seventeen; holding onto gravity (1/2)
Title : Holding Onto Gravity
Fandom : Seventeen
Pairing : Joshua/Jeonghan
Length : 12.7k words
Summary : Secret Agent!AU. Yoon Junghan is a gravity that keeps Hong Jisoo grounded at every beating second of his life.
Warning: minor character death
holding onto gravity
Sometimes, Jisoo finds it’s quiet on the mission he’s in.
It’s usually when he takes seconds between the times he regains his breath, before continuing his pursue. Just a moment of silent-and everything goes mute, black and white and slow motion-as if the world wants him to see from another perspective. Jisoo can see his parents’ faces, somewhere watching him, his uncles and aunts, his brother, people who had died for the sake of protecting him in the past. They are also the reason why he should finish the mission and come back alive to The Headquarters.
And then a voice will wake him up.
A mellifluent and familiar voice comes from his earpiece, screaming in high-pitch voice because Jisoo doesn’t respond to his call. When Jisoo blinks, everything is back to the way it was before-and so, he runs again.
There are also gunshots involved in the arrest, and a Good job, Jisoo, you did it. You did a splendid job on his ear. Jisoo takes a deep breath, walking to where he parks his car and drives back to The Headquarters with shoulders feel lighter than ever.
Jisoo walks along the corridor, enjoying the sound of the heel of his shoes meeting the floor. Some people walk pass him and congratulate him-Congrats, you’ve made your life a day longer is what they are trying to say, or at least it’s the way Jisoo guessed it, but of course they don’t say it out loud. As a field agent, Jisoo knows best about this.
The Control Room is always noisy, but when a mission is finished, it’s a kind of good noisy. Jisoo pushes the door open and everyone in the room cheers, some immediately leave their seats to pull him into a bone-crushing hug.
“Again, our magnificent agent, the best we ever had in history, the one and only, Hong Jisus has saved the day!” Soonyoung announces happily, half clinging on Jisoo’s taller body. Jisoo grimaces, knowing Soonyoung would use a hyperbole statement.
“Come on, it’s been four years. It felt good at the beginning, but now it feels embarrassing.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that you’ve done a great job, Jisus.” Soonyoung shrugs. “Watching you run and do things with your gun is always something. We had a good show to watch, thanks to you.”
Jisoo rolls his eyes. “It really hurts my pride. You guys were just watching while I was fighting between life and death? How dare you call yourself a friend.”
“It’s because we’re indeed, your friends.”
Jisoo looks up, automatically smiles at the figure who talks from the second floor, body leaning on the railing. “You should be happy to have us. We’re willing to sacrifice anything if you were in danger, you know.”
“Speak only for yourself, Junghan.” Jihoon suddenly appears behind the pretty and fragile looking boy (which is actually, not at all). “But really Jisoo, we glad you’re safe. That was a dangerous mission.”
“Thanks, Sir.” Jisoo grins, “So, what do I get in return?”
“Coffee?” Junghan chirps, “Coffee is always good, right?”
“Fine, coffee is good.” Jisoo looks up again to meet Junghan’s bright eyes. “You’re paying.”
Junghan doesn’t drink coffee, nor does Jisoo.
The funny thing is, it’s such a habit for Junghan to force Jisoo to drink some caffeine (it turns out to be cappuccino with lots of milk) after a mission, and how Jisoo always does as he told just makes it funnier. Sure Jisoo can say no anytime, not that Junghan will be offended with his rejection, but seeing Junghan’s eyes light up in amusement as Jisoo trying to empty the mug in one go is somewhat… calming.
And then Junghan will start briefing him about his new mission to follow up the latest or giving him evaluation of his previous work-and Jisoo will just hear him patiently, a little smile curled on the corner of his lips. At the end of his long speech, Junghan will lean across the table to peck Jisoo on the lips, smiling wide.
“I’m so proud of you.” Junghan says, and Jisoo really wants to stand up and cup Junghan’s face on his palm and kiss him again, despite the risk of being fired if his boss walks in to the cafeteria and sees the whole scene.
“Thank you,” Jisoo says, trying not to sound so eager. But then, this is Junghan-who makes him fall in love every other day, who understands him the most, who has known him the longest, who has the mellifluent and familiar voice to wake Jisoo up when he’s lost at his own world in the middle of a mission. This is his Junghan, another reason why Jisoo should come back alive after every fight on the field.
Soonyoung hands him a stack of papers when he gets back to the Control Room. Jisoo frowns, accepting the papers half-heartedly. Junghan receives the same copy and he leaves Jisoo’s side (after a quick squeeze on his hand) to sit behind the laptop where he works.
“Hey come on, don’t look at me like that. How would I know another case would come just fifteen minutes after you finished one? And for your reference, villains won’t know your resting time, so just deal with that.”
“Okay, so, what’s this?”
“Jihoon will explain it further. Your turn, my King!” Soonyoung calls; complete with a wink that effectively traumatizes Jihoon.
“Disgusting,” the latter disgruntles. “Okay, so, I just received an e-mail from Junhui, who’s currently going undercover in China, about the movement of the organization we’ve tailed for three years. Seems like they are planning something big, but we can’t tell as much now.”
“What kind of movement did they make?” Junghan asks.
“Our spies caught a record of them negotiating with a Russian military corporate just a month ago. Junhui has succeeded on copying the data they were exchanged after he hacked on the organization’s system, but he couldn’t get the data open. He sent the item over to us,” Jihoon pauses to look at Junghan, “please take care of that, Junghan.”
“I’ll do my best,” Junghan nods. Jihoon turns his attention back to the rest of the team.
“After years of trying, we finally could reveal that the organization is called by its code, Oasis. It’s the name they use when they make a deal with someone, but apparently, they had put false information in the national database to fool people who were trying to dig up about them. From what I heard, they have the best negotiator and trapper; the cause of massive chaos in Hong Kong economy sector a year ago was their doing.”
Jihoon points to the wide screen behind him. “Our other agent Minghao tracked one of them down-who so far we believe, is one of the negotiators-and this shocking result is what we got.”
Wonwoo, sits on the far left of the room, almost topples off his chair, his jaw drops immediately. “Wait, what? He’s on FBI Wanted List?”
Jihoon nods. “Soonyoung and I had tried to collect information about him, and as we expected, he was confirmed dead. He was working with Russian government in secret operations that we assume had something to do with some terrorist actions in the past decade, and it make sense since FBI was also after him. We didn’t have enough proof about this, but we’d know for sure after the file is unlocked.”
“Wait, Jihoon.” Jisoo cuts in, “How do you know we’ll get some hints from the file?”
“Well, instinct,” answers Jihoon. “I don’t know what’s inside, but if it contains some information, whatever it might be, it’d be useful for us.”
No one can mess with Jihoon’s instinct, so Jisoo shuts up. “Uh, okay. Anything else we should know?”
The screen changes when Jihoon presses something on his tablet, showing another three faces Jisoo doesn’t remember he knows any of them.
“I’ve already printed the copy of their profiles into your file. They are on the top list of missing Korean agents from Argentina, who were also confirmed dead. We came to a conclusion they’re also the part of Oasis, and were last seen in Macao, three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, Jisoo and Mingyu blew up a building that actually was a money counterfeit factory, and remember what currency they were making there?”
“Macanese pataca,” Mingyu says with a gasp, “it’s Macao’s currency.”
“True.” Jihoon nods. “The organization probably smuggled them to Macao and asked other agents to take and distribute the money from Korea. But the building was related to Mingyu’s previous drug deal case, and was demolished without knowing it was actually a beginning to another, bigger case.”
Jisoo frowns, biting his lower lip. “So they were going to overthrow Macao’s economy like how they did to Hong Kong?”
