~_____~

The door finally opened after what felt like the hundredth time spent ringing the freaking doorbell. The face of Victoria’s friend popped up and Donghae felt like slapping the wall. He knew they’d come back to Victoria’s apartment.

“Where’s Victoria?” Donghae asked.

She opened the doorway and said, “In the bedroom. Don’t take too long, she needs a lot of rest.”

Donghae wanted to tell it to her that he was aware and he knew and he wouldn’t take too long, but feeling irritated kept to himself. Trudging forward he found Victoria’s bedroom immediately and walked in quietly to find her with her eyes closed.

She had slept so much in the hospital he’d be amazed if she still had the strength to sleep any more.

“Feigning sleep?” He greeted.

When Victoria turned to look at him he saw that she was irritated and annoyed. It should have been of surprise to her that he’d come after her, even coming to look for her at her apartment. But none of that surprise was relevant in her eyes.

“What do you want?”

“Isn’t it supposed to hurt you sleeping like that?”

“Wow,” Victoria exclaimed softly, “you came to see if I’m comfortable?”

Donghae stared down at her not amused.

“Who’s your friend?”

“Why? You want to go to her house too?”

“Victoria,” he growled.

With a weak laugh she looked up at him, “Why are you even here? Came to see if someone’s broken my door down?”

Lightly gritting his teeth becoming angry with her antics he let out, “Fine. Stay that way.”

Donghae lightly stomped out of Victoria’s room and stopped in his footsteps to discover her friend cooking something by the stove.

“Are you going to be staying with Victoria? Or are you just going to be here during the day?” Donghae asked.

Yoona turned around to look at him, “Well if you’re curious, I’m not Victoria’s live-in maid, but I will be staying with her in the meantime.”

“I’ll be coming by daily,” Donghae told, “let me know if anything goes wrong.”

She smiled at him and nodded her head. Donghae slightly glanced back at Victoria’s bedroom before starting toward the door.

~_____~

Tao almost slid past the stairs before catching sight of it. Quickly dashing upstairs he paused when he heard a unique thudding sound before creeping further down the hall. When at his destination he saw the pastor in the family picture downstairs sitting on Chorong with hands around . With no further delay in action he threw the man off once he entered the room, picked him up, and threw him against the dresser by the wall.

That was when he caught sight of the little girl crying hysterically behind the bed. Their eyes met before Tao rushed at the man again. Forcing him up to his feet while Chorong slowly gained consciousness Tao slammed him agains the wall repeatedly, listening to each thud resonate through the room.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Chorong sit up fighting to catch her breath. He thought again of those stitches on the side of Namjoo’s head that night he sat beside her in the hospital and anger rushed through him. A shout bellowed through his lips when he rammed the pastor into the wall, his fingers clutching his shirt so hard that veins popped into his skin.

“That’s enough, stop,” Chorong managed with a hand around . “I said stop.”

“After what he did!? You’re going to let him go so easily?!” Tao shouted furious.

Their eyes met and Chorong turned away. Tao rammed the man into the wall one more time then allowed him to slump against the ground.

“Can you breathe? Can you get up yourself?” Tao asked with a hint of warmth to his voice.

“I don’t appear dead, do I?” Chorong mumbled as she rose to her feet and turned to look at the girl hiding behind the bed. “Give us some privacy, will you?”

Catching onto her signal, Tao turned away while Chorong wrapped a blanket around the girl before bringing her along with them back downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs they heard a crash inside a room somewhere and Kris let out a loud roar. Rushing forward they ran toward the room to see helpless Kris getting ganged up on. He was barely on the ground atop of another man and Tao began a step forward, but stopped upon the loud police sirens wailing outside.

The three of them spent the next hour getting unbelievably interrogated at the police station harshly. Why they were there, what they were really doing there, how they had even discovered illegal activity, and who they really were took a whole hour process for headquarters to confirm their location and their identities. Their job was real and the task they had performed had legit background support.

The drive back to Seoul was desolate and miserable. The aftermath of the events slowly hit them each locking them into some kind of tranquility. Shaken up, neither of them spoke a word to the other. Tao sat in the backseat twisted, his eyes burning into the meadows they drove pass. Kris chose not a word with the only honored individual to carry back bruises and cuts. And Chorong trembled behind the steering wheel.

Tears threatened to swallow her up, but she fought hard not to confront embarrassment in the act of sobbing. As a consequence of forcing herself into the act, a tear still spewed down her face.

“Are you…” Kris started.

“Don’t talk to me.” Chorong coldly warned gripping onto the wheel tightly.

She wanted home and she wanted to be alone.

