Hyerin got up to her feet, finishing her fifth back flip. As she caught her breath she grabbed an unopened water bottle from the ground.

Agent Zero nodded before turning to his clipboard, rapidly writing on it. “I must say, agent, you’ve improved tremendously. Your stamina, speed, strength…everything improved.”

“I know. I can feel it,” she said after finishing her water. She tossed it to the side before adjusting her ponytail. “I feel like I can go on forever. I'm not tired at all. I feel myself getting stealthier.”

“I don’t know why this is the case when you didn’t even go through the 2X700-3XO. It’s supposed to be only the boys who would be getting these effects, but your improvement is very much needed so there’s no harm in that. Well done,” he said, smiling at her when he turned serious again. “Although you must work on your reflexes and flexibility, agent. A hit that you fail to dodge can lead to fatal consequences.”

“Understood, sir,” she said, turning to watch the others.

Every three months, M-LX held their general examinations for all agents from every department to keep track of their improvement. For EXO, a group of evaluators and observers came to see their abilities. They were not allowed to use their power as the purpose of the examinations were to see where they were at in terms of combat skill, agility, and stealth.

On one corner of the room, Xiumin and Lay were dodging metal discs thrown at them by an automated machine. They showed off their quick reflexes and flexibility, skills that Hyerin needed to improve on. In the middle of the gym, Kyungsoo, Tao, and Kai practiced their combat skills and strength, using wooden planks and concrete bricks (mainly for Kyungsoo) and other materials to demonstrate their strength. To the side, Luhan, Kris, and Chen displayed their excellent aim and their weaponry skills, using bow and arrows and various types of daggers to hit targets from large distances. Lastly, Suho, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Sehun, were at the corner of the room flinging knives at dummies and shooting guns with tricks thought impossible. 

Earlier that day, they were also tested on their speed, stamina, and intellect. They did rotations for each category since the wee hours of the morning until now.

After a good ten minutes more, their examination finally ended and the thirteen of the gathered around Agent M.

“Everything,” Agent M started, staring down in bafflement at the clipboard in his hands. “Everything improved. Combat skills, strength, stamina, intelligence, everything! This is both excellent and absolutely outrageous!" he exclaimed, laughing in excitement. “Even your physical appearances are enhancing. It is really very outstanding.”

It was subtle changes - lean biceps were starting to slightly bulge out, calves were getting harder and abs shaping into six packs. They looked fit and healthy. Even the ones who weren’t initially the active types looked fit compared to their lanky appearances then.

 “Are these from the effects of that 3XO machine thing?” Tao asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“Yes, it is mostly because of that, but the rest is from your hard work during training,” Agent M explained, clapping his hands together. “You did an excellent job today agents and keep up the good work. You are dismissed!” he said, winking briefly at Hyerin before storming out of the room.

“Dad wai-” Hyerin called out, but her father was already out the door. She sighed, scratching the back of her head. He really didn’t have time for her nowadays.

She turned around and caught Kyungsoo’s eye. He nodded at her before looking away to talk to Chanyeol. The latter also met gazes with the girl, giving her a small smile before turning back to Kyungsoo.

Hyerin reddened, and thankfully Chanyeol didn’t see that. She remembered what he told her that night at the ball and almost instantly, she felt bad again. She could only wish that he was okay, which he probably wasn’t.

Sighing, she walked over to Chen who was doing push-ups at the corner of the gym. It was impressive, when before he couldn’t even do more than twenty. Now, he was probably coming close to a hundred.

She sat beside him and watched as he continued to push himself up repeatedly, inhaling and exhaling loudly as sweat decorated his whole face.

“You think you can help me research about the Noxius brothers?” she asked, and Chen stopped midway to give her an accusatory look.

“What exactly are you going to do with the information, Hyerin?”

“I want to learn more about them. They seem really suspicious, there might be something going on.” She shrugged. “I mean, don’t you find them strange?”

