Chapter Text
The hit goes great. Hyunjin is the distraction, turning heads and corrupting minds with the elegant way he sips his drink and bats his eyes. He had their mark lined up by the window before the sun has even set and Felix licks his lips as he gets her in his sights. Breathe in, breathe out, hold… pull the trigger.
The jump of surprise Hyunjin makes as the bullet bursts through the glass and lodges itself between their mark's eyes isn't faked- Hyunjin is pretty jumpy, and genuinely didn't like blood.
"It's on my shirt," he whined as he slipped into the car, having easily made his escape in the commotion.
"You shouldn't have stood so close then," Felix replied gruffly. "It's not like you didn't know what was going to happen."
"Oh, yeah, that wouldn't be suspicious at all." Hyunjin slumped in his seat and rolled his eyes.
"Fasten your goddamn seat belt," Minho said, interrupting their bickering with quiet authority. "We're not finished yet."
The hit had only been half of the job. The bracelet Hyunjin had stolen off Park Jisoo's wrist held the key to her safe and they had to clean it out now before her death set anything else in motion. Minho didn't speed, didn't do any flashy moves, just drove as if they had all the time in the world and reverse parked in a car park one street over.
Hyunjin left his suit jacket in the back seat and got out of the car to stretch lazily as Felix walked around him to pop the boot and moved his sniper rifle to access the supermarket Bags For Life underneath. He pulled a hoodie out of one of them and threw it at his colleague.
"Costume change, James Bond."
"James Bond doesn't wear hoodies," Hyunjin complained but he pulled it on and kicked off his dress shoes for the sliders Felix threw him next.
The three of them ambled down the street, laden with bags of what was definitely groceries. To any outsider they would be dismissed as college students and the casual way Felix and Hyunjin posed against the wall as Minho picked the lock to Ms Park’s apartment complex didn’t get them any suspicious looks.
“Any time tonight, Lee Know,” Hyunjin murmured in between their staged conversation, shifting his bag to his other arm.
“This shit isn’t a standard lock,” Minho replied, putting his favourite pin raker in his teeth to take out some more precise tools. He had the door open in under a minute but it was still slow for him. The door to the apartment took even longer and Minho swore under his breath and he had to restart the pick.
"We could force it, " Felix said, testing the strength of the door by digging his fingernail into the wood.
"I've got it," Minho assured them. He rolled back his shoulders and tensed again to hold the lock steady when the handle rattled.
They stared at it in horror. Ms Park wasn’t supposed to have backup. This was the easy part of the job, a simple burglary. The handle rattled again and Felix took out his gun. Hyunjin swiftly copied him.
“What do we do?” Felix hissed.
Should they shoot first? Should they play dumb? Should they try and take down their opponent silently so the neighbours were still none the wiser?
“Shoot,” Minho decided, dropping his lock picking tools to grab his own gun as the door swung open.
A tiny curly-haired boy stuck his head around the door at Hyunjin’s waist height. He smiled shyly at them, deep dimples appearing in his cheeks.
“Are you Noona’s friends?”
“Uhhhh, yes,” Hyunjin said, thinking on his feet. He quickly put the gun in the back of his waistband, out of sight.
Minho kept his gun trained on the kid’s head. “We’re best friends. Let us in.”
The kid frowned at that and closed the door a fraction. “Noona only talks about girl friends not boy friends and if I’m awake when she gets home I’ll be in trouble.”
“We were playing with your Noona tonight,” Felix tried. “At the party. And she said it would be ok if you were still awake, because you’re a big boy, right?”
The frown deepened and then softened. The kid nodded determinedly to himself. “Yes. I’m five.”
The world froze for a moment, the rounded vowels of the kid’s accent unmistakable to those familiar with it. Hyunjin turned his head a fraction to look at Felix out of his eye. Felix’s mouth has dropped open in shock and it takes a few precious seconds for him to respond.
“You’re five? That’s very grown up.”
The kid’s eyes got so big Hyunjin was a little concerned that he might pass out on the spot. “Are you from Australia?” he asked, pulling the door open a little more to see Felix better. That was all Minho needed to push past him, Hyunjin hot on his heels. The kid didn’t care, holding his arms up for his new favourite person to lift him.
“Uhh, yeah. I’m from Sydney,” Hyunjin heard Felix say, herding the kid back inside so they wouldn’t be seen.
“I’m from Sydney too!!” the kid exclaimed. “From, from Five Dock.”
“Five Dock,” Felix echoed. “Ah, by the river.”
“Yeah!”
This kid’s accent was adorable and it was making Felix’s native accent come out more than Hyunjin had ever heard it. Of course, Felix only really spoke English when undercover and using his native accent was counterproductive in those cases. This was brilliant though. Hyunjin left the safe-cracking to Minho and turned to smile at Felix.
“Riv-ah,” he mocked him gently.
The kid turned on him. “Are you Australian too? What’s your name?”
“I’m Korean,” Hyunjin said, setting firm boundaries. The kid’s face fell. “But my English name is Sam,” he added quickly. God, he really didn’t want him to cry.
“I’m Chris!” the kid said. Did he only speak in exclamation points? How was he so hyper when he was supposed to be asleep?
“Nice to meet you, Chris,” Hyunjin said. The conversation felt awkward and, from Felix’s expression, he felt the same, but the kid was undeterred.
“No.”
Wow. If that wasn’t the richest ‘no’ Hyunjin had ever heard. It was like there was a whole other word hidden in the middle there. He wondered if Felix sounded the same when he didn’t think about it.
“You have to say ‘G’day’,” Chris instructed him seriously.
“You do have to say G’day, Hy- Sam,” Felix corroborated.
“G’day,” Hyunjin said dutifully.
“G’dbye,” Minho added, kicking Hyunjin’s butt as he walked past. “We’re done, let’s go.”
“You’re going?” Chris asked, fisting his tiny hand in Felix’s hoodie.
“I- Uh- Yeah,” Felix said, floundering. He looked up at Minho with pleading eyes. “Hyung, we can’t just leave him here.”
“If I can’t keep stray cats, you can’t keep stray kids,” Minho said firmly.
Hyunjin saw how Chris’s lip wobbled and how Felix still hadn’t taken his arm away from around the kid’s back, and he made an executive decision. He picked Chris up, slinging him over his shoulder, and made for the door.
“You can keep the next cat, Hyung.”