Breaking into Choi’s Seoul pharmaceutical plant was the first time that I had ever seen Yongguk in action on police business. Yunho, his partner, had his eye on Ren, and Yongguk had his on me. Both men had their guns drawn out and on the ready, scanned the landscape for guards.

“Clear,” Yunho muttered, turning towards back entrance. “Ready?”

“As always.” Yongguk aimed his gun at a security camera mounted on a pole a little to the side, and took it out with one bullet.

Ren’s eyes widened in a mix of horror and admiration.

“Come on,” Yunho hissed, starting towards the door. The passcode bar lit up when a button was pressed, and a word started to scroll on the screen.

B i r t h d a y

“November 3, 1995,” Ren answered at once.

Yongguk punched in 19951103, and the door beeped before swinging open.

“Ren, stay behind my right shoulder at all times,” Yunho commanded. “Ara, same for you. Stay behind Yongguk’s right shoulder. We’re going in.”

There did not seem to be anybody left still in the plant. It seemed almost as if the workers had realized that their secret had been found out, and had simply abandoned their stations to make a run for it. In fact, we ran into nobody as we ventured deeper into the compound.

The answers to the doors got increasingly harder, asking everything from Ren’s first word to his favorite food and color.

Still, all the posts seem to be abandoned.

“This is the last one,” Yongguk muttered, nearing the biggest metal double doors. “Come on.”

A m b i t i o n

“What does that mean?” Ren asked, stumped.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I asked.

Ren’s gaze softened, and he reached out to type out the answer onto the pad.

S i n g e r

With a final beep, the doors swung open.

Silence.

Inside the vast room were rows and rows of shelves with bottles of pills in them going as far as the eye could see. A little office on the side had it’s lights still on, and papers were strewn everywhere, some half shredded.

“It looks like his men decided their lives were more important than his,” Yunho observed wryly. “They started shredding everything to protect Choi, but then decided to just run for it.”

“This is all the proof we need,” Yongguk said, flipping through a few pages.

“I’ll alert backup,” Yunho agreed, taking out his phone. “Damn it, I need to go outside to get service.”

“Take Ren with you; he needs some fresh air” Yongguk called, nudging the crestfallen boy forward. Even though he had obviously suspected his father of wrongdoing, a part of him had obviously hoped to be proven wrong. “Tell Vic and Luna to come, too. Have then get Ren something to eat and call his mother to warn her before the news gets a hold of the story.”

“Good idea,” Yunho agreed, grabbing Ren’s arm gently. “Come on, kid. Let’s get you out of here.”

“It must , finding out that your father has been stealing from the poor to make illegal narcotics,” I muttered, looking after them.

“He’ll be fine,” Yongguk replied, quietly. “He’s a good, strong kid, and he has his mother to help him through this. Come on, let’s go look around.”

As Yongguk and I made our way through the rows and rows of pill bottles, we picked a few up here and here, reading the labels on the sides. None of the products had names, but they had a list of ingredients that meant very little with our diminutive knowledge of medicine.

As we neared the back, however, we came within earshot of something loud. A shredder. It seemed as if one person had not jumped ship.

“Stay behind me,” Yongguk whispered, drawing out his gun. Carefully, he moved towards the source of the sound.

Then, there was the sound of the click from behind us and Yongguk spun his gun around, right into the face of Kim Jaejoong.

“What are you two doing here?” Jaejoong asked, strangely calm considering the fact that he was pointing a gun at me and Yongguk was pointing his gun at him.

“We’re doing what is right,” Yongguk snarled, eyes flashing. “It’s all over, Jaejoong. We know everything.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Jaejoong muttered, eyes wild. He looked at me, and seemed to realize at once that I had regained my memories. “Ara?” he asked, a little uncertain.

“Are you going to shoot me, Kim Jaejoong?” I asked, staring him directly in the eyes.

There was a moment of silence when his grip on the gun tightened, before he sighed, and slowly lowered it to his sides.

“No, I’m not,” he replied.

“How did you get involved in all this?” I asked. “How did I get involved in all this?”

“Fate really seems to hate me,” Jaejoong replied with a strangled laugh. His hands went up to clutch his hair for a second in utter frustration. “Our meeting had nothing to do with any of this, and I was already so in love with you when you decided to investigate Director Baek. I tried to steer you away from it, but once your mind was set, you wouldn’t listen to me. Then, Congressman Choi decided that you knew too much, but I had no idea he was planning on hitting you with a car. He had been getting the feeling that my loyalty towards him had been wavering, and the bastard actually tricked me into delivering the car that hit you so he could use that against me to make sure I didn’t betray him. When you lost your memory, I convinced him to just let everything go, but then…you started regaining them. I didn’t know what to do, Ara. I didn’t want you to get hurt, but I was in too deep.”

“I can’t forgive you, Jaejoong,” I said, biting it my lip. “Even if you weren’t to blame for all of this, it was your mistake to do this illegal work for