"Let go of me Zelo. Now."

Zelo shook his head and refused the order. Jiyeon sighed and ran her hand through her hair. She tried shaking it off and though succeeded, did not move from her place. 

"Where did he go Zelo? I mean it, tell me."

"They'll be back tomorrow!" Zelo shouted, growing frustrated at the girl's impatience. "Why can't you just sit and wait?"

"It's not only him I'm worried about Zelo!" Jiyeon shouted back. "Kairi is with them!"

"With who?"

The two turned around and found a groggy Sungyeol slowly waking up to the situation. Other members of the team began stirring out of their sleep, dragging themselves out of their rooms. 

Jiyeon looked at Sungyeol and sighed. "Kairi, Woohyun, Kris, Lay and YongGuk aren't here. They've gone somewhere and..." She then shot a glare at Zelo. "And he's not telling me where they went."

Zelo clicked his tongue and gave Sungyeol a pleading glance. "I'm telling you! They're safe! They're in the safest place possible."

"He's not lying."

Suho stepped out of the kitchen with a glass of eerily green liquid. He took a swig of it, making a few gag. "Kris and Lay had some last minute work to settle. Woohyun and YongGuk volunteered to go. Maybe Kairi tagged along."

"Tagged along?" Sungyeol said, furrowing his eyebrows. "The General's daughter is out there in the world, exposed to cameras and eyes and you're saying it's okay she tagged along?"

Suho blinked and tilted his head. After a moment of deep thought, he said, "Yep. That's what I said."

Sungyeol and Jiyeon threw their hands up in the air simultaneously, giving everyone an amusing sight as they began ranting about being kept in the dark. Dayoung climbed out of the basement and began pouring some cereal into her bowl. She stretched her arm to start the microwave, only to be helped by a tall figure. Tao smiled at her and glanced at the two noisy people in the living room. Dayoung followed his gaze and sat on the counter. 

"Good morning," she muttered and looked at Tao. He shrugged and said, "I guess."

"But really," Dayoung murmured, "where have they gone?" The microwave rang off and she poured the heated milk into the bowl. She walked across to fetch for a spoon while Tao followed her. She sat on the couch and found him sitting next to her, his head resting on his hand.

"What?" she said, after giving him a good long look. Tao shook his head then paused. 

"I might as well," he said. 

"Might as well what," Dayoung inquired, narrowing her eyes. Tao began counting something on his fingers and once done, beamed at her. 

"You'll turn eighteen in five years. By then everything should be sorted out."

"Hmm. Okay. So?"

"I want to take you out on a date."

Jiyeon and Sungyeol continued their rant only to stop when they found chaos of another sort growing behind them. 

"What happened to them?" Sungyeol muttered. Jiyeon stood next to him and joined the rest of the room in staring at Himchan, who was struggling to reach for Tao's head while the latter kept him away with his long arm. Dayoung was eating her cereal, seated in between the two, continously telling Himchan to 'stop' with useless effort. 

"Gooood morning!" 

Everyone looked up to find Ricky staring down at them with a cheeky grin. 

"Those five better come back," Jiyeon muttered, following Sungyeol inside the kitchen as he guaranteed her that his coffee making abilities were frighteningly good. 

                                                                                        ************************************************************

"So are you ever going to tell me why you invested in him?"

Suzy and Shin were sitting in the latter's car, following the ambulance that was carrying Sehun's mangled body to the hospital. Shin had planned on not making any inquiry until Suzy herself said something. But a glance at the harried mess that Suzy had become after seeing Sehun's state aroused curiosity. He had every right to know too. He was after all, her one and only Partner. 

Suzy sighed. "I just... felt like it."

It had been the best excuse to use. She had put up this facade of being a spontaneous, thoughtless girl who had recovered from her parents' deaths only because Shin was by her side. She had to be the opposite of her true self. She had to be pathetic, hopeless, dependant and irresponsible. And so far, she had been getting away with a lot of things because of those traits. 

