~_____~

Suho eyed Namjoo from the passenger’s seat wondering if he should ask her about Kris. He was honestly caught off guard when Kris opened the door that morning. Namjoo usually sayed alone and he never heard of anyone sleeping at her place before.

Suho thought that it was quite interesting.

“I wonder why Donghae let everyone off today,” Namjoo went on, oblivious to the curious gleam in his eyes. “We should be running around, don’t you think? Shouldn’t we be exploring other areas or trying to go back to cover our tracks? Have we been too obvious?”

A smile splintered over his face with how in she was.

“Wouldn’t you have liked a day off though? Spend it with; perhaps, someone else?”

“The heck,” Namjoo turned to frown at him. “What are you talking about?”

Slightly laughing he turned to peer out the window, “Nothing.”

“What were you doing with Chorong this morning?”

Suho’s mind became a boggy mess as the words became baffled through his lips. He recalled the anxiety that had taken him over that morning.

“Wh…I…what are you talking about?” Suho exclaimed. “I wasn’t doing anything. We did nothing.”

“You didn’t hear?” Namjoo asked as oblivious as ever to his worry that she may have been hinting at something else.   

As the flushed anxiousness died down he turned to look at her blankly, “Hear what?”

“They caught some thugs yesterday.”

“They…they did?”

Namjoo nodded, “But I bet they were just simpletons. It happened in a neighborhood, a house. I bet something happened that made Chorong go to headquarters for security.”

Suho raised his brows. He hadn’t thought of that possibility. Chorong was uncomfortable for many reasons, but they were all valid. Why hadn’t he asked?

Then he remembered seeing the tiredness in her eyes and felt sorry for being mean.

Turning to Namjoo surprised he asked, “How do you know? I don’t remember Donghae saying anything about this. Who told you?”

The words seemed caught up in Namjoo’s mouth causing her to hesitate ever so slightly. Then remaining cool she told, “No, Kris told me.”

Again excited, Suho raised a brow and looked at her.

“Ooh, Kris,” Suho spoke in a much lower tone to . “I see. You two are getting along quite well these days. So how close are you now?”

A flabbergasted laugh rolled out of her lips. Suho’s chest heaved as he laughed at her from inside. Whatever Namjoo was hiding, Suho thought Kris would come to him for help anyway. Then he would know just what it was that was going on.

~_____~

Finally awake, Tao walked sleepily out of his room, scratching his back and looked around with half-opened eyes.

“Donghae, is there food?” Tao asked, laziness coated in his tone.

Turning his head he peered around to find that the apartment was cold empty.

“Donghae?” Tao called out again, but no one answered.

Walking into the kitchen hopeful for leftovers he quickly spotted the pot on the table with a note underneath. Donghae was off on a job, but had given him a day of as promised last night. Laughing and smiling, Tao chucked the note aside before sitting down to eat.

Donghae’s apartment was homey and it even felt homey the longer he stayed there. It didn’t feel just like a temporary replacement home, but a place he came back to whenever he wanted and would still be welcomed. Tao thought he liked the feel of that.

Looking around through the silence he wondered if Namjoo was enjoying her day off and if she had any plans. Suddenly deciding that it would be boring staying in all day, he quickly finished his share of the porridge and packed some for Namjoo before leaving.

Tao could only think of sitting around with Namjoo and cooking with her again. This time he’d put in much more effort to get closer to her. Once they returned back to work he wanted to be with her instead of Suho.

Delighted and light hearted, he strolled toward her apartment ringing the bell expectantly.

At first no one answered, so he patiently rang the bell and waited again. When no one came again he wondered if Namjoo had gone out. Still hopeful he pressed his ear against the door hoping to hear her inside. When the door finally unlocked from inside he quickly brushed his shirt so that he’d look neat and waited.

Instead of Namjoo, Chorong appeared on the other side of the door. Confusion fluxed through him and he looked around doubting that he’d gotten the right place.

No, this was definitely Namjoo’s place. He recognized the hallway, the patterns on the carpet, and the identical white doors all around.

