Half of hour later, they were all in Hyun Joong’s car heading outside Daegu. The atmosphere seemed really tensed. Kyu Jong was looking outside the window still pissed off by the fact that he had no other choice than to join NCA. On the other side, Jungmin was standing between the two men not knowing what to say. Finally he decided to break the heavy atmosphere:

     “Hyun Joong-shii!”

     Hyun Joong turned around smiling: ”Yes, Jungmin?!”

     “I know that’s what you said but don’t we need to take some kind of exam or something to be part on NCA?”

     “That’s the normal procedure… however, this is a special case.”

     “We don’t need any favours! We are more than capacitated to take on any challenge!”, said an angry Kyu Jong. However Hyun Joong remained calm and answered with a soft voice:

     “I’m not going to do you any favour! You will be tested during a mission. It won’t be anything official and it will certainly be much more dangerous but I’m sure you’ll be able to complete it!”

     “And if we don’t?”,asked Jungmin but he only received a smirk and Hyun Joong turned to the driver.

     “Kwanhee, stop the car at the next intersection! I need to buy something for Manse. I’ll only be gone five minutes.”

     The driver pulled over and Hyun Joong got out and entered a nearby building. Jungmin took advantage of the fact that the detective wasn’t there to try to cheer up Kyu Jong.

     “Hyung, do you think I should ask for a NCA T-shirt or something?? Mom won’t believe me if I tell her I am now a detective at one of the biggest agencies in the country!”, but Kyu Jong was still looking away.

     “Hyuungggggg!!”,said Jungmin pulling Kyu Jong’s jacket.

     “Jungmin, I’ve had a doubt for some time now!”

     “About what, hyung?

     “How did you find me? At the warehouse, I mean?”

      “That was the question??You have no idea!! It was so exciting and dangerous but anyway, I’m not going to tell you!”.Jungmin  sticked out his tongue.

     “Awww come on Jungminnie!!”

     “Hyung?! I thought you were depressed!”

     “Me?? I won’t let those bastards annoy me but I have to look like a bad guy, right? A guy has to do whatever he can in order to preserve his image”

     “Hehe, that’s my hyung!!”

     “Anyway how did you find me?? I’ll buy you dinner for one week if you tell me!”

    “A month!”

    “Two weeks!”

    “Three weeks and when this is over, you have to take me on a trip with a nice, big barbeque party.”

    “How can you eat that much??”

    “It’s my natural talent!! But you have to promise!”

    “Ok!Ok! I promise! Now tell me!!”

     “Well, when you got out everybody started to get worried and made all kind of assumptions so they woke me up. I went to the bathroom and saw that my face was like Wonderland….I even had butterflies drawn on my cheek. Anyway, I went out and asked who did this to me and they all said it was you!”

     “Traitors”,whispered Kyu Jong.

     “What did you say?”

     “Nothing, go on!”

     “I wanted to get my revenge so I took a marker and rushed after you. I saw you climbing the fire stairs and some odd men that were watching you from across the street. I supposed that it was a trap and took the car’s licence number. After they took you all I had to do was to do access thesurveillance system of the city and voilà...I found you!”

     “That was your idea of danger?!”

     “I had to do something to get my barbeque, ne? Like you said hyung: A guy has to do what a guy has to do!”

     Suddenly the door opened and Hyun Joong got in.

     “I see everybody is having fun around here.”, Kyu Jong gave him a death glare, ”Ok, Kwanhee. We can go now! All the team is waiting for us at the centre. Even Kae Yin is there”

     The driver turned around. “Kae Yin is back??When did she return from Japan?”

     “This morning!”

     “Are you sure it’s a wise move to call her?”

     “Let’s say it’s our little secret weapon just like this little upset bunny!”

     Both Jungmin and the driver started to laugh out loud while Kyu Jong poked Jungmin in the stomach.

     “It’s not funny!”

     After one more hour, the car stopped in a small village outside Daegu. Both Kyu Jong and Jungmin were shocked when Hyun Joon took them underground. There was a huge level built under the village with all sort of practice rooms, offices, research laboratories and other rooms.

     “Welcome to our secret home! I hope you find it quite comfortable in here and Jungmin, you have here the latest computer programs and equipment! “

     “Wait! You guys live here??Isn’t it too obvious?”

      “Actually, until now it worked pretty well! And you can choose whether you want to live here or in the village above us. All the people there are agents so they will all treat you like family. No need to worry!”

      “I want to know more about that guy, about Young Saeng!”,said Kyu Jong  with a strong voice.

      “Follow me!”

     Hyun Joong took them in a room with a big screen on which there was a big picture of an old man.

