It takes a week for Junsu and his crew to contact him again.

And during that week, Hyukjae settles into the safehouse. The house is cozy and has everything he could ever need, but it doesn’t make living without Donghae any less upsetting. After five years of having Donghae as a constant by his side, the lack of his boyfriend’s presence makes Hyukjae feel strangely like he’s missing a part of himself. He finds himself constantly reaching out for Donghae or starting to say something to him, only to realize Donghae isn't there.

And then the house feels jarringly empty.

Hyukjae mostly occupies his time cleaning his weapons, reading up on Junsu and memorizing every single detail he can about his mark.

He shudders a little at their rap sheets, specifically Junsu’s. The man is charming when one doesn’t know what he’s done, which is what is so terrifying about him. He’s a classic psychopath, one who can charm you into believing you’re his friend, right until he’s used you for everything he needs and then you find yourself with a knife in your back without suspecting a thing.

That charming exterior, paired with the atrocities the man has committed in the name of money, is enough to make Hyukjae feel a chilling sort of fear deep in his chest. He should have known this before their initial meeting, but then again, it might have changed his behaviour.

He wants it to be finished, if not just because he misses his boyfriend, but because he would rather not have to interact with someone so horrifying. 

He’d rather not be near someone who will massacre a building of people with a smile on their face. 

He’d rather Donghae not be exposed to someone like that either. His boyfriend has been on the receiving end of too much evil at the hands of someone not unlike Junsu already.

Hyukjae sighs, about to get up and start making breakfast (which Donghae normally makes because his boyfriend always wakes up before him) when his earpiece buzzes. His hands tremble a little as he grabs it off the table and answers. 

"Eunhyuk speaking," Hyukjae says. 

"Eunhyuk! Punctual as always," Junsu says. "Are you currently occupied?"

It's phrased as a question, but Hyukjae knows there's only one right answer.

"No," Hyukjae says. 

“Perfect,” he says. “Meet me where we had our first meeting in an hour.”

He hangs up before Hyukjae can respond. Hyukjae grimaces and gets up, quickly changing, enduring that his jacket is the one that has his agent identification carefully hidden in the seams of his clothing. 

He then grabs his sniper rifle. He manages to eat a quick breakfast before he heads out the door. 

The drive is a long one and he makes it in the nick of time. 

“Ah, Eunhyuk, a pleasure to see you,” he says. “Get in.”

Hyukjae nods, putting his rifle in and gets into the backseat. Junsu gets in the driver’s seat and starts the car. 

“I assume you didn’t call me out here for nothing,” Hyukjae says as Junsu pulls out onto the street. 

“Of course not,” Junsu says. “A source has supplied information about Lee Donghae’s habits and routines. He’ll be at an ideal location for a hit this afternoon.”

"Source?" Hyukjae inquires casually, trying not to flinch at Donghae’s name coming from Junsu’s mouth. He hates it. 

"Well that's of no consequence to you, now is it?" Junsu says, his tone polite, but the edge to it is apparent to Hyukjae's trained ear.

"No, I suppose not," Hyukjae allows. This is all moving quite quickly, but he has utmost faith that his friends will have everything covered. He just has to focus on his role. 

"Good," Junsu says. "Glad we understand each other."

"Yes," Hyukjae says. 

"Well, Donghae likes to hang out on a relatively isolated pier on weekdays. Luckily for us. And today is as good a day as any to take him out," he says. A wave of disgust surges through him. 

Stop saying his name, he thinks. You don't deserve to say his name.

"Lucky us," Hyukjae agrees dryly. 

“I’ll be taking you to a parking garage a good distance away from the pier. It’s a bit far, but I have full confidence it’ll be a cakewalk for you,” Junsu says. “We’ve sealed off the top floor of the garage for you. Faked some construction, so there won’t be anyone there. I trust you can take it from there?”

“Naturally.”

