Himchan let out a sigh, rubbing his temples in frustration. He had called the boys to a group meeting to discuss their current situation as well as how they should proceed in dealing with with the INF. Problem was his children seemed to be at the rebellious age. As in if their asses weren’t in these black leather seats in the next 5 minutes he was going to rip them a new one. “Damn, am I dealing with grown men or children?” He let out an exasperated sigh.

“You look like you’re having fun,” Himchan’s ears and mood perked up at the sound of your voice as you entered the conference room of B.A.P’s hideout. It had become a routine for you for the past few months. Visiting the boys every so often at their hideout (now that you were allowed to know where it was), providing them with some snacks and refreshments now and then since the boys tended to forget to eat since their mission to flush Infernum out began. They limited their business conversations to their hideout, no longer using the back room of Le Noir for meetings in fear of curious ears. “I come bearing gifts.” You smiled sweetly as you lifted up a container of freshly made spaghetti.  

“God, I love you.” Himchan chuckled, pulling you towards him by the waist, and giving your hip a soft peck. You rolled your eyes at Himchan’s over dramatization, but pampered him a bit by running your fingers through his soft black locks. He always found it oddly comforting.

“Did I hear gifts?” Zelo smirked as he entered the room, ending the intimate moment of comfort you and Himchan shared. Himchan let out a frustrated groan as the rest of the boys started to pour into the room.

“When I want you guys here, you’re nowhere to be found.  But as soon Y/N is here you all flock like vultures,” He hissed, but the boys simply ignored his whines as they sat themselves down in their respective spots. “Speaking of vultures. We’re missing one. Where’s Daehyun?”

“I told him to move his to the meeting. No response.” Youngjae shrugged, leaning back into his chair to find a comfier position to sit.

“He’s been like this for weeks…” Himchan let out another exasperated sigh. These boys will be the death of him. You looked down at Himchan confused as you turned to Yongguk and cocked an eyebrow.

“Daehyun has been really silent lately. Not eating much and hasn’t left his room for some days. Kinda out of it.” Yongguk answered you mental question, which you thanked.

“Maybe he got dumped by another girl.” Jongup boredly nodded, not wanting to dwell on the mental issues of s and instead get the meeting going.

“Like that’s anything new.” Youngjae snorted. Despite his smart quips, Youngjae had a boiling concern for his best friend. Daehyun being silent, let alone not eating, was something he deemed very unusual.

“He was fine when he went to that club up on Mercy street a few weeks ago. Weren’t you with him?” Himchan groaned, concerned deeply for the younger member, but at the same time frustrated at the rest of the members lack of cooperation.

“That doesn’t mean I have to follow his all the time?” Youngjae rolled his eyes.  

“Noooo, you’d rather tap that .” Zelo snickered, causing both Jongup and Yongguk to let out a snort. Even you had to bite your lower lip to contain a chuckle that threatened to escape your lips. Youngjae glared at the maknae for his juvenile joke.

“And you’d rather have a kick in the ,” Youngjae growled before letting out a sigh to recollect his thoughts. “I saw him head off to the bar and that’s about it. I’m pretty sure he was chatting up with a girl.”

“Where were you?” Himchan raised a brow, wondering where Youngjae could have wandered off to that he would lose sight of Daehyun.

“At the tables. Got a few games of billiards in.” Youngjae smirked. “And guess who won us a ton of money?” Youngjae place a large wad of cash in front of the boys before leaning back into his seat, a cocky grin on his face. “Your welcome.”

“I’ll go check on him,” You offered, seeing as the rest of the boys weren’t going to be of much help. “I’m pretty good at getting boys to listen to me,” You winked over your shoulder, causing Himchan to raise a brow and flash you a smirk.

“It’s like we have two moms.” Zelo snickered, causing Himchan to shoot the young boy a sharp glare.

“Except one of them is easier on the eyes.” Jongup snorted in amusement.