~_____~

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Suho worried as they slowed on the walk. “That’s highly unusual of you, you know? To get surprised like that.”

Letting go of him Namjoo brushed her arm, “There are always firsts.”

“Come on, lets go get something to eat,” Suho told gesturing her toward a restaurant. “I think you should sit for a moment and get some rest.”

Namjoo heaved a sigh as if irritated of her mother’s constant nagging when she followed him. They found a table at the back where they sat and browsed through the menu. After Suho’s promise to treat, Namjoo voluntarily bought an expensive dish.

“Is it your ankle?” Suho started on the subject again.

Another sigh fell and she half rolled her eyes, “Look, I admit I took the cast off early, but my ankle is really well. I don’t know why I couldn’t stand either, ok?”

Suho stared at her before pressing his lips together. Staring around with his fingers tapping against the table he seemed to bite his lower lip a little bored.

“How was your date yesterday?” He began not even after a minute.

“You really want to hear about it?”

Laughing a little he replied, “Not really. I didn’t know you and Kris contacted each other. You two meet up outside of work?”

Her eyes slid up to stare into his eyes a little suspicious at what he was getting at. Darn Kris for going on about answering his calls earlier. Now everyone was going to think they were weird.

“Why would you ask about him?”

Suho just smiled his kind of soft smile and crossed his arms on top of the table.

“Just…it’s nice to have a friend outside of work,” Suho seemed to sigh discreetly, “I mean…you, me, and Donghae have no life. In this area, we don’t have anything. How sad, right?”

Namjoo felt the mood shift, but couldn’t offer any condolence since she, too, was one of them. She’d lost everything when she joined Donghae and Suho had lost what was his before joining. Donghae lost his friend in the process and the requirement of work kept them at headquarters and all over South Korea.

Over time, no one could tell if it was the job that was working them or them who were working their jobs.

Maybe…it was possible they’d become one with their jobs.

“Donghae must be disappointed too,” Suho added.

Her lids flitted before saying, “A few days ago, Donghae said to me that he didn’t want us to work so hard that in the future we wouldn’t have anything, but an empty house.”

“Blind dates are supposed to help solve that,” Suho sparked the mood up a bit. “But I thought that if I still couldn’t find anyone, I’d marry you and we could just live together. That would be ok too.”

Namjoo’s emotionless expression focused on him before smiling with a laugh somewhat sincerely and jokingly. She highly appreciated Suho. He was one of the greatest persons she knew and she was aware she was blessed to have met someone like him. During her worst moments no one stood beside her like he did.    

“Yea,” she agreed, “that would have been ok.”

~_____~

“You really got the muscles near your pressure point. It’s right here,” the nurse pressed a finger gently to her right temple, “that’s dangerous, you know?” The nurse worriedly explained. “The temple holds a lot of the muscle stress and it’s supposed to ease headaches. You’re probably going to be experiencing severe ones since you’ve injured the muscles there.”

Lay narrowed one eye at the pain that was barely felt anymore and raised a hand up to touch the bandage there.

“Will some medicine help?”

“It can help soothe the pain, I’m not really sure what it can do for you,” the nurse explained. “Would you like anything before you leave?”

“No,” he answered as he slid off the bed after grabbing the medicine he’d earlier received. “I’m good. Thanks a lot.”

When he stumbled out of the hospital he had to stop and stare up at the stars mightily high in the sky. Time had gone by quite fast since he’d knocked out. He thought it was unfair since he hadn’t been given the chance to do much and now he didn’t even know where Donghae or Victoria were.

Time had been managed poorly even when he’d gotten up early. And it all added up to him getting injured.

With a short sigh he got into his car and drove around a bit wondering if the others had done well on their jobs. It had been no fun working alone and he hoped things would brighten up for him tomorrow.

Just in case, he thought, he should check up on the others. Lay tried calling Kris, but he didn’t answer. Suho didn’t answer either, so when he passed Chorong’s complex he drove around and parked outside. Lay waited inside his warm car for a few minutes until he spotted Chorong headed for the doors.

Hurrying out he caught up to her just before the doors swung open for her. A surprised shout swooped out of when he reached out to touch her arm. As she swiveled around he felt her long hair lightly slap him across the face, but Lay couldn’t react to that. Instead he reacted to her wide eyes and her deep breathing from having been caught off guard.

The air resonating off her gave her fear out and Lay could only wonder what was wrong.

“S…sorry,” he stuttered surprised himself. “Are you…ok?”

Chorong stepped back until she was standing straight; the bruise on her face more visible due to the light coming from through the glass doors.

“I’m fine.”

