When Yifan woke up on an early start of September morning, he had the most pleasant surprise. That surprise was in the form of their youngest addition, the little panda as he calls him in his head, tottering around in the kitchen. Surprisingly, no one else was awake or present in his knowledge.

“Morning.” He called out to the younger man, watching as he turned to greet him with a bright smile.

Tao grabbed a few plates on the cupboard above him while Yifan went to pour the orange juice into two glasses. “Where are the kids?” Tao teased.

Yifan chuckled, going along with the domestic play, “Hmm, probably still in bed.”

“Really? Then you should probably wake them up.” The younger let his voice flow lightly, hands equipped with a spatula to scoop the eggs into the plates.

The elder placed an orange juice next to Tao, then before the latter could turn to thank him, the former trapped the boy against the counters. “Oh my, what’s this?” Tao squeaked although Yifan could tell that the boy was nervous.

Smirking, the elder slid his hands from the counter and enveloped the shorter in a back hug. From the side, he could see the younger’s ears blush a beautiful shade of red. How adorable.

“Just getting my daily energy.” Yifan contently sighed against the younger’s ears, causing a ripple of shivers down the latter’s spine.

The taller let his grip against Tao go and slinked back to lean on the counter. Morning was a rather rare occasion to spend with just the two of them so Yifan had dared to be a little more daring than usual. He couldn’t help it see, the little panda just had a pulling effect on him.

Tao sneaked a peek at the elder, his mind about to urge him into doing something stupid like hug him back or kiss him in the cheek, but it seems that fate wouldn’t quite allow it. Yet.

“Tao BaoBei,” Luhan sang from the living room, strolling his way towards the breakfast counter. “Did you make your favourite GeGe breakfast?”

To Tao, Luhan was a similar presence as Minseok, both very loveable in their nature, and since they two were the closest to each other--the favoritism of Minseok soon affected Luhan to do the same. Plus, it didn’t help that Luhan was constantly in a banter-tease relationship with his best(?)friend Sehun; the boy that knew half his secrets now, damn it Tao.

Thus, he chuckled and smiled and teased the elder back. And that was how the morning of a seemingly innocent and great day started.

The letter came that morning. When the rest of the members were off for practice or out for the day, that left Baekhyun, Tao and Yixing to their lonesome. Tao was coming back from his run and checked their mail box when he found one letter that shook him to his bones.

“Tao?” Yixing called out when he saw that the man in question was frozen in his steps. “What’s in the letters?”

Tao snapped from his trance, quickly pocketing the letter in his back pocket before spreading the rest on the dining table, “Oh, nothing, just bills and Luhan’s subscription magazines.”

With that, he ran back to his room, shocking the living lights out of his brother who had been tasked to develop a virus for one of the other Company’s teams for their mission. “Tao?”

Baekhyun saw that his little brother wasn’t going to answer him, so he went to the latter instead. There was a letter he was gripping tightly, he observed. “What is that?”

The younger looked up to see his brother, then down to the letter, then ed the paper at him. Baekhyun took the letter precariously balancing on Tao’s fingers, turned it, and read the writing on the envelope.

It was 6 letters and an ampersand. Typed out in gold letterings that contrasted the black nature of the envelope. Those 6 letters divided equally by the sign would amount to nothing other than gibberish to mostly everyone in the world.

But for them, it brought them fear.

6 letters and an ampersand.

“KBH & KZT”