“I believe yes. And they kept us busy with another case, so we’d postpone thorough searching about the actual case. Also, I’m afraid they’d sensed our plan in Korea, so they started off in China. We’re lucky we have a bunch of agents there.”
Wonwoo sighs loudly. “So, what are we going to do now?”
“That,” Jihoon says, “will be decided after tomorrow. We’ll have to wait for new information from our agents in China, and for Junghan to unlock the file.”
“The time given for me is less than 24 hours?” asks Junghan, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me something is going to explode and kill us all if I can’t open this file by tomorrow.”
“Oh, no, they are not that extreme,” Jihoon laughs, “Our agents in China asked for a day to get more information. Also, we need to make a plan. Field agents, please study your file well. You’re going to make an arrest at any time.”
Mingyu, Wonwoo, and Jisoo sigh in unison. “What a hard life of a field agent,” Mingyu says, and the other two can’t agree more to his words.
It’s almost midnight when Jisoo glances at his watch, and glances over the table to see Junghan still on his laptop, unfazed by how the situation has changed since two hours ago or so. Everyone had left-Mingyu and Wonwoo were called for a robbery case, and Jihoon went home with Soonyoung after convinced everyone he’d keep in contact with the agents and inform the team once he got something. Junghan insisted he had to finish his task before the daybreak, and of course, Jisoo would stay.
“Aren’t you tired?” Jisoo asks, and Junghan looks up from the screen, smiling. Jisoo wonders how someone can still smile this bright after stuck with codes for hours.
“Are you?” he asks, “You can go home if you want. I remember you complained about the company’s couch that was really bad for your back, so I won’t recommend you to sleep on it again.”
“I won’t go home without you,” Jisoo says. “But really, you’ve been doing this for almost five hours straight. You need to take a break.”
Junghan hums in thought, but then he nods and gets up from his chair. “Okay,” he says, “a short walk will do.”
Jisoo offers a hand to him, “Let me lead the way, Princess.”
Junghan laughs, taking Jisoo’s hand and doesn’t protest when the taller boy pulls him closer to his side.
There’s something poetic about walking hand-in-hand with Junghan, so late at night with ice cream from a minimarket nearby on their free hands. Jisoo always loves this little moment with Junghan-after all, they are in a relationship where everything is uncertain. His work is insane, people he’s working with are insane, and Junghan is what makes him stay on his right mind, most of the time.
Jihoon calls Jisoo when they stop on the park bench-telling him that Junhui and Minghao had opened the file and they got nothing. In conclusion, it was such a waste of time trying to open the file; intentionally apologizing to Junghan.
“Junghan is still working with the file,” Jisoo says. “But I’ll tell him that. Thank you, Sir.”
“What’s wrong?” Junghan asks. Jisoo sighs and takes Junghan’s hand to intertwine their fingers together.
“Junhui and Minghao had opened the file, and there was nothing inside. Also, Jihoon begs for your apology after he made you worked for hours for nothing.”
Junghan laughs quietly, “I forgive him. Also, I’ve opened the file, so I knew there was nothing inside.”
Jisoo blinks. “You what?”
“I’ve opened the file not too long after Junhui handed it over to me. It was a trap, Jisoo. The passwords were too easy and you don’t need a professional hacker to crack them. Perhaps Minghao and Junhui needed longer time because they were not familiar with Korean military codes that were used, but it was something too predictable for an organization who managed to do a lot of things illegally. I knew something was wrong the moment I saw it empty, but I didn’t tell everyone yet.”
Jisoo licks his lips, “So, they purposefully let you hijack the transferred file and make it look easy to break, to fool us? To make us think they don’t have what we’re looking for?”
Junghan nods. “Yes, they must’ve expected many people would watch the transaction. If they were smarter, they could’ve made the transaction visible to lure us into the trap-the empty file.”
Jisoo lifts a hand to caress Junghan’s cheek with the back of his fingers. “You,” he says gently, carefully, “are one of the best things ever happened to us. What would we do without you, Yoon Junghan?”
“Oh, I’m flattered.” Junghan chuckles, “I tried to break each element on it, and I actually did find something. The second layer of security line, in higher level, a lot more complicated. The file’s real content is probably hiding between these passwords, but I still can’t find a hole to crack them.”
“How long do you think you’ll be able to decrypt the file?”
“I don’t know,” Junghan sighs, “maybe a little bit long. The codes were mutants-like, you know, when the original base of something was changed to a new form, they’re called mutants. Not everyone could create mutants code. We’re absolutely not playing with whomever behind this.”
“I’ll help you with the code,” Jisoo holds Junghan’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilts it to his direction, pressing a kiss on his forehead. “But we need to sleep first. And probably have a cup of coffee in the morning.”
Junghan laughs. “Agree.” he says, “My place or yours?”
“Wherever makes you comfortable, Princess.”
Jihoon goes crazy (almost chokes Wonwoo beside him to death) after Jisoo tells him about Junghan’s encounter the next morning, and the first ten minutes of the day is suddenly so horror that no one dares to move an inch from their current position. Junghan and Soonyoung are already on behind the desk, continuing on where Junghan left off last night.
Jihoon furiously typing on the keyboard, trying to get Junhui or Minghao (or both) as fast as possible. When Junhui’s face appears on the screen, confused-as anyone else-Jihoon yells, that must feel as bad as if Jihoon was really yelling in front of his face.
“Get me every CCTV of the country and make sure none of those bastards slip out of my hand,” Jihoon hisses, “and where’s your cute little friend?”
“I’m here,” Minghao’s face appears beside Junhui’s, grinning wide. “Good morning, Sir, thank you for calling me cute.”
Jihoon presses his lips into a thin line to prevent himself from laughing. “Good morning, Minghao. Did you have a good sleep?”
“Not really, Sir. The sirens kept blaring all night long and about five criminal cases happened within three hours last night. I think it has something to do with the failed drug deal after Mingyu captured them three weeks ago, and everyone here is going mad.”
“Soonyoung will help you with the cases’ detail, so please just focus on watching the three agents.”
“Understood,” Junhui and Minghao nod.
“Oh, wait, Sir!” Minghao gasps, looking down to type something on his keyboard. The wide screen on the room changes, moving Minghao and Junhui’s face to the top left corner, and the other space is replaced by a box of CCTV record. It’s black and white and mostly blurred, but then Minghao zooms in and catches a face with 95% similarity with one of the agents they are targeting, getting off the train.
“The record came just now from Nanjing Station.”
“How the hell did he get to Nanjing?” Soonyoung shrieks. “What’s going on in there? Quick, send someone to take him right now!”
“Calm down, Soonyoung, there’s always a probability for them to distract us with little thing like this.” Jisoo says calmly, and looks up to speak with Minghao and Junhui. “Please check every possible place for the other agents to be around, narrow it down to places like airport and train station.”
“Are they going to go somewhere?” Jihoon asks. Jisoo nods without looking at him, focusing on the CCTV record on the screen.
“I think so, and I had a feeling this case will be related to Mingyu’s drug deal and the building explosion, also the cases happened last night, and probably the homicide case I took last time. And, whatever plan they’re having right now, it will put everyone in danger. We must stop them before it happens.”
“We found another target in Beijing Capital International Airport,” Junhui reports, “I’ve checked the schedules; they only have three flights to Macao today. Another agent is still nowhere to be found.”
“Send back up team to Nanjing and Beijing airport, and alert the police, don’t lose him!”
Jihoon shoves a fist to his mouth, infuriatingly trying not to yell and scare his subordinates even more. He asks Soonyoung to check the possible places in Seoul, just in case one agent was left here to put another trap.
“Jisoo,” Junghan calls, his tone is somewhere between shocked and worried. “Jisoo, come here.”
