Dirty Jobs: Arc I, Dirty Diamonds (I)
Dirty Jobs
Chansoo / Baekchen / Xiuhan
Suho, Yixing, Kris, Sehun, Kai, Tao
Summary
EXO is an underground group in Seoul that will do anything, meaning they will take any job you give them as long as you pay the appropriate price. You can ask them to find someone, or you can ask them to make someone disappear. They will do the dirty jobs no one else is willing to do.
Story Arch I: Job XXX - Dirty Diamond (Part I)
Job XXX: Dirty Diamonds (Part I)
Xiumin sighs and pours himself another cup of coffee. Leaning back against the counter, he watches Chanyeol follow Kyungsoo around in his tiny coffee shop. The older of the two speaks animatedly in a loud and deep voice. In the midst of explaining something, the cloth in his left hand waves wildly in the air, almost hitting his much shorter companion several times. Kyungsoo sweeps the floor half-heartedly with his head ducked low, easily avoiding the other’s flailing limbs with practice. Occasionally, he looks up and meets Chanyeol’s eyes, showing that he is still paying attention; sometimes he replies in a soft voice, so soft Xiumin thinks only Chanyeol could hear because he has big elf-like ears.
Today’s topic of conversation seems to be about the mantis shrimp.
Xiumin sips at his coffee with a frown. Chanyeol has abandoned the cloth on the nearest table and started to shadow box, attempting to imitate how a mantis shrimp strikes a prey. “Apparently their punches have the same velocity as a gunshot,” Xiumin overhears Chanyeol say, and he watches as the taller man delivers quick and powerful punches at the air. His brows are creased in concentration and his lips pursed into a thin line. Kyungsoo have stopped sweeping, and he propped his chin on the end of the broomstick, wide eyes following Chanyeol’s every move. A faint smile hangs loosely on his heart-shaped lips.
The frown on Xiumin’s youthful face deepens as he gulps down the last of his coffee. He has been debating if he should reprimand Chanyeol for his act of arson last night. When he agreed to let Chanyeol join EXO, they have reached an agreement that the arsonist would stop trying to set everything around him on fire. It has been two years and Chanyeol is doing relatively well. He has only committed 20 cases of arson outside of EXO jobs in the past two years; that was equivalent to what he once did in one month. Normally, Xiumin would have gave Chanyeol a good ass-kicking for breaking their agreement (again), but the incident last night cannot be categorize as ‘normally’. Last night Chanyeol set the water tower on fire for Kyungsoo’s birthday, as a present. Xiumin thought Kyungsoo would have gotten angry at Chanyeol for his act of arson, which he usual did, but there has been no sign of the young boy getting angry at all; rather, he looks happier than usual. That puts Xiumin in a difficult situation. He does not want to put a damper on Kyungsoo’s mood.
It has been a while since Xiumin saw Kyungsoo this relaxed and happy. When Luhan fell into his coma three years ago, Kyungsoo lost his smile. He always looked tense and terrified, as if his world has crumbled and everyone was out to get him. It was the same look he had many years ago when Luhan and Xiumin first found him crouched in the corner of an alleyway. Xiumin remembers his first impression of Kyungsoo; he thought the boy was more like a wounded kitten than a normal 10 year-old. He glared at anyone trying to get close to him, refused to go outside of his room, and in general, he just did not know how to socialize. Eventually, Luhan gradually broke through the walls surrounding Kyungsoo’s heart and he spoiled the boy with love. Luhan, like Xiumin, was an orphan but he loved Kyungsoo like the younger brother he never had. In return, Kyungsoo devoted all the love for his missing parents into loving Luhan. The three of them lived together and for the first time in his life, Xiumin felt like he had a complete family. They were happy. But after Luhan’s accident, everything changed. No matter what Xiumin has tried, he could not replace the void Luhan left behind in the young boy. The older man watched helplessly as Kyungsoo rebuilt the wall around his heart.
Then Chanyeol barged into their lives, especially Kyungsoo’s life. He was enthralled by the wide-eye boy at first sight and since then, Chanyeol made a mission in his life to never leave Kyungsoo alone. The rowdy arsonist brought out both the best and worst in Kyungsoo. Sometimes his antics would get a hearty laugh out of the boy, but most of the time they roused fits of uncontrollable rage in the young boy. Either way, the appearance of Chanyeol was like a dry-season forest fire that steadily burnt down the walls Kyungsoo has rebuilt. Xiumin may not voice it but he is thankful to Chanyeol. Despite all the trouble Chanyeol has caused him over the past two years, Xiumin is glad he joined their little group because he has made Kyungsoo human again. He did what Xiumin could not; he brought the smile back.
