It was another busy night at the Bistro Café. Friday nights called for delicious European food and good wine to purge the usually stressful demands of the weekdays, and now that it was coming to an end, the café bustled with life.

Lay was distractedly wiping down table number three, constantly looking out the window in case his childhood friend was already outside. It was only 8:19, but considering that it was Hyerin, she would be arriving any minute now.

He went inside the kitchen to return the wet towel, taking a few glasses of water into a tray along the way for table number five.

Lay pushed the door with his back as he held the tray in one hand. He set the glasses on the table and assured the customers another server would come for their orders. He smiled and left, turning towards the entrance again to check if it was Hyerin who just arrived but was partially surprised to see his baseball-playing friend walking in through the door.

With furrowed eyebrows, he took off his apron and approached the boy. “Kai?”

Kai looked up. “Oh! Hey, man. I didn’t know you had work on Fridays,” he said, bumping fists with him. “How are you?”

“I’m alright. The café’s pretty busy tonight though.” He shrugged. “So what brings you to a place like this on a Friday night? C’mon, let’s get out of here.” He tossed his apron towards the bar and led Kai outside.

“You can say I have a date,” the younger one said, grinning.

Lay rolled his eyes. “Figures.”

“And sorry I haven’t been going to dance practice. Baseball season's over though, so I pretty much have all the time in my hands now.”

“You better or you’ll get your kicked out,” Lay warned, half joking. “But there’s something strange going on. Every morning when I drop by the dance studio, it’s already unlocked when usually I’m always the first-” Lay stopped himself as two boys in knit sweaters walked towards their direction.

“Wait. Isn’t that ZiTao, the wushu guy?” he asked, leaning closer to see clearly.

Kai squinted at them. “Oh, yeah! And that hipster dude. Was it Baekhyun, his name?”

“Huh. That’s strange. Why would they be here?”

“Gay, maybe? They seem to be on a date.”

They looked at each other and shrugged.

Lay and Kai bowed to them when the pair also noticed their presence. They bowed in return.

“Oh! 'Sup, prez,” Tao greeted as Suho arrived, still in his school uniform.

“What a coincidence! Hello, ZiTao. Baekhyun.” He nodded. Suho turned to the side and saw the other two. “Oh hey, Lay! And Kai, what are you doing here?”

“What the hell!?” Coming from the right sidewalk, Chanyeol coolly sauntered towards the group, Kris tailing behind him with the same look of surprise as everyone. “What are you all doing here?” the brown-haired boy asked, confused.

“Hyung! What’s up–oh.” The youngest of all halted in his steps once he saw the crowd. “Um, hey,” Sehun mumbled, looking confused.

Not too long, Luhan, Chen, and Xiumin had also arrived all at the same time from different directions. At this rate, everyone was confused.

“Whoah, what’s up with all the Yeongnam students here? Wassup, wassup,” Xiumin greeted, specifically high-fiving Chanyeol, Kai, and Kris. “Is this like, the newest hang out place or something? Better tell me so I can spread the news.”

“Yeah, why is everyone here? Don't people go here for dates or something?” Chanyeol said. “Like, I’m pretty sure not all of us can get dates.”

“Well, I’m here for a date.” Kai shrugged.

Kris frowned, folding his arms in front of his chest. “This is strange. It would be too much of a coincidence if we’re all here just for the sake of being here.”

“Yeah,” Luhan entered. “This is the last place any of us will be going to on a night like this.”

“The artist dude is right.” Chanyeol nodded. Luhan shrugged.

Chen stood silently beside Suho, troubled whether if he should tell them what was happening or continue on with Hyerin’s plan. He certainly did not expect all of these boys to come. Hell, he didn’t even expect himself to come.

Suho stepped in, equally puzzled as the others. “So let’s sort things out properly then,” he started. “Why exactly are you guys here in the first place? I came here because I have a meeting to attend to.”

“I came because of him.” Baekhyun said, pointing a finger at Tao.

Tao shrugged. “I came here to meet with an acquaintance.”

“Me too,” Luhan said.

“As well as me!” Xiumin added cheerfully.

“I went here for a date,” Kai repeated.

“Same here,” Sehun casually said.

“I’m getting tickets for a basketball game and I dragged him along!” Chanyeol said, smiling as he patted the stoic boy’s shoulder.

“I-I came here to meet up with a friend,” Chen stuttered. “But we were going to leave after.”

Everyone turned to Lay, who was the last one to speak. He raised a brow, folding his arms. “I own this place.”

“Well there are an awful lot of you who are going to meet up,” Xiumin offered.

“Who are you guys meeting exactly?” Sehun asked.