      “This is the person you should be interested in. His name is Heo Byun Hyun. He is the owner of a big transport company. He’s in charge with 80% of the transports between Korea and other Asian countries like Japan, China and Indonesia.”

      “I know him. He’s Young Saeng’s dad”,said Jungmin.

      “Young Saeng is just a small piece of the puzzle. Byun Hyun is the real problem. We have been tracking him for years. He uses his power to buy and sell drugs just under our noses. We couldn’t do anything so far because he has under his control half of the politicians in our country, not to mention all of the governmental agencies.”

      “Doesn’t that include you too??”

      “You’re right! It does!”Both Kyu Jong and Jungmin looked shocked. “He controls the NCA. What you see in here is just a small part. I used all my power to gather these agents in order to get rid of this monster and all others like him. Of course that the NCA’s leaders don’t know about what we really do in here. They think we are taking care of the political conflicts between our country and Taiwan.”

      “But how do you know you can trust this people?”, asked Jungmin

      “These are people I’ve worked with all my life. I can assure their loyalty with my life.”

      “It doesn’t seem that your little plan is working!”, said Kyu Jong, still confused with the whole situation.

      “That’s why we need you!”

      “What makes you think I wanna join you?”

      “I thought you wanted to find out what was your father’s connection with this guy.”

      “How do you know what I want”, Kyu Jong looked suspiciously at Jungmin.

      “I didn’t say anything!”

      “It wasn’t that hard to guess! Unfortunately I can’t answer that question. We just find out that your father is involved and we don’t have that much information about him either. That’s why we brought you here. But I can understand if you want to go back. You can never know what you may find out.”

      “I’m staying right here!”

      “I was hoping you feel this way! How about you, Jungmin?”

      “I’m stuck with my bunny”, said Jungmin winning himself a death glare from Kyu Jong, “I have no other choice than to stay here! Hope you have good food!”

      “I’m pretty sure you’ll like it! Today is Friday: Pizza Day! I personally prefer it with extra cheese but you can order whatever you want”,said Hyun Joong looking at an overexcited Jungmin while Kyu Jong sighed:

      “Great! Two Jungmins!! As if one was not enough!”

      “Anyway now that we made a decision, let’s go meet the team! Follow me!”

     They took the elevator a level up and entered a room. Instead of a quiet and serious atmosphere, the office was filled with weird people that were laughing and fighting and screaming. Everybody stopped when Hyun Joong entered the room with the two men: “Hey everybody! Let me introduce you to our newest colleagues. This is Jungmin and the chubby bunny is Kyu Jong.”

      “Stop it!”, said Kyu Jong causing everybody to laugh.

      “Ok! Now this is Manse”,said Hyun Joong pointing at a short girl with black hair and a devilish smile.”She’s our little maknae”.

       The girl made a deep bow and moved next to Hyun Joong: “Oppaaa you promised to bring me something from the city”.

      “Not now, Manse!”,Hyun Joong looked clearly embarassed which caused Kyu Jong to laugh.

      “This is Kwanhee. I think you’ve already met him”.The two boys recognized their driver and smiled at the familiar face.

       “We still have Sang Hyun and Sunmi. They are brother and sister and some of the best agents in the world”. The women had long hair and big brown eyes just like his brother. Jungmin thought that they looked like singers but his mind went blank when he noticed that the man was watching him.

        Hyun Joong continued:”There is also Minwo! He’s really good at reading people’s mind but he likes to act all dorky!”

      “That’s not fair, hyung!”,complained a really cute guy with a soft voice.

      “By the way, boss! We have a surprise for you!”,said Sunmi while the others moved aside revealing a women that was looking outside the window. She had her hair in a ponytail, big eyes and a serious expression on her face. Hyun Joong smiled softly and went near the girl despite Manse’s whining.

      “Long time no see, Kae Yin! Welcome back!”

The girl remained quiet but instead she turned her attention on Kyu Jong making him freeze.

      “And these are our new members: Kyu Jong and Jungmin”. Jungmin wanted to greet her but she looked back at Hyun Joong ignoring him. Sunmi sighed:

      “She doesn’t change does she?!”

     Everybody sat down and Kwanhee invited the two boys to sit near him. Manse got up and moved in the front so that she could be as close as possible to the place where Hyun Jong was sitting, Sanghyun was sitting near his sister, Minwo randomly sat near Manse and Kae Yin remained near the window. Hyun Joong was about to start a short presentation about the mission but Kyu Jong was still looking at that cold woman he had just met. He smiled and whispered to himself:”This is going to be interesting!!”.