“This doesn’t make sense. I should be dead already, but I’m still alive.” - Jang Dongwoo

“I’ll have your back,” Sunggyu repeated. “Whoever he is, I won’t let him kill you.”

Woohyun nodded, inhaling deeply. He still wore an anxious expression, which was both reassuring and worrying to Sunggyu. Reassuring because it meant that Woohyun was showing vulnerability to Sunggyu and probably one step closer to trusting him, even without determining that he was on the suspect list. Worrying because that same vulnerability could compromise them both once they left their hiding place. Sunggyu sought to calm Woohyun down as much as possible before they set off into the unknown. He would need his wits about him.

“Woohyun-ah,” Sunggyu said familiarly, trying to get his friend to look at him, “we’re going to put an end to this. We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

“Hyung.” Woohyun drew a shaky breath. “We’ve been in this situation for a while now. And what about Myungsoo? Someone’s got to be dead by now. If you weren’t so convincing, you might be...”

“Yah,” Sunggyu interrupted, maintaining a self-assured facade that he hoped wouldn’t crumble before he could earn Woohyun’s trust. “What kind of a leader would I be if I let our entire division die?”

“You know...there’s a certain amount of trust involved in our plan.”

Of course, Woohyun knew that Sunggyu was not The Chameleon. But Woohyun was still unsure of whether Sunggyu had any suspicious conduct that had landed him on the suspect list. As an agent, Woohyun had learned that he could only trust himself. And his partner. And in this case, he knew that he had not done anything wrong. So if he were on the list, the list was irrelevant to The Chameleon’s capture.

“Yeah, there is. But you have to. You don’t really have a choice if you want to live to see the truth.”

Woohyun nodded in concession and took another deep breath. “Let’s go over it one more time. Then we should move.”

“Alright,” Sunggyu said, spreading out the paper they had drafted and written on. “You’re going to make like you’re looking for your target. According to our instructions, your target is now Dongwoo. So the only thing you need to do is look for Dongwoo. Do it for real so that it’s believable, okay? I’ll stay further behind you, and I’ll conceal myself well. Even if you don’t see me, you’ll know I’m there. We’re going to keep doing that until someone tries to kill you.”

“And if no one does?”

“Then you can distrust me as you see fit. Just be prepared, okay? If someone pulls a gun on you, I’m going to pull a gun on them, and things could get tricky.”

The pair left the alcove soon after-- Woohyun first, gun in hand, traversing the hall and heading for the stairs that would take him to the fourth floor. Stairs were the better option for their plan, as Sunggyu wouldn’t be able to cover Woohyun if they had to share the elevator with anyone else. Sunggyu followed, keeping his distance as he clung to the wall, concealed by shadow.

The stairwell was dark and foreboding. As quiet as they were, their footsteps gave tiny echoes, bouncing off the walls and returning to them as a warning to keep their presence unknown. But the echoes also told Sunggyu and Woohyun that they were the only ones in the stairwell, since they heard only their footsteps.

In a matter of minutes, Woohyun was cracking open the door to the fourth level and scanning the hallway. He disappeared without holding the door for Sunggyu, which Sunggyu recognized as a wise decision. If there were someone watching Woohyun, they could determine the number of people entering the hall by the length of time the door was open.

Woohyun had covered approximately half of the long hallway when a movement caught Sunggyu’s eye. There was a balcony, a pass-through to the floors below, and as Woohyun approached it to survey the building, Sunggyu saw someone lurking at the end of the hall. Someone was lying in wait for Woohyun. Sunggyu cocked and aimed his gun as Woohyun approached the railing, oblivious.

At that moment, Sunggyu made a tactical decision that was more of a risk than he would have taken in ordinary circumstances. But these were not ordinary circumstances, and Agent Kim Sunggyu proceeded in hopes of better protecting Woohyun and himself. Sunggyu inched down the corridor, clinging to the shadows and aiming at the figure. He halted when he had caught up to Woohyun, who was peering over the railing. If the other person cloaked in darkness was hunting Woohyun, they would have a perfect shot. But unbeknownst to them, Sunggyu also had a near-perfect shot. If he could see who it was, he would be able to better prepare for whatever might come next.

