Tao didn't understand what was happening.

One moment, he was downstairs, eating a banana for a quick breakfast (he was never that hungry in the mornings) and practicing some Wushu moves as a little warm-up to get his blood flowing. He found it always helped him concentrate better in class.

Afterwards, he reached for the TV remote to turn on the news, so he could see the weather. If it wasn't going to rain like the forecast hinted it might yesterday, he promised to go to the park with Xiumin, Chen, and Luhan for a game of basketball.

Then he saw a spider, and being deathly afraid of insects of all kinds, he let out a loud, shrill, and embarrassingly girly scream. The monster slowly advanced upon him with all the malicious and terrifying nature of a tiny house spider, making Tao let loose another ear-shattering shriek. Luckily, he quickly threw the remote at the spider with deadly accuracy and crushed it.

Before he could congratulate himself on ridding the world of one more monster, his living room exploded. Or, more accurately, someone crashed a motorcycle through his window.

When the psycopath ran after him calling him 'Liu Fang', Tao had frantically tried to escape to his bedroom. Next moment, he was lying flat on his back and staring a gun barrel to his face.

He was so absolutely frightened, he didn't notice who was holding the gun at first. But slowly, his eyes shifted over, and he was surprised to see the holder of the gun was a cute girl with glittering dark eyes and short hair cut to her chin. She looked about his age.

Their eyes locked for a moment, and Tao managed to stammer out, "P-please don't hurt me."

The girl stared at him with something like shock and disbelief in her expression. When she spoke, it was in fluent Chinese, although her sentences were practically unrecognizable. "What the ... but you ... a gun ... Wushu ... you're ... you're not Liu Fang?"

Tao shook his head frantically, feeling his muscles relax slightly. Did this mean the girl wasn't going to kill him?

Something like a mixture of hot-headed embarrassment and fury grew on the girl's face, which was slowly turning red. Suddenly, she yelled "!!!", making Tao jump a bit.

Straightening up and lowering the gun away from his face, she stomped around for a bit, apparently so furious she couldn't even find a way to properly express her anger. Tao slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position on the floor, leaning against his bed. He had no idea what the hell was going on. All he knew was that a cute but obviously CRAZY girl had just smashed into his house and tried to kill him -- and evidently, he was the wrong target.

And how did she even HAVE a gun, anyway?

"!!! !!! I can't believe this! One STUPID mistake, and I've just cost my career!" She was actually grabbing at her hair in fistfuls. "God dammit, I've completely ruined everything! Dammit!"

Tao almost felt sorry for her. She was obviously very upset. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a sleek cell phone, furiously tapping at the touch screen for a few moments before holding it up to her ear.

After a few more seconds of her impatient foot-tapping, she finally snapped out "Hello?"

Someone with a deep, male voice said something on the other line, but Tao couldn't hear properly.

"No, you see, sir ... I ... um ... well, er ... I kind of ... ran into some difficulties?"

The girl immediately held the phone away at an arm's length as the man on the other line began yelling at her. Tao caught snatches of Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, something that sounded very suspiciously like French and Italian, and others that he couldn't recognize at all.

After the multilingual man finished yelling, she slowly and gingerly brought it back to her ear. "Yes, sir. I'm so sorry ... I know, I know, I was being stupid and careless ... well, I kind of spilled coffee on it, so I couldn't tell the correct address ... I know, I know! I'm sorry! ... No ... No, I didn't kill anybody! How stupid do you think I am?" She sounded insulted at this. "Okay, that only happened two, maybe three times!"

Tao heard enough to realize that this girl was even more crazy and psychotic than he thought. He slowly began to stand up, in the hopes of dashing to the door while she was preoccupied with her phone and her back to him.

He was certain he hadn't made a single sound, but suddenly the girl had whipped her head around and had the gun pointed at him once more. "YOU STAY THERE!!!"

Tao squeaked in response and immediately sat back down onto the floor, his heart pounding again.

The girl returned to her phone conversation. "Oh, it's the guy ... yeah ... um, no, he's actually around my age ... yeah ... he's highly skilled at Wushu, so I just assumed ... well, how many normal civilians can perform Wushu with all the grace and aura of a killer? Of course I was going to think he was Liu Fang!"

Tao felt his cheeks start to burn, and he wasn't sure if it was from her extroadinary compliment of him being 'highly skilled' at Wushu, or if it was from the mortification of realizing he looked like a killer when he did it. No wonder most people looked terrified of him whenever he went into Wushu competitions. Even Xiumin, who was no joke when it came to taekwondo, looked pretty scared of him sometimes when he got really into it.

"Really? Boss, are you serious? But, he ... even so ... I know, but ... well, fine." She ended the call with a heavy sigh, before turning around to glare at him once more.

"You. Panda-boy. What's your name?"

Panda? AGAIN with the panda? Why does EVERYONE insist on calling him a panda? "T-Tao. Huang Zhi Tao. Er, well, I mean, my friends call me Tao but --" He quickly shut up before he started rambling.

"Right." She pulled off her backpack and dug through it, before pulling out a super-thin laptop. Tao recognized it as the new one that came out only yesterday. Was she rich or something?

She walked towards him, and he flinched. "Oh, grow up," she snapped. "I'm not going to hurt you, okay? That was an accident. I was trying to kill someone else."

She placed the laptop on the bed and began to turn it on, completely disregarding the fact that her answer was less-than-satisfactory. Tao was even more confused than before.

The laptop flickered to life, and the girl's fingers danced at lightning-speed upon the keyboard as she typed in a very long, very complicated-looking password. Tao only caught the first few keys as M-Y-G-R ...

