~ ♘ ~

Normalcy was to be expected, and the next day, Fourth Avenue opened up as usual. Chansung pulled up the heavy metal gates, heaving with effort, the rusty metal creaking loudly as the young man forced them open. With his arm sleeve, he wiped away the forming sweat on his brow- the heat was turning oppressive as summer approached. Behind him, Jinwoon was already preparing for the day ahead, checking the register and the log books for deliveries and anything else that would require his attention. It was past their usual opening time, but Hell had been busy since dawn.

“Junsu should be down by now, where is he?” Chansung asked, wiping his hands on his apron and pushing the door open with his shoulders.

Jinwoon shrugged as he cranked the lever on the platform installed on the cash register area to collapse the mechanism and make it lower so he could reach. “Let me look for him.” He pulled out his phone and after a few swipes, a bright red dot blinked on his screen. “He’s...in district V.” Jinwoon shook his head, “Figures, he was pretty frustrated last night.”

“What’s in district V?”

“New girlfriend I’m guessing.”

“Oh, wait, didn’t his old girlfriend live somewhere around there too?”

“He’s in a different building so I guess this is a new one.”

The two youngest members shrugged at each other, letting the now awkward conversation die out on its own. The eldest had always had a string of girlfriends on his beck and call should he need someone to vent out his frustrations with. They were both privy of the nature of said relationships, and both Chansung and Jinwoon refused to discuss any more about the eldest. Junsu had his own problems to attend to, problems the rest of Hell did not want to even be aware about.

“Is it just the two of us today? I haven’t seen Nichkhun around either.” Chansung sighed, looking around the shop and pushing the rack of gardenias to the side wall next to the entrance.

“Actually,” Jinwoon wheeled himself backwards, and towards the back room, “it’s just you? Nichkhun said there was something he needed to speak with me about, so...” His eyes shifted sideways. “I guess I’ll see you after we’re done?”

With that, Jinwoon lightly jammed the sides of his fist on the red button of the door, letting out a ramp that lead downstairs. He smiled and waved goodbye to Chansung before releasing the brakes of his wheelchair and sliding down the long ramp, leaving a loud cheer in his wake.

Chansung shook his head and looked at the the work he needed done that day. There were flower arrangements to be put together and deliveries to be made. Not to mention the usual chores that were needed to be accomplished throughout the day. Did Hell honestly think he could run a flower shop on his own? He scratched the back of his head; if there was anyone who was disappointed with last night, it should have been him! But no, Nichkhun was out researching, Junsu was out having his fun, and Jinwoon just left him to fend for his own. It was times like these Chansung seriously contemplated calling on Rai for help. She lived on the roof, it wasn’t as if it was going to be a long commute. Actually, working in the shop wasn’t really even any effort for any of them. Junsu lived on the second floor, while Nichkhun on the third. Rai took the fourth floor and the roof, while he and Jinwoon were in the extension room. Everything was provided for for them, was it really so much for Chansung to ask that the rest of them pull their weight at the shop?

He ran his hands through his face and hair hoping to take all the stress away- at least the hydrangeas were blooming well that day. He had been taking extra care in tending to them. While some of his pots were evergreen and bloomed all year round, the deciduous ones were a little harder to maintain. At least it’s summer, or...almost summer, he thought drearily.

Picking up a spray can, he walked over to his side of the shop and spritzed water over the petals and the leaves. The blue and cream ones were growing nicely, and Chansung wished he could say the same for the pink ones.

He looked up when he heard the sound of the chimes. A light scent swept over the room- it smelled like peaches. “Hi Minji,” he said.

“Yo,” she replied. Seo Minji was Chansung’s classmate at the university and he considered her one of his better friends. She looked around the empty shop and smiled. “Need some help?”

“Yes, please.”

“Do I get paid? It’s summer, uncle’s not exactly too thrilled to be giving me a weekly.”

Chansung smiled. “I’ll see what I can do, but really Minji. I’m desperate.”

“I know.” She laughed but her expression soon became serious. “Anyway, I came by for a reason. Did you hear about the stuff happening at school? I mean, I’m sure you did, but the new stuff? Like, the sleep program Sunggyu was in, they said it was actually a brain-washing experiment. You don’t believe that stuff, do you?”

