Dedicated to:
unloyal_grasszen -lmaokpop
jaewaffle
~*~*~*~*~
The atmosphere had gone silent in the loge box as Mark continued to let his fingers brush against Yeri's back, while the girl stayed still on her seat, feeling a tingling sensation running through her nerves everytime his fingers moved.
It was nothing sensual yet it felt nice on Yeri's part. His cold fingertips clashed with her warmth that caused her to shiver. However, from Mark's perspective, it felt like he had forgotten what he was supposed to do. He had let himself get absorbed by the moment he was having with the girl.
It was peaceful at the moment. He wished it had always been like this.
"Minhyung?" Yeri breathed out, fluttering her eyes close. She admitted, she missed his gentle touch. It had been two years since he treated her this way, and she never realized she had longed for him for that long.
Mark unknowingly hummed to this, letting her continue.
Yeri felt his fingertips move up, causing her to breathe out. After this, she found herself speaking. "You still have a chance."
"A chance... for what?" He was still studying her back— how the burnt area ruined her once flawless skin. Her dress was backless so he could see all of it clearly.
"A chance to back out."
Hearing this made Mark snap from his daze as he lightly shook his head. "What?" He got too caught up in the moment that he almost forgot why he was here in the first place.
"I'm giving you one last chance to back out from this mission." He heard her say. "I don't want you to get killed."
"...one last chance to back out..."
This caused Mark to retract his hand as he returned to reality, ending their small peaceful moment. By the time his fingertips lost contact with her skin, he only got to realize what he had done.
What am I doing?
He even wondered why he let himself do that.
I can't let myself get distracted.
Yeri felt his touch leaving her, his coldness being taken away with it. This caused her eyes to shot open. "Minhyung?"
Mark was here for a reason. And that reason was to finish the case he had been working on since he was still in the agency. No more, no less.
"No." Was his short yet firm answer.
~*~*~*~*~
"That's him. That's Qian Kun."
Koeun felt a small gush of wind blowing the side of her face as Chenle zoomed past her to head towards the man. Her eyes widened at this sudden action. Shit!
"Chenle!" Koeun yelled his name before chasing after him. Her voice was too loud but she didn't bother if she was causing a scene.
These people could frown or throw glances in her way but she wouldn't care. All she needed to care about right now was Chenle's safety.
He was insane for storming towards their target like that, especially since they were unsure where his men were at. They might be scattered around the room, waiting for The Dragon's signal to attack.
As her chunky heels trod against the carpeted floor, she watched Chenle getting nearer and nearer to the man. Damn it, Chenle! She reached for her earpiece to call for the others' aid.
At this moment, Jeno had finished listening to the hotel guards' conversation and turned towards Xiaojun. "Xiaojun."
The latter just got finished talking to Renjun through the earpiece and acknowledged him. "What is it?"
"Something's wrong." Jeno told him. "I heard them talking about criminals on the loose." He jutted his chin towards the men in similar suits.
"What?" Xiaojun exclaimed, trying to minimize his voice, before following the direction Jeno pointed at. It took him two good seconds before he made eye contact with Jeno. "Do you think they're talking about The Dragon?"
"I highly doubt it." Jeno disagreed. "They claimed them as criminals. If they were to talk about that, it would mean as a group of people known for doing illegal things." Was his explanation. "And we know what group is infamous for that."
It wasn't that difficult for Xiaojun to understand what Jeno was saying, but when he did, he couldn't help but clench his jaw. "You've got to be kidding me."
Just as their conversation was about to end, they got interrupted by someone's voice through their earpieces. "Jeno, I need help."
It was from Koeun.
"Koeun?" Jeno frowned when he noticed how her breaths became heavy and her voice sounded in distress. "What happened?"
But before Koeun could speak, they got intervened by a slam of a lever switch somewhere in the room, followed by a sudden streak of light beaming towards the center of the room— the area where Koeun was on.
The disturbance caused everyone in the room to either gasp in surprise or avert their attention to the light, even to the boys.
"What was that?" Xiaojun blurted out as the two of them watched the light in the distance.
On the other hand, it caused Koeun to stop abruptly when the brightness almost blinded her. She lifted an arm up to cover her squinted eyes, but when she happened to see where it landed, she could only be frightened.
Chenle had also halted when he felt the light on him.
Koeun's mind was racing as she watched the scene unfold in front of her very eyes. What's happening? She was puzzled about why the lights had suddenly been set on him, but when the thought about The Dragon and his complicit entered her mind, she could only feel her heart pounding hard inside her chest.
No! Her eyes shook as she watched Chenle standing in confusion.
Looking up, Chenle had squinted his eyes towards the light, searching for the culprit behind it, when he heard Koeun yelling his name. "Chenle—"
"Not all of you know that the man behind this mask is a wolf hiding in sheep's clothing..."
~*~*~*~*~
"No." Mark responded.
This made Yeri turn her torso quickly to face him. "No?" She repeated in surprise.
"You heard me right." Mark's eyes had gone back to being serious as he tugged the hem of his red bellboy jacket twice. "I'm not backing out."