The sound of smashing glass pulls Xiumin out of his thoughts and he looks up to find Chanyeol frozen in his punching position, both him and Kyungsoo staring at the scattered pieces of glass on the floor. ‘I take that back.’ Xiumin thinks to himself and heaves another sigh. ‘There goes another candle holder.’ Before he could scold Chanyeol, someone knocked on the shop’s front door. Kyungsoo shoves the broom into the lanky man’s arms, motioning for him to clean up, and goes to open the door.
Seconds later, Jongdae follows Kyungsoo into the coffee shop. Nodding a greeting at Chanyeol and completely ignoring the mess on the floor, Jongdae marches straight to Xiumin by the counter.
“I know we have a meeting and all, but isn’t it suspicious looking for us to sit in a closed coffee shop on a Wednesday morning?” Jongdae asks, placing his bag down on the counter.
“No, it’s fine. We are usually closed on Wednesday anyways,” Xiumin replies, “people will just assume we are having a staff meeting or something.” He looks down at his watch: 9 A.M. sharp.
“Where is Baekhyun? Wasn’t he with you last night?”
“Yah, then he went home, I think.” Jongdae moves behind the counter, “Actually, I have no idea where he went.” He flashes a smile that blatantly said ‘don’t know and don’t care’. He pulls a mug out from the cupboard mounted on the wall and pours himself a cup of coffee. Without asking, he also refills Xiumin’s cup. Jongdae is well aware of Xiumin’s coffee addiction and the drink’s calming effect on EXO’s leader. He can tell the leader is not in a good mood this morning, probably because of the new job or the burning water tower from last night, and he will need the coffee to get through the meeting. Jongdae smiles to himself remembering last night. Following Xiumin’s gaze, Jongdae sees Kyungsoo sitting on a table, feet dangling and pointing his finger at the specs of shattered glass, while Chanyeol scurries around the small shop with the broom in his hand, trying to gather all the missing pieces. It’s already a mess and Baekhyun hasn’t even arrived yet. Yep, Xiumin definitely needs the coffee, Jongdae concludes, or else he may end up strangling somebody halfway through, most likely either Chanyeol or Baekhyun.
Speak of the devil, Baekhyun waltzes in right then through the back door holding a square box with ribbon on top in his hand.
“Good morning, darlings!” Baekhyun’s horrible British accent booms across the small shop. He places the decorated box on the nearest table, and winks at everybody around the room with a charming smile. Chanyeol laughs, while Kyungsoo and Xiumin blinks emotionlessly at him, and Jongdae winks back at him. He then saunters towards Kyungsoo, carelessly crushing the loose pieces of glass Chanyeol has failed to sweep up. From his seat on the table, Kyungsoo instinctively glares at Baekhyun and stretches to grab Chanyeol, who was near, to stand in front of him. Last time he let Baekhyun near him, the smiley man tickled him. Nobody tickles Kyungsoo, and the boy made sure Baekhyun learned that first hand by punching him in the stomach; but Baekhyun never learns. Not minding being used as a human shield, Chanyeol flashed a shark-like grin at Baekhyun and gave his best friend a high five when the latter closed in.
“Oh come on Kyungsoo, I just want to say happy birthday.” Baekhyun whines, “Look, I’ve even brought you cake!” he gestures at the decorated box. At the mention of cake, Kyungsoo peeks out from behind Chanyeol. Contrary to his cold demeanour and violent tendencies, Kyungsoo had a major sweet tooth.
“It’s strawberry short cake, your favourite” Baekhyun says in a sing-song voice.
Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at Baekhyun, but cautiously slips off the table and edges towards the cake, reluctantly leaving the protection of his human shield. He keeps his eyes fixed on the smiling man as he walked; Baekhyun just smiles innocently at the boy, holding his hands up submissively. However, not looking at where he’s going, Kyungsoo soon bumps into a chair and breaks his gaze on Baekhyun. In a split second, Baekhyun closes the distance between himself and the stumbling boy, and envelopes the latter in a crushing hug. Kyungoo’s whole body tenses and his already wide eyes widen more in surprise. A small gasp escapes his mouth, making the man hugging him chuckle. Baekhyun hugs Kyungsoo even closer and shamelessly nuzzles his cheek into the boy’s soft black hair.
“Aigooo, our baby is another year older,” Baekyun coos, “and damn, what do you use for your hair, Soo, it smells s- URG!”
Kyungsoo kicked hard at Baekyun’s shin. Kyungsoo does not enjoy intimate touching, especially from Baekhyun. Chanyeol and Jongdae cackled loudly as Baekhyun sinks to the floor, quivering with pain. The birthday boy scoffs and looks down at the man withering in pain by his feet, moaning and groaning in a hushed voice. Xiumin rubs his forehead and feels a headache come on. Waving his hand, he motions the standing members to the table in front of the counter.
