Heechul laid on her side on the bed after a moment, barely able to see her hand as she poured herself another shot of the strong drink beside her. She sat up slightly to take it then laid back down, staring at the blank wall across from her. Slowly her clouded mind began to drift back to what got them all into this mess in the first place.
****
Hankyung sat at the outdoor food stand staring at the food in front of him. Even though he had been starving earlier, he now had no appetite. See Heechul, the woman he was so sure he loved and love him back, in the arms of another man had made his stomach churn. But there was only so much he could do. He had told Leeteuk to do what he whatever he needed to do to calm her down and apparently that was the only way. Hankyung knew Leeteuk was in love with her and had been since the beginning. The beginning… how long ago that seemed now.
****
Leeteuk walked out onto the balcony and stared out over the city. He tried to ignore the tight feeling in his chest when he thought about what he had just done. Not only had be betrayed one friend, he had messed up his friendship with his best friend. He knew she was in love with Hankyung and that this was just something that happened in a drunken stupor. But seeing her fall back to the way she was just after the incident broke something in him. He couldn’t think about that right now. No. There was no way anyone could ever go back to the way they were before. Not with what had happened.
****
“Straight from the man himself.” Heechul tossed the folder onto Jungsoo’s desk with a loud snap causing the man to jump slightly at the sudden sound. He hadn’t even heard the woman walk in. She flopped unceremoniously into the seat in front of his desk, leaning back and crossing her arms.
 

“This is straight from SM?” Jungsoo asked, picking up the file and opening it to observe its contents. Heechul nodded, waiting for him to explain to her the next assignment.
 

“It looks like there’s a bit of trouble with one of the branches. The northern base has lost contact with headquarters. Shouldn’t be too hard.” Jungsoo closed the folder and handed it back to Heechul who leaned forward to take it.
 

“That’s it?” she looked disappointed. “We never get any of the good jobs around here anymore. I haven’t needed to so much as look at a gun since that assignment in Tibet.” Jungsoo gave her a skeptical look. She hit him on the head with the folder. “You know what I mean. Things are just getting boring around here. I’m tired of watching all of these couples being couple-y. You know, I caught Eunhyuk and Donghae in the storage closet this morning. That was a shocker.”
 

“Donghae and Eunhyuk?” Jungsoo questioned. He knew the two had been friends for a long time and they had grown even closer during the past few months but he never thought they would get the guts to take it any further. Apparently, he was proved wrong.
 

“I know right? My thoughts exactly.” Heechul stood up and started walking towards the door. “I’m going to go give this to Kyuhyun. Maybe she and Sungmin can find a way into the system and get some clue as to what’s going on. I’m still betting on them. Two weeks tops.”
 

Jungsoo rolled his eyes. “Give it two days.” He countered.
 

“Don’t you have to call your little liaison friend?” she added with a wistful tone, changing the subject, not wanting to bet on how long it would take each couple to figure out that they were meant to be together.
 

“Yes I do and no you can’t. Sorry, Heechul. You know I would tell you if I could.”
 

“Oh come on, Jungsoo. Don’t be such a stick in the mud. At least tell me what he looks like.” She insisted. He simply shook his head, his dimple appearing on his cheek.
 

“Goodbye Heechul.” He waved as he picked up the phone, watching Heechul close the door with a slight pout on her face.
 

As soon as the click of the door reached his ears, Jungsoo’s smile seemed to fall off of his face, replaced by a meaningful expression. Reaching into his desk, he pulled a small book from the drawer and slid a sheet of scrap paper from his sleeve where he had hidden it when Heechul had given him the file. Thank goodness she hadn’t seen. He couldn’t risk her knowing the actual assignment. Not at this moment anyway. She would find out in time if their suspicions were even true. Jungsoo could only pray that they weren’t.
 

He looked at the series of numbers that had been written on the sheet and opened the book to the necessary page numbers, circling the indicated words as he decoded the numbers, turning them into a coherent thought. This was a safer means of communication than over telephones that could have easily been bugged. There was no chance taking in their line of work. Everything had to be sure and steady, including the agents. But this was the last thing Jungsoo was by the time the entire message had been decoded.
 

Suddenly everything was more dangerous than anything they had experienced yet. This was something he was not going to pull his entire unit into. This would stay between him, the liaison and (at the right time) Jungsoo. In the words of Shakespeare, ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ 

The next morning, Heechul woke up with a string of curses directed towards the little person in the back of her skull playing around with a jackhammer. She rolled over and buried her face in the unfamiliar pillow trying to shield her eyes from the light that was coming in through the window. It wasn’t as if she didn’t deserve it. The alcohol she had consumed had been strong and she had obviously had too much. She groaned into her pillow when the memory of the previous night made its way to the forefront of her throbbing mind. Every memory. Why had she done that? It wasn’t like they could ever be together. She had Hankyung. She knew that! So, why had she kissed Leeteuk? Perhaps it was because of everything he had done for her in the past. He had always been there for her. He had been the one to rescue her; the one she had opened her eyes to the next morning. But he had turned around and walked out. The pain of that was worse than her headache. It coursed through her veins and rendered her very soul helpless and too weak to hold on.
 

****Flashback****

“You owe me big time for this, Jungsoo. We closed down three hours ago. I was in the middle of my favorite show.” Heechul complained when she walked into Jungsoo’s office, though her tone was joking. He had called her at midnight and asked her to meet him. He had some business he needed to discuss with her. The smirk that seemed to be plastered to her face quickly faded when she saw the older man’s face. She had known that he wanted to talk about something serious – he wouldn’t have dared call her out otherwise – but his expression told her that this was more serious than she had expected.
 

“What’s wrong?” she asked, taking the seat in front of him and leaning forward ready to listen.
 

“Do you remember that assignment you brought to me earlier this week?”
 

“Yeah. Sungmin and Kyuhyun got all of the rest of the information together today. We’re sending Siwon and Kibum up there tomorrow to settle things.” Heechul was a bit confused. He knew this information but he shook his head, his expression only growing graver.
 

“Tell them they’ve been reassigned. You and I are going this time.” As Jungsoo spoke he pulled out a sheet of paper that had numbers above words. It looked like a decoded message. The look in Jungsoo’s eye only confirmed Heechul’s theory. The only reason why the two heads of the department would be sent out on a field assignment would be if there was something more serious than a loss of communication. Especially their department. No. This was something much worse.
 

“One of the field units was sent on an assignment a couple of months ago. Four of them were obviously killed and the others were never found. I thought it was suspicious that an entire field unit could just disappear like that. Our liaison got me the case file and helped me with some research. Everything that I’ve seen points to the fact that this entire situation was not an accident. Someone in the higher ups planned this.” Jungsoo explained. Heechul’s face remained unreadable as she looked at the files.
 

“And the communication assignment is just a cover for us to infiltrate the branch.” It was more of a statement than a question. Heechul nodded in response. The girl caught on quick. “What’s our plan of action?”
 

“You and I are going to leave for the northern branch in the morning. We’ll go in as representatives from headquarters and try to work out what exactly happened and who is behind it all.” Jungsoo gave a very broad description of their assignment.
 

“And does headquarters know about this little investigation?” Heechul could sense something was off about this piece of information. Jungsoo looked away, giving her the confirmation she needed.
“Alright. Well, I’m in. Anything to stick it to the man.”