“Find out Joo Seohyun’s weaknesses immediately.”

I was abruptly woken up by the notification sound my phone made. The message was reread more than twice, to make sure I understood it well. It was a Sunday and still very early at that as I glanced at my alarm clock on my bedside table. It was still so early in fact, I still had a little over an hour left to sleep. And therefore, I went back to dozing to hopefully continue on my halted dream about chasing after rabbits that have all stolen my carrots I have prepared for dinner.

Sometime later, my alarm clock sang its annoying tune. I groaned and picked up my bolster to cover my ear so the tune would be deafened out. But the attempt was fruitless as I purposely have set the volume to increase as seconds tick by. I angrily threw away the bolster across the room and turned to the other side to slap the off button harshly.

Once it was back to its quiet state, I lay with my hands and legs outstretched like a starfish on my super comfortable bed. I didn’t feel like doing anything, but duty unfortunately called. In his dictionary, ‘immediately’ meant two hours the latest. If it’s in uppercase with a string of exclamation marks, I would have to report at that exact moment and he would only tolerate five minutes. Thankfully, I have never got missions like that before.

I heaved a sigh and swung my legs to the side as I let my bones pop. Once done, I tidied up my bed and drew back the curtains to let the sun shining into the room. The sun was shyly peeking at the horizon, clearly seen from the window of my apartment unit. The sky was still purple with dashes of orange, indicating that the sun was rising. I’ve been living here for a few months, yet the sight still looks amazing, no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

The message came from my boss called Jung Jinwoon. He’s currently one of the managers at the company I’m working at. Our first meeting was back when I was a toddler. I didn’t remember much but he was a new kid on the block and his family was introducing themselves as a new neighbour. We went to the same school together, all the way to high school and even university. Since his convocation came a year before mine, I was still studying when his first job called. But he promised to tell me whenever there was an opening at the office.

My side job has been going on for at least a decade, starting when I was still in junior high. I wouldn’t call it a ‘job’ per se as it previously only involved spying on the number one student in the whole school so he could be it instead. He hated losing (still does) so he asked me to be his spy. Nothing illegal; just follow behind the victim(s) and report their weak points. Once told, he would then sabotage them so they would lose focus and he would climb up to the top.

The recruitment was done informally. I didn’t even know about it until I asked him why he always requested for me, not someone else. He said that I was the quietest person he has ever met; once when we were watching a movie at home together, I didn’t utter a single word and he thought that he was alone. Hence, I was the perfect candidate.

Of all the missions I’ve done for him, there were only a few times when I had to follow around girls. So few that I could count with my one hand. And the relationships never lasted long, usually failing under a year. Either she cheated on him and he had to break up with her or he was too sweet of a guy and she had to break up with him. Eventually he gave up on girls completely and diverted his attention to his work, in which I played a part so he could be one of the top managers. And once he did, he promoted me to be his right hand.

Until Joo Seohyun was employed at the company. He admitted to me that he had feelings for her ever since her first day. Like in the past, I was ordered to find out her hobbies, likes and dislikes, family, boyfriend/husband if any, and the list went on. Her CV has already been looked at by himself, albeit rather illegally when he paid an innocent visit to the HR department. He didn’t get much information though, as the HR manager returned from the toilet earlier than his estimation.

I let out a deep breath as I took a seat on the ground, my laptop opened right in front of me. I had to Google her quickly because time was running out. My toast was in between my teeth when I opened my Internet browser to look for her. Words appeared on the search box as my fingers tapped the keyboard. A beat later, a new page was displayed with ‘Joo Seohyun’ scattered from the top to bottom. There were even pictures of her and some people, I noticed. With the rest of my breakfast consumed in lightning speed, I carelessly brushed off any crumbs and rubbed my hands against each other to start on my mission.

Internet is a wondrous thing. We can just input a single word and in a blink of an eye, search results will be displayed based on that mere word. No matter how much we try to conceal a small bit of our information on the Internet, there will be someone else who will. That is one of the reasons why we have to be careful in befriending strangers and revealing important details online.

