Hearts Awakened, Live Alive

Hongjoong: They Know More Than You Think

Hongjoong checked his watch for the fifth time in the span of two minutes, feeling increasingly anxious the more the seconds ticked by. They were perfectly on time at the moment, perhaps even ahead of schedule. In exactly ten minutes their plan would be a go; that was, of course, if Agony was on time as well. Everyone was in position. Yunho and Mingi were down in the parking garage Eden had informed them of, waiting for the drop off to occur so they could move in when the time came. Yeosang was their eye in the sky, having tapped into every security camera Agony could possibly pass by on their way to the Governor's mansion. He also had even more cameras flying in the sky just in case there were any surprises. San and Wooyoung were on standby close to the mansion in case things went majorly wrong and Jongho was across town, high up in a building with a sniper rifle. They probably wouldn't need it, but they could never be too careful. And then there was Hongjoong's position. He and Ghost were waiting down the road from the parking garage, tucked into a narrow alleyway while they waited for Mingi and Yunho to drop off the micro-chips they were going after. They were also there for backup in case of a change in plans.

Hongjoong had the whole team working on this mission. Under normal circumstances, this could easily be just a two-person job with Yeosang monitoring from afar. But they had to step up their game. After what had happened to Yunho and Mingi just two days ago, they'd been on high alert. If Agony had been able to discover Yunho and Mingi's real identities—two of their most careful agents—there was no telling what else they might also know about them at this point. For all they knew, and what Hongjoong was assuming just to be safe, Agony knew everything about them. None of them had gone home; they all had set up camp, so to speak, in the warehouse since the incidence to avoid leading more agents directly to their homes and families. Mingi and Yunho had opted to stay at a hotel to avoid Gunho posing unanswerable questions or even, as unthinkable as it was, getting caught up with all this shady business. And for this mission, Hongjoong didn't want anyone to be caught off guard. He had everyone ready for anything. Their backup plans had backup plans; they couldn't mess this up. They needed a win today to boost morale. Everyone was growing increasingly hesitant to proceed; Mingi and Yunho's near-death experience had put everyone on edge. They couldn't stop now, though; they were too far into it. Agony wasn't just going to let this go, not after they'd publicly called them out as they had. They'd awoken the sleeping bear and no amount of lullabies was going to put it back to sleep now.

Hongjoong rolled out his shoulders, checking his watch once again. Eight minutes.

"You know, checking the time isn't going to make it move any faster," Ghost teased, chuckling quietly as he leaned casually against one of the brick walls forming the alleyway, arms crossed and a leg propped up against it.

"I'm just making sure," Hongjoong said, trying—and failing—to keep his annoyance out of his voice.

"You're just freaking yourself out more," Ghost chided.

"And you just know so much about me, don't you?" Hongjoong shot back. He really wasn't in the mood to be dealing with this strange man today. But the team had collectively decided they needed to keep better track of their "new member". The man had previously been an Agony agent, who's to say he wasn't leaking information to his old organization? They didn't know this guy, and all of this was starting to look like way too much of a coincidence. For all their careful planning, they'd neglected to pay attention to the biggest red flag of them all. So, Hongjoong was partnered with Ghost today. He'd be keeping a very close eye on him. Too bad that also meant spending time with him when he'd rather be doing literally anything else.

"No," Ghost said. "Though I'd like to get close enough to know you that well, I just happen to be very good at reading people."

Hongjoong couldn't stop the eye roll.