“Good evening,” one of the Xinths in charge of the main entrance security at the Park Hyatt Hotel greeted in a monotone voice. “Name and social security, please.”

Chen smiled casually at the alien, the edges of his mouth feeling uncomfortable from the dried latex pulling at his skin. “Daehyun Jung,” he answered, “654-62-7578.”

The Xinth looked down at his handheld device and punched in the social security number. Chen his lips as he stared at the Xinth, heartbeat quickening from nervousness.

Please work, he desperately thought.

The device’s screen blinked green three times before the Xinth nodded and made way for Chen to pass through and enter the hotel.

“Enjoy your night, Mr. Jung,” the Xinth said before moving on to the next guest.

“You too,” Chen mumbled, fully entering the fancy venue with a sigh of relief.

Without further ado, he made his way past the other guests dressed in formal clothing and headed towards a corner where no one was around, taking a glass of white wine from a waiter’s tray along the way. He situated himself against the marble walls and pressed his earpiece against his ear.

“This is Chen,” he whispered. “I got in. It worked.”

“It did? Oh, thank god,” Luhan sighed, tilting his head back against the headrest of the van, laptop situated on his lap. “For a moment there I thought my laptop was going to crash from hacking into the government’s database. It was tough but I managed to put your forged identities into the system right on time. Everything should be perfectly fine from there.”

“Good to hear,” Chen said, eyes scanning the people lingering in the lobby with him; they were not necessarily having a good time but they were not exactly running around screaming either. “Nothing much is going on around in here. Everyone is calm so I’m guessing no one has done anything out of the ordinary.”

“Good. How’s your disguise holding up?”

“Uh,” he mumbled, hand instinctively traveling up to his ‘new’ face. Facial prosthetics was not comfortable at all. “Security didn’t recognize me so it’s okay, I guess?”

“That’s always a good thing,” Luhan sighed. “So what do you want me to do now?”

“Just go ahead and let the other two come in. Keep the others on hold until I give you a go signal.”

“Understood. I’ll get in touch with the two. 10-23 for now.”

“Alright,” Chen mumbled, taking a large sip of his wine before pouring the rest of its contents into a large potted plant beside him, placing the glass on the tray of the waiter passing him in the lobby.

“Okay.” Luhan straightened up in his seat before rapidly typing on the keyboard. He adjusted the headphones on his head as he waited for the two to respond.

“Hello?” Luhan called out.

“Luhan?” Kris answered.

“Hey,” Hyerin answered as well.

“Hey guys. The hack worked and I managed to let Chen pass. He’s already inside the hotel. It’s your turn now. What's your 10-20?”

“I’m already in line to check-in,” Hyerin answered, her three-inch stilettos giving her a clear view of the sea of people around her.

“As well as I,” Kris said.

“Good. Stay alert and make sure your facial prosthetics are in tact. I’ll let you know if anything comes up. Keep your eyes open.” With that, Luhan broke out of the connection to contact the others.

“I sure as hell have my eyes open.” Hyerin shifted from one foot to another, pressing lightly on her earpiece. “Kris, are you still there?”

“I’m right here,” he said in a low, quiet voice.

“I don’t know if this is the right time to point it out but…” she trailed off, her eyes wandering around her in awe. “Seoul changed so much.”

Kris turned around in his spot in the line to look up. He subtly nodded his head, agreeing completely with Hyerin. “It did,” he mumbled. “It really did.”

Just within the span of three days, Seoul changed drastically. The streetlights were still up and running and the tall, glamorous cityscapes were still in tact, but the ones that weren’t – the ones that were destroyed during the takeover – were now abandoned and left to crumble into bits. The streets were filthy and dirtied with ashes, dust, and big chunks of concrete and if it weren’t for the party that day, the streets would be empty and dead.

The more notable changes in the city, though, were what bothered Hyerin the most. From where she was standing in line with hundreds of other people, she could see the giant screens attached to building after building after building in the heart of the city, acting as giant surveillance cameras. It focused randomly on people standing around outside the hotel, reminding everyone that they were constantly being watched.

Hyerin turned away from the screen – although wherever she looked there was always another – and proceeded to turn her attention far away beyond the buildings and to the outskirts of town. It was a foggy night, the air still carrying dust from the outbreak three days ago, but with the help of the bright lights in the city she can faintly see the boundaries that Agent Zero told them about a few nights ago. Her sight was a little bleary, but she could see the outline of a wall standing erect in possibly more than 400 meters. Her eyes followed its length as it extended all the way around until she came back to where the wall first started. She was sure it had Seoul in complete lockdown.

