#we do NOT want a seungwoo in x1 situation again trust me. it was hell

[sanstropfremir]

i didn't watch boys planet but hui not making the final lineup is just insane. poor dude with so much talent having had gone through an MNET competition show.......

oh i was 1000% rooting for him to not make it bc it would be hell if he was in that group but also how fucking dare he not have been in first place every fucking week he is in a different LEAGUE than those children

[x1musings]

wicked games ☆ two

masterlist // <<previous | next>>

☆word count: 3.4k

☆a/n: wow this took so long to write (mostly due to procrastination and my writing break) but i finally finished writing it!! please let me know your thoughts, feelings and reactions in my ask or the notes :) also, thanks to @adorex1​ for always being willing to be my beta reader and helping me with any writing problems i have!

to say that you were annoyed was an understatement, but there was a small logical part of you that reminded you that your boss wouldn’t have pulled you out of a mission unless it was important. as seungwoo drove the both of you back to headquarters, you picked at your nails, thinking about the mission. more than anything, you felt bad towards your informant. he had risked his career to get you into the building, and here you were, pulling out your team with nothing more than a “sorry, we’ll get back to you soon”. once they find out that your team had infiltrated their server room, they will increase their security, making it harder for you to go in the same way you did this time. and if your informant gets caught, your mission could become a mission impossible.

“what do you think the boss called us back for?” you asked, not knowing what to think.

“no clue.” seungwoo pulled into your team’s designated parking space at headquarters and turned to you. “he has never done this before.”

you nodded, before undoing your seatbelt. the sooner you got out, the sooner you could find out what the hell was going on. as soon as you slammed the van door shut, you could hear the rumble of hangyul’s motorcycle echo through the underground parking lot, before he came to an abrupt stop in the parking space next to you. he switched off the engine, and swung his leg off the motorcycle, pulling the helmet off. you could sense his annoyance in the way he did everything with extra force, and the way his eyebrows furrowed as he walked up to you.

“what the hell was the boss thinking, pulling us out like that? we only needed 2 minutes to get the data. that’s two weeks of planning and surveillance down the drain, just because he couldn’t wait 2 minutes.”

seungwoo walked up to you two, putting his hands on hangyul’s shoulders. “take a breath. this wasn’t a lost cause. we got some of the data, and i can get the rest from here. it might take a few weeks, but we’ll get it. in the meantime, we can analyse the data that we did get, and possibly make a plan from that.”

hangyul clenched and unclenched his jaw, taking a breath to calm down, and you followed suit. you felt the same frustration he did, but there was a part of you that believed in your boss, which grounded you.

“let’s go get the answers we need from the boss.”

you walked off, knowing that hangyul and seungwoo would follow your lead. the elevator ride to the top floor was silent, each of you stuck in your own thoughts. before long, you got to the meeting room outside of the boss’ office, where dohyon and your boss was waiting for you.

lee dong wook was a handsome man, who could easily pass off as a model or actor. but instead he chose to become the CEO of QL Protective Services, dedicating his life to training his agents to be the best in the industry and making sure that every client who entered his doors were satisfied with the service they received. which made his latest action all the more confusing to you.

he waited for each of you to take a seat, before nodding towards dohyon, who clicked a button to switch the projector on. he glanced at your team, taking in the annoyance on your and hangyul’s faces. seungwoo, on the other hand, was more subtle, staring back at the boss with a passive expression.

“i’m sure you are confused about why i called you back.” mr lee stood from his seat, making his way to the front of the room, standing in front of the slideshow he had prepared. “we got a new case this morning that is very time sensitive. i need your team to take this case.”

you shook your head almost immediately. “we already have a case. why can’t you give this case to team 2?”

mr lee sighed. “team 2 will take your current case. the client wants the best and that’s you guys. plus, they’re willing to pay 4 times our usual rate for your team to take their case.”

this made your eyes widen, and without looking at the others, you knew their faces reflected the same shock. QL’s usual rates weren’t exactly cheap, so for someone to be willing to pay 4 times that meant they were desperate, loaded or both.

“let’s hear what the case is before we make our decision.”

mr lee nodded. “our client is the kim family. they own x1 corporation-”

seungwoo perked up. “x1 corporation? as in the x1 corporation?”

“yup, that one. making them one of the richest families in the country.”

you frowned, not liking the unsettling feeling in your stomach. while you weren’t caught up with current affairs, you knew of x1 corporation through all of the products they sell and invest in, but you didn’t know anything about the people who owned it. and the familiarity that came with hearing the name ‘kim’ sent a chill through your body. surely, it’s not that family, you thought to yourself, there are so many kim’s in the world, it can’t be them, right?

