the heart is just a bloody motor never meant to drive → for chansoos (3/5)

[minseokness]

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The very next day, Minseok finds himself in the back of one of the vans with "Junmyeon", as well as "Chanyeol" and Jongdae, who pulls back onto the main road, retracing the route they'd taken to get to the lake house in the first place. They're on their way back to the shipyard where they'd stolen the canisters of gas to see what information they can gather about the chemicals' manufacturer. It's almost certainly too soon to go back to an area where they'd stolen such valuable and high-profile goods, but the general consensus was that danger of being trapped in each other's bodies outweighs any danger of being identified as the culprits and arrested.

"We'll have to get cleaned up first," Jongdae is saying, "and since none of us can go back to HQ, that means buying laundry. They'll be expecting us to look pulled-together too. We have a reputation, you know. So we'll have to be really lucky to get suits off the rack that fit anywhere near properly, but I don't know if I can get to a tailor that'll be able to handle this much of a rush job."

"You want to get four suits tailored in an afternoon?" "Chanyeol" scoffs. "I mean I suspected you were crazy, but now I know it for a fact."

Jongdae is about to say something but Minseok cuts him off. "You're fussing, Jongdae. He's right, we don't have time. We have to get whatever information we can find back to the others as soon as possible."

Jongdae's face in the rearview mirror looks unsatisfied with the idea, but he turns his attention to "Junmyeon" instead. "You're our leader while we're in there, right?" he says. "They'll be expecting Junmyeon to be in charge, so like it or not, you're stuck with the job. Do you have a plan for how we're going to convince them to give up the manufacturer's identity and the name of someone we can talk around to our side?"

Not-Junmyeon just stares back at him. Jongdae makes a frustrated noise.

"I can point out the guy on our payroll to you," he says, "but he's going to expect you to take control of the conversation, so you better know what you're going to say to him. We can't threaten to shoot him in the middle of a crime scene. It'll draw too much attention and he'll know we're not going to go through with it with that many cops in the area. It's going to be hard enough to get in there to talk to anyone without appearing openly violent."

"Chanyeol" nudges "Junmyeon" with a foot, giving him an inquiring look, but "Junmyeon" gives his head a barely-visible shake, eyes still fixed on the rearview mirror. When he still fails to get a response, Jongdae throws back his head against the headrest, giving the steering wheel a particularly vicious twist and merging between two eighteen-wheelers without even slowing.

"Fine!" he says. "Fine, you just stand there and look angry and I'll do all the talking. I'm sure I can come up with something. You just better look scary as fuck, or I swear to god this is going to go to shit."

"Not a problem," snorts "Chanyeol". "Junmyeon's" mouth quirks so slightly that Minseok wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been looking for it.

The suits don't fit nearly as badly as Jongdae had feared, and Jongdae has to admit that the pair of expensive sunglasses "Junmyeon" picks out make him look even more intimidating than before. Combined with the posture he adopts as soon as he steps out of the dressing room, "Junmyeon" looks more threatening than Minseok thinks their leader has ever looked in his life. Minseok tries to remember the same man curled up in an armchair with a book munching pretzels the night before, and the two images are hard to reconcile in his head. When he puts on this new personality as easily as he put on the suit, it becomes much easier to remember that "Junmyeon" is a criminal, and one usually working against Minseok and his group. For the first time since the day's plan had been explained to them, Minseok thinks they might really have a chance at pulling this off.

If "Junmyeon's" stony stare and rigidly crossed arms are enough to make Minseok feel skittish, they certainly do wonders on the poor shipyard supervisor who they'd bribed to engineer the relaxed security on the shipment. He stutters and prattles, and when Jongdae lays down their demands in a voice like ice he gladly hands over the information they want.

"I don't know what you want with them," he says, sweating slightly, "but they've been really testy with everyone who tries to contact them ever since- well. For the last day or two at least. I mean, I know this guy here and if anyone in the company can get you whatever else you want, it's him. For the right price, that is."

When they walk out of the shipyard gates towards the van, names and contact details securely tucked into "Junmyeon's" breast pocket, "Chanyeol" has to stifle a whoop and even Jongdae looks pleased. When Minseok looks over at Junmyeon, all he can see is Sehun's face and his own grin reflected in the sunglasses.

This is only the first step of their plan though, as the real Junmyeon is emphatic about reminding him when they get back to the house. They've been given the name of an employee whom their shipyard contact assures them is quite amenable to the idea of selling company secrets, so the next step is to actually get in contact with this employee and somehow get as much information as they can about the gas and any possible way to reverse its effects. If they can actually get their hands on a physical "cure", then so much the better, but if not then Junmyeon will pull in every spare bit of cash he can get his hands on to "make them an offer they can't refuse." The only problem is, once again, their contact will be expecting to meet with EXO's leaders. When the VIXX members protest this (to no one's surprise), Yifan calmly points out that the information was given to them by an EXO contact and any sign of the two groups working together is bound to arouse suspicion. And suspicion is the one thing they cannot afford to attract more of right now. This means that, given the distribution of bodies at the moment, the candidates for the meeting are down to "Junmyeon", who seems uninclined to engage in verbal negotiations, and Sehun, who is complete shit at it.

"You can't just go saying whatever pops into your head," Junmyeon stresses. "You have to think about what they want to hear and then try to phrase your arguments so it sounds like you're giving them that when you're really getting what you want."

"This sounds worse than chess," Sehun groans. "Do I really have to do this?"

"You were complaining just this morning about Yifan's hangnails," Jongdae points out. "So yes. Yes, you have to do it."

Meanwhile, "Junmyeon" retreats back to his room, where only Minseok follows him. Once again, "Junmyeon" settles into the armchair near the window while Minseok settles onto the bed. The previous night's comfortable silence covers them again, but Minseok knows he'll have to be the one to break it this time.

"Not that I want to put more pressure on you," he says, "but... everyone is pretty desperate to get their bodies back." He gets a glare for that. "Okay, so that wasn't exactly 'no pressure' but do you get what I mean?" He sighs and flops backwards onto the bed. "It's just that. Looking impressive and glaring worked today, but I don't think it'll work again. Not this time. We have to convince one of this company's employees to sell even more top secret research materials to people who stole from them already."

