CHINGUX 2014: i'll be the bullet in your gun (1/2) for miook
Title: i’ll be the bullet in your gun
Author: skyroll
Recipient: miook
Pairing/Focus: OT4 (Chanyeol/Kyungsoo)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, Violence
Length: 12k
Summary: Chanyeol is good at what he does. And then D.O. had to show up and steal his thunder and his heart.
The office building is quiet, dead without the energy of the businessmen who frequent its floors during the day, for schedules and meetings that serve no real purpose in the long run. Why one would want to secure a document from this office, Chanyeol has no idea, but it doesn’t matter when the contract he follows gives him his directions.
Jiggling the harness around his chest tighter, Chanyeol pats his clothes down to make sure nothing came in with him from the vents. The last time he made the mistake of bringing bugs back to the rendezvous point, he was given a stack of paper taller than he was and had to stay up way past the sunrise just to complete them.
“I can see you on the feed,” Jongdae remarks in his earpiece. “You’re pretty close to the target. It should be a room down the hallway on your right. There shouldn’t be any security blocking your way, but try to make it quick.”
Chanyeol flips the night vision in his goggles on, and with trained movements, he maneuvers down the hallway towards his destination. The floor he’s on is near the top of the building, a mammoth skyscraper that watches over the city like an angry sentinel. He’s never been fond of offices, the confinements of cookie-cutter jobs never once crossing his mind as a career he could see himself getting into as an adult.
Then again, neither was getting himself involved with the dangerous world of espionage and assassination. He remembers growing up as a kid and reading stories about the killers who lurked in the shadows, and now as an adult, he can safely say he should’ve paid more attention to them.
“Could you hurry it up?” Baekhyun’s nasally voice flutters in through the radio and Chanyeol nearly slips as he rounds a corner. “I got a babe waiting for me and I don’t want to make her suffer by being late.”
“Why don’t we trade then?” Chanyeol snaps back. “Put down the rifle and come do some real work for a change.”
Baekhyun’s laughter fills up the silence of night and it’s a good thing there isn’t anyone around to hear him because even if it’s just through the radio, Baekhyun’s voice is usually a few decibels higher than necessary. Chanyeol thinks everything about Baekhyun is unnecessary.
“How about you both shut the fuck up so we can actually get the work done?” Jongdae barks through the radio, before the clicking of keyboard keys follows his voice. He pauses for a moment as he brings up the next camera feed. “Okay this should be the room with the document in it. You’re looking for a small vanilla folder labeled with the initials D. O.”
“Okay-“
“D.O.? Like dough?” Baekhyun snorts. “Is our client looking for some cake ideas because that is pretty lame. If I knew they wanted that I would’ve just directed them to the Bakery section in Food Lion.”
“Shut up Baekhyun.”
“What’s it looks inside Jongdae?” Chanyeol asks, as he examines the door for any sort of unusual equipment that could be possible alarms. His role on this side of the operation is the hardest in his opinion, because he’s the one having to actually be on the front lines and deal with the physical hurdles of completing the mission. He can’t blame anyone though; after all, it’s what he was trained to do.
“Hang on let me--” Jongdae’s words are cut off as he grunts. “That’s weird.”
“What is?”
“I can’t access the feed from inside the room. Something’s blocking me from entering that line. ”
Chanyeol eyebrows narrow as he runs a finger down his earpiece. Jongdae isn’t the type to stumble because he’s especially cautious with everything he does, so if he’s having trouble, it means that it would be best for Chanyeol to keep his guard up. “Baekhyun do you see anything unusual from your end?”
“Nope, room looks clear to me,” Baekhyun replies as he cocks his rifle. “I’m not seeing anything inside. Look, I don’t want to rush you or anything but--”
“Shut up,” Chanyeol mutters as he lines up the electronic lock on the door with his equipment, and begins to type a few sequences in. The ominous red light switches over to a vibrant green, but not before he hears a beeping sound on the other side of the door. “What-“
He barely catches it, the explosion that tears the door apart and throws flames across the walls as the room lights up. Chanyeol stumbles a bit as he gathers his bearings on the floor, the ringing in his ears vibrating harshly against the silence. His first reaction is to quickly get into a safer position, rolling over towards what’s left of the hallway wall, and trying to salvage what’s left of the room.
His earpiece is filled with static as his partners try to contact him, but Chanyeol can’t hear anything but the alarms ringing throughout the building, and the faint wailing of sirens in the distance. He’s about to abort the mission and escape from the scene, but that’s when he sees it, a lone figure standing at the window, with a document in their hand.
Even with the light of the city illuminating them from the back, the figure looks like a living shadow, dressed in nothing but black. What is clear to Chanyeol though, is that this person has the document he was after. In the next breath, the figure is gone, jumping out of the window and disappearing into the city below.
“Chan-“Jongdae’s voice breaks into static.
As the sirens start to grow, Chanyeol brushes off the debris on his body and quickly makes for the nearest exit, ignoring the bad taste growing in his mouth.
∇
“Who the fuck was that?” Baekhyun screeches as Chanyeol slide into the abandoned shipping container Jongdae calls his base of operations.
It’s a safe distance away from the city limits, but Chanyeol still finds it hard to understand why it hasn’t been discovered by any of the local police yet. Jongdae explained that no one ever bothers looking inside of it, so they’re pretty much secured.
It also might be the fact that Jongdae likes to migrate a lot between the containers scattered around the city, which also brings up the question how Jongdae manages to move so much equipment around without being seen. There’s a lot of things that Jongdae does that just don’t make a lot of sense to Chanyeol.
“I didn’t get a good enough look at his face,” Chanyeol notes sadly as he throws the burnt remains of his goggles onto the desk. “Or her face, it was hard to tell.”
“You shouldn’t have had to because there shouldn’t have been anyone else,” Baekhyun snarls. “I studied the guards’ shifts for weeks. There shouldn’t have been anyone else in that room.”
“It wasn’t a guard.” Chanyeol sinks into a free chair. His body aches, and not just from the explosion. “It was another player.”
“Shit. Well whatever they were, they definitely pushed us into a tight corner,” Jongdae sighs from the computer. He’s typing away frantically at his keyboard, doing a bit of damage control with the locals and cleaning up the mess their new friend left them for their client. “It’ll take me a while to explain the situation, but it doesn’t look good for us.”
“Just tell them the truth,” Chanyeol suggests.
“Tell them the truth?” Baekhyun looks dumbfounded. “Are we boy scouts now? Look, just do whatever it is you need to do Jongdae, but let’s keep this bitch a secret. I don’t want anyone knowing we lost to some rookie on what should have been a simple mission.”
“How do you know they were a rookie?” Chanyeol asks sleepily. “For all we know, it could be someone sent in to take us out. It’s not like we don’t have enemies outside of the police. I can’t imagine how much I’m worth to them.”
Baekhyun kicks at the chair Chanyeol’s sitting in, shaking the giant from the sleep that’s trying to take him away.
“Don’t tell me what to do Baekhyun,” Jongdae says with terrifying clarity. “I will handle this. Don’t you have a date you’re late for anyways?”
“Figured if I’m already this late then it wouldn’t matter how late I showed up.” Baekhyun says, pulling off his beanie and running a hand through his sweat-soaked bangs. “Sex is sex okay?”
“And you just know you’re going to get some pussy today.” Chanyeol rolls his eyes.
“At least I’ll be getting some tonight.” Baekhyun shoots him a glare. “Ladies can’t get enough of me. I’m like a gift to humanity. Of course, I see the lock on your chastity belt is still there. Maybe your new friend is into limp dicks.”
“If I find out, I’ll let them know you’re interested in getting together.”
“I am actually kind of worried that you two are talking about sex at a time like this.” Jongdae presses the enter key harder than his keyboard would allow and it threatens to break under his middle finger. “If you two are finished comparing dick sizes-“
“Mine’s bigger by the way,” Baekhyun says shamelessly.
“If you two are finished,” Jongdae says calmly. “Then I’ll need you two to leave because I have a lot of work to do to cover our asses and I need silence. I’m sure Joonmyun will be sending us his disappointments soon and I just know that will be tons of fun to sit through. You guys already know the drill. Get some rest for tomorrow and I’ll find out where to go from there.”
“Fine,” Baekhyun replies. “Do you at least have a change of clothes?”
Jongdae shoots him a look filled with murderous intent.
“What, do you expect me to just walk all the way back to my apartment looking like this?” He gestures to his clothing like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “If I walked out like this it would just be like screaming at the police to arrest me.”
“Don’t you-how’d you even get here in the first place then?” Chanyeol asks.
“I got out of there long before the police could even turn their keys.” Baekhyun starts peeling off his gloves. “It didn’t take me that long to get here. I’m surprised you got here in one piece.”
“Stole a motorcycle. Ditched it quick. If getting caught by the police was ever a problem we had to worry about, we might as well just resign right now.”
Baekhyun doesn’t look impressed, more like he’s wondering why Chanyeol seems like he’s proud of what he accomplished. “Right.”
