"Hey..."

          Cheolyong looked up to the older man he had known since he joined in, thanks to Sangbae holding his arm and dragging him around, introducing him to all of the other trainees.

          "Yes, Seungho hyung?" Cheolyong smiled widely, showing his pearl white set of teeth and crescent shape of his eyes, calling an adoring pat on his head he had gotten used to, scarily. Though, to be honest, his hand itched to just slapped away and broken the bones those hands that dare petting his head like he was a weak little boy.

          "Sangbae said you're having problem with the dance step." The older took a seat next to the younger boy, eyeing the boy tiredly.

          This was so Seungho for you. The dark circles were so obvious under his sharp bloodshot eyes showing how much he needed rest and sleep, more than any other people available in this practice room, yet, Seungho is Seungho, he'd offer help even at the price of his own resting time.

          Cheolyong scratched the back of his head sheepishly. To be honest, he'd rather having to engage in near combat training for three days straight than this dance practice. He made himself look like a fool stumbling here and there, losing his balance and even tumbled into another trainee. Luckily today, he only managed to crash into Byunghee whom was really understanding and even offered a hand to help Mir up, unlike some other grumpy trainees here.

          "Need help?"

          "Urm… But…" Cheolyong's wide brown eyes flickered towards Sangbae who was having conversation with Changsun and the look on their faces were a bit stiff and tensed, making Cheolyong wonder what were they talking about. Sangbae caught Cheolyong's stare and a smile immediately adorned his face despite the smile looked a bit awkward, nodding his head to Cheolyong as if he knew what Cheolyong was inquiring from him.

          "Got the permission needed?" Seungho asked with a teasing smile.

          "Eh? A-ani! What permission?" Cheolyong squeaked, praising himself inertly with his perfect act with even blush to strengthen this character he was playing as. "I was just… Is it really okay with you, hyungnim? I think it would be better if you use the time to rest." Cheolyong mumbled, letting his fake concern showing through his voice and gaze.

          Seungho blinked, smiling wider and patting the cute younger boy's long tresses. "Of course. If I'm not fine, then I wouldn't have offer you. Be honored, kid. You're going to have one on one personal lesson from such a great dancer like me." Seungho boasted playfully but laughed when Cheolyong nodded furiously at his words and stared up at him with glimmering admiring eyes. Such a child. "Okay then. Get up now." Seungho pushed himself up from the floor, offering a hand to the younger boy which the younger grinned and took his hand into a firm grip.

          They spent the rest of their practice time and it was kind of funny with Cheolyong flailing along, trying to follow Seungho's precise and smooth moves.

          "Aisy! My body won't listen to me!" Cheolyong whined, stomping his foot in frustration when he, for nth time, almost stumbled again, though this time he didn't fall.

          "You already good at the basic dance moderation."

          "Not really. I can't even turn properly. Look." Cheolyong spun on his heels but lose his balance as he stumbled backwards, straight into Sangbae's arms.

          "Still don't get the moves?" Sangbae gave Cheolyong a teasing smile, laughing when Cheolyong rolled his eyes at him and elbowed him in the ribs. He shifted his gaze on Seungho. "Hyung-nim, how was it?"

          Seungho shrugged once. "At least he didn't crash into the mirror this time."

          "That's a great improvement- Oww! Cheolyong! I'm just joking! Ouch!!!" Sangbae squeaked and flailed his hands when his same age friend decided to jump on him and tackled him to the floor, straddling him all the while tickling his side. "S-stop it! Ahaha! I m-mean it!!! Changsun hyung! Help me!" Sangbae managed between his laugh, trying to push Cheolyong off of his body but in vain when the other's slender fingers dug on the sensitive spot over his waist, causing him to laugh until he cried.

          "I'm not getting involved." Changsun moved to stand behind Seungho.

          "Okay… Okay… Better stop before you kill him." Byunghee who had been standing at the far corner, practicing his singing finally approached the playful small group, throwing an obvious look at Seungho for not stopping the two noisy kids and just laughing, he went towards Cheolyong and grabbed the boy's waist, hoisting the boy up from his now gasping victim with a "Hep!".

