“No. Absolutely not. A million times no. No way in hell. No. no.”

Leeteuk sighed, his exasperation written all over his face. With his head in his hands, he shook his head, as if that would change anything. Sungmin watched him with his arms folded across his chest, his expression flat as always.

“Sungmin, please.” He pleaded. “This is just a temporary thing. You only have to stick with them until we find someone else to lead the team.”

“They are not my responsibility. I’m not liable to look after a bunch of clods just because their moron of a leader slipped up and got himself killed.” His statement was clear and quick to the point, as if he had already memorized what to say.

“One shouldn’t talk ill of the dead, Sungmin.” He rebuked. “Yesung is a great loss to our team.”

“Great is right. I couldn’t stand the bastard.” The blonde grumbled. “He was impossible to work with.” 

“I’ve heard this all before, Min. Lord knows you almost blew his head off during a stakeout.” An irritated sigh escaped his lips once again. “And God forbid, if I hadn’t taken away your gun during training, who knows what you would’ve done to the poor man.”

“The ‘poor’ man? Yah, I was the one who had to sit through all of his jokes—which by the way, don’t even make sense half of the time.” He snarled. “In case you didn’t notice, Leeteuk, I don’t function well with other people. I work alone. I always have and I always will.”

“For once in your life, would you please listen to your boss?” He stood up and slammed his hands on the table. Sungmin remained unfazed though. Even as Leeteuk got on eyelevel with him—with their faces so close to each other that Sungmin could feel his breath on him—his cross expression failed to waver. “One month. Just four weeks. Thirty days. That’s all I’m asking.”

Sungmin tossed his head back and chuckled sardonically. Afterwards, he stood up and cupped Leeteuk’s chin with one hand. He pulled him closer to his face, making sure Leeteuk wouldn’t miss the rigidity in his eyes.

“Leeteuk, for the last time—no.”

When Sungmin was in grade school, there was a contest in which the group with the best poster wins a bag of oatmeal cookies. They were all divided into groups—all except Sungmin, that is. None of the groups wanted him, and little ten-year-old Sungmin wasn’t sure if he wanted to be with them either. So he entered the contest by himself.

He spent days making that poster. He lost sleep, he stained his clothes with paint and he even cut himself with the scissors a few times. But it was all worth it, he thought, considering he won in the end. When he walked up to the front of the class to receive that stupid bag of cookies, he had on a smile so smug that Sungmin didn’t even know he had it in him. It felt nice to actually be proud of something he did. It felt good knowing he actually did something right, for once. And all by himself too.

And that was the day that Sungmin first realized that he didn’t need anybody’s help to succeed. He was able to achieve great things alone and he wanted things to stay that way. He wanted to work alone. He wanted to eat alone. He wanted to do everything alone. He functioned better on his own anyway.

And it was on that same day that Sungmin found out he was allergic to oatmeal.

“Are you a natural blonde?” The skinny boy—whose name Sungmin failed to remember—stared at the golden strands on his head with much curiosity. Normally, Sungmin wouldn’t have lasted this long without blasting someone’s head off, but since Leeteuk was a friend, Sungmin decided to test his own patience.

“I’m Korean.” He replied dully as he flipped the next page of the book he wasn’t really paying attention to. He was actually just pretending to read, in hopes that the two strangers before him would leave him alone.

“Is that a no?” he questioned further, which was more than enough to make Sungmin reach his boiling point.

“Well, no , Sherlock.” He snarled as he shut the book with much force. “Are you trying to make conversation or are you just really stupid?”

“You still didn’t answer my question.” He murmured, mostly to himself. But Sungmin’s sharp sense of hearing didn’t quite let that pass.

“That answers that.” The blonde rolled his eyes with much disdain. “I forget your name so I’m just going to call you by a more appropriate title—like, dip or something.”

The other stranger appeared to be more refined and actually rather, handsome, compared to the one with the jutting jawline. “Eunhyuk, I don’t think our partner here likes us very much.”

Sungmin was a man who worked alone. He didn’t function well with other people. When his boss told him he was going to be assigned a partner, he was ready to go on a gory murder spree. He didn’t even like the thought of working with another person, but two? For crying out loud.