“You boys go ahead and enjoy the spaghetti. It was Zelo’s request after all.” The rest of the boys turned their attention to the young boy, confused at the sudden request of spaghetti.

“What? Padrino said she makes really good spaghetti,” Zelo shrugged, scavenging through the package you brought. “Plus I’m getting tired of Himchan’s cooking.”

“I swear to God why do I put up with you guys….” Himchan groaned.

“Daehyun?” You gently knocked on the door that belonged to the usually boisterous, flirty male. The response of silence was odd and unnerving. “Daehyun? Are you okay?” You knocked a few more times, the door slowly opening on it’s own. You took that as a sign to scope out the room. Usually you would never pry into someone else’s room. It was an invasion of privacy and outright rude. At the same notion, however, the sudden change in demeanor made the rude action warranted. 

“Y/N!?” Daehyun jumped at your sudden presence in his room. “W-what are you doing here?” He quickly scrambled some photos under his pillow, hoping that you hadn’t noticed. You had.

“I just wanted to check if you were okay. The boys were wondering where you were.” Your eyes were filled with concern at the sight of the man in front of you. Your mother bear instincts were kicking in. The once bright-eyed full of life boy was now a hollow shell. He had large bags under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept for days. The bright spark in his eyes were now masked over by a cloud of confusion, anger, depression. The smile he once wore now painted over with forced, fake pleasantries. It didn’t help that him and his room exuded such a stench of alcohol that the smallest spark could probably set the place ablaze.

“I’m fine. Thanks for letting me know.” Daehyun flashed you a forced assuring smile as he began walking past you.

“Daehyun,” You grabbed his wrist, forcing him to turn and face you. “If there is anything you need to talk about. Anything. I’m here okay? No judgement.” You lightly squeezed his wrist, assuring that you could be his confidant.

Daehyun opened his mouth for a moment, contemplating deeply on the words that were about to leave his mouth. “Y/N…if you had the chance to save the person you loved….would you do anything in your power to take it?” You stared into Daehyun’s eyes, his eyes were pleading for an answer. A part of you wanted to lie. You had a gut feeling that you should tell him a simple white lie. That some sort of pain could be avoided. But you didn’t want to. You couldn’t.

“Yes, Daehyun. If I had the chance, I would.” Daehyun’s fell into a deeper sadness as another empty smile graced his lips. Your grip on his wrist was light enough for him to remove himself from your grasp. 

“Thank you….” Daehyun flashed you one more smile before trotting down the hallway towards the conference room.

“So where are we at so far, Youngjae?” Himchan leaned back in his seat, staring at the projector screen decorated with documents, video, and photos. He took a quick glance at Daehyun and noticed the boy’s sullen demeanor. He quickly looked up at you as you made yourself comfortable on the armrest of Himchan’s chair. You flashed him a reassuring smile that you talked with Daehyun and that at the moment you should simply leave him alone.

“So we’ve cleared up nearly all the goods that belonged to the Emperor Dragons. Their ports, storage units, and territory is all under our control now,” Youngjae smirked, a bit proud of the team’s accomplishments. “But still not a peep from INF.” 

Himchan’s eyes narrowed at that information. Why weren’t they retaliating? For such a big shot scary organization, Himchan had thought they would have done something by now? Were they still not big enough fish to fry? He was frustrated and annoyed. They were looking down on them. They were basically saying that B.A.P could do whatever hell they want because they were not significant enough to detriment their business.

“How about the special agents? They’ve been on our tail recently.” Yongguk noted. You slightly tensed at thought of the secret agents. Jaebum recently came by the bar lately, inquiring about the recent storage raids. That as well as checking on your well-being. He really was a sweet man, it was only unfortunate that he was trying to put your boyfriend and his gang in prison.

“Hmph, a bunch a bloodhounds who can’t find the right scent,” Jongup snickered as he leaned back in his seat and placed his hands behind his head. “Without any evidence their accusations are just a bunch of smoke.” 

