[Oh Seojun, eldest of the Oh family]

Seojun had dragged Sehun into one of the empty hotel conference rooms at the side, Harin following him. I was still overridden by anger but my heart rate slowed and I ended up feeling nothing. Jeez, thanks brain. I shuffled through the vents, finally stopping in the room where Seojun smiled proudly at Sehun, closing the door behind him.

“I can’t express how happy I am to see you here, Sehun,” Seojun said, a hand pulling a chair out to sit down. Sehun mirrored his actions, Harin doing the same. “Ong Harin, the last time I checked, you were pronounced dead from that airplane crash.”

“It was the syndicate that tried to kill me, Seojun.” She leaned back with a haughty sigh and this was the first time I have ever seen Harin act this way. “Not very nice of them. But yes, I was pronounced dead for my safety and let my money do the work. Sehun and I—”

She placed a hand on my brother’s arm. “Will repent forever doubting YG and the syndicate as a whole. We are, in the end, working towards God’s goal.”

Sehun nodded robotically and I saw Harin pinch my brother’s side so he would relax.

“That is great to hear. Sehun, how about Dana?” Seojun asked and I wanted to tell him to keep my name out of his mouth. “She was in SM when I first put her there and I got the news that she disappeared before the doctors got to her.”

“She’s not on our side, Seojun. She has sided with the ones who are against us,” Sehun finally said back. “Johnny Suh. She’s not there involuntarily but she’s blinded by love. Such a measly feeling to throw away power for, don’t you think?”

“Huh.” Harin scoffed and I saw her roll her eyes. Seojun nodded, sighing.

“I really hope she will be enlightened soon. But since you are and I know you hold the same ideals as I do, I am not scared to say that her kidnapping has profited our company well—”

My kidnapping? I frowned when my eldest brother spoke, trying to understand what he meant. Even Sehun sounded confused, tilting his head at Seojun.

“Her kidnapping?” Sehun asked.

“Well, you know….” Seojun shrugged nonchalantly. “She was kidnapped, wasn’t she? It was my doing. SW Corporations was going through rough times at that time, Sehun. It had to be done. Mother and Father were about to get voted out by the shareholders and replaced with someone who had no ties to our company.”

“And?” Sehun pressed. I saw that his fist had tightened. “You asked someone to kidnap her? How—”

“I framed it on them,” Seojun simply said. “It worked out and we gained empathy from the shareholders and eliminated competition. SW Corporations is now strong and we have expanded over the years.”

“You were 18 then.”

“Yes, and I was meant to take over the company, not someone else. Our parents weren’t very happy. Of course, at the same time, I found out about Mother and Father’s past and was recruited to SM. Sadly, I didn’t pass the test. They rejected me. Apparently, sacrificing cohorts in return for victory isn’t an option,” Seojun mused.

I closed my eyes, a memory flashing in my mind, back when I was 6.

Seojun had told me to leave the window open because there would be a shooting star.

And that was how I was snatched from my bed.

“Good to know that it worked out.”

“Harin, how about you? What about your brothers?” he asked, Harin blinking at him. “Seungwoo is the smart one, isn’t he? Why isn’t he here?”

“Seungwoo is too moral,” she answered, shrugging. “And Wooseung… Wooseung is Wooseung, he’s not very bright. I’m here on my own.”

“Ah, well.” Seojun clicked his tongue. “It’s hard to get into a syndicate without recommendation. As I said, I had to sacrifice Mother and Father for it but I believe it’s for the greater good. I have now promoted myself to the top tier of the syndicate and I couldn’t be happier. Now you’re here, Sehun, and together we can do great things.”

Sehun remained silent and Seojun stood up, telling them that he had to mingle. The moment Seojun left the room, Sehun turned to look at Harin.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded, Harin tilting her head at him. “Harin, it’s dangerous.”

“And yet, you are here,” she replied, calmly. “Dana, can you hear me?”

Her voice rang both from the earpiece and in my ears and I removed the metal from the opening, peering through the crack. She spotted me and gave me a wave to which I shook my head.

“Harin,” I greeted her. “What a surprise.”

