Jongup tapped the end of his pencil against the lined pages of his workbook, open and half filled on the picnic table in front of him. A breeze was coming from the west, and it rustled at the pages of his textbook so much so that he had to lay his phone atop it to pin them down. He read across a page, then took down a handful of bullet points, then lifted his eyes to scan around him. It wasn't like Jooho to be late. They had been meeting up every Wednesday afternoon since they had met half way through November in the University library. Jongup had been studying then, too, when Jooho approached him and asked, “Moon Jongup? From Criminology 3, right?”

Jongup didn't recognise him, but Ha Jooho had introduced himself and claimed he was always impressed with the discussion points Jongup put forward in their class. Jongup was brilliant, he'd said, way smarter than everyone else doing Law, and several years younger too. Of course Jongup didn't yet know Jooho was aware of how many years Jongup had skipped in high school, or how his stint in Yonsei university's undergraduate law degree at age seventeen had others lining up to take him in, which was how he had landed himself across town at Seoul National by twenty-two, three quarters of his way through Law School in less than two years. Admittedly, he took a lot of classes, and so when he didn't immediately recognise Jooho as one of his many classmates, he didn't leap to the conclusion that he was lying.

What Jongup didn't expect after their initial chance meeting was for their run ins to become more and more regular. He'd started seeing him in class, where soon they were seated side by side, and every Wednesday through winter they studied in the library until spring, then summer rolled around, and they moved to the tables just outside. Jongup hadn't been expecting them to start sleeping together, either, but he guessed life in the big city was full of surprises, and he could hardly say he minded.

The end of his pencil tapped against the pages of his notebook again and he reached for a sip of his coffee. The white paper cup was beside the one he'd bought for Jooho, which was probably well on its way to getting cold by then.

The westerly breeze was growing into something a little stronger when the door to the library swung open and Jooho came without his bag slung over his shoulder and another man following alongside him. Jongup sat up straighter when they dropped down onto the seats opposite.

“Sorry I'm late.” Jooho greeted and folded his hands atop the table.

“It's alright.” Jongup replied, with eyes only for the stranger. He was older, probably by a few years, with full lips curved into a smirk and attentive eyes. He wasn't dressed like a student, either, instead wearing a neat black suit and with his hair combed back.

“There's someone I'd like you to meet.” Jooho finally said.

“Bang Yongnam.” The man in black offered out his hand for Jongup to shake, which he did.

“Moon Jongup.”

Bang Yongnam's smirk elongated into a smile at the firm hold of Jongup's hand in his, and when they parted he pulled a card from his pocket and lay it out onto the table between them. The first thing Jongup saw was the NIS emblem, positioned by a stoic photo of Yongnam.

“My colleague has told me a lot about you, Jongup-ssi, and I figured it was about time I offered you a job.”

“Are you even listening to me?”

Jongup jolted and blinked his eyes open against the light. His elbow was going numb where it was pressed up against the car's window, and a palm shaped dent was appearing into his cheek. He shifted and sat up a little straighter while Yongnam glanced across at him.

“You weren't.” He said with a chuckle.

“Tired.” Jongup replied.

“I told you to take some time to rest before we came out.”

“Yeah, well...” Jongup trailed off, and sealed his sentence with a yawn.

“Good comeback, Moon, I'll be icing that burn for a week.” Yongnam rolled his eyes and urged the car forward again. A glance at the clock confirmed Jongup had zoned out for nearly half an hour, and when he turned to look out the window he saw the morning light glittering as it refracted off the river's glass surface. They were stuck in a traffic jam on one of the many bridges heading north over the Han that bypassed Gangnam and went straight for Yongsan-gu.

The car inched forward a little further, and Jongup's eyes fell closed again. He didn't particularly want to dream, he was too tired for dreams. The spot on his cheekbone where he'd taken the hit had started throbbing not long after he showered and changed into the black suit that stood as a pseudo uniform for all NIS agents, and he was starting to feel like the energy he saved from not having his eyes open helped him ignore the spreading pain. It didn't help him ignore the pain sitting to his left, though.

