Shuan Lin Syndicate

Artemis drove like a madman – or was it madwoman? – across Seoul. She even ignored traffic regulations and cut through the intersection with a red light.

"Artemis, what the hell is going on?" I exclaimed in Mandarin and held tightly on my seatbelt.

"Let me give you the shortest and simplest explanation." she answered in the same language. "Bad guys are chasing us and if they catch up, we're in big trouble!"

She made a sharp turn and with the way she was driving, I felt like we were in a car race. And she just performed a drift too. I had to admit, she was a really good driver.

All of a sudden, multiple gunshots resounded and bullets started to rain down on us, but it was all deflected.

"Good thing we brought the Lamborghini. It's bulletproof."

I could only widen my eyes at her remarks. She continued driving on the empty road until we hit a dead end. Artemis slammed her foot on the brake before we ended up falling off the cliff.

"Damn it! Where are we?" she exclaimed and slammed her hands to the wheel.

Artemis suddenly reached out in the glove compartment and brought out two pistols.

"Why do you even have guns?"

"Protection." she gave me one of the pistols. "You do know how to shoot, right?"

"Well, yeah." 'But bows and arrows fit me more.'

"Get ready."

She suddenly opened the door and started shooting at our pursuers. I tried to catch my breath and clear my mind before I took a deep breath, opened the door and shoot my gun.

With the sudden escalation of the situation, I had to thank my previous life's experiences and my current life's childhood training. I couldn't believe it myself but I could actually see the bullets and managed to dodge it in time.

When both Artemis and I ran out of bullets, she suddenly threw her gun to the nearest enemy to her then kneed him on the face.

Artemis was like a whirlwind as she took the enemy one by one. Of course, I could not just stand still and let the girl I like do all the fighting, I charged in as well.

I punched the nearest enemy to me, a bald man in a red jumpsuit, and judo flipped him before knocking his head in the pavement. Next, I gave a roundhouse kick to the thin man who wore sunglasses.

'Seriously, it's the middle of the night, but he's wearing sunglasses?'

I took down the enemies with a mixture of the different fighting styles I learned in my two lives.

After taking down some of them, only four remained, but they were surrounding us. The two of us stood back-to-back in a defensive stance.

"You're not bad at fighting." she said with a gleeful smile on her face. "I haven't fought thugs in a long time."

"I don't think they're thugs though. They're too coordinated to be one."

"You have a point. Hey! Who the hell are you? I'm pretty sure I've never pissed off anyone in South Korea lately!"

They didn't answer.

"Hey Shen," one called in Cantonese which made me surprised. "Boss said to bring them back alive."

"Yeah, but a few broken bones won't kill them."

"Artemis! They're Chinese! They just spoke in Cantonese!"

"Cantonese? I can't understand that one. Can you?"

"I just understand them, of course I can!"

"If they're Chinese, then they're probably from the Chinese Triad!" she said.

"The what now? Chinese Triad? What did you do to piss them off?"

Our enemies kept getting closer.

"I've never done a hit in three years! Too late in revenge now, don't you think?" she said in Mandarin.

"Oh, this is not revenge young lady, we don't even know who you are." answered the burly man with the strange tattoo in Mandarin. "For us, you two are just our targets."

"Wow, talk about people who doesn't care." I heard her mutter.

Suddenly the nearest car to us which was probably two meters away exploded. I was thrown because of the blast and landed on the Lamborghini we rode a while ago.

My whole body hurt and my ears were ringing. I could barely make out anything because of my blurry sight. I heard my name being shouted, but before I could find out who was calling me, I blacked out.

***

I was having a dream. In it, I was probably six or seven. I was out in the forest playing with two others, Chen and Bai, our cousin. The three of us were running around when we stumbled upon a small shrine.

It was a simple shrine with a huge rock on the side. Written on it was ancient Han characters that said; 'Here lies the treasures of the Knight of Void.'

"What's this supposed to be?" asked Bai and looked around.

"Maybe it's an entrance to a tomb?" Chen questioned and started inspecting it.

"But who's the Knight of Void? And are his treasures really here?" Bai asked again.

The name sounded familiar, I knew I heard of it somewhere before but I forgot where.

A loud rumble was suddenly heard and the three of us immediately ran away, the shrine and inscription forgotten.

I woke up in a jolt. Even with my half-asleep state, I could hear my phone ringing so I took it and answered it.

"This is Lei." I said in a hoarse voice.

"Lei? Are you okay? Where are you?" I heard Seven's voice on the other line.

"Huh?"

As the fog of sleepiness cleared away, I realized that I had no idea where I was.

"Err…"

My phone was suddenly snatched away from my hand and a female voice erupted behind me.

"Good morning Mister Lee, this is Doctor Hunter speaking…yeah, Lei's with me…I'm so sorry for not being able to attend your party, I suddenly didn't feel well, so I asked Lei to stay with me… Oh Kyle? I called him over when Lei fell asleep. I didn't have the courage to wake him up from his oh-so-needed rest… Yeah. Thank you for understanding. Goodbye!"

The whole time she was talking, I was just staring at her. My mind was blank and I was very confused. The fact that she was sleeping beside me made my mind blank. I was only dragged back to reality when my phone hit my face.

"Ow! You can't just throw things at an idol's face! It's our asset!" I complained.

"You're still a trainee stupid." she rolled her eyes and covered her face with a blanket.

"Future idol."

Last night's events suddenly surfaced in my mind. I immediately jumped away from the bed and checked my body. Well, I wasn't hurt, but I was surprised to see I was only on my boxers. I instinctively covered my body.

"What did you do? What happened last night?" I asked and grabbed the comforter to cover myself.