“My apartment’s not too far from here, so just swing by my place for some clothes,” Chanyeol offers. “I’m sure you still have some left over. That sounds good, right Jongdae?”
“I don’t really care right now.” Jongdae brings up a few tabs open on his screen. “Just get out of here.”
∇
Chanyeol has seen many things while working under his agency, witnessing scenes that continuously boggle his mind and makes him question everything he once knew.
He’s seen people backstab each other for monetary gain, and even go as far as to eliminate the other person for good, to ensure that they would never get caught. It’s a dirty business, and it constantly pulls at the morals Chanyeol locked away inside of his head.
His apartment is empty, the result of constantly changing locations to avoid being caught up in unnecessary drama with the busybodies that try to pry into his private life. It’s easier this way he thinks, without having to worry about other people and having only yourself to take care of. He holds people at arms’ length and each day is just a bit easier to deal with.
The clock reads four am, but he’s already wide awake, sliding his hand throughout his fridge in hopes of finding something small to eat for breakfast. No luck. His fridge is as empty as his love life.
Not that he minds that. Being with someone in the romantic sense is completely out of the question. His partners joke about the fact that Chanyeol rarely goes out with anyone on a date, but it’s because Chanyeol sees no reason to. He’s much happier being by himself and he doesn’t have any romantic or sexual drive that couldn’t be fulfilled with a quick read or masturbation session.
Slapping himself out of his thoughts, Chanyeol shuts the fridge door and quickly throws on a black windbreaker before heading out of his apartment.
The cold city air greets him as he ventures down his usual route for jogging, a couple of blocks around the city that circle back to his apartment building. Being up this early is routine for Chanyeol. He’s used to seeing the city with most of its residents sleeping, only a few cars passing by and the occasional jogger as signs that the city is still breathing.
There’s a small bakery down the street that opens up all day long that Chanyeol visits for his daily dose of energy. He’s been a customer for so long that Minseok, who works the front desk at this hour, has taken to calling him as ‘The Rooster’. He originally wanted to go with ‘The Cock’, but he was afraid it might’ve given him some unfortunate implications. Chanyeol assured him there are none.
“The usual?” Minseok chimes from underneath the counter, not having to look up to know which customer came in this early.
“You know me,” Chanyeol laughs. “Brew up something hot yeah?”
“Coming right up.” Minseok scoops up a few coffee beans before pausing as he stares at Chanyeol closely. “You look pretty beat.”
Chanyeol looks at him sheepishly. “Do I?”
“Yeah. Most days you got like this spring in your step, but today you seem kind of tired. Minseok throws the beans into the machine before flipping the switch on. “That’s a pretty nasty burn you got on your cheek.”
“I had a bit of a problem with the oven yesterday,” Chanyeol says. “It didn’t agree with my chicken wings.”
“I bet.” Minseok smiles. “Be careful okay?”
“You know me, I’m always careful.” Chanyeol’s grin turns lopsided. “I’m like a walking safety cone.”
Their laughter is interrupted when the doorbell chimes as another customer walks in. When Chanyeol looks over, he isn’t really that impressed because the customers looks like a kid, with his oversized black sweater clearly two sizes too big for him. If his clothes didn’t make him look like a kid, then the way he stared at Chanyeol with his saucer-sized eyes definitely did.
Minseok seems to know him with how his face lights up as he greets him. “This will only take a moment,” Minseok assures Chanyeol as he brings out a fresh cup of milk from behind the counter and hands it over to the kid.
The kid accepts it with delicate hands and he brightens up with a heart-shaped smile that Chanyeol wishes he hadn’t seen because it’s cute, and definitely does not tug at his heartstrings. The kid must’ve caught Chanyeol watching him because he’s suddenly flushing beneath his black bangs and hurriedly taking the seat furthest from them.
“You know him?” Chanyeol asks when he’s sure the kid can no longer hear them.
“Kyungsoo?” Minseok taps on his counter. “Yeah, he’s a pretty good kid. I knew him from a while ago but he recently moved back into the city. He’s like you, always getting something so early in the morning. I don’t know how you kids get up so early.”
“Is he really a kid?” Chanyeol asks. “You call everyone kid. It’s kind of confusing sometimes.”
“He’s around your age,” Minseok chuckles. “You two are alike.”
“I doubt that,” Chanyeol says, a bit hesitant. If Minseok noticed it, he doesn’t act on it. It’s not Minseok’s fault he doesn’t know about the double life Chanyeol lives. “He seems like a nice person though.”
“He really is,” Minseok adds. “Why don’t go you talk to him? I’m sure he could use the company. I’ve got some shelves I have to restock anyways.”
Minseok disappears into the backroom, leaving Chanyeol with deciding whether to go up to this person and start up a conversation, or just leave the bakery entirely and not deal with words and what is clearly an awkward situation. Befriending Minseok was much easier when Chanyeol wasn’t the one trying to initiate the conversations.
Ultimately he decides it wouldn’t hurt him to get to know this Kyungsoo, and try to become friends with him, because despite his risk at privacy, what’s the worst that could happen?
“Hey,” Chanyeol says as he pulls up a seat in front of Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo just stares back at him without replying, but Chanyeol recovers quickly to try and ease the awkwardness. “Sorry, do you mind if I sit here?”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and returns to his phone, typing away quickly.
“So do you come here often?” Chanyeol asks after an extended moment of silence. This time Kyungsoo stares at him with even wider eyes and the ominous background music of Candy Crush is the only sound either of them hear for a while. “Was that a bit weird for me to ask? I wasn’t sure if-“
“Who are you again?” Kyungsoo asks, and his voice is nothing like Chanyeol expected it to be. It’s rough and the fact that it’s four in the morning probably has nothing to do with it.
And then he realizes that he forgot to introduce himself. If Chanyeol wasn’t sure if he hated making new friends before, then he definitely knows now. “Sorry. I’m Chanyeol. I’m a friend of Minseok.”
“I’m Kyungsoo.”
“I know,” Chanyeol remarks, earning an eyebrow raise from Kyungsoo. “I mean, Minseok told me about you.”
“Really?” Kyungsoo’s lips thin. “He didn’t say anything about you.”
Chanyeol rubs at his neck sheepishly. “Well, I’m not really that exciting of a person to know.”
“I doubt that.” Kyungsoo’s lips curve into a smile.
∇
“Did you find out anything about our mysterious intruder?” Chanyeol asks as he throws a towel onto Jongdae’s desk. Jongdae gives him a disgusted look as he pushes the towel further away from him, like it’ll give him some sort of Chanyeol related disease.
“I found out he’s a little bitch,” Baekhyun says, pulling up the collar of his jacket to cover up the hickeys that aren’t obvious at all. Baekhyun came back this morning looking like the bastard son of a leopard and a tomato and he wondered why everyone was giving him weird looks. “I also found out our little Chanyeol has been getting some.”
“What?” Chanyeol and Jongdae both say in unison.
Baekhyun looks Chanyeol down with the sort of glee that only comes from successfully completing a mission and making it home to catch reruns of Teen Titans. “So Kyungsoo was it?”
“Don’t you dare say another word polka dots.”
“I think it’s nice,” Baekhyun continues as he walks around Jongdae’s hotel room. “Finally, Chanyeol is getting some after four years of living in the big city.”
“I’ve been here longer than that-how did you find out anyways?” Chanyeol asks as he crosses his arms.
Baekhyun places a hand on his hip and gives him a look like Chanyeol said something really stupid. “You’re kidding me right? Our jobs revolve around acquiring information. Did you really think you were Minseok’s only friend?”
“You were the last person I’d want him to meet,” Chanyeol grumbles. “You’re a terrible person.”
“I’m a great person,” Baekhyun gasps. “You can ask all the chicks I’ve ever gone out with.”
Jongdae looks at him with disdain. “A real nice guy we have here.”
“I resent that,” Baekhyun says. “I’m a total gentleman. But as much as I like all the attention, the topic of the conversation is not me, but Chanyeol here.”
“I can’t believe Minseok likes you enough to talk to you,” Chanyeol throws his hands up.
“So is Kyungsoo cute?”
Chanyeol pauses for a moment as he thinks back on when Kyungsoo took a sip of his milk and didn’t bother wiping away the milk mustache it left behind. When he told him it was on his face, Kyungsoo blushed a bright pink before wiping it away with his sleeve. Very, very cutely.
A smile must’ve been creeping onto Chanyeol’s lips because when he comes out of his reverie, he notices Baekhyun watching him with a shit-eating grin. “That cute huh?”
“Shut up Baekhyun.”
“Are we really talking about this right now?” Jongdae rubs at his temples. “As much as I’m interested in this Kyungsoo, we have some orders from a few hours ago.” This catches their attention, drawing them to the dead drop spike on Jongdae’s desk.
Making sure that the hotel camera is disabled to prevent any security leaks, Jongdae points to the note unraveled a few inches away. It’s a worn out little sliver of paper that, to any regular civilian, would just look like something that needs to be thrown away into the trash bin.