Jisoo runs to Junghan’s side, looking at his laptop. “What’s it, Junghan?”
“I’ve decrypted the file,” Junghan says. “Jisoo, weren’t you said the victim of your last case was robbed after he killed?”
“Yeah, the money lost was around 20 million USD. Why?”
“The money was deposited to this file. The contract date matched with the date of the murder, and they had Oasis stamp here. Think again, why would Oasis give the Russian military company these much money?”
“Most probably they are buying weapons,” Jisoo answers. “With this amount of money, they could buy enough weapons to sweep half population of China and Korea.”
“Are they planning an assassination?” Wonwoo asks eerily.
“I still don’t know, but this is a new hint for us. Junghan, can you get me more details about the victim and his previous relation of work?”
“Sure,” Junghan nods, fingers dancing in the keyboard. “Uh?” he pulls his back a little a moment later, confused. “I didn’t see something like this earlier. Wait, what the hell?”
Sensing something’s not right, Jisoo peeks at Junghan’s screen again.
His eyes widen in shock, scrambling his way to the wide screen and shouts at Junhui and Minghao, “Don’t let those bastards go anywhere! Evacuate everyone to safer place! They’ve planted bombs on those places!”
“Bombs?” Everyone in the room gasps in shock.
Jihoon grabs Jisoo’s arm impatiently. “Explain to us! What do you mean by bombs?”
“They sent the agents to different places to plant the bombs! They had the map along with the fund inside the file! Where’s the third bastard, anyway?”
“We still can’t locate him,” Minghao says. “But we’re trying to do it as fast as we can. I’ve alerted the police about the bomb, but it probably takes time for the team to get there-”
“We don’t have time to wait.” Jisoo cuts in, “Please send an official announcement to leave the place immediately.”
“Wouldn’t it be more suspicious? The only way to know about the bombs is by cracking the file…”
“Junghan is right,” Jihoon says. “But we can’t risk the lives of more than a hundred citizens around the station. It’s better to evacuate first. Minghao, please continue with the procedure.”
“Understood, Sir.”
Jisoo groans frustratingly; this case is getting more and more complicated. He relaxes a bit when he feels a squeeze on his shoulder-it’s Junghan. The latter gives him a reassuring smile, and Jisoo nods in return. That was the way Junghan told him everything’s going to be okay, and even though things aren’t always okay in the end, Jisoo is fine as long as Junghan is there.
“Sir! An explosion just happened in Yongsan Station!”
Jihoon shoves Soonyoung away to take a look on his laptop screen, and his disbelief expression explains it all. Jihoon clicks something on the keyboard and what’s on Soonyoung’s laptop now displayed on the wide screen.
“CCTV captured a suspicious-looking man with a black bag about three minutes ago in Yongsan Station. He has 98.7% similarity with the third agent we’re looking for,” Jihoon sighs, “and just now, an explosion happened. Unless he’s an exceptional runner, he’s probably dead by now, or badly injured.”
“Was he purposely showing his face on the nearest CCTV before detonating the bomb?” Wonwoo asks. “Then, it was a suicidal action?”
“I do think so, but there’s only a way to confirm it. Let’s go to the crime scene, guys. Mingyu, get the car ready.”
Mingyu nods, heading out the room. Wonwoo takes his backpack and follows the younger, shouting at Jisoo to go with him.
“I’ll be back soon. For dinner, okay?” Jisoo reaches Junghan’s face and kisses the corner of his mouth briefly. “I love you.”
(Junghan doesn’t have time to reply to those three words, but he knows Jisoo doesn’t always need to hear it out loud.)
“Junghan, hurry up! We need to clear the way for them. I’ll check the route, and you can direct them to the fastest alternative.”
Junghan takes a deep breath, nodding his head at Jihoon. “Understood, Sir.”
Jisoo gets back to a clean and fresh apartment approximately eight hours later, looking absolutely worn out. He knows Junghan is there, but when he expects to hear some noises coming from the living room where Junghan sits there and watches television, he gets nothing.
He’s greeted by a beautiful long haired figure he was looking for sleeping on the couch instead, the couch is too small and he has to fold his legs in such an uncomfortable position. Jisoo gets down on his knees beside him, stroking Junghan’s cheek softly. Junghan’s eyes crack open before he abruptly sits upright, eyes wide and concerned.
“Sorry I’m late for dinner,” Jisoo says quietly. “You might hurt your back sleeping like this. Come on, let’s get you to bed. Do you want me to carry you?”
Junghan shakes his head, eyes are still on Jisoo. The other catches his gaze and takes Junghan’s hands, holding them firmly.
“Do you need something?” he asks.
“No,” Junghan answers. “Just. You. Just you is enough.”
Jisoo smiles and kisses the back of Junghan’s hand. “I’m here. I know you’re worried a lot about me, I’m sorry.”
“Have you eaten dinner?”
Jisoo shakes his head. “Mingyu and Wonwoo invited me to join them, but I couldn’t leave you any longer. So, no, but it doesn’t matter.”
Junghan clicks his tongue and flicks Jisoo’s forehead playfully. “It does matter, Hong Jisoo. You should eat dinner first. I cooked your favorite, and I won’t go to sleep until you’re finished eating.”
Jisoo can’t ever say no to Junghan.
Junghan practically clings to Jisoo the whole time, and Jisoo lets him. It does feel weird being stared when you eat, but at the same time Jisoo finds it adorable.
“How was work?” Junghan asks, a finger playing with the collar of Jisoo’s white shirt.
Jisoo puts down his fork on the plate. “It was a chaos. The agent died on the explosion, and forensic found something that presumed to be the detonator behind his jacket.”
“Did they find anything else? Something to get closer with Oasis like identity card or anything related with the organization?”
“Negative,” Jisoo answers, “we were assuming the same, but the only thing he had on his body was the remote. I think the explosion is also the part of their plan-to mislead us again, like how they did with the file.”
Junghan touches Jisoo’s face, letting him lean on his hand and relax beneath his touch. “How about the other agents in China?”
“They couldn’t locate the bomb at Nanjing and Beijing. They set a trap to disrupt the investigation, basically. They could just blow three places at once and kill three agents in one go, but they only went with one. Why do you think they are doing this?”
“The exact plan was to loss one and save two. They are having another plan with the other agents and the one was used as bait.”
“Exactly,” Jisoo nods, pulling away to stare at Junghan’s eyes. “They knew we’re doing something here. Maybe that was also the reason why the explosion happened only in Korea.”
“This is getting more dangerous,” Junghan whispers, avoiding Jisoo’s eyes so he doesn’t catch the glimpse of tears there, but Jisoo already sees it. “Please be safe, Jisoo. Please.”
Junghan doesn’t ask him to leave his work to someone else and keep his hands off the case, doesn’t give him an option to be a coward. Jisoo knows it isn’t what Junghan wants him to be. Junghan only wants him to be safe.
Jisoo pulls Junghan into his body, hugging him tight like there’s no tomorrow.
“I’ll never leave you, I promise.” He says on Junghan’s crown, feeling the latter nods on his chest.
“I trust you. I’ve always been.”
Jisoo presses a kiss on Junghan’s hair before he moves to carry Junghan on his arms, laughing at his slight surprised squeak.
“What are you doing?” Junghan frowns, but doesn’t actually protest.
“Carrying my princess to bed,” Jisoo grins. “At the very least, I still get a good sleep with you tonight. That’s more than enough, honestly.”
Mingyu tosses Jisoo a set of papers when they meet in the Control Room on the next day, just right after the automatic door closes behind Jisoo’s back.
“What are these?”
“Ticket, passport, and whatever documents you may need on our trip to Macao. Me, you, and Wonwoo, I mean.”
