Archive of Our Own ^beta

Seungmin mindlessly dries one of the cups that came out still wet for the dishwasher. Life has been quiet lately. A little bit too quiet, usually it never is a good presage when he is not being called for a while.

If Seungmin is on appearence, a simple barista at the small coffee shop, Stray Café, he is actually a secret spy. And if there is a gun hidden in the upper part of the coffee machine, it is his business and no one else's. He has been recruited very young in the spy agency, when he was still in high school, simply because both his parents were also spies and it makes more sense to groom… - no, train, of course, train - children when they are already aware of the business. His parents died on the job, which was something they had prepared him all his life, when he was about ten years old. Ever since, he has been raised by his uncle, and also the very Chief of the agency, Wonpil.

Juggling high school and his spy work has not been easy. Seungmin was lucky enough to be a very smart student, and also the fact that his uncle interest in technologies and chemistry gave him a leg up on those subjects at school. But it was always difficult to come up with excuses on why he would suddenly miss classes on a random Tuesday, so Seungmin did not have many friends. If his parents were a team of secret spies, Seungmin prefered working alone, and Wonpil let him, because Seungmin was not just his nephew but also the best spy they have ever had in the agency, so the Chief says.

He has helped to catch thieves who would cross country lines to escape the local police's radar, foil secret villains' plan that planned on taking over the city, and also protect the people by unarming a few bombs. Nothing a twenty four years old would not be able to brag about.

But these days, he has not been called on any mission. Ever since he joined the agency and completed his training, it has never happened. He has had at most, four days off in a row, but usually there is always crime happening somewhere, and labour laws do not seem to apply to his peculiar situation. And he has not been sent on days off. Not at all, Wonpil asks him to keep on working in the café, for a reason that Seungmin does not understand. He is not a good barista, Chan - the second worker there, also a spy - has tried to teach how to make latte art but all his abilities in chemestry could not make it understand the mysterious way of latte art. Eventually, Chan gave up and told him that as long as he could serve drinkable coffee, it was enough. So Seungmin has been relegated to doing espressos only, which is a bit humbling because he can disarm a bomb and not heat up milk properly.

He has only been working in the café for six months, it was a sudden request from Wonpil, saying that Seungmin was too antisocial and he needed to interact with people more. Apparently it will help with the job, which Seungmin does not really sees why. He is not the manipulative charming spy, he is more the clever one, who sees the big picture and anticipates the endgame before anyone else. He does not need to work on his people skills, no matter how much his uncle insists he has to.

The front door bell rings, signaling that a customer has entered. Seungmin turns around, plasters his customer service smile, and says, "welcome to Stray Café."

When he actually looks at the customer, his customer service smile actually turns into a real one. He recognizes one of the regular, who also happens to be extremely handsome and never complains of Seungmin's poor attempts at latte art. Because he has been coming almost every morning, they have exchange more than the normal amount of words that a barista and a customer might have. Seungmin quite likes the guy. He daydreams that it is not one-sided.

"Hello, Hyunjin", he says gently, "what can I get you today?"

Hyunjin looks thoughtful and then a teasing smirk slowly appears on his lips, "a large caramel frappe with extra whip and extra caramel syrup."

Seungmin's face whiten. Chan is not here today and not only does the drink sounds like a liquid form of heart disease, but mostly, Seungmin has no idea how to make a frappe. Hyunjin burst out in laughter.

"I'm messing with you. I'll just have an americano."

"Thank you," he mutters and immediately goes to the espresso machine.

Hyunjin leans over the counter, looking at Seungmin's gesture, "it has been what, six months since you started here, you're still unable to make anything else but an espresso?"

"Remember that I can poison your drink," Seungmin teases.

It makes Hyunjin smiles even more, somehow Hyunjin seems to enjoy Seungmin's sarcasms and dry humor. He does not exactly understand why but it always makes him laugh, and it makes Seungmin giddy.

"I'm not judging, I'm just concerned about your future as a barista."

"They can't fire me," Seungmin answers.

"Really? Why is that?"

Seungmin finishes the drink, "because I'm too handsome. If I leave they know their best customer will never come back."

He adds a little wink with that. It is enough to make Hyunjin blush furiously. He opens his mouth but there is no sound coming out of it. It makes Seungmin chuckle. Hyunjin is extremely handsome, but he looks even better when he gets all flustered. It is moments like that that make Seungmin daydream about a world in which Hyunjin and him could go on a date. Unfortunately, it is not this one. But a little bit of flirting never hurt anyone.

"It's on the house," he says pointing at the coffee, "should I bring it to your usual table?"

"Thanks but I can not stay today," Hyunjin mutters, obviously still flustered, "I have a meeting with my editor."

"That's great!" he exclaims, pouring the americano in a to-go cup, "did you finish the draft you showed me the other day?"

Hyunjin nods, "yeah, I'm not very convinced by it but the deadline is approaching and they are pressuring me."

He lets out a sigh, Seungmin gives him his drink, "you're being hard on yourself, I'm sure they'll love it and soon you'll have your second comic published in no time."

It is so easy to compliment Hyunjin, because it is true. Hyunjin comes in the café often to draw peacefully, at first he was being very secretive about, which Seungmin understands, he was just the random barista there but he was very curious about it. A beautiful stranger who is also an artist? Seungmin can be gayer for less than that. So, even if it will never become anything, Seungmin lets himself linger in the moments with Hyunjin, and always smile brightly whenever he sees him. It'll be nothing but a simple crush, and he has made peace with that.

"Thank you, Seungmin," Hyunjin tells him with a shy smile.

Their hands brush when Hyunjin grabs his drink. It makes Seungmin's heart beat a little bit faster. Maybe he is not as much at peace as he wants to.

After Hyunjin's daily order, the rest of the morning is quite slow, which is not very surprising, it is a Tuesday morning, and the rain has been pouring all night long and into the day. Seungmin watches the rain violently hit the glass windows of the café, wondering when will something happen that would save him from his boredom. He sighs. He has made a deal with Chan to make sure he would only do morning shifts, because he likes to wake up early, and Chan likes to have insomnias. Or, suffers from it. Whatever the doctors say.

His phone suddenly rings, he stops staring at the rain and grabs the device. He does not have a smartphone, for security reasons - and also because he has had to get rid of his phones way too many times for him to bother spending money on an expensive one - but a small unbreakable nokia phone. It does not bother him too much, the only person who text him are Chan and his uncle. And the only phone calls he gets are from spam numbers, because no other decent human being would call in the 21st century. He knows Chan uses a smartphone, for his personal time but also during his missions. Apparently, Chan is what you can call a hacker, Seungmin has went to his place - if he has not moved out since, they tend to move out pretty regularly - and he has an entire room full of computers in which he does things that are very mysterious for Seungmin.

Seungmin is a close-combat, outsmart, kind of spy. He likes to use a good old gun to achieve his goals, it works well, and it needs less time then hacking into whatever server. He has to admit that the rare time he has accepted to work with Chan - it is not that he does not like Chan, on the contrary, Chan is very nice and reliable, he just rather be alone - the latter has saved his ass by infiltrating into the surveillance camera server and saved his life. Literally, of course. It does not mean he wants to be a part of it though.

He lets out a sigh and decides to wipe off the counter for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes. He wishes he could just leave and go back home to a good book and really enjoy this non-official holidays. He has nothing to look forward to since Hyunjin told him he would be busy all day long.

It is when he squats down to grab some cleaning supplies that he hears it. The sound of tires violently brake in front of the café, and the doors being open. He does not think more, grabs the gun that is hiddenn on the side of the fridge. He stays calm as he do so, but the moment he stands up, he sees that four men in black suits are in front of the glass window, machine guns in their hands. Seungmin blinks and they immediately start shooting.

"Fuck," he curses, immediately going back down to hide behind the counters, "in broad daylight?! Where are your manners?!" he screams trying to speak louder than the sound of bullets and glass shattering.

Of course, there are no answer. He crawls on the floor, with the gun in his hands, hiding with his free hands his face as to not get hurt by any projectile. He just needs to make his way to the button right near the STAFF ONLY door. It is not far, of course, Wonpil has thought of everything when building this café, but right now it seems like the farthest it has ever been. The shooters, whoever they are, are not letting one milimeter of the shop untouched by bullets, the syrup bottles explode right above Seungmin. The tiny pieces of glass fall down over him, it scratches the back of his hand while the syrups drop on the floor, making his scrawling sticky. Eventually, he manages to reach the button, he does not hesitate and slams it.

Immediately, the lights turn off in the café, and bulletproof shutters roll down from where the windows used to be. Soon, the café is completely in the dark and the bullets' sound is muffled by the blinds. Seungmin lies on the floor, trying to get his breathing back to normal, but before he fully manages for his heart to calm down, the floor opens up under him and he is swallowed into a giant slide.

He lets out a scream of surprise, feels like his heart is going to jump of his chest, and definetely gets scrapped on the hands and arms by glass's pieces which fall down the slide with him. He lands on a comfortable leather chair. When he looks up, he is in front of a huge desk, behind it an almost entire wall of screens. The bright LED lights and the screens' turned on blue lights blind him a little bit but he quickly gets used to it.

"You could have done that before, it would have save me some energy," he mutters.

He picks the glass's pieces out of the skin of his hand. Behind the desk, the man, sitting in a imposing desk chair, turns dramatically to face Seungmin.

"I needed you to make sure the café was safe before calling you in," Wonpil says flatly.

"What about my safety?"

His uncle just stares at him, Seungmin shrugs, "whatever. The café is as safe as it could be after being attacked with machin guns. What the fuck was that?"

"Language, Seungmin."

This time Seungmin rolls his eyes.

"I almost died, I think I'm allowed to say fuck."

"You would not have died, they just wanted to scare us."

"They?"

Wonpil sighs, he pulls out remote control and clicks on a button. Every screens change and a multitude of photography appear. Different people, all wearing black suits and sunglasses, terribly cliché of them, Seungmin thinks. They exit fancy hotels, drive expensive cars, and scroll on the latest smartphones. Apparently they also caring war weapons in the trunk of their vehicles. Another thing Seungmin notices is, they look young. Terribly young.

"Chan was already on their track, as you can see," Wonpil explains, "but it seems like they have noticed it."

Seungmin waits patiently for more explanations. It is no use to rush Wonpil to get more information, he will do it at the pace he wants. Thankfully, Seungmin is a very patient man.

"It has started a month ago," he clicks once again on the remote and the photographies let place to news headlines and police pictures, "a few robberies in some luxurious shops, same M.O every time. In broad daylight, three robbers at the time wearing masks, two carry guns, one carries a computer device, they plug in the device and all the surveillance camera shut down."

Another click. Pixelated screens shots of surveillance cameras. Seungmin hums. He has heard about these robberies.

