[MBLAQ] The Games We Play (1/1)
Title: The Games We Play
Fandom: MBLAQ, RAIN
Author: blahchiharu
Characters/pairing: Joon/Mir, OT5
Rating PG-13
wordcount: ~4000
Summary: The world is Mir’s dartboard, Danger is Joon’s leading lady, Cheondung can only ever be passive, G.O. would rather go on solo missions, and Seungho wonders why anyone ever taught them to hold weapons. Ninja Assassin!Au
Mir watches silently as their target jumps out of the limo, bidding a greeting to the security guard outside of the building before punching in the key code for the doors. Mir memorizes the combination before he bites off the rest of his lollipop, crunching the remaining sugar pieces with his teeth as he jumps off the fence.
Mir easily slips through the doors at the south entrance before meeting Joon at the staircase. Cheondung had cut off the motion detectors an hour ago when they swiped the building, so Mir does a little waltz in front of the last security camera at the end of the hall, giving the monitor a peace sign while knowing fully well that G.O. would be scoffing in front of the screen in the monitoring room.
“It took you long enough,” Joon hisses when they finally meet up, the end of Joon’s bangs peaking out underneath his mask.
“Patience, Grasshopper.” Mir throws the stick of his finished lollipop at Joon’s head. Joon replies by waving his shurikens dangerously close to Mir’s face. “Anyways, Target’s checking the vaults. He’s heading up to his office soon.”
It takes them two minutes to get there through the staircase, Joon periodically taking leaps of four or five steps. They wait in the shadows of the corner until the target comes out of the elevator.
The man, clearly in his forties even in the darkness of the hallway, pauses upon finding the envelope taped to the door. “What the hell is this,” the CEO mumbles as he breaks the wax seal. Out of the envelope comes black sand, flowing through the paper as it streams to the floor.
Joon aims three knifes. One at the heart and two more just to be safe. The man is dead before the envelope ever hits the ground.
By the time Seungho comes back, Mir is already lounging on the couch with a bowl of ice-cream in his lap. Seungho throws the contents of their mailbox on the coffee table, pulling his black tie loose with one hand as he runs a hand through his hair with the other. “The wire transfer is complete. Do you have what they asked for?”
“Of course.” Mir smirks cheekily, dangling the gold, embroidered pocket watch he had snatched off the target.
“How was your meeting?” Cheondung asks from the dinning table, busy sipping a cup of coffee.
“Boring, as always.” Seungho opens the coat closet as he easily slips out of the jacket of his tux. Instead he finds Mir’s black pants and scarf littered on the floor. “I’ve told you to be more careful about where you leave things.”
“Relax, hyung.” Mir peers over the couch. “If anyone ever stumbled into my stash, I’ll just slit their tongue so they don’t talk. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, you see?”
G.O. emerges from the kitchen then, picking up the clothes Mir had thrown aside. “I’ll take them.” He heads back to his room without another word, probably stopping by their vault to throw in the clothes with the rest of Mir’s junk. Mir always had a habit of leaving his weapons lying around. Last week Joon had stepped on one of Mir’s blade on accident, and they ended up sparring in the kitchen until Joon cut the microwave in half.
“Jihoon-hyung wants to meet with us next week,” Seungho says before heading into the bathroom, where he finds Joon staring at the mirror, no doubt fixing his hair.
“I told you we could do it by ourselves.” Joon smirks from his spot on top of the sink. “And you had your doubts.” He helps Seungho unbutton his shirt, pausing at the smooth muscles on Seungho’s arms as he pulls at the sleeves. “What are we going to do with you, Leader-sshi?” Joon whispers dangerously close to Seungho’s ears.
“Now’s not the time,” Seungho says instead, turning on the water.
“Okay, whatever.” Joon shrugs. He leaves the bathroom, probably to fight Mir for the television remote.
Seungho sighs into the mirror.
Back when they were in the academy, Seungho would have never imagined that he’d end up leading this team. G.O. and Joon had always shown more promise, but G.O. had disappeared one day on a solo assignment and didn’t return for half a year. In the span of his absence, Mir managed to pass his proficiency test and Cheondung somehow ended up placing first in his quadrant.
Their first assignment as a team was to finish off the leader of some political group that had been causing trouble in Pusan. Seungho had worked the mission with just Cheondung and Joon. They came out of it better than expected, with only a few bruises and minor scrapes.
Seungho hadn’t expected them to graduate so quickly, but he had been in no place to complain either. After that, G.O. had shown up mysteriously at their apartment two months after moving in, mumbling something about how there was no way Seungho could do this without his help.
Some days Seungho can’t take the pressure from both his day and night job, but he never complains. Without Jihoon-hyung, he’d never be here. Without this team, he’d be nothing.
Cheondung taps his pen against the edge of his notebook, quietly observing the way the teaching assistant moves from one side of the blackboard to the other. There’s a light flick in her wrist as she writes with the chalk, scribbling down endless formulas and equations until getting to the bottom of the board.
“Excuse me,” someone says from besides him, and Cheondung turns to find a girl smiling shyly from the seat next to his. “Are you new? I haven’t seen you here before.”
“I’m just sitting in,” Cheondung replies quickly before gathered his notebook. At the front of the room, the t.a. is reminding the class of their assignment as students file out of the classroom. Cheondung manages to escape before the girl could ask another question.
“How was it?” G.O. asks when Cheondung meets him in front of the chemistry building.
“She dyed her hair,” Cheondung replies without making eye-contact. “She’s petite, 5”5 with heels, 5”2 without. Right now she’s wearing brown contacts, but she changes them from day to day. From what I could tell, she doesn’t interact with anyone, probably to keep up with her cover.” He stops talking when G.O. closes his book. “Why do you think there’s a government agent undercover at this school?”
G.O. shrugs. “All I know is, someone wants her dead. I put the envelope on her wardrobe.”