“Jongup’s right. At the moment, the special agents aren’t our biggest problem,” Himchan gripped his hands tightly. “The INF. They’re too quiet…Either they’re arrogant as hell and think nothing of losing some profit or we’re in for one hell of a storm,” Himchan sighed before glancing over to the usually boisterous member, now eerily quiet with a dull stare. “Right Daehyun?” 

Daehyun jolted at the sound of his name, all eyes were on him now. “R-Right…” His voice was merely a mumble. 

“What the hell’s got your tongue?” Zelo lifted a questioning brow, only to receive an elbow to the gut from Youngjae.  

“He’s just a bit tired,” You smiled politely, a smile that you have trained to deceive any man. “Late night thinking.” You gently rubbed Daehyun’s back, attempting to loosen the tension the poor boy was holding up. Daehyun looked up and stared into your eyes. You could see a flash of apologies and guilt go over his dark brown eyes.

“Ahem…well there is this one thing that I found that I think will stir up some trouble,” Youngjae let out a awkward, redirecting the attention of the crowd back to the screen displayed before them. There was something up with his best friend, and though Youngjae would not outwardly show it, he wanted to ease whatever troubles that plagued Daehyun. “I haven’t found the location of this shipment. From what I’ve gathered this little treasure that they’re hiding is on the move.” Youngjae zoomed in onto the a scramble of letter and numbers SA20–V10.

“Do we have any idea of what this treasure is?” Zelo’s face scrunched up as he attempted to decipher the letter and number code placed before him.

“Not a clue. I’m working on trying to figure out though…” Youngjae grumbled, not content that this puzzle that the INF has thrown at them had stumped him. Okay, not stumped, but did make the boy genius pause.

“I think I can help with that,” You gently removed yourself from the armrest of Himchan’s chair as you sauntered over towards the screen. “It’s an information code on what kind of cargo the Emperor Dragons brought in for the INF. This,” You pointed at the SA letters etched on the screen. “South America, the shipment is from South America. As for the 20–, it stands for the worth of the cargo. The two dashes indicate that it’s in the millions, so 20 million,” You tilted your head slight, tapping your chin in contemplation as you racked through your pool of knowledge. Your eyebrows furrowed and your expression darkened as you came to the realization of the code. Something all too familiar. “V…. 10….they’ll be splitting it up into 10 different locations.”

“Human trafficking…” You could hear the low growl in Yongguk’s voice.

“s? That’s hard to come by unless…” Zelo’s voice trailed off, answering the question that laid heavy in the room. 

“Unless they were young,” Himchan growled. “This must be their cash cow. Bringing in young girls from poorer countries and selling them off on the blackmarket…” The white of Himchan’s knuckles could be seen. No, Himchan and the rest of the boys were no saints, but there was a line that they would not cross. Children and the force labor of an innocent. That was something that they couldn’t stand.  “Youngjae, I want you to track that shipment with any means you can okay? Let’s stir up some trouble for them all high and mighty INF,” Youngjae gave Himchan a firm nod before typing away at his computer. “And watch out for Daehyun… he doesn’t seem to be in his right state of mind…” Himchan lowered his voice just so that Youngjae could hear.

“Yeah… I will…” Youngjae murmured, his expression softened for just a moment before going back to normal. “Yah, Daehyun! Get your over here and help me out! Quit your moping, just cause you got dumped or someone ate your last piece of cake.” Youngjae could hear a small scoff escape Daehyun’s lips as the boy came over and sat beside him. A small smile graced Youngjae’s face. At least Daehyun was showing some sort of emotion other than depressed.

“Jongup, Zelo, I want you two to hit the streets. What Youngjae and Daehyun can’t find out on the internet, I want you to find out, got it?” Jongup shrugged as he got up from his seat. Zelo took a small gulp as he got up from his seat. Zelo had never really worked with Jongup before and if he did it was always with someone else. It wasn’t like he was scared of Jongup. Of course not! He was a big bad gangster. Why would he scared of his fellow teammate…he wasn’t scared. Just wary. There was something about the dark blue haired boy and that sinister smirk of his that threw Zelo off.

