“Get out, hyeong. Not here.”

Yunho let out a small chuckle, glancing at Max lightly like he was a mere joke for him. “What, you think I came all the way here for a traitor like you?” He then moved his gaze to the tomboy next to him, who was clearly trying to shade her fear towards him.

Amber held herself not to bark at him as she tried to figure out what was going to happen after this. She’d heard about what Max did at Glasgow, how he chose to save Fei and even shot his own men. It wasn’t a surprise if Yunho decided to get rid of him anytime now.

“What do you want?” those words escaped ,- she couldn’t hold it any longer. The guy on the sofa glowed with a smile on his face.

“Time to go home, Amber. Aren’t you tired of running? Surrounded by those stoic agents 24/7? You must be exhausted.”

Max hardened his grip, and by now Amber could think of at least twenty seven different scenarios in her head of what this Yunho guy was going to do.

She returned the grip around her hand, wanting to let Max know that they were in this together.

“Your father left his toy to you.. and you’ve played with it, or so I’ve heard.” Yunho tilted is head, playing around with his own expressions. He looked like he had all the time in this world to stretch this conversation further.

“I don’t have it with me.” she said. The wound on her torn muscle started to throb again.

“Please, Amber. Work with me here. Even your father wanted to work with us. So why are you being like this?” he said lightly, acting like he was family.

The grip around her hand loosened, she caught Max looking away, silently staring at the envelope he gave her earlier. Yunho clapped, “Ah yes! I interrupted your story earlier, sorry Max. Please, continue.”

Max gritted his teeth as he glared at Yunho, cursing at him deep down. Amber only waited, her eyes followed where Max’s hand picked the envelope on her bed. He whispered the words into the air, but loud enough for the three of them to hear, “The Profiler.. belongs to the Kim family.”

Yunho nodded, approving his words.

“I thought you were on our side..” Amber said, studying his face under the flickering neon lights.

Max sighed, “No, it’s.. What I really meant is, your father sold the Profiler to the Gods..”

The term ‘Gods’ brought back all the information she had from her weeks of research. Rising Gods From The East, the secret organization overpowering some of the governments and ruling large bussinesses throughout the nation and overseas. Sometimes it was hard to think of Max as a member of this very organization, and it was even harder for her to imagine her father doing bussiness with these people.

“Then tell me why Dr.Noh sacraficed his life protecting the Profiler? Telling JYP to take care of me, hiding the software from you predators?!” she kept her eyes fixed on Yunho’s face, not wanting to read the truth on Max’s face. “Means my father wants the Profiler to be used for good!”

“Who told you that?” asked Yunho, still leaning back on the sofa.

“I read his letter to Dr.Noh!” her hand was no longer inside Max’s grip.

“I knew it. That rat is a bad influence for your father.” Yunho scoffed. “That was his own little ambition, to create fame with the Profiler. But you dad was smarter than that, choosing to work with us.”

“Stop bluffing y- -“

“He’s not bluffing.” Max cut her, while awkwardly putting his hand -which was no longer holding hers- inside his coat. “Your father sold the Profiler to us. It’s not a lie, because I was there..”

“What..?“

“I was the one asking him to. I made him believe that the Profiler would be in good hands.”

***

“Hoy Shen, you sure you’re not coming with us?”

“I’m sorry guys! Have fun at the KTV!” Changmin said, waving to his classmates before walking his path home.

He couldn’t wait to see his hyeong,- he’d been waiting for too long now. Maybe after nine years, he could return to the mansion, reunited with the rest of the boys.  Just thinking about it made his stomach twirled in excitement. Ahjumma Lee, who had been acting like her own mother since they left the mansion, was the one who kept reminding him to hold on a little longer.

“Tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow.. Just keep smiling.”  that was what she always said when he missed his brothers. Though he was just a kid when he received the mission, but he understood how big his responsibility was. A responsibility to make his hyeong happy.

