“W—What do you mean?” By this time, Kai’s voice is trembling slightly as he stares wide-eyed at the male in front of him.

“What do I mean, huh?” Baekhyun leans forward and stares straight into Kai’s eyes, “I mean that Sehun betrayed us and left. He didn’t die.”

“Sehun…betrayed us?” Kai’s disbelief is evident in his tone of voice.

Baekhyun sighs regretfully. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“Can you…begin from the start? I’m confused.” Kai places the file onto the coffee table and stares at Baekhyun. The other man nods a little and starts fiddling with his fingers, nervous.

“I will tell you, just…don’t do anything rash. Can you at least promise me that?” Baekhyun looks straight into Kai’s eyes, and Kai’s a little surprised at this side of Baekhyun. All of a sudden, he seems so small and vulnerable.

Kai nods his head slowly, “I promise.”

“First, I think you need to know my real name. I am Byun Baekhyun, codename B.

It…It all began a couple of months after you left for Los Angeles. I had flown back to Seoul after my training in Singapore. I joined the Seoul Headquarters as a small agent who only accomplished not-so-important missions. Then, my shooting skills started improving by a lot, and the agency decided to place Sehun under my training. The higher-ups told me that he wasn’t performing well at his own missions.

So, I started training Sehun, and he did improve, but he was never given the chance to go on his own missions anymore. SM made sure to always have him by my side, and together, we completed our missions. Sometimes, I have my own missions, but Sehun didn’t have any. He seemed okay with the change, though.

Two years after you left, and two years after having Sehun under my training, the agency gave me an important test. I was ranked Level Five after the test, and that was when I heard that you and I are going to form a team. I was surprised, of course. The agency then started to have Sehun training on his own, sometimes with Luhan too. I was supposed to train alone for the upcoming formation of the ‘best team ever under SM’, and so I did. I never expected anything to go wrong during the next three months, and I certainly didn’t expect the failure of such an important mission.

SM gave me an important mission—killing off the son of South Korea’s Prime Minister. They told me that I couldn’t fail. And if I did fail, I will be taken off the shooting missions in the future. It is a punishment, they told me. I didn’t understand the reasons behind the ‘punishment’ and simply went ahead with planning the mission. I recruited Sehun and Krystal for the mission, for I have worked with them the most. Sehun was in charge of getting rid of the guards surrounding the mansion and disabling the communication devices. Krystal was supposed to get into the mansion and cause a power failure before sneaking around to give me some details on the mansion. I, of course, was supposed to enter and kill off the son.

But, things went way wrong, and to this day, I can still remember every single detail from that night.”

Mission No. 456
Agents: B, SH, Krystal.
Date: February 15, 2011
 

Sehun pulls open the van door and jumps out onto the street. He turns back and sees Baekhyun smiling at him, as though trying to reassure him that the mission will go just fine. He managed a small smile and nods at Baekhyun before hurrying off to the bushes near the front gate. Krystal shifts around uncomfortably beside Baekhyun on the van, and Baekhyun rests a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. We can do this.”

Krystal seems a little more confident after hearing Baekhyun’s words, and nods silently. She sneaks off the van as soon as she sees Sehun ripping the wires of the walkie-talkies apart. With a shoosh, she was gone, leaving Baekhyun alone in the cold, dark night. He grips his handgun tightly and prays that everything will go well, and they will all get back to the headquarters safely. There are sounds coming through his earpiece, and he hears Krystal’s slightly muffled voice.

“I’m inside, B. The ground floor has a living room. There’s a circular staircase in the living room leading up to the other floors. The East Wing leads to the kitchen, and the West Wing leads to the staff quarters. The staff quarters are silent, and I take it that they are already asleep. The kitchen’s empty, too. I checked the list of rooms in one of the staff’s room. It says that the son’s supposed to be sleeping in the master bedroom on the second floor.”

“Alright. Get to the basement and try to find the power switch. And um, do you see Sehun anywhere? He’s supposed to be getting rid of the other guards, but from my cameras, I still see the guards around and Sehun’s nowhere in sight.” Baekhyun frowns as he attempts to catch sight of Sehun.

