Hoseok focus
Yesterday they had discussed the whole plan one last time and had rehearsed the choreography in the mission clothes, and now Hoseok sat on the floor of the transporters trunk that drove through the streets of Seoul towards his biggest pull so far and listened to Yoongi's beat to go through the choreography once more. Ten billion Won were waiting for them should they succeed. Even the thought of it made his head dizzy. Two billion Won for every one of them. This was madness.
"You okay?" Suga asked through the gap that connected the cockpit with the trunk. The hacker sat on the driver seat and next to him were Namjoon and Jungkook. The band in their band van. Taehyung sat across from Hoseok and grinned happily. The artist would monitor the mission this time, observing everything from the transporter and guiding them. Normally Suga was the voice in their ear pieces, but the hacker was their pianist today, and Hoseok wondered whether Taehyung could do the job or not. But he would have to trust the idiot who grinned over both ears.
"Yes, better than okay," Taehyung answered and showed the driver a thumbs-up.
Hoseok put the earphones back in and resumed his imaginary rehearsal. Taehyung had borrowed him a wide pair of dress pants and a matching suit jacket to hide the white mission uniform, that would allow him to melt into the walls, and in his pockets waited the grey ballet slippers, the white ski mask and the gloves. He would dump the suit in a restroom next to the archive, get in, get out with the painting, go back there to dress up again and then get out the painting like planned. Whoever had equipped the museum with cameras had been so arrogant not to scan the way between the archive entrance and the restrooms, probably because the restrooms were in the center of the building and therefor window-less. However, the two thieves had taken advantage of that with their plan.
"We're here," Suga's voice sounded from the cockpit and the engine stopped. "Put in the ear pieces. Tae, get ready."
Giving up his job as the puppeteer appeared to be difficult for the hacker, Hoseok though and chuckled. Old habits die hard.
Jungkook opened the trunk and pulled out the piano to hand it to Suga who already wore a slim backpack with his MacBook he would use for the beats (and for knocking off the Wi-Fi to immobilize the alarm system, if necessary), and then the youngest grabbed one of the heavy speakers and gestured Namjoon to take the other one while he carried the monitor in the other hand. They had been allowed to park on the museum's area to have a shorter way to the show, something that reduced the problem of their non-existent staff immensely.
"A band that has to carry their own equipment," Namjoon growled when he lifted up the heavy box.
"Make up some lie about coordination problems of the staff," Suga shut the money giver up, and the band walked off to their mission. Some steps behind, Hoseok followed, looking like he was just another guest who wanted to visit the vernissage.
While the other's put up the equipment, he pretended to be interested in the works and strolled around the area on his search for the right corridor. Once he found it, he entered the restroom and waited.
"Can you hear me Hope?" Taehyung's voice spoke into his ear. The question was unnecessary given they had done the voice check before entering the building, but apparently being the puppeteer needed some practice as well.
"Yeah," he answered into the echoing room and began to strip off the suit.
"Good. Wait for my signal."
Hoseok nodded though he knew the other could not see him and tried to get comfortable on the toilet lid. Only now it dawned on him that he had to stay here for the whole time of the performance, and he groaned frustrated.
"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.
"What the fuck's Namjoon doing? I could've been seen," he shouted when he had the ear piece back in.
"He stopped the event manager from visiting the archive to take a look at my fake Eungno, so take the backdoor," the deep voice of the artist said calmly.
"Understood," Hoseok replied before he opened the door of the restrooms and grabbed the 'out of order' sign to stow it in the inside pocket of the suit jacket. The two men were still talking, fortunately with the manager's back completely turned towards him now. Taehyung had probably instructed Namjoon to change their positions, so that he could leave unseen.
"Suga knocked out the Wi-Fi. Move," he heard Tae's instruction after some seconds and slipped out onto the hallway to vanish behind the next corner.
"Where do I have to go?" Hoseok asked quietly while he strode down the hallway he had turned into.
