I walked out of dorms with Doyoung just to walk past the buildings. The school looked like an oversized mansion rather than a school. Their buildings weren’t like how the buildings in my university were and as I followed Doyoung, he began to point out the buildings and telling me what each section was.

“That building over there is where the forgery faction studies all their classes,” he told me and we passed by glass and I could see inside the classrooms. I saw a male on a table, his hands in the air as he dramatically said something. “That’s Byun Baekhyun. We all call him Mr. Bacon. He teaches all the forgery classes.”

I nodded, stepping closer to inspect with interest. All the kids were learning how to act, their facial expression changing over and over again. I found a small smile travel up my face as a young male turned to me questioningly before he made an ugly face. How hilarious. I saw all of them stand up, jumping up onto the table to then dance.

“Yeah, he’s… Mr. Bacon. He can be quite a free teacher,” Doyoung told me, motioning forward. We passed a track and I saw cars zooming past us when I heard someone call Doyoung’s name. Looking up, my eyes met with Yuta’s, the male giving me a slight nod. He was wearing a long suit and beside him was Mark who had gloves on.

“Doyoung! Hi, Dana!” Mark waved at me and I simply looked at him. He dropped his hand awkwardly. “I heard you got accepted into the Assassins faction…”

“I did,” I replied and he dragged his eyes away from me just to stare on the floor. I looked up, skating my eyes over the field when I saw screens in the air. Squinting closer, I saw names of people and departments. Reading the names, I realized that it was the top scorers of each faction.

“Oh Sehun, Success rate: 91%” was the name that was shown for the strategist faction. Doyoung must have seen me looking, the male looking apologetic.

“I’m sorry. That’s very insensitive—I’ll tell the Hacking department to take Sehun’s name down,” Doyoung said softly. “We totally forgot he’s not in SM anymore.”

“Mhm.” I didn’t say anything in regards to Sehun. “Where do I have to go tomorrow?”

I didn’t care much about the other factions. They had their own thing to do and I had mine. I know tomorrow would be a day where I had to adjust myself to learning about new things instead of reading about the depreciation of currency or whatnot like I would be doing in university.

“Uh… We assassins don’t have a classroom,” Doyoung told me and I turned to me, surprised. “Mr. Min, our assassins’ instructor, is kind of eccentric. We don’t have a fixed set course outline. We study whatever he wants us to and most of the time it’s just us developing and finding new skills or going through simulations.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll send someone for you tomorrow morning,” Doyoung told me. “His name is Lee Jeno, he’s in student services. He’ll show you around and guide you.”

I nodded, turning back to stare at the race track that was suddenly empty. I let out a deep breath. My life has changed in less than a day and I didn’t know if I was ready for it.

But I had to be.

For Sehun.

That night after the tour, I sat on my brothers’ bed as I leaned against the headboard. Chenle’s yelling was dimmed down by the ear plugs that I had inserted as I began to think.

Sehun was never impulsive. My brother was someone who knew what he had to do, but I couldn’t help but wonder. What did he find out about YG Chemicals that was so bad? Why would he suddenly risk everything just to have everyone turn on him? I turned to my side, closing my eyes.

I had to find out.

One way or another, I would.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Chenle, Codename: Crowd. Hacker]

I turned over in my sleep when I felt a very weird presence by the bed. I felt like someone was staring at me and when I opened my eyes, I saw Chenle stare down at me with his small beady eyes. I jolted up and I saw his lips move but I heard no sound. Blinking at him with confusion, he motioned to his own ears and I lifted my hand up to press against my ears to realize that I had earplugs on.

I removed it and he spoke.

“You’re late,” he told me and I sat up, glancing at the clock. Eight-thirty! I was thirty minutes late and I grabbed my uniform that Doyoung gave me the day before and ran to the bathroom that was in our dorm room. I quickly brushed my teeth, tying my hair up in a bun before tugging on my uniform.

I found myself staring at myself in the mirror. Our uniform was a simple, body-fit material that was in black. It looked sleek and I ran out of the bathroom, about to leave when I heard Chenle’s voice float by.

