Luhan ran a hand through his golden locks and studied his appearance in the mirror; he was wearing his blue and red school uniform with his black shiny loafers. He fixed his collar, smoothing out the freshly ironed polo and nodded in satisfaction.

“Luhan! Breakfast!” his mother yelled from downstairs, startling him.

“I’ll be there in a minute!” he replied, hoping that her mother would hear. Quickly, he grabbed his bag from the bed and went out the door.

He climbed down the stairs, heading straight towards the table to fetch himself toast.

“You’re always rushing to school,” his mother said, looking at him disapprovingly. “You never join me for breakfast anymore.”

“Sorry, mom. I’m just really busy with school stuff lately so I do some work at school early to lessen it a bit,” he lied. The truth was that he went to school early because it was the only time the dance studio was unoccupied. That way, no one could catch him practicing.

“You aren’t even working yet, but you’re tiring yourself already like this,” she said. “On another note, how’s your friend? The one you have art class with?”

“Oh, you mean Baekhyun? He’s okay, I guess.” He finished the last of his toast. “I need to go mom. Later!” He kissed her forehead before rushing towards the door.

“Oh, crap! My keys.” He patted his pockets, but there was nothing. Groaning, he walked back inside and went upstairs into his room.

He searched everywhere, from his desk, drawers, and closet, but his keys were nowhere to be found.

“Laundry,” he mumbled to himself. He rummaged through the laundry basket until he found the blazer he wore yesterday.

He felt up the jacket pocket and to his gratification, the object he had been looking for was there. He fished the keys out and threw his used clothes back in the basket.

“What is this?” Tucking the keys inside his bag, he unfolded a small piece of paper that was also in the pocket. He didn’t remember taking down notes of any sort. Reading it, Luhan’s brows furrowed; it was an address for something.

He tried recalling the events from yesterday, thinking hard if he was supposed to do anything today. Luhan was never one to forget important dates or meet-ups.

“Oh, man.” Out of the blue, the image of a certain black-haired girl popped into his mind. He rested his forehead on the palm of his hand. How did she...?

He looked back down at the paper, reading it over and over again. Luhan was positive that the person who put this in his coat was Hyerin. It confused him though, how persistent she was on making him join that contest.

He sighed, sitting down on the ground. He looked out his window thoughtfully, crumpling the paper in his hand.

- - - - -

Exhausted was definitely an understatement to describe how Hyerin felt right at that moment.

Not only physically, but also mentally and even emotionally. Before she knew it, it was already Friday, and she was so tired of chasing after boys she didn’t know, lying to them, and getting into unnecessary arguments with them. Because of this, she felt stressed and more irritated in and out of school. The guilt didn’t help either.

It may not be obvious on the outside but truthfully she was a mess.

Hyerin sighed. She noticed that she had been doing that quite often than normal ever since she started this mission. “Let’s get this damned thing over with,” she muttered under her breath, opening the two-door entrance to a large room.

The mirrored walls gave away her supposed to be surprise entrance. Even with just opening it a little bit, it was clearly noticeable from every corner of the room. Shaking her head, she stepped inside completely. She was probably found out, anyway.

In the center of the room, Yixing moved effortlessly to the beat. She wasn’t sure if he didn’t notice her or if he just chose to ignore her.

Hyerin stood there for a while, maybe for as long as ten minutes. It took about three songs for him to finally stop dancing, but even then, he wasn’t sparing her a glance. Irritated, she scratched the back of her head and called out to him.

“Lay.”

He took a water bottle from the wooden floor, gulping down its contents.

She huffed, folding her arms and leaning against the wall. “Lay.”

He walked over to the stereo and detached his iPod from the auxiliary chord connected to the stereo.

Hyerin glared at his back. “Zhang Yixing.”

With that, he turned around, giving her an unsurprisingly empty look. “What do you want, Hyerin?”

She rolled her eyes. She wasn't expecting Lay to welcome her with pure joy or with a warm hug, but she definitely thought he would give her more than a cold remark. They were childhood friends after all. And really, that was it—their friendship was left behind in their elementary days. They drifted apart a year before their first year in middle school, mainly because she was more invested in her training and he started to take a liking to dancing. It was a natural separation, though that didn’t mean it ended on a good note. There was a reason they weren’t speaking to each other anymore.

Even though they were practically strangers now, she couldn’t help but be surprised the moment she saw his profile in the manila envelope. The first time she went through all the boys, she never recognized him—he was all sharp features and cut lines now.