“No, Kyuhyun, I don’t think so either.” The two continued to talk over the irritated man as he tried to focus his attention on something else. He kept a gun hidden in the pocket of his suit and it took Sungmin all the strength he had not to blow both their heads off.

Mostly everyone in the business knew how serious Sungmin was about his work. They knew that he didn’t like distractions of any kind nor did he like it when other people interfered with his business. People who didn’t know this usually ended up at Sungmin’s feet, dead with blood trickling down their chins.

“Can we just focus on our task at hand, please?” Sungmin picked up the case folder and tossed it towards the one apparently named Eunhyuk. “Go over the profile again.”

The brunet looked over the whole page before reading it out loud. “Okay, so like Leeteuk told us this morning, his name’s TOP—”

“Obviously a pseudonym.” Kyuhyun chimed in.

“Exactly,” he agreed. “His real name isn’t listed here, meaning Leeteuk probably hasn’t found out what it is yet. He’s in debt, which is weird `cause he looks really rich.”

“Lemme see that.” The taller one yanked the folder from the man’s hands to go over it with his own eyes. “Oh, look. Another pretty boy.”

“I’ve seen prettier.” Eunhyuk shrugged as grabbed the file from his friend.

Now completely pissed off that they were going off topic, Sungmin harshly snatched the file away from Eunhyuk, who quite promptly stared at him with a half-surprised, half-annoyed look as a result.

“Sungmin ah, you really need to work on your temper—”

“It’s sunbaenim to you, dip.” He growled. “I’m your senior and therefore I demand the both of you to show me some respect.”

“What makes you think we don’t respect you?” Kyuhyun asked, trying to feign ignorance, despite having a pretty good idea what their senior was talking about. “You’re one of the most prominent assassins in South Korea. I mean, basically, you’re the go-to man—that is, if people want someone to die a gruesome death.”

“On the contrary. My jobs are usually done quick and painful.” He revealed with a hint of pride in his voice. “I don’t usually appreciate getting blood on my suit.”

“Oh, tell me about it.” Eunhyuk agreed as he stuffed another handful of fries in his mouth. “Blood is such a to get off, especially when you’re wearing white.”

“You think that’s bad? Try getting it on suede. Now that’s a .” Kyuhyun countered.

“Now, see, I don’t get the big deal about that. So you get a little blood on your coat, whoop-dee-doo.” Wearing a flat expression on his angular face, he made a circular motion with his index finger. “You just like to be melodramatic, s’all.”

“Is that so? Well, then, Mr. Eunhyuk, if you don’t shut up in the next minutes, I’ll have you wake up tomorrow, bleeding out of your di—”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Sungmin finally snapped. “If you two don’t shut up, I swear I’ll personally slit both of your throats and throw you out the window, ara?”

Instead of cowering like Sungmin had expected them to, the two merely exchanged knowing glances before breaking into amused laughter.

“Yeah, like we’d believe you’d actually kill your own partners.” Eunhyuk managed to say after a bout of mocking chuckles. “Sungmin ah, I know you’re not stupid.”

“It’s sunbaenim and yes, I may not be stupid but,” he started digging something out from under his desk and presented an all-metal knife handle, sans the cutting edge. “I do act on impulses. Do either of you know what this is?”

Kyuhyun smiled shrewdly. “A switchblade.”

“Correct.” Sungmin’s rock-hard expression was unwavering as he pushed the button on the handle, revealing the blade. “Now, do I have to kill one of you to prove my point?”

Eunhyuk shrank as Sungmin drew the blade just mere inches in front of him. It wouldn’t take Sungmin more than a simple wave of the arm to slash his neck. The image of Sungmin mercilessly running the pointed blade across his neck made Eunhyuk shudder.

“Well, Eunhyuk-ssi?” he taunted.

“I’ll shut up.” He recoiled from the patronizing man by hiding behind Kyuhyun’s thin frame.

“Good choice,” he smirked before turning to the scowling man in front of him. “And you?”

Despite having succeeded in scaring Eunhyuk out of his wits, Kyuhyun, on the other hand, looked just as irritated as Sungmin was. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s impolite to threaten someone with a knife?”

