An Azalea [AHS book 1]

- 14 -

"What's wrong?" Taehyung asked concerned.

"Hurry up. Someone placed a dump in here. I'm suffocating," he joked, albeit he knew it was unprofessional, but he was nervous and bored, and hearing Taehyung's laughter was soothing his nerves.

He had waited for about forty minutes when the artist finally gave the signal.

"They're prepping for the last song. It's your turn, Hope. Make daddy proud," the deep voice spoke to him.

"Tell Suga I want someone else as the eagle eye next time," he complained. Taehyung could be so weird sometimes.

"Shut up, or daddy will spank you," was all he got from the artist together with a chuckle.

Idiot.

Still, he climbed over the wall of the stall, exited the restrooms and placed an 'out of order' sign on the handle. Putting on the mask and gloves now could ruin the mission if anyone saw him, so he would put them on once he was faced with the hallway to the archive.

Ten seconds later he stood in front of his enemy.

"I'm going in, now," he whispered and heard the first soft tunes of music from the main hall while putting on the rest of his gear and pulling out the ear piece to replace it with his earphones.

Calmness seeped through his system when he rested his thumb on top of the play button of his old mp3-player, and he stepped on the line where stone tiles changed to anthracite PVC, marking the beginning of the hallway.

The first camera moved towards him and stopped. Play.

Like it was the easiest thing in the world his first step synchronized with the camera's turn of directions and he slid into the choreography.

Taehyung had drilled those moves into his mind so deep Hoseok was sure he would remember this until the day he died. The pauses, the spins, the bows and crouches, it pulled him into a state of floating. And before he knew it...

...he was in. Cold dry air and rows of slim packages welcomed him when he snapped out of his transcendent state and looked around. He was searching for KO-00347. Hastily, he walked down the first row, letting his gaze run over the numbers. The urge of placing the ear piece back into his ear was overwhelming, but the beat continued, and he had a time limit for his part of the job. Sweat began to run down his temples and the latex gloves felt disgusting, but this was the nature of missions. It was ugly while you are out on the field, but it was the best fucking feeling once you managed it. And Taehyung's jobs always were the best.

00347. There it was. Huge and unhandy. He had to experience that during the last training session with the artist. But now that he saw the slim package, he decided to use this to his advantage. The painting alone would be soft and bendable, an annoying characteristic, but with the case it was protected and hard. Plus, there were no squats on the way back. Perfect.

"Prepare," Suga's voice in the song said and he knew his time was almost over.

He pulled out the long package and ran back to the exit, stopping in front of the line and holding the work behind his back.

The hacker's voice began to count. "Four, three, two, one."

And he slid back into the meta-state of heightened senses and self-perception.

And without a struggle, he was back outside again but stopped in his tracks when he spotted two figures at the end of the corridor with the restrooms. One he recognized as Namjoon, the other was a smaller man in a suit; they were talking. Shielding his figure against possible glances of the unknown man by holding up the package, he made his way back to the restroom. Careful, he leaned the painting against the sink and climbed over the stall's wall again to switch into the pants and jacket.