From the gate of his house, he could hear Ahjumma Lee’s crazy laughters inside the house. A smile went across his face as he swung the wooden door open. Soon his view was flooded by a line of guards, some of them were familiar to him. Inside their neat black suits, they bowed a little as he took a step closer to the entrance. He smiled back to them, couldn’t  really control his face to be exact, knowing that his hyeong is inside the house.

“Changmin-ah! Come quick!” Ahjumma Lee shouted at him from the side of the house. He turned and passed their little garden, to be immediately welcomed by his hyeong and Ahjumma Lee on the open terrace.

“Jaejoong hyeong!”

The boy with the blonde hair grinned back at him, “Welcome home!”

He looked taller than Changmin could remember, and his baby fat wasn’t visible anymore. Though they were just separated by two years, Jaejoong seemed to look way more mature at that time. Especially since he didn’t wear a school uniform like him.

Throwing his shoes outside, he climbed onto the terrace floor and joined the two of them by the table full of dice-cut cold watermelon.

Changmin noticed how Jaejoong was trying his best to laugh along with Ahjumma Lee’s silly jokes, though he knew that his visit today was more than just because he missed the old lady. While letting them chat a little longer, Changmin awkwardly picked those watermelon cuts with the tiny fork ahjumma had prepared for them.

“..eat a lot, will you?! I fed you like a tiger since you were a baby and now you’ve grown into this ugly skinny boy? Aigoo..” Ahjumma Lee was still lecturing his hyeong. Changmin peeked through the sliding door behind them, the clock hanging on the kitchen wall showed him Amber was still in her Tae Kwon Do club at school. His hyeong picked the right time for a visit, he thought.

He glanced at the line of bodyguards surrounding their house. Was this visit going to be long? Jaejoong’s father could use just one of his trusted guards to send his son for a visit to a suburban place like this, Changmin wondered what got him all paranoid like today.

“Changmin, let’s go to your room!” the blonde said, helping ahjumma with the plates and glasses. It looked like he had managed to got himself out of Ahjumma Lee’s lecture. The woman herself had dashed to the kitchen, probably started making a special dinner.

“Hmm!” he said, as he closed the sliding door behind him before grabbing his backpack from the floor. He led his hyeong upstairs, where his tiny room was waiting for them.

Once he opened the door, Jaejoong quickly stormed into the room and locked the door for them. He pulled the spinning chair over and made himself comfortable there, facing Changmin who was just standing there, dropping his backpack to the floor. “What is it, hyeong?”

“Today. Father wants the Profiler by today, Max.” he said, skipping the hellos and introductions straight to his true intention.

Changmin took a seat by the end of his bed, trying to absorb his words. “But hyeong.. I mean, what am I supposed to say to him? I’m friends with Amber too, it would be weird if I come up to him and say weird stuffs as well.. right?”

Jaejoong took a quick deep breath, “Father said it’s been too long. It’s been nine years, and I’m afraid he’s going to take it by force if you don’t seal the deal now.”

It fascinated him to see the way Jaejoong talked to him after years passed by. He himself was only a middle high school student, and Jaejoong had been home-schooled ever since he could remember. But this conversation sounded like one of those heavy mafia talks on some black and white old gangster movies, and just like a good accomplice he was, Changmin stiffly nodded to his words. Jaejoong was right after all. Though sometimes it was still hard for him to accept the fact that his only purpose being transferred to this neighborhood was to...

With that, Changmin left his hyeong and rushed out of the house. One of the senior bodyguard came following him. “Max! Wait up!”

He ignored the big guy as he strode along the narrow street, still wearing his school uniform. Changmin didn’t like this idea at all, but at the same time he knew bad things would happen to him and his brothers if he didn’t get the Profiler as promised. Thinking that Professor Lee Mun Hee would agree to the deal was a long shot, he wasn’t even sure how he would do it. He just knew that he must get the Profiler before their Father laid his hand on Lee Mun Hee, or his wife..

..or Amber.

