Do Kyungsoo was the pride of the police academy.

He was always awake and in pristine condition by the time the commanding officers made their rounds every morning. Even though he was small, he was in peak physical condition and his grades were excellent too. He even graduated valedictorian, an event his entire hometown village had turned up to see. He was a real prodigy. It seemed like he could do anything.

But once he was finally in uniform, he found out very quickly what he could and could not do. He could very accurately file a police report or catch a traffic violation. He could not handle a weapon.

His very first day on the job he and his partner had arrived first to the scene of a domestic disturbance. Finding the battered woman inside they’d called for backup. While his partner waited with the woman, Kyungsoo scoped the house. He found the husband upstairs, hiding in a closet.

He was making the arrest when he heard a gun go off downstairs. After handcuffing the man to the bed he rushed down only to find his partner bleeding out on the floor, the battered woman holding the gun over him.

Before she could raise the gun to him backup arrived. She shot again and hit one of the new officers in the leg. He should have shot then. He should have taken her down. It was his duty.

At the academy it had been so easy. So easy to shoot the long distance targets. He never once hesitated. He never once strayed from the circle. On a paper target he could easily hit those vital points. But this was a real live human, a battered woman who should not be attacking the people trying to help her. The situation made no sense. The logic was incorrect. He couldn’t cope.

So while the other officer took her down he could only watch, hands shaking violently as his own gun fell to the floor.

Maybe the incident wouldn’t have been such a big deal…that is if the man who had been shot in the knee wasn’t the son of the current chief of police.

Afterwards, he was seen as unfit for active police duty, a real shame to someone as talented as he. He became a desk jockey, was told he’d never become a detective.

So what in the world was he doing rooting around in the trash of a gay strip club’s bar?

A few weeks ago when the police chief himself had addressed him, he knew something was up, but that it couldn’t be his paperwork. He’d spent five years now filing papers and everything he did was impeccable, he was just compulsive that way.

So all things considered, to say he was surprised to be promoted to detective was a gigantic understatement. But it wasn’t unreasonable.

The entire police department was on to something big, something that would make the name of the police chief go down in history for generations. The mob was a major pain in the city’s , and taking it down one family at a time was the goal.

The Byun’s were a very well-known family, perhaps the most influential in Seoul, maybe South Korea. And it was that very influence that made them so untouchable. The department needed substantial evidence. Everything they’d come up with before had been considered coincidental, something people could only have been convinced of by the finest of lawyers, of which the Byun’s were privy and able to provide.

They needed something new, something that hadn’t been tried before. A new way to get information. They needed someone to go undercover.

But it couldn’t just be any someone. They knew that the Byun’s knew about their uniforms on the street, and of course they were well acquainted with all the detectives. That left fresh faces only, and unfortunately the person most qualified for the job was none other than Do Kyungsoo.

‘Do Butterfingers Soo.’

So why the hell did he accept the job? He was more than content at his desk right? He wasn’t an adventurer by nature. Police-work had been the family trade. It was in his blood. But why did he have to go and make it his profession? He cursed his will to please his father. It was the whole reason he was in this stupid mess, he told himself as he shifted through more receipts from the bar.

He wasn’t allowed in the back rooms yet, after all, he was only a bartender. But his years of training and knowledge told him anything he found could be profound potential evidence. So with the bar currently empty, he had to search everywhere…even if that meant sorting through food trash and something that looked suspiciously like a . He shuddered.

The back door creaked open and he had just enough time to throw everything back into the bin before his interrupter came upon him.

It was a tall man he’d never seen before, maybe his age or slightly older. But the bar was closed at this hour so he knew he was some sort of employee. Maybe a new bartender? He certainly hadn’t heard anything about it.

He looked over to Kyungsoo, wide eyes naturally kind, and a crazy-looking smile graced his lips as he introduced himself. “Hi,” he began, slightly bowing. “I’m Park Chanyeol.”

Kyungsoo smiled back and held out a hand. Play the part, he reminded himself like a mantra. “Hi. I’m Lee Seunghoon. It’s nice to meet you. Are you new here?”

“Yeah, I just started working about a week ago actually.” He moved to the back of the bar to set down his coat. “Are you a bartender here?”

When he dipped below the counter to stuff away his jacket was when Kyungsoo saw the tattoo. On the back of his neck it was there, below his brown hairline and peeking out from under his collar was the tell-tale black light tattoo, the symbol of the syndicate.

Kyungsoo immediately became tense. He was very familiar with all the family at XOXO, and had no word from his informant about a new crew member. It was a little unprecedented. When the man with the goofy smile began to frown was when he remembered he was supposed to answer back.

“Oh, um. Sorry. Yes. I am. A bartender that is…what do you do?” An innocent enough question.

Chanyeol shook his head slightly. “I don’t really know yet.”

Before Kyungsoo could get in another question the door burst open, and there he was.

