His heart is pounding wildly in his chest, as if his ribcage is some metal cage and his heart is a wild animal banging on the bars, wanting to be set free. Under different circumstances he would have enjoyed the adrenaline rush, giving him the much-needed boost whenever he sets to go on a mission. This one however, is an unpleasant feeling and he hates every single fibre in his body, but it's his duty to do so.

He's the nearest to Utopia district, only taking around one hour or less to reach there, as compared to others who were dispatched at further districts. The youngest is in possible danger and it is up to him to step in. Wooyoung could not leave his post as the sniper, while the rest are unavailable. It is up to Choi San - codename Shiber - to find out what went on with Jongho. The only problem is, this adrenaline rush is not helping him because he's not excited about this sudden mission.

Choi San is scared of water.

''I'll think about it once I get there. There's nothing to worry about, Shiber. It's only a shallow dive and you're going to be equipped with an oxygen tank. You're not going to die, you're just going in for a swim, that's it,'' he gives a pep talk to himself, completely forgetting the fact that he just vocalized it to Wooyoung's earpiece and Mingi's control room.

On one end of the line, Wooyoung grips the handle of his rifle, ultimately feeling sorry that he couldn't leave his post unguarded and help Jongho instead. He wants to verbalize an apology, but he couldn't. A fist is clenched around his heart as strong as his clench around the rifle's handle.

In Mingi's control room, the hacker's hands are clasped together, put near to his forehead in a silent form of prayer. Byul is pacing back and forth, unable to stay still as she now knows the stakes of this mission. She's telling herself not to worry with the leader's reminder that she cannot afford to worry about them all the time.

She's a worrywart, and more so for this group of men. Why, even though they are strangers that caught her in the most unfavourable moment?

Because she knows exactly how life is under the Bifidensis, and it's not a walk in the park.

The weather is calming as opposed to the turmoil in San, wherein his grip on the bike handle turns his knuckles white, the acceleration put to the max and the vehicle spurts on the highway heading to Utopia district. The lens he's wearing guide him through seamlessly that he doesn't even realize that he has arrived at the upscale shopping mall; a futuristic building that tries to cover everything they can under one roof. That includes having the largest aquarium with different species of sea creatures in one place, the final destination for him.

It might or might not be the reproduction of his torment.

He parks his bike across the street, looks once to the nearest camera available from under his visor and flips it up, trying to give off a smile that could be translated as I'm doing fine. He is, for now at least. Both Mingi and Wooyoung have been uncharacteristically quiet throughout his whole journey here, and he's not complaining as he won't have anything to say back to them.

It's a weekday but the mall is buzzing with activities, strewn with models from the nearby ongoing fashion show and some discrete groups of people walking, looking for a place to wind down. San fits right in with the group of models, his red-tinged black hair gelled back and the walk he does as he strides across the road fit for a runway. If anyone knows no better, they'd think he's a part of them; when in reality in his leather duffel bag he has stuffed in diving equipment - the only thing he needs to 'borrow' from the establishment is the oxygen tank.

The air-conditioned building doesn't help in cooling him down, as the fire blazing through his body as his heart pumps out blood erratically could not be dialed down. He tries to even his breathing without blowing out onto his microphone; as much as they know how much he hates plunging deep into water, he doesn't like showing it. It resulted in the bravado he had as he picked up the mission to find Jongho, and that's the only thought that's keeping him walking straight towards the aquarium. If it wasn't for him, he would have turned the other way round.

From the distance he can spot the entrance to the aquarium; a darkened area with a single illuminated shark neon symbol on top of the pathway. 'Amex Aquarium' is written on the shark's wiry body, providing enough attraction for people to come and have a look. He walks past the entrance, pretending to be uninterested in it and he emerges outside, leaving the air-conditioned area behind and letting the afternoon sun inching up to light up his face. He squints from the sudden sharp light and shields his eyes with his arms; at the same time he catches the time from the watch on his wrist.

"Walk further south along the side of the building and you can find the staff's entrance from outside. I'll be disabling the camera and the lock there, give me a minute," Mingi instructs. The familiar sound of Mingi's hands working magic on the screen fills his earpiece. In the brief moment, San suddenly misses hearing Byul's voice.

Wait, why on earth am I thinking about her?

