"Just take me back to HQ," Joon said as Jihyo came out of the kitchen.

"HQ can wait. You need rest," Jihyo pointed out. "Since you're unwilling to do that, you at least need some food to make up for the amount of blood you lost."

Joon pursed his lips and kept quiet as he realised she was right. Hesitantly, he took the bowl that Jihyo was now holding in front of his face.

"Thanks," he muttered.

Jihyo turned around and walked back into the kitchen without responding. Joon scowled a little as he watched her.

"I mean, thanks for saving me..." Joon said again, a little louder, when Jihyo returned to the living room.

"It's part of my job," Jihyo said blankly. "There's no need to thank me."

Joon blinked, unable to read her expression and turned back to his food quietly. How did they end up like this? Only a few years ago, they were the closest they had ever been. Even without talking, they would know exactly how the other felt. Joon heard Jihyo grab her phone off the coffee table and dial a few buttons.

"Joon got hit, but the rest went as planned. We're at my place at the moment. Yeah... No, he's fine... Yeah... We'll be back as soon as possible. Sure, okay. Thanks. Yes, Boss." Jihyo hung up.

Joon turned to face Jihyo as he finished his food, wondering what the Boss had said.

"He told you to rest a bit before going back and that I should watch you until then. He said he'll clear everything up."

Joon nodded as Jihyo took the empty bowl back to the kitchen. When she returned, she helped Joon onto his feet and took him to her bedroom, making him lie down on her bed.

"Don't argue. I'll be perfectly fine sleeping on the couch for one night," Jihyo cut across Joon as he opened his mouth to protest.

"You know me too well," Joon said quietly, chuckling softly as he looked up at her.

Jihyo glanced at him and Joon could swear that she looked like she wanted to cry but before he could say anything, Jihyo had already left the room, closing the door behind her quietly.

***

As they reached the tall glass building, Jihyo and Joon walked in with Joon's arm still around Jihyo's shoulders for support. They nodded at the receptionist that greeted them before walking to the back of the pristine white building towards the elevators. When they entered a free elevator, Jihyo immediately shuffled away from Joon as soon as he leant on one of the walls for support. Jihyo opened a small compartment by the elevator buttons, revealing a fingerprint reader. Pressing her thumb on the reader, the elevator immediately travelled downwards, passing many floors before coming to a stop.

Jihyo walked out as the doors opened, Joon following closely behind. They walked down a corridor before arriving at a glass door, with another fingerprint reader before it. Pressing her thumb on it again, the glass doors opened automatically and they walked into the large room ahead.

The main room was made primarily of glass and marble. Since it was underground, there were no windows and the only source of light was from the installed spotlights in the ceiling. In the middle of the room was a large station with computers, monitors and more technological networks. There were several rooms at the back, some with glass doors and windows so that you could see everything inside and some that were made of bricks and completely hidden.

The back rooms were of different sizes for their different uses. The largest, apart from the main room, was the 'Training Room' that was filled with gym equipment. The room next door was the 'Combat Room' that had a large boxing ring in the middle, surrounded by various punchbags of different sizes. Next door to the Combat Room was the 'Ammo Room', a medium-sized room filled with racks of weapons; handguns, high-precision rifles, machine guns, short daggers, long daggers, blades of all sizes, anything that would be useful to the team was kept there.

There was a large bang as Jihyo and Joon entered the room which made them turn automatically to one of the windowed rooms in the far corner with a 'Shooting Room' sign on the door. Sure enough, there was someone inside with headphones and orange glasses on, pointing a gun to the end of that room towards a paper target.

"Joon! Jihyo!"

Jihyo and Joon both turned to see a girl running towards them with a worried expression.

"Eunjung," Jihyo greeted her.

"Oh my God, guys. Are you okay? What happened last night? We were so worried!"

"Long story, we'll explain when everyone's here..." Jihyo replied.

Eunjung nodded, understanding what she meant and went off to gather everyone else. Jihyo walked towards the room with a 'Meeting Room' sign on the door and Joon reluctantly followed behind. After a while, more people joined them in the meeting room and greeted both Joon and Jihyo warmly. Eventually, all the members forming MBLAQ were there; Seungho, G.O, Thunder, Mir, Eunjung, Joon and Jihyo.

"So... what happened?" Seungho, the leader of their group, asked. "Last I heard from you, Joon, you said you'd finished the job."

"I did..." Joon answered. "But then one of them found me and was convinced I'd killed their boss and ran after me, calling the rest of the dogs on me."

"And you ran instead of fighting them off?" Seungho knew perfectly well Joon was able to fight them off, no matter how big the group may have been.

"I ran because Boss said he didn't want any bodies from this mission. Just go in, get it, come out. Done."

