Chae checks the time on her watch, showing that the plane will be landed in 5 minutes according to what Sofia told her previously before jumping into the battlefield. “Five minutes le-” Before she finishes her report to Saku who is beside her, both of them suddenly hear that rapid gatling gun sound along with Heliodor’s terrifying laughter. Even though they are not standing on Elio and Sofia’s shoes, they can feel the chill and how the tension is there which makes them worried as well. “What the? Sofia, what is that? Are you guys okay?” Chae tries to reach out for them but there is no response. Not only once but Chae keeps calling them out, using low volume in order not wanting Citrina knows their position, but still gets nothing back. Somehow they got disconnected again and that is probably because something must be disturbing the connection. “Are we disconnected again?” Saku asks with furrowed eyebrows. “I think so…” Chae replies and her face shows how worried she is. Noticing Chae’s expression, Saku looks at their surroundings first, making sure that Citrina is nowhere to be found and they are at least safe enough. He reaches his hand to gently squeeze Chae’s shoulder in order to give her comfort and calm herself down. “Hey, it’s okay. Trust them. You know they are unstoppable when working together, right?” Saku says with his soft voice. Remembering what they have done and been through together, all of it enough to calm Chae down a little bit as she finally nods her head in agreement. Getting the reaction Saku looks for, he also launches a warm smile toward the person in front of him. How he really wants to stare into those eyes much longer but he knows this is not the right time, probably that won’t happen until the line disappears between them though. Saku takes his hand away from Chae as now both of them focus to stay aware of any surprises. They are slowly walking around the plane because they think staying hidden in one place is not the best option. Even though the possibility of bumping into Citrina is fifty-fifty, it might be better than letting Citrina find them first, she is probably going to attack furiously especially when her plan is ruined. Now their position is right in the middle of this plane where the rooms around them are just storages for some stuff. “Saku!” Chae whispers but pitches her voice a little bit in order to make her voice reach Saku immediately. Saku turns around in an instant and holds his gun to the front right away, only to find nothing but Chae who is surprised by his gun that is aiming toward her direction. Not directly at her though, more like around her to check if there is anything around her. Probably just too much awareness that is why Saku behaves like that. “Oh, sorry.” Saku says and puts down his gun before slowly approaching Chae. “Look.” Chae whispers to reply and points below them where there is a trace from blood drops that is heading into the room next to them. Knowing what exactly it means, Saku gives her a signal to stay quiet as he slowly reaches the door’s handle. Based on his experience to check if the door opened, it might trigger something to explode from the other side, just like a classic trap. Slowly and carefully opens it without making any sound as well, from here Saku knows that Citrina doesn’t put anything on the door which is weird enough for him. Is it because Citrina already knows that it’s no use to put it since Saku can check it? But that’s not the case isn’t it? If they don’t want the bomb to explode, they at least need to defuse it which is giving some time for her to sneak attack them. However Saku doesn’t want to think all of it by himself so he quickly signaled Chae that the door is safe but still needs to be aware because most probably Citrina is inside. After receiving a nod from Chae, Saku immediately kicks the door wide open as both of them get in at the same time with their backs facing each other. What they see inside is something that has never come across their mind ever since the beginning of joining this company. Actually without looking around, they already can see her since Citrina is only sitting on the ground with her head down and her back is touching the wall behind her right in front of the door. There is stained blood on the ground in front of her legs and all of the lights are on, it seems like Citrina doesn’t have intention to hide herself while recovering from her injuries, even her gun is also far in front of her as well. Chae and Saku take a quick glance at each other and share the same confused faces, probably because Chae just hit her in her vital spot. Since they don’t want any surprises to happen, Saku slowly takes the first step to pick up the gun while Chae stays at the back and aims toward Citrina who still doesn’t make any movement. Done picking up the gun in just a couple of seconds, Saku takes a few steps back away again because keeping distance is one of the important things to be safe. Neither Saku nor Chae notice anything from Citrina because she is literally just sitting there with her head down, simply like a corpse along with the blood around her. They look at each other and have the same thought again that they don’t know what to do to Citrina in this condition. True that they are mad and have crossed in mind to have revenge against them but seeing her condition like that somehow they decide not to touch her at all. After all Saku and Chae still have humanity inside of them so seeing someone like that there is no way they want to lay a finger on it. With that being said, both of them slowly walk back out from the room, still aiming at her, and close the door right