“For now, we’ll have to just put your little revenge plan on hold.” Jongdae says to Baekhyun, who merely scoffs. “We have another operation to complete. They’d like one of us to gather some inside information on a rival company. It looks like there’s a big project coming up and they’d like to cripple their competition early. Clever.”
“Looks like I’m on the job,” Chanyeol says as he rubs at his nose. “Who am I going in as?”
Jongdae pulls up a document on his laptop and points to the paragraphs written in it. “You’ll be going in as an intern. Kim-“
Chanyeol tries not to let it happen, but as he slips into his thoughts once more, he can’t help but think about Kyungsoo and he starts to realize, it’s starting to get dangerous.
∇
“So what do you do for a living?” Chanyeol asks as he meets up with Kyungsoo for the fifth time the following week. “You never really mention anything about that, but I don’t remember you saying anything about school either?”
Kyungsoo turns his cup around once, and then twice, and then three times as he looks up at Chanyeol with an expression that looks a bit out of place with the way his eyes widen cutely.
“Sorry,” Chanyeol apologizes. “If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to.”
“It’s not that, it’s just nothing that exciting to talk about,” Kyungsoo’s cheeks turn a bit pink as he smiles. “I work as an event planner here. I help plan concerts and big parties, like for celebrities and high profile people.”
“That sounds pretty fun.” Chanyeol tips his cup slightly over and wonders if Minseok would be angry if he asked for a refill. “You don’t seem like the type of person that would work out here in the big city, but I’ve been wrong before.” Kyungsoo tilts his head when Chanyeol laughs nervously. “Don’t take that wrong way, I mean you’re just so cute. I don’t do anything interesting myself.”
“And what would that be?” Kyungsoo asks earnestly, leaning forward until he’s on the edge of his seat. If the table wasn’t separating them, then he’d probably fall straight onto the floor from how precariously he’s tilting his body.
Chanyeol laughs before pulling his cup back. “I work as a professional model.”
“Really?” Kyungsoo’s eyes light up. “That’s a pretty interesting job.”
“It can be a bit tiring. There’s a lot of moving around and you don’t really have much time for other people because of that. But the pay is nice, so that’s good. And you get to wear a lot of good clothes, so that’s always a good plus.”
Kyungsoo lets his gaze fall back to his cup of coffee. It’s getting cold now, as the morning air fills up the bakery shop with the city chill. “I don’t get to make a lot of friends in my job. Mainly because I’m so used to running around everywhere, I never really have time for myself, so I never really have time to check up on people too.”
“But you’re here right now,” Chanyeol comments.
“Well yeah, but I’ve also got a big day planned ahead, so I had to get up really early to get ready,” Kyungsoo says as he straightens out the cuffs of his dress shirt. “I needed my bit of caffeine to even think about the charity ball I have to help out today.”
Chanyeol’s hand grips at his cup before he smiles a bit wider. “A charity ball?”
“It’s a bit of an extravagant dinner service being held to help raise money to pay for the damages from the fire that broke out at the park a month ago.” Kyungsoo stares out into the city street. “The mayor wanted a new park anyways, so it’d be like killing two birds with one stone.”
“Sounds like you have your work cut out for you,” Chanyeol remarks.
Kyungsoo shrugs into his shirt. “It’s what I live for.”
∇
If Chanyeol ever needed an intervention on his growing feelings for a random stranger he met at a bakery, then now would be the perfect time, as he fades out of the conversation for the third time in a row, much to Jongdae and Baekhyun’s irritation.
“We kind of need you to fucking pay attention Chanyeol!” Baekhyun roars through the earpiece, the sudden noise nearly knocking Chanyeol off of the railing. “Keep your dick in your pants and focus on the mission.”
“Baekhyun!” Jongdae yells back. “He’s right though Chanyeol. Let’s try to focus here and get through this mission as quickly as possible. We don’t want a repeat of what happened two weeks ago okay?”
“Right,” Chanyeol mumbles as he adjusts to the building in front of him and tries to remember what the hell he was supposed to be doing.
He is ashamed that he’s letting a few feelings distract him badly enough that it’s affecting him in the field. But then again, it’s just so nice to think about the way Kyungsoo licked his lips when Chanyeol pointed out how cute they looked since they were shaped like a heart. He can’t help but think about how nice it would be to capture those lips with his own.
“Chanyeol,” Jongdae says. “If you see D.O. out there, we have permission to take him out.”
“D.O.?”
“Are you serious Chanyeol?” Baekhyun groans. “Have you been paying attention to the conversation at all? Are you fucking stupid, because it looks like you’re trying to set a new Guinness World Record with all this stupidity you’re giving off.”
“Woah, where’s all of this animosity coming from?”
“Baekhyun got dumped last night,” Jongdae deadpans. “There were a lot of tears and grade school name calling. It was kind of sorry to watch really, I’m sad I had to be present for it. But, at least I got it all on video.”
Chanyeol pulls his goggles down over his eyes. “Right. So D.O.?”
“That’s the alias for the man who stole the document from us. Well, not from us exactly but you get the picture. Headquarters thinks he’s an agent like us, probably an independent, but there’s not much information on him. Where he’s from, or what his motive is. Which, makes a lot of sense now since the document was mostly likely about him.”
“Most likely?” Baekhyun snorts. “There can’t be that many fucking things D.O. stands for.”
“Look can we just get through this without any problems?” The camera nearest Chanyeol starts to move and the lens contract before expanding as Jongdae completes his hack inside of it. “If we can’t pull off just retrieving a briefcase, then they said they would pull us off the active roster and hand our missions over to Sehun’s team. And I really do not like Sehun.”
“Yeah, don’t screw it up Chanyeol,” Baekhyun barks.
“I got it,” Chanyeol says dryly as he stands up on the rooftop. “Let’s go.”
∇
Kyungsoo seems like a very patient person, from what Chanyeol can gather from the time they’ve spent together. He can’t really call their little get-togethers ‘dates’ since it’s not like they talk to each other in a romantic sense, but they feel like them from how much Kyungsoo seems to open up to him so early in the morning.
Or it could just be Chanyeol hoping they actually are dates, and that neither of them have said anything about it because they’re both awkward people.
“Why do you get up so early?” Kyungsoo asks him one morning, as they get their order together. It was Chanyeol’s idea, but Kyungsoo offered to pay for it even though Chanyeol already had his card out.
Chanyeol picks up both of their drinks since he feels like he should do something to pay him back. “It helps me get the day started, waking up at this hour. It’s also because my body is so used to getting up like this.”
“Because you’re a model?” Kyungsoo asks, blowing a bit across his milk to cool it down.
Chanyeol waves his hand. “I’ve been like this since I was a kid. I was the early to bed, early to rise type of guy. My teachers thought I had an alarm clock built inside of me, and that’s why I kept waking up so early.”
“Don’t you ever get tired?”
Chanyeol licks his lips. “Not really. Like I said, I’m used to it.”
“I still have to use an alarm clock,” Kyungsoo smirks as he finishes blowing on his milk. “If I don’t I just end up sleeping longer than I should.”
Kyungsoo hums as he takes a sip of his milk like a toddler. It must be especially tasty with the way Kyungsoo’s whole body just shivers in delight, a smile spreading across his face. There’s a bit of milk catching on the edge of Kyungsoo’s lips, so going against every bit of logic left in his body, Chanyeol leans forward and brushes it away with his thumb.
He shouldn’t have done it, he knows, and in his fleeting moment of impulse, Chanyeol wonders just how many bars he’s pulled away in the Jenga tower he calls his friendship with Kyungsoo.
For a moment, neither of them say anything, just staring at each other like they’re both too afraid to move. Kyungsoo acts first, bringing a hand up to touch where Chanyeol brushed his lips.
“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol says breathily. “I just saw it on your lips and I just sort of reacted. I shouldn’t have.”
There’s a sharp screeching noise as his chair scrapes across the floor in his haste to escape from the situation. Chanyeol leaves the bakery without another word, leaving behind a flustered Kyungsoo and ignoring the words he was starting to say.
∇
“So you messed things up with him, so what?” Baekhyun says nonchalantly, like there isn’t a deep churning inside of Chanyeol that’s threatening to push out everything he ate for breakfast. “Maybe now you can pay attention when we do our briefing, instead of being distracted by Kyungsoo feelings.”
“You don’t understand,” Chanyeol says. “He was like, so cute.”
“I have to stay away from you,” Baekhyun hisses. “I might catch high school cooties from all this sighing and whining you’re doing.”
“Don’t be so hard on him,” Jongdae says as he comes out of Chanyeol’s bathroom. “Chanyeol dating anyone is like once in a blue moon type deal, so it’s kind of sad. I was hoping you’d last longer but-wait, what makes you think you guys aren’t together anymore? How did he react to your, odd moment of cleanliness?”
“I don’t know?” Chanyeol leans back onto his mattress, squishing the Pinky Pie doll Jongdae got him for his thirteenth birthday. “I ran out of there before he could say something. I messed it up anyways, it’s not like I had to stick around to hear him say, ‘sorry, I don’t swing that way’. Things were much easier when I didn’t have to do anything because I didn’t fall in love with anyone.”
