Do Kyungsoo was standing up by the mirror, combing his short military haircut, looking at his own reflection. His friends didn't tell a lie that he looked good in military uniforms, judging by how manly he was now in those clothes. Pride fulfilled his heart when his fingers found their way to the left chest. It's nothing there, but soon a star badge would be pinned on that place; a sign that he was a Military Intelligence officially. Finally, after six years studying in military academy, he had graduated with outstanding score. With a smile stretching from ear to ear, Kyungsoo left his dorm. 

He arrived when the ceremony was about to start. Most of the cadets had already gathered at the hall, even almost of the chairs were already occupied. Luckily, he still got an empty chair for himself. One by one, his friend was called to the stage to receive their diploma. From his chair, he just rubbed his sweaty palms impatiently at the sight. But, until the ceremony was over, nobody called out his name.

His initially bright face turned gloom. He dumbfounded in the middle of graduate students' crowd, leaving him and his mixed up mind alone. Kyungsoo was pretty sure that he had seen his name on the graduation board; that's why he was there. And he didn't know the reason behind this.        

The crowded hall was now deserted. But Kyungsoo was still sitting down there; only him and empty chairs on his surroundings. He had all of his friends already left the place; half of them had gone back home, another half might've gone to the dorm. But for Kyungsoo, there was no place he could go. He didn’t have a face to meet his parents without bringing any diploma. He also didn’t have enough guts to meet his friends back on the dorm. And now what he did was burying his face on his palms; searching for any possibilities behind his nightmare was. He had done everything good even perfect. He never had been involved in troubles. He always obeyed his seniors and high rank officers, even if he hated it. He couldn’t find any reason to fail.

Kyungsoo quickly tilted his chin up when loud voice echoed on the hall, calling for Do Kyungsoo to go to the principal’s room immediately. Without wasting time, he made his way to the principal’s room with many minds went through his head. 

Kyungsoo stopped his step at the door. Through the opening door's gap, he could see the principal face; a hint of stress mixing up with regret could be seen on the elder’s face, simply telling him that something bad had happened.

“Cadet Do Kyungsoo is here. Are you calling me, Sir?” Kyungsoo asked at the door calmly. Poker-faced; maybe that was what he was good at.

“Yes, please come in. I suppose you know why you are called.”

Kyungsoo walked in and took a seat in front of the principal. “I hope it’s about my diploma.”

“Almost true, but I have another reason for calling you.” The old man opened up his desk shelf, taking out a map and giving it to Kyungsoo. "Here. Try to look."

Kyungsoo's gaze directly landed on the map, and the first thing he noticed was the red label printed on its map. Highly confidential. He reached out the brown paper map and opened it. There was a bundle of papers inside; thick enough and heavy. As he flipped over the cover, his eyes quickly scanned the long text on its first page; a long boring text of procedures and agreements. He skipped it.

Kyungsoo flipped over the pages so quickly; it's no way he would read all of those pages. But suddenly his fingers stopped moving on one pages after his eyes caught words that directly attracted his attention: His name. His own name. Kyungsoo found his name being mentioned there, saying that he had to protect someone along with other men coming from different section. He still didn't get the whole thing. But, he noticed that it might be related to protect someone's life.

''Open the last page, Kyungsoo.” His principal, who seemingly noticed his silent question, ordered him impatiently.

Kyungsoo read the last page carefully; head half bending, eyes shifting from side to side. The whole text was a personal data and track record of a man; a criminal to be exact, a criminal who was related to a lot of drugs trafficking cases. Opium and heroin. Judging by the amount of money mentioned in each case, surely this criminal was involved in massive scale trading. Unfortunately the police never once had caught him, albeit his presence mostly detected in Bangkok, Thailand, and Vietnam.

“Is he a Golden triangle’s drugs dealer?” Kyungsoo looked up, concluding the whole fact he had read.

"Exactly!" The older snapped his fingers, smiling in satisfy; Kyungsoo never disappointed his expectation.

Kyungsoo had his eyes on the files again, pretending to be looked calm; actually his brain was thinking hard inside. Dealing with a criminal obviously was not a military’s duty. That kind of case belonged to police department. He knew the principal was putting up something that he still couldn’t get it yet. 

Kyungsoo was nearly spilling out his mind, until a picture on the right corner of the page somewhat drew his attention. It's a bit dark, but he still recognized the whole image generally. It's a picture of an old man in suit dress, standing in the middle of a party crowd, talking to someone who looked way younger than him. Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes, trailing his index finger onto the picture.

“I’ve seen this man before.” He commented silently, eyes still on the picture.

