“Why are you asking me!?” Tao raised his voice, everyone turning to look at him.

Victoria almost bit her tongue, “Because they’re your team. Do you not know why else?”

She watched Tao bit his lower lip as his face crinkled up with impatience, “Do you think I keep a tab on them twenty-four-seven? Am I like you? Do you think I want to keep a tab on them so that I can pick at their loopholes and make that a weakness of them? Am I like you?!”

“Tao, calm down,” Lay hushed from the side.

Tao shot him a look before turning back to glare at Victoria whose insides were about boiling.

“Do you know what happens to noobs who talk back to their superior?” Victoria stared him straight in the eye. “They get cut from the team.”

Tao rolled his eyes as if she was beign ridiculous and even added to that a hoard of laughter.

“Do you think I’m scared of you?” Tao shot back.

Victoria gritted her teeth, “Do not think you’re permitted to act as you like, Tao.”

“Tao, that’s enough,” Kris tried to which Tao abruptly turned toward him with a threatening demeanor.

Victoria was just about having enough of this delinquent. How dare he act up at work!? To her and to his team mates?! No, she wouldn’t be like Donghae. She would discipline Tao. She’d let him know just who exactly he was messing with.

Turning toward Lay with her insides burning up she demanded angrily, “Get a hold of Donghae right now. I want to know what he exactly he’s been doing with his team.”

“Yes,” Lay immediately nodded and hurried out of the room to call Donghae.

As Lay walked out Victoria glued her eyes onto Tao. By now she could no longer tolerate Donghae’s team. They were unprofessional and lacked a priority for work.

Victoria slightly turned when she heard loud footsteps hurrying toward the meeting room. Lay also quickly stepped back into the room with relief on his face.

“They’re here,” Lay announced.

Suho and Namjoo hurried into the room just a moment later. As they took to apologizing for their late entrance Victoria eyed them cautiously. There was a bruise swollen on the side of Namjoo’s face and the both of them looked somewhat pale. The dark bags emanating underneath their eyes also caught Victoria’s attention.

“What happened to your face?” Victoria questioned.

“I tripped,” Namjoo answered calmly.

Victoria slightly narrowed her eyes at them, “Why were you two late?”

“Actualy, Namjoo was supposed to pick me up and I insisted that we stop by the hospital to check out her injury,” Suho added. “That’s why we’re somewhat late.”

“You’re an Eagles’ fan?” Lay questioned from the side.

Suho quickly glanced down at his jacket and pressed a hand against it before laughing somewhat awkwardly.

They were unusual, Victoria deemed, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it just yet.

“I hope you’re going to take your assignments today seriously,” Victoria started. “Lay, Chorong, Kris, and Tao; you’re splitting up. Kris and Tao will be doing a separate search. Lay and Chorong will do another search.” She turned to eye Suho and Namjoo, “You two stay here. I want you to look for anyone named Lee Hyun who goes with the alias Jae.”

Turning back to the group she ordered, “Lay, Chorong; come see me before you depart.”

With that Victoria walked out of the room, her insides still fuming about how Donghae had chosen not to show up. She would give him a piece of her mind when she saw him and she’d definitely tell him off about Tao. That delinquent needed better discipline.

~_____~

“What happened?” Kris asked the moment Victoria left the room.

“I told you, I tripped.” Namjoo sternly lied.

“Are you ok?” Lay wondered from the side. “Looks like you fell hard. You should put an ice pack on it.”

Namjoo nodded.

“Don’t worry,” Suho assured, “I’ll make sure she takes care of the swelling. You guys should hurry on. Victoria wouldn’t be too happy to see you guys still lingering around.”

Chorong shot him a quick glance before turning to walk out.

“Anyway, good luck to you guys,” Lay stopped in the middle of the hallway to look at Kris and Tao. “Some loansharks can be pretty dangerous.”

“We’ll be fine,” Kris told. “Be careful yourselves.”

“Don’t fight,” Chorong cautioned taking a glimpse of Tao, as if warning him.

“Eh…” Lay sounded and nudged her, “why would they fight? Victoria may have been harsh this morning, but don’t take it personally Tao. Victoria just wants us to do well.”

Remaining quiet Tao turned to looks elsewhere. When Chorong and Lay walked off Kris turned to glance at the moody Tao, wondering if something was wrong.

“Something on your mind?” Kris wondered.

“Not your business,” Tao muttered as he turned to walk away leaving Kris to stare after him baffled.

