KIM TAEHYUNG
Member of the Korean Secret Intelligence
Male
Status: Alive
Training: Ongoing
Ranking: None
Age 6
A child's blood curdling scream pierced through the walls of a top secret facility in rural Thailand. To normal people, such fearful, distressing cry would've been enough to haunt them endlessly for years to come.
But not to the woman standing before Kim Taehyung, a six year old Korean boy tied to a chair along with four other kids, all with their scaly crocodile feet bound on top of a wooden bench in front of them.
The young woman, dressed in a professional black suit, paraded amongst them. But their tearful, frightened eyes weren't on her. Instead, it was on the lit cigarette in between her fingers.
"Please, Lisa noona..." Taehyung begged as loud as he could, desperate to get his pleas across to the ears of the woman.
Clad in a sweat soaked shirt and dirty pants, everyday he would be forced to endure torture as part of training to be a secret agent. According to the adults in the KSI, the first thing to learn before even learning how to spell was knowing how to shut up and not leak any information about the KSI, even if it meant dying under the hands of an enemy.
"Tut tut tut." Lisa's expensive high heels stopped in front of him and the poor boy's face turned sickeningly pale. Kneeling down to his level, she raised a thin finger to lift his chin up. "Those aren't the right words, sweety."
The other kids flinched when a sizzling sound crackled in the thick air around them as a horrid smell of charred burning flesh permeated into their noses. Watching in horror, Lisa stubbed the lit cigarette into the bottom of Taehyung's foot, causing the wooden bench to rattle against the stony floor as he writhed in immense pain.
Only this time, not a single sound came from him as he curled his lips into his teeth, forcing himself to make no noise. He knew, that by making a scream, or even a little whimper, would earn the punishment of being burnt again and again until he learnt to stop showing any sort of emotion. Because to the KSI, showing emotion equals to weakness.
Hot fluid leaked from the leg of Taehyung's pants and trickled to the floor as he unintentionally peed himself. Biting on his lower lip hard till it bled, Taehyung fought his internal self to stifle the cry from escaping his petite body.
"Do you want to correct yourself now, Taetae?" She released the cigarette from his foot finally, rolling it in between her fingers as she looked to him expectantly. Her monstrous eyes bore no human emotion whatsoever; her face heartless and cruel.
Closing his eyes briefly to refuse any tears from escaping, he nodded.
"No emotion, no feelings, no fear. Complete the mission. I belong to the KSI." The words flowed out of his cracked lips freely as if he chanted them a thousand times before.
Lisa took a long look at him, checking for any tears. He prayed hard. So hard that he did well this time and not allow a single drop escape from the end of his eyes. And if it did, he hoped to god that it flowed into the sweat on his face.
Satisfied finally, Lisa nodded and his chest caved in underneath him as he drew out a breath, relieved that his turn was over.
Silence flowed around the room apart from the eerie tapping on a laptop. In anticipation, everyone watched Lisa make notes on Taehyung's profile, from the amount of times he released any sort of emotion to the amount of days he spent learning how to withstand torture.
A little nudge next to him stopped him from losing consciousness and he lifted his heavy head to the side where a tiny girl trembled beside him.
"Oppa," Hwasa whispered frighteningly with tears brimming at the end of her eyes. "I'm next, aren't I? But I can already feel water in my eyes."
Taehyung's heart broke at hearing his friend's words. He already knew what would happen to her if she didn't gather herself quickly enough.
"Don't be scared, Hwahwa," he soothed her heartbreakingly, wishing he could do more for her than only give her comforting words, "close your throat. Bite down hard on your tongue and squeeze your eyes really really tight. Think about bubble gum I gave you last night."
"B-but I don't think I can do th-"
"Yes you can. If I can, then so can you," He said to her encouragingly with a stronger voice, "no emotion, no feeling, no fear. Complete the mission. You belong to the KSI."
Age 8
Two years later, Taehyung became withdrawn, quiet and emotionless.
Normal people would've called it anti-social behaviour but to the adults controlling him in the KSI training, they called it improvement.
He finally mastered the ability to withstand torture. He was taught by his Lisa noona that that was a basic survival skill and he just prolonged his life a tiny bit longer by excelling at it.
"You will see a lot of fucked up shit later on in life, Taetae. And you will endure a lot of pain by bad evil people. But the most important thing is to never talk to them, never reveal any information about the KSI to them. You'd rather die than display any emotion or fear. We're your family. Family protect each other."
Those words stuck in his head. And as he swung his legs back and forth on top of an old chair, being forced to watch some random guy being beaten up by two KSI agents for the hundredth time, he found it fascinating that he didn't even wince away from the cries of pain or the nightmares of 'please don't kill me' anymore.
A hand squeezed his shoulder and he looked up to Lisa again who gave him a small smile. "He's one of the baddies, Taetae."
Taehyung looked back at the poor guy whose face resembled mince meat smashed together. His bleeding and damaged face had swollen so much that it swallowed both of his eyes.
"What did he do?" Taehyung asked Lisa in a monotone voice.
Lisa ruffled his hair, the ghost of a smile lingered on her lips. "He betrayed us."
"Oh." Was all that he could reply, watching the gruesome attack like he was watching a Disney film. "How so?"
"His name is Lim Jaebeom. He's our informant but he revealed a very very big secret to the new White Thorn Gang and two of our own agents were killed because of him."
Taehyung didn't respond to that. Instead, he silently observed and absorbed in the consequences of going against the KSI.
It was one of the traits that he picked up after being so long with the KSI since he was born. Watch, assess, analyse. It was far better than voicing unnecessary opinions, which he would've been told were wrong anyway by Lisa.
Lisa was always right to him. She was his mentor, she taught him how to survive, she gave him food, a blanket to cuddle at night and she told him he was different to normal kids.
That was enough to make him happy.
Lost in his thoughts, her face swam in front him and he snapped himself back to reality. Kneeling down to his level, she opened his palm tenderly and placed a heavy revolver in his tiny hands.
"Shall we start your training today, darling?" she smiled at him lovingly before it dropped to a chilling hard expression, "kill him. No one betrays the KSI."
Taehyung gulped, staring at the weapon in his innocent hands. The cold metallic pistol grip burned into his sweaty hands.
"Noona-"
Before he could even finish his sentence, a hard force threw him to the ground when her palm connected to the side of his face.
Her rings scratched the side of his jaw, but that wasn't her concern. Lisa shook her bony hand, standing over the minuscule Taehyung. She was angry; her Taehyung hesitated and that was not how she had taught him. "Are you forgetting something, Taetae? No emotion, no feelings, no fear. Complete the mission-"
"-I belong to the KSI." Taehyung finished in a little voice.
Using all of his strength, he raised the gun shakily and clicked the trigger just like how he had been taught so many times before.
A muffled whimper came from the battered man in front of him, making him freeze.
"P-please... please child, spare me." The begging was faint, but it was enough for eight year old Taehyung to never forget someone's final plea to him before their death.
"N-no one ever betrays the KSI." Taehyung said, ignoring the tug on his bursting heart. He closed his eyes tightly shut as a loud popping sound ended the man's whimpered cries.
An echoed silence circulated around the room. Opening his eyes finally, in front of him laid a dead corpse, the walls behind it splattered with brain and skull remains as gory red tainted the floor.
Next to Taehyung, Lisa tapped on her laptop again, filling in a new category to his profile.
'Kill count: 1'