Endgame, for exollent (2/2)

[chiharu]

There was no gentleness in the way Kai slammed him back against the wall of a private bathroom all the way up above the VIP lounge. The thrum of the club was faint under their feet, but it was deafeningly quiet in here. No one would be around to hear if Kai decided to shoot him with the gun he was digging into Sehun's back, the metal cool through the fabric of his shirt.

"Agent Oh Sehun of the NIS. What do you think you're doing here?" Kai's voice was low behind him, and Sehun forced his body to go very, very still. Kai had gone back to being a complete blank to his senses, the heat from earlier completely gone.

"You recognize who I am."

"What, did you think I was stupid?"

"No. You recognize me. You were forcing your way into my head, and my mind was so receptive because it was familiar, wasn't it? It's you, isn't it, Jongin? Jongin." Sehun breathed against the cold tile. The heat was gone, but there was still arousal thrumming low in his guts. Sehun squeezed his eyes shut. The gun digging into his back had gone very, very still.

"That was a long time ago." The harsh voice behind his back was quieter. Sehun couldn't help but huff a laugh against the wall.

"It was. This is not exactly the way I expected our highschool reunion to be. But I know who you are now, Kim Jongin. Special black ops agent, NSS."

There was a hitch of breath, and then the gun behind his back was gone. Sehun was still for a second, then he very slowly turned around. Kai still had the gun trained on him. This was someone who could snap his neck with bare hands in a split second if he wanted to, Sehun thought.

"Your public record has been completely wiped clean, your profile in the NSS system is classified so thoroughly it might as well be completely undetected and nonexistent in the system. It's marked as 'Deceased', but your account has never been terminated, it has never been suspended. It's still active, just buried so deep that no one could ever touch it. Even the best hacker in NSS could not open your file, but that was all I needed to know." Sehun's voice was soft, but he was staring into Kai's eyes with all the intense frustration of all the lies and deceits in the last few weeks. "You confirmed it for me just now. The only way you could have found my profile was either you're some ingenious hacker one level above the country's best IT assemble, or you have access to the NSS data system. Just you, not Kim Seunghwan, because I don't have a bullet embedded in my head yet."

Kai's lips were pressed into a tight line, his hand holding onto the gun, his aim unwavering.

"Six years ago... the agent in that undercover op never died." Sehun continued, the rumours Joonmyun had told him flashing in his head. "He never died, but he didn't go rogue either. It was a cover-up, I'm guessing it was to trick Kim Seunghwan's eyes and ears in the government. That op from six years ago... it's still on-going. The mission has never been terminated."

The gun was still staring down at him, dark and menacing, but when Sehun looked into Kai's eyes, he saw it. The waver of emotions, as if a dam had been broken. The long silence stretched out. Then the gun dropped, and Kai's shoulders sagged. Kai stared at him for a long beat, then turning away.

"You know what they say. When you can't get out, you just have to go deeper."

In that moment, Kai suddenly looked much older and more haggard than he ever had. There was no glamour here, and Sehun suddenly realized he was looking at Kim Jongin, NSS' deep-cover operative who had spent the last seven years of his life being someone he most likely hated, walking the thin line between life and death every single day next to East Asia's most dangerous arms broker. He could see it then, the bone-weary lines etched on Kai's face. Seven years worth of lies and deceit.

Suddenly in the next moment, Sehun found himself staring down the barrel of a gun once again. He took half a step backwards, startled as he glanced up to see Kai was back to scowling at him.

"So what are you doing here, Agent Oh Sehun? No one told me they were going to send another one in, and I'm guessing from your reaction, you had no idea what you were going into either."

"I really have no idea," Sehun said, feeling suddenly lost and unsure. He had been thinking about the same thing ever since he discovered the news, turning over and over details in his head. "They refused to tell me anything about that op six years ago. I only thought something was amiss when I realized it was you... Jongin. I just... I couldn't imagine you would ever..."

Kai's face twitched when the name left his mouth, his lips pulling up in a twisted half smile half grimace. "Move down to Busan and become the trophy boytoy of some international criminal billionaire?"

"I just-"

A loud explosion shook the building, the floor grumbling beneath their feet. Both of them stumbled, Sehun falling forward and smacking hard against a marbled sink. He looked up to see Kai's stunned expression for a brief second, before all the electricity abruptly went out after the blast, plunging the room into darkness. There was no longer the insistent thumping of bass from the club beneath them. The loud echo of the explosion thundered in his ribcage, and there was a fraction of complete dead silence before the screams and cries downstairs snapped everything back into focus.

-

After facing off a couple of an explosives expert and an impossibly elusive Chinese assassin with a sword, Sehun knew it was definitely not luck that propelled Kai through the third attempt on his life with barely a scratch. He hadn't quite seen the fight in the elevator weeks ago, but he could definitely admire the way Kai fought their way to the back entrance of the building this time, side by side with him. His movements were sharp and precise, his aim so fast and accurate that it looked like he was acting on pure instinct and a third eye on the back of his head. Sehun had the advantage of his 'intuition' when he dropped his shields, but he knew Kai was pure black ops training, because Kai was a projective empath, he couldn't sense people the way Sehun did.

They made the perfect team, and Sehun's blood was racing when he finally pulled Kai out to the back alley, bursting another hail of bullets into the darkness before using his arm holding the rifle to slam the door close. He jerked Kai forward, and they didn't run far before another set of explosives went off, blowing up the rest of the building into rubble. The ground shook beneath their feet, and his body slammed over Kai's as they tumbled to the ground.

