this chapter explains almost everything that happened. enjoy!              

                 The six of them sat quietly in the vast though arguably, very comfortable, office. Changmin, Yunho and Jaejoong sat on the big sofa while Kyuhyun, Eunhyuk and Eric sat on the round chair scattered around the sofa, all surrounding a glass table. Changmin would have expected this ‘Eric-hyung’ who is apparently the Boss of the whole organization, to sit on his high chair behind the wooden table in the back center of the room. Though no matter how hard he dig into his memory, he couldn’t recall who is this ‘hyung’ that Yunho obviously know. Too much had happened in a day that he wasn’t sure whether his brain could process any more information. His life from the moment he stepped out of Kyuhyun’s car after the Friday Night Jam which happened merely four hours ago –though it felt like a day- had felt like a part of a Die Hard movie and Bruce Willis would pop out anytime holding a huge rifle, screaming ‘yippe-kay-yay motherer’ into their faces as he shot everybody in the room.

                “Are you sure you don’t want anything to drink? Water? Tea? Coffe? Or you’d probably prefer liquor? I’ve got quite a shelf of them,” Eric offered him and his brothers. He and Jaejoong just shook their head quietly while Yunho seems to considering the offer.

                “Something strong would be nice,” Yunho answered confidently, looking at Eric to see whether his offer is serious or not.

                “Sure. Jaejoong? And I’m sorry Changmin, but you and Kyuhyun are still underage,” Eric offered again, this time looking at Jaejoong.

                “No, thank you,” Jaejoong answered a little too polite to his liking. His brother had always been polite, but he must’ve feel uncomfortable to some extent that he acted like that. And Changmin noticed how his hand never let go of his own.

                “Wait here,”

                With that Eric stood up and disappears behind liquor shelf at one corner of the room.

                “Hyung, you know him?” Changmin had not meant for the question to come out that blunt but it came out anyway. And though his voice was barely a whisper, Yunho and Jaejoong heard him just fine. It helped though that the office seems to be sound-proofed and now felt as quiet as a graveyard.

                “I guess you were too small to remember, but he used to crash at our house every weekend,” Yunho answered bitterly. “And he used to buy us all kinds of candies and chocolate from that ahjumma that lived on the corner of the street.  I’d never have guessed that he’d be the Boss you talked about. But then, nothing seems to be what they are lately,”

                “Your mother scolded me for that. They said that they need to take you guys to the dentist twice more often every time I came. But that’s the least I could do to thank your family,” Eric added as he walked back with a bottle of Vodka and three shot-glass and put them on the table.

                “You used to come to our house?” Jaejoong asked, but it sounded more as if he was asking himself for the memories he could barely remember.

                Eric just nodded, pouring to the glasses and handed them to Yunho and Eunhyuk.

                “We’ve never been that close because you were always playing with little Changmin back then, as if you were afraid that I would take him from you,” He said, earning chuckles all over the room.

                “So, I take it that both of you know about this too?” Yunho directed the question to Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk, who had just nodded.

                “We pretty much were informed about everything concerning your family before we were assigned to guard you. We have to. Believe me, those information had save your lives more than my fingers could count,” Responded Eunhyuk as he drank in one shot.

                “I’m sorry that it had come to this. For years I’ve worked out on how to keep the Greys away from you and your family without letting you know about the world your parents had pretty much despise,” Eric started explaining.

                “And how is that suppose to protect us?” Asked Changmin. He couldn’t hold off his tongue any longer; he just had too much questions going around in his head.

                “Because the least you know about us, the least you interact with other Ext.’s, the least the chance of your power coming out. That’s why your parents never told you about their real job and what they could do. They were afraid that you would lead a life far from the normal life they’ve always wanted you to live in, away from all of the dangers,”

                “Yeah, well. It killed them in the end. How is that suppose to help anybody?” Changmin retorted back sarcastically.

