Jessica monitored the security cameras in the big screen upon the wall profusely, watching every action anyone made. Her gaze switched back to the computer in front of her and she pulled up the status monitor of their agents. She looked at the clock once before snapping her head to the brunette next to her, “Baekhyun, where are the floor plans?”

“Just a second,” Baekhyun uttered under his breath, hacking through all of the security measures and door locks so that they can access everything, “And done.” The big screen on the wall was split to two, one side with the live footage and the other with the floor plans. “We’re in control.”

Jessica smirked at her cousin, putting on her earpiece, gesturing for Baekhyun to do the same. She turned both their coms on and tapped into the microphone, “Testing. BlackRaven, please respond.”

Baekhyun wheeled his chair into the next computer in the circular panel counter surrounding him and his older cousin. He hacked into the power channels and took control of the panels, then left the computer, the screen a digital panel of the electricity channel.

“This is BlackRaven, reporting back to base, over.” A man’s voice cracked over the receiver in their ears.

“This is base, transmission clear and received.” Baekhyun replied, speaking into his microphone. “We are ready to commence. Over.” He gave a nod at Jessica’s direction.

“Operation HOLLOW is now in play.” Jessica wheeled over to the center of the circle, solely focusing on the big screen monitor. “BlackRaven take in the south entrance,” She points at Baekhyun without looking, the younger understanding the gesture and unlocked the gates at the south entrance. “Now.”

There were noises of whispered clustering, metal gates creaking and rushed footsteps through the coms. Baekhyun moved fast to disable the security cameras the team was caught on with, each small box section of the monitor turning off on one side of the monitor then turning back on. His eyes snapped left to right, reading the software program of the security cameras and the sensors, quickly blocking off the reboot for errors.

Five red dots appeared on the right screen of the digital floor plans, moving at the back of the south gates and heading for the building. Jessica grabbed a tablet of the vitals attached to the team, showing levels of heartbeat and comms status, then ordered, “Baekhyun, the doors. BlackRaven, you’re to enter a hostile territory. Your orders are to retrieve an asset safely and confirm the package.”

Baekhyun quickly typed in a sequence of numbers and words before one of the switch next to him lit up with a small green bulb, and he flicked it up with his outstretched fingers, “BlackRaven, you’re in.”

The red dots blinked and moved to the inside of the building, the magnet doors clicked open for their entrance. They both saw that the team was about to cross an intersection, Jessica traced the path from the entrance of the corridor to the holding cell located on the third floor. “Take a right at the coming intersection.”

The team followed the directions, silence compassing the control room that in exception of the constant typing Baekhyun was doing. Jessica kept her eyes trained on the monitor vitals of the members and the trackers in the floor plan. They directed the team through the eerily empty hallways, and kept on monitoring the other corridors in search of guards.

The building, or ‘warehouse’ as the place was named, belonged to a politician that operates in the black-world under the codename ‘Revenant’. His true identity is concealed but there is no doubt in anyone’s mind who knew him, that he was a very influential and big politician. He sells information and black-mail worthy intel on a lot of high-powered figures which makes him what might be the most targeted man in the black-world, at least by those who has power and something to hide.

The Company had a lot of on-going operations, and this was apparently one of them. They had a team tracking the Revenant case. He is a center bank of information, the one lone man that knows everything about everyone. The things in his head is worth more than a person’s life – as proven by the sheer amount of death that has preceded him – and there had never been a chance to pin him down.

Except now.

“So what is the specs of this operation, really?” Baekhyun asked with a tilt to his cousin, who was swinging side to side on her wheelchair waiting for the team to pick-lock the doors to the inner-compound.

“We’re retrieving an asset that the team recruited. The asset works in close relations with big figure politicians so one way or another they have worked with the Revenant.” Jessica chewed on the bottom of her lip, her hand trained on a cursor on the screen. “Supposedly, the asset gained some kind of information on the Revenant’s identity. A recording of a transaction and the Revenant’s voice is on it – the package in the form of a voice recorder.”

Baekhyun raised both his brows in a surprised but impressed manner. “But the fact that they’re in here means that the Revenant got to the asset first.” He thought about that for a second longer before finding himself in confusion. “Wait, then isn’t the probably that the asset is dead and the package destroyed pretty much guaranteed at this point?”

Jessica winced at that. She had the same reaction when the Company left the file over to her at the usual drop-off location. “Not sure on that either, but hey. You get to spend quality time with your favorite cousin, you lucky bastard.”

Chuckling, Baekhyun bowed his head at her grace and snapped up when they heard guns over the comms. He sent a warning look to Jessica and immediately he started hacking the camera’s of the courtyard that led to the space between the door the team just broke through and the inner-compound.

