The building Yixing drives him to isn't far from the memorial service. It's a squat gray concrete establishment hidden in the shadows of the steel structures and sleek skyscrapers surrounding it. From what Luhan can tell, the building has three floors. Small tinted rectangular shaped windows take up space on the walls of the first two floors. They seem to be there more for decoration than to allow any light in. The third floor’s windows are tinted as well, but they stretch the full length of the walls and have black lines crisscrossing them in a pattern. It’s a bit of an eyesore.

Luhan quickly learns that the first two floors house a parking garage. The cars within the garage are few and varying in expense making it difficult for him to gauge just what to expect in this mysterious place.

Yixing exits the car as soon as it’s parked, and Luhan trails behind him. It’s quiet. The concrete walls block out the always present city noise, and all that can be heard is the slap of their formal shoes against the glossy floor. Yixing hadn’t said a work since taking his spot in the driver’s seat, and he’s still silent as he leads Luhan towards a stairwell. If he notices Luhan’s curiosity, he chooses to ignore it.

The pair stop in front of a silver door on the third floor. There’s no indication it is even a door, but Luhan assumes so from how the dark gray metal contrasts with the light concrete.

“Agent Lay here with a friend,” Yixing intones, his gaze is lifted towards the camera overhead that glows a bright red. There is not a reply, but Luhan can discern the sound of invisible locks clicking. The door swings open seconds later and Yixing steps through, Luhan following at his heels.

The place smells of cinnamon and citrus, and something that distinctively reminds Luhan of the low-brow bars in District Four. Men and women linger around the room, some of them hidden in the shadows of the bar’s darkest corners, some dressed in their CNS uniforms. All that catch Yixing's eyes flash a gesture that Yixing nods in response to as he makes his way towards the bar across from the door.

"Drinks on the house," a bartender says to Yixing as the pair take a seat off the edge of the long counter. "In Suho's honor." He takes their order and as he turns away from them Luhan glances over to the male beside him.

"Where are we," he asks. There's a thrum of instrumental music that's low enough to speak without yelling but loud enough to make it hard to eavesdrop.

"CNS territory," Yixing replies, as the drinks are placed in front of them. "Mainly where we drink."

Yixing swallows down his first shot of the night, and not another word is said as the younger knocks back shot after shot without much pacing, and Luhan nurses an extremely watered-down beverage that tastes like sewage. Yixing's lost in his grief and Luhan's lost in his thoughts.

"It was terrible," Yixing says after his fifth shot. He's leaning his head on his right hand, while his left plays with the empty shot glass in front of him.

"We knew it would be," Luhan mutters in reply. "It wasn't for him.

"It was vile," Yixing adds, his nose scrunching up in disgust. "How can his parents live with themselves after such an event. And Yoona..." he trails off. "They didn't need her."

"They didn't," Luhan agrees, "but that wasn't her fault."

"I know that," Yixing sighs. " I wasn't really mad at her, just annoyed. It was like they tried to figure out all the things Junmyeon would hate and do exactly that. How can they claim to honor him when that felt more like he was being punished for dying?"

Luhan doesn't reply, and they sit in silence once more. Yixing orders another shot and Luhan returns to the disgusting drink in front of him. He lets himself get lost in the strum of an acoustic guitar and the drone of a deep gruff voice singing about heartbreak.

It's moments later that Yixing slams the shot glass down harder than needed and stands. He's staring straight ahead, frown that never really left still visible for all to see. He drops his gaze down to Luhan, brown eyes raking over the man as he seems lost in his thoughts.

"Follow me," he commands quietly. Luhan throws him an inquisitive look but nods and stands. There is a door beside the bar, almost utterly hidden in the shadows of it. Only, when Luhan approaches it he realizes that he was wrong, it’s not a door exactly but the entrance to an elevator. Yixing presses a button that Luhan can’t see, and the doors part minutes later.

The elevator car is radiant compared to the bar. After stepping on and allowing the door to close behind them, Yixing hits the sole button inside. Below it, a panel is revealed and four buttons with rows of zeros and ones are exposed. Yixing presses the third button and the elevator begins its descent.

The corridor they enter after the swift elevator ride glows just as intensely as the elevator. There are no windows, but the vivid artificial lights shine so brightly Luhan finds himself squinting to get used to it. They are deep underground from what he can tell, somewhere in a tunnel encased by metal, making the light reflects off the metal and causing an almost headache inducing glare.

"Are we underground," Luhan asks, just to make sure. He doesn’t expect an answer. The quietness that has seized his friend since the end of the memorial service is starting to appear less due to grieving, and as they stand together in this underground corridor Luhan figures that he’s been dealing with Yixing’s trained CNS side for a while now.