“Wh…” he started off still unable to comprehend the situation, “Namjoo…I came for Namjoo.”

He felt his heart sink, assuming she already had plans and he wouldn’t be able to impose on her.

“Ah…” Chorong went, “she’s out today.”

Then why was she here at Namjoo’s place?

“Did you come to drop that off?” Chorong asked, catching sight of the porridge he’d packaged up.

Disappointed, he nodded.

Chorong firmly smiled before offering, “I can take that for her.”

Tao hesitated. He wanted to give it to Namjoo himself, in person; face to face.

Why, he complained, was it like this?

Where did Namjoo go? Was she alone or with someone?

Tao felt like droning on over it, but just pressed his lips together and handed the porridge over.

When the door closed he wanted to complain to Donghae.

What kind of a day off was this?

~_____~  

“To the left some more,” Victoria waved her hand, “no, that’s too far off. A little to the right.”

She was having her own kind of fun now that Donghae had stopped by. Since he had been unexpected she thought she’d have a little fun with him. She knew, after all, very well why he was there.

After breakfast she’d talked him into cleaning up her place a bit since she was unable to stretch and move around as she liked. The doctor had told her to rest up a lot, and that she would do.

“Why can’t you do it right?” Victoria complained. “I said to the left!”

Donghae was cleaning her windows even though they were perfectly clean, so clean that a bird would mistaken it as an open room and fly into it. To be honest, Victoria had someone come clean for her since she was a tad too busy to do things on her own.

She watched him sigh in irritance and held back his anger before biting his lower lip. A smile crept up onto her lips as she sat there comfortably on the couch, a blanket draped over her.

“Here? Is this good?” Donghae asked.

Should she go easy on him?

No, she thought, she’d enjoy herself a bit more.

Shaking her head she said, “No. That’s not the spot. Just forget it.”

“I’m already doing it, so just tell me where the damn spot is.” Donghae spat determined.

Holding back her laugh she waved her hand to the left again, “Just about a centimeter from where your hand is.”

“Here?” Donghae moved his hand slightly, almost a centimeter perfect.

His measurements were on spot, she realized.

Shaking her head she went on, “You can’t do it. That’s not the righit spot.”

Heaving another deep breath he threw the towel onto the ground.

“Are you going to stop messing with me now?” Donghae shouted. “Is this that much fun for you?”

So he knew…

Now how to react?

Victoria shrugged him off simply, “Well if you knew why did you keep playing along? Now you made it boring.”

Tossing his head back he bit his lip before picking the towel up and sat down. This time he threw it against the coffee table at his feet and made himself comfortable. Propping his feet up onto the table he crossed his arms, leaning back into the couch. They were currently adjacent from each other, each shooting the other a stare.

“”Do you clean at all? You look good enough to be a housemaid.” Victoria started.

“I look good all around,” Donghae shrugged with a smug smile, “do you clean, Victoria?”

“I acutally don’t,” she told.

“That’s a shame.”

“For you it is indeed.”

She watched him bite down his teeth and smiled.

“Do you go home at all, Donghae?”

“Rarely.”

“Don’t you think your parents may need your help cleaning their home?”

“My mother lives with my brother’s family in the states since my father died. I’m sure they do the cleaning for her.”

It felt like a cold knife had just been pressed against . Swallowing, she turned away. She hadn’t meant to step on a mine in such a crude manner, but Donghae still seemed all too cool about it, which made it even worse.

“So,” Donghae spoke first after a moment of indulging in her wrong, “where’s that secretary of yours, Victoria?”

Turning to look at him she asked, “Are you here for me or are you here for her?”

He just stared back and shrugged.

“Well if you have no interst in me, I can’t really say,” Victoria went on smartly. “That information’s confidential.”

Donghae just stared back at her before suddenly flipping over to lie down.

“Then I guess I’ll wait,” Donghae presumed as he closed his eyes.

Victoria glanced over at him, wondering if there was something wrong with him. What did he have to do that he wanted to stay at her place for so long?

It irked her ever so slightly, yet she continued to look at him.

