Douza

“I have feelings for Changkyun,” You confessed out of nowhere. Hoseok paused and stared at you wide eyed. He then looked down at his plate and resumed chewing.

“I know,” He finally replied. That wasn’t exactly the reaction you were expecting.

Ever since high school, he made sure to scare off any potential boyfriend and always found some reason to justify his actions. But here you were, confessing that you had feelings for a dangerous out-law who happened to be a brother to him, basically, and he reacted as if you were telling him about your favorite color.

“Who are you and what did you do to my brother?” You asked, eying him suspiciously. He chuckled, still eating.

“You two aren’t exactly sly about it, pretty sure everyone in the gang knows.” He shrugged.

“You’re not gonna stop me this time?” You asked.

Because you were still going to talk to Changkyun.

Hoseok put down his plate after finishing and turned to the boxes near him. He started opening them one by one without saying a word.

Was that a yes? You weren’t sure, but you’d take it as one anyway.

After MX was done with the joint missions at the hotel and making sure they left no trace behind, you asked Hoseok to help you find a new place since you weren’t sure you wanted to go back to your place anymore.

You could have found the place alone just fine, but asking him was your way to soften the confession blow (which you didn’t need, afterall). He loved to take care of you and hated admitting that you were pretty much capable of living independently. You let him have his way, only telling him which place you liked and which, not so much.

It didn’t take him long to find a place near the gym. He refused to let you pay the deposit or rent, even though you could probably afford to buy the place if you wanted to. To your surprise, both Kihyun and Changkyun were your neighbors, each living in a different floor, but still your neighbors.

Thinking about it now, if he was planning to stop you, he wouldn’t let you live near Changkyun.

To be fair, all members basically lived in the hideout when they had to prepare for missions, which was most of the time, so you weren’t sure you could call them neighbors, really.

It took you the rest of the day to finish unpacking everything. Your new couch and other furniture also arrived that evening, making it easier for you to feel like home from the get-go. You were excited to go back to your old life. Treating animals, buying groceries, and having Friday night dates with your brother.

But then again, you couldn’t enjoy any of it if you didn’t get to talk to Changkyun.

Why did it feel like he’s been avoiding you ever since that casino night?

Grabbing your phone from the kitchen counter, you stared down at it as you pondered over whether you should text him or not. You had work the next day, and the day after, and the weekend after that, too. You couldn’t go see him at the gym, and you doubted he would come visit you any time soon (although Minhyuk did drop by to say hi with some cheesecake a couple of days ago).

You finally decided a simple Heywouldn’t hurt.

While waiting for his reply, you scrolled up your previous texts with him and laughed a bit at how childish they sounded. Things like “Don’t eat the icecream, it’s mine,” and “did you touch my toothbrush?”

Instead of getting a text notification, you heard your doorbell ring. The first thing that came to your mind was Hoseok, thinking maybe he forgot something. But then you got paranoid… what if the trick didn’t work and some Chinese gangster was standing outside your door ready to kill you? You slowed down on your way to the door.

They wouldn’t ring the doorbell, right?

Taking a chance anyway, you unlocked the door and opened it in one swift move.

“Hey,” Changkyun stood before you, leather outfit and manbun and everything in between. You took a step aside to let him in. “It’s polite to text back, you know?”

“Do you usually let men inside your place at night?” He raised his brows.

“Do you usually visit women who live alone, at night?” You closed the door, heart skipping a beat when you heard his low chuckle that you came to love so much.

“Want something to drink?” You walked into the kitchen and fetched a water bottle for yourself. If you were confessing tonight, you needed to be hydrated.

“I’m good, thanks.”

It was silent for a few seconds. Changkyun sat down on your couch and looked around a bit. You took a sip of your water before sitting next to him. Here goes nothing.

Taking a deep breath, you faced him.

“Changkyun, I have something to te-“ You started, only to be interrupted.

“I’m in love with you, Y/n.”

.

.

.

.

.

Wow.

.

.

.

Hold on.

.

.

.

Hold the fuck on.

“Isn’t it a bit too early for the L word?” You wondered out loud.

“Really? That’s the first thing you say after I straight out tell you how I feel?”

“Excuse me for being taken aback, the fuck you said that for?”

“What do you mean, what’s it for? I’m telling you that I love you, what do you think that’s for?”

“Hey! I was supposed to tell you I had feelings for you first, you could have just waited for me to finish my sentence instead of blurting it out just like that.”

“…So you feel the same?” It was the first time you saw a hint of insecurity in Changkyun’s eyes.

“Yes, dumbass, I’ve been trying to tell you for a while now.” You smiled, amused by his expression. Against all odds, Changkyun sighed in what you can only assume was relief.

“I actually just told Hoseok this morning,” You continued. “Believe it or not, he didn’t say anything or didn’t try to run off to end you.”

“Yeah, that’s because he already gave me the scary father talk AND the older brother talk, it wasn’t fun.” He glared at you for a second, as if you were Hoseok.

“Ah, that explains a lot.” You laughed.

“So uh, wanna go on a date tomorrow night? With me?” If you were honest with yourself, you didn’t hate this new insecure side of Changkyun.

“of course, future boyfriend,” You wiggled your eyebrows, teasing him.

“It should be current boyfriend after everything that happened, how dare you?”

“Tomorrow’s date is your trial, you might not pass so better plan something perfect.”

“How about the war museum? The weapons on display are craz-“ You hit his arm in annoyance but he just laughed. “What?” He asked.

“Now’s not the time to talk about weapons.” You pouted, sliding away from him to the corner of the couch in protest.

“is it time to kiss then? Cause I’ve been wanting to kiss you for too long now I don’t think I can wait any longer.” He slid closer, bringing his face a few inches away from yours. Your heart started beating so fast you could swear he could hear it.

“I’ll let you, if you clean up your workshop in the back of my clinic,” You offered, leaning in a bit more.

“Deal.”

His lips were so soft and addictive you wanted the time to stop so you could live that moment forever. With his body hovering over yours, you were thankful you were sitting because you were pretty sure your knees wouldn’t be able to support you at that point. He slowly ran his hand through your hair, deepening the kiss and invading all your senses till you thought you were dreaming. But it wasn’t a dream. Not when the leather of his jacket felt so real under your touch. Not when his hair strands tickled your cheeks.

Not when he whispered a sweet, raw I love you between kisses.

And definitely not when you said it back.

----------

“This is weird as fuck, go away.” Kihyun complained when he saw you entering the office hand-in-hand with Changkyun.

“Urgh, it’s too early for this.” Hoseok joined, still not used to the idea of you dating Changkyun even though it’s been over 3 months since you told everyone.

Dreadful day that was, truly.

“Wanna know what we did last night?” You teased, enjoying this way too much.

Your brother glared at Changkyun, who started shaking his head and free hand immediately.

“Y/n, you’re supposed to protect your boyfriend, not be the cause of his death.” Jooheon chuckled as he patted your brother in the back, trying to save the youngest. Changkyun looked at you with a betrayed look.

“What? He’s bound to know eventually. Aren’t you planning to marry me some day?” You faced him, feigning innocence.

“Not if he kills me first, princess.”

“Which he will if you lean an inch closer to her, Kyun.” Hyungwon warned, typing away on his phone.

Standing on your toes, you planted a quick peck on his lips despite him leaning back after listening to Hyungwon’s advice.

The first peck in front of MX.

In the garage, everyone gathered by the van they were going to use for tonight’s mission, which had a huge ‘S.W.A.T’ plastered on the front of it along with a sort of police logo. All members had black tuxedos on, with a touch of white here and there. They all looked so handsome with their hair styled up you didn’t know where or who to focus your eyes on.

That was a lie. Your eyes immediately looked for Changkyun and stayed on him despite your brain telling them to look somewhere else.

Minhyuk whistled, clapping as he looked you up and down while wearing a proud grin on his face. “I chose the right dress.”

You smiled. He totally did.

“Dude, eyes off! That’s my baby sister,” Hoseok, standing right next to him, hit Minhyuk’s abdomen, causing the latter to double over in pain. Hoseok never knew how to control his strength, poor Minhyuk.

“Twinkie, come here.” Hoseok held his hands out like he used to do when you were a kid. You suddenly remembered how you used to run into them laughing every day after he came back from school. With the stilettos you had on, though, you couldn’t exactly do that, so you just walked slowly towards him, trying hard not to trip and fall.

“You remember the plan, right?” He asked after a quick hug. You nodded. “If anything goes wrong, if anything goes outside that plan… take Changkyun’s car and leave. Don’t look for any of us. Got it?” You wanted to object, but it took long enough to convince him to let you do this, so you just nodded. You knew he wouldn’t stop worrying about you anyway.

“Alright, it’s time. Changkyun, drive safe.” Shownu walked to the front of the van, the rest following him and leaving you and Changkyun behind.

Without a word, Changkyun got into the driver’s seat as you watched Jooheon get in the van after everyone else and the vehicule driving out of the garage. Your heart was beating so fast you felt like you were going to be sick. You took a deep breath and joined Changkyun in the car. A different type of tension surrounded you, but you didn’t want to think about it now. Not when you had a bomb in the back seat.

“You’ll be okay.” Changkyun finally spoke up, breaking the deafening silence. You weren’t sure he was telling that to you or to himself, but those words were comforting, nonetheless.

“Yeah.” You looked down, trying to hide your trembling hands. Before you managed to do so, Changkyun let go of the stick shift and took you left hand into his. You looked up in surprise, heart skipping another beat, but he didn’t meet your eyes. His hand was warm and even more comforting than his words, so you held it tight till you reached your destination.

“Ready, princess?” He asked, letting go of your hand to turn off the engine. Not trusting your voice anymore, you nodded in reply, taking another deep breath. You faced him, meeting his mesmerizing eyes. You had so much you wanted to say, but you couldn’t seem to get anything past your lips. For some reason though, you felt like he understood everything and he leaned down to place a light kiss on your forehead.

Gulping, you took your silver clutch, the car keys and a bag from the back seat and got out of the car without looking back. You weren’t scared for your life as much as you were worried about everyone else, but they were the professionals so you had to trust them on this.

“Good evening, ma’am” the hotel doorman greeted you with a bow. Nodding, you walked into the grand hall and headed towards the hotel bar right away. Once there, you noticed Hyungwon in position already. Setting the bag on the floor and your clutch on the bar, you ordered a drink and waited for the bartender to approach you with it first before asking where the bathroom was.

After a couple of much needed liquid courage sips, you relaxed a bit and waited for Hyungwon to make his move before starting what you were there for. From the corner of your eye, you saw him getting up from his seat right when some foreigner approached the bar.

“Sorry,” He apologized after purposefully bumping into the guy. You were amazed by his skills. In just half a second, he managed to get a card out of the guy’s pocket without being caught.

Making his way to the seat next to yours, he pretended to flirt with you and you played along. When you were sure he slipped the card in the bag, you reached for it and your clutch and excused yourself, making your way to the bathroom.

