His room stank so bad and felt a little too humid for his perspiratory, he concluded after staying in for only ten minutes. There was barely a ventilation unless he considered those two little slits above the creaking door as them.

Is this room used to be a storage or something before? Jinki thought as he scanned the dusty floor, frowning as he dragged his sight upward and spotted something slick and -once, must be- green was now sticking as a permanent decoration of the broken white wall.

He didn't even want to think of what it was once.

His whole room was not really like any other rest of the headquarters that was a tad less dirty -he could sense it despite the dimness-.

Maybe Jiyong hadn't trusted him that much to give him a more decent space. Jinki shrugged. He just had to adapt then.

But well, used to live in a 24/7 well-cleaned and sterilized palace for twenty-five years was not helping him that much.

He kept frowning once he pushed his body down to lay on the bed, since the sheet felt somewhat itchy and he could obviously heard there were mysterious scratching noises all over the room.

Rats, cockroaches, spiders.... Jinki absentmindedly named all the possible sources of the noise inside his head and decided to just push his body up to sit on his bed.

He wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Bet on his right eye for it.

So, considering that trying to sail into dreamland would just waste his time anyway, he opted to look around the room again, hoping there would be something ... just something that could help him and his mission.

The Shadow Dragon, the gang he infiltrated in at the time, was one of the most powerful gang of Kkangpae in the country.

Led by G-Dragon, they were holding the capital area, and that's why the intelligence team could locate them easier than any other gang.

But Jinki was just sure GD was not the real boss. It wouldn't be this easy for him to meet the top man realizing he was barely even a newbie. He even hadn't accepted officially.

Sighing, Jinki glanced back to his rucksack. There was nothing really valuable there unless some equipments prepared for him.

The palace had provided him stuffs to disguise as a hacker. Besides physical training, he had learned for weeks from the government Information and Technology Department for these kind of things.

Coding, hacking, cracking and all those things related.

The palace had made a fake governmental database that was almost similar to the real one -only the interface and usage, not the files- to be hacked. Jinki could even mess the datas up, interfering and spying on the royal palace -once again, fake- annual meeting by hijacking  the cctvs.

It would be so much fun if the Kkangpae thought they could spying on the government with the help of Jinki that actually was spying on them, instead. It's working like that Inception term, yes.

Back to the real world, now Jinki was pretty sure the room which he was in, was once a storage. Judging from few old boxes that were sitting forgotten in the corner of the room.

He decided to stand up and walk closer to look in but immediately sighing in utter disappointment as he saw the boxes were just empty, tho he found there was a small black stamp hidden on the inner side of one of the each box upper lid.

It was a sign of black and grey dragon intertwined to each other, known as the gang's tattoo pattern. The Shadow Dragon.

Failed to do any further investigation, Jinki decided to just sit back on his bed and kill the night by commiting murder to  cockroaches that happened to pass by in front of his feet with a dusty newspaper roll.

*

Morning came too fast once he succeeded to settle himself into a not-so-nice sleep. But it's still a sleep, afterall.

"Wake up, lazy . You need to work to keep living. Literally. Heh."

Jinki groaned as he pulled the stained pillow to cover his face, blocking the obnoxious yell from his ear.

" this man !" another yell "I don't even get why Jiyong did even allow you to stay. Whatever. I'm not a waker."

There's another annoying creaking sound from the -once again- opening door and Jinki was half-opening his small eyes right at the time before the short figure completely disappeared behind the door.

Wasn't that short man from the club? He blurry thought before throwing his head back again. He swore he really needed another five hours to sleep.

But... He groaned again. He was not a prince, he was not in the palace and he couldn't do anything he wanted like that anymore.

There would be no maid delivering the chef-made breakfast to his room nor a bath-ub full of warm scented water waiting for him to dip in.

God. Pull yourself together. Jinki said to himself as he pushed his body to get up and gather his shattered soul from the empty air, scratching his slightly-itchy arm.

Jinki was not sure what to do next, whether he was allowed to take a bath first or he had to meet Jiyong first so he just decided to get out after checking he did not appear with a terrible bloated face or something.