                “The first thing you should know, Changmin, is that your parents died protecting you. Being agents of ACE is not an easy matter, especially doing it secretly from your children. Your father was the Head of the Tactical and Investigation department, while your mother was a Liaison Agent who connected us with all of the other branches around the world. ACE is an international organization and we’re just one of its branches. If you’ve ever watched action or spy movies, we are that organization that existed under the government’s watch, though we stand alone all together. We helped when needed, but we also keep watch on the government to make sure everything runs smoothly. ACE agents are pretty much invisible to the people, and if everything goes wrong, the government could always deny our existence and all of our un-existed ties. Our main priority, though, is to protect and unite all of the Ext. around the world, and provided them with the safe haven they needed,”

                Eric explained as he pours another glass for the three of them.

                “The thing is, being a part of the ACE would also give you a huge responsibility of keeping your identity as an Ext. a secret,”

                “Why must our existence be kept a secret?” Changmin shot out another question.

                “Do you know the movie X-Men? About all of those mutants and their secret school?” Eric asked. Changmin nodded. “That was how our situation pretty much looked like. Though we’re not mutants and our ‘school’ is bigger than that. The government knows about us and they gave us what we need to exist and survive, and pretty much take advantage of us, but if the time comes they could throw us away just as if we’ve never existed before. We could turn from the good guy to the bad guy in split seconds; simply because we’re never government’s responsibility in the first place. And imagine what would happen if the public know about us and our ‘abilities’? We would end up struggling through a third world war, in which the consequences would be grave and irreparable,”

                “Those who were after us, who are they?” This time it was Yunho.

                Eric was just going to answer when Jaejoong cut him with another question.

                “Wait, you’ve been going on about these organizations for a while now, but you haven’t introduced yourself to us,” Jaejoong asked skeptically. “Yunho-hyung probably knew you, but that’s it, right? He knew you. We need to know who you really is before we decided whether we could believe your story or not,”

                He looked a little bit taken aback by the question, but Eric answered it anyway.

                “You’re right, how rude of me,” He smiled sadly. “My name is Moon Junghyuk, but I go by Eric, that’s how people called me ever since I came here. As you already know, I am the Director of ACE. Ten years ago, your father was my mentor when I was just a junior agent. I guess he took a liking at this lonely, young and incapable junior agent under his care and we grew so close that he took me to your house for more than I could count. Your mother was an awesome woman. Her cooking always pulled me back, no matter how bad I felt for troubling them. That was until I got promoted and sent to a remote area to train for the Special Force. From then, my career shot up and I find it hard to even just meet with your father. We had our own troubles to take care of, I guess. The last time I heard from your father was the night they died. He called me late afternoon, voice clearly in a hurry. He talked about how he found out something about Grey, and they were going after him and his family for that. He told me three things before the line went dead; that I’m the next in line for the seat of the director after him, that as soon as I got my authority the first I am to do is to sent protection to the three of you and that we should watch out for Grey more than before,”

                Eric stopped, letting the story sunk as he poured another glass for himself. It was obvious that Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk haven’t heard this story before because they were listening to Eric’s explanation as intent as the other three.

                “The next thing I knew, my fellow senior agents barged into my office telling me that there has been an ambush at the headquarter, the Director was missing and your father was nowhere to be found. In the span of 24 hours after that call, I found myself sitting here, in this office, grieving over the Old Director and your parents with the life of thousands of agents on my shoulder,” He ended with a quiet sigh.

                “Is that what happened three years ago? The day the Grey attacked us?” Eunhyuk asked, apparently as clueless about this event as they had been.

                “Yes. That’s why all of our junior agents were sent away until things got back to normal,” He eyed Kyuhyun and shot him a look Changmin couldn’t decipher.

                “This ‘Grey’ you keep talking about, who are they?” Yunho spat out.

                “Mind to explain, Kyuhyun?” He gave Kyuhyun a chance to talk, noticing how stiff the kid has become since he started his story. Kyuhyun looked a little bit startled hearing his name being mention, but quickly get himself together.

                “Wha- ah, yes, sure, “ He sat up straight and looked at Yunho and Jaejoong, still avoiding Changmin’s eyes.