after. Once the door shut, they let out a loud relieved sigh together as if they had been holding it ever since they entered the room. “That’s… really something..” Chae says and somehow breathes heavily. “But seriously.. Is she dead..?” Saku asks confusedly beside her as both of them lower their guns. Chae checks the timer in her watches once again only to find that the plane should be really close to the ground since there is only a minute left for it to land. “We should go before anything happens.” Chae says and walks toward the exit door, not wanting to answer or know the answer from Saku’s question. *** Back to where Elio and Sofia plan where they are now trapped with not much time left for them while Heliodor keeps wandering around the area, searching for them. “Yuhuu~ Are you th-” Before he can finish it, suddenly someone that he has been looking for shows up in front of him, Elio. Without waiting or any warning, Heliodor jumps forward as fast as a lion that is going to bite the enemy. “Come here, pal!” He shouts in the middle of his jump to attack Elio with his knife. Knowing that will come in an instant, Elio quickly dodge it away but again this time is a lot harder for him to fight back. Technically Elio almost spent all of his energy from the previous energy and his endurance is not yet that much while Heliodor just keeps getting stronger and faster, he is a monster at this point. Just from two Heliodor’s attacks, Elio loses his knife and gets tackled on the ground. No mercy and probably want to finish it quickly, without saying any word Heliodor targets his knife toward Elio’s chest, wanting to rip his heart apart, but Elio quickly responds to press Heliodor’s deep wounds from the shot before. “Aghh!” Heliodor screams in pain which makes him miss hitting where he targeted before. Elio takes this as a chance to get Heliodor away from him and quickly stands back up. Not even a second, Heliodor charges forward once again followed by his maniacal laughter. Although Elio successfully dodges it right away, Heliodor just won’t stop to launch his attack toward Elio as he keeps moving forward and swinging his knife toward Elio. It won’t last long in this cramped place because there is no more space for Elio to walk backward in order to dodge Heliodor’s attack. Heliodor also notices how close the distance between Elio and the box behind them is, so he goes forward with all of his strength again like he is slamming Elio’s body on the wall. Elio can’t dodge it anymore this time so before Heliodor’s knife can reach him, he manages to use both of his hands to hold Heliodor. Just like before but this time the knife is only an inch away from it to get through Elio’s chest and directly stab into his heart. Not to mention how that maniac face covered in blood along with his wide grin is really close to him now which makes him more horrifying in Elio’s perspective. “You do know that you can’t win against me, Sam Elio~” He says while still pushing the knife. Even though Elio probably doesn’t have any energy left, he still manages to make the knife don't move any closer to him. “Nothing can stop a lion! That’s why they became the king!” Heliodor shouts and puts his weight on the knife. The distance is getting closer to Elio’s chest, less than an inch, but Elio still uses the last energy left which is not much though. “Come on little cub~ Where was all of that confidence?” Same circumstance, this is where Heliodor will slowly scrape his opponent’s mentality by mocking them. Knowing that he is on the advantage side right now, the only way to maintain this position is to provoke the enemy in order to make them lose their control. Same for the other side because Elio also doesn’t say anything in reply and only glares deeply into Heliodor’s eyes. This is how they have always been to be, Heliodor does the talking and Elio will just listen to all of it. Looks like a perfect combo but Elio already found someone that is a ton better and deserves to fill in the position. This is where the different circumstance comes from as Elio starts to show his smirk again even though his face looks exhausted already. Heliodor, who is witnessing this right in front of him, makes his eyes wide open in surprise but quickly grows his grin wider. “There it is! The thing that I’m looking for!” Heliodor exclaims happily as he puts all of his weight now on Elio’s body. With this final push, the knife finally hits Elio’s chest which makes Elio groan in pain with his head down. “Let me get some more!” Once again Heliodor shouts and pushes in but Elio holds him for not going any further. Not being able to see Elio’s expression, Heliodor brings his face closer, wanting to see that painful expression on Elio. However what he finds on Elio’s face is the total opposite of what he is looking for. The smirk is still there as Elio glances toward Heliodor who is now looking completely shocked. “You’re really just a curious kitten, don’t you think?” Finally Elio manages to say anything back right on Heliodor’s face for the first time while they are in the middle of fighting with each other. Although it’s only an disbelievement and shocked face, it’s enough for Elio to claim his victory against him at this point. “You said a lion always wins? True. But let’s see if a lion can fly.” That is the final word from Elio and this is where Heliodor comes to realize that he shouldn’t only focus on attacking Elio brutally. Based on where they are standing right now, Elio just successfully led them to the end of this cargo load. Right after Elio said that to Heliodor, the yellows mixed with red lights are turned on in this area, signaling