“Can we call this Operation 365?” Jongin asks when he leads Sehun and Luhan back into the room full of computers running scripts and lines of code, the green pixels on the screen blinking every once in a while.

“Why 365?” Sehun asks, but he honestly doesn’t really care about the name of the mission. It’s already too warm in the room with so many computers running at the same time, emitting a droning hum, the monitors flickering in his eyes. The fact that Luhan is standing next to him, pressed up against his shoulder as he leans against the table and looks around at Jongin’s equipment does not help at all.

“Because there are three hundred and sixty five days in a year, and numbers are cool,” Jongin says nonchalantly, sitting down in one of the multiple roller chairs nearby. He jerks his head towards the other chairs. “Sit down and let’s talk strategy.”

Sehun is glad for any excuse to stop standing in such close proximity to Luhan (although at the same time, he wishes he can just stay there for a few moments longer). He sits down in a chair and wheels towards Jongin, staring at the lines of coding flashing on the screens in front of him. Sure, he’s taken coding classes and majored in computer science, but this is just...insanity. There is no way Sehun could ever read as much code and figure out as many things as Jongin can in a few minutes from all this code.

“365 is a rather random name for this mission though,” Luhan finally says, when he pulls up in a chair next to Sehun. “I don’t see any relation of it to this case.”

“Would you rather I call it ‘in which we read code and look at code and cry over code and decipher code and scream at code until our heads hurt to figure out who is trying to take over the world’?”

There’s a long pause of silence as both Luhan and Sehun look at Jongin with slightly awkward expressions. “Um,” Luhan says quietly after a few moments, “we can call this Operation 365 if you want.”

“Excellent!” Jongin grins mischievously and taps his fingers against the table. “Let’s get cracking, then.”

“So what do we do?” Sehun asks, glancing at the computer screen directly in front of him.

“We need to trace the IP address, but it’s obviously going to be a fake one because no one in his or her right mind would use a real IP address for hacking into a government system. So we’re going to have to reverse trace all the proxies used to figure out the real IP address.”

Luhan surveys all the computers, making a few quick mental calculations. “How long will it take?”

“Depends on number of relays, but probably not more than a few days at this rate. All I need to do is write up code for a specialized continuous processing kernel on each of these and keep track of progress. I’ll stop by once I’ve finished decoding everything,” Jongin promises, and Sehun is vaguely disappointed because he thought he might have been able to help with something this time.

“Call me if you have any more questions,” Jongin says as he leads them out of the secret lair and back to the front door.

“Oh okay. But I don’t have your number,” Luhan replies, blinking in confusion.

“It’s alright, Sehun does.” Jongin smiles, and as usual, Luhan doesn’t offer any reaction beyond mild interest.

Sehun shrugs it off and mentally sighs with relief. He’s glad to finally go back home and relax, though he knows that with a case like this, the chances of ‘relaxing’ are practically nonexistent. But he’ll appreciate any chance to spend time alone with Luhan, something that seems to be rather difficult to accomplish these days.

“Come on Sehun, let’s get some bubble tea,” Luhan offers once they’re outside Jongin’s apartment, and Sehun thinks maybe today isn’t so bad after all.

-

Three days later, Sehun opens the door to find a very disheveled, excited Jongin waving his arms in his face and talking at few thousand miles an hour. Sehun rubs his eyes groggily and opens the door a bit wider, although his body yells at him to shut the door and crawl back into the comfort of his bed.

“What is it,” he says when he tries to understand Jongin’s gibberish and finds that he has absolutely no idea what the other man is saying. “Could you speak in Korean please?”

“I’ve found it,” Jongin finally manages to choke out. “I figured out where the hacker comes from.”

Well, there goes Sehun’s plan of going back to sleep.

With less difficulty than expected, Sehun drags Luhan out of bed down to the living room where Jongin is waiting and fidgeting impatiently. Sehun thinks about offering him coffee, but based on the messy clothing and wide-eyed look, he guesses that Jongin has consumed more than enough of that in the past few days. In fact, he doesn’t look like he’s even slept since they started ‘Operation 365.’

Jongin takes a breath to calm himself. “It’s from China. I traced it back to an office in Shanghai that supposedly does free-lance consulting, but when I tried searching up its credentials, I got nothing. I think we found the place.”

Once Jongin finishes explaining, Sehun is suddenly faced with two disheveled, excited geniuses talking at a few thousand miles an hour. This is not the way he wants to spend his Sunday morning, but sadly, the world doesn’t seem to take his feelings into account.