Chen shook his head. He laid on his back and stared at the ceiling. “They’ve been like that since the beginning; haughty and think they’re all that. It’s nothing new.”

“Then it’s time to see what they’re up to. They might just be something more than what they appear to be. You never know.” She stood up to her feet. “Just do a quick background check on them for me. I’ll text you later.” She waved goodbye and walked the other way when Chen called out to her.

She turned around. “Yeah?”

“You know, you should go easy on all of this,” Chen said, standing up. He gave her a worried look. “I think we should lay off things we don’t need to worry about and just do whatever the head agents order us to do. I mean, this is kind of unnecessary, isn’t it?”

Hyerin gave him a reassuring smile. “It may seem unnecessary, but we can never be too sure. Don’t worry, Chen,” she turned around to leave, “I got this.”

---

Hyerin sat comfortably on the ground, flipping through the notebook filled with the painter’s rough sketches.

“These are so pretty,” she commented, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “How much time does it take to make these?”

Baekhyun glanced at her briefly before turning back to hanging his paintings on the wall. “It depends. The simple ones can range from ten to thirty minutes.”

Shortly after their test, Baekhyun asked Hyerin if she wanted to check out his latest pieces at their new penthouse. Of course, she said yes, finding herself intrigued by the boy’s art.

“This one’s cool,” she muttered, caressing the surface of the rough paper. It was a messy sketch of a girl with slightly masculine features and hair that was cut in a blunt bob. She had a cigarette in and a band-aid stuck on the bridge of her nose. “She looks badass. Look at how uncaring she is.”

Baekhyun laughed. “I know what you’re talking about. That’s a girl I saw in the audience while I was performing a few nights back. She was pretty, her face was unique. She caught my attention and I decided to draw her when I got home that night.”

“You remembered her face that well?” she scoffed in disbelief.

“Well, yeah.” He shrugged, plopping himself beside her on the ground. “So,” he started. “What do you think?”

Hyerin looked up and scanned the whole room. The walls were completely covered in his paintings. “Awesome!” She pulled her knees to her chest. “Will Luhan mind?”

“Nah. He said he was fine with it when I asked him the other day.”

“Where are the others by the way? No one’s home,” she wondered.

“OThey went to watch a basketball game over at the Bistro. I didn’t come for, well, obvious reasons.” He rolled his eyes, gesturing at the both of them. “And I think Chen stayed back at the headquarters. I don’t know.”

“Oh…” she trailed off, looking around her surroundings. Stuck on the walls were old and new paintings, mostly consisting of the old ones. Although that was the case, it was easy to point out which were the new ones because of the drastic change in style.

“You have a lot of new paintings.” She pointed at a simple one. “Hey, isn’t that the symbol of your ring that my dad gave you?”

He showed her his hand and the said ring was placed on his index finger. “Yup. I think that one speaks for itself.”

Her eyes darted to another. “That’s pretty cool.” It was a picture of a man alone in the vast wilderness. The man looked so amazingly tiny compared to his surroundings. If anything, it was kind of eerie. “It looks scary.”

Baekhyun grinned with amusement. “Why is that?”

“I mean, isn’t it? Everything around him is so much bigger than him. He’s alone, too. Who knows what’s out there, you know?” She looked contemplative before asking, “What’s it about?”

He adjusted his glasses before leaning back against the side of his bed. “Me.”

Hyerin raised a brow. “Seriously?”

“Mhm. It’s about me and how I felt when I started to get involved in M-LX.” He brought his knees up to his chest and stared at the ground with a bothered look as if he were undecided to tell her or not.

“You know it’s like,” He his lips, brows furrowed together. “At first you’re gonna feel small, like how anyone would whenever they’re scared and uncomfortable, you know? Who wouldn’t be if you’re suddenly put in a place so unfamiliar and so huge?”