He's mostly thinking out loud to himself at this point, but it still gets a reaction from not-Junmyeon: another annoyed huff that makes Minseok sit up to look at him. His eyebrows are furrowed and he stares at his hands in his lap.

"I am not good at talking," he says quietly. "And yet in this body it seems that that is all I can do."

"You don't need to say a lot," Minseok says. "You just need to think through what you say first. Sehun never thinks before he speaks and he goes ahead with whatever smart remark he happens to come up with and pisses off everyone. He comes up with great arguments but he's still a brat and he forgets. You just... need to keep his mouth from running away with him."

"Junmyeon" is no longer staring at his hands, instead looking at Minseok strangely. "Sehun..." he says softly, and Minseok realizes he had called their youngest by his real name without even thinking. Well, no way to take it back now. "Junmyeon" doesn't comment on it further. He nods a little, still looking at Minseok. "Keep his temper in check," he says. "I will... try."

It feels strange realizing that someone he was pointing a gun at not two days ago is now effectively promising to watch after Minseok's youngest teammate, but it also feels strange being in said teammate's body. Minseok is so far away from every benchmark of normalcy at this point that he might as well give up trying to make sense of any of it.

Just a few more days, he tells himself. Once they get through this mission and we get hold of the antidote, then everything can go back to the way it was.

He watches "Junmyeon" pull out a book, eyes downcast once again at the page, and tries not to think about coming face to face with those eyes in a few days, back in their proper body once again, on the wrong side of a gun barrel. He tries not to think about whether he'd be able to pull the trigger quite as fast as he would have before.

Jongdae makes the call and sets up the meeting, assuring their contact on the other end that their leaders will be arriving alone. Junmyeon begins to roam the house with lists of supplies they'll need, cornering anyone he encounters and sending them off on an endless series of errands. Minseok doesn't know how it's even possible but Hakyeon, in Kyungsoo's body, seems to fuss just as much. With Junmyeon taking care of most of the physical supplies, he keeps Sehun and not-Junmyeon captive, going over possible strategies and drilling them non-stop on their negotiation tactics. Whenever Hakyeon's attention is on Sehun, not-Junmyeon slips away with an ease that suggests years of practice, retreating instead back to the bedroom where Minseok is usually waiting. If Minseok is not there, "Junmyeon" opens the connecting door and takes up residence in one of that room's chairs while he waits for Minseok's return. (The chair wedged under the door has long since been moved back to its original spot.) They spend far less time in actual discussion than they do simply sitting on opposite sides of the room, each engaged in his own preparations. If they speak, it's to answer any questions "Junmyeon" has about how to keep Sehun mindful of the mission without drawing attention to the fact. As the hour of the meeting draws closer, they don't manage to settle on any set negotiation plan despite Hakyeon's best efforts, but Minseok feels marginally confident that "Junmyeon" will be able to keep everything running smoothly no matter what tactic Sehun takes. After that, the only thing that remains is to get the two of them suited up and supplied for the meeting itself.

"If they are at all competent, they'll take away any weapons you have on you," says Kyungsoo, handing them each a small pistol before bending to attach a small knife to the underside of Sehun's belt. "But at the same time, if you go in there completely unarmed they're bound to get suspicious. The trick will be to let them find enough to satisfy them while leaving something hidden in case of emergencies."

"Do you expect... emergencies?" Sehun swallows.

It looks like it's on the tip of Kyungsoo's tongue to say that he always expects emergencies, but Junmyeon steps in. "No," he says, "but it never hurts to be prepared. You'll both be wearing this to help us walk you through any difficulties." He holds up what looks like two wristwatches and two of the world's smallest earpieces. Minseok recognizes it as one of Chanyeol's devices.

"Because wearing a wire is not at all how people get shot in movies," says Sehun dolefully.

"Well, it's a good thing you're not in a movie then," says Kyungsoo, tucking another knife into the inside of "Junmyeon's" shoe. "Don't get shot."

"You're so helpful," Sehun curls his lip. He looks over to where Jongin and Zitao are standing. Zitao is gnawing his lip nervously. "I'm not going to get shot!"

Minseok helps "Junmyeon" fit the earpiece into place without dropping it. It's small enough to go unnoticed, but that means it's also easy to lose, and when it's the only way they'll be able to keep tabs on their two members they cannot afford to lose the tiny microphone and transmitter. When he leans down to attach the tiny wires, Minseok can feel the tension in "Junmyeon's" shoulders.

"Don't worry about doing too much negotiation," he says quietly. "Just keep the conversation off of the dangerous topics. Sehun can handle the persuasion part."

"Junmyeon" nods jerkily. Minseok watches him and Sehun climb into the van where Jongdae has it pulled up to the front door, and Minseok doesn't know how anyone could mistake the two for the leaders, no matter what they may look like right now, but it will have to be enough to fool their contact.

Junmyeon and Yifan seat themselves at the kitchen table with the other transmitter and all the receiving equipment while several of the others work to set up a makeshift base of operations around them. Those with nothing to do stand around the edges of the room to watch. No one breaks off to find other entertainment. The thought would never even occur to any of them at this moment. The speakers crackle to life and Sehun confirms that they are approaching the company's public lobby, where they are scheduled to meet the lab assistant and "relocate to a secure location." The phrasing makes Minseok wary, but they are simply not in a position to refuse. Any concession they can make in the hopes of winning over someone with inside access is one they have to make and they cannot hold out on any but the most vital terms.

When Jongdae confirms in a quiet undertone that Sehun and "Junmyeon" have left the lobby, Junmyeon tells him to stay there and wait for them to return. Minseok looks over at Lu Han, but his friend is staring with single-minded intensity at the transmitting equipment as if it will suddenly sprout a screen and show him where the other two are at this moment. Yifan is shuffling the papers with the information they do have already, consulting with "Sanghyuk" on several passages and marking through lines with a highlighter that one of them unearthed. They can hear the sound of footsteps coming through the speakers, along with inane chatter from the lab assistant which is fielded mostly by Sehun. As expected, they are relieved of their pistols and several other small weapons by some bodyguards, and Minseok can almost see Sehun's apologetic shrug as they all laugh it off. So far, so good.