Chansung’s jaw tightened as he was unintentionally reminded of last night. Kwon hasn’t said anything definitive yet about the nature of the experiments, and not even the authorities had any more leads than they did. It made his blood boil knowing that that man was still alive, that what monsters that man had been working on were still out there. “Yeah, I’ve heard of it.” He kept his voice calm, afraid to let Minji know any more about how he felt about the issue.

“It’s scary. I was watching the news last night, Nara Yang has a full coverage over it, seriously, she’s everywhere these days. I’m surprised she’s still alive.”

Chansung watched Minji walk towards the back of the room and pick up an apron. “Yeah, dangerous stuff out there.”

~ ♕ ~

Nichkhun heard the gears of the ramps turning and he glanced up from the computer to hear Jinwoon squeal in delight as he rolled backwards down into the basement room where Hell held all their meetings. The youngest banged into the wall at the bottom of the ramp, bouncing off from the recoil, and he laughed it off, dusting himself before making his way towards Nichkhun.

“What did you want to ask me about?” Jinwoon asked, feeling there was no need for introductions. He knew that Nichkhun liked things straight to the point.

Nichkhun turned back to the monitor and clicked on a few links. “Lee’s case files, I’ve gone through them. I need to know if we can access his past associations, everyone he ever worked with.”

“Do you think he’s a link too?” Jinwoon asked, his fingers moving swiftly across the keyboard.

Nichkhun listened to the tacking of the keys, the rhythm reminding him about something from long ago but he pushed that thought away. “Maybe. That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

“There isn’t much, really,” Jinwoon said, reading off the files he managed to extract. “Lee’s been working under one company for the past eight years. Looks like he’s been developing something, but the files are encrypted, so give me a few...done!”

Nichkhun leaned closer to read off the screen, “Project Fortuna?”

“Mmm, looks like it’s been running for a few years. I’ll look more into it.”

Nichkhun stepped back as Jinwoon proceeded to study the project. Fortuna. The name was familiar to him, Nichkhun knew that he had heard it before, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where. He wasn’t expecting this though. Calling Jinwoon out, all Nichkhun wanted to know was if Andy Lee had any links that would lead him closer to the man who had tried to kill June. He would take any lead right now. Any lead at all just so he could take his revenge.

When Staunton gave him the offer to be a part of Hell, Nichkhun had outright refused. He had already been investigating June’s attack- he didn’t need to be a part of some underground organization that would only sidetrack him from his real goals.

I can help you find her killer.

Those were the words Staunton had said. The words that had convinced Nichkhun to be where he was now. While their handler didn’t know exactly who the culprit was, Nichkhun knew that he made much more progress on this team than he ever would alone.

“He’s associated with a few people, a few internationals. Fortuna seems like a huge project, but everyone’s keeping hum about it.”

“Is there anything else? Something that will tell us what kind of experiments they did?”

Jinwoon looked up at the older man, again he was surprised with the nature of Nichkhun’s question. At the debriefing that morning, the blonde had asked a similar question. Why was Nichkhun so interested in the experiments? “Uhm, I’ll try to look into the data they got. So far it’s all a bunch of gibberish to me. I think Junsu can interpret the data, I’ll ask him?”

Nichkhun frowned. He did not want to be indebted to Junsu, most of all. “These are neurological screenings, aren’t they?” he asked, pointing at several line graphs.

“I think so, yeah. But there are a lot of others tests done too. Not just neurological, but genetic data as well. I know you don’t like dragging Junsu into this, but he’s the only one who’s capable of-”

“Fine, it doesn’t matter.”

Jinwoon winced at Nichkhun’s rough tone, but at least he was given the go signal to talk to Junsu about it. The only thing he needed to worry about now was actually finding Kim Junsu.

“Did Kwon give the update yet?”

“No, not yet. Fei and Jia are still looking into it. I’ll send you guys a message as soon as I get it.”

Nichkhun nodded and crossed his arms on his chest. Fortuna. There was just something about the project that bothered him.

“May I ask a question?”

Nichkhun looked curiously at Jinwoon, usually he just asked the question straight on without asking for permission. “What is it?”

“I know you don’t like talking about it-”

“Then why ask?”

“Because I think it’s okay for us to know too!”

Nichkhun regarded Jinwoon from under the bright lights inside the room. The analyst sat there on his wheelchair, hands folded on his lap as he always did. He was a bright mind, no one was going to deny that, but could Nichkhun trust him? Chansung had managed to find out on his own, Rai as well. Those two had always had a penchant for following people around, but Jinwoon was stuck here. Whether or not he knew what Chansung knew, didn’t matter right now. “What else hasn’t Chansung told you?”