"Victims?" he asks, just to make sure.

"None, they take what they want, and they leave. Less than five minutes inside the shop. Unclear how they get out."

"How are they related to the first photographies?"

Wonpil brushes the comment with a gesture of the hand, "we put Chan on this at first because it seemed like the suspects have a good knowledge of hacking. We were right. It took him a few weeks but he managed to trace back the robberies to the people from the first photographies. We do not have any name or any information about their identities, it looks like their lives started with these robberies."

"No digital footprint?"

"Nothing, according to Chan."

"That's almost impossible, everyone is on the internet. Someone must have tried very hard to erase everything about them."

Seungmin knows that for a fact. He himself tries to stay out of the internet as much as possible but he is guilty for having a secret instagram account where he sometimes scroll on dogs videos whenever he gets a smartphone for a mission. They just look so cute. And maybe, just maybe, this secret account has found the very public account from a certain coffee addict artist. Just maybe.

Wonpil nods, "another weird thing is that using the different tools we managed to estimate the height and weight of the robbers, before the camera shutdown. It is never the same."

Seungmin leans forward on his chair, intrigued, "so it's not the same robbers?"

"Exactly. But the M.O is similar to the tick, according to every hostage."

"So they're following some kind of protocole?"

Wonpil gives him a tablet. Seungmin quietly looks at the depositions and the M.O. It is not just a protocole, every movement made by the robbers is the exact same in each robbery. Big things like what kind of phrase they say when they enter the shop, to the amount of time they threaten the hostages, even the number of steps they make before the camera cuts.

"It's almost… military," he notices.

"That was our conclusion too. Needless to say, the President is extremely involved in this case, we believe robbing lucurious shops can not be their endgame. Althought, until today at least, they have never did anything else. Shooting down the café is a bold movement."

"But it's a clear message. They know about your investigation."

Wonpil lets out a sigh, "that's why we need you to help Chan, it is no longer a robbery case. Although I don't know what it is exactly."

"Of course."

"You go and get ready, Felix has some stuff for you. He will also give you an adress where Chan is waiting for you."

When Seungmin enters Felix's room - like himself loves to call it, it is more a kind of laboratory and there are plenty other people who have access to it but Felix likes to pretend it is his own personal office, and no one is mean enough to break his heart - the blonde scientist is almost entirely hidden behind a tall manequin wearing what seems to be a simple black suit.

"Hello?" Seungmin asks quietly.

Locks of blonde hair peak behind the manequin, then Felix appears. He takes off his headphones, that are still playing a very loud music. He is wearing his usual lab coat but above it, a metre tape around his neck. He has a pen tucked behind his left ear. Felix has boyish features, even if he is the same age as Seungmin, he often looks like a kid lost at his parents' job who is playing around acting like a grown-up. However, Felix is a science genius, who has created more technical innovation than anyone twice his age. He plays a lot on the confusion he brings to people. Looking too young. Looking too girly. Seungmin does not know if it is self confidence or just the fact that Felix is often lost in his own world and probably does not even notice what people think or say about him. Seungmin likes that a lot in him.

"Seungmin!" Felix screams out and immediately jumps into Seungmin's arms.

He does not have the time to answer anything because Felix breaks the hug as quickly as he initiated it and drags him by the wrist to the manequin. He looks at Seungmin from head to toe, who can not help but blush at the analyzing gaze on his body.

"I created the suit with only your measurements in my head but it seems like I have it right, anyway, I was thinking on what kind of gadgets could really be out of the box since this mission is probably going to be extremely difficult and I don't want you to fail just because of my stuff…"

Felix speaks fast and as he does so, he walks around the room, pacing like he is in his own living room. Seungmin stares, silently, waiting for the scientist to get to the point.

"I thought, laser glasses, boring, seen before, probably something everyone will be having at some point…"

Definetely not. Seungmin hopes so at least, he could not imagine a world in which people would be walking around the streets with laser glasses.

"Then I thought, makeup! Makeup is always the solution. But you already have the incredible solid acid lipstick, you do right?"

"Yes…"

"Great, and it has proven its efficacy…"

It is true. The lipstick has been extremely effective. Seungmin has used it when he had been thrown into the river, stuck in a metallic box. The villains had not thought that the small item in his pocket would be able to melt the metal and allow Seungmin to escape. Unfortunately as soon as the water touched the acid lipstick, the chemical reaction almost cost Seungmin's eyes. Felix acted like it was Seungmin's fault for not considering chemical reactions before using his gadgets. It was fixed now, thankfully.

"That's how I thought about sticky liquid blush, could stuck anything or anyone, ideal to catch bad guys, right? But too basic, I'm better than that, this is some idea a twelve years old could come up with."

Seungmin hums.

"A lockpick mascara brush, also very basic, if I'm being honest but…" Felix looks through one of his lab pocket and takes out the gagdet, he throws it to Seungmin who catches it, "I still made it because it was fun."

"It sure is," Seungmin answers.

"Anyway, I came up with this!"

Felix shows the suit with both arms, a proud smile on his lips, like all his monologue lead to the manequin in perfect logic. Seungmin looks at him with a confused expression.

"I saw the pictures of this mission's bad guys. Very scary, very professionnal in their black suit - it's kinda giving men in black if I'm being honest, I'd have not chosen that but I'm a scientist not a fashion icon, so - and I thought what if all your gadgets where directly IN the suit. Like Iron Man but more discreet."

"Felix, how many cup of coffee have you had today?"

"Uh? Today? Four."

Seungmin sighs, "since the last time you slept?"

"Twelve, maybe more. I don't know. It's not my fault if our headquarter is right under a coffee shop!"

"Alright, after this, please, will you go to sleep and drink some water?"

Felix pouts, "sure."

"Now show me the suit."

Felix almost bounces with excitation, "first and foremost the entire suit is completely bulletproof, from what Chan has told me, you definitely will need it…"

Seungmin winces, these people seem like delightful people. Felix grabs the jacket, but then stops and analyzes Seungmin.

"Take off your clothes," he says, "I need you to try it."

"All of my clothes??" Seungmin chokes up.

Felix shrugs, "won't be the first time I've seen you naked but you can keep your tshirt and underwear, I guess."

Seungmin rolls his eyes but still does what Felix asked him to. He strips down, praying that no one will enter the lab before he has the time to dress up, he considers that the less people at his workplace will see him in his undies, the better. Call him a prude for that. Felix is already handing him the jacket. The fabric is soft to the touch, kinda like silk. Seungmin expected the outfit to be heavy since it is supposed to be bulletproof but it is as light as a feather. He puts on the jacket, Felix hands him the pants.

"Are you sure these are bulletproof?" He asks, while putting on the bottom part of the oufit.

Felix looks at him like he has insulted his family on three different generation but says nothing. Seungmin fully dresses up, buttons up the jacket correctly. When he looks up, Felix has a gun pointed on him, and before Seungmin can even say something he shoots one time. The bullet bounces on the jacket.

"ARE YOU INSANE?" Seungmin screams.

Felix pouts, "just wanted to show you, since you doubted my capacities."

"You could have just told me "yes it is", or even curse me, not shoot me in the fucking lab! What if you had missed your shot and shoot me on the face or the neck?"

"Hey, I might not be a super secret spy like you but I can shoot properly, you know this is required even for us lab rats."

Seungmin's heart is beating like crazy in his chest. He thinks he has been shot enough for the whole day, hell even the whole week - month would be a bit too optimistic considering his line of duty and the mission he is about to start - but being shot by Felix, out of all people, was something unexpected. Kinda upsetting too.

"Do you believe that it is bulletproof now?"

He stares at the bullet that has bounced back and is now on the floor, "yes," he mutters.

"Good," his friend says brightly, "now unto the rest. Of course, the cufflinks have a micro mic integreted, Chan will be able to connect it properly, you can actionate them but buttoning them. It only recognizes your finger print, by the way, so for everyone else, those are just buttons."

"You have my finger prints?"

"Gosh, Seungmin, when are you going to stop asking such stupid questions? Of course I do! I have your full DNA here, I could create a Seungclone if I wanted to."

Seungmin shakes his head, decides to not answer that and to forget about the whole seungclone idea. He cringes internally.

"Moving on, the suit can tear open for skydiving," Felix explains, "I'm not gonna let you try it here, but if you jump from anywhere, it will automatically become a parachute. You'll be able to literally fly for a few minutes, but I advise you to land as soon as you can. Then, in the pockets, as you can see I did create all the stuff I told you that were not very original…"

The spy indeed takes out of the pants' left pocket the liquid blush. The shade is bright pink, perfect for Felix, but no one would ever believe that Seungmin was wearing that. But it still might come in handy, he does not want to upset Felix and get shot, again.

"But then, there is this!"

Felix puts his hand in Seungmin's pocket, turning it inside out. The pocket seems like any other one, in a matching black color, but there is a very small white thread right atthe corner of it, "this," Felix says, "if you pull on it, will become a very solid but invisible rope, imagine… Piano wire. Definetely can hold your weight, and probably someone's else, although I have not tried it before so I would not recommend."

Seungmin tries to get his finger on the thread but Felix slaps his hand away.

"You only have two of those, but they are very long, don't try to cut them in half, nothing can cut them."

"Long how?"

"If you have to jump of a window on the thirteenth floor, you'll safely land on the street. However on the twelth… You might end up as a pancake."

"Good to know…"

"It is just an extra mesure, honestly, since the suit itself can become a parachute if needed, but you these wire can also make very sharp weapons, they can cut everything, butter, wood, flesh…"

"I get it," Seungmin interrupts him. He touches something in the inner pocket of the jacket, he takes it off, a watch, like a rolex, "what's this?"

"Ah! Your new watch, you can obviously use it for knowing the time but more importantly, you can have access to different compartiments based on the time. For example, if you turn it to 4 pm…"

The dial opens up, Felix carefully takes out a small packet. It looks like it is filled with mint.

"Those are antidotes to any kind of poison. It metls under the tongue, if you think you've been poisonned take one immediately."

"What about the rest of the compartiments?"

Felix puts back the antidotes mints inside the dial and closes it, "you have a magnetic card scrambler, I put it at 9 am, you know, to match the idea of having to clock in at work, 8 pm, you have a small scanner that can copy any fingerprints…"

He goes on and on with the list, Seungmin tries to remember everything but when Felix starts saying that the items are hidden between 17:45 military time he kind of gives up on the idea of being able to use it entirely.

"All the buttons of the jacket are removable, throw them and they'll explode, I packed a few extras just in case, 6:30 pm."

"That's honestly, amazing but what if I have to wear something casual?"

Felix raises an eyebrow, "don't put on the jacket, just keep the white shirt, it's made with the same material, the pants alone do not look too formal. The buttons of the white shirt are also small explosive. Oh and, also, take these."

