The six of them paced around the room outside the one Jin was currently sitting in. He had been on the phone with The Boss for an incredibly long time. They were all nervous about what was being said inside but none of them wanted to eavesdrop. Daeun was the most nervous of them all. Her mind went back to the conversation after dinner.

                “Taehyung and Jungkook. The two of you are going to get close to Hong Jung Yee. The Boss made recommendations for the two of you so he’ll likely take you in. Yoongi, I need you to hack into their network and create some mild virus…”

                Her mind wandered even though Seokjin was still speaking. All these unfamiliar terms and names were leaving Seokjin’s mouth but it didn’t mean anything to her. All she wanted was to be back home, where life had been simpler. Or at least as simple as it could be with BTS in her life. She wondered what life would be like without this gift of hers. Would she be working as Senior Manager now at the company? Maybe she would have met a cute boy whom she could fall in love with, someone whom she wouldn’t be able to detect every broken promise he would make and naively trust that she was his only one. Man, than train of thought took quite a detour.

                Her ears perked up when she heard her name being called.

                “That just leaves you Daeun. Your role is relatively easy. We will have reserved a room at a hotel a couple of buildings down in which Yoongi will meet you after he completes his part of the mission. Your job is just to listen in on our conversation with the devices he has set up and see if this guy tells a single lie. That should be enough to gather any type of evidence against him before the Boss instructs us of whether or not he needs to be eliminated.”

                Daeun nodded slowly after Jin finished explaining. Everything was perfect. If all things went according to plan, she could be home in maybe a week or two.

                “Daeun,” Jin called her name, “Are you clear with that? I’ve run down the plan a couple of times with the boys so they should know it like the back of their hand, but I want to be sure you’re comfortable with it as well.”

                There was only one problem. She didn’t know if she could tell a lie if she wasn’t directly in the room.

                She had never felt any buzzing when she talked with people on a phone or through video call. There was the one time she had received a call from Seohyun about her getting into nursing school but that had actually turned out to be real.

                 “Yeah. Sure,” she mumbled. How would she tell them that their plan could go wrong? Should she even tell them? Of course she should. It wasn’t only her life at stake here, all of them were. “Um, excuse me?”

                All the members turned to look at her. Hoseok laughed. In his fingers, he twirled around an unlit cigarette even though there was already one in his mouth. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard something as pleasant as that come out of your mouth,” he said.

                She ignored him. “The plan sounds good and I really don’t want to be a party pooper but I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that through a phone.”

                “What do you mean?” Jin asked.

                “The feeling usually comes when I’m talking to the person face to face or if I’m in the general vicinity where I hear their voice. What I’m trying to say is: I don’t think this is going to work,” there she had said it. Consequences… come at her.

                “Oh.” That was Jin’s simple response, certainly not what she had been expecting. He stared her right in the eyes. “This isn’t… a joke right?”

                “Hyung, she doesn’t a single funny bone in her body,” Hoseok smirked. His pun fell flat.

                “I need to talk to The Boss.”

                That was the last thing he said to any of them and that led to the situation they were all in right now: camped outside Jin’s room and hoping for some sort of good news. There was a rattle of the doorknob and an exhausted looking Seokjin stepped out.

                “So….?” Yoongi asks. Daeun glances at him quickly and realizes that the constant tapping she’d been hearing was from Yoongi drumming his fingers on the table.

                Jin walks to the kitchen and grabs a glass of water for himself and takes a long drink. Once he’s done, he turns to them and says, “The Boss just wants the job to be done. He doesn’t care in what way.”

                Taehyung spoke up, “So why were you in there for such a long time?”

                Daeun was back in the white room. While her bed was extremely soft and the light night breeze was soothing to her, she could not sleep. She wondered if she could blame it on the jet lag but she felt that it didn’t explain it all.

                When she first found out about her ability, she tried it out on herself. The convenience of finding out what she was truly thinking and how she truly saw herself was something she had always wondered about. However, even when she stood in front of the mirror and told a lie purposely, there was no buzzing. She could discover all the lies other people told her but the one person she could not read was herself.

                She tossed again and kicked off her blankets. She swung her legs off the bed and decided that a cup of hot chocolate might put her to sleep. It was something her mother did for her often when she was younger. The house was quiet as all the members slept with their doors closed. After she finished making herself the drink, she found herself less sleepy than before. It was a large place they were all staying at so she decided to also take a walk until she finished the drink. Physical activity tended to make the human body tired as well.

                A lot of things were floating in her mind as she walked. She had accepted the fact that she would not be able to return home until this whole fiasco was over. She was worried about how it would turn out however. BTS had taken on many jobs in the past but never anything that brought them overseas. She had also never heard them plan out anything elaborate as this. Their plans usually consisted of one or two of the members stalking down their target and intimidating them with weapons. She would pop up and make sure that she heard what they were saying, whether that be playing as innocent hostage or just hiding in the general vicinity of where they brought the target. All their targets had ever been members of smaller gangs that were fighting with each other or members of a gang that wanted to take more of the loot for themselves. Never had she seen them target the head of a gang, let alone the partner of The Boss in another country. There were so many things that could go wrong.