“Mr. Kim? I’m not surprise if you have seen him. He is one of the Interpol's fugitive top lists. You have no idea how famous he is in the police department right now.” The older laughed at his joke. Kyungsoo just laughed dryly along with him; half for the not-funny joke and another half for his verified assumption of being deal with a drugs dealer. But their laughter faded away into silence when Kyungsoo loudly closed the criminal’s file, pressing it beneath his palms.

“I saw my name is mentioned in this file. Does my diploma have something to do with this man, Sir?” Kyungsoo asked straight forwardly with eyes as cold as ice. The older was taken aback at his sudden question, and it took a while for him to answer.

“Yes.” The principal replid before another long pause again. “The criminal you've seen in this file is the one you have to protect.”

Kyungsoo froze for a brief moment at his principal’s reply; even he had stopped breathing for a couple seconds. He looked down, closing his eyes as his brain tried to proceed on what he had just heard. About protecting criminal. About his diploma detention. Everything was clear and made sense to him.

“I understand now.” Kyungsoo said flatly as he leaned his back to the chair. He clasped his hands and put them on his lap. “I know why I didn’t get my diploma this morning. You did this for threatening me?" His voice tone rose. 

“I’m so sorry. We need a guarantee to make you join in the mission.”

Kyungsoo let out another sigh and looked away in disappointment after the older finally told him the truth.

“But, it is fairly unusual since I’m just a fresh graduate from senior military academy. I’m sure we have some regulations about it.” Kyungsoo tried his best to hide his resentment, but his voice betrayed him. Every word coming out of his mouth was more sounded like a protest.  “A mission should be given to an experienced army and it should—"

THUD!

Kyungsoo silenced as the old man before him slammed the table; face cringed a bit at his statement. It would be considered as impudence once an army protested against higher-rank officer.

"At least could you explain this to me, Sir?" Kyungsoo said it with anger. He didn’t give a damn even if the academy gave him a punishment. He was so angry; six years of pretending to be a well-mannered student was useless. As he had his diploma detained, he had no more reason to be a good Kyungsoo. The principal ignored him completely and stood up instead of replying.

“Stop complaining and come with me, Kyungsoo. Someone will explain it more to you in the meeting room."

***

Kyungsoo was taken to a small and stuffy meeting room. It had no window; only a meeting table placed in the center with several chairs encircled it. He saw a tall boy with curly hair sitting down on the chair, staring at the ceiling with a blank stare. He was looked so bored from waiting alone obviously. Kyungsoo barely recognized the other boy’s face from the low light, but his appearance was somewhat looked familiar. Curious, Kyungsoo trailed his eyes down to the other’s boy military uniform, observing his emblem.

There was a symbol of two crossing rifles embroidered on his arm sleeve that Kyungsoo knew it very well.

Infantry.

“Kyungsoo, I would like to introduce you to Park Chanyeol from Infantry.” The principal said as he walked toward the tall boy, pointing at him in polite manner. Hearing his name being mentioned, the said boy quickly stood up from his chair. He looked so surprise as if he didn't notice the principal and Kyungsoo had been there.

“And Chanyeol, it’s Do Kyungsoo from Military Intelligence.” Both of them nodded politely and shook their hands after it.

Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow at Chanyeol, studying his figure from head to toe. Chanyeol undoubtedly had a perfect body of Infantry; tall, sturdy, and firm, but he was looked weird at the same time. As an army Chanyeol was too much smiling and looked less-commanding. It didn't mean Kyungsoo would be easily underestimating him. He would proudly admit that he was a good sniper back on Military Intelligence; and if the principal intended to pair him up with someone, his partner might be at the same level with him as well. Kyungsoo was weak in hand-to-hand fighting, and it simply meant Chanyeol was a prodigy melee fighter.

“Chanyeol is one of our best cadets in Infantry. He has been an assistant instructor for hand-bare fighting since his first year and his land-navigating skill is also very good. I’m sure he will help you a lot.” The principal patted Chanyeol at his shoulder while praising him. The tall boy just beamed widely to Kyungsoo and rubbed the back of his neck. “And Do Kyungsoo—” The principal mentioned to Chanyeol, “—he is our junior expert in war strategy and weaponry from Military Intelligence” Kyungsoo nodded, feeling proud to all of his achievements. 

