“Now, you guys can kiss deeply but don’t get into it too much. Haley, you did fine right now so just repeat it.”

Vick said with a serious expression, and Lizzy quietly apologized to Mason with her face blushing.

“I’m sorry, because of me—,”

“No, it’s all right.”

Mason smiled and waved his hands. Yesterday, Tony wouldn’t say which scene Mason didn’t have to practice, turns out it was a kiss scene with a woman. Unlike Haley, Mason, a straight guy, would’ve been happy for the chance to kiss this beautiful actress if only he didn’t have that kind lewd kiss with Noah last night.

Mason felt his lips go dry as he stood in front of a Lizzy, who was shivering and crying. He remembered Noah, who was crying in front of him, and when he grabbed her hair and kissed, he remembered what Noah did that to him. He remembered that chilling sensation of the kiss he gave, how he licked his lips and how he used his tongue.

Mason unconsciously shifted his eyes to where Noah was standing, and made an eye contact with him. He shortly sucked Lizzy’s lips and thought, ‘This is not it.’ Even while sucking on a pretty actress’s lips, he thought about Noah and sought him out; this did not bode well at all.

The shoot, which was halted because of Lizzy’s NG (not good) scene, started once again.

“Now, let’s redo the kissing part only.”

Vick called ‘Ready-,’ and Mason took a deep breath. He tried his best to erase Noah’s face from his thoughts that was getting complicated.

“Action!”

Mason pretended to wipe the tear on Lizzy’s trembling cheeks, pulled her hair and kissed her right away. She stopped breathing and Mason licked her bottom lip, like how Noah did to him, and lifted his eyes.

“…-?”

Mason’s gaze, as he unconsciously stared at Noah, stopped, as it fell on the guy wearing a blue jumper standing next to Noah. …-Fred?

Because the kissing stopped, Lizzy panted and grabbed Mason’s arm, and Vick shouted, “Cut! -Haley!”

“Hey, where are you paying attention?”

“Ah, sorry-…,”

Mason awkwardly apologized and stared at Noah asking for his leave to the reporters and leaving. Noah’s expression was serious. Where is he going? Where are his bodyguards? Mason swallowed his dried spit as he watched Noah leave urgently and walk out onto the tree-lined street.

“Haley?”

“Ah, wait-…,”

Mason stuttered, slurred his reply and walked past Lizzy. He had to know what Fred said to Noah that made his expression so serious. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but a bad idea ran through his mind.

It was what he thought when he died in Alta’s bunker; someone could’ve helped Aaron and Ashley to run away after destroying his corpse. There was a high chance that it could be Clark or Fred, especially, Fred. His skill set was good and he liked the money. If that were really true, then whomever Noah was going to meet right now, would no doubt be—.

“Haley? What’s wrong? Hey, where are you going?”

“Haley?”

Mason, who had been filming perfectly, suddenly walked away, looking out of his mind. Vick, his staff and Tony, all looked at him in surprise. Is he urgently going to the restroom? Everyone looked at him with curiosity, but Mason didn’t stop and ran towards Noah.

“Noah!”

Noah, who was standing at the end of the tree-lined street, turned around.

He had a cold and scary face that Mason had never seen, so he swallowed his breath.

“What are-…,”

Even before Mason could say, ‘What are you trying to do now,’ Noah turned around again.

Aaron and Ashley were already standing in front of him.

***

Noah, who received the note, told the press, “Something urgent came up,” and left right away. He wasn’t interested what was in Alta’s safe, but he knew the people who had it.

Aaron Green and Ashley Sui. They were the people who killed Mason.

When he went to the end of the tree-lined street, a man and a woman covering their faces with caps and a pair of sunglasses were waiting there for him. They were carrying a camera bag and looked like common reporters. Noah scanned them slowly. They were the same people from the files Phil gave him. It seemed like they went through a bad time, because both of their faces were ruined.

The woman, Ashley, spoke up after seeing Noah’s face.

“You, it’s very hard to meet you.”

She sighed and spoke cautiously, as if she found the surrounding cameras burdensome.

“We want to go somewhere quiet. We already prepared the place so,”

“Why?”

