"So, Howon, what kind of mess am I in?" Heejin asked, an insincere smile on her face.

"You make this whole idea sound bad," Howon whined, "We're a highly organized group, okay. You won't believe the system. It's nowhere near the typical idea of how gangsters conduct themselves. We're more like elite spy teams."

"That's... interesting, I guess." Heejin is clearly bored.

"Pick up the pace, hyung." Hanbin nudged Howon. "Or I explain."

"Fine, you do it." Hoya gave up.

"Okay, so there's the council-" Hanbin began. "They're the one who does the official stuff with the government," He gestured to Hoya and Dongwoo. "They're not really active gangsters."

Heejin nodded. "So what about your "highly organized system"?" She did inverted commas in the air with her fingers.

"That," Hanbin sighed, "is such a pain in the , you know?" He looked to Dongwoo accusingly.

"Sorry, we're not the one deciding what's protocol or not." Dongwoo put his hands up in defense. 

"Yeah, protocol." Hanbin droned. "You see, each group has to have this thumb drive - it stores all the group information; member's personal details, the group's details, and if any of their activity was recorded by the police, they should have it in the thumb drive. It's protocol. We call them the sleeper, because just as you put the information in, the Council automatically gets it in their system too."

"Sleeper? Like a spy?"

"Yup. Anyway, sleepers are updated monthly and are highly confidential. You can't let other groups see the content of your sleeper, and vice versa. This is where things get interesting: many groups get in fights because of this sleeper."

"What was the most serious one?"

Hanbin gave her question a thought before answering, "Maybe Dongwoo should answer that."

Dongwoo looked at Hanbin unsurely but told her anyway. "In 2010, several groups, prominently BTS, BAP, and Block B, were once part of one whole association, called MX. There is no limit to how many members you have, and they had almost 30 people. But some of their members weren't registered into the sleeper, because they wanted to be able to keep their size a secret. That was, until Nu'est's member Baekho noticed that he was being attacked by one group, alone, and there was so many people.

He decided to team up with his group to sneak a peek into MX's sleeper. They did, and was going to report it to the council, but MX noticed their sleeper was missing. With not much trouble, they figured out Nu'est had it and a fight broke out. Good thing they secretly sent out one member off to the council's HQ during the battle so the Council got there on time, but, by then, Super Junior's Hangeng was badly injured. The doctors couldn't save him." Dongwoo finished.

"He died?" Heejin scream-whispered.

Hanbin nodded. "That's the second gang-fight death ever, until... uh,"

"Sungyeol?" Heejin finished for him.

"Yeah, Sungyeol. I just didn't want to bring it up in case, you know, it's still a sensitive issue for you."

"It's cool. Hangeng was... how old, though?"

"He would be thirty this year."

"That's cruel."

"Super Junior got over it quickly though."

"What made MX split?"

"The council made them. Because they didn't register their members. All the members that weren't registered were put into separate groups from the members who were keyed into the system. Therefore the different debut years."

"Debut? How do you debut?"

"When all the members are trained, they have to take the exam here. At the institute. But the members that weren't registered didn't take the exam, so they had to take it after they were exposed and when they got together in smaller groups, they had to register the group name and basic details at the HQ. When you register you debut."

"So how do I debut?"

"You're a slot filler, they call it. You debut on your own, and take the spot of a former member. No worries, we'll help you debut." Hoya explained.

"How did you guys debut with Bel-esprit? Did you have to take the exam again?" She looked at Hoya and Dongwoo.

"Nope. Once you've taken the exam, you're officially a part of this huge mess. Back out now if you want to. Bel-esprit just had to be registered at the HQ."

"Maybe I do want to back out. Should I?"

"It's your call." Hanbin pat her on the back and left to put his tray in the bin.

The day passed by in a blur, except for her new-found friends - Taehyun, Kevin, Junhoe, Hanbin, Dongwoo and Hoya.