Eyes trained up front, pen twirling around her fingers, she listened attentively to the speaker, nodding and jotting down notes. Her team sat around her, some glancing through the brief while others seemed to have wandered off. She kept silent till the speaker ended his presentation.

"Thoughts anybody?" She shot a glance around the room, noting the uncomfortable shifting in chairs. She scoffed inwardly, her eyes zooming in on a particular person. "Benson."

She watched as he jolted awake when his colleague shook him. He gave a sheepish glance around the room as his colleague stared back with pitiful eyes.

"Any thoughts?" Benson gulped nervously at the cold tone as he dared a glance towards the head of the table.

"None, Ms Hwang."

The lady at the head nodded as she closed her files.

"I expect everyone to send in a proposal on this case before the day ends." She stood up. "Except Benson, you may leave now. The HR will be informed."

"Ms Hwang." The man jumped up. "What does that mean?"

"You are fired." She made her way towards the door before turning back. "Wipe that drool off your face before leaving. It's a disgrace."

"Ms Hwang, you can't do that."

She walked out of the room, leaving the man to his cries. The clicking of heels echoed down the hallway, sending everyone into a frenzy. Almost immediately, a cup of coffee was presented to her and her secretary walking right behind her, informing her of her upcoming schedules.

Walking past the rows of cubicles, the once noisy office was now blanketed with a layer of silence and her subordinates bowed down seemingly hard at work yet from the peripheral vision, she caught sight of few heads glancing towards her before quickly focused on their work. She scoffed inwardly at the 'perfect' picture as she made her way to her office. Settling down at her table, she flatly nodded at her secretary who scampered off quickly to call for her fifth meeting in the day when her hand phone beeped.

Same place same time. Tonight.

---

The crowd hollered as they watched the ring intensely. With each second countdown of the timer, the atmosphere turned tense and fists clenched tighter as the two men in the ring continued to 'kill'. Punches flew about and kicks blocked. It was difficult to foresee the winner and time was running out.

The crowd cheered once more when a strong hard punch had hit the younger man straight at his jaw, causing him to kneel in pain. Giving it a quick rub to ease the pain, he forced himself up, ready for another attack.

Indeed, the moment his heel of his feet landed on the ground, another punch was aimed at his face. He deflected it with an upper right cut while lifting his leg to give a hind kick to his stomach. His opponent staggered backwards, slightly surprised before attempting to go back into offensive mode. He smiled at the moment of delay, launching with a series of kicks before finishing off triumphed with a hard punch to the head. His opponent's body slammed unconscious to the ground with a thud, no longer able to get up. He was declared the winner as a small section of the crowd cheered in victory while the majority left the hall in distaste.

"Great job, Seungri." He side-eyed his manager, giving him a victory smirk as he accepted the bottle. "Keep this up and soon you will be up in the top ranks."

Gulping down the bottle, Seungri nodded. He could honestly care less about the ranks when his body felt on fire, his head was spinning and limbs aching. Forcing his body into the changing room, he ignored the continuous rambles of his manager. All he needed was a shower.

Minutes later, he emerged, feeling fresher and more humanly. Although his jaw was still sore and his limbs were wobbly, it was nothing a few kisses and cuddles could not fixed. He grinned at the thought, fiddling with his phone as a text came in.

Same place same time. Tonight.

---

Silence. The whole room was in total stillness despite the number of people in it. Twelve men, one lady, each staring at their files looking absorbed. For the past five minutes, not a word nor a sound was heard. Outside the room, four people stood near the door, their ears pressed against it as they waited impatiently for an explosion.

"3 teams of officers and you could let the suspects get away." A file slammed loudly on the table, causing those outside to jump in shock. "I expect to see a report on my desk by the end of the day. The media has been following closely on these break-ins so crack the case as quick as possible. Dismissed."

The door opened and the five immediately stood at attention, greeting the police head loudly. The latter simply gave a nod as the rest of the meeting filed out.