Noah sneered and asked. ‘Why do I have to go to a quiet place with you guys?’ When Noah asked as if it were a joke, their faces hardened. After observing their expressions for a moment, Noah said, ‘Only to these humans…’ and was about to sigh.

“Noah!”

He heard a desperate cry.

“What are….,”

He saw Mason running towards him desperately, his gaze was locked on Aaron and Ashley.

Oh, no. Noah lowly clicked his tongue.

People were staring at them from behind Mason. The filming was suspended, and the reporters were staring at what was happening. He saw bodyguards, who were spread apart, taking out their guns and saw Phil’s face go pale.

And it was almost at the same time that, Ashley and Aaron took out their guns and aimed it at the surrounding and at Noah.

They probably didn’t have any other choice. The reporters were taking pictures out of curiosity, and Noah’s bodyguards were starting to run while pointing their guns at them. Even the Zii team that was chasing after them had caught the man in the blue jumper, who was hiding amongst the reporters.

“Ah-…”

Noah laughed low at the cold muzzle touching his head. Mason, who was standing a few feet away, had a funny expression. How to put it…? It had gone completely pale. He looked scared, even though he was the type of person who wouldn’t even blink if there were a gun pointing to his head.

“Why do you look like that?”

Noah asked Mason, who had gone pale blue. ‘Is it because he is worried about me?’ Noah wanted to hear his reply, but couldn’t. Ashley, who was pointing her gun at his head, pulled at his arms.

“-Don’t move!”

She screamed frantically, and the bodyguards and Zii agents stopped their movements. However the reporters’ flashes started to burst like crazy. Aaron opened his mouth with a ragged face,

“Don’t take any pictures!”

It wasn’t him who shouted, it was Mason. Aaron, who was trying to scream to the reporters to not to take any pictures, startled and stared at Mason.

Mason glared at the reporters with a scary expression and looked at Aaron and Ashley again.

“…-What do you want?”

Mason knew how easy it was for Aaron’s bullet to come out. Despite how he looked, Aaron was very hot-blooded and impulsive. He could pull the trigger even before he thought about what kind of result it could bring. They looked they were extremely cornered, and they were nervous in that situation.

Mason swallowed his dried spit. ‘Calm down Mason’, he reminded himself. ‘Calm down. Calm down. I said calm down, you idiot.’ Mason couldn’t calm down at all and gnawed on his lips until it turned pale. Noah was standing a few steps away, and he had a gun pointed to his head.

If it were any other time, he would have said some boring stuff and tried to confuse them. And before they noticed it, he could have suppressed one of them, taking their gun away and aiming it on another opponent. Just like how he rescued Noah in the New York streets last time.

But that couldn’t happen now. Aaron and Ashley weren’t amateurs like those guys, and these two could actually shoot Noah. Because of the single reason that Noah could get shot, Mason couldn’t even move an inch.

“What do you want?”

Mason didn’t drag the time or anything. There was nothing more important than Noah’s life. To Mason, rescuing Noah was more important than catching them, he didn’t care about anything else. He knew thinking like this wasn’t a calm judgement, but he couldn’t do anything.

“-I’m asking, what you want!”

Those two looked at Mason, who had Haley’s face, like, ‘What is this son of a bitch?’, but soon Aaron said.

“Fir, first let go of Fred.”

It wasn’t what they had intended, but they couldn’t stop this hostage act. There was no other way to live except for holding Noah as a hostage in front of all the reporters.

Mason looked back. The Zii agents were looking at Aaron and Fred back and forth with a difficult expression.

“Let him go.”

Mason said curtly. Amongst the agents holding Fred there was a guy who looked like their superior and felt familiar to Mason. He looked at him one more time and said, “Let go of him.” He flinched and waved to his subordinates.

Fred, who was being suppressed, was released, and he slowly stood up.

“Fred, come here.”

When Aaron called, with an awkward posture and expression, Fred looked at Zii and Aaron, back and forth and said.

“-…Can’t you take me out on this?”

‘I don’t think this is a good idea….’, Fred said cunningly, and Aaron glared at him with an angry face. Fred said, “I don’t want to live being chased forever,” with a sorry expression.

“Your friend seems clever.”

