“I’m going to start from the bottom. And that means going through my huge database to see if there’s anything interesting,” he said as he led her down the hallway to a room that was tucked away in the corner.

“And you’re going to help. Which means being greeted with thousands of papers of information. You haven’t seen my filing room, have you?”

“Filing room?”

He laughed. “It’s a bit of a mess in there, so ignore that aspect of it.”

“Right. Just asking, but shouldn’t you have all your files on your computer?” she questioned.

“Well, most of it I do, but there are still some things that I put on paper when I didn’t have all the resources before as I do now.”

He stopped in front of the door and opened it.

She stood there flabbergasted with the amount of cabinets and papers piled on top of everything, some looking like it was about to topple over. Piles and piles of paper were on the floor, some on the cabinets, and even tacked on the wall.

He maneuvered through the papers, heading towards the back, while she just stood there in shock.

“This is a safety hazard,” she muttered, eyeing the papers with distaste.

Myungsoo’s head popped out from behind a tower of paper. “Trust me, it wasn’t this messy before. Everything was already filed, but I pulled out everything I thought might help.” He glanced at all the white stacks. “Maybe too much.”

He walked towards her carrying a stack of loose-leafed paper. He pushed it against her, forcing her to grab it lest it tumble to the ground and make a bigger mess. He ushered her out the door.

“Wait. I’m going to be looking through all of these?” she asked in bewilderment.

“No, not at all,” he replied.

She made a small sigh of relief.

“There’s more to look at when you’re done with that stack.”

She looked up at him suddenly, glaring at his grinning face. “Oh? What about you?” she protested.

He smirked, overtaking her and walking in front of her. “I’m the computer genius if you’ve forgotten.”

“Oh, how could I?” she muttered sarcastically. “It’s the reason why I’m stuck doing this.”

He chuckled at her statement, stopping suddenly in front of her.

“Myungsoo!” she shouted, as she tried to stop before she crashed into him which would have resulted in spilling all the papers in her hands.

Luckily, she managed to stop in time. She glared at him from behind the stack. “May I remind you that I’m doing this on my free-will? I could dump these papers and leave.”

He grinned and brought out his hands as a motion to help her carry the papers. “Would you like me to help?”

She was about to hand him some of the papers when she was suddenly reminded of a similar time where this had happened. She glowered at him. “Are you going to ask me for a request again?”

He didn’t say anything and smiled innocently.

She rolled her eyes. “Just get moving. No way am I letting you do that to me again.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” he argued. “I mean, you got to go on a date with me.”

Soojin was glad that the papers she was carrying managed to cover part of her face. Therefore, Myungsoo wouldn’t be able to see the blush that was crawling on her face. She cleared . “It was pretty bad in my opinion.”

Myungsoo laughed and opened the door that led to his computer room for her.

She was sitting on an armchair where several piles of paper were stacked on a long table next to her. She had already gone through three stacks but had not succeeded in finding anything of use.

She tried to go through each one meticulously, but gave up trying to do so due to the excess information in each one. Instead, she glanced at each one, hoping to see something odd that might catch her eye.

She sighed, as she put the paper she was skimming through behind the rest of the papers in her hand. “This is impossible,” she muttered, glancing at the paper in front of her. “I don’t think we’ll find anything about this past organization.”

She looked at Myungsoo whose back was facing her and his eyes were roaming at the computer screen in a repeated motion. She could tell that he was becoming tired as well with his constant blinking to keep him awake. “Keep at it. Anything that seems interesting will do.”

She wanted to throw the papers up in frustration, but she wasn’t sure if Myungsoo would appreciate that. “Maybe someone who used to be in the organization led by N and K knows something about the previous one,” she mumbled thoughtfully to herself.

“I doubt it,” Myungsoo replied. “Even I don’t know anything about it; I doubt people who don’t even know if the person sitting next to them is part of the group nor would know anything about it.”

“It never hurts to try. Get some fresh new insight.”

“Then do you know someone?”

“I have someone in mind.”

