A/N: oh look, another update, you're welcome ( and of course if you have not read chap 6, please do so.) And I understand that several questions are there, those will b answered as the story progresses. :)

Donghae and Kangin were the last two to gather in the meeting room, the rest were already there.

Donghae’s eyes hovered over Kyuhyun’s bored looking face, switching to Sungmin straightened up once the two entered “Finally”

“Sorry” Donghae apologized, a sheepish smile on his face, the lights dimmed without warning and the two hastily took their seats next to Leeteuk who flashed them a quick grin.

Joon walked up to the front, the rectangular table occupied by attentive looking people, eyes zeroed onto Joon and images the projector was projecting upon the white sheet.

“I’ll start by introducing certain faces to you, let’s not get into names, we’ve given those faces numbers, since they are nothing but targets.”

Siwon could not help the curiosity “Targets? I thought we-“

“Patience, mister Choi” Joon curtly cut in and then there was pin-drop silence for a moment before Joon continued. “Diplomacy is one of our tools, simply one of our tools, if we are pushed to our limits, assassinations will be ordered and you all will be divided into groups, assigned certain members of the parliament which your groups shall be required to be taken out. Now that this is covered, as you all already know the cure is supposed to have the power to turn any shifter into an ordinary human being, that individual would not be able to morph into his beast form anymore, according to Gain-ssi this is simply a polite way of eradicating our kind, and is not at all acceptable.”

Donghae’s eyes darted to his right where Kyuhyun sat, elbowing Sungmin who seemed too interested in his game console. It was always like that with Sungmin, his world was the games but the fact that his task strategies were remarkable was also due to the amount of gaming he did.

Joon’s voice brought him back to look up front, the man was apparently trained to show no emotions, his cold eyes scanned over the small group of people there. “ I believe some of you have been assigned with tasks such as recruiting, Donghae-ssi, you have been giving a set target, am I right?”

Donghae nodded “Yes I have, the progress is going on smoothly.”

Joon shook his head slowly and donghae had to force himself not to frown “Donghae-ssi, pick up your game, we need this cure thing shut down before it’s made public, hence you shall need to speed up on trying to get Hyukjae-ssi onto our side.”

Donghae simply grunted, nodding stiffly nevertheless. He didn’t like being told how to do his job, especially when he didn’t want people finding out he was not okay with what he was doing.

Dongha felt eyes on him, he side glanced at Kangin who seemed to be gazing at him with worry obvious in his eyes. Donghae shrugged and shot an easy-going smile, Kangin sighed and looked back at Joon, his voice booming in the room, hard for Joon to ignore. “So it’s not just this Lee Hyukjae person we are bringing in right? There are more.”

Joon nodded, face as cold as ever “ Yes, old and new faces are being scouted as to gain more strength in numbers and capabilities, having powerful men amongst us helps, rather than not having them by our side.”

“How exactly would that help?” donghae’s eyes darted to Sungmin who had voiced out the question, Donghae grinned, Sungmin had been paying attention after all.

“The members of the parliament and even higher know about just how powerful Strays are, not just in ability but when they all unite, there is no defeating them. The Government will see a sort of an ‘uprising’ of course a rather silent one. We do not plan on raging on roads and throwing stones at their windows, no. It’s more of a psychological approach. The government would not want a large wave from the ocean to come crashing down on their system, hence they will be forced to reconsider the very thought. Of course if they do not, I have already spoken of our last resort.”

“Target killing, very effective” Leeteuk mumbled under his breath, blue rims of his eyes glowing, he was clearly intrigued.

It seemed the talk was over, they would soon be dismissed, Donghae was hoping to be let go of but Joon had just one other thing to bring up “And I trust that you all have been taking your energy drinks regularly” Donghae’s lips parted in wonder as Joon’s lips actually stretched in a smile

A very creepy smile.

An affirmative hum filled the room, satisfied Joon flicked some bangs out of his eyes “Puurrfect, carry on then gentlemen, we don’t have much time.”

