Chapter One;

August 6
Seoul, South Korea

The apartment building the address directed me to was not really in a residential area. There were mostly small office buildings nearby, along with the occasional convenience store and coffee shop. I got there just in time to see a taxi drop off another man, who had his back to me. Upon closer inspection, I recognized the short build and handsome face. 

“Kim Joonmyun?”

Joonmyun was about two years older than me, a few inches taller than me, and sometimes went by the nickname Suho, or guardian. He was a locksmith here in Seoul, and had helped me out once or twice when I was in a tight spot. He was definitely also not the type to be threatening me with playing cards. We were pretty good friends, and he was someone that I trusted. 

“Mina? What are you doing here?” he asked, one hand frozen on the door handle. 

I silently held up my playing card. 

“You got one too?” Joonmyun showed me his. It was the same intricate design, made from the same material. His was the jack of hearts. 

“Any idea what this is about?” I asked. 

Joonmyun just shook his head. He held the door open for me like a gentleman, and we started up the stairs. 

The building was four stories high, and the stairwell echoed the sounds my high heeled shoes made on the contact with the floor. When I rounded the corner out of the stairwell on the fourth floor, I was surprised to find a large crowd of people already waiting in the hallway, maybe around ten or so. 

I immediately recognized the four who were standing together off to the side, and their eyes opened in shock upon seeing me. 

“Mina?”

Kim Jongdae, Byun Baekhyun, Park Chanyeol, and Kim Jongin worked as a team here in Seoul. They were pretty well known by people like me, kind of like the F4 of con artists. Kim Jongdae was the brain and the leader, Baekhyun was the inside man, Chanyeol was the fixer, and Jongin was the one to rope the marks in. They specialized in long cons, usually targeting only people who really deserved it. In fact, I thought of them as the robin hood of the 21st century, thieves with a conscience. 

I had worked with them once, a year ago, lifting a white gold ring from the hand of a corrupt politician. Apart from the mutual respect, I also kind of found Kim Jongin very attractive. We had a brief thing once, and it was mutually beneficial at the time.

“What is going on?” I asked, even more confused. 

A scan of the other people in the room yielded no familiar faces. I also noticed that they were all men. One guy was about 6 ft 2 and looked like a super model. Another guy, about as tall as Jongin, slouched with disinterest against a wall, blond hair falling over his eyes and headphones in his ears. Another was much shorter, but also had blond hair, paired with doe eyes, and a baby face. Two others were conversing in a corner in another language, and the last one with big eyes was just staring around in mild terror.

“What card are you?” Jongdae asked. 

I held up my queen. Jongdae had the three of hearts, Baekhyun had the four, Chanyeol had six, and Jongin had eight. All with the same design, from the same person. 

“What mutual acquaintances do we have?” Baekhyun wondered, thinking hard. “Do you think it’s someone related to the ring thing?”

I shrugged. “No idea, but I think this person has connections in Hong Kong as well.”

“Hong Kong? We’ve never worked in Hong Kong,” Chanyeol mused. He had on his glasses today, the ones that weren’t even prescription. Chan