They decide for only two to meet Lee Minhyuk; Hongjoong and Wooyoung, as they figure he might brand them as a threat if the first thing he sees is four people who happen to have his sister's phone by chance. They arrive at the soup restaurant only to immediately think that looks can definitely be deceiving, as it's hard to imagine the man in front of them is a dangerous mob boss who has 'killing' and 'torturing' in the most commonly used words section in his dictionary.

Wooyoung couldn't have guessed it the first time he saw him with the red sports car, with Lee Mikyung laughing as she hugged him. Even now, he finds it hard to believe.

The man seems respectful upon the first meeting, as he's the first to stand up and extend his hand to both men, as Hongjoong accepts it firmly while Wooyoung is more hesitant. He's suddenly reminded of how it would go down if he breaks Mikyung's heart, and he doesn't think that it would end in him walking out of the room alive.

"How did the uncle of her student find her phone at the park? I have a lot of questions but I'd like it if you explain it to me straight. We don't have much time," he gestures towards his gold-encrusted watch. "My sister's life is in danger."

"It looks like you care for her a lot, Mr. Lee," Hongjoong replies as he eyes the server placing the hot bowl of clear soup in front of him. He's full, but Minhyuk insisted anyway on buying them lunch. He picks up the spoon. "Does she know what you do?"

Something shifts in his eyes before his voice drops low, "Who are both of you? You've been lying to me?"

"It's nice to meet you again, Mr. Lee. Ah, you don't know who we are, but we know who you are. How's the tender that you stole going?"

"Who on earth-" he reaches for something under his jacket but Wooyoung reacts fast too, he shakes his head while he shows his own gun hidden under the jacket.

"We come prepared too." Hongjoong takes one spoonful of soup. "Relax, Mr. Lee. We're not on opposing sides, we want to find your sister as much as you do."

"But why?" he looks at them quizzically before his eyes rest longer on Wooyoung. "You- you look familiar. I feel like I've seen you before around Mikyung."

"I was." But he doesn't elaborate on how their relationship is; not that he knows. "She was supposed to meet me at the park, but when I arrived there she was gone. Then I found her phone on the floor, saw the picture of you and her, put 2 and 2 together." He takes out Mikyung's phone and slides it towards him. "We did not tamper with her phone in any way. We wanted to make sure that she was indeed kidnapped, but we couldn't find any evidence. You called, and basically gave away what could have happened."

Minhyuk looks warily at Wooyoung, then to the phone, as if he's debating on whether he'd like to kill the sniper right there and then. He never knew Mikyung had a boyfriend, but then maybe she never wanted to tell him because of how protective he can be towards her. But this, this man is definitely something else.

Not your ordinary boy next door.

"Never knew gangsters send their nieces to kindergarten," Minhyuk muses. "Interesting to know."

"We're not gangsters, Mr. Lee," Hongjoong utters. "We're... couriers. Doing jobs for people like you."

He takes one second to recognize them before he comes to a realization. "ATEEZ," he pronounces. "Finally I get to see your face."

"It's nice to meet you face to face, Mr. Lee. Does your sister know that you're a high profile mob boss who kills and tortures people for fun?"

Minhyuk releases a heavy breath before chuckling. "You really do know how to make me flustered. The answer is no, she doesn't. That poor little girl right now is probably wondering why she was kidnapped."

"That's why we're here," the leader lays down an offer. "To help you."

"In return..."

"Double the price of what we usually get for saving hostages."

He lets out a whistle before tapping a finger to his lips. "So couriers like you salivate at the sight of money too, huh? Money in exchange for my sister's life? What makes you think that I'd accept that offer when I have my own army of loyal boys? Probably even more than the number of your team members."

"Of course," he leans forward, "Who doesn't love money? That's the one thing that can never go wrong. You wouldn't want to use your boys, Mr. Lee. You don't have to compromise your true identity; we can save your sister for you, and you can keep your identity a secret. Your sister won't even find out why she was kidnapped. Do we have a deal?" He extends out a hand. "With the agreement that you must share every detail on who you think would do this to you."

Minhyuk eyes Hongjoong's hand, hesitating in sealing the deal.

"I know how much you love your sister, and you would do anything to protect her. You wouldn't bear to see how scared she would be when she finds out who you are, so why risk that? Let us do the job."