~_____~

After learning their lesson last time they parked far off down the side of the highway before starting toward the shed hidden in the forest. If anything were to happen, they’d make a run for it through the forest. Suho had made her promise that they’d stick together no matter what.

Cautiously approaching by remaining low within the thick forest they ran from tree to tree before eventually nearing. The grounds, as they expected, were empty. Nothing, but the sounds of nature and its wild creatures murmured in the distance. Even a brush of wind didn’t try to blow their hair back.

Namjoo peered out from behind the bark of a tree for sight of anyone before hiding back behind it. She gulped as if it would chew down her nervousness.

“Anyone?” Suho asked.

Namjoo shook her head, “But there may be some inside.”

Once she’d determined the sight clear, they quickly ran toward the next tree to hide. Her eyes darted around in search of some kind of heavyweight before she spotted an angular rock.

“Stay still,” she cautioned before quickly moving her arm out to toss it against the shed.

Quickly hiding herself again she held her breath and waited. Suho’s eyes widened and held his breath as well. They were like two runaways afraid to be caught by their strict parents.

When no one came out they waited a minute longer before eventually venturing out from their hiding spot. Namjoo glanced around before touching the glock hidden underneath her shirt, so that if anyone attacked she could pull it out right away. She felt somewhat safer after assuring herself of it.

They traveled back to back from the side of the forest toward the door, her eyes watching every gap of the forest for anyone as Suho worked to open the door. He knew more about picking a lock than she. Unlike what she expected, Suho knew a lot of underhanded tricks.

There was no noise at all before Suho lightly elbowed her from behind, “It’s open.”

“That was quick.”

“Be a master like me and you can do anything.”

Namjoo snorted at him before turning to follow.

Closing the door after him they scurried toward the back instead of searching around this time. The boxes had been left untouched, in their disoriented positions just as they’d left them the night they came. It was as if the gangmen hadn’t bothered to clean up at all, as if they’d gone straight to who was in charge of them.

Had this place been abandoned since then?

“I found it,” Suho exclaimed a second later. “Should we take the whole box?”

Namjoo stared back him unsure, “Should we?”

A moment of silence dropped in on them as they weighed the decisions in their head.

Once they took the documents they specifically came for they escaped through the forest. Suho, who’d been greedy, took more than they needed. At this point, it probably didn’t matter what they took anymore.

They ran down the street toward her car and drove off into the city for extra caution. Suho suggested they go into a drive-in theater for extra camouflage and listening to his strangeness, followed his advice.

Unlike the others, as the movie started they drew out the stacks of paper they’d stolen and started to go through them. There was background information on Victoria’s team along with pictures and detailed lists of cases they’d grabbed in relation to trafficking.

Lay, among them, had the most.

Suho and Namjoo couldn’t decide if that made him one of their targets too or not. To be cautious they set his biography into a ‘Maybe’ pile.  

Chorong and Kris were less involved in any type of trafficking incidents, so the two of them decided to put them into a safe pile. Victoria, like Donghae, led the troop so they assumed the trafficking team would try to put her in danger as well. And looking at the way things already were, Victoria was falling into their favor.

As they continued to dig through they discovered that the information on their group was much more detailed. There was even writing on Donghae’s sheet. They were of things of where he had graduated from, where he went when he was free, and the family members he had left in the country, which amounted to none. How this information was drawn up puzzled Suho and Namjoo.

Suho’s information detailed his raids when in the Military Operations and any links or sources he still had left to the people he used to work with, which weren’t many. Namjoo’s sheet was of jobs, the cases, and the people she’d ever dealt with through work.

Warnings had been written in side notes about them. They were bigger targets only because they were Donghae’s henchmen, his most trusted people.

“What’s this…” Suho started, “there’s nothing on Tao?”

“Really?” Namjoo grabbed the papers to look around. After a minute she proclaimed, “There’s really nothing.”

There was a happy gasp from Suho and she turned to look at him.

“We’re at an advantage.”

Namjoo continued staring at him, unable to catch on.

“They don’t know about him.” Suho sounded happy. “Tao’s…our secret weapon.” 

***Looks like Tao has a role after all! ;D