Kang Daniel was looking at himself in the mirror while Minhyun was busy picking whether he should go with the pitch-black suit or the blue velvet suit for Kwon Jiyong’s party. “Didn’t you ask for Kwon Jieun’s dress code? It’s absurd not to know since you are her date.” Seongwoo raised his eyebrow. “She said just wear whatever I want though?” Daniel replied nonchalantly. “Dammit, Daniel, it’s the signal for you to ask what she wear, she was giving you hints to ask her,” Seongwoo ranted.

“I’m pretty sure she really meant it like that,” Daniel said, even though he partly sure that she was not trying to giving him subdued hints, but the other part of him was suddenly afraid that maybe he should’ve asked. “You are so helpless, Niel,” Seongwoo shook his head. “The black one is great, like it fit to your body more nicely than the blue one,” Jaehwan commented.

“I like the black one more too, and it will compliment whatever dress she is wearing because Daniel didn’t bother asking, I bet the other guy would’ve asked her,” Seongwoo sneered which made him got a glare from the younger. “Really, I’m a hundred percent sure that she meant it when she told me to wear whatever I want,” Daniel insisted in distress.

“Hyung, you are raising a cat with her, you should’ve asked,” Guanlin snapped which made Seongwoo clapped his hand.

“That’s a very crucial point right there,” Seongwoo said afterward. “Still can’t believe that out of all the things you could’ve done or said, you decided to raise a cat together? That’s like committing to a child, no?” Jaehwan laughed – Daniel almost wanted to say that he miss that psychotic laugh if Jaehwan wasn’t actually in the middle teasing him. “Very different, Jaehwan, it just a cat,” Daniel deadpanned.

“You love cats, Daniel, you once said that they are like your own children, I remember Jisung hyung telling us that you cried until the orphanage let you keep them,” Seongwoo countered.

“That is a completely different situation okay,” Daniel huffed. “Suit yourself, Niel.” Seongwoo smirked when Guanlin came back with a laptop on his hand. “You know, I did some research at this Park Chanyeol dude, who is possibly after our precious Kang Daniel hyung for stealing his girl,” Guanlin said nonchalantly while Daniel sighed in disbelief.

“Are you saying that you actually stalked the Black League’s member?” Jaehwan grinned, impressed. “More less, but hey, this is what I always do so I’m kind of good at it, so they won’t notice that I did some slight investigation, beside, I’m just trying to save Daniel hyung.” Guanlin shrugged it off. “I don’t need any saving, Guanlin, he is not actually going to kill me,” Daniel replied with another sigh. “Technically no, but figuratively, yes,” Minhyun snapped.

“Come think about this, Daniel, what could happen if he knew that you are not actually just random dancer and actually belongs to the group of highly trained associate? Moreover, someone is actually after you and would probably do anything to get their hands on you?” Minhyun reasoned. “You know, Park Chanyeol dude is actually capable of that with all his resource and connection,” Guanlin added while turning his laptop around so everyone could see the screen.

“First of all, he belongs in EXO, we all know that they don’t play, hyung, second of all, he belongs in the Black League, we once again, also know that this is one of the most scariest house,” Guanlin stated. “Park Chanyeol is one of the finest conman, he tricked people to get what he wants, and that is his foremost specialty, but let me tell you something, that he also belongs in the Black List,” Guanlin continued.

“And Kwon Jieun said he can’t fight,” Daniel scoffed in disbelief. “Hey, being on the Black List doesn’t necessarily mean that you must be able to fight? They just have a license to kill among the mafia houses members,” Seongwoo commented. “How is that supposed to be less scary than it should be, hyung?” Daniel raised his eyebrow.

“Hold up a second though,” Minhyun snapped all of the sudden. “The Black List is completely and highly confidential, right? You have to be in the Black List to have an access to it, let alone to hack it,”.

“So you are saying the only way Guanlin could entered their database is because –,” Seongwoo paused as he and the rest turned their gaze to the youngest member.

“Hyung,” Guanlin gasped for a second before raising his eyebrow at the rest in confusion,

“You guys don’t know?”.

“No, Guanlin, we do not aware that you have a permission to murder anybody else,” Minhyun raised his voice all of the sudden.