“Guys, could we save this discussion for later?” he asks wearily. “It’s barely 4 AM.” Neither of them seem to notice him, continuing to exchange theories in earnest.

Luhan reaches into his pocket for his cellphone, only to discover that he has no pockets as he’s still dressed in sleepwear - more specifically, a fluffy bathrobe and bunny slippers. Sehun looks down at his own worn t-shirt and striped boxers, but fails to summon up any energy to feel self-conscious. Not like it matters at this point.

Luhan looks around expectantly, as if his cellphone might magically appear in the living room. “Sehun, where’s my cellphone?”

“It blew up last week, remember?” Stupid self-destructing text message, Sehun thinks. Sure, the cellphone only cost about fifteen thousand won, but still, what a waste.

“Oh. Right.” Luhan nods in comprehension.

Instead of giving them strange looks, Jongin shrugs sympathetically like yeah, happens. “At least it wasn’t your favorite Ferrari. Apparently my insurance doesn’t cover car bombs.”

Sehun decides he doesn’t want to know the circumstances behind that and trudges over to the kitchen, where he opens a cabinet door, revealing a stash of about twenty cheap-looking disposable cellphones. He grabs one at random and hands it over to Luhan, who immediately begins dialing a number.

He brightens as someone on the other end picks up. “Ah, Minseok! Can you book me three tickets on the next flight to Shanghai? And a hotel room.”

Three? Sehun isn’t expecting Jongin to go with them and honestly, he’s not too fond of the idea. Their cases are usually - no, always - just Luhan and Sehun, the way it should be. And who the heck is Minseok? Sehun doesn’t like being unaware of who Luhan’s acquaintances are, especially after that shock with crazy waiter Chanyeol.

“Yeah, see you at the airport. Thanks.” Luhan hangs up and turns to Sehun and Jongin. “Pack your bags, we’ve got a flight in less than an hour.”

-

Sehun discovers that Jongin is well-adapted to spontaneous travel arrangements, as he claims that he’s already set, despite obvious lack of luggage or toiletries.

“Well, I’ve got my wallet,” he says in response to Sehun’s questioning look. “They should have malls there, right?”

Sehun makes a face. “Rich ,” he scoffs, as he rifles through his drawers and tosses a few random clothing items into a suitcase, making sure there’s at least one pair of underwear. Last time they’d packed in a hurry, he’d forgotten and found out firsthand just how horribly jeans chafe. Huffing, he lugs the suitcase over to Luhan’s room, Jongin trailing behind with mild interest.

“What is that.” Jongin stares as Sehun opens Luhan’s dresser and pulls out what appears to be a pair of lacy black .

“Uh.” Sehun does not remember Luhan owning such a piece of clothing, and he’s pretty sure he would’ve noticed.

“Well, Luhan is a lot more interesting than I thought,” Jongin comments, eyeing the lingerie.

“No! It’s not his. He doesn’t wear stuff like this.” At least, Sehun thinks. He tries really, really hard to not imagine Luhan wearing these but his brain is apparently in rebellion against him.

“What then, is it yours?” Jongin jokes and Sehun momentarily forgets about packing, instead opting to chase Jongin around the room.

Luhan walks in just as Sehun has Jongin pinned to the bed in a headlock. Sehun immediately lets go and distances himself awkwardly, but Luhan doesn’t give him much of a reaction. Sehun feels silly for expecting one.

Luhan looks at the half-empty suitcase on the floor. “Our flight is in forty minutes. Are you done packing?”

“Yeah, almost.” Sehun hurriedly starts sorting through the dresser for more clothing, absent-mindedly tossing the pair of into the suitcase.

-

It’s only a two hour flight to Shanghai, Jongin choosing to spend most of it sleeping while Luhan watches a movie and Sehun watches Luhan (but not in a creepy way, of course not). He admires how Luhan’s golden blonde hair catches the sunlight streaming through the window and the pretty way his eyes crinkle when he smiles. He’s so entranced that he doesn’t even mind when Luhan accidentally knocks over his cup and spills his grape juice on Sehun’s lap. Okay, maybe he minds a little.

(But of course, still not watching Luhan in a creepy way.)

“Oh, sorry,” Luhan says, reaching for napkins and dabbing at Sehun’s crotch. After a split second of confusion, Sehun’s brain registers the fact that Luhan is touching him in a fairly inappropriate way except it’s Luhan.

“No, it’s fine, really!” His face burns and he stands up, practically shoving Jongin out of his seat to get to the bathroom.

This is going to be a really long flight.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WE ACTUALLY WROTE ANOTHER CHAPTER LOL okay working on pwp now lmao