“Key! Answer me! Anyone over there, hey!” Amber yelled to the phone, yet again another beep devastated her.

“Can you.. please, call him back?” she turned to Max, who was still standing at his spot, ”..and who the hell was that dude?!”

Calmly he took the phone receiver and clicked it back on the wall. “He’s a field technician working for JYP. Key is safe with them.”

“I thought he’s in the hospital, Detective Kim was shot, right? He’s with his dad, he should be.” it came out of her like statement instead of a question.

Max looked tired as he said, “Yes, he was at the hospital. But then JYP offered him a chance to help- -“

He stopped when Amber simply left him to the main cabin. It seemed pretty clear that anything he said at the moment could not fix her- she was already broken.

The Japanese agents were back at their seats when Amber entered the cabin. She anticipated the explanations and consolation words to come, but none of them happened. Just the subtle humming of the machine underneath them. She strode to the front of the cabin, making sure that every pair of eyes there noticed her presence. Max was not an exception as he took the back seat, watching her with the rest of the agents. Waiting.

“I need something fast,” she started, as she stood facing them, “..fast enough to run around China’s great firewall, or anything around that speed.”

They seemed to be puzzled, but remained cool as one of the two female agents between them raised her hand, “I’m sorry, but, can you please explain what are those requirements for?”

Amber could feel her toes curled inside her sneakers as she tried to come up with more words, strong enough to win her a deal. If she wanted to end this, she had no choice but to dive into the mess. But she had to make sure she knew what kind of mess she was going to dive into.

“Jaejoong. This hero you all desperately wanted to protect,” she continued, “Whose hero is he, really? Their hero or our hero?”

She felt the intensity of her question when Max gave her that look. The look that often came with the “trust me-let me explain” formula, which had gotten really old and tonight she wanted to do it her way.

“All I need to do is to find him, right?”

They stayed still, some of them were still drawn in discussion, while the pilot spoke through the intercom in the background, telling them they were about to land in Tokyo.

“Then I will do it. I will find him.” she let her words resonated between the agents. “I will find hero. But will you work with me?”

The female agent nodded to her, “Of course we will, we- -“

“Tell this to my face: that every single one of you, including you, Max, are willing to work with me till the end. That there will be no secrets in the process, because I will need you to provide me with every information I need, the ones I can’t hack to get. That there won’t be any change of plans without me knowing and agreeing with it. If you guys need me that badly to find him, those are the things I ask from all of you.”

Max stood from his seat, ignoring the hint that she wasn’t done with her words yet.

“There’s one more thing,” she continued on, “I need to save a friend first, before we get into the hero business.” she finished her words, and Max slumped back on his seat, defeated by her choices.

***

As soon as the tech guy cut the phone call, Key found themselves trapped inside a circle of men in black jackets. The door that was still holding up for them two seconds ago, now laid in pieces on the floor, revealing all the knocked out agents outside. They were officially on their own.

“I’m really glad I made that phone call.” a bitter smile crossed Key’s face when one of the men aimed the gun to his head.

“Where is Kim Jaejoong?” the man with the silver chain necklace growled.  

“So this is what it’s like to be in a cliche action movie,” he scoffed, pressing his forehead to the gun, “No matter what I say, you’ll shoot me anyway, right?”

He got elbowed on the ribs by the tech guy, who was trembling on his knees, not brave enough to stare back at the men. At this point, Key couldn’t care any less, if he was going to die, or tortured first before thrown to the bottom of the sea with a pair of cement shoes -he watched enough crime dramas to feed his imagination-  or if he could even get out of this situation.

He nudged the gun barrel with his forehead challengingly, “Come on, shoot me. It’s what you guys do anyway, right? Shooting innocent people.”

The man clicked the trigger, and he knew he would never forget that sound, that sleek and cold metal click. As the sound seeped into his chest, his father’s face came to him, right when the old man tried hard to hold onto his life that night. How did it feel, to have a bullet inside his body? That time his father didn’t even get to smile to his mother or even him, before a bullet put him in a long sleep. This time, he had done the right thing. He had talked to the person he cared the most before he die, so hopefully the pain of the bullet wouldn’t feel as bad.

From the side of the door, a hand waved to him. Key squinted and saw an agent crawling at the floor outside, trying to reach the room with every bits of his remaining breath. In a blink of an eye, the gun darted from his forehead to the struggling agent, delivering a messy hole on his forehead in a flash.

Before Key could even process the sudden event, the gun had kissed his forehead again, the heat of the shot earlier still lingered on the tip of the cylinder, marking death on his head.