I'll never back out.
The look of surprise on Yeri's face had been wiped away and was replaced by a frown. She didn't like his answer. "Do you have a death wish?" She blurted out.
"If you think of it that way, yes. I do have a death wish."
This caused her to become more disappointed— too disappointed that she had to stand up. "Why won't you listen to me? Don't get yourself involved in this mess. This is clearly between the Elites and us."
"And this is also our fight." Mark emphasized. "You know the X-Force has been searching for everyone related to Jaehyun and his schemes."
"But this could get yourself killed!"
"If it's bound to happen, then let it be!" Mark argued, getting pissed. "I meant it when I said I'm devoted to what I do. Taeyong deserves to rot in jail like Jaehyun, and you know that better than I do."
~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile, inside the security room, Hendery had noticed the commotion in the theater room through the cameras, which made him knit his eyebrows together. "What's this?"
Renjun, who was beside him, had just finished talking to Xiaojun. He heard this and got curious, taking a peek at the monitors. When he saw the disturbed audience and the beaming spotlight, he got the same reaction.
What?
Without hesitating, he quickly reconnected with the whole group. "What's going on in there?"
Jeno and Koeun's units were still frozen out of shock on what was happening, making them unable to respond. However, the other units heard this and got rattled by his question.
"Is there something wrong?" Jisung blurted out as soon as he heard him. He and Yangyang had served as their lookout outside, also searching for anyone that would fit as The Dragon's men.
"What do you mean 'what's going on'?" Haechan asked after he and Lucas stopped walking in the hallway along with the luggage cart. They were almost done roaming around, and to their dismay, they still hadn't found anyone suspicious.
"Someone switched the spotlight on."
"Spotlight?" Hina repeated as she and Jaemin paused from walking.
"But we just left the room minutes ago." Added by Jaemin as the two of them gave each other a look. As far as they could tell, it had been merely thirteen minutes since they left to proceed on searching. And in that small amount of time, they didn't expect something would already happen.
"Xiaojun, what's happening in there?" Lucas decided to talk, getting agitated on the current situation. He waited for a few seconds for him to respond but he never did, so he called him again. "Xiaojun?"
"He's not answering?" Hina asked. Lucas' silence gave away his answer. "Why isn't he answering?"
"Should we come inside?" Yangyang suggested, already prepared to barge inside.
"Hold on. Something's happening right now in there." Hendery told the others as he watched the incident through the cameras.
Renjun, who seemed to have spotted something, narrowed his eyes to screen before he pushed his swivel chair closer to Hendery to take a clearer look at it.
Hendery must've noticed the same thing since he pointed it out— the person who was under the light. "Wait, that's—"
"Chenle..." The name escaped Renjun's lips, who grew horrified about the discovery.
~*~*~*~*~
Yeri could only grit her teeth. She tried to change his mind for the second time but it was still impossible to beat Mark's persistence.
"I can't believe you, Minhyung." She breathed out in disappointment as she folded her arms. She was getting tired of arguing. "I only want you to stay away but you won't listen to me. What should I do to persuade you?"
Mark clicked his tongue at this. "You can't do anything, Yerim. My mind is already fixed."
Yeri's eyes bore on his for a short moment. Mark was too hard-headed and she was getting sick of it. It made her wonder if he had other intentions of making an alliance with the Elites.
The Elites...
To Mark's surprise, she broke into a fit of laughter in the middle of their conversation. He was becoming confused about her badly-timed reaction.
Yeri, however, found herself calming down after the thought entered her mind. And when she was finally done, the grin of dislike remained on her face. "Don't tell me it's because of the girl again."
As soon as she said that, Mark's jaw clenched. He didn't need to guess who she was talking about. "Why are you even bringing Koeun up again? Don't change the subject."
"Koeun? So that's her name." But Yeri focused more on the agent's name instead of his response. "Is that her agent name or her real one?"
"You don't need to know."
"Of course, I do. I need to know how you acknowledge her in your life, Minhyung." Was her argument. "For all I know, you're treating her more than just a partner."
Mark shook his head at this, looking away. "You're being delusional."
"Delusional?" Yeri laughed at this, finding it hilarious. "I need assurance, Minhyung. I'm your girlfriend. And as far as I know, we never broke up."
Mark knew she had a point, but he also knew he couldn't let her win. As he was about to defend himself, Yeri had already beat him to it.
"And you can't make excuses about how you thought I was dead the whole time because we both know you still have feelings for me. Otherwise, you could've arrested me the moment I came here."
~*~*~*~*~
"What?" The rest of the unit members exclaimed upon hearing Renjun say Chenle's name.
Renjun was frozen at the moment so Hendery replied to the team on his behalf. "It's Chenle." He told them. "He's under the spotlight."
Everyone became baffled, worried and anxious about the news while Renjun had narrowed his eyes on the screen and gritted his teeth before he began barking orders. "I need all units within the building to head towards the theater room, fast!"
The rest was startled by his sudden outburst but figured why he was like that. "We're on it." Haechan responded before he and Lucas proceeded on heading towards the venue, pushing the luggage cart as fast as they could.