Hyerin knew that the wall wasn't the only thing that was keeping the government and other outside sources from saving the day. They could have already attacked with military assault planes or bombed the wall and easily rescued thousands of people if it was that easy to break in. Jiyong was using supernatural power to keep Seoul on lockdown, and whatever it was, it's damn powerful.

"Hyerin," Kris said. "Stay alert."

Hyerin blinked a couple of times before turning away from the wall and answering Kris. "Right. Sorry."

"Miss," a Xinth called, catching her attention. "Move up the line."

Hyerin looked from the suited Xinth then towards the huge gap between her and the person in front of her. She must have been daydreaming a little too long.

"Yeah. Sorry," she mumbled, about to consciously touch her face because of the heavy facial prosthetics but instead lowered her hand to scratch her neck for fear of getting busted.

The line moved up faster than the last fifteen minutes she'd been waiting, and soon she was already at the front of the line. She looked behind her and saw that the amount of people tripled. The line was taking up almost all of the space in the streets and rounded all the way around the corner. More and more people came and it would be impossible to accommodate all these people inside the hotel. Most would have to stay outside and watch from the humongous TV screens attached to the tall buildings around the venue.

Hyerin climbed up the short flight of stairs, her pencil skirt riding up to her thighs. She pulled it down a little when she arrived at the top of the stairs where two security Xinths stood.

"Good evening," the one on the left deadpanned. "Social security, please."

"435-65-2356," she replied in a light tone, the numbers rolling off her tongue in a casual manner. It was a good thing Luhan gave them their fake social security numbers beforehand and not during the mission where he would have to dictate the numbers through the earpiece.

The Xinth punched in the numbers into his handheld device, and after it lit green three times he stepped aside to let her in. She nodded her head at him and proceeded inside.

Hyerin’s eyes wandered around the fancy lobby, watching as waiters robotically served wine and cider to the guests who were faking smiles and forcing out laughs, all to which they felt entitled to do because of the Xinths standing close by, watching them. Hyerin stood to the side and pressed on her earpiece.

“Luhan,” she whispered. “I’m inside.”

“Great,” Luhan responded after a two second pause. “Kris will be there with you inside any moment now.”

“I’m actually inside already,” Kris entered.

“Where?” Hyerin asked.

“Just by the door. I don’t think you’ll recognize me, though. Face prosthetics and all.”

“I sure as hell wouldn’t,” Chen sarcastically said out of nowhere. “I mean, with you looking like a combination of Robert De Niro and an Asian Steve Buscemi I don’t think I’d even want to look at your face. Horrible mix.”

There was a long pause before Hyerin snorted, hiding her grin behind her fist and turning away from the people inside the lobby. “What the ,” she laughed soundlessly.

Soon the others followed. Chen sniggered quietly while Kris shook his head, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards. Even Luhan, who has been under emotional and physical stress lately, let out a quiet chuckle. When was the last time they all had a laugh? The sound felt so foreign to them.

“I gotta admit, your face is kind of ed up,” Luhan added.

“Yeah? Well your face is-”

Kris was cut off by the sound of loud screeching from the speakers, bringing them back to reality. Their expressions turned serious again as they returned to work mode.

“Alright, guys,” Luhan started. “I’ll just go check up on the others. Just hang around there for a while and see if anything happens, okay?”

“Okay,” the other three chorused.

“Alright. I’ll talk to you guys later.”

---

“Dude,” Chanyeol nudged the boy beside him. “Dude.”

Kyungsoo snapped out of his trance before turning irritably towards Chanyeol. “What?”

“You’ve been staring at the ground for a whole minute now. Clean that knife, will ‘ya?” Chanyeol said, eyebrows rising and nodding towards the bloody knife in Kyungsoo’s left hand.

“Oh,” he mumbled, wiping his knife against his pants. He would have used a cloth if his other hand didn’t get cut off.

He put away the weapon and looked around him. Him, Chanyeol, and Sehun were sitting against the wall at the very back of the Park Hyatt Hotel, waiting for the others’ orders. Scattered around them were at least seven dead Xinths that were previously standing guard at the back before they attacked and murdered each and every one of them. It was an easy kill, but they had to be aware of oncoming enemies.

