“Hey dork, what’s up? You seem..” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, mimicking a thinking pose, “Unlike you. Scoot.”

Baekhyun dropped his tiny body beside his large one and bit the apple that he’d pilfered from Kyungsoo. He offered Chanyeol one, but the taller boy shook his head, the glazed look still haunting his face. “See? This is what I mean. You used to pounce on Kyungsoo every time he came back from the grocery store last time, seriously Yeol. What’s wrong? Are you PMSing?”

The pixy’s attempt at humour was only met with a soulless grunt, Baekhyun frowned, “Park Chanyeol, you’d better tell me what the heck is wrong with you before I drag Suho down to cross-question you,” he said in a threatening tone. He sighed, struggling to focus his attention on Baekhyun as he tried to answer his roommate’s inquiry, “Nothing Baek, just..”  He trailed off, and before the shorter boy could plague him any further, Suho’s command for them to gather rang throughout the manor.

“A new mission, I suppose,” Chen’s voice was filled with glee and mischief. Sehun was looking his usual miserable self, with the addition of a rather grumpy Jongin. Possibly due to Kyungsoo’s kitchen ban, he was tired of having to cook multiple times for the 12 of them. Every time he turned the other side, surely some food was bound to go missing.

“Where, Suho?” Kris was straight to the point as usual. Actually, he was the only one who seemed odd, the rest seemed normal. ‘Normal enough,’ Chanyeol decided when he saw Xiumin constantly having to nudge Lay to pay attention to Suho. For all his blank-looking face and clueless behaviour, Lay was an expert in gathering infos and intels. ‘Maybe that’s why?’ Chanyeol mused.

“Chanyeol? Chanyeol?”

He heard a faint voice cutting through the thick haze of his imagination, a tug on his sleeve, then, “!”

All eyes were on him, but Baekhyun’s grin was more than enough for him to decipher the cause of his brief distress. “Chanyeol.” It took a moment for him to look up and another to focus on Suho’s instructions. “You’ll be assisting Lay and me in intel and info gathering this time round. Scout every possible entrance and exits of the JYP manor, understood?” He nodded once and resumed staring at the linoleum floor, missing Baekhyun’s solicitous touch on his back.

 

Chanyeol was beginning to find his routine before every mission wrought with a strange tension. It stretched his nerves thin, made his gaze sharper and sealed his lips close, betraying his usual cheerful and happy-go-lucky personality. He barely talked anyway nowadays, too many things swirling in his head, Baekhyun’s worried gaze weren’t past his attention but – he slid his Beretta in the holster beneath his heavy coat – there were other more urgent matters demanding his attention. He struck the sole of his boots once on the floor, straightened and hit the ground floor.

 

“You good?” Lay passed a wireless earpiece to him, “Put it on now, you’ll need to keep in constant touch with us, you know what you’re supposed to do?” He nodded, slithering off his coat.

“Move.” Suho disintegrated, fine particles sweeping his bangs with a light tremor, and he realised that he was alone, Lay long gone. A flicker of green lit his way along the grim corridor and waned automatically as he stepped past it.

The hair on the back of his neck stood, Chanyeol stilled, trained body freezing smoothly, the gleaming green ball vanishing instantly. Normally it would’ve escaped his notice. Normally, it wouldn’t even have registered in his mind, any abnormalities, that is. But he was high-strung, body strained stiff since they’d stepped foot into the turf. He narrowed his eyes, senses on high alert as he tried to gauge what lay in the darkness that encompassed both him and the surrounding. A faint exhale echoed in the hushed space, Chanyeol inched forward quietly, one hand locked on his darling Beretta. Crouching behind one of the many shelves that occupied the space, he risked a glance to the place he suspected his prey rested.

He pulled back; the rules were definite, Suho’d drilled it into his head a hundred times in the past, kill anyone that sees you, no mercy allowed. But he’d not once applied this rule to himself, more like, there was no apparent reason for him to employ it before this, and neither did he want to start now! The air shifted behind him, Chanyeol moved, recoiled, but not before a slash of silver sliced through his shirtsleeve. He rolled back, Beretta falling into his ready hands smoothly as he lunged forward towards the assailant in retaliation.

Securing one hand around the anonymous assaulter, he hooked his leg around the thrashing body and pulled, plummeting while simultaneously pressing his gun to the mystery attacker’s temple.

“Who the hell are you and what the are you doing here?” He questioned the heaving body underneath him. A husky chuckle was thrown in before a throaty, “Heya, Park,” greeted him in response.

Minzy.

 He suppressed his groan and the low tug she induced in his stomach and got off her, “Are you mad? What on earth are you doing here?”

“Why wouldn’t I be here, Park?”

“This is no time for jokes,” He hissed, exasperated. Even in the darkness, her eyes still glowed with an unearthly brightness as she stared directly at him, “Who said I was joking?” This time he did groan, unable to comprehend the intricate works of a woman’s mind, you never know when and how they might burst.