Yixing gives him a brief nod in reply and begins walking down the long corridor. They’re in a maze, zigzagging through corridor after similar looking corridor. Aside from the twists and turns, it all looks the same. Luhan can't find a marker or anything that can tell him that he's in a different passageway from the last, but Yixing leads him with confidence until they're standing in front of a wall. Luhan figures it’s not just a wall, but unlike the elevator and bar entrance, there’s nothing that indicates that it’s anything beyond what it appears to be.

“Agent Lay of Deorum requests entry,” Yixing states loudly, eyes staring intently ahead. Luhan tilts his head in confusion, eyes flickering from the man before him to the wall as he observes in silence.

"Entrance granted," A feminine robotic voice responds. Yixing lifts his hand to the wall and it slides a way, opening to a room.

"Where are we," Luhan asks. The lights come on as soon as they step inside and Luhan looks from the large screen against the far wall of the narrow room to the rectangle conference table in the middle of it. “Really?”

“The most secure building in the entire city,” Yixing replies. “This is one of the rooms where we handle classified information. Junmyeon and I were programmed to it. Only people that come with me are allowed entrance.”

“And, I’m guessing Deorum is part of that classified information,” Luhan states, fingers running over the black polished surface of the table. He takes a seat and tilts his head to his friend. “Am I right?”

“It was a specialized operation Junmyeon and I headed,” Yixing answers, coming around the opposite end of the table. “Junmyeon and I were doing personal research outside of the operation. What we’re doing here, what I want to tell you, is not only classified but highly sensitive. Do you know what that means?”

“If you were anyone else, that would mean to keep it to myself. I can tell Minseok, right? Is this about that picture with my father?”

Yixing takes a seat across from Luhan, he doesn’t look surprised to hear Luhan bring up the picture, but he doesn’t answer the question. "You can tell Minseok if you want, but only Minseok. Kyungsoo and Kris will be told a doctored version of things when I get a chance to tell them.” Luhan doesn’t like the sound of that, having more secrets between their already fragile group seems risky but he’d always trusted Yixing’s instincts.

"I won't tell them,” he promises.

Yixing nods and closes his eyes. Luhan knows that look. It was something Yixing used to do when he was younger when he wanted to figure out how to best approach a topic on his mind. To others, it looked whimsical, but through the years Luhan had swiftly learned that such a look was reserved for the most serious of subjects.

"Do you ever wonder why we grew up with each other? The five of us, together, and no one else?” His eyes are open again and he's staring at Luhan with such scorching intensity that Luhan feels his mouth going dry.

"Because we were from the same District," Luhan says after a moment. "We lived close to each other, and your parents wanted you all to grow up with people that shared your background. I was thrown in by coincidence."

"There is no such thing as coincidence for President Kim,” Yixing says, shaking his head at the thought. “He plans all his moves with deliberation. He wouldn't just allow you to have friends so you'd be a happy kid, you know that."

"Yes," Luhan agrees, a surge of bitterness going through him. President Kim had never cared an ounce about his comfort, and Luhan was well aware of the benefits that came with his friendships. "So? That's no surprise, and it's hardly sensitive information. You're all beneficial in your own ways. Kris works for the most important financial institution within the country. You and Junmyeon were pretty much guaranteed to be politicians till you went off to join CNS, and Kyungsoo comes from law enforcement and education. You're all beneficial to me."

"Exactly," Yixing agrees easily. "And you work for the biggest entertainment agency in the country. You were groomed to take over the business since your adoption. Did you know that Junmyeon's family is still one of the biggest arms dealers in the country? Kim Industries works exclusively with CNS to develop new defense weapons. Junmyeon was supposed to take over the company. Our families have control over every industry important to the government, they have more power, more pull, than many members of Great Ruler’s cabinet.”

Luhan is quiet as he tries to comprehend what exactly Yixing is telling him. He’d always known that their families were powerful, and although he didn’t know the full extent of their power he doesn’t understand why it suddenly matters. Yixing seems to detect his confusion and continues speaking.

"Lu, what do you think would happen if you were attacked by rebels?" Although he only says attack, Luhan knows that he means murdered. It was a word that they’d always avoided in the past because there was always a possibility, but now that it’s happened and one of their own has been taken away from them much earlier than the old aged death Luhan theorized. Now that one of their closest friends has been murdered, the word feels more dangerous, more prophetic, more likely.

"Nothing," Luhan answers almost immediately. It’s something he used to think about, and he’s not embarrassed by the confession. He wasn’t Kim Junmyeon or Zhang Yixing, he was Luhan, he was an orphan and an embarrassment to his adopted father. He’d be lucky if President Kim released more than a generic statement to the news broadcasters.

