A man sat on his beloved chair and pull a drag from his cigarette. The room he sat in was dark and freezing. He faced away from the entrance and to the assassin who was been scolded.

"Are you happy with tonight's failure?"

His words were drawn out, his voice rough from years of smoking. He never raised his voice but it was never needed for his presence alone stimulated fear.

Nightshade shook its head.

The man raised his cigarette once again to his lips. He was quiet for a moment before he raised his left hand and beckoned the assassin over.

"I saved you and your family from the clutches of poverty, I gave you family a farm, a livelihood and all I ask for in exchange is that you do what I trained you to do. Yet you can not even accomplish the simple task of bringing me these three pathetic agents."

Nightshade spoke up. "In my defense Shadow Master, they are the grandchild of the old HQ lord and they are the most powerful agents trained since birth. Besides you ordered me to bring them here alive. If you had allowed me to kill them..."

The man flung his ashtray at the assassin who just barely dodged it. The Shadow Master stood now facing Nightshade who upon the wrath of its master had backed up against the wall.

"How dare you bring these excuses to me. I need them alive for them have something that belongs to me. How dare you question my judgment, need I remind you of your place."

He raised his hand and struck the assassin who fell to the floor. The Shadow Master crouched down and grabbed Nightshade's face with his hand.

"I will not except failure again for the next time you bring me bad news then let's just say that daddy dearest may have an unfortunate accident while working the fields."

Nightshade looked up at the man "Please no."

The Shadow Master moved his face closer to the assassin's.

"Then don't disappoint me again."

Sunggyu, Chansung and Mir sat at the kitchen table staring at the envelope that lay in the middle of the table. The others were in the other room, most already sleeping except for Woohyun who sat outside the door waiting for Sunggyu.

"Hyung we should open it." said Mir in a small voice.

"I know but I am just afraid what we will find in there. Will it be a help or a hindrance." whispered Sunggyu who hadn't taken his eyes off the envelope since he had set it down.

Chansung who had been cleaning up his leg wound glance up at Sunggyu. "Help? That old fart never did anything to help us. He splits us up, gives us to people we didn't know and then never sees us again. He was our grandfather, our family and we got one card a year that said every time. My dear Grandchildren, Happy everything. You must train harder. Love grandpa."

Chansung stood and hobbled to the waste bin where he threw the bloodied bandage. "The man was an asshat and I am telling you now whatever that is in that envelope will only bring more bad luck."

Mir shifted forward slightly so as not to aggravate his multiple wounds. He prodded his finger at the envelope "Well maybe this is different. Maybe for once this may be good luck. Maybe it will help with the war."

Chansung scoffed "Oh my god you can't be so naive Mir."

Sunggyu sighed and picked up the envelope. "Well there is only one way to find out."

With trembling fingers he undid the seal and peeked inside. He pulled a face and emptied the contents on the table. It was a cd and a key.

Chansung burst out laughing and held out his arms "What did I say. I mean did he sit in his little room in the monastery and wonder 'Hmm how I could confuse the crap out them even more. Oh I know I will send useless ."

The tall boy kicked out at the trash can forgetting momentarily about his injuring. 

Sunggyu pulled a face, the one that said he'd had enough of Chansung's pessimism. "Enough! For crying out loud he couldn't exactly send us a letter and directions, what would have happened if the Shadows had gotten hold of this. The cd will probably hold the information that we need as well as the whereabouts of the key's lock. It is probably also encoded so Mirea I am handing this to you, see if you can crack it before dawn. Chansung we are going to need to fortify this place until we can figure out what is on the cd so you and I are going to that."

Chansung went to argue but stopped at the sight of Sunggyu's glare. "Fine but seriously who died and made you king."

Sunggyu raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I believe that was grandfather."

Woohyun woke with start. He was waiting for Sunggyu to leave the "meeting" for he was unable to sleep. He had no idea how all the others had just easily falling into dreamland then again none of them had almost watched their best friend and crush get stabbed and then be threatened with the same knife only moment later. Nickhun had politely asked if Woohyun was okay but Sungyeol had informed him that Woohyun never slept without Sunggyu close by. 