“You guys are going to Macao?” Junghan asks, looking at Jisoo confusedly. Jisoo just shrugs and prods his chin at Mingyu’s direction.
“This morning we received a report that another two agents were spotted in Macao. The Russian company’s representative was later reported to be in Macao as well, around seven hours later. One of the agents took on a plane not too long after the explosion in Yongsan, it only confirms the assumption that the actual deal is going to happen in Macao.”
“Junghan! Here you are,” Soonyoung appears before them and grabs Junghan’s arm, winking at Jisoo. “I’m sorry, man. As much as I adore you two together, I still need your lover to do some work over here.”
Jisoo just smiles and bows politely at Soonyoung. “I trust my other half to you, Your Highness. Please take a goof care of him for me.”
Junghan shoves his fist to Jisoo’s ribs playfully, smiling at him before Soonyoung pulls him to his desk and the look in Junghan’s face changes drastically from a lovely angelic creature to a genius computer expert. Even after all these years working with Junghan as his partner, Jisoo never gets bored with Junghan’s millisecond transformation.
“Quit staring at your boyfriend. We have a lot of things to do.”
Jisoo feels warm spreading on his face as he tails behind Mingyu to another room.
“Two Oasis agents in Macao will have a meeting with Viktor Borislav, the Russian’s company representative. We already found Mr. Borislav’s whereabouts and put a transmitter on his car and hacked into his phone. His last phone call and text message were addressed to a contact named Oasis, though we’re not sure who does he refer to. From what we got, the rendezvous is planned to happen tomorrow morning at 9, Four Seasons Hotel Restaurant.”
Jihoon clicks on his keyboard, and the wide screen shows a document-someone’s profile, to be exact.
Jisoo reacts from his chair; he recognizes the person on the profile. “Isn’t he the culprit of my last case?”
“Yes,” Jihoon answers. “Junghan has worked hard to reveal this piece of information. Please, Junghan.”
Junghan nods and stands up, throwing a small smile to Jisoo before focuses back to the paper board he’s holding. “Last week, our agent solved a homicide case with Gideon Isaak, a Russian-Korean as the victim, after he called to our hotline and asked for help. He was dead when we arrived, and 20 million USD from his bank account was gone. Our agent caught the culprit, he’s the person we’re seeing right now, and he’s now secured at the prison. His data on his personal computer was deleted, but I managed to recover them and this was what I found.”
The profile slides to the left and the right side of the screen shows a document, a deal to buy a high amount of nuclear weapon from a Russian company, at the price of 20 million USD.
“I found that this man killed Gideon Isaak and being caught on purpose. He was another member of Oasis, to put it simply. It was the part of their whole plan, because they knew about us, probably after they checked to the last phone call Mr. Isaak made before he died. And what I mean by that is, Oasis knew we were tracking them for years, they knew we blew up the counterfeit money factory, and that was why they led us to several events like sudden criminal attacks in China, the blank file, and the bombs. They were behind all of them to keep us distracted.”
Junghan pauses, glancing at everyone and he stops at Jisoo, whose staring at him in unreadable expression.
“I checked Mr. Isaak’s computer, and I found that he was former worker of that Russian company who made a deal with Oasis. Mr. Isaak didn’t want to get involved with the dirty business, so he left the company and tried to inform us about Oasis and their plan. Oasis caught his act, and killed him. They robbed his money to buy the weapons as bonus point, I guess. The fact that we were able to burn down one of their most important buildings must be a surprise, probably that’s why they decide to play with us.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Mingyu gasps, “and you call it a piece of information, Sir? It was big!”
“That’s not the point, Mingyu.” Jihoon rolls his eyes. “Field agents, now is the time for you to play your part. We can’t let Oasis finish the deal, and you can do it either by stopping the agents or take the Russian as a hostage-be careful, he has armed men backing him up.”
“Excuse me, Sir. Don’t you think it’s a little bit too… dangerous?” Wonwoo asks. “This is Oasis we’re talking about. They are almost invisible, and they kill indiscriminately. Furthermore, only three of us?”
“The three of you are my best men, you know that, Wonwoo. And you’re not a secret agent working for the government if the mission I hand to you is as easy as walking a dog in the park.”
Wonwoo wants to protest again, but Mingyu squeezes his hand from his side. “Understood, Sir. We’ll get going to prepare before the flight.”
Jihoon nods, “You may go, agents.”
Jisoo raises his arm. “Can I borrow Junghan too, Sir?”
Jihoon smiles knowingly. “Yes you may, agent.”
Jisoo pins Junghan to the wall and kisses him languidly despite his bold and sudden movement. They are hiding behind the shelves on the Equipment Room, where Jisoo had excused to “borrowing” Junghan from Jihoon. Of course Jihoon knew Jisoo wasn’t going to check their stuffs with Junghan, but it really, really doesn’t matter now.
Junghan easily find a way to drape his arms around Jisoo’s neck, responding to his kisses with the same slow motion. He pulls away and kisses the tip of Jisoo’s nose, stroking the hair on the back of his head.
“I feel like someone is giving me a goodbye kiss,” he says, eyes bright and clean, just the way Jisoo had always liked it.
Jisoo leans in and smiles against Junghan’s lips. “This is a see you later kiss, actually. I won’t be long, just… some days. And we’d always be in contact; I’m not giving you a room to worry about me. Not anymore.”
“I appreciate your effort, agent,” Junghan pulls Jisoo’s collar to pull him closer, kissing him again. “But I don’t think it’s entirely my fault if I can’t stop worrying about you. It’s part of my job as your boyfriend-”
“-soon husband.” Jisoo cuts in.
Junghan blinks. “What?”
Jisoo laughs. “You’re not thinking you’ll be my boyfriend forever, right? I hope you’re not, because sadly it won’t happen. One day, I’ll call you my fiancé, and the next thing we know, you’re already my husband. And I’ll spend the rest of my life living happily with a beautiful, wonderful, and impossibly genius husband.”
Junghan opens his mouth but nothing comes out. His eyes are glistening with tears, and he buries his face on Jisoo’s shoulder in happy tears-mumbling a you bastard and I love you so much between his sobs after he finds his voice again.
I promise I’ll be back, he says to himself; to Junghan. I love you so much too, Junghan.
He’s sure Junghan knows it even without him saying.
Soonyoung plants a tracker on Jisoo, Wonwoo, and Mingyu’s arm and hands them the list of equipment he’s prepared for them before the agents’ departure.
“Read it carefully and make sure I didn’t miss anything.” He says, injecting three more things to the three’s blood vessels-vitamin, supplement, and a genetically designed molecule to change their DNA when it’s necessary. “Oh, I’m going to miss you guys. The Control Room is boring with only people working behind the desk every day.”
“We’ll miss you too,” Mingyu says. “Fighting for your life on the battlefield is not as cool as it sounds.”
“Once the deal is cancelled and we got Oasis, you’ll have a whole month holiday. Jihoon had said it himself, but I think it’s mostly because that old man needs to lie down and chill after all the stress he got from this case.”
“Exactly,” Mingyu snaps his fingers, earning a giggle from Jisoo, Wonwoo, and Soonyoung. “How’s the list, Wonwoo?”
“Just everything we need,” Wonwoo smiles. “Perfect, thank you so much, Soonyoung.”
Soonyoung nods, his eyes look softer than they usually do. “You are all my best friends. I promise I’ll do my best to bring you back home after you knock down those bastards’ asses.”
“We will do our best, too.” Jisoo shakes Soonyoung’s hand, smiling. “Ah, wait, where’s our earpieces?”
“Here,” Jihoon says behind Soonyoung’s back, throwing an earpiece to each field agents. “Good luck. This mission may sound impossible, but doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
Jisoo exchange a glance with Wonwoo and Mingyu.