"Fuck," Kai laughed into his shoulders, body shaking against his in pure adrenaline. "I forgot about that price on my head."

Kai drove like a mad man on the way back, and Sehun was already itching hot underneath his skin when Kai slammed down on the break and swerved in another direction, away from the house. They pulled to a stop just off Dadaepo beach, the place pristine and dead quiet in the night air, nothing there but the rhythmic sound of the ocean waves and their harsh breathing. Kai killed the engine and turned to him, and Sehun only saw a flash of bright eyes before Kai climbed over to his seat, slamming it backwards. He got thrown back with a grunt, and then Kai was on him, thighs hard on both sides of his lips, tongue licking deep into his mouth.

It was wet and dirty, Kai's mouth hot against his, letting Sehun swallow down his quiet breathy sounds. Their tongues and lips intertwined, and Sehun bit down on those plump lips he had been dying to taste. His mind flashed back to Jongin kissing him on the rooftop of their highschool at age sixteen, tentative and sweet with the slightest hint of tongues. They had spent long afternoons just making out, kissing and necking until both of them had to go home, lips red and swollen.

The press of the lithe, muscular body against his now was startling in its sensuality. Sehun didn't want to admit it, but he'd still been half-hard ever since Kai had rubbed all over him in the club, the adrenaline of the fight just fueling the fire in his blood, their skin smelling of sweat and the residue of gunpowder. Kai might have tried to force the lust on him at first to make a point, but his body had known for a long time what it wanted. Right then, he wanted bare skin hot against his own.

Sehun pulled Kai's tank-top off with a fumbling tug, and Kai huffed a laugh against his cheek when he arched up to brush against Sehun's body. Sehun's hands roamed all over Kai's naked back, the skin hot under his touch. Kai struggled to unbutton his jeans in the enclosed space, kicking the passenger door open in the process, and Sehun helped him peel them off endlessly long legs along with his briefs, revealing golden thighs and pert round ass. Kai pressed flush against his body, and Sehun had to jump-start his brain a few times to take in that golden naked body squirming all over him.

Kai's hands tugged off Sehun's shirt, then yanked the button of his pants open. It was like he had no patience left, because Kai barely pushed it down Sehun's thighs before reaching over to pull at Sehun's cock. Kai hitched his hips forward, and Sehun slammed his head back with a gasp as their cocks slid against each other, hard and impossibly hot.

"Are you sure about this?" Sehun gasped out, hand thumbing over the heads of both of their cocks, and they both arched into each other, helpless with pleasure. Kai answered by rolling his hips down once more, teeth biting down hard on his lower lip, sucking it into his mouth. Sehun mouthed along Kai's shoulders, having half a mind to remember that he couldn't leave a mark, and that Kim Seunghwan would have his head on a spike if he knew all the things Sehun wanted to do with his precious lover.

Kai's hand reached behind him and he jerked open a small compartment, fishing out a tube of lube and throwing it to the seat next to them. Sehun had to swallow down the question of how many times Seunghwan had fucked him in this car. There was something bubbling hot inside Sehun, an ugly sense of possessiveness that said 'I had him first.' Long before Kim Seunghwan. Long before all this crazy business with NSS.

Kai let out a soft sigh when the first finger slid inside him, wet and smooth with lube. Sehun stroked in and out, feeling the heat sucking him in. The skin of Kai's ass was silky soft against his knuckles, and Kai rode it slightly, his lips parted in arousal as he gazed down at Sehun, pupils dilated and dark with desire. His hand was still stroking both of their cocks, the upwards pull tight and slow. Sehun had to squeeze his eyes shut as Kai's fingers closed tight around the base of their cocks when he slid down on three fingers. Sehun could have fucked him forever on his fingers like that, pulling out soft sighs and tiny moans, but Kai was already pulling off, pressing the sweetest peck against his lips.

Kai sank down on him on one slow, smooth movement, the pleasure making Sehun dizzy with heat. Kai was panting loud into his jaws, fingers gripping Sehun's hair lightly, and Sehun let him slowly move up and down for a few beats, Kai's heat taking him in just a little bit more with every slide home.

Kai's hands jerked his face up, fingers stroking into his hair, and Kai pressed his forehead against Sehun, letting their hot breath mingle. "Hey, hey. You know I'm not making you feel this, right? I mean, you know I'm not-"

Sehun surged up to kiss him, plump lips sweet and bright red. "I know." This was both of them, desperate for each other, and it had been long in coming since the very first time they'd met. "Just let go, Jongin."

Kai gasped against his mouth, and heat flushed his body, pushing into his mind, taking over all his senses. Nothing but pure striking pleasure. The beat picked up, Kai's hips earnestly bouncing up and down on Sehun's lips, the slap of his ass against Sehun's thigh loud and obscene in the quiet night. Sehun was suddenly aware of how anyone walking by would be able to see this, Kai fucking himself down on Sehun's cock, thighs splayed open on both sides of his hips, his lithe body glistening with sweat in the moonlight. No one would be here at this hour, but Sehun could see it in his head, the two of them intertwining in the throes of this toe-curling pleasure.

His mind was swimming in the heat, and when Kai cried out, his fingers coming up to press blazing hot against Sehun's face, the pleasure intensified two-fold in the sudden heatwave, flooding Sehun's synapses and throwing him over the edge.