Everyone looked at each other warily.

There was a long pause and Tao was the first to break it. “Kim Hyerin,” he said. “I’m waiting for a girl named Kim Hyerin.”

“What!?”

"Wait, what!?"

"No way!"

“Hyerin...?”

“Kim Hyerin!? As in the sophomore Hyerin!?” Chanyeol exclaimed. “The one with the long black hair who kinda looks like she can beat you up with her pinky toe?”

“Yeah, that’s her,” Luhan said in disbelief. “I was going to see her today.”

“The same thing for me,” Suho said, looking down on the ground in shock. “So judging how this turned out to be, each one of you here is supposed to be meeting up with Hyerin?”

Everyone nodded.

Suho sighed. “Oh, dear.”

Kris shook his head. It was the girl who was there at his swim practice a few days ago. He turned her down, but he ended up going anyway. “She'll probably ditch all of us. No way will she show herself when she made this kind of mess,” he said.

“No way! And I even thought she was cute.” Xiumin pouted, earning looks of disapproval from the rest.

“There has to be a reason why she did this, though,” Lay spoke up. “Knowing her, she wouldn’t do this just for the sake of a prank or something.”

“Then what’s the reason?”

Everyone thought hard, trying to come up with a rational reason as to why a seventeen year-old girl would want to gather eleven boys at a café.

At that exact moment, a long black tinted vehicle parked in front of the restaurant, making them suddenly agitated. It was as big as a van, but its length was abnormally that of a limousine.

“What the hell is that?” Baekhyun asked, scooting back.

Chen was sweating. He was sweating and anxious and scared and angry and stupid for coming in the first place. He pulled up his sleeve, checking his watch. Exactly 8:30.

“Guys, I think we should, you know,” he gulped, “head home since she won’t come anyway...”

“No, wait,” Chanyeol said, walking forward. “Maybe the girl sent this for us or something. Who knows?”

Just when he was about to take another step, three men dressed in all black stepped out of the car, making the teenagers back away in surprise. People outside and inside the restaurant were giving them weird looks.

“Holy . Are those cops?” Xiumin whispered. "Are they here for me? Did they find out that I’ve been letting underage teens into clubs!?"

One of the men stepped forward. “Good evening, gentlemen. I am agent 75X and I am a part of a confidential organization called M-LX,” he stated, followed by a brief explanation of the system.

It was like déjà vu for Chen. But this time, it was about them—including him—and not Hyerin. He unconsciously gripped tightly unto Kai and Luhan’s arms, who were standing beside him.

“I think this is a bad idea,” he muttered shakily, making the two look towards each other in worry.

“Dude, you’re freaking me out,” Kai whispered, shaking off Chen's hand. “I don’t think they’re going to hurt us.”

“Yeah,” Luhan added. “Probably under the government.”

“Trust me, they’re not from the government,” Chen whispered.

“I assure you we mean no harm so like what I said,” he motioned towards the van, “I would have to ask you to please come with us and we shall further discuss this with our head agent.”

Whatever the man said to them was probably convincing, as the others didn’t hesitate to go inside the van.

“Seriously?” Chen scoffed. At this point, he was the only one who was left outside. One of the agents nodded at him in recognition and he inwardly groaned. Sighing, he entered the vehicle anyway.

The car started moving immediately while they all stayed silent, curious and scared of what was in for them at this so-called confidential organization.

Suho looked over to Chen who was as pale as a ghost. “Are you alright?” he asked worriedly.

Chen bit his lower lip, eyes darting around the vehicle in agitation. He was not sure if he should tell them or not. If he does, Hyerin will probably be extremely mad at him, but if he doesn't, these guys from his school who he didn't even know personally would kill him.

“Ugh! That’s it! I just–I just can’t take it anymore,” he gave in, clutching his hair with both hands. “This. I know what M-LX is and I’ve been there. With Hyerin.”

“What!?” Baekhyun exclaimed. “So you knew what this was about all along?”

“Yes. She was given this mission to gather all of us to bring there because apparently, we have something that they need. I don’t know what the hell that is but I’m ing scared right now and I don’t know if this is something good or if we’ll all end up dead!"

“Are you telling me we’re going to die!?” Xiumin demanded. It was a good thing there was a divider between them and the front seats; that way the agents had no way of hearing them.

“I don’t know! But her mom worked there and she told me that we weren’t going to get hurt,” Chen answered, shrinking under the weight of their stares.

Sehun fought the urge to break down. “What do we do? How are we so sure that nothing bad is going to happen?”

“We make a plan, just in case,” Tao said, his eyes appearing darker than it already was. “If ever this is a set-up then we’ll fight back.”