A smirk appeared on my lips as a number of tabs were opened, containing Joo Seohyun’s profiles on the World Wide Web. She herself doesn’t exactly expose anything regarding her private life, but her friends do. And she’s going to have lunch together in the afternoon with her long time boyfriend who has just returned from a business trip. Judging from the messages exchanged between the couple, they’ve been together for a few years and were in a stage where public display of affection was shown off freely.

I picked up my phone located somewhere nearby and my thumb danced on the keypad to dial Jinwoon’s hyung number. As soon as there’s an answer from the other side, I told him about my discovery, in which he replied, “Best news so far today. Spy on them and also find out more about this boyfriend of hers.”

Before I could return a response, the call was disconnected. I was actually about to ask him to come with me because I knew he had nothing to do at home but work out. He’s my boss, but also a friend; an old one at that. We haven’t hung out as friends for a while, so this opportunity would be great. We could catch up on each other and spy on them at the same time. But I figured that he would put too much attention on the couple, instead of chatting with me if he decided to join.

Somewhere inside my bedroom, my watch made a beep sound making me check the clock displayed on my laptop. There was still time until 11 o’clock (my assumptions have never been wrong before in my life), so I decided to make some proper breakfast. Less than half an hour later, my fried rice was cooked and all ready to be devoured. With my plate and a glass of mango juice in hand, I made my way back to my seat to start multitasking between munching on my meal and surfing the net.

Time flew without my knowing. It was 30 minutes before 11. I winced and hurriedly shut down the electronic device in front of me. I dashed to the kitchen with the dirty dishes stacked on my hand, settling with the decision to wash them later after I’ve returned from the new mission. I marched back to close the lid to my laptop none too gently before making my way to the bathroom to get ready.

Finished everything in record time, I figuratively clapped myself on the back as I noticed that everything was done once again in a blink of an eye. A bubble of laugh was felt within me as I grabbed a pair of powerless glasses to complete the look and put them on.

The thing about being a spy is we don’t ever want to completely disguise ourselves, unless necessary. Just put one extra item, because otherwise we’ll catch everyone’s eye and that will beat the purpose of being an undercover. In my opinion, a hat attracts more attention. That’s why I prefer to wear glasses instead.

I reached my destination a bit later than formerly expected. But as I scanned the area from inside my car, the couple wasn’t within my sight. Well, either they haven’t arrived yet or they already finished and went somewhere else. That would be absurd because I clearly remembered that Jung Yonghwa said lunch and afternoon. I have never been wrong in this field yet and I’m not planning to be in future. I have never and would never disappoint both Jinwoon hyung and myself.

Finally after (what felt like) a year has passed, a familiar figure approached the entrance of the café. She was seen putting up two digits of her fingers and showing them to the waitress who smiled and said something too fast for me to decipher from the movements of her lips. Joo Seohyun must have been asked a question on her seating preference because they were currently making their way even further inside the restaurant. Since it’s too difficult to see her, I decided to enter it myself. Thankfully, there was an empty table nearby so I quickly took a seat there and placed down my tablet.

A book or a tablet always comes in handy when I’m on a mission. People might think that I’m just reading whatever that’s in front of me, when in reality I’m eavesdropping. And the advantage of bringing a tablet is that I can jot down some notes or even record the conversation if the situation allows it.

After my order was taken, I opened my tablet to continue on my game where I left off in the car. I doubted anything would interest me while we waited for the boyfriend to come. But my ears were always alert to inform me of anything.

“Seohyun!”

The game was paused at that loud voice. Using my peripheral vision, I noticed that the newcomer was Jung Yonghwa. And when I did look up, the couple was locked in a kiss that was over so soon, I didn’t even have time to look away in embarrassment. A hug was shared before they finally let go of each other to sit on their designated seats.

As I returned my attention back to my tablet to exit from that zombie killing game, a voice interrupted me. It was the waitress who took my order earlier. A glass of ice milk tea was carefully set down and with a soft “Enjoy your drink,” from her, she swiftly dismissed herself before I even got to say my thanks. Only her retreating back could be viewed when I looked back.