Cheondung sighs. “I’ll finish the job.”
Mir doesn’t remember very much about his parents. He supposes his mother was a woman with a kind smile, but his earliest memories had been of the Master and the academy. Mir grew up in the walls of the academy, watching as older kids sparred in the halls and in the courtyards.
Jihoon-hyung had taken care of him, dropping small clues of Mir’s past here and there. Mir had filled in the rest from the scrolls he stole from the Master’s library. His parents died in a political assassination when he was four. Someone in the academy had kidnapped him from the orphanage at age five, taking him away from his sister and the only family he has.
Mir had refused to learn in the beginning, complaining about the food and the strict training regiment. The older kids laughed at him, calling him weak. Mir ignored them and plotted a way of escaping the academy. He climbed up the walls of the courtyard one night and ran until some of the older boys caught him. The Master confined him in the well for seven days as his punishment.
“You’re a fool,” Jihoon-hyung had told him as he nursed Mir back to health. “All you have this place. This is who you are.” Jihoon-hyung had been kind before he inherited the academy, before the legacy, and before he was Rain.
Mir does remember his sister- a girl with a bright smile and a happy laugh. He kept a photo of her in his pillowcase until Kiyong, the cruelest boy in his quadrant, stole and burned it. “You’re just like her,” Kiyong had laughed. “Useless and weak.”
Mir had thrown a batch of shurikens at Kiyong in a mindless fury. It slit the main artery of the boy’s throat and took Kiyong three full months to recover. The Master had punished Mir for sparring out of line, but Jihoon-hyung had smirked at Mir before adding, “I always knew you had talent.”
No one really knows why Seungho has a day job, but Rain had permitted him to work as some sort of company business man as a cover up, and no one had bothered to argue. Joon and Mir visit him sometimes. Joon flirts with the secretary working on Seungho’s floor while Mir decorates Seungho’s office with multi-colored sticky-notes.
Cheondung had once suggested that a part-time job might be useful, but Mir had merely shrugged and went back to playing his video game. Joon worked as a model for an ad agency for a while until he went abroad to Japan for a week on the pretense of another modeling gig. They all knew it was another assignment from Rain.
Joon returned with broken ribs and a cut on his right cheek. “Joonie-hyung,” Mir had cooed while peeling away the bandaid and kissing at the wound. “Which fucker cut up your pretty face? Tell me and I’ll go kill him.”
“He’s already dead,” Joon replied, wincing as he grabbed Mir’s arm. “That hurts!” Joon’s wound quickly healed with nightly butterfly kisses from Mir and some designer face-cream, but that had been the end of Joon’s modeling career.
Most of their assignments are politically related, but sometimes Rain would wire them completely odd mission statements with little explanation. Seungho takes one look at Rain's fax one day and tells Cheondung to pack his bags. They take the train to a sea-side town four hours away from Seoul. Seungho naps the entire way there under the rim of his baseball cap while Cheondung sits at the window, counting the number of cornfields they pass.
Their target is a young man hiding in a small hospital. He turns out to be the successor of an opposing clan. The man manages to fend Seungho off until Cheondung throws him out of a window. They get rid of the body, but not before snatching his emblem to return to Rain.
They stay the night as Cheondung tends to Seungho’s fractured collarbone. “If Mir or Joon were here, they’d say I was getting rusty,” he chuckles, wincing as the younger boy wraps Seungho’s shoulder in a cast.
“You’re not getting old, hyung,” Cheondung replies. “You just didn’t see him coming from the right. You were always bad at covering your blind-spot.”
“Yeah,” Seungho muses. “G.O. always did that.”
“Sorry.” Cheondung sulks a little, adjusting the cast and apologizing again at Seungho’s pained hiss. “I should’ve covered you.”
“Don’t worry,” Seungho laughs. “You saved my life.” He winces while lying down. “Stop frowning. I heal fast. Go to sleep already. We have to catch the early train back.”
“Okay,” Cheondung lies. He stays up the entire night to watch after Seungho.
G.O. co-owns a night-club. Joon is his most frequent customer. On mission-less nights, he drags Mir along with him to the dance floor. They have the decency to entertain girls before dancing with each other, Joon shamelessly putting his hands all over Mir’s hips as they move to the music.
“Your friends are bringing in more business,” the bartender tells G.O. as he makes the man another vodka tonic. “They’re pretty interesting.”
“Huh,” G.O. says. Mir has his right hand on Joon’s neck as his back presses against the line of Joon’s silhouette. Mir’s hair is damp with sweat under the flashing rave lights, and Joon has the nerve to meet G.O.’s eyes before turning his attention back to span of Mir’s torso.
According to Rain, they’re the most dynamic duo the academy has ever seen. Mir is sharp and piercing with all the qualities of a trained assassin, yet he lacks the fineness and smoothness that is every part of Joon. Together, they’re unstoppable. Too bad their impeccable formation is often times interrupted by their daily bickering. They’d fight and destroy half of the apartment. Then they’d make up, nail marks running down Joon’s back and bites lining Mir’s jaw. It’s a perfect, never ending cycle.
G.O. thinks it’s rather ridiculous. He downs the shot at the bar and notices that the two are no longer on the dance floor.
Cheondung is adopted into the academy by Rain at age 15. Upon much brown-nosing, Mir finds out that the newcomer is actually the only surviving member of a distant clan after a massacre issued by the government. Cheondung rarely spoke in the early months. He spent his days practicing and sparring, bowing and reporting to only Rain.
As a dare of some sort, G.O. had challenged Cheondung to a spar a month into Cheondung’s training. The fight lasted two hours before Cheondung finally collapsed in breathless defeat. Regardless, G.O. had given him a silent sort of approval, which meant almost as much as Rain’s respect in the academy.