“Are you ing crazy? Do you honestly think we can take down these guys?” Kris questioned, glaring at him. “We don’t know what they have on them, and we also don’t know how many more of these guys are in their building, too.”

“We’ll just see what happens when we get there,” Suho said, eyes lit with determination. “Fight back or not, what matters is that we should all still be alive in the end.”

- - - - -

The stale gray eyes of Agent Zero glistened as he examined each and every young boy sitting with him on the table, six on each side. “Welcome to the M-LX headquarters, gentlemen,” he greeted, lacing his fingers together and propping his chin on top of it. “I believe that this is quite unexpected and terribly frightening on your part so I apologize for that.”

The boys, on the other hand, were silent. Everyone was anxious in the car—some were about to cry—and it didn’t help that they came across Kyungsoo in the elevator, handcuffed and held tightly by two suited men.

“Anyway, I assume that it has been explained to you what this organization is about,” he started. “But before anything, I go by the alias Agent Zero. Head of M-LX.”

He offered a small smile. “Now, to start off, you may be wondering why all twelve of you were brought in here without any-”

Zero was cut off by the sound of the door slamming open. They all turned towards the noise, more than shocked to see the sight before them.

At least five agents came rushing into the room, escorting Hyerin inside.

It wasn’t the fact that she was there at that moment that shocked Agent Zero; it was the fact that she was heavily guarded. The girl’s arms were locked together with their specialized handcuffs—a cylindrical canister-like gadget made out of titanium that went up to her forearms—and they also put a mask on her, but it was no ordinary mask; also made out of the finest metal, it covered the lower part of her face, hugging her cheeks tightly. From the mouth, a strip of leather extended all the way up to her forehead and to the back of her head to lock it securely, disallowing her to speak. It was almost like a cage especially made for the head.

They watched in awe as one of the guards pulled out a chair and forcefully sat her down.

“Wha-What is this about?” Agent Zero demanded, standing up from his seat.

“Our apologies, sir, but force was needed to make her stop. She was attacking our men,” the agent explained. “We explained to her what you told us, but she was persistent and had a pistol and a knife with her. She shot agent 602X in the arm and brought down all the men you sent. They even called for more back-up.” He looked down at the girl who was blankly staring at the floor, sitting uncaringly on the wooden chair. “The situation was getting out of control so this had to be done.”

“I thought I specifically told you to never harm the child,” Zero hissed through gritted teeth.

“Sir, she was attacking our-”

“Enough with the excuses. Face her to me.” With that, they turned the chair to where the man stood while the rest of the boys watched.

Agent Zero looked down at her. “I am sorry it has come down to this.”

Hyerin’s sharp orbs darted towards the man’s face.

“I’m sorry, I really am, but as much as your mother wants you to be under M-LX, I will not approve of that. It was a bad idea to tell you about this organization, and I only realized that when it was too late. This is for your own good, Hyerin.”

He was waiting for her to respond, but almost forgot that she was not able to. Sighing, he ordered one of the guards to take off the mask.

“But sir-”

“Just do it, agent.”

Without having much of a choice, the man unlocked it, letting the heavy object fall down to her lap and down to the floor with a clunk.

He waited for her to speak, but all she did was stare at him with the same look. The other agents prepared to grab her just in case she was to lunge at their boss.

“You’re a load of .”

“Excuse me-”

“You are complete and utter bull. Is it because of your job or is it really in your nature to lie to people? You even used my mom to convince me, and now that you have me, you’re already counting me out just because I already gave you what you wanted? How could you? Have you ever thought that maybe I wanted to do this because I had a legitimate reason? With a legitimate purpose? I didn’t agree with this just to be pushed away after one lame excuse for a mission. You’re a liar!”

“I didn’t want to put you in any danger-”

“Cut the crap about danger when you know full well your little minions tried to hurt me as well!” she growled. “And do not tell me that I’m not involved because I am. You’re stupid and inconsiderate and unfair! You think by doing this, it would be for the better but it’s not! I wish I didn’t bring all these innocent people here—who knows what the hell you’re going to do with them,” she said. “Besides, with someone like you, no one will ever know the truth behind anything!”

“You have to understand that this is for the better, Hyerin. I would die of guilt if anything happens to you!”

“Then die! You eventually would anyway!”

“That is enough.” 

Heads turned towards the door as it slid open, cool smoke coming out of the entrance. “I believe that arguing over this is pointless, because the only person who can possibly know the truth about the purpose of Hyerin and these young men here is no other than,” the unknown person stepped inside, “me.”

Hyerin’s eyes widened as she found herself staring at the one and only Kim Myungjae. “...Dad?”