“No, I don’t see him. Maybe he’s just trying to be careful and he’s probably hiding and waiting for his chance. I will get to the basement now.”

Baekhyun frowns even more when after another five minutes, Sehun’s still nowhere in sight. He’s not replying to Baekhyun through the earpiece and Baekhyun can sense something wrong. He gets off the van carefully, mask over his face, and rushes towards the bushes to cover himself. Carefully, he inches his way to the gate and sees no one in sight. His earpiece buzzes and Krystal informs him that she’s created a power failure, but no one in the house seemed to notice because they’re all sleeping. Baekhyun slips into the mansion and glances around, trying to get used to the dark. He sees the staircase leading up to the second floor and makes his way up silently.

“Krystal, something’s wrong. Sehun’s still missing. I’m in the mansion now, and I’ll try to kill off the target. You have to go and find Sehun now.” Baekhyun whispers as he rounds another corner and catches sight of the master bedroom.

“Alright.” He hears the rustling on Krystal’s side and tries to calm down his racing heart. Silently, he inches slowly towards the master bedroom and placed a hand on the doorknob. He takes a deep breath before turning the knob, but he doesn’t see the target anywhere in the room. Puzzled, he moves into the room and glances around. The target’s supposed to be in—

“B.” It’s that unmistakable voice of Sehun and Baekhyun whips around. He stares at the sight in front of him and feels his knees go weak.

“S—Sehun, what are you—”

“Shut up, B. There’s no room for discussion here. You either put down your gun, or prepare for your death.” Sehun smirks uncharacteristically, gun pointed at Baekhyun. Baekhyun drops his gun down to the floor, too shocked to say anything, and then the scream he hears through his earpiece pulls him out of his reverie.

“You…got someone to kill Krystal? Who else is here?!” Baekhyun asks, his eyes filled with panic.

“I told you to shut up, B! You should be glad that only Krystal is getting killed and I’m letting you off.”

“But…Why are you doing this? Where’s the target?!”

“He’s not here, B. He’s still somewhere in Europe on a vacation. I messed with the files, B, and you didn’t notice. So shut the up before I kill you off.” Sehun’s tone was cold, and Baekhyun flinches slightly. After another two minutes of unnerving silence, a young man burst through the door and stares at the both of them.

“We should get going, Sehun. Boss’s waiting for you.” The man says in a slightly accented voice. Sehun nods at him and casts a final glance at Baekhyun.

There’s something in Sehun’s eyes as he whispers, “Take care of Luhan and…check my drawer back in the dorm.”

With that, the two of them vanished into the night, leaving Baekhyun behind to figure out the puzzle. He hears the sirens wailing from a distance and instinctively snatched his gun up before escaping through the window and hurrying down the back path which will lead him to the back gates. As he’d expected, the guards are lying motionless on the ground, and the thick, red liquid was seeping through their white uniforms. He rushes past the gates and finds himself on the sidewalk of the main road. He hails a cab and gives the driver the address of the SM dorms. He’s desperate for the truth, and he had better get to the dorms before SM finds out that he’d screwed up the mission.

When he arrives at Sehun’s dorm room, everyone’s already in a deep slumber. He creeps inside carefully and pulls open Sehun’s drawer. There are two envelopes inside.

One of the letters is for him and the other is for Luhan.  

He grabs the two letters and takes the elevator down to the car park. There, he flashes his agent card against the detector on the metallic doors, and the doors slid open, revealing a blue Mercedes. He gets on it and drives straight to his rented office. It was only at his rented office that he rips open the letter addressed to him.

Baekhyun hyung,

I guess you must be pretty surprised. I was never one of SM’s agents to begin with. I was a spy, who had unfortunately grown far too attached to the people at SM. A.Y. noticed, and they’re sending me off to a faraway place. I guess I won’t be seeing much of you guys anymore, but please, I only have one last request.

