Hearts Awakened, Live Alive

Mingi: Chasing a High

Mingi set his fork down with a clatter louder than he meant to make. He leaned back in his chair with a sigh, glancing over at the couple he and Yunho were surveilling.

Yunho chuckled.

"You're bored," he said before scooping the last bite of his dinner into his mouth.

"It's been two hours," Mingi whined.

Yunho laughed again.

"I mean, they are on a date. Can you really blame them?"

"What could they possibly have to talk about for two hours?"

"You know what they're talking about," Yunho said, tapping his right ear. "We can hear everything through Hongjoong's channel."

Mingi rubbed at the bridge of his nose, groaning quietly.

"I turned that off thirty minutes ago," Mingi admitted. "If I had to listen to Hongjoong tell Seonghwa how "sweet" he is one more time, my ears were going to start bleeding."

That earned him a kick from under the table. Mingi pouted:

"I mean, come on," Mingi continued. "And I thought I was bad at flirting."

"You are bad at flirting," Yunho laughed, Mingi's pout deepened. "Oh, don't give me that."

"But you fell for it..."

"Yeah I did," Yunho smiled, Mingi blushed. Yunho then nodded over to the other couple a few tables down. "And Seonghwa clearly likes Hongjoong's "crappy" flirting."

Mingi glanced over at the pair. Seonghwa had been in a state of perpetual embarrassment and panic since the two of them had sat down. But despite that, the man seemed to be enjoying himself. At least that made one of them.

This would be Hongjoong and Seonghwa's second date since Hongjoong had managed to weasel his way into Seonghwa's life. This last week had been slow going, waiting for today and then the convoy that a few of them would be intercepting in two days on Monday. It had unsettled the entire team, going so many days without hearing anything from anyone anywhere. Especially after their very public call-out last week and the warning Wooyoung had received from Eden. They all were just waiting for Agony to hit back. They knew they would. Like Eden had said, Agony wasn't just going to lie down and let them destroy all their operations. But they couldn't counter an attack that hadn't even happened yet so all they really could do was continue their plan with a little added caution. Hence why Yunho and Mingi were keeping an eye on Hongjoong and Seonghwa's second date. No one on the team thought Seonghwa had any ulterior motives when it came to Hongjoong nor did any of them think the blond was on to Hongjoong in the least bit, but that didn't mean the people Seonghwa was associated with weren't watching his every move. If ATEEZ had been able to deduce that Seonghwa was a weak link in the organization as outsiders looking in, surely Agony was also well aware of this fact. Hell, Agony didn't even have Seonghwa working any missions despite being one of their most highly trained officials. So they really could never be too careful when it came to their dealings with anything even remotely related to Agony.

As far as they could tell, though, no one was following Seonghwa and Hongjoong on their date except for the two of them. They were pretty sure of this fact, having already discreetly taken photos of every patron in the small restaurant and sent them over to Yeosang to be analyzed. Everyone had been clean and now, Mingi was bored. He loved his job... when he was actually doing something. Pretending to be on a date when he and Yunho hadn't been on an actual date in months was just awful, especially since Yunho's attention had been on other men for the majority of the night.

"They really are perfect for each other," Mingi said, turning his attention back over to Yunho when Hongjoong obviously said something flirty and Seonghwa was yet again reduced to a flustered mess.