He gives him a box of contact lenses.

"I already checked with Chan, when you put on these lenses it will connect to his computer, giving you all the infos necessary on everyone and everything you see, if you ask for it. Chan can control it from his desk. It also has infrared vision, obviously."

"Obviously."

"I almost forgot!" Felix screams out. He runs to a closet, and takes out of it a pair of shoes, "you have different type of blades hidden in the lace. Of course, you'll still be carrying your gun, the suit automatically interferes if you have to go through those magnetic security door."

His friend looks pleased with himself.

"Thank you Felix, that's incredible work," Seungmin tells him.

"I know. Now go catch the bad guys!"

When Seungmin gets out of the headquarters, it is almost lunch time. His stomach growls, unhappy that he has missed the usual time which it gets feed. Unfortunately, he can not answer to that call because he still has to meet Chan. Maybe on the way he will be able to grab a bite but he is not sure about that. Wonpil absolutely refused to send a car, saying it will bring too much attention on him, since Chan is currently staying in a van, near what he believes is the building that centers all their enemies operation. So Seungmin has to go there with public transport.

Under his arm he has the suit, carefully packed by Felix, and he carries a backpack full of different stuff for him and for Chan. None of which are food.

"Seungmin! Oh my god, Seungmin!" Someone calls for him in the streets.

Seungmin stops moving, turns around and sees Hyunjin running up toward him. He looks worried.

"Oh, Hyunjin, what are you doing here? Did you tell me you have a meeting with your editor?" Seungmin asks, trying to sound natural and rolls up the suit a bit more under his arm. It is carefully packed so Hyunjin will probably not be able to see that it is a suit, not that it is that weird but he will definetely have questions if he notices. Seungmin's brain is already thinking of an appropriate answer. A wedding ceremony? Bad idea, Hyunjin is a romantic, he would ask who was getting married and maybe even for their love story, Seungmin can not make up a full love story on the spot. A birthday? Way too formal. Maybe a funeral, people hate talking about death. It could work.

"Who cares! I ran here when I heard the news, I'm so glad you're okay!"

Hyunjin looks completely disheveled, and Seungmin believes that he indeed ran to get here. Maybe he sees the confusion on Seungmin's face because he puts his hand on his head, "did you get hurt? A concussion maybe?"

"No, no, I'm fine," the spy mutters, face burning up by the simple touch. He hopes and prays that Hyunjin can not feel it.

"I don't understand, the anchors on the morning news were so vague about all this, but who would shoot a coffee shop? Does this have anything to do with the robberies?"

Right, the shooting. Seungmin completely forgot about that. So that is why Hyunjin was in such a hurry and completely panicked. Did he thought Seungmin was hurt? That is terribly cute. He can not help the smile on his lips. Hyunjin is still touching his forehead, like he is trying to see if Seungmin has a fever or something, the spy does not feel like telling him that a concussion rarely causes a fever.

"Sorry," he says sheepishly, "I'm a bit out of it, everything seems so unreal."

Seungmin is glad he is a professional liar because with Hyunjin's face so close to his, he feels like he is losing it all completely.

"Of course you are," Hyunjin says softly.

If the shooting did not do anything to Seungmin, Hyunjin talking to him like that surely will.

"I should probably let you go back home and rest."

Hyunjin takes off his hand from Seungmin's forehead, he already misses his touch.

"Uh, yeah," he mumbles, with very little eloquence.

"I'll see you around then! I guess the coffee will be closed for a few days if not more."

He sounds disappointed, Seungmin wants to scream of joy, "I guess so. Hey, did you really left your meeting just to come check on me?"

Hyunjin blushes, crimson. How cute. He seems to think about his answer for a moment and eventually says, "well, it's not everyday you hear about some place you know being shot so, yeah, I did…"

Seungmin smiles, Hyunjin looks everywhere but directly at him.

"But don't worry! My editor was understanding about it, so I'm good."

"I'm glad you are, I'm also glad you came, that's very caring."

Hyunjin mumbles something along the line of having to go back to his meeting, waves awkwardly and almost runs away. Seungmin stares for a moment at his silhouette disappearing, caught in a daydream in which he could simply hold him back by the wrist and ask to kiss him. His phone vibrates in his phone, pulling him back to reality. He checks the caller, Chan.

"When are you getting there?"

"Hello Chan, it's nice to hear your voice," Seungmin says sarcastically, "I'm on my way, sorry I got caught up with something, why?"

"Well, I need you to hurry up, there are things happening there."

"Things?"

Chan hangs up without answering. Seungmin sighs, he misses Hyunjin already. Chan is a great guy, and he will probably end up apologizing for hanging up like that but when he gets stressed it is like another person posesses his body. Seungmin does not blame him, their work makes all of them go insane. Or maybe they were insane from the beginning for getting into this field. Not like Seungmin had much of a choice anyway.

"Wow, this place kind of sucks," Seungmin says when Chan opens the van's door and he jumps inside.

The back of the van has been reorganize to fit Chan's computing, Seungmin only recognizes one laptop, the rest might as well be science fiction to him, also a desk, a chair and a small bench. There are a bunch of empty bags of instant food. Chan raises an eyebrow, but then he laughs. Seungmin laughs with him and then Chan pulls him into a hug.

"I'm glad you're here. I've been asking Wonpil for days to get you to help me on this case."

Seungmin puts down his suit and backpack, "really?"

"Yeah, I've bugged this entire building, and I've been by myself trying to listen and watch everything but it's just too much information."

"What was his excuse for not sending me earlier?"

Chan shrugs, "something about needing to have one spy free, in case of emergency. I guess the emergency is now."

"The emergency made itself known," Seungmin mutters, "by shooting the café."

"Right, that sucked."

"Sure did," Seungmin sits down on the bench, "so what have you got so far? And why did you need me so urgently now?"

"Like I told you, the whole building is bugged but nothing, and I mean literally nothing, happens there. It just looks like a regular office building, people go in around 9 am, leave at 5 pm. Aside from the security guards, who are the robbers, there is nothing here that tells us anything sketchy is happening."

Seungmin takes a look at the computer's screen, one video shows the entrance hall of the building. Next to the front door, two security guards. Chan zooms on the picture, Seungmin recognizes the faces from the pictures Wonpil showed him earlier.

"How do we know for sure that they are the robbers? The robbers were wearing masks. And Wonpil told me you could not find anything on them online."

"Seungmin, please," Chan says, "some masks won't stop me from running my recognition software and succeeding. It took me a few days because I had to compare the footage to every single people living in this city and hack a few thousands public CCTV but I ended up with a 90% match. Height, weight, if one single hair slipped through their mask and hood, hair color, shoe size, you name it. I've analyzed everything. Oh and, of course, none of them has alibis for when the robbery they were involved into happened, honestly it was a bit too easy."

Seungmin hums, does not want to say how not easy this sounds.

"The fact that when I tried to investigate these "security guards"," he says while gesturing invisible quotation marks, "just to find absolutely nothing on them, honestly just confirmed the 10% missing for me to be certain it was them. But since identifying this place, after tracking their coming and goings for another few days, I hit a wall. Then, they attacked the café, but I did not even hear them talk about such a plan."

His voice shows his frustration and he smacks his lips together.

"Okay," Seungmin says slowly.

"So I need you, obviously, my tech is not enough to crack this, I've hacked into this entire building but I have not found any secret room or anyone disappearing into a secret trap, you know, so I guess this building is just a distraction and I pathetically fell for it."

"You think this is not their headquarters?"

"It can't be unless they got some wardrobe that takes them to Narnia to plan their evilness, but even if it was that, I would have seen them enter that wardrobe!" Chan screams out.

Seungmin guesses the van is entirely soundproofed but still he nervously glances outside the tainted windows, just to make sure no one can hear them.

"Is there another place these security guards go to? When they end their shift or something?"

"They all live in separate apartments, different neighborhoods, they never ever cross paths with each other except for when they get to work, here."

Chan takes a few papers from under a pile of documents on the desk, about fifteen different ones, and gives them to Seungmin. Seungmin takes a look at one. It is a map of the city, the same map on each paper, but for every paper there is a number assigned at the top part and a colour. Different locations are circled, and lines are drawn between those locations.

"Example one," Chan explains, "here, it's this building, so "work". This one, a young girl, high ponytail, bleached blonde hair, about 165cm, one of the culprit from the first and third robberies, she lives there."

As he goes he points at the different circles on the map.

"She grabs coffee, here, before going to work, usually she does early morning shifts, but when she's busy - and by that I mean robbing banks because they do not seem like to have any social life, like in comparison you are a fucking social butterfly…"

"Hey! I talk to some people," Seungmin protests.

"Sure, anyway, I was saying each time, after the first and third robberies, she came to work on a late night shift. Like nothing has happened."

"This is where the robberies took place, right?" Seungmin asks pointing at two different circles.

Chan nods. Both circles are equally distant from the "work" place and the "home" place. Seungmin checks the other maps, it is the same thing for each security guard. Some simply exchange coffee for a sweet treat, or a pizza.

"I'm starting to think they are robots," Chan mutters, "sure I've seen them eat and drink but honestly that is barely a proof, because they do the same thing every day, precise to the second. Believe me, I've checked several times before coming up with their different schedule."

He grabs another pile of papers, puts it on Seungmin's lap.

"You… You did all this by yourself?"

"I did."

Seungmin takes a closer look at Chan. He never looks very rested, insomnias and stuff but now Seungmin notices the bags under his eyes, the way his skin is paler than usual, how jittery he is.

"Wow."

"That's it? Wow? Nothing else to share to the class? Any brillant idea on what I have been missing?"

Seungmin examines the schedules, not picking up on Chan's sarcasm. He notices something that looks rather odd. It is true that none of the security guards seems to have anything close to a friend, or family, or whatever, but they all seem to be receiving online deliveries on a daily basis.

"Have you seen this?" Seungmin asks, pointing at the lines of said deliveries.

Chan hums, "package delivery?"

"Yeah, they seem to all be getting one daily."

"Everyone orders online nowadays, truly the plague of overconsumption. Maybe they are not robots, or they fit in perfectly, wait, do you think they're aliens or something?"

"You have any footage of these deliveries?"

Chan frowns but starts typing quickly on his keyboard. Seungmin is not sure what he is doing but soon, different angle points of view of different doorsteps. They wait in silence for a moment but quickly a delivery man appears, puts down a package on the doormat - all the apartments have the same doormat Seungmin notices but also it is an Ikea mat so, it is not that surprising - and leaves. Two minutes later, the door opens. Each person looks on both sides, before grabbing the package and closing the door.

"Okay, back," Seungmin says. Chan rewinds slowly until they see the package in their hands, "there, pause, zoom on the package."

Chan does it. Seungmin holds back a satisfied grin.