***

“How did you- -?!”

Changmin kept his eyes fixed to his feet. Professor Lee Mun Hee forgot to lower his voice, though luckily the study room was made soundproof so his wife wouldn’t hear a thing.

“Shen.. The Rising Gods from The East is just a myth. Come on, you’re not a kid anymore, what do you really want to talk about?” he said, sipping his black tea to calm himself.

“Ahjussi.. it’s not a myth. I mean, well.. my father is our leader. I have brothers back at home and..”

Lee Mun Hee let out a dry laughter. “If this is one of your pranks, I better get back to work now.” he rose from his seat after finishing his own tea. Changmin’s cup was left cold and untouched.

“Aniyo! Ahjussi, you don’t have to pretend anymore! The organization is real, you know it too, right?”

The old man stopped at his pace. He turned to the young boy without saying anything.

“My father is really interested in your invention, ahjussi. The Profiler.” Changmin quickly started before the professor change his mind.

Something shifted in his eyes, and Changmin knew the man was listening. He sat back on his spot, pouring another cup of tea. “So.. your father is really one of the Gods?”

Changmin nodded. He didn’t bring his photo or anything to prove it, so he just nodded again. “Well, my father sent a message through my hyeong today, he said needed The Profiler as soon as possible, with your permission, of course.”

His palms started to sweat as words began to jumble in his head. Information about the Profiler was limited, because all he knew that this software acts like a search engine specialized in people. Type any name and a list of people with the name would show up on the screen -well that was what he witnessed a few weeks ago when he did a little demonstration with his partner, Dr. Noh. “I’m sorry, for keeping my identity all these yea- -“

“It’s.. it’s alright, Shen.” he cut him with a smile, “It’s okay. Actually I’ve been asking myself, what kind of parents do you have, or which family you belong to. A smart kid like you must have come from a smart family as well, eh? And I was right.”

“Well.. our Father really- -“

A sudden knock outside the door paused his words.

***

“Come in!”

An officer slipped himself into the dark room, blinding Key with the small flashlight he was holding. Lowering his flashlight, he could see Key sitting awkwardly behind the steel table. “Here. You need to keep it on all the time. Got it?” he said, shoving him a blocky, worn-out walkie talkie with a bended antenna.

Key grabbed the thing and strapped it into his front pocket. It was a good thing they gave him a vest in the first place, because it was getting cold for him by the time it got darker outside.

“Do you have any questions?” the officer asked, focusing him back into reality.

“As a matter of fact, I do. Am I allowed to pee after the call? What am I supposed to say if he asked questions about this Hero guy? Just.. I mean, seriously, I think I should read more about him. Does he have any autobiography or something? Anything..?”

“Kim Kibum-ssi, just do it. JYP made you the man for a reason, right?” said the officer before landing a fat slap on his back. “We’ll be in positions now!”

He melted into his chair. On top of the table, a retro-style headphone sit connected to wires, going all the way to God knows where. If JYP’s plan worked, maybe tonight Key could see the sniper. If he could play his role right, he could probably save Amber.

Probably.

As much as he hated how the word seemed so fragile, he had no choice. Doing this with his father’s men was better than waiting in uncertainty back in the hospital.

“Key? Key, can you hear me?” a rustling sound came from the walkie talkie.

“Loud and clear.” he said, not realizing how much he sounded like a robot. He was nervous and the whole squad knew that.

“This is JYP.”

Immediately he straightened himself at the chair, unfortunately not out of respect, but merely because he knew the mission was about to start. Inside the four-walls room, where a tracker device was planted and cameras were hidden on the walls, Key put on the bulky headphone. A soft beeping sound marked the connection to whoever he was assigned to talk to. JYP chose to make it anonymous for him.

“Key, are you ready?”

“Hey, what’s going to..”

“Are you ready?”

He sighed, “I’m ready, alright. But at least tell me..”

“You’re going online in 10 seconds.”