“So you've hardly told me anything about Busan.” Yongnam was tapping his thumbs against the steering wheel, like he did when he had a little too much pent up energy. Jongup knew, of course, that Yongnam had never seen the Unit's headquarters and he couldn't wait to finally bare witness to his brother's secret world.

“I gave you a full report this morning.” Jongup blinked open one eye just enough to see Yongnam roll his.

“I'm not talking about that. Did you get up to anything else interesting?”

“You mean aside from being chased through a shipping depot, getting shot at, camping out in a semi-derelict love motel and being arrested by my own colleagues?” Jongup rubbed his fingers across his eyebrows and shrugged, “Not much.”

Yongnam rolled his eyes again, but the look he gave Jongup was slightly more concerned, “I hardly heard from you for a week.”

“If I contacted you more than I did, Kim would have noticed something.” Finally, Jongup resigned himself to keeping both eyes open and he pushed to sit up entirely. With his hand against the carseat, he noticed the paper cups of coffee slotted in the console between them. They were both still hot, and he realised he must have really fallen asleep to have not noticed Yongnam stop to pick them up.

“Jooho was asking about you. Quite a lot.” Yongnam glanced over again, “You two aren't getting back together, are you?”

“No.” There wasn't a beat between the question and answer, and Jongup followed his reply by taking a sip of his drink.

“Alright.” Yongnam nodded, “I noticed him waiting outside this morning.”

Jongup grunted noncommittally in lieu of a reply and Yongnam turned to look at him properly, “Did something happen, while you were down there?”

Jongup frowned, he didn't understand why he was pressing, “What do you mean, you know what happened.”

“I know, it just isn't like you to get caught.”

There was a moment, just a short one, where Jongup thought about saying something. Yongnam knew him best of anyone by then, he'd over taken his brothers the night he had stood by Jongup's side the first time he'd killed someone. There had been other agents there to clean up, and they both knew it had all been in self defence, but Yongnam had taken him home and stayed with him all weekend just talking in the mindless way he did until it drowned out the sound of the gangster's neck cracking over and over and ricocheting around Jongup's mind. He didn't tell him it was the right thing to do, he didn't talk about the agent whose life Jongup had saved, or the countless more lives that one man's death was going to protect. He talked about the movie he'd seen over the weekend, about how Jongup should really keep his apartment cleaner, and about how Goyangie was a stupid name for a cat, and when Jongup cried he his fingers through his hair in the way his mum used to when he was small and said nothing at all. Their friendship had been an accident at first, but some days Jongup thought it was the only thing keeping him together.

He didn't tell the truth, though. Instead, he tipped his head to the side and chose sarcasm, “It isn't like you to keep me in the dark- Oh wait, that's exactly like you.”

“I said I was sorry.” The traffic was moving again and Yongnam returned his eyes to the road, “Besides, I only keep you in the dark when I can't tell you the truth and I think you can hold your own. I didn't expect you to be raiding warehouses unarmed in the middle of the night.”

“It wasn't exactly my idea. We'd been holed up in that hotel room for nearly two days, I think cabin fever was a very active member in the design of that plan.”

“You're lucky it was us.”

“And Park's lucky I only broke his finger.”

It wasn't far off the other side of the bridge that they turned right, then left, then right again and pulled up outside the unassuming front of Unit 12's secret HQ, and Jongup could see from the expression on Yongnam's face that he was just as underwhelmed as Jongup had been when he'd first seen the building.

It shouldn't have been a surprise how easily they passed security. Jongup's ID was hardly looked at when he entered the building alongside Yongnam, and it was the first time he realised how afraid of Yongguk the uniformed officers must have been. So much so they didn't even stop long enough to check it was, in fact, him.