"I don't have the camera feed anymore, but there should be an emergency exit close to you. Follow the signs. I'll be waiting outside," where the last words he heard from Taehyung.
Moderate but determined and always looking out for the next green emergency exit sign, he made his way down the empty rooms and corridors. Fortunately, all the visitors were at the vernissage, so no-one could ask unwanted questions about the large package under his arm.
When he finally reached the door, he hesitated for a moment. But Taehyung would not guide him through a door with active alarm, would he? Breathing out to calm his nerves, Hoseok pressed down the handle and his whole body tensed in expectation of an alarm going off, but nothing happened. Nothing but the widely grinning face of Kim Taehyung popping up in front of him when he stepped outside.
"Get your ass out of here," was all he said with a grin before he handed the work to the artist and headed off into a different direction.
They had done it. They had robbed the MMCA. A nervous chuckle left his throat.
Back at the transporter, Hoseok waited for the rest of the crew.
"Where is my Porsche?" was the first thing he heard from who must be Jimin, so he came around the car to meet with the others.
"We had to improvise," Yoongi said, carrying the piano case.
"How the fuck did this happen, and what's blondie doing here?" Namjoon growled, looking anything but pleased.
"Jobs don't always go like planned, and Jimin can go wherever he wants to go," Yoongi shot back, just as tense as their employer, and opened the transporter trunk to shove in the piano with more force than necessary. Hoseok helped Jungkook to lift the speaker and the mixing panel inside.
"Isn't it a little suspicious that the big Eungno lover Ahn decides to visit the archive on a whim while Park fucking Jimin, the great donator, visits the party because he has nothing better to do?" the ebony-haired almost shouted, putting down the other speaker.
"Shut up!" Suga barked and turned around to the taller before Jimin could utter anything. Never in his whole time with the two thieves had Hoseok experienced an angry Suga. The black-haired might get pissed or annoyed, but never angry. "You'll get your painting. One more day won't kill you. No time limit, remember?" the black-haired spat.
The two men stared at each other as if they were about to jump each other's throats, but before one could snap, they were interrupted by someone from the museum.
"Excuse me, gentlemen, but we had a security problem and need to check your boxes. We're not suspecting anything, we just want to take a look to make sure," the muscular man, whose pose screamed security, said.
"Of course," the hacker replied, calmer than before, and pulled out the piano and the mixer case again.
"Thank you," the man said and checked on their luggage. "Could I also take a look at your car?"
The small black-haired gestured him to go ahead. Fortunately, they had removed everything suspicious yesterday apart from the laptop Taehyung had worked at, otherwise this would have caused some strange questions.
"Thank you, gentleman. Excuse my intrusion," the security man said and waved his goodbye.
Suga and Namjoon were still staring each other down, but they seemed to cool down.
"Tomorrow, at a place I send you by text," the hacker said and turned around to close the trunk after Jungkook had vanished inside with the last piece of equipment.
Then their leader climbed into the driver's seat and drove off, leaving Hoseok, Jimin and Namjoon behind.
"Hey man," Hoseok tried to becalm their employer a little, "They always know what they do. Trust those two."
"He's right. There's a reason they're the best," Jimin agreed with him.
Namjoon just nodded, looking after the transporter like he wished it would explode in the next second. Hoseok shrugged and turned away to leave.
He was so ready for his two billion Won.
>><<
A geeky calculation of mine because I love those:
The Korean alphabet has 44 letters, 21 vocals and 23 consonants. Considering that a syllable can either consist of one consonant and one vocal or two consonants and one vocal, there are 483 + 11,109 possible syllables. In total: 11,592. That means you have 134,374,464 possibilities to build a Korean forename, given that you don't want names like Gaga or Woowoo or Jeonjeon. (You get my point, right?) That leads to the conclusion that every of the 52 million Koreans could have a unique name. But there are still like 10 million Park Jimins...