Undercover.  Undercover.  What am I supposed to go undercover as?  Once again, all o the important details have been left for me to devise.

            I examine Kim Hyuna’s file once more as I sit at the shooting range, loading and unloading and reloading a gun as I think.  The gun is something that’s so familiar to me that it’s a second nature, but the requirement for so much thought on one assignment is not.  I’m starting to get frustrated.  After all, this entire assignment is somewhat ridiculous.  If they want Kim Hyuna killed, I can do that in a heartbeat by just walking up to her on the street and shooting her.  If they want Kim Hyuna killed in secret, that requires much more effort, with the disguises and being undercover and waiting for exactly the right moment.

            “Maybe I can…”  I stop.  “No.  That won’t work either.”

            Why does Kim Hyuna need to be killed in secret, again?  Obviously we don’t want to start a war between the corporations, but Kim Hyuna isn’t even one of their leaders, so should it be that big of a deal?  They get mad whenever we kill one of their agents, but they’ve yet to confront us about it.  Wouldn’t Kim Hyuna’s death be the same scenario?

            I assume by the assignment given to me that it wouldn’t, but I can’t help but doubt my father’s judgment on this case.

            I put the file down, standing up and turning towards the range.  Fifty meters away lies the target, and as I empty my gun of its bullets, gunshots ring through the room.

            Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  At a speed faster than the eye can see, the bullets fly across the room and bury themselves into the center of the target.  I frown and cross the distance, examining the small holes punched into the ringed paper.  My frown deepens as I notice a few too many holes.  The bullets were all supposed to go through the center.  Two of the five have strayed, and as the result, two holes sit on the edge of the target.  “Dammit.”  The middle hole looks a little ragged too, as if the bullets went in different places but were close enough to make only one hole.  “Dammit,” I say again.  I really need to get a grip.  All of this irritation is affecting my aim.

            It’s then that I hear an unexpected voice: “Hey, Jay—“

            On pure instinct I whirl around to fire at the intruder, but instead of gunshots, I hear a click that reminds me I’m out of ammunition.  I look up to see an unharmed but considerably more scared Lee.

            “Oh.  It’s you.”

            Lee’s eyes are wide.  “Yeah, it’s me!  Are you insane?!  You could’ve just killed me!”

            “The gun wasn’t loaded,” I point out quiet unnecessarily.

            “Yeah, and what if it had been?”

            “Then, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

            Lee slumps against the wall in defeat at my lack of caring.  “You’re insane,” he repeats, sitting down on the floor with his back against the wall.  “You’re frickin’ insane.”
            They say you get one of two reactions when you’re shot at: fear or exhilaration.  It seems that, despite years of training, Lee still has the first of those.

            “You should have knocked before you came in,” I say, walking back towards the table where new ammunition lays.

            “I did!  You didn’t hear it, so I just came in!”

               “You did?”  I suppose that if he knocked while I was shooting, I wouldn’t have heard it.  “Well, you should’ve waited until I’d put the gun down first.”

            “You’re insane,” Lee says again, shaking his head.  “Why are you in here, anyways?  You just got back from an assignment, it’s not like you need to practice.”

            I reach the table and start reloading the gun with bullets.  “I’m being sent on another one.”

            “Already?”  Lee gapes.  “That’s incredible.  I always have at least a couple weeks of waiting time between my assignments.”

            I could point out that Lee is Lee and that we’re nothing alike, but that would be a waste of time.  Instead, I start firing at the target again.

            Most likely still wary because of the last incident, Lee waits until I’m finished to talk again.  ‘Is that the assignment file?”

            I turn around to see him pointing to the file that sits on the table.  I nod curtly.  “Yeah.”

            “Can I see it?”

            I take a moment to think about it.  There’s no rule that says we can’t share the nature of our assignments with others, and it’s not like the words “top secret” are stamped all over the cover.  Who knows? Maybe Lee’s unorthodox mind will be able to think of a solution.  “Go for it.”

            He stand up, dragging an abandoned chair over and picking up the file to flip through it.  “Kim Hyuna?” he asks, a note of surprise in his voice.  “You’re going to kill her?”