Nowadays Cheondung attends a local university in his spare him. Sometimes Mir peers over Cheondung’s notes in boredom and highlights his notebook in a million different colors. Other times G.O. would help him with class work.
Rain shows up on their doorstep one day and requests a private conversation with Cheondung. Mir and Joon feign disinterest by talking loudly in the living room, stopping only when G.O. shushes them. Rain exists an hour later and leaves a speechless Cheondung with five plane tickets.
“I’m going on a trip,” Cheondung answers vaguely when questioned. He stuffs a week worth of clothes into a suitcase and sits on the end of his bed, staring into space. Upon further prying by Seungho, he answers with an absent, “Jihoon-hyung found my sister.” It means everything yet nothing.
“So where’s he going?” Mir asks, busy ordering pizza.
“We,” Seungho takes a deep breath. “We are going to the Philippines.”
Cheondung is quiet for most of the plane ride. He answers with one to two word replies and spends ages staring out of their hotel balcony. The next day they take a taxi to a small church and sit in at the back of a small but elegant wedding ceremony.
“So, where’s your sister?” Joon asks when the wedding party retreat to the garden for the reception. He fights Mir for a plate of cup-cakes before nudging Cheondung for the answer.
“She’s up there,” Cheondung replies quietly, nodding towards the bride. “Cutting cake for the guests.”
“Oh,” Mir says, mouth wide. “Oh- Oh- Oh!”
Cheondung turns around instead. “I think we should go.” He stops when Seungho grabs him by the arm, gently pushing him towards the direction of the bride. Cheondung numbly obeys, slowly making his way towards the woman. He gives them one last pitiful look before joining the line of guests congratulating the bride. “Hello, Noona,” he says when the woman finally looks up at him, nearly dropping her plate.
“Long time no see, Sanghyun-ah,” She says, the beads on her grown catching the sunlight and reflecting a million colors. “I see Jihoon-sshi finally caught up to me.”
“I thought you were dead,” Cheondung replies. “Why did you never contact me? I thought- I just. All this time I thought you were gone, and now I find out you’re living a happy life without me. What about father’s legacy?”
“That was father’s legacy, not mine.” Sandara sets one hand on Cheondung’s shoulder. “I just want to live a normal life now. You understand, don’t you?” She smiles softly when the boy doesn’t reply. “I see you’ve brought your friends with you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Cheondung asks again.
“It wouldn’t have mattered, would it?” Sandara asks. “You’re a fighter. This is your life. If I had asked you to choose between the life I’m living and the one you’re living, which would you haven chosen?” She laughs when he doesn’t reply. “I thought so. You found your calling in life, so please forgive me for trying to find mine.”
In the end he takes her hand for the first dance, spinning her in small yet delicate circles as she laughs. It’s a bright, happy sound that reminds Cheondung of childhood spars with his father, the curve of Rain’s lips when he compliments Cheondung’s growth, the way Mir laughs into Joon’s neck, and the way Seungho pats Cheondung on the back silently but proudly.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Mir asks with a mouthful of cake, tilting his head when Cheondung returns to their table.
“Yeah,” Cheondung says. “I think I did.”
Their trip back to Korea is a peaceful one. Cheondung finally falls asleep for the first time in days, his head easily settling itself along the crook of Seungho’s shoulder. Mir, having eaten a year worth of cake, sits quietly at his seat while he punches the button of his DS. Joon listens to a CD he bought at the airport while G.O. reads through the majority of the flight.
“What are you thinking about?” G.O. asks when the others are asleep.
Seungho sighs. “Did you ever think we’d be traveling around with the team, living such a normal life?”
“We don’t live a normal life.” G.O. laughs. “Sorry to say.”
Seungho shifts a little. Cheondung and Mir are now both using Joon’s shoulders as pillows. “I think something bad is coming.”
“I think you’re paranoid.” G.O. gives Seungho a small punch.
“Probably,” Seungho smiles- his first genuine one in a long time.
G.O. had been wrong. Something bad had been coming. It was waiting around the corners of Seungho’s office, in the darkness of parking lot. It followed Seungho’s every move, tracked his every steps until ambushing him one night. It took Seungho by surprise, leaving only a letter on top of Seungho’s car and traces of blood on the walls of the parking garage.
“They found this,” Rain says, dropping the blood-stained letter on top of their coffee table. “Someone wanted to leave a message, and they did.”
“Why would anyone target Seungho?” G.O. asks, having still a bit of his composure left. Mir and Joon had disappeared quietly upon hearing the news of Seungho’s abduction, no doubt already sharpening their weapons. Cheondung had remained silent, quietly listening to their conversation.
“It’s my fault,” Rain says. “He probably never told you this, but I assigned that office job to him. Seungho had been researching something government related for me. That’s why they took him. I got him into this mess, so I’ll get him out of it. I’ll contact my best unit and-”
“Don’t be silly, hyung.” Mir emerges from the bedroom, blade already strapped to his belt. “We are your best unit.”
Cheondung takes out the security guards at the door, putting his sword back into its cover before gesturing at the others. Mir is the first the jump down, his unruly hair finally covered under his dark cap. Joon follows, his movement silent like the stillness of the night.
They break in easily. Joon pinpoints all the cameras upon entrance and slashes them with a flick of his wrist. He cuts off all the power while Mir whistles behind him. They crawl through the air vents until landing in the basement, Joon quickly slipping the neck of the only man guarding Seungho.
“What took you so long?” Seungho asks with labored breath as Cheondung unties him from the chair. He sighs a little when Cheondung pulls him up with one arm, his head rolling to Cheondung’s chests at his lack of strength.
“You look like shit, Leader-sshi,” Mir replies cheekily, poking at the bruises on Seungho’s temple. “Sorry,” he says when Seungho hisses in pain. “Uh-oh,” he laughs when the door to the basement opens and footsteps run down the stairs. They separate when the first gun shot is heard, Cheondung quickly ducking under some sort of protection.