The clunky elevator doors slid open and Yongnam stepped in, saying when the doors closed, “I should probably speak to Yongguk about the security of this place.”

“Just incase you turn evil and try and infiltrate.” Jongup nodded.

Yongnam snorted, “So you're absolutely sure there's nothing else I should know about your Busan trip before we get down there?”

“Why do you keep asking me that?” Jongup asked, irritated, and Yongnam shrugged.

“Kim Himchan is a nice guy.”

“Kim Himchan hates my guts.”

“Kim Himchan hates everyone's guts, that's Kim Himchan's whole thing.”

“Then I don't understand what it is you're asking me.” Jongup replied firmly, and the clunking stopped, then the doors slid open.

Under the wide open canopy roof, Unit 12's headquarters was a mess. The desk was a catastrophe of papers, dirty coffee mugs and overflowing rubbish bins and Jongup had never seen anything quite like it before. He didn't pay much mind to it, though, because when they descended the stairs towards the mess he focused instead on Yongguk standing by the TV screens, with Youngjae and Daehyun. They'd been talking, but when the elevator doors screeched open had turned instead to face them and now Daehyun and Youngjae were glancing uncertainly between their guests.

“Good morning.” Yongnam greeted when he stopped a few metres from his brother, and Jongup stopped beside him.

“Morning.” Yongguk replied, and smiled warmly, “Jongup.”

“Morning, Sir.” Jongup greeted respectfully.

“Daehyun-ah, why don't you head downstairs and let the others know we have guests.” Yongguk's instruction was kind, but it left no room for argument, and so Daehyun nodded his head and did as he was told. Youngjae glanced at Jongup first, taking in the sight of him in his black suit, then looked at Yongnam.

“I finally have an excuse to visit your HQ, Yongguk-ah.” Yongnam glanced around, taking in the sight of the green vine claiming the ceiling, and noted stoically, “It's pretty cool, I guess.”

Yongguk rolled his eyes, “Come on, we should do this in the conference room.”

The twins took up position facing one another near the head of the table, and Jongup sat down to Yongnam's right. Daehyun didn't take long, and soon he was leading an exhausted looking Junhong into the room and pulled back a chair for him which he dropped into with very little urging. Youngjae frowned and immediately started fussing, but Yongguk ignored them.

“Where's Himchan?” he asked.

“He's coming.” Daehyun rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and glanced to Jongup, “He said he'll just be a minute.”

“We can do introductions while we wait.” Yongnam suggested, “I'm Bang Yongnam, and I understand you know my colleague, Moon Jongup.”

Jongup glanced down and he avoided the confused eyes looking between him and Yongnam as they lay their NIS identification cards flat on the table. Both of Jongup's hands stayed palm down on the table, too, and he didn't look up as the Unit's agents took in the cards and physically recoiled back from the less than tactful revelation.

“Right.” Yongguk exhaled through his nose, “Dr. Yoo Youngjae, psychologist, Detective Jung Daehyun, and Dr. Choi Junhong, pathologist.”

“So this is the famous Jamie Wilson-Choi? I've heard so much about you.” Yongnam leant forward and saw the way Junhong's eyes flicked automatically to Yongguk, “From the Commissioner.” He corrected the silent assumption.

The glass door slid open and Himchan stepped in and Jongup finally looked up. His arms were folded against his chest and where the others had settled around the table, he chose to lean back against the door frame. Yongnam managed to catch his eye and greeted him with a nod of his head, but he ignored it and looked instead to Yongguk and waited for him to speak.

Yongguk took his cue and shifted forward in his seat, “Run of the mill homicides are not our regular jurisdiction, and on top of that, Ms. Song's disappearance post-mortem was unusual at best. There were questions at first, about why we were chosen for this case, and now I can tell you it is because Ms. Song was an informant for the NIS, feeding information about Golden Lotus.”

“Excuse me?”

“What?!”

Daehyun and Youngjae's indignant reactions came in unison, and Yongguk glanced between them.