"No stamp, no postal paper or anything. The delivery person might be wearing an official uniform, they are definetely not working there."

"This is how they get their instructions," Chan mutters, "Seung' you're amazing."

"I know that."

"Now, we just have to catch a parcel before them. And you're gonna do it."

"What?!"

Seungmin puts down his jacket on a chair. He looks around the apartment, homey, he thinks. It seems like one single person lives there, small kitchen, but comfortable living room. It feels wrong to be here.

"You sure the person living here is not coming back any time soon?" Seungmin mutters in his right cufflink.

Chan's voice came through the little earpiece that he has given him before sending Seungmin here, "yeah. Like not a hundred percent sure but I put a piece of paper in their mailbox when I noticed that no one was entering the apartment, and it has not been moved for like a few days. Safe to say they are away."

Seungmin hums. It is a known robbers method to do it, to check if the houses are empty or not. He adjusts the suit, it fits him perfectly, Felix did not lie when he said he made it tailored for him, but it still feels a bit weird to be wearing such an expensive outfit. He loosen up the tie a little bit.

"The delivery person should arrive in less than five minutes," Chan says in his earpiece, "you have two minutes between the moment the package is delivered and the moment the bodyguard will open the door. But since you also have to wait for the person to leave, as to not be seen, which will approximatively take thirty seconds."

"So one minute and a half," Seungmin finishes.

"More or less, yeah. Depending on if the elevator is still at the right floor when the delivery perrson calls for it, or if they have to wait for it. Usually, they are so quick in putting the package down that the elevator doors are not even closed."

He positions himself near the front door, hand on the handle, ready to open it. He has already put on his contact lenses so he is able to see through the door but it has its limit so him and Chan have agreed that Chan would give him the signal. Seungmin calms down his breathing, focusing on the task ahead.

"Delivery person is coming," Chan whispers.

Seungmin tenses up, ready to open the door.

"He put down the parcel."

Seungmin very gently presses the handle.

"Fuck," Chan curses, "the elevator."

"Of course," Seungmin mumbles more to himself than anything. He checks the watch, already thirty seconds gone.

"C'mon, c'mon," he hears Chan say.

Another fifteen seconds. Seungmin holds his breath.

"Go!"

He opens the door, quickly but discreetly. The parcel in on the doormat, Seungmin quickly checks that the delivery person is really gone, not that he does not trust Chan but more as a double precaution. The hallway is empty.

"Hurry, you have less than a minute, to grab the package and leave."

"I know," he mutters between his teeth.

He can feel his heart beating in his chest as he reaches the package. He expects it to be lighter, to be able to carry it with one hand, but when he tries it stays stuck on the doormat.

"What the fuck?"

"What's going on?"

He grabs the parcel with two hands but it still does not move.

"Seungmin, you only have thirty seconds."

Chan's voice is distracting, he is tempted to shut him off but he does not have the time. He scan the parcel with his lenses, only to see that it is stuck in the doormat. There must be a button or something to actionate that will unlock the parcel but he tries to find it, touching every side of it, scanning every milimiter with the tip of his fingers, but nothing.

"Seungmin!" Chan warns him.

It is too late, when Seungmin looks up, the door is open. His eyes meet with the security guard emotionless's face.

"Any chance you might believe it's all a coincidence?" he has the time to say before the security guard reaches for his belt and pulls out a gun.

Seungmin knows he will not be able to dodge that bullet, instead he stands up, while doing that he swiftly grabs one of the blades that are hidden in his shoe ties, and makes sure that the bullet aims not at his head but at his body, when it does, the bullet simply bounces back on the suit. He vaguely hears Chan gasps in his earpiece but he does not pay attention to it. The bodyguard does not seem phased by the fact that they have missed their shot, they are already aiming again. Seungmin does not let them.

He puts all his weight forward and pushes the security guard back into the apartment. The bodyguard is taller than Seungmin, probably bulkier too, but it is not that hard. Still, Seungmin knows how to use his skills on his advantage. He manages to hit the security guard on their shoulder, the blade grazing their skin. He expects to hear something, a scream of pain or a grunt, but nothing. The fact that the blood that comes out of the wound is red is the only proof that this person might be human. Seungmin grabs their wrist, the one holding the gun, twists it as much as he can to make the bodyguard losen his grip over it. He is using all the strenght in his core to make sure that his enemy will not be able to overthrow him. It takes him several attempts, and also a few hits, but eventually he forces the security guard to lose the gun.

He puts his knife under the person's throat, stares at him right into his eyes just to see if there is any glipse of emotion but the eyes stare back at him unreadable.

"Who do you work for?" Seungmin asks.

"Seungmin, are you okay?" Chan in his earpiece says.

"I'm fine, I got this under control," he puts a bit more pressure on the blade, blood pearls through the wound, "I'll spare you if you speak."

The security guard still looks at him without anything behind his eyes. Seungmin sees his jaw move and he fully expects to hear their voice. It is too late that he realizes that his enemy is swallowing something. He lets go of the blade, but it is too late, the security guard eyes go white, and they start convulsing.

"Fuck!" Seungmin curses.

"What's happening?" Chan asks.

"I think they just swallowed poison."

He looks at his watch, tries to remember in what time compartiment the antidote is but as he tries to unlock it, the security guard's body becomes limp. Seungmin stares at the dead body, mouth open. It is not the first time he sees a dead body but it happened so quickly, the person barely fought back, and as soon as they surrendered they killed themselves.

He checks their pulse and when he is sure that the person is dead he stands up.

"They're dead," he says in the cufflinks.

He changes the time on his watch to 8 pm, the compartiment opens and he uses the device to replicate the bodyguard's fingerprints.

"What the fuck happened? I could see you two fight on the hallway cameras but did you poison them?"

Seungmin snorts, "no, I guess they had it in their mouth or something, as soon as they were compromised they just swallowed it."

"That's insane."

"Yeah," Seungmin says, going back to the parcel. He puts the replicated fingertips above his and tries to grab the parcel again.

He lifts off the parcel easily, lets out a sigh, and gets back inside the apartment, closing the door behind him. He steps over the dead body, puts the package on the table.

"How long do you think I have before they notice that one of their own is dead and that an intruder is in their house?" he asks Chan.

Chan hums, "well, I think it is already a miracle that you're not dead right now."

"Great!"

"Look around, scan if there are any cameras in the room with your lenses."

Seungmin does as he is told, looks on every corner, guided by Chan's indications. They do not find anything. He also searches inside the security guard's outfit, but it is clear. He simply finds a magnetic card with the office building logo, an ID picture of the person, their name and a serie number.

"Kim Taedong, 240105 3109749" he reads out loud, "what does it mean?"

"It sounds like a registration number, like the army?"

"Yeah but usually the first six numbers are date of birth, right? That guy was not born in 2024."

"I know, I'm gonna look into it."

Seungmin nods, although Chan can not see it and pockets the card, "so, maybe, no one knows I'm here?"

"Maybe."

"It sounds too easy."

"I know but we don't have any other option right now. We have to take the chance and believe that they might not be aware of what is going on. You should take their place, we have their entire schedule, we know what they have to do next. You're already wearing similar clothes, thanks to Felix."

"Are you insane? I'll get busted immediately, this is a huge bet."

"Just put the sunglasses on, no one will bat an eye at it."

As he speaks, he opens the parcel. The box is big enough to fit several books inside but he only finds one single piece of paper.

"That's weird," he mutters.

"What is?"

"Inside the package, there's just something written. Coordinates, today's date and 5pm. The coordinates are 43.6033° N, 1.4423° E."

He hears Chan typing on his keyboard, "it's another bank."

"So is this how they get their orders."

"I think so."

Seungmin closes the package, puts the piece of paper in his pocket, and lets out a sigh, "okay I'm gonna take the chance."

"Everything is going to be okay," Chan mutters in Seungmin's earpiece and somehow Seungmin feels like he is mostly just reassuring himself. Which is a bit ridiculous considering that it is his idea since the beginning and Seungmin is the one taking all the risks.

After opening the package, he made sure to keep the security guard's fingerprints right above his index finger. He put the empty box in the kitchen and quickly scanned the apartment. Everything was spotless, not a single stain or proof that the apartment was lived in. The furniture were basic, there was no decoration, no sign of any personality. He wondered if it was a stolen apartment or if whoever was behind all this was powerful enough to rent or own all these apartments. Considering all the money they have been stealing, it probably would be possible, however Chan could not find anything on the owner nor any legal documents on the apartment. What kind of organizations is good enough to complete erase themselves from everywhere?

Once he was sure that there was no clue in the apartment, and because Chan reminded him about the very strict schedule the security guards follow, he went out.

"Even if it's not okay, we will find a way out," Seungmin whispers in his cufflinks.

He has the dead security guard's sunglasses on, and he tries his best to walk normally.

"Turn left," Chan guides him, "and of course you will but I just wish to limit the damages."

"Keep dreaming."

Chan chuckles. Seungmin has a coffee cup in his hand, he did not even had to tell the barista his order, because the barista immediately recognized him, called him his regular. He almost blew up his cover by smiling, the barista looked at him like he had just grown another head. Apparently the sunglasses were enough to disguise his face, but smiling was a no-go. Noted. He stayed impassible for the all rest of their interaction. The barista did not seem like their were into this grand scheme - whatever the scheme was - so Seungmin did not push his luck. But this was just the easy part of the plan, now that he was getting closer and closer to the office building, he knew his time was limited.

"You know, as soon as I'm gonna enter that building, I'll get caught right? If the barista did not notice I was not the same person, I'm sure whoever is in charge will know. There's no way they will not realize I'm not the right guy."

He sips his iced coffee as he walks. It is a good coffee, way better than the ones he makes for Hyunjin, and it was hella expensive, so he makes sure to enjoy every drop.

"I know," Chan answers, "but hopefully with your contact lenses you will be able to have a closer look at the others security guards."

"Yeah, before I get killed."

"You're an experienced secret spy, I'm sure you'll find a way out."

"Easy for you to say."

He simps the last bit of his coffee, and is about to throw it in a trash can, when his contact lenses catches something. He takes off the lid to look inside the cup. There are two serie numbers on the bottom of the cup.

"What the fuck?" he mutters.

"What's going on?"

"The cup, two new serie numbers, 240816 5968742 and 250218 9588712."

He hears Chan typing the numbers, "if your Kim Taedong had his own serie number, I guess those ones also belong to two other people."

"My guess is Taedong's team for the theft."

"That's a good guess."

"You think the barista is part of this?"

"We are the first one to know that a coffee shop can hide a lot more than just coffee and pastries."

Seungmin chuckles. He throws away the cup, after memorizing the numbers. He stands in front of the office, hands in his pockets and lets out a deep breath, "I'm going in."