“Don’t forget your dagger,” he said and I turned to see that he was on the computer, typing away. I ran to get the dagger, slipping it in my pocket.

“Don’t you have class?”

“I scored too well in the network defense quiz last week, I have a day off. Mister Key doesn’t mind,” he told me and I guessed that Mister Key would be the one who taught all the hackers. I nodded, bursting out of my dorm door just to see a man waiting for me in front.

He was leaning against the wall and he was wearing something similar to me, except that he had a watch on his wrist. He flashed me a smile and his eyes curved into crescent moons. He walked over and bowed down to me, introducing himself.

“Lee Jeno, Student Services of the Assassins faction,” he told me and I remembered how Doyoung told me that he would send someone to be with me on my first day. “I didn’t want to knock. It was impolite.”

“So, you let me oversleep?” I asked and he shook his head. I closed my mouth, realizing that my statement might have seemed rude but he continued to smile. “Uh, sorry. So… Where’s our classroom?”

“We don’t know,” Jeno told me and I blinked. “This morning, this was placed in front of our doors. It’s very Mr. Min to do something like this. It has happened a few times.”

He passed me a photo and when I looked at it, I saw that it was a photo of an older male. He had thick lips and angelic features. He was sporting an expensive outfit with an expensive watch on his wrist. I noticed that his watch was placed differently from other people but I guess he really was a different breed.

Below his photo was a handwritten note that said: “Find me!!”

“Mister Taemin. But we call him Mister Min,” Jeno told me. “Here, you should wear this.”

Jeno leaned forward to insert something in my ear. It was an earpiece and I could hear people talking in the background. Suddenly, footsteps could be heard and I saw Doyoung at the end of the hall.

“Jeno! Have you found him?”

“No, I haven’t started,” Jeno said, Doyoung his temple worriedly. “Have you guys checked the clock tower? Where’s Ten?”

“Here!” a voice sounded out from behind Jeno and in my ear at the same time. I saw the Vice of the Assassins faction jog towards us. He suddenly began to run, his legs bringing him closer with speed and I saw him leap against the wall. He flew through the air, his feet stamping against the wall to push him towards the ceiling and before I could blink, he was in the ceiling.

In the ceiling.

“I’m checking the vents,” Ten told Doyoung who gave him an “okay” sign like it was normal to suddenly Jackie Chan his way to the vents. “Oi! Donkey! Hurry up!”

Donkey?

“Coming!” a male said, showing up from behind a pillar. He made his way towards us, his boots slamming against the floor when he skidded to a stop in front of me. “Oooh, new kid. I’m Hendery. I was supposed to be Student Services but I kept forgetting that I had to show people around. I bet Jeno is doing such a good job right now.”

“Donkey! Quickly!” Ten called and Hendery glared at Ten, jumping up to grab Ten’s outstretched hand from the ceiling, pulling himself up. “Doyoung, go and check the other buildings. We’ll handle the vents.”

“Good. I’ll head over to the Hackers building,” Doyoung said. “Jeno, bring her around, I guess. Tell us if you find something.”

Jeno nodded, and Doyoung jogged away. Jeno looked unbothered, unlike the other three people we just met that really wanted to find the instructor.

“Aren’t there any girls here?” I asked Jeno suddenly. “Doyoung, Hendery, Ten and you—All of you are males. Don’t you have any girl assassins too?”

“We do,” he replied. “Lalisa. We call her Lisa. She’s in Thailand right now, on a mission. I think she’ll be back soon. Let’s check here.” He told me and I looked in the room. “Sometimes he hides in closets. Last time, he took out the engine of a car in the garage and hid there. We couldn’t find him for 6 hours. We only found him because Mark opened it up and saw him sleeping.”

Wow. What kind of bat crazy teacher is this?

“Hacker’s building, Clear,” I heard Doyoung say out. “Ten, Hendery—you checked all vents?”

“Second floor, clear. Moving to the third floor,” Ten replied when Hendery butted in.

“I’m on the first floor of the dorm building.”

“You guys split up?” Jeno asked.

“It’s faster this way,” Hendery paused before snickering. “Ten, where you at?”

