Seoul - December 8th 2001

"Lights are out, let's go."

The night sky had fallen over the city as the clock had moved to the late hours. Streets had already been emptied from the citizens, shops closed for the day and cars parked in their spots outside the houses. It was quiet while the calming snow was making its first bed of white over every surface.

Such snow indicating pureness and a sign of rebirth. A clean new time was coming, or so one could hope.

Three black forms moved swiftly across the stiff frozen grass, no sound could be heard from their steps and no one was out to see their enclosing to one of the proudly standing villas. The area was famous for their expensive residences and exclusive families.

”Hyun, you go find and take care of the eagles,” Yunshik commanded in a hushed tone once the three had stopped on the porch against the wall. “Aiden..." The man sent a sarcastic glance at the young male who was trying to push away his nervous looks but he couldn't fool the other. Yunshik scoffed lightly and turned his head back. "You keep a look out for any kind of disturbance or distraction that could be around the house. I’ll gather the files.”

The youngest man frowned. “Files…? Didn’t you just say Hyun take the –,“ he paused and thought it through, “You’ve planned something else.”

“Yeah, change of plans newbie. Order from the authorities so just do as I say.” His heart began to pound hard. It was his first mission and he couldn’t afford making any mistakes. He had to follow the orders, but he hadn’t expected any changes so suddenly. And the eagles? He had a slight hum of what they were refering to - feeling the gun on the inside of his clothes weighing down heavier than before he remembered the others were equally armed - and if he was right then it was bad.

"Once finished, get out on your own. Aiden, you’ll know when to get out.”

"We know Yunshik," the man called Hyun snapped quietly. "Just open the ing door already."

The lock was nothing of a hindrance for them to pass through the door, letting them freely inside the villa. Aiden was first to enter as the expertise of cracking codes. Prepared, he hit in the correct numbers for the larm next to the door to silence and they were safe to continue their search. As he turned around to keep going, he saw Hyun had already begun to move up the marble stairs to do whatever his task was while Yunshik swept his feet quietly over the carpeted floor towards another room.  Donghae looked at Hyun who had almost reached the second floor and took careful steps after him but froze when Yunshik hissed at him, having noticed his move even in the dark. “What are you doing Aiden," Yunshik hissed with a cold stoic voice. His eyes bored through him in the darkness and Aiden removed his foot from the first step. "Come on."

He followed Yunshik into what looked like a study and the latter was already hovering over a computer screen that lightened up his face. He didn’t spend much time looking around and just stood next to the computer that was set on top of the study desk, running his fingers over the cables at the back of it, pulling and pushing carefully without removing anything else.

“What is Hyun supposed to do?” He asked. The other didn’t even spare him a glance and let out a short faked chuckle.

“Isn’t it obvious? If we want to sweep Noon Songkyu out of boss’ way then we better do it properly.” Aiden felt his pulse rate increase at the realization of that they were actually killing someone. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Kiddo,” Yunshik’s voice surprised him and he looked up to see the older man gesture him to the screen, most likely wanting him to start working and hack the computer. Yunshik took a walk and studied the shelves while letting Aiden work on what he did the best. It didn’t require more than a minute before he was able to get inside of the owner’s personal files. Aiden bit his lip, staring at the screen shocked and glanced back at Yunshik who still seemed occupied. His pulse tapped up on its speed for a moment as he worked quickly before finding the document by the time the other came back to check how he was doing. He found the document they had been searching for and pressed down some buttons before Yunshik ushered him aside to take over while connecting a memory card into the driver. He slowly stood up and let his fingers travel along the desktop computer, subtly reaching for the back and --

"Aiden." He spun around when Yunshik's cold and curt voice spoke. The man was looking at him with annoyance and a hint of suspicion. “Go upstairs and look out for Hyun. If you see anyone, shoot.” Aiden hesitated for a second to do as he said, but then decided to hurry up the stairs without any sound. As he was on the upper floor, Hyun was nowhere to be seen. 

Lee Donghae, the man looked around nervously and tried to find the couple before Hyun did, come on, you can do this!

