(Play this)

"On a long and tiring day
 I got together my heart that was filled with sighs"

Hayleigh softly pressed the keys on the old piano while singing the words to the song she was playing. The safe house assigned to her came with a piano, so naturally, she was excited to play. It had been a while since she had even seen, let alone touched a piano. She decided to try out a song she'd heard a while back. A smile spread on her face as the notes blended together perfectly.

It had been a couple of days since she finished her last mission, and so far, everything was quiet. For normal people, silence was a stress reliever. But for people like her, who were anything but normal, it's the calm before the storm. It was unnerving, but she kept playing, trying to shake off the feeling that something or someone was coming.

It was no use, something felt off. 

She lifted her fingers off the piano and sighed. A small squeak from the floorboards behind her made her freeze in place. Someone was definitely right behind her. How could she not have noticed? She immediately felt the cold tip of a gun pushing against the back of her head. 

"." 

Slowly reaching for her butterfly knife in her pocket, she took a small breath. As quick as lightning, she kicked her chair backwards, slashing her butterfly knife behind her. She heard a grunt of pain and smirked. When she turned around, she saw the figure of a man who had silver-blond hair. One hand was lazily holding a silver gun while the other was touching the cut on his face. 

"Ah—I keep forgetting you keep a butterfly knife with you all the time. Worrying about you is definitely not worth the cut on my face." the man laughed. Hayleigh furrowed her eyebrows before realizing that the man she had just attacked was her partner, Oh Sehun.

"Wh—Sehun?! What the hell are you doing here? How did you even get inside?" 

Sehun rolled his eyes at her as he shoved the silver gun back into its holster. "You left your window open. You know that protocol requires us to— "

"I know, I know. Windows, doors, anything that can fit a person should be locked, et cetera. I just needed the fresh air; it was starting to get stuffy."

"Yeah, well would you rather be stuffy or dead?"

"Ugh, I see your point. But I think I pretty much had it under control, don't you think?" 

"Don't you feel guilty for wounding such a handsome face?" Sehun pouted, earning an eyeroll from the girl.

"Uh, no."

"Whatever. Anyway, I haven't told you why I came, have I? Well, Magnus called and—"

"Let me guess, mission briefing? And shouldn't you be calling him Captain Albrecht? Or cap at the least?"

"He doesn't seem bothered by it."

"Emphasis on the word seem. The only reason he hasn't let you go is because you're one of the best in the agency. Gimme a sec." Hayleigh quickly left the boy and headed towards the bathroom. 

She opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out some Betadine, cotton balls and a band-aid. She set them on the side of the sink and peeked her head out of the door. 

"OH! GET YOUR OVER HERE."

"Wha--? Okay, okay. No need to shout, mom." He muttered.

He made his way to where Hayleigh was and when he got there, she pointed to the tub. Sehun smirked at her.

"I didn't know you were into that kind of thing. You're so forward."

"I'd bet you'd like that." she scoffed, before pointing at the edge of the tub again. "Just sit down, will you?"

Sehun sighed and sat on the edge of the tub. "It's just a cut. It'll heal."

"Oh yeah, and it'll just get an infection. No big deal." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Sehun just rolled his eyes at the girl.

Hayleigh bent down and grabbed a towel from a cabinet under the sink. She wet it with warm water and scrubbed some soap onto it. She sat beside Sehun on the tub and cleaned the wound.

"You really don't need to. " He grabbed her wrist to stop her. She looked at his hand on her wrist and deadpanned.

"Unless you want to go on the mission with a broken wrist, I suggest you let go. Besides, I don't trust you. You don't take care of yourself enough."

Sehun put both his hands up and let her continue. She rinsed the soapy towel and wiped the soap suds from his face. She dipped the cotton ball into the Betadine and lightly rubbed it over the cut. 

"You are lucky you have the instincts of a cat, or I would've slashed your eye clean off." Hayleigh sighed as she finally applied the Band-Aid onto his cheek. 

"Well, you almost technically got shot so we're even. Still, be lucky it was me. What if it was someone else?"

"Sehun, we're in the same force. I'm pretty sure I can handle myself just as well as anyone in the agency. She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, in what form is today's mission briefing? Please tell me it's pizza."

"Nah, flash drive. Sorry."



"Ugh, fine. Wait in the living room. I'll clean this stuff up and get my laptop."


"You know, Sehun," Hayleigh started as she made her way to the living room, "the other agents would be comfortable around you if you acted the way you did around me and Minseok."

"Well, I don't want to be approachable. That's you."

"Don't you want more people who have your back when you need it?"

"Nope. You guys are more than enough."

"Tu es bizzare."

"Whatever, folle. Here's the drive." the boy said, tossing the red flashdrive at her.

Hayleigh took her seat on the couch and opened up her laptop. She quickly typed in her password and plugged in the flash drive into her computer. 

"Oh, wait." Hayleigh stood up, closed all the blinds in the living room and switched on the lamp that stood beside the couch. She grabbed her earphones from the side table and plugged it into her computer as well. 

"Here." she said as she handed Sehun one of the earphones. He gave her a small smile as thanks before placing it into his ear. Hayleigh double-clicked the file labelled "Yaks in Central Asia". To a civilian, it would look like the file contained a video about yaks. For the two agents, it was a different thing entirely.