Lay blinked and nodded, “I was in the area…” He glanced around having forgotten what he’d even stopped for in the first place. “Have you eaten?”

“I’m not hungry,” Chorong replied somewhat hastily, “I’m not feeling well, so I’m going in first.”

And with just that Chorong turned to walk inside without so much as a farewell.

~_____~

Donghae actually hadn’t gone anywhere. He felt pathetic for having camped outside Victoria’s apartment building in his car having ordered takeouts all day. The deliveryman shot him a strange stare every time each one came by to drop off the food he’d called for, but Donghae couldn’t let his ego just fall.

Damn it, Victoria! Was what he’d thought all day.

Everything would have flowed smoother if she’d just stayed put in the hospital. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone following her here. Anyhow, whoever it was, he was adamnant in catching him.

Donghae knew for sure he was one of Hyukjae’s people and having him would lead him to no one else, but Hyukjae. Donghae wouldn’t lose out on this opportunity in front of his eyes. And whatever Victoria was up to, he could stop.

There was a feeling he had about that secretary of hers. There was a reason Victoria wanted to be in her place and not at the hospital, and he didn’t believe it was because she was afraid of being taken to death again. Victoria was certainly up to something and now that she wasn’t capable of single-handedly dealing with any personal assignment, it was only obvious someone else would do it for her.

The secretary.

And he really despised that all he could do in the meantime was watch over the two of them. When it finally got late and Donghae tired, he retreated back to his house where he discovered Tao searching the fridge for some beer.

That was when he realized that Tao hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on. Donghae peered around before turning when the light from the fridge thinned out until it disappeared then watched Tao place a few cans onto the table. After he sat down Donghae knocked against the wall.

“Forgot those are mine?”

Tao glanced at him quickly and stared down at the table. Suddenly feeling like an older brother Donghae walked over with a firm smile and pulled the chair from across Tao out.

“So what kind of drunk are you? Angry drunk? Emotional drunk? Sad drunk?” Donghae started. “I haven’t seen you drink at all when you came here. So what’s the occasion tonight?”

The corner of Tao’s lip curved up as if he was bitterly feeling like a fool over something. A kind of snort escaped his lips and while the silence droned on Donghae opened a can for him.

“I realized today, I’m really worth nothing.”

Donghae glanced up at him from the can he’d been staring at.

“I feel so sick after seeing what those men did today,” Tao’s tone was empathic with much discern for himself as if finally seen the dark side for the first time. “I wanted to forget it then I realized I’m a criminal just like them and we stand on the same ground. I saw them the same way everybody saw me. There’s no difference.”

Donghae watched him stare at the beer before raising his eyes up to meet his.

“Why am I here?”

~_____~

Namjoo was ready to just relax when she returned. Her mind was still a foggy drizzle about how strengthless she’d been earlier in the day. Her legs shouldn’t have given out like that.

With eyes glued to the carpet of the hallway Namjoo turned around the corner and lifted her head up only to come to a very slow stop. As the sole of her shoe fell flat against the floor Kris glanced up from where he’d been staring to turn her way. He was standing beside her door leaning against the wall and shifted to look at her.

Surprise left her staring at him. Kris didn’t come this time of night unless they had appointment and they weren’t supposed to meet out until Saturday. What was he doing there?

It didn’t take long for Namjoo to take in the bruises welded on his face to know that they’d probably found something on their job. In the span of a second he walked over with four quick strides to wrap his arms around her. Namjoo felt her chin tilt up to his shoulder as he dug his face over her shoulder, their bodies practically together.

Literally trapped in his sudden embrace Namjoo stared at the ceiling with her lids fluttering dubiously, her arms angled out to the sides awkwardly.   

“Just…let me hold you for a moment.” 

***Aww.... ;A; They all sought for some kind of comfort from each other, minus Vic and Chorong. 

***Tao's making huge progress!! Finally seeing himself in a different light with all the new realizations. Donghae's like an older brother to him ;A; 

***Now Donghae and Victoria need to look at the bigger picture instead of being so glued onto what they're stubborn about. 

***I'll start with KrisJoo next and continue with Donghae and Tao's story. Chorong's going to need some time this time around. I ship SuJoo *.* Frienship so sweet ;A; 

***I apologize for the VERY late update. I literally spent every day last week at the hospital (but don't worry it was not me who was hospitalized - I went for two different persons). I was exhausted and I hate hospitals and I can't ever write in the hospital or do anything, because I hate hospitals. But I'm on Thanksgiving Break! Woohoo! That means a sequal oneshot and updates for Blaze and perhaps City Blues!