“Oh, come on, Dana,” she said and I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Who else is here? Where are your brothers?” It was almost impossible that Harin would be there and not her older twin brothers. With that, I heard a cackle in my ear and Seungwoo’s voice told me that he was monitoring the situation. “What exactly are you?”

“Profiler, Dana,” Seungwoo quipped.

“And Wooseung?” I asked when someone slammed against my feet and I turned back to see a male ruffling his hair. “Wooseung? What are you doing in the vents?”

“He’s transfiltration,” Harin said from the room. “Apparently, there isn’t a department for that in Asia but Wooseung doesn’t kill. He just goes in and out. We call him The Dark One.”

“Transportation and infiltration. I don’t kill, I just do a lot of ducking,” Wooseung said to me and I kicked his arm that was by my feet. “Nice to see you too, Oh Dana.”

“What did SM do to you guys?” Sehun breathed, shaking his head. “Who gave them the permission to train you as agents?”

“Well, to be fair, our plane did go down and almost killed us. Director Radcliffe told us that we should make ourselves useful. Not like we can go back and live a normal life, no?” Wooseung asked from behind me and I felt him grab my ankle playfully. I forgot how much the twins annoyed me. Seungwoo and his smart and Wooseung and his oblivious self.

“You guys are here to get information, right?” Sehun asked, Harin giving a nod. “We have a few people infiltrating the meeting as well. Renjun, are you already inside the conference room?”

“Yes.” Renjun’s voice came up. “Jaemin is already standing by as IT. We’ll wait for Team A to come to secure whatever we need.”

“Sounds like a plan, nothing should go wrong,” Sehun said before glancing at Harin, a soft smile on his face before he dipped his head down to kiss her forehead. “And I missed you.”

“I need to puke.” I heard Wooseung say the same time I began to make puking noises from the vents.

“Oh, Dana has a boyfriend,” Sehun told Harin.

“Sehun, please refrain from saying anything that is not relevant to the mission,” I said to Sehun, mimicking Taeyong when I went for my first mission in Macao. I heard Taeyong scoff.

“Who?” Harin asked and Sehun said Johnny’s name. “I knew it!”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Renjun had made his way into the conference room, following the person he was supposed to translate for. He passed Jaemin who stood with an employee tag by the door, his friend giving him a wink as Renjun adjusted his glasses on his face. In the background, he could hear Dana bicker with her brother and his fiancé as they reunited again after a long while. Renjun couldn’t care less and he wasn’t nervous, he was just… alert.

The conference was filled with people and translators stood at the side with earpieces. Because of that, Renjun had one earpiece that connected him to the agents on his right ear, and another earpiece that connected him to his client. His client was a 50-year-old man and Renjun had studied about him the night before, a big corporate head from China that owned multiple branches of a logistic company. Renjun knew enough English to translate it into Chinese, the male standing at the side with all the rest of the translators while the figureheads sat by big dining tables with food served to them as kings.

It didn’t take long before he could see Sehun walk in, Seojun leading his brother and Ong Harin towards one of the tables in the middle. It was obvious that the table they were to be seated at were for members that were on the top of the pyramid and Renjun carefully adjusted his tie that was wrapped around his mask.

“I’m done bugging the place,” Johnny said and Renjun kept still by the wall, the lights of the conference room dimming before a man went up on stage. Renjun didn’t recognize him, the male clearing his throat and greeting everyone.

“I know all of you know me as the U.S syndicate’s spokesperson and I am here to moderate the meeting and go by the guideline of the list of things we have to discuss today. I know a lot of you are scared and that there are many things to take into account but I assure you that we will cover it all. Once again, my name is Johnny Depp, Former Director of SM America.”

“Depp, that bastard!” Renjun’s winced when Daniel Radcliffe’s voice echoed in his ear. “Kyungsoo, I knew he was fishy!”

“Is everyone here?” Depp asked when an employee came and gave him a list of the guests. “Ah, first I think we should welcome our new top-tier members, Seojun and his brother and his fiancé who will be a great addition. Also….” Depp paused, frowning on the list. “It seems as if Mr. Anderson is not here yet.”

Anderson was the one Team A was trying to kill off, Renjun thought. Where was Haechan, Jungwoo, Yangyang, Xiaojun, and Mark? They were supposed to meet them there. Renjun couldn’t help but worry.