Hyerin scoffed. “Nice to see you, too, Lay. Very warm.”

The boy turned back to fixing his things. “Right. We were somehow associated with each other at one point,” he said. “I wonder how that happened.”

She frowned. “Since when did you turn into an ?”

“Since the beginning.” He zipped his bag before slowly heading towards where she was standing. “Now what is it? I need to go.”

“God, if you don’t want to talk to me that much at least try to conceal it with that pretty boy smile of yours or something. What the hell?” She glared. “Look, I’ll just make this quick.”

He raised a brow, standing in a sluggish way that made Hyerin want to kick him in the shin.

“I’m in a desperate need of a job. I heard your family restaurant’s not that far from here. I figured I could apply.”

Lay merely gave her a look of disinterest. “We're not hiring,” he simply said before walking past her and towards the door. There it was again – people pushing her away.

“Lay!” she called. “I don’t know why you hate me so much, but this doesn’t have anything to do with you, okay? If you don’t want me to talk to you when I get that job, then fine. Just please help a frie–a former acquaintance out,” she pleaded, standing in front of him to block his way.

Lay stared at her for a good ten seconds, eyes roaming around her face.

“So what do you think?”

“What happened to that?” he asked in a monotone voice.

She looked at him quizzically. “To what?”

“To that,” he said, poking her hard on the cheek.

She winced in pain and swatted his hand away. He was referring to her big nasty bruise. The gesture gave her an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia, back to when they were kids when they would roughhouse. “Nothing. It wasn’t necessary to poke it, you know,” she scoffed. “Are you going to help me out or not? I really need this badly.”

Lay let out a deep breath, annoyed. He continued to walk out the door and Hyerin followed closely behind him. “So are you?” she pressed.

Without a word, he took something from his pocket and handed it to her. It was a calling card for their restaurant. Hyerin was relieved he agreed, but she didn’t really want a business card. She wanted him to go with her to the designated destination she and Agent Zero planned beforehand.

“Thank you. So much. Really, this is great, but I was actually thinking of meeting up–wait a second.” She read the restaurant’s name again just in case she was wrong. “Your family owns the Bistro Café!?”

“Apparently.”

Hyerin scoffed in disbelief. That was exactly where she told the other boys to meet up later that night. What a coincidence.

“Great! I’ll meet you there then!” she said, grinning. “I’m pretty sure you’ll be there later tonight, right? What time is your shift?”

“Eight ‘till whenever. I'm closing.”

“Perfect.” Definitely more than perfect. “I appreciate it, Lay. Later!”

- - - - -

“Please do me a favor and get out? Please?”

“What the hell is your problem? I was just asking you a simple question!”

“’Cause it’s none of your damn business, okay? I’m not giving you tickets to any of my gigs!”

“Fine, I understand that, but is it really necessary to snap at me!?”

“You were being annoying! And you weren’t supposed to know that! Hell, even those stalkers don’t know that about me!”

“Wow. Is it national week or something? Everyone is acting rude as hell!”

Hyerin should have learned her lesson with that episode with Luhan. She thought it would be different this time, that this Baekhyun guy would be the opposite of the golden-haired artist. But no, life was being a to her. Turns out he was just another one from the jerk collection.

She was angry and tired. Hyerin had to ask around campus where Byun Baekhyun hung out during lunch, because she couldn’t really find him in the cafeteria. Luckily, some of his fans were nice enough to tell her that he was usually at the highest structure in campus—the clock tower.

She went there expecting a cooperative Baekhyun, but of course, it was too good to be true. Apparently, he was in the middle of making sketches, and apparently, he was in an awfully foul mood.

“Look, I think it’s best that you just get out. As you can see, I’m trying to work on a project that’s due, I don’t know, tomorrow?” the brunette sarcastically remarked, picking up his things that were cluttered on the ground.

“I am not goi—” she sighed, “okay, I’ll leave you alone-”

“Yes!”

 “But only if you would just hear me out-”

“No!” he cried out, clutching his hair. “Let me be, will you!? I said no and that’s final!”

“What is wro-”

“No.”

“It really is a great day to be a isn't it?” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m using every ounce of my patience to not punch you in the face. I will come back for you, you jerk. You’ll be sorry,” Hyerin said, before sauntering away and climbing down the spiral staircase.