“Who’s there?” Someone demands before firing another round of bullets into the darkness.
Mir dodges, leaping for the ceiling lamp. “Oh,” he says, “As if they really expect us to answer that?” The man is dead within the first three shurikens, but more footsteps follow. “Oh geeze,” Mir whines when the sounds of more loaded bullets are heard. “No one ever takes me seriously the first time.”
“Are you okay?” Cheondung asks, giving Seungho’s arm a little squeeze. They’re safe for now, with Joon and Mir taking care of the men. In the background, Cheondung can hear Mir whistling when someone heavy hits the ground. Joon is laughing now, the oddly psychotic laugh he does whenever he’s in control.
“Yeah,” Seungho manages to say, legs still weak beyond comprehension. His eyes squeeze shut, and all he can make out are the sounds of metal clashing against the walls. “Thanks for coming to get me.”
“Don’t be silly,” Joon chirps. It’s oddly comforting, considering the fact that Seungho can’t breathe without wanting to die.
They stop walking towards the window when the lights suddenly turn on, and a man is standing near the doorway. The sound of metal slashing is heard as Mir, Joon, and Cheondung all pull out their swords.
“So Rain finally sent his bodyguards to get you,” The familiar man says. Cheondung vaguely recognizes him as the head of some political group or another.
“Fuck you, we’re ninjas!” Mir cries, already aiming his knife. He stops when the man pulls out something round from his pockets. “Okay, that is a fucking grenade.”
“If I die,” the man is hysterical at this point. “You’ll all die with me.” He reaches for his hand in time-
-to be knocked unconscious by G.O.
“Where the fuck were you?” Joon wants to know, hands on hips.
“Out saving your asses” is G.O.’s reply.
It takes Seungho a month to fully heal. Even without his office job, Seungho spends his days outside the apartment. Mir runs into him one day at the corner diner, Seungho cupping the porcelain of his coffee mug while staring into space.
Mir takes that as permission to steal Seungho’s muffin. “Earth to Leader-sshi?”
“Oh.” Seungho blinks, watching as Mir devoured the rest of Seungho’s plate. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here, is the right question.” G.O. appears with Joon and Cheondung in toll. He nudges Mir until the youngest moves aside, making room for them. “Joon ordered pizza.”
“You know, I was thinking,” Seungho replies instead. “Back when Jihoon-hyung named me the leader, I never thought he’d also ask me to handpick the members of this team.”
“Did he really?” Joon is now intrigued, leaning against his palms.
“Yeah,” Seungho trails off. Back then, he had seriously contemplated on other candidates. Mir was impatient, often times taking immature leaps at everything. Joon was impossible to work with at times, too busy focusing on improving his own strength than working with the team. Cheodung was terrible at being emphatic during battle, and sometimes it was hard for Seungho to even read him. Yet Seungho had chosen them, because without them, he would have never left the academy in one piece. “Yeah, I think I made the right decision.”
“Well, duh.” Mir huffs. “Who else would you have chosen? Those fools had nothing on me.”
“And what was your secret weapon supposed to be? Your fart?” Joon sneers. He stops when Mir makes a constipated face at him.
“Come on, hyung, let’s go.” Cheondung tugs a little on Seungho’s arm.
“You’re too philosophical at times,” G.O. comments.
“Let’s eat pizza!” Mir cheers instead.
“And also,” G.O. coughs. “After the pizza, there’s another mission waiting for us.”
“Of course,” Seungho laughs. “Of course.”
[FIN]
me pitching this idea to yoljong
[12/19/2009 8:19:57 PM] blahchiharu: MBLAQ as ninjas in training
[12/19/2009 8:20:02 PM] blahchiharu: except they all suck
[12/19/2009 8:21:08 PM] blahchiharu: seungho is the leader of their unit
[12/19/2009 8:21:12 PM] blahchiharu: he's actually a pretty good ninja
[12/19/2009 8:21:19 PM] blahchiharu: except he's too busy trying to calm everyone down
[12/19/2009 8:21:25 PM] blahchiharu: G.O. used to work alone
[12/19/2009 8:21:32 PM] blahchiharu: but he took pity on Seungho and joined his group
[12/19/2009 8:21:41 PM] blahchiharu: Mir and Joon are a pair
[12/19/2009 8:21:52 PM] blahchiharu whenen they're not bickering they have this unbeatable combination going on
[12/19/2009 8:22:08 PM] blahchiharu: and Cheondung is the rare exotic one Rain rescued from another clan
[12/19/2009 8:22:18 PM] blahchiharu: and they go around assinsating people
[12/19/2009 8:22:22 PM] blahchiharu: LIKE
[12/19/2009 8:22:24 PM] blahchiharu: they're normal people
[12/19/2009 8:22:27 PM] blahchiharu: BUT SECRET!NINJAS
[12/19/2009 8:22:44 PM] yoljong: so they're people by day, ninja's by night?
[12/19/2009 8:22:49 PM] blahchiharu: yes
[12/19/2009 8:23:03 PM] yoljong: thats so hot
[12/19/2009 8:24:44 PM] blahchiharu: Joon and Mir just free loads and bicker at each other
[12/19/2009 8:25:00 PM] blahchiharu: G.O. co-owns a night club
[12/19/2009 8:25:30 PM] yoljong: I would have imagined G.O would be a night club security guard as opposed to a co-owner
[12/19/2009 8:25:48 PM] blahchiharu: he's a ninja okay?
[12/19/2009 8:26:19 PM] yoljong: a ninja with facial hair o/
[12/19/2009 8:26:26 PM] blahchiharu: yes
[12/19/2009 8:26:31 PM] yoljong: will joon be bald in this fic
[12/19/2009 8:26:41 PM] blahchiharu: fuck no
Love it? Hate it? Please leave some feedback, even if it may be a little late. You can also join the community, since I'll be locking up NC17 fics.