"Top Sir, what did he say?"

Top glanced at his subordinates as he walked towards their office.

"I need a volunteer." Four pairs of eyes glanced downwards avoiding their superior's eyes when a hand landed on a shoulder. "Finish a report on this case before you leave."

Immediately, a groan was heard as Top nodded at her and walked off with the other three looking at her with pity.

"Yuri, I will help you."

"Thanks, oppa." A smile was offered to the volunteer as the latter glanced away shyly.

"Come on lovebirds. Top Sir is waiting."

---

"Anything new?" Top started the meeting, his eyes flickered between his reports and the team.

"We believe the culprits are a group of two males and two females. Yuri and I chased down a male and a female, but they were wearing masks, so we couldn't see their faces clearly. But we know the male sported a clean boy cut with his fringe while the female had a long wavy hair. Her eyes were also mostly covered by her hair."

"Suho and I also found a male and a female hiding in the back room of a house in the top floor. They escaped by sliding down the pipe right before we barged into the room. The male's hair was combed back while the female had hers tied in a ponytail. We have made portraits based on our descriptions."

Suho handed the pictures over to Top who frowned as he scanned through them.

"Unfortunately they were wearing masks so we added the masks in." Top nodded as he signaled for the speaker to continue. "We believe the word on each masks mean something, but when we try to piece them together, it can either spell you can catch me or can you catch me. Either way, we believe they are trying to challenge the police."

"Anything from the owner?"

"The owner said one of the workers might have forgot to lock the door before leaving, so the door was open. Nothing was missing. Our IT expert mentioned that somebody had logged into the computer but nothing was touched. So he believed it was somebody who knew how to crack passwords, but the motive of that person, he doesn't know."

"Background check?"

"The warehouse hires hire ex-convicts as part of the government policy to integrate them into the society. Some only traveled to and fro work. Some ex-convicts were past gangsters who still had links with their own gang, but we have nothing on them. The owner is clean."

"No fingerprints, nothing. Other than the fire alarm, they were very careful."

"Even the house was clean. No sweat, nothing. Apart from the tell-tale dust layers and that we saw them, we probably wouldn't have a clue on their identity."

Top nodded, sinking back into his chair. Closing his eyes, he tried searching his memory for any useful clues they might have missed when something clicked in his mind.

"Anything on the masks?"

Frowns appeared on faces as the team shook their head. Yuri turned towards her laptop and started typing on it. Minutes later, she looked up shaking her head.

"Nothing special about it. It's the latest trend, everyone sells them and everyone wears it. Just in Dongdaemun, more than half of the shops sell these kind of masks."

Top hummed, his mind spinning. Something did not feel right yet he could not put his finger on it.

---

Eyes glued to the screen, lips pursed thinly, eyebrows furrowed, muscles tensed, his right finger clicked furiously and his other hand banged frantically on his keyboard. Engrossed, he did not hear the knocks and the opening of his door until a file slammed harshly on his table, causing him to jump in shock.

A quick peek on his screen and a scoff coming from the intruder.

“Really, Mr Kwon? I was only away for ten minutes and you are already skiving.” His secretary preached, a frown forming on her face.

“Morning Taeyeon.” Lips twitched into a charming grin as he shut down the page he was on, his hand reaching out to flip the files in search of his pen. A clattering thud and a guilty smile later, Taeyeon sighed, grumbling as she bent down to pick up the files. Arranging them nicely by the desk, she smacked another load right in front of him, a smug smile on her face as the man groaned.

“Really, Taeyeon?”

“Sorry, Hon. Orders from the top.”

“I seriously think she’s trying to work me to death.”

“I’m sure you know the reason.” The man groaned. “Soon, hon, soon.” Taeyeon straightened up, the smile gone from her face. “Also, the function in 2 weeks, I’m not going anymore.”

“Orders from the top?”

“Sorry Ji. You know the reason.”

“She’s going to kill me.”

“She trusts you and you know it.”

