Minseok was relieved that Tao was the one who drove the car that day when they were heading toward where they were going to meet Chen. He was sure he wouldn’t have been safe if Tao had sat with him on the backseats. But, sometime he still could see Tao’s mischievous glances from the rearview mirror. He took back the thought that Tao wasn’t the erted bastard because Tao was indeed a erted bastard with annoying behavior and needed to be smacked. With a pout, he looked away from Tao’s eyes on the mirror to the view out of the window.

A half hour later, Tao turned the car into an abandoned place. Minseok shivered when he saw a high building that seemed had been abandoned before it could be done. It was so dark and full of horror. He didn’t want to think what creature he might see in that building.

Unluckily, that building was their direction.

“What are we doing here…?” Minseok whispered, clinging on Yixing’s arm for dear life and for Kris’ dismay.

“We’re going to meet Chen to take our weapons.” Yixing explained.

“Why here? This place is horrible.” Minseok said, followed by a weak shrieked when his foot hit something on the ground.

Tao’s laughter was echoing in that abandoned building after he had heard Minseok’s statement.

“What did you expect we would meet Chen, hm? At the crowded street or something? It’s same as suicidal!”

Minseok pouted, “At least a place where the light could enter, not so dark like this.”

“Such a kid.” Tao snorted, “Are you afraid of darkness or something?”

The chubby man didn’t answer it. He just jutted his lower lip even more and lowered his head to see where he was walking.

Tao stopped them when they saw a silhouette in front of a broken window.

“Aigoo, why so long?!” The silhouette asked.

“Sorry, Chen.” Kris said, “Traffic jam.”

The silhouette that became clearer when they were getting closer was Chen. He had three briefcases near his feet.

“I brought the weapons.” Chen said. “This is Tao’s.” He handed the first briefcases to the raven haired man. “This is Yixing’s and Xiumin’s.” Chen handed the smallest briefcase to Yixing and handed the last one to Kris, “It’s yours.”

“Yixing.” Kris called the soft figured man. Yixing nodded. He opened his laptop and typed something before showing the display to Chen.

Chen smiled contently, “Such a good deal. It’s nice to have business with you.”

“Yeah, us too.” Tao smirked and shook Chen’s hand.

“Now, I still have class to attend. See you around, eh?” Chen waved while walking away from their spot.

“Class…?” Minseok asked, “How old is he exactly?”

“20.” Yixing shrugged and closed the laptop, “Yeah, I almost forgot, Minseok. How old are you?”

“Hmm…22.” Minseok admitted.

Yixing widened his eyes, “Huh?! Are you sure?! I thought you were younger than us!”

Minseok frowned, “Than you…? How old are you?”

“I’m 21. Kris is also 22. And Tao is the youngest. He’s 19.”

Minseok gaped and eyed the youngest of them.

He’s the youngest but also the most erted one? …what the hell is going on with this world?!

“What?” Tao raised one of his eyebrows to Minseok, “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Don’t you guys have school or something?” Minseok asked carefully.

Tao snorted, “Silly question. We don’t need education, Xiumin, we were born to kill, not to be an employee or something like that. Well, Yixing was educated though. He’s not being our hacker and programmer for nothing.”

“Programmer?” Minseok looked at Yixing, “You are a programmer?”

Yixing shrugged, “Tao is exaggerating. I usually just hack.”

PEEP PEEP!

Kris flipped on his phone and picked up the dial.

“Yo?” Kris said. He heard the other person from opposite line for a while before flipping off his phone. “We got a job, Guys.”

“Finally.” Tao sighed, cracking his neck, “I’m craving to use these new stuffs.”

“Let’s go.”

-

Once they arrived at the house, they gathered at the same place where they had called Chen before, excluding Minseok. The chubby man sat not far from them and watched them talking hurriedly in Chinese that he couldn’t understand. So, he sighed and folded his arms on his chest, feeling abandoned.

From the phone Kris’ had got before, their new job was killing a CIA member. It made him frown.

“CIA?” Tao asked, “Are you sure? This is new. Hangeng-ge never asked us to kill one before.”

Kris nodded, “This CIA member is one of Joonmyeon’s spies.”

“…the hell?!” Tao exclaimed, “How could he sneak into CIA like that?”

“Who knows.” Kris shrugged, “But, from Hangeng-ge’s information, Joonmyeon sent this person to get some files from CIA. And the files are important; Hangeng-ge needs the files.”

“What files are we talking about exactly?” Yixing asked, “If it’s just about the files, why don’t Joonmyeon. Or even Hangeng-ge, hack the CIA? I mean, it’s an easy task for both of them.”

“The files are kind of special, Yixing. CIA doesn’t save it on their program. They save it in a chip. But, there’s no information about the chip until now. That’s why Joonmyeon sent that person. Hangeng-ge couldn’t spy the CIA though, his people aren’t that good in spying.”

“Hmm. That’s why he asked us, right? So, what am I supposed to do? Spying the CIA too?” Tao asked, “But, I’m an assassin, not a spy. I might ruin everything.”

Kris pursed his lips and leaned to the wall behind him. Tao was right. They might ruin everything if he forced Tao to sneak into the CIA.

“No, you don’t have to spy them. Hangeng-ge said Joonmyeon’s spy was going to steal the some probable files that might be the hint to lead them to the chip. But, I don’t know where this person would move. So, you have to get your eyes on this person.”

“The problem is I don’t even know how this person looks like.” Tao grumbled.

“I’ll hack Joonmyeon’s program and find something about the spy Joonmyeon sent.” Yixing said.