"Don't talk, keep your head low, don't take off your sunglasses, I'll guide you through the building and make sure you do not directly make contact with anyone. You don't have to look at them in the eyes, I've already have their faces in my software, we need documents about them, maybe they are also carrying cards with their names or something."

"Yeah I got it."

"We already know how they communicate coordinates and teams. Now let's see if there are others secret messages in this place."

Seungmin does not answer and just enters the building.

When Seungmin takes a step inside, he fully expects to hear alarms blowing or something that would immediately catch him, but nothing happens. The hall is empty. The reception desk seems to be closed. He scans the room, but he sees nothing out of the ordinary, aside from a few fake plants - he guesses the people inside this building have better things to do than to take care of real plants. He takes another timid step forward, following Chan's instructions.

The security guards, before the beginning of their shift, take the elevator to the first floor. On that floor, there is a lockeroom, something that Chan has already noted to be weird since they all get to their "job" already wearing their uniform and without any belongings. Seungmin tries to walk as casual as he can, hiding any nervosity and jumpiness, but still making sure to be able to reach a weapon just in case. The elevator is empty, but he does not question it too much because the building has four different elevators, plus stairs and with how empty the hall is, it does not seem like it needs all this. Inside the elevator, he spots three different CCTV, so he does not relax his posture, and stops answering Chan's instructions, just in case. He pushes the first floor button.

The first floor is an open space. Chan tells him to cross all the offices, and go straight to the opposite side of where he is. At the office, he sees some workers, computer turned on, on the phone or busy typing emails, they all look like regular corporate employees. He hears them talk about sales, about stock exchanges but he does not understand much. They do not look up at Seungmin, and Seungmin quickly scans them with his lenses. Comparing to the security guards, the computer seems to recognize most of them. Sales workers, businessmen and women, they all seem to live a normal life. This is probably how whoever is responsible of this building is making money. Eventually, Seungmin gets to the lockeroom. It is completely empty. The lockers are neatly organized on every side of the room, benches in front of them. He quickly checks but there are also CCTV in this room, surely this can not be allowed in the law. He brushes this thought away. Doing legal things is not a concern for them.

He scans the closed lockers.

"They all seem to be empty," Chan comments.

Seungmin discreetly nods. On the lockers he sees the same serie numbers. He recognizes two lockers with the numbers he saw at the bottom of the takeaway cup.

"My partners' lockers," he mutters.

Their lockers are also empty. He goes on until he finds the one with Kim Taedong's number. There is a combination lock on it. He does not bother and takes out from his jacket's pocket the mascara. With a simple turn, he manages to unlock it.

"Nothing. What a surprise," he says sarcastically.

Still, he uses his hand and touches every side of the locker, just to make sure he is not missing anything. His contact lenses seem to be noticing a slight bump at the bottom of the compartment.

"False bottom."

He reveals it and finds a picture. He frowns. It is a photography of a mother and her child. The computer scans the people on the picture, recognizes the child as Kim Taedong. He is smiling brightly, while his mother is kissing him on his head. It is far from the adult that killed himself when cornered. Seungmin traces the outline of the kid's face, feeling extremely guilty, "what happened to you?"

"Seungmin, people are coming," Chan warns him.

Seungmin puts back the false bottom and puts the picture in his pocket. The door opens. He turns around, two security guards stand in the frame. He scans them until he finds their ID cards. The numbers are Taedong's partners'.

"240105 3109749," the first one says in a bland voice.

"240105 3109749," the other one repeats.

He panics, he is probably meant to say something but if he talks will he reveal himself? The two are looking at him.

"240816 5968742, 250218 9588712," he lets out in a voice he hopes is not too weird.

The security guards nod, so Seungmin does it too. Then they go to their own locker.

"Get out of there," Chan whispers.

Seungmin does not protest. Still, he tries to walk away as naturally as possible, mimicking the way the two others are walking. His heart is beating fast in his chest when he gets back in the open space, the workers are the same as before.

"Leave," Chan says.

He walks to the elevator, not too fast but not too slow either because he has a real bad feeling about all this. Even worse then before. When he pushes the call button, he feels a chill in his spine. He does not have to look back to know that no one is working in that room anymore.

"Seungmin, take the stairs, on your left."

He reacts by instinct, and thankfully, because right where he was standing, at the height of his head, a bullet lodges itself on the elevator. He glances at the open space, most of the workers are gone, a two of them pulled out their guns, and the two security guards Seungmin just saw in the lockeroom are shooting from the opposite side. He pushes the stairs door.

"Fuck," Chan curses, "you can not go down, the hall is filled with enemies."

"Then what am I supposed to do??"

"The roof."

"Chan this building has twenty floors."

"And there are enemies on every floor, so you better run fast."

Seungmin feels like his lungs are burning when he reaches the seventeenth floor. He has tried his best to slow down the guards running after him, almost out of explosive buttons and he has seen his life flash in front of his eyes way too many times.

"Seung', don't slow down, okay? You're almost there," Chan encourages him.

"I'd like to see you do that," he says with difficulty, "damn, next time I say no to going to the gym with you, make me remember this."

"Promise."

He uses his last strenght, and also his survival instinct because the enemies have not stopped shooting at him and he has definetely dodged death at least ten times thanks to Felix's suit, to climb the three last floors. He needs to buy Felix a gigantic box of chocolate. Hell, he must negotiate with Wonpil to get him a salary bonus. Or two. Eventually, he gets to the last floor, a rooftop with no issue. He hears the people running after him climbing the stairs.

Seungmin grabs the liquid blush, opens it and puts it from top to bottom on the side of the door. Then he closes it with as much strenght as possible. It will probably not hold them on forever but it will give him some time to think.

"Now what am I supposed to do?" he asks Chan.

"You jump."

"Of fucking course."

"Isn't your suit designed for this?"

"Well not for this, per se, but yeah Felix did add this feature, but I was fine not testing it."

"He would have been disappointed."

Seungmin does not bother answer, he knows Chan is joking because he is actually terrified, instead he leans to see exactly how high he is. On the floor ground, he sees a bunch of people coming inside the building, and other who are guarding in front of it. He can not jump to the ground or they will just catch him. He analyzes the buildings around this one. He clearly is on a skyscrapper and no building matches the height of it, so he can not jump from it. Plus the other building do not have rooftops but just simple roofs in very sloppy angle.

"I have to jump inside an apartment," he tells Chan.

"Yeah, I know. Don't think too much about it okay? Just jump on the building right next to this one, then you take the fire escape and there is a back door and a small alley, I will be waiting for you there."

Loud bangs on the door. Then gunshots.

"Okay, okay I'm going to do this."

He quickly scans the building, there are a few apartments with no windows open so he guesses that there is a chance there might be no one at home. Although, it will mean having to break the window.

More gunshots. The door is a fire door, but it might not be able to resist bullets.

"Stop thinking!" Chan repeats.

Seungmin sighs, that is an easy thing for him to say, he is not at the edge of a roof about to jump. He pulls on the tiny thread in his pocket and he ties a knot on a pipe that seems strong enough to hold on his weight - he hopes at least, he tries not to think about it. The suit can turn into a parachute but with the string, he will probably be able to reach his target with more precision. He needs to get to that apartment feet first to break the window. The thread is indeed very long, it takes what seems to be forever for him to get to the other end of it. At the same moment, the door breaks down. Seungmin looks back, sees that his chasers have pulled out an hatch, out of all things, like they are in the Shining or some shit.

"Okay, fuck, I'm doing this," he screams to Chan.

He does not even bother to tie himself with the thread and just jumps, holding it tightly in his fist.

He hears some screaming but the fall is fast and soon it becomes distant, he projects his weight forward, trying not to crash into the wall. Thankfully, even if he did it in a hurry, he sees one of the windows getting closer and closer, he makes sure his legs are straight. His instict tells him to close his eyes but he fights it because he needs to make sure he is landing properly. He can feel his abs burning, he really should be hitting the gym with Chan a little bit more. With how fast he is coming, his legs break the glass like it was butter. Except butter is not sharp and does not cut his hands when the rest of his body goes through the window. He rolls on the floor, hits a table while at it, and lets go of the thread.

"Seungmin?" Chan says in a small voice.

The room is in the dark. He stands up, dusts the pieces of glass off his suit, and gets ready to leave the apartment when the lights turn on.

"Whoever you are if you plan on stealing, just know I won't let you, not without fighting back!"

The voice is shaky, but familiar. Way too familiar. Seungmin feels his heart drop in his chest. There is no way he can just simply run away, he does not hear any sound that would look like the person is pointing a gun at him. He slowly turns around. Hyunjin drops the baseball bat when he sees his face.

"Seungmin?"

"Hey," Seungmin mutters, "well, this is a bit awkward but I promise I'll pay for the window."

"What's going on?" Chan asks in his earpiece.

Seungmin shakes his head, "a small awkward meeting," he mutters.

"That's…" Hyunjin stutters, "that's honestly the least of my concern. How did you get in? And why? How do you know I live there?! And who are you talking to?"

"A pure coincidence, honestly. And… I jumped?"

"You jumped?"

Seungmin sighs, out of all the apartment in town he had to burst into Hwang Hyunjin's.

"Listen, I don't really have the time to…"

He does not finish his sentence because he glances through the window and he sees the people that have been chasing him also about to jump from the building, just like he did. From what he has gathered in this investigation, they are fearless, almost completely brainwashed when it comes to taking risks, so he has no doubt they are going to do it faster than he did. He has to leave. He looks at Hyunjin again, the light are on, the window is shattered, they will automatically know in which apartment Seungmin landed in. Seungmin grabs the first pair of shoes he sees, and throws it over to Hyunjin.

"Put them on," he orders.

"What?!"

"Hyunjin, please, just do as I say and I promise I'll explain when we get to a safe place."

"Hyunjin?!" Chan gasps, "like Hyunjin from the coffee shop?!"

Seungmin does not answer, he does not have the time for that.

Hyunjin squats down, to put on his shoes, "a safe place?"

Loud gunshots noises interrupts any answer Seungmin could have given. It seems enough for Hyunjin to hurry up and puts on the second shoe. The spy takes off his jacket, puts it on Hyunjin's shoulders.

"Bulletproof," he says.

"This is insane," Hyunjin answers but holds on tight to the jacket when they hear more gunshots, "my landlord is gonna kill me."

"You should not be worrying about this right now."

Hyunjin glares at him, "are you an owner?"

Seungmin nods, and Hyunjin rolls his eyes, "but it's not like we can talk about this right now, we need to leave before they get in here."

"They?"

Seungmin points at the building. The security guards are tying themselves with ropes, about to jump any time.

"Seungmin, what the fuck?"

