Cheolyong studied the wristband in his hand. He gazed strongly at the leather bracelet and his thumb ghosted above the blood stain. So, it was true? What he had heard before back in the death camp at the north… Was it really the truth?

          He still remembered it clearly. It was during their short break from practicing their martial arts and Cheolyong was focusing on sharpening the shuriken entrusted to him when he heard a few of other kids his age gossiping not too far behind him, talking about the existence of a secret organization or rather more like a troop of privately trained soldiers to serve under the name of revolution. To overthrow the current command of the North and fight for a new leader. He didn't bother to find out more as he thought of it as mere rumor that would die down eventually. Now? He wasn't so sure anymore… As he grown up, it wasn't one or two worrying news he received from North. It was more that he couldn't pass it up simply as baseless rumor. North was under a threat. And being the loyal subject of North, he felt like he needed to do something.

          And that boy with the red muffler. That boy was definitely not one of his troop. He knew all of the batches before him the batches that was after AD batch was no doubt still in training. Then who was that guy?

          Gritting his teeth, Cheolyong reached for his phone and rung Jinwoon as he told his partner to meet him at a cafe though he sensed the tiredness in Jinwoon's voice, probably for only having little time to rest from 2am's packed schedule.

          Cheolyong's eyes went down to the phone in his hand. It was past midnight but he didn't like letting unsolved puzzles muddled his brain. He wouldn't get any rest at all. So, tip-toeing out of his room, he squealed when he walked straight into someone's chest and stumbled back, crashing onto the door to his room but since he hadn't had chance to properly closed his door, the door flung opened and Cheolyong lost his balance, toppling onto the floor, pulling the one he had crashed into with him.

          "Ow!"

          Cheolyong rubbed his hip that had majorly received the impact and looked over to Seungho who was now sprawled across Cheolyong's laps. "Hyung. Are you okay?" He asked in concern knowing Seungho had been complaining about his aching ribs after fracturing them a few weeks ago in a recording.

          "Ow... My chest…" Seungho hissed and let the maknae helped him to sit upright.

          The dark space of their dorm suddenly washed out by the bright light and the other three members came crowding in front of Cheolyong's room inquiring what all the loud sound was about, looking disheveled from being woken up from their deep sleep.

          "Sorry I woke you guys up. Just a little incident." Cheolyong said, pulling Seungho to stand with help from Changsun.

          "Hyung. Is it hurting again?" Changsun asked with his eyes barely opened but was still worried over the sick leader.

          "It's okay." Seungho inhaled deeply, testing the pain. "False alarm."

          "Aisy! I thought you fractured you ribs again." Byunghee whined.

          They were fussing over Seungho, however, Sanghyun didn't miss the fact that Cheolyong was wearing the jeans and the jacket instead of pajama. "Where are you going, Cheolyong?" His question brought everyone's attention onto the maknae.

          Cheolyong blinked, cursing Sanghyun in his mind. This was one of the reason he didn't feel easy around Sanghyun. While the others hardly noticed anything about him and only concentrated on Seungho's condition, the visual maknae was too observant and not easily distracted. "I… I'm just going to get something I left at the company."

          Changsun looked at the clock on the wall. "It's already late. Get it tomorrow." He said authoritatively like a big brother.

          "It's really important." Cheolyong replied.

          "It's dangerous to go out this late." Byunghee reminded.

          "It's okay hyung. I can take care of myself. I'm a grown up man." Cheolyong chuckled slightly.

          Changsun frowned, openly disagreeing with the maknae which slightly baffled the maknae. Since when the dancer care this much about him. Weird…

          "Byunghee is right Cheolyong. Plus, we have to go to the saloon at five in the morning and the whole day tomorrow will be filled with shows and mini concert which left us only about a few more hours to rest." Seungho added.

          "I promise I'll get back as soon as possible." Cheolyong said and not wanting to further the discussion, he made to retreat himself from the small group when he felt a hand shot out to grab his elbow firmly. Surprisingly, it was Changsun.

