The Wrong Alley

Previous night incident

11:00 PM

The pulse of the club still thudded faintly in their bodies, even after the doors slammed behind them. The music, once deafening, now felt like a distant echo—ghostlike and disoriented. The scent of sweat, perfume, and spilled vodka clung to their clothes like fog.

Streetlights buzzed overhead, casting pale halos over the pavement. Shadows stretched long and strange under their heels as the girls stumbled onto the nearly empty street—three silhouettes draped in glitter, half-laughter, and the reckless haze of too much tequila.

It had been one hell of a night.

"That was insane," Nyra giggled, her curls bouncing as she tossed them back like the final flourish of a toast.

"I think my feet are bleeding," Elira moaned, trying not to tip over in stilettos that felt like medieval torture devices. She clutched Nyra's arm for balance, wobbling like a newborn deer on ice.

Selen didn't laugh. Her voice was low, distant. "Car's just around the corner," she murmured, rummaging blindly through her clutch. Her fingers were slick with condensation from her drink earlier, making it harder to grip anything.

Then—

A sound.

Low and Raw. A guttural groan from somewhere just out of sight.

Like pain. No, suffering.

All three froze mid-step.

"You heard that, right?" Elira whispered, sobering fast.

Nyra and Selen didn't need to answer. Their bodies had already turned, drawn toward the source like moths to something darker than flame.

At the edge of the block, a narrow alley split off from the main road—too dark, too quiet, like a wound in the concrete skin of the city.Selen feet moved first. Cautious. Curious.

The others followed, dread threading through the buzz of alcohol.

"We should go back," Nyra muttered, her voice tight with nerves. "This is how horror movies start."

"At least check if someone needs help," Elira offered, forcing bravery she didn't believe in.

They turned the corner—

and walked straight into a nightmare.

Beneath a flickering overhead light, five men occupied the alley. Two were crumpled on the ground, bodies twisted unnaturally, their groans wet with agony. Blood glistened on the pavement, smeared like paint. The other three—dressed in dark combat clothes—were beating them without a word. No shouting. No rage. Just cold, mechanical violence. Every blow landed like punctuation to a story written in silence.

Then they saw the others.

Near a row of sleek, black SUVs at the alley's mouth, three more men stood still. Suits. Masks. Weapons in hand—not raised, not alarmed, just... ready. Holding them with the kind of ease that said this wasn't their first night of blood.

Predators.

Nyra let out a sharp breath. "Great. Just freaking great," she hissed. " I told you, coming here was a dumb idea ."

"Oh, now you're complaining?" Elira fired back. "You're the one who said 'let's party till we drop,' remember?"

"Shut up, both of you," Selen snapped, voice low. Her eyes locked on the men near the SUVs.

Something was wrong. Not just with the violence.With the stillness.The way one of them was staring.

He hadn't moved. But even across the distance, she felt it—that gaze, pinning her in place. Cold ,Measured and Curious.

Her blood turned to ice. She knew eyes like that . Once before, years ago, she had seen a man with eyes like those in her father's precinct – right before a suspect was shot in the back . Eyes like that didn't just see .They judge. And condemned.

"Back up," she whispered. "Now."

But too late.

One of the masked men near the SUVs tilted his head slowly—like a wolf catching a new scent.

The girls didn't move. Couldn't.A distant siren howled through the city, but here in the alley, the world slowed down to a suffocating stillness. One man stepped forward, his pace calm. Too calm.

He was hunting.

"What now?" Elira's voice cracked.

"They've seen our faces," Selen breathed, reaching for Nyra's hand, her pulse racing. "We need to—"

Crunch.

They froze and spun around slowly like hoping for the worst.

Behind them stood another man—young, sunglasses at night, with the kind of dead eyes that made your skin crawl. He'd circled around. Cut off their exit.

"Pretty girls like you shouldn't wander where you don't belong," he said smoothly. His grin was slow and crooked, like a knife sliding free of its sheath.

He reached for Selen's arm.

"Don't touch me, you creep!" she snapped, jerking away so hard it broke his hold. Her panic gave her power.

That was the spark.The men by the cars turned, their relaxed stance evaporating. Tension rippled down their spines like someone had flipped a switch. Their hands went to their weapons.

Elira moved first . Her clutch swinging in a wild arc—

whack!

It smacked the guy across the jaw.He staggered.

And that's when Selen lunged, pure adrenaline guiding her. She grabbed his arm, twisted, and felt the gun slip loose—unexpected. Unprepared. Maybe he didn't think girls in glitter fought back.

Nyra didn't hesitate. She snatched the gun from the ground, her hands shaking so badly the barrel wavered in the air.

"NYRA!" Elira screamed. "What are you doing?!"

"Trying to keep us alive!" Nyra shouted, her voice cracking.

One of the masked men reached for his holster.

No time to thinking. No time to aiming.Nyra pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The shot shattered the night.

One of the suited men let out a hoarse cry and dropped, grabbing his thigh. Blood sprayed the alley like something out of a war zone.

Everything froze.Even the streetlights seemed to hold their breath.

"What the f**k!!" Selen whispered, voice faint.

Nyra stood trembling, gun still raised, her mouth open in shock.

"You shot someone!!," Elira gasped. "You actually shot someone! We're gonna die, Nyra!"

