Chapter Text
“You’re still here?” A sudden voice rang out through the otherwise silent office. Sanghyuk’s head shot up from the paperwork he was signing and almost giving himself whiplash.
Sanghyuk groaned as he stretched, hearing the cacophony of clicks and cracks that was his back. He faced his coworker with a scowl while rubbing his eyes.
“Yes, you dick. Thanks for scaring me,” Sanghyuk said.
Sungyeol laughed and ruffled his hair causing Sanghyuk to huff in annoyance. Leave it to his senior to mess with his perfectly well placed hair he placed so much care in the morning (not that it was still neat after twelve hours at work.)
“It’s ten now. Any later you’ll probably die from overworking and I can’t let you die. I’d have to write a report,” Sungyeol softly said while arranging his folder under his arms.
“I’ll be fine. I just gotta finish up this report for Myungsoo-sunbae,”
A frown appeared on Sungyeol’s features. “That idiot making you do work? I’ll give him a good beating when I get home and-”
“Please Sungyeol-sunbae, I don’t need to listen about your sex life,” Sanghyuk said with a suggesting grin (as suggesting as he could get anyways; damn he was tired.)
“Actually, I’ll leave you to die,” Sungyeol said. Sanghyuk laughed at his senior and bid him goodbye. As Sunyeol left, he reminded Sanghyuk to go home soon, to which the latter replied with a halfhearted agreement. He returned to the paperwork about arrests and other bullshit related to Myungsoo’s department. He’d rather be hacking shit than sat at the desk working on another officer’s paperwork, but he needed to earn the respect. Besides, his senior was too busy with his undercover work to do the paperwork at the end so Sanghyuk took it upon himself to complete it.
Sanghyuk let out a loud groan as he got up from his chair. He felt like eighty four rather than his current age of a whooping total of twenty four. His tight, black suit fit around his body quite uncomfortably was not making things easier for his poor back. Did his superiors feel obliged to make an ‘important meeting about the abuse of computer usage’? He checked the time on the watch, the numbers 12:28 AM glaring back at him accusingly.
His black shoes clicked along the brightly lit hallways as he walked to the exit, nodding to the officers currently on duty and pitied them for such a tiring time to work at.
“Hey!” A shout from an officer behind him. Sanghyuk turned around to look at the officer.
“Yes?”
“Be careful going back home, alright? Gang activity is on the rise lately. Shame you don't have a car,”
“I'll be sure to. Thanks for the warning,” Sanghyuk said though fully aware of the active gang activity, way more for an already gang infested area. He turned and started his short walk home.
Sanghyuk didn't invest in a car because his apartment is just ten minutes away. These ten minutes usually passes by uneventfully, but Sanghyuk found himself taking longer strides than usual. His gut was telling him to get under his bed covers immediately which was currently quite a distance away. The briefcase in his left hand started to feel heavy and his hands started to become slippery with perspiration. The heavy feeling settled and made its home in Sanghyuk’s stomach.
Nonsense, Sanghyuk chided himself. You're being childish. A coward of empty streets with dark shops lit with streetlights overhead.
Sudden darkness and his head being jerked back made him think otherwise. His vision was spared but the cloth quickly slid down to this mouth where he was busy screaming and shouting for help that will never come. His attacker hooked his arm against the Adam of this throat and pulled him back. Sanghyuk kicked and thrashed but to no avail. This person clearly worked out.
Sanghyuk found himself on the ground of an alleyway with weight against his lower stomach making it impossible to move. A pair of curious and deadly eyes stared at him with sadistic amusement as Sanghyuk struggled to get the man off of him.
The man on the ground heaved in deep breaths through his nose, unable to find the energy to work up another thrashing session. The man took the gag off and Sanghyuk coughed and spluttered on his saliva that built up thanks to the gag.
Sanghyuk tried his most intimidating glare. “Let go of me.” His voice came out raspy and very un-intimidating considering he was shitting his pants caused by this encounter.
The man's eyes turned into crescents. Not a friendly smile. “A funny thing to say from a man who sides with Monsta X,”
Sanghyuk was given no time to think about his attackers response when he was shoved against the grimy alleyway wall, head hitting against the bricks causing him to hiss in pain. The weight on his lower stomach returned.
“I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not part of this Monsta X,” Sanghyuk barely managed to say a full coherent sentence.
“Then who are you with? NU’EST? SHINee? I doubt someone wearing a full suit accessorized with a briefcase would be walking around at this hour.” The man stated calmly, eyeing Sanghyuk up and down.
“I just so happen to be that someone.” Sanghyuk said with a snarl.
His attacker let out a low chuckle that didn't sound like a noise amusement. A hand shot out and grabbed Sanghyuk’s hair. The hand clenched his mop of hair roughly and slammed his head against the wall once again. Sanghyuk couldn't stop the groan of pain escaping his lips but was soon silenced by a punch to his face, effectively splitting his lower lip and giving him a sore jaw.
“Shouldn't act too cocky with a man above you,” His attacker said in a monotonous tone.
“Kinda hard not to when it's your best quality,” Sanghyuk gritted out through his teeth. The unnamed man gave another small laugh and punched him once again.
“I should kill you. Even if you're part of Monsta X, there's others we can capture,” the man’s voice was muffled through his black face mask. “You are being quite an annoying shit right now.”
Sanghyuk didn't answer. The man took off his mask and shoved it into his coat jacket and boy, Sanghyuk was breathless. He felt instant regret thinking about how damn hot this man was. His face was well chiseled and his lips plump with a pink shimmer to them. The eyes that were once the only thing Sanghyuk saw was brought out by his face reveal. They were somehow more piercing than before and seemed to bore into Sanghyuk with a dash of dark humour in them. Sanghyuk found himself comparing his attackers’ looks with an angel which this man was far from.