“anyway, their eldest son is currently being threatened by an unknown entity. the kim’s want us to protect him and find out who is threatening them.”

hangyul leaned forward, resting his elbow on the table. “tell us about the son.”

mr lee clicked a button on his pointer, and a summary of the kim family appeared on the screen. he continued to click through the presentation until he got to the part about the eldest son. your heart stopped as the picture of him popped up on the screen. all of the noise around you was drowned out by the loud pulsing in your ears, and you couldn’t concentrate on anything but the photo. even after a decade, you could recognise him in a heartbeat. if he was handsome when he was 16, nothing compared to how he looked now. he had grown into all of his features; sharp eyes, long defined nose, chiselled jawline, small lips. but there was something that hadn’t changed: the coldness in his eyes.

as you stared at his eyes, you were taken back to the last time you had seen them. he was a coward back then. even as his parents kicked you out of their house, he couldn’t look you in the eye, rather staring at the wall behind your head. back then, the fact that you meant nothing to him broke your 16-year-old heart into millions of tiny pieces. you remembered thinking that your friend was right about him, you were just a plaything for him, not the girlfriend he loved more than anything, like he made you believe. you never wanted to see him again, but clearly life had another plan for you.

“y/n?” seungwoo said, as he shook your shoulder, pulling you out of your anger-filled thoughts.

“we are not taking this case.” you could see the others swing their heads towards you in shock, but you continued to stare down your boss.

you wanted nothing to do with the kim family, and there was no way you could protect them after everything they did to you. hell, you were more likely to help the person threatening them than stop whoever they were. in your mind, the kim family deserved to be taken down by any means necessary. and more than anything, you couldn’t stand the idea of being in the same room as kim wooseok, let alone protecting him. you knew that you couldn’t stay impartial when it came to him and his family, and you didn’t want to risk the safety of your team if anything were to go wrong.

mr lee stared back at you; his head tilted slightly in curiosity. “can you guys leave us for a second?”

the three boys nodded and left you alone with your boss. mr lee sat in the seat across from you, giving you his undivided attention.

“who is this boy to you?”

you stared back at him, with an expressionless face, like mr lee had taught you. “no one.”

mr lee raised his eyebrow, a small teasing smile on his lips. “i thought you had more respect for me than that. how could you lie straight to my face?” he stared at you with an all-knowing expression. “i’ve only seen that look on your face once, when we first met. this is the family, isn’t it? the one who took everything from you.”

you didn’t need to respond, because you could tell that he knew he was right. he knew your history better than anyone at QL. while you could hide your feelings and thoughts from your team somewhat well, mr lee was the one person who always could read you.

“i trained you better than that. don’t think of them as the people you once knew, they are strangers to you now. so, treat them as such. they don’t deserve to know that they can still hurt you like this.”

“what if i can’t control my anger? and what if i put the others in danger because i can’t control my emotions?”

“you’re a better leader than you give yourself credit for. your team trusts you, and i trust you. we know that you would never knowingly put them in danger, regardless of your emotions. at the end of the day, you love your team more than you hate that family.”

you shook your head. “you don’t know that.”

“ok, then let’s put it to a vote. we tell the others about your relationship with this family and let them decide. if they think you can handle it and they trust you, we go ahead with this case, otherwise i’ll give it to team 2. deal?”

you didn’t need to take a vote to know that your team trusted you – they had shown their trust in you time and time again – but could you trust yourself?

after a beat of silence where you ran through all the possible options you had, you answered, “fine, deal.”

mr lee ushered the rest of your team back into the room with a wave of his hand. you sat quietly, picking at your nails under the table, as he relayed your relationship with the kim’s to the boys. he left some of the more sensitive details out but otherwise he told the boys everything he knew about the situation, and you couldn’t bring yourself to add any details to what he was saying.

you closed your eyes. it had taken you so long to get over your anger towards them and to deal with the consequences that came with knowing the kim family, but in a matter of ten minutes you were back in the headspace you were in when you were 16. the anger bubbled in your stomach as the memories that you pushed away came back in full force. wooseok’s unreadable eyes. mrs kim’s smug smile. mr kim’s nonchalant appearance. yohan’s tears. the cold ground and numbing wind. as each memory flashed through your mind, you felt the air leave your lungs as your throat tightened, leaving you with a burning sensation in your chest. as you experienced the first signs of a panic attack, you forced yourself to repeat the mantra dr. lim instilled in you.

take a breath. hold. 3, 2, 1. let it out.

you took deep breaths, forcing air into your lungs until the burning sensation left you. once you knew that the panic attack was over, you opened your eyes to see the men around you stare at you with a look of concern.

“are you ok?”

you nodded honestly. “i’m ok.”

mr lee turned to the boys. “so, what do you three say? do you think y/n can stay objective during this case? if you don’t think she can, say something now.”

both dohyon and hangyul exchanged a look with seungwoo, who nodded before turning to mr lee.

“we trust her. as always.”

mr lee turned to you with a smile. “i guess we’re going ahead with the case. i’ll call team 2 in and you can hand over your current case. then you can go and meet your client.”

you did a double take. “wait, we’re meeting them today?”

