Visiting their headquarters for the nth time doesn't confer her the supposed sense of direction as she results in following San around closely, in which he seems glad to be her unpaid guide. He doesn't seem too annoyed with it, even though she's particularly jumpy when she thought something was going to arise from the depths of the darkness of the maze. It isn't too dark until they can't see anything, but it doesn't seem like a place she would like to be if she were alone.

He's gladly pointing out the rooms one by one, in which some are only accessible using a retinal scan and fingerprint, similar to the one demonstrated at the main entrance. He never mentions anything about having her retina and fingerprint logged in, so she's guessing that she's still not allowed to come here without being accompanied, and not that she minds. She's not going to go and snoop around the areas she's not allowed in - she knows her limits.

The headquarters is not simply a place where they carry out their operations, but it boasts other facilities that include but not limited to a martial arts training studio, an electronics lab, a place to hang out, a gym with complete equipment and - what surprises her the most - a basement swimming pool, in which the floor would lower down and water is filled in when it's to be used. All 8 of them have their own rooms, where mostly according to him is where they keep their personal records of the missions they carried out.

"Kind of like a trophy room," he mentions in passing.

"So you keep mementos of your targets?"

He pauses, looks at the floor in wonder as he sucks in a sharp breath. "Some of us do; it somewhat makes us feel validated." He studies her face. "You think it's creepy, don't you?"

"It's not my place to judge," she replies simply, but it's only making him feel skittish as he runs up beside her and tries to keep up with her pace. She's navigating the maze based on her intuition since every path looks the same to her. As long as she doesn't run into a dead end, she'll keep walking. "My opinion of you doesn't matter. Hongjoong sounded the same as you when he asked whether I thought of you as the good guys or the bad guys."

"Yes it does," he refutes. "You're the first person from outside who knows about us - despite being left with no choice - and what you think of us is important. Since only we know what we do, you can't really blame me for being curious on how you feel about us."

"I'm not the only person from outside who knows about you. Emira and Akira Hwang know," she says, this time stopping to face him. He doesn't know why, but she looks and sounds slightly frustrated. For a second, his heart twists - as if he's scared when he looks at her expression. "No one from outside should know of your identities, but they do. I do."

"Emira and Akira, plus you were a different case. The two sisters have known Seonghwa even before he was taken away, but the moment we were released here he came looking for her. You must've seen how he is with her; he can't be separated from her and we couldn't stop him."

"All of you can't be in relationships," she counters, but her face changes as she realizes what she had said.

He looks shocked too, but as she tries to turn away he grabs her wrist and pulls her to face him again. "What do- no, how do you know? How do you know that we're not allowed to?"

She curses at herself for letting it slip out, scavenging through to find an answer that wouldn't raise any suspicions towards her again. In the split second she is reminded on why she prefers to be alone - she just couldn't keep her stupid mouth shut.

Her mind works fast as she spills, "Akira told me."

She sounded firm that he knows better than to question it, but he still searches her face for any contradiction to her statement. It's either she's good at acting, or she's really speaking the truth. He lets go of her wrist before apologizing. "Sorry, I was just taken aback when you seemed to know about it, when they are one of the rules set by them for us. I shouldn't have acted rashly."

"It's fine." She doesn't press on further, but when he remains in the same spot she steps back and nudges his shoulder gently. "Aren't you going to continue with the tour or have we covered everything?"

"Was it because of him?" he asks wistfully as he lifts up his head. "The reason why your room looks unoccupied."

His sudden question leaves her void of words, his tone so soft that she's feeling like she's being hugged even though he's currently a few steps away from her. The low light does little to illuminate his face and he uses it as a shield from being perused by her. The corridor they're at feels unending and for a silly moment she thinks that there are only the two of them underground, even when she knows Mingi and Yeosang are in front of their computers, directing those out on their missions.

"Was that what you meant when you doubted me?" she replies with another question. "Because my room looks unoccupied."

"We thought it was a trap," he answers truthfully. "Because you spent your whole life there but it looked undisturbed. We had the thought you were an agent for the Bifidensis that was sent out to us on purpose."