What was Tao so angry about?

~_____~

Lay found Victoria down the hallway isolated from the others.

“What’s going on?” Lay asked as they approached.

“Plan’s changed,” Victoria announced and held out a picture to them. “You’re not going after loansharks.”

“We’re not?” Chorong asked surprised.

“No,” Victoria looked at her, “we’re going to Yeongwol. You and Lay are going with me.”

“What about the others?” Lay asked.

Victoria glanced up at him and eyed them both before finally sharing, “Tao and Kris will do what they have to do. I can’t trust Suho and Namjoo at this point.”

She noticed both Lay and Chorong’s faces turn into frowns.

“If they know about this they’ll be sure to let Donghae know. I know Donghae’s up to something already, so for now I can’t let anyone on Donghae’s team know what I’m doing,” Victoria summarized. “We’re going to look around this area for anything suspicious and ask around for clues regarding any missing girls.”

“What about you?” Lay asked.

“What about me?”

“What about your condition? Can you already start going out on missions?”

“Nothing will happen. Lets go before Donghae arrives.” Victoria stated. “You two head outside first. I’m going to check on Suho and Namjoo.”

They watched Victoria walk away struck with confusion by the sudden change in plans.

“Do you think Suho and Namjoo are really up to something?” Chorong asked.

“I hope not,” Lay said, but even if he hoped so he knew that that bruise on Namjoo’s face had its own story. Whether she had really tripped or not was really worth questioning.   

~_____~

Suho watched Namjoo poke her head out of the door before calling for him to hurry after her. When his steps didn’t meet her definition of quick she grabbed his hand to drag him toward the first aid room then to the library.

“Do you really have to lock the door?” Suho questioned watching Namjoo turn the lock before hurrying toward him.

“Take your jacket off,” Namjoo ordered and pulled her hair back behind her ear. “We can’t risk having anyone walk in on us. How are you going to explain your cut?”

Obediently slipping out of his jacket he set it aside, “I didn’t realize this was a baseball sport’s jacket. Are the Eagles a baseball team?”

“I don’t know,” Namjoo muttered pressing a cotton ball with some cleaning alcohol on it.

Suho let out a loud shout and drew his arm away from her. “It hurts.”

“Of course it’s going to hurt,” Namjoo muttered through gritted teeth. “Stay still, will you? You don’t know what that knife’s touched.”

“That grosses me out. Do you really have to say that? I suddenly get wild images in my head.” Suho groaned.

“Who do you think Lee Hyun is? Didn’t Donghae speak about him?”

“Yea, he did,” Suho replied before his heart jumped at the knock on the door.

“Suho? Namjoo?” It was Victoria.

Suho’s eyes widened and he turned to look at Namjoo as if she might have a solution.

“Are you in there?”

“O…oh…y…yea,” Suho called out. Turning to Namjoo he whispered, “Hurry up!”

“I’m almost done!” Namjoo whispered back agitated.

He felt her brush the cotton ball around his cut before quickly slapping a bandage on. As she took to throwing the cotton ball into the first aid box he quickly slid into the jacket and watched her hide the box among the books on the shelf.

If Victoria knew that he was also injured she would certainly know that they’d been somewhere last night. And if they had to explain it to her everything that had to do with their plan and Donghae’s plan would be in jeopardy.   

Suho relaxed in spot as Namjoo walked toward the door to unlock it. Victoria stepped in as Namjoo stepped back from the door. Very quietly Suho could feel her eyes run themselves of him, as if she might be able to read his mind. Never had he felt such scrutiny since his school days when the teacher condemned him to detention.

“What are you two doing?” Victoria questioned. “You’re not starting your search yet?”

“We were,” Namjoo quickly answered. “We thought we’d look in the books to see if there was anything. Lee Hyun could be a criminal so far as we know and criminals often use aliases.”

Victoria looked Namjoo over before turning to look at him.

“Don’t worry about us,” Suho smiled awkwardly. “We’re stuck here all day, aren’t we?”

He turned to look at Namjoo.

“Yes, don’t worry about us.”

“I’m going to be out for a bit,” Victoria explained. “Report to me when I come back.”

The two of them nodded and watched her walk out.

Scratching the back of his head he turned to look at Namjoo, “She’s really onto us, isn’t she?”

~_____~

“Is it possible to also locate a person in another province?” Donghae leaned onto the tall counter.

He’d gone to the police station that early morning. There was only one thing he was after.