                “ACE was founded back in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first in England. At that time, people like us realized that they need to find a smart way to end for themselves before all of them was burned for practicing witchcraft, which wasn’t the case at all. The called themselves Extraordinaire, simply because they find themselves being able of doing things that normal people can’t do. Long story short, ACE appeared and before long, it has spread around the world, gathering Ext. from all over the world,” Kyuhyun stopped to catch his breath.

                “All goes well until at the end of the Second World War, a group of Ext. from Japan made a riot in the Japanese ACE Headquarter in Kyoto, killing 126 agents and wounded another 500 or so. Their purpose were said to be ‘free’ from the government’s grasp, and they’re going to do that with taking over the reign from the government and getting rid of everybody who’s against the existence of Ext. Their idea spread like a plague and other Ext.’s were finding themselves drawn to this twisted idea of mass destruction and killing. They named themselves Grey, for their purpose of cleaning the world by being neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’. For years we have been trying to cover all of their wrongdoings. We’ve been trying to negotiate with them for numerous times, but we never come to a satisfactory term for both parties,” Kyuhyun finished his story, looking at Eric, wanting him to continue the explanation.

                “I need to ask something…” Jaejoong decided to raise a question after keeping his mouth shut for the whole explanation. Now all five pairs or eyes are looking at him.

                “What I could do… What was that?” He asked carefully, tightening his hold on Changmin.

                “What was it exactly that you do?” Eric asked just as careful. Jaejoong just shifted his gaze to Changmin. Eric followed his gaze, looking at Changmin’s blood-stained shirt and he understood.

                “You are a healer and you just saved your brother. I think that’s all you need to know right now,” Eric said.

                Surprisingly enough, that answer was enough for Jaejoong. He just nodded and visibly relaxed.

                “It has been a long night and you all need to rest. But before that, please know this; your parents had put it as my responsibility to keep the three of you safe and I owe them too much to let anything happen to you. I’m sorry this has to be how we met, but I promise tomorrow you’ll find out more about this place, the family your parents spent years with. I know it’s not easy, but I’m going to earn your trust. Today, don’t think about anything but to rest get your strength back. We’ll provide everything you need, just ask. Look around this place; know some people, and then decide. Until then, you are safe here. I could at least promise you that,” Said Eric reassuring.

                “Uh, where should we stay? You know, I kind of blew our house up,” Yunho asked looking a bit embarrassed of what he did.

                Eric let out a heavy laugh before answering.

                “Of course you’ll stay here. This place is more than an office, you know,” He was still smiling when he stood up and talked to his intercom. A moment later, the girl they all remembered as Seulrin walked in smiling.

                “Yes, boss?”

                “Has Yuri informed you about the room?”

                “They are all ready. The clothes are there as well. Would you like me to prepare some food?” She asked the three of them.

                “No, thank you. We just desperately need some rest,” Yunho threw a tired smile.

                “Okay then. You could follow her; she’ll take you to your room,”

                Jaejoong helped Changmin stand as if he’s going to drop any second, but Changmin let him. It’s probably going to be some time until his brothers let him go on his own, but he’s not complaining.

                “I’m going to have a word with the two of you, so you have to stay for a bit longer I’m afraid,” Eric motioned to Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk who just nodded.

                “Rest, they’ll show you around tomorrow. You’ll get to know some people.  Just take it easy, a lot of my agents find this place pretty much a play ground. You’ll know why soon,” He smiled as Changmin, Yunho and Jaejoong walked out.

                Changmin could barely remember walking to his room because as soon as he stepped out of the office, his head felt very light. He felt a weird feeling of satisfaction after listening to the whole explanation. At least he knew that his parents were never stopping thinking about them. At least he got somewhere to sleep tonight. At least he and his brothers are alive. That was enough for the moment.

                And as they walked through hallways and elevators, then into their room, all Changmin could remember was Jaejoong helping him change his clothes, because he felt too lethargic to do so alone.

                He was asleep before he know it.