"Don't be such a little kid." she groaned and rose from the bed. She was wearing PJ's. "I've seen better and worse ones."

"That is still-"

The door suddenly opened and Kyle went in.

'She did mention him a while ago.'

"Kyle-ge!" I called.

"Breakfast is ready." he said nonchalantly.

"You two!" I yelled. "You better tell me what the hell is going on!"

***

"Shuan Lin Syndicate?"

The two only nodded at my question. I asked them who were the people that attacked us the previous night and their answer was the Shuan Lin Syndicate.

"They're a sub-group of the Chinese Triad." Kyle replied and ate a strip of bacon. "You could say their leader is one of the upper echelons or at least of high status in the Chinese Triad."

"You awfully know a lot, Kyle." I commented.

"It comes with the work. I am an informant."

"And a very good one at that, big brother." Artemis said ad gave him a high five.

"So… why did they attack us?" I asked again.

"Not sure. I had been in contact with the triad a few years ago, but this is the first time I heard of Shuan Lin Syndicate."

"They just joined the ranks last year." Kyle inserted. "Their leader, Fa Xiao Min, was accepted due to the sudden death of Ming Tian."

I had no idea who were those people they were talking about, so I just listened because it sounded interesting.

"I did some investigation and found evidence that Fa Xiao Min had something to do with Ming Tian's death."

"Sounds like normal politics to me." Artemis commented. "Dirty. And? What does he want with me?"

"I'm not sure. I already contacted my people, but they're still investigating."

"By the way, who's Fa Xiao Min?" I asked.

The two looked at me like I had grown two heads. I gave them a questioning look in return.

"What?"

"You don't know Fa Xioa Min?"

"Should I?"

"Fa Xiao Min, one of the richest people in Hong Kong?" I shook my head. "Well, it's a given. You don't care about your surroundings unless it concerns you."

"Hey! I had been living in the Philippines for the past few years before I came to South Korea!"

"To the public he's a businessman who has many hotel and restaurant chains spread throughout China, but in reality, he's a syndicate leader who does illegal trading. From arms dealing, to drugs, even human trafficking." Kyle explained.

"That's what you call human garbage." I commented.

"I agree with you." seconded Artemis. "For now, let's keep this a secret and let's lay low for a while. Big brother, have your people to investigate this incident. If that guy crosses the line," she motioned her thumb in cutting her neck. "Then off with his head."

She said the last sentence in English with a British accent and a glint in her grey eyes.

'Somehow, that is so like Artemis.'

"Let's talk about something else." I suggested. They both nodded. "Who are you two? Really? I'm guessing you're part of the mafia, but I hope I'm wrong."

The half-siblings stared at each other, probably had a conversation using their eyes, then looked at me with a look of defeat.

"We hoped we could keep it from you, but things just aren't going our way." said Artemis with a sigh. "You're right. We are with the mafia, well me, Kyle not so much. It wouldn't be a good reference on his background as an idol in the future."

"As I said, I'm an informant. I research and gather information on anyone and anything." Kyle also said. "My sister on the other hand, is a hitman, or is it a hitwoman?"

"Assassin sounds much cooler."

"Ha?" was my smartest reaction.

In all my two lives, I've feared and hated assassins, since they were very troublesome in my past life.

"Don't worry, I haven't killed anyone in the last three years." she gave me a reassuring smile.

"But you killed people." I stated.

"Not more than I could count on my fingers and toes, and most of them were self-defense." she explained.

"And the others?"

"Casualties."

I only shook my head, but I realized I was in no position to judge her.

'If she's really Artemis' counterpart and she's also in the mafia, I could only guess how harsh her childhood had been,' I thought. 'And besides, in my past life I had also killed people for survival.'

"-llo? Earth to Lei?" Artemis was waving her hand in front of me.

"Huh? What did you say?"

"Dude, we have to go." Kyle said. "Jasper will have our hides if we're late for practice."

I looked at the clock and saw that it was already quarter to ten and practice started at ten.

"I'll drive." Artemis offered.

"Why?"

"There's a shareholder's meeting at MME today and I have to attend." she smirked. "Let's go people."

Once again, Artemis drove like a maniac.

'I don't think I'll want to ride in a car with her driving again. I think I'm gonna throw up.'

I noticed Kyle in the backseat who was clutching the handle of the car's ceiling tightly. His knuckles were turning white.

We reached MME building ten minutes before ten. Kyle and I didn't even say goodbye to Artemis and just dashed inside. I figured the elevator would take too long, so I took the stairs. It seemed like Kyle thought the same things because he was just right behind me.

Both of us reached the practice room with a minute to spare.

"Safe!" I yelled.

All eyes were suddenly on me so I apologized, but everyone bombarded me with questions like;

"Why did you stay at that lady doctor's condo unit?"

"Are you two dating?"

"Did something happen to the two of you last night?"

The last question caught me off-guard and eyed the one who asked, Coby. But before I could defend myself, the door opened and our dancing instructor/choreographer, Jasper, came in.

"Okay, listen. We'll practice like hell today because apparently starting tomorrow you'll have a two-week vacation."

I raised an eyebrow at Jasper's announcement. My thoughts drifted to Artemis and thought that she probably had something to do with it. I eyed Kyle but he just shrugged.

"After the vacation, you'll start recording and shooting the music videos for your songs. Your debut song is in the process of being finalized, but you still have to decide on a concept and a group name."

Everybody got excited at this.

"Photo shoot also starts in two weeks, so get all the rest you can get because you'll be really busy.

Although even with all the excitement, I felt dreadful. Like something bad was going to happen. And damn I was right.