“How are you feeling, Zelo?” Jongup asks as Daehyun and he enter the hospital room the next day.

“I’m feeling a lot better today! The nurse said I may be able to leave tonight depending on how I feel. She said I’d be release no later than tomorrow morning,” Zelo replies while chowing down on his breakfast in bed. “What about you, Jongup? How’s your leg?”

“It’s a lot better. I just rested all night with an ice pack on it.”

“That’s good. So where are Captain Bang and Youngjae?”

“They went to a meeting earlier this morning with the higher officials. Not sure what it’s about but it doesn’t seem to be something good,” Jongup replies. “Usually it’s something serious when it involves the higher-ups.”

“Oh… well I hope they’re okay… Do you think Captain Bang is in trouble for what happened yesterday?” Zelo questions worriedly.

“Possibly, but I have no idea. I haven’t seen him since.”

Soon after Jongup replies to Zelo, Yongguk and Youngjae walk in.

“Speak of the devil… literally…,” Jongup mutters, still slightly upset with Yongguk.

“Hey, guys!” Youngjae exclaims as he walks through the door.

The boys begin to exchange greetings but suddenly stop once they hear Yongguk clearing his throat. They all look over at him while he tries to avoid any direct eye contact.

“Today, I was in a meeting with the higher officials and I have some things to share with you all.” He pauses before continuing, “We’ve been assigned to our first mission…”

“Really?! Finally! This is great news! I was expecting something bad!” Jongup shouts out of excitement since he’ll finally be able to go back out on missions after being off-duty for over a year. After calming down a bit, he looks over to Captain Bang and Youngjae who quietly stand there. “Is something wrong guys? Shouldn’t we all be excited…?” he asks confusedly.

“Well, we’ve be placed back on our last mission…,” Yongguk replies softly.

Jongup freezes and after a few seconds, he murmurs, “Oh…”

Zelo, who is sitting up against the frame of the hospital bed, begins to feel the tense atmosphere in the air. Mixed emotions fill the room. Zelo decides to speak up, “So what exactly does this mission entail…?” hoping he didn’t say something that would worsen the mood.

Yongguk takes a deep breath in before replying, “We have to infiltrate Mato and retrieve the information on their secret weapon. Mato is the main base of a secret underground organization known for creating deadly weapons. Apparently, they’ve been working on a weapon of mass destruction these past few years and our goal is to find out what that is.”

“So what are they building this weapon for?”

“That’s something we’re unsure of,” Youngjae responds. “We’re not sure if they’re making it for themselves or for another organization. They’re known to create all sorts of weapons for other organizations. As far as we know, this secret weapon is something they’re supplying for another group. Right now, we need to figure out what the weapon is, where it’s located, who is it for, and what are these people planning with this weapon. Ultimately, this mission is just the beginning of a long operation. One we complete this first mission, we’ll be starting right on the next one.”

Zelo continues questioning on, now asking for the name of this secret underground organization.

“That’s something we’re unsure of as well. The military just found out about this organization not too long ago. All we know is what they do and where some of their bases are located, nothing else,” Youngjae answers.

“I see… It sounds easy enough, so why is everyone so tense?” Zelo asks, getting straight to the point.

“Since they’re known to build numerous amounts of powerful weapons, you can already assume their technology is way advanced. Getting into their base isn’t an easy task and once in, everything gets ten times harder. I specialize in technology where I’m great with software, computers, and all other sorts of things of that nature but I still can’t figure out how to break through their system. It’s something I’ve never seen before and I’ve pretty much seen it all. I have no idea how I would access the data on the weapon even if we were to get inside. They’re base is also filled with deadly traps and since I can’t break into their system, I can’t deactivate them meaning we’d have to figure a way to get through all those obstacles.”

Yongguk continues after Youngjae, “We leave in 9 days. That means tomorrow we need to get our haircut and start training once again. We only have a few days to prepare. We have an appointment at 1300 at the barber’s so every should meet there tomorrow.”

“You said this was the last mission you guys were on, right, Captain Bang? What happened last time?” Zelo asks out of curiosity, his questions never ending.

“I think you should probably stop there, Zelo…,” Jongup says, finally speaking up before walking out of the room, an unpleasant mood trailing behind him.

Zelo looks over to Daehyun, realizing he said something wrong. Both of the boys can’t seem to wrap their fingers around this whole ordeal. There’s something that the rest of the squad is hiding from the two of them.

 “Hmmm… Jongup can get a little emotional at times,” Youngjae says as he approaches Zelo. “You look a lot better today,” he says, changing the topic.

“Yeah, I feel a lot better,” he says as he finishes his glass of orange juice.

“It looks like you’re all done with your breakfast. I’ll go ahead and save the nurse some time and take this over to the kitchen,” Youngjae says before grabbing the tray and leaving the tense room.

Yongguk stands there in the corner, leaning against the wall as Zelo stares at him. Yongguk looks down towards his folded arms. Zelo can sense that Yongguk feels troubled, but what Zelo can’t figure out is why, other than the fact that it has to do with something that happened on their last mission.

“I’m going to take my leave too. I have some things I need to take care of...,” Yongguk says, snapping Zelo out of his thoughts, and exits the room.

--------------------------------------------------

Later that day, Yongguk and Youngjae attend another meeting. The meetings concerning the mission seem endless to them and keeps putting Yongguk in a bad mood. Eventually they head over to the break room to finish up some paperwork in regards to the mission. They sit adjacent to each other at a square table placing down the stacks of papers in their arms. Youngjae stays quiet at first, not wanting to bother Yongguk and his thoughts. After thirty minutes of filling out paperwork and signing endless amounts of paper, Yongguk finally speaks up.

“Do you think we’ll be okay this time?” he questions, trying to sound nonchalant as his hand continues to move and his face continues to stare at the papers before him.

“I think so,” Youngjae replies truthfully, placing down his pen and stretching his arms.

“What if we don’t complete the mission?” Yongguk asks, still trying to sound nonchalant, but Youngjae picks up on his anxiety.

“We’ll be fine. I’m a little nervous too but I think it’ll be okay this time,” Youngjae says, leaning back in his chair, arms folded as he stares at the blank wall in front of him.

Finally, Yongguk gives in, placing his pen down and letting out a sigh.

“Youngjae… what if something goes wrong again…?”

Youngjae turns to face Yongguk and tries to give him a reassuring smile.

“I won’t lie to you. I won’t tell you things aren’t going to go wrong but I believe in this new team and you have to as well. We can do it. We’ll complete this mission.”

“At this point, I don’t even care about the mission… I just don’t want to lose another person… We can’t lose another person,” Yongguk says, finally allowing the thing bothering him most out.

Youngjae’s smile seems to falter at Yongguk’s statement.

“I’m sure he’s watching over us and won’t allow that to happen…,” he says before directly looking Yongguk in the eye and giving him a weak smile; however, Yongguk doesn’t seem to be convinced as he lets out a sigh before focusing back on the papers in front of him.