“We all are,” Guanlin deadpanned as he typed something again before revealing the eleven familiar names in between the other names of mafia members. “Oh my goodness, this keeps getting worse,” Jaehwan scoffed. “How did you find out?” Daniel asked as he grabbed Guanlin’s arm slightly – as if he was making sure that the youngest did not do something bad to know that kind of information.

“Hyung, I did not kill anyone, if you are asking that, I was just trying to hacked to their archives for fun, to test my skill somehow,” Guanlin paused. “But they let me in just like that,” He added. “I got curious and did some hacking to see who else is on the list so my first instinct is to find all of your names and turned out we are all on the list,” Guanlin continued.

“What the actual ?” Seongwoo protested as he raised his voice. “Higher skill, higher price, is it not? Us being in the Black List means more desirable price,” Minhyun muttered. “ing dammit, you know what, I thought I had it enough of being treated like toys, like my consent doesn’t matter anymore,” Seongwoo hit the table hard.

“We cannot let anyone know about this,” Daniel suddenly spoke up. “They can’t see the full list, right? Unless they hacked it like you do?” Daniel asked and Guanlin nodded in reply. “Can you erase our names?” Minhyun added all of the sudden. “Unfortunately no, but I can try to hide them or something,” Guanlin said and as soon as he said that, his fingers started to type again.

“No, we cannot let anyone know that we also designed to kill, this is completely ed up, I never sign up for this,” Seongwoo ranted as Minhyun got up and left to his room. “Question though, so if we kill someone, we could still be untouched? Sorry, you know I don’t give even one to that kind of thing,” Jaehwan spoke up. “Worse, Jaehwan, if we kill someone, it’s like we basically have a legit permission to do so.” Daniel sighed.

“Man, that’s just despicable in so many levels.” Jaehwan shook his head.

“Daniel, you should leave, it’s time.” Minhyun suddenly came out as he tapped Daniel’s shoulder slightly and he pointed at the clock. “Hyung.” Daniel let out a groan when he saw that Minhyun was actually handing him a gun – it was Daniel’s gun that the league gave him, but before it was never fully loaded, but it does right then. “Please, Niel, you are going to be in a room full of criminals, worse case is that the one who is after us are there too,”.

“And really, stop acting like you never did any of this, Niel, you are our best fighter, two years of being slightly normal doesn’t stop the fact that you still ranked number one.” Seongwoo patted Daniel’s shoulder to assure the younger that it is going to be just fine. “Well, knowing the fact that you are in the Black List slightly changes everything, like we are more inhumane than before,” Daniel replied flatly – Minhyun had to grabbed his arm and put the gun on his palm.

“Hey, you are going to need this anyway, you are going to steal someone in case you forgot,”. Daniel cracked a smile when Seongwoo chuckled, obviously trying to fix the atmosphere. “And for goodness’s sake, compliment Kwon Jieun once you saw her, in order to fix your mistake of not asking what color her dress is,” Seongwoo added. “Are we still talking about that?” Daniel huffed in annoyance as he walked to the door before Minhyun called him out,

“Bring Jinyoung home, Daniel-ah,”.

---

Daniel realized that without Seongwoo told him to, he would still compliment Kwon Jieun anyway, since the latter looks stunning on her dark blue velvet bodycon dress that ended perfectly just a little above her knee. “You look –,”. “Awesome, I know, save the corny things for yourself,” Jieun snapped, but Daniel won’t let himself lose just like that.

“I was actually going to say that you look perfect standing beside me.” Daniel grinned. “Although you should’ve told me your dress color so we could match,” He added.

“Doesn’t matter, really,” Jieun said as she looked around when they were about to enter the mansion. “Smile, but don’t do that stupid, -eating smile, do the kind of smile when I visited Hwang Minhyun’s apartment, be a little cocky and mysterious, and stay low-key,” Jieun instructed as she linked her arms to the Daniel’s. “Got it, princess,” Daniel teased. “And ing stop calling me that,” Jieun hissed when they got into the front door.

“Kwon Jieun, as dashing as ever,”. Jieun wanted to die immediately when she heard the voice of the satan as soon as she got to the lobby. “Seungri.” Jieun pressed her lips together as she unlinked her arms from a certain male. “Oh my goodness, who is this lucky, handsome young man, hello, my name is – ouch,”. Seungri had to stop talking overdramatically when Jieun stepped on his shoes slightly with her heels. “Don’t start,” She hissed. “I do what I want so get off me,” Seungri huffed before Jieun moved aside.

