Several days later after being on several trains, cars, and planes, the three finally arrived to a small village that rested around a hundred miles or more from the location of the angel. They checked into one of the motels to stay for that night since they were weary from all the traveling, and they needed rest to be able to give their all for the mission. The journey to the area was the longest traveling they’d ever done for a mission, but they could see why it took so long, they were up in the mountains and the village that they’d been carried to by horse and buggy was far out in the wilderness.

“I think that’s the longest trip we’ve ever been on,” Donghae groaned as he stretched his arms above his head, catching a few people’s attention in the diner.

Eunhyuk agreed, still browsing over the menu, “You aren’t kidding, but it’s a good thing all that fare didn’t come out of our wallets.”

“Well Mr. Choi said he would pay for all our expenses, I’m glad because all the receipts I got before using his card, the trains, the planes, and the different rental cars, they weren’t cheap. Of course, we sat First-Class in all, but it’s not really surprising since he is a multi-billionaire,” Kyuhyun said before taking a drink of his water.

“What exactly does he do? It can’t be easy work to have that much money to spend on us already. Especially since he knows the risk that we might not accomplish his mission,” Eunhyuk asked just as the waitress came over to take their orders.

Once they finished stating what they wanted and the waitress returned to the counter, Kyuhyun replied, “I’m not sure, he’s into investments and stuff like that, I guess, but I heard that he inherited most of his fortune from his parents. His father was a successful business man or something.”

“So why would some billionaire business man want a supernatural being?” Eunhyuk asked. “An angel at that, didn’t you say he had the angel before?”

Kyuhyun nodded, “That’s what I heard. I didn’t ask him to elaborate though, I didn’t care.”

“I wonder how he lost him, or what happened.”

Donghae spoke up as a thought struck him, “What if the angel fled from him and is in hiding?”

Kyuhyun shrugged, “Who knows, besides, it’s not our place to question the motives of the employer, our task is just to complete the task he gave us.”

Donghae glanced at Eunhyuk before returning his gaze to Kyuhyun, sighing, “You’re right.”

They were quiet once their food arrived; too busy scarfing down the food to carry on a conversation. Although one thing that caused Kyuhyun’s soup to still in the soup he ordered was part of the conversation from the table behind them. He glanced up at Eunhyuk and Donghae to see that they had paused in eating as well, glancing back behind Kyuhyun at the two men sitting behind him.

“—I heard that it’s slept there for about ten years now. Anyone that’s stepped foot inside that temple, they’re obliterated. Like they just randomly catch on fire,” a deep and rough sounding voice spoke.

“You believe that? I bet there’s nothing up there, the people that disappeared from going up that mountain probably just got ate by a bear or a pack of wolves,” the other scoffed.

“That’s what I’ve heard. How much do you suppose an angel would be worth on the black market?”

“Don’t know, man, it’d have to be worth a lot though. What if it’s a female angel though? I bet she’d be a beauty,” the man whistled.

The other chuckled, “Hell, if it’s a female, I wouldn’t worry about selling it. I’d keep her around just use her to see how angelic beings get their kicks on.”

“You bastard,” the man chuckled. “You know, I was planning on doing some camping up in the woods tomorrow, if you want, we can go on up to the temple and see what the big fuss is all about.”

The other man shrugged, “Sure, I wouldn’t mind taking the chance to see it in case it is a female.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes shifted between both Donghae and Eunhyuk’s, as soon as they finished their meals, they stepped outside the restaurant, keeping an eye on the two men from the window. If all went well, then Kyuhyun could definitely make use of the two men.

“So it seems we might have another way of seeing what goes on with the angel firsthand,” Kyuhyun concluded.

“You really think they’ll make it to the temple though?” Donghae asked, “They did say there were bears and wolves covering the mountain.”

Kyuhyun shrugged, “If there is, we’ll go in and kill the wild animals and force one of them as a decoy to go into the temple. Hopefully that won’t be the case.”

Eunhyuk scoffed, “That sounds barbaric,” but at Kyuhyun’s raised eyebrow, he sighed, “But we’ve done worse, I know. Should one of us stick around and keep an eye on the two to know when they’re leaving?”

“I’ll stick around, you two can go on and get some rest for the night,” Kyuhyun motioned towards the direction of their motel room. “I’m too wired from the trip to fall asleep.”

“Alright. Call us in the morning when those two start out.”

“Will do,” Kyuhyun watched as his two partners started off to their motel room before turning back to watch the two in the diner.

--

The next morning, the three hunters found themselves following the two men up the side of the mountain. And despite it being hot and humid in the village below, the further they reached towards the top of the mountain, the colder it became. They hadn’t come across any wild animals yet but nightfall had not fallen upon them yet, and they knew that around that time, anything could possibly spring out on them.

The two men hadn’t caught onto the fact that someone was following them, or if they had, they didn’t show it. The majority of the time, Kyuhyun saw that they continuously kept a bottle of liquor in their hands so he assumed that they were drunk the majority of the time. He was surprised they’d even be able to find their way to the temple if the drinking kept up, but after getting the coordinates from Donghae, who was in charge of the map, they hadn’t strayed from the path to the temple.

Further along the path and several hours later, the sun finally started setting. The three kept following along after the two men until the two stopped in a small clearing and started setting up their campsite. Kyuhyun decided to stop as well about five hundred feet from the two men and settle down for the night as well. After having only caught a few hours of sleep after following the two men back to their house, fatigue was catching up to Kyuhyun.

“Hey, Kyuhyun, rest now and we’ll keep an eye out for any wild animals throughout the night, okay?” Donghae stated, slipping the map into his bag and pulling out one of his handguns to keep close in case something did attack them, Eunhyuk doing the same with one of his guns.

Kyuhyun nodded and sat down against a tree trunk, he pulled up the collars of his coat and slid his hat down over his eyes. He knew exhaustion would creep up on him eventually, especially from all the hiking the whole day. He tried to slip into a light sleep so that he wouldn’t be completely useless if a wild animal did attack them but as soon as Donghae and Eunhyuk heard the soft snoring, they knew that their leader was out like a light.

“When do you suppose we should tell him?” Donghae asked quietly, leaning against Eunhyuk as he glanced over at Kyuhyun.

“Hmm?” Eunhyuk hummed in question, until he saw the look at the Donghae was giving him. “Oh, oh. Well, we should soon; it wouldn’t feel right keeping him in the dark about it. I doubt it’d come out as much of a surprise to him.”

“Okay, how about after this mission is over we tell him?” Donghae suggested, intertwining their fingers together.

Eunhyuk leaned over to press a kiss to Donghae’s cheek, “Sounds good to me. Let’s just hope this mission will blow over easy. I still don’t feel right about this one.”

“Me neither. We still don’t even know what exactly we’re going up against; I know it’s an angel, but anyone that is set on fire once they enter the temple? That’s just crazy.”

“Plus, like you said before, what if that angel is actually in hiding from Mr. Choi?”

“The angel would definitely kill us then if we forced him to go back to the man.”

“Let’s just… not speak the man’s name if we do capture the angel. That sounds safe, right?” Eunhyuk chuckled humorlessly, subconsciously squeezing Donghae’s hand.

“Yeah, that sounds good to me.”