The conversation exchanged between them was out of the ordinary. They were both so random that I actually stopped chewing on my rice for a few seconds before I shook my head to remind myself to continue. I was particularly shocked at Joo Seohyun. Based on my observation and mouth to mouth information, she doesn’t talk much and is one of the best employees (maybe if we have that ‘Employee of the Month’ program, she would be one). But what I was seeing and listening to at the moment was completely different. It was as if she had two personalities. With my left hand, I typed that deduction on the Note app that was almost full with the report on the couple.

“Excuse me, but aren’t you Do Kyungsoo?”

At the sound of my name spoken by a stranger, my heart skipped a beat. But it wasn’t because the owner of the voice was a very cheerful lady with a ponytail. It’s because my name was so nonchalantly shouted, it was as if we were each on the other sides of a crowded room and she had to scream to call me.

Locking my tablet, I gulped and cast a short glance at the couple nearby to release a relieved sigh upon knowing that they were too lovey-dovey to notice. I put on a smile at the lady and said, “I am. And you are…?” Even if I was on a mission, I still wouldn’t leave my manners behind.

Her expression suddenly became even brighter. “I’m right. Don’t you remember me?” she asked. Without waiting for a reply, she said her name but it didn’t ring a bell at all. Either she was lying or my memory was playing tricks, which was silly because I have always had a good memory.

“I’m sorry,” I apologised, politely shaking my head.

 A sigh was seen and she closed her eyes, looking dejected. When she opened them again, they landed on my plate and bowl with the meal safely residing inside my stomach not too long ago. “Let me clear your table.” Then, I realised she’s one of the waitresses.

To be honest, I was glad that she was gone with my dishes in hand. I could go back to my mission because I missed a few minutes, even though I suspected that it wasn’t worth taking notes. But just as I was about to unlock the tablet with a pass code, she returned and even took a seat in front of me.

“You sure you don’t remember me? We used to be so close back then.”

I blinked at her bluntness and (over) friendliness. She’s not even using formalities anymore. “Is it okay for you to sit here?” Shouldn’t she be working?

She waved the air off with a hand. “Don’t worry about that (I’m not). Seriously, you don’t remember me at all?” she repeated her question. “We used to date, you know.”

Wait, huh?

“Well, ‘almost’ more like.” A smirk suddenly made its appearance on her lips. “No need to be so shocked at the revelation.” She paused for a little while, playing with her hands on top of the table. “I wish we did, though. I liked you a lot but you rejected me because you said we should focus on our studies. Granted, I confessed when we were super busy with our senior year.”

I gasped as I clicked through pages and pages of my memory folder in my brain. Soon, the result was found and it was a few months before our endless examination period commenced. She was the closest female friend of mine throughout the year as we used to study a lot together. I had to say no to her confession because of the exact same reason she mentioned earlier.

“Oh well, the past is in the past,” she continued. “So how are you? I’m sure you know who I am now, right Kyungsooyi?”

Nobody has called me that nickname for years. She was the last and only one to do so back in school. It reminded me of the time when I first heard it on the library just the two of us. I was busy reading a textbook at that moment so I wasn’t really aware of my surroundings. Apparently she’s been calling me more than a hundred times (her words, not mine) but I didn’t even budge my eyes. She tried a lot of names, even ones she made up, until I looked up when she said that weird and ridiculous name. But that’s only because she poked my forehead with a pencil, which was unexpectedly painful. And from then onwards, the name stuck although I disliked it at first.

We exchanged a few pleasantries for a little while as I waited for the two people in front of me to finish their lunch date. From my conversation with her, I found out that my friend currently chatting with me is the owner of the café, which was why she’s free to do anything she wants. We last met each other after graduation before she moved abroad to pursue her dream to become a cook. That small fact made me reminisce of the school era where she always brought lunch every single day. I remembered her telling me she loves cooking and always woke up early to make her own meal. She even sometimes shared some with me.

“You wanna go now?”

I faintly heard Jung Yonghwa’s voice, reminding me where I was and what I was supposed to do at the moment. I mentally slapped myself on the forehead as I realised that I missed so much. A deep breath was inaudibly released as the couple got up from their seats and walked out the door. I had to pay for my meal and follow them as soon as possible before I lost their tracks.

I let approximately half a minute tick by before I pretended to look at my watch to check the time. I feigned a wince and turned my head towards my company. “Sorry but I have to go now,” I told her as I stood up from my seat, my friend following behind.

