her gaze swept over the group, ensuring everyone was ready. Every second counted.

Each of them carried a small pack, filled with essentials: binoculars, maps, walkie-talkies (shared among Y/N, Minho, Jin, and RM), a smoke bomb, extra ammo, water, and other necessary items.

Just then, the crackle of a walkie-talkie broke the silence. Zitao's voice came through, calm but urgent. "Y/N."

Y/N pulled the device from her waist, pressing the button to respond. "What's going on?"

"There are two men and one woman," Zitao reported from his lookout point on the west side of the river. "They're bringing Jimin, Jungkook, Sehun, Jiwoo, and Haru through this route. Haru is being held by one of the men-looks like that's why they haven't tried to fight or escape."

Y/N's expression hardened. "Stay hidden. Don't make any noise. We're coming."

"Understood," Zitao replied before the line went dead.

Y/N lowered the walkie-talkie, her eyes sweeping over the group. "They're heading to the west side. They're likely planning to cross the river."

RM nodded, his brow furrowed. "It makes sense. They'll want to avoid the northern route after using it before. Crossing from the west reduces the chances of running into us again."

Minho's frown deepened as he glanced toward Y/N. "The west side... you know how dangerous it is. The water level is lower, but after that rainfall, the currents are unpredictable. If we fall in... One