A Bullet to the Heart, ₗₑₑ Fₑₗᵢₓ

5.

⇝ ⇝ ⇝ The first thing I did was check the roof of the building. It was towering and guarded with small walls I could lie behind with a sniper gun if necessary. I mapped out each floor - drawing in a tiny notebook hidden in my bulletproof vest. There were 12 floors to map out but all of them adorned the same type of layout. Some floors had extra rooms but I didn't need to mark them due to them being tiny music rooms. Most of the rooms were filled with instruments so they were useless to me.

I accidentally bumped into someone. He was short, a bit on the cute side, and didn't know English so I just introduced myself and left. God knows if I would ever see him again.

From top to bottom, I marked all the possible exits including the fire exits. I marked all possible windows which might cause problems for the idols inside - all windows which might provide a good shot from someone outside and there were a lot of them. Walls were made of windows and I was exasperated with how they suspected I would cover all of these. A single man like myself wouldn't be able to cover the building, so I would definitely need help from Korean SEALS.

Once I had finished all my markings of the building, I worked on the outside surroundings. I recorded down all the buildings around with the best views of the JYPE building. I documented down trees, coverage and street corners. Anything that I thought I might need to know about, I went and investigated. I had never went so in depth before, usually one look and I was aware of every possible thing but since this is my first solo mission, I marked down everything just in case.

My job was completed for the day - I had received no new information from London so I travelled back to the 5th floor where there were some vending machines. I had some Korean won on my person so I used it to get a bottle of water. The Korean bottles of water looked quite unique. The bottles were adorned with elegant and intricate designs, making them stand out from typical water bottles.

"Hello,"

As I stood there, lost in thought, a sound caught my attention. It was a voice - not too loud, but not too soft either. It had a certain gruffness to it, yet there was a gentle and mannerly quality that immediately put me at ease. Intrigued, I turned my head to the direction the sound was coming from, curious to see who or what it was.

Blondie was ordering some snacks from the vending machine beside the one I was standing at. His blonde hair seemed luminous as the light from the vending machine shined on it. His skin was reflecting the white light because it was almost too smooth to be real, even the freckles displayed across his cheeks were pretty.

I looked away quickly and opened my water, quickly took a sip and then replied.

"Hi,"

Compared to his voice, mine was rough and unused because I never talked much as I concentrated. I feel like I was straightforward with my words, to where it might have come across as awkward or uncomfortable. I don't think I could have been any more direct or blunt than I was at that moment, even with a simple 'Hi'. I looked at him as he collected the snacks that fell to the bottom of the vending machine.

"So, where have you been?" He asked, "I mean...uh, what does your job entail?"

Somehow we fell into a comfortable pace together as we walked back to the practice room where I first met them. He was smaller in height than me, but walking beside him let me see his side profile perfectly. I was quite enamoured by how pretty he was, it was quite unusual to me to see a man be so charming. His face was striking pretty with features almost too sharp and feminine. He exuded a unique beauty.

"I mapped out the whole building, as well as the surroundings outside," I told him.

"In 3 hours? That's quite quick to map out a whole building," He spoke with a polite smile.

"I guess but I took my time so I could be accurate," I said, not wanting to sound like I was bragging about how I'm usually faster.

"That's impressive, I bet it's hard work," He said as we continued to walk side by side.

I thought it was pretty funny, to be honest, the thought of other people in the building not knowing the reason I was there, and being intimidated if they were to see me walking beside Felix. We were polar opposites right now, he was dressed in grey joggers and a pink shirt which hung low on his shoulders. I was padded up in protection and weapons. 

"I bet you've been working hard too, you seem sweaty..."

I think in my whole career, this job has thrown me off the most. In all my missions, I could talk easily with others because the subject was always surrounding work and safety. I was trained in what to say to provide comfort and understanding in desperate situations. In my work, I never even made idle conversation with a bunch of government geeks. My squadron was full of young men like myself, and I considered them brothers but we had an understanding beyond the idle conversation so it was never awkward.

I just called him sweaty so I could make further conversation. The whole idol thing and having to get to know them so we could work together professionally was throwing me off. They were normal people this time, and I don't have much conversation with normal people about normal things. I never had much to say - if I did, I would've been in a relationship with a pretty woman right now and settled down.

He chuckled, "Yeah, we've been practising dances but I guess your hard and my hard are two different things,"

"Not really," I said, "I'm trained to do this job and you're trained to dance, if we switched places I think both of us would struggle,"

He smiled as we stopped at the practice room door, "That's a nice way to put it but I think your job is still considerably harder than mine,"

"Well, it's all about if you like your job," I say to him, "Do you?"

He nodded, "Of course I do, more than anything,"

I felt surprisingly good that he answered the way he did. The fact he liked his job was kind of heart-warming because sometimes I never even thought about the aspect of liking my job. It was just my job to me, I never thought I could like or dislike this job. It was just something I grew up knowing about and decided to do because I felt like I had owed something to my father. There were things I liked better than others and things I disliked more than others with this job. 

I also think him liking his job that much made this mission a little easier to do.

"That's good," I said to him.

"Since you're done mapping out the building, are you coming inside the practice room?" He asked as he turned to open the door.

I had nothing to do. I had done what I had planned to do today. I could entertain him and come inside to watch them dance. I nodded in confirmation and I entered the room after Felix. All the members were already sitting on the floor and drinking water. Many of them had the same appearance as Felix, sweaty and spent. All of them had been dancing hard.

"Felix!" The members greeted him enthusiastically despite how he wasn't gone for long.

I noticed how close they all were when Felix melted into the group and they all sat and chilled together. It made me more determined to do good at my job and protect them so they don't have to experience loss and trauma. Perhaps they don't know the true threat they're facing but loss could be right around the corner and they weren't prepared for it at all. I wanted to prevent it. To the best of my abilities. 

I wanted to cast away all fears of loss and danger for them.