When he came back to his senses, Kai was sprawled boneless in his laps, eyes closed. The weight of him was comfortingly hot on Sehun's thighs.

-

It was impossible to keep away from Kai once he'd had a taste.

They drove to the furthest spots in the south of the city just to let Sehun fuck him into the backseat. Sometimes they did it inside the house, but so very quiet and hasty, because there would be hell to pay if someone caught them in the act. He had Kai bent over a desk, a sink, an armchair, and against a mirror before the end of the week. He was getting increasingly good about being careful never to leave a mark. Sometimes they did it so slow and gentle, Kai would be ripping into Sehun's arm with his teeth in frustration, cock heavy and dark with pent up arousal. Sehun would trace over the marks Seunghwan left on Kai's skin, kissing over each of them as if he could turn them into his.

Sometimes he liked it when Kai came to him with lips already red and swollen. Kai would drop to his knees again for him, taking Sehun into his mouth in one fluid gesture, lips pulling tight around his cock as he sucked. Sehun liked it, because he could fuck Kai's mouth as much as he wanted to without worrying about being questioned.

Sometimes he'd like to think Seunghwan would never be able to make Kai completely surrender like this, his body burning hot and pliant and desperately arching up to Sehun's touch, eyelids fluttering in dizzying pleasure. No play, no pretense, just Sehun's hands stroking up his thighs and nudging into the cleft of his buttocks, while his mouth pressed soft reverent kisses against every inch of skin he could reach. He'd like to think Seunghwan was never like this, fucking into Kai sweet and hot, drawing out soundless gasps and helpless shivers. There was no need for markings and pristine bruises, Kai was still falling apart in his arms, surging up to kiss him mid-fuck, legs wrapped tight around his stuttering hips.

It was easy to recognize how Kai had slowly been shedding off 'Kai' when he was with him. Jongin was a little calmer, a little more reserved and withdrawn than the sensual being dressed in pristine white. Jongin smiled the way Sehun remembered he had, over a decade ago.

"I really didn't recognized you at first." Kai's finger traced the muscles on Sehun's shoulders.

"That's heartwarming to know." He hummed, letting Kai map out his body with his fingers and mouth.

"No longer some scrawny teenage kid whining at me about mean teachers." Kai ruffled his hair. Sehun grabbed his wrist playfully, pinning it down, until his eyes suddenly caught sight of a faint bruise on the other's arm. He released Kai's wrist. The other man followed his gaze and sighed when he saw what Sehun was looking at.

"I know what you think, but he doesn't hurt me, Sehun. Not if I don't want it anyway."

It was hard not to wince. "Why."

"Letting Seunghwan fuck me is the easy part. It's falling in love that's a challenge." Kai smiled down at him, pulling Sehun's hand back to his body, letting Sehun stroke over the smooth skin of his bare stomach. His fingers stopped at a rough patch. A scar. Round and small, just the right size for a bullet. Kai's stomach tensed under his fingers, but he didn't pull away, and flash-

Pain was just a form of information. The line played over and over in his head, running like tiny electric shocks through his body, from the pain receptors to the spinal cord to the brain. This was just his sensory nerves sending information to the brain, identifying and processing and cataloguing the information, cross-checking with the existing database. He had never felt this before, but the information his brain sent back in response to the pain told him he was going to die.

Kai blinked slowly. His shoulders were twitching. The ground was hard and rough underneath his body, the cold seeping through his clothes through his skin to the very core of his bones. The only warm part of him was his hand, but even that was turning cold. Blood didn't stay warm for very long once it left the body. Pressing his hand against the gushing wound in his stomach was more of a reflex than anything. The pool of blood underneath his body had soaked up to his elbow. His heartbeat was loud and erratic in in his chest, a stark contrast to the dead silence of the darkness around him.

He blinked again. There was something hard and heavy touching his cheek. The barrel of a gun. The cold metal dragged up and down his cheekbone slowly, nuzzling him like the most intimate caress. His own breathing was too loud for him to hear the person above him, but then the gun moved down to his shoulders and shoved him over. He let out a breathless cry as his back hit the ground, the jarring movement triggered another fresh flow of warm sticky blood through his fingers. His head was swimming, his vision blotchy with dark spots, but the eyes looking down at him were bright and unmistakeable even in the hazy lighting. He had once held a sense of disgust towards them - eyes so bright, so cold, so empty of any emotion, juxtaposed against an unbelievably kind smile. The effect was jarring, and he hated it. Yet right then he knew it wasn't disgust he felt anymore. It was fear.

The older man was smiling down at him, cheekbones rising up high, smile lines deep around his eyes. He slowly crouched down next to his head, and Kai could see from the corner of his eyes the way the man inched away from the pool of his blood, careful not to ruin his expensive bespoke suit and his shiny Italian leather shoes, both picked up from a small boutique somewhere in the heart of Milan. The man was tracing a semi down his cheeks, but he had always told him he wasn't a killer. Except when the nose of the pistol slowly dragged down to the edge of his mouth, the metal rough and cold against his lips.

"Open up."

The man was still smiling, his voice soft and gentle as if he was talking to a small child. The barrel pushed its way into his mouth, and soon he was swallowing hot around cold metal. His full lips were stretched tight around the man's favourite revolver, all shiny silver and sleek graceful lines, and it was hard not to flick his tongue up. The gun slid in deeper, almost choking him. Death tasted heavy and metallic on his tongue.