Once there, you pretended to fix your makeup by the sink as you waited for the woman inside to leave. Locking the door as soon as she did, you took the bag and hurried to the last stool. Once inside, you slipped out of your gown to make the task easier for you and stepped on top of the toilet seat, reaching for the small window on top of it and putting the bag right outside of it.

All you had to do was to somehow climb and get your torso out of that window, turn, sit in order to face the outer wall and stick the small bomb Changkyun made right on top of the electric box that was located about a meter from the window.

Easy, totally.

You were starting to think you should have worked out with the others, maybe then you would have been able to lift yourself up enough to sit on the damn window. Thankfully, you had about 20 more minutes before you had to be inside.

After much effort and more cursing, you managed to get your torso out of the window without knocking the bag down and causing an unwanted early explosion. Taking the bomb carefully with both hands, you followed Changkyun’s instructions and managed to fix it on the box and get the countdown started without major problems. You texted Kihyun letting him know.

01:15:00

01:14:59

01:14:58

A few people tried to open the bathroom door while you struggled with the window, but the person currently trying to open the door was persistent so you hurried down. Taking the card Hyungwon got you out of the bag first, you put your gown on again and grabbed your clutch, running to the door.

01:12:44

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry! I locked the door out of habit, I really didn’t realize I’m so sorry,” You sent your best apologetic look to the lady who was trying to get in. She seemed like she believed you, so you stepped aside to let her in and made your way to your final destination. Your role was mainly done. You went over the plan in your head, making sure you weren’t missing anything.

While you were busy placing the bomb, Hyungwon would be at the bar ‘fetching’ other cards for himself and the others. Minhyuk would be knocking out some other foreigner right by his hotel room to get him out of the picture and get a card, too. Jooheon, on the other hand, would take this foreigner’s room key and would wait inside till Hoseok brought him the auction host they planned to replace.

Shownu would be making his way to first meet the Chinese businessman in a private room, a suitcase cuffed to his wrist. Kihyun, who you thought would never do any field work, would first make sure none of this is caught on security footage, and would also place a second bomb which would go off 15 minutes after the one you placed. It would be placed in the 3rd basement of the building, which Changkyun helps him reach without being caught by security guards. The two would then make their way up to meet Hyungwon to get their cards and when all of this is done – again, somehow – all of you would gather in the secret casino and auction room, using the collected cards as your tickets in.

01:02:31

When you were told the plan, a lot of important details were kept out. You had no idea how Minhyuk and Hyungwon figured out who had invitation cards and how they knew exactly where to find these people. You also had no clue if Changkyun or any of the others had to kill people to get all this done on time. You weren’t even sure what were the ‘birds’ Shownu said you were killing with one rock.

From what you gathered from the meetings they held without you (but which you can still clearly hear from your room), Shownu asked the Chinese businessman to meet at that hotel for many reasons. The plan was to first close MX’ side of the deal and get the rest of the commission money without telling him about the secret auction happening a few feet away. The money will be used as a prompt in the auction room, where only cash is accepted as a security measure.

Potential bird #1: Finishing the job.

Because the businessman was a regular gambler, they predicted that he wouldn’t leave the hotel without playing at least a round of Poker. Before joining everyone at the auction room, Changkyun would take the opportunity to take a picture of you sitting next to the man, preferably smiling or talking to him to make it look like you were related to him in some way. That picture would be sent to the rookie Chinese gangs through Hyungwon’s connection along with a couple of fake rumors, and so they would automatically stay away from you.

Potential bird #2: Get the gangs off your back.

Inside the secret auction room, there would be a Swiss billionaire present (based on the tip Shownu received the other night). Hoseok would play the role of the auction host, and everyone would get competitive over a rare red gem. Things get heated and Minhyuk and Kihyun pretend to get into a physical fight to distract the billionaire and his men. At that point, the bomb Kihyun placed would go off and the lights will go out, which would give the members time to knock out everyone in the auction room, gather all the money and auction items and get out and into the casino room again before the emergency electric generator starts.

Potential bird #3: get extra money from the auction.

Finally, they would leave the room one by one in the middle of the chaos the other guests would cause and gather in the room Jooheon got earlier and change into SWAT uniforms which would serve as their ticket out of the hotel without being suspected.

Potential bird #4: Execute a ghost mission with no aftermath.

You needed to get to the secret room, and look for the Chinese businessman you were shown in pictures and sit by him at the poker table till the final phase of the mission started.

Everything was happening too fast, you weren’t sure of anything.

56:02:38

Once you handed your card to the man guarding the door and got some chips to play, you looked around the extravagantly decorated room, trying not to make it obvious that you were looking for a specific person. Everyone was dressed elegantly and having fun gambling away their money as if this was their life-long job. You prayed hard you didn’t stand out.

Just as Hyungwon said, the Chinese businessman was sitting at the poker table, whisky glass in hand. Since it was still a bit early (especially for this type of activity), there were a few seats empty, so you walked up to the one right next to him and sat down.

From then on, you did what Jooheon told you to do. Sit, smile and play.

You used some tricks Kihyun taught you to make sure you didn’t lose all your money in one round, and looked around from time to time, noticing the members coming in one after the other, except for Shownu who probably came inside before you. Based on the time, it seemed like everything was going as planned and most of them were disappearing behind a door you assumed separated you from the secret auction event.

00:33:01

The businessman started a conversation with you.

00:28:12

He offered to buy you a drink, you accepted with the best seductive smile you could master. Noticing Changkyun entering the secret room, you concluded he took the picture successfully.

00:15:00

The first bomb went off. You pretended to panic like everyone else and made your way near the door.

00:06:27

The light came back on, but the members were nowhere to be seen.

00:00:00

The second bomb went off. You made your way out and towards Changkyun’s car. That was it, the moment you speed out of the parking lot everything will be done.

…Except real policemen were searching the parking lot, getting too close to Changkyun’s car and leaving you no way to get to it and leave unnoticed.

You were stuck.

“What’s going on?” You asked one of them, acting terrified, or maybe that wasn’t acting. You didn’t expect this to happen. Police were supposed to take 20 minutes to get there after the first bomb went off.

“Ma’am, I’m afraid we’ll have to ask you to go back inside, no one is to leave the building till the investigation is over.” The middle-aged policeman replied while noting the plate number of an Audi parked right next to Changkyun’s car.

“But I have an appointment in half an hour, I can’t stay till then.” You argued. That didn’t help, as the officer looked you up and down.

“You have some ID on you, ma’am?” He asked, taking a step closer to you.

Another blank-brain moment when you least needed it. If you said yes, showing your ID would put you in too much risk. If you said no and he searched you, you’d be in even more trouble.

You were screwed.

“Go help inside, officer, we’ll take care of this.” You heard Minhyuk’s voice from behind you. The officer looked surprised, probably not expecting to see SWAT members there.

Just then, You heard Kihyun’s voice coming out of the officer’s talkie walkie, asking for more police help in the first floor of the hotel. With that, the officer and the other policemen ran inside the building.

You sighed in relief.

“You could’ve just waited inside till they left, you know,” the sound of Changkyun’s low chuckle reached your left ear, giving you an idea of how close he was standing to you. You pouted.

Turning around, you hit his chest repeatedly while he laughed. How dare he tease you at a time like this? How could he even think about joking when everything was about to be ruined by police?

“Alright, get out of here, we’ll be there soon.” He held your hand before you could hit his chest again, still smiling down at you. He looked just as good in a police uniform and it wasn’t fair at all.

Fetching your phone, you laid down as you scrolled down your instagram feed while you waited for their meeting to be over, that was the only distraction you could think of. Now that Hoseok was back, the next thing was to take care of the Chinese side of the deal as fast as possible. Both Hoseok and Hyungwon couldn’t go on missions yet, and you could tell it disturbed the balance of the gang, but the longer they dragged it the bigger an issue it became so they didn’t have much choice.

You wanted to stay up and wait till Hoseok finished the meeting so you could come clean about what he saw earlier and talk to him once and for all about what’s been going on with Changkyun, but your eyelids had other plans for you. No matter how hard you tried to keep them open, you couldn’t. After a few more minutes of resisting, you finally gave up and dived into dreamland.

-------------------------

“What do you mean, university?” You stared at Hyungwon wide eyed.

“What, you think I’m too stupid for a degree or something?” He shot you a glare, “I’ll have you know I double majored.” He continued, sipping his starbucks iced coffee.

“No, I’m just, I don’t know… what did you study?” You asked, now intrigued.

“We both studied econ and communication,” Jooheon answered instead, surprising you. You put down your poke bowl, now shook.

“You guys went to university together?” Jooheon nodded, smiling brightly. “Who else here went to college?” You looked around, eyes going even wider when you realized everyone held their hands up. “The fuck? What did you major in?”

“I did psychology” Minhyuk answered first, holding a peace sign up. Funny how just a month ago you thought he was a psycho (which he most likely was), what are the odds?

“Computer science,” Kihyun joined in, playing a game on his phone. At least that one made some sense.

“Business and law” Shownu added, you already knew that though.

“Mechanical engineering” Changkyun continued, your jaw dropped.

There was a moment of silence as you just stared at everyone. How did you not know about this before? You seriously thought only your brother and Shownu had degrees, since they met because of that. Hoseok never mentioned anyone else.

“She really be thinking we dumb, huh?” Kihyun broke the silence, sending everyone into a laughing fit. You tried to explain that it wasn’t like that, but they just kept teasing you about it. You just resumed eating, not sure what to reply to them. It was a Thursday morning and even though you should’ve been at work, you were enjoying a peaceful lunch with everyone at the gym. Well, as peaceful as it could get.

Despite how normal everything seemed right now, you couldn’t help but feel some type of way about how things turned out with Changkyun. The day after the kiss, you planned to sit down with him and lay all your cards down no matter what he thought. After that, you planned to do the same with your brother.

Im Changkyun, I like you.

That’s the summary of what you wanted to say, but the moment you met him by the gym showers, he acted like the previous night never happened. Did it bring your self-esteem down a notch? Yes. Were you about to play the same game he was playing and forget about being an adult? Yes, absolutely, you’ve already been playing it for a few weeks, in fact.

Since things didn’t go quite as planned, you tried to avoid your brother as much as possible. You couldn’t tell him now that things got even more complicated with Changkyun, and you knew that if you ended up alone with him, it will be the first thing he’d bring up.

So for now, you clung to each and every member like your life depended on it.

Feeling your phone vibrate in your pocket, you fished it out, trying not to touch it with your oily fingers that were holding your bowl just moments ago, and checked the email notification you got.

Invitation to the Annual Seoul Veterinary Meeting

You felt as if someone poured a bucket of ice on you right there and then, and you’d know how that felt since you did the ice bucket challenge a couple of years ago.

“Didn’t you miss that meeting a few weeks ago when that Luna girl came to see you?” Changkyun asked, the email visible to him from where he sat beside you. You kept silent, not knowing what to say or where to start.

“Y/n?” He frowned, sensing something strange.