“I want eyes on that courtyard immediately.” Jessica ruled out although Baekhyun was one step ahead of her. She taped at her microphone beside her cheek. “BlackRaven respond. Status Update.”

A few static noises and rounds of what sounded like an automatic machine gun continued for seconds before one of them responded. “This is BlackRaven. Guards everywhere, they opened fire the minute we got through. 10 or more. We’re trapped in, no visible exit.”

Jessica cursed. She turned to Baekhyun and hashed out, “I’m still blind here, Baekhyun. Where are the footage?” She could see that Baekhyun was working fast, but she also knew that Baekhyun would’ve had it in seconds so something must be wrong.

Baekhyun stopped his work, and wheeled over quickly to the computer on the other side of the circle. His eyes read quickly before his shoulders dropped.

“I can’t.” He sighed. “There are no security cameras inside the courtyard. And from the layout of the compound. There are nothing from the inside either.”

For the second time that day, Jessica cursed.

~~~

“How in the holy hell, did we miss this?”

The guns fired continuously on both sides. Besides the obvious losing disadvantage that their strike team has – being outnumbered 12 to 5 – they have no way out and retreat was simply not an option. Jessica was pacing around the room, the tablet clutched in her hands with the health status of each of the members of BlackRaven. Just in case someone becomes collateral damage.

Baekhyun was quiet. His hands were frozen at their position at the keyboard. How could the courtyard not have any footage? This means that they fell into a trap. This means that the Revenant knew they were coming; then the asset must already be dead by now.

“We should retreat.” Baekhyun voiced out, hearing Jessica stop at her tracks in the back. “This trap means that our asset is dead.”

He looked to his cousin for confirmation and Jessica nodded, grabbing for the in-desk phone on the edge of the circle, “I’ll call the extraction team.”

Working on the escape route, Baekhyun tapped his comms and ordered out. “BlackRaven, this is base. Abandon your initiative and prepare for extraction. You are to hold out in the gunfire as long as you can, do you copy?”

The static on the other side grew due to the blasts, and before long they heard their response. “Negative.”

Jessica and Baekhyun stopped. The former had a stern look on her face. “What do you mean negative?”

“Guards are coming in from the exit that we just came through.” A harsh rasped voice breathed out from their earpiece. “We’re outmanned and outgunned. And we’re on our last magazine.”

Baekhyun could see from the corners of his eyes, that Jessica was exhaling and pinching her nose bridge. She only does that when she’s exasperated or stressed which is neither a relief nor a good sign. Their team has got no ammo.

In a last effort, the elder in the room resorted to the one thing she didn’t want to. She dug out the plans from her briefcase and threw it aimlessly at Baekhyun, whom which caught it effortlessly. The latter skimmed through the documents, flipping the page before realizing what it was. “Seriously?”

A grim nod was his response, and Baekhyun reluctantly got to work. Jessica steeled herself. “BlackRaven. This is base. Halt your fire and bide for now. There is a metal hatch on the corner of the courtyard, is it visible from your vantage point?”

The comms cracked and bristled but came out with a clear reply of, “Yes.”

“On my mark, you’re to abandon all offensive and run to that hatch – which then we will open magnetically from this side – and enter safety.” Her voice was strong and calm, although she was anything but. “You’ll be in the basement corridors of the compound that’s been closed off since the construction. But all connections are lost in there; there are electric and magnetic currents running from the walls. They can’t reach you in there, but so can’t we. There are no security footage nor can it be sensed by a thermal photograph. You’ll be blind and deaf. We’re aware it’s a risk, but it’s the best we’ve got.”

Baekhyun heard the silence on the other side of the connection. The strike team must be mulling it over. He knew that feeling, and how burdensome it could be. “But.” He decided to cut in. “It’s your choice. If you don’t want to, we can pull back from the op, extract you with a helicopter and- ”Baekhyun bit his lips, “-and bomb the compound, along with the asset and the soldiers.”

Everyone knew that the operation was to rescue the asset and secure the package. And more than anything, more than their own lives, that was still the directive that they have to follow through with. So maybe it was the fact that they are true soldiers whose loyalty to the mission, and to the company, was stronger than their own lives. Or maybe it was the simple truth, that they’ve been thought to know nothing other than their directive.

“What are our commands?”

Baekhyun frowned, somehow not surprised by the received reply, and he looked over to Jessica. The latter had her shoulders drooped, but her head shook up and down and here had been no words, but the former knew to proceed with the plan. Baekhyun guessed, no matter how long you are in the industry, decisions like these must never get easier.

“Go Dark.”

~~~

Baekhyun paced around the circle center of the dimly lit room. Around the outskirts of the metal counters, and he rounded inside, then outside. His hands raked over the top of the slanted monitors attached to the circle counter, around and round. The footsteps he left behind echoed in the great scheme of the command centre, in the basement of a nondescript building.