          "He deserved that!" Cheolyong kicked lightly on Sangbae who was still lying flat on the floor, remains of chuckles from the not too long ago tickling fight still escaping his lips.

          "Alright, little tiger. Don't get so violent." Byunghee cooed, pulling Cheolyong farther from Sangbae and only then, he released his hold from the younger, ruffling the younger's already messy locks pointing in different directions.

          Cheolyong pouted and looked over to Seungho. The older had his hand over his mouth but everyone knew the older was holding in his laugh.

          "Anyway…" Cheolyong turned back to Sangbae who had stood back up on his own. "What were you talking about with Changsun hyung just now?"

          Sangbae's smile dropped and he looked slightly nervous. "Nothing much really."

          Cheolyong narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Sangbae. "Really…" He trailed longer than necessary.

          "…."

          "Okay fine. Don't get too shocked, okay? Ready? Can I tell you now? Maybe it's better if you sit down first." Sangbae fussed over Cheolyong.

          "Ugh! Just spit it out already!" Cheolyong exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

          "The bullies have quit." Byunghee interrupted after watching Sangbae's lips moved but no words heard, taking pity on the boy who found it was hard to say the news.

          Cheolyong feigned surprise. "Eh? Why?"

          "Well…" Byunghee inhaled… "This happened last week. Two of them got themselves into an accident and it seems that they couldn't dance anymore and the other one was…" He frowned slightly. "The other one was in the darkroom on the fourth floor for some reason and somehow got the chemicals spilled on his face. I heard his face was totally damaged and one of his eyes turned blind."

          "Oh… That's ." Cheolyong simply said and realized the gaze Sangbae directed at him. He smiled at the other. "Don't worry so much. I'm fine." He assured. Of course he was fine. After all, those so called unfortunate 'accident' was in fact all his doing. I thought of killing them. I was already being super nice sparing their lives but then again, their lives are pretty much ruined already. Cheolyong smirked mentally, displaying neutral expression on his face professionally.

          "If only you're good at dancing as good as you're at tackling people down to the ground." Sangbae commented, changing the topic abruptly. "You know, if you keep on this way, you might not be able to debut."

          Cheolyong's face dropped. He couldn't afford that. It was his mission to debut as an idol no matter what it takes. Not debuting meant he failed the mission. Failing the mission meant… Death. But death wasn't what he was afraid of. Dying with such failures that scared him.

          "Oh hey, don't look so down. Everything is going to work out for sure." Byunghee tried to console the distressed younger and draped his arm around Cheolyong's sagging shoulder.

          "Y-yeah." Sangbae added, skipping until he was facing Cheolyong and grabbed his friend's hands. "We're going to debut together and one day, stand on the same stage together. And it would be the dream comes true." Sangbae said with the most happy smile Cheolyong ever witnessed.

          Cheolyong tilted his head slightly. Dream, huh?

          Dream….

          What does dream even mean…?

          He had never dream before.

################

Maybe this was the dream Sangbae always chattering over about, Cheolyong thought as he stood behind the stage, the loud music blasting through his ears, reverberating until deep inside his bones, the heat coming to greet him, burning him without mercy. In a good way though…

          In order to cleanly completed his ongoing mission, Cheolyong had decided to use up all of his time for combat training and put it into his practice of dancing. And it wasn't sooner than later that he finally able to see that dancing is somewhat quite similar to fighting. With a thought that dancing could be a form of martial art, Cheolyong caught up quite fast and later he found dancing to be quite fun. Unlike fighting, dancing didn't even need an opponent and you could do even the weirdest move yet with great basic and creativity, the move would be expressed beautifully. And unlike fighting, Cheolyong felt other kind of emotions instead of just rage and thirst to win, and to kill. Dancing taught Cheolyong to feel…

          And now, he was on his way to become an idol. Only waiting behind the stage. A few steps more and he would be there, up on the stage, dancing to his heart content.

          Cheolyong felt a cold hand slipped inside his. He turned around to see Seungho smiling at him. "Nervous?" The leader asked.