“Daniel, this is Seungri, he is one of Jiyong’s consigliore, and this is Kang Daniel, my bodyguard that Jiyong assigned without any of my approval,” Jieun introduced. “Not surprised since if it’s all up to you, then you won’t even be here,” Seungri said before he smiled widely. “Pleasure meeting you, Kang Daniel,” Seungri said. “The pleasure is all mine, Seungri-ssi.” Daniel smiled back.

“I wonder though why such a nice, fine young man is willing to spend times with a vixen, no matter how pretty she is,” Seungri sneered at the end. “ off, Seungri, you are testing my patience, I’m going to kick you back to Japan right now,” Jieun deadpanned before she grabbed Daniel away from Seungri.

“He seems fun,” Daniel commented. “Annoying, that’s how I would describe him,” Jieun replied.

“By the way, is this your mansion?” Daniel asked when he looked around and it was indeed a luxury, grandeur kind of house. “No, it belongs to Jiyong, he never really live in here though, more like just to flaunt for event like this.” Jieun shrugged. “What a waste of such beautiful place.” He chuckled. “You just don’t know how many things Jiyong has wasted in this lifetime, Daniel,” She replied nonchalantly.

“Are your supposedly still coming though?” He asked out of the blue. “Supposedly, Sungjong told me that he is coming because Sungjong paid him already.” She shrugged. “Don’t you want to meet him at least?” Daniel raised his eyebrow. “Do you want me to check on other guys when I supposed to be your date?” Jieun said in amusement, which left Daniel in complete silence before he broke into a wide grin.

“I told you not to do that kind of grin, Daniel,” Jieun snorted afterward. “You just acknowledged me as your date,” He said in excitement. “Because you are?” She raised her eyebrow. “Feels weird coming out from your mouth, like a good kind of weird.” Daniel grinned again nonetheless. “What is a good kind of weird anyway?” Jieun let out a slight scoff. “Like the kind of weird I’m willing to deal with for a long time?” He chuckled. “You are good at honeying words, Niel.” She shook her head.

He stopped moving for a second before leaning closer to the latter’s ear. “I’m good at a lot of things, Jieun.” Daniel whispered in a low tone before he went further again just to watch her getting annoyed. “Is being conceited one of them?” Jieun replied instead. “Being your handsome date is one of them.” Daniel smirked. “I realized that maybe I should’ve fired you long, long time ago.” Jieun rolled her eyes. “You can’t bring yourself to if you wanted though?” He shrugged.

“You sounded so sure about that,” Jieun taunted. “Yeah, because you like me,” Daniel answered nonchalantly. “And I like you too, that’s why we are raising a cat together,” He deadpanned. “I never said that,” Jieun snapped. “You don’t have to?” He laughed – but soon it was muffled by the sound of gun shooting from the front door.

“What the ?” She let out a mutter but before she could move an inch, someone grabbed her arm from behind.

“Stay with Daniel, Jieun.” Jiyong’s voice was stern and unrelenting, making Jieun and Daniel froze on the spot in the middle of the mass chaos. “What happened?” Jieun asked immediately. “Uninvited guests,” Jiyong replied hastily. “Listen, Jieun, go upstairs with Daniel and wait for me in my usual room, will you? At least until this crowd is not panicking anymore,” Jiyong suddenly added a second later. “What? Why? Who again is trying to rob your party?” Jieun protested.

“Just do it, Jieun, please, no question asked,” Jiyong ordered again, gentler this time, which made Jieun fell into silence before she nodded and went away while grabbing Daniel along with her, slipping through the crowd. Kwon Jiyong watched his sister went to the second floor from the middle of the alarmed bunch of people – the rest might be focusing on something else right then that they won’t notice anything, or thought that no one will pay attention to another.

But Jiyong always knows better, as he watched how a figure followed Jieun and Daniel right after they went up.

---

“For the record, I forgot which one is Jiyong’s usual room,” Jieun muttered to Daniel when they entered one of the random bedroom on the second floor. “Completely not stressing me out more, Jieun,” Daniel deadpanned – all the anxiety from downstairs was still present as the crowd was still pretty much agitated. “Well, it’s not like I live –,” Jieun was cut by the sound of a gun being clicked just behind them.