He retracted the blade, the frown on his face gradually growing more and more detestable. As he tossed the knife onto the desk, he muttered a tetchy, “jackass” before opening the case file.

“What did you say?” he demanded crossly.

 “Look, I don’t have the time to entertain your nonsense. I have a job to do—”

“We have a job to do, Sungmin. We’re a team now. We have to work together—”

“For the last time, it’s sunbaenim and I never agreed to that!”

“No one asked you to!”

If looks could kill, both Sungmin and Kyuhyun probably would have dropped dead by now. The next thing they knew, they heard the door slam shut and a frantic Eunhyuk running down the hall.

“I should’ve told you,” Kyuhyun sighed. “He scares easily.”

Wryly rolling his eyes, Sungmin grabbed his things and stormed out of the conference room as well. Kyuhyun, however, stayed behind, put his feet up on the table and took out his phone to dial Eunhyuk’s number.

“Hey.”

Eunhyuk looked up, his eyes swollen. As soon as he saw him, he dropped his gaze to his feet and turned away. Kyuhyun in a deep breath before sitting beside him on the bench, his arm reassuringly draped around his shoulders.

“I knew you were a crybaby but…isn’t this a bit much?” he asked in the sweetest voice he could conjure.

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and sniffed. “I wasn’t crying.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Hyuk.” He quipped in an effort to lighten the mood. Evidently, he failed. “I was looking everywhere for you. Our lovable sunbae insisted we leave you but I stood up for you, like the good friend I am. I told him to give me an hour and after pointing our guns at each other and voicing out death threats, he finally obliged. He’s waiting for us at his place right now.”

“Oh…thanks.” He mumbled almost incoherently. “So what do we do now?”

“Now,” he pulled his chin up and lightly slapped his tear-stained cheeks. “We go to Sungmin and do our job and afterwards, celebrate by getting drunk off our asses. Sound good?”

His offer managed to obtain a weak chuckle out of him. “I guess. But if Sungmin—I mean, sunbae, has the car, how are we gonna get there?”

“We’re gonna get a cab and then,” he smiled cheekily before taking out a card from his jeans pocket. “We use Sungmin’s credit card to pay.”

“How the hell did you get him to give you his credit card?” he asked incredulously.

“I didn’t.” He revealed as he pocketed the card again. “His first mistake was leaving his wallet in his desk drawer. His second was not paying enough attention. Besides, it’s not even real. It says here his name is Park Dongmin.”

“He’s gonna kill you for this, y’know.” He said as he stood up and watched Kyuhyun hail a cab.

“Oh, I know.” He nodded. “But there’s really no need for me to worry. I have you to use as a human shield, after all.”

He immediately chuckled at his eyes’ widening. Kyuhyun had to grab Eunhyuk’s arm to stop him from running away again. Seeing the panicked look on his face, he yanked him back and held him by the neck.

“I was kidding, Hyukkie.” Kyuhyun said as a cab pulled up before them. “Now, get in.”

Realizing the hesitance in his eyes, Kyuhyun pushed his partner into the vehicle before getting in as well. Before he could scamper out the other door, he told the driver to step on it as he unhooked something from his belt. When he finally got a hold of it, he wrung one cuff around his wrist and the other around his own. Eunhyuk showed signs of protesting as he tucked the key inside his pants.

“Who the hell carries a pair of handcuffs?” he griped as he tried to squirm out of the cuffs, only to scratch his skin.

With a sly smirk, he shrugged innocently. “I stole it from a cop.”

As if he was rubbing it in his face, he waved their cuffed hands around, proudly showing it off. Eunhyuk groaned in response.

“Sorry, Hyuk, but you’re a flight risk.”

“Leeteuk, I am gonna hunt you down, shove a stick up your and roast you for dinner.”  

On the other line, Leeteuk tossed his head back and laughed. “I love you too, Sungmin. I assume things aren’t going well?”

“Are you kidding? How can you stick me with such a dip idiot and a pretentious ? They’re unbearable!” He whined. “What did I ever do to you, Teuk? I thought we were friends!”

