South Korea’s an Asian country which has been rapidly modernizing over the years, bringing along much more investments and advanced technology. Kai’s pretty much amazed by how much the country has changed over a short span of five years, and he can’t wait to get to the S.K. Headquarters of the SM Agency to check out the rifles and guns in store for him. He shifts around his seat slightly uncomfortably as he waits for someone to come and pick him up from the airport, his eyes scanning the crowd in front of him.

His gaze lands on a young man standing a couple of feet away from him, wearing a snapback and smiling at a child beside him. The man ruffles the hair of the young child and the child’s mother chuckles at him. For a moment, Kai had thought that the young man was with his family. Then, the next moment, the man has already bid farewell to the mother and child, and was heading his way.

“It’s nice meeting you, Kai, the legend we’ve all heard about. Now, shall we get back to the headquarters and meet you future colleagues and boss?” The man smiles warmly at him, and Kai blinks his eyes at him.

“You’re from SM? You certainly don’t seem like it.” Kai comments in a low whisper, afraid that someone in the vicinity might be listening in on their conversation and find out that they are hit men. Killlers.

The man laughs airily, “Well, this certainly isn’t my first time hearing that too. I am indeed from SM and for your information it’s me who’s supposed to be showing you around. Boss says you’ve been gone for five whole years and you won’t be able to get used to the changes yet. Codename’s B.”

Kai lets the information sink into his mind and nods a little while later, “Let’s go then. I’m interested to meet this boss of yours. I’ve been notified by the L.A. Headquarters that after I was gone from S.K., someone else took over the top position.”

“Trust me, you won’t be that interested after meeting him personally.” B comments with a mysterious smile.

“Well, we’ll see.” Kai comments with a shrug and follows B in the direction of the car park.

Turns out B was right, when Kai meets a slightly taller man named Kris. Kris was transferred over from the Canadian Headquarters five years ago, only a week after Kai left. That’s too bad for the S.K. Headquarters though, because Kris is more of a trouble maker than a helpful person who can lead the agency well enough. B tells him that it has always been Suho taking care of the agency matters, and he occasionally gets help from D.O. and B himself. Kris is simply too ‘cool’ and unaware of certain things happening that he misses out on lots of important details, which is the exact reason why the agency failed an important mission in 2009.

“Hey, you want to go grab a quick lunch or coffee before the meeting with the rest of the agency? It’s lunch time now.”

“Sure, I think I’ll just go for coffee. The breakfast on the airplane was pretty filling. Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah, it’s okay. I don’t really eat lunch anyway, since most of my missions are carried out during noon hours.”

“That reminds me. What exactly is your position in S.K.? What is your level of shooting?”

B laughs awkwardly and refuses to meet Kai’s eyes, “Oh, I do nothing much. Just the normal setting off of bombs and gas leaks. I don’t do shooting anymore.”

Kai senses something wrong and asks nothing more. “Let’s go.”

B brings him to Starbucks, where both of them each got a cup of caramel cappuccino. They sit in silence for a couple of minutes before Kai speaks up, “Can you…tell me what your level of shooting in the past was?”

The other man hesitates for a moment before placing down his cup of coffee, “L—Level five.”

It is then that Kai realizes that the man he’s looking at, is not just a warm person who smiles at innocent looking and cute kids, but S.K.’s top hit man. Or perhaps, once top hit man.

He remembers distinctly that it was during the December of 2011 that he received news from the L.A. Headquarters that they’ve finally found someone capable of carrying out missions at Kai’s level. They told him that it was someone older than him by two years, and he was under S.K. Headquarters.

The two of them were supposed to form the best team ever that the SM Agency could ever think of, but something went very, very wrong in the February of 2012. L.A.’s side told him that the other man had been taken out of shooting missions due to a failed mission, an important one that eventually allowed the target to run away unharmed and cost the lives of two other agents.