"It still comes to the question on why you would insist on compromising your own identity in order to protect mine." He turns to Wooyoung, "Aren't you my little sister's boyfriend? Won't she be devastated if she finds out what you do?"

"I'm not her boyfriend," Wooyoung utters. He goes against adding 'not yet'. "My identity is nothing compared to yours. I'm just a lowly courier who do jobs that other people instruct me to. If she finds out... the devastation must not be stronger than if she were to find out about you."

Minhyuk leans against the chair, crossing his arms. "So you love my sister enough to protect her?"

"I won't say it until I prove it with my actions." Wooyoung twirls around the spoon in his hand. He chortles slightly. "Why does it feel like you're interviewing me before I can become one?"

"I'm a mob boss who kills and tortures people for fun," he repeats his description that they laid out for him. "But I would do anything to protect my sister's innocence. What I do should not interfere with her life in any way. You," he looks at Wooyoung, "would jeapordize your own identity?"

"Yes sir," Wooyoung says simply. "The most important thing right now is getting down the details of who could kidnap her. No more time to lose, Mr. Lee."

Lee Minhyuk eyes the two couriers in front of him, taking in the details of each of the them - the leader, who introduced himself as Hongjoong looks calm, slurping on the soup as if there isn't a pressing matter at hand, while the other, whom he has known as Wooyoung looks distressed, hoping to hear his agreement so they can start going in the right direction. He picks up the drink, takes a sip, watches the ice clink against the walls of the glass as he puts it down again.

"What details do you need? And I have a feeling that you want more than just my money."

Hongjoong lifts up his head, eyes diverted from the soup as he smiles. "I understand why you're doing what you do, you pick up fast. We'll tell you he details that we need, and as for the compensation, we'll discuss it later. For now, your sister is the priority. We're about to dive into a bloodied mess... sir."

---

Byul holds Hwayoung with one arm, whose head is resting on her shoulder, sleeping, as she attempts to open the fridge to take out some cold water. She doesn't want to wake her up, because the kid had spent her whole afternoon playing games with Yunho, and after she had her afternoon shower Byul read all kinds of stories for her at the living room, which caused her to fall asleep on her lap. So now before she wanted to lay her down on her bed, she's thinking of getting some water to quench her thirst.

As she struggles to open the fridge door while doing minimal movements, a hand stretches over from her side and opens the door for her, and she looks over Hwayoung's small body to see San looking into the fridge, face illuminated by the lamp inside.

He stays staring at the inside of the fridge before he utters without looking at her, "What did you want to take?"

"Oh, uh... the cold water. I'm kind of thirsty so I thought I'd have a drink before I put her down," she whispers. Hwayoung stirs and she pats her back to make her go back to sleep. The kid snuggles into her and keeps her eyes closed.

San says nothing further as he takes up the huge water tumbler and gives it to her without looking, and she looks down at it while pressing her lips flat.

Mumbling a thank you, she reaches out a hand to take it from him but he pulls it back, making it out of her reach. With a confused look she angles her body so that she'll look straight at him.

There's a slight smirk on his face as he mentions, "Let me pour one glass for you, or else you're either going to drop Hwayoung, or the cup. Drop Hwayoung and Yunho will come running, drop the cup and Seonghwa will come running." He moves over to the kitchen island, takes one cup off the hook and pours a cup for her. He slides it to her and gestures for her to take it.

As she drinks it in one shot, she puts the cup down to hear him asking, "Can I... talk to you? Personally."

She looks at him then to Hwayoung, before nodding. "Sure, let me tuck her in first and we can talk." She has thousands of questions for him on why he would rule her out, but decides against asking it now as she walks towards her bedroom, trying to keep the noise as low as possible.

She puts down Hwayoung carefully on the bed, tidies up her hair and pulls the blanket over her, making sure the fan is on the lowest speed before leaving the room with one last look to make sure that the kid is indeed sound asleep. She closes the door behind her to find San sitting on the sofa with his hands clasped in between his knees, looking anxious.

The rest of the house occupants are nowhere in the dorm except for Yeosang and San; apparently they are involved in a mission to save a hostage tonight - Hwayoung's kindergarten teacher. It alarmed her when they told her in the afternoon, where Hwayoung was only a few feet away, but they assured her that they had everything under control and there was nothing for her to worry about.