                She saw that the patio door had been left open and thought some fresh air would help her clear her mind. When she stepped out, she realized that the patio was already occupied.

                “Hi,” she said. The figure greeted her with two fingers, the lit cigarette creating a line of smoke in the clear night air. “You really should cut back on the smoking.”

                “I’ve tried. But I’m pretty sure I’m half smoke and half alcohol by now,” Hoseok felt her walk up to the balcony beside him. The house was situated on a slight hill and in the distance they could see The City That Never Sleeps live out to its name.

                “That doesn’t even make any sense,” she commented, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. The sweet drink stung on the way down but it was comforting.

                “Well what brings you out on this fabulous night? Ready to take my offer when we first met?” he asked, alluding to their first encounter.

                “Funny,” she said sarcastically, “I couldn’t sleep.”

                Hoseok took a drag of his cigarette. “Guess that makes two of us.”

                They stood in the silence for a while, getting comfort from each other’s presence.

                “You know, ’s about to go down,” he stated, “The Boss only accepts perfectly completed missions. Seokjin-hyung won’t show it but he’s worried. There are so many unpredictable factors.” He knew it probably wasn’t something she wanted to hear in her sleepless state, but it was what needed to be said.

                She turned to face him. There was a serious look on her face when she asked, “Who is The Boss and what’s the organization? You all seem nervous whenever it’s brought up.”

                The cigarette was a stub between his fingers and she guessed that he had been out here for a while. He put it out, pondered for a minute and then tapped out a new cigarette. He stared at it. “Our life’s like this. We all are born white and untainted, ready to be anything we want it to be. Believing that we could be anything we want it to be,” he started, “This cigarette doesn’t have to be used. It could be left in a box, pretty as a toxic flower. It could be left on a table, as a daring symbol from a rebelling teenager. However, things happens. And a fire is lit.

                Nobody starts off in life wanting to be in this business,” there was a quick flick of hesitance in his eyes before he blinked it away to continue, “All little boys dream of becoming astronauts, race car drivers, doctors, musicians… you name it. It’s just that we aren’t all as fortunate to actually attain any of our dreams. Take the boys and I. We all had aspirations. Hell, Jungkook was even enrolled in a decent college. But somehow, we each stumbled into the organization under The Boss in our own way. The Boss is very particular on the quality of work his organization puts out. He makes all probable members go through a type of initiation, if you will. Tasks vary but always end up in two possibilities: your entrance into the organization or death.

                Getting in isn’t as hard as staying in. God forbid you failed one or made any mistake in a job that could be traced back to the organization. Failures were never given a second opportunity to prove themselves again. It’s one of the ways he’s managed to elude the authorities all this time. He’s extremely cautious and methodical. That’s why nothing can go wrong with this job. I won’t let any of the members get hurt. If there’s going to be a fight, then I’ll go down fighting before any of them needs to suffer.”

                He stopped staring at the cigarette and stuck it back into his pocket. He let out a sigh.

                Daeun studied the man in front of her. She knew that the lives BTS held were not easy ones. She knew of the danger they were constantly putting themselves in but she had not known how dark it really was. The whole time he was talking, a steely look had taken over his eyes. He always seemed nonchalant in everything he did but the way he had said the last few sentences... Albeit her constant headache around him, she knew he wasn’t lying when he said he wouldn’t let any of the members get hurt.

                “This might be the most normal conversation we’ve ever had,” Hoseok grinned.

                “I don’t know if that constitutes as normal.”

                “Normal enough for us. Does this mean you’ll rethink about getting in bed with me?”

                She scowled. And she had started thinking well of him.

                He laughed at her expression and stomped a final time on his previous cigarette to make sure it was out. “Well I’ll be in my room if you do change your mind.” He turned to leave.

                “I won’t be,” she said after him. There was still one impeding question. “Hey.”

                He stopped and looked back at her.

                “You mentioned that everybody needed to complete an initiation task. What was yours?”

                He smirked and waved two fingers in the air to tell her goodnight. She thought he would not answer her question but he proved her wrong.

                With the rise of the sun came the beginning of a new day. By the time Daeun woke up, she could hear the sizzling of eggs and smell breakfast being made in the kitchen. She yawned and rolled onto her stomach. She felt slightly more refreshed than last night but her eyes were still heavy. Forcing herself out of the bed, she trudged her way into the bathroom.  

                She stood in front of the mirror and duly noted that her hair was getting long and her bangs were well past her chin. She turned her face in the mirror two and from and saw that the stress of the past few days were getting to her skin. A small pimple was beginning to push its way through her skin at the bottom of her jaw. She grabbed the only cosmetic item she had with her and lightly tapped the concealer in place. Her dark circles were still extremely prominent after she tried to hide them. She sighed and rubbed her bangs back to the front to cover half her face. Once she was finished in the bathroom, she walked into the room next door. After exploring her giant room, she deemed the second door in the room as a walk in closet. It was currently empty and that was where she had decided to carry out her morning workout. It wasn’t like she had any clothes to fill it with anyways.