“So it is love,” Baekhyun notes for later.
“You never know, he could still be okay with you and your, really odd moments. I mean we’re still here, partially because we kind of have to be because of the job, but also because we’re your friends.”
“Hey, I didn’t sign up to be friends with you guys,” Baekhyun says.
“Okay good then.” Jongdae brushes his bangs back. “You can just be the ugly tagalong kid that everyone hates because you have no good redeeming qualities.”
Baekhyun huffs and throws himself across Chanyeol’s bed, mock screaming into the pillow before laying limp.
“So anyways, I hate to break up this touching little conversation, but we do have some work to get done okay?” Jongdae says as he shuts the blinds. “It’s pretty simple this time. Just a diamond. Nothing fancy or important like information. Just the diamond on display at the downtown museum. It’s kind of a trip from here, but I trust you two will be able to make it there before the closing hour.”
“Yeah,” Chanyeol says as he brings himself up to get ready, patting Baekhyun’s bottom so he can prepare as well.
∇
Sneaking into the museum is much easier than one would expect, since the building lands most of its visitors from the bustling pedestrians and families who buy tickets just so they can entertain the young kids and older folk. In this sea of people, Chanyeol and Baekhyun are just random faces in the crowd, and draw no attention as they slip inside a line to visit the attractions.
“So what have you been up to?” Chanyeol asks as they reach the front pillars of the entrance.
Baekhyun turns to him with what Chanyeol assumes is a judgmental stare. It’s hard to tell through the sunglasses he’s wearing, even though it’s practically afternoon already. “Chanyeol we pretty much see each other all day. Are we really doing small talk now?”
“I don’t see why we can’t have a conversation,” Chanyeol says, pouting as Baekhyun enters through the revolving doors. “Besides, it looks like this line isn’t going anywhere for a while anyways.”
“You really are stupid,” Baekhyun says. “But it’s okay. I’m over dating for now. I am just going to live as a single man and try to enjoy the finer things in life. Like visiting museums and buying tickets to the opera or some shit like that. Really classy stuff.”
“That, really doesn’t sound like you.”
“Hey you’re the one who asked,” Baekhyun says, reaching into his pocket for his phone to distract himself from the waiting period that’s slowly growing. “Chorong said I was uncultured. That I wasn’t accustomed to the fancy life she lives and she’s right. Designer clothes and big name cars. I’m not used to all of this money.”
“You know you don’t have to…” Chanyeol starts, unsure of how to finish his words.
Baekhyun merely laughs at his attempt. “You really are stupid. Don’t worry about me, I’m a big boy. Worry about yourself.”
Chanyeol watches ahead as the security officer gets closer. “Do you really think I screwed things up with Kyungsoo?”
“Well how the hell should I know?” Baekhyun says without looking up from his game of Temple Run. “I think you shouldn’t worry about it this much. It sounds like it wasn’t anything that serious. So there’s not really any point in thinking about it. At least, that’s what I think about it.”
“You have a point.”
“Look I’m not going to tell you how to live your life or anything, but just focus on the present and stop worrying about the past.” Baekhyun shivers as he pockets his phone. “That sounded too much like Jongdae, I need to stop.”
“I feel like I’m learning something about you.” Chanyeol smiles as he pulls out his card at the front desk to buy two tickets.
∇
With the layout fresh in his mind, Chanyeol easily slips into the museum after the closing hours and most of the staff have already gone home. There aren’t that many guards around, probably because they feel like the museum is safely guarded what with all the high security they have on the displays and around the building. It’s amusing to Chanyeol because it just makes their job that much easier.
“I want a diamond,” Baekhyun muses through the radio. “If I find the right girl, I’ll give here the biggest diamond I can buy.”
“I thought you were over dating?” Chanyeol chimes.
“Yeah well that was before I was introduced to Miss Sojin.” Baekhyun giggles. “Someone so fine shouldn’t be working at a museum.”
Jongdae snorts and the sound of more clicking is heard. “This should be pretty easy, since you already have a good scope of the floor plan, but just remember that there are still some security on the floor. Try to avoid any unnecessary confrontations because I’m pretty sure these are new guards. They’ll bruise easily.”
Chanyeol gives a big thumbs up to the nearest camera he spots and makes his way towards the diamond display. It’s a bit of a distance inside of the museum, past the historical artifacts and the paintings that completely fly over his head, because who would really want to go into a museum just to look at old things?
“Wait how much are these paintings worth?” Chanyeol asks nonchalantly, as he passes by a crudely painted portrait in what he hopes is supposed to be an abstract interpretation.
“Too much if you ask me,” Jongdae replies. “I can’t believe collectors pay big bucks for these, paintings.”
There’s a sound of someone slipping on the radio feed and then Baekhyun’s breathy voice. “Are you serious? We could be-“
“Sticking to the plan,” Jongdae says without missing a single beat. “We have our orders. Let’s follow them. Besides, there’s a pretty hefty paycheck for this diamond anyways.”
Baekhyun salivates noisily and Chanyeol tries to not let his thoughts stray because if there was anyone who needed to redeem themselves on the field, it was definitely Chanyeol. He needed to prove to everyone watching that he is someone that should be respected on the field, and not as green as they would like to believe.
Chanyeol hugs a corner as he spots the growing flashlight of a nearby guard. There’s a bit of sympathy Chanyeol feels, when the guard walks down the aisle and yawns. Late hour jobs are never fun, especially when it’s guarding things like abstract paintings.
“I’m almost there,” Chanyeol says over the radio as he nears the diamond display. “It shouldn’t take-“
Chanyeol quickly silences his radio when he spots a tiny figure walking in a path noticeably different from the guard’s usual route. When he recognizes the figure as the agent from weeks before, Chanyeol recalls his partner’s orders and immediately trails after the man, taking in his movements and calculating what would be the best way of dealing with him.
It was possible that D.O. had an entirely different agenda at the museum, but Chanyeol had a feeling that he was going to pose a threat to the operation.
His assumptions are quickly answered when the man takes a turn for the diamond display and Chanyeol reacts how he was trained. He throws himself across the figure and pins him down with his arms bent behind him, making sure that the man is completely immobilized on the ground.
“Don’t move,” Chanyeol says, pressing the D.O’s arms closer to his back. “Tell me why you’re trying to interfere with our jobs.” When the agent doesn’t say a word, Chanyeol grits his teeth and pushes the arms in his hands tighter. “Answer me!”
“You’re cute when you’re angry,” D.O. suddenly says and it catches Chanyeol completely off guard.
“Wha-“
Chanyeol gasps as he’s suddenly sent flying forward as D.O. bumps his hips upwards, causing him to slip out from underneath. In an attempt to regain the situation, Chanyeol quickly rolls into a fighting stance and chases after the escaping agent. Tackling D.O.’s legs, Chanyeol pushes him to the ground yet again, but this time a bag slips out of the man’s pocket.
Inside the pocket is the unmistakable gleam of a diamond and Chanyeol realizes that this guy’s already stolen what they were trying to steal. “How the fuck did you-“
D.O. rolls out of grabbing distance and tries to reach for the diamond before Chanyeol clutches him from behind with a bear hug. It’s a bit of a scuffle as they try their best to get the upper hand in this situation, but D.O. manages to twist out of Chanyeol’s arm and give him a surprisingly hard shove to gain some space.
Chanyeol’s footing is uneasy from the push and he’s about to stumble forward into one of the displays before he feels a hand pulling at the hem of his sweater. When he looks back, he’s shocked to find D.O. holding onto him like he’s just as scared of tripping an alarm in the museum. With an audible grunt, D.O. pulls him back and away from the display, the crisis of alerting the police no longer an issue.
As they both breath heavily from relief, Chanyeol takes a good look at D.O.’s face, noticing the bright eyes beneath the mask. “Why did you-“
D.O. wastes no time punching him square in the jaw and Chanyeol bites back as the sudden pain surges through his face. Clutching his jaw, Chanyeol tries to ignore the pain and focus on keeping an eye on D.O., making sure that they do not get away. D.O.’s already making a break for the exit, but not before knocking over one of the marble busts near the edge of the souvenir shop.
The silence that drew Chanyeol in is immediately filled with the violent ringing of alarms and the chaotic sound of gates closing down across the museum. D.O. disappears from sight, and Chanyeol curses to himself because of the realization that slowly dawns on him.
He’s actually impressed by this mystery man.
What should have been one of the easiest mission yet for him quickly dissolves into a mess of events that trigger a few unwanted emotions inside of Chanyeol. How else does one deal with the fact that the one person that’s been giving you such a hard time on what should’ve been child’s play for you, ends up becoming someone you’re actually starting to admire?
Chanyeol’s emotions are a mess, he decides, when he realizes he’s becomes a bit intrigued with this D.O. person, and the way he outsmarted them yet again.
It doesn’t make any sense when he tries to think about it logically, but there’s just something about the guy that Chanyeol can’t quite put his finger on, and it’s with this bit of confusion that Chanyeol escapes the museum without his prize.
