Monaco, 4 p.m

There they were at last. Monaco, the land of the wealthy, filled with exclusive hotels, casinos, and yachts. This was the place where, once a year, people from all over the globe would gather to watch the renowned Monaco Grand Prix. And speaking of that, the gang just so happened to arrive in the midst of the Formula 1 race.

Once they were settled in their hotel rooms not too far from the racetrack, Krystal led the others towards the place where, allegedly, their target was.

As F1 cars zoom past them on the track, the gang makes their way through the completely sold out crowd stand. Watching the race in Monaco might be a once in a lifetime experience for most people, but the four heist members paid no attention to it. Not when the map to 'immeasurable riches' is at stake.

As they inched closer to the Korean politician, Lee Byung Joon, they were stopped in their tracks by a security guard. The man was standing outside a gated area, where the sign 'Authorised Personnel Only' was clearly visible.

"Identifications please." The man said to Krystal in a serious tone.

Dressed in a staff disguise, Krystal takes out her fake ID and hands it to the guard. After a closer inspection, the guard opens the gate and allows her to enter. The rest of the group proceeds to pull out their fake ID, and just like that, they are in the restricted area.

"This little detour is gonna save us a lot of time." Krystal says once they were out of the guard's earshot. 

"I guess studying this place's layout during the flight really did pay off." Taehyung teases, and Krystal shrugs in return.

After strolling through the restricted area, they end up on the other side of the crowd stand. There were fewer people on this side because of its higher ticket price. The stand also has a better view of the track, making it the perfect spot for anyone with deep pockets.

Krystal scans the crowd, and merely seconds later, she spots the target. She then instructs the others to spread out around the politician while maintaining a safe distance. The plan now was to eavesdrop on the target, just in case he decides to discuss the vault map that he possesses. Or if that does not happen, they can simply follow him to a less crowded place to 'obtain more information'.

Yeoh and Taehyung understood their task and made their move, but Rosé stayed put.

"I can swipe anything from his pockets if you want," Rosé whispers into Krystal's ear. "Maybe his hotel room key is in there. We can just search for clues to the map's whereabouts in his room."

Krystal shakes her head calmly in response.

"There's too much heat right now." 

She responds as she carefully points to several individuals scattered among the crowd. Rosé followed her finger but was unable to see the correlation between Krystal's statement and the following action.

"Those are his guards, dressing like ordinary visitors." Krystal explains after seeing the confusion in Rosé's face.

Rosé takes another look at those men, and finally sees the earpiece that they were all wearing. Not only that, but some of them were also carrying guns under their shirts, although the attempt to hide their weapons was agonisingly awful.

Soon after, Rosé also went to take her spot, and Krystal was left alone not too far from the politician. She carefully made her way closer until she was standing a row behind her target. Krystal puts on a pair of sunglasses and pretends to be watching the race. Now, the waiting game starts.

--

The Monaco Grand Prix finally came to an end. Teams such as Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren all fought intensely for a spot on the podium. Unfortunately for Krystal, she could not actually tell which team had actually won as she was too occupied with eavesdropping on her target.

Which is a shame because the Korean politician did not mention the map even once throughout the entire race. As the politician gets up from his seat, Rosé makes her way to Krystal once again.

"I'm just gonna be honest, I was too hooked on the race," Rosé said to Krystal, who was stretching her legs, as she had spent most of the race standing up.

"Don't worry," Krystal plops on a newly vacant seat as people start to disperse. "You didn't miss anything. The man kept on rambling about the weather, believe it or not."

Rosé giggled, and it was Taehyung's turn to make his way to Krystal.

"Well, that was a waste of time." Taehyung says as he sits down next to her.

"Not entirely."

Krystal casually replied while rubbing her eyes out of fatigue. Once her eyes were back open, she could see that both Rosé and Taehyung were staring at her. It was like they were expecting more context from her statement.

"He did say that he planned to go to the private booth right after the race."

"We can sneak in and approach him there." Taehyung adds, slowly catching up with the plan.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Rosé asked, she momentarily paused before adding, "And why couldn't we just do that when he was here?"

Krystal gets on her feet before putting her arm around the already standing Rosé.

"You'll see."

She smiles as she says that, but then her eyes begin to wander across the stand.

"Uhh... where's Yeoh?" Krystal takes her arm off of Rosé as she turns her head around.

Rosé and Taehyung instantly start scanning the remaining crowd members, following Krystal's lead. And before she knew it, Taehyung tugged on her arm and pointed towards someone a few rows ahead of them.

It was Yeoh, dead asleep on the floor, legs crossed while leaning against the protective fence. Krystal was quite amused that Yeoh had managed to doze off during such a loud and noisy event, not to mention in the middle of a mission.