                While her job in Seoul had not required her to be athletic or fit in any way, Daeun had always believed that having a healthy body was of utmost importance. On their brief trip to the mall before dinner, Daeun had grabbed a set of dumbbells and a small speed bag to hang up. More than anything, she kept in shape in case she needed to protect herself from harm. Society had already deemed women as fragile prey and she would not let herself fall into that category. She placed her hands beneath her shoulders and let herself down to the floor as her mind flashed to the conversation she had with Hoseok last night.

                His last words sent a hollow chill down her spine. There had always been the probability that BTS had shed blood but she never liked to think about it. She could associate herself with people who lied or cheated or committed any other type of small illegal activities but she did not want to be around any type of killer. She tried to push the thought of whether any of the members had had to kill out of her mind but it lingered regardless.

                A slight knock to the door of her room caused her to pause on her fifth set of push ups. With a slight sheen of sweat building on her forehead, she opened the door and found Jungkook standing outside.

                Hoseok yawned for the tenth time that morning. After talking with Daeun, he had returned to his room fully expecting the embrace of slumber to take him. Sadly, it never came. Every time he thought he’d be drifting off to sleep, he would find himself transported to a red room and his mother on the bed. He’d jolt up sweating with a desperate need to pinch himself to confirm he had stopped dreaming. There was a reason he never spoke of that night with anybody. He had never even told s – they had never discussed what their initiation tasks were. Yet somehow, just a simple prompt from Daeun had gotten him to tell her his best kept secret.

                He convinced himself that it had been fatigue that caused him to speak but his rational side told him that was impossible as he had spent the rest of the night sleepless. There was a lull in the conversation around the table as Daeun walked up.

                “Good morning,” she said to the table. Her eyes met Hoseok’s and held his gaze for a few seconds before she sat down.

                “Morning,” Taehyung greeted back.

                “Did you have a good sleep?” Yoongi asked, he had finished breakfast early and sat drinking coffee instead.

                “Took a while for me to get to bed,” she said and accepted the bowl of soup from Jin. It smelled delicious and her taste buds confirmed her thoughts.

                Jimin laughed lightly and gestured towards Hoseok. “You look better than him at least.”

                She looked up at met Hoseok’s eyes again. Indeed, she saw that his dark circles were worse than hers and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. Although not lit, Hoseok stuck a cigarette into his mouth and spoke through it, “It was too stuffy here last night. I couldn’t breathe.”

                “Sure it isn’t because of how much you smoke, hyung?” Taehyung raised an eyebrow. Hoseok pursed his lips and set the cigarette down on the table. Jungkook saw it there and started reaching for it. Taehyung slapped his hand. “Hoseok already got Yoongi hooked on that. We don’t need any more smoke around us.”

                Yoongi shrugged and sipped his coffee quietly.

                “So, I did a lot of thinking last night,” Seokjin said once everybody had finished their meal. “I believe I’ve got a plan for us but before we do that, we need to do some surveillance.”

                “Alright,” Yoongi sat a little straighter and cracked his knuckles, “Where do you want me to hack into this time?”

                Jin shook his head. “You’re not going to be hacking into anything. We’re going into a club.”

                “A club?” the group echoed.

                “It’s not your normal club,” he said, “It’s a club where only the wealthiest socialites are allowed in. A source told me that Hong Jung Yee appears there every Tuesday and Thursday. That being known, he will be there tonight and that’s where we will be making first contact.”

                Jimin spoke up from his seat. “Why do we need to hit that certain club tonight? Could we not follow our initial plan of infiltration?”

                Jin turned to look at him and shook his head. “It’s not as simple. The club on the surface serves as a cover for what it truly is: an underground market.”

                Daeun furrowed her brows. “An underground market?”

                This time, it was Hoseok that answered her question. “A place where things are sold. Anything that can have a price put on it you’ll probably find there. Weapons, drugs, information, people.”

                She rolled her eyes at him. “I know what it is. I’m just wondering why we need to get into that.”

                “The source told me that Hong Jung Yee runs a little side business there. Tonight, we will scout out the club and see just what he is selling. When the time is right, we will make contact with the target and act as a potential buyer. From there, we should be able to carry on the plan like before,” Seokjin told them.

                “Wait. I don’t get it. You said that the people who attend this place are wealthy socialites. First of all, none of us are wealthy socialites. Second, it doesn’t really solve the fact of how I need to be there in the room to hear whether or not Hong Jung Yee tells any lies,” Daeun said to him.

                From the inside of his pocket he took out two gold plated cards. There were the words “Ecstasia” embossed into the front and several numbers lining the bottom. Adjacent to the numbers was a name that appeared on both cards. Seokjin slid one card towards Daeun and the other towards Hoseok.

                “I’ll answer both of your questions at once. First, it’ll only be the two of you going in. In our short time I was only able to attain two membership cards. I know you two don’t have the…closest of relationships but like you said, we need you in there. Second, Hoseok usually plays the role of infiltration anyways so it only natural he goes with you. Bottom line: the both of you will be the ones to make contact with the target and you will be doing it as Mr. and Mrs. Chen.”