→ PART 2
Author: skyroll
Recipient: miook
Pairing/Focus: OT4 (Chanyeol/Kyungsoo)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, Violence
Length: 12k
Summary: Chanyeol is good at what he does. And then D.O. had to show up and steal his thunder and his heart.
The office building is quiet, dead without the energy of the businessmen who frequent its floors during the day, for schedules and meetings that serve no real purpose in the long run. Why one would want to secure a document from this office, Chanyeol has no idea, but it doesn’t matter when the contract he follows gives him his directions.
Jiggling the harness around his chest tighter, Chanyeol pats his clothes down to make sure nothing came in with him from the vents. The last time he made the mistake of bringing bugs back to the rendezvous point, he was given a stack of paper taller than he was and had to stay up way past the sunrise just to complete them.
“I can see you on the feed,” Jongdae remarks in his earpiece. “You’re pretty close to the target. It should be a room down the hallway on your right. There shouldn’t be any security blocking your way, but try to make it quick.”
Chanyeol flips the night vision in his goggles on, and with trained movements, he maneuvers down the hallway towards his destination. The floor he’s on is near the top of the building, a mammoth skyscraper that watches over the city like an angry sentinel. He’s never been fond of offices, the confinements of cookie-cutter jobs never once crossing his mind as a career he could see himself getting into as an adult.
Then again, neither was getting himself involved with the dangerous world of espionage and assassination. He remembers growing up as a kid and reading stories about the killers who lurked in the shadows, and now as an adult, he can safely say he should’ve paid more attention to them.
“Could you hurry it up?” Baekhyun’s nasally voice flutters in through the radio and Chanyeol nearly slips as he rounds a corner. “I got a babe waiting for me and I don’t want to make her suffer by being late.”
“Why don’t we trade then?” Chanyeol snaps back. “Put down the rifle and come do some real work for a change.”
Baekhyun’s laughter fills up the silence of night and it’s a good thing there isn’t anyone around to hear him because even if it’s just through the radio, Baekhyun’s voice is usually a few decibels higher than necessary. Chanyeol thinks everything about Baekhyun is unnecessary.
“How about you both shut the fuck up so we can actually get the work done?” Jongdae barks through the radio, before the clicking of keyboard keys follows his voice. He pauses for a moment as he brings up the next camera feed. “Okay this should be the room with the document in it. You’re looking for a small vanilla folder labeled with the initials D. O.”
“Okay-“
“D.O.? Like dough?” Baekhyun snorts. “Is our client looking for some cake ideas because that is pretty lame. If I knew they wanted that I would’ve just directed them to the Bakery section in Food Lion.”
“Shut up Baekhyun.”
“What’s it looks inside Jongdae?” Chanyeol asks, as he examines the door for any sort of unusual equipment that could be possible alarms. His role on this side of the operation is the hardest in his opinion, because he’s the one having to actually be on the front lines and deal with the physical hurdles of completing the mission. He can’t blame anyone though; after all, it’s what he was trained to do.
“Hang on let me--” Jongdae’s words are cut off as he grunts. “That’s weird.”
“What is?”
“I can’t access the feed from inside the room. Something’s blocking me from entering that line. ”
Chanyeol eyebrows narrow as he runs a finger down his earpiece. Jongdae isn’t the type to stumble because he’s especially cautious with everything he does, so if he’s having trouble, it means that it would be best for Chanyeol to keep his guard up. “Baekhyun do you see anything unusual from your end?”
“Nope, room looks clear to me,” Baekhyun replies as he cocks his rifle. “I’m not seeing anything inside. Look, I don’t want to rush you or anything but--”
“Shut up,” Chanyeol mutters as he lines up the electronic lock on the door with his equipment, and begins to type a few sequences in. The ominous red light switches over to a vibrant green, but not before he hears a beeping sound on the other side of the door. “What-“
He barely catches it, the explosion that tears the door apart and throws flames across the walls as the room lights up. Chanyeol stumbles a bit as he gathers his bearings on the floor, the ringing in his ears vibrating harshly against the silence. His first reaction is to quickly get into a safer position, rolling over towards what’s left of the hallway wall, and trying to salvage what’s left of the room.
His earpiece is filled with static as his partners try to contact him, but Chanyeol can’t hear anything but the alarms ringing throughout the building, and the faint wailing of sirens in the distance. He’s about to abort the mission and escape from the scene, but that’s when he sees it, a lone figure standing at the window, with a document in their hand.
Even with the light of the city illuminating them from the back, the figure looks like a living shadow, dressed in nothing but black. What is clear to Chanyeol though, is that this person has the document he was after. In the next breath, the figure is gone, jumping out of the window and disappearing into the city below.
“Chan-“Jongdae’s voice breaks into static.
As the sirens start to grow, Chanyeol brushes off the debris on his body and quickly makes for the nearest exit, ignoring the bad taste growing in his mouth.
∇
“Who the fuck was that?” Baekhyun screeches as Chanyeol slide into the abandoned shipping container Jongdae calls his base of operations.
It’s a safe distance away from the city limits, but Chanyeol still finds it hard to understand why it hasn’t been discovered by any of the local police yet. Jongdae explained that no one ever bothers looking inside of it, so they’re pretty much secured.
It also might be the fact that Jongdae likes to migrate a lot between the containers scattered around the city, which also brings up the question how Jongdae manages to move so much equipment around without being seen. There’s a lot of things that Jongdae does that just don’t make a lot of sense to Chanyeol.
“I didn’t get a good enough look at his face,” Chanyeol notes sadly as he throws the burnt remains of his goggles onto the desk. “Or her face, it was hard to tell.”
“You shouldn’t have had to because there shouldn’t have been anyone else,” Baekhyun snarls. “I studied the guards’ shifts for weeks. There shouldn’t have been anyone else in that room.”
“It wasn’t a guard.” Chanyeol sinks into a free chair. His body aches, and not just from the explosion. “It was another player.”
“Shit. Well whatever they were, they definitely pushed us into a tight corner,” Jongdae sighs from the computer. He’s typing away frantically at his keyboard, doing a bit of damage control with the locals and cleaning up the mess their new friend left them for their client. “It’ll take me a while to explain the situation, but it doesn’t look good for us.”
“Just tell them the truth,” Chanyeol suggests.
“Tell them the truth?” Baekhyun looks dumbfounded. “Are we boy scouts now? Look, just do whatever it is you need to do Jongdae, but let’s keep this bitch a secret. I don’t want anyone knowing we lost to some rookie on what should have been a simple mission.”
“How do you know they were a rookie?” Chanyeol asks sleepily. “For all we know, it could be someone sent in to take us out. It’s not like we don’t have enemies outside of the police. I can’t imagine how much I’m worth to them.”
Baekhyun kicks at the chair Chanyeol’s sitting in, shaking the giant from the sleep that’s trying to take him away.
“Don’t tell me what to do Baekhyun,” Jongdae says with terrifying clarity. “I will handle this. Don’t you have a date you’re late for anyways?”
“Figured if I’m already this late then it wouldn’t matter how late I showed up.” Baekhyun says, pulling off his beanie and running a hand through his sweat-soaked bangs. “Sex is sex okay?”
“And you just know you’re going to get some pussy today.” Chanyeol rolls his eyes.
“At least I’ll be getting some tonight.” Baekhyun shoots him a glare. “Ladies can’t get enough of me. I’m like a gift to humanity. Of course, I see the lock on your chastity belt is still there. Maybe your new friend is into limp dicks.”
“If I find out, I’ll let them know you’re interested in getting together.”
“I am actually kind of worried that you two are talking about sex at a time like this.” Jongdae presses the enter key harder than his keyboard would allow and it threatens to break under his middle finger. “If you two are finished comparing dick sizes-“
“Mine’s bigger by the way,” Baekhyun says shamelessly.
“If you two are finished,” Jongdae says calmly. “Then I’ll need you two to leave because I have a lot of work to do to cover our asses and I need silence. I’m sure Joonmyun will be sending us his disappointments soon and I just know that will be tons of fun to sit through. You guys already know the drill. Get some rest for tomorrow and I’ll find out where to go from there.”
“Fine,” Baekhyun replies. “Do you at least have a change of clothes?”
Jongdae shoots him a look filled with murderous intent.
“What, do you expect me to just walk all the way back to my apartment looking like this?” He gestures to his clothing like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “If I walked out like this it would just be like screaming at the police to arrest me.”
“Don’t you-how’d you even get here in the first place then?” Chanyeol asks.
“I got out of there long before the police could even turn their keys.” Baekhyun starts peeling off his gloves. “It didn’t take me that long to get here. I’m surprised you got here in one piece.”
“Stole a motorcycle. Ditched it quick. If getting caught by the police was ever a problem we had to worry about, we might as well just resign right now.”
Baekhyun doesn’t look impressed, more like he’s wondering why Chanyeol seems like he’s proud of what he accomplished. “Right.”
“My apartment’s not too far from here, so just swing by my place for some clothes,” Chanyeol offers. “I’m sure you still have some left over. That sounds good, right Jongdae?”