"At least wash your face, man." Jiyong said with a smirk once Jinki -unconsciously- stumbled into somewhere that looked like a dining room.

"Uh, sorry?" Jinki said, frowning "I didn't find the bathroom on the way."

Jiyong shrugged "Just sit." he said, pointing the vacant chair across him.

Jinki shrugged back and took the pointed seat.

There were only four of them in the dining room. He was alone on this side while Jiyong, that short man -Jonghyun, Jinki kept reminding himself- and that kitten-guy Kibum sitting on the other side. Jinki made a mental note that Jonghyun and Kibum were sitting so close with each other.

Not that he cared. Obviously.

"We only had this for breakfast." Jiyong said, pointing to plain bread on the table "You make your coffee yourself. You know, we're not really eating here."

"Where's the other?" Jinki asked nonchalantly, snatching the bread -that was as hard as rock, he noted once he tried to bite it-.

"Working." Jiyong answered.

Jinki raised his eyebrows and nodded, before suddenly glancing to the pair that were obviously examining him in such blatant way he could even feel they were boring a hole on his face.

Caught off guard, that Jonghyun guy scoffed and broke the eye contact first, while Kibum was still sending a challenging look to him.

"Whoa, chill guys..." Jiyong said as he finally realized the staring match in his dining room. "Key, be nice." he warned, though he didn't sound mad or angry at all.

Kibum released a sigh before staring to his leader "Aren't you going too easy on him? Letting him in after how much day investigation? Two? One? Me and Jonghyun needed ing three months before we got in."

So much for bluntness, Jinki glanced to the pretty guy while trying to chew his bread with all his might.

"He's a special case, deary.." Jiyong said, assuring Kibum "You know how boss has warned us to succeed the latest mission. He get what we need to get through."

Kibum shook his head in defeat and flew his gaze somewhere "Whatever."

Jiyong only smirked at the sight of the slight-tempered Kibum. One of his golden boy always had a problem with trust, just like him, he knew it.

Then he shrugged to himself and slowly turned his head to stare at the guy across him. The mysterious Onew.

"You tell me, man." Jiyong finally said while Jinki just raised his eyebrow "You know, we're not really recruiting at the time but your file is really.. something.."

Jinki just shrugged as if it didn't matter to him.

Jiyong took a deep breath before moving forward from his leaning position, bringing his frowning face closer to Jinki "Who are you?"

"Onew." Jinki said his fake name once again "And I just usually sit in front of my computer for earnings."

"Running an online shop?" Jonghyun scoffed.

"Yeah.." Jinki narrowed his eyes to the shorter man "Just mention the full name of your mother that dumped you away on the street to me. I'll dry out her bank account for you."

" you!" Jonghyun cursed at the mention of the 'mother' word, nearly throwing the knife on his hand -that was used to cut his apple- if it's not because Kibum gripped his wrist to restrain the movement.

Jinki chuckled "Aren't you a little too sensitive with all those muscles?"

"You..." Jonghyun hissed, tossing the knife to the table and slipping his hand out from Kibum's fingers, sending death glare to Jinki after standing up and kicking his chair back until it crashed on the floor.

"Watch where your feet step on." Jonghyun threatened sharply before finally walked out of the room.

Jinki just raised his eyebrow, resuming his eating like he hadn't provoked someone a second before.

"So, you're a hacker huh." Jiyong said.

"Sort of." Jinki answered, now totally decided to ignore Kibum's another glare to him "Bank account, credit card, tax report, any other virtual datas. You name it. I'll crack it for you. At a price." he smiled rather sweetly.

Jiyong nodded to himself "If you're doing so well on it, why are you deciding to join the gang?"

"I have my difficulty," Jinki said "The police has been tracking me. After all, I could only work from my old computer in my room. No matter how hard i could hide and mask my IP, they have more techy equipment or all that s to track my craps.

"I heard some whispers going around about Kkangpae in the club -back then in my area, before yours-. I knew how you all work. And i was just thinking why don't i join under a bigger wing. I just recently find a way to get into the government database. It was hard to crack, but there is always a loophole inside every invention. I need a place to hide and i know you need some files to do your ilegal stuffs. Isn't this a win-win for us?"