“Going to the vent opening of the third floor,” Ten replied. “Why… What did you do?” Ten’s voice began to fill with suspicion when Hendery gave a huff.

“What do you mean, what did I do?”

I moved through the room, opening the closets with Jeno. It was a storage room and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in one of the lockers when I heard Ten scream into the earpiece followed by Hendery’s fit of evil laughter. I had jumped and I turned to see Jeno remove the earpiece from his ear just to make a face. My ears rang from the sudden sound.

“Ten! Did you find him?” Doyoung asked when another scream sounded and Ten yelled into the earpiece.

“Hendery! You er—Doyoung, he put an unpeeled banana by the vent opening! I will kill you, Donkey!”

Hendery wheezed, his response rich with laughter as he found it hard to breathe. I looked at Jeno who had inserted the earpiece back to ear, looking up at me before he spoke.

“Ten hates fruits. Don’t worry, he’s not allergic or anything. Just a pet peeve.”

Jeno opened the last closet, letting out a sigh and shaking his head. “Storage room, clear. I think we should move to the other buildings, Dana. What do you think?”

“Whatever you want to do,” I replied. I didn’t care what he did, I would just do what they were doing. We exited the storage room and began to walk through down the stairs. There was a janitor cleaning the floor and Jeno bowed down to him when he passed the janitor. I had to do the same and when I did, I noticed a small detail.

He was wearing a watch.

Don’t get me wrong. He was wearing a normal watch—a battered one. Nothing like the watch I saw in the picture of Mr. Min. It was how he was wearing it. The watch was placed on the inside of his wrist and I was pretty sure I saw Mr. Min wear it the same way. Jeno was already halfway out the door when I called him.

“Jeno.”

“Ah?” He made a confused sound, raising an eyebrow as if questioning me.

“Come here,” I told him and he followed. I reached out and grabbed the paper that he had slipped under his belt, opening up the picture to inspect it carefully. It was the same picture he showed me before, but this time I leaned closer to make out the watch that was placed on the inside of his wrist.

“Jeno,” I said his name again and he just looked at me. “Why do you wear your watch on your wrist?”

“Because that’s how you wear it?” He asked back. “I mean, you look at the time like this right?”

He lifted his watch to show me when I nodded. That’s how everyone wears their watches. No one actually does wear their watch in the inside of their wrists, and even if they do—there would be a few. it, I would trust my instincts. What would they do if it wasn’t Mr. Min? It didn’t hurt to check.

I made up my mind, heading back to the janitor, Jeno calling my name from behind me.

“Dana! Where are you—What are you doing to the janitor?!”

I had grabbed the janitor and pressed him against the ground, putting all my weight on him. The janitor yelped but I pushed him down, sitting on top of him as I began to move my hands under his chin.

There was a flap.

Got you.

I slipped my hand underneath the flap and pulled with all my might, the mask flying off. I threw it to the side, Jeno skidding to a stop by me when he saw the Assassin instructor under me. The instructor had put on a mask and I climbed off him, Mr. Taemin jumping to his feet with a congratulatory whoop.

“Wow! Oh Dana, good eye!” he said, pumping his hand in the air as Jeno reached to press his hand against the earpiece on his ear. He said that that we had found Mr. Min and Doyoung replied that he would come over soon. It didn’t take long until we were in an empty room, Mr. Min gushing over me.

“Well, no wonder you are the Ace’s sister! Here you go, my child. This is your diet plan. This is also your watch; you need 5,000 steps per day. Everyone, how is everyone feeling? “ Mr. Min asked and I found myself heading back to my seat, looking over the list of things I could eat and not eat.

It didn’t bother me as much to have a diet plan. The good thing about not feeling pain was that I never felt hungry or full. And that was why I never craved anything.

“I have one lesson for you all today and you should go to the gym and focus on developing your skills,” Mr. Min said. “There is one thing I have always told you—When you kill, make sure you deny their last words! Why? There are so many instances an assassin would find themselves empathizing with the people they are supposed to kill. So, what do we have to do again?”

“Deny their last words,” all my c