He leans against the wall trying to appear inconspicuous, waiting for the cue for him to enter as the door gives a low beep and the lock is undone. Looking around, he slips inside without noise and with Jongho's condition being the top priority, he scurries along the corridors, ducking and hiding as Mingi points it out when any of the staff members appear. It feels weird playing a game of hide and seek between the large glasses of aquariums, the water creatures looking at him with their round and bulging eyes, unable to say anything when he's trespassing.

Locating the tank he's about to dive into, he takes a moment to appreciate that he is in fact alone, not even a staff in sight - but that would mean bad news if even Jongho isn't around.

"Any sign of Apple?"

"Negative. Where was the last place you had contact with him?" San strips off his shirt. The tattoo with a meaning he had gotten on his chest become visible.

"At the corridor, just before the corner to turn to where the tank is. It shows that his signal is there, which means his earpiece should be there, whether he took it off on his own or someone took it off."

"It could be that he stripped off his earpiece before that, or he could have done it right where I am." He peers into the tank and pokes his tongue against the inside of his cheek. "He could've taken it off before he dived in and forgot to inform you."

"Could be, but the fact that I lost contact with him for so long made me worried. Not even a sign of his earpiece anywhere?"

The field agent scans the whole area, all the while trying to keep his shoes from squeaking on the wet floor. He narrows his eyes to see the possible areas Jongho could have stashed his earpiece and clothes, but returns with nothing. He tries to put himself in Jongho's shoes to think about what the youngest could possibly do that could've stopped the connection.

Jongho is not someone reckless who would suddenly leave his earpiece out unless something came up. The signal beats steadily at the area he's at, which could mean that the earpiece should be here.

"I need more pairs of eyes," San announces, immediately activating the earring-cum-camera on his right earlobe. He turns his head so that the ones in the control room will be able to get the whole view of the cordoned off area, then lifts his head up, just in case he missed something on the ceiling.

"Stop," the hacker says through his earpiece. "Move your head a little bit to the right- perfect. The ceiling is a reflective surface, isn't it?" San nods once and he continues, "Look at the left corner, near the fake rocks. A foot is sticking out from there." He lowers his head per instruction, his heart picking up pace again in fear of it belonging to their youngest.

He slowly approaches the rocks, realizing why he missed out the detail. The leg - whoever it belongs to - is clothed in pants with a similar colour to the painted fake rocks, blending in almost perfectly, while the rest of the body is stuck at the narrow space between the structure. Bracing himself for the reveal of the identity, he grabs a fistful of the shirt and heaves the body up. It doesn't even take a lot of effort on his part to see that it isn't Jongho, but a stranger.

"He's one of the opposing parties looking for the same object. Is he knocked out or dead?"

San slaps two fingers onto the man's neck, searching for a pulse. "Knocked out," he confirms. "Let's just hope Apple was the one who knocked him out."

"It's most likely that he is in the tank, and I'll have to check to confirm. Scared something might've happened to him in the water." San is the one who suggested it, but he sounds uncertain, his tone sounding as if he's hoping for anyone to stop him.

The line remains quiet, not even a peep from the sniper or the hacker. Swallowing a gulp, he quickly strips off from the rest of his clothes, fitting himself into the wetsuit as he tries to think about anything other than the fact that he is about to jump into a huge tank with multiple creatures that feel less like his friends. Not to mention that he's about to dive into it, being swallowed by the water, drowning...

"Shiber," a soft but firm voice speaks up, and it takes three seconds for him to remember that it's not only the 8 of them and Hwayoung anymore - another person has been added to their group. He feels like he's hallucinating, not mentioning that his heart beating loudly from fear making him feel as if his body is merely floating around in the enclosure.

"Shiber," the voice tries again and it takes him effort to acknowledge it. "Nothing's going to happen to you in that tank; you're going to find Apple in there and both of you are going to be alright. You have to swim back up because you said that we'll learn how to cook together, remember?"

Despite the situation, he smiles. The feeling at the pit of his stomach is not from fear anymore; he's getting damn butterflies at this moment and wild ones at that. Not knowing how to respond, he puts a thumbs-up in front of the camera on his earrings, showing his hands to the ones in the control room.

I'm a freaking idiot. Thankfully they can't see my face.

"I'll be going into the tank to look for Apple," he quickly swoops in, trying not to appear as if he had not made a fool out of himself.

