Hyunjin was out on a grocery run, mainly to check the bulletin board there. It was the place he and Yeji determined to be a safe place for a few weeks to communicate. He scanned over the numerous papers pinned to the board when he ran into the familiar code that he used. He let out a sigh of relief when it said that she was safe, and that she increased the amount of bodyguards around her just in case. 

To avoid looking at a single paper suspiciously for a long time, he turned his attention to the other advertisements, taking his time reading them and trying to give off the impression of being genuinely interested in the words. 

He was almost done reading everything when he felt someone watching him. Quickly turning his head in both directions, he tried to find anyone that came off as suspicious. It was crowded, and the amount of people walking past him made it hard to detect suspicious noises and also effectively covered his line of sight. 

Hyunjin was still looking around when his phone rang. 

“Changbin hyung?” 

“I forgot to tell you to grab snacks. We ran out, can you buy them pleaseee?” Hyunjin scrunched up his nose in horror. Making a noise of disgust, he ended the phone call. A few seconds later, he received a text message from Jeongin requesting snacks, ending with a pouty emoji that won Hyunjin over. Typing out a quick response, he sent ‘fine. but only because you remind me of that emoji.’ 

He entered the grocery store when he saw a familiar figure in an aisle that was visible from where he was standing. It was Jinah, but the way she was dressed was far different from the two times he met her. She was in an oversized tshirt and her hair up in a loose bun, with some of the pieces falling out. It was supposed to be messy, but the hair framed her face very nicely. Hyunjin caught himself appreciating how she was able to pull off the outfit and hairstyle better than anyone he had ever met. 

Disgruntled by his thought process, he walked into the store and headed straight towards the chip section, which was away from the previous aisle he spotted Jinah on. It had been a long time since he came to the grocery store alone, and since he only got what he liked, he had a hard time finding the snacks Jeongin sent him.

“Do they even carry the snacks here?” He whispered to himself in frustration. It took a few more minutes of raking through the aisle with his eyes to find the chips they wanted. Glaring at the bag for wasting a lot more of his time than he intended, he threw it into his cart. 

Backing up from the shelves, he bumped into someone. 

“I’m sorry! Are you okay?” Hyunjin apologized before seeing who he even bumped into out of reflex. Even before he saw her, her distinct smell of peaches and roses hit him.

“Well… Hello, princess.” Hyunjin smirked at Jinah. She was obviously flustered, not expecting she would meet someone while she was dressed like… she was at home. 

“Hyunjin.” She wanted this to be over as quickly as possible. She didn’t like having to talk when it was unneeded and the continuous run-ins with Straykids made her feel like there was a weird and faint connection tying the both of them together. 

She turned around and grabbed a few more of the chip bags. She turned around to leave when she felt his wrist wrap around hers, twisting her to face him. She knew she couldn’t act like a trained assassin in the middle of the grocery store by acting purely on reflex, but was only able to stop her actions midway when she already pulled him closer, about to strike his solar plexus. Instead of striking it, she ended up putting his hand on it, which was the best she could do.

“Don’t do that without warning, it’s dangerous.” Jinah growled in annoyance. 

Hyunjin smirked when she let her hand rest on his chest.

“Twice is a coincidence princess, but if we run into each other again that’s fate.” Hyunjin chuckled when she rolled her eyes while pushing her away.

“There won’t be a third time.” Jinah walked out of the aisle and went to an open cashier and was out of the store in a flash.

Hyunjin heard another sound from his phone and opened it to see a text message from Jeongin.

From: Jeongin

Hyung, I said to grab chips, not flirt with Jinah again.

Rolling his eyes, he looked around for a camera. When he found it, he flipped him off and went to check out his materials. 

When Jinah arrived home, she found a familiar folder on her bed. Choosing to disregard the folder until she put away her bags of chips and drank some blood, she avoided opening the folder that signified a new mission.

After she had done everything she could to procrastinate on looking at the information, she sighed and crawled into bed. Turning on the light next to her bed, she started reading the information.

Her next mission was in 2 weeks, which was a lot more time than she usually had to work. Usually, this meant that it was a detailed operation and that it had been planned for a long time.

She was surprised to see that there was an unopened letter from the Royal Palace when she flipped to the second page of information. She probably was going to run into Hyunjin, and the rest of Straykids, again soon. Her next mission was to take out a few of the royal family members at the ball.

The following pages had descriptions of each member. There was the current King, who killed the current Queen’s previous husband to get to the crown. He had his son, who was older than she was by a year or two. Then came Yeji, the princess. Jinah was familiar with Yeji, as she had done research on her already. The stacked papers on the desk were on Yeji.

She was distracted by the paper pile when she spotted the note she had typed up on a typewriter. She didn’t expect to have to deliver a warning to the prince soon, but with the royal ball coming up and her (and possibly other assassins) being tasked to take out the royal family, she would have to speed up the warnings. 

To her relief, she realized that YG didn’t have any information on the son the previous king had with the queen. That wouldn’t be a problem though. She knew who the prince was.

She continued flipping through the information and realized that it would be a very serious operation that could go incredibly wrong if she made a wrong move. There were floor plans with detailed information on the exits, time guards would be patrolling, and more.

She would have to memorize it before she went so she could increase the possibility of making it back out.

After the last piece of paper, she found a thick envelope addressed to her. Opening it up, she saw another note inside with a few stacks of cash. At least YG was thoughtful enough to give her money to buy an extravagant dress that would be fit for the ball. This year was a masquerade ball where the mask would be taken off mid-couple dance to see who your partner was. 

The masks everyone would have on would play both to her favor as long as she could identify Stray Kids and the royals beforehand. She would have a few days before she had to go dress shopping, and even less to deliver the warning to Hyunjin so he could have time to make adjustments when coming to the royal ball. 

It was too possible that YG would figure out that Hyunjin was the hidden royal prince. It would be better if he could avoid coming to the ball entirely.