Baekhyun threw his hands in the air. “Finally! No more irritating people in the way!” Baekhyun exclaimed, sitting cross-legged on the ground. He adjusted his glasses and took a pencil, sketching rapidly on a blank sheet of paper.

He was getting engrossed in what he was doing when suddenly he heard footsteps.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and sighed. “Look, little girl. I’m not afraid to use–Tao?”

“Little girl?” The younger boy raised a brow. “Girls are cool and all, but if we’re talking feminine features here then you should take a good look at yourself.”

“Tsk.” He rubbed his eye beneath his glasses before continuing where he left off. “There was just some sophomore who kept bugging me, that’s all. What’s up?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to get away from the noise down there,” Tao said, sitting down next to him on the ground. “How have you been doing?”

“Not so good. I’ve been lacking sleep.”

“Don’t you always lack sleep? You know, since your band plays after midnight,” Tao chuckled. “Shouldn’t you be getting used to that?”

“I have. But it’s giving me low blood pressure,” Baekhyun said, rummaging for a new pencil in his bag. “Explains my usual crankiness, I guess.”

“Another one of said feminine features; you seem to have acquired the ability to PMS without actually experiencing blood coming out of your s,” Tao teased, ripping off a piece of paper from a notebook scattered on the floor. He started folding it into parts. “So what are you up to tonight?”

“I don’t know. There’s no gig tonight, which is kind of weird since it’s Friday. What about you?”

Tao shrugged, finishing up his paper airplane. “Going to meet up with a schoolmate who can hook me up for a job as a wushu instructor for a couple of days,” he tossed the plane in the air, “then maybe check the place out to see if it’s good enough, I guess.”

“Ooh!” Baekhyun exclaimed, looking up at him. “I want to go! I don’t want to be stuck at home. I’m going to be bored out of my mind.”

Tao thought about it. He didn’t think Hyerin would mind. She was pretty chill, and Baekhyun had been with him to these kind of things.

“Sure, why not?” He shrugged. “You’d be better off with me, anyway.”

“Cool. At least it’s still something to do,” Baekhyun said, standing up. “Now, come on. Lunch is going to end any minute now.”

- - - - -

Hyerin tucked a pistol inside her waistband and a knife inside her jacket pocket.

“That’s it. If they won’t come with me I’ll make them,” she hissed under her breath, slinging her black backpack on her shoulders.

She only had one target left, but there were a bunch of them that she, unfortunately, has to forcefully bring with her. Which means that yes, she was going to kidnap them. It was a crime, definitely, and if her dad found out if ever she got arrested, she was screwed. But Hyerin’s had enough, and even if it was just her fatigue clouding her judgement, it didn’t matter anymore. 

Right after her argument with Baekhyun, she left school and easily escaped security to go home. As expected, her father wasn’t home because of work, so it was easier to get her weapons and other needed gadgets to complete her mission.

“Let’s do this,” she whispered to herself, staring up at the fitness center where Do Kyungsoo, star fighter of the boxing team, usually headed after school on a Friday.

Hyerin entered the premises and right away she was met with intimidating, muscular men and humongous gym equipment that even she couldn’t possibly handle.

She walked in further, searching for Kyungsoo. I’m not going to go easy on him. Seeing the situation right now, force was the best thing she could think of using. 

It was not that difficult to find him, since there was a separate room for people who wanted to use the punching bags and the boxing ring. When she walked in, it was perfect, because Kyungsoo was the only person inside.

The room was dimly lit and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of fist colliding with soft cushion and the boy’s rapid breathing. He was facing her direction but the punching bag was obstructing his view.

She frowned at his uncharacteristically pale skin and built. He wasn’t exactly skinny; he had quite the biceps, but he’s definitely lacking for a boxer.

Not wasting any more time, she approached closer until there was only the punching bag in between them.

Hyerin put on her best frightened face. “Excuse me?”

Kyungsoo abruptly stopped swinging and looked around the bag. “What?”

“I need you to come with me,” she answered instead.

He gave her a strange look. “O-kay. And why would I want to do that?”

“There’s a guy, outside of this gym. He’s been stalking me since I got out of school.” That managed to get his attention. “Even when I was in my part-time job, he was still there. The staff said it wasn’t their business, and the other people didn’t want to help me, too.”

Kyungsoo was confused at first, but then looked at her with consideration. Just from that, Hyerin couldn't believe it, but she suddenly had the urge to take back her words and just go home and abandon the mission. It was the guilt again. It made her sick to the stomach.