“Enough. Take a seat and let’s start the meeting.” He glances over at the man still muttering on the floor.
“Stop acting and get your ass over here. You were already late,” he says with no sympathy in his voice, “and stop picking the lock on my back door. Use the front door.”
Baekhyun looks up and realizes no one is paying him attention anymore. He sprawls out across the hardwood floor and whines loudly while shaking his limbs like a child not getting his ways.
“You guys are so mean! No love for Baekhyun!”
Being the nicer one, Jongdae glances at him and rolls his eyes.
---
Once everyone settled down with coffee and a slice of cake in front them, Xiumin was finally allowed to start the meeting. He sat at the end of the table, with Chanyeol and Kyungsoo sitting next to each other on his right side, and Baekhyun and Jongdae on his left. Jongdae already has his laptop pulled out. Chanyeol shoves cake in his mouth and smudges cream all over his lips, causing Baekhyun and Jongdae to point and laugh at him. Kyungsoo ignores everybody and forks a small piece of cake into his mouth with a small satisfied smile, legs swinging underneath the table. Sometimes, Xiumin thinks he works with a group of toddlers, who happened to be really good at exploding things and setting things on fire, making others sick and uncomfortable, lying, stealing things, and invading your privacy. Xiumin clears his throat, hoping to catch their full attention but fails to, and begin to explain the job.
“Our new client is Kris Wu, the owner of Arctic Diamond. He’s a Canadian-Chinese diamond dealer and supplier. His background is a little complicated. He has some ties with a triad in Hongkong, and he also trades with Suho and the Kims.” All of the members’ heads perk up at the name and their full attention finally focused on Xiumin. Suho ran all the underground black markets in Seoul and his family, the Kim, operated the largest crime syndicate in Korea. He is someone EXO cannot afford to and does not want to offend.
“Why come to us?” Baekhyun asks in a flat tone, all traces of earlier silliness now gone. He looks down at his mug of coffee, lightly shaking his head and blowing on the liquid to cool it down.
“He wants us to find the man who took the diamonds he is going to trade with the Kims, and he wants them back before his meets Suho tomorrow evening.” Xiumin replies. “The man’s name is Lee Kwangsoo. He was one of Kris’ bodyguards in Korea and he has been missing for about 10 hours now.”
“Why doesn’t he just look for the guy himself? Or even better, why doesn’t he just ask Suho for help?” Chanyeol mumbles with a mouthful of cake, spraying loose crumbs all over the table. Kyunsoo shoots him a disgusted look and shields his piece of cake with his small hands. Across the table, Jongdae smirks at Kyungsoo’s action and answers Chanyeol before Xiumin speaks again.
“He can’t. Suho’s been eyeing Kris’ company for a while now, but being a family business, Kris has no intension of selling it. Suho is probably just waiting for a legitimate reason to wage war against Kris and forcefully take over the company. If Kris makes a wrong move and offends the Kims somehow by, oh I don’t know, maybe show up to the trade with no merchandise,” a Cheshire smile creeps up Jongdae’s face, “I’d say that’s a good enough reason for Suho. Isn’t that right, hyung.”
Xiumin watches silently at the smiling Jongdae, whose eyes focused on his shirt pocket instead of his face. Leave it up to the resident hacker of EXO to figure everything out. Jongdae, unlike the other three, may be a stranger to many dealing in their kind of business because he worked mostly from behind the screen and was the last to join EXO, but almost nobody is a stranger to him. He has a way with information; not only could he dig up dirt on almost anybody, he also has photographic memory. If the world is like an amusement park, then Jongdae has the all-access pass and the employee’s pass. Xiumin is definitely wary of Jongdae, who always walked around with a small, knowing smirk on his face and twinkles in his eyes. How much does the hacker know, about him and Luhan, and their plan?
“Can’t he just replace the diamonds? Time is kind of tight for finding someone who has been missing for 10 hours already.” Baekhyun says, still not looking up. Despite all of his silliness and jokes, Baekhyun is probably the most professional in EXO. Having grown up with parents who made their living being full time con artists and thieves, he was raised and trained to be the perfect criminal. Soft eyes, a gentle smile and impeccable manners, Baekhyun has charmed and conned a handful of females and males alike over the years. He may be flashy, but he knows how to use his beauty and exceptional conversation skills to stay out of jail. None of his victims would testify against him because they truly believed that Baekhyun has at one point in time really loved them, so they were happy to give what the charming man wanted. Jongdae jokingly called him “all-kill” before, but all of EXO have wordless agreed that Baekhyun is fitful of such title. He has the skills, in conning and thieving, and he is always level-headed and adaptable, no matter how bad things get. Baekhyun is the perfect criminal and Xiumin thinks it is lucky that EXO has him.