Except he didn't want to die, not really. His blood-soaked hand reached up, shaky but determined in its aim, clutching around the man's wrist. His grip was weak and slippery, smearing red all over the crisp white cuff of the man's shirt. It felt like he was staring death in the face. The gentle smile was still there, the eyes still ice cold and too bright. He didn't want to die.

The cock of the hammer was deafeningly loud in the dark.

Sehun gasped, jerking his hand back.

"My cover really was compromised, you know? It was a stroke of luck that he let me live."

It wasn't luck. Sehun had felt it - Kai had pushed into Seunghwan's mind. So subtle, so simple, but it worked. A budding feeling of adoration and love.

"Do you feel like you owe him then?"

Kai was smiling at him, just a small quirk of the lips. "Despite what you think, Kim Seunghwan isn't some sort of cruel monster. He's just a businessman, and a damn good one. It's just that he trades in arms and death."

-

In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before Kim Seunghwan caught on.

When he called Sehun into the main study, Kai was already sitting off to the side, staring at the older man with a scowl. Seunghwan barely acknowledged Sehun's presence with a nod, and Sehun shuffled to the side, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. He tried to catch Kai's eyes, but the other man was resolutely not looking at him. When Sehun's eyes flickered down, that's when he saw it. Large, dark rings of fresh bruise lining Kai's wrists, peeking out from under the long sleeves of his shirt. He felt a numb coldness wash over him. There was something stiff in the way Kai was holding himself. He couldn't see any other marks, not on Kai's face anyway, but who knew what was hidden beneath the pristine white of the fabric.

Kai had always said Seunghwan would not hurt him, but right at that moment, Sehun wanted to hurt someone very, very badly. He was already taking a step forwards when the door suddenly opened again. His steps faltered.

It wasn't until another man walked into the room that Seunghwan really looked up, smiling. It was a short, skinny man whom Sehun had seen around the place. He took care of Club EXO when Kai was not around. Sehun had never paid him much attention, although he'd noticed that Kai had always been a little cold and dismissive towards him the few times they had met. Minjae, he remembered the man's name was.

"You called, boss?" The man was grinning at Seunghwan, a sort of nervous, eager grin.

"Yeah. How are things in town?"

"Uh, we've just finished cleaning up. The police has been wringing everyone, but yeah... uh. We're- we're okay, boss." The man nodded, glancing towards Kai when Seunghwan was not looking.

"Good, good." Seunghwan nodded, turning over slightly. Sehun could see him fiddling with a wooden box. The smile lines deepened around Seunghwan's eyes, and suddenly Sehun knew what was going to happen. He could feel it so clearly in the thickened air, but there was nothing he could do. Sehun stood rooted on his spot as Seunghwan calmly turned around and fired a shot right into Minjae's face. The man's head snapped back, blood spraying, and the body dropped to the floor with a resounding thud. Seunghwan had stunningly accurate aim.

"What the fuck." Kai jumped up, taking several steps back from the bloody mess of brain and bone fragments on the floor. His hand gripped the back of the chair tightly, face twisted with shock and disgust. "What the fuck was that for?" His voice rose, hysterical, and Sehun had the vague thought that Kai had no reason being that disturbed over a dead body after all he'd seen Kai was capable of.

Seunghwan looked down at the silver revolver in his hand, shrugging lightly. "That explosion at Club EXO, there was an insider rat." Sehun watched him place it reverently back into the beautiful carved wooden box. Seunghwan walked over to where Kai was standing, carefully side-stepping the bloody mess on the floor, and his arm shot out, hand grabbing Kai's jaws.

"You always need to be careful about whom to trust around here." Seunghwan suddenly turned to face him, and Sehun involuntarily took a step back. "You never know when someone's gonna turn and shoot you in the guts. Always gotta look out for yourself, alright?" He was smiling, sharp eyes disturbingly bright, and a chill ran down Sehun's spine. Kai's eyes were wide and panicked. It looked awfully genuine.

"I had a talk with Kris Wu yesterday. It was... interesting." Seunghwan was saying now, eyes drifting back and forth between the two of them lazily. "We sorted a couple of things out. That's what we do, we're smart businesspeople with reasons and logic. He apologized for the recent destruction of my property, of course. And the little BMW, your favourite."

And so Minjae had been the peace offering, Sehun realized.

"He steadfastly refused that he had anything to do with that kid who wanted to slice you up that one time, but oh well, a man's gotta play his cards close, I suppose. I'll let him slide for that one." Seunghwan shrugged, rueful smile on his lips. "Well, you said you wanted to go into the city today, right? I won't hold you up anymore, just wanted to tell you the good news. Sehun is already here, you can leave now." Seunghwan patted his cheek before letting him go. Kai stumbled back, racing past Sehun out of the room without a word.

They spent the entire drive into the city in silence. It had been a warning.

-

"How's the job going?" Jongdae was thrumming his fingers on the table, the sound of his ring hitting the wooden top loud and grating in the deserted coffee shop. It was just a courtesy. They all knew the op was wrapping up soon, Seunghwan about to close the final deal with his Chinese business partner before getting out of the country. They would hit just right after the final meet-up. All they needed now was a location and a time.

"Going. Everyone in that house is still as tightly wound as a Swiss watch spring."

Jongdae snorted, then suddenly turned serious. "You know, about what you asked me the other week... I think it's time you asked Kyungsoo about this."

Sehun frowned. "Except I can't because he's been gone all week, back to the Seoul headquarter for something urgent, I've heard. And what makes you think he'll tell me anything?"