Selen stepped forward, grabbed their hands. " Maybe..You did nothing wrong." Her voice shook, but her grip was firm. "He would've shot us. Move!"

"They'll kill us for sure!" Elira choked.

"Then run now. Panic later!" Selen growled, and took off.

The alley behind them exploded into chaos. Shouts in a foreign tongue. Tires screeching , Footsteps ,dozens of them—pounding after them. Someone yelled in another language.

"Worst. Birthday. Ever!" Nyra screamed, near hysterics.

"Shut up and keep running!" Selen shouted. "Next year, we're doing a spa day!"

They turned a corner—slipped behind a dumpster and collapsed into the shadows. Their breaths came fast and harsh. Nyra still clutched the gun, her knuckles white.

Selen leaned back against the cold metal, her hair wild, mascara streaked down her face like the tears she hadn't let fall yet. Inside her chest, her heart thudded with more than fear . It beat with memories. That haze....that she'd felt it before.

Why does it felt like he know me ?

"What the hell just happened?" she whispered.

Elira looked around, her chest still heaving."We just survived the beginning of something really...really bad."

A siren passed in the distance. The threat hadn't ended – it had just begun.

They sat there, shaking, silent.Listening.

Waiting for the next sound. Or The next threat.

___

A few moments later –

After the shot

Smoke still lingered in the air—acrid, bitter, clinging to the inside of his throat like a promise. Blood darkened the pavement beneath Eunwoo 's leg, his hand pressed hard over the wound as he hissed curses through gritted teeth.

The others didn't look at him.They were already scanning the alley, every muscle coiled, every movement sharp with discipline. No shouting. No panic. Just a cold, simmering silence that came from years of knowing exactly how to respond when a job went sideways.

Taehyung stood at the edge of the shadows, unmoving.

The smoke from the gunfire hadn't even cleared before he'd stepped forward—slow, deliberate. His tailored coat caught the wind like a whisper of violence.

He hadn't fired a single shot.He hadn't raised his voice.But everyone in the alley could feel it—the shift.

The chill that slipped under the skin when he stopped being a silent watcher… and became the threat.

His eyes—half-lidded, unreadable ,lifted toward the corner the girls had disappeared around.

No panic. Just thought.

Precision.

He already knew the next step.

"One of them got a weapon," Eunwoo moaned, keeping his hands on thigh. His voice was pained yet Controlled.

"They didn't hesitate," Jimin added, his gloved hands still resting on his holsters. "The short one with the curls... she aimed like she meant it. No shaking. Not really."

Taehyung didn't answer. He didn't need to.Instead, he moved—walking slowly toward the bloodstained spot where Eunwoo lay groaning, the back of his skull pressed to the pavement.

"Get up," Taehyung ordered calmly.

Eunwoo blinked, confused. "Hyung... I got hit—"

"Get up or I'll put a bullet in the other leg."

Eunwoo scrambled upright with a grunt of pain, half crawling toward the SUV. Wounded or not, there was no sympathy in Taehyung's world for carelessness. Not when mistakes left stains that couldn't be washed out.

Jimin pulled out his phone, fingers flying.

"Traffic cams in the west alley picked them up," he said. "Three females. No backup. They're panicked, running. One of them—looks like she's holding a Glock. That's ours."

"Then they're not just stupid," Eunwoo muttered. "They're armed and stupid."

Taehyung finally stopped walking.

The moonlight caught his face as he tilted his head, calculating.

He thought of the girl—the one with the wide eyes and defiant voice.The one who had looked right at him like she wasn't afraid.

" She looks familiar..."

Even in glitter and heels, she had the presence of someone who'd fought battles before. Someone who knew what it meant to survive.She wasn't trembling like the others.

She was thinking.And that made her dangerous.

He smirked, as if he'd known her for years. He thought–

Since when you did become this smart, Selen?

His heart skipped a beat at the thought of her.

"The one in the center," Taehyung whispered quietly. "Selen. Find out where she lives. Who she belongs to. Who she runs to."

His voice was silk soaked in steel.

"I want all of it—family, records, friends."

Eunwoo leaned against the backseat. "But....you know where she lives, right?"

Taehyung's eyes darkened, jaw clenched. " No," he muttered. " She is no longer in that apartment. "

Jimin nodded. "What about the shooter?"

Eunwoo's jaw clenched, face turned cold despite the pain." She won't walk away from me that easily. " He growled, a dangerous edge in his tone.

"She's not the threat," Taehyung murmured. "She's the spark."

Jimin narrowed his eyes. "And Selen?"

Taehyung's gaze dropped to the spot where her heel print still marred the blood-slick ground.A smirk curled the edge of his mouth.

Not amusement. Possession.

"She's the reason this night just got interesting."

Then he turned toward the SUV, coat billowing as he walked.

Behind him, His Men dialed in backup. Jimin slipped into the shadows, already trailing camera footage from street cameras and hacked phones. The hunt had begun—not loud, not chaotic.

Quiet,Precise and Efficient.

And in the cold city night, as tires screeched and orders whispered through encrypted channels, one thing had already become certain:

They would find the girls.They would find her.And when they did...

This wouldn't just be about survival anymore. It would be war.

It would be about control.

Retribution.

And whatever it was that had stirred in the darkness of Taehyung's chest the moment their eyes met.