Everyone automatically turn quiet as they hear Madam Tang's voice clearly through Jongho's microphone. Their fight-or-flight reactions are activated, and the first thought Mingi could do is to broadcast a Code 3. Just as he's about to slam the button down to initiate a signal for Code 3, Madam Tang's voice rings through the line again before her full body comes into view from Hongjoong's camera, having been distancing herself from Jongho.

"I know who you are, Min Gunhoo. Your company isn't doing so well right now, so I don't believe that price. Where do you have the money to spare, when you're about to go broke?"

"She's testing you. She wants to see whether you're really keen on making this deal with her," Mingi warns him, followed by the mechanical sound of the furious typing of his keyboard. "I sent over some of the details to Minion on Min Gunhoo's accounts."

He projects the details onto Hongjoong's lenses, allowing the leader to scan through. As Madam Tang waits for an answer from Jongho, Hongjoong quickly scans through the details of the bank account, before understanding what Min Gunhoo was trying to do with the deal.

He was trying to find a one-hit wonder where he could get himself back to his feet, knowing this is only a do-or-die deal. If he doesn't get his hands on the substance... he is as good as dead.

Hongjoong bends his body so that he can whisper into Jongho's ear, peeking carefully at Madam Tang who looks like she's about to transform into a lion that would pounce at them any moment.

The leader whispers into the youngest's ear, "This is the last straw for Min Gunhoo; he was hoping to strike a deal with Madam Tang so that he will get his hands on the substance that is not available anywhere else on the market yet. He's planning to avoid going bankrupt by selling these drugs, but he never actually had the money to spare to buy them from Madam Tang."

"Our guess is that he was planning to bluff his way through the deal somehow, maybe by using fake money to fool her. Basically we're caught up in Min Gunhoo's own lies; he isn't being honest about this even from the start." Mingi slams on the keyboard, frustrated. "That damn rat is making this complicated when it should have been a simple exchange from the start."

"But if Madam Tang does know about Min Gunhoo's current financial standing, why did she agree to meet him anyway?" Yeosang asks, but none of them have the answer as they keep quiet.

"Well?" Madam Tang twirls her shoulder-length hair around her finger. "I'm waiting, Min Gunhoo. I need to hear your answer or-" she smiles. She doesn't elaborate but they know what she's talking about.

Clearly.

Her last words seem to be a cue for her bodyguards to block the door and only conventional exit, barricading it with their muscly bodies while the closest one to her, whom she addressed as Wong stands beside her before lifting up the suitcase.

"You... really think I'm stu...pid," she pronounces with a lilt, her body swaying, looking as if she's drunk. "That's such a shame though, I would really love to spend a night with you before I-" she drags a slender finger across her neck. "Now you're just going away without anything to remember," she chides. "It's too bad."

"Minion, if you want me to blast a Code 2, give me a signal, now," Mingi reminds him through his earpiece. The sound of a chair rolling away fills the line as Hongjoong gives a '2' signal to the camera, before doing another gesture that Mingi understands perfectly.

He punches in the code that gives rise to a mechanical voice repeating, "Code 2, Minion and Apple."

"Listen here, all of you. Toothless, Aurora and Silver stay put in the hotel room. We will make sure that the meeting with the real Min Gunhoo go on, but our problem is how we're going to get the substance that's currently held by Madam Tang's bodyguard. Minion has requested for back up from Shiber-"

"Got it," San's voice comes in.

"-to come to that hotel room and help in retrieving the substance. As for Corgi-"

"Corgi reporting, ready to shoot."

"-get ready at a high point, but make sure only the non-fatal areas are shot. We're not looking to kill anyone tonight, only to delay by injuring them, got it?"

"Loud and clear."

"Statue?"

"Right here."

"We need to work together to guide them and pan through the cameras, deal?"

"It's always a deal that should not even be the question."

"You think I would just give this to you without having the slightest idea on how your account looks like?" Madam Tang perches on the arm of the sofa, arching one of her eyebrows. She releases a heavy breath before chanting, "No, no, no. You might not have your face anywhere that I can see, but I know all your bank accounts are zero, if not, negative. With what ing money are you trying to get this with?" She playfully swings the suitcase in her hand. "I'm not that greedy for money because I've lots until I'm tired of looking at them," she continues, "but I despise it when you think that you can fool me with this. I feel... offended, to say the slightest."

"Well for once she's stupid for still believing that Apple is Min Gunhoo," Yeosang passes a comment, to which they simultaneously shush him.

"Not now, Statue. You can save that for when we actually finish this," Mingi taps on his earpiece. "Shiber and Corgi, report your location." He pulls up all the cameras he can throughout the hotel building, his framed eyes flitting only for a fraction of a second on each screen. "Apple and Minion, either one of you, report the situation inside and try to hold on until Shiber gets to you."

"Shiber, heading to the destination in around 3 minutes. This lift is taking forever to come down."

"The stairs?" Seonghwa offers.

"For the record I'm about to bring some food for the wonderful room #1678, so the stairs is not an option," San reports.

"Food?" Yunho asks, but he's not expecting an answer anyway; he knows exactly what San meant by it.

"Corgi reporting, I'm already here getting a perfect view of the expensive suite. That Madam Tang surely knows how to leave an impression," Wooyoung mutters as he eyes the room through the telescopic sight on his rifle.

Hongjoong grips Jongho's shoulder, signalling to him subtly that San is coming. The problem they know they're having right now is that they're about to face the horde of bodyguards who are more than twice their size and triple their number. Madam Tang has no intention of letting them walk out of the suite alive, and surely not with the substance in hand. He notices the bodyguard with the mole under his lip strike first, putting out a fist intended for him, and the former does what ATEEZ has agreed on.

Hongjoong takes the hit, tumbling to the floor as he lets out an exaggerated shout while holding on to his swollen cheek, the metallic taste of blood flooding his tongue. He runs his tongue over his teeth, trying to appear helpless as Jongho rushes to his side.

"Rome!" Jongho fake-cries, signalling to Hongjoong that they will continue the act until San arrives. He looks at Madam Tang furiously, while gesturing towards his attacker. "What do you think you're doing to my bodyguard? I will make sure you will never see the end of this."

"Oh, don't worry, we won't. Because you will see the end first," Madam Tang sneers, hugging the suitcase to her chest and sitting back down on the sofa. "Shall we start now, boys? It's been a while since I watched anything entertaining." Her unkind eyes rest upon her two guests on the carpeted floor as she instructs, "Beat them to a pulp and dispose of them. I don't