It seems that it works, as Mingi takes back the microphone and he receives a signal that he can start diving in. He gives an assurance that he's about to do it then takes off the earpiece, realizing that there's no turning back and no more getting pep talk from anyone but himself. Putting on the gas tank, he fits the goggles and mouthpiece in, then lowers himself into the water. His legs tingle from where the water has touched him; he clenches and unclenches his fists as he goes lower, submerging himself until chest level.

Clearing his head from any intrusive thoughts, reflexively he closes his eyes as he puts his head under water, taking a few seconds to adjust to the new temperature and surrounding. After he's sure that he has calmed down, he opens his eyes, startled that a yellow fish is staring at him with its mouth gaping right in front of his nose. He swims away to get away from it, scaring the fish in the process.

He takes in his new surrounding where his view is slightly distorted from the change in refractive index, but he trains his eyes to look around for the object and possibly Jongho. Mingi has informed him on where the object is approximately hidden at, unless it's brought away by the current or any of the creatures - highly unlikely based on the dimensions of the object being searched, but could be possible.

He changes the orientation of his body so his head is pointed downwards, flapping his legs and swimming among the curious fishes to the bottom. He tries to ignore the fact that he is vulnerable to any attacks from some of the carnivorous creatures, especially the mean-looking sharks that are more than twice his size.

He chants the reminders Hongjoong had taught them when they had training for different possible situations and scenarios for their missions at their headquarters. Hongjoong lead the training, with Yeosang manning the powerpoint presentation like they were in a lecture hall. Some situations they were presented with sounded absurd, which could include climbing to the top of a high mountain - Yunho and Mingi quickly took the opportunity to make a pun with his name, resulting in them being sent away for a time-out outside the meeting room - and diving into the deepest sea possible.

They had snorted at the thought of it first, but look where he is now - swimming in a freaking aquarium under maintenance, trying to locate both his teammate and the object they're supposed to scavenge.

He will never question Hongjoong's decision and choices ever again - the guy's 26 years old but he sure is wise.

"Don't touch or harm the fishes in any way, including the sharks. They are pretty harmless." If only they recorded the look on everyone's faces when he mentioned that casually. "What? They are pretty harmless unless you disturb them; you don't touch them then they don't touch you, simple. Oh if you do, they might bite your arms or legs off, so you know, just keep that in mind."

Yeosang flipped to the next slide when Wooyoung raised an arm to ask a question. "But isn't diving into the water means we're disturbing them? Like it's their home and we're technically trespassing."

"Good point," Hongjoong replied and gave a pained smile. "Which means there is a higher chance of them biting your limbs off." The room turned deadly quiet as he scanned their faces one by one. "All I can say is, good luck."

On the slide there were different kinds of sharks with some facts about them, and they only shrunk back in their seats further as they read the facts one by one. Yeosang helped to point them out on the screen while smirking, "They have a very keen sense of smell so don't bleed or they'll hunt you down. Not even the slightest nose bleed."

"And if we happened to get a nose bleed when we're in there?" San asked next.

"Then good bye, it was nice knowing you and having you as a team member. You will be greatly missed. Don't worry, we'll put up your picture as tribute here."

The training ended with them hoping it was only in theory and that they would never have to face that kind of situation.

Of course, it was wishful thinking.

The memory of their training at the headquarters gets replaced by the reality around him when he sees someone in a similar wetsuit, struggling and thrashing about in the same spot, holding on to his leg. The person has his right leg stuck to the ground, some coils of overgrown sea grasses wrapped around it, in which he's trying unsuccessfully to pry the knot away.

San approaches him and he confirms that it's definitely Jongho, but is shot back down when pain rips through his head and his breathing turns irregular again. Seeing Jongho in that state almost blacks him out because he is reminded of what he had went through.

No, please don't kill me, please don't let me drown! I promise I'll be a good boy.

You have to swim back up because you said that we'll learn how to cook together, remember? Byul's voice resonates in him, with him trying to find the least bit of strength to climb out of the hole of torment he lived in.

San's body stays suspended in water as he tries to regain his foothold, pushed by Jongho's urgent situation.

You deserve to die you demon, the tormenting voice takes place in his mind next. You deserve to die slowly and painfully.

I can't die... I deserve to live.

No matter what you say.

---

[A/N: 1k+ votes; thank you so much even though I don't deserve it 😭 you guys always make my day and you make this potato very happy!! Also I'm dying because I've been reading journal papers about osteoarthritis and I'm nowhere near done for my presentation skdjfhskfj anyway hope you have/had/are having a nice day <3]