Well apparently she is worrying about them, because they are about to go against a group of gangsters who are enemies of Lee Mikyung's brother, and there are a lot at stake. Still, before they disappeared behind the washing machine, they kept on reminding her that they would be safe.

But maybe it's the fact that Yunho kept repeating and saying 'I love you' to Hwayoung before he left is what's making her worry that they won't leave the place unscathed. She could only hope for the best and that none will get injured.

"Can we talk somewhere more open? It's kind of stuffy here." He refers to the platform on the rooftop but he doesn't wait for her answer as he stands up, puts on a hoodie before passing by her and ascending the stairs, leaving her in a dumbfounded state.

She turns around to stalk his pathway, following him at a distance and looking at his hunched back as he shoves his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. He puts the box underneath the large window at the attic so he'll be able to climb up, and not once does he look back to check whether she is following or not.

She finds him lying down on the bare concrete, using his palms stacked on top of each other as a pillow, his ankles crossed over and him staring blankly at the night sky. It's barely 9 p.m., but the night seems to be as thick as it can get, the moon nowhere in sight while the stars seem to be playing hide and seek with them today. She drags her feet across the concrete, suddenly feeling the heaviness cloaking them, something unspoken and uncertain suspended in between.

Right now she doesn't even know whether she'd like to copy his movements and lie down beside him with a respectable distance between them, or simply sit cross-legged as they look at different views and talk. Which of the two would be less awkward?

She takes a step forward but she doesn't get a second to make a decision as San utters loud and clear for her to hear, "I like you."

There's a ringing sound in her ears and her brain seems to stop working as her hand stops mid-air, reaching out for who-knows-what. Her fingers curl into a fist and she drops to the floor, crouching at a distance from him as she bites her lower lip so hard she can taste blood.

"I needed to let it out, even though I know I won't hear the answer that I want to. Just to lift that burden off," he manages. "I was thinking of keeping it shut but I figured it would hurt even more if I decided to do that. It's much better to get rejected than keep being hopeful when I know you probably like someone else." He lets it out, "I'm not the best at keeping my emotions at bay. So at least, if you," he breathes in, "say it by yourself, I know when to stop."

She lets her bottom touch the ground, feeling defeated now that she heard his confession straight. "I'm sorry," she replies. She feels the tears pooling in her eyes as this is exactly what Akira warned her against; to not hurt them in any way, but that is all she has been doing. "I'm sorry I can't do more."

San straightens himself up, nodding slowly as he hugs his knees to his chest. He gives a weak smile as he turns to her, gesturing for her to sit nearer to him. "Thank you," he says simply. She looks confused at his reply that he chortles lowly before clarifying, "Thank you for not leading me on. At least now that I know you like someone else, I know it's time for me to stop. You like Yunho don't you?"

"No," she says, which makes it her turn for him to look at her confused. She lets out a sharp breath. "I rejected him yesterday." She tries to say it lightly but she almost feels like she would break down. "It's not him."

"Then... Hongjoong?" San looks at her, confusion replaced with amusement. "I always thought it was Yunho. Ah," he puts a finger to his lips and sighs, "I was so jealous of you and Yunho that night I was almost crying... but it was Hongjoong?"

This time she can't keep her low chuckle from his sudden change in attitude that even as she shakes her head, she's still laughing. "It's not Hongjoong, it's not anyone from the team," she smiles. "If there's anyone you want to be jealous of, it's Hwayoung. I love her."

San groans, before turning to her again. "Of course it's her, no one can resist her cuteness. Was I really being blindly jealous before this? Was it really no one on our team?"

She hesitates in answering but he doesn't notice, so as she catches herself saying no again, she feels like the biggest fool and liar. Admitting it won't bring it anywhere as she knows that what's severed can't be continued for her. For her, it's better to leave the end frayed, like it had been years ago.

No matter what her feelings are right now, it doesn't matter.

"I'm not going to stay here forever," she reminds him. "Just because we managed to escape from your higher-ups, doesn't mean I won't be caught one day. I can't keep on avoiding the cafe. It's only a diversion before all of you decide what you'll do with me. I can't keep hiding myself; you'll have to let me go one day. I'll have to change my identity, move away to another country, marry a foreigner..." she tries to say it jokingly but she notices his face changing so she immediately clamps her mouth shut.