Finally the kitchen door opened and Mir came out staring at what appeared to be a cd of some kind. Next came Chansung muttering about stupid old men and grumpy hyung's."

Eventually came Sunggyu who looked exhausted. The older boy was massaging his temples at the obvious onset of a headache.Woohyun got up and tapped the leader on the arm. Sunggyu jumped and spun around "Jesus Namu don't do that. You almost scared me to death. Why aren't you asleep?"

Woohyun looked at the floor and bit his lip "Well I was eh waiting for you. Hyung I need to tell you something." He pointed towards their room and walked towards it. Sunggyu closed the door and walked over to Woohyun.

"What's wrong Namu?"

Woohyun walked into Sunggyu's personal space so that Sunggyu could see the sincerity in his eyes.

"Gyu what I said earlier, I didn't mean any of it. Honestly I was just scared that I wasn't as important to you as I thought I was and I was worried that you could get hurt. The thing is I like you Sunggyu in the same way that you like me."

He stopped to take in Sunggyu's reaction instead the leader looked sad.

"Don't say things like that Woohyun because I love you. Like as in love you with my entire being! You are my oxygen but Woo you are just saying this because of the traumatic events of today. I know that you don't really feel these things..."

He was cut off as he felt the press of warm lips against his. Woohyun put his hands on either side of Sunggyu's face.

"I know what I feel and Kim Sunggyu I love you too."

And with that he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Sunggyu's. It wasn't the first time they had shared a kiss but it had never felt like this before. Sunggyu wrapped one arm around Woohyun waist while his other hand caressed his cheek. Sunggyu pushed back against Woohyun as he dragged his tongue along Woohyun's lower lip. Sunggyu pulled Woohyun closer to him as the kiss deepened. Both of them were breathing heavily when they pulled apart. Sunggyu rested his forehead against Woohyun's as the younger boy let out a soft laugh. 

Chansung checked the makeshift barrier he had just constructed on the front door. He sighed loudly and threw his head back in a dramatic effect. However this caused the bruise on his temple to start throbbing in pain. He sat down and cursed Sunggyu who had clearly said the two of them were supposed to fortify the dorm TOGETHER and yet the older boy had run of some where leaving Chansung to do all the work ALONE.

He sighed, he hated that word..alone. Everyone he knew had some one even if they didn't know it. Sunggyu had Woohyun and they two were most probably banging each other if their actions proved anything. Mir had Joon even if he insisted that his crush had long since faded and that Joon would never like him back because Chansung was not stupid and he recognized the looks that Joon sent Mir's way because is was the same look that Andrea used to throw his way.

He sighed again at the thought of the agent. He knew that he had messed up with her but he had no idea how to fix it. He pulled his phone from his pocket surprised that the device was relatively unscathed. He unlocked it and opened his contact list. She was of course the first name on his list, he bit his lip and pressed the call button.

"What?"

He cringed at her harsh tone.

"Can't I just call to say hi."

"Listen Hwang I am a little busy here trying to interrogate Shadow agents while tracking Nightshade. So I really don't have time to talk especially to you."

"Wait before you put the phone down can I just say...that I am sorry. I know that I hurt you. I was stupid and frankly the idea of meeting your parents scared the out of me. You see the thing is you are this perfect person and I am just this... guy. You are everything I could ask for but I felt like I wasn't giving you anything back. You had told me about you family and how they expected you to always be perfect. Then I started to wonder what you parent would think of me and so I went to meet them the day before."

"Wait what?" the confusion in Andrea's voice evident.

"I thought that if they meet me ahead of time then I could kind of up to them and then there was another reason...I wanted to ask your dad if I could have you hand in marriage."

Andrea gasped from the other end but Chansung continued

"But they shot me down after half an hour. They said that you should marry some rich guy not some solider with no brains. That is when I realized that I would never be good enough for you."

There was silence for a few moments. Finally Andrea spoke her voice thick with emotion.