“He’s probably high again,” one of the members said, the conference room erupting into laughter. “We all know how Anderson is.”

Johnny Depp motioned to the screen and an outline popped out. Renjun then began to translate the course outline into one of the earpieces for his client.

“Number one, the current progress of the Marvel-U and the Hulk drug. Number 2, elaboration of the Hulk drug. Number three, current news of the syndicate’s movements. Number four, protocols.” Renjun rapidly said, his finger also pressing down on the recorder that was snuck in with him to record everything while he translated.

“Alright, shall we start?” Johnny Depp asked, speaking into the microphone. “We all know, Doctor Huang of YG doesn’t like crowds—”

Renjun’s heart dropped when he heard the title ‘Doctor Huang’. It reminded him very much of his mother and Renjun shook his head to dispel the thought. How many ‘Huang’s’ were there? Too many, all over China, he told himself.

“So, we have YG’s best chemists here to stand in for her.” Johnny Depp waved a hand. “Up on stage, Doctor Manoban.”

Manoban? Renjun froze, he had heard that name before.

“Manoban as in Lalisa Manoban?” Jeno asked in his ear and Renjun realized that it indeed was Lisa’s last name. “Her parents work for YG? I knew her parents were in the chemical field but I didn’t know that they worked for YG. Does that mean—”

“SM’s mole was her.” Sehun breathed. “This is crazy. Who would have thought?”

A couple went up on stage and Renjun noted the wedding rings on their fingers. Married, he thought. They clicked on something on the laptop in front when the screen changed to One’s picture.

“My name is Sasitha Manoban and everyone knows me as Head Researcher of Your Genes Chemicals. My husband and I had led the progress of the production of the Marvel-U and the Hulk drug under the syndicate’s orders. I do not need to say much other than the fact that after the dispute between SM and YG—” Her voice changed into a scowl. “A lot of our progress has disappeared.”

“All in fair game, Doctor Manoban,” Johnny Depp mused from the side. Renjun could tell the competition between YG and SM was still there and Doctor Sasitha Manoban stared Director Depp down.

“Let me repeat the basics. You need the warrior gene to accept the Marvel drug. Once you do, you’re a Seasonie. When you’re a Seasonie, only then are you able to take in the Marvel-U drug which is an upgrade. The Marvel-U drug was also produced to be injected on those who take in the Hulk drug.” She paused. “And even that, SM managed to lose all their Seasonies including the one person who injected herself with it.”

Her eyes settled on Sehun and Sehun raised an eyebrow, Sasithorn Manoban turning away.

“While SM handled the making of the Marvel drug, we made the Hulk drug.” She pointed at One’s photo. “Out of 67 infants found and made, this child was the only one who survived.”

“One was one of the many that was found and brought to the YG base. He wasn’t designed and that made him special. We lost him when SM, Asia attacked our base.

“Once again, all in fair game.” Johnny Depp smirked. “To be fair, Doctor Manoban, One was never taken in by any of the SM’s.”

“That, I do know,” she quipped. “But this child is the key as to how we’ll be able to progress from here. Tell me, when is it that we’ll start implementing the plans? Next two years? Twenty years? We should start as fast as possible—injecting people with the Marvel-U and the Hulk drug to go on in achieving a population with improved cognitive and physical skills.”

“How are you going to do that when you know the Hulk drug kills people and the Marvel drug weakens a body?” a person asked. “Have you any idea of why that child was able to take the Hulk drug in the first place?”

Sasithorn Manoban nodded.

“What happens when you age, sir?” she asked. “When you age, your cells regenerate slower than it’s being replaced. The Hulk drug actively regenerates cells, over and over again. Constantly. When this happens to a normal person, the body won’t be able to take it. Normal bodies get their cells replaced every 7 years, but with the Hulk drug it’ll be every day—every minute.”

“The body goes into overload,” her husband said from the side. He had been quiet all along and Renjun found himself thinking that he didn’t have to guess who held the pants in the relationship while he translated each and every word that was said.

“We, however, gave One a little bit too much of the Hulk drug and that is why he’s stronger than most—”

“You’re not answering our question, Doctor.”