"I think you just need to ask the right questions, Sehun." Jongdae was staring at him now, eyes sharp and intense. "I dug around a bit more after I met you last time." It was no surprise, Jongdae was a curious person. "There is... a second profile linked to the Kim Seunghwan op six years ago. I couldn't find it the first time because I didn't even know what I was looking at. No name. But I tried a few tricks... and got the name of that file. Do Kyungsoo. I don't know what his role was, but he was definitely personally involved in that shitshow."

Sehun stilled. He had suspected that Kyungsoo would know who Kai was, but the man had never made any indication of recognizing or acknowledging Kai in all their previous briefings.

"Of course, his file is also off the main database, but I've been... sort of asking around..."

"And?"

Jongdae sighed, leaning forward. "There are myths and secrets inside the NSS, too. There's something... okay, this is something not a lot of people know of, and those who do all eventually dismiss it as a myth, but wasn't NSS' entire existence a myth in you guys' eyes until six years ago? There's something similar in NSS... a rumour about a top secret fraction, technically still under NSS but operating as a completely separate identity. Some call it Section E12, some call it The E Project."

"What exactly does it do?"

"No one knows. All we have is speculations."

"So you're saying those with their profiles off the main database belong to this... project?"

"If the descriptions fit." Jongdae ran a hand through his hair. He leaned back, then suddenly leaned forward again. "I don't know if I should tell you this, but I think you deserve to know one last thing." Jongdae looked worried, but the look in his eyes let Sehun know he didn't want to be pulled into this anymore. Jongdae had done him a huge favour, more than Sehun could ever ask for, but it was time for him to get out of the picture. "Your profile has just been moved off the NSS database and behind the encrypted walls of that mysterious outside server, Sehun. I can no longer access it."

Sehun sat very still in his seat.

-

"Seunghwan is leaving Busan next Tuesday after his final deal in South Korea. He is getting out of the country, and he is not going to come back." Kai told him, voice quiet and eyes fixed on the scenery flying past the car window. "You will drive me to our meeting point at Busan's North Port where I'll meet up with him."

"Endgame." Sehun's hands tightened on the steering wheel.

"Good luck." Kai murmured.

Sehun didn't know what the other man really meant until he was starring down the barrel of Kim Seunghwan's silver revolver, just steps away from the mansion's door five days later. On the older man's hand was the tracker Sehun had planted on their car just the day before. Sehun sucked in a sharp breath, going still. The SWAT team were waiting for them at the port.

"Good work, agent Lee Sehun, whether that's even your real name." Seunghwan was smiling at him, flanked by several of his bodyguards. Sehun had never felt colder, seeing the man's bright sharp gaze directed straight at him. "But the play's over. Well, I bet it was good for you while it lasted. You must have thought you struck gold by sleeping with Kai, didn't you?" The smile sharpened, and Sehun froze. He hadn't seen Kai all day.

"Where is he?"

Seunghwan tilted his head. "Are you worried about him? That's nice, but you really shouldn't. He'll be out in a minute. Meanwhile, we could have a little chat. I wonder what it is about you that made him agree to fuck you. After all, he hates your kind the most. But I guess revenge goes a long way."

Whatever retort Sehun had died on his lips. "...What?"

"Oh, didn't you know? Did they leave out that nice touching story in your briefing? How your people shot and left him bleeding to death six years ago. So cruel, what would the public think?" Seunghwan was grinning now, shaking his head.

Sehun stood rooted to his spot, his head spinning with the words. Was Seunghwan saying it had been NSS who had taken Kai down? No, Seunghwan must have been lying to him to mess with his head... but there was no reason for Seunghwan to lie, was there? Bits and pieces of what he knew flashed through his head, all the rumours, all the stories everyone had told him. Kyungsoo telling him the undercover agent had been murdered. Joonmyun telling him the agent had turned rogue and started working for Seunghwan. NSS' puzzling cover-up of Kai's identity. There was suddenly a cold feeling of doubt creeping in the back of his head.

"When I found him, it was a miracle that he was still alive, lying there in the pool of his own blood. So I thought to myself, that kid, he's a fighter. And then I looked into his eyes, and I thought- oh, here he is." Seunghwan turned, and Sehun could see Kai coming out from inside the house, his strides quick and certain. He was dressed in a white button-up and dress pants, the soft fabric perfectly pressed. His lips were pressed into a tight line, a slight frown on his face, and Sehun almost missed the gun in his hands. All his shields were up, a complete icy blankness to Sehun's senses.

He saw Kai raise the gun in slow motion, his dark eyes staring straight into Sehun's, and-

He fired his shot, two steps away from Seunghwan.

Sehun stumbled back slighly. He slowly looked down, stunned. He saw the blood seeping out first, soaking the front of his shirt dark red, before he registered the blinding pain in his abdomen. His legs gave out involuntarily, and Sehun fell to his knees, hitting the floor with a soundless gasp. His hand came up to gingerly touch his shirt, and it came away sticky with warm blood. A soft exhale sent a fresh wave of pain through his body.

When he looked up, Seunghwan was pulling the younger man in for a quick peck on the lips. "Make it quick, we have to go soon."

Kai pulled away, and walked over to where Sehun was. Pristine white pants came into his vision, and when Sehun looked up, it was into the pitch black barrel of a gun. Kai was staring down at him, eyes cold and hard.