“Minzy please, you have to get out of here!” His earpiece crackled to life, “Chanyeol? You there?” His eyes widened, heart snagging as he tried to form an intelligible reply. “I’m here, Lay-hyung, anything wrong?”

“No, nothing wrong here. Where are you anyway? Are there any suspicious activities in your sector?” He shot a glare at his blonde goddess, who only looked at him with her nose high up in the air, “No, nothing dodgy here hyung, I’ll inform you if anything goes off.” He disconnected the line and stashed the damned earpiece in his pocket then grabbed her hand, dragging her reluctant body behind him.

 

Lay tugged off his earpiece and looked at Suho, “Is it me or do you think there’s something wrong with him as well?” The shorter man pursed his lips, deep in thought.

“Send in Kai, just in case.” Lay nodded and affixed the earpiece again to make another call.

 

“Minzy please, you have to go, now!” He was almost on his knees goddammit! Did he literally have to go down to make her leave?! It’s for her own good for crying out loud! She shook her head, giving him the silent treatment. “Oh for ’s sake, will you just leave?”

“No, Park. Which part of ‘no, I’m not leaving’ do you not understand?” Repressing another bout of frustrated noises, he grabbed her shoulder and made her sit on an empty chaise nearby. She glowered at him, steely eyes refuting him. Chanyeol looked to his side, exhaling softly before placing his arms on either side of her, eyes looking straight into hers, “Look, you’re not supposed to be here, this is not your place. So please, leave.”

She blew her on her dishevelled bangs, “You’re a thief, I’m officially hired to execute bastards like you, so I don’t see the reason why I shouldn’t be here.”

“I’m trying to save you.”

“I can take good care of myself, thank you.” She spat back acerbically, bristling with barely restrained fury. He sighed softly before looking up at her. Her dark eyes sparked with challenge, clashing with his, daring him to try and toss her out. And suddenly, he found his body ablaze with another kind of heat entirely.

Before he knew what exactly was he was doing, he found his hand tangled in his thick, silken mane, lips whispering against her satiny skin. And before he could stop himself, he’d tracked a steady path to her lips, halting so that a few millimetres were left. Her lips parted open slowly, tongue darting out to moist her cracked lips. And he fell readily, lips touching, learning each other’s contours. She gasped when he touched his tongue to the roof of ; her hands tightened their hold on him when he nipped on her lower lip.

However, if he’d expected to accept his ministrations passively, he was dead wrong.

 Shifting, she sat astride him, one hand slipping under his shirt, the other working to unbuckle his belt. He jerked violently, only barely managing to stop the loud gasp that threatened to spill out when she leant over him, tongue one long stripe on his while gazing at him sensuously, hips rocking gently against his burgeoning . She slanted her lips against his, taking, demanding for more, her flagrant desire engulfing him in a rigorous inferno.

“Hyung?” The floorboards creaked softly; they froze at the unexpected intrusion. Their eyes met each other’s, with no words spoken, they untangled themselves from their frantic hold, grabbing their strewn articles of clothes and slipping them on with superhuman speed. She’d zipped herself up, neat and immaculate, way before he could tuck his pants into his shirt and turned to gaze at him with a look he couldn’t afford to understand. Then, striding to him in 3 resolute steps, she pressed a kiss full of yearning and unfulfilled desires before shooting off the window. He almost shouted, senses rattled by the unexpected turn of events and her sudden death leap.

“Chanyeollie hyung?” Kai pushed the door open, and saw Chanyeol staring at the window with a glazed look. He rushed to the taller man, “Hyung, what’s up? You okay?” He laid an inquiring hand on the other. Chanyeol started, hand one second away from drawing his Beretta that he’d stashed haphazardly into the holster underneath his shirt.

“Gee hyung, thanks. That’s what I get for being concerned over you.” The normally happy boy seemed a bit cross with his violent reaction. ‘Well, he’s not the only one..’ Chanyeol thought, shocked and frustrated with his own response.

Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose, “Sorry, I just.. I thought I saw something just now, and then you came out of nowhere..” “You saw something? What exactly did you see? You’re supposed be in constant touch with Lay hyung and Suho hyung. Really, hyung? C’mon, we’re not newbies who started doing this yesterday, what’s wrong with you? You seem so off these days,” the boy remarked, arms crossed across his chest and his naturally pouty lips even more prominent as he showed his displeasure at the elder man. Chanyeol shook his head, “Sorry, you should probably get back to your station, I’m just gonna go take a look at the other places..” He didn’t miss the younger boy’s worried glances but for ’s sake, what the hell was he thinking?! ‘Clearly you weren’t,’ his mind supplied derisively. God damn, he really shouldn’t be- He pushed his bangs back, hauling in a deep breath. Exhaling roughly, he calculated his next move; this could not go on any longer.