Their initials.

~~~

No one said anything for the next few moments. It was only compromised with a few glances and aborted movements to touch the letter lying facefront in the middle of Baekhyun’s desk--the letters seemingly mocking them.

One way or another, they had to eventually open the letter and that was what made Baekhyun take that final step to snatch the black paper up and slitting the side open with his pocket knife.

There wasn’t a letter inside, but instead a nondescript USB fell out. It was red, scratched and made a metallic noise when it hit the desk.

Without a word, Baekhyun slipped into the desk chair while simultaneously opening his laptop. They heard the whirring of the laptop coming to life and once they logged in, Baekhyun plugged the USB.

The file opened on automatic. It wasn’t particularly scary or threatening. It was a programming of codes, they knew that much. The letters and numbers scrolled down the screen of the laptop before stopping, the caret cursor blinking in front of a 12 underlined letter space.

The tech genius from the two sighed, recognizing the codes.

“It’s a cypher.”

“Great.” Tao smiled encouragingly. “Then let’s get cracking at this cypher.”

“We can’t.” The elder sighed once more. “We need a password.”

“Okay then.” Tao waited momentarily, gesturing to the screen. “Well, then what’s the password?”

“Durr, silly me, let me check in the owner’s manual. Oh wait a minute, there isn’t one because why the hell would they give us the ing password?” Baekhyun snapped, Tao raising his hands in surrender with both eyebrows touching his hairline.

“Geez, what crawled up in your pants and died?” The younger muttered beneath his breath, caught off-guard with the behaviour of his brother.

“Tao.” Baekhyun started, his voice and smile controlled as if explaining things to a child. “Don’t even start.” The room went on to be quiet for a few dire minutes before Baekhyun burst out. “I mean, how are you not panicking?!”

The younger of the two brothers simply slumped to his bed. “Whoever did this knew our names, I know hyung. Trust me, I do.” Tao sighed. “It’s just, I’m thinking, okay?”

Baekhyun served him a look of contemplation and a move to carry on with it.

“I mean, whoever sent this must be in the company right?” He theorizes, “Or someone who knew our family. The Khun’s associates or something.” Tao stood up, shrugging on new clothes. “Then that narrows down the perpetrator quite easily, considering the fact that our family technically doesn’t exist outside of the ‘need-to-know’ agenda.”

Baekhyun let the idea roll over in his mind, half focused on the cypher. “And where do you think you’re going?”

“I,” Tao straightened his cardigan, “Am going to see our sister, ask if anyone knows anything.”

“What am I supposed to do, then? Go with you--” Baekhyun stopped short at the look his brother was giving him. “Fine, fine, I’ll crack this stupid cypher, but you tell me whatever you find the minute you find out okay?”

“Aye, aye cap.”

Then he’s out the door.

~~~

There were rare instances when the members of the family would meet. It was so rare that no one had even theorized that they were connected to each other--not even as close friends or anything, and that’s including those ridiculous theorizing super fans. This was because of their meticulous attention to details and perception of the public, which Sooyoung takes great pride in.

Tao knew his sister inside and out. They all were operatives, and they all had a special skill in which they excelled at. Eunhyuk and Ryeowook were the two most effective agents--quick missions that are time sensitive, intense operations, that was them. Key had a more long-term approach, always working under the cover, his missions usually for the ‘long-run’ bust which meant he was the perfect deep cover operative for taking down the massive big bads. Jessica and Krystal were complete opposites; Jessica was the brute force commander while Krystal was the meticulous witty planner. Jessica would stand behind in command centers and took the mantel of the handler for a lot of operatives, because she had the ability to make the hard choices for everyone without emotions playing in the way, there was a reason she’s called the Ice Queen.

Tao and Baekhyun were the newbies at SM, but that didn’t mean they weren’t skilled. They had countless missions before, and they were the team to call when the Company has no details on the mission. Anything that was vague, unknown and unpredictable were under their jurisdiction. The two quickly became adept at any situation they were thrown in and had good instincts for formulating quick plans and fast decisions.

That left Sooyoung. Sooyoung was one of a kind. She was never one to be a planner, or to be a commander, because she was one of the soft hearted ones, especially when it came to her family. But she was the head. Sooyoung is an expert at solving cases. She had the brains of a supercomputer. She remembered everything she ever knew, and can formulate probabilities of every scenario possible and the outcomes of each scenario. Their sister was trained to be the next head of the Company. That was how big of a deal she was.

So, Tao thinks that if anyone knew anything about this black envelope it has got to be her.

He decked the halls of the SM training rooms, seeing that his sister was nowhere near there. So he went down to the lobby, to the toilets and stopped round the corner. There was a plantation there with a bow around it’s pot; he slipped a red circle post it on the center of the bow.