He looked down on his feet as he continued. “So you’re going to feel afraid for a while, but then you realize you just have to it up and move on. You can’t survive in a forest just by standing around. You go explore the forest, and you learn that there are things out there that will actually help you get by. If you search hard enough, you’ll find the pond for water, the twigs for the fire, the fruits for food,” He rested his chin on top of his knees as he drew circles on the carpeted floor with his finger, “I mean, if you play safe the whole time, nothing will happen to you. You won’t survive if you waste your time being confused as to why and how you ended up there. By accepting the reality that you’re just gonna be…stuck there and make use of your time, you’ll find things that will help you get through. You adapt.”

Hyerin couldn’t help but smile. She turned her head to look at him. “Wow,” she chuckled. “Are all artists this deep?”

He shoved her aside with his shoulder. “Shut up.”

She laughed out loud. “So, if this applies to real life, who or what are those ‘things’—” She made invisible quotation marks in the air, “—that helped you get by in the forest?”

Baekhyun scoffed at her. “As if you don’t know.”

“Well, I just want to hear it from you.”

He shook his head at her. “Obviously it’s you guys!” he reluctantly admitted. “I mean, I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself if it weren’t for you and the others.”

“Isn’t that sweet,” she teased, earning another shove from the painter.

He coughed, cheeks reddening. “It’s true.”

She sighed, crossing her ankles and folding her arms against her chest. “I think we all feel that way about each other,” she said, taking Baekhyun’s sketchbook and flipping through the pages. “We’re all messed up and we just fix each other somehow.”

The two of them were enveloped in silence; him staring blankly at the wall and her admiring his little sketches. It was only after a couple of minutes passed by when Hyerin felt the boy’s stare on her that she slowly looked up from the sketchbook.

Baekhyun’s gaze was tranquil and almost reminiscing, making her curious as to what he could possibly be thinking about. It reminded her of the girls that told her how sweet and nice Baekhyun was, as opposed to how he usually acted around her and the guys. She wondered if there was more of these facades to him that she was ought to know. She also wondered if the way he was looking at her right now was also a front. She kind of hoped it wasn’t.

They stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity, and if Hyerin wasn’t imagining it, she felt him shift closer to her.

Suddenly, she was nervous. She was rarely nervous which made her extremely baffled as to why she was feeling this way now. Maybe it was because of the silence between them or maybe even the way he was looking at her. It could be all that, but it can also be the simple fact that she was alone with Byun Baekhyun. In his bedroom.

“Hey, Baekhyun! Do you know where my gray jeans—”

Hyerin and Baekhyun looked up at the same time to see Kyungsoo standing in the doorway, a startled expression on his face.

“D.O.?” Baekhyun’s eyebrows rose. “Uh, when did—have you been home for a while now?”

“I-I, uh, not long. I just arrived, err, I was just. Just asking…gray…jeans…where-um,” he stuttered, eyes looking like they were going to bulge out of its sockets as he shifted his feet uncomfortably. “Uh, um, never mind. I’ll just, you know, yeah.”

He was turning around to leave when Baekhyun stopped him. “Why are you home so early? I thought you were watching the game with the other guys.”

Kyungsoo couldn’t take his eyes away from the two’s close proximity. “Well, I was supposed to cook dinner tonight and had to go home early so,” he pointed out to the hallway, “I better go, bye.” He tripped on his own feet before closing the door behind him.

“Wow, he’s so awkward.” Baekhyun pouted. “What’s up with him?"

Hyerin figured it was probably because of her. And probably also because she was alone with Baekhyun in a room, in a supposedly empty house. She had to admit, if anyone saw them like that, they would definitely think something was up.

She snickered. “I think I know why.” She stood up from the ground and dusted her backside. “I’m gonna go outside and chat him up.”

He chuckled before nodding. “Alright.”

Hyerin gave him a quick smile before stepping out of the room. She climbed down the flight of stairs and went straight to the kitchen. He did say he was going to prepare dinner.

Kyungsoo was crouched over the kitchen counter, slicing cucumbers into little pieces when she arrived. The sight was quite funny to her. She was sure people who knew Kyungsoo at school wouldn’t even imagine him like he was right now; face full of concentration over cutting vegetables while wearing a pink floral apron with the words ‘Kiss the Cook’ printed on it.

