e p i s o d e   v i i

“Sorry I’m late,” Zitao huffs, slightly out of breath as he slides into the restaurant booth seat across from Sehun. “The recitation totally went overtime but I didn’t even realize. I ran here as fast as I could.”

“It’s fine.” Sehun’s reply is gruff as per usual but unlike most people who would typically be put off by his behavior, Zitao gratefully smiles back at him in a way that has Sehun’s stomach twisting in all sorts of unfamiliar knots.

“Did you order already?” Zitao flips open his menu and scans his options. “Hmm, what should I get today?”

Sehun snorts quietly to himself because this is far from their first time getting lunch at this place and despite reading through the menu every time they come, Zitao always ends up ordering the exact same thing. “I was waiting for you.”

“What a gentleman,” Zitao softly teases. “Did you finish the paper for sociology?”

Sehun finished that stupid ing paper the day it was assigned but he shakes his head because he enjoys the response he knows he’ll elicit from the Chinese.

“Sehun!” Zitao sets his menu down on the table with a loud whap. “It’s due tomorrow!”

“I’ll get it done,” Sehun murmurs, trying his best to keep a straight face as Zitao chides him in Chinese under his breath. Cute.

Zitao sighs. “What am I going to do with you?”

Before Sehun can say anything else, a waitress comes over to take their orders. Just like every other week, Zitao hurriedly takes one more glance at the menu, before ultimately deciding on the same dish he always gets. Sehun mutters his own order hastily and hands their menus back in an attempt to shoo her away. However, she doesn’t seem to take the hint and turns to Zitao with a smile. “You guys are here every week, right? I’ve seen you two around on a couple of my shifts. Just moved here?”

“We go to the university a few blocks down the street.” Zitao flashes her a polite smile and the corners of Sehun’s lips unconsciously twitch downwards.

“Oh! No kidding? I go there too but I haven’t seen either of you two around. Campus is always bigger than you think, I guess.” The waitress laughs lightly, chancing a shy glance in Sehun’s direction. “Is, uh, there anything else I can do for you gentlemen?”

Zitao opens his mouth to reply but is interrupted by Sehun’s harsh voice and rather stormy expression. “You can leave.”

Both Zitao and the waitress’s eyes widen in shock, before the waitress stutters out a quick “of- of course, sir” and hurries off in embarrassment.

“He’s really sorry about that! Just hungry jitters!” Zitao calls after her quickly in a lame attempt at an apology before spinning to glare sharply at the other. “Sehun! What was that?”

“I’m not,” Sehun crosses his arms and side-eyes the waitress who is now avoiding looking over at their table (and more specifically, at Zitao) at all costs. Good. “Sorry, that is.”

“You totally hurt her feelings!” Zitao reprimands him in a hushed tone. “Didn’t you see the way she was looking at you? I think she was going to give you her number or something.”

“Don’t want it, don’t care.” Sehun mumbles, stirring the straw around in his cup of water as he looks out the nearby window. He didn’t get them alone once again just to be scolded over such an insignificant event. “You free this weekend?”

Zitao looks as though he wants to say something more about the outburst with the waitress, but eventually settles on letting the matter slide and replying to Sehun with a small huff. “I’ll have to see. You know my internship calls me on duty at weird hours sometimes.”

Sehun hums in response. Even after leaving them a witness, it seems that the M group Junmyeon is always ranting about still hasn’t quite figured out which event they’ll be targeting just yet. These weekly lunches are just ways for Sehun to secretly stay updated on M’s progress. It has absolutely nothing to do with how Zitao puffs out his cheeks in exasperation as he cares for Sehun in his subtle ways, or the warm tingly feeling Sehun gets whenever he sees the other. Their food arrives, and Sehun manages to fully earn Zitao’s forgiveness for his previous behavior with the waitress by sharing his fries with the Chinese.

“Why do you like to hang out with me?” Zitao inquires suddenly as he plucks another fry off of Sehun’s plate.

The other pauses mid-chew, mulling over the question for a moment before saying anything. “Just ‘cause.”

