“Come here,” Marge says, snapping her fingers. I grab my laptop and hurry over to her desk. “Put these on.” She hands me a pair of bulky black headphones. I comply, looking at her quizzically.

“Nam, what’s your status update?” Marge says into her computer.

“0.9 miles from X.E.,” a low voice says. With a start, I realize that it is Namjoon’s voice.

“We’re enacting Plan 668,” another voice says. Jungkook. “Our target is the Head of the IT department."

"That's right. Don't kill him. Just capture him. Ami, pull up the floor plan of their HQ building."

"Ami?" Jungkook's tone changes. "What the hell? Is she working on this mission?"

"Hey, Ami," I hear Jimin say.

"Hi, Jimin," I respond. "And yes, Jungkook, I am."

"We need to talk about this when I get back, Marge," Jungkook growls.

"Okay, so the Cytel building has 59 floors, plus roof access." I peer at the screen. "I think there are doors all around the building. Uhh... what else?"

"Find out which floor the tech division's on," Marge tells me. I furrow my eyebrows.

"Uh, how?"

Marge clicks her tongue. "We don't have time for this. Come on, Ami, figure it out!"

I hurriedly Google one of the Cytel employee's contact information. "He works on Floor 34," I murmur. "Right in the middle of the building."

"Going there would be suicide," Hoseok hisses. "What do we do?"

"I'll handle it," Jungkook says tensely. "Just wait outside the building and get ready to go as soon as I come out."

"Wha-,"

"I can handle it! Marge, we are at the location. I'm turning my camera on."

"Jungkook, don't do anything reckless!" Marge shouts, but he has stopped responding. Instead, a video feed of a tall, brightly lit skyscraper fills Marge's laptop screen. This must be from Jungkook’s camera.

He approaches the front door and enters the building. A polished, stiff-looking receptionist sits at a desk, typing on her laptop. She looks up when Jungkook enters.

“Can I help you-,” she begins to say, but Jungkook points a gun in her face. sags open in a terrified, half-baked expression.

“I need you to call Baekhyun Byun down to the ground floor,” Jungkook commands in a low voice. “Tell him he has a delivery.”

“H- He’s not here,” she squeaks. I can hear Jungkook smirk.

“Stop lying. I’ll give you 5 seconds to call him.”

My eyes widen. Jungkook’s tone is harsh, cruel. The only time I’ve seen him act like this is that day in the girl’s bathroom, when he almost shot me in the face. This is a stern reminder of who Jungkook is and what he does.

The receptionist shakily picks up the phone. “Mr. Byun?” she says faintly. “Can you come down? There’s a- a package for you.” After a few more moments, she hangs up. “He’s coming down in a minute.”

The elevator dings. Marge and I watch in anticipation.

An attractive, dark-haired man coolly strides out of the elevator, his hands in his pockets. Jungkook swivels and directs the gun at him.

“Well, well, well,” he says. “Long time no see, Jungkook.”

“Cut the crap,” Jungkook snarls. “You know why I’m here.”

“Wow. 3 years ago, you would’ve shot me by now. Therapy must be working.”

There is an audible intake of breath from Jungkook. Marge stiffens next to me.

I turn to her, bemused. “Therapy?”

“Shh,” Marge responds, leaning into her laptop screen.

“Why did you plant a virus in our database, Baekhyun?” Jungkook asks in a tight voice.

“I didn’t. But I’m happy to hear about that. Marge must be pissed.”

“ you, Baekhyun,” Marge mutters, clenching her fists. I give her another look.

“You know this guy?”

“Shh!” she hisses.

Jungkook scoffs. “Baekhyun, I have a gun in your face. I don’t think you should be lying.”

“I’m not lying.” Baekhyun strolls over to a sofa in the middle of the lobby and takes a seat. “Let me guess, the tracking on the virus showed that it originated here. Marge, this question is for you. I know you’re listening. How easy would it be for someone to piggyback on our network and deliver a bug from IP address?”

Pretty easy. I know this because I was able to do it in about 20 minutes last night.