You see, for them, they could not call each other out so simply; except if there was an emergency. Thus they decided pretty early on that they would have certain signals. Place a marker on their designated signal spots. They used to have a lot, since there was many operatives in play, but now it was down to four. Jessica’s was the cigarette disposal bin in between the elevators; place a stick in the sand and she’d know where to meet. Key’s was the vending machine near the lockers; fold the bottom left corner of the SM town concert poster. Sooyoung’s was the plant. And Tao and Baekhyun’s was the small table near the sofas; place a red mug.

Now all Tao had to do was wait.

~~~

Baekhyun went out of his room to get refreshments. The code was bugging the hell out of him, he had to take a break. There wasn’t much else he could do. He currently had wrote a program algorithm to match the password, trying random variations of letters for 8 letters and 4 letter phrases. Or at the very least, crack the first letter of each word by the encryption. He figured that the creator of the cypher meant to give hints by revealing the first letters, but he had to decrypt it first.

Chanyeol, Yifan and Yixing were at the living room when he got there. Yifan and Yixing watching a new Korean drama on the couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn between them, while Chanyeol was making …

“What the hell are you making?” Baekhyun asked, giving up his train of rational thoughts.

Chanyeol whipped his head up to meet the shorter man. He flashed his pearly whites, hands elbow deep in … something. “What does it look like I’m doing. I’m baking!”

Baekhyun stopped in his tracks to get a glass, turning around in his spot. “Baking?”

“Yes, Baek,” Chanyeol teased, “It’s this thing people do in their free time--”

“I know what the term means, Yeollie.” Both snickering at their nicknames, Baekhyun raised an eyebrow at the concoction the man was playing with, “I don’t think you’re supposed to use your hands or at least not that much.”

The tall brunette looked from his hands to the man, then back down where he had his hands stuck in the batter. “Well, I might or might not have added a bit too much eggs and might or might not have tried to take it out.”

The shorter sighed, looking at his door from afar, and shrugged. It’s not like the cypher will be cracking anytime soon. He hip-checked the taller to move aside, rolling his sleeves up as he did so. “Move, I’ll help.”

“Really?” Chanyeol blinked.

“Yes, really, I’m not a pro at baking, but at least I’m not as helpless as you are.” Baekhyun snipped back, pulling Chanyeol’s hands from under the batter with much difficulty.

With Baekhyun’s hands now in the mixture, it brought the two closer together. Baekhyun dipped his hands to clean their hands off the batter while Chanyeol watched him under his lashes. The rambling from the tiny man brought a smile to his face. “Well then, I’m just in perfect luck huh?”

Baekhyun looked up to boast about him having to thank the shorter for help, but the words caught in his breath by the way he was looking at him. Chanyeol intertwined their hands in the batter, coaxing a shocked jostle from the shorter. “The batter doesn’t feel so bad.”

Now, when he said it like that, Baekhyun just couldn’t help but smile back. “I wonder why?”

A snort sounded in the room, and the two catapulted away from each other, bringing the bowl of batter down with them. Baekhyun cursed out loud causing Yifan and Yixing to laugh at their actions. The hacker now had batter all over his clothes too, directing a glare at the two mischiefs at the sofa.

“Hey, it’s not our fault you were more interesting than this kdrama.” Yixing tried to excuse himself.

Chanyeol gave an exasperated breath bending down to grab the bowl. “Ha ha, guys. Now you have to help us clean this up.”

Yifan chuckled but consented to the help needed, Yixing following straight behind him, “Why are you baking suddenly anyways?”

The eldest chinese member patted Yixing’s back, smiling to Baekhyun who hummed a curious tone. “Because our Chanyeol here remembers that it’s our Jongdae’s birthday today.”

Baekhyun calculated a response of a squeal, “Really?! Then-then-” He pointed to Chanyeol, “You were baking a birthday cake!”

“Trying to, at least.” The failed baker huffed.

“Then try we must.”

And that was how the four spent the afternoon wrecking their kitchen and destroying their utensils, but all four of them would agree that it was all worth it.

~~~

Sooyoung spotted the signal right away, dropping her bags in the training room before darting off to their meeting spot. She donned a black sunglass and tied her hair in a ponytail which she stuffed through her baseball cap. The park was located behind the SM building, far enough to be discreet yet close enough to make a break for it. Walking to the center, she saw Tao sitting in their designated chess table.