The problems begin when the topic shifts from the strange incident at the shipyard to the gas canisters that went missing. The lab assistant has no qualms about describing the gas itself in technical detail, and "Sanghyuk" spends the entire time scribbling furious notes on the back of every available piece of paper, but it seems clear that technical information is all the assistant expects to be handing out. Sehun asks if there exists a way to reverse the effects of the chemical, which the assistant seems uninclined to answer outright, instead hemming and hawing about the theory behind such a reversal. Minseok can hear Sehun becoming more and more impatient with each evasive answer, no matter how gently "Junmyeon" steers him back into polite responses.

"But have you actually made a chemical that can reverse the effects?" Sehun questions. "I would think it would be criminally irresponsible for your company to ship out a substance like this without any confirmed and readily available cure."

"And you would know all about "criminally irresponsible," wouldn't you?" says the assistant snidely. "I can assure you that my company is far more capable of taking care of... accidents... than you would think."

"Careful, Sehun," says Junmyeon. "That doesn't mean they have anything concrete."

"So you're prepared for any possible mishap?" Sehun asks. "Suppose one of the staff members working on the project dropped something and got a whiff of the stuff? You'd have to have something on hand to take care of that."

"Of course," the lab assistant admits. "The counterpart to the serum is not currently being made available to the wider research community, but we have steps that we take in case of an internal incident."

There is a collective inhale amongst everyone gathered in the kitchen. Minseok closes his eyes for one short moment, dizzy with relief. A way to reverse the switch exists. He doesn't let himself dwell on that for too long though, because they still have to get their hands on it for it to do any good.

Sehun has the same thought, because his voice is eager now. "So you do have it. I can tell you that my associates and I would be most interested in acquiring a substance like that."

"Why?" the lab assistant sounds wary now. "I've told you everything I know about the project. That's more than any other research facility has right now."

"Like I said," Sehun says, his voice carefully not raised, "we're fascinated with your company's work and we would like to support you as much as we can in your further production, for a cut of the profits. We can provide you a substantial amount of backing up front, but we would like something a little more tangible to hold onto before we go forward."

"There's no way having this chemical would do you any good unless-" There's a silence. Minseok holds his breath. Junmyeon's knuckles are white on the microphone. The assistant's voice comes back low and full of certainty. "Unless you already had the counterpart."

"Shit," Yifan swears under his breath.

"Can we get them out of there?" Lu Han demands.

Yixing's usually lazy voice is tight when Junmyeon responds, shaking his head. "I can't think of a way."

Minseok's mind is racing and he chews the inside of Sehun's mouth as he listens to Sehun try to play down their involvement in the theft of the crates. The situation is getting worse with every second, and Sehun is simply unable to talk his way out of it. The voices are getting louder and louder, Sehun's getting angrier the more he  loses control of the situation, and Minseok knows they'll have to turn and make a break for it if they're to have any chance of getting away without all-out violence. Then through the speakers they hear the unmistakable sound of gunshots.

Hakyeon lets out a choked noise, knocking over one of the chairs in his haste to get near the microphone. "Get out of there! T-" He wrenches the entire thing out of Junmyeon's hand. "Can either of you hear me?"

"You're messing up the cords!" "Wonshik" grabs at the connection, holding the wires in one place. "Let go, or we'll lose sound completely!"

Minseok's mouth is dry. There's only static coming through the speakers now as "Wonshik" hurries to fix the connections. Someone's hand finds Minseok and he turns to find his own face looking scarily blank as Lu Han slowly laces their fingers together.

"It should be working now, but I'm not getting anything." Not-Wonshik gives the transmitter a good thump with the heel of his hand. "If there's a disruption on their end, I can't do anything."

No one wants to think about what a disruption on the other end could mean. The sounds of gunfire have stopped, but they can't hear the other two shouting either. At least when they were yelling, that meant they were...

Minseok shakes off Lu Han's hand, ignoring his hurt look when he pushes past him, back up the stairs, into his own room. He stands in the doorway connecting his room with the one next to it. The book is still lying facedown on the armchair next to the window. When Minseok looks up, he can see Sehun's face reflected in the big mirror over the dresser. He had always thought that "white as a sheet" was an expression, but the face he sees there is definitely paler than the sheets on the bed right now.

I should wash those, he thinks, feeling slow and stupid. That's barely white at all.

He doesn't wash them. Instead he sits down on the bed and wraps one of them around his hand over and over until it winds around his arm. Then he lies down in the pooled bedclothes and waits for his current body to feel the snapping of whatever connection it still has to its rightful owner.

Hours pass, or Minseok realizes that they must because the light changes in the room. He's not someone usually prone to moping and that's not what this feels like anyway. He just doesn't want to be around everyone else while they yell and run circles around each other trying to figure out what happened and generally dissolve in chaos. He doesn't want to deal with any of that, so he retreats back upstairs to where it's quiet. This is where he's used to finding refuge from whatever loud insanity is being perpetrated elsewhere in the house, so he settles in to take his mind off off everything. He picks up the book off the armchair, flipping around to random pages to see what's in it. From what he can tell, it's some sort of wilderness adventure novel where the main protagonist drops everything and runs away from home to go live halfway up a mountain for a year. It's the sort of thing Minseok would have read when he was a boy, he thinks, flipping through the yellowed pages. The desire to strike out on his own and scratch would have appealed to him and becoming a mountainside hermit, while it tends to get you labeled as strange and antisocial, is probably a more socially acceptable choice than turning to organized crime. Minseok wonders if it's too late to disappear into the woods now. At the moment it seems far preferable to going downstairs and listening to the static coming from the transmitter like everyone else in the vain hopes of contacting their missing friends. Even if they haven't formally acknowledged each other in any way, let alone voiced the sentiment of standing together on the same side, it feels right to include "Junmyeon" in the category. Minseok wishes he'd wheedled a name out of the other man before he left, since he finds it uncomfortable to keep mentally describing him in terms of who he is not. He is not their leader, but while most of them seem fixed on holding onto and juggling their identities with their current appearances, he was willing to set aside his own identity to assume a foreign leader's for the good of the mission. For all of their sakes. It could have been a selfish desire to get his own body back, but Minseok remembers the determination in "Junmyeon's" eyes as they rested on Sehun during their preparations, remembers the hours spent patiently spent trying to understand enough of Sehun's mind to work as an effortless team. It was far more dedication to the illusion than they technically needed. Minseok himself would personally avoid throwing himself that far into a cover simply since with familiarity comes attachment. Point in case, the familiar feeling of having that other presence in the room means that Minseok more keenly feels its absence now. Despite his best efforts to stay detached, not all of the unsettled feeling in his stomach is on Sehun's behalf.

