The youngest stands in front of the projector, wearing a headband with rabbit ears and striped pajamas, looking like he's ready to do a show-and-tell at a sleepover. The audience in front of him are all dressed in sleeping attires, the atmosphere feeling less like a postmortem meeting for the missions they were entrusted with, but more of a sleepover with snacks and sodas on the side.

This time Yeosang is in charge of the overall presentation, being the person responsible to compile all the details of their requesters, missions and rewards. Some of them felt that it was unnecessary but Hongjoong insisted that these kinds of meetings are important, so they must come no matter if they're wearing their pajamas.

As long as they're there. And not sleeping.

Before Jongho, Seonghwa and Yunho had presented the mission they worked on together, with Yeosang simultaneously guiding them and Hongjoong on a separate mission. Seonghwa and Yunho were tasked to go through a similar pursuit Jongho, San and Wooyoung - the differences are that there are multiple casualties caused by Seonghwa's rifle and instead of diving into an aquarium Yunho was darting through the halls of an abandoned school.

"So," Jongho bellows, ultimately shaking Wooyoung who looks like he's about to drift off to sleep. He smirks when he sees that he manages to startle the older and continues, "I was paired up with Sunfish and Corgi for this mission, but Shiber came to help me when there appeared to be an emergency at the aquarium."

"Please explain that," Hongjoong consults the details of the mission he had to carry out on the papers in front of him. "I was informed that Sunfish had to send in a Code 3, and that wasn't good." His voice turns stern, just like it always does when he gets into leader-mode. It's one of those times they know not to mess around with him, although he's only carrying out his rightful duty as the leader. Sometimes, even Seonghwa, who's older than him, dare not cross him when he's deep into this character.

Jongho gestures for Yeosang to change the slide, and now the screen is filled with the face of the person San had seen stashed in between the fake rocks. The youngest holds his elbow with his right hand as he splays out the palm of his left to point towards the image.

"This person known as Mantis is known to be from another team of excavators hired by the sibling of our requester. It further confirms our suspicions that the three siblings have hired their own teams to scavenge the treasure box from the aquarium, believed to be a precious family heirloom that their father had released to them in a race against time and each other. The middle son, Song Jaeim chose ATEEZ to carry out the job for him, and thanks to Shiber, we had managed to deliver the object safely through the locker at Station 11 of Utopia subway line, bringing an end to the race. 500 grand have been deposited into our account, and our client is happy. No casualties, no bullets fired by Corgi. I hope."

"Good summary of the mission," Hongjoong laces his fingers together as he places his elbows on the meeting table. "Now proceed to troubleshooting."

"Code 3 was sent by Corgi because both him and Sunfish could not receive a response from me past the time I was supposed to report back, even when the signal of my earpiece was strong. No cameras were available at the area of the tank, so Sunfish could not go through the cameras to find out what had happened. What happened was," he pauses, giving time to himself to breathe in, "by the time I arrived there, Mantis was already at the edge of the tank, ready to dive in. A thing to note is that they don't seem like a professional team because he didn't find the need to wear proper attire for diving, or maybe he's just that good in holding his breath. I pulled him back and we got involved in a scuffle. I believed that's when my earpiece came off, causing me to unable to communicate with Sunfish or Corgi. After knocking him out and putting him away, I decided that I couldn't waste anymore time so instead of looking for the earpiece I changed to the diving attire and jumped in instantly."

"That's strike one," Hongjoong comments. "You don't cut off contact without informing those with you. Don't do that again, no matter how much you were pressed for time. Your safety is priority number one, do you understand?" He looks to the rest of them, who seem to be much more awake and they nod in understanding. "Good, continue."

"It took me longer to swim back to the surface even after I spotted the object we were supposed to take because my feet were stuck because of the sea grasses. It took me a lot of time to untangle myself, so in that timeframe Shiber was sent my way, even-" he hesitates, "-even when the mission involved having to dive into a body of water."

The room turns quiet, knowing how traumatic the water is for San. San's face remains blank, hiding what's currently running through his mind. Wooyoung holds San's hand in his, and he doesn't resist even when he stays expressionless.

"Shiber dived into the tank and found me, who was still struggling to pry away from the damn seaweeds."

"Sea grasses," Mingi unhelpfully corrects him.

"Those things that coil around your legs and pull you down until you can't swim back up. But," he licks the front of his teeth, "unfortunately Shiber blacked out when he saw me." He doesn't need to say anything for them to know the sole reason. San stays still. "After much thrashing about I managed to get them off, so I took the box and pulled Shiber up. I had to do CPR."

"He stole my first kiss," San finally laments, his sharp eyes directed at Jongho, seething.

"That was my first kiss too, by the way, in case you didn't hear me the first time."