“Good,” Junsu says. He doesn’t talk after that, so Hyukjae sits back and stares out the window, mentally preparing himself for the task ahead. It’s not going to be easy, and Hyukjae, even now, mere hours away, is still unsure how he’ll be able to do it.

But he has to.

So he will.

⸺

The drive is not a short one, but it's over far too soon for Hyukjae.

“I will wait for you on the group floor,” Junsu says.

“Understood,” Hyukjae says, nodding and exiting the car. 

“Can you hear me?” Hyukaje hears Junsu’s voice in his ear as he climbs the stairs. Hyukjae brings his hand to the earpiece.

“Yes,” Hyukjae says. He switches from one step at a time to two at a time to get to the top floor faster.

"When you get to the vantage point, go to the north side," Junsu says. 

“Understood,” Hyukjae says. He takes a second to orient himself when he gets to the top floor. It’s empty, as Junsu has said. He uses familiar building landmarks to find north and heads over. 

He spots the pier immediately. 

“Are you in position?”

“Yes,” Hyukjae says. 

“Perfect,” Junsu says. “Get ready, the target will be in sight soon.”

Hyukjae grits his teeth at the word “target,” but fights his emotions. 

“Understood,” Hyukjae says. He kneels, starting to take the parts of his rifle out of the case and puts his gun together. Before he closes the case, he gently pries up the foam inserts up and unearths a small ring box. He takes a second to open it, to remind himself of everything he wants out of his future. 

They had discussed marriage over the years, but before now, they had both felt they weren't mentally ready. Donghae was still fragile and healing from being kidnapped and Hyukjae was almost obsessive about keeping his boyfriend safe. But now… now they are ready. And Hyukjae had gone out a month ago and selected a simple silver ring. 

He can't this up. 

Because he has so much riding on this, so much at stake. He gently closes the box and tucks it back away before he starts assembling his rifle, each piece drawing him closer to the moment he's been dreading all week. He clicks the last piece of his gun in place more aggressively than necessary. 

He can't this up. 

Hyukjae tips the lid of his case shut and turns, sitting with his back to the concrete. He closes his eyes, tilts his head back, and takes a deep breath. When it fails to slow his heart rate down, he lets out a quiet curse. He can't do this if he's this high-strung. The difference between a breath and a heartbeat at this distance meant inches off his target. And when it's Donghae's life on the line, he cannot afford any mistakes or it could mean fatally injuring his boyfriend.

That is unacceptable.

"Eunhyuk, are you ready? Jieun has just spotted Lee Donghae walking towards the target point. He's wearing a red sweater," Junsu says, his voice crackling and grating through the earpiece. Junsu snorts. "Red sweater. How fitting."

"A shame we have to kill him really," Jieun sighs. "He's so handsome, who would have guessed a hacker would be? I would have loved the chance to have my way with him. Make him my ."

Hyukjae clenches his jaw, tamping down the wave of white-hot rage that surges through him.

"Jieun, focus," Junsu admonishes. "Eunhyuk?"

Hyukjae sighs and picks up his sniper rifle and turns around. He rests the barrel on the concrete barrier, presses his cheek against the stock. He looks through the scope and starts making adjustments. 

His attempts to calm himself are completely thrown out the window the moment Donghae appears in his line of sight. His heart begins to pound, his hands feeling uncharacteristically sweaty.

"I see him," Hyukjae says.

"Good," Junsu says. "You know what to do."

Hyukjae inhales deeply and lets out a slow breath. He closes his eyes, deliberately taking a few meditative breaths, marginally succeeding at calming his racing heart. He opens his eyes again and aims. Donghae is standing at the dock, the location that had likely been scouted by Kyuhyun and Heechul, and had been Donghae’s constructed routine for the past few weeks.

He has to give Heechul and Kyuhyun credit, as Junsu has said, this really is a perfect spot for an assassination attempt. The area is practically a ghost town at this time of day, not a soul in sight, nothing but open waters of the ocean and semi-abandoned buildings.

Hyukjae watches as Donghae sits down on the bench before he gets up to admire the water. This is his chance.