Lee Hyun.

The frantic need to find out who he was and what he did for a living had suddenly become important. Victoria was looking for this man and had spoken about him as if he was someone Donghae knew.

Donghae didn’t know anyone who went by Lee Hyun, which but all told him that this man was an important obstacle that would lead him to Hyukjae. And he would do anything just to get closer to Hyukjae.

He’d even spend all day at the police station if he had to. If Victoria wanted to throw him a tantrum about why he didn’t go to work with Tao, he’d blame it on her.

“Yes, it’s possible, it might take some time though. We have to transfer records,” the officer behind the counter replied.

“Is it possible to have information faxed?” Donghae wondered. “This is urgent.”

He’d gone to the police station because real people search at headquarters were only used for criminal profiling. Plus, he didn’t want to do it while Victoria watched him over his shoulder.

“What’s this person’s name?” The officer asked.

“Lee Hyun,” Donghae answered only to have to officer look up at him after a few seconds.

“What about his age, hometown, family?”

“Oh…I don’t know. Can you try to look for anyone here in Seoul and Pohang who goes by that name?”

The officer sighed as if frustrated, but Donghae didn’t really sympathize with him.

“I need all information about him, as much as possible,” Donghae added.

The officer nonchalantly nodded and Donghae walked over to take a seat by the chair close to a lamp and a table full of magazines.

Who exactly was Lee Hyun? What did he do and why had Victoria made it sound like he knew that man?

~_____~

Tao couldn’t stand being near Kris. Every second that passed by in that person’s presence only brought to him images of doing evil. He wanted to punch Kris, pull his arms to his back, and tie him up then throw him into the trunk of the car.

He wanted to scream at Kris and ask him to take back all his feelings for Namjoo. He wanted to pound Kris to a pulp and ask him why he liked the same girl. He wanted to hit Kris over and over and tell him to take back the night with Namjoo.

Tao wanted to do the most awful things as he sat restrained in the passenger’s seat of Kris’ car. He was like a tornado unleashed and slowly growing to its full potential. He was a hot iceberg about to drive into Kris’ free sailing boat. He was like a sharp razor ready to use his sharp blades.

“If we find them, I’ll do the talking,” Kris explained as he stepped out of the car. “Don’t get into a fight with them. Loansharks can be arrogant, but I don’t think Victoria is looking for us to bring in anyone today.”

Tao followed sullenly without answer.

Stopping in his steps Kris turned to look at him, “Tao, are you listening?”

Tao swerved his eyes over to look at Kris angrily and said nothing. He didn’t want to find stupid loansharks. He didn’t want to do any stupid missions. He wanted to blow off his heat and that was all. He wanted Namjoo and only Namjoo. Not that baby or anything else.

Brushing by Kris he stomped down the street.

“Tao!” Kris called after him. “Where are you going!? Tao!”

Kris’ voice became distant as Tao’s sped up his steps. Up ahead he spotted a man with dark sunglasses over his eyes, a silver can in his hand. That man was a liar; he just wanted to eat off others while he sat away begging for more money. Tao knew many kinds of beggars. He’d been one in his prime. He knew them well when he saw them.

Suddenly angry Tao hurried forward and kicked the can out of the man’s hand.

“Ow! Hey!” The man shot up to his feet.

Tao felt the round man shove him.

“What the do you think you’re doing!? That was my money!”

“You’re the en liar! You piece of lazy trash!” Tao shoved him back, his angry loosening within him.

The man fell back against the brick building and passersby stopped in their steps, gasping away as they watched.

“You want to go?” the round man stepped out.

Tao jutted out his jaw and tightened his fist.

“Tao! Stop it! Tao!” Kris shouted as ran at him.

In that sane second Tao felt his face flush to the side from the round man’s punch. Suddenly bursting he jumped forward at the round man, struggling to strangle him while Kris grabbed him from behind.

“Are you crazy!? Tao! Let go of him!” Kris continued.

Upon his voice Tao flushed up with even more irritance and letting go of the man twisted around to shove Kris off. Within the next split second Tao could flung his fist out into Kris’ face knocking him to the ground. Tao could hear Namjoo telling him to stop liking her and then hearing about the baby. Rage surged even more through Tao as he lunged toward Kris pulling him to his feet.    

“I hate you!! You took everything from me!” Tao screamed before tossing Kris out into the street without thinking.

He breathlessly regained his consciousness when he heard a loud thump and Kris landed on the street a second later.