"The only person who can say whether or not you are good enough for me, is me! My parents have tried to control me my entire life that is one of the reasons I moved to Korea. I loved you and I was perfectly happy with the life I had with you. I would not have changed it for the world."

Chansung smiled "well do you think that perhaps we could..."

Andrea suddenly cut him off "I have to go, something just popped up but I will call you back and then you can ask me out properly."

Mir rubbed his tired eyes trying to adjust them to the glare of the screen. He stifled a yawn remembering that he hadn't sleep much that week nor had he eaten since that morning. He shook his head, he was a spy and spies didn't complain about been tired or hungry or in a load of pain. His fingers flashed across the board as he deciphered the code on the disk. To others it would seem impossible to crack but Mir was a pro at cracking codes.

"Hey Mirea."

Mir looked up from the screen to see Thunder who sat down awkwardly next to the maknae who had turned back to the computer. Thunder scratched the back of his head.

"Mir-ah, I know that I haven't been the best hyung to you but I want start been one now. I want us to be family, I want you to feel like you belong with us."

He waited to see if Mir would respond yet the maknae's face was a stoic mask who seemed to have not heard Thunder but he knew that Mir was listening.

"Joon told us that you want to leave MBLAQ but you see the problem with that is, you are our glue, you care for this group the most. If you left then we would fall apart. We overlooked because we were selfish and we just fell into this habit of ignoring you. For that I am so so sorry. We want to know how we can make it right with you because honestly the stuff we came up with is well... Byunghee hyung thinks we should all get tattoo's of your face on our butts."

He smiled waiting for Mir to laugh like the old Mir would have done at such a suggestion but nothing came. Thunder frowned and tried again

"Mir please..."

Mir stopped and turned to face Thunder "Hyung please just stop. It is too late, my heart and soul has been broken and I don't think I could ever be whole again. When I first started with MBLAQ I was so happy, I could be like our G.O.D sunbae's and all I tried to do was be friends with you guys. Yet each time you guys would ignore me, call me the annoying maknae, the clingy colleague it would chip away at me. Sunggyu hyung told me not to worry "We are soldiers Mir our jobs are to protect them not befriend them."

Mir looked away and stared absently at the screen.

"If I would have packed up yesterday and left, would any of you actually care. Sometimes I would make bets with myself as to how long it would take you guys to realize I wasn't there. Sunggyu and Chansung would have to sneak out of their dorms and make sure that they were picture perfect so that their members didn't notice anything amiss yet with me I could go out to goodness knows what time and come back bleeding from a head wound and not one of you would even glance my way."

He turned back to Thunder and steeled his gaze. "You want to know how to make things right. Tell the hyungs that they better start training you because MBLAQ needs a new main rapper."

And with that he turned back to his screen to show the end of the conversation. Thunder swallowed back the shock of Mir's words. He left Mir alone and rushed back to where his hyungs were trying to sleep. G.O was fast asleep and snoring loudly but Seungho was leaning up against the wall with a notepad in his lap. Joon was sitting in front of Seungho with his head in his hands.

"Okay how about this..." whispered Seungho feverishly as Joon glanced up. "We throw him a party and buy him the latest manga and we have all his favorite foods. Then we can watch all his favorite movies and maybe even go to karaoke because we know how much he loves to sing."

Thunder sat down heavily and gave out a little cry. Seungho turned to the boy. 

"How did it go?"

Thunder shook his head "He won't change his mind hyung. He is going to leave and I don't think there is anything we can do. Hyung we can't let him leave."

Seungho nodded "I know and we will find a way."

Suddenly Mir called out.

"Sunggyu, Chansung I cracked it"

It took a while but the other two boys finally arrived.

Sunggyu look surprised "Already?"

Mir grinned "What can I say, I am a genius"

The three boys leaned to look at the screen. Their eyes scrolled down the message.

Mir let out a low whistle. "Wow is this what I think it is."

Sunggyu smirked and looked at Chansung. "Seems that the old asshat left us a fortified mansion."

Wow what a long chapter. Hope you enjoy this is going to get interesting.