Fandom: MBLAQ, RAIN
Author: blahchiharu
Characters/pairing: Joon/Mir, OT5
Rating PG-13
wordcount: ~4000
Summary: The world is Mir’s dartboard, Danger is Joon’s leading lady, Cheondung can only ever be passive, G.O. would rather go on solo missions, and Seungho wonders why anyone ever taught them to hold weapons. Ninja Assassin!Au
Mir watches silently as their target jumps out of the limo, bidding a greeting to the security guard outside of the building before punching in the key code for the doors. Mir memorizes the combination before he bites off the rest of his lollipop, crunching the remaining sugar pieces with his teeth as he jumps off the fence.
Mir easily slips through the doors at the south entrance before meeting Joon at the staircase. Cheondung had cut off the motion detectors an hour ago when they swiped the building, so Mir does a little waltz in front of the last security camera at the end of the hall, giving the monitor a peace sign while knowing fully well that G.O. would be scoffing in front of the screen in the monitoring room.
“It took you long enough,” Joon hisses when they finally meet up, the end of Joon’s bangs peaking out underneath his mask.
“Patience, Grasshopper.” Mir throws the stick of his finished lollipop at Joon’s head. Joon replies by waving his shurikens dangerously close to Mir’s face. “Anyways, Target’s checking the vaults. He’s heading up to his office soon.”
It takes them two minutes to get there through the staircase, Joon periodically taking leaps of four or five steps. They wait in the shadows of the corner until the target comes out of the elevator.
The man, clearly in his forties even in the darkness of the hallway, pauses upon finding the envelope taped to the door. “What the hell is this,” the CEO mumbles as he breaks the wax seal. Out of the envelope comes black sand, flowing through the paper as it streams to the floor.
Joon aims three knifes. One at the heart and two more just to be safe. The man is dead before the envelope ever hits the ground.
By the time Seungho comes back, Mir is already lounging on the couch with a bowl of ice-cream in his lap. Seungho throws the contents of their mailbox on the coffee table, pulling his black tie loose with one hand as he runs a hand through his hair with the other. “The wire transfer is complete. Do you have what they asked for?”
“Of course.” Mir smirks cheekily, dangling the gold, embroidered pocket watch he had snatched off the target.
“How was your meeting?” Cheondung asks from the dinning table, busy sipping a cup of coffee.
“Boring, as always.” Seungho opens the coat closet as he easily slips out of the jacket of his tux. Instead he finds Mir’s black pants and scarf littered on the floor. “I’ve told you to be more careful about where you leave things.”
“Relax, hyung.” Mir peers over the couch. “If anyone ever stumbled into my stash, I’ll just slit their tongue so they don’t talk. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, you see?”
G.O. emerges from the kitchen then, picking up the clothes Mir had thrown aside. “I’ll take them.” He heads back to his room without another word, probably stopping by their vault to throw in the clothes with the rest of Mir’s junk. Mir always had a habit of leaving his weapons lying around. Last week Joon had stepped on one of Mir’s blade on accident, and they ended up sparring in the kitchen until Joon cut the microwave in half.
“Jihoon-hyung wants to meet with us next week,” Seungho says before heading into the bathroom, where he finds Joon staring at the mirror, no doubt fixing his hair.
“I told you we could do it by ourselves.” Joon smirks from his spot on top of the sink. “And you had your doubts.” He helps Seungho unbutton his shirt, pausing at the smooth muscles on Seungho’s arms as he pulls at the sleeves. “What are we going to do with you, Leader-sshi?” Joon whispers dangerously close to Seungho’s ears.
“Now’s not the time,” Seungho says instead, turning on the water.
“Okay, whatever.” Joon shrugs. He leaves the bathroom, probably to fight Mir for the television remote.
Seungho sighs into the mirror.
Back when they were in the academy, Seungho would have never imagined that he’d end up leading this team. G.O. and Joon had always shown more promise, but G.O. had disappeared one day on a solo assignment and didn’t return for half a year. In the span of his absence, Mir managed to pass his proficiency test and Cheondung somehow ended up placing first in his quadrant.
Their first assignment as a team was to finish off the leader of some political group that had been causing trouble in Pusan. Seungho had worked the mission with just Cheondung and Joon. They came out of it better than expected, with only a few bruises and minor scrapes.
Seungho hadn’t expected them to graduate so quickly, but he had been in no place to complain either. After that, G.O. had shown up mysteriously at their apartment two months after moving in, mumbling something about how there was no way Seungho could do this without his help.
Some days Seungho can’t take the pressure from both his day and night job, but he never complains. Without Jihoon-hyung, he’d never be here. Without this team, he’d be nothing.
Cheondung taps his pen against the edge of his notebook, quietly observing the way the teaching assistant moves from one side of the blackboard to the other. There’s a light flick in her wrist as she writes with the chalk, scribbling down endless formulas and equations until getting to the bottom of the board.
“Excuse me,” someone says from besides him, and Cheondung turns to find a girl smiling shyly from the seat next to his. “Are you new? I haven’t seen you here before.”
“I’m just sitting in,” Cheondung replies quickly before gathered his notebook. At the front of the room, the t.a. is reminding the class of their assignment as students file out of the classroom. Cheondung manages to escape before the girl could ask another question.
“How was it?” G.O. asks when Cheondung meets him in front of the chemistry building.
“She dyed her hair,” Cheondung replies without making eye-contact. “She’s petite, 5”5 with heels, 5”2 without. Right now she’s wearing brown contacts, but she changes them from day to day. From what I could tell, she doesn’t interact with anyone, probably to keep up with her cover.” He stops talking when G.O. closes his book. “Why do you think there’s a government agent undercover at this school?”