          "No. It's not safe. I'll go with you." Changsun offered.

          Cheolyong gawked slightly. "Why are you so worried, hyung?"

          "We're all worried, Cheolyong." Sanghyun chipped in.

          "I'm just going out for a while. I'm not a girl or a kid who need someone to look over for. I can take care of myself." He pulled away from Changsun's grasp, eyeing the dancer weirdly. Seriously, why was Changsun making such a big deal out of this? Sure, it was sweet if it only was in other time but Cheolyong have puzzles he needed to solve and he was nowhere near appreciating his other hyungs being so nosy about his own business.

          "I just…" Changsun mumbled but then glared at Cheolyong, suddenly looking so upset. "Do what you want!" He seethed and stomped away to his own room.

          "What is wrong with him?" Cheolyong gaped after a short moment of silence.

          "Can't blame him." Byunghee started. "He is worried about you."

          Cheolyong scoffed. "I told you there is no need to worry about me. I can-"

          "-Take care of yourself. Yea, I know." Byunghee smiled sadly at Cheolyong. "Changsun didn't want me to tell any of you but… He receives threat these days."

          "Threat? What kind of threat?" Sanghyun asked curiously.

          "I'm not sure. Like from any other sassaeng fans? Latest thing he got was two syringes, one syringe filled with blood while the other was empty and a letter attached to the box wanting Changsun to draw his own blood using the empty syringe. It was creepy I tell you. There are still other things he got with just similar lever of creepiness which… I don't feel like talking about it." Byunghee shuddered at the collection of the memory.

          "Sassaeng fan?" Cheolyong whispered to himself in thought.

          "Our managers had been busy having meeting with each other about this since the threat just start small with just some creepy letter saying no one could have Changsun and later turned even worse. He probably scared for his safety and ours just in case his crazy fan decided to attack any of us." Byunghee explained.

          Now that made a lot of sense. Cheolyong nodded to himself.

          "Why wasn't I informed about this?" Seungho wondered, his hands in his pajama pockets, uneasy look over his weary features.

          "They didn't want to worry you. You already got a lot in your hands. And Changsun don't want to involve the company as well. He didn't want his and MBLAQ's activities being put into a halt just because of some crazy fans." Byunghee patted on the leader's shoulder comfortingly, slightly frowning when he saw Seungho's sad eyes drifted to the maknae who seemed not to notice and was in deep thought. What's with all the unreadable stares?

          "Anyway." Cheolyong snapped out of his thought. "I'll be back before we have to get ready for the saloon." He announced.

          "You're still going out?" Sanghyun asked with pouty lips.

          "Just for a while." Cheolyong grinned.

          Seungho sighed. "Since when are you getting so stubborn? Did filming maknae rebellion turn you into one? Fine. Be careful."

          Cheolyong nodded. "Thanks hyung." Cheolyong left the dorm, his eyes narrowed down significantly. Sassaeng fan? Cheolyong made a whistling noise and exhaled softly.

          Cheolyong walked down the block, not failing to notice the suspicious silver car but decided to ignore it. Sassaeng? What a joke? Worrying for him over sassaeng? Worry…

          Cheolyong blinked and his hand went up to his burning cheeks. They were worried about him and he somehow felt fluttered. He swore his heart skipped a bit that his hand went to grip the material of his clothes over his heart.

          What the hell? Cheolyong shook his head and ran down the block. No no no. He couldn't feel touched by such thing. No. He would not let that be.

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

Cheolyong's eyes focused away from the phone in his hand when he noticed the incoming object just a few feet away. Instinctively, he stepped back to avoid the linear line of the object flying through and…

          "Ouch!" Byunghee's loud cries followed after a dull 'thunk'.