“You knew about this, and didn't say anything? That chanhes everything, that changes the entire investigation!” Daehyun had turned to Jongup, his shoulders up and his eyebrows furrowing low over his eyes and when Jongup met his gaze, his face was starting to go red. Himchan pushed himself off the doorframe just enough to rest his palm against Daehyun's shoulder to keep him down and in his seat.

“Our operation against Golden Lotus is complex and wide-spread. We have to share as little information as possible, and so Ms. Song's involvement in said operation had to remain need to know.” Yongnam replied, with the same infuriating calm that Yongguk had perfected.

“With all due respect, Sir, as the people investigating her death I would make the argument that we very much needed to know.” Youngjae was barely keeping his frustration in.

“You had Jongup.” Yongnam said, “It is true that Ms. Song came to Seoul for a personal trip, but she was also intending to meet with one of our agents, so when she turned up dead we suspected immediately that it had to do with her position with us, but I asked the Commissioner to hand the investigation to you. Seoul police don't have the training to take on something like Golden Lotus, and if the investigation was yours, then-”

“You could listen in.” Daehyun surmised, and Yongnam's lips twitched into a smirk.

“I could listen in. I didn't want any of my people getting involved, until her body disappeared and Yongguk and I agreed someone had to be.” His fingers twined together and he rest his hands down casually onto the table, “If she was killed for being an informant, then that information somehow got out. I don't know if someone in Golden Lotus figured it out themselves, if she let it slip to someone she shouldn't have trusted or...”

“Or if an NIS agent has double crossed you.” Junhong finished the sentence.

“Exactly.” Yongnam looked worried for a fraction of a second, then the cocky came back like a tonne of bricks and it was as though nothing had happened, “Golden Lotus aren't to be toyed with. They trade in lives, through trafficking of people, poached goods and weapons. Busan is their main port, but they've been using bars and restaurants as laundering businesses all across Korea, with their headquarters at The Rook by the docks. They first operated in the late fifties, and took advantage of the destabilisation caused by the war to rope in desperate people, but right when they were almost taken down they went to ground and reappeared five years ago. We haven't been able to secure the intel on how Lee Taejin was recruited, but he is the one pulling the strings on the whole operation, and Song Ahra provided vital access to him.”

Daehyun glanced to Junhong, then said, “We had a discussion about him. If he wanted her dead, he wouldn't do it himself.”

“No, he would get someone else to, but knowing she's an informant gives us a motive.” Youngjae replied then he too looked at their Doctor, “Do they know about the DNA?”

“What DNA?” Jongup frowned, and glanced between them.

Junhong tipped his head from side to side, like he was weighing up something in his brain, “In her car, before it was set on fire I had the chance to take some samples. Hair, vomit, that kinda thing. Most of it was hers, of course, but there was a shorter hair I tested, and it came back blank. There was no record anywhere, not in any police database I could access.”

“And the vehicle was destroyed immediately after you recovered them?” Yongnam clarified, and Junhong nodded.

“That DNA could be all we have.” Yongguk said and Yongnam exhaled long and slow.

“I'll have the doctor's in our facility re-run the profile, see if there is something in our database that isn't available to yours.”

Junhong tipped his head thoughtfully, then bargained, “I need a bigger lab. The one we have here is brilliant, in every way but it's small, we don't have the space to process the car and I'm not done with it, yet. You can have the sample, if I can use your facility.”

“Done. If you gather what you need, I'll have our Doc get the lab ready for your arrival, and I'll send someone for the car.” Yongnam smiled “We will work with you on this. Any resources you need from the NIS, we will cooperate.”

“You said she was coming to Seoul partly to meet with her NIS handler, right?” Daehyun asked, Yongnam nodded his head and Daehyun continued, “When was the meeting scheduled?”