Their day is just about to start.
part 2
Fandom : Seventeen
Pairing : Joshua/Jeonghan
Length : 12.7k words
Summary : Secret Agent!AU. Yoon Junghan is a gravity that keeps Hong Jisoo grounded at every beating second of his life.
Warning: minor character death
holding onto gravity
Sometimes, Jisoo finds it’s quiet on the mission he’s in.
It’s usually when he takes seconds between the times he regains his breath, before continuing his pursue. Just a moment of silent-and everything goes mute, black and white and slow motion-as if the world wants him to see from another perspective. Jisoo can see his parents’ faces, somewhere watching him, his uncles and aunts, his brother, people who had died for the sake of protecting him in the past. They are also the reason why he should finish the mission and come back alive to The Headquarters.
And then a voice will wake him up.
A mellifluent and familiar voice comes from his earpiece, screaming in high-pitch voice because Jisoo doesn’t respond to his call. When Jisoo blinks, everything is back to the way it was before-and so, he runs again.
There are also gunshots involved in the arrest, and a Good job, Jisoo, you did it. You did a splendid job on his ear. Jisoo takes a deep breath, walking to where he parks his car and drives back to The Headquarters with shoulders feel lighter than ever.
Jisoo walks along the corridor, enjoying the sound of the heel of his shoes meeting the floor. Some people walk pass him and congratulate him-Congrats, you’ve made your life a day longer is what they are trying to say, or at least it’s the way Jisoo guessed it, but of course they don’t say it out loud. As a field agent, Jisoo knows best about this.
The Control Room is always noisy, but when a mission is finished, it’s a kind of good noisy. Jisoo pushes the door open and everyone in the room cheers, some immediately leave their seats to pull him into a bone-crushing hug.
“Again, our magnificent agent, the best we ever had in history, the one and only, Hong Jisus has saved the day!” Soonyoung announces happily, half clinging on Jisoo’s taller body. Jisoo grimaces, knowing Soonyoung would use a hyperbole statement.
“Come on, it’s been four years. It felt good at the beginning, but now it feels embarrassing.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that you’ve done a great job, Jisus.” Soonyoung shrugs. “Watching you run and do things with your gun is always something. We had a good show to watch, thanks to you.”
Jisoo rolls his eyes. “It really hurts my pride. You guys were just watching while I was fighting between life and death? How dare you call yourself a friend.”
“It’s because we’re indeed, your friends.”
Jisoo looks up, automatically smiles at the figure who talks from the second floor, body leaning on the railing. “You should be happy to have us. We’re willing to sacrifice anything if you were in danger, you know.”
“Speak only for yourself, Junghan.” Jihoon suddenly appears behind the pretty and fragile looking boy (which is actually, not at all). “But really Jisoo, we glad you’re safe. That was a dangerous mission.”
“Thanks, Sir.” Jisoo grins, “So, what do I get in return?”
“Coffee?” Junghan chirps, “Coffee is always good, right?”
“Fine, coffee is good.” Jisoo looks up again to meet Junghan’s bright eyes. “You’re paying.”
Junghan doesn’t drink coffee, nor does Jisoo.
The funny thing is, it’s such a habit for Junghan to force Jisoo to drink some caffeine (it turns out to be cappuccino with lots of milk) after a mission, and how Jisoo always does as he told just makes it funnier. Sure Jisoo can say no anytime, not that Junghan will be offended with his rejection, but seeing Junghan’s eyes light up in amusement as Jisoo trying to empty the mug in one go is somewhat… calming.
And then Junghan will start briefing him about his new mission to follow up the latest or giving him evaluation of his previous work-and Jisoo will just hear him patiently, a little smile curled on the corner of his lips. At the end of his long speech, Junghan will lean across the table to peck Jisoo on the lips, smiling wide.
“I’m so proud of you.” Junghan says, and Jisoo really wants to stand up and cup Junghan’s face on his palm and kiss him again, despite the risk of being fired if his boss walks in to the cafeteria and sees the whole scene.
“Thank you,” Jisoo says, trying not to sound so eager. But then, this is Junghan-who makes him fall in love every other day, who understands him the most, who has known him the longest, who has the mellifluent and familiar voice to wake Jisoo up when he’s lost at his own world in the middle of a mission. This is his Junghan, another reason why Jisoo should come back alive after every fight on the field.
Soonyoung hands him a stack of papers when he gets back to the Control Room. Jisoo frowns, accepting the papers half-heartedly. Junghan receives the same copy and he leaves Jisoo’s side (after a quick squeeze on his hand) to sit behind the laptop where he works.
“Hey come on, don’t look at me like that. How would I know another case would come just fifteen minutes after you finished one? And for your reference, villains won’t know your resting time, so just deal with that.”
“Okay, so, what’s this?”
“Jihoon will explain it further. Your turn, my King!” Soonyoung calls; complete with a wink that effectively traumatizes Jihoon.
“Disgusting,” the latter disgruntles. “Okay, so, I just received an e-mail from Junhui, who’s currently going undercover in China, about the movement of the organization we’ve tailed for three years. Seems like they are planning something big, but we can’t tell as much now.”
“What kind of movement did they make?” Junghan asks.
“Our spies caught a record of them negotiating with a Russian military corporate just a month ago. Junhui has succeeded on copying the data they were exchanged after he hacked on the organization’s system, but he couldn’t get the data open. He sent the item over to us,” Jihoon pauses to look at Junghan, “please take care of that, Junghan.”
“I’ll do my best,” Junghan nods. Jihoon turns his attention back to the rest of the team.
“After years of trying, we finally could reveal that the organization is called by its code, Oasis. It’s the name they use when they make a deal with someone, but apparently, they had put false information in the national database to fool people who were trying to dig up about them. From what I heard, they have the best negotiator and trapper; the cause of massive chaos in Hong Kong economy sector a year ago was their doing.”
Jihoon points to the wide screen behind him. “Our other agent Minghao tracked one of them down-who so far we believe, is one of the negotiators-and this shocking result is what we got.”
Wonwoo, sits on the far left of the room, almost topples off his chair, his jaw drops immediately. “Wait, what? He’s on FBI Wanted List?”
Jihoon nods. “Soonyoung and I had tried to collect information about him, and as we expected, he was confirmed dead. He was working with Russian government in secret operations that we assume had something to do with some terrorist actions in the past decade, and it make sense since FBI was also after him. We didn’t have enough proof about this, but we’d know for sure after the file is unlocked.”
“Wait, Jihoon.” Jisoo cuts in, “How do you know we’ll get some hints from the file?”
“Well, instinct,” answers Jihoon. “I don’t know what’s inside, but if it contains some information, whatever it might be, it’d be useful for us.”
No one can mess with Jihoon’s instinct, so Jisoo shuts up. “Uh, okay. Anything else we should know?”
The screen changes when Jihoon presses something on his tablet, showing another three faces Jisoo doesn’t remember he knows any of them.
“I’ve already printed the copy of their profiles into your file. They are on the top list of missing Korean agents from Argentina, who were also confirmed dead. We came to a conclusion they’re also the part of Oasis, and were last seen in Macao, three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, Jisoo and Mingyu blew up a building that actually was a money counterfeit factory, and remember what currency they were making there?”
“Macanese pataca,” Mingyu says with a gasp, “it’s Macao’s currency.”
“True.” Jihoon nods. “The organization probably smuggled them to Macao and asked other agents to take and distribute the money from Korea. But the building was related to Mingyu’s previous drug deal case, and was demolished without knowing it was actually a beginning to another, bigger case.”
Jisoo frowns, biting his lower lip. “So they were going to overthrow Macao’s economy like how they did to Hong Kong?”