the back door will be opened. Without Heliodor knowing it, he loses his focus to put all of his weight and strength on his knife, Elio quickly takes this chance to throw away the knife from his chest Both of them can die by falling from this height which is actually what Heliodor is looking for. “Hah! A tiger can’t fly too, buddy!” Heliodor says as he pulls himself closer to Elio. Neither of them want to back off from each other as Elio is also holding Heliodor’s arms. The door now starts to open up as the wind blows inside the airplane and pushes their bodies following the flows. “This is my victory! No one ever has a chance to defeat me!” Once again Heliodor exclaims a few seconds before the door completely opens. While Heliodor backs provoking Elio, once again that smirk on Elio’s face starts to appear again. “Right, I don’t have any chance to win against you, Heliodor.” Elio calmly says and one of his hands moves to reach his chest. Heliodor’s eyes follow where Elio’s heading to which is to grab something that is put around that particular area, the one he just stabbed in. Elio takes out the thing he wants to show off, something that Heliodor must have passed by and never thought of before, a blood bag. Once Elio fully takes it out from his clothes, he throws that bag into Heliodor’s face and it directly hits around Heliodor’s eyes which makes him need to close his eyes tightly. Again, the one who keeps losing focus and puts their guard down now is Heliodor, probably this is the first time in a while or once in his entire life being played like this. Because of Elio’s action, Heliodor starts to loosen up his hold and Elio immediately kicks him away, which it’s enough to give a gap between them. Right after Elio kicks him, the cargo load’s door is also now completely opened so both of their bodies get pushed off from the plane. Technically now they are already out of the plane and right in the middle of air without anything on them. “Hah! Seems like you’re still coming with me!” Heliodor once again shouts with such a wide grin on his face after he wipes off the blood that is covering his eyes. Well, that different side of Elio is still there with a smile on his face as he just controls his body position to reduce the speed of him reaching the ground below them. “Well, you are a lion, right? I really admit that a lion is really strong one by one.” Elio replies with high volume so Heliodor can hear it. “That’s why I have someone on my back.” That’s it, Heliodor’s face changes in an instant into disbelievement once again. Right after Elio says that, once Sofia reaches him and puts one of her arms around Elio’s body, she uses her other one to open the parachute. The grin slowly disappears, his eyes start widening, there is a gap between his lips, totally looking like the kind of an expression where something that Heliodor never thought would happen. Finally for the first time since forever, there is someone persistent enough to face him and eventually wins in his battle. The height is not really that high since the plane has been starting to fall down for a while but thankfully they have a huge parachute that is enough to make them land smoothly without Seeing the plane might crash in the Adriatic Sea and there is possibility to explode, Sofia maneuvers the parachute to go away as far as she can from the plane’s direction. The parachute is big and strong enough to bring them to get closer to the land as they also can see some of the local ships around. Thankfully they are willing to help Elio and Sofia by getting them on to their ship and bringing them to the nearest beach, Hemingway Beach. Once they get on the ship, those people give them a pair of towels to dry themselves off and keep them warm as well. Seeing Elio’s current expression, it seems like there is nothing going on inside his mind. “Hey, are you okay?” Sofia asks and moves to sit closer beside Elio with the towel wrapped around her. “Yeah.. How about you?” Elio asks after blinking his eyes a few times. Before answering his question, Sofia acts like she is thinking of how to describe what she felt right now. “Hmm.. weird?” She replies and laughs soft right after it because that is the only thing that pops up inside her mind. Well, working with people like them for almost a decade or half of her lifetime is not and never would be easy. Lost a lot of people she loved along the journey, including things and stuff that are so dear to her, but now she is here. Out of the cage of where she had been locked up, no more chains for restraining her, and the most important part is that free from the Mazaròl’s curse. Most likely Elio has the same thing but it’s not about how long it has been for him. It’s more into how much he learned and got from these absolute insane things which is also considered his life changing decision from the beginning. Accepting this job because of the money offered. There was a doubt but somehow he still chose to join it anyway. Only focus on himself and ignore the others because in his opinion that was the best choice to make. Everything is just targeting the goals and the reward from the job, there is nothing emotional included ever in his life. But now, it’s totally different from it, completely the opposite of how he sees the world. There are people that he can lean on, letting all of his guard down as none of them will ever stab him from the back. Even though for just a while, for a few months he has been feeling this, he has something that can be called home, a place to gather with his new family. People that he somehow cared and not wanting anything bad happen to them as he keeps worrying about