“I don’t really care right now.” Jongdae brings up a few tabs open on his screen. “Just get out of here.”
∇
Chanyeol has seen many things while working under his agency, witnessing scenes that continuously boggle his mind and makes him question everything he once knew.
He’s seen people backstab each other for monetary gain, and even go as far as to eliminate the other person for good, to ensure that they would never get caught. It’s a dirty business, and it constantly pulls at the morals Chanyeol locked away inside of his head.
His apartment is empty, the result of constantly changing locations to avoid being caught up in unnecessary drama with the busybodies that try to pry into his private life. It’s easier this way he thinks, without having to worry about other people and having only yourself to take care of. He holds people at arms’ length and each day is just a bit easier to deal with.
The clock reads four am, but he’s already wide awake, sliding his hand throughout his fridge in hopes of finding something small to eat for breakfast. No luck. His fridge is as empty as his love life.
Not that he minds that. Being with someone in the romantic sense is completely out of the question. His partners joke about the fact that Chanyeol rarely goes out with anyone on a date, but it’s because Chanyeol sees no reason to. He’s much happier being by himself and he doesn’t have any romantic or sexual drive that couldn’t be fulfilled with a quick read or masturbation session.
Slapping himself out of his thoughts, Chanyeol shuts the fridge door and quickly throws on a black windbreaker before heading out of his apartment.
The cold city air greets him as he ventures down his usual route for jogging, a couple of blocks around the city that circle back to his apartment building. Being up this early is routine for Chanyeol. He’s used to seeing the city with most of its residents sleeping, only a few cars passing by and the occasional jogger as signs that the city is still breathing.
There’s a small bakery down the street that opens up all day long that Chanyeol visits for his daily dose of energy. He’s been a customer for so long that Minseok, who works the front desk at this hour, has taken to calling him as ‘The Rooster’. He originally wanted to go with ‘The Cock’, but he was afraid it might’ve given him some unfortunate implications. Chanyeol assured him there are none.
“The usual?” Minseok chimes from underneath the counter, not having to look up to know which customer came in this early.
“You know me,” Chanyeol laughs. “Brew up something hot yeah?”
“Coming right up.” Minseok scoops up a few coffee beans before pausing as he stares at Chanyeol closely. “You look pretty beat.”
Chanyeol looks at him sheepishly. “Do I?”
“Yeah. Most days you got like this spring in your step, but today you seem kind of tired. Minseok throws the beans into the machine before flipping the switch on. “That’s a pretty nasty burn you got on your cheek.”
“I had a bit of a problem with the oven yesterday,” Chanyeol says. “It didn’t agree with my chicken wings.”
“I bet.” Minseok smiles. “Be careful okay?”
“You know me, I’m always careful.” Chanyeol’s grin turns lopsided. “I’m like a walking safety cone.”
Their laughter is interrupted when the doorbell chimes as another customer walks in. When Chanyeol looks over, he isn’t really that impressed because the customers looks like a kid, with his oversized black sweater clearly two sizes too big for him. If his clothes didn’t make him look like a kid, then the way he stared at Chanyeol with his saucer-sized eyes definitely did.
Minseok seems to know him with how his face lights up as he greets him. “This will only take a moment,” Minseok assures Chanyeol as he brings out a fresh cup of milk from behind the counter and hands it over to the kid.
The kid accepts it with delicate hands and he brightens up with a heart-shaped smile that Chanyeol wishes he hadn’t seen because it’s cute, and definitely does not tug at his heartstrings. The kid must’ve caught Chanyeol watching him because he’s suddenly flushing beneath his black bangs and hurriedly taking the seat furthest from them.
“You know him?” Chanyeol asks when he’s sure the kid can no longer hear them.
“Kyungsoo?” Minseok taps on his counter. “Yeah, he’s a pretty good kid. I knew him from a while ago but he recently moved back into the city. He’s like you, always getting something so early in the morning. I don’t know how you kids get up so early.”
“Is he really a kid?” Chanyeol asks. “You call everyone kid. It’s kind of confusing sometimes.”
“He’s around your age,” Minseok chuckles. “You two are alike.”
“I doubt that,” Chanyeol says, a bit hesitant. If Minseok noticed it, he doesn’t act on it. It’s not Minseok’s fault he doesn’t know about the double life Chanyeol lives. “He seems like a nice person though.”
“He really is,” Minseok adds. “Why don’t go you talk to him? I’m sure he could use the company. I’ve got some shelves I have to restock anyways.”
Minseok disappears into the backroom, leaving Chanyeol with deciding whether to go up to this person and start up a conversation, or just leave the bakery entirely and not deal with words and what is clearly an awkward situation. Befriending Minseok was much easier when Chanyeol wasn’t the one trying to initiate the conversations.
Ultimately he decides it wouldn’t hurt him to get to know this Kyungsoo, and try to become friends with him, because despite his risk at privacy, what’s the worst that could happen?
“Hey,” Chanyeol says as he pulls up a seat in front of Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo just stares back at him without replying, but Chanyeol recovers quickly to try and ease the awkwardness. “Sorry, do you mind if I sit here?”
Kyungsoo shakes his head and returns to his phone, typing away quickly.
“So do you come here often?” Chanyeol asks after an extended moment of silence. This time Kyungsoo stares at him with even wider eyes and the ominous background music of Candy Crush is the only sound either of them hear for a while. “Was that a bit weird for me to ask? I wasn’t sure if-“
“Who are you again?” Kyungsoo asks, and his voice is nothing like Chanyeol expected it to be. It’s rough and the fact that it’s four in the morning probably has nothing to do with it.
And then he realizes that he forgot to introduce himself. If Chanyeol wasn’t sure if he hated making new friends before, then he definitely knows now. “Sorry. I’m Chanyeol. I’m a friend of Minseok.”
“I’m Kyungsoo.”
“I know,” Chanyeol remarks, earning an eyebrow raise from Kyungsoo. “I mean, Minseok told me about you.”
“Really?” Kyungsoo’s lips thin. “He didn’t say anything about you.”
Chanyeol rubs at his neck sheepishly. “Well, I’m not really that exciting of a person to know.”
“I doubt that.” Kyungsoo’s lips curve into a smile.
∇
“Did you find out anything about our mysterious intruder?” Chanyeol asks as he throws a towel onto Jongdae’s desk. Jongdae gives him a disgusted look as he pushes the towel further away from him, like it’ll give him some sort of Chanyeol related disease.
“I found out he’s a little bitch,” Baekhyun says, pulling up the collar of his jacket to cover up the hickeys that aren’t obvious at all. Baekhyun came back this morning looking like the bastard son of a leopard and a tomato and he wondered why everyone was giving him weird looks. “I also found out our little Chanyeol has been getting some.”
“What?” Chanyeol and Jongdae both say in unison.
Baekhyun looks Chanyeol down with the sort of glee that only comes from successfully completing a mission and making it home to catch reruns of Teen Titans. “So Kyungsoo was it?”
“Don’t you dare say another word polka dots.”
“I think it’s nice,” Baekhyun continues as he walks around Jongdae’s hotel room. “Finally, Chanyeol is getting some after four years of living in the big city.”
“I’ve been here longer than that-how did you find out anyways?” Chanyeol asks as he crosses his arms.
Baekhyun places a hand on his hip and gives him a look like Chanyeol said something really stupid. “You’re kidding me right? Our jobs revolve around acquiring information. Did you really think you were Minseok’s only friend?”
“You were the last person I’d want him to meet,” Chanyeol grumbles. “You’re a terrible person.”
“I’m a great person,” Baekhyun gasps. “You can ask all the chicks I’ve ever gone out with.”
Jongdae looks at him with disdain. “A real nice guy we have here.”
“I resent that,” Baekhyun says. “I’m a total gentleman. But as much as I like all the attention, the topic of the conversation is not me, but Chanyeol here.”
“I can’t believe Minseok likes you enough to talk to you,” Chanyeol throws his hands up.
“So is Kyungsoo cute?”
Chanyeol pauses for a moment as he thinks back on when Kyungsoo took a sip of his milk and didn’t bother wiping away the milk mustache it left behind. When he told him it was on his face, Kyungsoo blushed a bright pink before wiping it away with his sleeve. Very, very cutely.
A smile must’ve been creeping onto Chanyeol’s lips because when he comes out of his reverie, he notices Baekhyun watching him with a shit-eating grin. “That cute huh?”
“Shut up Baekhyun.”
“Are we really talking about this right now?” Jongdae rubs at his temples. “As much as I’m interested in this Kyungsoo, we have some orders from a few hours ago.” This catches their attention, drawing them to the dead drop spike on Jongdae’s desk.
Making sure that the hotel camera is disabled to prevent any security leaks, Jongdae points to the note unraveled a few inches away. It’s a worn out little sliver of paper that, to any regular civilian, would just look like something that needs to be thrown away into the trash bin.