Jinwoon couldn’t help but smile. “Just that you go bring her camellias everyday. We all know you’re after the man who tried to kill her. We just want to know- well, maybe if I knew something more about her...see I don’t even know her name. Maybe I could help find a link easier if I knew-”

“June. Her name is June. She was a scientist.”

~ ♗ | ♙~

Junsu woke up to the sun in his face, the confusion of finding it at a different angle- the confusion of finding it at all, roused him further, and he opened his eyes to an unfamiliar setting. Instead of his dark room, Junsu found himself in a rather feminine looking apartment. He smirked. The pink and purple drapes looked a lot ier at night- or rather dawn. Looking down, he found her- he didn’t know her name, nor did he think he needed to, and eased himself off her bed. His clothes were strewn all across the floor and furniture and he felt some sense of pride wash over him. He didn’t remember the details exactly, but he was feeling somewhat more relieved than the previous few hours- that should be enough to get him ready for the next assignment- or the continuation of the present one.

“Where are you going?” she murmured.

“Bathroom,” he lied, shrugging on his clothes.

Leaving the apartment unnoticed was easy enough, he was a trained professional after all...that and he was pretty sure she was still drunk. Not that it mattered, what did matter was the number of messages Chansung and Jinwoon left on his phone. All of which were sent in the last two hours- it looked like they were shorthanded at the shop today, but looking up at the bright sky, Junsu shrugged. That’s their problem for today, he mused.

If Junsu was being honest, he was worried about this new group, Schatten. He didn’t like the sound of their name on his lips, and he didn’t like that they were actually getting some form of competition. It was one thing that the police had arrived before them, but for this to actually be the second time in a row was something they had to pay attention to. Junsu didn’t believe in coincidences.

“I didn’t expect to see you anywhere near here, I thought you lived at the shop?”

At the sound of the female voice, Junsu whirled around with as much fanfare as he could, making sure his light jacket billowed somewhat with the wind.

“Kass Lee, isn’t this a pleasant surprise?” He smiled.

Kass cocked an eyebrow. “Is it? So, what brings you here?”

Junsu waited until she matched his pace. “Enjoying the scenery, as you can see.”

“Yeah right,” she scoffed, “from over there?” Kass pointed towards the apartment complex Junsu just emerged from and he sighed.

“No need for stalking and jealousy love, I didn’t even ask for her name.”

Kass rolled her eyes. “Really now, how enlightening.”

Junsu watched her from the corner of his eye, as always Kass was dressed to kill and he was definitely impressed by her choice of apparel. She carried herself with an air of confidence, and remembering the way she strangled those two men to death- she was definitely deadly. To this he was reminded once again about this concept in Biology: In the wild, the flashier, prettier and the more colorful almost always meant deadlier. This was what Kass was, the textbook example of a deadly killer. Of course, she was more of an exception as Junsu so often pointed out that beauty did not always entail brains, but he wasn’t one to complain. This way he was more ensured of a beauty in his bed if they didn’t have enough brains-

“So what’s with the kid in the wheelchair?”

“Jinwoon? What about him?”

“He’s smart, I guess? Didn’t expect to see someone like him in Hell is all.”

“He’s a university graduate at fifteen, does that help?” Junsu frowned, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Jinwoon being in a wheelchair, the boy was well capable of taking care of himself. In fact, in the years that Junsu has known him, he could clearly say with certainty that Jinwoon was probably better off than he was, except that he got more girls, and that was always relevant.

“But that’s what, five years ago? That’s not the point, I mean, has he always been in a wheelchair?”

“What’s with the sudden curiosity?” he asked, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Why are you so defensive?”

“I’m not.”

Kass laughed. “It’s just a question. It’s like asking what’s Rai’s issue or, what’s blondie’s story.”

Kass was definitely a curious one. She had been asking him questions since their first mission together. “Ask Kwon?”

“Kwon?” she sneered. “I don’t think he likes me much. Actually, I don’t even think you guys all like each other much.”

This time, it was Junsu’s turn to laugh. “Working together doesn’t really require us to like each other.”

[A/N]: Lanabonamana has returned, and with her return, she has brought us all a lovely present =]