Another beeping sound echoed in the room. “Hello? Mr. JYP, hello?” Key tried his luck but his walkie talkie stayed mute. A blitz of light ran down the wires, and for Key it was like watching a failed science project going to explode. A little piece of him wondered why the team didn’t just lend him a cellphone to call this certain somebody. If this was supposed to be an illegal phone call, then he was glad he was doing it with the cops.

“You’re connected. Go!”

The voice of the officer from the walkie talkie pushed him to the edge of the seat, as he pressed the microphone closer to his mouth.

“Hello? It’s me..!” Key started, he made sure he sounded desperate enough, “It’s me, Jaejoong!”

***

“Oh.. hyeong!” Changmin said, rising from the couch when Jaejoong walked into the study room. Lee Mun Hee had never seen the young boy before, but judging from Changmin’s reaction, he could be someone from the organization. And he thought the members should be at least fourty and up.

Slightly nodded to Changmin, Jaejoong chose his own seat facing the two of them. “Professor Lee, let me introduce myself. I am Kim Jaejoong, representing the Gods. Changmin here, or as what you’d like to call Shen, is a brother of mine.”

That was pretty straightforward, Changmin thought.

“Let’s get to the point, sir. Firstly, do you realize how potential your invention would be in the future?”

Changmin gulped. He had never seen his hyeong acting like this before. Jaejoong was only sixteen, and though he was the heir of the organization, he should at least pay a respect to the man before him. Worriedly he glanced at Professor Lee, see if he was offended or showing any dejection.

Lucky for them, he wasn’t. More surprisingly, he looked somewhat.. delighted.

“I have hopes for The Profiler, true. But, just one question, if I may?”

“Sure.” Jaejoong waited.

Lee Mun Hee sipped his tea nervously. Wait no, he wasn’t nervous at all, Changmin thought. He was excited.

“Are you two.. really from the organization? I mean, Shen is.. he’s been here playing with my daughter since five. Just how- - Can you explain this to me?” the professor said, staring back and forth between Changmin and the blonde-haired boy.

Jaejoong only smirked, “What do you think, professor?”

Changmin could only put his palms on his knees awkwardly. This was the part he hated the most. The part where he felt like a spy, like a betrayer to the little family he loved so much. It was real, his time with Amber, family dinners, everything was real for him. He wished to shout it out loud, but the silence between the three of them was thicker than fog.

The man stared longer at Changmin. “Honestly, I don’t know what to say..  If the organization sent his own successor to befriend my daughter, to befriend me, spending all these years to gain my trust, then.. well they did it.” he chuckled awkwardly, “I’ve been looking around for an investor for The Profiler, but now that you two came to me like this, I can’t really say no, right?”

For a split second there Changmin could see a faint smile of relief on Jaejoong’s face.

“Ahjussi, you’re.. really okay with this?” Changmin asked, once again surprised by his reaction toward this event.

He nodded, almost a little too enthusiastic. “What’s not good about it, Shen? The Profiler is my dream, and I’m sure Tae Hyun is going to agree as well.”

To this, Jaejoong reacted fast, “Yes, be sure to tell your partner about this offer as- -“

“No. No, no, I’m going to sign the contract now. There should be no doubt about this.” Lee Mun Hee cut him, much to his surprise. Changmin himself couldn’t believe on how easy this turned out. He knew how optimistic the professor could be, and how he always worked hard to finish his inventions, but this was far was beyond that. This offer could change his life forever and just like that he trusted two teenagers in front of him for a contract.

Changmin turned to see how his hyeong reacted, and just as he hoped, Jaejoong smiled.

That was all he needed to know.

Mission completed.

- - -

“Hyeong.”

“Hmm?”

“What do you think happened there?”

“I don’t know. Miracle?”

Changmin couldn’t shake off the odd feeling, “It was as if he was actually happy about it. I thought he was going to fight for his invention or something..”