“For now, we’ll have to just put your little revenge plan on hold.” Jongdae says to Baekhyun, who merely scoffs. “We have another operation to complete. They’d like one of us to gather some inside information on a rival company. It looks like there’s a big project coming up and they’d like to cripple their competition early. Clever.”
“Looks like I’m on the job,” Chanyeol says as he rubs at his nose. “Who am I going in as?”
Jongdae pulls up a document on his laptop and points to the paragraphs written in it. “You’ll be going in as an intern. Kim-“
Chanyeol tries not to let it happen, but as he slips into his thoughts once more, he can’t help but think about Kyungsoo and he starts to realize, it’s starting to get dangerous.
∇
“So what do you do for a living?” Chanyeol asks as he meets up with Kyungsoo for the fifth time the following week. “You never really mention anything about that, but I don’t remember you saying anything about school either?”
Kyungsoo turns his cup around once, and then twice, and then three times as he looks up at Chanyeol with an expression that looks a bit out of place with the way his eyes widen cutely.
“Sorry,” Chanyeol apologizes. “If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to.”
“It’s not that, it’s just nothing that exciting to talk about,” Kyungsoo’s cheeks turn a bit pink as he smiles. “I work as an event planner here. I help plan concerts and big parties, like for celebrities and high profile people.”
“That sounds pretty fun.” Chanyeol tips his cup slightly over and wonders if Minseok would be angry if he asked for a refill. “You don’t seem like the type of person that would work out here in the big city, but I’ve been wrong before.” Kyungsoo tilts his head when Chanyeol laughs nervously. “Don’t take that wrong way, I mean you’re just so cute. I don’t do anything interesting myself.”
“And what would that be?” Kyungsoo asks earnestly, leaning forward until he’s on the edge of his seat. If the table wasn’t separating them, then he’d probably fall straight onto the floor from how precariously he’s tilting his body.
Chanyeol laughs before pulling his cup back. “I work as a professional model.”
“Really?” Kyungsoo’s eyes light up. “That’s a pretty interesting job.”
“It can be a bit tiring. There’s a lot of moving around and you don’t really have much time for other people because of that. But the pay is nice, so that’s good. And you get to wear a lot of good clothes, so that’s always a good plus.”
Kyungsoo lets his gaze fall back to his cup of coffee. It’s getting cold now, as the morning air fills up the bakery shop with the city chill. “I don’t get to make a lot of friends in my job. Mainly because I’m so used to running around everywhere, I never really have time for myself, so I never really have time to check up on people too.”
“But you’re here right now,” Chanyeol comments.
“Well yeah, but I’ve also got a big day planned ahead, so I had to get up really early to get ready,” Kyungsoo says as he straightens out the cuffs of his dress shirt. “I needed my bit of caffeine to even think about the charity ball I have to help out today.”
Chanyeol’s hand grips at his cup before he smiles a bit wider. “A charity ball?”
“It’s a bit of an extravagant dinner service being held to help raise money to pay for the damages from the fire that broke out at the park a month ago.” Kyungsoo stares out into the city street. “The mayor wanted a new park anyways, so it’d be like killing two birds with one stone.”
“Sounds like you have your work cut out for you,” Chanyeol remarks.
Kyungsoo shrugs into his shirt. “It’s what I live for.”
∇
If Chanyeol ever needed an intervention on his growing feelings for a random stranger he met at a bakery, then now would be the perfect time, as he fades out of the conversation for the third time in a row, much to Jongdae and Baekhyun’s irritation.
“We kind of need you to fucking pay attention Chanyeol!” Baekhyun roars through the earpiece, the sudden noise nearly knocking Chanyeol off of the railing. “Keep your dick in your pants and focus on the mission.”
“Baekhyun!” Jongdae yells back. “He’s right though Chanyeol. Let’s try to focus here and get through this mission as quickly as possible. We don’t want a repeat of what happened two weeks ago okay?”
“Right,” Chanyeol mumbles as he adjusts to the building in front of him and tries to remember what the hell he was supposed to be doing.
He is ashamed that he’s letting a few feelings distract him badly enough that it’s affecting him in the field. But then again, it’s just so nice to think about the way Kyungsoo licked his lips when Chanyeol pointed out how cute they looked since they were shaped like a heart. He can’t help but think about how nice it would be to capture those lips with his own.
“Chanyeol,” Jongdae says. “If you see D.O. out there, we have permission to take him out.”
“D.O.?”
“Are you serious Chanyeol?” Baekhyun groans. “Have you been paying attention to the conversation at all? Are you fucking stupid, because it looks like you’re trying to set a new Guinness World Record with all this stupidity you’re giving off.”
“Woah, where’s all of this animosity coming from?”
“Baekhyun got dumped last night,” Jongdae deadpans. “There were a lot of tears and grade school name calling. It was kind of sorry to watch really, I’m sad I had to be present for it. But, at least I got it all on video.”
Chanyeol pulls his goggles down over his eyes. “Right. So D.O.?”
“That’s the alias for the man who stole the document from us. Well, not from us exactly but you get the picture. Headquarters thinks he’s an agent like us, probably an independent, but there’s not much information on him. Where he’s from, or what his motive is. Which, makes a lot of sense now since the document was mostly likely about him.”
“Most likely?” Baekhyun snorts. “There can’t be that many fucking things D.O. stands for.”
“Look can we just get through this without any problems?” The camera nearest Chanyeol starts to move and the lens contract before expanding as Jongdae completes his hack inside of it. “If we can’t pull off just retrieving a briefcase, then they said they would pull us off the active roster and hand our missions over to Sehun’s team. And I really do not like Sehun.”
“Yeah, don’t screw it up Chanyeol,” Baekhyun barks.
“I got it,” Chanyeol says dryly as he stands up on the rooftop. “Let’s go.”
∇
Kyungsoo seems like a very patient person, from what Chanyeol can gather from the time they’ve spent together. He can’t really call their little get-togethers ‘dates’ since it’s not like they talk to each other in a romantic sense, but they feel like them from how much Kyungsoo seems to open up to him so early in the morning.
Or it could just be Chanyeol hoping they actually are dates, and that neither of them have said anything about it because they’re both awkward people.
“Why do you get up so early?” Kyungsoo asks him one morning, as they get their order together. It was Chanyeol’s idea, but Kyungsoo offered to pay for it even though Chanyeol already had his card out.
Chanyeol picks up both of their drinks since he feels like he should do something to pay him back. “It helps me get the day started, waking up at this hour. It’s also because my body is so used to getting up like this.”
“Because you’re a model?” Kyungsoo asks, blowing a bit across his milk to cool it down.
Chanyeol waves his hand. “I’ve been like this since I was a kid. I was the early to bed, early to rise type of guy. My teachers thought I had an alarm clock built inside of me, and that’s why I kept waking up so early.”
“Don’t you ever get tired?”
Chanyeol licks his lips. “Not really. Like I said, I’m used to it.”
“I still have to use an alarm clock,” Kyungsoo smirks as he finishes blowing on his milk. “If I don’t I just end up sleeping longer than I should.”
Kyungsoo hums as he takes a sip of his milk like a toddler. It must be especially tasty with the way Kyungsoo’s whole body just shivers in delight, a smile spreading across his face. There’s a bit of milk catching on the edge of Kyungsoo’s lips, so going against every bit of logic left in his body, Chanyeol leans forward and brushes it away with his thumb.
He shouldn’t have done it, he knows, and in his fleeting moment of impulse, Chanyeol wonders just how many bars he’s pulled away in the Jenga tower he calls his friendship with Kyungsoo.
For a moment, neither of them say anything, just staring at each other like they’re both too afraid to move. Kyungsoo acts first, bringing a hand up to touch where Chanyeol brushed his lips.
“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol says breathily. “I just saw it on your lips and I just sort of reacted. I shouldn’t have.”
There’s a sharp screeching noise as his chair scrapes across the floor in his haste to escape from the situation. Chanyeol leaves the bakery without another word, leaving behind a flustered Kyungsoo and ignoring the words he was starting to say.
∇
“So you messed things up with him, so what?” Baekhyun says nonchalantly, like there isn’t a deep churning inside of Chanyeol that’s threatening to push out everything he ate for breakfast. “Maybe now you can pay attention when we do our briefing, instead of being distracted by Kyungsoo feelings.”
“You don’t understand,” Chanyeol says. “He was like, so cute.”
“I have to stay away from you,” Baekhyun hisses. “I might catch high school cooties from all this sighing and whining you’re doing.”
“Don’t be so hard on him,” Jongdae says as he comes out of Chanyeol’s bathroom. “Chanyeol dating anyone is like once in a blue moon type deal, so it’s kind of sad. I was hoping you’d last longer but-wait, what makes you think you guys aren’t together anymore? How did he react to your, odd moment of cleanliness?”
“I don’t know?” Chanyeol leans back onto his mattress, squishing the Pinky Pie doll Jongdae got him for his thirteenth birthday. “I ran out of there before he could say something. I messed it up anyways, it’s not like I had to stick around to hear him say, ‘sorry, I don’t swing that way’. Things were much easier when I didn’t have to do anything because I didn’t fall in love with anyone.”