“What’s with you guys?” Chanyeol asked, wiping two of his trench knives with precision. “You’ve been out of it.”

“Sorry, I’ve just been…” he sighed, “out of it.”

Chanyeol stopped cleaning his knives and glared at Kyungsoo. “That’s what I just said.”

“Oh.”

“My god,” Chanyeol whistled, shaking his head. “What is going on with you guys,” he mumbled.

Kyungsoo clicked his tongue, adjusting the metal contraption wrapped around his right arm. “I don’t even know.”

Yet he did. He knew exactly what’s been going on in his mind, or to be more specific, who. The whole day she was all he had been thinking about. It was pathetic because it was distracting him from the important things, and Kyungsoo couldn’t risk being careless. He would lose another hand if he wasn’t careful, and it would only prove that he wasn’t capable of going to missions yet. He had to show that he was already strong enough, that he didn’t need two hands to destroy Jiyong and his men. He had to prove that not only to Agent Zero and the other agents, but also to Hyerin who ironically was a distraction to him at the same time.

“Sehun’s really out of it,” Chanyeol casually mentioned as he plopped himself beside Kyungsoo on the ground. “I’m sure if I threw dirt on his face he wouldn’t even notice. Wanna bet on it?”

Kyungsoo quickly glanced over to Sehun who was at the other side of Chanyeol, eyes dead and fixated on the ground. With that, he glared at the fire manipulator.

“That's sick.” He rolled his eyes. “You know what he’s been going through,” he added quietly.

“Right. Sorry,” Chanyeol said in a light tone, not thinking much of it. “I guess at this point I don’t even know the difference between funny and out of line anymore,” he chuckled emptily. “It’s been such a long time since I cracked a joke. I’m so ed up I don’t even know the difference.”

“It’s fine. It doesn’t matter anymore,” Kyungsoo said, leaning his head back against the wall. “We’re all ed up, anyway.”

---

Hyerin sauntered out of the main lobby, hand lightly pressed against her reddening right eye as she made her way towards the ladies’ restroom.

The party already started, yet Jiyong was nowhere to be found. The event kicked off with special performances by human citizens that were most likely forced to perform before the thousands of people present in the party. In return, the civilians cheered and clapped after each performance as it was, again, expected of them to do so. All of Jiyong’s allies were nowhere to be found with the exception of TOP who was standing right beside the main stage, dressed in a tux as white as his hair and keeping a watchful eye over the crowd. Hyerin was sure he was on the lookout for EXO members within the vicinity. Unfortunately for him, only three of them were present and even then, they were heavily disguised.

Hyerin was going along with the party just fine until a random stranger accidentally hit her in the face, specifically her right eye. This caused her eye to water and not only did it ruin her make-up, it also repositioned her hazel-colored contacts all the way to the left of her eyeball. With that, she bolted out of the lobby and headed to the restroom.

She pushed the heavy door open and leaned forward against the sink. She inspected her reddening eye and her smudged eyeliner and, of course, her misaligned contacts. With a sigh, she gently took it off, crouched down on the sink, and then the faucet to clean her smudged eyeliner.

One of the bathroom stalls behind her suddenly opened, followed by the sound of heels clicking towards her direction. Hyerin’s body stiffened as this person stepped just beside where Hyerin was crouching. Hyerin lifted her head a little, only to see Suzy standing beside her and fixing her make-up.

Due to her surprise, she accidentally dropped her contacts. It fell to the tiled floor. 

At the same time, Suzy decided to talk. “Hey,” she greeted, applying a thick coat of lip-gloss over her lips.

“Hey,” Hyerin replied, looking like an idiot crouching stiffly over the sink.

“It’s been such a long night,” Suzy complained, completely unaware of who she was talking to. “Too many people in one place and it’s too noisy. How do people even enjoy this? Oh, right. They don’t,” she scoffed. “How about you? How is everything going so far?”

Please stop talking to me. “Great,” she replied plainly.

“Yeah, right. I bet you’re dying to go home already. I bet you’re scared of what might happen tonight,” Suzy muttered, fixing her hair. “Well, I’ll tell you one thing. You can’t do anything about it. Nothing can stop him from doing what he wants, no matter how much you think it’s ruthless.”

Hyerin didn’t even care about what Suzy was saying. She just wanted to pick up her contacts from the ground, put it back in her ing eye and leave.

Suzy must have noticed the girl’s discomfort as she was eyeing the girl suspiciously.