“Such a big commotion coming from the coward JYP, Kim Jaejoong must be here. That, or a very good reason for us to be here.” the man said, once again pulling the trigger of his gun. Key glanced at the lifeless body of the agent by the door, then to the tech guy who had been shaking terribly next to him. No one talked to him anymore through the walkie-talkie. JYP hadn’t sent anyone to rescue him on the last moments. It was positive that they were abandoned, and that was enough for him to do what he was going to do next.

Key put on his best tired-looking face, rising to his feet as gentle as he could. Completely aware of the guns aiming for his head. “Oh, come on. Seriously? I didn’t think it would be this bad till you can’t recognize me anymore.”

“Don’t pull anything funny.” the silver chained guy growled, lowering his gun to Key’s neck.

“Shoot me and father’s going to shoot you.” he said, waiting for the guy’s reaction. The henchman didn’t move his gun at his words. He stood still, seemed to be weighing if his words worth a bullet.

“If all of you are so eager for me to come home, the least you can do is to stop acting so rude to me.” Key said, earning death glares from them.

He could hear the tech guy sobbing next to him, and Key really wanted to stop him from crying before they shoot them dead. Maybe if he stopped crying, he could focus more on making escape plans. But it was all just a thought, an idea that was never going to happen because when he turned to his right, the tech guy was staring blankly at him, already lying on his own pool of blood. Key was sure that a second ago, he could still hear his faint sobs. He's dead. He's really dead.

One by one they put their guns down, but the man with the silver chain kept his gun stored under Key’s chin, still interested in blowing his head as planned. Key closed his eyes, feeling the cold steel dancing at his adam’s apple. He stayed silent, wanting to make the best of his last words. Then he said it low, delivering every words carefully, making sure that he wouldn’t regret them, “Tell father to eat a lot, and that I’ll miss him.”

As a reply, he heard a click against his throat, and right then he knew he didn’t regret those words at all.

“Forgive me for doubting you, Kim Jaejoong-ssi.”

He opened his eyes, seeing the gun snaking away from his neck. Key needed to restrain his face from any kinds of shocked expressions when he realized that he had just won this battle. He couldn’t believe they bought his words and that a second ago they officially declared him as their long-lost Kim Jaejoong. It was surreal.

“It’s alright.” he nodded, slowly returning to the cool and composed Kim Jaejoong. Heck, he didn’t even know what kind of person he was in real life. But if these minions believed his version of their master, then all he needed to do was to keep being that man.

“Are you ready to leave, sir?” the silver chained guy asked, gesturing for the broken door with the dead agent guarding by the frame.

He curtly nodded and they led him out of the room, welcoming an ocean of men covered in red. They were still alive a few hours ago, shouting orders to one another, loading bullets into their glocks and fastening their vests under their jackets. They were said to be the best agents with countless successful missions in the past. But all he witnessed was their blood-caked face and weapons laying still next to their bodies.

They led him out of the maze-like buildings and by the end of the road he could see an SUV waiting for them. “But, sir, what happened to your face..?” the silver-chained guy asked, while Key was just trying hard not to flinch at the sight of a few more bodies they passed on the way.

“I needed a fresh start, I guess.” he said, waiting for a gun to be poking at the back of his neck. But they just kept walking, and the silver-chained guy didn’t ask any further. Good, because God knows how long he would be able to make more right answers.

***

“Do we need to inform JYP about this?” one of the female agents, Mina, spoke as she and Max stood at the back of the facility. Their initial plan to bring Amber to JYP’s headquarter in Tokyo had to be canceled because of Amber’s sudden request. This storage was the only place that would go undetected by the HQ nor Yunho’s men as long as no big changes occur in the next few hours.

“No need to, I’ve contacted Jia. She gave me an OK.” Max said, watching as Amber began working with the computer they provided. The rest of the agents were basically just guarding by, unsure what to do when Amber refused all their helps, even an offer of assistance from their IT technician. There seemed to be this invisible wall around her that kept everyone outside while she made her way into her father’s Profiler.

“Rest while you can, Max. I need to get back to the team.” the agent nodded in respect to him before joining her partners at the far end of the compartment. He bowed in reply, watching her go before letting his eyes back to the tomboy.  

For years he had been watching her through the windows of her schools, through the hidden cameras he cleverly put between the dusty bars of her apartment ventilation, capturing her little details, unconciously memorizing her gestures in everything she did. Especially her hacking-gesture, just like what she was doing right now. Legs crossed on top of the chair, with her back crooked to the front, eyes carefully sweeping the screen, while her bony fingers attacking the keyboard mercilessly. Not to forget the bangs, that would always fall to her face covering her eyes. She would never stop even for a second to swipe those hairs off, as if there was really nothing from the beginning that separated her from the codes.