Nevertheless, Elio faces away from the sky and looks to the person who is beside him wrapped in a towel. This one person beside him always hits different of whatever she has done to him or whenever they have gone together. Noticing that Elio is facing her right now, Sofia turns her head to face Elio as well. This is it, the warm smile and the way she is staring with those soft eyes into Elio’s never failing to give such things that a brain can’t even figure out because this is his heart’s job anyway. Getting drowned from those two things, Elio’s lips start to form a tiny smile that he has been practicing for quite some time already. Feels like it is then… Elio says inside of him. *** *Bell’s ringing* “Coming!” Female’s voice comes from the other side of the door, giving an answer to the door. Once it gets opened, it shows the person who answers that bell, Chaemin. “Hello, is this Jaakkola’s residence?” Says the person that is wearing a cap with his head down, making Chae unable to look at his face. Well, not a surprise at all because Chae already knows and is familiar with this voice which makes Chae laugh softly. “Yes it is. Is there any package?” She replies jokingly then crosses her arms and leans to the side of the door. “Well… I’m afraid that I’m your package, ma’am.” That person brings his head up only to reveal his face, it’s Saku. Once they make eye contact, both of them can’t resist forming a smile on their faces and end up chuckling. Just another normal joke around between this married couple. “Why thank you~” Chae replies and pulls Saku by his right arm to get inside. Saku closes the door behind him right away after he comes in, wanting to get closer with his wife but she stops him right away by covering his face with her hand. “You’re five minutes late so unfortunately I can’t give you a tip.” Chae says, at the same time reminding him of today’s plan. Saku’s eyes tell everything that he just forgot about the plan for tonight that they made from last week. “Oh! What time is it?” He quickly checks the time on his watches on his left wrist, literally they need to leave in ten minutes from now. “Aish.. totally forgot about that! Give me five minutes!” Saku quickly runs to prepare himself and leaves Chae giggling on her spot. After Saku’s flash preparation, they are now off to the destination where the plan is taking on for tonight. When they arrive there, there is already someone who is sitting on their table while looking toward the pianist who is accompanying their fine dining. Someone that they haven’t met for almost two years already due some of the things they are busy with. “Don’t stare too much if you don’t want him to run away from you.” Chae says once they are approaching that person. “He deserves it for leaving you alone here though.” Saku continues jokingly beside her. Their voices make that person immediately turn her head to face them and with that never dimmed face’s lights, Sofia. “Come on.. He is just a baby, don’t be so mean~ Besides if he runs away, I will just need to steal his heart back just like before.” Sofia replies and gets up from her seat to greet Chae with a welcoming hug as well as Saku. “No but seriously. Why is he always late?” Chae asks while they are getting to their seats. “Well.. it can’t be helped, right?” Sofia tries to defend that particular person and chuckles. Not long after that, someone finally shows up at the entrance door which makes Chae who is facing that direction recognise it right away. “Omo…” Chae says and immediately makes the other two to immediately follow where her eyes are looking at. That person shows up with a bouquet of flowers in his hand as he is approaching their table now. “Never fail to give surprises, huh?” Sofia says to that person. “Not even after a century.” Replies from the man who is holding behind the huge bouquet flowers, revealing his face, none other than Elio. “Aww.. how lucky your partner always gives you a surprise, Sofia~” Chae teases from the other side of the table which makes Saku immediately turn his head directly at her in disbelievement. “Alright. Be right back, gonna buy a bouquet as well.” Saku replies jokingly and gets up from his seat which makes all of them laugh as Chae holds his arm to stay. Now all of the guests are here and they are just going to spend their time together enjoying the relaxing and calming night. “So, how long are you guys planning to stay in Korea?” Chae asks before getting another bite of her steak. “Sadly we can’t stay that long since we are going back to Rome this next Monday morning.” Sofia answers, clearly showing her saddening face. “Ahh.. busy life is really scary..” Chae replies with furrowed eyebrows, knowing what their jobs are. “But honestly I really love Korean’s vibes! The food is especially amazing!” Sofia exclaims excitedly but her face shows how she really wants to stay for a longer time. “Hahaha you can come anytime, you know?” Saku butts in, hearing Sofia’s childish voice never fail to entertain them. “Definitely. We will come here for every holiday!” Again another cheerful reply from Sofia. Seeing the atmosphere getting more lively, Chae and Saku look at each other as Saku gives her the permission to let her say the thing they want to inform. “Then if you guys come back near Halloween, we might need to reserve one more seat at this table.” Chae says which makes Sofia change her face in an instant, completely confused. “Oh? You guys already made a plan around that time already?” Sofia innocently asks which makes Saku chuckles, not expecting she doesn’t realize it. “Not exactly how we planned it though. It just happened.” Chae continues to give