Seungho nodded. "Then?"

"Well, I didn't think they had weapons but they pulled out guns on me and one of them hit me before I could find Jihyo..." Joon trailed off.

"I found him in one of the alleys. Lucky he got in there before he passed out," Jihyo finished his sentence for him.

"That doesn't explain the interference with the network," one of the other guys muttered to himself.

"What was that, Thunder?" Seungho asked.

Thunder shook his head. "Communication was cut off last night after Joon told us he'd finished but judging by the sounds of it, I don't think any of them there were clever enough to mess with frequencies to throw us off. There had to be someone else there, someone with enough intelligence to mess with our level of tech..."

"So you think..." Seungho started.

"BEAST," Mir piped in.

"Mir, we can't be certain..." Seungho reasoned.

"It's them, alright. No-one else has the power or intelligence to do it," Mir answered.

"But why were they there?" G.O voiced the question they were all thinking.

***

"Meeting! New mission," Seungho called through the tannoy, his voice booming in every room of their floor.

Jihyo and G.O emerged from the shooting room as Joon and Mir sauntered out of the combat room, taking their boxing gloves off. Thunder and Eunjung, who were sat at the network of computers in the main room, quickly made their way to the meeting room to set up for the meeting.

As they all gathered around the large round table and took their seats, Thunder and Eunjung finished setting up the computer and in a blink, the large monitor in front of them flickered on and was filled with the image of an older man sitting in a leather office chair behind a large desk. He was balding, the rest of his hair greying, and he was wearing old-fashioned glasses. Dressed in a formal suit, he gave off the aura of a powerful man.

"Boss," MBLAQ greeted him as he appeared.

The man nodded curtly at them before clearing his throat and turned to the computer on the desk in front of him, pressing a few buttons on the keyboard.

"Kwon Ji Yong. 32 years old, gang leader. Better known as 'G-Dragon'," the Boss explained as a mugshot of a blonde man appeared on the monitor. "He has tight security around at all times except when's he enjoying himself at one of his clubs."

Another picture appeared on the monitor, this time of a nightclub called "Knockout".

"Scheduled time is midnight tonight, we have a time frame of exactly 5 minutes. This time will be a little different, there'll be help from the inside," the Boss explained as the members glanced at each other. They had never acted with help from the inside before. "Mir will be on back up tonight, on lookout and stationed outside the club. Short proximity tonight, no sniping. Thunder and Eunjung will be monitoring activity inside but there won't be a lot for you two to do tonight. Hack the systems and just keep on lookout. Report anything out of the ordinary to the other members."

Thunder, Eunjung and Mir nodded to show they understood their orders.

"Seungho, G.O and Jihyo will be inside. Seungho and G.O, stick together but keep a distance away from Jihyo tonight. You're there just in case she needs help. Jihyo, this is your job tonight. You'll be armed and disguised, you need to get close to the victim. I'm sure you know the way in doing so."

Joon glanced at Jihyo, who was smirking a little. He clenched his fists by his side.

"Play your part well, I trust I don't need to remind you of that any more. When the time calls, Thunder will give you the signal and you will do the job. Get out of there as quickly as possible. The insider will help cover for you but just in case the bastard goes back on their word, Seungho and G.O will be there to get you out."

They nodded as they absorbed the information thrown at them quickly.

"I trust this shouldn't be too hard a job, considering the level of missions you've performed before. As always, no traces and absolutely no mistakes."

"Yes, Boss," the members chorused.

"Meet at the location at 11:30pm. G.O and Seungho will go in first. Eunjung and Thunder, set up everything you need beforehand and Mir, take position approximately 5 meters away from the entrance. Understood?"

"Yes, Boss."

"Okay, that is all. Good luck-" a voice interrupted his final words.

"Boss..."

"...Yes, Joon?"

"What about me?" Joon asked quietly.

"Joon, you're injured," the Boss said firmly. "As much as I understand your thirst for adventure, I can't let you on this mission when you have a gaping hole in your side."

Joon pursed his lips and looked down at the floor, feeling as if the Boss' eyes were glaring at him through the screen.

"You can rest for tonight since this mission won't be too difficult. I can see that you need it anyway, you haven't been concentrating as much on the past few missions. Next time, I won't show mercy. You know you ought to be more careful anyway."

"Yes, Boss..." Joon answered, his head still bowed towards the floor.

"Good luck, team."

The monitor flickered and the image of their Boss was replaced by a black screen. Seungho walked over to Joon and patted him on his shoulder.

"Boss is right... You need some rest, Joonie. You're outwinning me on dark circles," Seungho chuckled as Joon looked up to him, smiling slightly.