“That’s not much of an answer,” Zitao protests, lightly kicking at Sehun’s shins from under the table. “C’mon, there’s got to be a reason. I’m always so busy with my internship that most of my previous friends here just ended up falling out of touch and I’m pretty bad at replying to any texts that aren’t emergencies.”

“Doesn’t really matter to me,” Sehun shrugs, although now that he thinks about it, he hasn’t really seen that many people on campus hanging around the other. Just how it should be. The less people he has to share the other with the better. “Just like hanging out with you, I guess.”

“Is it because now there’s someone to eat your fries for you?” Zitao does that laugh where it’s more of a giggle than an actual laugh but Sehun still finds it more endearing than he should nonetheless.

“I share my fries with you because I’m a good Samaritan,” Sehun sniffs in fake indignance, taking a sip of water.

“Oh Sehun? A good Samaritan?” an all too familiar voice suddenly sounds from behind Sehun, taking him by surprising and making him choke on his water. “In what universe?”

Zitao blinks. “Ah I’m sorry, you are…?”

“Kim Jongin,” said offender shoves Sehun further into his own booth seat and holds out a hand for Zitao to shake. “A friend of Sehun’s.”

“We’re not friends,” Sehun snaps as he slaps Jongin’s hand away, his mood beginning to sour very quickly at the other’s mere presence. They’re not supposed to come in contact at the university so as to not draw suspicion to their activity and association. So, what the hell is Jongin doing here right now?

The devious glint in Jongin’s eyes tells Sehun that it’s nothing good. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about our restless night of passion after that party. I haven’t stopped thinking about you ever since.”

Sehun turns so fast he almost gives himself whiplash to look over at an amused looking Zitao with wide, panicked eyes. “That never ing happened. He’s a ing liar.”

“Don’t get your in a twist, of course I’m just kidding,” Jongin chirps all too brightly, smiling in that beguiling manner of his that hides all of his ill intentions and charms others into falling for his façade. “We were just in a class or two together in freshman year. Can I sit down with you all?”

“No,” Sehun hisses in as threatening a tone as he can manage. He feels Zitao nudge at his foot from under the table and after biting the inside of his cheek in frustration, he finally concedes to the Chinese and mutters an unwilling, disgruntled “fine”.

“Great!” Jongin all but body slams Sehun to force his way into the booth, taking his previous spot right across from Zitao. “I don’t think we’ve met before. What’s your name?”

“I’m Zitao, it’s nice to meet you.” Zitao is barely able to stifle back a giggle as he watches Sehun wrestle the newcomer for his rightful seat back. “You all seem much closer than just former classmates.”

“Oh, I wish,” Jongin fakes an obnoxiously wistful sigh that forces Sehun to concentrate all his will into not strangling the other in public. “But you know Sehun. Mr. Ice Prince over here won’t even so much as glance my way now that we aren’t in the same classes anymore. You’d better watch out, he may drop you once he’s done with you as well. He may be alluring and interesting now, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Before Sehun can snap at the other again, Zitao speaks up. “I’m sure Sehun is a very fascinating individual on his own account, but I’m much more interested as to why the only thing you haven’t lied to me about yet has been your name.”

Sehun’s jaw almost drops. No one ever sees through Jongin’s façade, no one. He’s been trained by the best after all, and Junmyeon’s lying comes off so convincing he could probably persuade a calculator it was doing math wrong.

It’s barely noticeable, but Sehun can feel Jongin’s frame tense underneath the table as he schools his expression into a combination of fake confusion and innocence before addressing the Chinese. “What do you mean?”

 Zitao studies Jongin with a curious gaze that Sehun has never seen the other wear. It isn’t so much as piercing and intimidating as much as it is… pity?

Jongin seems to sense the exact same thing, and in an uncommon act of irritation, digs his fingernails hard into Sehun’s thigh. Sehun can only look on in quiet shock as he watches Zitao slowly but surely chip Jongin’s entire life’s training away with just a single look. It isn’t so much fear as it is awe that courses through Sehun’s veins, because as much as he had doubted Junmyeon’s opinion about this M taskforce and their abilities to go against them, he finally understands. He looks on wearing his default poker face so as not to express too much satisfaction as he watches Jongin make a tactical retreat for probably the first time in his life.