“We thought we made it clear that Kang Daniel is not your property, so why did you not give him back to us?”. Daniel could feel how the tip of the gun was being pressed just right on his back head – he took a peek on Jieun’s state but there wasn’t any man behind her. “I’m pretty sure that he is an independent being when I hired him,” Jieun replied calmly – too calm that even Daniel was nervous by her antic.

“And if you wanted him so much, then that gun should be pointed to my head, not his,” Jieun said as she turned around her head and saw two men on their perfectly tailored suits just right behind Daniel.

“You are challenging me and you thought I’m scared,” One of the man scoffed before he turned the gun to her direction, making Daniel cursed and really wanted to taped for saying reckless things – but he was fast, as soon as he was free, he quickly shoved the man to the nearest wall and snapped away his gun.

Daniel was then about to strangle the latter before he pulled out a knife and successfully stabbed Daniel’s shoulder, and that’s also when Daniel realized that the man was not alone, and his accomplice was then suddenly attacked, who was struggling since her opponent was twice bigger than her and Daniel went utter furious when he managed to grabbed her neck easily since she was visibly having a hard time fighting back with her outfit.

Daniel quickly threw his hardest punch on his opponent’s face, before he kicked him to the ground and ran to Jieun’s direction – he was about to reach him when the man pulled out a gun with his other hand, while his right hand was still used to choke Jieun. “Come closer and she died,” The man stated as he tightened the grip around her neck – Daniel never wanted to hit someone’s so hard than that.

But before anything could happen, a gun shoot came from behind Daniel, aiming at the man as he fell to the ground, wincing in agony as his legs bleed – also making Jieun fell to the ground immediately, but Daniel was fast enough to catch her. “I’m fine,” She managed to say between her cough but Daniel was even more shock when a shaky voice called his name, “Daniel hyung,”.

Bae Jinyoung was nervously staring back at him, a gun on his hand and he was slightly trembling. “Jinyoung-ah,” Daniel managed to call back his name before Kwon Jiyong suddenly appeared from the door, his eyes were widen immediately when he saw his sister on the floor, her bodyguard was bleeding, two unknown men was on the ground and a kid holding a gun.

“Daniel,” Jiyong spoke up after a tense silence. “Black sedan on the most left on the garage, use the back door to go there that you can access as you go down and took the first corridor on the right, I will try to distract the crowd, and also, use the back gate when you go out,” Jiyong continued as he threw a key to Daniel’s direction. “Get my sister the hell out from here,” Jiyong added.

“And your friend too,”.

---

“You never told me you could drive,” Jieun muttered softly because her neck was still aching slightly from the pain. “You never asked, Jieun, and I had fun being a passenger.” Daniel said flatly when they just got out from the mansion. “Jinyoung-ah, are you okay?” Daniel added as he looked at the younger’s reflection from the rear view mirror. “Wait a second, are you telling me that my supposed to be is your friend?” Jieun snapped and immediately regretted it when the pain came again.

“We are not friends.” Jinyoung spoke up from the first time after they got into the car.

“Hyung is a family,” He continued, his eyes were still fixed on the window. “You are in the final line up,” Jieun concluded as she let out a sigh. “Uh, wait, did I just blew up our cover just by saying that, Daniel hyung?” Jinyoung said, guilt was visible in his tone. “Don’t worry, she knows, Jinyoung-ie.” Daniel smiled through the mirror, which made the latter sighed in relief.

“Hey, I’m going to drop you off at Minhyun hyung’s apartment, okay? You will be safe there,” Daniel said. “Hyung have met the others too?” Jinyoung suddenly beamed. “Not everyone, though.” Daniel smiled again, but it was the bitter smile. “Ah.” Jinyoung let out a deep sigh. “You guys will find them, you don’t have to be sad about it,” Jieun suddenly snapped which made Jinyoung a little taken aback. “I guess so,” Jinyoung replied vaguely.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the building – it was located on the outskirt of Seoul so there was not much sign of any activity around. “Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you upstairs?” Daniel asked once again as Jinyoung shook his head with a small smile.

“Just bring noona home first, I’m a big guy already, Niel hyung, and I’m pretty sure that Minhyun hyung won’t hurt me,” Jinyoung said, which Jieun was pretty awed when the latter referred her with such friendly term already.