Y.A.C. was the name of the organization that Hayleigh, Sehun, and Minseok worked for. The three letters stood for Youths Against Crime. Like the name implies, the organization hires youths all over the world with exceptional skills to help them in the international fight against crime. Of course, none of this would have been possible without a founder. 

Magnus Albrecht founded Y.A.C. along with his friends, who are successful businessmen in their own field. It started out as a small group that kept small towns crime-free, but over time it grew to be an international organization with more than 2,000 operatives all over the world. Our three agents however, aren't rookies. They're part of the "elite squad" of agents which make up only the top 3% of the population of Y.A.C. These agents receive missions that range anywhere from hunting down drug lords to stopping an assassination plot. 

...but anyway, let's get back to our two agents.

A video started playing, first showing the logo of Y.A.C. It then faded to the usual scene, Captain Albrecht saying his usual lines.

"Hello again, agents Achilles and Bluebird. This mission, should you choose to accept it, should be your most difficult one yet."

"He says that every freaking time. Every mission is hard; it's basically something that we have to deal with without him reminding us every damn time."

Hayleigh paused the video. "Whoa there, tiger. You need to calm down. What's your problem with him anyway? He's pretty cool, minus the weird moustache thing he's got going on. He looks like Mario." She chuckled.

"He forced me into this life, remember? He "took me in and gave me shelter", but it was all so I could join this organization. And I hate him for that. I didn't want this."

Her smile faded, and she went silent. Hayleigh felt a little hurt hearing his words. A few minutes ago he was telling her that she and Minseok were more than enough for him, but if given the opportunity to leave, would he? Would he leave his life, his friends who thought of him as family? She already knew the answer, but she just shook the thought out of her head. 

"...let's just watch the video." Hayleigh said, her face emotionless. She pressed the spacebar on her computer and the two continued watching the video.

"For the past 5 years, we've been trying to hunt down a group of thieves who call themselves 'The Ghosts'."

Hayleigh scoffed. "The Ghosts? Really?"

"Our sources say that this small criminal group is run by a few prominent businessmen you may be familiar with." 

The screen showed a picture of three men clad in suits talking to each other. Sehun leaned forward and paused the video. 

"Hey, I've seen them on the news before." Sehun mused.

"You watch TV?!" Hayleigh widened her eyes at the boy before bursting out into laughter at his reaction. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Who are they?"

"They're three of the most successful businessmen in Europe. If there's anyone you do not want to mess with, it's them. They can have you killed at the drop of a hat. The most vicious out of the three is that one in the middle, Su Dae Won. North Korean, probably older than me by a decade or so. Anyway, let's continue watching."

Hayleigh nodded and resumed the video. 

"They've been stealing precious artefacts and paintings from countless museums in cities all over the world. Their most recent raid took place at the Diamant Museum in Amsterdam. One of the artefacts they have stolen includes the famous Löwenherz diamond, which originally belonged to former queen of Prussia, Princess Victoria. The authorities are desperate to get the diamond back, but they can't seem to catch the culprit. They need our help. What do you say, agents?"

Two buttons appeared on the video, one red and one green. Hayleigh raised both eyebrows at Sehun, waiting for an answer.

"You know I never decline a mission."

"True... Aw, what the heck. Why not?"

She clicked the green button, making the video fade to a shot of the inside of HQ, for some reason.

"We've already done background checks on all the people you may encounter on your mission, and none of them seem to intersect lives with people from your previous missions. You can both use your usual aliases. Also, the other agent who will be accompanying you will be none other than Foxtrot. All the documents that you will need for the mission will be at HQ. We will further discuss your identities and roles here in HQ at fourteen hundred hours tomorrow. How to get there? You'll need a little hand soap for that one."

The screen went black, probably erasing all the contents of the flash drive. As protocol suggested, Hayleigh lit a fire in the fireplace and threw the flash drive in.

"What a waste of a perfectly good flash drive." Hayleigh sighed. "Oh well."

Sehun stood up and opened the blinds, revealing that the sun had already gone down. "Time?"

Hayleigh checked the time on her laptop. "Six-thirty. No need to ask, you can stay over. Besides, I don't think Minseok appreciates you bothering him, especially at night. You know how cranky he gets. Um, you can stay in the room opposite the bathroom. I haven't checked that room so much, but knowing Y.A.C., there's probably a stock of clothes and underwear in the closet."

"Thanks. You can shower first if you want."

"Alrighty."

15 minutes later...

Hayleigh flopped onto her bed, grabbed the phone given to her by the agency and texted Minseok. She used it as both her work phone and personal phone since it couldn't be tracked, apparently. 

Me: Hey, big bro. Heard we have a mission together again! Exciting!!! The "elite trio" as they call us, right? Ahhh~ anyway, I have loads to tell you about my last assignment. They sent me to Japan! You'd love it there since you like anime, lmao. The ramen's pretty good, but I still prefer the ramyun you brought to work last time. Anyways, we should give Japan a visit if ever ☺ see you tomorrow!

She put her phone back on her bedside table and turned all the lights in her room off. She thought about all of the things that could possibly happen in their mission to come, but one thing was for sure: it was going to be a bumpy ride.