0700. 11/11/2012. Seoul NIS Tactical Intelligence. Seoul

“We’re starting… now!” Minho yells into an earpiece as the recruits take their places, Jonghyun walks in on the practice and waits outside of the simulation.

“5 minutes for infiltration, 5 minutes before the bomb blows up.” Minho says as he watches their progress from the screen attached to his arm. He puts on his own mask and watches from his hiding space.

“Clear!” He hears one of the recruits yell, followed by subsequent ‘clears’. One recruit passes by his door completely and he jumps out, 6 bangs go out and Minho shoots everyone on the team.

“Kim Jongin!” Minho barks at him.

“Yes sir!” He answers.

“You just got your entire team killed, you know that?” Minho yells at him and Jongin stares him down.

“It’s not his fault, I should’ve covered him.” Luhan protests from the back.

“Luhan, you were on point, he should’ve been covering you. If he was worth half the points on his badge, then he would’ve checked the breach right here, where I was hiding.” Minho says.

“Sorry.” Kim Jongin mumbles.

“In this situation, the bomb would’ve gone off by now and we’d all be dead.” Minho grumbles, walking back to his starting position.

“Geez, I said I was sorry.” Jongin says under his breath and Minho turns around to face him.

“What did you just say?” Minho asks him, staring him down condescendingly.

“I said I was sorry.” Jongin says a little bit louder, gulping.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it.” Minho says in short, succinct phrases. “In a takedown, sorry gets your team killed. Sorry means that someone is going home dead, someone won’t be returning to their family. Sorry means having more blood on your hands than you can handle. Do you understand?” Minho yells at him, Jonghyun stiffens quite visibly and clenches his fists.

“I said do you understand?” Minho tries again when the recruits stare at him with open mouths.

“Yes sir.” Jongin mumbles and Minho stares at him for another two seconds.

“I’ve had enough for today.” Minho says, “Class dismissed.” The recruits scurry out and Minho makes his way over to Jonghyun, taking off his NIS bullet vest. Luhan trails after him.

“You’ve got a tail.” Jonghyun says jerking his chin in Luhan’s direction and Minho sighs.

“Hey, don’t you think you were a little hard on Jongin today?” Luhan says approaching him.

“I think Minho was quite right actually.” Jonghyun speaks up from the side and Minho is surprised.

“Really?” Luhan says.

“Yes. In a situation where you’re on the scene, you have to look behind every corner because it means life or death. It means having to deal with losing your partner on the job and having to face their family. It means watching his wife cry, blaming the world when in reality, she should be blaming you. It means taking his son out to the father-son baseball games because his son has no father to grow up with.” Jonghyun says angrily and both Minho and Luhan are taken aback.

“So now you know.” Minho says quietly and Luhan bows deeply before walking away.

“Where did that come from?” Minho asks when Luhan is out of earshot.

“Oh, just channeling my inner tortured soul.” Jonghyun says giving a laugh but the corners of his eyes tighten.

“Do we have a new case?” Minho asks holstering his gun.

“We do indeed Mr. Choi.” Jonghyun says handing him the case file and Minho looks through it quickly.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Minho asks and they enter their own section of the NIS building to find SHINee waiting for them on scene.

“We’re getting posted as bodyguards huh?” Key asks Onew.

“Looks like it.” Onew agrees.

“Damn, this wasn’t part of my job description.” Taemin jokes and everyone laughs to ease the tension a little bit.

“So what do we have?” Jonghyun asks, grabbing the case files and looking for the corkboard only to find it replaced by a beautiful glass screen.

“Dude. What happened?” Jonghyun asks, looking around.

“We’re upgrading our technology!” Taemin says, handing him a roll of clear tape and a marker.

“Yeah, Taemin here decided it was better to have glass boards now because you can’t write on cork. He went and ordered the glass screens on his own time.” Key says rolling his eyes.

“In another week or so, we’ll be paperless!” Taemin says, his love of technology radiating through the excitement in his eyes.

“No!” Onew exclaims, eyes widening.

“Well, almost paperless for our technophobe here.” Taemin says sighing.

“It was worth a shot.” Jonghyun says shrugging.

“Whoa, are these stalker photos?” Minho asks, actually asking a question related to the case and everyone turns their attention to the photos Jonghyun just put up.

“Incredibly high definition, the camera used to take these must have cost a fortune.” Key says whistling.

“Shim Changmin and Jung Yunho.” Taemin identifies. “They’re both members of the popular boy band TVXQ under SM Entertainment.”

“Yeah, I bought their album a few months ago, “Keep Your Head Down” right?” Key asks and Taemin nods.

“So what’s our business with famous celebrities?” Minho asks, slightly confused.

“Well, you know those photos? They were taken by one of their fans.” Onew says and Jonghyun looks at those photos.

“Wait, these photos look as if they’re professionally taken, it shows them going to the hair dressers, on their car, heck, even windows of their house!” Key exclaims.

“Nothing screams stalker like the good ole creeping from the window.” Minho mutters.

“They’re called sasaeng fans; they’ve become so obsessed with their idol that it’s come to the point of stalking them.” Jonghyun explains and Onew nods.

“Some stars have reported instances where these so called stalker fans have broken and entered their homes, stealing private belongings, vandalizing things, etc.” Taemin says.

“They have no control over themselves anymore. On any given day, there will be around 100 sasaeng fans following any given idol group at one time.” Jonghyun says.

“People who try to make money off of sasaengs don’t help either, there are special taxis that you can ride in to follow your favourite celebrities. They’re willing to bend traffic laws in order to follow the idol.” Onew adds.

“Which means these people never have a moment of privacy, not even in their own homes?” Key questions and Jonghyun looks at him solemnly with a nod of his head.

“What did NIS call us in for then?” Taemin asks.

“Well, it’s not like we only investigate murders, this time we’re being hired as security detail for TVXQ.” Onew says.

“We get to meet them in person?” Minho raises his eyebrows.

“We’ll be with them around the clock to insure their protection as we investigate more into the stalking problems.” Onew clarifies.

“Cool.” Key says dryly.

“Not quite.” Jonghyun says attention on a small piece of stationary that was copied and faxed to them. “Look at this.” He says pointing to it.

“A death threat?” Minho asks.

“How can we be sure that these sasaengs mean it?” Key asks cryptically.

“Well, this note was sent to a PD who’d been harsh with TVXQ, this note was sent and of course the PD ignored it. The PD was just doing his job. The next day, the PD was found beaten to a bloody pulp.” Onew says and Minho whistles lowly.

“We have some psychotic fan that’s stalking celebrity idols and we’re being called in as bodyguards.” Jonghyun summarizes and Taemin puts up his hand shyly.

“Uh, guys, no offense but none of us, other than Minho, are bodyguard material.” Taemin says gesturing to his scrawny arms.

“Don’t worry! I signed us up all for tactics.” Onew says happily and the other four groan.

“Let’s just go meet TVXQ and interview them first.” Key says and the other three nod in assent.

“What are we waiting for then?” Onew asks with a grin and the five of them shrug on their black blazers and follow after him.