5 Chapter 5: The Plan

"We need a plan". 

Tsukiko was momentarily stunned. Normal teenagers would have cracked from the sheer pressure of the situation, yet he had actually managed to come up with a plan?!

Tsukiko was as shocked as she was impressed and gave him a thumbs up. Jae-sung smiled lightly at this gesture and began to quickly explain the details of his plan. Tsukiko listened very carefully and once he was done; she couldn't help but widen her eyes and she turned her head to face him. Jae-sung faced her as well, putting a very serious expression on his face, he asked, "Can you do it?". Truth be told, she really wasn't sure if she could as Jae-sung's plan was extremely dangerous.

What Kim Jae-sung wanted to do was to play along with the anonymous person while they secretly investigated on their own. Though it sounded easy, Tsukiko knew it wasn't. They would be risking their lives for this very investigation, and they may not be able to find any information, plus they were both still teenagers, how could two teenagers conduct a whole investigation, all on their own? 

Tsukiko was able to speak up on her doubts, when all of a sudden, a scene flashed in front of her eyes. Her brother, smiling at her gently while holding a pot. This one scene was enough to erase all her doubts and she told Jae-sung that she would follow the plan, no matter what, no harm must come to her brother. She had already vowed to protect those close to her and although the anonymous person had said he would only kill her brother if she exposed any of what had transpired, there was a slim chance that that person would still kill her older brother even if she didn't. The possibility of this happening was enough to be motivate her. She told herself, "Tsukiko, have courage" over and over again in her heart trying to give herself that courage that she so desperately needed. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to summon enough of it, though she still promised to do her very best with it.

Hearing her response, Jae-sung nodded once and began to explain the fuller details of the plan. "Every investigation needs to have clues, so before we can start our investigation, we'll need to extract some information from a reliable source. There's a place where we can get a lot of that, my father had shown me this place once when I was younger. Though, there's an exchange system attached to it and the price to be payed may be quite high."

Tsukiko, "Price? As in money?".

Jaesung, "Yes...and no. I'll explain it on the way there. Anyway, before we get the information, we'll need to take it slow and observe what may happen in the next few days, but this part of the plan is dangerous. After all, judging from the nature of the anonymous message, I'd say whoever's pulling the strings still plans to toy with us by sending more monsters from The Darkness which would mean that we would be in constant danger, so we would have to be very careful, all the time. Tsukiko, I know I already asked you before but are sure you want to do this?". Tsukiko nodded vigorously to show that she was both ready and willing.

Jaesung,"Good. Now, if we're able to successfully acquire the information we need, we'll continue to lay low". At this point Tsukiko had a question. "What if you receive another anonymous message?". Jaesung held his chin and thought for a moment before carefully saying, "Well, both our loved ones are on the line, so I'd have to risk it". Tsukiko interjected at this point, "You mean we'd have to risk it. It's too dangerous to go on your own. Like you said, we both have to take this risk for the people dear to us, so it's better for us to do this together". Jae-sung hadn't expected Tsukiko to say such words and was slightly taken aback. He looked Tsukiko in the eyes, and she did the same for him and had a very determined look in her eyes. This continued for a while before Jae-sung let out a light laugh and patted Tsukiko on the head. Tsukiko's look of determination immediately became a look of confusion as he had even taken the liberty to rub her head pretty hard and caused her hair which was usually always neat, to become a mess. Standing there, with her messy hair on that confused look that always managed to find its way back to her face all the time, Jae-sung puffed out another laugh only this time, it was much longer than your average puff, in fact, he was laughing heartily. Tsukiko watched this all unfold and at first, she felt like she was being bullied but once she heard his laugh, for a brief moment, a mere fraction of a second, Tsukiko felt that Jae-sung looked better when he laughed. He always wore this cold expression that always made people perceive that he wasn't the nicest person, but it turns out that he's actually really kind and considerate. He was also-

"Tsukiko!"

She immediately snapped out of it. It seems she had let her thoughts wander off for too long. Shaking her head, she refocused her attention on the matter at hand. Jae-sung had already stopped laughing and only a faint smile remained. "Tsukiko, I asked you a question just now", he said. Feeling a bit guilty, Tsukiko could only tell Jae-sung that she wasn't paying attention and asked if he could repeat what he had asked her. Tsukiko thought that he was probably extremely irritated but to her surprise he simply repeated the question patiently: "Do you have a cell phone". Tsukiko, although a bit befuddled, got her cell phone out of her bag, and when he saw that she did have a cell phone, asked for her number. Tsukiko dazedly did so wondering why he would want her number. After successfully getting her number, Jae-sung told her to expect a text message from him and bade her farewell. 

Tsukiko watched his retreating back for a moment before heading home, herself. On the way home, the streets were quiet and the sky was getting dark, it was only then that Tsukiko realized that it was already pretty late. She increased her speed and after 5 minutes of speed walking she, had gotten home. Immediately she opened the front door, she saw her brother stand up from the couch and quickly approached her. Looking very worried he said, "Where have you been? Are you okay? Did something dangerous happen?". Tsukiko shook her head, trying to tell her brother that she was fine. Hirano heaved a sigh of relief as he saw this and hugged his sister. "That's good", he said. "I thought something had happened to you but since you're okay, I don't have to worry anymore". Something had happened to her, though she couldn't tell her brother or less his life would be in danger. Her brother released her from the hug and told her to go to bed after having dinner so she wouldn't be late for school. She nodded and smiled at him while going upstairs to change her clothes. 

Once Tsukiko closed the door to her room, she hit the ground with a thud, feeling very drained after everything that had happened. While she was laying on the floor, she heard the notification sound for her phone. Remembering what Jae-sung had told her, she immediately took out her phone to see if it was him who had sent the message and it turned out it was. The message read: "The plan starts tomorrow, so have a good night's rest- Jae-sung"