“Yangyang? What are you doing here?” I asked the male. He stepped into the light so that I could see his face clearly.

He took a step in front of me, “I should be asking you that, why are you at a club this late on a school night?” he placed a hand on the wall next to my head. His other hand made its way to my face, his hand softly holding my cheek. His eyes focused on mine, slightly buzzing as they made their way down my face.

“Are you intoxicated?” I asked.

“Can I kiss you?” his breath smelled of alcohol, though only lightly, it was there.

“Get off of me,” I ordered, but instead he began to lean in closer. Using both of my hands I shoved him away from me, his back hitting against the wall.

“Ah,” he groaned.

I took a few steps away from him to get back to the crowd so he wouldn’t be able to find me.

“Wait,” he called out after me. I quickened my pace into the crowd and weaved through people that continued to dance against each other to the beat of the music. Soon enough his voice was drowned out by the music and I couldn’t see him in the mass of people anymore.

Taking a glance back then and now to make sure he wasn’t near me I made my way to the bar. I carefully eyed each bartender to see who was part of my father’s business. See after we recruit someone and they’ve fulfilled enough missions to be deemed trustworthy before we can give them higher level missions or transfer them to another branch, they’re branded with a crescent tattoo. My eyes scanned each bartender carefully.

“What can I get for you?” a bartender asked me.

I averted my gaze to them, Hendery stood in front of me, a towel in hand, he was using it to wipe down the counter in front of him, keeping his eyes on me. I took a seat in front of him, “You work here?” I asked.

He nodded, then leaned down behind the counter and came back up with a menu in his hand, holding it out in front of me he asked, “Care to take a look?”

I held my hand out and shook my head, “You got any almond milk?”

“Coming right up,” he put the menu away from where he got it from and turned around to get my drink.

I propped an arm on the counter and rested my hand on my chin, when he turned back around with the glass of milk in hand I asked him, “How long have you been working here?”

He shrugged his shoulders and tucked a strand of hair that had fallen over his eyes back, “Long enough.” Behind him, another bartender with red hair was making a drink, as they craned their neck to the side I could see the faint crescent of the familiar tattoo.

“You know your friend, he found me here. I think you should check up on him though,” as if on cue Yangyang had emerged from the crowd just enough so that we could see that he needed help standing upright.

“Oh ,” Hendery cursed under his breath and jumped over the counter to make his way over to Yangyang.

As soon as he was out of distance I called out to the bartender still making the drink, “Hey, redhead.” Immediately they turned around. “Lip sent me,” I said.

Their eyes scanned me up and down and their lips pursed together, eyes unreadable before they nodded. “Follow me,” he instructed, leaving the drink he was making on the counter. I threw a few crumpled bills onto the counter to cover the price of the drink and hopped off of the stool bar, following the bartender closely.

He led me up to the rooftop and carefully closed the door behind him. He leaned on the side of the wall and pulled out a cigarette, placing it between his lips before lighting it, “Well?” he asked.

“I should be asking you that,” I crossed my arms over my chest. I scanned his nametag, “Yongbok?” his name rolled off my tongue, “How come our dealers are disappearing?”

He shrugged his shoulders and took a long drag from his cigarette, “Beats me, I just make the drinks.”

I grabbed onto his collar and shoved him against the wall he was leaning on, the impact causing him to choke on the cigarette. Staring straight into his eyes I asked, “Do you think I came here as a joke? I want answers.”

“I don’t know,” he choked out. I banged him against the wall again and landed a blow to his jaw, this time he dropped the cigarette in his hand. “Really, I don’t know, we keep a room for the deals, but lately the dealers haven’t stepped one foot into the bar.”

“And you guys haven’t done anything to find out why?” I asked.

His adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he gulped, “We haven’t been able to find anything.”

“Well then try harder,” I let go of his collar, “I’ll be coming back, I want updates when I do, understand?”

