Kyuhyun held his blood stained bat under running hot water at the slop sink in the basement. The blood mixed with the water, slid off of the bat then swirled down the drain.

‘I’m going to have to change the grip tape on this thing.’ He rubbed the grip tape on the bat handle with his index finger. It was losing some of its adhesiveness from being washed several times.

Kyuhyun looked down at his shirt and saw patches of it glistening in the dim light. He could still feel the blood in the process of drying on his shirt, which was sticking to his skin. ‘That’s the beauty of black clothes,’ he thought. ‘It’s easier to hide the blood stains.’ He smiled to himself.

He could hear the water heater humming faintly. He knew Siwon and Eunhyuk were still running the hot water in their showers. Both couldn’t bare the feeling of blood sticking on their skin, especially someone else’s blood. They rushed to the bathrooms to clean themselves off as soon as they came home. Kyuhyun, on the other hand, didn’t mind so much. Even if the blood was his, there was a sense of satisfaction in having spilled blood for his dream. It was just a reminder of his position. He reasoned that if he were not aggressive, surely, he would be a victim. It was just the way he saw the world.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the door opening behind him.

“Hi, Kyu.” Donghae strode in and threw himself on the long couch.

“Hey.” Kyuhyun turned the water off and dried his bat with a towel. He walked over to stand in front of Donghae. He was expecting news. Donghae wouldn’t be back if he didn’t have anything to report. “Whatcha got?” Kyuhyun asked.

“The full report,” Donghae said with his eyes closed. He held the bridge of his nose. Surveillance always took a toll on him but it was his role in the crew and he always reminded himself: as hard as it is, it’s easier than being hands on during the hit.

Donghae sat up to fill his leader in on the details. He opened his eyes and saw Kyuhyun standing in the light, the blood splattered and smeared on his pale skin. He didn’t miss the blood stains on Kyuhyun’s pants and shirt reflecting light as he moved. Slightly sickened, Donghae leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and looked down at his clean hands in contrast.

Donghae didn’t speak right away. The sight of the implied violence was disturbing. Kyuhyun was the youngest yet the brutality of his actions didn’t seem to bother him in the least. It was as if the maknae never processed the wrongdoing in his mind or never associated himself with his crimes because there he was, standing in front of him without a trace of shame, remorse, or sadness in his expression.

Kyuhyun smiled innocently at Donghae to encourage him to continue. Donghae’s eyes lingered on him before finally reaching into his backpack for his laptop.

“I have pictures,” Donghae began quieter than before.

Kyuhyun walked around the table and sat next to Donghae, who stiffened with the proximity. He could smell the metallic scent of blood coming from the maknae.

His laptop finished starting up. He loaded a memory card and pulled up the first picture. “I’ll start at the top. This,” he pointed at a candid picture of man with delicate features and sleek, dark hair wearing a black blazer over a black v-neck shirt, “is the leader. His name is Heechul.”

Kyuhyun squinted at the picture. ‘He looks familiar…’ he thought. He mentally ran through faces he had encountered in the past. His eyes widened as he pulled up Heechul’s face in his mind’s eye. The memory was easy to recall because of the unusual nature of their encounter. ‘That’s the philosophical, girly hyung who beat me at Mortal Kombat! No way! He ended up in this line of work?’ He stared at Heechul’s picture with eyebrows raised.

Donghae continued talking, “From what I heard on the bug, this guy’s a true business man. He knows how to run his show; seems to be dedicated too.”

He moved on to the next picture of a man wearing a double-ed jacket with the collar popped and jet-black hair. “This is Yesung. He doesn’t speak much but I think he’s some sort of assistant to Heechul. He takes notes and informs Heechul about business operations. I liken his position to Ryeowook’s, in a sense. He gets to their headquarters,” Donghae pointed at the building behind Yesung, “at crack and doesn’t leave until really late at night.”

The next picture was of two men, one considerably larger than the other. “This big dude is Kangin. He’s a loud mouth but he shuts up for Heechul. He’s mainly the muscle, it seems; does what he’s told just fine.” Donghae pointed at the smaller of the two, “This one is known as Teuk. He’s close to Heechul. I think he’s known him the longest. He’s a mover, sometimes he’ll lead the others if Heechul is unavailable.”

“This is Sungmin.” Donghae switched pictures again.

“That one’s kind of scary-looking,” Kyuhyun interrupted. “The boss had a face, which I could deal with but this one looks like he’s about to bust a motherer on a Sunday.”

“Funny you say that,” Donghae continued. “He’s quiet but soldiers hard. I think he’s into martial arts or something like that because I heard talk of that sort.”

Donghae showed Kyuhyun the next picture. “This is the fat dude I was telling you about last time. He’s called Shindong. I don’t know if that’s his real name. I wouldn’t want to be parading my real name around on the street. Anyway, he seems to be good with people so Heechul sends him out to do most of the handoffs to their customers.

Those are the main guys. They seem to have a system where they don’t actually have a trap house for themselves. They deliver to street level dealers. Anyway, Kyuhyun, these guys are wholesale.” Donghae’s eyes widened subconsciously as he tried to emphasize the importance of his words while pointing at the picture on his screen. “They won’t waste their time on chump change. It’s big deals or nothing.”