“Oh, okay,” she mumbled, looking slightly – dare I say it? – disappointed. “I guess I’ll see you … when I see you.”

I agreed and said my goodbye. I briskly walked to the cashier and made my payment. Once done, I cast a look back to see her staring at me with a smile on her face. Mine was returned before I waved my hand and exited the premises.

Fortunately, they were still within sight and so my mission continued. I knew there was quite a distance between us, but I maintained my speed. I didn’t want to be so near them, just in case someone else recognised me. And I thought my huge and round glasses were enough to conceal my identity. That incident was too close. I had to be more careful.

“Kyungsooyi!”

I stopped on my tracks, one of my feet hovering in mid air. Was it just imagination? Did I hear my nickname?

“Ya, Do Kyungsoo!”

If I could swear out loud in public without attracting anyone’s attention, I would. I turned around in annoyance to witness someone racing towards me, her ponytail flying behind her. She was holding a black item on her hand and when the sun hit what apparently to be the back side of the item, I realised what it was: I forgot about my tablet! My anger disappeared like someone has blown off a candle as she arrived, panting and holding my arm with her free hand.

“This is yours,” she said, still holding on to the device.

“You didn’t have to run, you know.”

“I could have missed you.” She took several deep breaths to calm herself. “I don’t know your number and where you live. And your tablet is pass code protected.”

“I can still come back here to get it later.”

A shrug on the shoulders was conducted and she finally passed me the item, letting go of my arm at the same time. I mumbled a thank you and was about to excuse myself because I knew my target was already too far away, when she asked me a question.

“Where are you going?”

“Grocery shopping,” I lied.

She tilted her head slightly. “Then, you didn’t have to leave so soon, right?” She paused. “Unless you’re shopping with someone.”

And next, I did the worst thing I could think of in my entire life. “There’s no someone!” I shouted, just as loud as she did when she called my name twice earlier. I quickly looked away, regretting my own action. It was careless of me, I knew. I shouldn’t have raised my voice for no reason, out in the open even. It drew attention from everyone, but none of them, I noticed, was the couple. It was both unfortunate and fortunate. I didn’t know where they were heading; she just had to happen to be there, recognising me, owning the café, chatting with me, and distracting me from my mission.

“Okay, calm down,” she said, putting her two hands up as if in surrender. “You didn’t have to get so worked up about it.”

Deep breaths were exhaled to still my nonexistent anger. “Sorry about that,” I replied, forcing a smile. “I’m shopping alone. Nobody’s waiting for me.” Too bad.

“Then, can I come with?”

Without waiting for a response, she told me to stay put and excitedly ran back to the café doing who knows what. Currently I had two choices: 1. Leave her behind and hurriedly find the couple (no matter how difficult it would be) and 2. Wait for her and really do some shopping. The first choice was of course an obligation. I was ordered to follow them, but their position was unknown at present, which was to say the least frustrating.

Then, I realised that I had my tablet. I could check their whereabouts on the Internet. I mentally slapped myself on the cheek at my stupidity. What’s wrong with me today? Cursing to myself, I unlocked the device and Googled them. In a matter of seconds, a search page was opened with a list of desired results that caused a smirk to appear.

“Hey, that’s just outside my café.”

My heart skipped another beat before accelerating. I took my tablet away behind my back and looked up to see her staring at me with a wide smile on her face. The distance between us was so small that I had to step back. I could even smell her perfume.

“Do you know those guys in that picture?” she asked.

“She’s my co-worker.”

My friend nodded her head in acknowledgement. “Do you have a crush on her or something?”

I widened my eyes at her false accusation. “What? No, I don’t. What are you saying all of the sudden?”

“You guys were on the same place, arrived at around the same time. You sat next to her but not even a greeting was made. And you left after she did with her boyfriend. You’re following her.”

A string of curse words was all ready to come out of my mouth. Was I that obvious? I have never been found out before in the past. I was always careful when it came to missions. But this girl right here saw right through me. She wasn’t called one of the most intelligent students for nothing. It was regrettable that Jinwoon hyung’s ranking was higher, even without my help.