Jongin lets out a soft chuckle. “I think it’s you that’s quite interesting, Zitao. I hope I didn’t give the wrong impression for our first meeting. You see, I’m rather protective of Sehun and just want to make sure he’s associating himself with respectable people.”

Zitao hums, but his face doesn’t reveal whether or not he truly believes the other’s words. “Who you are to him doesn’t really concern me at all. It’s none of my business.”

Something about those words sting more than they should to Sehun and he blames Jongin for showing up and ruining his entire day with his existence as per usual. “Zitao, don’t mind him he’s just a piece of that likes to mess around with people. I’m sorry he showed up and ruined our lunch.”

“It’s alright, I was just playing around as well,” Zitao smiles gently at Jongin but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes like Sehun knows it should. He briefly glances at an analog clock hanging on the wall behind them and lets out a gasp. “, I’m late to work. I have to go, it was nice to meet you Jongin.”

“The pleasure was all mine,” Jongin beams back effortlessly, though the tension doesn’t leave his posture until Zitao hurries out of the restaurant, promising to message Sehun later to make sure he’s finished his paper. The second the Chinese is out of sight; his façade drops and he scowls. “What the hell was that?”

“’What the hell was that?’” Sehun turns in anger to look at the other incredulously. “What the hell are you doing here? Junmyeon hyung is going to kick your now that you’ve exposed your face to Zitao. He could identify you if he sees you on footage or at the gala event.”

Jongin snorts and crosses his arms. “Oh please, Kyungsoo hyung wouldn’t let security cameras come close to capturing me on tape and there’s no ing way they’re putting the intern out in the field for something as important as trying to catch one of us. I came here as a warning and to help get your head out of your . You’ve gotten far too close to Zitao and you ing know it.”

“What I do with my private life has nothing to do with you.” Sehun hisses.

“Private life?” Jongin looks around to make sure no one is paying attention to their argument before turning back to look at the younger with a sneer on his face. “You know damn well the moment we signed up for this, the moment Junmyeon plucked your scrawny off the streets that you would never have a ‘private life’. I told you not to get attached and now you’re out here getting lunch every Friday with your expired assignment. You’ve completely compromised the mission.”

“I’ve compromised the mission?” Sehun lets out a short bark of irritated laughter. “Everything was fine until you showed up and gave Zitao something to be suspicious about. That ‘intern’ you’re talking about took you apart faster than Chanyeol can get a shot off.”

Jongin’s expression darkens and Sehun knows he’s hit a sore spot. But he’s too riled up to stop and just once, wants to see the real Jongin again. Not the one that charms their victims into lowering their guard, not the one that wears a mask around campus, pretending to be the social college student that everyone on campus knows him as, but the one he met years ago, when Junmyeon first took them in and introduced them to one another. The one that the Jongin in front of him has spent the past few years burying away.

Sehun stands up and shoves his way past the other out of the booth, turning to address Jongin one last time. “Never approach me on campus again. And if I so much as see you trying to get near Zitao again, I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” The persona that Zitao had so easily dismantled is back again, back to taunting Sehun as though nothing in the past few minutes had ever happened. “Relax, as long as Junmyeon hyung or Kyungsoo hyung don’t have anything to say about this, I won’t touch your little intern.”

Sehun sends him one last glare for good measure, before paying for his meal and exiting the restaurant in an aggravated mood, the only sort of emotion he ever seems to feel when it involves Jongin. He checks his cell and decides to send another text to Tao to apologize for Jongin’s behavior.

Oh Sehun: hey sorry again about earlier. i don’t know that guy really well but he just likes to mess around with people i guess

Huang Zitao: it’s ok! i hope i didn’t make him angry or anything with what i said. i’d just rather spend time with someone like you than someone like him. he just seemed so…. fake? like he was desperately trying to hide who he really was

Huang Zitao: ah, sorry. i didn’t mean to get all profiler on you. it’s been a part of my training recently so i couldn’t help but give it some thought

Oh Sehun: no, that’s actually pretty interesting. i guess i’ll see you monday?

Huang Zitao: yep! and don’t forget to finish your paper!!!

Sehun just smiles and pockets his phone.

It’s not the paper I should worried about, Tao. It’s you.