 “Hey.”

. . .

 “MAX!”

Max snapped out of his bubble of thoughts “Yes?”

Amber nodded to the computer screen, hinting him to come and take a look. “Have my father said anything to you? Something weird, completely unrelated to codes, or a story? Anything?” she didn’t waste a second once he arrived behind her. Max could still caught the stiffness in her voice, clearly trying to keep the same amount of invisible distance between them.

“Nothing like that. If I’ve heard something like that, I would have told you sooner.”

Again, she pointed at the screen, “I’ve tried everything. Look at this. It required something else to unlock it. I thought 1 2 4 7 3 1 7 was the key.”

Max shook his head again. “Sorry, as long as I could remember, your father didn’t leave me any trace.”

“Maybe I missed something in his letters..” she answered herself before digging the backpack and threw herself into the letters. Flipping the pages over and over again as if the words would change every single minute. It was obvious that the hacker had hit a deadend, but she staggered anyway, for the sake of a high-school-crush she fell head over heals for.

“Key’s in!” Mina shouted from across the room, “But we can no longer track him since about 25 seconds ago. Either he’s been found out, or they set up a system to disable any tracking device.”

Amber turned, frantically shoving the letters back into her backpack, “We can’t lose him! I haven’t even break this Profiler- - - oh it!”

“We had eyes around the area, so for now we need to wait. As soon as Kim Jaejoong is found, we’ll be able to offer a trade. Kim Jaejoong for Kim Kibum.”

“Why did he have to pull the stupid act?! Why not just surrender or something!” Amber slumped to her chair, keeping herself from crushing the mouse beneath her fingers. At first she thought Max was just trying to trick her into finding Hero when he told her about what happened. That Key was involved in a stupid mission to lure the brotherhood in. That suddenly he became Kim Jaejoong and JYP gave absolutely no concern about it. No orders. No plans. No announcements. It was as if the time when his men was slaughtered, JYP was dead as well. What mattered more to her was the fact that he didn’t provide enough back up. How could Key end up being alone with a wimpy technician and a gang of gunners from the brotherhood?

“Did JYP plan this to happen?” she turned to find Max’s eyes, “Yes or No?”

“None of the agents knew why Key was chosen to help the mission. But seeing how this all turned out, we assumed it’s JYP’s plan from the beginning. He needed someone to enter their house.” Max said, once again surprising Amber with the fact that he knew more about that mission than her, though at the same time it showed how much JYP’s people had entrusted him with the amount of information.

As if the shock wasn’t enough, someone crashed through the back of the warehouse. Two agents quickly went to check and Mina hurriedly prepared the team to Amber safely. Max swiftly pulled out his own glock as he stood guard behind his childhood friend.

“It’s me, it’s me! Sorry, my comm went down so I couldn’t contact any of you.” the familiar voice instantly calmed everybody down. Accompanied by the Japanese agents, Jia made her way between the humongous containers into their little makeshift shelter. She seemed to be perfectly fine, except for a few bruises and cuts across her face.

Spotting Amber and Max, she hurriedly came their way, sitting on top of a nearby cargo like a cat she had always been. “So what’s going on? You’re all seemed a little too tense.”

“Key is now inside my house.” Max replied, putting his glock back to the straps under his jacket. Jia seemed to be pretty surprised, so he confirmed to her, “Yes. Gods.”

Then he went on for a while to explain her on everything she missed out, till Jia nodded and said, “So what are we waiting for? Find him!”

“Exactly my problem!” Amber snapped, nearly crushing the computer screen with her knuckles. “Something is missing and I don’t know what!”

Max moved next to her, taking over her keyboard. He eyed the codes, trying out a few things he learnt from the past. Quietly, Amber watched him from the back, a little part of her hoping he would somehow solve this and unlock the thing.

“You’re right. It’s like layers of gates guarding a palace here.” Max said, still wrestling with the codes,” You think you’ve opened the gate, but there’s always another one behind it and more and more. Unless we have all the keys to the gates, but so far we only have one: those numbers, for the front gate.”

She nodded, tiredly gazing over the monitor, “I even tried inserting my virus there, nothing happened.”

Max only nodded, streching the silence between them longer than it should had been. Amber placed her fingers back on the keyboard, pressing no keys. They were just there, side to side, ceasing to speak. The scene was familiar to her, both of them, sharing lines of codes to crack. Sharing a seat in front of a computer. It wasn’t so obvious a few seconds ago, and even if it appeared silly to her at first, she knew it must be it. Amber knew she just found the rest of the keys to her father’s Profiler.