He positions his scope and freezes. He had thought he could do this. He thought he could lock his emotions away, knowing that Donghae is wearing a bulletproof vest, he could pull the trigger. But here in the moment, with his finger on the trigger, he can't pull it.

He hadn't seen Donghae in a week—seeing him again after so long hits him like a ton of bricks. His chest tightens and he feels almost overwhelmed with the love he feels for this man. He blinks, startled when a tear drips down his cheek.

He wipes it away quickly.

"Eunhyuk what are you doing, get on with it," Junsu says, snapping Hyukae out of his thoughts. 

"Getting to it," Hyukjae says through grit teeth. He turns his attention back to Donghae. 

Pull the trigger.

He goes to do so, but once again he freezes, his whole body tense. He can't do this. He has to relax or else he'll make a rookie error that will end up costing Donghae's life.

", okay," Hyukjae breathes. He makes sure everything is positioned correctly, accounting for the wind and the distance. Then he clears his mind in a way that's born from years of military and secret service training and squeezes the trigger.

Donghae turns as he does so and Hyukjae can't tamp down on his gasp as the bullet hits his boyfriend. Donghae turns at the worst possible time and the bullet hits his side rather than his front as Hyukjae had intended. 

Hitting Donghae's side is not the worst-case scenario, but not the best, either. The front and the back are the most well protected by the vest. With a wider surface area, there's more area for the impact to spread across and mitigate the potential damage. 

He can't help the panic and guilt that threatens to choke him as Donghae jerks from the impact of the shot, stumbles, and falls directly into the water below, disappearing from sight.

“Tch,” Junsu scoffs. “Can’t even check the body.”

Hyukjae clenches his jaw so tightly it feels as though his teeth are going to crack.

“I hit him in the chest,” he says as he pulls his sniper rifle off the ledge and starts taking it apart again. “If he didn’t die immediately, he will be dead within a couple of minutes.”

“Or he’ll drown,” Hyuna says with glee. 

"He'll bleed out faster than he'll drown," Hyukjae says, clamping down on his emotions like a vice. He cannot afford to be emotional, he cannot afford to have any kind of slip in front of these people. He finishes putting everything away and picks up the carrying case, taking the stairs to head back downstairs.

"You're quite sure of that," Junsu says as he opens the car door for him. Hyukjae levels Junsu with a flat look.

"I am," he says. "I've seen it." Junsu whistles.

"Bloodthirsty," he says. "I love it."

"Cut the bull, I did what you asked, are you giving me the job or not?"

Junsu smiles, all teeth and no soul, and for the first time, Hyukjae sees the monster beneath the veneer.  

"Yeah," he says. "You got the job. Buckle up, sir, our first job starts now."

Hyukjae's eyes widen.

"Now?"

"What, you have a doctor's appointment to get to or something?" Junsu says.

"No," Hyukjae says. Which is the complete opposite of the truth. He desperately wants to go home, to make sure that Donghae is okay. Especially with Donghae's traumatic experience with water in the past. He'd only managed to put his face under a stream of running water two years ago and finally began to swim again a while back, there's no way this hasn't set him back ten steps. And add in the fact that Hyukjae's shot hadn't hit the most ideal spot, Hyukjae's mind is running a mile a minute trying to balance his worrying and keeping up his ironclad facade of nonchalance.

He can't refuse this. He has to see this through, finish this, and then go back to Donghae knowing that at least his sacrifice had not been wasted because Hyukjae messed up. His team is listening anyway, so they'll know where to find them.

"Lovely," Junsu says. He tosses a blindfold at Hyukjae, which he snatches out of the air. "You know the drill."

Hyukjae sighs and ties the blindfold over his eyes.

⸺

Junsu takes him back to the same warehouse from a week ago. This time there's a portable whiteboard in the room, scouting pictures and robbery plans taped across it. Junsu gestures at a chair and Hyukjae obeys, tossing the blindfold onto the table. 