Kyungsoo was quite competitive and had a high pride; and it’s making him easily irritated when meeting someone better than him. He promptly threw a not-so-friendly gaze to Chanyeol, trying to intimidate him. But to his surprise, the tall boy in front of him stared Kyungsoo back fearlessly instead of looked away. Chanyeol could be looked clumsy and weird outside, but Kyungsoo knew had strength of character hidden in his eyes. They kept sharing their disliking to each other overtly, without saying anything. The principal understood it very well that both of Kyungsoo and Chanyeol had a very different personality due to their specialization at the academy. Kyungsoo was a future sniper; he was used to work alone and easily irritated with disturber, while Chanyeol was a future combat-engineer; he used to work in a team fairly well.

“Is there anyone we're waiting for, Sir?” Kyungsoo asked in interrogative manner. The three of them had been sitting down there for 10 minutes without doing anything.

“Yes. I’m waiting for one more person; someone from police department.” He replied as he rolled up his sleeve, looking at his watch.

“A police, Sir?” Kyungsoo asked again.

“You hear me clearly, cadet Do Kyungsoo." He sourly replied. Chanyeol awkwardly cleared his throat; it would be lying if he didn't feel intimidated at the moment, even though those words were delivered to Kyungsoo. The principal wasn't a cynical man before, but he knew to answer one question only led him to get more new questions. So Chanyeol preferred to be quite all the time, making the three of them engulfed in empty silent.

"Okay, since we're still waiting for my special guest, I would like to inform you the essential part of this meeting." The principal's loud voice broke the silent; he looked so stern as usual, but Chanyeol didn't miss how the old man inhaled a deep breath before; it's keeping him away from stuttering while talking. Chanyeol promptly shared a meaningful gaze to Kyungsoo as he could feel the tense from the principal's statement. With all of these weird things, there's no way they would heard good news. And to see Kyungsoo put his stoic face the whole time enough to make Chanyeol worried. It's like standing in the middle of a peaceful landmine and Chanyeol was there waiting for the trigger; a wrong step to explode the bomb beneath the ground.

"Kyungsoo. Chanyeol" the principal started, "—start from now, your duty in military is over; you are not working under the military command anymore, but from police department.”

And that's the trigger; the wrong step.

Kyungsoo, who had looked silent the whole time, violently pounded both of his palms on the table as he stood up from his chair.

“I object this. A military never receive an order from police department! ” Kyungsoo protested straight-forwardly; his hands were about to reach the principal's collar, making Chanyeol spontaneously stood up to restrain Kyungsoo from any stupid thing he wanted to do at the moment. 

"Kyungsoo, calm down." Chanyeol pulled Kyungsoo’s body as hard as he could, making them facing each other face. And Chanyeol didn't have enough time to register what happen next, except feeling a hard knuckle on his own jaw along with loud thud. It felt sting but not enough to make him fell off the ground. With stumbling steps, Chanyeol rubbed his jaw. Kyungsoo directly grabbed the tall boy by his collar, not giving time to Chanyeol to react.

“Cadet Do Kyungsoo! Stop it right now! Oh, God!” The principal yelled out at the soldiers, obviously his patience was getting thin. But the old man command sounded like an empty warning to Kyungsoo; he was still grabbing Chanyeol's collar, nearly choking his neck. He didn’t know what had gotten into Kyungsoo’s mind until he recklessly aimed his fist onto him. Fortunately he wasn't a type who easily provoked otherwise they could’ve involved in a fight fist over nothing.

"—Kyungsoo. Please. Calm down." Chanyeol said once again with a softer calming voice, and he felt Kyungsoo slowly lessened his grabbing, before completely off from his neck.

“Did I miss something here?” Asked a man in thick manly voice along with a couple knocks, inviting all attention to look at the door. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol brought their eyes to voice source; to see a tall man; a very tall man standing by the door, and judging from his shock wide-eyes, it’s not difficult to say he had been watching at least half of their previous emotional action.

“Kris.” With a long face the principal greeted the man named Kris. There’s no slightest intention to say ‘hello’ or ‘how are you’. All he said was “I’m sorry for this.”

“It’s okay. Nice to see you again Lieteunant Sakai.” That man walked into the room. The way Kris moved was so elegant and classy. Every step he made was nothing but confidence. He stretched his arm out to greet the principal's hand and pulling him for a quick friendly hug. Both of them had a brief conversation that Kyungsoo and Chanyeol barely heard. But, in the end of conversation, Kyungsoo just saw the man mouthed ‘thank you’ with all of his heart while the old man patted his shoulder; that’s simply made his curiousness grew even bigger.

“Kyungsoo, Chanyeol. He is the police officer I’ve told you before; Kris Wu from Drugs Division.” the principal mentioned him to the both of soldiers, “He is you team leader from now.”