            “That’s the plan.”

            “Aw, damn.”  Lee drops the file back on the table.  “She’s hot.”

            I give him an incredulous look.  “It’s not like you could’ve gotten involved with her.”

            “Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles.  “But she’s still hot.”

            “Don’t be getting maudlin on me, it’s not like you’ve ever met her.”

            Lee perks up.  “Actually, I have.”

            Wait, what?  I turn to stare again, but Lee’s already gone back to flipping through the file.  “Sung Tae Jun?” he mutters to himself.  “That guy was such an , no wonder he got himself knocked off.”

            I have to clear my throat loudly to get his attention again.  “What do you mean, you’ve met her?”

            He doesn’t even look up.  “Shouldn’t Mr. ‘I’m a paragon’ be able to figure out what ‘I met her’ means?”

            Apparently Lee has forgotten that I have a gun in my hand and plenty of ammunition to fill it.  But what he’s saying could be useful, so despite my urge to shoot him, I put my gun down and ask, “You’ve met Kim Hyuna?”

            Lee looks at me like I’m an idiot.  “Well, yeah.”

            He doesn’t say any more, and once again I have to prompt him for more information.  “When?  Where?  How did you meet a BREAK agent?”

            Lee thinks for a moment before answering.  “Nine years ago, one year ago.  Daegu, hostage negotiation.”  When I stare blankly in response, he grins.  “Did I mention she’s hot?”

            “Will you stop going on about that and say something useful?!”

            “Gosh, someone’s cranky.”  Lee puts the file down, finally looking up to meet my glare.  “I’ve met her twice.”  He holds up two fingers.  “Once before she was in BREAK.  Once after she already was.”

            “So, again I ask; how?”

            “Kim Hyuna was in my class.”  Lee shrugs indifferently.  “And one time our groups collaborated.”

            Lee is making even less sense than usual.  “Your—what?”

            He crosses his arms impatiently.  “She was in my high school class and one time the gang she was in collaborated with mine.”

            Quite a few parts of that sentence don’t sit well with me.  “You went to high school?”

            Lee makes a face.  “I dropped out my junior year.  But yeah.”  Upon seeing my confusion, he adds, “I’m from Daegu too, you know.”

            “How was I supposed to know that?”

            “I’ve probably told you at some point,” Lee says.  “But you only listen to things that matter to conceited you, so I’m not surprised you don’t remember.”

            I’m starting to think that Lee has a death wish.  “Would you like to repeat that?”

            “C’mon, we both know it’s true.”  Lee is unfazed.  “I bet you don’t even know how old I am.”

            It’s true—the only thing I really know about Lee is his name.  “Why would I care?”

            “That’s exactly my point.  Don’t shoot me, it’s not an insult so much as a statement, anyways.”  Lee raises his hands as if they would be able to stop a bullet.  “Anyways.  Our gangs collaborated when we were younger.  I think she got recruited around then, because a few months after, she dropped out of school and disappeared.  The second time I met her was at the negotiation with the BREAK agents last year, when Kim Jae Sun got captured.”  He peers at me.  “Do you remember that?”

            I shake my head.  “I heard about that, but I wasn’t there.”

            “Oh.  Well, she was.”  Lee shrugs again.  “There was about half a dozen of them and she was there.”  As soon as he says the words, a dreamy smile spreads across his face.  “She glared at all of us the entire time.  But she was hot.”

            “Yeah, I got that already.”  I pick up the file just to smack Lee over the head with it.  “Is that all?  Don’t you have anything useful about her?”

            Lee frowns.  “Well, what do you need to know?  It’s not like you’re writing a report on her.  You’re killing her.  What’s there to know?”

            “It’s a covert mission.”  I open the folder and hold the sentence containing the word in front of his face.  “I need to find a way to get close to her and I honestly can’t figure out how.”

            Lee answers immediately.  “Be her boyfriend.”

            “What?”

            “Meet her and be her boyfriend.”  Lee pushes the paper away from him.  “You don’t need to go undercover.  You just need to be Jang Hyunseung, a perfectly normal guy.”

