Leehan Fanfic | Short story selection - Nyx-Park Seongho (middle)

Park Sung-ho and Eun Danbi arrive at the Nyx headquarters.

Eun Danbi is shocked by the size of the building.

Eun Danbi: "I...is all of this...owned by Nyx...??"

Park Sung-ho can’t help letting out a snort at Eun Danbi’s transparent, innocent reaction.

Realizing he laughed, he gets a little flustered and composes his expression again before greeting her bluntly.

Park Sung-ho: "Then do you think we’d use the same building as ordinary people? Come in. We’ve got to go greet the boss."

Eun Danbi goes into the building in a daze.

The inside of the building was also all marble floors, shining brightly.

Park Sung-ho familiarly presses the elevator button at the very end of the building.

Once they get in, he presses the top-floor button and the close button.

The elevator gives a short chime to signal its arrival, then opens smoothly.

As soon as it opens, a large door comes into view, and when Park Sung-ho opens both doors and goes in, the boss of Nyx is seen sitting in a big chair with his feet on the desk.

Myeong Jaehyun (Nyx boss): "Park Sung-ho? You’re here? ...Oh, who’s beside you?"

Park Sung-ho: "The person who hacked our organization’s Intel Dept today. They said they got the job request from Herot, and they asked us to protect their life in exchange for not handing over intel to Herot and siding with us instead. So I brought them."

Myeong Jaehyun laughs with interest, takes his feet off the desk, comes closer, and bends down.

Myeong Jaehyun: "Name and age."

Eun Danbi swallows hard.

No matter how kind and bright he looks, he’s still the boss of Nyx, so who knows when he might turn cruel.

Eun Danbi: "...Eun Danbi. 24."

Park Sung-ho’s brow twitches.

Because Eun Danbi was so small, he naturally thought she’d be younger than him, but he was wrong.

Same age.

Myeong Jaehyun: "24? So you’re the same age as our Sung-ho?"

At the words our Sung-ho, Park Sung-ho grimaces.

Park Sung-ho: "Ah, seriously...what is wrong with him...."

Myeong Jaehyun goes back to his seat with light steps and flops into the big chair.

Myeong Jaehyun: "Since the introductions are done, go on. Take good care of the Intel Dept, okay?? Team Leader Eun Danbi?"

Both of them are startled at once.

Eun Danbi: "What?! T...team leader??"

Park Sung-ho: "Hey! Are you crazy?"

Myeong Jaehyun just chuckles, as if their reactions are amusing.

He speaks while lightly swinging the foot he’s put back up on the desk, holding back laughter.

Myeong Jaehyun: "No, but we completely tore through our Intel Dept. What are we supposed to do if we leave you as a low-level member? You need to be team leader-level to get access to confidential info anyway, so we might as well tighten security."

He looked like a carefree boss, but he was actually pretty sharp.

Myeong Jaehyun: "Hey, Park Sung-ho, take Eun Danbi to the Intel Dept and tell them she’s the new team leader. Our guys are pretty territorial, aren’t they? Help her out a bit."

Park Sung-ho looks annoyed as he trudges into the elevator.

Park Sung-ho: "What are you standing there for, Eun Danbi? Come on."

Eun Danbi bows to Jaehyun and gets on the elevator. It stops on the 5th floor above ground.

Naturally, she’d expected the Intel Dept to be underground, so it was unexpected.

The Intel Dept, with sunlight streaming in, looked busy.

Park Sung-ho: "Hey, hey. Focus."

Standing slanted beside Eun Danbi, Park Sung-ho gets the Intel Dept members to pay attention.

Park Sung-ho: "This is the person who hacked our Intel Dept earlier, but Boss Jaehyun appointed her as Intel Dept team leader, so someone take responsibility and show her around the Intel Dept, and handle the handover."

The Intel Dept breaks into a noisy murmur.

Intel Dept Member 1: "She’s the one who hacked us...?"

Intel Dept Member 2: "Team leader of Intel Dept?? Are you crazy? Do you know how hard that position is...."

Naturally, the looks Eun Danbi got were far from friendly.

It made sense; the one who had just put them through hell fixing the system was now being parachuted in as team leader.

Eun Danbi: "Hello. My name is Eun Danbi, and I’ve been assigned to the Intel Dept. You probably won’t like me, but...I’ll do my best to restore Nyx’s Intel Dept system."

The team gives a perfunctory round of applause and goes back to work.

The former Intel Dept team leader approaches Eun Danbi with a stiff expression.

She was taller than Eun Danbi and had sharp eyes.

Former Intel Dept Team Leader: "...Eun Danbi? Come with me. We need to do the handover. We also need to work on restoration."

Park Sung-ho leaves after seeing the former team leader take Eun Danbi away.

The former Intel Dept team leader, who was showing Eun Danbi around, leads her into a small room.

Looking more closely into the dark room, it was a storage room.

Eun Danbi: "What is this place for....."

Then, the door behind her slams shut hard.

Everything goes pitch-black, and she can’t see anything.

Eun Danbi: "Uh..?? T...team leader...??"

Eun Danbi panics and presses herself against the door.

Eun Danbi: "Team leader? Please open it...!"

Former Intel Dept Team Leader: "Serves you right. Why’d you crawl in here like you had no business being here? Stay put and reflect on your mistakes."

The sound of her heels clicking grows farther and farther away.

Eun Danbi’s body, trapped in the cramped space, starts to tremble slightly.

A panic attack.

For Eun Danbi, who has claustrophobia, this was the worst possible situation.

She pounds on the door hard, but the place where the storage room was located was an old annex, so people rarely came through there.

Eun Danbi: "Is anyone there? Please get me out of here!!"

Only the sound of banging on the door echoes through the hallway.

Hours must have passed; Eun Danbi was now too exhausted to keep pounding on the door.

Curled up tight, she sits in the corner by the wall and lets out rough, shallow breaths.

Eun Danbi: "....Haa...hup....hhuu..."

As breathing gets more and more difficult, her vision turns blurry.

She struck the door one last time.