“That’s pretty cliché,” Hyukjae says, raising an eyebrow at the board. 

“Clichés have to come from somewhere, don’t they,” Junsu says. “What, you’ve never seen this before?”

Hyukjae shrugs. 

“We use computers. Tablets,” he says. “But this works too. Just interesting to actually see this outside of movies.”

Hyukjae swallows his next sentence when he feels someone kick the back of his chair, hard. 

“Shut up’” Hyuna growls. Hyukjae holds his hands up in surrender. 

“Shutting up,” he says. “You were saying?”

“Our target is the National Bank of Korea,” Junsu says, not acknowledging the entire exchange. “We will be hitting them this evening when the day employees are leaving, and the night shift is entering. It’ll be easy to slip through the chaos, get in and out.”

“And what exactly are we going in and out to get,” Hyukjae says and winces when someone kicks the back of his chair again. 

“You don’t need to know that,” Hyuna growls. Junsu narrows his eyes at Hyukjae for a moment before he smiles, all teeth and nothing genuine about it. 

“Well,” he says. “Let's just say some… minor government secrets. Minor, but something people will pay good money for."

“I see,” Hyukjae says. He doesn’t really see, but he supposes it doesn’t matter. 

“Good,” Junsu says. He turns back to the board and begins outlining their plan. 

It’s… complicated. Hyukjae tunes out most of it, when they begin with detailing the way Jieun will con her way in to gain access for the rest of the crew to their copies of the access keys. He’s just glad this particular hit is lacking in death. 

Likely because Hyukjae is a new entry, and they’re hesitant to trust him with their brand of brutality just yet. 

“And Eunhyuk,” Junsu says, snapping him out of his reverie. He looks up at Junsu.

"Yes?"

“We don’t want casualties because that leaves evidence, but if you need to kill anyone, do it,” Junsu says. "If all goes to plan, it should go smoothly."

"Understood," Hyukjae says, suppressing his urge to curl his lips in displeasure. 

“If you see this man, though," Junsu says, gesturing at a photo at the top corner of the board. "Do us a favour and kill him. It'll be for the better."

Hyukjae blinks up at the picture for a second.

"Can I take it?" he asks. Junsu tears it off the board and hands it over. Hyukjae accepts it with a  nod of thanks, folding it and tucking it in his case to give to Leeteuk later.

"If there are no more questions, we can get ready," Junsu says, and it’s clear he’s only speaking to Hyukjae and no one else.

“No, I think I got it,” he says. 

“Good,” Junsu says. “Jieun, get dressed. Hodong, secure our weapons, and Hyuna double-checks that everything is in place and ready to go.”

They all jump to action. When they’ve all shuffled away, Junsu turns to him. 

“This is a trial run,” he says. 

Hyukjae nods. “I figured.”

“Good, good,” Junsu says. “You wore black.”

“I’m new, not stupid,” Hyukjae says, scoffing. Junsu laughs, clapping him on the shoulder. Hyukjae isn’t able to stop from flinching at the sudden contact. 

“Do what you need to get ready, we’ll be leaving in about two hours.”

“Do you have a bathroom I can use?” Hyukjae asks and heads in the direction Junsu points him in. 

“I’m sure you heard,” Hyukjae mutters as he covers his talking with the noises of the bathroom. “But I’m heading out soon.”

He sighs, taking his time with his business. Before he finishes up, he can’t help himself. 

“And if Donghae is listening… I hope you’re okay. I love you. I miss you. I’ll see you soon,” he whispers. He sighs, rubbing his hands through his hair before he shuts the sink off and heads back outside. 

The room is still empty save for Junsu, so Hyukjae sits and waits, passing time by playing idly with the edge of his sleeve. Eventually, after a long while, Hyuna strolls in, sitting next to Junsu and conversing quietly with him. 

Jieun comes back not long after, wearing a skirt a little too short to be acceptable and a shirt enough to give everyone an eyeful of her cleavage. 

She winks at him when she sees him looking. 

“Like