“Not until the morning she was found. Either she knew something they didn't want her sharing, or they took the opportunity to get rid of her.” Yongnam sighed out through his nose, but Jongup's eyes caught Himchan pulling his hand back from Daehyun's shoulder so he could slip from the room. He didn't look back, and by the time Jongup was pushing his own seat from the table to follow, Himchan was half way up the stairs. A glance from Yongnam was all the permission he needed to followed.

The elevator doors opened and closed around Himchan, then moments later did the same around Jongup and with one dismissive look from Yongguk the two Doctors and their Detective returned to the stacks of paper piled up on the desk to rifle through them again in search of the leads they'd been clinging onto when Himchan and Jongup had disappeared the night before.

Yongguk didn't rise immediately and Yongnam caught his gaze, “There's something on your mind.” He stated.

“The DNA.” Yongguk replied, then glanced up to meet his brother's eyes, “Junhong could find some things from his tests, just not an identity. It was male, early thirties. He must have done his service, there should be a record of him somewhere...”

“Unless he was an NIS agent.” Yongnam finished for him. They rose from their own seats and turned to look through the windows onto the team working in tandem with one another. Junhong was gesturing with his left hand and Youngjae was frowning while Daehyun rifled through the papers in search of something.

“He's cute.” Yongnam commented, “Wilson-Choi.”

“He's unavailable.” Yongguk replied.

“Just to me, or in general?” Yongnam turned away from the window to look at his brother with a too-inquisitive look.

“To you.” Conceded Yongguk, and they followed the others out.

*

When the elevator doors opened and Jongup stepped out, Himchan was already standing in the centre of Junhong's lab. He was just wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt, and Jongup thought for a moment about how this Himchan, casual, real, was the one he knew best. Automatic doors slid open with a ding and he didn't turn around as Jongup came towards him.

“Hyung.” He said, and watched the way rigidity spread up Himchan's body, tightening every inch of him, one vertebrae at a time. But he didn't turn around, he just reached down and grabbed his phone from the countertop where it was charging and started flicking through the notifications like Jongup would disappear if he pretended he wasn't there.

“I'm still on this case, you can't ignore me forever.” Frustration hummed through every inch of Jongup.

“Maybe not, but I can give it a red hot go.” Himchan turned his head and glanced back over his shoulder and tossed his phone back down onto the counter. It slid over the top and landed with a thud that rattled the window pane looking into the morgue.

Jongup took in a slow breath and said, “It wasn't anything personal.”

“What wasn't?” Himchan finally turned around, “The lying, or the rest of it?”

“You know what I mean.” Jongup replied.

“Do I? Because I really don't think I do.” Himchan laughed incredulously and waved his right hand through the air, “How much did you know about me by the time we met? Did you know about my sister? My service? The tests? Maybe you got my whole file as some light reading to take home.”

“Don't start acting like you've never had to tell a lie! You have been in this world just as long as I have, you know what this life requires of us.” Jongup argued, following Himchan as he turned again and walked into Junhong's office where he rounded the couch to have it between them then laughed and folded his arms over his chest.

“I don't lie to colleagues and I especially don't lie to friends.” He grit.

“We each had our cases, and telling you the truth would jeopardise mine!” Jongup shot back.

“Being honest with me would jeopardise your case but having with me wouldn't? Is that how you're trained to do it at the NIS, then; seduction and manipulation to get the information you need. Then what? You high tail it out? Disappear into the woodwork in the hopes they won't notice? Tell me, does Yongnam take pleasure in pimping out his agents like that, or is it all the Commissioner's job?” Himchan advanced until his thighs were touching the couch and Jongup's jaw tensed.

“ you.”

“God, honestly I can't tell what's more pathetic, that I fell for the whole thing hook, line and sinker, or that you didn't even have the guts to tell me the truth yourself!”

“I didn't know Yongnam was going to-” Jongup started, but Himchan cut him off.

