“Oh my gawww -- Wendy!” Baekhyun bellows down to her cubicle. “Wendy, don’t act like you don’t hear me, girl. I know you already finished up that job with Joy – I heard you incinerate. Get down here!”

Kai shushes the loudmouth, flashing him incredulous eyes. “Baekhyun, are you nuts? This isn’t where to put chamomile in the breakroom: it’s a confidential assignment. We’re not supposed to— “

“Oh settle down, Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes. We’re not going to get into the specifics of your mission, but we must talk about this operative,” Baek says, bouncing excitedly on his toes.

“It’s almost quitting time. What is so critically exciting at this hour.” Wendy glides up to them, her slick black pumps barely making a sound on the wood floors. If she wasn’t so striking in appearance with her naturally amber-colored hair, she might’ve made a great operative, Kai considers. Her arms are crossed, and she’s semi-glaring at Baekhyun until he informs her with an eyebrow waggle:

“He’s got a mission with Dyo.”

Wendy’s demeanor changes on a dime, jaw dropping as she turns to face Kai, startling him with the wide-eyed look she gives. “Shut up. You’re so lucky!” She swats his shoulder something fierce and Kai muffles a whimper, rubbing his shoulder once she turns back to make high-pitched squealing noises with Baek. Wtf is going on here. He can usually depend on Wendy to be the most normal of the bunch.

“Why is this everyone’s business?” he asks tentatively.

“Because,” Baekhyun explains, “he’s new. Not just to you, to the company. He hasn’t matched with anyone permanently yet.”

“Ugh, I was really hoping I’d get to keep him,” Wendy whines, biting into her lower lip.

Baekhyun sits down on top of Kai’s desk (because why the hell not, apparently this conversation is happening whether Kai wants it to or not) and swings his legs. “We were just talking about him the other day because—”

“Because this guy has the voice of, I don’t even know, not an angel. A… a…”

“A late night DJ on an adult contemporary station play sweet, sweet babymaking music from the 90s,” Baekhyun volunteers.

“That’s um, oddly specific,” Kai comments, giving Baek an uneasy look as he shoos him off his desk with the folder. “Can I please get back to work now?”

The navigator pops off Kai’s desk, but immediately spins Kai’s chair away from his computer and back toward him and Wendy. Baekhyun grips the armrests to trap him and his attention. “You don’t understand, dude.”

Kai leans as far back in his chair as possible, unsettled by how close and intense Baekhyun is. Even for Baek.

Wendy pipes up, pointing at his captor, “You know I’m the first to call this doofus out on his drama queen tendencies, but that voice really is something else. When I had Dyo, he had to dig a trench to lay cable, and he was grunting for practically half the mission. Heol, I’m not ashamed to say I had to change my afterward.”

“Say what now? Who’s losing their underwear?” Chen pokes his head in because why not? It’s not like Kai is working or anything. He pinches the bridge of his nose and holds back a groan as the other two catch Chen up to speed.

“…so you regularly keep spare at work?” Chen asks Wendy casually before taking another sip of his drink. She sticks her tongue out at him and murmurs something about responsible girls being prepared for feminine issues while Baekhyun keeps waxing poetic about the operative.

“It’s not just the voice. It’s how he uses it, too. The guy is a total charmer – I don’t know where they found him.”

“Okay, THANK YOU,” Kai announces, holding up his hands to get his coworkers to stop talking. “Thank you for the thorough rundown on how much of an impression he has made on you, but may I please remind you we are all professionals here? And I’m keeping your new favorite operative waiting right now, so if you could kindly...?” He gestures for them to scatter away from his workspace.

“Well, good chat team.” Baekhyun clasps his hands together. “I really feel we’ve bonded today like never before. Let’s do it again soon!” he tosses over his shoulder on his way back to his own desk.

Wendy gives Kai an understanding smile, smoothing out her blouse and returning to her usual propriety. “I’m heading out. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kai.” He gives a polite bow of his head in reply.

As Chen turns to leave, he points at him with his cup. “Tell me if this guy is really worth the fuss tomorrow, since I’ll probably get him next. Seems like they’re going to cycle him through all the navigators.”

“Sure, sure,” Kai says distractedly, reading over the briefing now. He’s already wasted a lot of prep time. Luckily, the navigation details are very straightforward for this mission. He’s just got to lead the operative to a room full of servers on the first floor of a tech company that should be unpatrolled at this hour.

He quickly sets up the blueprints in their orderly array on his secondary screen. Every floorplan is lined up, just in case, even though he should only need the first level.

Okay, deep breath. Wait, what. Kai shakes his head. Just another mission, what’s with the nervous buzzing under his skin. He gets his headset in place and clears his throat before switching it on.

“Good eve- Good morning. Kai here, ready to lead. Let me know when we’re a go.”

Kai waits (reminding himself not to hold his breath). Silence. He checks his mic is on and repeats his intro. Still no response. “Um, hello? Agent Dyo?” he attempts again after another five seconds. Great. He’s so late to get the mission started after accepting it, his operative has fallen asleep or left the post or—

“Well hello there, stranger. Never had the pleasure of speaking with you before.”

Okay, he’s not sure what he was expecting, but wow. Wow. A spark runs downs his spine and spreads heat throughout his body, causing him to jolt and slosh his coffee on the desk. It’s not even the deepness of the voice that’s so disarming, it’s the… smoothness? And how warm it is? Oh God, he needs to say something.

“Ah, yes.” It comes out stuttered and unsure. Stupid voice betraying how flustered he is.

He can hear the smile in Dyo’s voice when he croons out his next words. “Aw, are you shy, sweetheart? Should I call you