Donghae looked to his right. Kyuhyun was looking off into the distance as he moved his eyes from left to right as though he were reading something in the air. It was his habit when weighing his options for a decision that required thorough consideration.

‘This could be interesting. I actually do want to meet this hyung again although, I’m not sure that the guys would be down if I told them everything this means to me. Just making a fool out of someone is not the best reason to go through with a hit. It seems to be too fun to pass up but that just makes it an ulterior motive. I’ll have to change the way I see this hit. That sounds hard but then I won’t be lying when I say our objective is material gain.

We’ll be going against the boys on the big playground. This has the potential to go south for us… Be careful, kid. Don’t ever underestimate anyone. But don’t overestimate anyone either because that means you’re underestimating yourself.’ Kyuhyun smiled to himself.

Kyuhyun spoke up after a few moments’ pause, “I think we’re going to need more guys for this one.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kyuhyun stood at the head of the basement coffee table. Eunhyuk, Siwon, Donghae, and Ryeowook sat on the couches.

“I called you guys down to go over our next hit. As you all know, Donghae has been on assignment for the past two weeks. The target is drug wholesaler, Heechul and his crew. The main crew is made up of five guys, plus Heechul, totaling six. We’re outnumbered as we stand but I got two loaners from GD: Taeyang and Daesung. These two guys come highly recommended by GD so I know we could count on them.

The nature of this job requires a unique set of skills that guys trained by GD are comfortable with. I’ll go over some of those details in a bit but first I wanted to let you know that as soon as this job is done, those guys will go back to work for GD. They are not going to be permanent members of our crew but I know they have loyalty to GD and GD gave them this mission so they’ll do good by us.

The reason I called on GD is because his crew specializes in kidnapping and extortion.  Those are particularly useful for what I want to accomplish in this hit. On top of that, our crew just so happens to be outnumbered by Heechul’s crew and time is working against us but I just can’t let this opportunity slip by. This could be the biggest haul we’ve ever done.”

Kyuhyun nodded to Donghae, cueing him to pass out copies of the report on Heechul and his men before continuing, “The first page is an organization chart and mini profile of the crew. You could read through that on your own later. For now, take a look at the map and surveillance pictures. The blueprint is a copy of the building plan for their headquarters, which they call ‘the warehouse’. It’s out in an industrial area that isn’t frequented often as most of the surrounding businesses closed during hard times. The majority of this crew’s business is conducted here. I expect all of the guys to be there until late at night, although there is a possibility that a few of them may be out during the day. Either way, we need them to open the door for us.”

Eunhyuk, who had been skimming over sections of the report, timidly raised his hand for a chance to speak.

“What?”

“In the report, Donghae says that there’s usually one man that closes up late at night. The rest of the crew should be gone by then. Shouldn’t we, uh… use this as our window? You know, when the cat’s away…” Eunhyuk trailed off after seeing Kyuhyun’s expression.

Kyuhyun couldn’t believe what he had just heard. He stepped closer to the seated Eunhyuk until he was hovering over him. “Finish it.”

“Sorry?” Eunhyuk shied away from Kyuhyun’s glare.

“The idiom. Finish it,” Kyuhyun demanded.

“When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” Eunhyuk said quietly with his head hung.

“Are you insinuating that we are the mice?”

Eunhyuk shook his head.

Kyuhyun rammed his pelvis into Eunhyuk’s shoulder. “Are you a mouse, Eunhyuk? `Cause I’m a man and I’m not down for your mousy .”

“No.”

“Good. Does anyone else have some chicken suggestion they want me to hear?” Kyuhyun looked around the room, giving his crew an opportunity to speak up. “Didn’t think so.” He backed off of Eunhyuk to his previous position at the head of the coffee table. “So, Ryeowook’s going to be the lookout on this one. Donghae you’ll have to go in this time. While Siwon, Eunhyuk, Taeyang, Daesung, and I submit Heechul and his crew, you will locate the goods. By submission, I mean on their bellies with zip ties on their wrists and ankles. I don’t want to take any chances. These guys are legit. They have something to guard so they keep weapons at the ready.

Donghae, once you find the goods and the crew has been fully submitted, Siwon, Eunhyuk and you will load the van.

Also, we’ll be wearing riot gear this time. See? I’m not reckless. I watch out for you guys too. We just can’t be punks about this.

Based on conversations that Donghae recorded, we know that Heechul’s been preparing for the demand of the upcoming New Year parties. He’s loading up and should get a few more shipments in the next few days. We have to move on this fast.

Anyway, this is just a heads up. We’ll rehearse tomorrow when Taeyang and Daesung get here. For now, review the file. We’ll meet the guys tomorrow, I’ll take you guys out to dinner and we’ll go over the plan in detail.

We good?” Kyuhyun paused. He spanned the room. Everyone nodded without saying a word. “Alright. Good night, guys.”

When Kyuhyun left the basement, Donghae and Ryeowook went to Eunhyuk and tried to cheer him up as he was slouching lower than usual. Siwon walked around the back of the couch and rubbed Eunhyuk’s shoulders without saying a word.