He flipped the laptop open and typed fast. The firewalls on Joonmyeon’s program were thick and complicated. But, don’t call him Yixing if he couldn’t break them all. After thirty minutes later, Yixing sighed contently.

“We’re in. But, I just have three minutes to find the profile because Joonmyeon added a new firewall that might track us.” Yixing said.

“We count on you, Baby.” Kris said.

Yixing smiled and worked on the task again. After two minutes, he closed the connection to Joonmyeon’s program and laughed.

“Damn! I should have known that Joonmyeon would send this damned person.” Yixing said between his laughter.

“Who is it?” Tao asked Yixing, amused by the elder’s reaction.

Yixing wiped his tears and answered, “Park Chanyeol.”

Minseok, who suddenly heard his (supposed-to-be) best friend’s name between the Chinese Yixing was saying, straightened his body and set his ears sharper.

Did Yixing just say Chanyeol’s name?

“Oh, looks like our Xiumin heard the name he knows.” Tao said.

“Did you say Park Chanyeol’s name, Yixing?” Minseok approached the dimpled man, “Did you? What’s wrong with him? Is he in trouble?”

“No, Xiumin. Your friend isn’t in trouble.” Yixing said, emphasizing the words so Minseok could hear, “He’s being a spy in CIA now. Well, that guy is talented. He isn’t only spying you and your family, but also the CIA.”

“So, your life must have something to do with CIA” Kris added, “I told you, Xiumin. You’re worthier than a normal civilian.”

Minseok was taken aback, “Impossible! It must be something important. I know it’s not about me! Stop saying that, Kris! I’m just a normal civilian, I’ve been, and I’ll always be!”

Kris shrugged, “Just let’s solve this job first and we can get the answer, Xiumin.”

Minseok shivered to hear the low threatening tone Kris had said to him. He gulped and hoped that all things Kris’ had guessed were wrong and unproven.

-

When he was awake on the morning, Tao had an uneasy feeling hanging in his heart. He knew he shouldn’t have kept that feeling. He turned his face to see sleeping Minseok and sighed. From what he had seen, Park Chanyeol had been really close with Minseok, no doubt. But, Tao hated the fact that Chanyeol had been using the innocent Minseok for whatever Joonmyeon wanted. It was harsh. We couldn’t use people’s hearts for our own benefit, right? On Tao’s point of view, using Minseok’s heart and making him a best friend was mean. That was why he hated Joonmyeon and his little team. For years being collided in different acts of gun fires and fights, Tao had known Joonmyeon so well. That guy was such a sweet guy with claws on his back. Joonmyeon had been his parents’ best friend and killed them afterwards. What else Tao needed to know other than that guy was a faked nice man? All Tao wanted to do was kill that Joonmyeon guy and make him feel what Tao’s parents had felt before they died.

He shouldn’t have known us and this . His life was perfectly fine before this, he thought while looking at sleeping Minseok. With a heavy sigh, he approached Minseok and shook him.

“Yah! Wake up!”

Minseok mumbled something incoherent and opened his eyes just to see Tao’s dark eyes staring at his orbs. Abruptly, he woke up and pushed Tao away. The raven haired man rolled his eyes and got back in front of the mirror.

Tao had prepared for his job, Minseok saw. The twin guns had been hung hidden by his black long sleeveless coat with high collar made by leather, the buttons were ed, revealing the tight white tank-top underneath which was wrapping the long torso perfectly fine. The hour glass tattoo on his left arm was visible. His hands were gloved by a pair of black leather gloves. The skinny black jeans wrapped his long legs along with the white sneakers. His new sniper was in the long back pack he got on his back. His usually falling bangs were tousled up on his head, showing his handsome face more.

This view was the first view Minseok saw once he was awake from his sleep. He, wanted or not, admitted mentally that Tao looked so hot like that. But, he didn’t want to say it out loud because Minseok knew Tao would be so chesty if he knew. So, the chubby man kept his mouth sealed.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Tao asked Minseok through the reflection on the hanging mirror.

Minseok shrugged. He kicked the blanket and walked toward the mirror to fix his bed hair. But knowing that his hair couldn’t be tamed without water, he gave up and sighed.

When Minseok was about to walk out from the room, Tao grabbed his hand.

“What?” Minseok asked.

“You don’t have anything to say?” Tao asked, “I might kill your best friend in a few days or maybe today.”

Minseok bit his lower lip. He knew it, but he didn’t want to talk about it. That was why he didn’t bring the topic up before. But, since Tao was bringing that up, he couldn’t help but feel sad. His tears had been hanging on his eyes.

Looking that, Tao felt guilty.

“Listen, Minseok. I don’t know how you see this Chaneyeol, but for your information, he’s dangerous. He killed my parents and might kill yours too. I know this is hard, knowing that your best friend is a person like that. But, you have to remember, not everybody in this world looks like their appearance.”

Minseok bit his inner cheek to prevent his tears to roll down. But, the tears were betraying him. They finally rolled down on his cheeks, making a pair of tiny rivers.

Tao sighed and lifted Minseok’s chin so the older yet shorter man could see his eyes. He wiped the tears and said, “Don’t cry for people who would make you cry. Sorry, I have to kill Chanyeol, for my parents’ sakes, and maybe, if this really has something to do with you, for your sake.”

Minseok nodded. “But, promise me one thing.”

Tao raised his eyebrows, “What’s it?”

“Make it fast. Don’t let him suffer by the pain…”

“I can guarantee. I’m a professional shooter.” Tao ended it with a chuckle, earning a weak punch from Minseok on his chest.[]