"Was that what you did some time back? Changed your identity to escape from whatever that's chasing you?" He doesn't sound angry, but it's more of him sounding disappointed that he doesn't know about Han Byul more than her surface. "All of your identity, how much of it is true?"

He runs a hand through his blonde hair, messing it up in silent frustration. He doesn't look at her but his eyes are dancing across the sky, as if trying to pick up the stars one by one, hoping to find the answer to who she is among the scarce stars.

"How much do you want to know and how much are you willing to take?"

"I couldn't be the only person to like you, because you make people fall for you easily," he starts as there's the ghost of a sad smile on his face. "But is it selfish for me to want to be the first person for you to open up to, for you to tell me without hiding anything?"

She plays around with her fingers, mouth heavy to even pronounce to tell him the truth. To break him again. "I'm sorry."

"For? Because you're not who you say you are? Because someone else knows about you but I don't? Who was it, the person whom you trust with your-"

"It's Hongjoong. He found out who I am," she presses on, shutting him off. "Things are hard for me too. Never in a million years would I thought that I'd meet any of you again. Out of all the cafes that I stumbled upon, it had to be yours. What am I supposed to do when I threw that away years ago but Yunho came being that stupid nice guy he is, and I couldn't muster the will for me to say no to his invitation to come into the cafe?"

"So it is him," he says simply.

The tears fall as she looks away, and all San could do is to watch her cry, knowing that he doesn't have the rights to touch her.

"Is Hongjoong the only one who knows who you really are?" He doesn't ask further as there are a lot of questions he really wants to ask; why is Hongjoong the first person to know? Was he the one who picked it up first? Or did he somehow stumble upon the truth while Byul couldn't do anything but to confess?

With all these questions reeling in his head, he can't help but think that maybe he doesn't know their leader as well as he thinks he does.

"Yes."

Her short answer leaves a bitter taste on his mouth and he can't help but scoff in disbelief, unsure of what he's supposed to feel. He feels like there's a lock around her heart that he can't get to, yet Hongjoong seems to be able to go right through it.

"How?" He can't seem to find the correct words yet again.

"He and I have the same goal, and he beat me right to it. He was the one who caught me first, and I had no choice but to admit who I was."

He sighs, feeling the situation growing more ridiculous by the second. "So our leader, Kim Hongjoong, has a goal that none of us know about? That he has been running behind our backs?"

"The last thing I want is for you to blame him for anything." She grips his shoulder but he shrugs it off, but it almost looks like he's sulking. "Kim Hongjoong is only looking to get the best for all of you."

"Really? Then tell me what it is, because frankly our leader has not been honest to us about this, and I feel like the stupidest person on earth right now. Is there a reason why we were the ones who were picked as ATEEZ? No, did you really stumble upon our cafe by accident? Did Hongjoong really mistakenly announce to the whole damn cafe, while you were there, so that we had no choice but to take you in? Was it all planned?" he shouts as he turns to look at her, eyes wide and red as the tears roll down his cheeks. "Why does it seem like all of our lives are a lie?"

"Because it is a lie!" she snaps, and it really looks like she broke it right there and then as he sinks back and his shoulders sag.

"What... do you mean?"

"It hurts me to think that every single one of your lives are built on lies," she breathes. "A 10-year contract? You think that you'll be free after that? There's nothing such as freedom when you're under the Bifidensis. Think about it, Choi San. What makes you think the Bifidensis will let you go once your contract ends? Have you ever met any other ex-agents?"

"No..." He shakes his head as realization dawns on him, but he's still refusing to admit it.

"Choi San, Bifidensis won't let you go as your contract ends. They will kill you, and there will be no traces of you left in this world. I'm trying to stop that before it happens."

"Stop trying to kid yourself!" he pulls her hand, but she hastily stands up, removing herself from his grip. "You're trying to do the impossible."

"You seem to be severely underestimating me; I can't be with someone who always underestimates my abilities."

"Han Byul, you know that's not what I meant."

She shakes her head. "You want to know who I am? I'm Trainee #899 who was murdered on the 6th of November 2013, on the same day I gave birth to my nameless child. I am Lee Eunbi, a trainee who was deemed a threat and was given a very high lethality level because I killed 2 members of the Bifidensis without having any proper weapon, alone. Choi San, if you think it's impossible, then you're looking at the right person to do it."

---

[A/N: Happy holidays and merry ATEEZ-Mas!!!]