“You okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Hyerin quickly answered.

“Are you hurt somewhere?” Suzy questioned, her tone dubious.

“No.”

Suzy touched her arm. “Can I have a look?”

Hyerin gulped. By now, she was cornered. If she refused to face Suzy, she would be even more suspicious and would force her into doing so anyways, and if she did comply on her own will, her cover will be blown. Either way she would be found out.

Having left with no choice, Hyerin straightened her back and faced Suzy, one hand covering her right eye.

“What happened to your eye?” Now that she had a clear view of Suzy, she noticed that their outfits were almost identical. Boyfriend jacket, pencil skirt, heels. The only difference was that Suzy pulled it off better.

“Oh,” Hyerin shrugged, “something just got into my eye.”

This time, it was obvious Suzy wasn’t buying it. “Oh, really? Let me see.”

“Sure.”

Hyerin then took her hand off of her right eye, giving Suzy a clear view of her face and, of course, the obvious difference between her left and right eye. Suzy’s brows furrowed after immediately noticing the strange difference.

“Is it just me or-”

Hyerin didn’t wait for Suzy to finish and punched her square in the face, causing Suzy to stumble back.

“What the-” Suzy wiped her bleeding nose with the back of her hand before snapping her head up to glare at Hyerin. “What the did you just do!?”

Suzy ran towards Hyerin and punched her two times on the cheek, proceeding to knee her in the gut while the girl lurched forward. Hyerin quickly recovered, holding Suzy by the collar and pushing her against the sink.

Suzy’s lower back collided with the porcelain while Hyerin punched her again and again. At the same time, Suzy palmed Hyerin’s face as an attempt to pry the girl away from her. Her long nails sank into Hyerin’s skin to her surprise and confusion.

That’s when Suzy realized it wasn’t skin. She dug her nails further into whatever it was and felt plastic and something soft and rubbery. Seeing how elastic it was, she pulled on it so hard that it ripped easily off of the girl’s face.

Suzy threw the mysterious elastic away and looked up at her opponent who was currently taking the rest off. It was no other than Hyerin under disguise.

Suzy’s eyes turned into slits before pouncing on the girl. “You little !”

The two rolled on the bathroom floor, slapping and punching and pulling each other’s hair.

“What’re you trying to do, huh?” Suzy demanded, Hyerin’s hair.

“None of your business,” Hyerin growled, kicking Suzy off her as hard as she can. Suzy rolled to the side, giving Hyerin the freedom to get off of the floor.

Suzy shot back up, about to attack Hyerin once again. She hadn’t even touched Hyerin yet before the girl took her by the collar, yanked her towards the sink, and slammed her head against the mirror on the wall repeatedly.

After around the fifth, Suzy was already weakening under her hold, but Hyerin didn’t stop. Her eyes were watering as she continued to slam the girl’s head against the solid surface.

“This is for all the horrible things you’ve done,” Hyerin hissed through gritted teeth. “This is for what you did to the city, for Kyungsoo’s hand, for Tao’s powers, and for Sehun’s mom!”

Suzy’s hold on the surface of the sink loosened, and Hyerin was sure the girl was dead.

“Stupid ,” she muttered under her breath, releasing Suzy’s collar and letting her body fall to the floor. The mirror was now shattered and decorated with blood.

“,” Hyerin leaned into the sink and ran her hands along her jaw where the rip was.

“Hyerin,” someone called from her earpiece, though she didn’t recognize who it was. Her mind was too clouded with hatred. “Hyerin, are you there?”

“I got into a fight with Suzy,” she struggled to say through her heavy breathing.

“Oh .” Now she recognized it as Chen. “Take care of her before she tells anyone!”

“She’s dead.” She propped a hand on her hip, nudging the dead body on the floor with the heel of her pumps. “What do I do with her?” she asked, blowing hair out of her face.

“Oh ,” Chen hissed, seemingly taken aback. “Hide her somewhere and do it quick. It’s thirty minutes to midnight and you know what that means.”

“Right,” she sighed. “My cover’s blown though.”

“What!? How?”

“Her long nails ed it up!”

“C’mon, Hyerin. You could’ve done better than that,” Chen grumbled. “Find a way to get back out unrecognized. We can’t afford to waste time.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll talk to you later.”

Hyerin crouched down to grab Suzy’s feet, dragging her inside one of the stalls and sitting her up the toilet. Hyerin shook her head as she stared at the lifeless girl in front of her with the bloody head and the hooded, bloodshot eyes. Chen was right; this could have been so much cleaner.