Sunggyu got his wish. With his heart pounding in his ears, he watched as the figure stepped out of the shadows, gun raised and pointed. Sunggyu groaned inwardly. The person standing before him was the last person he had hoped to see on his sub-mission with Woohyun and precisely the person he had been avoiding since receiving his assignment. Sunggyu prayed that the directors who had issued the security measures were far out of reach, despite the questions that he wanted to ask them about the suspect list. If an authority figure who knew Sunggyu’s assigned target materialized in the next few minutes, Sunggyu would be faced with the choice of either killing or being killed. And Woohyun might also be killed for not killing Sunggyu.

Jang Dongwoo stood in the center of the corridor, pointing his gun. To Sunggyu’s relief, Dongwoo was not pointing the gun at Woohyun. He was simply pointing the gun. And he didn’t seem to want to be there any more than Sunggyu did.

“Put your hands up!” Dongwoo called, and Woohyun whipped around with a shocked expression on his face. “You’re my target, Woohyun.”

Sunggyu was unable to gauge the likelihood of Woohyun truly being Dongwoo’s target, but he wasn’t about to wait and find out from the sidelines.

Woohyun slowly raised his hands and deliberately avoided scanning the background for Sunggyu. He couldn’t let on to Sunggyu’s presence until it was safe to do so. Dongwoo approached, and Sunggyu took his opportunity, knowing well that if a fourth agent entered the corridor after he made his move, they would all be in jeopardy.

“Hands up,” Sunggyu countered, stepping out of his hiding place with his gun aimed at Dongwoo. “Now.”

Dongwoo’s eyes widened. “What’s going on? What are you doing?”

“I’m keeping this from getting messy. Put your weapon own, Dongwoo.” Sunggyu squinted down the length of his gun, trying to assess Dongwoo’s position.

Woohyun stood as still as a statue, glancing nervously between Dongwoo and Sunggyu.

Dongwoo furrowed his eyebrows. “Why are you two together? Where are your targets?”

“It’s complicated,” Sunggyu said flatly. “Now put your weapon down.”

Dongwoo shook his head. “Something’s weird. And my gun is almost on Woohyun, so I’m keeping it there until you tell me why you’re protecting him. The security measures are individual. What are you doing?”

Sunggyu sighed. He needed to find a way out of this before someone got shot, but-

“Sunggyu is my target,” Woohyun said. “I’m supposed to eliminate him, but I had reason to believe that someone was after me, so I forced him to follow me and protect me as long as I need him to.”

Dongwoo, who had a knack for being unusually perceptive when it least suited those around him, shook his head again. “If he’s your target, why are you trusting him to protect you? Can’t he just shoot you from behind to save his life?”

“If he shoots me, they’ll know. Sunggyu-hyung dies either way.”

The full force of the situation finally hit Dongwoo, who turned to look at Sunggyu with teary eyes.

“Hyung,” he said, sniffing, “it isn’t you, right? You couldn’t be-”

“Of course not,” Sunggyu hissed. “But right now we have a bigger issue. You need to tell us if Woohyun is really your target. Because if he is, then we have a conflict of interest. Big time.”

Dongwoo laughed nervously through his tears and put his hands up. “I’m going to leave now, hyung. I’m not going to say whether Woohyun is my target, but I’m leaving now before someone gets hurt.”

With his gun down, he sprinted down the hall in the direction that Sunggyu and Woohyun had come from. The door to the stairwell clicked shut behind him.

Sunggyu and Woohyun turned to look at each other, thoroughly baffled by what had just taken place and somewhat shaken, in Woohyun’s case.

“He doesn’t understand,” Sunggyu said. “In this situation, everyone gets hurt. Everyone dies.”

Woohyun sighed. “What now?”

Sunggyu bit his lip, uncocking his gun. “This might sound stupid, considering what just happened,” he said, “but I don’t think you’re Dongwoo’s target.