Noah laughed lowly and mumbled, and Aaron, who bit his lip, smacked Noah’s head with the gun he was pointing.

“Noah!”

Mason saw him bow his head, because he got hit by the hard part of the gun and blood was dripping beneath his hairline. Zii and bodyguards pointed their guns at them again, but the only gun that made the loading sound was Aaron’s. Aaron ground his teeth and pointed his gun at Noah and said.

“You don’t think I can kill you?”

Aaron’s hand holding the gun was shivering as if he was going to pull the trigger anytime soon. Ashley worried if he would do something again, mumbled, “Aaron, please.” If Noah dies, everything was over for those two people and for Mason.

“What else other than Fred? -Like a car?”

Mason asked quietly in a slightly slow tone. He cannot excite Aaron, nor can he get excited himself. Mason covered his shivering fist with his hand. When he saw a giggling Noah lift his head and red blood drip down his cheek, he felt like his sight was getting red but tried his best to withstand it and asked.

“Do you have any more people to contact? How much money do you need?”

“…-What, are you?”

Aaron asked with his eyes all heated. Why an actor, who wasn’t even the police, Zii, or the bodyguards, negotiating?

“Is it important, who I am? -If you want to talk to the police, then do it. You can call anyone right now.”

Even if he wanted to talk to the president of the country, if he had a gun on Noah’s head, it’ll be possible in 10 minutes. Aaron rolled his eyes. Ashley calmed her breath and said.

“Fi, first prepare a car. -If you try to do something funny, I don’t know about killing, but I’m going to blow up this son of a bitch’s arms or legs.”

She grabbed Noah’s hair and said while putting her gun to the back of his head. Even before Mason said something else, Phil called elsewhere, and soon a black Bentley rode into the park.

“Leave the key and step away.”

Aaron said coldly, and the driver, who brought the Bentley, quickly stepped out and mixed into the crowd.

“If I see people chasing us, I’ll think that you wanted us to kill this son of bitch. -Get it? We are already prepared to die.”

Ashley said with her voice all shaken up. Her hands holding the gun were pale. While working countless missions with her in the past 2 years, this was his first time he saw her get so scared and nervous like this.

She and Aaron pushed the gun towards Noah’s head more threateningly and looked around the area. They scanned the Zii and bodyguards, and even Phil’s face and nodded their head, and they quickly went inside the car using Noah as a shield.

“…-,”

Mason bit his lips. More than that he was not pale but bleeding. ‘Can I send away Noah like this?’ There was no other way, but-.

Mason watched Noah getting into the vehicle, getting dragged. Noah, who was closing an eye because he was bleeding, made an eye contact with Mason and smiled languidly. And that moment, Mason felt goose bumps.

A tensed feeling started like from when he felt a sensation in front of Alta’s bedroom door, and it continued to grow with Noah’s hazy smile. Mason felt his chin tremble. Chances are Noah might die if he was sent off like this, and the moment he thought about it, his body started to move.

“? -You, what are you, you son of a bitch?!”

Mason ran and grabbed the car door that Aaron was about to close. Mason didn’t care about his hand that was bleeding from getting jammed between the car door and said, “Wait, wait.”

“-Haley!”

“Liz! Liz!”

He heard Vick and Tony desperately call him from behind his back, but Mason ignored them and said to Aaron.

“-Isn’t it better to have two hostages?”

Mason opened the door and went inside before they said anything. Next to Noah, so whatever happened he could protect him.

“If someone must die, I’ll be less of a burden than Noah.”

‘If anyone survives, they could still continue the negotiation. Don’t you think so?’ Mason said like asking for their agreement. Aaron and Ashley exchanged eye contact at this unexpected situation and soon nodded their heads.

And the car started to move right away.

“Liz! Liz!! Lizzz-!”

He saw Tony running and crying and soon getting far away. A panicked Vick and Chase, staff, the reporters and Zii agents, and the face of Phil standing at the end passed by.

The car went out of the park quickly.

“…-“

When the trees disappeared, Mason moved his tensed up neck, due to his nervousness, to face Noah, who was staring at him. A pale face drenched wet with blood and shivering lips.

Mason stared at Noah’s trembling pitiful eyes and sighed quietly.

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