[Nobody’s POV]

Sungjong woke up at five the next morning when he heard noises from the living room. He sat on the bed and stayed in the position for a while for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. When it was clear enough to see, he took the gun hidden under the bed and crept to the door. He opened it slightly and wondered whether the rest heard the noises too. Because of all the members, he was the one with the most alert sense of hearing.

He didn’t like small noises because they are hardly noticeable. Loud noises didn’t bother him. Dongwoo liked to since from the agency because he kept getting anxious when they were sent to a jungle mission. Sungjong couldn’t sleep at night because even the smallest noise can keep him awake. But because of that they had survived from getting killed on other missions.

The living room was dark. Sungjong opened the door all the way and looked around. Suddenly he felt something passed his left into his room. It was fast. He closed the door back so only he and the figure was in the room. Sungjong skimmed the room. The figure was standing at one corner of his room beside the window.

The moonlight penetrated the window and highlighted his bed but it couldn’t reach the figure. And it was wearing in all black too.

“You’re at the wrong place, mister,” he said.

“I’m Sunggyu’s friend and I’m unarmed,” the figure answered. It was a man’s voice. And it sent chills ran down Sungjong’s spine for a reason he didn’t know. “And you’re armed. So if u could put the gun down.”

“How can I be sure you’re telling the truth?”

“Because...”

It happened all too fast. The figure lunged at him and rammed his body to the door. The gun flew from his hand not before Sungjong could pull the trigger and release it. The shot echoed in his room and also the house.

“They’re gonna wake up soon,” Sungjong hissed. Having his body pressed to the door wasn’t something he enjoyed. So Sungjong grabbed his collar and pushed him to the bed. He heard the man whimpered before the door burst opened. A sudden burst of light flowed in the room and Sungjong turned. The hyungs were standing at the door, each with weapons in their hands and Sunggyu with a visible shock on his face.

“Seyong!”

“Seyong?” everybody repeated.

Sungjong looked at the man under him. Sunggyu knows him? The man had a maroon coloured hair and a very pretty handsome face. His body was well-built and the side of his right cheek was flowing blood.

“You know him?” Sungyeol asked from behind Woohyun.

“He’s my friend.” Sunggyu answered. “A trusted one.”

“Oh!” was what Sungjong could manage before resolving to move away from the man. He stood by the door and bit his lower lips awkwardly. “Was that from me?”

Seyong sat on the bed and wiped the gash on his cheek with his fingers. He beamed at Sungjong. “You’re quite an accurate shooter in the dark.” Then he turned to Sunggyu. “Nice to see you after seven years hyung,” Seyong said before lunging at Sunggyu. The oldest fell back from the hug but replied the hug with an even tighter one. After that he introduced Seyong to everyone.

“This is Kim Seyong. He’s an assassin, like us. We went a long way back.”

“We sure did.” Seyong smiled.

While everyone took their early morning bath, Sunggyu stayed with Seyong at the kitchen to talk with him. Catching up with the past, they said. Even from his room Sungjong heard the laughs from them both. It was rare to hear Sunggyu laughed like that except when he’s with Woohyun. Sungjong suddenly remembered he had a fight with Sunggyu the day before. He remind himself not to say the first sorry.

Sungjong hated apologizing especially when he didn’t think it was his fault. Though he thought he should apologize to Seyong. Seyong did say he was unarmed and he was Sunggyu’s friend. But on second thought, why was he in the house at the first place. And an even more weird situation, why did he enter Sungjong’s room?

Sungjong pushed all the questions aside for the meantime and switched on his phone. 2 new massages. He read them and let out a long sigh. He had been pushing the mission aside. And they keep demanding him to finish it. There was a knock on the door and Sungjong opened it, just to see Seyong in front of his room.

“Yes?” He asked.

“Sunggyu hyung told me to take my bath here. All the showers are full. And he told me to borrow your clothes.”

“What the- “Sungjong almost cursed.

“You made this,” Seyong pointed to the dried blood on his cheek. “So be responsible for it!” he shoved passed Sungjong into the shower. He closed the door and left Sungjong standing on the spot, dumbfounded. “I’ll be borrowing a lot of your things now, Sungjong- is it?”

“Who the hell-“

“I’ll be staying here to help with the mission. Sunggyu hyung told me everything,” Seyong yelled from the shower.

“Stay here?”

