Chapter Eight;

 
August 23
Seoul, South Korea 

Sehun and Jongin started working on cracking this week’s code as soon as they could. Cryptography was not something I had a lot of knowledge on so I left the guys alone to work on it. Chanyeol seemed to know a bit and even Lu Han showed interest. I ended up in the kitchen with the others who were trying to stay out of the way – Minseok and Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo appeared to be stress cooking. He was washing an assortment of veggies and had also taken out seemingly random ingredients such as chili paste, various meats, sesame paste and peanut butter.  

“What are you making?” Minseok asked, sitting next to me on the counter bar stools. He poured me a glass of sparkling cider and slid a glass to Kyungsoo across the counter.

“Hot pot,” Kyungsoo replied shortly. “That’s for the soup base and the dipping sauce.”

In college, Minseok and I went out for hot pot only once. It had been a get together with some of his classmates who I wasn’t very familiar with. One of his sunbaes had very blatantly hit on Minseok and I had gotten very angry, and also very jealous because she was both pretty and smart. 

To my defense, I managed to make it through the entire meal without ripping her face off. It wasn’t until we were getting up to leave when I snapped. She had grabbed Minseok’s arm, stopping him to ask for his number. I’m not exactly sure what I said because I acted without much thought, but it was somewhere along the lines of ‘don’t touch my boyfriend, you crazy ’ before I pulled Minseok out of there. 

I was surly and grumpy all the way back to my apartment building. I managed to avoid Minseok’s curious, slightly amused gaze until we got in the elevator. 

“Okay, I’m sorry for yelling at your sunbae. Are you mad?”  

Minseok’s eyes had darkened and he took two steps in to press me against the walls of the elevator. He put one hand next to my head, the other on my hip to cage me in. 

“She was acting out of line.” Minseok’s voice dropped and he leaned in to whisper into my ear. “Besides, you were hot when you got all mad and territorial. It was kind of attractive. I’ll pretend to be mad only if we can have really hot make-up .”

I didn’t even have time to blush before Minseok’s lips pressed into mine, hands coming up under my to lift me up. I’d wrapped my legs around his waist, arms around his neck for balance. Minseok had carried me out of the elevator that night, giggling all the way down the hall and into the apartment. He carried me like that all the way to my bedroom, only letting me go so he could deposit me onto the bed. 

I was amazed at how vivid the memory was, even though it had been so many years agp. The mind really does choose to remember the weirdest things. And why did this particular memory surface at the mention of hot pot, and not the many other times I have had it?

I met Minseok’s eyes for a brief second and also saw that he had the ghost of a smile on his face. I wondered if he was remembering the same thing as me. 
 
“Can you pass me the winter mushrooms,” Kyungsoo called, snapping us out of our moment. 

Minseok coughed and reached for the mushrooms.

August 26, 
Seoul, South Korea

Two days on the code later, Jongin and Sehun were able to crack it. It was in record time, and probably a good thing since Kyungsoo was burning through almost all of groceries at an alarming rate with his stress cooking. Kyungsoo was part of the distraction again and he was very, very nervous. He, Lu Han, and Kris were posing as entrepreneurs with a pitch for a start-up, seeking venture capital. Their goal was to keep Lee out of his house for an hour over a meeting so that Sehun and Chanyeol could get Minseok, Tao, Joonmyun, and me in to steal the painting.  

The plan kicked into action after lunch. Kyungsoo, Lu Han, and Kris checked into the expensive hotel and assumed their identities as entrepreneurs. Jongin went with them, acting as their personal assistant and driver. Sehun and Chanyeol were working on accessing all of the security cameras within a hundred meters from Lee’s estate, preparing to turn them off that night. The hour of missing footage was to be replaced with clean footage from the night before with an edited time stamp. No one would ever know. 
  
The outfit of the night was black, for blending in and staying hidden. With Lee and his assistant and secretary out of the house, there was a maid left, a cook, and the head of security. We were just going to get Tao deal with them. I wondered if he had any more of those tranquilizer darts from Busan left. Probably. 

Jongdae was driving the car, with Baekhyun sitting shotgun. We were all wired, linking back to Sehun at the base. He was hacking into the house security system next, all from the living room couch. Technology these days was scary.

We parked the car around the corner from the estate. Tao, Joonmyun, Minseok, and I crept around back to a side door.

“Hallway on the other side all clear. Alarm temporarily disabled. Go head in,” Chanyeol voice muttered over the earpiece. 

Joonmyun stepped up, putting his ear to the lock. He pulled a few tools out of his bag and got to work in the key hole. Ten seconds later, Joonmyun gave the door a push and it swung open.

The inside of Lee Jihoon’s estate was just as fancy as I imaged it to be. Lush carpets, big windows, all carefully maintained by a very able housekeeper maid. There were paintings and art on displayed everywhere, but we had only one goal tonight. 

“The maid is dusting in the library, head of security is in his office and the cook is napping in the storeroom one floor up,” Sehun reported. “Which one first?”

“Head of security,” Tao answered. “He’s the biggest threat that I need to eliminate first.” 

There was a beat of silence before Sehun answered. “He’s sitting at his desk, working on his computer. You need to take him by surprise so he doesn’t alert outsiders of the break in. There is an air vent above you guys about twenty meters in front that will lead you everywhere you need to go.”

I looked up and saw the air vent. 

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