Shin wasn't buying it this time though. He made a sound that alerted Suzy's senses. From her peripheral view, she saw the small twitch on his face that indicated irritation. She saw his knuckles turn white as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel, indicating his need to shout at her, vent out his boiled up frustration. She saw the discomfort in his legs and in it, saw the hidden ual sadist who wanted to grab her and get her to do what he wanted her to do. 

She was an INVICTUS. She was supposed to know all of this.

Suzy couldn't understand why Shin was keeping up with her. She wondered which part of her bimbo self had he fallen in love with and thought of the possibilty that he was a typical libertine -- he was good looking and rich, so he would want nothing but an eye-candy equal to his level by his side. Maybe that's what it was. 

Being a female INVICTUS did a lot of things to Suzy. For one, she could not at all be a victim of chivalry. Many experiments had shown that a female INVICTUS would not know how to react or respond to chauvinism and would often land up choosing Partners who would physically and mentally challenge their worth. 

Sehun and Suzy had not seen each other ever since her parents had died and he had been shifted away with his father. She had been in love with him even before she had seen him that day at Jiyong's headquarters, after she had become an INVICTUS. The fact that a pre-INVICTUS part of her existed in her feelings towards Sehun was what made it all the more difficult and beautiful. Sehun was Suzy's last reminder of how human she was.

She stared at the back of the ambulance. "I just don't want to lose anything," she murmured. Shin eased up upon hearing this sudden confession and rested his right hand on her thigh. 

"You won't lose anything," he cooed. "I promise."

Suzy looked away from his sincerity and out towards the streets of Paragon. 

                                                                 **************************************************************

"Is it true?"

Kyungsoo looked up with wide eyes. The female bartender from the restaurant shifted closer as he removed his clothes from the locker. She was short, square-faced and wasn't all that pretty to look at. However the brightness on her face was attractive and Kyungsoo knew it was true, for he had seen her surrounded by a lot of guys as well as girls.

"What are you doing here?" he said, looking around in shock. The girl furrowed her eyebrows, then eased up in understanding. 

"Ah... oh yeah got it. Boys locker. Hmm." 

However, the girl stayed, as if waiting for the boy to be done with his work. Kyungsoo sighed and slammed his locker shut. 

"What do you want?"he said, strapping on his bagpack. The girl grinned and to Kyungsoo's disappointment, his heart skipped a beat. 

"Is that girl.... you know, the one who came with that big fat casino freak." 

Kyungsoo stifled a laugh and waited for the girl to finish her question.

"Is she a Pleasure Agent?"

Kyungsoo couldn't help it and burst out laughing, unable to forget the expression that Hyoyeon would have had on her face. The girl looked at him in shock, seemingly insulted and crossed her arms. When Kyungsoo shook his head and began walking out, still chuckling, she held onto her satchel and followed him. 

"Why do you want to know anyway?" Kyungsoo said. "Who are you to them?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm just curious."

This time, all humour had vanished from his eyes. It was this same type of insensible curiosity that had humiliated his sister once upon a time. "I'm not going to tell you anything."

The girl let out a flustered sigh. "Whyyy???"

Kyungsoo closed his eyes and turned around to face her, the noise from the traffic and the people in the streets making him shout. "You think gossip is fun? What kind of people like to talk badly about other people's lives? You don't have a life of your own or what, that you have to go around looking for excitement in other's people's miseries? Gossip is for those who are pathetic and I really hope you are not. Bye."

With that, he gave one last glare at the shocked girl and waited for the pedestrian light to go green. Just when he was about to walk, his arm was twisted and Kyungsoo found himself facing the girl. He was taken aback to see that there were tears flowing down her eyes and her body was trembling. 