Jiyong wanted to deny but instead he remained silent. Arguing with himself.

"Not a push. It's business." Jinki smirked "I sell, you buy. You can take it or leave it."

"Take it or leave it?"

"Yeah. You said you don't do recruitment at the moment? I'll leave if you want.." Jinki shrugged "Of course after you pay, just for the files i've showed you."

Jiyong frowned "I don't think you understand how we work."

Jinki raised his eyebrows. "Maybe I don't."

"You're accepted at the moment we allow you to step inside the headquarters." Jiyong said "Because we just don't let anybody enter. Once you're in, you couldn't get out. Unless in the form of corpse."

Kibum gave a cold chuckle at the same time when Jiyong said "Welcome to Shadow Dragon."

Jinki pulled one side of his lip upward, glancing challengingly to Kibum while tearing another bite of his bread noisily with his teeth "Nice to hear it."

*

The last time The Shadow Dragon recruited new member was almost two and an half years before. So when Jiyong announced Onew as a freshman, everyone -or just some members that had completed their tasks and got back to headquarters to report or to stay- thought it deserved a celebration.

Or they just needed an excuse to get wasted on the gang's expense, to be honest.

And Jiyong let them so for tonight.

Most of them were welcoming Jinki nicely -in a rather nonchalant kind of way-, while a few were siding with Jonghyun and Kibum, tho not as blatant as the pair.

Again, not like Jinki cared. Because he only needed Jiyong to trust him enough to let him in. He didn't have a problem with what the ordinary members thought of him.

They would just be a handful of trash once the authority came to get them. Heh.

Now at he time, Jinki was sitting on the couch with a drink on his hand, a cheap beer he didn't really like but he's holding it just for a camouflage need or something.

He was exchanging a conversation with a high Chansung that almost probably had spilled everything inside his head out of the state.

The discussion was not really something important but he made a mental node to some small details that could help.

It was when Chansung started blabbering about another cherry he'd popped that Jinki suddenly caught someone was sneakily slipping out of the recreational room. It's Kibum. Alone.

Suspicious. He thought.

After frowning for a while, Jinki finally decided to hand his beer to Chansung, who happily downed it right after and caused the big guy to suddenly blink furiously, slowly passing out in the couch.

He just scoffed before quickly stand up and get out from the room as well.

The hallway was dim. Since there's no window to let the moonlight penetrate. And the only thing that could help his vision was a lone yellow lamp in the middle of the hallway's ceiling.

Where is he going? Jinki frowned as he saw Kibum's backside wandering before him.

But hey, why did he even bother to trail him? The guy could be just going to a restroom, he thought again.

Jinki didn't like Kibum. Neither did Kibum and he didn't care.

But at some point, he wouldn't deny to admit that there's a part of him that was attracted to the guy.

Or maybe, attracted to his alluring backside ?

Those long legs and that round a..

Wait. Jinki mental-slapped himself. Since when did he could think of a man's backside like that? He shook his head, thinking that his new character must'd been gotten on the way.

And at the moment Jinki had pulled himself from his thought, Kibum had finally stopped in front of some double wooden door.

Jinki raised his eyebrow as he decided to hide behind a pillar. Because, it's obviously not a restroom.

Kibum opened the door and stepped inside the room, he's turning the lamp on, though he didn't bother to shut the door back after it.

On the other side, seeing that he couldn't get a clear sight of the room Kibum just entered, Jinki slowly moved forward, trying to be as quiet as he could.

And the room turned out to be a dojo.

Jinki could only raise his eyebrows in pure surprise, as he was finally standing right outside the door, peeking at the other guy's back inside.

He frowned. Did Kibum plan to exercise this late ?

"Come in.." the object of his thought suddenly called out, without even turning back as he slowly peeled his black leather jacket off, revealing the creamy loose top that deliciously hugged his lithe body under.

Jinki glanced left and right. Wasn't sure Kibum was talking to him.

But Kibum just sighed after throwing his jacket to the corner of the matress "I know you're there.." he said, sounded bored "Peeking  from the damn door.."