Without hesitation, Hyerin yanked the decorative vintage hat off Suzy’s head and pinned it to her hair. She pulled down the netting over her eyes to appear discreet and pulled her skirt down to her knees and once she was all set, she locked the cubicle Suzy was in and crawled under the stall to get out.

Just when she was about to leave the bathroom, her eye caught the Out Of Order sign leaning against the wall. She scoffed, took it with her outside, and placed it in front of the bathroom’s entrance.

---

Baekhyun sighed as he stood behind the crowd encircled around the stage where Jiyong was standing, giving out a formal, falsely accommodating speech that was broadcasted through the humongous screens outside the venue for everyone to see. His voice was full of mischief and playfulness, and although Baekhyun was kind of tired of listening to his leader’s speech, he couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling he had in his chest.

Something was surely going to happen that night, and he was positive that it’s not going to be pretty. M-LX would never let this event pass by so peacefully, especially since Jiyong had Agent M captive.

Baekhyun cleared his throat and straightened his suit jacket before turning on his heels to exit the lobby. He was going to check on the security and see how things were progressing when something – or rather someone – caught his eye.

He couldn’t have possibly missed it. At the very corner of the room, standing against a marble pillar was Hyerin, dressed accordingly to the occasion and blending perfectly with the masses. She had a hat that covered half of her face, her actions and stature so discreet that no one would have guessed it was her. He did, though, and it was for a lot of reasons.

 One, because he knew what technique she was doing to hide herself since, obviously, they trained together back when he was still in M-LX. And two, because he just did. He didn’t know how, but he did.

He knew her well enough to recognize the little points and things that made her the way she was and he felt proud of that. Only now, it was unnecessary, these little things, because he’ll either use it to kill her or not even think about it at all. It was kind of stupid to him.

Then suddenly, Hyerin lifted her head up, her eyes landing perfectly on Baekhyun’s as if she knew he was there and that he was watching her, even though he was sure she didn’t. It took him aback, because when was the last time she looked at him like that? Her dark, dark eyes wide and vulnerable and without a speck of hostility in them. It felt so foreign and unfamiliar and sad and something inside him stirred because of it.

The exchange only took about a couple of seconds. Baekhyun’s heart almost jumped out of his chest when a bloodcurdling scream resounded in the lobby, making everyone turn their heads to the back and for Jiyong to abruptly stop his speech.

Scurrying footsteps followed and a petite middle-aged woman who looked like a staff came rushing out the lobby, shaking and sweating from fear.

“Dead body!” she screamed, her shaky fingers pointing to the hallway leading to the Ladies' Room. “There’s a dead woman in one of the stalls!”

With that, the lobby erupted into chorused, panic-driven whispers.

“Oh ,” Hyerin muttered under her breath, face paling. “I locked that stupid stall!”

“Hyerin!” Chen harshly whispered from her earpiece. “What did I tell you!? I swear to god if you-”

“, I’m so sorry.”

Chen sighed, pressing on his earpiece. “Agents, we’re facing some major difficulties as of the moment. We’re changing from a code 207 to code 245. I need a double time in here.”

“Now, now, ladies and gentlemen, no need to panic,” Jiyong said calmly. “There seems to be a little problem but there is no need to worry. Please just wait for a moment,” he added, turning around and gesturing for TOP to check out what was going on.

At that exact moment, the glass walls overlooking the city outside shattered all at the same time, revealing Lay, Suho and Xiumin with strong maneuvering wires attached to their belts that hauled them inside the hotel, showering everyone with broken glass.

By now, everyone was screaming and heading towards the exit. The Xinths standing on stage quickly escorted Jiyong out of the lobby and to the elevator located at the back of the venue.

Meanwhile, Suho was taking off the wires attached to his belt while the other two were already hands on with a couple of Xinths.

“This is Suho,” he mumbled into his earpiece. “We just got in and getting the party started. Info on the other units?”

Luhan’s eyes roamed around the built-in computer inside their van, fingers typing and pushing buttons and switching on and off the complicated contraptions laid before him. “Respond code 245. Our undercover agents are in the middle of evacuating the people. Unit B is on stand-by 10-23. Do you need back-up?”

“No, we got this.”

“Understood. I’ll go get back to the others.”

“Alright.”

