She slips on a pair of sunglasses along with the mask and a baseball cap. Her face is completely hidden.

Perfect.

Normally, she didn’t consider concealing her entire face, but something about the mystery appealed to her today. She blinks at her reflection—not like she could see the action—with a little satisfaction.

“You ready to go?” Jiyong peeks his head through the crack of the door. “The newcomers are here.”

She nods silently, following him through the doorway and into the room across the hall. Just in case, she makes sure that her wig was on straight to make it look like her real hair. Even if it was an outrageous color. It was her signature color, really.

“You’re here,” Taeyang glances up from his seat. “This is Bangtan.”

Shira’s eyes scan the seven figures leaning against the wall in the small room. They looked entirely cautious and their sharp gaze could have easily cut through any unsuspecting bullsh*t. But that’s all she could see. Their eyes.

They had come prepared with masks to conceal their own identity, but Shira could have laughed at the attempt. Jiyong wouldn’t risk the security of his life’s work with people he didn’t know.

She gestures to her face, indicating the masks.

“Ah, she’s right.” Jiyong his lips, tilting his head to the side slightly as his eyes harden. “Take your masks off.”

“We never agreed to that.” The seven figures growl, two of them pushing themselves off the wall. “Why are we being asked to take off our masks when she has much more than a mask on?” The middle figure points towards Shira.

“Mask off.” Taeyang repeats, not answering the question. “We urge that you not get any closer to us.” Taeyang, whose real name was Youngbae, looked threatening enough even without any sort of prompting. His arms are behind his back, making his muscular stance look even more threatening.

Shira’s fingers point above her, and the group traces her arm only to see a gun muzzles embedded in the ceiling above.

She knows that Daeseung is watching through the small cameras installed throughout the room, and with a signal, he would be ready to fire the guns above Bangtan’s side. Jiyong always takes precautionary tactics a little too far, but that’s why he is still around after so many years.

The middle figure of Bangtan curses. “And if we back out?”

Seungri smiles slightly. “We suggest you take your masks off.”

Shira squints at one of the members whose hair looks too familiar. Without a warning, she whips out the gun tucked into a strap on her thigh. Instantly, he drops to the ground, trying to protect himself, and the Bangtan group pulls out the small blades that they managed to ‘smuggle’ through security.

As if security didn’t know that the blades were there. Those blades were skipped over on purpose.

“His mask comes off first,” Shira rasps through a whisper, concealing her normal voice. “And then the rest.”

The male on the other side of the gun whips his head towards the leader of his group, awaiting instructions. The leader pauses, probably thinking of how the situation could play out, before nodding slowly.

The male reaches up, twisting his mask off gently, and Shira realizes why he looked so familiar. Kim Taehyung.

She instantly bursts into laughter. She nearly drops her gun on the ground with the odd situation. Who would have thought that Kim Taehyung of all people was trying to make a deal with some of the most notorious people in the Korean underworld?

“Your decision?” Seunghyun’s soft words cut through her laughter and she instantly straightens up.

Out of curiosity, she rasps “Continue,” even though it was clear who the other six males were after the reveal of Kim Taehyung.

They tug off the masks, uneasiness flashing in their eyes.

“Kim Namjoon. Leader.” She muses softly to Jiyong. From left to right, she lists the names, “Jeon Jungkook, the youngest. Park Jimin. Jung Hoseok. Kim Namjoon. Kim Seokjin. Kim Taehyung. Min Yoongi.”

Jiyong doesn’t question how she knows the identities of the men, but he plays his cards well by addressing the leader directly. “Kim Namjoon, I assume that you know exactly who we are.”

No one misses how a few of their faces blanch with the name drop.

“Yes.”

“And you’re asking us to supply your weapons? You are aware who we deal to, are you not?” Big Bang was no longer an active player of the Korean underground, but they by no means left the scene entirely. The stayed in the background, pulling the strings to their whim.

And Shira was more than happy to see everything play out before her.

“Yes.” Kim Namjoon repeats his words.

“We’ll take off ten percent of your supposed cost for your first payment to us.” Taeyang smiles again, making it seem like he wasn’t talking about weapons dealing. “You can expect a delivery by tomorrow morning.”

“To where?”

“Anywhere.” Taeyang’s grin somehow turns a lot more sinister, and she is sure that a shiver ran up some of their spines. They shouldn’t underestimate the reach of the five men--four of which were in the room--throughout Korea. “Until then, we ask that you enjoy the hospitality of the club downstairs.”

Min Yoongi nods slightly, face entirely blank. “And how do we know that you won’t turn on us?”

The question should have been too straightforward and bold, and Shira nearly laughs again. “We’re letting you walk out of here alive when you tried to pull knives on us. Isn’t that much enough?”

She grips the back of the chair that Jiyong is sitting behind, and he stays as the rest quietly file out the door while they put their masks back on. The theme tonight was hidden figures, so they seven would fit right in.

“How do you know them?”

“Kim Taehyung is my new lab partner in the research lab.” Her chuckle is dry and humorless. “And those are all of his friends.”

“So if we asked you to slip a little greeting to them-”

“Easy. I could set it up between classes,” She nods. “Daeseung, you can come out now!”

One of the walls slides open only to reveal a frowning Daeseung. “Next time, put someone else in there. I miss out on all of the fun.”

“If you’re going to miss out on the fun, you can help Seunghyun track down where the delivery should be tomorrow.” Jiyong’s words are teasing as Daeseung instantly whips his head back and forth in refusal.

“Do you want me to give them a note of where the delivery is in the middle of the day?” She tilts her head to the side while slipping off her sunglasses and mask. “It would imply that we know everything about them.”

“That would be good.” Jiyong agrees. “You can take off your wig too.”

She massages her scalp, letting it breathe. Out of every chance she had to completely disguise herself, today had been the best day.
 

School Shira and Nightlife Shira were two very different people. School Shira wore her hair in a bun, looked tired and dull, and always had ill-fitting clothes on along with fake glasses that didn’t suit her. There were very few people who actually talked to her, mostly because of her appearance. Nig