“Kyun, I think you were right…” You met his gaze with a hurt one. “Luna stabbed me in the back.”

-----------------

“So let me get this straight,” Your brother stared at Hyungwon who came back from his latest spying mission. He went MIA for three days so you started to worry something happened to him because of you, but he came back without a scratch. You were relieved.

“You’re telling me that my baby sister is not only mistaken for an MX member, but she’s also wanted by two Chinese gangs who are in a cold war with each other?” Hoseok’s face showed so many emotions you didn’t know which one to focus on. Worry? Anger? Confusion? Not a clue.

“Basically.” Hyungwon nodded, unbuttoning his suit jacket.

“Wonho, don’t worry, I’ll deal with this.” Shownu walked up to him, patting his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down a bit.

Instead of calming down, Hoseok flipped his whole desk, making you jump in your spot, and walked out of the office without another word. Minhyuk followed after him silently. Knowing your brother, he was probably on his way to destroy the punching bags in the gym.

“I’m not sure I understand everything. How did you even know all this?” Your voice came out much softer than you intended, but you guessed everyone heard you since they all looked at you, so you didn’t bother to say it again.

“Thanks to your friend,” Hyungwon walked to the fridge and opened a can of beer, sighing. “At first, we thought the gang that sent that guy to your apartment was the only one after you because they knew you were Wonho’s sister and they might have thought he hid the intel with you or something.” He started after taking a sip of the beer.

“But then after looking into that Luna girl, it turned out she got paid by another gang to lure you out and away from us. Thanks to Changkyun and Minhyuk, that didn’t happen, but she still wouldn’t give up, so I had to take care of her.” He fixed his gaze on you to make sure you understood what he meant.

“You killed her!?” You were aware she sold you for a few pennies, but you didn’t exactly want her dead!

“Damn, no, Who do you take me for? I just paid her more, scared her a bit and made sure she moved to another city.” Hyungwon’s serious demeanor disappeared for a moment. You were relieved to know she was okay, though.

“We don’t usually deal with the Chinese mafia so it took me a while to create connections on that side, but the moment I got a solid source I found out those two new families have been rivals for a couple of years now, and their latest competition is to get a huge business deal with the guy who commissioned us.” He finished, his seemingly nonchalant face prevented you from freaking out.

“What better way to get a deal with him than give him what he wanted before we did, right? Saves him money, gets them on his good side…” Kihyun talked to no one in particular.

“One of them probably tipped the US army, too, to make sure Wonho stayed out of their way. Amateur move” Jooheon joined from his own desk.

“So, what now?” You asked, looking at the leader who hasn’t said anything yet. Shownu’s phone dinged indicating a new text. He looked down with a frown, taking a few seconds to reply to you.

A few minutes later, his screen changed to display what you assumed was the base’s security cameras. You bent down to get a better view. You heard the boys go over the plan dozens of times but you were still not sure what was going on. Your eyes just searched the screen for their figures, trying to make sure they were okay. Soon enough, you noticed who you believed was Minhyuk taking down a couple of soldiers on guard. You knew he didn’t kill them, so you weren’t that horrified. When they were discussing the plan, they all agreed not to kill anyone because…well, this was the American army, you can’t just kill soldiers and get away with it.

The spy, Hyungwon, seemed to have taken a guard’s spot after dragging the ones who passed out to a corner where no one could see them. After a few minutes, he made his way inside and walked towards an office, probably trying to get that information they were commissioned for. It wasn’t long before he made his way out, guarding the door again. The other four followed Kihyun’s instructions and made their way to the basement, where Hoseok was held for investigation. No camera was showing your brother, and it made you nervous, but you trusted they knew what they were doing and just watched as they navigated through the base. Since it was early in the morning, most soldiers were out training, so they didn’t have to deal with many of them. Before you knew it, they managed to open a locked door and then they were dragging a badly injured Hoseok who could barely walk. Your eyes watered the moment you spotted him, both glad he was alive and pained that he was so hurt.

Everything else after that point was kind of a blur to you. You knew going out of the base was a hundred times harder than going in, but you were so emotional you couldn’t focus anymore. Kihyun’s shoulders tensed, alarming you more. Taking a deep breath, you used your sleeves to wipe your tears and looked at the screen again. Your heart skipped a beat when you saw a group of soldiers walking towards Hyungwon, Kihyun notifying everyone that they came back earlier than expected. They planned this scenario, though, so Minhyuk, Changkyun and Shownu were fast to join Hyungwon while Jooheon stayed back to walk Hoseok to the exit.

The four members were outnumbered, forced to use the weapons Changkyun had on him. Jooheon and Hoseok managed to get passed them and walk till the green-painted van safely, but before you could breathe out in relief, you saw more soldiers running towards the scene, probably called as reinforcement. They were now four versus a dozen soldiers, and you were starting to feel lightheaded. The first ones they ran into were there by accident, coming back from training, so they were unarmed and easy to get rid of, but the ones that joined later came with guns in hand, ready to shoot. The first time you gasped in shock was when a soldier shot Hyungwon in the leg, causing him to fall on his knee. Kihyun’s voice rang in your ears as he shouted at them to get out of there before anyone else gets shot. While Shownu helped Hyungwon up and backed up towards the van, Minhyuk and Changkyun used their own guns to stop the soldiers from catching up to them. It wasn’t an easy task seeing as they still couldn’t kill anyone.

You don’t know exactly how, or when all of them got in the van, but you and Kihyun breathed out when they finally managed to get out of there, the van speeding out of the base unnoticed. Jooheon, being the creative artist that he is, made sure to make it look like it belonged to the American army, and so no one stopped them at the gate. Kihyun moved a bit and motioned for you to sit down next to him, holding up one earphone for you. The first thing you heard when you placed it in your ear was Hyungwon’s pained groans. You asked Jooheon to press on his wound with something to control the bleeding, which made him scream even louder, but it had to be done. Since the base was on the outskirts of the city, it would take them about half an hour to get to your clinic, if you counted the time it took them to change vans in the middle of the road (They had to set the first one on fire, to prevent anyone from taking their blood and tracing it back to them.)

By the time they arrived, you and Kihyun had Changkyun’s table moved to the corner and the bed cleared. You had all your surgery instruments ready by the operating table (which was now bigger than the one you had last year, thanks to the members’ frequent visits). Kihyun let you know Hyungwon’s blood type so you could prepare the pack, too. Both of you went to the door when you heard them park out front. You heart was beating so fast you thought you were going to faint before even meeting your brother. Shownu and Changkyun were holding him from each side, while Minhyuk and Jooheon supported Hyungwon. You followed them to the back where they placed Hyungwon on the table and Hoseok on the bed as Kihyun locked the door up front and made sure there were no witnesses.

“Hey twinkie” Your brother tried to smile, his eyes showing how happy he was to see you. His voice was so dry you almost couldn’t recognize it. “Hey dork” you greeted him as you inspected his injuries quickly before placing a kiss on his forehead and turning to Hyungwon, whose situation was more urgent.

Unlike Jooheon’s surgery last year, Hyungwon was awake and made it his mission to let you know how much pain he was feeling as you attached the blood tube to his arm. With his loud voice, a few pets that were feeling unsettled and five men standing around you, focusing was quite the challenge. Taking deep breaths, you ripped his pants and cleaned the area to get a good look of the wound. This time, you had time to prepare the right dose of anesthesia, which you kept around just in case. You applied it locally before starting the search for the bullet. Hyungwon and a couple of others looked away, not standing the sight, but Shownu stepped in to help you and less than a couple of hours later, he was all stitched and dressed up. His screams no longer heard.

While you were taking care of Hyungwon, Jooheon and Minhyuk tended to your brother’s wounds as much as they could, leaving the more serious ones to you. They did a pretty good job and finishing up the rest didn’t take you long. You attached a couple of IVs to both his arms to give him some much-needed saline and a pain killer. By the time you were done, he was already looking a bit better. Throwing insults back and forth with Hyungwon. It hurt you how much weight he lost in just three weeks; you didn’t even want to ask what happened during that time. He had bruises and cuts everywhere, he could barely open his right eye, and he seemed like he was avoiding the topic. You kept smiling though, whatever happened there didn’t matter as much as the fact that he was back now, alive.

When noon came around, the clinic was significantly quieter, with both Hyungwon and Hoseok sleeping soundly. The others decided to stick around for a while longer, just in case. Since it was the weekend, you had quite a few customers pass by, but thankfully none of their pets required surgery. You had to clear your desk in the front to work there since you couldn’t work in the back with almost everyone there. Seeing as Kihyun was the only one who was dressed normally, he took the couch in front of you and typed away on his laptop, not paying attention to the people coming in and out. Many of them stared at him while you tended to their pets, amazed by his good looks (again, recruitment criteria clear as day). Some looked confused after hearing men’s voices coming from the back, forcing you to come up with a lie like ‘Oh I’m placing new shelves.’

Once Kihyun finished working on...whatever it was he was working on, he took the van keys and drove to the nearest diner to get everyone some food. You sat down on your chair, exhausted.

“Hey,” Changkyun’s low voice reached your ear, your heart skipping a beat when you realized how close he was standing to you.

“Hi” you whispered back. The same vibe you felt during that moment you had this morning enveloping you. You didn’t know why but you were suddenly feeling shy around him, looking at everything but his eyes. He just stood there, not saying anything for what felt like an eternity. When you finally locked eyes with him, he moved his arm and reached up, almost touching your hair.

“Hyungwon woke up!” Minhyuk shouted from the back, startling you. You jumped out of your chair and ran to the back, away from Changkyun. The anesthesia already wore off and Hyungwon was in pain again, so you gave him some pain killers and water before checking on the wound. The gauze covering it was bloody, so you took another one and started replacing it, getting a few swear words out of the injured man.

“Thanks for waking me up, assholes.” You heard your brother grumble, engaging in another argument with Hyungwon who needed a distraction from the pain. “Twinkie, press on his wound for me, please, no one talks to my baby sister like that,” Hoseok demanded jokingly, making you and the others laugh.

When he finally managed to sit up and walk, the first thing he did was throw his arms around you, making it harder for you to work on Hyungwon’s injury. He sighed, even though you knew he was probably hurting. You chuckled and turned to hug him back once you were done, taking the moment to feel his warmth again. You missed him so much you didn’t want to let go.

“Okay, enough of that cringy shit now, let’s eat.” Kihyun expressed from the door, holding up bags of takeout. Hoseok, being the childish dork that he is, made you eat lunch while you sat between his legs on the floor, refusing to let you go. Minhyuk helped Hyungwon move from the table to the bed where he could sit up and lean on the wall, leaving enough space for the hitman and the hacker to sit there and eat, as well. The rest joined you and your brother on the floor, leaving little to no space anywhere. You were glad your clinic was big enough to fit them all. After a chaotic lunch break, you resumed work while the others cleaned up, complaining about how your brother got special treatment since you asked him not to do anything.