Luhan flicked another switch before speaking once again. “Hyerin, this is Luhan. What’s your 10-20?”

“Underground parking lot. I evacuated a couple of citizens down here and lead them to the exit. I’m on my way back up to help the others,” Hyerin breathily said as she speed walked across the now empty parking lot.

“Okay, report back to me if there are any-”

“.”

Luhan furrowed his brows. “What’s up?”

“Uh, I have a 417K here,” Hyerin mumbled slowly.

“Person with a knife? Who?”

Hyerin proceeded to slowly walk sideways, her eyes not leaving Blue’s standing figure five hundred feet away from her, smiling at her like a maniac as he held two humongous and ridiculously sharp samurai swords in each hand. The more she moved away, the more he stepped closer.

“It’s the crazy son of a ,” Hyerin hissed. “I need backup STAT!” she shouted lastly before breaking into a run.

“,” Luhan cursed before breaking connection.

Hyerin ran as fast as she could across the parking lot, the manic laughter closely chasing after her from behind sending shivers down her spine. She ran and ran before finally reaching her motorcycle parked at the corner. She did not hesitate to jump on her vehicle to get away from Blue.

Hyerin headed towards the spiraling ramp leading back outside the city, kicking off her high heels in the process. Behind her, she could hear the roar of an engine, and it wasn’t hers.

“Run fast, little girl!” Blue cackled behind her, also riding a motorcycle and chasing after her again.

“!” she exclaimed as her motorcycle started on the ramp spiraling upwards.

She finally arrived outside, Blue following closely behind her. There were a couple of guests left running home outside, and she tried hard not to run over any of them. It was difficult because at the same time, Blue was trying to slice her into pieces with his dual swords.

The chase went on long enough for them to arrive at a fairly dead area, no people walking around or rushing to get back home. She felt a strong force hit the rear of her motorcycle, realizing that Blue was purposely bumping the front of his ride against hers.

Hyerin continuously lurched forward because of the impact of the repeated collisions. She furiously whipped her head around, surprised and horrified to see Blue about to pounce on her from his bike.

Hyerin did what automatically came to mind. She flicked a couple of switches on her motorcycle and was about to push the accelerate button for her motorcycle to go on its fastest speed, when a sudden pressure landed on the rear of her motorcycle. Blue jumped on her backside.

“!” she exclaimed, quickly retrieving a pistol from the holster around her thigh and shooting blindly behind her.

She heard a loud groan from behind and a strong tug on the left of her motorcycle. She almost lost her balance because of it and decided to look back to see what it was. It was Blue hanging on to the side of her motorcycle with one hand, one of his shoulders bleeding from the shot. His swords were long gone and it was Hyerin’s opportunity to get rid of him.

Hyerin did not hesitate to push the accelerate button, making her motorcycle travel in the speed of 221 miles per hour, almost as fast as Chanyeol’s Lamborghini. With that, Blue’s grip started to slightly slip.

She could hear him screaming faintly from behind, felt him shaking her motorcycle too, yet she struggled to keep her balance. Just a little more, she thought. Just a little more and he’ll let go.

Yet he didn’t. Instead of loosening his grip, he managed to retrieve a knife from his pocket, managing to stab Hyerin on her right thigh.

“Ah, !” she shrieked, almost swerving the motorcycle too much to the right because of the sudden pain. She looked down briefly at her thigh, watching as the cloth soaked up the blood forming around the knife that was stuck there pathetically.

Hyerin gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep her composure. It was hard because she was mad. Extremely mad not only for what he just did, but for everything he did to destroy Seoul. Him and Jiyong ruined everything, and all she wanted to do was kill him.

Her speed was still 221 miles per hour, and they were almost reaching a dead end. Blue was still clutching the side of her motorcycle, but she knew what to do.

She continued head-on towards the dead end, the wall coming closer and closer and if she doesn’t turn her vehicle in a couple of moments, they both will die from the collision.

Hyerin continued as if there wasn’t a concrete wall just several thousand of feet away from them, further confusing Blue and slightly making him nervous. But at the very last minute, around five hundred feet away from the wall, Hyerin made a turn so incredibly sharp and abrupt that it threw Blue off of the bike, sending him flying to the other end of the street. He flailed his arms and legs everywhere before his body got thrown on top of a black Honda parallel parked on the street. His body went through the glass and inside the Honda, destroying the car and hopefully himself as well.