"Of course I'm pathetic," she said. "I don't have a life of my own. I'm not like you, who looks like someone coming from a family that has happily given you the choice to do whatever you want. You look like someone who is taking this job just 'for experience', someone who will be 'adventurous' this year and then return to your family business when you get bored. Well you know what Mr....." The girl then narrowed her eyes. "Kyungsoo," she spat out. "Mr. Kyungsoo. I don't give a damn what you think about me and my life. I come from a family where this job is feeding the six of us, my mother and my five brothers. I'm the youngest, my brothers are even more pathetic than me. Do you know why I like talking badly about those people? Because they are the reason why I'm here. My father was a corporal lawyer, a very prestigious one. Just because he did his job and fought for what was true, our entire savings were taken away and we had to shift to the workers' condominium, which is by the way right across the width of this city and makes me travel for two hours just for this pathetic job, which I need if I want to live this pathetic life and being the only breadwinner of the family, I can't even bloody well quit because our family can only afford to cover up one death at a time!"

The girl was shaking and once done ranting, she widened her eyes and instantly turned to ran. Kyungsoo called out to her, but she didn't look back. 

"... our family can only afford to cover up one death at a time!"

Kyungsoo began running and thanks to his training, he had already caught up to the girl. He could feel the ground beneath him tell him that someone before him had run like him and he followed his senses, reaching a forlorn construction site. He saw the girl looking for a place to run to, her scared conscience not letting her see that he was right behind her. 

"Wait."

The girl panicked, but couldn't run. Kyungsoo held onto her arms and she began flailing her legs, crying hysterically, begging him not to take her to the police. 

"Please, please, please, please...." The girl was now hugging him, almost giving up as she collapsed on the floor. Kyungsoo bent down on his knees and quietly watched as she bawled.

"Your father committed suicide... how long ago?"

Something in Kyungsoo's tone made the girl stop crying. Her rational self told her not to do so, but she was reminded that she might as well tell him. The consequence would be the same. 

"Eight years."

Kyungsoo's jaw dropped and his eyes widened. The girl began weeping, hiccupping periodically while he watched her. 

"What do you want? What will you do now?" The challenge in her tone was weak and like the boy had said, 'pathetic'. 

"Have you heard of EXO?"

                                                                      ***********************************************

"Kyungsoo found the first one."

Woohyun, Yongguk and Kairi woke up from their trance, which had been inundated on them by the monastery's beauty, and turned around to watch Kris and Lay's bright faces. 

"Kyungsoo," Lay said, his voice trembling with excitement. "He found a girl at the workplace whose family of six has been covering up their father's death for eight years."

Woohyun's eyes almost rolled out of his sockets while Kairi and YongGuk looked at each other in shock. "What?!" they chorused.

"There'll be more."

The five looked up as a tall bespectacled man entered the quadrangle. Kris and Lay instantly bowed and watching them, the other three awkwardly followed. The man smiled and shook his head, indicating that they didn't have to do so. His eyes landed on Kairi and a shadow passed his face.

"He...llo?" Kairi responded, noticing the change in his expression. The man's gaze was soft and sympathetic, making Kairi feel weirdly defensive and uncomfortable. 

"Ah of course," the man said, sounding genuinely apologetic. "Sorry for imposing my empathy on you. You don't respond to those feelings well, right?"

"I'm sorry?" Kairi asked, confused. 

"He's right though," Woohyun muttered. She shot him a glare and he scoffed, least bothered about her temper. 

The man noticed the exchange between the two and turned to face Kris and Lay. "It's nice meeting you two after so long."

"Our pleasure too, Senpai," Kris said with a modest bow of his head. 

"Please, follow me. Let's sit down and have some tea, then we can discuss."

Kairi, Woohyun and YongGuk looked at each other in confusion. "Discuss what?"

The man turned around and smiled. "You don't know why you're here?" When the three nodded, the man gave a soft chuckle, one that was followed by a smile from Kris and Lay. 

"As if you knew," YongGuk mumbled. 

"By the way," the man said, as he walked ahead. "Don't address me with any honorifics. Siwon would do."