An Untold Legend

Chapter 13: The Hard Way

-August 07, 2017-

It was already Monday, and everyone had returned the previous night, from their trip to Sokcho. The mood was gloomy, as the atmosphere was filled with an unexplained tension. Who wouldn't be a bit sad after returning from a wonderful trip? But it was not the case here. They weren't sad because they were reminded of the beauty of the trip, but other reasons that all of them refused to speak about.

The tension was making Jackson uncomfortable as he was the one to leave the house for some fresh air. They were supposed to get closer on the trip, but instead everything felt like drifting apart. Nayeon was staring in the distance, as the disturbing sound of utensils hitting each other filled the living room, followed by the smell of burnt food. Waking up to the smooth sound of Jaebum cutting the vegetables skillfully used to lift everyone's mood, even if they woke up from their worst nightmares, but it was not the case that day. Jaebum himself made a record of burning his food for the first time, which was not helping with anything. Being the eldest in the house, he tried his best not to let his anxiety show, but his actions proved otherwise.

Jinyoung came out of his room, and hurriedly said his greetings before leaving the house for work. It did not go unnoticed by Jaebum that he was ignoring Nayeon since the previous day, speaking of which she also seemed to act strange throughout the trip. He sighed as he quickly made cereal for Nayeon after ruining the breakfast. A sudden thought came to his mind as he hurried for the door. "I'll be back in a short while!" He said as he made his way out of the house.

He started the engine of his car as he dialed a number on his phone, and got an expected answer, ="The person you are trying to reach-"= He didn't even wait listening to the whole message, as he quickly drove in the direction of his agency.

As soon as he got off the car, he rushed inside the building and went straight to the office. Without even sparing a second, he started rummaging through his files. His mind was only focused on finding one piece of the paper. After 5 minutes of looking, he finally found the thing he was looking for, and grabbed a blank sheet of paper to write down the information. Before exiting the office, he finally took a glance at the mess he made. 'I'll see that later,' he thought before heading outside.

•••

"Don't try to return if you get caught," the person in front of him stated, as his eyes went wide with realization. He was always notified of the missions through the given details placed in his locker, but it was the first time he was receiving it from the CEO directly. The most shocking fact was that it was the first time he heard the words 'get caught'. The rules always stated to avoid returning to the company if he was followed, but to avoid getting caught wasn't in them. Jinyoung realized the seriousness of the mission, as he took in a deep breath before exiting the office.

He quickly went to the special locker room to retrieve his bag—which had a newly designed additional skin on it—along with his mission clothes. Something in his heart was telling him to avoid the mission, but he couldn't avoid unless he wanted to bring CEO's attention to himself. Before he finally went through the back exit, a detail he didn't realize at first, caught his attention. It was the first time for him to go on a mission in broad daylight. 'They must've gone crazy,' was all he thought.

As usual he found his way to a car where the driver addressed him by his code name 'Junior', after which they exchanged the previously decided password, before heading towards the destination.

After a drive of few minutes, Jinyoung found himself in the basement of another building. There was no bike this time, and he knew that the building he was meant to be at, was behind the one he was present at the moment. He carefully moved ahead with the mission a few minutes after the car was out of sight.