“I believe yes. And they kept us busy with another case, so we’d postpone thorough searching about the actual case. Also, I’m afraid they’d sensed our plan in Korea, so they started off in China. We’re lucky we have a bunch of agents there.”
Wonwoo sighs loudly. “So, what are we going to do now?”
“That,” Jihoon says, “will be decided after tomorrow. We’ll have to wait for new information from our agents in China, and for Junghan to unlock the file.”
“The time given for me is less than 24 hours?” asks Junghan, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me something is going to explode and kill us all if I can’t open this file by tomorrow.”
“Oh, no, they are not that extreme,” Jihoon laughs, “Our agents in China asked for a day to get more information. Also, we need to make a plan. Field agents, please study your file well. You’re going to make an arrest at any time.”
Mingyu, Wonwoo, and Jisoo sigh in unison. “What a hard life of a field agent,” Mingyu says, and the other two can’t agree more to his words.
It’s almost midnight when Jisoo glances at his watch, and glances over the table to see Junghan still on his laptop, unfazed by how the situation has changed since two hours ago or so. Everyone had left-Mingyu and Wonwoo were called for a robbery case, and Jihoon went home with Soonyoung after convinced everyone he’d keep in contact with the agents and inform the team once he got something. Junghan insisted he had to finish his task before the daybreak, and of course, Jisoo would stay.
“Aren’t you tired?” Jisoo asks, and Junghan looks up from the screen, smiling. Jisoo wonders how someone can still smile this bright after stuck with codes for hours.
“Are you?” he asks, “You can go home if you want. I remember you complained about the company’s couch that was really bad for your back, so I won’t recommend you to sleep on it again.”
“I won’t go home without you,” Jisoo says. “But really, you’ve been doing this for almost five hours straight. You need to take a break.”
Junghan hums in thought, but then he nods and gets up from his chair. “Okay,” he says, “a short walk will do.”
Jisoo offers a hand to him, “Let me lead the way, Princess.”
Junghan laughs, taking Jisoo’s hand and doesn’t protest when the taller boy pulls him closer to his side.
There’s something poetic about walking hand-in-hand with Junghan, so late at night with ice cream from a minimarket nearby on their free hands. Jisoo always loves this little moment with Junghan-after all, they are in a relationship where everything is uncertain. His work is insane, people he’s working with are insane, and Junghan is what makes him stay on his right mind, most of the time.
Jihoon calls Jisoo when they stop on the park bench-telling him that Junhui and Minghao had opened the file and they got nothing. In conclusion, it was such a waste of time trying to open the file; intentionally apologizing to Junghan.
“Junghan is still working with the file,” Jisoo says. “But I’ll tell him that. Thank you, Sir.”
“What’s wrong?” Junghan asks. Jisoo sighs and takes Junghan’s hand to intertwine their fingers together.
“Junhui and Minghao had opened the file, and there was nothing inside. Also, Jihoon begs for your apology after he made you worked for hours for nothing.”
Junghan laughs quietly, “I forgive him. Also, I’ve opened the file, so I knew there was nothing inside.”
Jisoo blinks. “You what?”
“I’ve opened the file not too long after Junhui handed it over to me. It was a trap, Jisoo. The passwords were too easy and you don’t need a professional hacker to crack them. Perhaps Minghao and Junhui needed longer time because they were not familiar with Korean military codes that were used, but it was something too predictable for an organization who managed to do a lot of things illegally. I knew something was wrong the moment I saw it empty, but I didn’t tell everyone yet.”
Jisoo licks his lips, “So, they purposefully let you hijack the transferred file and make it look easy to break, to fool us? To make us think they don’t have what we’re looking for?”
Junghan nods. “Yes, they must’ve expected many people would watch the transaction. If they were smarter, they could’ve made the transaction visible to lure us into the trap-the empty file.”
Jisoo lifts a hand to caress Junghan’s cheek with the back of his fingers. “You,” he says gently, carefully, “are one of the best things ever happened to us. What would we do without you, Yoon Junghan?”
“Oh, I’m flattered.” Junghan chuckles, “I tried to break each element on it, and I actually did find something. The second layer of security line, in higher level, a lot more complicated. The file’s real content is probably hiding between these passwords, but I still can’t find a hole to crack them.”
“How long do you think you’ll be able to decrypt the file?”
“I don’t know,” Junghan sighs, “maybe a little bit long. The codes were mutants-like, you know, when the original base of something was changed to a new form, they’re called mutants. Not everyone could create mutants code. We’re absolutely not playing with whomever behind this.”
“I’ll help you with the code,” Jisoo holds Junghan’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilts it to his direction, pressing a kiss on his forehead. “But we need to sleep first. And probably have a cup of coffee in the morning.”
Junghan laughs. “Agree.” he says, “My place or yours?”
“Wherever makes you comfortable, Princess.”
Jihoon goes crazy (almost chokes Wonwoo beside him to death) after Jisoo tells him about Junghan’s encounter the next morning, and the first ten minutes of the day is suddenly so horror that no one dares to move an inch from their current position. Junghan and Soonyoung are already on behind the desk, continuing on where Junghan left off last night.
Jihoon furiously typing on the keyboard, trying to get Junhui or Minghao (or both) as fast as possible. When Junhui’s face appears on the screen, confused-as anyone else-Jihoon yells, that must feel as bad as if Jihoon was really yelling in front of his face.
“Get me every CCTV of the country and make sure none of those bastards slip out of my hand,” Jihoon hisses, “and where’s your cute little friend?”
“I’m here,” Minghao’s face appears beside Junhui’s, grinning wide. “Good morning, Sir, thank you for calling me cute.”
Jihoon presses his lips into a thin line to prevent himself from laughing. “Good morning, Minghao. Did you have a good sleep?”
“Not really, Sir. The sirens kept blaring all night long and about five criminal cases happened within three hours last night. I think it has something to do with the failed drug deal after Mingyu captured them three weeks ago, and everyone here is going mad.”
“Soonyoung will help you with the cases’ detail, so please just focus on watching the three agents.”
“Understood,” Junhui and Minghao nod.
“Oh, wait, Sir!” Minghao gasps, looking down to type something on his keyboard. The wide screen on the room changes, moving Minghao and Junhui’s face to the top left corner, and the other space is replaced by a box of CCTV record. It’s black and white and mostly blurred, but then Minghao zooms in and catches a face with 95% similarity with one of the agents they are targeting, getting off the train.
“The record came just now from Nanjing Station.”
“How the hell did he get to Nanjing?” Soonyoung shrieks. “What’s going on in there? Quick, send someone to take him right now!”
“Calm down, Soonyoung, there’s always a probability for them to distract us with little thing like this.” Jisoo says calmly, and looks up to speak with Minghao and Junhui. “Please check every possible place for the other agents to be around, narrow it down to places like airport and train station.”
“Are they going to go somewhere?” Jihoon asks. Jisoo nods without looking at him, focusing on the CCTV record on the screen.
“I think so, and I had a feeling this case will be related to Mingyu’s drug deal and the building explosion, also the cases happened last night, and probably the homicide case I took last time. And, whatever plan they’re having right now, it will put everyone in danger. We must stop them before it happens.”
“We found another target in Beijing Capital International Airport,” Junhui reports, “I’ve checked the schedules; they only have three flights to Macao today. Another agent is still nowhere to be found.”
“Send back up team to Nanjing and Beijing airport, and alert the police, don’t lose him!”
Jihoon shoves a fist to his mouth, infuriatingly trying not to yell and scare his subordinates even more. He asks Soonyoung to check the possible places in Seoul, just in case one agent was left here to put another trap.
“Jisoo,” Junghan calls, his tone is somewhere between shocked and worried. “Jisoo, come here.”
Jisoo runs to Junghan’s side, looking at his laptop. “What’s it, Junghan?”