She gulps; so they had associated her with the Bifidensis. She knows how them doubting her will come by any moment, but he has his reasons to do so as the circumstances of her becoming one seem too many - provided by her scarce background information and nonchalance towards their jobs.

He's not entirely wrong though; she does have a link with the Bifidensis, only maybe not in the way they would think of.

"When both of you went to my flat, he came by, didn't he? That asshole." She grits her teeth.

He slowly nods, his eyelids fluttering as he rests his eyes on her. "We put two and two together and realized why you barely lived in your flat."

"And now he's murdered," she concludes. He holds her gaze, and it looks like she would be pointing at him as the murderer. She clears her throat and it might be his imagination, but he catches a small thank you from her. He asks her to repeat it again to make sure he's not hearing things, but she's only nonchalantly pursing her lips. "I didn't say anything. Are we done with the tour? Because I would love to go back to sleep."

"You literally woke up a few hours ago. Come on, there are so much things to do in life than sleep."

"That's how I deal with my problems; I sleep, it's like you're dead but you're still alive, do you get me? Plus I sleep a lot so in that way I won't be hungry and I don't have to spend so much money on food."

"That's how you do it in your previous life. When you're with us, you're going to eat until you're full. When you're with us, you don't get to go to sleep sad."

"Are you always this good with words?"

"I-"

They are bathed in red as alarms blared along the length of the corridor, the mechanical voice of a woman spilling into every crevice. He looks up to the alarm near them, his ears catching the details provided by the announcement, his face seemingly changing with the shadows casted by the revolving alarm lights. Naturally he takes her hand in his and she doesn't resist, stunned by the sudden warning and red light.

"Apple and Corgi, code 3. Reported by Sunfish," the robotic voice repeats the same thing over and over again throughout the space.

"Code 3," San vocalizes. "Jongho and Wooyoung."

There is a calmness in his voice, but by the way his hand is wrapped around hers subconsciously, she knows that it can't mean anything good. The number does nothing to inform her of the severity of the situation, but as they run across the hallways, it takes her effort to actually keep up with him. He barely looks back to see how she's doing as they make their way to Mingi's control room because he's in a rush to get there, but he doesn't let go of her hand.

"What happened?" he bursts into the control room without as much of a knock, but Mingi must have been prepared to have an intruder when he doesn't react. The only time he shows how shocked he is, is when his eyes travel to their linked hands, in which Byul quickly lets go and San clasps his fingers together. "What happened to both of them?"

Mingi covers the microphone on his headset. "Wooyoung sent in the signal saying that he couldn't locate Jongho in the building and when I checked his connection it's still on, but he's not responding. There are no cameras I can access at the vicinity."

"Any sign that his identity was compromised?" San takes a seat beside Mingi, poring over the details of the mission. He gestures for Byul to come over, pulling a chair for her so that she'll be able to join in. "You sent in a code 3."

"I still have doubts because it could only mean he's trapped or in not any position to be communicating. It's been over the 5-minute mark he's supposed to respond. The thing that's making me worried is that this is a race because we're not the only ones after the object. There's someone else on the pursuit, and it could turn bad if the other parties catch up."

Byul studies the details of the mission, trying to piece the information they presented in front. Mingi and San are already contacting Wooyoung, planning on their next move as she scans through the whole details on the monitor in front of her. Since they're not giving any hints on what 'code 3' could have meant, she's guessing that code 3 is a distress signal sent out to them if any of their identities have been compromised during a mission. She's not sure whether it's the lower of higher number that indicates a worse situation.

The mission they were provided with looks pretty simple at the first glance; they need to retrieve an object and bring it safely to their receiver. The catch is that they are not the only ones after the object; at least two other people could be aiming for the same thing and that object is buried deep, deep down in the ocean. An artificial ocean, that is.

The object is kept in Amex Aquarium, one of the largest and busiest tourist attractions in Utopia district, located in a shopping mall. She has never been there because the price of an admission ticket could last her a whole week's worth of meals and it's not like she has anyone to go there with.

Conveniently, the object they were to retrieve is placed in a section that is under maintenance, which means the general public won't get access to it. Although it's under maintenance, the sea creatures in there are still swimming around freely, in which Jongho would have to weave his way in and out between them - so long he doesn't end up in any of the creatures' mouths.