G.O. shrugs. “All I know is, someone wants her dead. I put the envelope on her wardrobe.”
Cheondung sighs. “I’ll finish the job.”
Mir doesn’t remember very much about his parents. He supposes his mother was a woman with a kind smile, but his earliest memories had been of the Master and the academy. Mir grew up in the walls of the academy, watching as older kids sparred in the halls and in the courtyards.
Jihoon-hyung had taken care of him, dropping small clues of Mir’s past here and there. Mir had filled in the rest from the scrolls he stole from the Master’s library. His parents died in a political assassination when he was four. Someone in the academy had kidnapped him from the orphanage at age five, taking him away from his sister and the only family he has.
Mir had refused to learn in the beginning, complaining about the food and the strict training regiment. The older kids laughed at him, calling him weak. Mir ignored them and plotted a way of escaping the academy. He climbed up the walls of the courtyard one night and ran until some of the older boys caught him. The Master confined him in the well for seven days as his punishment.
“You’re a fool,” Jihoon-hyung had told him as he nursed Mir back to health. “All you have this place. This is who you are.” Jihoon-hyung had been kind before he inherited the academy, before the legacy, and before he was Rain.
Mir does remember his sister- a girl with a bright smile and a happy laugh. He kept a photo of her in his pillowcase until Kiyong, the cruelest boy in his quadrant, stole and burned it. “You’re just like her,” Kiyong had laughed. “Useless and weak.”
Mir had thrown a batch of shurikens at Kiyong in a mindless fury. It slit the main artery of the boy’s throat and took Kiyong three full months to recover. The Master had punished Mir for sparring out of line, but Jihoon-hyung had smirked at Mir before adding, “I always knew you had talent.”
No one really knows why Seungho has a day job, but Rain had permitted him to work as some sort of company business man as a cover up, and no one had bothered to argue. Joon and Mir visit him sometimes. Joon flirts with the secretary working on Seungho’s floor while Mir decorates Seungho’s office with multi-colored sticky-notes.
Cheondung had once suggested that a part-time job might be useful, but Mir had merely shrugged and went back to playing his video game. Joon worked as a model for an ad agency for a while until he went abroad to Japan for a week on the pretense of another modeling gig. They all knew it was another assignment from Rain.
Joon returned with broken ribs and a cut on his right cheek. “Joonie-hyung,” Mir had cooed while peeling away the bandaid and kissing at the wound. “Which fucker cut up your pretty face? Tell me and I’ll go kill him.”
“He’s already dead,” Joon replied, wincing as he grabbed Mir’s arm. “That hurts!” Joon’s wound quickly healed with nightly butterfly kisses from Mir and some designer face-cream, but that had been the end of Joon’s modeling career.
Most of their assignments are politically related, but sometimes Rain would wire them completely odd mission statements with little explanation. Seungho takes one look at Rain's fax one day and tells Cheondung to pack his bags. They take the train to a sea-side town four hours away from Seoul. Seungho naps the entire way there under the rim of his baseball cap while Cheondung sits at the window, counting the number of cornfields they pass.
Their target is a young man hiding in a small hospital. He turns out to be the successor of an opposing clan. The man manages to fend Seungho off until Cheondung throws him out of a window. They get rid of the body, but not before snatching his emblem to return to Rain.
They stay the night as Cheondung tends to Seungho’s fractured collarbone. “If Mir or Joon were here, they’d say I was getting rusty,” he chuckles, wincing as the younger boy wraps Seungho’s shoulder in a cast.
“You’re not getting old, hyung,” Cheondung replies. “You just didn’t see him coming from the right. You were always bad at covering your blind-spot.”
“Yeah,” Seungho muses. “G.O. always did that.”
“Sorry.” Cheondung sulks a little, adjusting the cast and apologizing again at Seungho’s pained hiss. “I should’ve covered you.”
“Don’t worry,” Seungho laughs. “You saved my life.” He winces while lying down. “Stop frowning. I heal fast. Go to sleep already. We have to catch the early train back.”
“Okay,” Cheondung lies. He stays up the entire night to watch after Seungho.
G.O. co-owns a night-club. Joon is his most frequent customer. On mission-less nights, he drags Mir along with him to the dance floor. They have the decency to entertain girls before dancing with each other, Joon shamelessly putting his hands all over Mir’s hips as they move to the music.
“Your friends are bringing in more business,” the bartender tells G.O. as he makes the man another vodka tonic. “They’re pretty interesting.”
“Huh,” G.O. says. Mir has his right hand on Joon’s neck as his back presses against the line of Joon’s silhouette. Mir’s hair is damp with sweat under the flashing rave lights, and Joon has the nerve to meet G.O.’s eyes before turning his attention back to span of Mir’s torso.
According to Rain, they’re the most dynamic duo the academy has ever seen. Mir is sharp and piercing with all the qualities of a trained assassin, yet he lacks the fineness and smoothness that is every part of Joon. Together, they’re unstoppable. Too bad their impeccable formation is often times interrupted by their daily bickering. They’d fight and destroy half of the apartment. Then they’d make up, nail marks running down Joon’s back and bites lining Mir’s jaw. It’s a perfect, never ending cycle.
G.O. thinks it’s rather ridiculous. He downs the shot at the bar and notices that the two are no longer on the dance floor.
Cheondung is adopted into the academy by Rain at age 15. Upon much brown-nosing, Mir finds out that the newcomer is actually the only surviving member of a distant clan after a massacre issued by the government. Cheondung rarely spoke in the early months. He spent his days practicing and sparring, bowing and reporting to only Rain.
As a dare of some sort, G.O. had challenged Cheondung to a spar a month into Cheondung’s training. The fight lasted two hours before Cheondung finally collapsed in breathless defeat. Regardless, G.O. had given him a silent sort of approval, which meant almost as much as Rain’s respect in the academy.