“I’ve decrypted the file,” Junghan says. “Jisoo, weren’t you said the victim of your last case was robbed after he killed?”
“Yeah, the money lost was around 20 million USD. Why?”
“The money was deposited to this file. The contract date matched with the date of the murder, and they had Oasis stamp here. Think again, why would Oasis give the Russian military company these much money?”
“Most probably they are buying weapons,” Jisoo answers. “With this amount of money, they could buy enough weapons to sweep half population of China and Korea.”
“Are they planning an assassination?” Wonwoo asks eerily.
“I still don’t know, but this is a new hint for us. Junghan, can you get me more details about the victim and his previous relation of work?”
“Sure,” Junghan nods, fingers dancing in the keyboard. “Uh?” he pulls his back a little a moment later, confused. “I didn’t see something like this earlier. Wait, what the hell?”
Sensing something’s not right, Jisoo peeks at Junghan’s screen again.
His eyes widen in shock, scrambling his way to the wide screen and shouts at Junhui and Minghao, “Don’t let those bastards go anywhere! Evacuate everyone to safer place! They’ve planted bombs on those places!”
“Bombs?” Everyone in the room gasps in shock.
Jihoon grabs Jisoo’s arm impatiently. “Explain to us! What do you mean by bombs?”
“They sent the agents to different places to plant the bombs! They had the map along with the fund inside the file! Where’s the third bastard, anyway?”
“We still can’t locate him,” Minghao says. “But we’re trying to do it as fast as we can. I’ve alerted the police about the bomb, but it probably takes time for the team to get there-”
“We don’t have time to wait.” Jisoo cuts in, “Please send an official announcement to leave the place immediately.”
“Wouldn’t it be more suspicious? The only way to know about the bombs is by cracking the file…”
“Junghan is right,” Jihoon says. “But we can’t risk the lives of more than a hundred citizens around the station. It’s better to evacuate first. Minghao, please continue with the procedure.”
“Understood, Sir.”
Jisoo groans frustratingly; this case is getting more and more complicated. He relaxes a bit when he feels a squeeze on his shoulder-it’s Junghan. The latter gives him a reassuring smile, and Jisoo nods in return. That was the way Junghan told him everything’s going to be okay, and even though things aren’t always okay in the end, Jisoo is fine as long as Junghan is there.
“Sir! An explosion just happened in Yongsan Station!”
Jihoon shoves Soonyoung away to take a look on his laptop screen, and his disbelief expression explains it all. Jihoon clicks something on the keyboard and what’s on Soonyoung’s laptop now displayed on the wide screen.
“CCTV captured a suspicious-looking man with a black bag about three minutes ago in Yongsan Station. He has 98.7% similarity with the third agent we’re looking for,” Jihoon sighs, “and just now, an explosion happened. Unless he’s an exceptional runner, he’s probably dead by now, or badly injured.”
“Was he purposely showing his face on the nearest CCTV before detonating the bomb?” Wonwoo asks. “Then, it was a suicidal action?”
“I do think so, but there’s only a way to confirm it. Let’s go to the crime scene, guys. Mingyu, get the car ready.”
Mingyu nods, heading out the room. Wonwoo takes his backpack and follows the younger, shouting at Jisoo to go with him.
“I’ll be back soon. For dinner, okay?” Jisoo reaches Junghan’s face and kisses the corner of his mouth briefly. “I love you.”
(Junghan doesn’t have time to reply to those three words, but he knows Jisoo doesn’t always need to hear it out loud.)
“Junghan, hurry up! We need to clear the way for them. I’ll check the route, and you can direct them to the fastest alternative.”
Junghan takes a deep breath, nodding his head at Jihoon. “Understood, Sir.”
Jisoo gets back to a clean and fresh apartment approximately eight hours later, looking absolutely worn out. He knows Junghan is there, but when he expects to hear some noises coming from the living room where Junghan sits there and watches television, he gets nothing.
He’s greeted by a beautiful long haired figure he was looking for sleeping on the couch instead, the couch is too small and he has to fold his legs in such an uncomfortable position. Jisoo gets down on his knees beside him, stroking Junghan’s cheek softly. Junghan’s eyes crack open before he abruptly sits upright, eyes wide and concerned.
“Sorry I’m late for dinner,” Jisoo says quietly. “You might hurt your back sleeping like this. Come on, let’s get you to bed. Do you want me to carry you?”
Junghan shakes his head, eyes are still on Jisoo. The other catches his gaze and takes Junghan’s hands, holding them firmly.
“Do you need something?” he asks.
“No,” Junghan answers. “Just. You. Just you is enough.”
Jisoo smiles and kisses the back of Junghan’s hand. “I’m here. I know you’re worried a lot about me, I’m sorry.”
“Have you eaten dinner?”
Jisoo shakes his head. “Mingyu and Wonwoo invited me to join them, but I couldn’t leave you any longer. So, no, but it doesn’t matter.”
Junghan clicks his tongue and flicks Jisoo’s forehead playfully. “It does matter, Hong Jisoo. You should eat dinner first. I cooked your favorite, and I won’t go to sleep until you’re finished eating.”
Jisoo can’t ever say no to Junghan.
Junghan practically clings to Jisoo the whole time, and Jisoo lets him. It does feel weird being stared when you eat, but at the same time Jisoo finds it adorable.
“How was work?” Junghan asks, a finger playing with the collar of Jisoo’s white shirt.
Jisoo puts down his fork on the plate. “It was a chaos. The agent died on the explosion, and forensic found something that presumed to be the detonator behind his jacket.”
“Did they find anything else? Something to get closer with Oasis like identity card or anything related with the organization?”
“Negative,” Jisoo answers, “we were assuming the same, but the only thing he had on his body was the remote. I think the explosion is also the part of their plan-to mislead us again, like how they did with the file.”
Junghan touches Jisoo’s face, letting him lean on his hand and relax beneath his touch. “How about the other agents in China?”
“They couldn’t locate the bomb at Nanjing and Beijing. They set a trap to disrupt the investigation, basically. They could just blow three places at once and kill three agents in one go, but they only went with one. Why do you think they are doing this?”
“The exact plan was to loss one and save two. They are having another plan with the other agents and the one was used as bait.”
“Exactly,” Jisoo nods, pulling away to stare at Junghan’s eyes. “They knew we’re doing something here. Maybe that was also the reason why the explosion happened only in Korea.”
“This is getting more dangerous,” Junghan whispers, avoiding Jisoo’s eyes so he doesn’t catch the glimpse of tears there, but Jisoo already sees it. “Please be safe, Jisoo. Please.”
Junghan doesn’t ask him to leave his work to someone else and keep his hands off the case, doesn’t give him an option to be a coward. Jisoo knows it isn’t what Junghan wants him to be. Junghan only wants him to be safe.
Jisoo pulls Junghan into his body, hugging him tight like there’s no tomorrow.
“I’ll never leave you, I promise.” He says on Junghan’s crown, feeling the latter nods on his chest.
“I trust you. I’ve always been.”
Jisoo presses a kiss on Junghan’s hair before he moves to carry Junghan on his arms, laughing at his slight surprised squeak.
“What are you doing?” Junghan frowns, but doesn’t actually protest.
“Carrying my princess to bed,” Jisoo grins. “At the very least, I still get a good sleep with you tonight. That’s more than enough, honestly.”
Mingyu tosses Jisoo a set of papers when they meet in the Control Room on the next day, just right after the automatic door closes behind Jisoo’s back.
“What are these?”
“Ticket, passport, and whatever documents you may need on our trip to Macao. Me, you, and Wonwoo, I mean.”
“You guys are going to Macao?” Junghan asks, looking at Jisoo confusedly. Jisoo just shrugs and prods his chin at Mingyu’s direction.