He has to set the book down when he hears the sound of the van returning, the wheels crunching on the gravel outside. Of course they'd have gotten in contact with Jongdae by now. Once it was clear that communication was cut between the two teams, it only made sense to cut their losses, to call back their operative to rally and regroup. It means that Minseok is even less inclined to return downstairs than before, though. He turns his back on the window, but freezes when he hears shouting from downstairs. The door bangs shut, followed by pounding footsteps, and then he hears Jongin's voice which means that Zitao is yelling.

"Come quick!" he's shouting, down in the entrance hall. "Someone- guys, they're here!"

Minseok swings his legs off the bed before he knows what he's doing, the dizzy vertigo in his head only half because of the still-unfamiliar height. When he gets out into the hall, the shouting is louder now and it sounds like a crowd is congregating next to the front door. From the top of the stairs he can see Jongdae pushing through the doorway, trying to clear a path through the mass of people.

"Fuck, guys, give them some space!" he yells. He looks torn between grinning and staring back at the two figures behind him in concern.

Hakyeon lets out an incoherent noise, elbowing Jongdae out of the way to grab "Junmyeon's" shoulders before latching onto him like he'll drift away again if he lets go. "Junmyeon", for his part, stands there with a resigned expression on his face. He pushes a little at Hakyeon's arms, but mostly just rolls his eyes.

They both look tired. That's what Minseok notices first. Then he sees the red staining Sehun's shirt and splashed up the side of "Junmyeon's" face and only the fact that they're still upright and walking under their own power keeps Minseok from being overcome with worry. The same cannot be said for Zitao, however.

"What did you do?" he demands, grabbing the sleeve of Sehun's shirt. "I told you not to get shot!"

"I didn't get shot!" Sehun protests. "It's not my blood! Mostly."

"What do you mean, 'mostly'?" Yifan says sternly, checking over his own body for damage. "What did you do?"

"Got out of there alive, is what I did," says Sehun. "Whose bright idea was it to give us knives as backup weapons? Because it meant that I had a bunch of big beefy guys trying to stab me with my own knife."

"If you'd kept hold of it, you wouldn't have had that problem," Kyungsoo says, but it doesn't sound as sharp as he might usually be.

"I thought I did pretty well, to be honest," says Sehun. "Duizhang might even be able to fool people into thinking he's cool if he has a giant scar on his face."

"Haha," Yifan frowns. "You better not have gotten me scarred."

Minseok comes up next to him. In Sehun's body he's tall enough to see the cut running next to his eye and through his eyebrow, the bruise forming on his jaw. "Next time you don't answer our calls, you're grounded until you're thirty," he says.

Sehun rolls his eyes. "Yes, Mom," he drawls. "Sorry I was at such a wild party that I forgot."

"What happened?" Junmyeon asks, as to-the-point as ever.

"Turns out watches are not all that secure in an all-out brawl," says Sehun. "But you mean in general? No one bothered to tell this guy that we wanted to get anything but theoretical research information so he freaked out when we asked him to sneak us out an actual product. Also I guess he figured out that we're the ones who snatched their last shipment and I guess their buyers were really pissed about it. Just how much is this stuff worth?"

"A lot," says Junmyeon vaguely.

"I heard a rumor going around that it was something in the area of billions," Hakyeon says mildly. "Why do you think we were so interested?"

Sehun's jaw goes slack and even Minseok is surprised. He knew it was their biggest heist yet, but he hadn't expected the figure to go quite that high. No wonder their lab contact hadn't been interested in helping them. He didn't know how much Junmyeon had pulled together to bribe him, but he was willing to bet it was nowhere near the amount that they'd already cost the guy's company.

"Anyway," Sehun was saying, "I guess he figured he could get more than we were offering him if he brought us to his bosses, because he had his thugs try to grab us. That's when we started to fight back."

"With knives against their guns?" Zitao still hasn't let go of his sleeve. "Exactly how were you expecting to not get shot?"

"I wasn't really," Sehun admits. "I was kinda expecting to get shot, really, but we lucked out. It wasn't really me who got us out of it though. It's not like I was useless," he hurries to add. "Like, all the blood you see here is me. Even if it's not, you know, me. But I guess I looked more threatening because most of them went for me to begin with and it's kind of heard to hold off three big guys with the pocketknives you gave us."

"Not really," Kyungsoo murmurs, "but continue."

"I broke one of their noses, I think, so that was enough time to get a knife in his throat-" the knuckles of Yifan's hand are bruised and cut when Sehun flexes them "-but then the other guy had a gun, so I was trying to get it away from him and that's when the third guy came up behind me. I guess, uh... he had gotten one of our guns back from the scientist guy, so he shot him in the back of the head when he tried to choke me. Then I got the gun away and we got rid of the last thug and made a break for it. He's the one who found the way out too. We couldn't go out the front doors like this, but he found a fire escape and figured out where we'd parked the van. Then all we had to do was wait for Jongdae to show up and get us back here."

"Let this be a lesson to us never to send you on a negotiation mission again," Lu Han says.

"That's what I was trying to tell you all along!" Sehun flings up his arms, dislodging Zitao in the process. "I told from the start that I'm shit at this stuff!"

"It could have gone much worse," Junmyeon points out in a conciliatory tone. "At least we know that there is a chemical that can reverse this, even if we don't have it in our hands yet."

"I got most of the technical specs and formulas while he was talking to you," says "Sanghyuk", "but the connection was fuzzy in parts. Would you mind looking over what I wrote to see if you can fill in any holes?"

"Sure," Sehun shrugs. "Just don't expect a whole lot. I didn't understand half the gibberish he was saying."