“We’re employer and employee, Sungmin. Sure, we have a drink or two from time to time but I’m still your boss and that gives me the right to put you in a team. You’re good at what you do, Ming, I can give you that. But even the greatest assassins slip up every now and then. And you need someone to cover your when you do slip up.” He explained in detail, as if it’d make Sungmin feel better. “I’m just looking out for you.”

“I just wish you could’ve chosen a team more competent than those two.” He grumbled.

“They do have names, y’know.” He answered curtly. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Sungmin, but you’re gonna have to learn to put up with them. I know you’re not much of a people person but just give it a few weeks and—”

Sungmin stopped listening when he heard a crash from downstairs. It sounded like something had broken, like a vase or a glass or something. Realizing someone was in the house, he abruptly hung up on Leeteuk, threw the phone on the bed and grabbed the gun he kept under his pillow.

He quietly descended the stairs, gun in hand and eyes scanning the whole room. He continued to look around but saw nothing out of the ordinary. His eyes then landed on the cracked vase on the floor, which soon led to the muddy footprints all over his clean carpet.

Just as he crouched down to inspect the tracks the intruder left behind, he was knocked out by a hit on the head. The last thing he felt was an incredibly painful throbbing in the back of his head that practically felt like being shot. The last thing he saw was a very shady figure hovering over him. He could’ve sworn that he saw a smirk on his face right before everything turned black.

“Sungmin?” Kyuhyun knocked on the door with his free hand for the umpteenth time. But no matter how many times he did, there was no answer. “Yah, Lee Sungmin! Open up!”

“Sunbaenim! It’s us!” Eunhyuk tried. When his attempts failed as well, he turned to his companion with a cross expression across his face. “Just exactly how much did you piss him off?”

“It’s not my fault his temper .” He shook his head in contempt. “Something doesn’t feel right. Come on.”

Kyuhyun – who was, by the way, still handcuffed to Eunhyuk – jerked his partner towards the window. He looked in with squinted eyes and failed to overlook the pieces of a broken vase on the rugged carpeting. Alarmed, he tugged on the cuffs to alert Eunhyuk.

“Hyuk, look at that. Doesn’t that seem a bit strange to you?” he asked, mostly for assurance.

“So he broke something, big deal. Happens to me all the time.” He shrugged. “Why, what are you thinking?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t have a very good feeling about this.” He took a few steps back to examine the whole house. “That window up there’s open. Let’s go in.”

“Kyu, that window’s like ten feet up. How do you suppose we’re gonna reach that?” he asked with much disbelief in his tone.

“You see that climbing vine right here?” He shot him a lopsided grin as he patted said vine. “Let’s hope it’s strong enough to hold the both of us.”

Eunhyuk practically felt all the color draining from his face.

“Well, well. Look who’s awake.”

Sungmin woke up with a big scowl on. He took a good, long look at the cunning smirk on his captor’s face. Right now, he wanted more than anything to sock him in the nose, partly for kidnapping him but mostly to wipe that stupid smirk off his face.

“TOP. Right?” he said in a rather feeble voice. He could still feel his head throbbing. With both his hands and his feet tied to his chair, he really couldn’t do much about it, which frustrated him even more.

“Ah, I see the good name travels fast.” He chuckled as he continued to wipe his gun with a white rag. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch your name. Sunmi, was it?”

He knew the man was mocking him. He could sense it in his tone, his expression, his stupid smirk. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure it out.

“It’s Sungmin, .” He hissed. “Don’t play dumb with me.”

“Who’s playing dumb?” He feigned innocence. “I was never really good with names. I’m good with faces though. But mercy me, when I saw your picture, I immediately mistook you for a woman. Then I figured I didn’t need to remember your name, since you have such a pretty face. But when they told me you were a man—it just blew my mind.”

“You make a lot of small talk for a man in debt. It seems you owe my friend some money, am I right?” A sarcastic chuckle slipped out of his mouth. “Does the name Leeteuk ring a bell?”

TOP readied his gun and promptly pointed it at the blonde’s forehead. “Never heard of him.”

A smirk tugged on his lips. “Why don’t you just kill me already?”