"Copy that." Without wasting any second, Hina and Jaemin turned to run back to the room they had come from.
Haechan and Lucas were on the run. Hina and Jaemin were on the run. The two units pushed their feet to move as fast as they could just so they could catch up and stop whatever was occurring inside the theater room.
As they did so, Haechan couldn't help but grit his teeth while Jaemin clenched his hands— the both of them were furious. Whoever was causing this scene, they shouldn't have done it on Chenle.
Not Chenle.
Back inside the room, Koeun's eyes remained shaking in horror as she watched the scene unfold in front of her very eyes.
"This man is the famous Mr. Zhong, known for being a well-respected philanthropist..."
Mr. Zhong? Koeun thought before realizing no one knew aside from their team that Chenle had taken his father's place for this party.
Still, he was Chenle's relative, which meant that whoever was exposing him had to be related to Taeyong.
On the other unit in the room, however, was getting worked up by the scene. Jeno could see what this was all about.
Damn it! "Xiaojun, cover Koeun's unit. I'll go search for the bastard who is doing this." He couldn't help but be furious about it.
Xiaojun gave him a stiff nod before the two had split up to run.
"The truth is it is only an act he had put up to hide his real schemes..."
"We need to run faster!" Haechan told Lucas in a loud voice as they ran along with the cart. He couldn't control himself from limiting his volume due to the tension he was feeling.
Lucas understood this and only nodded in acknowledgment. He, too, was worried about his teammates in that room, especially Koeun.
In Hina's unit, the girl could notice how Jaemin lost his arrogant self and was replaced by a mad-looking one. She could see the fury in his eyes that was affixed up ahead. It was the same ones she saw back when they were interrogating Jaehyun.
Jaemin could feel his heart pumping hard inside his chest. He never thought these people would choose this night to target Chenle.
Hang on, Chenle.
"Mr. Zhong has done private investigations on fellow elitists to gather information he can use to ruin their reputation..."
"That's not true!" Chenle, who was still standing in the middle of the light, yelled.
"Koeun!" The girl snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Xiaojun speak through her earpiece. "Take Chenle away and get out of there!"
Koeun blinked her eyes rapidly before completely getting back to reality. "G-Got it." And she continued running towards Chenle.
"You don't know what you're talking about!" The Chinese boy continued to yell before he felt someone grabbing his wrist and spun him. When he saw who it was, his eyes softened. "Koeun—"
"I'm getting you out of here." Koeun didn't let him say anything further and began dragging him away.
"...as expected from the man whose son is a member of the X-Force, Zhong Chenle..."
~*~*~*~*~
Mark clicked his tongue as he stared at Yeri in disbelief, although he knew she had a point. But that didn't mean he was fully agreeing to it.
"I see you're playing that game." Was the first thing he said after a short moment of silence. "If you want me to go with that, fine. I'll do it your way."
Yeri's eyebrows slowly turned furrowed, confused about what he was trying to say.
"If you can't trust me, then I might as well set aside what we have for now."
Yeri felt his eyes burning holes at hers, but instead of feeling intimidated, she reciprocated the feeling. She was mad at him for putting her on guilt trip to either protect himself or Koeun.
What did he see in her?
"Unless you stop being delusional and do the right thing, I won't see you as my girlfriend." His words were dripping with venom. "You're not the Yeri who seeks justice."
By this time, as the different units tried catching up with the scene in the theater room, they never thought they'd come across obstacles on their way. As soon as Renjun's unit left the security room, they found security guards on patrol by the end of the hallway. The men had already noticed them before they could flee.
"Shit." Was what escaped Renjun's lips.
Hina and Jaemin were close to reaching the venue when they had an abrupt stop. They happened to encounter a group of men in black that emerged out of an adjoining hallway. They would've ignored them if it wasn't for the dragon embroidery on their sleeves that raised suspicions.
Dragons, was Hina's thought as her eyes went wide.
Meanwhile, Jeno had his full attention in scanning the rattled crowd for the culprit. His head kept whipping, moving from left to right, as he ran through the tables and chairs.
"Where are you, you bastard..."
What he didn't know during his search, he would find someone else worth paying attention to.
In his peripheral vision, he saw a man who seemed to stand out from the crowd. He wasn't familiar to him yet Jeno couldn't tear his eyes away because of what he was trying to do— he had his arm extended as he aimed a gun towards someone in the room. And when Jeno followed it's direction, he quickly pulled his pistol out.
The man had Chenle and Koeun as a target.
"Koeun, take cover!" Jeno barked an order before raising his gun towards the man.
Yeri found herself scowling at Mark, feeling the anger burning inside her. "Fine, then." You gave me no choice.
Koeun heard Jeno's command and didn't bother asking why. She spotted a vacant table nearby and hurriedly dragged Chenle towards it.
"I won't go easy on you too." And with that, Yeri immediately stormed towards Mark as the sound of a gunshot rang in their ears.
~*~*~*~*~
I'm sorry if this update sucks. The change of scenes confused me though it was necessary.