“This morning we received a report that another two agents were spotted in Macao. The Russian company’s representative was later reported to be in Macao as well, around seven hours later. One of the agents took on a plane not too long after the explosion in Yongsan, it only confirms the assumption that the actual deal is going to happen in Macao.”
“Junghan! Here you are,” Soonyoung appears before them and grabs Junghan’s arm, winking at Jisoo. “I’m sorry, man. As much as I adore you two together, I still need your lover to do some work over here.”
Jisoo just smiles and bows politely at Soonyoung. “I trust my other half to you, Your Highness. Please take a goof care of him for me.”
Junghan shoves his fist to Jisoo’s ribs playfully, smiling at him before Soonyoung pulls him to his desk and the look in Junghan’s face changes drastically from a lovely angelic creature to a genius computer expert. Even after all these years working with Junghan as his partner, Jisoo never gets bored with Junghan’s millisecond transformation.
“Quit staring at your boyfriend. We have a lot of things to do.”
Jisoo feels warm spreading on his face as he tails behind Mingyu to another room.
“Two Oasis agents in Macao will have a meeting with Viktor Borislav, the Russian’s company representative. We already found Mr. Borislav’s whereabouts and put a transmitter on his car and hacked into his phone. His last phone call and text message were addressed to a contact named Oasis, though we’re not sure who does he refer to. From what we got, the rendezvous is planned to happen tomorrow morning at 9, Four Seasons Hotel Restaurant.”
Jihoon clicks on his keyboard, and the wide screen shows a document-someone’s profile, to be exact.
Jisoo reacts from his chair; he recognizes the person on the profile. “Isn’t he the culprit of my last case?”
“Yes,” Jihoon answers. “Junghan has worked hard to reveal this piece of information. Please, Junghan.”
Junghan nods and stands up, throwing a small smile to Jisoo before focuses back to the paper board he’s holding. “Last week, our agent solved a homicide case with Gideon Isaak, a Russian-Korean as the victim, after he called to our hotline and asked for help. He was dead when we arrived, and 20 million USD from his bank account was gone. Our agent caught the culprit, he’s the person we’re seeing right now, and he’s now secured at the prison. His data on his personal computer was deleted, but I managed to recover them and this was what I found.”
The profile slides to the left and the right side of the screen shows a document, a deal to buy a high amount of nuclear weapon from a Russian company, at the price of 20 million USD.
“I found that this man killed Gideon Isaak and being caught on purpose. He was another member of Oasis, to put it simply. It was the part of their whole plan, because they knew about us, probably after they checked to the last phone call Mr. Isaak made before he died. And what I mean by that is, Oasis knew we were tracking them for years, they knew we blew up the counterfeit money factory, and that was why they led us to several events like sudden criminal attacks in China, the blank file, and the bombs. They were behind all of them to keep us distracted.”
Junghan pauses, glancing at everyone and he stops at Jisoo, whose staring at him in unreadable expression.
“I checked Mr. Isaak’s computer, and I found that he was former worker of that Russian company who made a deal with Oasis. Mr. Isaak didn’t want to get involved with the dirty business, so he left the company and tried to inform us about Oasis and their plan. Oasis caught his act, and killed him. They robbed his money to buy the weapons as bonus point, I guess. The fact that we were able to burn down one of their most important buildings must be a surprise, probably that’s why they decide to play with us.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Mingyu gasps, “and you call it a piece of information, Sir? It was big!”
“That’s not the point, Mingyu.” Jihoon rolls his eyes. “Field agents, now is the time for you to play your part. We can’t let Oasis finish the deal, and you can do it either by stopping the agents or take the Russian as a hostage-be careful, he has armed men backing him up.”
“Excuse me, Sir. Don’t you think it’s a little bit too… dangerous?” Wonwoo asks. “This is Oasis we’re talking about. They are almost invisible, and they kill indiscriminately. Furthermore, only three of us?”
“The three of you are my best men, you know that, Wonwoo. And you’re not a secret agent working for the government if the mission I hand to you is as easy as walking a dog in the park.”
Wonwoo wants to protest again, but Mingyu squeezes his hand from his side. “Understood, Sir. We’ll get going to prepare before the flight.”
Jihoon nods, “You may go, agents.”
Jisoo raises his arm. “Can I borrow Junghan too, Sir?”
Jihoon smiles knowingly. “Yes you may, agent.”
Jisoo pins Junghan to the wall and kisses him languidly despite his bold and sudden movement. They are hiding behind the shelves on the Equipment Room, where Jisoo had excused to “borrowing” Junghan from Jihoon. Of course Jihoon knew Jisoo wasn’t going to check their stuffs with Junghan, but it really, really doesn’t matter now.
Junghan easily find a way to drape his arms around Jisoo’s neck, responding to his kisses with the same slow motion. He pulls away and kisses the tip of Jisoo’s nose, stroking the hair on the back of his head.
“I feel like someone is giving me a goodbye kiss,” he says, eyes bright and clean, just the way Jisoo had always liked it.
Jisoo leans in and smiles against Junghan’s lips. “This is a see you later kiss, actually. I won’t be long, just… some days. And we’d always be in contact; I’m not giving you a room to worry about me. Not anymore.”
“I appreciate your effort, agent,” Junghan pulls Jisoo’s collar to pull him closer, kissing him again. “But I don’t think it’s entirely my fault if I can’t stop worrying about you. It’s part of my job as your boyfriend-”
“-soon husband.” Jisoo cuts in.
Junghan blinks. “What?”
Jisoo laughs. “You’re not thinking you’ll be my boyfriend forever, right? I hope you’re not, because sadly it won’t happen. One day, I’ll call you my fiancé, and the next thing we know, you’re already my husband. And I’ll spend the rest of my life living happily with a beautiful, wonderful, and impossibly genius husband.”
Junghan opens his mouth but nothing comes out. His eyes are glistening with tears, and he buries his face on Jisoo’s shoulder in happy tears-mumbling a you bastard and I love you so much between his sobs after he finds his voice again.
I promise I’ll be back, he says to himself; to Junghan. I love you so much too, Junghan.
He’s sure Junghan knows it even without him saying.
Soonyoung plants a tracker on Jisoo, Wonwoo, and Mingyu’s arm and hands them the list of equipment he’s prepared for them before the agents’ departure.
“Read it carefully and make sure I didn’t miss anything.” He says, injecting three more things to the three’s blood vessels-vitamin, supplement, and a genetically designed molecule to change their DNA when it’s necessary. “Oh, I’m going to miss you guys. The Control Room is boring with only people working behind the desk every day.”
“We’ll miss you too,” Mingyu says. “Fighting for your life on the battlefield is not as cool as it sounds.”
“Once the deal is cancelled and we got Oasis, you’ll have a whole month holiday. Jihoon had said it himself, but I think it’s mostly because that old man needs to lie down and chill after all the stress he got from this case.”
“Exactly,” Mingyu snaps his fingers, earning a giggle from Jisoo, Wonwoo, and Soonyoung. “How’s the list, Wonwoo?”
“Just everything we need,” Wonwoo smiles. “Perfect, thank you so much, Soonyoung.”
Soonyoung nods, his eyes look softer than they usually do. “You are all my best friends. I promise I’ll do my best to bring you back home after you knock down those bastards’ asses.”
“We will do our best, too.” Jisoo shakes Soonyoung’s hand, smiling. “Ah, wait, where’s our earpieces?”
“Here,” Jihoon says behind Soonyoung’s back, throwing an earpiece to each field agents. “Good luck. This mission may sound impossible, but doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
Jisoo exchange a glance with Wonwoo and Mingyu.
Their day is just about to start.
part 2