He continued to look at the screen, not even pausing to look at her during their conversation. “Your brother?”

She scoffed. “That was more for his benefit than anything. And it helped you know that his best friend just might become a leader in the organization.”

He made a small huff, unpleased with the thought that his old group was becoming stronger and more dangerous.

She sighed and continued. “When I tried to find out where you went, I asked the help of someone who used to be in the organization,” she mumbled, finally taking up the task of going through the papers once more.

“Someone?” he asked, curiously.

She nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah, Hoya. Nice guy. A bit reckless, though.”

There was brief pause before he asked in a strained voice, finally turning around to look at her, “Hoya?”

She nodded, not noticing the quick glances he was giving her, still mulling over the paper in her hand.

“Hoya?” he asked again, emphasizing the name.

Finally noticing the fluctuation in his voice, she looked up from her papers to see him stare meaningfully at her.

She blinked at him, confused at the look he was giving her before a smirk grew on her face. She gave him a look of satisfaction and asked, “Wait. Are you jealous?”

He widened his eyes in surprise and quickly denied, “No!” He spun around in his chair to look at the computer screen in front of him. “I’m not jealous,” he protested.

Soojin set the papers on her lap and grinned. “You are jealous. Oh my goodness, Myungsoo. I just recently confessed to you, but you’re jealous because I wanted to ask Hoya for help?”

“I said I wasn’t jealous,” he pouted.

She laughed. “Sure, you aren’t,” she teased sarcastically.

“I’m not jealous,” he repeated in a sulking tone.

She rolled her eyes, “But pushing that aside, I was thinking of enlisting his help again.”

“Why?” he asked. “Aren’t I enough?”

She scoffed. “Yes, I’m sure you’re enough, but you haven’t been with the organization in what? Two years? Hoya’s only been out of it for about a few months. I’m sure he’s a bit more knowledgeable about their current events. And it seems like he’s keeping up with them for some odd reason.”

“But I’m L! I used to be a part of the three. I used to be their friends! I should know better than this, Hoya,” he cried out.

Soojin stared at him in disbelief, laughter threatening to overtake her. “I can’t believe you just said that,” she snorted. “Weren’t you always stating the fact that you weren’t friends with them anymore?”

He pursed his lips and didn’t look at her, sulking with a ferocity that Soojin couldn’t help but let out a suppressed laugh.

He glared at her before turning to look at his computer, pretending to ignore her.

“Oh, Myungsoo. I’m still going to ask Hoya for some help, but it’s not if I like him or anything.”

“I said I wasn’t jealous,” he muttered.

“And nobody said you were.”

He glared at her once more.

“Well, not anymore,” she laughed. “But you’re still the best,” she said as she shot him a wink and a thumbs up.

He rolled his eyes and continued to type away at the computer. “Let’s just get this over with,” he muttered.

“You want my help again,” he mumbled into the phone. “And for what exactly?”

She sighed. “Myungsoo, L, wants to bring the organization to a close. But in order for that to happen, he believes he needs to know about a previous organization that N based his own off of.”

“Okay? Why are you asking me?”

“I was hoping that you would know something about it.”

He paused, wondering if he should tell her what he was originally planning, if they wanted to work with him. “What are you exactly planning on doing?”

She hesitated. “Honestly, I’m not completely sure. But what I know is that Myungsoo is planning on a quick and painless stop. He doesn’t want to get other innocent people involved. He won’t exactly tell me the whole plan, but I believe he’s going to ask the people from the previous organization for help. Stop everything before anyone gets seriously hurt.”

“Look, it sounds nice and all, and I wish I could help, but I don’t have any information. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I was trying to grab anything I could. Looks I have to go with the old-fashioned way.” There was a brief pause before she spoke again. “Thanks, for everything I mean.”

“What?”

“You know, helping me with everything. Telling me what you knew about the organization, trying to keep me away from it, helping me find Myungsoo, and even helping bring him home. Even now. Thanks for everything.”

He chuckled, “You should be.”