"Endgame, Sehun. I'm sorry it has come to this, but you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Kai's voice was soft and calm. Sehun almost couldn't hear the words over the sounds of his own panting.

"Why?" It was all he could gasp out.

"Six years ago, this was how you people shot me down. They left me there, bleeding to death on the ground." Kai moved closer to him, his free hand coming up to brush over his own abdomen.

Sehun remembered it, the image of Kai mouthing soundless sobs of pain into the cold floor, blood flowing hot from his stomach. The image Kai had shown him with his scar. Kai had been waiting for something, pressing hard into his own wound every five minutes to keep himself conscious, pain shooting through his body in sharp waves. The shockwave of pain he remembered layered over his own pain now.

"Karma's a bitch, isn't it? Now you will know how I felt like, bleeding out on the floor, waiting for my death." The gun traced his cheekbones, metal cold against his skin. He was shaking with shock and pain. "Except no one will come to save your life this time around, agent Sehun." Kai's lips were twisted up in an ugly imitation of a smile, and the barrel of the gun came down hard on his head.

Pain exploded behind his eyes, and he felt his body crash to the floor. The last blurry vision he saw was of Kai tugging on Seunghwan's arm, saying "We have to go."

And then the world went black.

-

When his head finally swam back to consciousness, he felt the loud buzzing cries first before opening his eyes to see the endless white of the walls. A hospital. Sehun winced, slamming down his shields, blocking out the constant buzz of pain and misery in the building. He had always hated coming here. His body felt weak and oddly numb.

The surge of memories came with a surge of confused panic and the excruciating pain of betrayal. Sehun gasped, feeling his head spin, the image of Kai's twisted smile behind the barrel of the gun flashing in his vision. He couldn't move, the drugs pumping in his bloodstream weighing him down.

His first visitor was Do Kyungsoo. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to be surprised. It was the first time he'd seen Kyungsoo since all the way before Jongdae's revelation. It seemed like ages ago, and Kyungsoo also looked like he had aged years over the weeks, his face haggard and eyes red with exhaustion.

"How...? Kai shot me." He rasped out, feeling the sudden burn of bitterness.

"He did. He had to. If he hadn't, Kim Seunghwan would have killed you." Kyungsoo sighed, settling himself down onto the chair next to the bed.

"What?" Sehun stilled.

"He sent us an emergency signal after leaving you there. Seunghwan and he left the house and the city shortly after."

Thoughts were a jumbled mess inside Sehun's head. "He's still working for you?"

Kyungsoo simply nodded.

A startling sense of relief washed over him, but there was still something niggling at the back of his mind. "But he said... Seunghwan said six years ago... it was NSS who shot down Kai... that was why... this was going to be his revenge. He told me." The words Kai had told him had felt terribly genuine. He remembered that look in his eyes. He remembered. Sudden fear clamped up in him, and Sehun's vision was blurring. It was the drugs, he thought. The drugs was clouding his mind. He couldn't seem to grasp onto a single thought. "Is that true? Weren't you there? Six years ago? I saw- I knew your name... on the database. You had to know... you had to know who Kai was."

There was a short silence, and then Kyungsoo started talking, voice calm and soft. "It's true. Six years ago, it was NSS who shot down special agent Kim Jongin. I was the one who did it."

Sehun blinked up at him. Time seemed to slow down as the room darkened. Something lurched in his stomach.

"I was his partner, six years ago. It was a two-man op. Not many people knew that. We had been undercover for one year when there was a screw-up inside NSS, and our covers were compromised. Or rather, my cover was compromised. We knew sooner or later Seunghwan would catch on, and he would have both of us killed. Jongin refused to pull out, saying he wasn't willing to let it all go to waste, all our efforts in the past thirteen months turned to dust. In a panic, we made up a plan. I would pull out, and he would stay. Somehow Seunghwan had taken a liking to Jongin, and we wanted to play that angle. But in order for him to gain Seunghwan's trust, I would have to kill Jongin. Everything that traced back to our activities in the previous year would be placed on me, who would then disappear, while Jongin acted as the innocent party who was used by me and then murdered in cold blood. We knew if we didn't go to that extreme, Seunghwan would never trust him enough."

"It was you who shot him." Flash to the bullet scar on Kai's stomach. Flash to the image of Kai bleeding out on the cold dirty floor as he waited for Seunghwan. Or waiting for his death.

"It was a gamble. We didn't know whether Seunghwan would decide to save him or not. Jongin insisted it would work."

Falling in love would be the challenge, Kai had said.

"Why didn't you tell me? Why was I brought in?"

"Six years later, it was time to close the net. The truth is... we didn't know if Jongin was indeed still working for us, or if he had really gone rogue. There was extremely limited contact between him and us in the last six years. I couldn't stay in contact with him anymore, but his handler said he had suspicions. There were arguments within the higher-ups. I've been flying back and forth between Seoul and Busan for this... You were brought in because the higher-ups wanted a safety catch in case Jongin had really turned. I never told you that because... I trust him."

"Why? How could you know?"

Kyungsoo sighed. "I'm a receptive empath just like you, Sehun." He'd known. He'd known after that first time Kyungsoo had touched him. "Jongin and I... We knew each other for a long time, having come into the agency at the same time. You can sense him, Sehun. Do you think he really has turned?"

"...No." The truth was he didn't. Not even when Kai had shot him, eyes dark and empty over the barrel of the gun. "Where are they now?"