They start to drift out of the hall, back towards the kitchen and the makeshift transmitting base, and that's when Minseok notices the other half of the pair is missing. Sometime during the discussion he must have managed to wriggle away from Hakyeon, because he's nowhere to be seen now. Minseok has a hunch as to where he might be, though, and it's with that thought that he starts to climb the stairs again, heading back towards the two connected rooms. Sure enough, when he opens the door the familiar sight of Junmyeon's back greets him, bent over something on the bed. The shirt is torn and bloodstained in a way that Junmyeon's never is though, and when he turns to look at Minseok, the eyes are very much not Junmyeon's. They're the same eyes that Minseok has looked up every evening to see poring over a book or staring out the window. They're staring at Minseok now and their owner does not seem surprised to see him there. When Minseok comes further into the room, he sees that the thing on the bed is an open first aid kit. Probably one of the boxes that Junmyeon insists be kept stocked in each of the vans.

"Are you alright?" Minseok asks.

Not-Junmyeon nods. When Minseok gives him a disbelieving look, he brings a hand up to touch his shoulder. "One of them took my knife," he says, by way of explanation.

Minseok leans back to take a closer look at the back of his shoulder and, sure enough, one of the cuts in the shirt shows a nasty gash across his shoulderblade. While most of the blood on Sehun was from his attackers, most of the blood here comes from the wound and Minseok winces a little. It's in a place that will be hard to reach, Minseok realizes, and yet he had shown no inclination to ask for help, clearly intending to cover it up with as little fuss as possible. Minseok settles himself on the bed, taking the first aid kit and tugging the shirt off of "Junmyeon's" back so that it hangs loosely around his arms. While he initially tries to hold onto the bandages, "Junmyeon" ends up sitting awkwardly facing the wall while Minseok cleans the cut as best he can. The peroxide makes him jerk slightly, but he doesn't say a word until the last of the butterfly bandages is in place, covered with gauze and medical tape. Then he takes the box back, closing it up again with a mumbled "thanks." Minseok sighs.

"Just don't move around too much or you'll tear everything loose. You really ought to have stitches, but I'd just make a mess of that. Anyway, I should be thanking you, I think," he says. When he gets an inquisitive look, Minseok explains, "Sehun told us what happened. How you got them both out, I mean. So thanks for that. For keeping him safe."

"Junmyeon" looks at him blankly. "That is what I agreed to do," he says.

"Yeah, but... when someone gets hurt saving one of your friends' asses, you're supposed to thank them." Still the blank look. Minseok doesn't know what else to say. Instead he holds out a hand between them. "I'm Minseok," he finishes lamely."

He doesn't know how to describe what he means, especially to someone who clearly sees what happened as a fulfillment of basic duty, but a sense of obligation prompts Minseok into doing it. When someone saves one of your protege's lives, the least you can do in return is let them call you by your proper name. "Junmyeon" stares at the hand for a moment before extending his own.

"Taekwoon," he says quietly, and Minseok is oddly unsurprised, as if he had half-guessed already. Going by a simple process of elimination, he probably should have consciously figured it out sooner. Still, when they shake hands, Minseok has to smile.

"Nice to meet you," he says. "Properly, at least."

Taekwoon nods. He looks around the room, eyes resting on the book Minseok left lying in the middle of the bed. Minseok wishes he had put it back on the chair before leaving the room, but he hadn't really been thinking about the book at the time.

"Yeah, I think I lost your place," he says. "Sorry."

Taekwoon flips through the book to find the page he'd left it open to earlier. "Did you stay in here until we came back?" he asks, eyes still on the page. His voice is casual, but he sounds like he is actually interested in hearing the answer.

Minseok leaves, taking the armchair so that their usual positions are reversed. "I got used to being somewhere not surrounded by squabbling idiots. Is your gang just as loud, or is it just us?"

Taekwoon doesn't point out that Minseok's own room is right through the door, but he also doesn't seem as bothered by the idea of Minseok just hanging out in his room as Minseok had been worried he might be. "They can be unbearable," is all he says.

"Life would be much easier if we could keep them tied up in the basement until we needed them," Minseok mourns.

The corner of Taekwoon's mouth definitely quirks at that. "There is a very large safe downstairs," he points out.

"I like the way you think," Minseok kicks his legs up over the arm of the chair. Sehun's limbs are very good for draping carelessly, at least. That's probably why Sehun does it so much.

Taekwoon picks up his suit jacket from where he'd hung it over the bedpost, fishing around in the pockets and pulling out a gun which he holds out to Minseok. "I think this is yours," he says.

Minseok takes it, and when his fingers wrap around the grip they nearly cover Taekwoon's, Sehun's hands looking about twice as big as Junmyeon's in a way he'd never noticed before. He sets the gun in his lap before holding up his hand in front of the window. He's heard of knowing things "like the back of your hand" but Minseok thinks now that that's a ridiculous idea since he's trying hard to remember what the shape of his proper hand is like and how different it is from the hand in front of his face now. When was the last time anyone actually looked at the back of their hand? he thinks, feeling the different way the gun sits in a different hand. Later, when they go back downstairs and Taekwoon is engulfed in a sea of people all clamoring to appreciate his "heroism", Minseok goes up to Lu Han and grabs his hand. He holds his own proper hand up against Sehun's and ignores the strange looks Lu Han is giving him. It's easy to take your own hand for granted, he realizes, but when he gets his body back (not if, when) he promises to look at it every day until he really can say he knows something like the back of his own hand.