The two young soldier only cocked their eyebrows in disbelieve. A man before their eyes was just wearing casual white shirt and a pair of worn out jeans; no uniforms. Even he had his ear pierced and got his hair stained in brown-gold. Needless to say, his appearance was far from their expectation about a police officer. As if understood what they’re thinking, Kris fetched his emblem out from his jeans pocket, showing them off a metal carving of a golden eagle with stretching out wings.

“I’m a police for real.” He smiled mockingly, before placing the emblem back in to his pocket. “It’s alright. This often happens.”

Chanyeol promptly bowed in a polite manner, while Kyungsoo stood still, tilting his chin up to examine Kris’ face. A pair of stern eyes with thick eyebrows were looking back at him, leaving a cool impression. If it wasn’t because of Chanyeol who nudge Kyungsoo’s arm, telling him to bow, maybe they still continued the intimidating contest. And Kris was the one who bowed first.

“I leave them to you, Kris.” The principal said. Kris nodded and expressed his grateful once again. With that the principal left the room, leaving the three of them in the room. Kris huffed; three talented guys team up into one; surely there would be a competition.

***

It had been five minutes since the principal left the room, but none of them said a word. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol just sighed like there was no tomorrow. Kris could sense the unwillingness from their face clearly. He couldn't blame it on anyone; they did not understand anything at the moment.

Kris made his way toward the lamp power and turned it off, making Chanyeol and Kyungsoo startled at the sudden darkness. As he a projector and directed it to the wall, a picture appeared on the wall.

“Anybody knows this person?” Kris pressed the remote to show them a series of pictures; the same old man’s picture that Kyungsoo had seen before. Those were pictures of the same person but in different occasion. Sometimes he was in an expensive coat, while another picture showed him sitting down inside a luxurious car. Chanyeol shook his head nonchalantly at the sight.

“He is Mr. Kim, one of the most wanted drugs dealer in Asia” Kyungsoo replied in monotone.

“You’re right" Kris said flatly. "Now look at these pictures”

Again, Kris showed them another series of pictures. Kyungsoo cringed at the photo he was looking at. The pictures appeared on the slide was the same young man in the picture from the files. He was looked smiling, while on other picture he was looked reading a book or looked typing something in his laptop. Nothing was strange. With a good-looking face, a pair of black sincere eyes, and a sincere smile, that young man was totally looked like a normal boy at his age. Kyungsoo noticed the young man had unique tan skin and he found it so captivating.

“Don’t tell me that he is a criminal too” Chanyeol’s statement brought Kyungsoo back to his sense. Kyungsoo agreed with him. With those kinds of pictures, no one would say that the young man was a bad guy.

“Unfortunately, he is” Kris replied, making Chanyeol and Kyungsoo a little bit surprised. The room was bright again after Kris the light. He sat down on the edge of a table with one leg standing on the floor, supporting his body weight. “Now, do you still remember the big issue last week?” Kris gave them a quiz to get their attention.

“Kim Jonghyun and Shin Saekyung broke up?” Chanyeol randomly answered. Feeling ashamed, Kyungsoo kicked at Chanyeol’s feet below the table, making him winced. Kyungsoo heard a rumor that Chanyeol actually interested in celebrity gossip, but making a joke in a serious moment was very unnecessary.

“Are you talking about drugs raid operation on the south forest last week?” Kyungsoo quickly gave Kris a more reasonable answer. He asked, not really sure with the news. He was waiting for Kris' reaction, but there was something in his eyes that told Kyungsoo to make his own deduction. So Kyungsoo tried to tell more from anything he knew.

“I just knew it from a gossip, because the news didn’t spread by the mass media. Is it true that the police have managed to arrest Mr. Kim?” Kyungsoo said hesitantly, half asking for a confirmation. To his surprise, Kris nodded.

“Really?!” Chanyeol suddenly shouted, making all of the attentions were on him. “I heard that Mr. Kim’s location is hidden for couple years. Even his position couldn’t be detected by satellite. The police thought he was hiding in North Korea, didn't they? So how could you managed to find his location?” Chanyeol bombarded Kris with several questions excitedly.

Kyungsoo just silenced, realizing that during this time Chanyeol was just pretending to know nothing. He slightly admitted that Chanyeol was smart; maybe he just hated to be looked smart. Kris nodded and now sat on the chair.

“That’s true. We had found his location. Unfortunately, we failed to catch Mr. Kim, but we got this!” Kris passed them the young man picture, smiling mischievously as he now got their full attention.  “We got his child”

“Child? He is Mr.Kim’s child?” Kyungsoo thought while dragging the picture closer to him. After checking the file again, he realized that the long criminality track record he had read was not referring to Mr. Kim, but to the young man. Kyungsoo shook his head in disbelief; with that kind of track record, surely that young man also considered as a top criminal.