Okay. So he was talking to him. Jinki thought before carefully moving from where he's hiding and took a step inside.

"You know," Kibum turned his head back slightly, glancing to Jinki from his shoulder. "You need a full course training to master how to trail people off without making a sound."

Jinki frowned. Did he even make a sound? He questioned himself.

Kibum scoffed, turning his head back to the matress while hissing "You just aren't that great, aren't that worthy to join us. We could hire any geek to do your.. thing. With head not as big as yours."

He spoke well now, huh? Jinki scoffed "Everyone else unless you and your boyfriend funnily find me kind of modest. It must be their heads that need some magic knock."

"He's not my boyfriend." Kibum narrowed his eyes as he saw Jinki walked to the opposite side of the matress where he stood.

"Ah." Jinki nodded to himself, raising his eyebrows " buddy?"

"None of your business." Kibum snarled.

Jinki just smiled understandingly, as if he was talking to a toddler -a retarded toddler- and it really got on Kibum's nerves.

Because being one of Jiyong's trusted righthand deemed him with a higher status that no one ever thought to cross before.

No one ever challenged him this openly.

"Are you even ready to be put in a fight anytime?" Kibum asked, finally snapped to dare the other guy with the mention of one of his most skillful field "Even our technicians who just work to fix lamps and s like that in headquarters have to pass a physical qualification. And you?"

"You want a match." Jinki said, it's a statement not a question.

"Martial arts. In any kind of type." Kibum answered, smiling triumphantly "Afraid?"

Jinki's smile faltered, just an acting, just in order to rise Kibum's ego. Since he'd learned it'd be easier to beat his opponent that way, when they were to full of themselves.

"Get on your side." Kibum said coldly after erasing the unusual smile from his face.

"Don't we need a warming up first or something?" Jinki asked, taking a breath as he slowly walked to the spot in a stance right before Kibum.

"You're not doing warming up first if the cops are chasing you, are you?" Kibum raised his eyebrows.

Jinki gulped, rather slowly to let Kibum expect how afraid he was.

"Watch out for the bruise," Kibum stated slowly, tilting his head "I heard it's painful."

And after a quick polite bow he's doing alone, Kibum didn't wait even a second to float toward Jinki.

As fast as light, he forward toward the direction of the other's neck joint. It was actually enough to make the Prince crash on the floor, if only Jinki didn't bend his body down on the right time.

Jinki breathed hard and took a step back as he saw Kibum was walking restlessly in front of him, taking the other side of the matress where Jinki was to begin, looking down to him with a smile.

Jinki knew Kibum was going easy, way too easy on him. He could just release another hand strike or kick at the moment Jinki straightened his body. And he didn't.

But it's okay, Jinki thought. He would just let Kibum get as cocky as he could.

"Let's just go for one take down." Kibum said, started walking in circular motion that Jinki couldn't help but to follow.

Jinki shrugged "Up to ..."

Kibum was already striking another punch to his face that startled him so much, it subconsciously made his own hand activated himself to brush and block the other's arm.

And Kibum was utterly surprised to the fact that Jinki could block him, so that this time he didn't wait again to send a succession roundhouse kick to the direction of Jinki's shoulder.

Jinki ducked again, and before Kibum could get a grasp of what's happening Jinki crouched down and extended one of his leg to swipe the heel of Kibum's left feet, the one that was still on the ground.

To his own surprise, Kibum stumbled and could only froze when his back met the matress, as fast as a blink.

Jinki chuckled.

And that was the thing that finally made Kibum snapped back to life. He glared to Jinki as he slowly propped his hand on the matress to stand up "You in' know how to do this."

"Nah. I just don't need to flaunt it on your face.." Jinki smirked.

Kibum hissed, and driven by his anger he was already half-running without thinking to release a high flying kick toward Jinki's chest. But it was too hurried and too predictable that Jinki could easily turn his body aside and grabbed Kibum's ankle to pull him back to the ground, hardly.

Kibum almost fell on his face if only his hands didn't came to support him, to grip the matress.

This was the first time Kibum being in a fair match in years.

Fine. He thought with another boiling rage.