I eventually clicked my tongue, thinking that she already figured everything out. There’s no use hiding from her anymore. “How did you know all that? Have you been watching me?”

“To be honest, yeah I have,” she replied, not a beat later. “You weren’t exactly discreet and different from the last I saw you. You’re still a head-turner, Kyungsooyi. And with those glasses, you attract even more attention.”

I snorted at her directness, a habit that I knew she had ever since we became friends.

“So you’re going to the cinema where they’re going, right?”

“How did you know their destination?”

“When we were talking, I heard loud and clear that they’re watching a movie later. I wasn’t eavesdropping, though.” She paused. “I’m still coming and you can’t say no to me.”

“Why not?”

“Because if we’re found out, you could say that we’re on a date.”

“A date?” I echoed, confusion evident in my voice.

She nodded. “You owe me and I’m positive you need a better disguise than your glasses. You’re not a superhero, Kyungsoo. People can still recognise you. At least with me as your date, you can pretend that we’re there to have fun, not to follow her.”

In the end, I agreed with her suggestion. I figured that she was right. If Joo Seohyun just happened to find me, I could say that we’re also watching the same movie. I hoped that it wouldn’t be because of another case of my friend calling me out loud. Twice was enough already. I might just swear in public if the opportunity came again.

Half an hour later, we found ourselves walking towards our destination. With my tablet safely inside her bag, my arms were left dangling at the sides. There were only a few steps left for the ticket counter when she suddenly looped her arm around mine. I stopped walking and turned to face her.

“What are you doing?” I asked, her hand dropping to loosely hold mine.

“Making us look more like a couple,” came her reply. “People are looking. I’m pretty sure we look as awkward as turtles.”

I rolled my eyes, even though she was right once again about us being uncomfortable. I have never done a mission with a company before, with a girl no less, so it was weird standing next to someone. I was used to being by myself, not having to hold a conversation with anybody. So you could imagine my shock when she suddenly pulled my hand, causing me to turn around again. Confusion must be clearly written on my forehead because she was smiling. “What is it?”

To my surprise, she cupped my cheek with her free hand. “You’re really cute when your eyes get bigger like that.” She then ran her thumb along my cheekbone several times, causing my heartbeat to double its speed. “Do you know what movie they’re watching?”

“Y-yeah, it was mentioned on his tweet.”

“Okay then, let’s go.”

This time, she led the way to the ticket counter with me holding on to her hand behind her. My heart was still beating fast as I paid for the tickets because she was standing much closer than before. As cliché as this would sound, my cheek where she touched me previously felt like it was burning. My mind couldn’t stop replaying that moment over and over again. My concentration fell apart. I might crash into the wall and embarrass myself if it wasn’t for her arm encircled around mine.

When she declared her feelings all those years ago, I told her to focus them in our final year instead. We had a lot to study for the exams and I didn’t want any of us to fail. While that was true, there was some truth hidden from everyone. I actually returned her feelings. It was difficult not to let it show, but I did my best to conceal it. I put more attention to my studies so I wouldn’t have time to think about her. Unfortunately though, we spent a lot of time studying together, so it was hard at first. It got easier as time passed by.

But as I saw her smiling at me with her hand clasped in mine (I got used to the warmth), I couldn’t tell my heart to cease its beating to a slower speed. My feelings have returned to make their grand comeback. They hit me on the head so hard that I actually had to look away. And to make matters worse, I heard a giggle coming from my left and something that eerily sounded like ‘adorable’ in my ears. My face must have looked ridiculously red because it felt hot all of the sudden.

“Oh, the door is opened,” she said, causing me to look ahead where there was a crowd lining up to get inside. “Come on, Kyungsoo.” She then proceeded to pull on my hand towards the queue, looking as eager as a kid who’s about to enter a candy shop.

“Relax. We already bought the tickets.”

Instead of answering, she just looked back at me complete with a sweet smile plastered on her face. Then my heart skipped a beat for the umpteenth time that day.

Sh*t.

THE END

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A/N: And yet another EXO oneshot, this time featuring D.O. In my opinion, he's very interesting and kinda fits the spy role because he has this mysterious aura floating around him. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading and please don't forget to comment :)