Jessica huffed out annoyingly. In the silence of the room, with sleek reinforced sound and bullet-proof glass, along with black metal flooring, the noise Baekhyun made had morphed into a loud ruckus. “Will you stop?”

“How are you not worried?” The chaos of a man kept up with his pacing.

The amount of times the woman had sighed throughout the morning was lost beyond count and her sweet endearing cousin was doing nothing to help. “I am. I’m just better at hiding it than you are.” She crossed her thigh over the other, and balanced the monitor tablet on her lap; the monitor vital still receiving no signal. “Besides, in grave peril, we are trained to maintain a calm and composed disposition, that way our decisions won’t be rash and emotionally impacted; which you are the striking example of right now.”

The younger cousin stopped in his tracks, both hands pressing against the top of one monitor outside of the circle staring straight at his cousin on the inside. “Well, sorry for being worried and humane, I just don’t want to lose anyone under my lead.”

In that sentence, something made Jessica’s feature soften. And it wasn’t merely the fact that her cousin was worried because that was just plain bull; he’s killed in cold blood before and felt no remorse. There was a context behind that. “Look, Baek. I heard from Sooyoung. About-”

“Then you must know it was my fault.” Baekhyun blamed himself, not letting his cousin finish her sentence but that didn’t deter her.

“No.” Jessica dragged herself forward so she was right in front of Baekhyun, albeit sitting down. She looked up and sternly told him, “What happened on that cruise is not your fault. You couldn’t have known that that would happen.”

“But I should’ve stayed with him and-”

“And what? Blow your cover? It’s bad enough Tao went missing for hours, even if he was in danger, and if you were too, you’d be risking both your lives.” Jessica glared at the boy who felt scrutinizingly small. “SM has got a grip on you as it is, don’t make them surveillance you more. Remember, your sister and I, and Key, we can’t do anything, it’s too risky. But you can. So don’t throw away that chance, or you know what they’ll do to us.”

Technically, Baekhyun knew that acting rash and childish wouldn’t do anyone any good. But in that moment- in that second that he looked out to the sea and imagined Tao and actually seeing him- it felt like nothing mattered anymore. “You don’t get it. Tao was trembling like a leaf in a snowstorm when I found him- I can’t lose him-”

Jessica snapped in before he could get another word. “You’re talking to me, about losing a younger sibling?”

The air in the room turned suspiciously colder, even though both of them knew it had nothing to do with them. Still, the hairs on Baekhyun’s arm stood straight feeling an overwhelming guilt wash him. How stupid was he.

Her hand reached out to Baekhyun, beckoning him to come and sit down next to her, and so he did. For a few seconds, Baekhyun didn’t know what was going to happen but it seemed that he didn’t have to wait long.

“Krystal was an outstanding operative.” Jessica started, looking unfocused to the floor. Baekhyun just sat there, for two exact reasons is that he was doing it out of empathy, and that he wanted to know what really happened to Krystal. “She was quick witted, a master at planning. A femme fatale that one, truly.” Her voice took on a soft edge, not comforting but just blunt. “But she had a soft heart as beautiful as she was. Every time she had to kill for the job, she would call me out to the park and hug me for what felt like hours. No words, no tears, she was just holding me like I’m the only thing keeping her from flying away in the wind.”

Lips parting with a sigh, the woman leaned her elbow against the metal top counters, next to the built in hologram keyboard, and supported her head with it. “And then, one day she came in for a mission. She always told me the specs of the operation, but this time she didn’t. I asked about it but I knew that something was wrong; it was in her eyes. Her eyes weren’t bright, they weren’t the warm brown orbs that all her fans fell for.” Jessica stopped. “That night she didn’t come back.”

Baekhyun held his breath. He’s heard stories from Sooyoung and Key, about how Krystal dropped out of the family business like Eunhyuk and Ryeowook did. But he didn’t know exactly how. He didn’t imagine it to be so abrupt and sudden. He didn’t imagine she would just literally leave.

Tears sprung at the sides of her eyes, droplets hanging by the crest in the lid, and then clinging onto the curl of her lashes. “She left. Our handler told us that she sabotaged the mission – causing two soldier’s death – and just, left.” Baekhyun rested his palm on top of hers, which was gripping the armrest of her office chair. “She didn’t call, she didn’t leave a message, and I tried a dozen times and asked our handler but all he said was that we won’t be seeing her, for a long time. And next thing I know, I heard she was in China and f(x) was taking a break.”

By the time she was done, a single tear left it’s tracks on her blushed cheek. Baekhyun tried to reach and brush it away but Jessica had already stood up before he could. “You are not responsible for anyone but yourself. In this business, that’s how it works.”

A sharp ringing and a flash of five red lights went on, snapping them from their mood and grabbing their attentions to the display. The speakers blew with static before they could make out any specific words, they heard mumbling.