L.A.’s side refused to let him know the details of the failed mission, but everyone under SM still knew that the mission must have went extremely wrong for someone with that level of shooting to get taken out of shooting missions. Just like that, the ultimate top shooting team wasn’t formed in the end. SM threw away all ideas of the creation of a top team and instead focused on training Kai to be the best of the best.

No one knew what happened during the failed mission, except for the man himself and the top authorities.

“You’re…” Kai stares dumfounded at the man in front of him.

“Yes, I was the person who was supposed to form a team with you, but unfortunately didn’t, due to a mission went wrong. It’s nothing much, really. Everyone else in S.K. knows about this anyway.”

Kai notes the sadness and bitterness in B’s voice.

“…I know that you may not want to tell me this, but what exactly happened?”

B says nothing and merely stares into his cup of coffee, which is now cold.

“Just know that…the mission went wrong because of me. Me.” B finally says before standing up to leave. Kai hurriedly stands up and follow after B, not knowing what to say.

They reached the office a couple of minutes later and B faces Kai with a forced smile, “Come on, let’s go greet your new colleagues, of which some you may recognize.”

The first one Kai sees is Luhan, who seems startled by Kai’s appearance.

“Oh, Kai, you’re finally back!” Luhan greets him cheerfully, but Kai finds that Luhan’s cheeriness a little too over the top. He notes the emptiness in Luhan’s eyes and asks worriedly, “Are you okay?”

Luhan stares at Kai wordlessly, before replying with “I’m fine, thanks.”

“Where’s Sehun? Is he still under the S.K. Headquarters?”

Kai’s question sends the office into an eerie silence. Luhan leaves the office after a few seconds, lips quivering. He sends B a questioning look, but B merely shakes his head, “I’m going out to get some fresh air. Chen, please help me introduce Kai to the rest. Thank you.”

The man named Chen nods and watches worriedly as B disappears past the doorway before turning to Kai.

“Sehun…He’s dead. He got killed in a mission a couple of years back. Nobody mentions his name anymore, because the grief is too much to take. Luhan had locked himself up in the dormitory for two weeks because of Sehun’s death. It was worse for B, though.”

The realization that his once best friend, the youngest agent under S.K. at that time, had been killed in a mission sent Kai’s knees weak. His grip on Luhan’s work table tightened.

“H—He’s dead? But…how?”

“We don’t know. B never told us. And we never asked. Sehun was one of the two agents who died, the other being Krystal. B almost committed suicide back when the mission failed with two of his closest friends in the agency dead, you know. His condition was even worse than Luhan’s, and it was only after Luhan went to see him that he decided to come out of his dormitory room. He was all skin and bones at that time.” Chen looks genuinely upset by the whole incident. “And so we never mentioned the deaths of Krystal and Sehun anymore. B went back to his healthy state at the end of 2013, and never participated in shooting missions anymore since the incident.”

“No one knows what happened except for B, the higher ups, and maybe Luhan.” He adds.

Kai recalls his conversation with B earlier on.

“Just know that…the mission went wrong because of me. Me.”

B, did you kill Sehun and Krystal? If not, exactly what had happened back then? Why do you seem so remorseful?

Kai excuses himself and leaves the office, heading towards the washroom.

He wishes that it all is just a nightmare, one that he’ll eventually wake up from, and Sehun will just be there, smiling at him with those crescent eyes. Unconsciously, his eyes are tearing up and he slams his fist against the mirror. The mirror breaks apart and Kai ignores the shards of glass that cuts into his skin.

“What have you done, B.” He mutters angrily, eyes filled with hatred.

What he didn’t know, and what everyone else didn’t know was, that the failed mission was never B’s fault.

It had always been Sehun’s fault.

Word Count: 1572

A/N:

I couldn’t help but write this lmao. Anyway I just finished my mid-years and I’ll probably give you all a couple more updates this week! Stay tuned, subscribe and give me comments, critical or not.

Thank you for reading. And sorry for any errors in my writing. As usual, I shall reiterate that I'm not a native English speaker.