“You’re the best,” she said with a slight laugh in her voice.

“What?” he asked, confused by the sudden statement.

“Hey!” he heard through the phone. “I was still talking! Myungsoo, give back my phone! Don’t hang…”

He took the phone off his ear, bringing it in front of him, looking at it oddly. Despite Soojin’s loud shouts of protest, he was sure he could hear her laughing through it all.

After Hoya got off the phone with Soojin, he sighed and dropped back down on the bed while staring at the ceiling.

He didn’t know what he was thinking, but after talking to Soojin, he realized what he was doing was wrong. How the hell was he going to bring N and K down by himself? And he didn’t even care about the misfortunate people involved, the people who were desperate enough to look for underhanded help, like him. All he cared about was making N and K suffer, painfully, ruthlessly.

But seeing how Myungsoo and Soojin was doing it for the sake of everyone, even N and K, though Myungsoo probably wouldn’t admit it, made him feel guilty to the pit of his stomach.

He would help them, of course, in the ways that he could. But for now, he needed to clear his mind and get rid of all these thoughts.

He swung his body over the bed and headed to his desk. He unlocked the first drawer and opened up a false cover he had set up long ago. But as he picked it up, all he saw was nothing.

He widened his eyes in shock and scrambled to look for the items he had placed in them.

But it was pointless. Whatever he had hid in there was gone. Stolen.

And what he had placed in there was the information he had secretly taken from Myungsoo’s house when he was hurt. He had taken it in hopes of finding something, anything that might let N and K suffer.

And he could, with the information on there. It wasn’t just the everyday facts like birthdays or preferences. It went deeper than that, for Myungsoo had hand-written notes about things like habits and even personal thoughts about them. Things about their past.

One could use this to their advantage if they were smart enough.

Hoya panicked. He didn’t know where these papers were. He was going to destroy it knowing that he shouldn’t do something like what he planned. But he knew that those papers were in his desk the last time he checked. He knew it for a fact. But now that it was gone, he had a suspicion that someone stole it, a worried suspicion.

But he couldn’t for the life of him figure out who would.

He walked out of his room to his two younger brothers’ room, hoping to subtly ask if they had been in his room.

His youngest brother was only a first year in high school. He was the one who the organization had gotten involved with. The reason why Hoya finally left.

His little brother never told him why or how they did, but Hoya had a hunch that his little brother confronted some of the minor members, asking to let him go. But they didn’t listen to such a young oblivious child who stuck his nose in something he shouldn’t have.

Those people were rough and harsh and ended up sending him to the hospital with a broken leg and a bloodied body. Not exactly what the organization desired their victims to look like.

Hoya had heard from trust-worthy sources that those members were never heard from again, presumably moving cities due to N’s wrath for messing up with his rules. Rules of making sure everything was as clean as possible.

And in the end, Hoya left because of what happened to his brother. His little brother stuck with him to the very end, hoping that Hoya would leave. And when he didn’t, his brother took it up to himself to ask them to let his older brother go.

Hoya felt ashamed of himself. Even if he wanted to leave, he was too scared to. But his little brother had the guts to do something nobody he knew would.

So Hoya wouldn’t let his little brother down and decided to finally leave the organization.

But the hate for them for what they did to his brother never subsided.

He knew he shouldn’t get involved with them again, but the thought of them hurting his little brother to that extent made him angry. Even if it wasn’t N and K explicitly who hurt his brother, he felt like it was their fault.

But now after seeing how his ways could destruct him and even his brother, he knew he had to let it go.

“Hey, little guy.”

His little brother looked up from the screen and looked back to it. “Hey, Hoya.”

Hoya looked around in the room. “Where’s your second half?”

His youngest brother shrugged. “Don’t know. He’s being really secretive lately.”

Hoya looked at the room where his two younger brothers shared a room. The youngest, who was playing video games in front of him, was the one who was doted on the most by his two older brothers. The one who took it upon himself to help him. His second youngest brother was in his last year of high school. He was a quieter than most, but he was the smartest one out of three of them. He never went out of line. Just a simple smart child. The two younger boys had a strong bond together.