“Come on, kid. I’ll buy you an ice-cream after this.” Jongup teased, causing Zelo to flare with anger.

“I am not a kid! I am like at least two heads taller than you so you better watch your mouth!” Zelo growled. 

“Or what? You gonna sit on me with your giant ?” Jongup chuckled, enjoying the thrill in riling the younger. The giant baby chick’s emotions were so easy to manipulate. It was quite amusing.

“Quit fighting you two and go do your job!” Himchan groaned as he rubbed his temples. “And Yongguk…” Himchan leaned down, his voice was barely a whisper. “I have some contacts down in South America, get in contact with Benny and see what you can dig up about any illegal shipments.” Yongguk gave a nod in acknowledgement and excused himself out of the room.

“And what are you going to do, Mr. Big Boss Himchan?” You teased, your hands on your waist as Himchan came up to you, a big smile plastered on his lips.

“Me? I’m taking you home.” Himchan pecked you gently on the lips, causing Youngjae to groan at the two of you.

“You two need to get that cutesy couply out of here. You’re starting to make flowers and sparkles pop up out of thin air.” Youngjae rolled his eyes as he continued to type away.

“Uhg…why do I deal with you all sometimes…seriously. I should give you all an whooping.” Himchan groaned, his arm s around your waist. 

“Cause they’ve imprinted on you so you’re stuck with them no matter what, Mama Duck.” You teased as Himchan shot you a playful glare. 

“Oh then what are you?” He raised an eyebrow, keen on your answer. 

“I’m the Papa Duck.” You chuckled as Himchan’s playful expression turned blank, an obvious look of ‘what the actual hell.’

“She ain’t wrong. We know who wears the pants in this relationship.” Youngjae snickered.

“That’s it. We’re leaving,” Himchan quickly shooed the two of you out of the room. “And the next time I see you Youngjae, you’re going to have a footprint on your .”

“So are you ever going to tell me how you figured out that code,” Himchan chuckled, his warm breath gently fanning you neck, his arms wrapped your waist as you opened the door to your apartment. “Or am I gonna have to pry it out of you?” He smirked, his voice filled with suggestion as his grip around your waist tightened.

“Hmmm, I wonder,” You smirked as you turned to face, playing with his collar. “Why don’t you come in and try to find out for yourself?” You playfully pulled him by the collar into your apartment, pressing your soft lips against his. The two of you just seemed to fit. His lips against yours. The harmonious synchronization of movement. The small playful nips on your lower lips. It was perfection. Himchan broke the kiss momentarily, a big ol cheeky grin on his face.

“Oh I plan on to,” He gave you a peck on the nose before casually walking into your kitchen. Despite what the boys (any thousands of many of other people) may think, Himchan had yet to touch you yet. Well….touch you in the way he wanted to do. He didn’t understand himself anymore. At first he was frustrated. Wanting nothing more to pounce on you and ravage your body, but as time progressed he found himself basking in this relationship you two had. He didn’t quite know what to label it. Domestic? Romantic? He didn’t know and he didn’t care. He was happy. Genuinely happy. There was no need to rush his happiness. “Coffee?” He flashed you his sweet bunny tooth smile, that you recently discovered. Only when you saw that endearing smile did you know that Himchan was being sincere. No facade. No tough guy act. It was just Himchan.

“How can I resist your coffee?” You teased as you headed towards your bedroom to dress in something more comfortable.

“So can you at least give me a hint as to how you figure out that code?” Himchan hummed as he began packing the coffee into the machine. He knew better than to pry into your life, yet at the same time the more time he spent with you the more he wanted to know.

“It’s just something I learned on the job.” You chuckled at Himchan’s persistency. The more time you spent with the man the more you discovered yourself opening up. The cold walls you built up were cracking, and surprisingly, you were relieved. Relieved to be happy. To perhaps, actually move on.