Please take care of Luhan hyung for me. And, there are probably other spies in SM. I’m only telling you this so you can protect Luhan hyung.

I’m sorry for everything. I never meant to harm anyone, or make you fail your mission, but it was the only way for me to meet with the A.Y. agent and prove my loyalty to them. I have to do this, or I’ll have to die. I can’t die. Not yet.

You have to keep this a secret.

Sehun

“And in the letter addressed to Luhan, only four words were written.

I am truly sorry.

And it was only then that I understood the punishment. Failure meant that the target could trace me down. Krystal was left dead at the mansion, and they made use of her to trace me down. They started placing a lot of attention on crimes, especially those which involved shootings. There was a rise in failed missions after that incident because the police was keeping a close eye on all these crimes. SM took me out of shooting missions so as to make sure that the police wouldn’t be able to find me, and get SM into trouble. It was also to make me realize that in our line of work, failing such an important mission is unacceptable.”

Baekhyun finishes his recount and leans back into the couch, exhausted. The two of them lapse into silence as Kai tries to absorb the information. He feels the anger building up inside and tries hard to remain calm.

“So he was providing A.Y. Agency with info?”

Baekhyun responded with a nod and sighs, “I didn’t expect this to happen. This is my fault. He’d been under my training, and I should’ve known.”

“No, Baekhyun. This isn’t your fault. A.Y. agents are known for their craftiness and acting skills. They place the most excellent spies out there, so there was no way either of us would have known.”

Baekhyun stares at the man in front of him and asks softly, “Are you…okay?”

“Am I okay? You’re asking that question after I just found out that my once best friend was probably just using me to get info on our missions? I’m not okay, and I’m going to track him down and—”

“Kai.” Baekhyun’s voice sounded strained and hoarse. It was only then that Kai noticed the heavy eye bags and the pale complexion of Baekhyun’s face. He shuts his mouth immediately and knows that this is probably not the best time for him to stress Baekhyun out even more. The older boy must have had a hard time during these past few years, and he shouldn’t be creating more trouble.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Just keep this to yourself, okay? We’ll figure out something, I promise. Luhan and I already have something small to start off with, so don’t worry too much. You should head back for a rest.”

“Okay,” Kai replies in a soft voice, “Also, my name is Kim Jongin. I figured that I should tell you that since you gave me your real name. Good night, Baekhyun.”

He stands up and heads towards the doors.

“Jongin?” Baekhyun calls out. “Good night.”

Jongin can almost see the ghost of a smile playing on Baekhyun’s lips. The corners of his lips curve up slightly as he slips out of Baekhyun’s office, not forgetting to close the doors behind him.

A/N:

So, I finally updated…Haha, I was distracted earlier on because my mid-year results was going to be released, and I had Intensive Mother Tongue for a period of time (whereby we just attend school and do Chinese papers all day long). I’m so glad that my results are fine (I’m taking the national exams this year, so I was worried), and so I was on an ‘EXO spree’ whereby I caught up on the latest updates and stuff about concerts. Yeah, and I finally decided to update today because my holiday lessons start tomorrow and I’m afraid I won’t have enough time during the next two weeks for an update.

To explain the plot a bit, please read on. So, Sehun had indeed betrayed SM, just that he didn’t do that willingly. He has his own reasons, which will be revealed in the later part of the story. Baekhyun blames himself for this incident, and Luhan’s just very upset and disappointed at Sehun. From what I wrote, I guess you guys must’ve also sensed that Sehun had feelings for Luhan.

There’s a teeny bit of Kaibaek in this chapter, and their relationship will progress soon (I hope). Other characters will be coming up soon! And, Tao’s involvement in this incident will be made clear in the later chapters.

Comments are welcomed!

I also want to thank all the subscribers who have upvoted this story! I love you guys! To those who’ve commented, I’ll get to them soon enough.

Thank you to all subscribers!

(sorry for the long a/n)

(forgive me for any grammar/vocab mistakes as English isn’t my native language)

Here's some Kaibaek for you guys:

Feel free to talk to me on my tumblr and twitter!