“This is BlackRaven to base, can anyone copy?”

Baekhyun saw their positions in the premises of the compound. They were inside. Their plan worked. He his comms. “This is base, we copy loud and clear. What is your status?”

Jessica got off her seat and called in the extraction team to stand by. She analyzed the tablet in her hands for their team’s health and condition; elevated heart rates but otherwise healthy in spite of small injuries.

“We secured the package and the asset, both unharmed.” The leader of their team spoke out in rushed breaths. “Got more ammo and guns from the guards we knocked out, we’re good to go.”

Both of them released a gasp of air they were unconsciously suppressing, relieved of the good news. Baekhyun smiled at Jessica, equal sides glad and sorry due to the way he behaved. The latter simply placed a hand over his shoulder implying that it was done.

“Our extraction team is waiting for you outside the compound gates; we’ll lead you to them but the area is now heavily guarded because you weren’t exactly subtle.” There was a small chuckle through the intercom that Jessica was glad to hear. “There are guards stationed right outside the door so be prepared.” She radioed out, taking her hands off the commissioning button but paused to turn it on briefly. She said nothing for the first few seconds, opting to look at her cousin for a moment before softly whispering, “Good job, team. Come home safe.”

Baekhyun stared at her without any words and slowly his lips quirked to a genuine smile. Jessica smirked, punching her cousin in the shoulder, as Baekhyun pressed a button that latched open the doors, guns blazing.

“All right boys, give ‘em hell.”

~~~

Letting the door close softly behind him, Baekhyun sat down at the threshold of the front door to take off his shoes. In the midst of untying his left sneaker, his hands stopped moving. Everything felt so heavy and his body felt so weak, the young man slumped his head against the wall and closed his eyes to let everything sink down. Sink.

Chanyeol heard the doors closing a good five minutes ago and yet he hasn’t seen anyone enter the living room. He had been camped out in the sofa, watching mindless reality tv programs that was on. Everyone was either asleep or back in the company building practicing; the only one he didn’t know the whereabouts of is Baekhyun. He hasn’t seen the petite man all day. And if anyone asked him why he noticed, he’d walk away.

“Baekhyun?” He called out on a chance that it might be him.

There was a shuffle and a thud that made Chanyeol slowly arise from his seat only to be met with the wilting figure of the diva. Baekhyun stood at the entrance of the living room, head down and completely lifeless. The taller man reached out to the the small brunette but Baekhyun looked up from behind his bangs and he stopped short.

“Baek.” He called out softly, palms upwards and suspended. When he was met with silence and a constant stare, Chanyeol took a step forward. There was only a hands length of distance between them but at the moment, Baekhyun seemed thousands of miles away.

“What’s wrong?”

Two simple words, done out of concern. It was something everybody said and something everybody heard, and the usual answer – the appropriate answer – would be a simple ‘I’m fine’. He was trained to feign ignorance and maintain a front that everything is always okay. To lie even when it’s not. Yet…

Baekhyun blinked once, and twice. And finally, he genuinely looks at Chanyeol to meet his eyes. The words ‘I’m fine’ was stuck in his throat. Just lie to him. What can one lie do? It’s just two words. Say it.

Chanyeol took a breath. Something about his eyes looked so displaced and unfocused. It’s not sadness that he found in Baekhyun’s normally warm brown eyes. It was desperation.

Without knowing what it was that made him move, Chanyeol took Baekhyun in his arms, pulling him close. The latter’s height only amount to the taller man’s chin, just right that his eyes could peek over the shoulder of the embrace.

And, for the first time in forever, in a long time, in a many lists of firsts – and perhaps lasts – Baekhyun wanted to tell him everything. He wants to tell Chanyeol about Tao, and how he felt so damn responsible about it. He wants to tell Chanyeol about how hard it has been for him. He wants to tell Chanyeol about today and grieve. He wants to tell Chanyeol that he has had enough, and that he wants it to stop. He wants to tell Chanyeol that he’s scared, because he knows something’s wrong and afraid that he and his brother are heading straight for something they know nothing about.

But.

Baekhyun blinked the tears out of his eyes. He spread the fist that was trapped between their chest and gave a push. Pulling away from the embrace, he took a deep breath and let out a chuckle before looking up at him for one last time with the practiced perfected warm glow in his brown eyes.

“I’m fine.”

Lying has never hurt so bad.

So, I'm back after a hell of a lot of time so I'm really sorry for that. And partly that because i was in the hospital and now something horrible happened and I'm just at a pinch so I couldn't write. And other than that, this story - although i will still continue to finish it - is not doing well so i don't know if you guys like it or not. But I promise you, we haven't even gotten to the main plot yet (we're close~) so please continue to support this story and comment because that's how i know~~~ ❤️❤️❤️