When Kibum stood up and turned again to see him, Jinki just raised his eyebrows as if asking 'Still up?'

Kibum clenched his fist on his side, before he yelled out profanities in frustation and stormed forward to send another thoughtless hand strike.

Jinki leisurely brushed the punching hand to the side with one hand, while his other hand joined to trap and twist Kibum's hand to the guy's own back a second after. Ready to end the match.

Kibum groaned as his foot started searching Jinki's, in order to stumble him, but to no avail because the other had repositioned himself behind him.

Jinki quickly grabbed Kibum's other free hand and locked it together with the first one. Then he chuckled right behind Kibum's earshell, "Such a hard match for a pro."

Kibum hissed cursing under his panting breath.

Jinki grinned, before his eyes slowly watching Kibum's slumped shoulder moving up and down fervently, and he raised his eyebrows as he diverted his gaze a little upward, finally seeing the reason why Kibum loved to wear high-collared outfit.

Pitch black ink was marking the side of the other's long and milky white neck, curling and forming the well-known tattoo of the gang.

Jinki brought his head closer to examine the symbol, it was tinier than the one he saw on the box.

And watching sweat glistened down the pale neck to blur the tattoo for a moment before it went down somewhere under Kibum's loose top, Jinki had to admit the small detailed dragons and the contrast of the ink with Kibum's white skin were rather beautiful.

And that was when he finally felt another sign of struggling from his opponent. Jinki chuckled again as he tightened his locking hand to Kibum, pressing the back closer to his chest.

"You know something," Jinki suddenly whispered to Kibum that was turning his head to side glaring him.

Jinki curled one side of his lips upward "I heard the bruise was painful..."

And before Kibum could respond to his mocking, Jinki had turned Kibum's body around by his twisted hands to face him while his legs quickly moved forward to attack Kibum's heels, letting the other's back met the matress harshly for the second time.

Jinki also threw himself down to pin Kibum on the matress, doing a perfect arm and kneelock to disable his rival's next movement.

He mouthed the countdown that was needed to mark a legitimate take-down while smirking down heartlessly to Kibum who was still sending a killer glare up to him, struggling in vain.

Seconds later, Jinki slowly repositioned himself on one knee after completing his counting.  Raising his eyebrows on the way as he realized Kibum's loose top had been accidentally riding up to expose his flat tummy. Where, he finally knew, the sweats were all going.

And it was all just within the reach of his arm. Or maybe -courtesy of his new found insanity-, of his dry lips.

"You know something else," Jinki said again as he finally stretched his fingers out to pull the shirt down, intentionally letting his thumb rubbing on Kibum's milky skin to feel that belly fluttered softly under his touch "I thought I'd rather make you bruise in a much more.. pleasurable way."

*

", Jiyong!" Kibum yelled as he slammed shut the door behind him, stomping furiously to  the desk where his leader was "I don't want to deal with him again!"

"Whoa.. Whoa.." Jiyong said as he widened his eyes after raising his head from his computer game he was playing, surprised to see Kibum barging in his office in such a late hour "What happened to you, sweetheart?"

Kibum crossed his arms in front of his check, clicking his tounge "I don't want to handle that new guy."

"What's wrong?" Jiyong frowned "Don't you usually like torturing fresh meat ?"

"Not this one." Kibum pursed his lips, looking aimlessly to the side.

"A-ah.." Jiyong finally got what Kibum was fussing about "You lost your first match? You failed your own plan?"

And the pout Kibum sported after it was enough to send Jiyong to laugh and clap his hands wholeheartedly.

Kibum sneered as he glanced to the older "Not funny."

Jiyong scoffed as he tried to muffle his laugh "I just can't believe you've finally met your significant other." he said before laughing again.

" you." Kibum cursed as he his heels, knowing Jiyong wouldn't help him at all at this rate.

"Couldn't. Ask Onew to do it to you." the other replied.

"Just shut up!" Kibum shouted exasperatedly as he slammed Jiyong's door again on his way out.

Jiyong could only shook his head in the middle of his laughter, thinking it would be so much fun to have another promising drama on his family.