Only when you deemed both Hoseok and Hyungwon okay enough to move did everyone walk out and into the van, ready to go back and take care of other pressing matters. Since Hyungwon wasn’t able to work, Minhyuk had to replace him, leaving you and Changkyun alone in the clinic (It totally didn’t make you nervous, totally.) Your brother took about ten minutes warning Changkyun and making him swear on his life to protect you, feeling bad that he couldn’t stay with you himself.

You were just glad he came back alive, you didn’t care about anything else.

Things fell back into place as you resumed your never-ending arguments with Changkyun, irritated that he put his ‘workshop’ back in place and started cleaning the weapons he used that morning. The day passed by in a flash, people coming to pick up their pets, and your brother calling you from Kihyun’s phone every half an hour to check up on you. Every time you picked up, you could hear Kihyun’s whiny voice in the background asking your brother to stop using his phone already. Your brother never called you that often, he usually texted you once or twice a day, sometimes calling you when he really needed to; but because Jooheon told him about what happened at your apartment almost a month ago, he became obsessed. You couldn’t do anything about it.

It was almost 10 pm when you shut down your computer and walked to the back to hang your coat and get your things, calling it a night.

“Get your ass up, I’m closing.” You talked to Changkyun, but he didn’t stop wiping his blade.

“Changkyun, come on! I’m starvi-“ You stopped mid-sentence when you noticed something. Changkyun looked at you confused, “My charm made you forget how to speak, princess?” he teased, but you didn’t bother to play this game, instead, walking to your instrument tray and fetching some things. You approached him, staring at his arm where the fabric of his shirt seemed to stick to his flesh. You didn’t know how you missed his injury, it looked pretty bad now that you noticed it. Changkyun put down everything and tried to move away from you, but you held him before he could do so, feeling upset for some reason.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” you asked, inspecting the cut. Looking down, you saw he had another one on his side, too. You felt so stupid.

“It’s no big deal, don’t bother.” He replied, finally understanding what you meant.

“Remove your shirt.” You ordered, not buying it. He was about to argue back but when he saw the look you sent him, he sighed and obliged, looking away. The cut on his arm was pretty shallow, thankfully, but the one on his side wasn’t and it took you a while to decide whether he needed stitches or not. You decided against it eventually and just made sure the injuries were clean and not bleeding. Changkyun tried his best not to show any reaction, but he ended up wincing a couple of times, making you mutter a few apologies.

“If you ever do this again, I’ll kill you,” you threatened as you put the last band aid. He chuckled, amused by your choice of words. Your eyes traveled down his sculpted torso, noticing for the nth time all the scars that decorated his tanned skin. Your heart ached as you took each and every one of them in, wishing you could make them all go away. When you looked up, Changkyun was staring at you with an expression you couldn’t decipher. You could’ve sworn he was leaning in, or was it you? You weren’t sure, and honestly, you couldn’t care less.

Your lips finally met his in a soft but desperate kiss, moving against each other slowly and passionately. Your eyes already closed, you moved your arms up and placed them around his neck as if they were meant to be there, running one hand through his long hair as he placed his hands on your hips, caressing the skin under your shirt. Over the last few weeks you spent with him, kissing Changkyun was probably at the top of your wish list most of the time. Were you to blame when he looked like a Greek God and acted like he was sculpted by one? No… You didn’t blame yourself and you didn’t expect anyone to blame you, either.

Your first encounter wasn’t ideal so you couldn’t say it was love at first sight, you still hated his guts sometimes (those times being when he teased you or stole your food). Deep down you knew something was bound happen between you two, though. So instead of resisting it, you just gave in. You didn’t want to disappoint yourself by thinking he liked you back, seeing as he didn’t act like he liked you, but at least the attraction, the tension between you two didn’t emerge from your imagination. If it did, he wouldn’t be kissing you so passionately right now.

For now, just for now… you wanted to enjoy this moment and forget about complicated feelings. If the chance arises, you can just discuss those later, like adults.

You let out a moan, about to deepen the kiss even more when your brother decided to call you for the nth time that day, ruining the moment. You broke the kiss and stepped back, clearing your throat to take the call and assure your brother again that you were okay, and that you’ll be there soon. A part of you regretted not ignoring the call and taking all this to the next level.

The ride back to the gym was awkward as hell. You couldn’t stand the silence, so you racked your brain to find anything to say. Anything that had nothing to do with what just happened, that is.

“Why I.M?” You finally asked, glad you found something.

“What?”

“Your alias, why is it I.M?” you repeated.

“Oh.. that’s my last name, Im Changkyun.” He explained.

“Ah… I see.” You replied, falling into the same awkward silence again. For the first time, you were thankful the clinic wasn’t far from the gym. Parking your car inside the garage again, Changkyun awkwardly handed you your car keys before heading inside, you following close behind.

Since it was a weekend night, the gym was filled with people again, shouting and cheering as they watched a match. You had to pass through the crowd to make it to the hallway that led to the offices. Holding onto your purse, you tried to avoid people as much as you could, but people kept moving and pushing each other, too drunk and excited to control themselves. Just when you thought you were about to be pushed into the floor, you felt Changkyun’s hand on yours. How you knew it was his hand and not someone else’s was beyond your understanding, but you were glad he came back. Lacing your fingers through his, you stayed close to him, your head hidden behind his back, until you made it out. You didn’t let go of his hand while walking towards the back, even though there was no one around anymore.

Or so you thought.

“The fuck?”

A year ago:

Putting your cup of hot chocolate on your desk, you focused back on the computer screen, trying to get as much work done as possible before heading home. It was raining outside and you had no umbrella, so you figured it would be better to stay later tonight, till it stopped raining at least. For some reason, you thought it was a good idea to walk to work today, out of all days, so you didn’t have much choice. Either work late or get soaked. You chose warmth.

“Y/N!” Your brother’s hurried voice boomed inside the quiet clinic, causing your heart to skip a couple of beats. Even the pets at the back were startled because of how loud it was.

You looked up, not expecting to see someone else with him. Both men soaked and panting as if they just ran a marathon. The other guy clung to your brother’s side, his face rid of color. Your heart dropped when you noticed that water wasn’t the only thing dripping on the floor.

There was blood, lots of it.

You hurried to them, trying to help get the man on his feet and away from the entrance where anyone could see. It was late and dark out, but you can never take chances, if you can see out, anyone could see in.

“You need to help him!” You met your brother’s pleading gaze, surprised by his tone. You haven’t seen this side of him since years ago, when your mom passed away and he was left alone to take care of you.

Before you could say anything, the man in your arms collapsed completely, losing consciousness. You held your breath, not sure what to do. You were a vet for fuck’s sake, not a doctor!

“Hoseok.. I-I can’t, you need to take him to the hospit-“

“He got shot, we can’t take him” Your brother groaned as he lifted his friend, making his way to the back and setting him on the operating bed there. Before you followed him there, though, you noticed a commotion outside.

A black van sped through the parking lot and stopped right next to your brother’s car. A man in a black suit got out of the driver’s side, seemingly walking right towards your clinic. You were frozen in your place, terrified. You could see he was holding a bat in his hand, and he didn’t seem very friendly. Your brain connected all dots fast, but your body gave no reaction.

Just when you thought he was about to reach your door and kill you, someone appeared behind him and hit the back of his knee, causing him to kneel down, still facing you.

The new guy held the man’s head in both his hands before he could fight back and immediately twisted his neck so hard, you could hear the crack from where you were standing.

There was no hesitation, no mercy, no remorse. He ended him just like that.

You watched as he dragged the lifeless body back to its van and struggling to throw it up in the back, away from people’s sight. You were still frozen when the man closed the van and made his way to the clinic himself. Why was everyone coming that way out of nowhere?

“Y/N!” Your brother’s voice boomed from the back again, bringing you back to reality. There was a dying man inside your clinic, and you needed to help him. You ran to the back, temporarily forgetting about the killer outside.

“He needs blood, and bring me a bed” you said, taking all the tools you needed from the shelves and putting them next to the operating table. “He’ll need to stay here, and this table is too small, it won’t hold for long. Do you know his blood type?” You took your scissors and cut the guy’s shirt, not waiting for your brother’s reply. The man was shot twice; you could see a bullet pierced through his right shoulder and one near his left abdomen. You were starting to doubt he’ll make it out of this alive. Instead of leaving, Hoseok stayed and assisted you.

Not wasting any time, you injected the injured man with a pain killer (made for animals, but you adjusted the dose as much as you could) and dried the wounded areas to avoid infections. You then started the procedure to get the bullets out of his body and make sure no vital organs or major blood vessels were damaged by the shock wave both bullets caused. Hoseok stood by your side, pressing one wound with gauze to slow the bleeding while you worked on the other wound. Both sides were swelling fast and there seems to be other wounds caused by projectiles.

“How is Jooheon?” A third, worried voice joined a bit after, looking up, you realized it was the same killer from earlier. Hoseok introduced him as Minhyuk. If what happened earlier wasn’t enough proof, his name confirmed it. Minhyuk was the assassin of the gang.

“We need a bed, and a lot blood.” You repeated since Hoseok couldn’t move. Minhyuk nodded and made his way out as fast as he came in, making a phone call on his way.

By the time you located the first bullet, Minhyuk was already back carrying a box full of blood packs and someone followed soon after him dragging a rollaway bed. You didn’t even bother asking where they got them, you just confirmed that the blood fit the man’s blood type before hanging a pack above his head and attaching it to his arm. If he waited a few more minutes, he would’ve passed away so you were at least grateful Minhyuk was fast.

It took you over five hours to get the bullets out and close up all wounds. You were praying you didn’t mess anything up. The only time you had to deal with a gunshot wound was back in university when you were doing an internship in an animal hospital over winter break. Someone brought in a deer that was shot by a hunter in a mountain right behind the hospital. You weren’t the one operating, but the surgeon at the time let you sit through the surgery. You just hoped you remembered correctly.

Letting Hoseok and the new guy who you learned was named Hyungwon move Jooheon to the bed he brought, you cleaned the place and looked through your storage for any dressing big enough to cover his other wounds, and possibly more effective pain killers. Half his torso was turning purple and even though you gave him a pain killer for now, you knew he’ll be in pain again soon.

Dressing up all his wounds and making sure there was nothing else you could do to help, you collapsed on the floor, physically and mentally exhausted. Hoseok came to your side, wrapping his arms around you. There was something about his warmth that triggered your tears to well up in your eyes, and before you knew it, you were sobbing in his chest.

Hyungwon stepped out, giving you some space. Minhyuk left earlier to go get rid of the black van and the man inside it. You weren’t sure you heard right but he mentioned the Han river…so there was that.

After crying out all your shock and stress, you got yourself together and pushed Hoseok away. You removed your coat and threw it in the garbage can. You could’ve washed the blood off of it, but you just didn’t want to keep it or anything else that reminded you of this. In the corner of your eye, you could see Hoseok trying to get your attention, probably trying to say something, but you didn’t give him the chance, keeping yourself busy.