One of them jumps. Seungmin takes out a blade from his shoelaces and grabs Hyunjin by the hand and forces him to follow him, a second later the one who jumped first reaches inside the apartment. They hear more stuff being broken inside the room, and Hyunjin whimpers but Seungmin hold is strong and he does not let him look behind or hesitate. They run down the stairs as fast as they can. They do not have to look up to know that they are being followed. The guns shooting is enough. When they reach the street, Hyunjin is already out of breath.

Seungmin feels a hand on his shoulder, he lets go of Hyunjin for a second, and stabs the security guards - that he recognizes as number 240816 5968742. For good measure, he also kicks him in the face. More are coming from the apartment building, so Seungmin goes back to Hyunjin, who seems completely starstrucks, and grabs his hand one more time. They reach the back door exit but no matter how hard Seungmin tries to open it, it is completely locked.

"Chan, the door's not opening," Seungmin lets out.

"Chan?" Hyunjin repeats, "like from the café?"

Seungmin glances, "yeah, he's waiting for us in the back alley to get us out of there but…" he pushes another time for good measure.

"Well, uh, the door is broken. Has been for the past months, we keep on asking our landlords to fix it but they keep pushing it…"

"Damn! Is there any other escape, aside from the front door?"

"No," say Hyunjin and Chan at the same time.

"Wonderful."

He knows that the enemies are following them closely, they are already losing time with this, and with Hyunjin mixed up in all of this, he can not risk fighting with them. He will be too concerned about Hyunjin's safety. The front door it is.

Chan must be coming to same conclusion because he says, "you two leave by the main access, I'll distract them."

"How?"

"I also have explosive."

Seungmin hears him turn on his car.

"Let's meet safely at the headquarters."

"Yes," he then looks at Hyunjin, "let's go."

If the latter protest, he does not hear it. He follows him outside. As expected in the street, they immediately get hit with a few gunshots, but soon, a loud explosion gains the upper hand. Hyunjin screams but Seungmin does not let him stare at it for too long. They collide with a few bypassers, Seungmin hopes they will not end up being collateral damages. He is in a complete different neighborhood then where the agency's headquarters is, so he can not count of finding shelter there. Instead, he sees a metro entrance.

"They are still following us," Hyunjin stutters with difficulty.

"Yeah, thanks for the heads up."

He walks up the stairs to the aerial metro. When they get to the gates, he pushes Hyunjin first.

"I don't have my metro card,"' Hyunjin tells him, scared.

"Just, jump over it."

Hyunjin looks at him first, ready to argue. Seungmin grabs one of the jacket's buttons, throws it toward the security guard who is getting closer. The detonation is loud. It is enough for Hyunjin to jump over the gate, Seungmin follows him.

"This is insane, this is completely insane," Hyunjin repeats like a mantra.

"Go as far as you can on the metro platform and then, when one stops we will get inside," Seungmin orders, "hopefully the bomb slowed them enough for us to escape that way…"

"The bomb?!"

They get a few weird looks from people passing by. Seungmin decides not to answer. They get to the platform, when Seungmin looks up at the screens, he sees that the next train is just one minute away. Anxiously he looks at all the entrances, but he does not see any of the villains. Next to him, Hyunjin has a hard time catching up his breath.

"You said.." he pants, "you said you were going to explain."

"Well, long story short, I'm a spy."

Hyunjin looks like he is about to faint, "alright, let's say, this is real and a totally normal thing to be, why were you spying at my apartment?"

"I told you, just a coincidence. My mission brought me to the building next to yours and then I got caught, so I had to run."

"Run into my window? I'll never be able to go back to my place, I actually really like it!"

The train arrives. When the doors open, Seungmin pushes Hyunjin forward. Right when they are closing, he sees that some of the villains have managed to get in the train. They are stuck.

"Fuck," Seungmin mutters, "they are also in."

"What's plan B?"

Seungmin bites his lower lip, "I don't have any plan B."

"You're kidding, right? Tell me this is whole a big joke or maybe a dream, a nightmare…"

The spy does not answer anything, just anxiously looking on his right, where he can already spot the guys coming to them.

"I might have an idea," Hyunjin says suddenly.

"You do?"

"Kissing."

Seungmin stares, "kissing?" he repeats.

"Yeah, uh, kissing makes people uncomfortable, they'll look away," he blushes.

"Are you sure of that?"

"Well, it's like, plan Z but since we don't have any other options."

Seungmin looks at Hyunjin, then on the right. He sighs, "fine."

He puts his hand around Hyunjin's neck and pulls him closer until their lips meet. He has often find himself dreaming about kissing this man, even more if he is being honest, but never ever has he expected for it to become reality. Hyunjin's lips are soft, a bit chapped, maybe due to the cold, and when Seungmin holds on to a lock of hair, he whines in the kiss. His eyes are closed, so Seungmin does the same. He can not entirely loses himself in the kiss, because he still needs to make sure that no enemy busts them, but it seems like Hyunjin does. It is quite flattering. They kiss deeply, passionately, just to make sure that everyone would be extremely uncomfortable looking at them. He feels someone pass very close to him, he freezes completely except for his lips which are moving in rhythm with Hyunjin's. The person, whoever they are, walks by without stopping. Maybe Hyunjin was right. The train announces the next station and stops. Seungmin finally pulls out from the kiss. If running did not leave him breathless, kissing Hyunjin surely did, and judging by Hyunjin's face, it is definetely reciprocated. The doors open, Seungmin pushes Hyunjin out, and follows him. When the train closes and leaves, Seungmin recognizes the face of one of the bodyguard-villains, he smirks.

"LOSER!" Hyunjin screams at the train, "told you it would work!"

"Yeah, I can't believe it but it did," Seungmin answers him.

"Can I go home now?"

Seungmin winces, "I'm not sure this is a good idea."

"Will I ever be able to go home? No, don't answer this. I'm gonna believe I will or else I'll lose my mind. All my drawings are there."

"I'll help you," the spy promises him.

"Hope you will! You also have to pay for the window," Hyunjin jokes without much conviction, "but where am I supposed to go right now?"

"You're coming with me," Seungmin says, "to the headquarters, and then we will see what we can do."

Hyunjin sighs but nods. They walk out the train station in silence.

"Weird question but why do you come in the Stray Café if you live so far away?" Seungmin suddenly asks.

Hyunjin blushes again, "no comment."

"That says a lot."

"I think you should be the one answering question. Now I understand why you suck as a barista, it is not even your job!"

"Hey, I don't suck!"

"You do."

"Yet you still came back every day," Seungmin observes smuggly.

"Don't push your luck, Kim Seungmin," Hyunjin warns him without any malice, "if that's even your real name."

"It is, I promise. I only hid my real job, the rest is entirely authentic."

"Good to know."

Wonpil stares at them with concern. Hyunjin seems to be unable to close his mouth, looking around the Chief's office with round eyes, probably unused to seeing such advanced technology. Chan is also sitting next to them, unhurt, but obviously very tired.

"Well," Wonpil starts slowly, "I'm gonna start by saying I'm very happy you are alive."

Seungmin crosses his arms over his chest.

"But I do have to say that causing an explosion in the middle of the day in a busy neighborhood is not the most delicate work you two ever did. My phone has not stopped buzzing, the President wants explanations."

"The President?" Hyunjin mutters.

"Are there any casualties?" Seungmin asks.

"A few office workers have died in the explosion, and some bypassers were hurt, but nothing that can not be handled. It will become today's biggest new, though, maybe this year's."

Seungmin winces. He hopes the victims were not the ones who shot at him.

"And then we have this situation," Wonpil adds looking at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin looks away.

"I could not leave him behind, they would have killed him," Seungmin argues.

"Yeah," Hyunjin nods, "and I'm very grateful for that. Although I would have loved it even to not be part of it, but you know, life."

He shrugs. Seungmin bites back a smile at the way Hyunjin rambles when he gets nervous.

"There is a very simple solution to that," Wonpil says slowly, "we can erase your memories."

"What?"

"You'll forget everything about today, and if I remember correctly, you're also a regular in the Stray Café so we can simply make you forget about the place, about Seungmin and Chan and everything involving them."

Seungmin closes his eyes. He was afraid of that. It is selfish of him, but he really hopes Hyunjin will say no. He really hopes that he will be able to see him again, just as a regular in the café. He just likes him so much, and it seems like it might not be that one-sided, and it will break his heart to see him forget.

"Can't you just make me forget about the events in my apartment?" Hyunjin says after a minute.

Seungmin lets out a breath. Is he being delusional for thinking that maybe Hyunjin does not want to forget either? Wonpil shakes his head.

"What happens if I say no to… forgetting?"

"Your life will change entirely. If our enemies have seen you escape with Seungmin, they might think you are a threat."

"And if you catch them? I'll be fine after you catch them right? And that's your plan, isn't it?"

"It is our plan," Seungmin says vigorously.

Wonpil frowns, "I do not recommend this."

"I will protect him," Seungmin offers.

He spoke before thinking, now everyone is staring at him. He clears his throat, "I mean, if Hyunjin wants to keep his memories, it's my fault if he is in this mess in the first place so… It's my responsibility to fix it now."

"We have a lead," Chan adds, "Seungmin found something in the building, so this was not just a failure."

"I…" Hyunjin says, "I'm good with that. Seungmin protecting me while you catch the bad guys. I just need to get my drawings back."

Wonpil grits his teeth, "I'm gonna regret agreeing to this," he whispers.

Hyunjin sits down in Felix's lab, looking even more amazed than he was in Wonpil's office. Felix looks at him with curious eyes. Chan has taken the photography that Seungmin found, to analyze it and try to find anything about the mother. If she is still alive, she might be able to explain what happened to her son.

"We just need to make sure he gets some self defense equipment," Seungmin explains to Felix, "just in case."

He takes off his jacket, that Hyunjin has kept around his shoulders all this time.

"By the way, the suit was great."

"Of course it was," Felix answers, "but are you going to explain who is that guy?"

"I'm Hyunjin."

Felix's face lights up, and Seungmin immediately regrets telling him about the regular at the café, "oh, you're Hyunjin!"

"Uh," the artist mutters, surprised by Felix sudden mood change.

"Felix, please," Seungmin pleads, knowing very well it is not going to change anything.

"It's great to put a face on a name, you see, I do not have to pretend to be a barista, contrary to the spies here, and I'm always swamped in work so I can not just go upstairs and grab a coffee, but I've been hearing about you for…"

"Felix!" Seungmin says louder this time.

The scientist shoots him a weird look, "right that does not explain why you are though."

Hyunjin seems even more confused, but there is a bit of smugness in his expression and Seungmin knows he is not going to be able to get himself out of everything that Felix just said.

"Long story short, Seungmin broke my apartment window, people shot at me, and we kissed to ditch them."

Felix lets out a high pitched scream, "you what?!"