“No. It’s kind of hard trying to find thirty D colour, I.F grade, 6 carat diamonds in such short notice without attracting Suho’s attention” Xiumin answers and sips at his coffee. Baekhyun whistles as he meets Xiumin’s eyes. He looks around at his team members with sparking eyes and he wiggles his eyebrows playfully.
“That’s almost 3 million USD of diamonds.” Kyungsoo whispers while stabbing absentmindedly at his half-eaten cake. He looks to Xiumin and asks: “How much is he paying us to do this?”
“1 million USD.” Xiumin replies.
“Pfft,” Chanyeol snorts obnoxiously and stares intensely at Xiumin’s shirt pocket, “What do you take us for, idiots? If we take the job, we will need to deal with Suho. No, make it 1.5 million or you can find someone else to do it.”
Xiumin reaches his phone from his shirt pocket and places it on the table in front. It was already connected and on speaker mode, but no one is surprised.
“You’ve heard them Kris, 1.5 million or no deal. What do you say?” Xiumin asks into the phone. 1.5 million USD is a lot more than what he would usually charge, but this is a tricky, dirty job. They will temporarily be opposing Suho, and that never is a wise choice. Despite being the youngest son from the Kim family, Suho’s ruthlessness and natural leadership skills earned him the top position in his family, as well as the fear of many in Seoul. But money is money, and unless Suho will turn around and pay them to not help Kris, Xiumin sees no reason to turn down the job. Sure, if Suho decides to come after EXO, they are all fucked; but that’s what their job entails. They are EXO and they will do anything as long as the appropriate price is paid, and 1.5 million USD is pretty appropriate. They will just need to work faster and work more in the shadows. This is not mission impossible.
After a long silence, Kris agrees, sounding slightly unhappy. Baekhyun flashes Kyungsoo a toothy grin, his mouth in the shape of a rectangle, and Kyungsoo rolls his eyes with a faint smile.
“You better do this well.” Kris’ grumpy voice sounds over the speaker phone, “If you don’t get those diamonds back to me on time, not only will you walk away empty-handed, I will also drag you down with me.” The frown returns to Xiumin’s face. Kris continues: “Remember, the diamonds are the priority. You have my permission to recover them at all cost.”
“So what we do to the guy, you don’t care right?” Chanyeol asks in a raspy voice, leaning closer to the phone. Something flickers in his eyes and his mouth curls into a perverse smile.
Kyungsoo turns to look at Chanyeol with a similar smile on his face. Silence fills the room again. Then moments later, Kris’ voice returns, sounding even more annoyed: “Just make sure you get the diamonds back to me before 4:30 p.m. tomorrow. No payments until the job is done” He hangs up.
Xiumin tucks his phone away and looks at his team around the table. All of them look eager and ready for action. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo look particularly eager, the creepy smiles still on their faces. Xiumin has no interest in finding out what is going through their minds, but he does feel some pity for this Lee Kwangsoo man, knowing what the two are capable of.
“If you need anything, just let me know. Don’t worry about Suho and just concentrate on finding Lee Kwangsoo. If you run into Suho’s man, don’t confront them and send me a text with their location. I will deal with them.” Xiumin says to his team. Then he turns to speak to each member, starting with Chanyeol. “Yeol, make sure you keep your phone charged. Don’t burn anything and make sure Kyungsoo doesn’t get hurt.” Chanyeol responds with a loud ‘Yes’sir’ and an exaggerated salute. The boy sitting next to him frowns and Xiumin cuts him off before he could speak.
“Chanyeol can fight, but you can’t, so stay away if fights break out.” He looks straight into the boy’s clear eyes, and Kyungsoo begrudgingly nods. Luhan would kill him if Kyungsoo ever gets hurt. “Also, I trust you can keep the other three in check. And don’t kill the man, bring him back. We can try to sell him to either Kris or Suho afterwards.”
Xiumin turns to Baekhyun, but the latter speaks first: “I know, I know, keep Kyungsoo safe and don’t fuck around with Chanyeol too much. Don’t worry so much, hyung. We will find the man, right Jongdae?”
Both Xiumin and Baekhyun turn to look at the hacker, who is already typing fervently at his laptop. Feeling eyes on him, Jongdae looks up and flashes his trade mark Cheshire smile. Xiumin smiles back.
“Jongdae you’re in charge. Again, call me if you need anything and if I get information from Luhan, I will let you know. Be safe.” All four members nod at their leader. Xiumin gets up and turns to leave through the back door. Before the door is shut, he heard Baekhyun and Chanyeol laugh boisterously at something Jongdae had said.
1.5 million USD and 31 hours in count down. Let the hunt begin.
Arch I - Dirty Diamonds: Part II (1/2)