“Hello, baby brother.” She greeted as she sat down, moving a pawn forward. “I must say, I’m surprised, what’s this sudden visit for?”

Tao smiled at his sister, imitating her move. “I missed you too, Noona.” He watched his sister move out her rook. “But this isn’t a friendly visit.”

The demeanor changed contrastingly in Sooyoung. She folded her hands on each other, claiming Tao’s pawn after he moved another one. “What is it?”

Tao bit his lip to keep up with appearance, taking his sister’s rook with his black bishop. “A black letter, gold lettering.” White knight took his bishop in return. “Addressed to our initials, of our real name.” Tao moved his pawn to take out a white pawn.

Sooyoung snapped her eyes at him, her hands steadily moving her Queen and knocking his other bishop. “What’s it say?”

“Not a letter, a USB.” Tao mumbled, eyes trained on the man passing them. “A Cypher with a password.” He focused back on the game, moving his rook forward to guard his King. “Two words, 8 and 4 letters.”

Sooyoung let the unsaid question roll in her mind, who sent it? She plucked her Queen out of the way, rolling it between her thumbs. “It’s not SM, that’s for sure.” Tao inclined his head, asking for an explanation.

“It’s simple.” She placed her Queen in Tao’s knight’s position, switching the pieces. “If it’s SM, they would’ve sent it to all of us, or at least me or Jessica first--no reason to send it to you.” Sooyoung watched her brother take her pawn away. “Plus, they don’t have a motive in sending you a cypher; even if it is a threat, they wouldn’t bother encrypting it, no?”

Tao kept quiet, his hands halting to move his King. “Then who, the Company?”

“Not sure, wouldn’t see why they’d do this.” Sooyoung hummed, tracking the King Tao moved, simultaneously moving her Queen out of the way. “I think it’s someone else, a new player who likes games. But Tao, whoever sent this only sent it to you.”

The younger grabbed his pawn to eat m her Queen, and finally looked up to find his sister looking straight into him. “What does this mean?”

Sooyoung smiled sympathetically, “Tao-ah.” Letting her hand move forward to cradle Tao’s face, she mumbled, “My baby brother,” she his cheeks with her thumb, “Noona doesn’t know.”

Tao leaned into his sister’s touch, bringing his hands up to meet hers.

“But I do know that things have changed.” His Noona suddenly changed her tone. “Something’s different, like the game’s rules have been altered somehow.”

When she saw the look of concern in Tao’s face she chuckled. “Don’t worry.” She let her hands drop from his cheeks. “We’ll face it together.”

Tao gave a confident smile to her, happily accepting the familial love.

“About the password,” She continued on, fixing her hair, “I’m guessing Baekhyun’s running algorithms against it and trying to  crack the password but it won’t work.” Upon the confused look her brother gave she smiled. “You know the password.”

“Uh, no, we really don’t. That’s why I’m here.” Tao explained really slowly, but the sly look on his sister’s face tells him everything. “I hate it when you’re so cryptic, you know that right?”

That earned a short burst of laughter from the brunette woman, “You do. Whoever sent this, sent it to you, and they know your real name. They knew you’d know the password, that’s why there is a password. Why would they bother sending it if they knew you won’t know it?”

The younger man could feel his brain trying to piece the pieces together, and it kind of was, but was still missing the big piece.

“Another big clue, is that it’s probably related to us directly.” Sooyoung hummed, realizing something. “You said the letter was black and gold right?” Tao nodded. “That’s it.” Another tilt of his head. “It’s our family emblem, black and gold.”

At that, Tao slowly raised his head, eyes glinting with the new information, his brain racing to piece it into the current thing he knew. Sooyoung saw the gears start working in Tao’s head, raising from her seat.

“Be careful, Tao.” She warrants his attention, slowly moving her hands below his perception. “It’s a man’s world, we’re playing in.” Sooyoung grabbed her bag and stopped next to his seating figure. “Cruel doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

Then she was gone. Tao stared down at her empty seat then to the chess board. He saw that his sister had made a move without his knowing, a smile creeping on his lips. As always, she was miles away from him, intelligent and bright. His pointer and middle finger played with the White Knight in the vicinity of his Black King.