"Should we..." Rosé hesitantly asks as she looks at Krystal.

"Let's give her some time." Krystal answers, and the three of them grin while looking at Yeoh.

--

Krystal stands right outside of the entrance to the private booth. Well, 'private' is kind of an overstatement, considering that the booth was filled with people dressed in fancy suits and dresses. Basically, the booth was limited to only the rich or important people.

Her target, the politician Lee Byung Joon, has already made his way into the secluded area. Unfortunately for him, Krystal had made a career out of breaking into these kinds of places.

She looks to her right, dressed in a waiter's outfit. On her left was Rosé, who was trying her best to contain her excitement. And on her right was Taehyung, fiddling with his fingers as he tried to deal with the pressure.

"You both remember the plan?" She asks while not making eye contact with the pair beside her.

"Yeah." "YES! Can we please go in now?"

Rosé definitely gave a more enthusiastic reply than Taehyung, but Krystal knows that both of them are ready to make their move.

The plan, as Taehyung had suggested, was for Krystal to flirt with the target just enough for her to get an invite to his hotel room. Rosé was tasked to loiter in the background, also disguised as a waiter, just in case the plan fails, and they need to steal the target's room key. Hopefully, it would not come to that, as they do not have any information about the map's whereabouts and sneaking into the target's room to find information would take too much time.

As for Taehyung, the plan's suggester, he was dragged along by Krystal. She did not specify his role in the mission, but Krystal was adamant about him being there as well. She just wanted the company, nothing more, she said.

Krystal walks inside after taking one last deep breath, and the others follow. They entered through the back door, which was the staff entrance.

The three of them walked past the guard, who did not even bother asking for their credentials, seeing that they were already in their staff outfit. Once inside, Rosé was the first to make her way up the flight of stairs. Krystal and Taehyung take off their disguises, revealing the fancy outfits underneath.

Krystal donned a short lace red dress that drifted off into a mildly fluffy skirt. On the other hand, Taehyung was wearing a white tuxedo shirt with a black bow tie. He turns his white waiter jacket inside out, revealing a black tuxedo jacket with one visible button instead of the two on the waiter outfit side.

Just after shoving her waiter outfit inside a locker nearby, Krystal spots Taehyung fixing his bow tie. She approaches him and instantly unties his bow tie, before starting to tie it up again for him.

Even though her eyes were fixed on the fabric, she could tell that the man was looking at her the entire time.

"In these kinda places, we need to maintain our appearance." She says softly as her fingers are busy working.

"Yea—uhh—I agree." Taehyung replies with a shaky voice.

After a few folds here and there, the bow tie was finally ready for action. Krystal takes a step back as she takes another look at the accessory. She smiled in satisfaction before noticing that Taehyung was still standing idly, with his eyes falling on her dress.

"What? Does anything I'm wearing need fixing too?" She tilted her head as she asked.

"No, nothing like that," Taehyung finally says as his gaze meets Krystal's."It's just... you look stunning in that dress."

Is he being serious right now? Krystal thought while not giving any reaction. This time, instead of the usual warmth, Krystal just feels butterflies fluttering through her stomach.

"Thanks," She says monotonously. "I think I look stunning too."

She sees Taehyung crack a smile after hearing the reply, and she does the same. "You're not looking too bad yourself."

She gives Taehyung a tap on the arm before making her way up the stairs. She turns back to see Taehyung slowly walking up behind her, face down.

Krystal offers him a hand and says, "Come on, let's do this."

Taehyung intertwines his hand with hers, and they make their way up together.

After getting over the first obstacle, the pair find themselves standing in the same room as a number of wealthy people. There were celebrities, athletes, and business tycoons, all mingling inside the private booth.

The place was much larger than the public booths outside, and decorated with golden furniture all around. There was a huge bar at the side and a variety of gambling tables scattered in the centre. It was clearly not a place for common folks.

Just then, Krystal could feel Taehyung's hand twitching in her grasp. She squeezes his hand as she turns her face towards him, and he turns as well after her action. They did not share a single word, but Krystal could tell that it worked as she felt Taehyung's twitching come to a halt.

But something that did not stop was their eye contact. Krystal found calmness in Taehyung's soft gaze. That moment felt like the epitome of 'the calm before the storm', and she enjoyed the moment no matter how simple it may have seemed.

"The target is at the roulette table."

The calm was rudely interrupted by a voice a few feet away from her. Taehyung was the first to turn towards it, and Krystal looks in the same direction.