“Silly. Who wouldn’t want a support from our family? A genious man like Professor Lee knows what best for his invention.” Jaejoong said, couldn’t be any prouder than that.

“Anyway, “ the blonde added, “I think it was a lot more easier because of you, Max. He trusted you, which was why he could trust our father in the first place.”

Changmin only smiled. “Are you going to visit again soon?”

Jaejoong chuckled, ready to enter is limo, “Shouldn’t it be you who’ll come and visit us? You have nothing more to do here, you can actually come home now, you know. Mission’s over.”

It was true. He almost forgot he had a home waiting for him back in Gangnam. It was a lie if he said he didn’t want to see his brothers. But it was also a lie if he said that he wouldn’t be devastated leaving Amber and school and everything in this neighborhood. This was the place he grew most of his memories, the place where he went to school for the first time. He loved it too much.

He’ll miss her too much.

***

Amber stayed silent, staring blankly at her bed sheet, clutching the letter her father wrote to her.

“The Profiler.. technically now belongs to the organization, or the brotherhood, or whatever you like to call it. It’s your father’s decision..” Max said, no longer sitting on her bed side. No longer holding her hands, no longer feeling her warmth.

Max kept his glance fixed on the windows. “I’m sorry.”

Yunho rose from his comfortable seat, “You two done talking? Because I have a long-lost brother to be found, if you don’t mind.”

Without a word, Amber moved to her side, pulling her backpack with her good arm and threw it to him. “Enjoy! Find your Hero or whatever.”

Yunho caught the backpack right before it touch the floor and smiled, “Ah, so you lied to me before? Every kids turned into good kids after someone read them a bedtime story, huh?”

Amber leaned back on her pillow, not willing to play any more games with him.

Carefully, Max placed his rose bouquet into the vase next to her, before going towards the door. “Come on hyeong, stop now.”

Some hasty knocks on the door broke the intense atmosphere. Max opened the door, only to be welcomed by a pale-faced bodyguard with a long-wired headphone on his shaky hands.

“A phone call.. from Master Jaejoong..”

Yunho pulled his glock out in instance, aiming it straight to Amber. “I knew something was fishy. That Kim Heechul, he was going after Jaejoong right? YOU UNLOCKED THE PROFILER FOR HIM!”

“Hyeong, don’t!” Max yelled, knocking the gun to the floor, making it spin around and stopped, hitting the legs of the bed. Yunho growled, sticking one of the pads to his ear, “Jae, is this really you?”

“Get me out of here!! I’m- - ”

“JAE! Hey, answer me! Tell me your..” Yunho stopped, sharply turning to Amber, “You! You know the location, right?!”

“I don’t know where he is!” Amber nearly screamed.

“LIES!”

“I gave Heechul a fake coordinate, happy??” she barked, not lowering her glance on him.

Max looked surprised, but at the moment he was more concerned about Jaejoong on the other line. “Hyeong, gwaenchana? What happened to you? What did they do to you?!”

“They’re here.. I can’t stay on any longer. I’M-  - -AAAARRGGHHHH- -“

Yunho nearly throw the headphone out of frustration when the connection was cut. “Someone trace the damn call!”

***

Key kept listening to the other line, until a tap on his shoulder snapped him back to reality. “That was a great job! Now we’re going to welcome them. Brace yourself.”

“I heard Amber there..” he mumbled, hanging his headphone loosely around the neck.

“They’re going to keep her alive, don’t worry. You did wond-”

“What if it was her..?”

The officer sat across the table, “What did you hear?”

“A gunshot.”

***

Hey guys~

It's been long since I last posted XD

College assignments are just so crazy lately, so I apologize for the late updates ;A;

About this chapter, well, it went back and forth between the present and the past,

Changmin's past is finally revealed *YAY*, and so if you have questions, I'm here to answer!

Hope you enjoyed this part :)

See you on the next update!

Drop your comments below guys, and tell me what you think :D

LET ME HEAR YOU SAY- - - *shussh I'm being all hyped up*