“That’s because you are always there, helping me fend them off. She trusts you.” The man ruffled his hair. “What am I going to do?”

“She trusts you too, Jiyong. A lot more than you think.” Taeyeon gave a comforting smile. “So just do what you have to and don’t worry about the rest.”

A pat on his shoulder as Taeyeon left the room. Jiyong sighed, his fingers fiddling with his phone when it vibrated.

Same time same place. Tonight.

---

Hurrying down the noisy hallway, her sneakers squeaking with every alternate step but no one bothered a glance at her direction. Clutching her books against her chest, she had her head faced downwards, afraid to meet the glances of anyone when a bump to her shoulder had her landing on her bottom and her books sprawled over the ground. Laughter ensued as she flushed in embarrassment. Pushing her glasses up her nose bridge, she peeked at her ‘attacker’, groaning inwardly at the group of five. Wanting nothing to do with them, she quickly gathered her books and was about to escape to safety when the group surrounded her.

“Where do you think you are going?” The leader of the group stepped up, her face seemingly contorted in pain as her hand clutched her shoulder. “You bumped into me and it hurts. Aren’t you going to apologize?”

“I’m sorry.” Her head bowed lower, eyes staring permanently at the ground.

“What did you say?”

“I’m sorry, Jihyun sshi.”

An arrogant smirk formed on the leader’s face as she leant in to the timid one. “Did you think I would let you off easily, Yoona sshi?”

A shake of her head as the girl gulped, fear sinking in her heart knowing that no one would be around to save her.

“Today’s proposal is simple. We have got this stack of papers to do from the professor to be handed in tomorrow, would you like to volunteer doing it for us or,” The group cracked their knuckles, inching forward menacingly. “would you rather we beat you up and you still have to volunteer to do it?”

“I’ll do it.”

“What?”

“I’ll do it.”

“Did everyone heard it? Im Yoona here has volunteered to do our work. We did not force her, did we?”

The school chorused a loud ‘no’ as a stack of papers was forcefully shoved into Yoona's arms.

“We’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t try to disappear or you know what will happen.” The group took a step back, a smile twitching on their lips. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Now scram. “

The sudden boom near her ear had her jumped in shock as the crowd erupted in laughter. Embarrassed, she dashed off through the parting students into an empty lecture hall where she hoped she would be safe at least for the short few minutes.

Once safely ensured that the hall was not used and the lingering students had disappeared into their lectures, she heaved a sigh of relief, her hand digging into her skirt for her phone when it vibrated. Reading the message, she let out a tired sigh.

Same place same time. Tonight.

---

Movement after movement, pose after pose, she practised relentlessly, refusing to take a break despite her aching body. To become the best is to practice repeatedly till perfection. It was her motto, her mission in life and she was going to uphold it. Ignoring the chatter and murmurs around her, she concentrated on her craft, determined and persevering.

Twenty continuous twirls later, she collapsed her body begging for rest but she refused, forcing it to repeat the motions till it could no longer go on anymore. Only then that she allowed herself a short break, sitting alone by the corner of the room where the class as subbed as the ‘loner’s corner’. It was not wrong since she indeed chose to not mix with others, but it did hurt her sometimes. She frowned, her eyes glancing across the room to see how other groups had gathered together, smiling and laughing at some gossips. Her heart longed for an exciting school life but the coward in her refused to cooperate, choosing to keep to herself.

Miss Perfectionist as her classmates had chose to dubbed her with, which made her scoffed more than once. Her life had been anything but perfect. She knew that clearly. She was not perfect, not in the beginning, not now and would probably never will be. She chuckled sarcastically, noting how her class had given her a weird stare before going back to their chatters. Perhaps it would be better that way. Her hand reaching out for her bottle as her eye caught sight of her lit phone. Abandoning her bottle, she grabbed the phone, reading the message. At least she still had friends outside school and she could deal with them.

Same place same time. Tonight.

-TBC-