explanations but not exactly telling them what it is. Obviously it only makes Sofia even more confused as she furrowed both of her eyebrows. “What? Ho- how is tha-” Before she can continue to ask for furthermore information, it’s Elio’s turn to butts in their conversation. “Congrats.” he simply says and looks up then offers his hand to Saku for a handshake. The two of them not expecting how someone like Elio who has always been so dense before can actually get what they meant. “Quite surprising you got it first before Sofia.” Saku says jokingly and chuckles while accepting Elio’s handshake. “Ehh? What is it?! Have you known about it this whole time?!” On the other hand Sofia is still confused as now she starts to feel betrayed by her own partner. Well, mostly Elio is always figuring out the first since he always has that brilliant brain. “Nope. They just told me.” Elio answers calmly and takes another bite from his steak. “Ehh?” Sofia still confuses and turns her head back to look at Chae and Saku back to back. Seeing such a reaction makes the two of them giggle and they probably need to stop teasing them as well. “It’s a boy.” Chae says, one big hint and if she still can’t figure it out, she is certified as dumb. After quite a long blinking her eyes, Sofia’s face finally brightens up like a sun in the morning followed by her widest smile as well. “OH MY GOD! CONGRATULATION, GUYS!” Sofia exclaims happily and stands up from her seat to give a bear hug to Chae. With that being said, they continue to have chit chat until the place is almost close, meaning that they need to head back. “Thank you, guys! Take care!” Chae bids goodbye from her car with Saku beside her. “You too! Especially you Saku! I will hunt you down if anything happens to that baby!” Sofia threatens him jokingly as she points her finger out. “Aye aye captain!” Saku answers and gives a salutation. After a small bid of goodbye, they drive away and leave the other couple standing in front of the fine dining restaurant. “Wanna head back? Aww.. you’re not too tired, aren’t you?” Sofia asks with an indulgent voice and gently caresses Elio’s cheek as if she is babying her partner now. Getting treated like this feels like an everyday routine for Elio but he never gets bored by it as he just chuckles and smiles softly toward her. “Let’s take a walk for a bit, shall we?” Elio asks and gives his hand to join hands. For Sofia, who is the only person that can get these treatments from someone like Elio, always makes her feel so special and gladly accepts his offer then intertwining their hands together. After a while of walking around as both of them tell each other stories or what’s on their mind, they eventually end up getting near the river with a breathtaking night view full of lights. “Uwahh! Look! The Namsan Tower is really pretty from here!” Sofia exclaims happily beside him while pointing it with her other free hand. In this place with such a magical atmosphere around them, it pushes Elio to do whatever he planned on tonight. “Stand there. I will take photos for you.” Elio suggests and takes Sofia’s bag in order to make her comfortable. “Okayy!!” an instant answer as she quickly walks toward the bridge hold and stands there with various poses. Long time ago for Elio, these kinds of things always looked bothersome and only a waste of time but now it’s just a pleasant thing to do as a smile forms on his lips while taking her photos. After a few minutes Elio also tells her what she needs to do, finally the photoshoot section ends because Sofia comes back in to check the result. “How is it, how is it?!” She asks excitedly and Elio gives the phone right away to her. Her eyes brighten again as if there are stars in there while looking at each one of the photos, not forgetting how pure and wide her smile is. “These are beautiful!” Showing another form of her happiness but her eyes are still staring into her phone which gives Elio some time to think of what he is going to do. He slowly walks away from her and pulls out his phone from his pocket, only setting a timer of ten seconds on the camera application. After settling it down and pressing the camera to roll, Elio quickly walks back in. “Actually I have a more beautiful photo than that.” Elio says on his way back which makes Sofia instantly look at her. “Oh? Are you going to flirt with me? Where did you learn that?” Sofia replies jokingly, thinking Elio might throw such nonsense toward her. “Nope.” Elio simply replies and once they are facing each other, he gets on one knee which is something that Sofia doesn’t expect at all. “Sofia Dolce, will you give me the honor to be someone that plays the biggest role for the rest of your life?” Elio proposes which immediately makes Sofia cover her mouth with teary eyes and this is the scene where Elio’s phone takes on. Not bothering to say anything back right away, Sofia just launches herself toward Elio and goes forward to hug him right away. “Yes! My answer will always be yes!” Sofia answers as the tears start to burst out from her eyes. “Hahaha! Your line is so cheesy!” Not wanting to let go of the embrace but she can’t help to tease her partner right away. “What a pleasure that I learned from someone.” Elio replies sarcastically. The phone that Elio just settled up successfully takes the most beautiful photo of their lifetime. A photo of Elio proposed with one knee, Sofia’s touched reaction, and lastly accompanied by the breathtaking night town view with Namsan Tower behind them. Just from that one single photo, it’s enough to show what the last things he gets from this journey.
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