Hyerin slowed down her motorcycle and turned back around to where Blue was. She peeked inside the car and saw him unmoving, bloody, and sprawled awkwardly on the ruined seats.

With that, she looked back down on the knife stupidly pierced through her thigh. She clucked her tongue, shook her head, and started her engine again to go back to the headquarters.

---

“Can we get the medics out here, please!?” Kyungsoo screamed at the top of his lungs once he caught sight of Hyerin struggling to get off her motorcycle, all bloodied and a knife stuck on her thigh. “We’re in an emergency situation here!”

The M-LX medics came rushing out of the second quarters to assist Hyerin, but before they could even reach the girl Kyungsoo was already in the process of lifting her off the motorcycle.

“Jesus, Hyerin! What the happened to you!?” Kyungsoo demanded, carrying her inside with the medics following closely behind.

“Be gentle, dammit!” Hyerin screeched when Kyungsoo’s hand accidentally gripped her injured leg too tight.

“Didn’t I tell you to be ing careful!? Why are you so ing stubborn!?”

“You dumb ! That’s probably the stupidest thing anyone has ever said to me on a mission! Even if I was careful there’s no way to avoid getting hurt! You think I wasn’t being careful when Blue found me in that parking lot? I was, you dumb, but I got ing stabbed anyway!”

“It was Blue who did this!?” Kyungsoo growled. “That ing bastard, that’s why I told you to be careful!”

“Did you even listen to a single goddamn word I said!?” Hyerin exclaimed, shoving the boy’s face out of anger.

“Ow! What the hell!?”

“This is not the time to fight, you guys. Stop adding to the stress, please,” Kris grumbled, face also battered up. He took the angry girl away from the equally angry boy and carried her to a gurney. At the same time, the other agents arrived at the quarters, also bruised and bloody though not heavily injured.

“So how was it?” Kris asked the others while they all followed the medics who were rolling Hyerin to the emergency room.

“Mission failed,” Lay said, his breathing labored. “There were too many Xinths inside the venue and we all ended up searching the whole hotel for Agent M. He was nowhere to be found,” Lay explained. “What happened to Hyerin?”

“Got stabbed by Blue,” Kris quickly replied as they turned a corner.

“What?” Lay’s eyes widened. “So is he dead?”

“I don’t know. I think so,” Hyerin entered, looking back from the rolling bed she was on.

They finally arrived at the emergency room and the medical team was extremely busy with treating the special M-LX agents.

“So no news about my dad?” Hyerin asked, a little disappointed that he wasn’t saved. It was understandable, though, because it was no easy task.

“We searched the whole vicinity. He was nowhere to be found,” Xiumin said while a nurse dabbed a cotton soaked in antiseptic on his forehead. "Sorry, Rin."

“Yeah,” Chen agreed. “The place was swarmed with Xinths and Immitis gang members. I saw TOP at one point, but the strange thing was that he just let the henchmen do all the work. He didn’t even try to help. It seemed like he was looking for something.”

“Or someone,” Kyungsoo suggested.

“Yeah.” Chen shrugged. “He just completely ignored us the whole time. I didn’t see Jiyong around either.”

“Then what or who do you think were they looking for?” Luhan asked, raising a brow.

“They were looking for me.”

Everyone’s attention turned towards the ER’s entrance, completely surprised and mind-blown to see Agent M walk inside the room, dressed in the same clothing he had on when the outbreak happened.

Hyerin’s eyes widened as she got off the bed and staggered towards her father, seemingly forgetting about the pain in her thigh. “Dad!” she exclaimed, eyes b with tears from being extremely overwhelmed. Myungjae took his daughter into his arms and hugged her tightly.

“S-Sir,” Suho stammered as he made his way towards the man. “How did you…?”

Myungjae placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “It wasn’t easy getting out of that building. It started when you guys disrupted the party; it was easy to sneak out. The hard process was to find a way to not get caught, though it became much easier once someone came to my aid and helped me escape."

“Oh, thank god,” Hyerin sighed. “Who was it?”

Myungjae gave them a small smile. “See for yourself,” he said, going back out the emergency room.

“What did he mean by that?” Kris asked, but before anyone had the chance to answer his question, Myungjae came back shortly with another guy, but it wasn’t just any guy.

There, hiding behind the shadow of Agent M was Baekhyun, nervously staring down at his feet and hands defensively crossed against his chest.

---

A/N:

Fran made a fanart of Kyungsoo's bloody hand!

And here's our KCON experience!