“President Kim would be inconsolable with rage and grief,” Yixing starts. “He would order the heads of those who attacked you and immediate bombings of all no man’s lands within the country, and his requests would be granted. If he said he wanted each and every Imperfect within the city–man, woman, and child– publicly executed in retribution for his heir, they’d be dead in under a week. Your memorial would be grander than Junmyeon's, and only topped by President Kim and Great Ruler’s."

“You’re over exaggerating,” Luhan says with a scoff. He glares at the man across from him in disbelief, “President Kim doesn’t even like me.”

“It would be fake,” Yixing agrees easily. “He might not like you, but you’re his heir, and he’d use you even in the afterlife to get whatever agenda he wanted to be passed. No one would be able to say no either, because Luhan, through adoption you’re related to the most powerful person on this Earth.”

“You’re lying,” Luhan accuses, shaking his head for emphasis. Dread has settled deep in his stomach, as Yixing ignores him and continues to speak.

“Kyungsoo’s father helped create CNS, his mother was one of the leading researchers in Project Perfect. Kris’s father funded the research. Junmyeon’s family helped the right person win the war and has been supplying them with war weapons ever since. My family poured money into this city, and my father oversees an entire region. Luhan, your father, President Kim, is the only living relative of Great Ruler’s. We weren’t just being groomed to be businessmen and politicians. Why else would Great Ruler care if a model took over an entertainment company?”

“Kris’s mother died because of it,” Luhan says. He still doesn’t believe Yixing. “Why would his father allow his mother to be a guinea pig if he was funding it. Wouldn’t he know better than anyone else the dangers of it?”

“I don’t know,” Yixing admits, “but I have theories. I don’t think he expected to lose his wife, and… It’s been said that Project Perfect was Great Ruler’s idea. The nation was just starting out then, there was bound to be a lot of suspicion and maybe Kris’s dad wanted to prove his loyalty.”

“Do you have proof,” Luhan questions. When he notices Yixing’s look of confusion he clarifies. “Do you have proof of your claims? Can you tell me with 100% certainty that everything you said is true?”

“One-fifty,” Yixing answers. Luhan doesn’t say anything more. He’s no longer staring at Yixing, can’t stomach looking at the younger any longer, so his eyes are on the wall behind Yixing’s head. There’s more. He knows that there’s bound to be more, Yixing wouldn’t bring him down to this room just to tell him who he’s related to, and his heart rate quickens at the thought.

“What else,” he demands. “Just tell me everything.” His voice sounds as desperate as he feels, so he pushes himself back in his seat and straightens up. His pills are wearing off and his emotions are returning, but he’s resolved to ignore them.

"Junmyeon and I were put in charge of Deorum by the heads of CNS. We were specially chosen by Great Ruler's cabinet and given a team of four others. Our mission was to infiltrate the Red Devils and find out all we could about them. During our mission, Junmyeon and I uncovered two secrets that forced us back to the city. They're planning a large-scale attack on the city. We don't know when or where but they want to eliminate the elite class, including all of us.

"They know who you are, Lu, and who you're related to. Great Ruler has no children that we know of and you're the adopted son of his only living and known relative. I think that they assume you may have a chance of taking over upon his death."

Luhan’s stomach drops. The dread that was once there has turned into something akin to nausea and it swirls dangerously within him as his heart drums rapidly, dancing between speeding up and stopping. He swallows thickly, Adam's apple bobbing as he brings his eyes back to Yixing. "This is why you were worried about what I said earlier. You think they'll kill me soon, or kidnap me."

It’s not exactly a question, and Yixing doesn’t really answer it, but the way he closes his eyes a second too long, and the clenching of his jaw does. "Even if you aren't actually Great Ruler’s heir it looks like it to outsiders. You're in more danger than any of us."

"Tell me the other reason why you came back," Luhan requests. His voice doesn't break, it doesn't sound desperate, but it's still wrong. It's not quite like the blank emotionless tone the other Perfects use. He can hear the hysteria on the fringes of it.

"You know that reason," Yixing says softly.

“No, I don’t,” Luhan exclaims, glaring across the table at his friend. He knows he’s lost whatever control he has over his emotions and he barely conceals the shudder that runs down his spine at the distress that seizes him.

Yixing looks up at him, his features are softer than they were before. Gone is the cold professional look of a CNS agent, in its stead was a look that Luhan hated even more. Yixing didn’t look closed off, but he still looked wrong. Yixing’s bottom lip, swollen and red from abuse, was back between his teeth, and his brown eyes were wide and shining with sympathy. “Yes, you do.”

Luhan stands, the screeching of his chair loud but unheard as he draws away from the table. His fingernails are digging into his palms, as his glare falters easing into a look of begging. He feels eleven again, emotionally exhausted and fearful, and all he wants to do is go home.

A dialogue heavy chapter that reveals quite a bit of information. Xiumin returns in the next chapter! Can anyone guess what the second reason is?