She raised a hand as if to tell them to be patient. “One had a life and death disease. He had an autoimmune disease, his body attacking healthy cells. He was dying the moment we found him. When we injected him with the Hulk drug, it turned out that while his body constantly attacked itself, the Hulk drug constantly regenerated it.”

“A perfect cycle,” Renjun said to himself, a hand going to cover his mouth when he realized that he shouldn’t be talking.

“And how do we go from here? Are you suggesting that we try to fund another project that makes us have an autoimmune disease similar to the child and then inject the Hulk drug? How do we even know if the Marvel-U and the Hulk drug go along? You didn’t get the chance to use it on the child because he was taken away.”

“As we speak, we are trying to locate the child as fast as possible though there are no traces,” Sasithorn Manoban said before heaving a sigh. “And at the same time, we have been experimenting on those with autoimmune diseases, trying to figure out each dosage—”

“And how many people have survived?” the man asked, Sasithorn’s face falling.

“None,” she said and a wave of disapproval ran through the crowd.

“Then this puts everything into perspective! Doesn’t this mean that it’s not the fact that the kid has a disease and it’s something else?” a man roared from the back. “We’re paying the syndicate for this and yet you feed us false information?”

“Sir—”

“It’s not a simple A B C,” the male doctor said. “Other than the autoimmune disease, there may be other plausible reasons and we’re on our way to finding that out. Autoimmunity diseases consist of so many factors. Do they attack the tissues? The blood cells? At what rate? Do they slow down with time and does temperature have an influence on the human body? You do understand, that if we perfect the dosage of the Hulk drug that this will be a key to a life of longevity.”

The people suddenly went quiet.

“Like my wife has said, age is when the cells are getting killed before they are replaced,” he spoke calmly. “And what happens if we have a drug that allows our cells to regenerate when we want it to? If we can control that, our life span will be extended and we’ll gain immortality—from science.”

It seemed like everyone was interested now and Renjun could see sudden satisfied nods from the people.

If money was power, time was also a currency.

“We have all our files with us and we will show it to you one by one.” The male doctor had now taken control, his hand motioning to the screen as experiment proposals began to pop up. The proposals spoke of how limitless the experiments were and there was an expected death rate.

“Shotaro, interception,” Taeyong finally said and Renjun didn’t even blink when the screen began to shake. “Jaemin, your turn is coming. You know what to do, don’t you?”

“Yes, Leader,” Jaemin sang, everyone in the room frowning at the screen suddenly going black. Johnny Depp had stood up, asking for someone from IT and it didn’t take long before Jaemin hopped onto the stage. Jaemin’s eyes went over the screen, his fingers tapping against the keyboard when Renjun could see him switch the USB’s, a finger pressing down on the enter bar to begin to download the information.

“Downloading it,” Jaemin whispered. He had glasses on Renjun could see Johnny Depp come up to him, Jaemin playing it off as him trying to fix the screen. Depp nodded, Jaemin squinting at the numbers that appeared at the right-hand side, the percentage of completed downloads coming up.

“25%,” Jaemin said, trying to look as busy as possible when Director Depp asked him what was taking so long. “Something wrong with the screen, sir. Should I go run and get another laptop?”

Smart, Renjun thought. If he could do that, securing the information would be easy.

“No, devices aren’t to be changed. It’s too risky,” Depp answered. Alas, he wasn’t dumb. “I guess we wait—”

And with that, the doors of the conference room opened and walked in Mr. Anderson with his secretary right beside him. He swayed, a hand in the air as he marched down the room just to pause at an empty seat.

“Anderson,” a man said to Anderson, suddenly speaking in German when Mr. Anderson froze. Renjun blinked, his eyes scanning the man. It was Jungwoo, he could tell by the way he walked, and he wearing his mask and the problem was that Jungwoo knew not a single word of German.

“Danke?” Jungwoo, as Mr. Anderson, replied almost stupidly. Everyone looked at each other when the secretary motioned to Jungwoo to take a seat. “Dunkel, Budweise—”

“Jungwoo, not all beers are German.” Haechan’s voice came up in the earpiece. “Sorry for just arriving guys, we had to wait for Mark to wake up. Yangyang driving down the road was just a call for suicide.”