A smirk tugged on the man’s lips. “Like what you see?”
Sanghyuk scrunched up his face and looked away, cursing himself for his heated cheeks. “Like I'm looking at the Devil himself,”
“It's stupid of you to be walking around without a mask ya’know? For a small group, Monsta X is sure full of themselves. I think you deserve to see my face before I kill you,” the man said. He brought a hand to Sanghyuk’s tie and slowly stroked it downward as if in thought. “Such a pity though. You're quite the pretty thing.”
Sanghyuk’s breath caught in his throat when the man tugged the tie harshly bringing him nose to nose with his attacker whom was still sat on his lower half. The scent of strawberries filled his nostrils. A sweet scent for someone who's anything but. The man (who couldn't be any older than him, Sanghyuk came to a startling realization) licked his lips and stared at Sanghyuk's pair.
“I should take you back to our headquarters and make you my plaything. Wouldn't that be better than death?” The man asked a rhetorical question before pulling back and standing up with ease. “Don't even think about moving a single finger.” He cocked a gun and aimed it at the helpless man.
“Please,” Sanghyuk croaked out making blood spill out of the cut on his lips.
The sound was deafening but was incomparable to the pain he felt in his leg. It was a hot pain that raced up his leg and up his back. Sanghyuk yelled in pain when the bullet hit his leg.
The man let out a sound of thought and tilted his head to the side. “Hm. You're lucky it's a flesh wound,”
Sanghyuk let out a whimper of pain as he heard the gun cock again. The man struck up another conversation. “I intend to hit a major artery so you can bleed out and enjoy your time reminiscing your life.”
A man’s voice came before the shot. “HONGBIN THAT’S A MINOR YOU PEDOPHILE.” The voice was high pitched and screechy. Sanghyuk hoped it wasn't this persons normal speaking tone.
The man now named Hongbin sighed and reset the gun to put inside his pocket. “And you're wondering why I didn't want you as my partner Jaehwan-hyung,”
Jaehwan appeared in Sanghyuk’s line of vision carrying his black briefcase in his hand. The older man scrutinized Hongbin and threw the briefcase at his feet.
Hongbin eyed it. “What about this?”
“Open it, you jackass,” Jaehwan said. Sanghyuk watched with deep breaths of pain as Hongbin opened up his briefcase which held important files of his finds through his methods of hacking. The files were quickly read through and Sanghyuk couldn’t help but be amused by Hongbin’s widening eyes.
“Shit,” Hongbin said after a moment. He held up Sanghyuk’s police badge which illuminated a dull golden yellow from the stray light coming from the streets.
“Hakyeon-hyung is gonna have your head,” Jaehwan sang out and approached Sanghyuk. The wounded reeled back in terror of more hurt to come but the elder placed a cloth against the bullet wound. Sanghyuk took a sharp intake of breath as the cloth started to wrap around like a bandage.
“So you won’t bleed out to death, else your police department will have our heads,” Jaehwan said with an eye smile. It seemed warm enough, but Sanghyuk remember he was with Hongbin and resisted the urge to smile back.
“What are we going to do with him?” Hongbin asked, placing the files back into the briefcase.
“We take him back to HQ and let Hakyeon-hyung decide what we should do with him. Badge could be a decoy for all we know.” Jaehwan said, helping Sanghyuk help up who attempted to muffle his sounds of pain (and failed splendidly at it.)
“You think that's a good idea hyung? Seems like one where I'd get murdered by Hakyeon-hyung,” Hongbin retorted. Sanghyuk’s briefcase was held under Hongbin’s arm. He squirmed uncomfortably under Jaehwan’s arm, knowing that all those files held important documentation of the clients he hacked.
Jaehwan laughed and it seemed quite genuine. “Idiot Hongbin. If you haven't noticed, there's security camera all over this place and you took off your mask. Right now, the footage in these cameras are useless, but once this guy's department notices he's missing, they'll check every single camera.”
Hongbin frowned in thought. “Can't you just destroy these damned cameras then?” He motioned to the cameras that surrounded the three men.
A sigh and a patronizing look on Jaehwan’s face. “Oh Hongbin. It’s like you’re a new recruit on the field. All the data is already sent to a hard drive that we can't hack into.”
Sanghyuk couldn't help but smirk inwardly, a surge of pride rushing through his pained body. He was the one who had set up the wall for the hard drive and has not been breached ever since.
“We’ll have to tell Hakyeon-hyung to bribe that Kwangsoo guy again. He's part of your department, isn't he.?” Hongbin said, last statement directed towards Sanghyuk.
Said man froze in shock. Kwangsoo? He immediately thought of the tall, lanky guy whom was part of the intelligence department. Awkward, but all around a nice guy. He was feeding information to this group? For how much?
Hongbin growled in annoyance. “I asked you a question.”
“Not anymore,” Sanghyuk groaned in pain and in annoyance of Kwangsoo getting past their security so easily. “Can you take me to this HQ shit already or are you gonna let me die?”
“Relax, it's a flesh wound. You won't die from it,” Jaehwan said, patting his shoulder in what seemed like comfort. “Hongbinnie, do the honours.”
Sanghyuk stared in horror as he watched Hongbin stalk towards him, taking out the cloth that originally brought him into this mess. It was draped across his eyes once more and Sanghyuk, too sore to struggle away, sighed in defeat. He didn't expect a hard hit to his head, his train of thought and consciousness gradually leaving as he felt himself being picked up bridal style in a pair of arms. He definitely didn't expect a soft voice murmuring a whisper of apology by Hongbin who assumed that Sanghyuk had already left reality.