I.

“Can you pull the trigger?” Taemin asked calmly, leaning on the brick wall with a bottle of beer in his hand. As if he was sure that the man doesn’t have the guts to kill him. That night was like any other night in the streets of Seoul; people minding their own business that they couldn’t care less if there’s a lovers’ quarrel or someone’s life is currently in danger.

“Go on, shoot me.” He let out a mocking scoff; his hands spread wide open, ready to welcome the bullet anytime. The beer spilled all over the sidewalk but he couldn’t care less.

“I tolerated every stupid thing that you did, Lee Taemin. But not this time.”

“Cut the crap and shoot me. Go on. I’m waiting, see? Waiting with open arms.”

“Why did you do it?,” asked the man holding the gun. Lee Taemin only smiled and turned to walk away, letting the bottle of beer fall on the concrete.

--

He woke up the next morning with a terrible hangover. Snippets of what happened last night at the street by the pub came flashing back in his memory as he leaned forward to reach for aspirin. He was having his breakfast in front of his laptop when he heard someone knocking at hisbedroom door. Kim Jonghyun.

“Yah, Lee Taemin. I know you’re in there. Open up, I need to talk to you.”

“About what?”

Jonghyun can only sigh. The kid doesn’t plan on opening the door anytime soon. He cleared his throat and spoke, “I found the mastermind. His name is Choi Minho. Leader of a gang that I’ve never heard before. The… uh, Crimson Rhomb? Sounds kinda silly actually.” Taemin can hear Jonghyun flipping the pages of information he just acquired. The latter continued, “They’re involved in a number of drug smuggling cases, murder, more drug smuggling, etc etc… oh and a source gave me a photo of him pointing a gun to a person who also appears to be doing the same. This is so cool; they’re pointing at each other.” Jonghyun counted a few seconds before he could hear footsteps nearing the door.

Taemin grabbed the folder his hyung was holding. He flipped through the pages and found the photo Jonghyun was talking about. He immediately recognized the one who’s holding the other gun. “Kim Jongin. Is this guy still alive?”

“Yeah. I sent a guy to watch over him last night. No worries.”

“And this Crimson Rhomb guy?”

“My guy followed him and found out about the operations at the Harbor happening in three days. The bastard supplies women to some clubs at the outskirts of the city.”

“Drugged?”

“Worse. Rumors had it that his men kill the girls’ families in front of their own eyes when they resisted.”

“Where did they come from?”

“China, mostly.”

“But I thought the Lotus had control over China?”

“Apparently their family and the head family in the Lotus guild are in good terms. His brother married the first daughter… ah you get the picture.”

“Good grief, what’s gonna happen to their children?” He pondered over the other photos for a while before he went back to his table and grabbed a few pages of the data he gathered himself.

“Hyung, when is the boss calling?”

“In two hours? It’s only 7, Taemin, the guy’s a single parent. Give him some time.”

“And Key-hyung?”

“He just got home from his modelling stint. Such a busy bee, that guy.” The younger could trace desolation in his hyung’s last remark.

“You guys need to see each other, not only for … whatever it is that you have. When the boss calls I’m proposing him to be the guy sent inside the Crimson Rhomb.”

“Wait, I don’t think he can handle that kind of thing. Send me in instead.”

“But hyung…”

“I’m better at these things.”

Taemin groaned. Having Jonghyun inside Crimson Rhomb means that Key’s gonna be breathing under his neck for God knows how long. “Explain it to Key-hyung then. You know how he is when you go to assignments.”

“I will, buddy.”

“Here.” He gave an envelope to Jonghyun as he was about to go back to his room. “The boss’s delivery guy went over last week to slip the check. The only thing I like about this job is the weight it adds to my money bag, to be honest.”

The other laughed and they both went back to their work.

 

 

--

Taemin carefully analyzed the photo of Choi Minho and Kim Jongin’s encounter. It was situated in front of a brick wall that he can’t quite place in his head. Then it hit him. It was a few blocks away from the pub. Calculating the time it takes to walk from the pub to that area takes less than fifteen minutes. Jongin left right after he did and probably planned to see Kyungsoo since he usually goes that way when he goes to Kyungsoo’s place. But what the hell happened?

“Kim Jongin, you idiot.” He muttered.

Meawhile, Jongin laid still staring at the ceiling, wondering how he got home. The first thing he could remember was pointing a gun at Taemin, the second, was pointing a gun at... someone else. “Where’s my gun?”

He bolted up and desperately searched for his gun. But to no avail. “Crap, I’m gonna go to jail.”

Taemin stared at the gun stored in a ziplock on Jonghyun’s table. “My guy grabbed it from him before he could shoot anyone. Your hoobae’s a big idiot. Does he know that?”

“I think so.”

The guy on the screen cleared his throat. “So, Jonghyun-ssi… are you ready to be part of a mafia once more?”

“Yes sir.”

“Very well, gather every intel you can and don’t come back till you’ve done so. Taemin-ssi, you’ll be monitoring his performance from your apartment. And please, if you have to eat pizza, go buy it yourself. No more deliveries. You need sun once in a while.”

“Yes sir.” The two agents responded.

“How’s your previous injury, Jonghyun? Does it affect your assignments?”

“Not anymore sir. It’s fully healed.”

“That’s good to hear. Now, to your jobs. I still have a lot of chicken to fry.”

The screen went off as the boss signed out.

“Does he ever run out of chicken to fry?”

“Nope.”

“Can’t believe the guy was once a top spy.”

“But I agree with him, you need to be out of the apartment more often.”

--