His head shot up, almost dropping the knife when he saw the girl inside his kitchen. He cleared his throat before continuing with what he was doing. With a smug look on her face, Hyerin headed over to Kyungsoo.

She sat on one of the stools across from where he was standing and rested her head on her palm, eyes trained on his busy hands. She unintentionally let out a chuckle, irritating the boy further.

“What?” he demanded, taking the sliced cucumbers and putting it in a small bowl. He set it aside and proceeded to take out the carrots.

“Nice apron,” she commented. “Who’re you planning to kiss?”

“I didn’t buy this for myself, okay!?” he snapped, furiously skinning the carrot. “ing Xiumin and Tao went to the market the other day and bought me this dumb apron. You got a ing problem!?”

Hyerin couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at that. “No it’s just–” she buried her face into her palms, trying to keep herself from laughing, “It’s just that it’s so weird seeing you do something so…out of character and normal.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That you’re not really the type of guy to do this.” She shrugged. “And also because you’re really, how do I say this, manly? It’s just weird to see you doing girly stuff.”

“Last time I checked, cooking is gender neutral.” He shook his head, taking out the pork from the fridge to let it thaw. “And what do you mean girly stuff? You think cooking is girly? Cooking isn’t girly. It’s all about knives and cutting and burning dead things,” he ranted, putting a pan on the stove and setting it to high. “If anything, it’s pretty damn manly.”

She pretended to cough to hide her grin. “Why are you getting all defensive all of a sudden?”

“Because ignorant people like you are annoying, alright?” he said, busying himself once again with slicing vegetables.

Hyerin almost forgot what her main purpose was for talking to Kyungsoo. She cleared before saying, “Hey, earlier with me and Baekhyun, it’s not what you think.”

Kyungsoo didn’t look up. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean, you know,” Her face started to heat up, “It may seem pretty weird seeing us in there but really, we were just talking.”

“So? I don’t care. You guys can do whatever you want.”

“I don’t want any misunderstandings. Before any kind of issue comes up, I just want to let you know there’s nothing between us or anything,” she sighed. “In case you decide to think nonsense.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Well, it certainly didn’t look like nonsense to me.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Whatever the hell you want to think it means.”

She sighed wearily.  “Can we just talk about something else? You’re putting me in a bad mood,” she groaned, folding her arms on top of the counter. Kyungsoo didn’t say anything as he put oil on the pan and then diced the garlic.

She bit her bottom lip as a certain someone popped up in her mind. She’d been meaning to ask someone about it, but she was just too chicken to do it anyway. “So how’s Chanyeol holding up?”

Kyungsoo stopped crushing the garlic with his knife and briefly glanced up at her. He shrugged, going back to whatever he was doing. “He’s okay. Or at least, he’s pretending to be. He seems fine back at the Bistro,” he said simply before adding, “Why, are you worried about him?”

Hyerin pouted, bringing her legs up the chair. “Of course I am. He’s a good friend, and something like that happening between us? It was unexpected,” she said. “It was just so out of the blue, you know? He didn’t even show any signs of being sad before the dance and then bam! He just pours his heart out to me like that. It caught me off-guard, and I just feel—” Hyerin stopped, realizing she was rambling. Not only that, she was rambling to Kyungsoo of all people.

Why would he care anyway? He wouldn’t understand. She should be talking about her feelings to someone who actually cared.

“Feel what?”

She looked up at him, startled. Now, he was busy slicing tomatoes, and if she didn’t know any better, she would've thought he didn’t say anything at all. Maybe he did want to know what she thought.

“I-I just feel pathetic,” she said quietly, frowning at the tiled counter. “Pathetic that I can't do anything while someone I care about is suffering because of me.”

Silence enveloped them as they both took in her words. She noticed that Kyungsoo was done with his cutting and he was just standing there, staring at crushed garlic.