“Okay.” He nodded, taking his stuff and walking out of the room. He ushered her to follow him. “It’s going to be fine. Stay calm and pretend as if there’s nothing wrong.” They passed the gym-goers and headed outside into the dark. “Now which way is to your home?”

She pointed towards a dark alleyway. “It’s the shortest route.”

He nodded. “Stay close.”

Hyerin felt pathetic. How could she have been so determined to bring these boys to M-LX a few hours ago, when now she was having second thoughts?

“Just act normal. Don’t look around too much or anything, and then tell me if you see the man,” he said as they walked into the alley.

“Okay,” she whispered, feeling like .

“Don’t worry. I got you,” he reassured.

Great. Not only do I look like the bad guy here, I even feel like one. Hyerin bit her lip, the gun hidden in her waistband. She wasn’t going to use it of course, but it didn’t lessen her contrition. She took in a deep breath as they rounded a corner.

She stared at the back of his head with a sad gaze. Foolish boy.

“Don’t move,” she ordered, voice hard as steel. She took out the pistol and shoved the mouth in between his shoulder blades.

Kyungsoo froze, eyes widening. His hands automatically shot up. “Wha-what is this?” he questioned, having mixed emotions. “Who the are you!?”

“I assure you I won’t hurt you if you willingly take my orders.”

The boy shouted profanities, evidently in panic. “And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t? Well, I guess we’ll forever be in bad terms, Do Kyungsoo,” she said, pressing the mouth of the pistol to the back of his head. “Now walk.”

“,” he exclaimed, obliging to her command. “Where are you taking me? How do I know you’re really not going to shoot me!?”

“...”

“Answer me!”

“Kris’ house.”

“Kris? You mean, Kris hyung!?” he asked, practically shouting. “What the hell is this about? What are you going to do there?”

“I’m taking him, too.”

“What the ?” he exclaimed in disbelief, and she swore she thought he was about to cry. “Oh God, I should’ve stayed home. I should’ve helped my grandmother with dinner, I should have-”

“Will you shut up!? You’re not making this any easier, okay!?” she snapped. It was a good thing no one took this street. “I am so damn tired of you whiny stupid boys being so whiny and stupid! Now, stop talking so I can get this over with!”

“How can I shut up when I’m about to get killed!? With one of my best friends no less!” He looked like he was about to faint. “Look, whoever you are, please have mercy. I have a family and a dog, waiting for me to come home. I can’t afford to die this young!” he begged.

“Don’t bother,” she said. “You’re not going to change my mind. Turn left.”

He sighed, defeated. He looked up at the far end of the street and scoffed. “Oh, look. Your back-up is here.”

“Back-up?” Hyerin looked around and saw two black cars heading towards them. “Huh. That's weird. I didn’t ask for back-up.”

“Great. Now I’m really positive I’m going to die. I should have not trusted you. I should have known once you told me we were going to this street! No one ever passes this street-”

“Shut up,” she mumbled distractedly. She was having a bad feeling about this. She was sure they were from M-LX, but were they really there to help her?

Once the vehicle stopped beside them, suited agents stepped out. “Thank you for your service, Ms. Kim,” one of them said, but the look he was giving her was not that of sincerity.

“Yeah. I was wondering, though. I don’t remember asking for back-up?”

The men looked at one another. She raised a brow, waiting for an answer.

Finally, another one of them looked at her. “Your mission is accomplished, Ms. Kim. You are now free to go and we’ll take it from here.”

“Wait a second. Nobody mentioned anything about this. And what do you mean I’ve accomplished my mission? I thought I was supposed to finish what my mother started!”

“This is what your mother started. And now it’s done. Now if you will surrender Mr. Do to us.”

“No,” she firmly said, defensively pushing the boy back. “I refuse to believe that this is all she ever wanted me to do. I know there’s something more that I’m obliged to accomplish and I’m going to take it on.”

“I’m afraid you cannot do that, Ms. Kim. We cannot put anyone not involved in danger.”

“But I am involved, you prick!” she exclaimed. “Now get out of my way or I’ll call Zero,” she threatened.

“We cannot do that.”

“Then you won’t get this boy.”

“We already have, Ms. Kim.”

Her eyes widened. “What?” she whispered, turning around only to see the boy nowhere to be found.

 She whipped her head to the front, and there, being forcefully ushered inside one of the black vehicles, was Kyungsoo.