“As fun as this little rendezvous is, I have to get back to work.” Baekhyun stands up. “Nice seeing you, Jungkook. Tell the others I said hi.”

“Let him go, Jungkook,” Marge says. “He’s right. It couldn’t have been X.E. Baekhyun would’ve never been that obvious.”

“So this was all for nothing?” Jin sighs.

“The bigger question here is who was behind this attack,” Marge says. “Come back to HQ. Ami, I’m stepping out for a bit. You can go home.”

I am left alone on Floor 21 with a rising feeling of dread.

Jungkook has been avoiding me for the past week.

He doesn’t even gloat over my misery in Training anymore- he simply ignores me and moves on. He only acknowledges me in school out of obligation, since we’re supposed to be dating. He gives me brief, one-word answers when I try to talk to him.

He’s been like this ever since I watched his mission at X.E. And I can tell why he’s so angry. All this time, Jungkook has been a closed door to me. We fought and teased each other and I thought I knew him, but our relationship is superficial.

I don’t know Jungkook.

But something tells me that Baekhyun’s comment that night- the one about therapy working for Jungkook- is the key to unlocking Jungkook’s true personality.

I want to know what he’s hiding. I need to know what he’s hiding.

And I am going to find out what it is.

“Yo, I’m having a party at my house tomorrow,” Preet proudly informs me on Thursday. “You should come.”

I double-take. “A party? You? Who’s invited?”

“You, Annabelle, Marcus, and Lina. Oh, and Katy Perry, but she hasn’t RSVP’d yet.”

“That’s not a party, you . That’s literally just the Anime Club.”

“Same thing! I’m ordering pepperoni pizza and I’ve just obtained a pirated copy of The Matrix. It’ll be great.”

“As tempting as that sounds, I can’t. I have my date with Chanyeol tomorrow, remember?”

“Chanyeol who?”

“That intern I met during Training. God, do you even listen to me?”

“Oh, that’s right.” Preet presses his lips together. “Look, Ami... you can’t just work all the time. You need to take a break from all this. You just look tired all the time. You know you have a problem when you spend an entire day sleeping in the library. And your grades are slipping!”

“It doesn’t matter, right?” I chuckle. “Yohan can get me into any college I want.”

“You’re missing the point. After your little date, you're going to come to my house and relax. Then, on Saturday, you’re going to skip Training. You’re not even going to show up to Yohan. You are going to sleep in and take a break from all this.”

“I can’t,” I say weakly, but Preet shakes his head.

“If I have to beat up some 4 Flames thugs to keep you home, I will. Now get to class.”

Before Preet leaves, I grab his arm. “Hey, .”

“What?”

“Thanks.”

He smirks. “Don’t get too soft on me.”

Chanyeol meets me in a cozy little coffee shop on Friday night. His oversized sweater, coupled with the large glasses he is wearing today, make me smile.

“Hello,” I say, setting my bag down in the chair next to him. He looks up and grins.

“Ami! Wow, it’s the first time I’m seeing you in anything other than training clothes. You look so cute!”

“Thanks. Here, let me go get something to drink.”

“That’s alright. I already got you some tea.” Chanyeol slides over a cup to me. My eyebrows shoot up after I take a sip.

“Wow, it’s good. How’d you know what I’d like?”

“Intuition.”

“Sure.” I laugh. “Anyway, how has work been? What have you been doing?”

Chanyeol’s eyes light up. “So much! Okay, so the other day while I was filing, my supervisor actually gave me another project! She said, Chanyeol, you’ve proved yourself and I think you’re ready to help out with something bigger. And then she gave me these new blueprints to file instead!”

“Blueprints? Blueprints of what?”

“A bunch of things! Weapons and machines and all sorts of stuff. They all looked amazing, to be honest. All modern and cool and high-techy!”

“Chanyeol,” I say, leaning forward. “Do you know what Project Cotton is?”

He freezes. The cheerful expression on his face slowly fades away.

“Ami,” he says slowly. “What do you do at Yohan again?”

“Computer stuff,” I respond warily. “Why?”

He stares at me for a long moment, and then bursts out into low laughter.