While joon exited first, Kyuhyun mimicked joon’s creepy smile and ‘puurrfect’ Sungmin elbowed him, giggling nevertheless, amused Leeteuk shook his head while Siwon back-handed Kyuhyun lightly.

Donghae woke with a start, hearing himself gasp. Next he groaned and palmed his face, great, just great. He had dreamt the whole meeting with Joon in his sleep, that’s the last person he wanted to see in his dreams, after Gain. Snorting he rubbed at his eyes, not liking the replay that his mind had granted him so generously, right now he needed to keep calm and cool, no matter how easy this seemed, Hyukjae was one sharp guy and he had a life to prove it, so a single slip up by Donghae could mean end of job Probably end of Donghae’s ability to walk, or talk, or breathe, again.

Donghae shuddered a bit but frowned at his lack of confidence in his own abilities, Hyukjae was not the only one who had an intimidating record, Donghae was a force in himself.

Hardly sitting up Donghae heard a knock on the room’s door. Oh that’s right, he was staying over at Hyukjae’s. He smirked at how he should have probably slept in his room, that would have helped ‘speeding’ up his game. Shrugging he dragged himself to te door, thinking there was a time for everything. Donghae opened the door with a sleepy smile, his free hand threaded into his hair, the smile soon dropped when he came face to face with a very serious looking Hyukjae.

“Whats wrong?” Donghae breathed out.

“Get out” Hyukjae hissed and Donghae felt his heart skip a beat and not in a good sense.

, was he caught?

Keeping his face free of anxiety Donghae furrowed his brows “I’m sorry, what?”

“I said get out of my house, while you still have the ability to use your legs.”

Donghae swallowed, Hyukjae’s eyes were cold, lips set in a firm line, face cold.

Damnit.

“H-hyukjae what?”

Hyukjae’s eyes narrowed, a steady stare, boring into Donghae’s and Donghae felt like he was about to break into cold sweat. His heart bat was picking up. His actor face was cracking. Had Hyukjae read something off of him, had the spoken in his sleep. What the actual had happened?? It could not be over this soon, he was sure he didn’t  make a slip up then why?!

The tension in the prolonged silence was thick, “Hyukjae please I don’t understand…”

A mocking smirk parted Hyukjae’s lips “Oh you thought I wouldn’t figure it out hunh?” Hyukjae took a slow step forward and Donghae’s legs immediately moved to step back. His body was reacting on its own, not good. Donghae needed to stand his ground, he had been through worse case scenarios, he needed to stand his ground.

“Figure what Hyukjae?

Thundering, his heart was positively thundering against his ribs and he was hating this, he was hating how effected he was by Hyukjae.

He silently took a long breathe as he saw Hyukjae’s hand rose up, landing heavily onto donghae’s shoulder. Donghae stared into Hyukjae’s eyes, trying to read off anything they gave up, he needed to know whether his mission was compromised, because if it was he needed to get the hell out of there and report back.

That’s not what he disliked more, because frankly, he didn’t want to do this to Hyukjae, not anymore, not now that when Hyukjae had gained Donghae’s admiration.

“What the Hyukjae?!”

Hyukjae was staring at him, a knowing look and then the smirk gave way to a smile, he giggled and shifted his hand to donghae’s hair, ruffling it up, his eyes crinkled as he laughed out loud “That you were so easy to fool!!”

Hyukjae burst into mocking laughter, almost doubling over as he shouted

‘ you should have seen your face’

‘you looked like a burglar caught red-handed’

It took him a moment; Donghae’s racing heart had his mind too distracted to finally register it. Hyukjae had simply pranked him, it was a joke, he had caught onto nothing, and he was just playing with him.

Donghae’s hand flew to his chest, where he felt his heart calming down, he felt his face relax and realized his gums hurt, probably because he was clenching his teeth too hard.

Hyukjae was now in the midst of laughing and hugging Donghae, playfully apologizing and saying he was just playing, Donghae let out a chuckle or two, his face scrunched in worry and relief.

In the end Donghae had ended up looking freaked out, Hyukjae saw it.

He was losing it.

Suddenly, the possibility of Hyukjae catching up to everything seemed like a huge likelihood.