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that." Kyungsoo hadn't said it, but Sehun already knew the answer. He closed his eyes, pushing down the feeling of desperate disappointment in his chest. Kyungsoo was already standing up. "You have been pulled off the case, agent Oh Sehun. You will return to NIS after this. We thank you for your service, and..." Kyungsoo leaned down, hand warm over Sehun's shoulder. "Thank you." He murmured quietly, and Sehun knew it was not his 'service' Kyungsoo had meant.

Sehun clenched his eyes shut, feeling the distant throb of pain deep in his abdomen.

-

Seoul was still exactly the same as he had left it. The city was still humming under his feet. His apartment was dry with dust. Desk-work for the next couple of months while he recovered, but Sehun couldn't even bring himself to feel frustrated. Joonmyun eyed him with concern, but didn't hover. Sehun was grateful for it. The world lulled him back to an old routine. Busan seemed half a world away. Some kind of half-hearted summer fling. Off-handed tale of romance and adventure to tell at the barbecue table, if he left out that part about dead bodies and the blood gushing out of his stomach.

Except who was he kidding, really? Kai had burned a spot into the insides of his head, leaving behind a wound that was just barely beginning to scab over. His subconscious put their final scene together on repeat in his dreams, the image of the cold barrel of Kai's gun tracing his cheekbones playing over and over in his head. Sometimes Kai blew his head off with a second bullet. Sometimes a blade shot out from inside his sleeve, slitting Sehun's throat in one graceful arch. He always woke up with his lower lip bleeding, the taste of metal almost too familiar on his tongue.

It was probably too much to hope that summer fling would never come back to the city to haunt him.

He saw Kim Jongin again in a late autumn afternoon, just down the street a block away from his apartment on his way to the grocery store. Sehun thought he was hallucinating at first, walking past that familiar face in a daze, until a hand grabbed his arm and whirled him back.

"Despite your poker face, I know you recognized me." Kai smiled at him, looking hesitant and awfully familiar, yet there was something oddly jarring. He had been waiting for Sehun. The young man was dressed in a simple navy blue jacket, t-shirt, and tight dark jeans. Hair soft and brushed carelessly over his forehead. He spoke with a clear Seoulite accent, voice deep and smooth. This was not Kai of the sun-soaked Busan summer. This was Kim Jongin, the lost child of Seoul.

"It's over," Jongin said when he saw the look on Sehun's face. "It's been over for two months, but I've been busy. Sorry I couldn't visit you sooner." Jongin smiled at him as if they were just old friends catching up after months of absence. As if he hadn't shot down Sehun the last time they'd seen each other. "I'm glad you seem better." Jongin's eyes darted down his form. "Let's find a café and catch up."

Sehun let himself be tugged along, too stunned to protest. He had nearly managed to shove Kai and Kim Seunghwan into the back of his mind, painting it as just some faraway forgotten tale, left behind on the beaches of Busan on the other side of the country. And yet, Kim Jongin was back.

They found a small café just up the street, glass walls and wooden tables. They were nestled in a corner of the shop, Jongin sipping on his drink while Sehun chewed on the head of his straw.

"Is he dead?" Both of them knew all too well whom they were talking about.

"No," Jongin shook his head, a light smile playing on his lips, "he's been brought in. The op was successful. I'm sitting here with you, aren't I?"

What a silly question that had been, Sehun thought. He struggled to form questions from the jumbled mess inside his head. "Why was I pulled out?" He had spent the first month angry at Kyungsoo, Kai, NSS, and pretty much the whole world. Then the pain just cooled into a sort of bitter numbness.

"Because I made a mistake." Jongin's eyes were hot on his skin, and Sehun remembered the slide of hot flesh and teeth biting down on swollen lips. He remembered Jongin's thighs splayed open on the sides of his hips, squeezing tight and trembling with pleasure. "The op had been going for too long, and that was no excuse, but I made a mistake. I was getting complacent, and Seunghwan was too smart not to catch on." He remembered how lonely and isolated Kai had looked, the way the smirk had never quite reached his eyes when there had been no one looking. Sehun had been his first and only anchor of his real self in those seven year of being Kai.

"There could have been gentler way of doing it." It wasn't quite what he wanted to say, but he'd been haunted for months by the image of Kai's cold, dark eyes staring down at him as he pulled the trigger. The pain still felt real, as well as that bitter sense of betrayal.

"I'm sorry," Jongin's eyes softened, his eyelids fluttering down, "Things were moving too fast, and I knew I had to get you out of the way before Seunghwan killed you. If he had been the one who shot you, I would be talking to a grave right now."

Jongin wasn't saying it, but Sehun understood what he meant. The mission always came first, even at the risk of your colleague's death. That was how NSS had always managed to be so ruthlessly efficient. Jongin would have killed him if he'd deemed it necessary, the same way Kyungsoo had in that very first Seunghwan op six years ago. They were pawns, calculated for the best possible move, and sometimes there had to be sacrifices.

"Was it hard, bringing him in?" Sehun still remembered the way Kai had always subtly leaned into Seunghwan's touch, his eyes softening with adoration whenever the man pulled him close. Even now, it brought an uncomfortable clench in his stomach. Jongin was quiet for a moment, sloshing around his iced latter with the straw.

"On some level... Kai really was in love with Kim Seunghwan, you know? It wouldn't have worked if that emotion hadn't been real. I'm a projective, but that only means I can make people feel what I feel. For seven years, I was Kai." Until Sehun came along, and the cracks started showing.