“Tell me? And what if he hadn't. Would you still be lying? Would you be patching up my stomach, and asking to come home with me and hoping I'll still give you, what, information? Attention? Or maybe it's just some kind of narcissistic fantasy.” He shook his head and laughed again but this time it sounded drained, beyond exhausted, “Did you know where I was based? Did your dad even work there, or was that all some kind of rapport building exercise? Do you even have brothers?”

“This was never about getting information from you and I only lied when I had to.” Jongup grit, and Himchan smiled dryly despite himself.

“Well aren't you a ing saint.” He said.

The elevator doors sounded and Junhong came out and through the lab, but stopped in the doorway to look between them uncertainly. Jongup was panting, Himchan's face was red and the Doctor hesitated then said, “Hyung... I should probably re-dress your stomach before I go check out the NIS.”

“Agent Moon was just leaving.” Himchan said without looking at him.

Jongup tensed his jaw and didn't move, “You can say what you want about me, Himchan, but I am telling you the truth that I did not once lie to you about anything that counted. Everything that night was honest. Everything.”

Himchan didn't look at him, and he didn't wait around long enough for a response. The elevator rattled it's farewell, and once they were alone Junhong glanced back to Himchan, then took what he needed from the drawers by his desk, “Since when were you two...” The Doctor wriggled his eyebrows once.

“We're not anything.” Himchan replied, as he lifted his shirt for Junhong to patch him up.

“Hyung, that didn't look like nothing.” He commented, then smiled and teased, “He's a nice guy. Smart too. He's totally your type, and you don't get riled up like that over someone you don't care about.”

“If you don't mind, kid, I don't need relationship advice from you. Some of us have enough self respect to realise when something is doomed from the start and I don't have time to chase someone who doesn't give a about me like a pathetic puppy.” The snap of his voice was so harsh that Junhong physically recoiled from him and blinked his rounded eyes in genuine surprise at the outburst. Himchan's teeth clenched and unclenched, while Junhong stayed silent and focused his gaze and fingers on searching through different sizes of cut gauze each wrapped individually in sanitary plastic that crinkled as it was moved.

“So that's what you think of me.” He said softly after a moment, and Himchan winced, guilt setting in once the heat was gone.

“No... No, Junnie I don't-”

“I think you should go. Take this, Youngjae or Daehyun or someone will do it.” He set the gauze, tape and antiseptic down on the counter, “I'll be in the morgue if anyone else needs me.”

Himchan didn't try and stop him when he walked away to scrub up, instead he dropped down into Junhong's seat and put his face in his hands. He didn't think he'd ever felt like such an .

Just upstairs, Jongup slipped his arms into his coat and wrapped his scarf around his neck while stewing in stormy silence. Yongnam noticed his mood as soon as he re-emerged from the elevator, and bid his farewells to his brother so he could follow him back above ground, through security and out onto the street. The sun was higher in the sky, it had dried the wet patches on the pavement, and Jongup's breath got caught in the sunlight.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Yongnam asked diplomatically. He'd perfected his management talk over the years, and he glanced sidelong at his friend. The anger around him was more than palpable, and he could see the way the muscles in his face were taught and his brows furrowed.

“Not particularly.” Jongup replied, hands in pockets and eyes straight forward.

“This is about Himchan?” Yongnam prompted still and Jongup huffed out a cloudy breath.

“You should have let me tell him. He should have found out from me.” He replied. Anger in him simmered low and hot, but he learned Himchan was prone to boiling over and spilling out and burning all the way. The tip of Jongup's nose was red, and Yongnam couldn't tell if it was from the cold, or the anger, or a combination of both.

“I thought you didn't get along.” He observed.

“We don't.” Jongup bit back.

Yongnam unlocked the car and Jongup didn't wait before he was climbing in and slamming the door. Yongnam sighed and watched the cloud of his breath billow then dissipate. He followed Jongup into the car and stuck the key into the ignition.

“Whatever it was that happened between you two in Busan sure was one hell of a nothing.”