.

When the darkness fell at school, where the upper grades were bound to self-study until late night, we, the freshmen, would be at a risk for attracting attention if we wandered around. We, therefore, decided to move to a different place.

At first, we tried to go to a café, but it was almost impossible to not encounter any students in our school there. Although most of them were three to four-floor cafés, the places we often went to were quite limited in the neighborhood.

Thus, we thought about talking at the karaoke without singing any songs, but people would throw a glance at us while walking past the hallway; besides, that place was also easy to meet other students.

Next, we considered going to Jooin’s house, but he shook his head and smiled charmingly while folding his hands.

“Mama, sorry. My cousins…”

“Oh.”

“My cousins can descend on my house.”

Jooin then added carefully, “You saw them before, right?”

‘Of course, I saw them.’ Recalling the impressive dogfight between Woo Rinara and Woo Rihon, the two superstars in Korea, I nodded with a pale face. Meanwhile, Jooin’s face also lost color.

‘Hmm, then what should we do?’ When the purple lights crawled the streets and the streetlamps were about to light, I wondered, in the blowing wind, where we should further our conversation. Feeling the chilly air, I shoved my hands in the pockets and declared, “Let’s go to my house then.”

“Are you sure?”

“If we keep staying outside, rumors will spread out that we have been with the ghost in the gossip, then the next day, the Four Heavenly Kings will definitely ask us what happened. Besides, we don’t have anywhere to go now except for my place which is usually empty until late at night.”

With that response, I turned back towards the way home.

Taking a seat, Lucas introduced himself again.

“It’s belated thanks, but I really appreciate you guys for helping me. If things didn’t go as I expected, I was about to work alone since I never thought that I would have other cooperators like this fast.”

Yeo Ryung replied as if she was striking a retort, which she seldom did.

“I’m doing this because it’s always better to erase debt ASAP.”

“Still.”

Hanging his coat on my coat rack, Jooin also uttered in a low voice, “I said, we are only cooperating for helping hyeong, not you.”

Despite the cold responses, Lucas just nodded with a grin.

Watching his reaction, I thought, ‘He’s a smiley person just like Ruda. They look quite the same, aren’t they?’

However, considering what Ruda had shown me before, that bright attitude and look wouldn’t be Lucas’s true nature too. Just like that of Ruda, Lucas’s excessively cheerful character might be a part of his highly calculated, clever action. Thinking in this way, I felt a chill creep over me. That was because there was a huge difference between a person whom I knew acting and a stranger acting.

As if he read my mind, Lucas suddenly turned his head and spoke to me, “Oh, I’m sorry to sit ahead of you, the owner of this house.”

I quickly stopped him, who pretended to get up.

“No, please don’t mind. Just take a seat.”

“But don’t Asians emphasize manners?”

“We’re just the same students. Come on, just take a seat.”

After I pressed his shoulders to make him sit down, the four of us came to sit face to face with a table between us.

There was somewhat awkwardness in the air. Jooin then flung a question to Lucas.

“Let me ask you a question then. Do you have any plans?”

“Huh?”

“You said you were about to work alone, didn’t you? That means you will indeed have some plans and maybe you have even proceeded with it to a certain extent. Am I wrong?”

Lucas, who was resting his chin on his palm, laughed in a small voice.

“Wow, your mind is working very fast.”

“Of course, I won’t think that you’re naive when you’re supposed to be Ruda hyeong’s friend.”

Looking at Jooin replying in that way with a cold smile, I murmured to myself, ‘So, we had the same thought about Lucas. That is, both Lucas and Yi Ruda will be the same kind of people.’

A moment of silence swept the space. Still flaunting a flawless smile, Lucas put his hand in his inner pocket.

“Fine, so this is my first plan.”

Putting a business card on the table, Lucas then stretched it out to us, so we could take a better look. The three of us lowered our heads at the same time.

A moment after, we all grimaced. Among the three, I was the most person who became grim-faced.

I asked him composedly, “… Are we going here?”