They may not have managed to get their hands on a way to reverse the effects of the gas, but they know that one exists now, which most of them seem to feel is worth the trouble they went to. Minseok doesn't think any of them know about the bandages hidden under Taekwoon's shirt, but since he doesn't seem concerned by them Minseok supposes it's not his business to begrudge the calling the expedition a "win". After it becomes clear that they're not going to acquire the chemical through the company itself, the only option that remains is to steal it for themselves. This requires even more planning than their first attempt, though, so while Junmyeon goes through another series of strategizing meetings, dragging Lu Han in with him to dig up extra intel, the basement crew disappears back into the safe to wring as much information as they can out of the crates with the new information they picked up from the late lab assistant. Taekwoon explains that Hongbin had been a brilliant chemist before his eagerness to study had flung him in amongst loan sharks, driving him into the city's crime underbelly and VIXX's gang. Sanghyuk goes along not out of any particular gifts in that field but simply, as Taekwoon puts it, "because they're always together." Kyungsoo, as their armorer and general head of security, hurries back and forth between the basement and the various errands Junmyeon sends him on to build up their supplies for whatever final assault they end up making on the company. As a result, he is even more harried and short tempered than usual, which is only made worse by the fact that Baekhyun is needling him at every available opportunity. Baekhyun is easy to pick out, even in Taekwoon's body, because he is every bit as loud and abrasive as usual. Minseok thinks he stubs his own toes now just as often as Baekhyun does, since they've both landed in bodies so much bigger than they're used to and have yet to figure out where all their edges are, but Baekhyun is definitely more vocal about it, howling exaggeratedly while hopping up and down on one foot. He continues his tradition of waking up the youngest members with loud, off key renditions of showtunes and pop songs from ten years ago. He continues to mock Zitao mercilessly whenever he trips over his words and falls over himself laughing at "Zitao's" truly terrible broken Korean, much to the real Zitao's chagrin. Most of all, though, he trails after Kyungsoo like an annoyingly large shadow, making snide comments about everything he does. When Kyungsoo threatens to break his leg, he switches to obnoxious catcalls whenever Kyungsoo is in sight, arguing that he's absolutely allowed to appreciate himself and it's not his fault that Kyungsoo was the one who ended up in his beautiful body and Kyungsoo needs to learn to "love himself."

"I love myself fine," Kyungsoo grinds out through his teeth. "It's you I have a problem with."

"It's probably fate or karma or something," Baekhyun tells him. "You spent so much time imagining yourself in my pants that it actually happened. Is it everything you dreamed of, Kyungsoo?"

Kyungsoo is shaking with fury when he finally storms out of the room amidst yells of "Hate to see you go, but love to watch you leave!" He finally reappears an hour later with both eyebrows shaved off, to Baekhyun's horror.

"Where are you going?" Baekhyun asks frantically when Kyungsoo heads for the front door. "You can't go out like that!"

"I'm going to visit all of your favorite haunts," Kyungsoo tells him, "so that when you next show up, everyone will remember you as 'that guy with no eyebrows'. Let this be a lesson to you that if you get on my nerves, I will find a way to ruin the things you love for you."

Baekhyun would have tried to keep him in the house with his superior strength but Junmyeon is firm that they need Kyungsoo to continue visiting town and running errands for them. Personally, Minseok thinks that Junmyeon is glad to see Baekhyun at a disadvantage for once, especially as a side effect of getting necessary tasks done.

Those without specific tasks to do try to stay out of the way as much as possible. Since he replaced the boards on the windows in his room, Lu Han has had no further encounters with the "death bird." While they hear noises coming from the attic sometimes, it seems that as long as they stay away from the trapdoor and the noises, the bird is quite happy to go its own way without bothering them. At least, it appears that way until one morning Minseok hears a loud shriek coming from the bathroom. Since he's still half-asleep, the boards still over his own windows keep the room fairly dark, he thinks for a moment that Zitao has just had another ghost scare. Then he realizes that 1) it is actually 9:34 in the morning, not 1 AM like he'd originally thought, and 2) Zitao is not in Zitao's body right now, so who on earth is doing the screaming?

By the time he gets out into the hallway, several of the others have already emerged to find out what's going on. The door to the bathroom is hanging wide open, steam billowing out along with the sound of the shower running. Inside, they see "Zitao" clutching his chest, half fallen out of the shower stall and held up only by his death grip on the shower curtain. As they watch, the curtain rips out of the rings holding it to the bar, toppling "Zitao" over onto the wet tiles.

"What is going on?" Yifan demands, the severity of his scowl diminished somewhat by the truly spectacular bedhead he has going.

"Hakyeon," "Zitao" gasps from the floor. "You- wait. No. Not Hakyeon. I. I think I hit my head. Birds don't have glowing red eyes, do they?"

"What?" Yifan asks again, genuinely confused now.

"Did you see the death bird?" Lu Han asks intently, kneeling on the floor next to "Zitao's" head.

"What death bird?" Yifan is still trying to get a grasp on the situation. "There's no bird anywhere."

"Taxi, follow that owl!" "Zitao" points a finger at the ceiling, sounding slightly hysterical. "Is it like the Grim? Am I going to die now that I've seen it?"

"One day we will all die," says Lu Han seriously.

"Oh my god," whispers "Zitao." Lu Han pats him on the shoulder comfortingly.

"I would put some clothes on if I were you," he says.

A search of that floor shows no sign of a bird, either of the death-variety or otherwise, and the trapdoor is firmly closed. Other than the fact the Lu Han insists that he's seen it before, the only sign they find that "Zitao" hadn't imagined the whole thing is a single feather at the foot of the stairs down into the entrance hall. None of the doors or windows to the outside are left open, so no one has any idea where the thing could have gotten to. Lu Han takes to carrying a broomstick and poking above every doorway before he goes through it, as if he's afraid it's waiting to descend on him the moment he drops his guard.

Once again Minseok retreats in the hopes of finding peace and quiet from the antics going on in the house, only this time he makes it his mission to clear out the path leading down to the lake. To that end, he unearths a machete from the dilapidated shed next to the house and sharpens it on a whetstone he finds buried under one of the countless tangled garden hoses. Taekwoon, unsurprisingly, joins him in his endeavors to stay out of the house. "Chanyeol" spends a few hours trying to root out the saplings that have started to grow in the path, but he gives up before half of them are done, handing the shovel to Taekwoon and disappearing. The path itself is easy to clear once that is done, though the problem still remains that the ground itself is rough and uneven. It was once level, but the water that must pour down the hill after every rainstorm has carved grooves in the dirt and washed away any gravel that was once there. There's not much Minseok can do about that other than carry away the logs that poke over into the walkway. One of the logs they move turns out to house a hornets' nest and the stinging insects send them sprinting down the freshly cleared path, down the pier, and straight into the icy water. Minseok has to admit that Lu Han had not been joking when he said it was freezing, but it's worth it to see Taekwoon standing on the bank afterwards, looking bedraggled and trying to hold his cold, sopping wet clothes away from his body.