“Based on patterns from victimology and their geographic criminal profile, I crosschecked gala events within their killing comfort zone with guest lists of potential targets and I was able to narrow it down to a charity fundraiser gala event hosted by the Choi Humanitarian Society at the SM Hotel in downtown Incheon.”

Yifan raises an eyebrow in disbelief. “Their next target is attending a charity event?”

“If only it were that simple.” Jongdae sighs. “You see-”

He’s cut off when Zitao bursts through the meeting room door in a rush. “I’m so sorry I’m late, it won’t happen again.”

“You’re typically quite punctual Tao, is everything alright?” Yifan questions, sliding the intern his own set of case files across the table as Zitao takes a seat next to Lu Han, who once again seems to have missed his chance to set next to Minseok.

Zitao shakes his head. “E-Everything’s fine, I just lost track of time after my recitation ended late.”

Lu Han narrows his eyes at the younger, who isn’t exactly lying but is most definitely holding something back. “I texted you a reminder earlier.”

Zitao sends him an apologetic glance. “My phone died this morning because I forgot to charge it last night.”

Jongdae smacks his forehead. “Goddamnit, Tao, I told you to never let your phone battery dip below twenty percent, especially on the job. What if there was an emergency?”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Zitao stops apologizing briefly to glare at the hacker. “Also, your last emergency involved calling me into your office to help you pass a level of that one phone game-”

“Most definitely an emergency!” comes Jongdae’s shrill defense. “It’s bad enough Yixing still hauls around a ing flip phone of all things-”

“Whoa there,” Yixing holds a hand up, “Don’t come for me and my flip phone. We’ve done nothing to you.”

Yifan pinches the bridge of his nose, interrupting the conversation before it spirals out of control. “Oh for ’s sake, this has gotten out of hand again. Tao, I’ll brief you in on what you missed later. Jongdae, the charity event?”

“Oh yeah,” the hacker sends Yixing one last glance as if to say their debate isn’t over, before regaining focus. “As I was saying earlier, there is uh, how do I put this lightly without pissing you off…”

“Pissing me off?”

“From what I’ve seen in my old line of work, there’s just… a lot more white-collar involvement in the underground crime scene than you might think.”

“You’re saying that this so called fundraising event is actually a cover for white collar criminals to gather and do business?”

Jongdae shakes his head. “I’m not saying anything necessarily. You heard what Go Taejin said in that interrogation room. One of the worst things you can be in the criminal underworld is a snitch. Or a NOC, I guess.”

“NOC?” Minseok whispers in confusion.

“Non-official cover,” Yixing murmurs, “Government agents that infiltrate organizations to obtain enough evidence to put them away. Think CIA and espionage. They’ve just barely started developing programs like that here in South Korea, that’s probably why you haven’t heard much about it.”

“Anyways,” Jongdae cracks his knuckles. “I may or may not have heard through the grapevine that the Choi Humanitarian Society is a rather hypocritical cover for a human trafficking ring.”

“Classic,” Yixing snorts and leans back in his seat.

“Why haven’t you told us before?” Minseok’s eyes widen. “We need to bust their operation and put those bastards away while we still have the chance.”

“If I thought we could, I would’ve said something ages ago,” Jongdae crosses his arms. “There’s a reason why they haven’t been caught yet. People up that high in society are armed with dozens of good lawyers and plenty of money to silence witnesses. Why do you think NOCs became a thing? Even if I were to get anything off their protected servers, it would all be null in court without probable cause and some sort of warrant. Working for the good guys honestly sometimes. Enough red tape to last me for days.”

Yifan rolls his eyes but nods in agreement. “Jongdae’s right Minseok. We can report it to HR and have them keep tabs and monitor their movement for now, but if we try to bust their operation this weekend with minimal preparation, we’ll only serve to spook them into being more cautious and risk losing our only lead on K.”

Minseok purses his lips in frustration but finally nods in understanding. It isn’t his place to make judgement calls when he’s had little to no experience on the field. He knows forensics, he knows his lab, and that’s what he’s good at. These sorts of decisions and risk analyses are what Yifan is good at, that’s why he’s their taskforce leader.