The girl finished the password and entered her account, immediately opening up a mysterious window. After a few moments where she impatiently waited (goodness, this girl was very impatient and rushed about everything), the black window suddenly filled with colour, and Tao jumped as he stared at a scary-looking man with scars.

"Boss, sir," the girl said respectfully.

The man called Boss turned to look at Tao. "Is this the boy?"

"Huang Zhi Tao. Living in Beijing, China. What school do you go to?" Tao was momentarily stunned at her sudden question. "I ... ah ... um ... S-SM High."

"Got that." Boss stared at something for a moment, before suddenly reciting out loud, "Huang Zhi Tao. Born May 2, 1993, in Qingdao. 183 cm and of Chinese nationality. Has one first place for several Wushu competitions, and is also highly skilled in rapping. Moved to Beijing when he was four years old. Generally known throughout Beijing as a scary, unapproachable person. Closest acquantainces are Jin Min Shuo, Lu Han, and Jin Zhong Da. For more information on said acquaintances, please follow these links, blah blah blah."

Tao was so shocked he was quite certain his face had drained of all colour. "Wha -- b-but -- how ... how do you know all this stuff?"

Boss chuckled menacingly. "It's not very difficult to find information on anybody through the Internet. All you have to do is know how to press the right key."

"Good choice of words, sir," the girl said quickly.

"Shut up, Ming. I can't believe this! I put all my faith and trust into you, and you blew your first solo mission. Do you realize the Board is going to have our heads for this?"

"And everything attached," the girl called Ming muttered to herself. "But sir, there must be something we could do! I mean, he's just a kid. I can still continue my mission without the Board hearing about it."

Boss thought hard about it, before saying slowly, "I suppose ... but there's only one way we can keep this boy's mouth shut ..."

Tao felt all his blood freeze and his heart drop into his stomach region. They were going to kill him.

Dear god, if I die, please give my mother and father prosperity and good health! And please make them burn my comics along with my body so Xiumin doesn't get them and doodle moustaches all over their faces! And please make Luhan get a scholarship like he's always wanted, and for Xiumin to win that taekwondo competition he keeps obsessing over, and for Chen to buck up his courage and ask Meifong out on a date already!

"... We'll include him in this mission."

"WHAT?" The girl -- Ming -- yelled out in outrage. "But, sir, he's a civilian! And besides, what good could HE do?"

Ouch, that kind of stung.

"Probably better than anything YOU could do alone, you idiot!" Boss scolded her sharply. "From what you told me yourself, he has promising Wushu skills, and that's better than nothing. He will help you on your mission, and that way you can keep an eye on him so he won't spill any important information. Once this mission is completed, we'll figure out what to do with him then."

"But, sir ..." Ming appeared to be coming close to having a temper tantrum.

"No buts, Agent Ming. Besides, you might need the help. We have received new information about Liu Fang. He's much more dangerous than we originally thought, and his connections with mafia and crime lords run much deeper than we expected."

Ming scowled, looking sulky and childish. "It doesn't matter how dangerous he is, I can handle this MYSELF!"

"You, Huang Zhi Tao." The man looked at him. Despite the fact he was staring at a screen, Tao felt chills come all over his body. There was a dull power radiating from the man's vicicous eyes. He found himself straightening up and coming to attention, just like how he used to when he was being taught Wushu by his laoshi. "Y-yes, sir?"

"The reason why I am including you in this mission is more than just a way to shut you up. When I heard about where you live, it coincided directly with our newest information. I believe it is best to explain to you what is happening.

"That irritable, no-good girl over there --" he ignored the glare coming his way "-- is known as Agent Ming only. She is part of a top-secret government organization called Triple-Zero. It is our job to hunt down the mafia families, crime lords, drug traffickers, terrorists, and any other peace-breakers in order to keep this world safe and keep innocent civilians happy.

"The mission I have given to Agent Ming that she obviously cannot do alone --" he once again ignored her glare "-- is to hunt down and take out a man known as Liu Fang. However, he has somehow caught wind of our plan and has barricaded himself off the grid in some remote island. While we are currently trying to find him, we have decided to give you and Agent Ming a new mission."

Finally, the girl stopped glaring and looked interested. "A new mission, Boss? What do you mean?"

"Apparently, his child still lives in this district. In fact, his child should be about your age and should go to SM High."

"W-what?" The child of a mafia crime lord was currently attending his school? How could it be?

"The mission is this: Agent Ming, you shall be in disguise and attending SM High. Find this child, be it son or daughter, and capture him or her. Huang Zhi Tao, you are officially known as Agent Tao. Your job will be to guide Agent Ming through high school without gaining too much suspicion, and help her find the target. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Tao quickly responded without much thought, and felt like kicking himself afterwards. Why did he respond without even thinking about it? Before he could change his mind, Ming muttered a sulky "Yes, sir."

"Good. I expect to hear frequent progress reports, Agent Ming. No slacking off this time."

There was a beep, and the window suddenly closed.

An awkward silence filled the room. Tao's head was buzzing with all this new information. He thought he was going to be sick.

"Well, that's that." Ming scowled darkly at him. "I'll pay for the repairs to your living room. My name is Ming, I'm seventeen, and you don't need to know about anything else. Oh, by the way, I'll be living here with you until this crappy mission ends." She stood up, closed the laptop, and shoved it back into her backpack. "Do you have anything to eat? I feel the need to eat a lot of chips, immediately."

She froze, and if possible, her expression grew even more irritated as she muttered under her breath something that sounded like, "Oh, god, I'm turning into Lay" before stomping downstairs.

Tao sat there as the new information began a slow process through his overloaded brain. Finally, it clicked together -- she was going to live in this house with him and his family.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT??!!!!"