⭐ Chapter Four ⭐

It was eerily silent in the office of the Chief. Heechul sat with his head down, hands clutched in tight fists. The panic and adrenaline he had felt back then has more or less departed by now. The rush he had gone through has almost evaporated, leaving behind the shimmering anger which was constantly rising toward the surface.

“This isn’t a one man mission, Chief,” Leeteuk roared ardently, to a certain degree. “You should have dwelt further in the case before assigning it to Heechul. He was being practically played in their hands yet you-”

“Stop it!” Heechul screamed in a shrill voice, eyes blazing in anger. “I could have handled it. I was allotted the mission thus it was my job to find out these fine details-”

“Not when you were been fed wrong information in the first place,” Leeteuk cut his partner off rather unceremoniously.

“I am sorry Hyung, it was my fault,” Henry mumbled, looking guilty as he fidgeted in his chair.

“No Henry, it was all of us,” Kyuhyun, who sat beside the younger IT agent quickly, assured his fellow IT member. “We all are always in the computer lab and never realized that the call we have bugged could be discovered from the very start nor the words stated during the call could be meant as code words… it’s all of our culpability, we took this mission somewhat flippantly.”

“See, now they all are blaming themselves,” Heechul said with gritted teeth, glaring at Leeteuk like the elder was wrong here. “If your high and mighty brains had discovered something you could have said it right away. Why wait for me and Henry to go to lion’s den before you realized how wrong it all was, huh? Why not stop us on time?”

“I told you, you wouldn’t have believed me if I told you before having any evidence,” Leeteuk replied, marginally calmed now.

“That’s what you thought,” Heechul exclaimed while knocking off his chair as he moved to yank at Leeteuk’s collar. “I believed you dammit! When your panicking voice in my ear told me to back out and lay low, even though I was two seconds away from taking a damn picture of that file but I lowered my camera and I did as you asked without any questions because I trusted you as my partner. The moment you screamed for me to run back to van, I did with all my might because I trusted your decision, Leeteuk.”

Seconds ticked away with Leeteuk only gazing at Heechul with an unreadable look. Slowly, becoming conscious of his actions, Heechul lowered his hands. However, Leeteuk’s speedy hands on his waist didn’t let the black haired moved back.

“I am sorry I underestimated you,” Leeteuk whispered, his words laced with sincerity which furthermore reflected in his warm brown eyes. “I am sorry I didn’t give any credit to our bond. I am sorry I kept things from you, Hee, however rest assure I won’t be making this mistake twice.”

Heechul’s brain might had short circuited for a moment there because all he could focus on was his partner’s close-up figure, the warm fingers digging on his hip bone and the genuineness gleaming on Leeteuk’s slightly coloring face. The rest of the world became a distant buzz until Chief’s amusement lace voice broke through Heechul’s fuzzy trance.

“… mind explaining?” Chief was saying by the time Heechul jump out of Leeteuk's strong hold. “I am extremely confused because you all just keep talking among yourselves.”

Heechul avoided Henry and Kyuhyun’s blown orbs fixed on him as he gingerly took the seat opposite to the Chief, warily giving a side glance to Leeteuk, who was still staring at him, much to Heechul’s dismay.

“Chief,” Leeteuk started, taking a tentative step to stand directly behind his partner, daring enough to reach out a hand to place at the back of Heechul’s chair as the elder agent leaned against it. “Three days ago, when Henry came to tell Heechul about Vortex Mafia’s next planned meeting… I found the whole scenario unsettling. The piece of puzzle just won’t fit. I can’t explain how but my intuition told me something was not going right. Thus I approached Kyuhyun.”

“When?” The Chief questioned, sharply. “Before Heechul left for mission or after?”

“Two days before the mission,” Leeteuk admitted, a slight quiver to his tone showed he felt somewhat guilty at this. “But it was entirely my hunch and I had no solid grounds to give my statement. Anyways, I told Kyuhyun to search over the words Wel river… but not as a single words rather initials like; W.E.L. At first it was fruitless, because even geographical satellites failed to support any place on earth related to this word. At that time, I gave up on it… thinking of ways to corner the Vortex Mafia members once Heechul set out for mission.”

“Then how…?” This time it was Heechul who spoke his thoughts out loud, clearly baffled at his partner’s statement.

“Because even if Leeteuk Hyung gave up, I didn’t,” Kyuhyun scooted forward to say, looking directly at Heechul. “Leeteuk Hyung put this theory of his in my head and I couldn’t help but work on it further. I tried every method but only met dead ends, that is, until I took the work outside the agency.”

“What do you mean?” Henry inquired, looking a little worried as he threw a discreet look at the stormy expression on the Chief’s face.

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