"As you have heard before, this boy is the person that we have to protect" Kris added while tapping his finger onto the picture.

"It doesn’t make sense!" Kyungsoo slammed the picture and the files on the table. "Have him jailed and make the police set up their full power to protect him. Case closed. I didn't find any reason for him to be protected by military” He complained bluntly; his voice sounded harsh and loud. Chanyeol only could silent, but he admitted that Kyungsoo had a point.

For a brief moment, Kris didn't say a word, just looking at the floor. He bit his lower lip and inhaled a deep breath as if it was so hard to tell the truth. It was the first time for Kyungsoo to see Kris showing his emotion since they had met.

“Indeed. But I have a reason why I did this” Kris mumbled after a long pause. “We had spied at Mr. Kim for more than three years to get his location. We had planned the assault tactics for months to raid his place. But you know what? We were trapped. As we arrived there, he had gone; just his son was there and a lot of traps everywhere. Our monthly plan to raid his place ruined. We lost tons of money and—our best personnel" His voice growled in anger. "The information had been leaked. We have traitors coming from our own man, and I can't work with them anymore"

Kris raised his chin up, inhaling a deep breath and fingers pinching his nose bridge. It was so unprofessional to show emotion in front of the inferior. To see him like that, even Chanyeol didn’t need to be a genius to notice that Kris had lost a lot of friends during the operation.

"Kris, are you okay?" Chanyeol asked worriedly; He unintentionally stretched his hand out toward Kris' shoulder, but he pushed Chanyeol's hand away before it could touch him.

"I’m okay. I’m sorry.” Kris said repeatedly to them, but somehow it sounded more like he was telling it to himself. His previously shaking voice was gradually back to normal. "Military is more neutral than police, because you're trained not to catch, but to protect. That’s why I'm asking for a help from your academy."

“But I still don’t get it why we need to protect him. Tell me more about the boy.” Kyungsoo insisted stubbornly.

“The boy in the picture is Kim Jongin; 21 years old. Maybe he is in the same age as both of you. The incident I told you before had given him a terrible injury on his head. He had been unconscious for more than three days and the doctor said he could die anytime. Until all of sudden, he woke up two days ago and made everybody panic. It was out of our expectation. We were ready if he finally passed away, but we didn’t make any single plan once he lived. Fortunately, he gets amnesia, so he doesn’t realize that he is a criminal” Kris explained.

“So he is still in the hospital? How is he?” Chanyeol asked.

“Yes, he still needs intensive medical treatment. But his injury is getting better every day and that makes me worried. Since it’s only temporary amnesia, he could get his memory back anytime." Kris replied. Chanyeol rubbed his head, trying to process Kris’ words.

"Tell us the point, will you?" Kyungsoo asked for the conclusion.

"Okay.” Kris directly stood up and paced around. “We have a plan to hide Jongin in the community for a moment, letting him live freely as an ordinary person for a certain time until we manage to catch his father. Until that time's come, both of you have to protect Jongin from any harm. Easy right?”  

“It’s not easy at all, Kris. It’s stupid!” Kyungsoo stated harshly; he stood up from his chair and marched up toward Kris. “How could you make sure Mr. Kim would come closer? He would know easily this is a trap” Kyungsoo hissed angrily as he intended to narrow the gap between them, but Chanyeol smartly restrained Kyungsoo; afraid both of them started a fight. Scoofing, Kris stepped forward to Kyungsoo.

“He realizes it or not, he doesn’t have choice. He has to get his Jongin back, live or anything left from him. We suspected Jongin at least knows about 50% of Mr.Kim's business in drugs trading and even he sometimes handled the job by himself. We have spread a fake issue about Jongin’s detention and we are going to fish him out of his hide soon." Kris clapped his hand loudly, “So, do you want to join this mission? Or not?"

Chanyeol turned to Kyungsoo, expecting his reaction. But what he got was Kyungsoo just standing still, curling his palms into tight fists; he seemingly tried to contain his annoyance toward Kris.

"How can we refuse when our diplomas are detained?" Chanyeol finally was the one who replied; nothing he could do but agreed. He could see Kris grinned in victory.

“Good. I'll take that as your agreement” Kris pulled his car key out of his pocket pants and made his way toward the door. “Now follow me! I’ll take you to meet Jongin”

***

*Infantry : Land based soldier who specifically trained for the role fighting on foot

*Military Intelligence: Provides timely, relevant, accurate and synchronized Intelligence and Electronic Warfare, and tactical warfighting commander to strategic policy makers.

* The Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area that consist of four countries os Southeast Asia: Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.