“How is he?” You heard someone else come in the clinic. When you glanced out, there were two new faces inside with Hyungwon. You guessed they were Shownu and Kihyun, you just didn’t know which face corresponded to who.

“You can come see him.” You spoke up, bringing attention to you. Both men hurried your way as Hyungwon walked slowly, an apologetic look on his face.

“I did everything I could, but I can’t guarantee anything… he might not wake up.” You stared down at Jooheon, his face looking peaceful. He was too young to die… and now you held his life in your hands. Minhyuk joined a moment later, completing the gang.

Great, your clinic turned into a mafia headquarters for the night.

“How long will it take for him to wake up?” One of the men you didn’t know asked. You sighed, not knowing how to answer.

“I don’t- I don’t know. I’m a vet, I-I have no idea.” You felt a lump forming in your throat, Hoseok hugged you again, whispering apologies again and again. You never thought you’d go through this. When Hoseok joined MX, you weren’t exactly happy about it, you cried for days and begged him to just go back to the army, worried sick about him. The whole issue was focused on him, though, you never even considered being dragged into it. But here you were, in the presence of six mafia members, one of which might or might not die inside your clinic.

When you were calm again, you explained to everyone in detail what happened. You explained how the bullet in his right shoulder thankfully missed all major blood vessels so it should heal just fine given there will be no infections. Then you explained that the one on his left abdomen destroyed a part of his large intestine, so you had to somehow remove all the damaged part and stitch together what was left. That was what worried you the most. Based on the wounds, you thought he’d take about 24 hours to wake up, but then again, you weren’t sure of anything.

By the time you were done explaining, the sun was rising. Everyone decided to leave, except Hoseok who stayed behind to delete the security camera footage and to clean the entrance of the clinic, where blood dried out. You sat by Jooheon, praying he would wake up. Your brother tried to get you to go home but you couldn’t move. You just prayed there for hours on end. Even letting Hoseok deal with any customers that came in, only asking for your help when absolutely necessary.

To your delight, Jooheon finally opened his eyes a day after, groaning in pain. Relieved, you tried not to cry as you hurried to get more pain killers and call your brother. Jooheon spent what felt like an eternity thanking you once he woke up properly, but you didn’t care about any of that, you were just glad he woke up, and he was getting better.

He stayed in your clinic for weeks, not being able to move. The one time he tried to move one of his wounds opened and he started bleeding again, so you grounded him. You were surprised he listened without complaints. Talk about being a fierce underboss. During those weeks, you got to know each other better. He was almost the same age as your brother, so being with him felt familiar. Your conversations never seemed to stop, you’d work either on your desk or at the back near him and he would just lay there and make jokes or ask unbelievable questions, making you laugh. You felt bad that he couldn’t move and had to stay in a veterinary clinic out of all places, but you enjoyed his company a lot.

After his recovery, he came by to greet you whenever he could, always bringing you food or snacks. Being the paranoid person that you are, though, you asked him not to come that often anymore because every time he showed up you thought he got hurt again, so after a couple of months, he stopped coming and only called once in a while to check up on you.

That wasn’t the only time you had an injured member come in to get treated, but that was the only gunshot incident you dealt with, thankfully, so you didn’t mind the rest that much. It was always the same people: your brother, Minhyuk and Jooheon. It made sense, since they were the ones working ‘in the field’ while the others took care of the less violent sides of missions. Kihyun was the hacker and cable genius, Hyungwon was the spy and intel collector, and Shownu was the deal maker and boss. You only met them when you visited the gym with your brother, and they were doing just fine then.

.

.

“Hey! That’s mine!” You screamed, hitting Changkyun on the shoulder. The amount of food he could eat blew your mind, and you didn’t mind it if he didn’t try to eat yours, too. But he did, and that! you couldn’t allow. Since he and Minhyuk have been spending most of their time with you at the clinic, you ended up having all your meals with them. At first it was awkward and kind of terrifying, but after a few days you started forgetting about your first impressions of them and started conversing more, mostly with Minhyuk. All you did with Changkyun was fight, fight and fight more.

While Minhyuk spent his time either playing with pets, on his phone, working out or even helping you around, Changkyun turned the back of your clinic into a weapon workshop. He sat on the bed and moved a table near it to put all his tools on top and spent his day (and night) fixing guns, cleaning Minhyuk’s pistols, and tending to his endless blades while wearing stupid-looking magnifying glasses. You wanted to kick him out so bad, but he stayed out of your way, so you had no excuse to use. You were thankful no one came by to inspect the clinic.

When you asked Jooheon why it had to be (Changkyun) those two and not Kihyun or Hyungwon, or even better: him, he explained that they were the only ones free since there was no field work yet. The others had to take care of the Chinese gang that targeted you while planning for Wonho’s rescue mission. Hyungwon and Kihyun worked to get information, Shownu left to meet up with the businessman that commissioned them and Jooheon stayed around to fill in the boss’ chair while Shownu was gone. The UFC business and other matters couldn’t be paused.

“Alright, alright, gee.” Changkyun gave you the slice of pizza back, laughing when you glared at him, dead serious. “No wonder you’re Wonho’s sister.” He said under his breath, loud enough for you to hear. Despite wanting to retort something back, you just pouted and split the slice in half, sharing it with him. After three weeks, you ended up seeing him under a different light.

Your heart sank at the mention of your brother, but you tried not to make it obvious. It’s been three weeks since he went missing and even though Hyungwon got information that he’s okay, you were still worried sick about him, and you missed him like crazy but all you could do was wait.

“Okay! It’s done!” Kihyun exclaimed from where he was sitting on the couch in front of you, laptop sitting on his lap and a plate of food on his right side, between him and Minhyuk. “That was one damn firewall they got there, but I’m done now, we can start.” He smiled, putting his hands together to celebrate.

He broke into the base’s system, so now they can get your brother back…finally.

Unlike what movies showed, hackers didn’t trespass security systems in a few minutes, as you learned from watching Kihyun spending hours, days even, facing his computer and cursing at no one in particular. Jooheon had all the plan laid out and they all went over it again and again, considering every possible scenario.

“Alright. We move at dawn. Y/N, Kihyun will stay with you tomorrow since he can work from anywhere.” You nodded at Shownu, grateful that he still let you go to work. You weren’t sure you could focus enough to do anything though, knowing they were in a mission that could cost their life, and your brother’s.

Dawn rolled up faster than you wished, and everyone was walking around the office getting ready. They all wore black clothes with bulletproof vests and masks, except for Hyungwon who had an American army uniform which looked far too real. This was probably the first time everyone was going, including the boss (except Kihyun, who was gathering his gear and getting ready to come to work with you). You stared at Changkyun as he made sure all his blades were in place. He had his hair up in a manbun, face void of expression. As if he sensed your eyes on him, he lifted his head to meet your gaze. His face softened and a small smile appeared on his lips. Tucking one more gun in his vest, he made his way to you.

“Don’t touch my babies while I’m gone,” he joked, making you scoff. Was that all he could think of? His stupid weapons?

“Be careful…please.” You whispered, looking down to avoid his captivating eyes. He took your chin in his hand, though, making you look up at him again.

“I will, we all will… I promise.” His eyes were sincere. You felt slightly better as you nodded. Shownu clapped from the other side of the room, getting everyone’s attention.

Sighing, you entered the government building and made your way to the usual booth you go to every month to submit your paperwork, Changkyun walking a couple of steps behind you. You could see policemen around, who you usually don’t notice. This time, though, your heartbeat sped up a bit when you realized that Changkyun is most definitely armed (from head to toe, too) and if you’re stopped or searched by police for any reason whatsoever then it won’t end on good terms. Glancing to your side, you were surprised Changkyun walked as if he owned the place, not a single trace of nervousness visible on his features. He wore another leather jacket, and his whole outfit screamed trouble, yet he seemed to think he was as good as the rest of the people around. Not only that, but he seemed to actually enjoy the looks of admiration he got from the women passing by, too.

Maybe you should’ve reported him to the police to see if he kept that smug face on when he got arrested.

Admittedly, after the couple of days you spent with him, something told you he would totally keep it.

“Is this all? I need to go back to work out a bit, my schedule was messed up because of you so I gotta catch up.” Changkyun asked as soon as you walked out of the building, making you wish you were stopped by the police, after all.

“Please do go back, I wouldn’t want you to lose your precious abs because of me.” You mastered a fake smile as you walked up to your car. “I’ll be just fine getting my things done alone.”

“I appreciate you thinking so highly of my abs, princess, but I don’t think so.” He sent you a fake smile back and unlocked the car, getting on the driver’s seat. To say you wanted to cry was an understatement. You must have betrayed your country in your past life to deserve this.

Groaning, you got in the car and asked him to drive you home to get your mail. The mailman passed by that morning since it was a Monday and you had to at least pay your speeding tickets on time if you wanted to avoid any more police encounters (or did you? It was still the fastest way to get rid of Changkyun).

It took you about 10 minutes to get out of your car after parking in front of your building. Courtesy of bossy Changkyun who refused to let you go up to your place to check up on it. After miserably losing that argument, you two made your way to the mailboxes at the entrance. Being back felt weird even though it was just a couple of days since you were there. You caught yourself checking your surroundings a couple of times while walking, afraid the Friday night events repeated themselves. You told yourself time after time that it’ll probably not happen on a peaceful Monday afternoon when Changkyun was walking right next to you, but you couldn’t control your reaction. You still couldn’t even believe all what happened over one weekend.

“Alright, is that all, princess?” Changkyun voiced out once you went over all your mail, sorting out the important ones that you decided to take with you and putting back the rest in the box.

“How about you drop your childish impatience and either let me go about my day normally or fuck off to your gym appointment?” You snapped again, expecting some other sarcastic reply.

Except, this time you found yourself instantly pinned against the mailboxes, Changkyun holding both your wrists up, causing the mail to fall all over the building hallway. If looks could kill, you’d be 6 feet under right about now.

“I’m being pretty patient with you for the sake of Wonho. Don’t think my patience doesn’t have limits. I’ve warned you enough times, princess.” He whispered, his face a breath away from yours.

The change in the mood made you realize you were being too comfortable and cocky with someone as dangerous as the Chinese guy who attacked you. You still glared at him though, not appreciating his actions. Before you had the chance to say anything, he let you go and bent down to pick up the mail you dropped. Leaving you confused and not sure how to react.

“Y/N!”

Your gaze shifted to the figure running inside the building. You squinted your eyes, making sure you were seeing right. “Luna?” you wondered out loud.

“Is everything okay? Why aren’t you replying to any of my texts?” Your friend from university, Luna, who you haven’t seen in over a year eyed Changkyun before focusing on you. “Oh, you weren’t alone.”

“Sorry, I’ve just been busy, I was planning to reply today though, you didn’t have to come all the way here. How did you even-” You started to wonder before she interrupted.

“I passed by the clinic but I found it closed so I got scared, you never close on a Monday.” She looked at Changkyun again when he got up. “Who is this?” She then whispered. Your mind went blank.