"I've seen that action movie and they say that people tend to avoid looking at people kissing, because it makes them uncomfortable, so I thought it was worth trying…"

"Wait, you saw this in a movie? And you thought it was a reliable source?" Seungmin asks in disbelief.

"It work, didn't it?"

"That's not the point!"

"Yeah the point is that you guys already kissed!" Felix claps.

Seungmin shakes his head. He hates his life and his job, and for ever thinking telling Felix about his silly crush was a good idea. But also, he could have not thought that one day his said silly crush would be in the same room as Felix.

"I guess we did," Seungmin mumbles, "now, can we move on to a bigger issue? Hyunjin can not have any weapons but it will be great if he could at least protect himself."

"Why can't I have weapons?"

"Because you're a civilian," Seungmin answers calmly.

"But people are trying to kill me, right?"

"Maybe, we're not sure yet. You don't need a weapon because I'll stay with you until I fix all of this and I have weapons. Weapons that I know how to use because I've been trained for!"

Hyunjin pouts, "you're so strict."

Felix looks at them with a smile on his lips.

"So?" Seungmin tells him, reminding him of his request.

"Oh, right, gagdets. Sure."

He looks around his lab. He gives Hyunjin a few bulletproof piece of clothing - he does not lose the opportunity to comment on the fact that it will be like Hyunjin is wearing Seungmin's clothes - and also a small umbrella that can turn into a shield if needed. A few makeup gadgets, the same mascara lockpin that Seungmin already has, and a metal cutting ring. Hyunjin looks completely amazed.

"Thank you, Felix," Seungmin says with a sigh of relief.

"Of course. Now, I don't want to kick you out, but I will because I have work to do."

He pushes them outside of his lab.

"Have fun!" he says in a awfully sweet voice and closes the door.

"So," Hyunjin clears his throat, "you talk about me?"

Seungmin grits his teeth, "could have been Chan," he mutters without much energy.

"Oh, really? I should ask him out some day, then."

"Don't!" he spits out, a bit more loudly than he wanted to.

Hyunjin laughs, "it's okay, I talked about you too."

"What?"

"Now what do we do?" Hyunjin asks innocently, changing the subject.

"We go to my place, I need to rest."

He checks his skin and finds out that his arms are filled with tiny cuts. Probably from the glass window. He also feels sore in his legs and arms.

"You're hurt," Hyunjin notices.

"It happens with the job."

"Do you have a first-aid kit at your place?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Good."

Hyunjin insists on Seungmin to take a shower first and when Seungmin comes out of his bathroom, not in his pajamas like he so wishes to but in clothes that he will be comfortable in, if Chan suddenly needs his help, he is sitting at the edge of his bed, browsing through the kit. When he looks up, he stares at Seungmin for a second too long for it to be normal.

Seungmin blushes.

"Finding happiness?" He asks casually, pointing at the first-aid kit.

He cringes internally, it is easier to get shot then to talk smoothly to a guy he has a crush on, that is ridiculous.

"Sit down," Hyunjin pats on the spot next to where he is sitting.

Seungmin does as he say, and watches him pull disinfectant and some cotton pads.

"Your arms," he orders again.

Once again, he follows it. Hyunjin very carefully and gently starts dabbing the disinfectant on the cuts. It is nothing serious, and surely if he had been alone, Seungmin would have just ignored the wounds. He has dealt with bigger and more serious injuries, life or death kind of injuries, so he can not waste his time worrying over the smallest cut. But the care that Hyunjin is putting into doing this is comforting, endearing.

"You're very normal about all this," Seungmin whispers.

"Cuts? I've seen worse, I might not be a spy but I've been injured."

Seungmin chuckles, "no, about me being a spy."

"Oh," Hyunjin switches arm, "well, all of this is terrifying, I'm not gonna lie, if I stop and think about it seriously, I think I will totally panic."

"You could have…"

"Chosen to erase my memory? No thanks."

"Why not?"

Hyunjin blushes, "isn't it obvious?"

He finishes up disinfecting. He looks at the wounds a bit more but then shakes his head.

"You're good, you can rest now."

He is about to stand up but Seungmin stops him.

"I've had a crush on you ever since you entered the café the first time," he confesses, "and, I'm so happy you decided not to erase your memories of me, but I would have understand if you wanted it. It's not like I have a normal life."

"Well, Mister super spy, you might have shattered my window and my life, but I also have had a crush on you since the first time I've entered the café. Me being a regular has nothing to do with your drinks quality."

Seungmin feels his heart beat a little bit faster, "you know this is very dangerous, right?"

Hyunjin lingers a bit closer, eyes almost half closed, looking obviously at Seungmin's lips, Seungmin's rational part of his brain screams to stop him but a more primal one encourages him to lean in, give into the urge.

"I know, I wish it did not make you even more sexy to me, but, unfortunately, it does."

"You're insane," Seungmin whispers.

He can feel Hyunjin softly breathing on his face, he smiles, "maybe, but you will protect me, won't you?"

That is the last straw for Seungmin, who wraps his arms around Hyunjin's waist, pulling him even closer, their lips only a few milimeter apart.

"I will. But you still have time to stop me if you want to."

Hyunjin crashes their lips together. It is not like their first kiss in the subway, it is hot, burning with passion and not fear. Hyunjin pushes Seungmin on the bed until he lies down and crawls above him, when he pulls away and his hair frames beautifully his face, blonde locks falling down as he looks at him with eyes filled with want, Seungmin feels almost faint. He goes in for another kiss, and at the same time starts massaging Seungmin's sore shoulders. He lets out a satisfied moan, already feeling all worked up just by kissing and a few touches.

"Trust me," Hyunjin eventually whispers, "there's nothing more I want than you, but right now is not the right time to do it. You have some bad guys to catch, and for that, you actually need to rest."

Seungmin groans. Hyunjin lies down next to him, laughing.

"You're even more dangerous than those guys," Seungmin mutters, but the fatigue is getting to him and he knows Hyunjin is right.

"I think you like it."

"I do."

"I like you too."

Seungmin pulls him into a hug, eyes closed, "my phone will ring as soon as Chan will be done with the photography, wake me up at that moment."

"I promise."

Seungmin's phone rings not even twenty minutes later. Hyunjin, who has also fallen asleep, does not wake up. He looks at him with endearment before answering

"Hey," he whispers, still a bit sleepy, "what did you find?"

"The mother," Chan says, "her name is Lee Harin. She lives in the city, and she filled a missing kid report almost fifteen years ago. Her son's name was Lee Habin, but, yeah, it's Kim Taedong."

"Let me guess, her kid was never found?"

"Nope. So I did some digging, and I looked at all the missing kids in the area, and a bit beyond just to make sure, took off those who had been found, dead or alive…"

Seungmin winces. It is never easy to deal with bad people, but when it involves kids, it is a thousand times worse.

"Unfortunately, there are a lot of them," Chan continues sadly, "but with the faces that I have archived, plus with the information in your contact lenses, I did a quick program to age up the kids' pictures and see if their adult version match any of our security guards."

He hears Chan mimicking a drum roll.

"And the result is, I am a genius and whoever is beyond that is absolutely disgusting. Of course, not all of the kids are a match but most of them are."

"So what do we think? Someone kidnaps kids and then what, brainwashes them into becoming soldiers?"

"That's exactly what I think."

Hyunjin stirs up in his sleep. Seungmin starts carressing his hair. He usually tries to do his work without letting his emotions get over himself and put some distance but he thinks about Kim Taedong and how someone will have to tell his mother that they finally found their son… Is it worse then if he has been dead for all this time? He blinks, feeling tears in his eyes.

"Seungmin?" Chan gently calls him, "you there?"

"Yes, sorry, I got lost in a thought."

"I get it, it's an awful case."

"Do you think we can save them? The others."

He wonders how many have died while chasing him. He feels sick. Chan sighs, "I don't know, honestly. To be able to reach that state of servitude… Plus most of them will probably face charges for the robberies, and maybe even worse."

"But Taedong kept that picture. It means that maybe, just maybe, they still remember their lives before being kidnapped."

"Maybe. Maybe it will not be enough."

"Did the police have any lead on the kidnapping back then?"

"Nothing, it happened during the day but there was no witness."

"How is that possible, who could kidnap that many kids, and train them for years without anyone noticing? They must have made a mistake at some point."

He thinks for a minute.

"The dead missing kids," Hyunjin whispers suddenly.

"What?" Chan says.

Hyunjin is fully awake now, his eyes are filled with tears but he stands up, grabs Seungmin's phone and puts Chan on speaker.

"Sorry, it's Hyunjin. I know I'm not a detective or anything but, Seungmin's right, there's no way they did not make any mistake, there is no way all the kids got easily brainwashed either, so…"

"So, they must have gotten rid of any kid that refused to follow orders," Seungmin finishes, "you're a genius! Chan, you have to look into the missing kids' death. If they found their bodies after a year or so, and where, what kind of evidence they found."

"On it," Chan answers. He does not question Hyunjin and just hangs up.

"I'm sorry you had to hear all of this," Seungmin tells Hyunjin, "it's upsetting."

"It really is. Is this how your life is?"

Seungmin shakes his head, "yes and no. Most of the times it is not as fucked up as this… This one is particularly horrible."

He pauses, Hyunjin seems like he is about to cry.

"You know if you change your mind…" he says quietly.

"No. I'm not changing my mind," Hyunjin says firmly, "if anything I'm relieved that someone like you and Chan are investigating this. Someone has to try and save them, and you look like the type of person who can."

Seungmin smiles softly, "I hope so."

Unable to go back to sleep Seungmin decides to go back to the headquarters with Hyunjin and help Chan with his researches. Chan has sent him on his phone the pictures and names of all the missing kids and he looks through it with his heart clenched in his chest.

Hyunjin was right and soon Chan finds the police files of unsolved children murders with similarities in the M.O. A single bullet in their head, but with obvious traces of beating. Because it always happened with a few years in between, the police did not make any connection between the murders, but now that Seungmin is looking at it with that in mind, it looks obvious. Someone got rid of troublemakers. He decides that it is not a job that can be done by just one person, more like a group. Maybe they also went through the same "selection" process before this. They warn the police, to get more people on that case, and they found similar cases fifteen years prior to Kim Taedong's kidnapping. But not one single decent lead.

"What about the office workers?" Seungmin exclaims suddenly.

They are in Chan's room, where he has all his computers and stuff.

"What about them?" Chan mutters. He has dark circles under his eyes.

Hyunjin is also there, someone did retrieve his drawings from his apartment and he has been doodling silently for about thirty minutes. Seungmin does not pry, it looks like a coping mechanism.

"Most of them seemed harmless," Seungmin explains, "but when I first got shot in that open space, I clearly remember two of them shooting at me."

Chan pulls up the recordings from Seungmin's contact lenses, right before he ran to the stairs, that one glance he had for the open space.