“Yes.”

“In my room?”

“Yes since you’re the youngest.”

-- --

“So this Seyong is an old friend of yours?” Woohyun sat on his bed while Sunggyu dried his hair in front of the mirror. He took his shower in Woohyun’s room because the shower in his room was occupied with Myungsoo. And since Sungjong was still mad at him Sunggyu didn’t want to make the youngest any angrier by taking his shower in his room.

“Yes. We trained together, and chose the same side together before he moved to Japan. I met you a year after that. He didn’t change that much aside from his hair. But he’s still the lively, whack job Seyong.”

“Why did he come here? I mean, how did he get in?” Woohyun questioned. The house was guarded with Sunggyu’s own firewall so it was hard for anyone to break in.

“He knew how I did my job so he was able to jam the security. But don’t worry, he said he wasn’t planning to sell the information elsewhere. And he came because he wanted to surprise me after coming back from Japan. But Sungjong surprised his even more.” Sunggyu chuckled. “And I asked him to join us and he said okay.”

“Oh. Anyway, did you get anything from Dongwoo hyung and Hoya?”

Sunggyu glanced at Woohyun a moment. “They just left two days ago Woohyun-ah. They’ll be okay.”

“I know. I’m just wondering.”

“Wondering?” Sunggyu raised his brows.

“Well- yea.” Woohyun gave up trying to hide his worries. “I’m just worried, okay. That’s all. Dongwoo hyung and Hoya, I understand now. They’re together, I get it. I can’t break them apart, I realize that so you don’t have to constantly remind me I’ll never stand a chance because I know.”

“I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry- I’m so bad with people maybe that’s why I prefer working with gadgets.”

“Gadgets don’t have feelings but I do.”

Sunggyu nodded. That’s true too. Suddenly Woohyun stood up and went to him. He put his hands on Sunggyu’s sides and stared at him a while. Sunggyu waited for him to do something but Woohyun was waiting for Sunggyu to initiate too.

“I like when you do your hair top like that,” Woohyun finally started.

A chuckle escaped Sunggyu. “I like your tousled brown hair more. And how it stayed in place even after a mission.”

“I like how your eyes disappeared when you smile.”

“I like your-“

And Woohyun crashed their lips together. Sunggyu was caught off guard and held back his breath. He tried to pull back but Woohyun’s hands kept him in place. Sunggyu struggled and finally able to shove Woohyun by the chest.

“Why?” Woohyun asked, shocked. He thought it was what Sunggyu had been waiting for.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do mean it! I love you hyung.”

“That quick? Nobody can get over someone that fast Woohyun-ah. You still like Dongwoo so don’t use me as a rebound. I don’t like being used.”

Woohyun thought about it a while. Was he using Sunggyu to forget Dongwoo?

“See, you’re hesitating. Think about it and don’t talk to me until I start talking to you.” Sunggyu walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him, leaving Woohyun alone in the room.

Woohyun just lost his best friend and he knew that. Sunggyu had stayed by his side all these years but still, he used the man who was like a family to him. Sunggyu helped him when no one could. Sunggyu would back him up when he’s in trouble and sometimes, even taking the blame for him. But he exploited Sunggyu’s feelings to forget someone else.

“This is Hoya. Hoya, this is Woohyun.” Sunggyu introduced them on one cold winter morning three months ago. It was the day they were going to help some people escape the agency. It was the day he met everybody for the first time besides Sunggyu.

Hoya or Lee Howon nodded slightly before offering a handshake. Woohyun took it and felt the strong hold on his hand. He was taken aback a bit. Hoya was shorter than him but the strength of his handshake was inversely proportional.

“Hoya’s an old acquaintance. He’ll be helping us to help them escape.”

Woohyun nodded. He eyed Hoya a while. Hoya was manly to say at least. When Woohyun met him for the first time, he felt the aura around Hoya, like he was some beast waiting for a prey. Call it a hunch or anything but he knew Hoya had a strong animal instinct to survive wherever he was.

“They’re here,” Hoya suddenly said, breaking Woohyun’s thought. They hid behind the truck and saw some people running out from behind the walls of the agency. There were exactly four people.

“Didn’t you say they were three?” Hoya asked.

“They’re supposed to. Look, some people are on their tail. Woohyun, start the engine!” Sunggyu commanded. Woohyun nodded and crawled in the truck. He went to the driver’s seat and began switching on the engine. He ducked when a bullet went through the opened window to the seat beside him.