          Cheolyong hid his smile putting on fake concern look filled with hidden humor. "Omo, hyung. Gwenchana?" Cheolyong ran to a halt next to Byunghee who had fallen down on the floor of the practice room and was rubbing the side of his head with painful scowl on his face. Cheolyong bent down and took the water bottle rolling by his feet, undoubtedly the object that had strike bull eye on Byunghee's head.

          "Sorry!" Seungho came running from the other side of the room with mix of guilt and humor. He was sorry for the little incident but it was kind of funny to see the main vocal of MBLAQ toppled over from the impact of the flying water bottle.

          "You don't look sorry at all!" Byunghee pointed accusing finger to Seungho whom burst out laughing right after.

          "It's my fault I guess." Changsun came with Sanghyun cackling silently behind the dancer. "I overshoot." The dancer grinned sheepishly.

          "Oh my. I should have caught the bottle but I thought it would land on Cheolyong instead of you." Seungho revealed.

          Cheolyong frowned. "You want it to land on me? That's cruel."

          "Well, it didn't either way." Seungho said, patting Cheolyong's fluffy brown hair.

          "That is just cruel…" Cheolyong repeated, popping open the cap of the water bottle. "Just because I'm the maknae, didn't mean that I'm a pushover."

          Seungho's eyes widened. He raised one hand and pointed one finger towards the maknae as warning when the maknae started to take a stance as if he was about to launch an attack with the mouth of the bottle tipped slightly in Seungho's direction. "Don't you dare…"

          "Bite me!" With that, Cheolyong splashed the content of the bottle towards Seungho but Seungho's impressively fast reflex got the leader to duck away and instead of him, it was Changsun who got drenched. "Opps?"

          Changsun gaped, looking down at his now totally soaked white wifebeater and sweat pants. "What the hell?" He cursed.

          Byunghee snickered at the situation, went to pat on Cheolyong's shoulder proudly. "Well, well, well. Look how our maknae help his smelly hyung for a shower. Now, at least you have your shower for the day, don't you?"

          "I am not smelly!" Changsun roared, stomping towards the table where rows of water bottle was being put for them after tiring dance and singing practice. He sketched out an evil smile. "You ask for this."

          And the water battle broke out inside this practice room with Changsun trying to drench both the maknae and Byunghee, especially Byunghee but the older one was witty enough, using Cheolyong as his shield and ran to the table to get his own supply of water weapon.

          All the while the water war was ongoing, Sanghyun watched with a longing look on his face. How he wished he could join in the fun but he felt like he had no right to, since he was still practically a stranger, a sudden replacement for Sangbae, and though the other members did treat him kindly, there was still tall barrier between them.

          "Here."

          Sanghyun blinked and saw Seungho's wicked smile and a water gun was shoved into his hand. "Eh?"

          Seungho raised his own water gun. "I know this will be useful one day." The leader said. "Ready?"

          Sanghyun nodded once like a robot, still very much bewildered but once Seungho charged into the battlefield between Cheolyong, Byunghee and Joon with a war-like shout, Sanghyun smiled widely and charged in right behind Seungho. He wanted to climb over that wall. And Seungho had given him the push he needed.

          The five of them kept on shouting as they kept on attacking each other. No one knew which side they were on already. Everyone just kept lunging water to others until their energy finally depleted and one by one collapsed on the water puddles covering the floor of the practice room, breathing heavily.

          Except for Cheolyong who was still very energetic as he snatched away Sanghyun's water gun and squirted towards the tangled mess of his hyungs on the floor and bounced around the room happily with some random victorious yell to follow. Claiming the victory of this random and absurd war.

          "Why are you still so energetic?" Changsun groaned, rolling and kicking Cheolyong's legs off the floor when the maknae skipped close to him causing the maknae to flail and finally fall unto Sanghyun who was lying not too far from there.

          Cheolyong made himself comfortable on the skinny boy who groaned under his weight and shoot more water to Changsun, right on the face. "Because I'm young and you're just a grumpy old man."