“You're the one who made the virus, aren't you?” he says.

The blood drains from my face. I shoot up, about to grab my purse and run from the building, until Chanyeol says, “Calm down. I’m not going to turn you in.”

My hands are trembling. I shakily look back at him.

“Who are you?” I whisper.

“Tell me who you are first.”

“No.”

Chanyeol crosses his arms. All traces of his ditzy, playful demeanor have completely vanished. Instead, a sly smile graces his face. He casually slouches backward in his chair, eyeing me with an unnerving look.

"Baekhyun suspected that there was another mole inside Yohan that wiped out all that data on purpose,” he says. “Guess he was right.”

My eyes widen in recognition. Baekhyun.

“You’re from X.E.,” I breathe.

“You got it. Now who are you? FBI? Seven Stars?”

“I’m... not in a gang, or another organization like that. I’m here because Yohan killed my best friend’s brother, and I want to know why.”

He scoffs. “How noble. X.E. is trying to figure out what you’re trying to figure out: what Project Cotton is. Baekhyun picked up intel on it years ago, but every single source he’s tried to hack into has been blocked off. You know something’s up when Baekhyun can’t hack into it.”

I narrow my eyes. “But why does X.E. want to know what Project Cotton is?”

Chanyeol gives me a withering look that I never would’ve expected he was capable of. “Not only are Cytel and Yohan competing companies, but X.E. and the 4 Flames are competing gangs. Yohan’s profits in the past few years has skyrocketed- presumably because of Project Cotton. We can’t let them get ahead of us, so we’re going to find out what it is so we can either stop them or make better versions of what they’re using.”

I shake my head. “So you joined the Yohan tech division to try to find out more.”

“I joined to get access codes and passwords for Baekhyun.” He rubs the back of his neck. “It was so annoying acting all happy and cute all the time. And the biggest joke of all was acting like I was struggling in Training.”

My jaw drops in indignation. “Are you serious?”

“You think running 2 miles a day and doing a few agility exercises is hard? Please. Now, Ami.” He leans forward. “You managed to get a virus into the Yohan database past Marge, which must mean you’re decent at hacking. I feel like we could be of a lot of use to each other.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s make a deal. You give me a few classified documents, I supply you with every piece of information that I run across in the data department- including passwords and access codes from high-level employees, things I extract from workers in my department, and documents about Project Cotton, if I do find any.”

I glare at him. “Selling out one gang to another gang isn’t very appealing to me. Especially since I have friends in that gang, and the only person I know in the other gang is a guy who lied to me about his true identity for weeks. Do you see why I might not trust you?”

Chanyeol guffaws. “Ha! I lied to you for weeks? How about your little boyfriend Jungkook Jeon? Don’t try and say that you two aren’t dating,” he adds after seeing my furious expression. “Your little teenage flirt-fest in Training every day makes me want to puke.”

I redden. “We aren’t flirting! And he hasn’t lied to me. I know that he’s... killed people before.”

“And you think that’s everything?”

I bite my lip. There is that part about his therapy sessions that I’m quite unclear on. But I figured he would tell me eventually, when the time was right.

“Yes,” I respond petulantly.

“Your boyfriend is a psychopath who had to be locked away for 2 years because he was obsessed with murdering people.” Chanyeol tells me, a faint smirk on his lips. “Did he tell you that?”

I look at him, my face utterly blank.

And then I laugh.

“Yeah, right.” I stand up. “Feeding me lies isn’t going to make me want to help you. I don’t want to waste my time here any longer. Goodbye.”

“I’ll leave you a little present tonight,” Chanyeol calls after me. “I’m sure you’ll love it.”

I flick him off over my shoulder as I stomp away, my mind reeling with numb disbelief after hearing his words.

A/N: sooo yeah. LOLOL everyone is saying how they want ami to ditch the anime club and join the 4 flames for real, but i think it's important to keep in mind that they're a gang.... and they do really bad stuff (which will be discussed in future chapters). but YEAH swag lmfao jungkook 

BTW, your comments are my FREAKING heroin. I love you guys so much omg I'm really happy that you're reading this story :')