It was probably ten seconds that passed before he let out a weary sigh, taking the garlic from the cutting board and pouring it into the heated pan. It crackled with the oil as he mixed it with a spatula.

After a minute or two, he came back to the counter and took the other vegetables. Hyerin watched a little mesmerized as he poured all the necessary ingredients into the pan, startling her when he began to speak.

“Don’t worry about him,” he said, putting the empty bowl in the sink and walking to the fancy refrigerator. He came back with celery. “He’s going to be okay.” He chopped it into three sections.

“You think?” she asked uncertainly.

“Look.” He stared at her dead in the eye and lowered his knife. It surprised her. “I honestly don’t give a whatever happens to your relationship with Chanyeol and I’m not going to give you pep talk to make you feel better, but you have to understand that he just needs some space,” he started. “This isn’t easy for him, and the least he wants you to do is get worried. I know how Chanyeol is – he's this big ball of sunshine that s rainbows out of his . He’s not the type to dwell on something too long. So right now, all he needs is space and some time to get over it, while you need to move on with your life because being all sappy about it isn’t going to do you or him any good,” He pointed at her with the knife. “So stop saying you feel pathetic that you can’t do anything. You can’t fix a heart break, I can’t fix a heart break. No one can, except for himself.”

Hyerin was stunned to silence. Kyungsoo checked on his cooking as if he just didn’t give her a  lecture.

Putting aside her shock from his sudden rant, what he actually said was right. What did moping around do to help? Did it take her back to the past to make things right? No, it didn’t.

“Uh, thanks?”

“Don’t thank me. I’m just trying to put up with you. It’s not like I care,” He coughed into his hand, avoiding her gaze, “or anything like that.”

Hyerin rolled her eyes at his stubbornness. Is this guy ever going to lower his pride for once?

Before she could retort, the sound of the main door opening then closing distracted her.

“Anyone home?” a voice called out.

“In the kitchen,” Kyungsoo replied, unwrapping the meat from its container.

In an instant, the kitchen door opened and Chen came inside with his backpack and a stack of folders in his arms. “Oh, Hyerin,” he said, setting down his stuff on the table. “What are you doing here?”

“She and Baekhyun were having a little date in his room.”

Hyerin glared at Kyungsoo and threw a piece of leftover carrot at the back of his head. “He was just showing me his new paintings!” 

Chen shrugged before sitting beside her on the counter. “What are you cooking?”

“None of your business.”

“I see it’s that time of the month for Kyungsoo again,” he sarcastically remarked before turning to Hyerin. “Anyway, it’s a good thing you’re here. I’ve gathered some information for you.”

“Awesome. What did you get?”

Just then, Baekhyun entered the kitchen. “What’s going on here?”

“Oh, great. Hyerin’s boyfriend is here,” Kyungsoo deadpanned, taking a big knife and cutting up the meat.

“Shut the hell up!” Hyerin yelled.

“Boyfriend?” Baekhyun raised a brow.

“Here,” Chen took one folder from the pile, “It’s not much, but I think it’s enough.” He flipped through the pages. “I didn’t get a lot of information about that big guy’s relationship with Lucy but I did manage to get a handful of his background.”

“Let’s hear it then.”

“His name is Durus. Age is unknown, hometown is unknown. It’s also a mystery if that’s his birth name. Anyway, Durus’ been hiding all his life underground. Literally. He lives in the sewers just under Seoul, although I can’t find where specifically,” he explained. “He's inhumanly strong if it isn’t obvious enough already. You would think he was just born with it or he built his body himself, but actually, it was from an experiment. His father was a scientist working for the government. Then he went completely mad, got obsessed with a discovery he made and turned his own son the subject to this experiment. He tested this out on him and made him strong as hell.”

Baekhyun cringed. “That’s messed up.”

“It sure is. Also, his father’s also behind the creation of the nightcrawlers.”

“So he’s the damn culprit,” Kyungsoo muttered under his breath.