“Don’t tempt me, blondie.” He said, tapping his head with the end of the gun in a taunting manner.

Sungmin seemed unfazed by the fact that with a mere move of TOP’s finger, he could very well pull the trigger and end his life once and for all. All kinds of thoughts were running through his mind right now, negative ones and positive ones. Though in this situation, Sungmin found it pretty hard to come up with any more positive thoughts.

“This would be a lot easier if you took off these damn handcuffs!”

Eunhyuk rebuked loudly as their attempt to climb up the vine resulted in the two of them sprawled out on the ground. And it just so happened that Eunhyuk broke his friend’s fall, not because he wanted to but rather because he had to, as it was Eunhyuk who lost his grip of the vine and fell on the grass with a loud thud, with Kyuhyun following and landing on his chest.

“But you’ll run away again!”

“I won’t this time!”

“Promise?”

“For God’s sakes, just do it!”

“You do it.”

Eunhyuk stared at him disbelievingly. “You have the ing key!”

“Then get it, for all I care.” He retorted as he got off the man’s torso and rolled over next to him on the ground.

“I am not gonna put my hands down your pants, Kyuhyun. I’m not a ert.” He stated.

He shot up with a menacing glare. “Since when?”

“Just get the damn key!” He snapped, making him jump.

“Fine, fine. If you’re gonna be so snippy about it…” Using his one free hand, he reached into his pants (at which Eunhyuk had to shut his eyes as he couldn’t bear to watch) and felt around for the key. When he finally found it, he held it between his thumb and his index finger, showed it to Eunhyuk (who grimaced) and then finally, used it to unlock the handcuffs. “There. Happy now?”

“Very,” he replied as he rubbed his previously cuffed wrist, which now had red marks on it. “Which is weird, since I’ve always sorta fantasized about being handcuffed—though I never imagined it’d be by you.”

“This is not the time for any of your fantasies, Eunhyuk. We need to get in there.” He rubbed his chin in thought. “We need a way to get in…”

Eunhyuk’s eyes lit up. “I got it! Get on your knees.”

“Yah, I told you, it’s not the time for your fantasies.” He replied half-jokingly.

Annoyed, Eunhyuk swiftly whacked him on the head with his hand before repeating himself. “Kyuhyun! I’m serious, get on your knees!”

“Why?”

“So I can stand on your shoulders and then reach the window.” He revealed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Come on, hurry up!”

As Kyuhyun cursed under his breath, he got on the ground on all fours and grunted as Eunhyuk climbed on his back. He let out a pained groan when he stepped on his shoulders. The part that pissed him off the most was that Eunhyuk seemed to be enjoying all of this.

“Okay, now move a little to the left.” He instructed, all the while trying to keep his balance. “Stand straight, Kyu! I still can’t reach the window!”

“I will if you stop wobbling your legs!” He said as he kept a firm hold on Eunhyuk’s legs to keep him from falling off. “Stay still, you monkey!”

“Wait, wait, I think I’ve finally got it.” As his fingertips finally had a strong enough grip on the windowsill, he started to wriggle out of Kyuhyun’s hold. “Kyu, let go!”

“As much as I’d love to see you fall flat on your , I don’t want to have to do this all over again—so, no.”

“Trust me, I’ll be fine!”

Although showing some slight hesitance, he let go of Eunhyuk’s legs and stepped aside. He looked up and watched Eunhyuk's legs swing around as he held onto the windowsill.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine, Kyu.” He insisted as he lifted himself up until he was able to enter the house through the window. Once he finally got in, he poked his head out the window and called out to his companion. “I’ll let you in from the front door!”

He hurried downstairs to let Eunhyuk in. He took note of everything that seemed suspicious in the house; the craggy carpeting, the broken vase, the dirty footprints, the shoe scuffs on the floorboards. Although he wanted to investigate further, he figured it’d be only fair to let his partner in first.

As he opened the door, Kyuhyun greeted him with his hands on his hips and his eyebrows knitted together. His appearance reminded him greatly of how his mother looked when she was writhing with anger.

He giggled a little. “You know what’s ironic?”

“What?”

