[UNIT:EXO] Gambit

PROLOGUE

🎶ZTAO - Black White

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Tao feels sweat trickle down his neck and back as he continues throwing combos of kicks and punches, the standing sandbag swinging and creaking with every blow it's taking. However, the loud music blasting all over the training room almost drowns these sounds, as Tao prefers to fill the place with music while working out as it helps take his mind off of things. It's been a while since he had this much peace and free time, and being at his own home without worrying about getting killed at any moment definitely feels nice.

Just as Tao swings a 360 kick against the sandbag, he hears a notification sound interrupt the music playing from his phone. He stops and takes a few deep breaths as he steadies his inanimate sparring partner back into place, before proceeding to grab his towel from a nearby chair. Casually patting the towel all over his bare torso, he walks towards his phone placed beside the bluetooth speaker on one corner of the room. However, his carefree vibe immediately disappears as soon as he sees the message, his brows starting to knit together once again.

Skywalker
Hideout @10.
(received 8:53am)

The cold and brief format of the message doesn't even bother him anymore as it's typical for their unit leader, Skywalker. No, he's not a jedi, but another intelligence agent assigned as their unit leader. Skywalker is just his codename (they all have one for mission purposes) but his real name is Kris Wu. They just save each other's numbers using their codenames for confidentiality purposes.

Anyway, Tao is more bothered by the obvious fact that the text is about another mission. It hasn't even been two weeks since they accomplished their last mission, and the large bruise on his chest caused by a gunshot hasn't even fully healed yet. He would have died if he hadn't been wearing a bulletproof vest, but it definitely still hurt like a bitch. But to be fair, things like that could be expected from his line of work as an intelligence agent--you know, brushing shoulders with death every now and then-- but sometimes it seems the National Intelligence Service expect their agents to be immortals or like the Avengers who never need rest.

Agents are human too, you know. They also need to live their lives in peace every now and then.

Having really no choice but to comply, Tao turns off the music and heads out of the room. This mission better be worth the interruption of his supposed peaceful vacation.

***

Upon reaching the familiar building, Tao looks at the "SM Cafe" sign in amusement along with the unusual monochromatic theme of the cafe's exterior, still finding it oddly hilarious how bland and disorganized it looks. It definitely doesn't comply with the cute or aesthetic feel most cafes offer, and as a result, customers rarely come here. As a business, that's definitely a bad thing, but as a facade to a secret underground base of intelligence agents, it means that it's definitely doing what it's supposed to. After all, who would think that a high-tech NIS facility would be hiding underneath a lousy, old-fashioned looking cafe?