Jongdae plops back down into his seat. “Well, that’s about all I have for now. I think Lu Han wanted to discuss some other details with us too though.”

Yifan nods. “Go ahead, Lu.”

“Alright,” Lu Han stands up and takes Jongdae’s former spot at the front of the room. “I already had Jongdae include most of my individual profiles in the back of the case file, so I wanted to take this time to discuss what patterns we might encounter or expect to see K use at the gala event. I also was thinking of running some potential theories on their motive and overall group criminal profile and get some input.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Minseok flash him a brief thumbs-up and silently mouth at him an encouraging “you got it!” that has Lu Han struggling not to choke and turn pink in front of the rest of his colleagues. Why is the oldest member of their goddamn team the ing cutest one?

“Anyways,” he coughs lightly into his fist to regather his thoughts, purposely ignoring how a disgruntled Jongdae slips Yixing a 20,000 won bill across the table in the back. Those ers. “I think that K will try to send two people undercover, at the least.”

“Two people?” Yifan raises an eyebrow. “They only have four to six members according to your calculations. Why risk sending in more than one person?”

“Why risk losing what few members you have? This is as much as for the safety and protection of their group and individual identities as it is a risk. If anything is to go wrong, there’s always an on-scene back up. They’ve probably employed this method in previous crimes as well to ensure nothing happens. We’re looking for an event attendee as well as someone on some sort of staff at the party. This could be a server, a bodyguard, a performer, anyone.”

“Well that narrows it down,” Jongdae mumbles. “How are we supposed to identify them? If they’re smart enough to have backup at the event, they most likely won’t even so much as make eye contact with one another if they can help it. I haven’t been able to even come close to figuring out who they’re next target will even be.”

“Then we’ll just have to wait and see what they do,” Yifan lets out a frustrated sigh. “It’s hard to be this patient when they’re right in front of us but the best thing we can do now is wait to react to what they do at this event. From what Go Taejin was able to hear, this does not seem to be a hit. It’s more likely that they’re attending to simply scope out a potential target. We’ll have ears in and around the hotel. Jongdae, they will most likely be disabling or tapping into the security feeds in some way. You need to stop them.”

“I’ll try my best to shut them down, but if they’re using an IP scrambler it’ll be hard to track and get into their cloud drive.”

“Another thing I wanted to discuss with you all is K’s overall motive. So far the pattern of victimology that we’ve seen from them follows that of a moral enforcer or a vigilante, someone that punishes wrong doers or criminals that appear untouchable from the justice system.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’.”

“I… I don’t think that this group is doing this for moral reasons necessarily.” Lu Han paces back and forth across the front of the room. “Think about it. Their victims have all been left in rather private or secluded crime scenes, instead of displayed in public areas like an enforcer might usually attempt to do in order to garner outside attention. This group leaves these murdered criminals for us. I think they’re trying to send a message to law enforcement.”

“It’s a taunt,” Zitao whispers quietly. “A challenge.”

“’You can’t get them so we will.’” Lu Han pauses. “But why? Is this just a way of showing authorities that we aren’t all that? It seems much too elaborate considering the ritual of that ‘K’ card.”

“There’s too many questions that we need answered about them.” Minseok groans. “Our odds of figuring something out from this gala event aren’t looking to good either.”

Yixing suddenly raises his hand, like a student waiting to be called on in class. Yifan eyes him in confusion before speaking. “Yes, Yixing?”

“I might have an answer.” The receptionist places down his pen from where he was doodling in his set of case files. “To one of our questions.”

“And that is…?”

“Their sniper. I have a name.”

Yifan looks close to busting a blood vessel. “You identified one of their members and you didn’t think to let us know sooner?!”

“His name,” Yixing doesn’t seem too phased by the entire room’s shock. “is Park Chanyeol. He was in special forces with me.”

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?!”

“Because-”

For just the briefest moment, Lu Han spies a flash of pain cross Yixing’s eyes and wonders once again just how many secrets his friend has kept to himself throughout the years.

“Everyone thought he was dead.”

Got a final tmr but it's fINE THIS IS JUST HOW I PROCRASTINATE ON OTHER DUTIES

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Less than three,

PalmerPie