Kyungsoo knew him from his photos well, but he was much scarier, and yet somehow much prettier in real life. It was his first time in all the weeks he’d worked here seeing Byun Baekhyun. Somehow their paths had never crossed during his shifts. He watched a little breathless as Baekhyun passed by him, flanked by his two preferred bodyguards. Kyungsoo knew their profiles well, both trained killers.

Wu Yi Fan aka Kris. Mixed Chinese-Canadian descent. 29 years old. Trained body-guard, with proficiencies in Judo, other forms of hand-to-hand combat, and firearms. He speaks four languages fluently, and is currently a suspect in an ongoing investigation in Guangzhou, China. Something about strangulation.

Huang Zi Tao. Chinese descent. Only 24 years old. Martial arts and weapons specialist. Ultra-proficient in both swordplay and hand-to-hand combat, but not too shabby with a Glock either. Suspect in an open triple homicide investigation in Beijing.

They’d both been under their leader for about five years now, and he was another story.

Byun Baekhyun. Korean descent. 28 years old. Firearms expert, and known to have trained in various martial arts over the years. Known leader of the Byun Family syndicate for 10 years with affiliations in both China and the US. He is the last of the pureblood Byun line. Successor: Unknown. He has two cousins in the same industry. One is Kim Minseok, a tattoo artist and small time drug dealer. The other is unknown.

Kyungsoo couldn’t help but swallow a gulp as all three bigwigs scanned him over like he was nothing. Then he watched as Baekhyun signaled to the boy he’d just met, who followed frantically, tripping on his feet into the back rooms.

So who the hell was Park Chanyeol?

---

Chanyeol twiddled his thumbs nervously from the back of the room while Baekhyun filtered through the numerous papers on his desk. Kris and Tao stood quietly to the side while a fourth party flittered about the room jabbering on endlessly.

As far as Chanyeol could tell, there was no criminal activity going on, just simple club business. Apparently, the man with the wide square jaw and sleek black suit was the manager of the club, or clubs. Business was up in the past months, and not only at XOXO. It seemed that Byun Baekhyun owned more than just one club, not all of them gay or strip. It just happened that a combination of the two was his current headquarters.

The man spoke on and on about finances and numbers, and Chanyeol almost nodded off for a few seconds. But when Baekhyun flashed an eye at him he stayed wide awake, pinching his thigh to jolt his senses.

He didn’t understand why he’d been called in. There was no umbrella to hold, no menial task to do. Nobody wanted coffee. Nobody was even speaking to him. He just stood at the side of the room and watched Baekhyun.

“Jongdae, you’re getting far too into your side job and less of what I hired you for,” he said with a bored yawn.

“Aren’t you at all interested in where your money comes from?” replied the camel-faced man with a natural cocky smirk.

“No thanks,” replied Baekhyun, smile matching the other’s. “I have Junmyeon for that, and he only bothers me every other Wednesday. Don’t ruin my Thursday too.” He leaned forward, delicately resting his chin on his fingers. “I am interested in what you know.”

“Well why didn’t you say so?” Jongdae finally stilled long enough to sit in the chair across from him. He leaned back into it and crossed his legs. “I’ve heard some things.”

“Stop ting me. I know you hear everything and I know you’ve been messing with me. What’s the word on the Busan incident?”

Chanyeol’s ears perked up and he looked up from the floor, now interested in the conversation. Kris, however, sent him a glare that clearly said keep your head down. He quickly averted his eyes, but he still tried to listen.

“Well official word on the news is the gas main underneath the building had a leak.” Baekhyun nodded, already familiar with the news. “But the police are well aware that there was some sort of gang activity, or at the very least an arsonist. They’re keeping it quiet for now but the firefighters found the source of the explosion and some shrapnel from the bomb imbedded in the wall. So they know the gas main story is bull.”

Baekhyun cursed. Yixing was usually better than that. Oh well. Details schmetails.

“The real news is the group from Busan,” Jongdae continued. But before he went on he glanced over his shoulder and met Chanyeol’s eyes. He jerked his head in his direction. “Who’s the fresh meat?”

“Don’t mind him,” said Baekhyun with a flippant wave of his hand. “He’s just that. Meat, I mean.” Chanyeol didn’t miss the laugh in his eyes. He frowned back and saw Tao stifle his laughter with a cough. “Please continue.”

“Well, all right then,” he said with an annoying smirk and swiveled back around. Chanyeol’s eye twitched. “So like I was saying. The Busan group is on the move out. Seems like the guy you took out last week was one of their higher ranking generals but they did get the picture. They’re too financial insecure to make any more moves right now and so they’re pushing out. When they called the office the only thing they asked for was a monetary ransom.”

“The bastards…”

“Yeah. ing idiots they were. Anyway, my sources say that the whole reason they were here in the first place was that they’re being pushed out by another growing group.”

“Will they be a problem?”

“Not likely. They’re too busy trying to establish themselves down south. I give it two, three years before they become an issue. There’s too many competing groups in the area. They have the potential, but not the resources. At least not yet.”

Baekhyun nodded, taking in all the information. “What’s the word uptown?”

“The kids are all experimenting with some