You couldn’t exactly tell her this was the weapon expert in your brother’s gang who was here to protect you from some Chinese gang members.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Changkyun, her future boyfriend.” Changkyun smiled sweetly, making your jaw drop.

“Oh, really now?” Luna grinned, shaking his hand and throwing you a weird look. You were pretty sure you were never close to Luna enough for her to act the way she was, but that wasn’t your biggest problem right now. You looked up at Changkyun on your side.

“Yeah, I’d be her boyfriend already but she’s playing hard to get, you know how she is.” He continued, getting a chuckle from Luna. You couldn’t believe your ears.

He must be out of his damn mind.

“Well, future boyfriend, I was about to drag Y/N here to an annual vet meeting she keeps skipping, but since you’re together I’ll just go without her. You guys have fun together.” You looked back at her, laughing reluctantly, not sure what to think of the situation.

“Really? I wouldn’t want to disturb her work or anything-“ Changkyun started but Luna was already taking steps back, shaking her hands.

“Nah, it’s okay. Y/n, I’ll call you later to tell you all about it, okay? See ya!” By the time you said goodbye, she was already halfway through the parking lot. Leaving you staring into space.

“Do you usually have vet meetings on random Monday afternoons?” Changkyun handed you your mail, making his way out of the building. You didn’t follow, trying to make sense of this. You remember Luna coming to your clinic when you first opened it with other old classmates to congratulate you, but you didn’t recall telling her or showing her where you lived. Did your friends tell her? But why would she come all the way there and act like you’re inseparable when you didn’t even talk in months? What with the texting and calling. Something wasn’t right.

“Are you coming?” Changkyun yelled from outside, pulling you out of your deep thoughts.

Jogging to the car, you decided to keep it to yourself for now. It’s not like Changkyun would help. The man was about to get you another speeding ticket just so he could go work out or whatever.

It’s not a big deal, I’m overthinking this.

---------------------------

When you got back to the hideout, no one was around except for Kihyun and Minhyuk. The latter jumped up from his chair and rushed to work out with Changkyun. You guessed his schedule was also messed up since he also stayed with you at the clinic for the last two days.

“I’m surprised both of you came back in one piece.” Kihyun looked up from his laptop, a small smile appearing on his lips for a change.

“Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are.” You replied, getting a bottle of water from the fridge. “Any news about Hoseok?” You asked after drinking half of it.

“Still not leaving the interrogation room according to Hyungwon’s source, they seem to plan to keep him there until they get what they want.” He explained, getting a nod in return.

In all the scenarios that crossed your mind, you never imagined your brother being kidnapped by no other than the American army itself. According to Hyungwon, they are keeping him in a base right outside Seoul, which happens to be the one he was supposed to infiltrate. His source told him they don’t plan to kill him (which triggered some uncontrollable sobbing that took a while to calm down with the help of Jooheon) but they’re trying whatever they can to get him to crack and tell them about the mission and who ordered it. They don’t plan to tell the Korean government about it either, so that works perfectly for MX.

“Let me know if anything comes up, please.” You asked, waiting till Kihyun replied before making your way to your room. After having all pets picked up by their owners over the weekend, you reckoned it would be best if you closed the clinic for a day to both get some errands done and have time to process everything and organize your thoughts.

Laying down, it only took a few moments before you fell into some much-needed sleep. By the time you woke up, it was already nighttime, and you could hear the members’ voices outside your door, indicating that they were back.

“I told you to get me one without onions, how is that hard to remember?” You saw Minhyuk whine while holding a burger in his hand. Shownu was facing him with an apologic look.

“Just remove the onion, Minhyuk, it’s not that hard.” Hyungwon chipped in from the other side of his desk, taking a bite of his own burger.

“It’s not the same, it’ll taste like onions,” Minhyuk continued his whining.

Across from him, you could see (a very shirtless) Changkyun and Kihyun fighting over ketchup and Jooheon handing Shownu a burger, taking his attention away from Minhyuk’s weird show.

“Y/n! come eat, Kihyun told me you skipped lunch.” Jooheon called you over, showing you what you assumed was your burger. Hearing your name, everyone looked your way at once, but you just happened to lock eyes with the shirtless bastard who finally got a hold of the ketchup bottle. You smirked when Shownu asked him to go put a shirt on so he had to hand the ketchup over to an overjoyed Kihyun.

Clearing your throat and masking your smirk, you made your way to Jooheon and thanked him for the food. You turned to thank Shownu too since, based on Minhyuk’s whining, he was the one who got the food for everyone. This was your first meal with everyone. You didn’t know what to expect from eating around a whole gang, but it definitely wasn’t this chaos that reminded you of high school. This view made your fear of Minhyuk vanish faster than your monthly earnings on a shopping spree. You couldn’t say it wasn’t fun, though. You could see how close they really are to each other, and how they get along perfectly even though most the conversations they were having consisted of petty fights and sarcastic remarks. Hoseok told you all about this during your weekly Friday night dinners. He told you about Hyungwon’s savageness, Shownu’s aloofness, Minhyuk’s dirty jokes etc, but this… this felt different from anything he ever described to you.

It felt like a family, more than anything.

“Want another one?” Jooheon asked once you finished your burger. You shook your head, already full. You stayed silent, just observing everyone. They would go from work related talk to UFC matches planning to jokes to Hoseok rescue talk to fighting over who gets the last burger and it was all too good for you to ruin. There was an unexpected pattern too, you noted. Most serious talk was started or done by Minhyuk, Kihyun and Changkyun, while most jokes and not-so-serious topics came from Jooheon, Hyungwon and Shownu. The pattern went completely against how you pictured everyone. You listened carefully when they brought up your brother and laughed softly when they discussed or fought over other things. You could feel your stress and worry dissolve the more you spent time with them, without having to avoid speaking about your brother.

You just wished you didn’t miss him so damn much.

“Y/n, someone’s been texting you since earlier.” Kihyun pointed out to the sound of your phone’s notifications, which you missed over everyone’s loud voice.

Changkyun, being the closest to your room, went in to get it for you. It would have been weird in any other setting, but you didn’t seem to mind that one time. Looking down at your phone screen the moment Changkyun handed it to you, your eyes widened at the amount of messages and calls you got from no other than Luna.

“Everything alright?” Shownu asked, staring at you.

“Yeah, just a friend.” You excused yourself. Reading the texts on your way to the bathroom to brush your teeth. The texts didn’t sound as weird as your meeting with Luna that afternoon. She was mainly asking about you, and asking you to go to that vet meeting etc.

You were about to put your phone down when something struck you. Unlocking the screen again, you went back to Luna’s conversation and scrolled up to the first text you got from her that weekend.

Saturday at 1:43 AM

“Something the matter?” Changkyun’s voice came from behind you, making you spin fast and keeping your phone behind you.

“Huh? No, no, all’s good, just got a lot of texts to catch up with.” You blabbered away even though you really didn’t have to explain anything. Especially not to him.

Changkyun hummed as he grabbed his own toothbrush and stood beside you. Putting your phone face down, you also grabbed your toothbrush and paste, trying not to look like you’ve just seen a ghost. Brushing your teeth next to him seemed way more intimate than it should have, but he didn’t seem to think much of it. After what felt like forever, he was done brushing his teeth and was making his way back to the offices. Just before leaving, he turned and locked eyes with you through the mirror.

“Y/n, you can’t leave.” Shownu addressed you softly. For a mafia boss, he sure was a softie. You couldn’t figure out how he can be both.

“I’m not exactly following here. I need to go to work.” You replied, knowing exactly what he meant, but refusing to accept it.

“it’s too dangerous, y/n, if they know where you live then they surely know where you work.” Jooheon spoke up this time, coming closer to you.

“I can’t just not go to work, Jooheon, there are living beings there that I need to take care of. Are you asking me to let them starve while I hide here like a coward?”

“living beings? What is she talking about?” You heard Changkyun ask Shownu but you didn’t pay much attention to him, focusing on Jooheon, instead. At least you knew he’d help you.

“But-“ Jooheon started, only to be interrupted by Shownu this time.

“If you must go, then I.M and Minhyuk are coming with you.” You just stood there and stared at him, speechless.

Not only did he just assign you ‘bodyguards’ you didn’t ask for, he had to choose the worst two and make them into a nicely decorated package that is meant to ruin your life.

Isn’t that just fantastic.

“They’re absolutely not!” you argued. “Am I going somewhere?” Minhyuk joined the little gathering out of nowhere, scaring you.

“Either that or I’m locking you in that room.” Shownu challenged you. To be fair, his charisma was on such a different level from yours you couldn’t call it a challenge. This was like a game to him, and you were just playing your part.

“We stupidly lost Wonho, we can’t lose his sister too, y/n. You mean the world to him…to us” Jooheon explained slowly, his puppy eyes making an appearance again. You could swear he did that on purpose, knowing you couldn’t resist that look. You ignored the “speak for yourself” Changkyun muttered loud enough for you to hear.

“Fine, but if they disturb my work they’re staying outside.” You gave in, not having many options. You couldn’t exactly argue with Shownu, try as you might. He was a certified lawyer after all.

“I guess I’m going somewhere.” Minhyuk concluded, taking a jacket off a chair nearby him, you guessed that was his desk. You made a mental note to stay away from it, as well.

Sending one more glare towards Changkyun for snitching on you, you made your way to the door, he and Minhyuk on your tail.

This time, you were the one driving. Minhyuk sat right next to you while Changkyun sat in the back. The streets were empty, leave out the occasional appearance of someone walking their dog. Your clinic was only about ten minutes away from the gym, courtesy of your overprotective brother. He insisted on keeping you close, making you settle just a few blocks away from him. Even your apartment was just a few minutes away from his. If he didn’t have to work so much, it would have felt like you lived together still.

Parking at your usual spot, you noticed both Minhyuk and Changkyun looking out their windows, looking for anything suspicious. They even made you hand over the keys, Minhyuk going inside first to make sure no one was there waiting to strike. It’s only been 15 minutes with them and you were already wishing for the day to come to an end. What did you do to deserve this?

“Alright, all clear.” Minhyuk handed you your keys back, letting you in. You went straight to the back to check on everything, on everyone.

“When you said ‘clinic’ I was thinking of something else.” Changkyun commented from the front desk.

“Oh, you can actually think.” You threw back sarcastically, making Minhyuk laugh out loud. That was probably the first time you heard him laugh.

“Careful, princess.” Changkyun said, appearing behind you.

“Let me guess! when you joined MX, they told you Hoseok’s sister runs their private mafia hospital and keeps animals for fun.” You rolled your eyes, checking on the animals one by one, before going to fetch some more food and water for them. You had to keep two cats, a puppy and a hamster overnight, but all (but the hamster) were going to be picked up by their owners today, so you weren’t too worried about them. You hated to leave them alone at night. You wanted to hire an assistant to work the night shift, but Hoseok convinced you not to. Being overprotective and all… he just had to have his way with you. Plus, bringing an outsider was too risky if a member of MX showed up, injured. Because you couldn’t work 24h alone, you had to inform pet owners that their pets would be alone for about 8 hours every night. When you felt like they were uncomfortable with the idea, you just recommended the closest vet clinic instead.