It was Rosé, who was serving drinks to the people sitting at the poker table. She gave a quick wink at Krystal before picking up the empty glasses on the table. After she was done, Rosé was heading back to the bar with a tray in her hand, but she paused right in front of Krystal.

"Sorry to interrupt your sweet little moment." Rosé teases before proceeding on her way.

Krystal lifts her other hand and gestures like she was aiming to smack Rosé. Her hand stopped in mid-air as Rosé giggled as she walked away. That was when she felt a finger gently knock against her shoulder.

She turns and sees Taehyung signalling at something with his eyes. Krystal leans forward to get a better view, and she spots the target, exactly at the roulette table. She nods before heading towards him, hand in hand with Taehyung.

Thud. With her focus solely on her target, Krystal failed to notice a man that was walking towards her from the opposite direction. She had bumped into someone on her way to the roulette table.

"My sincerest apologies!" She blurts it out to the tall, well-dressed young man.

Instead of acknowledging her, the man just groaned and left the scene. Krystal scoffs in disbelief before brushing her dress to get rid of any crinkles. How rude, she mumbles slowly.

"Did you just bump into Mbappe?" She hears Taehyung whisper beside her.

"Who?"

"You know," Taehyung says, taking another look at the man. "The football icon, Kylian Mbappe."

"I literally have no idea who that is." Krystal furrows her eyebrows before pulling Taehyung back to their target with her still intertwined hand.

They found the two seats next to the politician conveniently empty. Krystal takes the one on the politician's right and Taehyung takes the one on the left.

The dealer had just finished rolling the roulette wheel when they took their seats. Nobody at the table had bet on the winning number, so the dealer proceeded to clear out all the chips on the board. After he was done, Krystal and Taehyung both started off safely by purchasing the minimum number of chips. They received a few glances from other players, including the politician, because of the low initial amount. But Krystal shook it off, as she knew that she was playing by the rules.

Before placing her bet, she looks to Taehyung, who has already placed a straight bet on one of the numbers. Krystal, on the other hand, places her chip in a corner bet, where the chip is placed in between four numbers. It increases the odds of winning whilst reducing the pay-out amount.

After everyone was done placing their chips, the dealer rolled the wheel and spun a ball on top of it.

"No more bets!" The dealer shouted as the rolling ensued.

Now, Krystal did not know whether it was pure luck or skill, but the ball dropped into one of the wheel's slots, and it just so happened to land on Taehyung's number.

"YES!" Taehyung screams while putting his fists up in the air, causing some heads to turn.

Krystal dropped her head into her hands as she heard Taehyung hastily apologise to the crowd. It was not all that bad though, as she could also hear the politician break into one of those rich people's laughs.

"I'm sorry for my husband's behaviour." Krystal mutters to the politician, using the incident as an advantage to make her move.

"Ah, don't worry about it," The man turns to Krystal. "We all get carried away sometimes."

Krystal lets out a fake but believable laugh as she reaches her hand out to the politician. "I'm Krystal, by the way."

"Lee Byung Joon, how do you do?" The man says and gives her a firm handshake. The man speaks again before Krystal can respond.

"And this fine gentleman is your husband, you say?" He puts his hand on Taehyung's back, giving him a short look before turning back to Krystal.

"Yeah, but," Krystal answers as she grabs Byung Joon's shoulder in a flirting manner and gives it a rub. "We like to keep our relationship open."

She bites her lips, her hand still wandering around the politician's shoulder. It took a second, but the man began to smirk before turning to Taehyung.

"Well, how do I put this? I'm actually a man that prefers the touch of other men."

Krystal could see the horror in Taehyung's eyes as Byung Joon said that. To make matters worse, the man proceeded to slide his hand down Taehyung's thigh.

Even after knowing that Taehyung was in distress, Krystal played along and replied, "Lucky for you, he likes that too."

The politician expresses his pleasure by letting out a soft yet lustful hum, which prompted Taehyung to nearly push the man's hand off his lap. But Krystal's intense glare, signalling a big fat 'NO', manages to stop him from doing so.

As another round begins, everyone at the table places their chips again. Right after placing her bet, Krystal glances at Taehyung, who has a sudden visible realisation as he also glances at her. He looked at her with his eyes wide open, and Krystal knew that look all too well.

She figured that Taehyung finally knew the reason why he was dragged along to the mission; it was because she had known that their target was gay, which meant that the flirting tactic would only work if a man, in this case, Taehyung, was the one who initiated it.

After seeing Taehyung's reaction, Krystal could do nothing but laugh. The laugh was discreet enough until no one else could notice, except for Taehyung, of course.

With the plan going smoothly so far, Krystal knew that she was one step closer to the vault's map.

One step closer to 'immeasurable wealth'.

One step closer to glory.