He reached a hand up to his collar and nodded. I walked down the stairs back into the crowded space of the second level of the club. Down below, Yangyang was nowhere to be seen and Hendery was back behind the bar, drying glasses. Carefully I observed everyone else in the club, teens and young adults all trying to escape the reality of the real world. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary I left the club to take the last subway train back home. I took a seat on the empty subway train and put in my earbuds, watching the flashes of color as we went through the tunnels. After some time I felt a weight on my shoulder, I turned my head to see a tuft of platinum blonde hair. The male’s weight was heavy on my shoulder, the olive green bomber jacket he wore was familiar. I pulled out one of my earbuds, he was softly snoring.

“Excuse me,” I tapped his shoulder farthest from me to try to wake him up. He only stirred slightly but made no attempt to get up. “Excuse me,” I shook his shoulder this time. He slowly lifted his head from my shoulder and blinked a few times, his sharp eyes piercing right through my own. He didn’t say anything, only stared at me. I inspected his face, his jawline was prominent, but his most prominent feature was his eyebrows that were bold but perfectly shaped and tamed.

I stood up from my seat and walked across to sit at another empty seat. In the whole subway cart, we were in, it was just the two of us. I don’t know when he got onto the subway train, but he could’ve picked any other spot to sit in. I put my earbuds back in and continued to stare down at my phone. Every now and then I would steal a glance towards him to see he was still staring at me, everytime our eyes made contact, he didn’t make an attempt to look away. When my stop finally came I exited the subway train, his eyes still on me.

- Third POV -

“Any news?” Kun asked the two males that stumbled back into their shared house.

Hendery looked up as he stumbled through the front door, one of Yangyang’s arms over his shoulder. He placed the younger male on the sofa and huffed out, “No.” Briefly, his mind flashed back to how one of his coworkers had left the bar for a bit then came back with a bruised lip but shrugged it off, it was usual for a bartender to get violent with a drunk customer once in a while.

The front door alarm chimed as it opened and closed as another person walked through.

“Oh you’re home?” Hendery greeted the platinum blonde male.

“Mhm,” Xiaojun took off his shoes and stifled a yawn. He waved at the older male who was seated in the kitchen and made his way to his own room.

“When’s our next mission?” Hendery asked Kun.

“Soon I’m assuming, the other three are in a conference with the other branches right now,” he answered.

“Do you really think so? I mean we haven’t really completed the last mission,” Hendery looked at Kun hopefully. It hadn’t been long since Hendery was put on the field but he didn’t want to disappoint the others, he spent years in training and was sure that he was ready to face anything that they gave him.

Kun shook his head, “That mission is our top priority. We need to eliminate competition as fast as possible. That girl is our only way so we have to find her.”

In their secret safe room Winwin, Ten, and Lucas were in a video conference with Taeyong, Mark, and Doyoung.

“It’s been a day already Ten, why haven’t you guys found her?” Taeyong was frustrated. He had the chance to kill her but held himself back from doing so, knowing that if she died he wouldn’t be able to threaten her father, his real target.

Lucas sighed, “It was hard to find a girl in an airport with thousands of people. We had no other information than besides the fact that she’s female.”

“We can find her, I can find her. I just need a picture of her face and I can track her through security camera footage, anything really. There’s nothing I can’t hack,” Winwin explained.

“There’s no reason to rush,” Ten mentioned, “We’re still stopping their deals from happening, slowing down their business. We also have other gangs and companies to destroy while we search for her.”

Taeyong sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “You have until the end of this year to find her and bring her to me. Alive,” he emphasized the last word. “Until then keep halting their deals. Doyoung will send you the documents for the next mission,” he motioned over to the tech specialist. “Don’t disappoint me,” Taeyong ended the video conference before they could say anything else.

Ten sighed and was the first of the three to get up from his seat. Without a word, he left to his room to take a hot shower to clear his mind. It had only been a few days since WayV was assigned the task to find Odd Eye’s daughter. It sounded like an easy task but they were wrong, they didn't have a clue as to what she looked like. All they knew was that her father was the biggest mafia leader in South Korea, his drug ring was global and he had hundreds of people under his belt working for him day in and day out. Not once would he ever have to get his own hands dirty. He was in the way of NCT from expanding their business. They've tried making deals with him but were denied each time. In their eyes, the only way to continue to expand their business was to make connections with them or eliminate them from the competition.