“Checkmate, huh?”

~~~

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!”

Jongdae dropped his bags in shock, knees buckling in surprise, landing him straight to the ground. Minseok, who was behind him, toppled over him in effect.

Everyone burst out in laughter, Tao and Sehun throwing little bits of confetti all over the birthday boy. Yixing holding the cake while simultaneously keeping Luhan and Jongin away to stop them from eating the frosting. Chanyeol and Baekhyun blew the paper trumpets continuously, earning then slaps from Joonmyeon to ‘not disturb the neighbors’. Kyungsoo, bless the angel, was the only one helping the birthday boy and the unlucky boy off the floor. Yifan the lights at that moment.

“Wow, guys.” Jongdae laughed, breathless and with a winning smile. “Thank you so much.”

They sang a birthday song, Jongdae made a wish, then someone--Jongin--threw it in his face. Then, of course, an all-out food war started that left most of their snacks on the floor or in weird places, Luhan swore he saw a donut inside the piano. And everyone got around and confessed their most thankful attributes of Jongdae.

“Guys.” His lips trembled, water glistening in his eyes.

Minseok jabbed him in the stomach, “You’re not gonna cry are you?”

“Pfft, no.” Jongdae tries to reclaim his manhood. “I’m not Luhan, what are you saying.”

That, as predicted, led to more banter between the team and finally ending in a wager of daring one not to cry while watching ‘the Miracle in Prison Cell 7’ (Everyone lost that bet).

Everything was happy and jolly, until it wasn’t.

Baekhyun dragged Tao away to their room in the middle of the movie. He closed the door behind him softly, barely a creak, and leaned against it, “So, what did you find out?”

Tao headed for the laptop, still open with a system running the probabilities of certain letter combinations. “Sooyoung-noona didn’t help much,” He grumbled, “All she said was that we’d know the password, because this is apparently sent to us and it’s from a third-party we don’t know of.”

He reached forward for the black envelope. “And this,” Tao waved it around to Baekhyun, “A clue. Our family colour.”

Baekhyun’s eyes lit up like a diamond, grabbing the envelope out of Tao’s grasp. “Oh my god.” He smiled. “So we know the password because it has something to do with our family.”

The laptop blipped a strange noise, the algorithm cracking the first letter of each word. Both brothers crowded on the laptop, Baekhyun on the chair and Tao hovering over him.

P _ _ _ _ _ _ _    L _ _ _   

It clicked immediately, came to both of them like a bolt of lightning. Their family had one of the gravest secrets, thus the need for codes. They had a code for every possible scenario. One for when one’s cover was blown, or another to announce their decision to go dark, another to announce that they're safe in times of peril, and even one to signal their near death (by choice and not by choice).

This one, though, was rarely ever used. In fact, it was never used. No situation had gotten so out of hand that this code needed to be used.

It was a code red. The highest code red. Drop everything and run. Leave the country and abandon the main directives. A one-way ticket out from your life and into a new one.

Baekhyun typed it, letter by letter, the space between each type, an everlasting silence. The title of the Khun’s most treasured literature.

Paradise Lost.

Enter.

The screen turned black.

And it stayed black.

In the heavy silence of the room, a whirring noise came from the printer. The two men swore they didn’t turn it on.

They waited for a minute for the message to print. On a black paper they didn’t have and gold lettering their printer wasn’t equipped to have.

Tao reached and took the paper, delicately as if it was a bomb.

And in a way it was.

“All the players are in place.

The last protocol has been initiated.

Project Alpha has begun.”

Okay, as promised, the next chapter up and ready! Chapter 21 (don't count the prologue as the first chapter) and there are 4 chapters left in this season! I'm going to revise the first few chapters and update the next one sometime next week :) Soooo, hows the story so far? Tell me what you think and what you think this story needs -- From this point on, there's going to be a lot more action and a lot more feelings and angst so get ready for the erpunch that is the 'plot'. It's getting there guys~~ And Sehun knows ! OMO EOTTOKKE? And both ships are getting faiirrrrllllyyy close don't you think? Please comment so I'll see if you guys enjoy this or not~