          "A bit." Cheolyong honestly answered but then again, he couldn't really tell now, which were lies and which were truth after years and years of living in a lie.

          "I was hoping Sangbae would be here." Seungho said, a hint of sadness inside his voice.

          Cheolyong smiled a bit, squeezing Seungho's hand slightly as a sign of encouragement and turned to look over his shoulder. There, a new face of a tall slender boy came into his view. It was Sanghyun or just in a few minutes will debut under stage name of Thunder. The slightly older boy had came in as Sangbae's replacement in just a few weeks before the D-day. After all the preparation had completed, all the music, the videos, the recording, the photoshoot and the group name, MBLAQ, had been decided. The news came so sudden…

          No one knew why… No one expected it…

          When Cheolyong first saw the slender boy trudging behind the manager into the practice room, with Sangbae nowhere to be seen since the morning, he had been a bit suspicious. And right when it was announced Sanghyun would be debuting as MBLAQ instead of Sangbae, Cheolyong frowned at the unfamiliar pang inside his chest but he ignored it.

          "Sangbae would get on stage be a bit later than us, but I'm sure he will reach his dream eventually." Byunghee's voice interrupted Cheolyong's thought. "It's just a norm in this world."

          "Yeah…" Seungho mumbled.

          "And you two should try to get along with that new kid." Byunghee nagged, throwing an expectant look to the leader and maknae of this new group of theirs. He tilted his head slightly towards Sanghyun whom had been standing alone behind the three boys, couldn't look more awkward all by himself.

          "He has Joon hyung though." Cheolyong said casually, the stage name of Changsun, the other member of their five members group.

          Byunghee rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Cheolyong?"

          Cheolyong grinned, nudging on Seungho's arm. "Our leader should take responsible over that poor boy." He said. "He doesn't like me."

          "That's because you tried to lie your way to be his chingu." Seungho pointed out, snickering.

          "He's not that much older than me though." Cheolyong mumbled. "He's acting too much like a hyung to me." Cheolyong made a face, scrunching up his nose.

          Seungho laughed, enjoying the maknae rebellion though he wouldn't enjoy it as much if Cheolyong defied him as well.

          "Both of you. Listen." Byunghee emphasized. "We'll be stuck together for at least five years. Try to get along." He nagged, before turning to Sanghyun, calling the boy over.

          "Isn't it me who supposed to be the leader?" Seungho's comment in the background was totally ignored.

          The boy in question, jogged towards the trio hearing his name. "Yes, hyungnim?" He asked politely, sneaking a smile to the only boy who was younger than him in this group, happy that the other boy smiled back at him. He never had a dongsaeng before, only two older sisters. It was quite fluttering at the notion of him having someone younger in this new family. A dongsaeng.

          And though Cheolyong did smile back to Sanghyun, he couldn't help the uneasy feeling at pit of his stomach each time Sanghyun was close. He wonder what cause this bad feeling. Those words that Sanghyun was the one who didn't like him and all was only an excuse. It was him who felt like distancing himself from Sanghyun. Because it always felt wrong to get closer to the taller boy. He wondered why…

          "Where's Changsun? Did you see him?" Byunghee asked.

          Sanghyun looked around before pointing to one direction. "He said, he's going to the toilet to calm down. I think he wanted to be alone." He informed.

          "We have ten minutes more, better go and get him." Seungho told. "Nevermind." He said just a second after when he saw Changsun coming through the door and waltzed towards them with more than obvious nervous look on his face, his hands clutched together and were cold as ice when Seungho touched them, even colder than his own hands. "You okay?" He asked, rubbing Changsun's hand slightly.

          "Y-yeah I guess… Just a little bit- A-ani… Quite nervous…" Changsun stuttered slightly.

          Seungho chuckled. "It's okay. We're all are. This is what dream feels like I guess." He said, looking back to the stage which seemed like shouting for them pulling them, tempting them. Just a few minutes more…

          Cheolyong controlled his expression at Seungho's words. Just a few moments before that he had thought similarly to what Seungho just voiced out. Cheolyong stared at the leader and when the leader looked back at him, he just threw the older a small smile.