“Where’s Yangyang?” Taeyong demanded, Renjun seeing the secretary beside Jungwoo clear his throat. “Oh, he’s the secretary. Jungwoo, don’t speak. Let Yangyang do the talking.”

“Act like you’re high,” Tae-il said and Jungwoo stumbled, slumping on the seat as Yangyang apologized in fluent German. “That’s good.”

“He’s had some… liquid poison.” Yangyang switched to English, bowing down respectively to all of them. “Go on with the presentation.”

And with that, Yangyang moved to the side, stationing himself beside Renjun where all the translators and secretaries were at. Both of them shared a look, hearing Jaemin’s voice whispering from the front of the stage as his beady eyes stared at the increasing percentage of the download.

“65%.”

“Keep at it, Jaemin. Just a little more.”

But their peace was suddenly disrupted when there was a yell from the guards at the side.

“We found a bug! We found a bug! Security search—now!”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was in the vents looking out at the conference room when I heard yells from the front. I saw guards run towards the entrance when I asked into the earpiece what happened.

“They found a bug but it wasn’t one of ours,” Johnny said. “Must be one of the reporters or someone trying to gain information. But this is bad, this means the guards will double the security—”

And just like Johnny said, guards moved into the room and told everyone to freeze. Everyone was silenced when I heard Jaemin whisper hastily to Renjun, his eyes still on the screen, the male waiting unsuspiciously by the laptop with everyone distracted by what was happening.

“Renjun—Get out of there. They are checking the people,” Jaemin whispered. “Your glasses, the recording, get rid of it.”

And with that the guards began to move throughout the room, starting from the secretaries and the translators. I held my breath when I saw Renjun slip past a few people, the male removing his eyeglasses and planting them in someone’s bag. Renjun was inconspicuous, the male pressing his back against the wall as he assessed the situation.

“Renjun, the recording device. Get rid of it,” Jaemin repeated and I saw how worried he was even if he had a smile frozen on his features.

“Mhmm,” Renjun answered. He couldn’t say anything suspicious with his client in his other ear.

“Renjun, whatever you do, try not to lose the recording device,” Taeyong said when a man walked in and I watched as he raised his hand in the air to tell everyone that he would be checking each and everyone in the syndicate as well and not only the employees but also their members. There was a grumble through the crowd when Renjun returned to where he was without his glasses.

His voice echoed in my ear and I realized it was Haechan forging as one of their people from the security department.

“Renjun, where are you?” Haechan whispered, trying to scan the crowd when Renjun moved at the side, Haechan spotting him. Yangyang, who was beside Renjun, was getting checked and I saw them pat him down but he had nothing suspicious. I saw that they didn’t check the earpieces but then again, almost everyone had earpieces in the room.

“85%,” Jaemin said, tapping his finger against the table before growling. “Someone get the device off Renjun—”

“I’m going to walk to the middle of the room and at the count of three, kick it to me,” Haechan said as his men dispersed to check the members. They were almost done with Yangyang, Renjun coughing and doubling over as he dropped the recording device on the ground and gave it a kick. Much to my surprise, the action sent the device sliding through the ground, Haechan rapidly increasing his steps before he reached it.

The forger stepped on it, stopping right at the middle of the room.

“Pretend you found it,” Tae-il said. “Pretend it was on the floor and it’ll be taken out of the room. We can intercept it from there.”

“Wooseung and Dana can get to it through the vents,” Seungwoo said as he monitored the situation. It seemed like a great plan.

And with that, Haechan lifted the recording device into the air to show that he found something. The moment he did, there was a bang and Haechan froze. Two men who were sitting in close proximity to where he was dropped dead onto the floor. No one looked surprised but Haechan seemed shaken, the forger trying to mask his nervousness as he lifted a hand to tell them that they had to bag to the device.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“97%” Jaemin whispered. “98%...”

But at that moment, Director Depp slammed the laptop shut and Jaemin jumped, staring at him with wide eyes.

“We won’t be needing the screen any time soon,” he said to Jaemin. Jaemin swallowed, pulling the USB out to step down from the stage when he heard