“So it is love,” Baekhyun notes for later.
“You never know, he could still be okay with you and your, really odd moments. I mean we’re still here, partially because we kind of have to be because of the job, but also because we’re your friends.”
“Hey, I didn’t sign up to be friends with you guys,” Baekhyun says.
“Okay good then.” Jongdae brushes his bangs back. “You can just be the ugly tagalong kid that everyone hates because you have no good redeeming qualities.”
Baekhyun huffs and throws himself across Chanyeol’s bed, mock screaming into the pillow before laying limp.
“So anyways, I hate to break up this touching little conversation, but we do have some work to get done okay?” Jongdae says as he shuts the blinds. “It’s pretty simple this time. Just a diamond. Nothing fancy or important like information. Just the diamond on display at the downtown museum. It’s kind of a trip from here, but I trust you two will be able to make it there before the closing hour.”
“Yeah,” Chanyeol says as he brings himself up to get ready, patting Baekhyun’s bottom so he can prepare as well.
∇
Sneaking into the museum is much easier than one would expect, since the building lands most of its visitors from the bustling pedestrians and families who buy tickets just so they can entertain the young kids and older folk. In this sea of people, Chanyeol and Baekhyun are just random faces in the crowd, and draw no attention as they slip inside a line to visit the attractions.
“So what have you been up to?” Chanyeol asks as they reach the front pillars of the entrance.
Baekhyun turns to him with what Chanyeol assumes is a judgmental stare. It’s hard to tell through the sunglasses he’s wearing, even though it’s practically afternoon already. “Chanyeol we pretty much see each other all day. Are we really doing small talk now?”
“I don’t see why we can’t have a conversation,” Chanyeol says, pouting as Baekhyun enters through the revolving doors. “Besides, it looks like this line isn’t going anywhere for a while anyways.”
“You really are stupid,” Baekhyun says. “But it’s okay. I’m over dating for now. I am just going to live as a single man and try to enjoy the finer things in life. Like visiting museums and buying tickets to the opera or some shit like that. Really classy stuff.”
“That, really doesn’t sound like you.”
“Hey you’re the one who asked,” Baekhyun says, reaching into his pocket for his phone to distract himself from the waiting period that’s slowly growing. “Chorong said I was uncultured. That I wasn’t accustomed to the fancy life she lives and she’s right. Designer clothes and big name cars. I’m not used to all of this money.”
“You know you don’t have to…” Chanyeol starts, unsure of how to finish his words.
Baekhyun merely laughs at his attempt. “You really are stupid. Don’t worry about me, I’m a big boy. Worry about yourself.”
Chanyeol watches ahead as the security officer gets closer. “Do you really think I screwed things up with Kyungsoo?”
“Well how the hell should I know?” Baekhyun says without looking up from his game of Temple Run. “I think you shouldn’t worry about it this much. It sounds like it wasn’t anything that serious. So there’s not really any point in thinking about it. At least, that’s what I think about it.”
“You have a point.”
“Look I’m not going to tell you how to live your life or anything, but just focus on the present and stop worrying about the past.” Baekhyun shivers as he pockets his phone. “That sounded too much like Jongdae, I need to stop.”
“I feel like I’m learning something about you.” Chanyeol smiles as he pulls out his card at the front desk to buy two tickets.
∇
With the layout fresh in his mind, Chanyeol easily slips into the museum after the closing hours and most of the staff have already gone home. There aren’t that many guards around, probably because they feel like the museum is safely guarded what with all the high security they have on the displays and around the building. It’s amusing to Chanyeol because it just makes their job that much easier.
“I want a diamond,” Baekhyun muses through the radio. “If I find the right girl, I’ll give here the biggest diamond I can buy.”
“I thought you were over dating?” Chanyeol chimes.
“Yeah well that was before I was introduced to Miss Sojin.” Baekhyun giggles. “Someone so fine shouldn’t be working at a museum.”
Jongdae snorts and the sound of more clicking is heard. “This should be pretty easy, since you already have a good scope of the floor plan, but just remember that there are still some security on the floor. Try to avoid any unnecessary confrontations because I’m pretty sure these are new guards. They’ll bruise easily.”
Chanyeol gives a big thumbs up to the nearest camera he spots and makes his way towards the diamond display. It’s a bit of a distance inside of the museum, past the historical artifacts and the paintings that completely fly over his head, because who would really want to go into a museum just to look at old things?
“Wait how much are these paintings worth?” Chanyeol asks nonchalantly, as he passes by a crudely painted portrait in what he hopes is supposed to be an abstract interpretation.
“Too much if you ask me,” Jongdae replies. “I can’t believe collectors pay big bucks for these, paintings.”
There’s a sound of someone slipping on the radio feed and then Baekhyun’s breathy voice. “Are you serious? We could be-“
“Sticking to the plan,” Jongdae says without missing a single beat. “We have our orders. Let’s follow them. Besides, there’s a pretty hefty paycheck for this diamond anyways.”
Baekhyun salivates noisily and Chanyeol tries to not let his thoughts stray because if there was anyone who needed to redeem themselves on the field, it was definitely Chanyeol. He needed to prove to everyone watching that he is someone that should be respected on the field, and not as green as they would like to believe.
Chanyeol hugs a corner as he spots the growing flashlight of a nearby guard. There’s a bit of sympathy Chanyeol feels, when the guard walks down the aisle and yawns. Late hour jobs are never fun, especially when it’s guarding things like abstract paintings.
“I’m almost there,” Chanyeol says over the radio as he nears the diamond display. “It shouldn’t take-“
Chanyeol quickly silences his radio when he spots a tiny figure walking in a path noticeably different from the guard’s usual route. When he recognizes the figure as the agent from weeks before, Chanyeol recalls his partner’s orders and immediately trails after the man, taking in his movements and calculating what would be the best way of dealing with him.
It was possible that D.O. had an entirely different agenda at the museum, but Chanyeol had a feeling that he was going to pose a threat to the operation.
His assumptions are quickly answered when the man takes a turn for the diamond display and Chanyeol reacts how he was trained. He throws himself across the figure and pins him down with his arms bent behind him, making sure that the man is completely immobilized on the ground.
“Don’t move,” Chanyeol says, pressing the D.O’s arms closer to his back. “Tell me why you’re trying to interfere with our jobs.” When the agent doesn’t say a word, Chanyeol grits his teeth and pushes the arms in his hands tighter. “Answer me!”
“You’re cute when you’re angry,” D.O. suddenly says and it catches Chanyeol completely off guard.
“Wha-“
Chanyeol gasps as he’s suddenly sent flying forward as D.O. bumps his hips upwards, causing him to slip out from underneath. In an attempt to regain the situation, Chanyeol quickly rolls into a fighting stance and chases after the escaping agent. Tackling D.O.’s legs, Chanyeol pushes him to the ground yet again, but this time a bag slips out of the man’s pocket.
Inside the pocket is the unmistakable gleam of a diamond and Chanyeol realizes that this guy’s already stolen what they were trying to steal. “How the fuck did you-“
D.O. rolls out of grabbing distance and tries to reach for the diamond before Chanyeol clutches him from behind with a bear hug. It’s a bit of a scuffle as they try their best to get the upper hand in this situation, but D.O. manages to twist out of Chanyeol’s arm and give him a surprisingly hard shove to gain some space.
Chanyeol’s footing is uneasy from the push and he’s about to stumble forward into one of the displays before he feels a hand pulling at the hem of his sweater. When he looks back, he’s shocked to find D.O. holding onto him like he’s just as scared of tripping an alarm in the museum. With an audible grunt, D.O. pulls him back and away from the display, the crisis of alerting the police no longer an issue.
As they both breath heavily from relief, Chanyeol takes a good look at D.O.’s face, noticing the bright eyes beneath the mask. “Why did you-“
D.O. wastes no time punching him square in the jaw and Chanyeol bites back as the sudden pain surges through his face. Clutching his jaw, Chanyeol tries to ignore the pain and focus on keeping an eye on D.O., making sure that they do not get away. D.O.’s already making a break for the exit, but not before knocking over one of the marble busts near the edge of the souvenir shop.
The silence that drew Chanyeol in is immediately filled with the violent ringing of alarms and the chaotic sound of gates closing down across the museum. D.O. disappears from sight, and Chanyeol curses to himself because of the realization that slowly dawns on him.
He’s actually impressed by this mystery man.
What should have been one of the easiest mission yet for him quickly dissolves into a mess of events that trigger a few unwanted emotions inside of Chanyeol. How else does one deal with the fact that the one person that’s been giving you such a hard time on what should’ve been child’s play for you, ends up becoming someone you’re actually starting to admire?
Chanyeol’s emotions are a mess, he decides, when he realizes he’s becomes a bit intrigued with this D.O. person, and the way he outsmarted them yet again.
It doesn’t make any sense when he tries to think about it logically, but there’s just something about the guy that Chanyeol can’t quite put his finger on, and it’s with this bit of confusion that Chanyeol escapes the museum without his prize.
→ PART 2