There he was, the key, sitting right next to her. Shen Changmin.

“Hey.” she started, wasn’t comfortable enough to look at him in the eyes, so she did what she always did her whole life, keeping her eyes on the the screen.

“..I think my dad wanted us to work on this together.”

Amber didn’t know what to expect when she said that. She was only brave enough to check on his reaction through the corner of her eyes.

 “Of course. I mean, you can’t possibly do this with only one good hand, right?” he pressed his smile, glancing at her arm sling. Amber mentally nodded, because no matter how awkward it was between them, this time he was right.

A hacker needs two good arms to get the job done.

***

“Your father is waiting in his study room, sir.”

Key nodded, while changing into one of Jaejoong’s tailor-made suit. He let the butler go, before resuming his little tour inside Jaejoong’s closet. Lucky for him that his clothes could fit him quite nicely. 

He was thinking something more like a gloomy basement or a crazy gothic-themed castle when the henchmen told him they were going straight home. Instead, the place was just like a regular mansion, a warmly decorated place with rugs and a classic chandelier as the center piece of the main hall. It had a cozy, spacious living room with slouchy sofas and pillows in front of the stone fireplace. Key could actually imagine a really wealthy man and his wife and kids living happily here instead of a line up of men in suits with weapons hidden under their jackets.

Jaejoong’s bedroom was on the other hand, felt somewhat colder than the rest of the house. It could be because of his absence, but the lack of photos and minimum presence of the clothes in his closet, was quite unbalanced with the enormous effort of everyone else in the house in trying to make themselves comfortable. It was as if this Kim Jaejoong guy didn’t even live on a daily basis here, contrary to what the maids told him earlier. That he used to read a lot in that sofa or that a certain ‘Master Yoochun’ used to play games together with him in that very room. But it felt empty and boring with not much to see, only a family picture of him and four other brothers when they were kids, and Key clearly needed more stuffs for clues or even Jaejoong’s diaries if possible, if he wanted to play his part right.

Carefully, he opened the door, cautious of any guns pointed at him, only to find a couple more elderly maids smiling at him once he was outside. He checked his tie and shoes, and saw his own reflection on the exquisite marble floor. Even when he had worn his clothes and shoes, it was still him, Kim Kibum. Any minute now someone should notice how he didn’t remember a single thing on his fifteen birthday or the fact that he didn’t even know what his father do for a living..

..or the way to his father’s study, to add to the list.

Below was the cozy living room and the fire was burning even when no one was there. He adored that mansion, but he was scared of all the living people there. Like walking inside a haunted house, you’ll never know when the ghost will get you. It was a suicide decision from the beginning and Key wished he could just lay dead next to the technician guy back there.

“Kim Jaejoong.”

From the right wing, a group of men appeared. The dim lights darkened their faces, but Key was smart enough to notice that the man walking in the middle was their boss. Even when he was just wearing a pair of pyjamas, even when his grey hair was still pillow-messy. This stout-looking man must be super important if he had six bodyguards walking him through his own corridor in the house.

The man didn’t look happy seeing him, but seemed too calm to hate him. Good, good, more chance of staying alive. Key could only wait and listen to what this man had to say before deciding if he could ask him the way to the study room.

“I see you did something with your face. Come on. You owe me an explanation, kid.” the man said, gesturing the lines of bodyguards to leave.

Unsure what to say, Key decided to just nod. Maybe an apology, so he awkwardly added, “I know. I’m sorry.”

He checked to see his reaction, if his reply was right, but the man had entered his bedroom. “How about chatting here? My study room is being vacuumed right now.”

A pang in his chest just now was enough to tell Key that the man sitting on Jaejoong’s bed now was none other than the God himself. Jaejoong’s father, Max’s father. The leader of a shady organization everyone was talking about.

“Abeoji.” he said, rolling the dice. Waiting for a good number to show when it stopped rolling.

“We both know I’m not your father, Kim Kibum-ssi.” he smiled. The dice stopped and Key knew it wasn’t a very lucky day to gamble. Not anymore.

***

After fixing the blanket for the sleeping Fei, Min returned to her seat where her call was cut by a signal interference. The last time Jia called her, she was informed that Amber was being escorted to a safe place in Tokyo. It should be only temporary, but it was better than letting her getting chased by Yunho and his men in Fukuoka. Both she and Fei didn’t have any mission at the moment, and they were ordered to return to Seoul until further notice. It was good for Fei too, she could use the time for recovering.