“Job? I thought your job was a bar owner?” Himchan raised a brow as he began mixing the perfect amount of cream and sugar into each coffee cup.

“I’m a woman of many abilities and talents,” You chuckled, waddling into the kitchen and peering over Himchan’s shoulder. “Why should I limit myself to just being a bar owner, Channie.” You teased, playfully pinching his nose as you scooped up your coffee cup.

“Channie? Really?” He sighed, knowing better than to argue with you since you would win in the end.

“I think it’s cute,” You shrugged, sipping on the perfect cup of joe as you snuggled into your couch. Himchan rolled his eyes. He was a notorious gangster and last time he checked, notorious gangsters weren’t cute. “Imagine the boys seeing you now, all sparkly eyed and making coffee. Very domestic.”

“And you have a problem with that?” He raised an eyebrow, taking his seat beside you and wrapping his around your shoulder.

“Nope.” You smiled sweetly at him then pecking his nose.

You leaned again Himchan’s chest reveling in his warmth as the two of you began talk about everything and nothing. You both talked about your childhoods, your favorite foods, your least favorite foods, your first dates, the list could go on forever. The occasional peck or two would sneak in between words. A moment of pause for the needed sip of coffee. The sweet lull of jazz music that was playing in the background accompanied your conversation (You always had some sort of music playing in the background). Everything seemed so natural between the two of you. Like things just seemed to fit.

“No, you did not do that,” You could not contain the laughter pouring from your lips, tears of humor threatening to fall. “A bouquet of dandelions? That’s what you gave her?” 

“At the time I thought it was cute!” Himchan defended his case, looking at you unamused as you laughed hysterically. “You blow on dandelions to grant a wish right? So I gave her a bouquet of those so that her wishes could come true!” He slightly pouted, thinking that his gesture was cute as . 

“That is very adorable,” You looked up at Himchan, the pout still very eminent on his lips. “I expect a bouquet of dandelions from you.” You pecked his lips causing the small pout to transform into a grin.

“I’ll go pick some right now.” He flashed you a cheeky grin as the both of you bursted out into laughter.

Knock Knock! 

“Huh?” You raised a brow at the sudden intrusion to your blissful. 

“Were you expecting someone? Do I need to start acting like your macho possessive boyfriend?” Himchan teased, causing you to roll your eyes and slap his chest playfully.

“It’s probably nothing,” You placed your coffee cup down and waddled to the front door. You peeked through the little peephole to see a small brown package lying in front of your apartment, a small folded note adorning the top of the box. You raised an eyebrow. Packages were never directly placed at your front door, usually they stayed with the your mailbox downstairs till you checked. Your instincts told you to be wary after the bomb incident, slowly prying the door open to exam the box. You stayed silent for a moment, not a sound of ticking or beeping could be heard. At least you could conclude that the box wasn’t a time bomb. You bent down to pick up the note. You wanted to play, right? Your eyebrows furrowed at the words staring back at you.

“Hey, you okay, Adenium?” Himchan raised a brow at your cautious nature and began removing himself from the couch.

“I’m fine it’s just…” You eyes narrowed as you noticed some sort of ooze seeping out of the bottom of the box. You cautiously reached out and opened each flap of the box. “Oh my God…” You fell back, your eyes wide. Your entire body was trembling and you could feel your stomach churn, wanting nothing more than to release its contents. Everything around you seemed to crash. Reality seemed to set in. The blissful paradise you were in now became a utter living hell.

“Y/N?” Himchan’s voice wary as he approached you, only to have his voice fall silence and his face pale at the sight of the contents in the box. Blood soaked the entirety of the box, seeping its way into the wooden floors of the hallway. The dismembered head beaten, bruised, slashed. Nearly unrecognizable. Nearly. “V-Vincent…”

Thanks for reading! Comments and Critiques are much appreciated!!