Jinki stood unobtrusively to the side of the office as he watched the scene before him with a somewhat accustomed apprehension. Kim Kibum was slamming his hands heavily on the desk (messing up the papers in the process) as Choi Minho watched on with steely eyes and arms crossed. With excessive gestures and an enraged expression, Kibum was snarling at Minho, threatening him with all sorts of impossible tortures should he continue to be treated like this (this, being trapped in a non-romantic status with Minho).

It always ended in such a manner. Give the two any occasion to be alone, be it Kibum going into the office to submit a report or Minho wanting a word with Kibum regarding the latest project, the two would always end up clashing. And somehow, for some strange reason or another, Jinki would always be called in and dragged involuntarily into the conflict. It was almost as if the two needed a witness to see their deteriorating relationship and to hold testimony to the fact that any chances of them returning to their previous status of lovers was close to nil.

Jinki just hoped he won't become an innocent roadkill before then.

“ you! So you are just going to sit there and look like a prissy pansy while I shout my lungs off at you? If you think that makes you look cool in front of your boy-toy, you better think twice!”

“If you think yelling at me like some lunatic is going to make me fall in love, you are in urgent need of some relationship advice. Check out Vogue, won’t you?”

“Vogue? Don’t talk Vogue to me, you ! This little in here,” a violent finger was jabbed in Jinki’s general direction. Jinki pretended to flinch, “Is going to ruin you! He is only after your money!”

“None of your business.”

“This is what you say to the person who truly loves you and is trying to give you some genuine advice? What did he feed you, some dopeass drug or something?”

“Get out. You are no longer needed here.”

“, am I needed! I am the only person who is preventing you from ruins. He is going to destroy you one day, he is! You need to come to your ing senses—“

-

“You know, he is on to something here,” Jonghyun spun lazily in his armchair, stopping only when his headphone cords got tangled up, “Kim, I mean.”

Taemin came over and gleefully spun Jonghyun in the opposite direction, under the pretense of trying to help, “I am still rooting for Kibum dude though. Jinki-hyung should scram out of the picture.”

“ off, brat,” Jonghyun slapped at Taemin’s hands when his intentions became obvious as Jonghyun seemed to be getting more and more tangled up with the wires as Taemin continued in his assistance. Distractedly fiddling with the knobs on the panels as the voices begun to get static in them, Jonghyun continued, “But seriously, I think Jinki-hyung is actually kind of good with Choi. Kim and Choi seem to have a ing dysfunctional relationship. I don’t think they are good for each other.”

The pout on Taemin’s mouth soon turned into an aghast expression as he gasped, “You are kidding me, Jonghyun-hyung! How can you possibly cheer on the homewrecker? It’s obvious in cases like this that that Kibum dude is in the right and Choi belongs to him! What are you going on about Jinki-hyung being a better choice for him?”

Jonghyun shrugged, “Just saying. I mean, Kim and Choi don’t look as if they miss each other, much less love each other.” He gestured to the screens self-evidently.

“So you are saying that the better partner in this case is the undercover spy who is only himself out so that he could put Choi in chains more quickly?”

Jonghyun winced. “Good point.” He paused and then continued, “Didn’t Jinki-hyung tell you not to use the word ‘’ on him anymore?”

“Hyung, you probably shouldn’t say that when they are doing that over there,” Taemin pointed out as he gestured to the screens. They now sported the scene of a couple passionately making out.

“Ugh,” Jonghyun scrunched up his face, “How can Choi even think of doing that when he knows Kim is probably spying at them through the blinders or something?”

Taemin ignored him and rested his head in his hands. Sighing wistfully, he continued as if Jonghyun never asked the question, “I wish I am the one who is undercover. It’s not fair that I have to be cooped up in a small, stinky room with you while Jinki-hyung gets all the action.”

“You should be honoured, brat. Let me tell you, you are now sitting in the presence of someone who was shortlisted for the position an intelligence agent, AKA, the position that Jinki-hyung currently holds. I could have been him, ok?” Jonghyun looked to the screens and revised his words, “Not that I really want to.”

Taemin, however, appeared to be thoroughly unimpressed. “Hyung, I was shortlisted too. They had me take a test.”

Jonghyun’s jaws fell apart, “You? Don’t lie, Taemin! You are too young!”

“I am a prodigy,” Taemin struck out his tongue, “And I am not lying. They really had me take a test.”

“Seriously? No kidding? You had to try and get a cat into your lap within an hour?”

“What are you talking about, hyung? What sort of ridiculous test is that? They had me try to separate three different coloured sand from one another,” Taemin grimaced at the memory. It was an hour of pure torture, “I had to pick them up grain by grain.”

“What the ? Really?”

“Yea. It was bad, hyung. My vision was swimming by the end of the hour and I was not even through with a tenth of it.”

“Man, but at least you get to do something. For me, I had to sit still in a chair for an hour, making no sound or motion whatsoever, hoping that the cat would just climb up into my lap. At least your test appears to be testing your sight or something. Mine seemed to be plain random.”

“Hyung, try separating sand grain by grain and we will see what you say then. It was terrible, ok? At least you get to rest in a chair.”

“It . It was ing boring.” Glare.

“Well, mine too. It was ing tiring.” Glare.

“You know what, both our tests were screwed,” Jonghyun concluded peaceably after a few seconds of useless glaring, “They are both ing dumb.”

“Yea, I guess you are right this time round,” Taemin conceded. He sighed again and rolled about the table slightly, “I wonder what sort of test Jinki-hyung got. He must be really amazing to be able to pass it.”

Back from camp! And here is another chapter to 'What We Need in an Espionage Mission' series :) Although frankly speaking, I wanted to update other stories, but it turned out my brains were being really uncooperative and I ended up simply typing and deleting one paragraph multiple times for an hour. I seem to be in some sort of slump for 'It's a Big Country We're Running'...

But what really frustrates me is 'Seven Lives', because the ending is all written, but I just can't seem to find it in me to type out the middle. And this is utterly embarrassing because if I don't finish it soon, it means I would have taken more than a year just to finish a series.

And that, is a really terrible record.