The headquarter in Glasgow didn’t have so many vehicles kept in the basement, but the girls got the priviledge to use this small jet (and the only one in the basement) to fly to Seoul. Min would love this trip even more if they provided her with a better communication system to keep in touch with the rest of the team. Suzy was in the middle of something important earlier, but it had been fifteen minutes and no more calls came to her.

At least, until a few seconds ago. She swore a faded buzz entered her communication device. ‘in.. in....eaar.....’

“Hello? Suzy, come in!”

“..sending...llage....reful....Min!...” this time the voice was clearer, but Min knew that wasn’t Suzy talking.

“Amber? I didn’t catch all of them! Bad connection here!” she said, quickly pulling a signal enhancer out from her bag, strapping it to the back of her ear piece. More words came rolling in, but none of them made any sense. “Amber? Amber? I’m losing you! Can you repeat that again?”

Min could feel the air pressure dropping inside the jet, and she really wished she knew what was going on, but she was clueless. The emergency alert light set off, painting everything red inside the cabin. If Amber was trying to warn her about this, then it was a bit too late.

She unplugged her buzzy earpiece and crawled her way to the cockpit. The flight deck was literally out of control, and she could saw that in the pilot’s pale face when he turned at her. “We’ve been hacked.” was all he could say.

“What’s going on?” Fei showed up in the cockpit, looking as alert as ever, even in her unfit condition.

The ‘security breached’ voice alert soon joined the parade, confirming the bad news. The next thing Min could think of was the parachutes under their seats. Fei instantly read her mind as she quickly returned to the cabin, staggering back to her seat. By then, Min had wrapped herself with the parachute, before moving to the walls, looking for the emergency exit button. “Eonnie, you ready?!”

Fei stopped in her steps, spreading her view all across the cabin when she noticed a change in the air. The beeping just stopped, the air pressure slowly returning to normal. But in exchange of the sudden calm, a bold robotic voice took over the intercom, as if the jet had just came to life with the voice of its own.

[Raven has logged in]

Min plopped down to her seat, not happy with what she just heard, “Damn Amber, it was you?! You could’ve told me earlier!”

“We nearly jumped off the plane, you know.” Fei added, unbuckling her parachute expertly with her good hand. Soon after, Amber’s voice came trough the intercom, with murmurs of people talking in her background.

//Min, Fei, can you hear me now? Hello, test test test. I’m sending both of you to Prague now.//

“What...?” Fei turned to check the purple sky outside, seeing nothing but streaks of colors passing by. Obviously she could not tell if the jet was on their way there, but the turbulence earlier must had been because of the sudden maneuver.

“What’s going on? How come you’re the one dropping this on us instead of JYP?” Min asked, choosing to focus on her ear piece instead of the empty air. It was somehow more assuring that way, especially knowing that the whole jet was fully-controlled by the tomboy from the other side of the world.

The pilot came out of his cockpit and was about to report the situation, until he saw the agents casually speaking to the voice from the intercom. “Just wanna let you know that we’re going further away from Seoul now.” he stuttered, gaining surprised looks from both agents.

//Okay good, your GPS is working. It’s actually my first time breaking into an airplane system, but no worries. You guys are going to land in Prague in one piece. Let’s hope so.//

“It’s okay. But, we need the details, or at least to know what’s this Prague is all about.” Fei replied. Amazingly calm after what happened moments earlier.

//We found him. Your Hero, Kim Jaejoong is in Prague now.//

***

[Somewhere in Prague, moments later]

His messy blonde hair smelled like coffee. Before Min could even caught his wrist, he leaped backwards before her eyes, back to his spot under the shadow of his arching book case. Where no one could see his hand-made sweater, or catch his blue soft lens which only seemed to glint with the help of sunray. His hand slowly s towards the coffee table, grabbing his empty cup of coffee, before taking it with him to the darkness. Protecting it from Fei’s sharp glance from the back of the room.

“I was expecting someone.. with a lot more charisma and, you know, being the heir of a mafia group and everything. But, if the Profiler says you’re Kim Jaejoong, then you should be him.” Min said, not moving from her spot.

The guy sloppily stepped back, uselessly trying to blend himself with the brick walls behind him, "You are not Changmin...and I'm not going anywhere.”

***

to be continued...

HO-HO-HO! Merry Christmas to all who celebrates! And Happy holidays for you all!

Consider this chapter as my christmas present to all of you :D

YAY finally Hero~ It took me 43 chapters to get him out to the surface, wew!

And as always, please dear kind ladies and gentleman (do I have a gentleman here? XD) share your thoughts and leave your comments below!