“Take a seat, and please don’t scare the clients.” You said to no one in particular, after you were done. Sighing as you walked to the front desk, you turned on your computer and sat down to start the day’s paperwork. For some reason, you had more people stop by during weekends than weekdays, so you wanted to get as much work done before that started. It was one of the reasons why you woke up and started work so early (and also because you had no receptionist to do this work for you).

You were glad the paperwork served as a distraction, though. While Minhyuk stayed in the back, Changkyun thought the couch right in front of you was comfortable and so he sat there. He wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there looking down at his phone, occasionally glancing outside, but he still bothered you for some reason. At least you couldn’t see or hear Minhyuk from where he sat, why couldn’t Changkyun do the same?

“Can I play with them?” Minhyuk’s voice startled you. Scratch that part about not seeing or hearing him.

What was with these people and sneaking around? And here you thought Hyungwon was the spy in the group…if these two can sneak around like this, what can he do?

“W-what?” you asked, carefully.

“The pets, can I play with them?” He repeated, a small smile on his face. You felt goosebumps on your skin but tried not to look too nervous. For a killer he sure did have a face of an angel. MX definitely based recruitment on looks, there’re no way this was a coincidence.

So, could you trust a psycho cold-blooded murderer around little innocent creatures? That was the million-dollar question of the day.

“Sure!” you weren’t sure why your voice went up an octave, but both men didn’t seem to make much of it. You took your keys and led Minhyuk back to the pet cages.

Not so surprisingly, he asked you to open the cats’ cages. You should’ve known.

After making sure the cats didn’t feel hostile towards him (like you did), you placed the cats in their little playground then you made your way back to your desk, resuming work till your first customer came in. You took the time to order some necessities online since you knew you wouldn’t dare ask the two men to come with you to the supermarket, and you didn’t plan on going back to your place any time soon. To your delight, the items were delivered fairly quickly, Minhyuk receiving them instead, saying something in the lines of “don’t you watch movies? Delivery men are always the villain in disguise.”

Your first client of the day was a young college girl who came to pick up her puppy. You gave her a form to fill and sign while you went to the back to get it, noticing the cats having a blast with Minhyuk. When you came back, the girl was basically drooling while staring at Changkyun who paid her no attention. You cleared your throat and after a few other minutes, she was hesitantly on her way out, still staring at him.

You wanted to believe that would be the only time that happened, but your ‘friend’ attracted more attention with his looks and outfit than necessary.

“Why don’t you go to the back? You’re distracting everyone here.” You finally cracked. He looked up, eyes looking straight into yours while a smirk formed on his annoying lips.

“I’m distracting you, princess?”

“You’re disturbing me, fuckboy.” You snapped, not able to hold it in anymore.

He laughed as he uncrossed his legs, sitting up and stretching a bit (and flashing his abs) before walking slowly to the back. You sighed in relief before following him. You had to clean the cage that was emptied this morning. Better do it now than later tonight.

You three fell back into a not-so-comfortable silence, not to you at least. Both Minhyuk and Changkyun played with the cats and conversed while you cleaned, leaving occasionally to go tend to a costumer. By the time lunch rolled up, your workload doubled, and so did the amount of fun the men were having. If anyone could see that scene, they’d think those two were the real vets here, not you. They took turns to check around the area every hour or so and faced the CCTV to monitor who comes in and out the clinic, but aside from that they didn’t look like they wanted to leave the cats’ side.

You didn’t know how to feel. It was utterly conflicting. The Changkyun that sat on your clinic floor playing with Violette was the same one who shot a person in your bedroom last night, probably with the intention to kill. The Minhyuk that smiled so brightly at Gummy was the same one who coldly killed a man with his bare hands and dragged him away right in front of you, last year. You knew your brother was in the same line of work, you knew he could also be cold and scary, but you knew he would never take anyone’s life.

Or maybe he did, and you just thought you knew everything when you didn’t.

Either way, you couldn’t shake the eerie feeling you got from them even though you knew they did what they did for good reasons. To be fair, both times you witnessed them murdering (or attempting to murder) someone, it was to save you, and others. You couldn’t exactly complain. If anything, you should be thanking them both. You just couldn’t get yourself to do it…yet.

“…y/n?” You were shaken out of your trance by no other than Minhyuk himself.

“Huh? What?” you replied in a hurry, unconsciously taking a step back away from him.

“It’s kind of a long story and we’re not sure yet, but something probably went wrong with our latest job and things went south from there.” He replied before taking the glass from your hand and placing it on the desk next to him. When he saw how you were still as confused and lost as you were a moment earlier, he got up and took your hand, leading you to a quiet room at the far end of the warehouse-like office. You were told earlier by Minhyuk that you were going to stay there.

“Sit,” Jooheon asked softly. You made your way to the single bed in the corner of the tiny room. Taking a seat, you looked at him again expectedly as he took his own seat across from you again, this time on a small metal chair.

“A couple of months ago we got a big job. It was kind of like a commission, we never had something like that before but since the money we would make out of it was too big to refuse, we all decided to go with it. We should’ve known it was too risky.” He sighed.

You remembered Hoseok telling you that he’ll be a bit busier with a new mission.

“Some Chinese businessman wanted us to get some important intel from one of the American military bases. The plan was to have Wonho infiltrate it but it seems like the Americans found out somehow and got him before he even tried.”

“That would explain the American accent, but what do I have to do with this? Why did that Chinese gangster come after me?” You wondered, not quite getting the big picture.

“We don’t know yet, but since Changkyun saw their logo, we’ll found out as soon as possible.” Jooheon put his hand on your shoulder in an attempt to comfort you. You didn’t know what to say, so you just nodded.

“Get some rest, you’re safe here.” He patted your shoulder before standing up and leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

You didn’t know when or how you fell asleep. All you could remember was getting under the cover and crying till your head hurt. It was still hurting, and the alarm wasn’t helping. Getting annoyed, you sat up and reached for your purse to find your phone. As soon as you turned it off, your lockscreen wallpaper stared at you, displaying your and your brother’s bright smiles, reminding you of everything that happened the night before. You only slept for a couple of hours, and you were wishing you didn’t. it only made you feel weaker and more confused than you did before falling asleep.

Opening your suitcase that sat in the corner of the room, you took out the first outfit you put your hands on and got up, making your way out of the room. The office was dead silent, probably because it was too early for anyone to be there. Since you had to open up your clinic every morning, your alarm clock was set to 5:00 am daily. You didn’t exactly appreciate it, but you had to work, so you always got up without complaining. It was something you learned from Hoseok. Both of you only needed one alarm to wake up, sometimes even waking up right before it went off. When you were in university, your roommate always wondered how you could wake up for class without setting one for every 5 minutes.

Your response was always “it’s a sibling thing.”

Since this was a gym, you didn’t have to worry about not finding a shower. Making your way to the showers, it was easy for you to spot your brother’s items just by looking for the specific shampoo he used. You had no other choice but to use them since you didn’t bring anything with you from your apartment last night. You were lucky you even had the time to gather some things before Changkyun decided to drag you out of there or even worse, that guy miraculously woke up and tried to attack you again.

I wonder what they did to him.

Closing the door just in case someone came to work out early, you took a quick shower and wrapped yourself in your brother’s towel. This time, taking the time to dry your hair a bit before putting your clothes on.

“I’m starting to like this, you know.” A slightly familiar voice came from behind you, causing you to yelp in surprise. You clenched the top of your towel and looked back, sending an obvious glare his way. You had to admit, he was really good at sneaking around.

“You in a towel, I mean. You don’t get to see this view much around here but here I am, seeing it for the second time in a few hours.” He laughs, still shamelessly staring at you. You wanted to pop his eyes out of his head, but seeing as you’re only wearing a towel, that might have to wait.

“How did you get here? Get out.” You asked, or more like ordered. You figured, judging by how his upper lip twitched, he didn’t appreciate that very much.

“Wonho should’ve told you, locked doors don’t really stop anyone around here.” Instead of leaving you be, he walked closer, only leaving a few inches between the two of you. “Or did you already forget the way I magically showed up inside your room last night? I’m still waiting for that ‘thank you’, by the way.” He smirked down at you.

“Why should I thank you? You were pointing a gun at me last night.”

“I did call you pretty, though, I should’ve said sexy instead.” He smirked.

“GET.OUT”

“Princess, don’t use that tone with me.” He whispered in your ear. He was still wearing the same red leather jacket he had on the previous night, which you unwillingly admitted looked really good on him. You didn’t have the time or the energy the night before to actually look at him but now that he’s that close to you, you had quite a good look at his features. Sharp nose, thin smirking lips, deep mesmerizing eyes… you started to question if looks were the first criteria to be part of the MX gang.

He was damn fine, and you hated it.

“Fine, I’m leaving then.” You pushed him away, still very much annoyed. Why was he there, anyway? Didn’t he have other things to do? Your brother was still missing for God’s sake, the least he could do is pretend to do something about it.

“Not so fast.” He stopped you before you stepped out the door, hand still holding the top of your towel. “You look like you’re going somewhere.” He stated.

“And?”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

You chuckled at the audacity.

“A foreigner? Were you able to tell where he’s from?” Kihyun asked this time, his voice tense. You shook your head no. “I’m not sure, he sounded American but he could have been from anywhere.” You went over that phone call over and over, trying to find any other clue that could help, but there was none.

“Changkyun, take her home.” Minhyuk ordered, his voice sending shivers down your spine. You wanted to object. You wanted to stay and help find your brother, but not only did you know you’d be of no help whatsoever, you were also scared shitless of Minhyuk and didn’t even dare look his way, let alone talk back to him.

Hoseok always told you about him, how he’s a funny guy, a good one if you got to know him. You couldn’t help it though. You knew from the start that he was the hitman in the gang, the assassin, but it never actually hit you until you saw him in action once. You never looked at him the same after that. His cold gaze, the way he took that guy’s life with no hesitation or remorse whatsoever… you could never shake that image out of your mind. You saw him as a complete psychopath and the farther you stayed away from him the better.

Due to your lack of objection, Changkyun had no choice but to listen to his older friend. He didn’t like the way everyone was treating you. He couldn’t trust you. Mostly because he didn’t know you. Unlike everyone else, he’s never met you. He was the last one to join the gang, and even though he heard Wonho speak about you during many occasions, he never realized that everyone already met you…even knew you enough to hug you. He could never get that close to anyone outside MX.

“Keys.” He held his hand out to you as he stood tall on your left, making it very obvious that he didn’t want to do this. You looked at Jooheon for help, but he was already facing the others, probably discussing a plan. Jooheon was Shownu’s right hand man and the strategist, so if anyone is going to plan to save your brother, it was going to be him. You weren’t about to disturb that by being a spoiled brat.