          "Yah! Be respectful to your hyung!" Changsun scolded.

          Cheolyong stuck out his tongue and slid down onto the floor until only his head lying on Sanghyun's abdomen. "Sanghyun hyung." He called out quietly, now putting down the water gun. "You're fun."

          Sanghyun beamed down at Cheolyong, happy to take that as a compliment and patted Cheolyong's head. "We're fun." He corrected.

          "This is bad." Cheolyong whispered, only loud enough to be heard by himself but not by his other MBLAQ hyungs. I'm changing… No… I must not…

          "Kids- Wha- Ouch!" A loud thud startled the five boys inside the room as they all sat up to that sound, eyes widened in horror at the sight of Jihoon, the world star aka their producer slipping on the water puddles and falling unceremoniously onto the ground.

          "Hyungnim!" Changsun and Seungho were among the first to arrive by Jihoon's side, helping the older man up.

          "Why is there puddle on the floor?" Jihoon asked with angry scowl.

          And that was when five sets of finger pointing to each other with overlapping, "He did it- No, he started it- It's all his fault-"

          "Shut up!" Jihoon scolded and all five boys clamped their mouth shut. Jihoon sighed. He didn't want to spoil the happy laughter he had just heard even from the hallway before he entered this room. He might be strict at most of the time but he would want his dongsaeng to always smile and laugh. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down and engraved a sweet smile on his face to show his precious dongsaengs that he was in a good mood today. "Kids… I'm here to ask you guys out for lunch. My treat." Jihoon said cheerfully.

          Again, the reply overlapping with each other, "I just ate- I'm dieting, sorry- I don't feel like eating out-"

          Jihoon felt the nerve he had been trying to kept intact snapped. "Fine! I'll never treat any of you guys out again!"

          The five boys laughed behind their hands at the subconscious childish side Jihoon showed to them. "Aigoo hyungnim. We're just messing around. Of course we'll accept your offer with our most grateful honor, dear my great hyung." Seungho bowed down exaggeratedly.

          "Hah! That's more like it, now go change." Jihoon barked out his order, still pissed off for being tricked by the younger ones.

          "Why? This will dry out eventually." Changsun chirped.

          "Yah! Don't be so stubborn!" Seungho nagged and pulled the dancer by his ears towards the shower room in this company building followed by the others.

          It didn't took more than fifteen minutes for the boys to get ready and of course the first one who was ready was none other than Changsun. The others followed out not too long after.

          "I knew this one newly opened sushi restaurant." Jihoon mentioned.

          "I love sushi!" Changsun shouted out excitedly.

          "Sanghyun hyung doesn't really eat sushi." Cheolyong interrupted, seeing how Sanghyun was hesitating.

          "Oh you don't?" Jihoon asked back and changed his suggestion when the usually quiet boy nodded. "Then, I'll take you guys to my favorite diner."

          "But I love sushi." Changsun mumbled sulkily.

          "Next time." Jihoon said, patting Changsun on his back.

          Sanghyun turned to Cheolyong, all smiley. "Thank-" He started but was interrupted by sound of car horn blaring not too far from where they just exited the building.

          "CHEOLYONGIE~" A pink car stopped right next to the boys and Jinwoon grinning face poked out through the opened darkly tinted window.

          All of the boys, including Cheolyong had their jaw dropped at the car which was not just painted in any pink but hot pink and the car even got stickers of Hello Kitty all over it. Even Sanghyun who liked Hello Kitty with his whole heart was repulsed by that car.

          "What the hell is this?" Cheolyong squeaked, backing off from the car and clung on Seungho's arm, hiding behind the leader.

          "It's a car." Jinwoon got out, wearing a comfortable casual clothes. "It's our fishing car." He added.

          "Fishing car?" Jihoon echoed as the other boys were still too busy gaping and poking at the bright colored car, astonished to know that such car even existed.