"In that last moment before the bust, when he pulled me in for the last time and I saw the look in his eyes reflected back at me... I knew he was in love with Kai, too. That was how Seunghwan fell. He trusted me, and the trap was laid. It was a slow burn, but it worked. It was the perfect plan." Jongin let out a shaky breath. "But I am not him anymore. Kai is dead and gone now." Jongin's eyes flickered up, and Sehun saw it, the subtle difference. There was no trace of the sensuous smirk on Jongin's lips, no lazy cocksure strides, no slicked back glamour. Even when they'd been fucking behind Seunghwan's back after Sehun had come to know Kai's real identity, there had always been something guarded and half-hearted in the man's manners, as if he couldn't shake Kai off him. But right then, there was no trace left of the billion-won trophy lover. Jongin looked normal... and tired.

They were both quiet for a while, Sehun mulling over Jongin's words. Seoul in a late autumn afternoon was golden with the sunshine, the street outside the café bustling with couples and groups of teenagers. Somehow Seoul felt like worlds away from Busan.

"Why are you really here, Jongin?" The name sounded foreign on his tongue. "You can't tell me it's just catching up between old friends."

Jongin's hand inched closer to his on the table, fingers not quite touching, but so close he could feel the warmth.

"I'm extending an offer of employment."

Something in Sehun's stomach plummeted, even though he should have been expecting it.

"Did Kyungsoo ask you to do this?"

"You might already know this, but your esper rating is probably off the charts, Sehun. Even back in highschool I knew you were an exceptionally strong empath. That was what pulled us together."

"This is not a job offer from the NSS, is it?" Sehun looked into Jongin's eyes, and he knew the answer. "You and Kyungsoo. You never really worked for NSS, did you? I wasn't working for NSS either. You pulled me into it without me knowing the real truth. The E Project. Section E12." The myth within the myth of NSS. Now Sehun finally knew what it really was. It was surprisingly easy to put together the puzzle pieces once he knew what the pieces were. "A group of black ops agents with abnormally high esper rating. Projective and receptive empaths. That's why it's so secretive, because the power to rip into the mind of other people, knowing their heads inside out and influencing what they think? That's pretty hard for the public to swallow. It's down-right terrifying."

It made sense now. That mission had been a field test. Sehun wasn't quite sure he wanted to know how well he'd done.

Jongin's lips quirked into a small smile. "I know people might think we are all monsters, but we are not, you know? We struggle just like other human beings. We might have more secrets buried and skeletons in the closet, but we try our best for what we believe is the greater good, Sehun. There always has to be someone getting their hands dirty to get things done."

"You are asking me to join an agency that didn't even hesitate about shooting you in the guts and leaving your life in the hands of a dangerous criminal. After seven years of getting stuck in a life that didn't belong to your own." He didn't want to ask Jongin if sleeping with Seunghwan was part of that plan. "After you shot me in the guts to keep your identity safe in a mission."

"Not every mission is so dire, Sehun." Jongin flinched, but his voice was still soft and calm. "We normally do smaller ops. The first one you walked into was just an extreme. And it isn't all that bad. We travel all over the world, we can be whoever we want to be. I chose and built Kai, you know? There's the thrill, the sense of satisfaction when you do something that contributes to everyone's safe existence in this country. You might not be acknowledged by the general public, but we were not born with all this... power just to sit around at a desk job, you know? I enjoy what I do." Jongin paused. "Maybe not so much when Kyungsoo shot me in the guts. Or when some paranoid psycho in management sicced an assassin on me just because they got it into their heads that I was a loose canon, of course."

"What?"

"Remember the blond Chinese kid that one time, with the knives?" Jongin chuckled, shaking his head. "One of the Project's favourite free-lance contractors, it turns out. Kyungsoo was pissed when he heard about it."

"You know this isn't exactly encouraging me to think this is a wise career path, right?"

"We do what we have to do, it's nothing personal. As long as you don't screw up, you live another day. For what it's worth, that asshole director has been taken off the Project's board." Jongin shrugged. He suddenly leaned forward, eyes bright and intense. "You have so much potential you haven't realized yet, Sehun. We are capable of so many things outside of this world's imagination. You've spent your whole life suppressing who you really are, scared of what people would think of you if they knew the truth. We're not monsters, Sehun, we're so much more than this. This is your chance, Sehun. You could be something so much greater. No more hiding."

Sehun could feel it, the buzz of the crowd inside his head. "There is no moral in what you do."

Jongin's hand stilled around his drink. "We might not follow society's code of morality, but it's necessary, Sehun. We are doing good work out there. I won't force you in this. You have a choice to refuse, and The E Project will be gone from your life forever. No contact, no trace."

The warmth of Jongin's fingers next to his on the table was all too familiar. Flash to the cold haunted look in Kai's eyes as he stared down the barrel of a gun. Flash to the heady heat of their lips brushing together, bodies pressing flush against one another in the club. Flash to the blinding pain and the hot sticky blood running between his fingers. Flash to Jongin's bright laughter all the way back in highschool on their rooftop, Jongin's fingers hot on his cheeks. Flash to Sehun's mother hissing at him, 'There is something wrong in your head.'

"So what will your choice be, Oh Sehun?"

Sehun looked up straight into Jongin's eyes, and they both knew the answer.

-

a/n: erm i apologize, this had very little to do with the original prompts omg?? and the entire fic is set to the beat of "no church in the wild".