You sighed, fishing your keys from your pants and dropping them on his palm. It took you a second to gather enough energy to stand up without falling back down. All kinds of scenarios were running inside your mind. A million questions at the tip of your tongue, desperate to be asked. You didn’t want to bother the men with them yet, though. You were going home and you were going to wait till they called you or brought you some news. If Hoseok trusted them with his life, then you had no right to doubt them. They’ll bring him back to you safe and sound.

Or so you hoped, at least.

Changkyun waited for you to lead the way to your car. You could sense his gaze on you as you walked ahead of him and it bothered you to no end, but you weren’t in the mood to talk to him. Judging from your little interaction with him earlier at the office door, he was the type that could get under your skin with just his sarcastic comments. You planned on keeping speech at minimum to avoid any unnecessary arguments.

It seemed like that’s what he had in mind, too, seeing as he kept silent the whole way. Upon arriving to your car, he took the driver’s seat and silently selected Home on the GPS, not bothering to ask you if it was the right address.

If Minhyuk terrified you, then Changkyun irritated you to no end and you only met him a couple of hours ago. You weren’t sure which one was worse.

Glancing down at his side, you could see his gun poking out from under his leather jacket. Attached to his left forearm, a blade shone under the streetlights, making you wonder how many other weapons he had on him. According to Hoseok, he could hide weapons virtually anywhere. Your eyes traveled down his body, trying to spot more of them.

“Enjoying the view?” Changkyun asked out of nowhere, causing you to jump in your seat. You didn’t reply, choosing to look out the window and away from his smug face. That was enough to let him know you were ignoring him. Changkyun only chuckled, making a stop right outside your apartment building. Turning off the engine, he threw the keys on your lap before stepping out of the car. You stayed stunned for a moment, not believing how eager he was to go back. Swearing at him under your breath, you got out and locked the car as you marched towards the entrance. Not saying a word to him.

The moon light illuminated your apartment enough for you to make your way to your bathroom without turning any lights on. You didn’t know why but that darkness brought you some comfort, or maybe it was just the fact that you were back home where you felt safe. Immediately stripping off all your clothes, you only turned your mirror lamp on before you stepped under the boiling hot shower and let your muscles relax. Your brain was still racing with all kinds of thoughts and concerns, but you tried to push everything to the back of your mind for now. There was no point in worrying, anyway. You were helpless in this situation.

When you felt like your skin couldn’t take the heat anymore, you stepped out of the shower and wrapped yourself in a towel. You hurried to your bedroom, still not turning the lights on, and reached out to your pajamas that sat at the bottom of your bed. You didn’t get to touch them when a cold metal met your temple for the second time that night. This time, though, you weren’t in your brother’s workplace where you knew no one would willingly hurt you. Someone was inside your bedroom, waiting for you in the darkness with a freaking gun. You felt like time stopped as you put your hands up slowly.

The man spoke in what you assumed was Chinese, his voice so gruff you wanted to step away. Now, you were just fine taking that call with the guy who spoke English, but you had no idea what this guy was saying. Did he want your money? Why not just take it and leave then? Why did he sound like he was asking you questions? Before you had the chance to say anything, though, you heard something by the door and then the next thing you knew, the light was on, the intruder was on the floor bleeding all over your carpet, and Changkyun was standing a few feet away from you, gun and silencer in hand. Your brain couldn’t process any of it. It all happened too fast.

“Get dressed and gather whatever you can.” He spoke up, walking around and inspecting your apartment. You didn’t budge. You couldn’t. This was beyond your abilities.

“Y/n!” He yelled this time, voice urgent. You jumped, running back inside the bathroom and wearing the clothes you removed earlier as fast as you could, which wasn’t really fast seeing as your whole body was shaking. When you came back, Changkyun had your small suitcase open on your bed. Ironically, the only thing you could think about at the moment was the fact that he went through your closet without asking. You wanted to laugh. Taking whatever clothes and underwear your arms could reach, you stepped over the guy on the floor and threw everything in the suitcase. You added your laptop and other items you thought you needed on top before you closed everything up and looking at Changkyun to signal him that you were done.

He took the suitcase and walked out of the room, expecting you to follow behind. You couldn’t just leave, though. Bending down, you put two fingers near the bleeding man’s nose to make sure he was still alive. He was, but based on the amount of blood surrounding him, you knew he wouldn’t hold up for much longer.

Standing back up, you ran out of your apartment taking your purse with you on your way. Changkyun was already in the car texting someone, suitcase visible on the back seat. The moment you closed the door behind you, he sped up in the direction of the gym again.

“How did you-“ You wanted to thank him first, but the question came out before you could stop it.

“His gang logo was on one of the cars out front.” Changkyun seemed to have understood what you wanted to ask.

“That’s a gang member?” You wondered out loud.

“I doubt your next-door neighbor takes Chinese classes and has a gun laying around just because,” he replied, running the nth red light. If you were in your right mind, you’d be crying about the number of tickets you got tonight. You’re definitely losing your license.

“How did he get into my apartment? And what the fuck did he want from me?” You asked again after trying to make sense of everything in your head, only this time you didn’t get a reply as Changkyun was parking in the gang’s garage, right next to Kihyun’s bike.

The moment you walked back into the offices behind Changkyun, Jooheon ran to you, making sure you were okay and asking question after another. You just stared at him, feeling utterly lost. He held both your shoulders and walked you to the nearest chair before running to get you some water. Everyone around you was talking, but you couldn’t understand anything they were saying.

Less than an hour ago you were here, worrying about your brother’s safety. Now you were back here again, hair soaked and still worrying about your brother, but only this time, some Chinese gang was apparently after you while one of them bled out on your bedroom carpet.

Not exactly the Friday night you were looking forward to.

“Changkyun, Hyungwon, take y/n’s keys and go take care of that body. Minhyuk, get y/n’s suitcase, she’ll stay here till we figure things out.”

You felt like your whole body was drained out of blood. Before you knew it, you were on your way to see him, or his team. Just anyone.

They better have a good explanation for this.

It better be a prank or a training session, because if not then...

No. It can't be anything else.

Hoseok trusted you enough to tell you about anything. You were the first one to hear he was joining a gang called MX. You know everyone he works with (albeit not personally, but you’ve heard enough about everyone) and everything he does, except mission details. If anything, you'd say you knew way too much about his life. So, if there was anything scheduled today, he would have definitely told you, right? You kept racking your brain as you stepped on the gas. You didn’t care for speeding tickets at this point, you just needed to see Hoseok as soon as physically possible.

Parking your car a couple of blocks away from your destination, you draped a scarf over your head before making your way through alleyways. It only took a couple of minutes before you could spot that dreaded red door. There was a guard by it, as always, and some people gathered, visibly drunk and screaming trouble. You took a deep breath and continued that way.

Ever since Hoseok started working here, you've only been twice, and both times were during random afternoons. You've only heard stories from Hoseok about how it was at night. You never imagined actually seeing it for yourself but here you were.

The guard checked your ID before hesitantly letting you in, probably wondering what someone in such an outfit was doing in that side of the city. The sound of people shouting and cheering hit you the moment he opened the door. A few steps in and you could already see the ring in the center of the room. There were so many people surrounding it you couldn't see who was inside fighting. The only thing you could see is the blood splashing now and then. The fact that people cheered louder when the blood was visible made you sick to the core, but you didn’t let that get to you. You needed to make sure Hoseok was okay.

Making an abrupt stop and looking around, making sure no one was watching you, you turned a dark corner and hurried to the back side where you knew the real purpose of this place was. Hoseok and his team used it as a hideout, which fit just fine. During the day, athletes and fighters used the main area as a gym and came to train, getting Hoseok’s help whenever he wasn’t training with his guys himself. During weekend nights, there would be boxing matches which they somehow managed to make legal. No one suspected that behind all that, an actual mafia gang worked in the offices in the back. But then again, they kept it super private to keep the attention away from them. The boss never hired many men or made a ‘family’ like other gangs, it was just six members doing all the work, turning seven a few months back after welcoming a new weapon expert. In all the years they’ve been together, the police were never on their tail.

A few turns later, a single door separated you from finding out the truth. You put your shaking hand on the doorknob and twisted it, making your way inside. Before you had the chance to look up though, a cold metal was on your temple. You forgot to breathe for a second, your mind going blank.

“So now y’all using pretty faces to try to get to us? Not too original, for real,” a deep voice reached your ears as you took a shaking breathe, trying to calm down.

Unfamiliar voice and a gun? This must be the new guy I.M.

“Get that thing the fuck away from me.” You muttered between your teeth, spotting Shownu at the far end of the room reading intensely from a file. Great, the boss was around.

Out of all members, Son Hyunwoo (who went by Shownu) was probably the one who impressed you the most. It wasn’t because he was the boss, but because there was seemingly nothing he couldn’t do. When you heard stories about him from Hoseok, he sounded like the slowest dumbest person in the world. You were fooled at first, but then you learned the man had degrees in business and law, he ran the gym and managed UFC fighters, he could pass for a UFC fighter himself with a body like his, and on top of everything he made sure to take care of his team in the best way possible. He was like a father figure to everyone despite his young age. Even you felt his fatherly side when he occasionally sent an accountant and a business consultant to your clinic to make sure your business is running smoothly.

“Oh! She got balls,” the man holding you at gun point chuckled, finally bringing some attention to you. “What brings you here, princess?” He asked, his voice rid of all humor he had a moment ago.

“Changkyun, put it down.” Shownu stared at you, confusion visible even from where you were standing. The guy next to you, Changkyun, lowered his gun a second later. You didn’t waste time to run further inside, your eyes searching the place.

“Y/n, what are you doing here?” Shownu’s voice softened as he came closer to you. You faced him, trying to see if he was pretending like nothing was wrong, or if he genuinely didn’t know.

“Where’s Hoseok?” You asked, your heartbeat speeding up as you waited for an answer.

“Who the fuck is this? How does she know Wonho’s real name?” The same deep voice, Changkyun’s, asked from behind you, sounding defensive this time.

“Changkyun, this is Wonho’s sister, she’s-“

“WHERE THE FUCK IS HOSEOK!” You screamed, fists clenched, making Changkyun curse. Shownu just stared at you, not startled at all. You remembered Hoseok telling you how he never got scared. What a perfect time to confirm that. In the corner of your eye, you could see someone else appearing from behind another door, probably alerted by your scream.

“…It’s Friday night, shouldn’t you be with him?” Shownu finally answered.

Your knees finally gave in, not able to hold you up anymore. You were praying this was all a dream. You were praying what Shownu said was actually just in your head, that this was all fake.

Because if it was real then…

“Hoseok...” You sighed, not having enough energy to form a full sentence.

“Y/n, what’s going on?” you recognized Jooheon’s voice by your side, his left arm made its way around your shoulder, holding you close to him. Out of all of Hoseok’s teammates, only Jooheon knew you enough to be that close to you. A single tear traveled down your cold cheek.