          "F-fishing… Yeah…" Cheolyong took a look at his wristwatch, beating himself inside his head for not realizing the order from the headquarter had arrived just half an hour ago. "I forgot." Cheolyong grinned and turned to his other hyungs. "Can I go? I promised him to go out fishing together."

          Jihoon pursed his lips, didn't seem much pleased at Cheolyong choosing his 91-line over him but still nodded to the request. "Fine…" He sighed.

          "Sorry, hyung. Next time, eoh?" Cheolyong threw an apologetic smile before jumping into the car but not before pulling up the hoodie he was wearing to cover his head, afraid being seen riding such girlish car. As the car went on smoothly to the main road, Cheolyong clicked his tongue. "What kind of car is this?" He complained to Jinwoon, crossing his arms across his chest.

          "Well, it's not too obvious."

          "Not too obvious?" Cheolyong echoed in disbelief. He scoffed. "People can spot us from miles away."

          Jinwoon smirked. "Yet they would never have thought what kind of people inside this vehicle. And everyone love a cat without mouth."

          Cheolyong huffed. "It's embarassing~" He whined cutely, shrinking into the seat.

          Jinwoon chuckled. "You've changed…" And he kind of regretted voicing that out loud when he could see from the corner of his eyes how the other boy tensed up. "I'm not suggesting anything by it."

          "Of course you do. What you said is no different than accusing me of betraying our great country!" Cheolyong snapped.

          Jinwoon's brows knitted together. "I don't mean that in a bad way. It's good to see you smile."

          "That was just an act." Cheolyong turned to throw his gaze out the window instead, steeling his face into a stern look.

          Jinwoon sighed a bit. "That couldn't be all an act."

          Cheolyong snorted. "Don't be naïve AD93." Cheolyong intentionally pressed the code that used to be their name, their identity. "I can do even more for our great country. Lying and acting is part of our life."

          "Our great country, our great country, our great country! What is so great about our country?" This time, it was Jinwoon who snapped. His fingers tightened around the car steering that his knuckles turned white. "Didn't you see? The first time we stepped into this country, even a crazy man could see how different it is from North. Great country. Hah!" Jinwoon laughed bitterly. "We have been taught that our country is the greatest, the most beautiful and there should be no envy and our Great leader had done hell lots and had helped advanced development of North. You know what? If I kept on living in that so-called-great-country, I wouldn't even have known existence of internet, existence of unending food supply that no one have to starve for a small mistake or publicly executed and didn't have to keep under surveillance at each crook of the city leaving us with not even a speck of right for privacy like it was a normal thing for every country." Jinwon inhaled slightly. "I wouldn't have known the real meaning of kindness."

          "You're speaking treason." Cheolyong warned with glowering eyes.

          "I-"

          "Shut the up!" Cheolyong shouted, hand grabbing the front material of Jinwoon's shirt, causing Jinwoon to steer aside of the road dangerously before the car stopped by the roadside, the other passing cars blaring their horn at them. "If you keep on going, you know what will happen. I have to kill you!" Cheolyong hissed.

          Jinwoon took this chance to stare at Cheolyong, about to say more when he saw the look inside Cheolyong's brown eyes. Cheolyong looked worried. And it was the first time Jinwoon saw Cheolyong like this. Most probably, the smaller boy didn't even realize what kind of expression he had on his own face, didn't even aware of the changes inside of him, or might be denying it.

          But, still…. They were good changes… At least to Jinwoon.

          Drifting his eyes down to his laps, Jinwoon whispered an apology, "I'm sorry. I talked too much."

          Cheolyong backed away with a sigh. "It's fine if you know now."

          There was a moment of awkward silence before Jinwoon voiced out again. "About the thing you ask me to find out." He spoke and Cheolyong remember the late night he went to meet Jinwoon at the café to inquire more information about the rumored existence of Jiman's personal armies. "It seemed that there is a secret troop working specifically under Jiman's order."