Hoya looked at his youngest brother who stopped playing his video games, looking like he wanted say something. “Something wrong?” he asked.

The boy frowned. “He’s been coming home late recently. He hasn’t been talking to me as much anymore.” He looked up at Hoya. “It reminds me of when you were in that group from before.”

Hoya narrowed his eyes. “What makes you say that?”

The boy frowned. “I know it seems weird, but he seems weirder. I just can’t have a nagging feeling that something’s wrong.”

Hoya was becoming worried, his own nagging feeling overcoming him. “I’ll go see what’s wrong with him.”

His brother looked up at him. “You’re going to talk to him?”

“Yeah, talk,” Hoya replied and left the room in the hurry.

Hoya didn’t know why he didn’t of him. Even if he was affected by his youngest brother’s attack, there was one who was even more affected than him. The middle child, the one who was cared enough to do something because of his younger brother, the one who was smart enough actually do something. He didn’t think about him because he was always minding his own business. But Hoya knew what his brother was capable of.

He pulled out his phone and hastily texted Soojin. He had to tell him about his brother, and that hopefully his inkling that his brother was planning on doing something to N and K was wrong.

“Taehyung, you better not be doing anything stupid,” he muttered, pulling on his jacket and rushing towards Myungsoo’s apartment.

“Hmmm.”

“What?” Myungsoo asked, turning to look at Soojin. “You find something?”

“Well, no,” she replied. She held up her phone that she liberated from Myungsoo earlier when he took it from her. “Hoya said that he had something to tell us and is coming here now.”

“He’s simply coming? Without even asking? And he couldn’t just texted you whatever he wanted to say?” Myungsoo asked skeptically.

She shrugged. “It seems like it’s important.”

She looked at Myungsoo who was crouching on the floor, shuffling through papers. “What about you? What are you doing?”

He frowned, continuing to go through the papers. “I’m missing something. Several sheets of papers where I compiled information together on N and K. There are several important pieces of information about them. I’m pretty sure I had it here.”

“And it’s just missing? Seems like it’s pretty important information to be lying around carelessly.”

He frowned. “Despite my tendency to be messy at times, I do have a particular memory of where I placed things. I’m positive I haven’t moved it from here since last.”

“Well, you keep looking. I’m just trying to get through these papers,” she murmured, directing her attention back to the papers in her hands.

She was now looking through profiles that Myungsoo had once organized when he was in the organization. All of them had the basic information: date of birth, residence, a photo, family relations, and more. Some had more information than others, but all had decent enough information to supply a good idea of the person. However, one of them caught her eye. Because this one didn’t have a picture. Only a name and date of birth.

“That’s odd,” she pondered.

“Did Hoya text you again?” he muttered from under the table, now trying to see if the papers had fallen down there.

“No, it’s this. There’s nothing on this guy. Just a name and a birthday.”

That caught Myungsoo’s attention. He crawled out from under the table and gestured to her to hand him the paper.

He took it looked at it. “Oh, yeah. I remember now,” he recalled. “N had asked me to find some information on this guy. I don’t remember what exactly for, but I do remember that it was hard to find anything on him. But all of a sudden, N told me to stop. So I let it go. That must be all I found on him.” He handed the paper back to Soojin.

“Should we mark it up as important information?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I personally don’t think it’s anything important, but then again, I did say to look for anything with any interest. If you feel like it’s worth it, then put it aside, and we can delve into it deeper.”

Soojin looked back down at the name on the paper.

Nam Woohyun

She didn’t know why, but she felt like this was the start of their answer.

A/N: So much is going on in this chapter. Myungsoo gets jealous, Hoya’s brother, and Woohyun. Hopefully, this will tide you over until the next update?

I was contemplating whether or not to update this story today, but then I thought that you guys waited enough. So I finished up the chapter today.

I’m still busy with school that I’m stressing out about all of this. Midterms and quizzes and projects, oh my!