“I’ll stay here until you went inside, tell Minhyun hyung to call me when you are there safe and sound, understand?” Daniel said as Jinyoung nodded in response before he got out from the car and entered the building. “If I knew that my would be that cute and handsome, I wouldn’t have taken you,” Jieun snorted but winced at the pain caused by her neck afterward.

“First of all, before saying any nonsense, let’s treat that wound first okay? I’m really sorry that I couldn’t prevent it like I should’ve had, it’s my sole job after all,” Daniel said, as his lips formed an apologetic smile. “Hey, someone is after your neck too, and honestly I could taken him down if it wasn’t because of the stupid dress, I should’ve ripped it apart.” Jieun shrugged. A notification came a second later from Daniel’s phone.

Thanks for taking my note seriously.

“You are surprisingly quite about this whole final line up stuffs?” Daniel said after he replied to Minhyun’s message. “I’m tired, Daniel, let’s talk about it tomorrow, honestly, it’s been awhile since someone attacked me,” Jieun sighed. “Okay, let’s go home, princess,” Daniel replied as he started to drive again.

“Still pissed that you made me drive back and forth to Incheon for cats,” Jieun snorted. “I’ll drive from now on, you happy?” Daniel rolled his eyes before he smiled at the sight of her yawning.

“Will you kill me if I told you I’m actually in the mood of playing crane machine?”.

---

Daniel took off his blazer and draped it around Jieun’s shoulder – and that’s when she just noticed that he was bleeding on the shoulder area, which stained his white dress-shirt. “That’s a fair amount of blood, Daniel, and you didn’t flinch even a bit, did the camp teach you how not to feel pain now?” Jieun said as she traced the dried blood on the shirt. “It honestly didn’t hurt that much since it just scratched my flesh, I guess?” Daniel shrugged nonchalantly which made the latter pushed his wound slightly and made him grimace.

“Well, that’s kind of sting,” Daniel hissed. “People will notice and thought I’m some kind of brutal woman,” Jieun said. “You kind of are, and people nowadays don’t care, Jieun, they would probably thought it was a part of fashion.” Daniel grinned playfully as he rolled up his sleeves. “Fashion, right,” She scoffed as they entered the small shop of doll crane machines.

“I must say I’m pretty impressed that you came from insulting me for playing these stuffs to actually dragged me here after us being attacked and nearly killed.” Daniel laughed as he leaned to the machine and Jieun proceed to insert some a thousand won bills to the machine. “Shut up,” Jieun snapped when she started to move the claw and aimed at one of the plushy.

“You are really not good at this,” Daniel shook his head after Jieun groaned on her seventh try of trying to get the cat plushy. “I can get that,” She retorted – but before she could move the controller, Daniel suddenly moved to her back, both of his hand circled around her figure before his hands laid on top of her hands, guiding her to move the claw.

“We are going to stay up all night if you keep doing that,” Daniel said softly, Jieun could feel his breath on the side of her head – Jieun thought that she was about to puke out her heart because it was beating irregularly fast – it was not the kind of fast like she got when she was fighting earlier nor when she was pissed off at people, it’s like the new kind of fast that Jieun still actually doesn’t want to know what it is.

It only took Daniel two times for him to get the doll and gave it to her, all grinning proudly when Jieun turned around and leaned her body on the machine, face to face with him. “I will get one of this one day all by myself, I swear on my life, but thanks,” Jieun said, trying not to sound distracted when in fact she was bothered with Daniel’s presence – his shirt was half-untucked and his dirty blonde hair was disheveled but he was still all smiling even with the apparent blood stain.

“Have I told you that you look pretty tonight? Like extra pretty, like you put more effort, like –.” “I get it, Daniel,” She snapped, flustered. “Jieun, you would kill me if I said this especially at times like this but I’m going to say it anyway,” He said hastily. “Daniel, if I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it a long time ago and I am not kidding,” She replied nonchalantly.

“I think being friends with you ,” He stated which made her chuckled. “I know right, I’ve warned you, I’m like the most un-fun person ever,” She replied in amusement. “No, goodness, not like that.” Daniel shook his head before he grinned again. “You know more like the fact that in a perfect cliché moment like this –,”.

“I still can’t just kiss you,”.