Nowadays Cheondung attends a local university in his spare him. Sometimes Mir peers over Cheondung’s notes in boredom and highlights his notebook in a million different colors. Other times G.O. would help him with class work.
Rain shows up on their doorstep one day and requests a private conversation with Cheondung. Mir and Joon feign disinterest by talking loudly in the living room, stopping only when G.O. shushes them. Rain exists an hour later and leaves a speechless Cheondung with five plane tickets.
“I’m going on a trip,” Cheondung answers vaguely when questioned. He stuffs a week worth of clothes into a suitcase and sits on the end of his bed, staring into space. Upon further prying by Seungho, he answers with an absent, “Jihoon-hyung found my sister.” It means everything yet nothing.
“So where’s he going?” Mir asks, busy ordering pizza.
“We,” Seungho takes a deep breath. “We are going to the Philippines.”
Cheondung is quiet for most of the plane ride. He answers with one to two word replies and spends ages staring out of their hotel balcony. The next day they take a taxi to a small church and sit in at the back of a small but elegant wedding ceremony.
“So, where’s your sister?” Joon asks when the wedding party retreat to the garden for the reception. He fights Mir for a plate of cup-cakes before nudging Cheondung for the answer.
“She’s up there,” Cheondung replies quietly, nodding towards the bride. “Cutting cake for the guests.”
“Oh,” Mir says, mouth wide. “Oh- Oh- Oh!”
Cheondung turns around instead. “I think we should go.” He stops when Seungho grabs him by the arm, gently pushing him towards the direction of the bride. Cheondung numbly obeys, slowly making his way towards the woman. He gives them one last pitiful look before joining the line of guests congratulating the bride. “Hello, Noona,” he says when the woman finally looks up at him, nearly dropping her plate.
“Long time no see, Sanghyun-ah,” She says, the beads on her grown catching the sunlight and reflecting a million colors. “I see Jihoon-sshi finally caught up to me.”
“I thought you were dead,” Cheondung replies. “Why did you never contact me? I thought- I just. All this time I thought you were gone, and now I find out you’re living a happy life without me. What about father’s legacy?”
“That was father’s legacy, not mine.” Sandara sets one hand on Cheondung’s shoulder. “I just want to live a normal life now. You understand, don’t you?” She smiles softly when the boy doesn’t reply. “I see you’ve brought your friends with you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Cheondung asks again.
“It wouldn’t have mattered, would it?” Sandara asks. “You’re a fighter. This is your life. If I had asked you to choose between the life I’m living and the one you’re living, which would you haven chosen?” She laughs when he doesn’t reply. “I thought so. You found your calling in life, so please forgive me for trying to find mine.”
In the end he takes her hand for the first dance, spinning her in small yet delicate circles as she laughs. It’s a bright, happy sound that reminds Cheondung of childhood spars with his father, the curve of Rain’s lips when he compliments Cheondung’s growth, the way Mir laughs into Joon’s neck, and the way Seungho pats Cheondung on the back silently but proudly.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Mir asks with a mouthful of cake, tilting his head when Cheondung returns to their table.
“Yeah,” Cheondung says. “I think I did.”
Their trip back to Korea is a peaceful one. Cheondung finally falls asleep for the first time in days, his head easily settling itself along the crook of Seungho’s shoulder. Mir, having eaten a year worth of cake, sits quietly at his seat while he punches the button of his DS. Joon listens to a CD he bought at the airport while G.O. reads through the majority of the flight.
“What are you thinking about?” G.O. asks when the others are asleep.
Seungho sighs. “Did you ever think we’d be traveling around with the team, living such a normal life?”
“We don’t live a normal life.” G.O. laughs. “Sorry to say.”
Seungho shifts a little. Cheondung and Mir are now both using Joon’s shoulders as pillows. “I think something bad is coming.”
“I think you’re paranoid.” G.O. gives Seungho a small punch.
“Probably,” Seungho smiles- his first genuine one in a long time.
G.O. had been wrong. Something bad had been coming. It was waiting around the corners of Seungho’s office, in the darkness of parking lot. It followed Seungho’s every move, tracked his every steps until ambushing him one night. It took Seungho by surprise, leaving only a letter on top of Seungho’s car and traces of blood on the walls of the parking garage.
“They found this,” Rain says, dropping the blood-stained letter on top of their coffee table. “Someone wanted to leave a message, and they did.”
“Why would anyone target Seungho?” G.O. asks, having still a bit of his composure left. Mir and Joon had disappeared quietly upon hearing the news of Seungho’s abduction, no doubt already sharpening their weapons. Cheondung had remained silent, quietly listening to their conversation.
“It’s my fault,” Rain says. “He probably never told you this, but I assigned that office job to him. Seungho had been researching something government related for me. That’s why they took him. I got him into this mess, so I’ll get him out of it. I’ll contact my best unit and-”
“Don’t be silly, hyung.” Mir emerges from the bedroom, blade already strapped to his belt. “We are your best unit.”
Cheondung takes out the security guards at the door, putting his sword back into its cover before gesturing at the others. Mir is the first the jump down, his unruly hair finally covered under his dark cap. Joon follows, his movement silent like the stillness of the night.
They break in easily. Joon pinpoints all the cameras upon entrance and slashes them with a flick of his wrist. He cuts off all the power while Mir whistles behind him. They crawl through the air vents until landing in the basement, Joon quickly slipping the neck of the only man guarding Seungho.
“What took you so long?” Seungho asks with labored breath as Cheondung unties him from the chair. He sighs a little when Cheondung pulls him up with one arm, his head rolling to Cheondung’s chests at his lack of strength.
“You look like shit, Leader-sshi,” Mir replies cheekily, poking at the bruises on Seungho’s temple. “Sorry,” he says when Seungho hisses in pain. “Uh-oh,” he laughs when the door to the basement opens and footsteps run down the stairs. They separate when the first gun shot is heard, Cheondung quickly ducking under some sort of protection.