"Here," he says. Chan zooms on the two office workers. They look older than the security guards, "can you scan their face?"

Chan does it but finds nothing.

"I'm pretty sure the other employees were all "normal" people, in the sense that my lenses immediately found their names and address, but these two no?"

He then notices something around their neck.

"Can you zoom more? I think they're wearing a necklace."

When Chan zooms another time, it appears clearly.

"Those are ID tags, from the military," Hyunjin comments.

The two spies looks back, neither of them had noticed that Hyunjin was paying attention to the screens.

"I can't read the numbers," Chan mutters.

Seungmin's brain is working at full speed, "240816 5968742," he mutters to himself, "the first six numbers are supposed to be a date of birth, right? But it does not make sense for it to be 2024."

"Whoever did that to those kids, they changed their names," Chan adds, "they probably also tried to erase their real birthday."

"So, 2024 is like a rebirth? And they change their names?"

Chan types in the date. A few articles pull up about a robbery, with one death.

"I bet that if we google every date, we will find a similar crime. I guess this is the moment they can fully be part of whatever big scheme this is," Seungmin concludes.

"That's so creepy," Hyunjin comments.

Seungmin agrees with a nod, "but these two, they are not wearing security uniforms, they wear a real ID tag around their neck. They must be different from the others."

"Maybe…" Hyunjin stands up from where he was sitting and gets closer to Chan and Seungmin, "can you make a program or whatever and look through army records with the faces of those two people?"

"Of course," Chan answers, "you're good, you know?"

"Thanks, I guess?" Hyunjin whispers.

"Maybe Wonpil will let you stay in the agency, I mean, if you want to."

Hyunjin blushes hard but Chan is too focusing on his work to notice. They look at the screen in an anxious silence while the program goes through thousands and thousands of military records.

"Found them," Chan says with a smirk.

He opens the files and they all can see the two office workers, at least twenty years younger, on their military picture.

"Now, we just have to find where they are hiding," Seungmin nods, "but with their full names, it's going to be easier."

Chan fingers are already typing furiously on his keyboard, "apparently they were both in the same military corps… Seems like they were failing at school and their parents signed them up in the army when they could not graduate high school. Maybe they hoped that the army would make them better student."

Seungmin groans.

"They got kicked out of the army for insubordination, bullying and use of deadly weapons outside of monitored moments."

"How did they not get arrested?" Hyunjin gasps.

"They were minors…" Chan explains, "oh, and, both their families had money. Like, a lot."

"That explains it," the artist shakes his head.

"Yeah, money can do anything. Anyway, they went back to civilian life for a few years and then… Oh wow."

"What?" Seungmin asks, looking above Chan's shoulder but the latter is going to fast for him to be able to read.

"Both their families got murdered like a week apart."

"That's obvious they did it!" Hyunjin exclaims.

"I agree," Chan says, "but they had strong alibis, charges were dropped, they inherited all the money and then disappeared."

"So what? They decided to put other kids into servitude because their parents and the army tried to do it with them?" Seungmin says sarcastically.

Chan shrugs, "I guess. They probably feed from each other's trauma."

"Wow," Hyunjin lets out.

"Now that we have all that…" the technician mutters, while opening another tab, "I can put everything about them, their faces, their real names, their inheritance, etc. into the system and find their footprints. If they managed to erase these kids' from the face of the world, I'm sure they could not do it with their lives. The fact that they are showing their faces will certainly be enough."

Seungmin sees on the screen that he has pulled up all the city's CCTV and that the program is scanning frame by frame, years of videos. Hyunjin stares at the process, completely starstrucked.

"In the meantime, I will also explain all this to Wonpil," Chan says, "I think this might be considered as domestic terrorism, surely the President would like to know about this. There is no way they put together this scheme just to rob a few banks."

Seungmin nods. He very slowly takes a step closer to Hyunjin and intertwines their hands, "we're gonna stop them," he whispers.

"I know you will," Hyunjin answers softly, "someone has to."

Hours later, Seungmin ends up once again in Chan's revamped's van. This time, Hyunjin is also there, and Chan is driving. They had considered every option but Seungmin could not think that leaving Hyunjin behind, at his place or in the headquarters, would be a safe choice. The two men were way too organized, way too dangerous for them to not be aware that the secret spies agency was onto them. They had already shot up the Stray Café.

They had warned the police and the President, who has decided to involve the army into this. Seungmin does not really like it, the army is the main reason why they ended up in this situation after all. Living traumatizing things does not justify what these men are doing, of course not, but surely everything around them when they were younger could have been handled better. Instead, they went down this road, and Seungmin has a bitter taste in his mouth. Hyunjin is silent. As of now, they have found no other reason for those two men to be doing all this, aside from the robberies.

Chan eventually found an address. It might be a trap, Seungmin thinks, but everything about this case has been a trap as of now, and they still ended up getting out of them. Unless, maybe for Hyunjin's life, but also without that Seungmin would have been to scared to kiss him or confess his feelings, it might be selfish but it is kinda a win for him.

"Why are you smiling?" Hyunjin asks him.

Seungmin immediately drops his smile, "sorry, I was thinking about something else."

"We're on our way to the bad guys, and… You're thinking about something else?"

"Well, not really, I was thinking about the case but then I thought about you and…" He shrugs, "it's stupid and probably unconsiderate."

"What were you thinking about?"

"That I fucked up your life, but without it I'd have never dared to confess and I'd have still considered you were out of my league."

"Me? You're the secret spy and I'm out of your league?"

"The "secret" part of it makes it a bit difficult," Seungmin says blandly.

"Right," Hyunjin chuckles, "but even without this case, I think I'd have ended up asking you out."

"You would?"

Hyunjin nods.

"I'd have probably rejected you," Seungmin mutters.

"Outch, rude, here goes my sweet love story," he sighs.

"I do not want you to be in danger because of me and my job makes, intrinsically, brings danger. Look at where we are going right now."

Hyunjin lets out a dramatic sigh, "well, maybe I should thank those men for forcing you to jump into my apartment."

Seungmin looks at him weirdly.

"That was a joke, dumbass! It's just, I'm an adult, I can make my decision, and right now my decision is to follow you into danger. I've spent months coming into that café, talking to you and getting to know you, sure I didn't know half of your job, but this does not define you, your personality is what I learned to love… like."

He looks away.

"And what I'm learning now, does not change it. Plus it's pretty interesting to know that if things go bad between us, I will be able to just erase my memories… How does that work anyway?"

"Hyunjin!" Seungmin groans, "this is not the reason why this machine exists!"

"I know, I know, and there's enough movies about why erasing your memories after a break-up is not the good thing to do."

"We're not even together and you're talking about breaking up," he mutters.

"Make a move, then!"

Chan stops the car, "sorry to interrupt whatever is going on but we're there," he says awkwardly.

"Thanks," Seungmin says loudly, then he whispers at Hyunjin, "I will make a move when this is done."

"Business is business, I guess," Hyunjin sighs, "I'll wait for you, like a princess in her dunjeon."

"Okay, princess," Seungmin teases.

Hyunjin blushes, red as a tomato. Seungmin laughs.

It was a trap. Without any surprise. Inside the place, there is a bunch of security guards shooting at the police. Seungmin uses that as a distraction. He stays outside, pulls out his grappling gun, courtesy of Felix before they left, and gets inside the building on the third floor. He scans the area. Apparently the floor is empty, all the enemies are probably too busy protecting the main entrance. Maybe they are not as smart as they seem to be, or maybe they are just cocky. Maybe both. It does not matter. All that matters is to stop them.

There are still a few traps that Seungmin manages to dodge, he tries not to think too much of what is happening downstairs, even if he hears the shooting sometimes, because he can not bring himself into thinking of those kids' fate. It gives him another hit of adrenaline and determination to find the real responsible for all this. Those terrible, awful men. He climbs until the fifth floor before he can detect any human presence.

When he opens the door, he enters a room in which he finds the two men, the two office workers, sitting down in the middle of the room. He pulls out his gun. One of the man laughs and that is when he sees it. The explosive around their chest. He has just the time to exit the room when the explosion hits. His ears ring painfully, and he coughs blood and dust, in the middle of the wreckage. The two men surely died immediately when they set off the bomb, he feels bitter at the idea that they will never answer for their crimes and that they will probably never know exactly why they did all this. But at least, it is over.

The small shield umbrella lies next to him, completely fine.

Yeah, he really has to buy something for Felix, he thinks, before passing out.

Seungmin wakes up with the familiar sound of a machine and he knows that he is in the hospital. He opens his eyes slowly, touches the mattress around him until his fingers reach a lock of hair. It is soft, long, he goes on to feel someone's head, and he smiles to himself, Hyunjin.

The latter probably felt that Seungmin was awake because he looks up, and Seungmin expects him to be relieved but instead he lightly punches his shoulder.

"That hurts!" Seungmin whines.

"I hope it does! I thought you were dead! The building fucking exploded!"

"I know, I know, I was there! Aren't you supposed to be happy that I'm okay?"

Hyunjin shakes his head, "I am but that does not mean I'm not gonna be dramatic about this!"

"It's part of the job," Seungmin tells him, laughing at Hyunjin childish pout.

"I don't care, I'll get dramatic every time you're risk your life."

"Well, good thing, I like it."

Hyunjin's face softens, "good," he mutters. He then gently puts his hand on Seungmin's face, carressing his features, "I was worried you were going to say something about erasing my memory, again."

Seungmin shakes his head, notices it hurts, maybe he hit his head harder than he thought with the explosion.

"Did I hurt you?" Hyunjin gasps, taking off his hand.

"No, no, you did nothing, don't worry," Seungmin reassures him, "and about the erasing your memory's part, I think…"

He feels suddenly shy, when Hyunjin is looking at him with these eyes, with all this affection and care painted all over his face. If he had already found Hyunjin beautiful when he was just a regular at the Stray Café, now he finds him absolutely mesmerizing.

"I'd like to be selfish enough and put you in danger, as long as I will be able to protect you from it."

Hyunjin smiles and gently kisses his forehead, "I'd like that very much."

"So… Can I take you on a date, a real date? When I get out of there, obviously."

"You can. And honestly, I'd agree to go on a date in the hospital, right now, but I like the idea of a real date."

This time Seungmin pulls him a bit closer and kisses him deeply.

"And don't think I do not like the idea of you protecting me but… Chan might have talked to me again about being trained… Not that I want to be a spy or anything, I like my artistic life too much for that but I thought it would not hurt."

Seungmin fakes offense and Hyunjin laughs, "I'm okay with it but I'll train you personnally."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, and my first lesson will be "how to kiss your hurt love interest"," Seungmin teases.

"I think I'll like those lessons very much," Hyunjin whispers before leaning in for another kiss.