What all the bustle in the house does, other than drive them into landscaping and home improvement endeavors, is produce a timetable for their operations. Within three days, Hongbin emerges from the basement with a fresh analysis of the gas and its properties, based on the new information they've gotten. He is able to estimate that a reversal of the switch will be easy until about a month after they first encountered the gas, and after that the likelihood of success drops off sharply with every week that passes. Going on this new knowledge, they will have to break into the company factory within the month if they're to expect a reasonable degree of success. Junmyeon immediately reveals his plan for further reconnaissance and for getting their own people on the inside to get the security access they need. Six of the youngest-looking members of the group are going to be placed in various low-level positions within the company with the help of "Jaehwan's" expertise in creating covers and generating identities secure enough to pass security and background checks. The goal will be to collect as much information on the layout and inner workings of the building so that they can follow the straightest line possible to get the chemical they need. On top of that, one of them will need to figure out the security clearances they need to get into the storage itself, since they can expect to encounter far more than a simple lock and key, and then grab whatever passes they need to get everyone into the storage facilities when the time comes.

"If there's a card you need to swipe," says "Jaehwan", "then get it to me and I can duplicate it. If it's a magnetic pulse, get me the frequency and I can make it happen. Return whatever it is as soon as possible so it's not missed before the time comes, but just get it to me first."

Minseok remembers vaguely that the reason they'd worked so hard to get Yixing into their group (other than his partnership with Lu Han, whom they had also desperately needed) was his skills in forgery, but it's hard to picture Yixing in the grinning, excitable man in front of them now, wiggling his fingers. He doesn't have much time to contemplate it, because then "Jaehwan" turns and starts handing out packets with their new cover stories to all the people going undercover. Minseok stares down at the manila envelope, upending it into his lap. A sheaf of clipped papers falls out, followed by a handful of plastic cards that scatter across the floor. Minseok picks up an ID and stares at Sehun's face stamped across with official-looking watermarks and holographic seals.

"What's this?" he asks.

"Your new identity," says Junmyeon. "You're in one of the youngest bodies in the group, so you'll be going in as an intern. You'll need to learn all the information in that packet before you can start, so you better get studying. That goes for all of you."

"How come he's going?" Minseok points at Lu Han, who is holding a stack of credit cards in between his fingers, flipping pages and scanning the story of his new life. "You said only the youngest people were going."

"I said the youngest-looking people were going," Junmyeon repeats. "Sorry."

Baekhyun snickers under his breath until Kyungsoo punches him in the thigh. Taekwoon sighs. Minseok's fairly sure he's keeping tally of the number of bruises he'll have to deal with when he gets back into his own body. As much as Minseok finds the idea of going undercover distasteful, the thought that they'll finally be moving closer to their goal keeps him from protesting the idea that he looks just as young as Sehun, who is practically a kindergartner as far as he is concerned.

Several days of drilling later, and they are deemed ready to start moving into their assumed lives. The arrivals will be staggered over the course of the week, with the more vital roles going first. Minseok is taking over the identity of a third year university student in a non-paid intern position for the summer, so he's one of the first people to arrive. Bright and early Monday morning, Jongdae drives him into town and drops him at the very furthest subway stop along with Hongbin who, since he has the youngest appearance of all at the moment, will be interning along with Minseok. Zitao, as far as they know, has a job in the mailroom, but he'll be arriving separately later on in the week. Not-Zitao (Taekwoon says he's pretty sure it's actually Jaehwan) and Sanghyuk will show up at some point the week after that as janitors. With that level of access and invisibility, their goal will be to scope out the route the combined gang will need to take, noting the security camera and their blind spots in particular. When they think they've gathered as much information they can then Kyungsoo will come in on the last day under the guise of a rich young businessman taking a tour of the facilities. His job at that point will be to get in contact with each of them in turn, take the physical items they've managed to swipe (pass cards, keys, and the like), get them to "Jaehwan" for copying, and then bring them back before the end of the day. And then... then all that remains is the actual heist. If they do their jobs properly, they'll know exactly where to go and how to avoid being caught or even seen.

It's with this lofty goal that Minseok rides the escalator up onto the main street at 8:30 on Monday morning. The effect is somewhat marred by the fact that the sun is shining directly into his eyes, effectively blinding him, but Hongbin manages to nudge him in the right direction by slamming him in the hip with his heavy laptop case. Minseok isn't sure why Hongbin gets a laptop case and all he gets is a ratty-looking backpack, but it probably has something to do with the fact that Hongbin's "internship" will involve far more actual lab work than Minseok's. Minseok, as far as he knows, will be undertaking such thrilling tasks as clearing paper jams, fetching coffee and paper clips, and alphabetizing file cabinets. Exactly the sort of job he had been terrified of finding himself stuck in when he realized there were more exciting and lucrative, albeit illegal, career choices out there. Still, Minseok is ready to suck it up if it means getting out of there in the end with a minimum of bullet wounds. Sehun and Taekwoon's escapade had been close enough, so whatever they can do to prevent that happening again is all to the good. Since it won't do to have the two of them arrive together, Hongbin heads ahead to the bus stop where they'll depart for the factory and research facility just outside the far end of town while Minseok takes a detour to a nearby chain coffee shop before he follows. His coffee is just cool enough to drink without getting blisters on the roof of his mouth when he has to get off the bus, and the one sip he takes he almost ends up choking on at the sight of the complex's main lobby. For a second he thinks he's walked through the wrong door, stumbled into a greenhouse or something, but no, there's only one building on this street and anyway, there's a desk that he finally spots at the far end, just to the left of that giant fern.

The receptionist hands him a badge without giving him a second glance, waving him towards the wall behind her where there are two elevators. Just as Minseok is wondering which one he's supposed to take, let alone which floor he's supposed to go to, the one closest to him dings and the doors slide open. Instantly Minseok finds himself all but engulfed by an exuberant older businessman who shakes his hand, pulling him into the elevator about as gently as a riptide. Minseok couldn't escape even if he wanted to, and after first the jungle of a lobby and now this, he's not entirely sure he doesn't want to, mission or no.

"Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!" he says. "You must be Park Hyunchul?"

Oh, Minseok thinks, trying to gather his thoughts. Right. That's me.