“Who’s there?” Someone demands before firing another round of bullets into the darkness.
Mir dodges, leaping for the ceiling lamp. “Oh,” he says, “As if they really expect us to answer that?” The man is dead within the first three shurikens, but more footsteps follow. “Oh geeze,” Mir whines when the sounds of more loaded bullets are heard. “No one ever takes me seriously the first time.”
“Are you okay?” Cheondung asks, giving Seungho’s arm a little squeeze. They’re safe for now, with Joon and Mir taking care of the men. In the background, Cheondung can hear Mir whistling when someone heavy hits the ground. Joon is laughing now, the oddly psychotic laugh he does whenever he’s in control.
“Yeah,” Seungho manages to say, legs still weak beyond comprehension. His eyes squeeze shut, and all he can make out are the sounds of metal clashing against the walls. “Thanks for coming to get me.”
“Don’t be silly,” Joon chirps. It’s oddly comforting, considering the fact that Seungho can’t breathe without wanting to die.
They stop walking towards the window when the lights suddenly turn on, and a man is standing near the doorway. The sound of metal slashing is heard as Mir, Joon, and Cheondung all pull out their swords.
“So Rain finally sent his bodyguards to get you,” The familiar man says. Cheondung vaguely recognizes him as the head of some political group or another.
“Fuck you, we’re ninjas!” Mir cries, already aiming his knife. He stops when the man pulls out something round from his pockets. “Okay, that is a fucking grenade.”
“If I die,” the man is hysterical at this point. “You’ll all die with me.” He reaches for his hand in time-
-to be knocked unconscious by G.O.
“Where the fuck were you?” Joon wants to know, hands on hips.
“Out saving your asses” is G.O.’s reply.
It takes Seungho a month to fully heal. Even without his office job, Seungho spends his days outside the apartment. Mir runs into him one day at the corner diner, Seungho cupping the porcelain of his coffee mug while staring into space.
Mir takes that as permission to steal Seungho’s muffin. “Earth to Leader-sshi?”
“Oh.” Seungho blinks, watching as Mir devoured the rest of Seungho’s plate. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here, is the right question.” G.O. appears with Joon and Cheondung in toll. He nudges Mir until the youngest moves aside, making room for them. “Joon ordered pizza.”
“You know, I was thinking,” Seungho replies instead. “Back when Jihoon-hyung named me the leader, I never thought he’d also ask me to handpick the members of this team.”
“Did he really?” Joon is now intrigued, leaning against his palms.
“Yeah,” Seungho trails off. Back then, he had seriously contemplated on other candidates. Mir was impatient, often times taking immature leaps at everything. Joon was impossible to work with at times, too busy focusing on improving his own strength than working with the team. Cheodung was terrible at being emphatic during battle, and sometimes it was hard for Seungho to even read him. Yet Seungho had chosen them, because without them, he would have never left the academy in one piece. “Yeah, I think I made the right decision.”
“Well, duh.” Mir huffs. “Who else would you have chosen? Those fools had nothing on me.”
“And what was your secret weapon supposed to be? Your fart?” Joon sneers. He stops when Mir makes a constipated face at him.
“Come on, hyung, let’s go.” Cheondung tugs a little on Seungho’s arm.
“You’re too philosophical at times,” G.O. comments.
“Let’s eat pizza!” Mir cheers instead.
“And also,” G.O. coughs. “After the pizza, there’s another mission waiting for us.”
“Of course,” Seungho laughs. “Of course.”
[FIN]
me pitching this idea to yoljong
[12/19/2009 8:19:57 PM] blahchiharu: MBLAQ as ninjas in training
[12/19/2009 8:20:02 PM] blahchiharu: except they all suck
[12/19/2009 8:21:08 PM] blahchiharu: seungho is the leader of their unit
[12/19/2009 8:21:12 PM] blahchiharu: he's actually a pretty good ninja
[12/19/2009 8:21:19 PM] blahchiharu: except he's too busy trying to calm everyone down
[12/19/2009 8:21:25 PM] blahchiharu: G.O. used to work alone
[12/19/2009 8:21:32 PM] blahchiharu: but he took pity on Seungho and joined his group
[12/19/2009 8:21:41 PM] blahchiharu: Mir and Joon are a pair
[12/19/2009 8:21:52 PM] blahchiharu whenen they're not bickering they have this unbeatable combination going on
[12/19/2009 8:22:08 PM] blahchiharu: and Cheondung is the rare exotic one Rain rescued from another clan
[12/19/2009 8:22:18 PM] blahchiharu: and they go around assinsating people
[12/19/2009 8:22:22 PM] blahchiharu: LIKE
[12/19/2009 8:22:24 PM] blahchiharu: they're normal people
[12/19/2009 8:22:27 PM] blahchiharu: BUT SECRET!NINJAS
[12/19/2009 8:22:44 PM] yoljong: so they're people by day, ninja's by night?
[12/19/2009 8:22:49 PM] blahchiharu: yes
[12/19/2009 8:23:03 PM] yoljong: thats so hot
[12/19/2009 8:24:44 PM] blahchiharu: Joon and Mir just free loads and bicker at each other
[12/19/2009 8:25:00 PM] blahchiharu: G.O. co-owns a night club
[12/19/2009 8:25:30 PM] yoljong: I would have imagined G.O would be a night club security guard as opposed to a co-owner
[12/19/2009 8:25:48 PM] blahchiharu: he's a ninja okay?
[12/19/2009 8:26:19 PM] yoljong: a ninja with facial hair o/
[12/19/2009 8:26:26 PM] blahchiharu: yes
[12/19/2009 8:26:31 PM] yoljong: will joon be bald in this fic
[12/19/2009 8:26:41 PM] blahchiharu: fuck no
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