          Dream…

          Cheolyong looked past the others and towards the stage again, feeling his heart quickened. This fluttering feeling was different from when he fight. Different from when he practiced his dance. It was another different feeling of rush. Quite similar but totally different at the same time. A feeling he couldn't figure out what but quickly decided he liked it.

          Dream…

          Did it really feels like this?

#######################

"It's been two months. About the incidents that happened to the three trainees-"

          "Yeah, I'm still looking into it but it's not easy. Again. I met a dead end." A sigh escaped the younger's lips.

          The room was quite dark with the curtain pulled closed and the lamp being let off as this meeting was a secret meeting. The first to have spoke spun his chair around, looking up at the young man standing in front of him, seizing his potential to be a great detective in the future. He was this apprentice of him would be capable of handling this special task he had handed down.

          "It seems to be a very neatly taken care crime. And the three of them know something but I can't get anything out of them." The young man continued.

          The old man sitting on the chair nodded, leaning slightly forward as he rested his elbows on the table. His eyes flickered to nameplate decorated on the edge of his table. His name was carved just under his rank. Chief Superintendent General, Lee Hongman. It took him a lot to finally reached this level.

          "Have you find any relation between this and the North secret organization?" Hongman asked.

          "It can't be a coincident. To make such crime to look perfectly like an accident, that criminal would have been trained to do so." The young man said. "You're right to send me undercover although…" The young man looked slightly disturbed.

          Hongman raised one brow expectantly.

          "It's… It's kind of awkward for me to live as an idol."

          Unexpectedly, a set of soft chuckles danced on his lips. This apprentice of his was really special to him. He had regard this young man as his own son and he had been watching this young man grew since from the police academy and watched him climbed fast to reach the detective rank and he hoped this young police would one day be able to stand higher than himself because he knew, the ability, the potential this young man held within himself.

          "Why? Life as an idol with the other boys is awkward or is it the life being huddled around by crazed fans which is awkward?"

          "Well… Both…" A moment of silent before adoring smile sketched over the young detective's lips.

          "If you ask me… I thought that if only you didn't go to police academy, you are definitely going to be a great idol. I watched your debut stage. MBLAQ right? It looks like you're born for the stage. People would have never thought you to be an undercover officer. Your talent is limitless." Hongman praised, smiling at the sheepish look the young officer wore. "And I see how you interact with the other members. They treat you well?"

          "Living with the other boys feels strangely good. They are like brothers I always wanted. We're just… Fun. Although… I can't really say that we're that close. There's still gap between us but it's a given. It hasn't been that long since we live together after all."

          "I see… I guess you are experiencing the real friendship, huh. Good to know that. I have been worried seeing how you were being the outcast in the academy just because you perform extremely well. I thought maybe that the world behind the camera work the same as us. I guess I was wrong. You got yourselves some great friends."

          "I only did what I was taught and ordered."

          "No. You're a genius. And people will learn to love you for that."

          "You're being to kind."

          "No. It's the truth and I hope you will not disappoint me and get all the North agents out of the hiding and finally eradicate the whole batch under Jiman. I couldn't do it when I had the chance and saw how Jiman betrayed South and how it almost get our country upside down. Ani… He was never one of us even from the start." Hongman smiled bitterly. "I was hoping that my friendship with him is real… Yet… He was just using me."

          "Sir…"

          "If…" Hongman looked up with sad eyes. "If you found them. The special unit under Jiman's order, give them a chance."

          "A chance, sir?" The young man acquired.

          "A chance to escape the life of an assassin. I might not be able to offer Jiman the chance to live out of shadow but maybe you could change it. They are killers. Yes. They are agents under North. Yes. But their whole life had been about killing and hating. Never the peace, never the love, never the ordinary live. They are… Poor soul. This mission is not to kill them. It's to save them."

          "I understand, sir."

I don't even know what am I writing anymore. It's no good. It's all flowing into the drain. Staaaphhhh~