"Yes," he says, cracking each of his knuckles as surreptitiously as possible. He starts to suspect one of them might be dislocated. "I'm starting my first day as an intern here."

"Yes, of course!" the man says. "You'll be working with me mostly. My name is Park Jinyoung, by the way."

After his initially overwhelming introduction, Minseok warms up to his new supervisor fairly well. In other circumstances, he thinks he could see himself coming to... well, if not enjoy, then at least not actively dislike working for him. As it is, Minseok has to remember that in less than a month he will be stealing potentially another several billion dollars out from under this man's nose, so he would do well not to get too attached. This becomes slightly easier when they exit the elevators into what looks like a sea of cubicles which Jinyoung surveys proudly like a pharaoh overseeing contingents of slaves painstakingly hauling limestone blocks. Minseok wonders if the fatality rate is comparable. Jinyoung turns to him, eyes resting on the paper cup of coffee still in Minseok's hands.

"Oh, you didn't have to bring me coffee," he says, taking the cup from Minseok's unresisting fingers. "Though, I will admit, I am aching for something besides this sludge they serve up in the breakroom here." He takes a sip and wrinkles his nose. "Next time though, a little easier on the sugar."

He claps Minseok on the shoulder, dropping the cup into the closest trash can before dragging him off on the grand tour. Minseok sighs heavily. This is exactly why he always dreaded the idea of an office job.

"-and then he had me stuffing envelopes for the rest of the day. My tongue has paper cuts now."

Minseok is lying on the bed in Taekwoon's room as usual, though the setting is somewhat different from usual. He had come straight up the stairs upon arriving back at the lake house after his first day in the office, not even stopping to kick off his shoes no matter how loudly Junmyeon called after him. He had walked through the door into the room, dropped his bag and jacket on the floor, and pitched facefirst onto the bed where Taekwoon was reading another book. He had then proceeded to scream into the mattress until he ran out of breath, at which point he just lay there with a mouth full of sheets (someone had washed them after all, he notes). Taekwoon had waited until he was done and then reached out to pat his head gently.

"Feel better now?" he had asked and that was when Minseok had unloaded every single infuriating occurrence that had transpired in what he was now convinced was a corporate hell.

Now he stares up at the ceiling and considers the fact that if he walks out towards the lake right now, he might trip over a log and break his neck, or drown, or even die of hypothermia and then he wouldn't have to go back the next day. When he voices this thought, Taekwoon informs him that that's a stupid idea and none of them have time to dig more than a shallow grave right now so Minseok would probably end up being dug up and eaten by coyotes.

"That's morbid and disgusting," Minseok says. "And also unrealistic. I don't think coyotes even live around here."

"In that case, be my guest," Taekwoon shrugs.

He's reading what looks like a guide to edible plants, which once again makes Minseok wonder if he's planning to strike off and live in the woods on his own. When Minseok had finished his rant, he'd just reached out to pat his head again and his hand is still just barely resting there, like he'd gotten distracted once again by the utterly fascinating book in front of him and forgotten to move it. Minseok is not a touchy person, so he wonders if his current lack of inclination to throw off the hand is a sign that Lu Han's clinging is finally rubbing off on him. Even if he doesn't say anything now, the definite physical presence of another person, one whose presence he doesn't utterly hate, nearby is relaxing. Actually, probably especially if he doesn't say anything. The lack of pressure to say the right thing is one of the things he finds most appealing about Taekwoon's company.

"Thanks," he says, and when he tips his head up Taekwoon quickly pulls back his hand like he's just realized it's still resting on Minseok's head.

"For what?" he asks.

Minseok shrugs. "Just listening, I guess. This is the second tantrum you've had to put up with from me since we got here. I swear I'm not usually this bratty. That's usually Sehun's job."

It's Taekwoon's turn to shrug then. "I didn't think you were," he says. "And I don't mind. It's... kind of cute."

"What?" Minseok rolls over to look at him. Taekwoon's eyes are firmly fixed on the book. "Did you just say my temper tantrums were cute?"

"It's..." Taekwoon trails off. He licks his lips, tongue poking out for a brief moment while he thinks. "Sehun is a cute person. You all think so. You feel about him and the other young ones the same way we feel about Sanghyuk. You just... appeared the same age as the body you are in. It fit."

Minseok considers this, considers the idea that Taekwoon notices cute things. That he likes cute things. He tries to picture Taekwoon back in his proper body, watching a cat cleaning its ears, and the image makes him laugh out loud. Taekwoon glares at him over the cover of the book, so Minseok waves his hands and tries to turn it into a cough.

"I'm not making fun of you, I swear," he says. "I guess it's true I was acting childish, so I see why it would be entertaining."

Taekwoon shakes his head. "It's more than that," he says. "You have always appeared to be one of the more mature members of your group; you seem to be more of a voice of reason than many of the others here, and I have seen you take care of many of their complaints and problems. It was a change to see you frustrated on your own behalf. You looked younger."

Minseok picks at the sheets uncomfortably. "You make it sound like I'm some sort of selfless, long-suffering do-gooder," he says. "I actually twisted Baekhyun's arm today when his imitations got too annoying-"

"Thank you for that," cuts in Taekwoon dryly.

"I didn't damage anything," Minseok scoffs. "But anyway, if I were someone who takes care of people's problems I wouldn't be hiding from all the problems in here."

"When the situation has called for it, you have done everything you could," Taekwoon insists calmly. "You were there when I broke the cup that first morning, you went in search of the bird to calm the others' fears..." he looks away to the side. "And you helped me when I came back hurt that day."

Now Minseok really does feel uncomfortable. "Junmyeon cleaned up the broken cup," he mumbles.

"Mm," Taekwoon hums, but he doesn't say anything further and when Minseok looks up, he is no longer even pretending to read. Instead, he sits there looking at Minseok intently until Minseok pushes himself upright.

"What?" he asks.

"I was with him that day and I saw what you think of as 'bratty' for myself," Taekwoon says. "You are not the same." He takes a deep breath. "And even if you were, I still would not mind listening."

Then he turns back to his book completely, leaving Minseok with nothing to do but stare at the spine and wonder when one of his most problematic enemies turned into a willing ear for all his frustrations.

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