“The door was unlocked the whole time.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes widened, which amused Eunhyuk at first until the man stepped in and practically charged at him like an angry horse. As he continued to near him, he backpedalled until he hit the wall behind him.

“Eunhyuk. I. Am. Going. To. Kill. You.”

Sungmin bit his lip to prevent a groan from escaping his lips. TOP struck him in the jaw once again, this time harder and swifter. His knuckles were starting to swell from the impact it had taken, having hit the helpless blonde in the face for countless times now.

“Had enough?” he taunted.

“I’ll get back to you on that.” He quipped as he started to taste blood on his lip. “You seem tired, TOP-ssi.”

“Not at all.” He refuted with a sinister smile. “In fact, I happen to be enjoying this.”

“You’re a sadistic bastard.” He hissed.

“Probably,” he shrugged. “I really hate labels, y’know? They’re so unnecessary, really.”

“I almost feel sorry for you.” Sungmin started, his vision beginning to blur. “You’re obviously itching to kill someone. Just put both of us out of misery and get it over with already.”

“I prefer torturing my victims first, Sungmin-ssi. You know, seeing the look of pain on their faces, the powerless look in their eyes, the sight of blood on their skin. It all relaxes me. In a way no one else understands.” He mused. “But I am getting impatient though.”

He aimed the gun at the restrained man once again, this time with a murderous glint in his dark pupils. Sungmin had to stop himself from flinching when he heard the click.

“Any last words?”

Sungmin shut his eyes, waiting for the bullet to go through his skull. Not long after, he heard a shot that was enough to destroy his eardrums. But he felt nothing.

He opened his eyes and was surprised to see TOP lying in a puddle of blood on the floor. His right temple showed a gunshot wound. A fresh one, at that.

“You okay, sunbaenim?” Sungmin jumped at Eunhyuk’s voice coming from behind him. He turned his head to his side and saw Eunhyuk trying to free his hands by knifing the rope. He never thought he would be so relieved as to see that stupid gummy smile of his again.

On his other side, Kyuhyun blew on the smoke emitting from his gun and approached him as well. He placed his gun in the holster in his belt before crouching down to untie the blonde’s feet.

“Now, aren’t you glad we came when we did?” he flashed him an impudent grin as he continued to work on his feet. “You owe us, Sungmin.”

“It’s sunbae—ugh, never mind.” He glowered. “Can’t you do that any faster?”

“Touchy, touchy.” He clucked his tongue as he finally managed to undo the last knot. “There. You’re free.”

“How’d you know we were in the basement?” he asked as he rubbed his wrists.

“We went to your house and you weren’t there. The rest was pretty easy.” Eunhyuk started. “We followed the muddy tracks leading here, heard voices and Kyuhyun and I quickly hatched up a plan.”

“Pretty good, huh?” Kyuhyun bragged. “We make a pretty good team, don’t we? The three of us, I mean. Even though you were tied and beaten up the whole time…but still.”

“Let’s just go back to the office and tell Leeteuk the job is done.” He stood up with a groan. “I can’t drive so one of you will have to—”

“I’ll do it!” Eunhyuk quite eagerly responded right away.

“Oh, dear God…”

“Feel better?”

As Kyuhyun finished tending to Sungmin’s wounds with a dozen balls of cotton and Betadine, Sungmin knew he was never gonna hear the end of this. Just as he was about to say something, they hit a speed bump, shaking the vehicle and resulting in Sungmin bumping his head against the window. He moaned in pain, earning an amused chuckle from Kyuhyun.

“I swear to God, I’m gonna shoot the guy who gave Eunhyuk his license.” He complained.

“You’ll get used to it sooner or later, Ming.” He said as he clapped his back, earning a flinch from the annoyed man.

“It’s Sungmin.” He corrected.

“I like Ming better.”

“I don’t.”

“Do I look like I care?”

“You j—”

“If you two fight again, I swear, I’m gonna crash this car.” Eunhyuk interjected.

His statement succeeded in shutting the two up. But on the rest of the trip to the office, they kept sneaking murderous glances at each other with daggers in their eyes. The tension between them was so thick that not even a knife could cut through it.

Eunhyuk, on the other hand, was just glad they were finally quiet.