He followed the path through the hall, trying to conclude which room was most likely to belong to them.

And the third, he thought. Nothing was going as planned.

Then two loud shots echoed thought the villa, somewhere further down the corridor and the young man froze. They were serious when they said they would do anything to to get him out of the way, even as far as killing. Donghae felt his time running out when a door on the end of the corridor opened and Donghae pushed the closest door to him open and sneaked inside, considering himself somewhat lucky as he caught sight of toys spread out on the floor. Looking around carefully he had his suspicions confirmed as of noticing the small four-poster at the room’s very back and a dark figure laying there spread out surrounded by stuffed animals.

The Noon couple did have a child.

More information that he had missed out, and this is too big of a flop to miss that he had no idea of what to do with himself. Neither him nor his co.-workers seemed to have any knowledge of a kid, until Donghae happened to see a picture of the famous politician and his wife, holding a small grinning child in between their arms on the said politician’s computer merely minutes ago. As of his “new member” position he wondered if that was why he hadn’t been trusted such important information neither of that the couple would be killed nor did that they even have a son. He also wasn't quite sure if the others even knew about a boy.

Nothing was going as he had expected.

Instead of heading straight for the bed, Donghae took a small round along the walls, squinting his eyes to see the photos hung by the wall. Some of them were painted by the boy, Donghae frowned and couldn't see any charm in children's unintelligible drawings. Another family-photo was framed on the wall, but it wasn't a formal one as the photo on the computer. 

A gasp from an unknown source reached Donghae's ears and in a second he reflexively drew his weapon and focused at the now sitting boy on the bed. Apparently the little one seemed to have sensed the unfamiliar presence in the room.

Thin-lined eyes stared at Donghae up and down in surprise of the sudden appearance of a stranger. He took a few small steps closer and it was visible that the boy was shaken.

Room was dark, but still his skin gleamed in a quite fascinating manner, Donghae thought as he inspected the scared face that watched his every move. Or maybe it was just because of the wetness of tears that covered his round cheeks.

"Where is mom?" the boy questioned loudly, already beginning to cry and coughing as his messy whining got stuck in his throat. Taking another step closer to the bed, the boy began crying louder, while Donghae raised the loaded gun and aimed for the small head. His finger ready and was slowly the trigger with its tip.

"Daddy!" screamed the child again. "I want daddy!" Donghae clenched his eyes shut hard and a string in his heart broke.

A shot echoed through the villa, though Donghae had already lowered his weapon. The feeling of his heart sinking to the pit of his stomach. With a quick glance over his shoulder he pushed the door closed since he knew next shot was about to be heard, and he wasn't wrong. Next second another blast from a gun made its way through the walls causing the small boy to flinch and Donghae knew that all left of the family was the lonely lost kid on his bed, with a face covered fluids and small hands gripping onto the strawberry printed sheets.

"What's your name little boy?"

For a moment, the boy silent his cry and stared at the man with hurt eyes. He rubbed his eyes and mumbled quietly with pouted lips.

"Baekin."

Donghae nodded briefly and whispered the boy's name under his breath, his fingers tightening around the warm gun which rested safely in his palm. A small spring of white moon light fought its way through the thick grey clouds that covered the night sky and Donghae got his first proper look over the small boy as the white glow reached his face. His pure brown eyes were radiating fear, small delicate fingers clasping onto the strawberry-printed sheets and his whole form was shaking. "Dad," the boy continued to whisper in despair. His father was already gone and Donghae knew he was the only one who could manage the situation.

Another fit of crying was ready to come and Baekin was already trying to crawl out of the bed when Donghae pushed him back onto the mattress, only causing more cries.

“Shh, you must be quiet Baekin-ah.”

Not wanting to draw any attention to the room, so with his unoccupied hand he covered the small mouth and stared intensely into the small eyes. Baekin's eyes widened in fear and looked straight back.

"Stay here. And no. More. Crying," Donghae mouthed.  A door creaked; a weak puff of air filled the room and a deep breath. Donghae raised his gun back up and finally pulled the trigger.