“!” He hissed, beginning to close the window. At least the windows were bulletproof. He saw the four boys running towards the truck. That’s when he caught side of the red haired boy. He was helping another boy who fell on the road. The other two boys were way behind and one of them was limping. Woohyun saw an army of men from the agency at the front gate, each with weapons in their hands.

“They’re going to die!” Woohyun said to himself. He turned to Sunggyu and Hoya. “They’re going to die if we don’t help them!”

“No. Look, they’re not shooting anymore.”

Woohyun turned back to the army. They were standing there, just like that, not doing anything. The man in the lead looked furious but wasn’t ordering his man for any actions.

“If you shoot any of us I swear I’ll shoot myself!” he heard someone shouted. It was the limping boy. He had a gun in his hand, aiming for his own head with the trigger pulled.

Meanwhile, Sunggyu and Hoya helped the two people who arrived first. Sunggyu heard the smaller boy cursing something like ‘I swear I’m going to kill that Sungyeol for hurting Myungsoo hyung!’

Hoya was just going to help the red-haired boy when the boy himself ran to the two others behind. He helped the limping boy to the truck and even carrying him up to the backseat. Hoya saw the boy smiling even though he’s in pain. “Where’s Sungyeol?” he asked.

“I’m here,” a tall boy answered, sitting beside the limping boy. “Is your legs okay?”

“He hurt his leg trying to help you,” another one said, the smallest boy of them.

“I’m sorry,” Sungyeol answered.

“Everybody get in.” Sunggyu said. Hoya went in and sat beside the red-haired boy in the middle while Sunggyu sat beside Woohyun up front. “Woohyun, drive now.”

Woohyun rammed in the gear and they began departing for a five hours trip to the mountains for Sunggyu’s house. Along the way, everybody fell asleep besides Woohyun since he had to drive. He peeked at the couple at the backseat, Sungyeol if he wasn’t mistaken, and the boy who was limping. Woohyun summed everything up and somehow knew Sungyeol was the one causing the other boy to get shot on the leg.

But looking at them now, the boy didn’t look mad one bit. He was even sleeping against Sungyeol’s shoulder.

The three people behind his seat were also sleeping. One of them was the boy with the red hair. Woohyun wondered what his name was and caught site of the tag in his hand. He glanced at Sunggyu a while and when he saw the oldest sleeping, he quickly grab the tag, at the same time, losing his focus a bit on the road.

They hit a bump and Sunggyu knocked his head on the window. He flinched slightly and opened his eyes to see Woohyun reading something on a tag. “Jang Dongwoo,” He heard Woohyun said. That’s when, Sunggyu realized, Woohyun was attracted to the boy.

Hoya opened his eyes when they hit a bump on the road. His was rubbing his temples when the boy beside him lolled his head and finally rested on his shoulder. He thought of moving the man to his friend at his right but decides otherwise when he saw the scars on his hand. It must be hard in the agency; he thought before closing his eyes back and leaning on the man to sleep.

“Does it still hurt?” Sungyeol whispered to Myungsoo. He knew Myungsoo wasn’t sleeping. So was he. He felt bad.

“I’ll live so if you just don’t shift too much and let me sleep, I’ll forgive you,” Myungsoo answered as he moved his head slightly to find a comfortable spot on Sungyeol’s shoulder.

“Okay.” Sungyeol said as he brushed his fingers against Myungsoo’s hand.

-- --

[Seyong’s POV]

When I went out from the shower with just a towel wrapped around my waist, the boy, Sungjong who was listening to music fell from the bed to see me. He looked away and busied himself with his phone.

“I need to borrow your clothes,” I said harshly. Sunggyu hyung had told me about his problem with Sungjong and it hurt me to see him fighting with his dongsaeng. Sunggyu hyung was a very nice man and didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

“Take it yourself, I’m not your maid,” he answered equally harsh. I nodded and opened his cupboard and saw many soft coloured clothes. He must be a nice boy to see his choices of colours. Man, and Sunggyu told me how he said those harsh things.

“I’ll wear this,” I picked a soft red coloured shirt.

“Not that!” Sungjong suddenly yanked the clothes from me. “Just not this.”

“Why?”

“None of your concern.”

“Fine!”