An hour past twelve the next night, Kyuhyun travelled through the corridor of Donghae and Ryeowook’s headquarters. There was a guard accompanying him to the designated room, just as there had been a security person that came to pick him up from his apartment. Taemin was a few steps behind, relying on crutches to support his weight while the wound was still fresh.

“Are you sure they’re back already? I thought the auctions started at midnight.”

Kyuhyun glanced at Taemin before striding into the provided room. Waiting until the boy appeared in the doorway, he said, “I’m not sure, but my guess is that they didn’t stay for the auctions tonight.”

“That’s a good guess,” Donghae remarked, coming up behind Taemin.

The boy jumped, hurrying to get out of the way. Kyuhyun grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards the couch. With some fumbling grace, Taemin landed himself a seat, setting the crutches aside with difficulty.

Ryeowook appeared behind Donghae, hands in his pockets, eyes far away. He took a seat across from the opposing pair, crossing one leg over the other. Kyuhyun stared at him openly, but with a certain subdued heat that did very little to bother Donghae. So long as he wasn’t burning with desire or anything, the man would let it pass.

As for Taemin, he couldn’t stop watching Kyuhyun. Now that he had a better idea of their history, he saw what others were probably missing. The expression that haunted Kyuhyun the previous night was back on his face, but much quieter and better masked now. Taemin should’ve been hurt at the affectionate gaze, but he couldn’t help but become further enraptured by Kyuhyun for his inexplicable loyalty. This man had been waiting for the same person since two years ago, and continued to wait.

So…why weren’t they together? What force pulled them apart some pitiably? Two people who were meant to meet again and again on opposing sides…why did they have to fall in love?

“There’s a large gathering in three days time,” Ryeowook stated, “high and low ranking members of the ring will be there for the biggest sale of the year. It would be best to trap them then and take down as many as possible.”

“What should we do?” Kyuhyun questioned.

Donghae fiddled with a trinket on the table between them. “You’ll be part of the extermination. Isn’t that obvious?”

“What’s our exact job?” he sighed.

“Call in backup and have them clean up the mess. Simple,” Donghae let his head fall to one side, eyes lidded. “We’ll take care of the rest.”

“Then you expect us to take custody of all the victims? We’re the pity party?” Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow.

A smile twitched on the other man’s lips. “When you put it like that, it’s excessively demeaning.”

“No matter how you put it, it’s demeaning,” he scoffed, “Don’t you realize already that it’s a pain in the for us to work together? And now you’re expecting us to be your clean-up crew?”

Ryeowook cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the group. “Take custody of them, or we’ll get rid of them using our own means,” he offered, “It’s your choice.”

“That’s not a choice!” Taemin blurted, covering his mouth the next second. Looking down at his lap, he tried to calm his racing heart, unable to grasp the outburst. Why had he said that just now? It kept replaying in his mind, frantically spinning in circles. “Uhm,” he began quietly, “I mean…”

Kyuhyun rubbed his forehead uneasily. He said nothing though, deciding to let the newbie figure out how to get out of the situation himself. Helping cover up his mistakes wasn’t part of the job.

“It’s always a choice,” Ryeowook responded precisely, “your moral system was a choice; so if you feel that there is no choice then the choice should be clear.”

Taemin said nothing this time, biting his lip.

“I’ll make a few calls tonight,” Kyuhyun stated, “We’ll have a full unit here by the operation.”

“How can we trust you?” Donghae smiled simply, eyes filled with challenge.

“How can I trust you?” Kyuhyun shot back.

“I don’t think it’s possible for you to take the chance of going it alone.”

“I could drop the mission and claim your takeover of the case.”

Donghae chuckled, “That’s true. But what will you do about the effect of that honesty? Won’t your agency see it as a failure on your part to take both us and the slave ring out at the same time?”

“Maybe,” Kyuhyun responded, “but at least then I’ll know what I’m getting myself into.”

“Taking risks is part of the business.”

“That’s the only thing our businesses have in common.”

Taemin stared in awe at the banter, trying to keep up with the shifts and the unspoken words. There was so much more to their conversation, and yet he couldn’t seem to grasp half of it. Glancing at Ryeowook, he saw the man avoiding the topic. Taemin hardly thought he wasn’t catching on. If anything, he was probably a major part of the allusive words and phrases.

“We’re done for the night,” Ryeowook murmured, standing up. “We will trust you to do as you’ve said. A car is waiting outside.” He began walking to the door where a guard opened it for him, waiting patiently for Kyuhyun and Taemin to get up as well.

Donghae followed after his partner, only to be stopped by Kyuhyun.

“Aren’t you at all concerned?”

There was a long pause before Donghae replied, “I am constantly concerned about a number of things. Don’t put yourself on too high of a pedestal.” And then he was gone.

Kyuhyun handed Taemin his crutches, muttering rather absently, “Dip.”

“Do you really trust them?” Donghae lounged on the couch of one of their private offices. A digital blue print of the dealer’s base was projected on a table in the middle of the room. Ryeowook stood over it, sipping a glass of wine.

He shook his head in reply, making a slow circle around the blueprints. “All of the cameras were disabled tonight, correct?”

“Yeah,” Donghae nodded, “If you don’t trust them, then why are you putting so much faith into their independent promises?”

Ryeowook squinted at a particular spot on the projection. “There’s a secret entrance here. It would be a good escape route in case of a discrepancy. We’ll need to post a guard there.” He glanced at Donghae, adding, “It’s not a matter of putting faith in their assurances. Whatever they decide to do will matter very little.”

“And why do you say that?”

“Because we initiate the plan tomorrow night,” Ryeowook replied, resting a hand on the edge of the table. “The agency’s forces will arrive to clean up just as instructed.”

Donghae laughed, head thrown back. “I should’ve known…you really are Siwon’s apprentice.” He waved Ryeowook over, a warm gleam in his eyes. With a faint sigh, the slender male strode over to him, smiling a little. “Let me see if I got this right,” Donghae placed his hands on the other’s hips, pulling him closer.

“It’s not a difficult deduction,” Ryeowook mused.

“I was wondering what you were thinking when you told them to join us. I thought perhaps it was surveillance, but I started to wonder if that was really true when I considered what Kyuhyun means to you.” Donghae tugged the man down to his lap.

“This is my mission,” he remarked, “I wouldn’t jeopardize it because of an old relationship…or whatever you would call that.”

“Do you think they’ll try to undermine the operation?” Donghae questioned softly.

Ryeowook set the glass of wine aside, draping his arms around his lover’s shoulders. “In two days…that’s the soonest they would be able to disrupt our plans. It’ll already be too late by then.”