The gold foil letters on the sleek business card dazzled my eyes.

club Papillon

Looking at the word ‘club’ glittering with gold, I wanted to rather lose my consciousness.

‘A club? Did he say a club?’ I had been nervous for four years wondering when I would be dragged to this place, but since I hadn’t been there yet I was feeling relieved. Thus, I struck dumb to get a surprise uppercut in this situation, which I never even dreamed about.

I mean, how could a teenager go to a club in the first place? How ridiculous was that when this wasn’t a novel… Oh, my bad. I was inside a world of web novel…

I decided to give up thinking further. Yeo Ryung and Jooin, sitting beside me, then responded in an, unexpectedly, commonsensical way.

“Are you insane?”

As soon as Jooin blurted out those words sharply, Yeo Ryung replied like a typical model student.

“How can teenagers go to a club?”

Yeah, that was what I was talking about! The lines seemed inappropriate to escape from the female protagonist and one of the Four Heavenly King’s mouths. I was concerned that the fictional world might collapse therefore, but whether or not it would happen, I wanted to avoid, at least, going to a club.

Lucas didn’t take out the business card for no reason either. Resting his chin on his palm again, he showed a twisted smile and tossed a question.

“Then where are we going to find the employees of Reed? Don’t you think we must meet insiders first? Come on, you guys aren’t thinking that we can meet the employees of Reed in a library or an arcade, are you?”

“Oh,” as I uttered the word, Jooin and Ban Yeo Ryung closed their mouths immediately. They, whose heads spun fast, always had a few responses ready to return, so it was very seldom that they had their mouths shut.

Winning against their logical arguments so simply, Lucas, this time, turned to look at me.

“So, you won’t say no, will you?” he asked.

‘I will say no, of course,’ I tried to reply in that way, but realizing that I had no other choice, I just cried my heart out inwardly.

‘This god damn novel! Wasn’t the plot losing persuasiveness ever since the Four Symbols appeared during our abduction? Why is it suddenly being convincing when it’s trying to send us to the club…?’

In front of the three of us, who became silent in a flash, Lucas picked up the business card and put it on his lips. He then continued, “The employees of Reed hit this club quite often during the weekends. Sometimes, even eight to ten people visit Club Papillon at a time.”

Squinting her eyes until then, Yeo Ryung asked back, “Up to that many people?”

“Well, we’re enough to lure out about two people among them.”

With that said, Lucas took out his wallet from his pants and shook it in the air.

“And sometimes, they’re called into their workplace unexpectedly during the weekends, so they might hide the card keys somewhere on their bodies.”

Jooin, who didn’t look good like Yeo Ryung, flung a question sulkily.

“How are you gonna get that then?”

“If they let their guard down just for a second, I can handle that since I have quick hands.”

When Lucas waved his hand with that response, the three of us showed a bitter look on our faces. From his confident attitude, I, once again, felt déjà vu.

Now I had come to think of it, Ruda also did some weird things such as a fight, chase, and even parkour.

Tilting my head, I stared at Lucas.

‘Is he really Ruda’s friend from the same hometown? Aside from that, why is Lucas calling Ruda Ice… Princess?’ Rambling those thoughts in my head, I furrowed my forehead. Geez, even thinking about that name made me cringe, which attacked my heart in a bad way.

When I suddenly lifted my head, I found the three of them gazing at me. Feeling bewildered, I raised myself and asked, “Um… what?”

“Do you mind proceeding with this plan?” asked Lucas with his eyes open round.

That was when I nodded and replied, “Yeah, cool.”

Yeo Ryung and Jooin also agreed after me in a flat voice.

However, at that moment, Lucas showed an awkward smile as if he found something difficult. He then threw a glance at Jooin with a grin.

“Um, actually, there’s a small problem…”

“Why?”

“This club is members-only… only girls are allowed among those who don’t have a membership.”

Jooin’s brows met in the middle even more than when he first saw the business card. He then turned his head to send a stare, which looked like that of a begging puppy, to Ban Yeo Ryung and me. We, however, just waved our hands at him wordlessly.