"Both of you haven't had your first kiss yet?" Hongjoong loses his demeanour, looking genuinely surprised. "Shiber, with your looks you really don't have anyone wanting to, you know," he gestures to his lips.

"I was saving it for someone special," San comments, looking away while crossing his arms.

"Who here has not had their first kiss?" Wooyoung asks around, and although they seem hesitant, Mingi and Yeosang raise their hands before pretending to scratch their heads. Without shame, Seonghwa raises his hand up the highest with a neutral face. "Toothless?" he sounds super surprised that even the rest turn to look at him with newfound curiousity. "The Park Seonghwa has not had his first kiss yet?"

"Why are we talking about this?" Mingi groans, but it's only him being ashamed of the topic that he's not experienced yet.

"Shush, Sunfish," Wooyoung tuts. "But you and Akira..."

"We're not really dating," he says casually. "She says she's not ready for us to be a thing so yeah."

"So you're waiting for her?" Hongjoong asks. "That's so sweet."

"I know right," Yeosang sniffs. "The most romantic couple ever, even after all those years he waits for her." He wipes a fake tear off.

"I'll wait for a thousand years if I can," he muses with a goofy smile as he thinks about her.

"Someone's too deep in love." San rolls his eyes.

"Meanwhile I'm just too deep in my own bullshit," Hongjoong complains. "Right, right," he claps his hands, "Apple, please continue with the presentation."

"Right away, sir." Another click to the next slide by Yeosang. "As you can see our next destination was supposed to be at Station 6 of the Utopia subway line for the object to be dropped off. For this part, I handed it over to Shiber and went back." He sits back among those at the table and San takes his place.

After replying with a 'thank you' to a 'looking good' comment from Yeosang, San takes a deep breath and gets ready to start his part, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie in an attempt to not appear skittish. It does little help as he taps his shoes out of rhythm on the carpeted ground.

"You can take your time, we understand," Hongjoong looks back and forth from the details on the screen behind and San, worry etched across his face.

"So uh, I went to Station 6 to drop off the object in one of the lockers but one of them caught up to me, and it's one person from the same team as Mantis. Codename is Golden and apparently she wears high heels to all her missions, hence why I was attacked, brutally by her high heels. I got a bruise and it still hurts. Meanwhile, Sunfish and Corgi didn't warn me on time, so I had to get in a fight with her. She seemed more interested in attacking me rather than running away with the loot. As an extra precaution I put on my mask during the fight. To combat anything that could compromise my identity, Sunfish has scoured through any possible tapes that could've captured my face, and now instead of red streaks I'm fully blonde."

"Sorry," Mingi and Wooyoung simultaneously chant.

"She stopped attacking you when she took a good look at your face, and it sounded like she recognized you. Do you?" Seonghwa asks. He takes the last drop of soda before crushing the can with his hand.

"Honestly, I don't. I could have met her when I was roaming the streets in the past, but I can't remember her at all."

"She sounded extremely shocked when she saw San, like she couldn't believe it was him that she's attacking. I could hear her gasp through San's earpiece," Mingi adds.

"Was it that sensitive? Why couldn't I hear anything?" Wooyoung pouts.

"Stop exaggerating it," Jongho mentions. "So dramatic."

"Our lives are a drama," Yeosang says. "Only what kind of drama remains unclear. Maybe a tragic one?"

Hongjoong signals to Yeosang. "Details on her?"

The hacker presses down on the 'Enter' button to bring a full screen biodata on the mysterious woman. It's easy for Mingi to extract her details - unless it's all fake - because like Jongho had pointed out, it didn't seem like they were a team of professionals. Only a team of excavators that are assembled last minute and the members seem to prefer to work on their own; completely opposite of theirs.

"Kim Danbi, 21 years old. Works odd jobs, including picking up missions like what she did. Stays in Desire district, location of real house unclear. Seems to be living on the streets."

"So she's not trained professionally, but her movements were very precise. She knows me, but I don't. Maybe we came across each other before I was a trainee," San decides. "When I was the king of the streets there."

"I still can't believe you used to get involved in illegal street fights and won everytime." Yunho scratches his cheek.

"I can't believe it either, and if we weren't taken away we would probably not know each other," San chuckles. "No, scratch that. Do any of you guys believe we managed to get out of that hellhole alive, together?"

Before the 8 of them were taken away as trainees, each one of them lived separate lives in different districts - except for Wooyoung and Yeosang, who were friends since they were little - and their backgrounds bring a whole spectrum of colours to their team. They seemed different in every aspect at first, and the reason why the 8 of them were particularly picked to form ATEEZ remains an unanswered question to them.

They were assigned different Aeons when they became trainees. Aeons are categories for their 'specialties' and they are divided into three, either IT, close-range attacks or long-range attacks.