            I stare blankly again at this, because he just used my real name and because he’s not making sense again.  “What the hell are you talking about?”

              Lee sighs theatrically.  “Okay, so the whole reason Kim Hyuna got to be an agent was because her boyfriend got her into a gang, right?  Well, it’s not like Tae Jun was her first boyfriend ever.  Before she even started dating him, she was known for having a different boyfriend every week.”

            “…and…?”

            “And?  So the girl likes dating guys!”  Lee gestures to me wildly.  “And you’re a guy!  So introduce yourself to her as a normal person, get her to like you, and bam, you’re in!”

            I look in disbelief before shaking my head.  “You’re an idiot.”

            “It would totally work!”  Lee nods approvingly.  “Trust me.”

            “I don’t trust idiots.”

            “I’m not an idiot!”  When I snort and turn to leave, Lee grabs my arm.  “Jay.  I know her.  Well, sort of.  Believe me, it’ll work.”

            I eye him skeptically but stop against my better judgment.  “She’s a BREAK agent.  Why would she date a ‘normal guy’?”

            “You just have to be persistent.”  Lee nods again.  “It’s not like agents are on assignments all the time, and it’s not like everyone’s like you and thinks dating is the world’s greatest sin.  If she likes you, I bet she’ll date you.”

            “She’ll know who I am.”

            “Don’t tell her you’re a contract killer and maybe she won’t figure it out.  It’s not like you’re the only Jang Hyunseung in the world.”

            Where does he come up with all of this?  I’m starting to run out of excuses.  “That’s such a stupid plan.”

            “But it’d work.”

            “I don’t even know what ‘being normal’ means.”

            He grins.  “Aww, poor little Hyunseung had a deprived childhood?  Okay, I get it, don’t shoot me,” he adds hastily as I go for the gun again.  “You really need to learn to take a joke.”

            “And you really need to learn how to say things that don’t make me want to put a couple of bullets through your thick skull,” I retort.  “If all of the words that are going to come out of your mouth are pointless, I’ll be leaving now.”

            “Not all of it was pointless…”  Lee rolls his eyes dramatically, shaking his head.  “Okay, being normal 101.  Don’t carry a gun around.  Wear normal clothes.  Don’t assume everyone’s out to kill you.”

            I look at him pointedly, pulling my arm out of his grasp because he’s yet to let go.  “I asked how to be normal, not how to be stupid.”

           “That’s what normal people do.  I would know, wouldn’t I?”  Lee points to himself, as if to emphasize his point.  “Just be normal and talk to her.  Ask her questions about herself and let her talk.  Girls like guys who listen to them.”

            “Because I’m sure you would know,” I say sarcastically.

            “Exactly!  That’s why it’ll work,” Lee says for maybe the third time in that hour.

            I’m honestly not sure whether I should believe him or not.  What kind of idiot goes in on an “undercover” assignment with a plan like that?  It has no guarantees.  IT has no sort of backup.  It’s a nightmare.  No one wants to take an assignment relying entirely on chance.  It’s ridiculous.  It’s stupid.  It’s completely unexpected by even the best hitmen out there.

            That’s why it’s crazy enough that it might even work.

            I pick up my gun that sits on the table.  Lee flinches, most likely thinking that it’s meant for him, but I just shove it back into the holster.  “If this doesn’t work, I’m going to come back and shoot right through that stupid head of yours.”

            Lee grimaces, as if imagining the scene for himself.  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

            “And I’m not even kidding about that.”

            “I realized when you tried to kill me for walking in on your shooting session.”

            My point’s been made, so now what?

            It’s time to go find Kim Hyuna.

__________________________

I promise in the next chapter they will actually meet.

Does it seem like Hyunseung is out of character in this chapter…?  It felt like he was to me…but I asked my sis to read it and she says he isn’t, so idk.  Critiquing is much appreciated!  Especially if there are grammar errors or anything in there… O.O  I have a tendency to make typos.  Lots of them.

Do gangs call themselves gangs…?  It felt weird putting the word “gang” in there multiple times…hehe.

(By far my favorite line in the entire chapter: “And?  So the girl likes dating guys!  …and you’re a guy!”)