The contents of the package are kept a secret, but they must have had a guess that it could be a precious family heirloom that could bring the owner a welcomed newfound wealth, based on the urgency of their requester and the others running hot on the same trail.

"Who on earth think it was a good idea to bury that object in an aquarium in a public place?" Mingi verbalizes, already pressing down on the screen to reveal the devices for San to suit up.

The latter obediently pops in the lens that is labelled with his name into his eyes, blinking a few times to adjust to the new interface. All the while he's setting himself up, he doesn't interact with her and she respects his decision; he needs all the focus he needs for the mission. It seems that every time she's in this room she gets nervous as she starts biting her nails. Maybe it's from San's body language, or from the thought on what could have happened to Jongho that's making her fidgety.

Hongjoong's voice is incessantly ringing in her head, You can't be worrying about us every single time; even our job itself is a dangerous mission overall, and you're going to have a hard time if you're nitpicking at every single thing that you deem unsafe.

But that is the reason she's worried for every single one of them; because she knows how dangerous their job can be, and if anything goes awry, everything is to be kept quiet - that's how the system works.

"Shiber, you don't have to do this, you know. We could wait for the others to finish with their mission. I can just put the signal again through Statue to connect with Minion; he is almost done with his job."

San gives off a smile without the joy he usually has, already putting in his own earpiece and testing it. "Lives don't simply wait, Apple is in need of our help and that's what we're going to do. I don't want to disturb the others and make him wait."

"Shiber," Wooyoung's voice is solemn through the earpiece. "Don't force yourself if you can't."

"If I'm not the one doing it, no one else can. You stay put at your place and shoot anyone suspicious, alright? I'll be in there taking a sweet dive."

Byul notices the atmosphere; how Mingi seems reluctant to let San go although it's obvious that Jongho is in trouble and in need of help. San looks like he's forcing himself to step out of the room, leaving behind Byul and heading over to save the youngest. He looks like he's about to give her a hug as he is about to leave, but restrains himself and instead pokes a finger to her shoulder.

"I'll be off now, make sure you don't fall asleep," he winks, but he looks visibly pained.

She doesn't get to reply as he disappears into the shadows, with Mingi's rhythmic tapping of his fingers on the screen. The hacker stays quiet for a moment as he plays around with the settings. The screen shows a tracker on San, him appearing as a red dot on the extended map. The map remains still at one point, where he's currently at the warehouse, preparing to embark. The red dot beeps steadily for a few seconds at one point, too long that it doesn't seem like he made a move yet.

"Shiber," Mingi calls in again through his microphone. "You don't have to."

"No worries, Sunfish. Just preparing myself."

Mingi bends the microphone so it's away from his mouth and covers it by closing his palm around the device, then lets out a heavy sigh. He turns to capture Byul's questioning look, and although the latter looks like she wants to ask, she stays quiet.

"San and water does not match," Mingi answers the burning question in her mind. "He has a trauma related to water."

The look on her face tells him that she doesn't want to pry in further. Still, he continues.

"We always try to make him stay away from any water-related missions because we know it's hard for him."

He watches as the red dot moves, finally leaving the warehouse. He clicks on the screen to observe through the cameras at the warehouse entrance. The resolution is low but San looks to be in doubt. The field agent flips down the visor of his helmet, obscuring his face from view.

Mingi is about to release the clamp around the microphone but Byul tugs on his shirt, prompting him to wait.

"How... bad is it?"

Mingi's face is grave as San's bike leaves the warehouse. "Very bad. Someone tried to kill him by drowning him in a lake; it was a miracle he survived."

---

[A/N: Edit - Since there's a comment mentioning that the last part reminded them of another ateez fanfic and it's a fanfic that holds a special place in my heart (because it's the first ever ateez fanfic I read), I'd like to talk a little about that story!

It's a story called 'Attraction' by yunjoon (a wonderful writer!) and if you've never read it before, go and read it. You won't be disappointed (but maybe a lil scared because that's what I felt throughout lol). Do check it out because it's definitely an amazing read TT]