The only thing they know that they have in common is all of them are orphans when they were taken to the training facility, because that's one of the criterias for them to become a trainee at the facility; they must not have any living immediate family members left. The reason is simple - if they were forced to become trainees and taken away to the facility, no one would bat an eye towards their disappearance. That's how KTC - short for KQ Training Centre - gets their supply of trainees to be groomed to be agents.

They snatch orphaned young children and teenagers away from orphanages or shelters, essentially forcing them to abide by the rules and lives provided by the Bifidensis. All trainees there are considered to be 'saved' by them, because without the Bifidensis they would have to live a poor, unnavigated life where they had no one to lean on.

You owe us your lives, because we provided a better one for you, they had been told. According to them, at least at the facility they have food to eat, a roof over their heads and clothes to cover themselves.

But behind the walls of the facility, their lives are not any better. In fact, worse.

They aren't treated like human beings, instead they were thrown into processed lives where they are expected to act like how they wanted them to be. Anything deemed out of the line would result them being banished, punished, or when the rest of the trainees don't even know what happened to that particular trainee who broke a rule. The next thing they know is that the trainee is gone from the facility, never heard of again. Some speculated that they were thrown into the sea surrounding the island the facility is on, letting their fates be decided by the wild creatures and raging waves.

What do the Bifidensis get when they do all of this? Money and respected positions, of course.

No one would know what happens behind the walls of the training facility, because it's located on an island, away from normal civilization. In fact, ordinary everyday people would have no idea that a training facility like KTC exists, where orphans were snatched away and trained to become agents against their own will.

The trainees were expected to become robots on the island, yet the world keeps on spinning and others keep on living.

"At least we're still alive," Jongho grimaces. "With our minds intact."

"Do you think..." Every head turns to Yunho as he starts talking, "that Han Byul could be one of the trainees there?"

"Why?" Seonghwa frowns. "What makes you think that?"

"Her background and her nonchalance towards what we do," he replies, but in his eyes there's more he wants to verbalize.

"Han Byul doesn't sound like a familiar name at the facility," Yeosang interjects.

"Fair point, but at the facility we rarely use our names, remember? It's always numbers, like Trainee #761 or something like that," Hongjoong adds, curious in where Yunho is heading.

"Come on, the two of you have been the most wary of her when she first came, and you're still not done with it? Cut her some slack, it's not even her fault she got involved with us in the first place."

"I'm not doubting her," Yunho interrupts. "She's too much like her, except that she looks different..."

"Her?" Wooyoung creases his forehead.

They lean in to hear what Yunho is about to say, and even Yeosang has joined in those at the table.

"Hwayoung's mother," he finishes.

Exasperated sighs come from the eldest and the leader at the same time, that they turn to look at each other with wariness, before Seonghwa decides, "Jeong Yunho, you have to let it go. She was executed in front of us. We saw her getting-" he sighs again, louder, "-shot. Hwayoung's mother is gone."

"That is the problem!" Yunho shouts as he stands up. Tears are pooling at his eyes and his lips are trembling as the room grows quiet. The steady low hum of the air-conditioner fills the deadly silence as their minds travel back to the fateful day. "I made the mistake too, but why was she the only one who got punished? Why won't they punish me together with her, WHY?"

"Yunho..." Hongjoong trails off.

"They don't want us to bear feelings for others but we couldn't stop it. Why is she the only who got killed for breaking the stupid rule? Why won't they kill me-"

"Jeong Yunho!" Seonghwa knocks his hand on the table. "Don't you ever say that. Think about Hwayoung, think about what she would feel if she hears her own father saying this!"

He shouts in frustration and drops lower, sobbing as he struggles to breathe in air. He chokes up on his words, managing small whimpers as he puts a hand over his mouth to stop himself from bursting into terrible sobs.

"I feel sorry for her, I feel sorry for Hwayoung. I blame myself everyday because I know that I'm the reason she was killed, I'm the reason Hwayoung had to grow up without a mother," he spills out. "If I didn't... if I didn't meet her that- that night, none of this would have had happened. I killed so many people... just because I have feelings."

"Stop blaming yourself for this. It's not your fault, it's the fault of the damn system," San places a hand on his back. "If you didn't meet her that night, Hwayoung won't be here. Hwayoung grew up into a beautiful girl and you're doing a great job as her father."

Hongjoong stares at Yunho's pitiful back, who's being comforted by both Seonghwa and San. Yunho has his head buried in his arms, and his shoulders are shaking as choked sobs make their way out. The leader ponders over what Yunho pointed out, that a possibility Hwayoung's mother is still alive.

It seemed to be a reach, but the thing is, Hongjoong believes that Yunho might be right after all.