Hearts Awakened, Live Alive

Mingi: Are You Evil?

"How long are you just going to sit there and stare at me?" The Agony agent seated across from Mingi practically growled. Mingi didn't even react, continuing to sit perfectly still with perfect posture, keeping all of his emotions in check. He'd been at this for a while now, interrogating all the agents that had been stupid enough to go up against Jongho and Yeosang. This one, handcuffed to the desk between them, was the last of the group of five. None of the other agents knew anything useful, Mingi was sure of it. He'd been absolutely merciless in his pursuit of knowledge, so he was confident in his assertions. All the others had pointed him in the right direction, however. They told him that this last agent was the leader of the operation and they had only been following his orders.

So here he was, sitting across from the last Agony agent in the dimly lit interrogation cell of their warehouse basement. The Agony agent's weapons had been confiscated obviously but they'd also stripped him of his disguise. He wouldn't be needing it where he was going. They'd taken detailed pictures and compiled all the evidence of wrongdoing they could on the intruders and after they were done here, they'd drop all these men right on the steps of the police headquarters with the condemning information. The team had decided that would send a good message to anyone watching. The public would see ATEEZ was actually able to deliver on their promise of justice. The police could finally do something against Agony because of the undeniable evidence Yeosang had dug up. And Agony would see that ATEEZ wasn't a group of pushovers or just children playing at organized crime.

Mingi had decided to go with a classic interrogation technique for this last agent. First, he'd left the man completely alone within the room for only thirty minutes, but he was sure it had felt like hours. Then, after watching the man drive himself crazy with his own thoughts, Mingi had entered the interrogation cell without a word. He'd sat down in the chair he was situated in now and hadn't moved for what he timed to be another fifteen minutes, staring down the man across from him. His tactic was working perfectly. The man was growing increasingly more impatient as the seconds ticked by. He'd tried numerous times to get Mingi to say something, called him a whole litany of disgusting names in an effort to get any sort of reaction but Mingi wasn't going to give in. Nothing the man threw at him was any worse than the voice in his own head.

"What are you? Some kind of robot?" The man asked. Then, out of complete frustration, he slammed his hands against the table as he shouted: "What do you want from me?!"

Mingi didn't even flinch, didn't even move a muscle. The man gave a frustrated groan when he realized Mingi wasn't going to give in.

"I don't know anything so you're wasting your time."

"Liar," Mingi finally broke his silent streak. He had the man right where he wanted him anyway. It was time to get the info he needed.

"Excuse me?" The man asked.

"You. Are. A. Liar." Mingi enunciated slowly, still unmoving and staring unflinchingly ahead. A mix of emotions played across the man's face before bitterness was what it settled on. This was going to be entirely too easy. Weren't Agony agents supposed to be highly trained and virtually unreadable? Maybe this group was the exception but Mingi really had been expecting more of a challenge.

"And how do you figure that, Mr. Interrogator?" The man sneered mockingly.

"Your friends sold you out," Mingi said.

"They're a bunch of cowards," the man began in a flash of anger. "Of course they're going to say whatever they think you want to hear."

"They all agreed you were their leader."

"And so what if I was? You got nothing on me—"

"Lee Hajoon, thirty-five, better known by his Agony codename Agent 157. Sixty-seven successful missions, five confirmed kills, and a wanted bounty of five thousand credits," Mingi cut him off, reciting the information Yeosang had gotten on the man before they started the interrogation. "You're not married but you have a child that you've never visited. Your day job is a menial office job at the company Agony owns. When we're done here, you'll be spending up to fifty years in prison and I'll be five thousand credits richer. That is... if Agony doesn't get to you first..."