“I’m not sure how he made them but I’m sure it’s not pretty.” Chen shook his head. “It’s unknown if his father is dead or alive.”

“We’ll find that out for ourselves,” Hyerin retorted.

Chen gave her an exasperated look. “Hyerin, I told you, I don’t think–”

“What else?” she cut him off.

He sighed before continuing. “Aside from that, there’s nothing more about him. He’s probably hiding somewhere.”

“About his connection to Lucy,” Baekhyun started, rubbing his chin. “I don’t think she’s the only one. I’m positive he would have other connections just in case anything goes wrong. I mean, Lucy’s dead, so I’m sure he has a couple more friends out there. Or at least, he’s looking for some.”

“I second that,” Kyungsoo said, leaning back against the counter beside Chen. He wiped his palms on the apron as he continued. “He’s not stupid to work alone on whatever he’s planning to do.”

“It could be that or he’s working for someone,” Hyerin offered. “You never know.”

“Well that’s a possibility but who could it be?” Chen asked.

“It’s impossible to know right now. We have little to no information, so all we can do is dig up more stuff about them,” she said, ending the topic. “What about the Noxius brothers?”

“The Noxius brothers?” Kyungsoo’s eyes widened. “What about them?”

“Oh, right.” Chen went over to the table and took another folder. “I didn’t get anything about them except for some basic information from their school files. But,” He held out a finger as he flipped through the pages, “I did go through their school records and found out that since two weeks ago they have been going in and out of school without permission in varying times.”

This managed to catch Hyerin’s attention. “Can you check how many times they’ve been out?”

“Let’s see,” Chen grazed his finger on his lower lip as he went through the list, “The week before last week, they left school around 10:30 in the morning on Tuesday then came back after lunch. Two days after on Friday, they left and arrived at same time as Tuesday,” he continued. “The next week after that, they left Tuesday and Friday again, same time, too.”

“And what about this week?” Baekhyun asked.

“This week? Also left Tuesday, 10:30 AM.” He frowned. “It’s a pattern.”

“Then most likely they would leave again on Friday, same time,” Hyerin said, excitement bubbling up inside her. “What’s the date today?”

Kyungsoo looked at his watch. “January 31st, Thursday.”

Hyerin smirked. “Perfect.”

“Hyerin.” Chen shot her a glare. “What are you up to?”

“I just thought of the perfect plan!” she exclaimed, slamming her fist down the counter.

“Oh god,” Chen groaned, collapsing on a chair.

“Tomorrow, we’ll know exactly what they’re up to,” she said, taking a handful of fresh cucumbers and about to shove it all in when Kyungsoo slapped her arm.

“It’s not dinner yet,” he scowled.

"Hyerin, are you sure about this? What if they were just skipping class to go to some college party or something like that? Then everything will go to waste!" Chen reasoned.

"Yes, that could be the case, but it would be much better to see for ourselves rather than living our lives wondering if they have anything to do with this," Hyerin said. "Don't worry, Chen. It's not like we're going on a risky mission, you've gotten through worse!"

"Are you completely and utterly sure about this?"

"Of course," she chuckled. "I'm never wrong."

---

A/N: WARNING! SCARY GIF ALERT

LADIES AND GENTS, A NIGHTCRAWLER IN ACTION. (except they don't have those contraptions in their hands and they don't have long noses)

*edit: it's from the movie The Poughkeepsie Tapes since a bunch of you asked (it but it was sum pretty messed up )

Okay, I know you guys might be hella pissed at me for posting the above gif, but can I ask a favor? My birthday is coming up and can I be a brat and ask for a birthday present!? :D All I want is for an upvote guys, really. This is the first time I'm asking, so I don't know, it's kinda weird. LOL. But you don't have to if you don't want to or if you think this story doesn't deserve an upvote...yet. LOL! For those who will, thank you so much! It's a little goal of mine to get a story featured here on AFF (just to know the feeling lol)

Anyway, three more subbies and this story will have 300 subscribers! Thank you guys so much, I've never felt so happy, really!