#003: heist

he had this inkling that it wasn't just a simple disappearance.

RM rested his chin on his fist as the last agent took his seat at the end of the broad, rectangular meeting table. The case file was spread out in front of him as he breathed out through his nostrils, not sure how he should approach the entire thing. In the span of exactly 54 minutes since he had received the case, a total of 183 possible approaches and outcomes were considered, yet none of them managed to match up to his expectations of efficiency and effectiveness. He had therefore decided to gather the rest of the agents together and run through the three possible plans that he had narrowed down in his head, and hopefully, nine brains could help fine-tune their very first mission.

RM haphazardly swept the documents back into the binder and pushed it further down the table, as his index finger rested on the scanner beneath it. His part of the table to began to slide open to the sides, revealing a large touch-screen monitor that allowed him to brief the agents on the project, as well as flash any important information and ideas as a hologram in the centre of the table.

“There has been a crime,” RM started as he tapped hastily on the monitor, projecting a grainy image of two males most likely captured on a CCTV camera, both carrying huge, black duffel bags, power walking towards a silver Kia Stinger. “These two men have apparently ‘robbed’ a bank, of about 1.6 million dollars.”

Momo had released a small gasp at the said amount, as she stopped tapping her manicured nails on the wood and focused more  on what RM was saying. “Now the weird part is that both men didn’t have any weapons at all; zero. It wasn’t those violent break-ins with hostages or anything.” RM’s face was scrunching up as he realised just how complex this entire case was. “Apparently the male on the right, the one with the red hair, simply slipped a piece of paper to the bank teller, and five minutes later they’re both walking out with 1.6 million in cold, hard cash.”

Daniel let out a low whistle as he glanced up at the rest of the agents, all of them either frowning or staring at RM intently. “Do you know what was on the paper?” Jaehyun had questioned from the end of the table, resting his elbows on the hard wood as he made eye contact with RM. The latter had only shook his head and tapped at the monitor again, this time playing an audio file.

“This will definitely work, I just have to show him to her. In the meantime, keep the entire place sealed up. Don’t screw up.”

“This is as far as all the clues go, and the worst part is that the bank teller was convicted because she wouldn’t say anything and had actually admitted that she was part of this heist.” RM said sourly. “It really is ridiculous if you tell me, because so many things don’t add up with her ‘confession’ and what not, but the police are even more ridiculous to actually acquit her.” Sejeong could only let out a loud sigh of frustration as she sunk back into the black leather chair.

“Now we obviously know that things aren’t as simple as the bank teller colluding with the robbers, so there was this anonymous tip-off, that these two jerks are planning to rob another bank in this part of the city.” RM tapped at the monitor, projecting an image of the bank. “The date is set a week from today. That should give us enough time to come up with a concrete game plan.”

“In the meantime, Sehun and Sejeong,” RM looked towards the two. “You guys could perhaps start on some combat training with Shownu, and the rest of us can prepare ourselves for the coming mission. Everyone, dismissed.”

Sejeong could only grimace at the though of having to be at a close proximity with the unsociable and rude boy as she pushed in her chair and headed with the rest toward the elevator.

𝛃

Sehun tugged on a grey hoodie and flipped the hood over his bed hair as he exited the room quietly, careful not to wake Wonwoo. Trudging down the stairs and into the kitchen, he reached into the refrigerator for a bottle of water before heading towards the elevator. Today was to be the first day of training and preparations- a mere 12 hours had passed since RM’s briefing, but every agent knew that there was absolutely no time to waste, especially when they were still so unfamiliar with one another and what was their success rate.

Shownu had called Sejeong and him to be in the gym at 6:30a.m. Sehun did pride himself in his lack of tardiness, so when the elevator doors had slid open at 6:25a.m., he was mildly surprised to see Sejeong there already, her cheeks flushed and sweat glistening on her neck and collarbones, as she landed a solid punch on the punch mitts Shownu was wearing.

“Good job! Once more!” Shownu had whooped as Sejeong let out a breathy chuckle, before crouching back down into position and landing punches and kicks as Shownu challenged her to a comfortable rhythm. “That was amazing man!” Shownu was grinning from ear to ear as he removed a punching mitt and ruffled her hair, causing even more locks to fall out of her loose ponytail.

Sehun cleared his throat to announce his presence as Sejeong removed her boxing gloves and finally spared Sehun a glance, her chest rising and falling rapidly from the intense cardio session she had received from Shownu for the past 45 minutes.

“Good morning dude.” Shownu and Sehun did those weird guy handshakes as the latter climbed gracefully into the boxing ring, looping his legs over the ring ropes, all the while sipping at the bottle of water that was in his hand. Sejeong was once again envious at how the guy could look so attractive when the sun hadn’t even risen. If it wasn’t for the after-glow of exercise, she would’ve still been adorning a puffy face and dark eye bags.

“So today we’ll just go through some boxing basics and sparring. Since both of ya’ll have some Taekwondo background, I don’t think it’ll take too long to pick up some self-defence and street combat moves.” Shownu nodded with a small smile as he picked up a new pair of black boxing gloves and tossed them towards Sehun.

Sejeong took this as her cue to leave as she bent down to pick up her towel and own pair of boxing gloves, before clambering out of the ring, trying not to trip over the ropes due to her shorter legs. She headed towards the weight-lifting bench and plopped down rather ungracefully as she began fixing her hair into a topknot. Sehun couldn’t help but notice her from his peripheral vision, as the girl dabbed the towel across her jaw and neck, looking exhausted but rather charming at the same time. He had noticed her smile as Shownu complimented her, and had to admit that it was one of the most enchanting things he had ever seen, but he then concluded that it was probably one of the only things attractive about her.

He stuck his tongue out to wet his lips as he crouched down, before landing blow after blow onto the punching mitts with lethal accuracy. He made it seem entirely effortless, with how he was also ducking and do