          Cheolyong tilted his head to his side. "Isn't that just like us?"

          Jinwoon shook his head once. "No, I don't think so. We're more like under the North security minister. Our order isn't coming from Jiman or at least not fully from him. Jiman simply relay the order from the upper division or should I say the president himself?"

          "And?"

          "It's been rumored that Jiman had been training his own personal troop of armies to overthrow the current president."

          "What?"

          "It's just a rumor but it seemed that the current president have lost his trust in Jiman. It was quite unsettling inside the congress right now. Jiman is our military favorite and lots of the other minister prefer him over the president. Now, the political power basically split into two."

          Cheolyong leaned onto the seat, letting out a sigh. "He's too strong to be shook off from his position."

          "I know right… Here." Jinwoon tossed a broken blood stained leather bracelet Cheolyong had given him that night. "I've mailed the DNA test from the blood. You can check on it later. You'd be surprised."

          Cheolyong took back the bracelet, keeping it safe inside his jeans pocket as he nodded a silent thanks but didn't question further as he would find out sooner or later. The identity of the boy with blood red muffler.

          Another moment of silence.

          "What are you waiting for?" Cheolyong tilted his head as gesture to continue their journey.

          "Before I forgot." Jinwoon reached to the back seat, grabbing a black shooping bag and dump it on Cheolyong's laps. "Our uniform." He informed when Cheolyong looked at him weirdly.

          Cheolyong turned the shopping back upside down, dumping the content on his laps and took a good look at the contents as his jaw slowly dropped. "Do you think we're ninja?" He squeaked at the black leather pants that look a size smaller, the black hood shirt and the black iron skeletal mask that supposed to cover lower half of his face.

          "Hey! Don't be mean. It's hard to get my hands on these babes." Jinwoon retorted, steering back to the road. "Get change, it's good to cover our identity."

          "You?" Cheolyong said, reluctantly climbing over to the back seat to change into the uniform, but quite pleasantly surprised to find out about the bulletproof material that made up the uniform. And he didn't want to admit it, but he did look good in this.

          "I got the same as you. I'll change into it later." Jinwoon glanced slightly, smiling a bit. "Told you, we're going all ninja assassin mixed naruto tonight."

          "Not funny. I can barely move in this pants." Cheolyong complained.

          "Too small?"

          "Way too small! Damn it!" Cheolyong grumbled, patting on Jinwoon's shoulder and took over the driver seat once he finished changing without stopping the car.

          "Go on a diet then." Jinwoon teased, slipping his own shirt over his head.

          Cheolyong didn't retort back through words, he just simply stepped on the gas and speed down the road, driving carelessly so just to make a point. "What did you say before?" He smirked evilly as Jinwoon tumbled all over at the backseat.

          "Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!" Jinwoon laughed. Cheolyong's childish side, kind of make him feel warm… And happy.

          They took a turn and parked in a small dark alley a few block away from their target. Cheolyong sighed. "This car is too much of an attention drawer."

          Jinwoon chuckled, covering his face with his own mask, an exact same design as the one he gave Cheolyong. "This mask have smoke filter and see the button right here? It could alter our voice. It'll help us a lot."

          "Where did you get all these things?"

          "I know my way in South."

          Cheolyong narrowed his eyes at Jinwoon. "You…" He started, clenching his fists. "Where did you get these?" He repeated his question, suspicious look in his eyes. Without a warn, he threw Jinwoon against the side of the car, finger tightening around the other's throat. "You traitor."

          Jinwoon moved slightly and raised his arm, striking onto Cheolyong's arm, the impact loosened Cheolyong's grip around Jinwoon's throat. "Not yet." Jinwoon gasp, rubbing his bruised neck.

          "How dare you." Cheolyong wanted to make a counterattack but he stopped himself when his watch vibrate inside his back pocket. "The target is on move." Cheolyong said and walked off. "We'll finish this first and I'll deal with you later."