“yes. like i said, it’s a time sensitive case. we need to protect him during the gala they’re throwing the day after tomorrow, which means you need to meet with them and find out all the information about the gala.”

your mind was spinning, and you couldn’t tell if it was from the amount of information being thrown at you in the last 20 minutes or the prospect of meeting the kim family after 10 years. “what gala?”

mr lee shook his head. “you really did zone out while i was briefing you, didn’t you?”

you winced, sheepishly. “sorry.”

seungwoo spoke up, giving you a overview of what you missed. “the kim’s are hosting a gala in two days, and based on the threatening email they received, wooseok will be targeted during the ceremony. no demands, just a warning of sorts.”

you frowned as confusion took over your mind. “why are they so scared of this email? surely, they get hate mail on a daily basis, so what makes this any different? and, it’s suspicious that the perpetrator isn’t demanding anything. they aren’t telling us everything.”

“you have your work cut out for you. but i’m sure that the 4 of you will succeed,” mr lee said, as he got up from seat and straightened his suit. “team 2 is on their way, so make sure you brief them about the ck group case. and your meeting with the kim’s is at 4pm, so don’t be late.”

the four of you nodded and mr lee left you all to your thoughts.

hangyul was the first to break the silence. “so, to recap, we’re dealing with an unknown threat by an unknown perpetrator and the target’s family are a bunch of assholes who aren’t telling us the whole story but expect us to follow their every command. did i miss anything out?”

“the target is y/n’s ex,” dohyon piped up.

you shoot a weak glare at dohyon, who shrugged innocently. “and, the entire family hate my very existence,” you added.

hangyul raised an eyebrow, “hey, best-case scenario: we meet them, they see you, they refuse to work with you, and then we don’t have to work for them.”

seungwoo scoffed, “would you like to be the one to tell the boss that we lost a client that was willing to pay 4 times our rate?”

you groaned loudly, throwing your head back and closing your eyes. “the best-case scenario is that we solve this case in the shortest time possible, we take their money, and then we never see them again.”

there was a silence as the boys thought over your words.

“will you be ok?” seungwoo asked, cautiously.

you sighed, with your eyes still closed. “i don’t know,” you said, softly.

you didn’t know if they heard you, until hangyul replied, “if you want, i can always beat him up for you.”

you laughed, feeling your doubts and anxiety dissolve in your laughter. you opened your eyes, shooting a smirk in hangyul’s direction. “if i wanted him to be beaten up, don’t you think i should get the honours.”

“yeah but that will be too obvious, you’d be the first suspect.”

dohyon raised his hand. “what if we get one of team 2 to beat him up for you? no one would suspect them.”

seungwoo shook his head at the three of you. “are you three really trying to figure out a way to beat up our client’s son without being caught? you realise there’s no reason why he wouldn’t rat you out to the police.”

hangyul sighed dramatically. “i guess we will just have to kill him then.”

“hmm,” you said, pretending to think. “i know a place we could hide the body.”

“i know a person who could do the job for us at a cheap price.” dohyon said, making the 3 of you swing your heads in his direction.

hangyul squinted his eyes at the younger boy. “you are joking, right?”

dohyon shrugged his shoulders, with an innocent expression on his face. “am i?”

“i can’t believe we have corrupted this innocent child.” seungwoo said, disbelief in his tone.

“i don’t know whether i should be proud of you or scared of you right now,” you said.

dohyon smiled triumphantly to himself. he opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by the door opening. the four of you turned towards the door just in time to see the four boys of team 2 enter the meeting room. you couldn’t help the smile that graced your lips as you watch them enter with an infectiously happy mood. it had been about 2 years since mr lee had brought the four boys into QL, and in that time you were fortunate enough to have watched them grow into the hardworking and talented boys that stood in front of you. you felt a sense of pride looking at them, since you, seungwoo and hangyul were like mentors to these boys. junho was seungwoo’s mini-me as the resident tech and IT expert for team 2, while eunsang was hangyul’s protégé. minhee and dongpyo were your students, and you took any chance you could get to help them with their respective jobs.

while you would never admit this to their faces, especially with the risk of boosting their already big egos, they were almost as good as your team. if it weren’t for the fact that your team had a few more years’ experience working together than them, they would probably be just as good as your team. you didn’t have a doubt that they would do a great job with the case you were handing over to them, but there was a tiny part of you that was sad that you couldn’t finish the case yourself. you were trained to finish every case that you started, so the idea of handing over a case that you had started didn’t sit right with you.

after they had taken their seats across from the four of you, you started giving them a basic rundown on the case that your team had been doing, as dohyon set the casefiles your team had compiled in front of each of them.

“the client is a whistle-blower in CK Group, and your aim is to get concrete evidence of the corruption in ck group, so that the whistle-blower can take the case to the police. right now, they only have circumstantial evidence.”

seungwoo took over from you, explaining the more technical side to the mission you had done this morning. “so basically, we got some of the data, which you’re going to need to comb through. you can either try to get the rest from here or try to do what we did again, but there is a chance that they will up the security.”

“did you already start your program to get the data from here or should i use mine?” junho asked.

“use yours.” seungwoo said, “i haven’t had the chance to fix mine yet.”

they asked a few more questions to clarify what had been done and what needed to be done, and you each took turns answering the questions, making sure that there was no detail forgotten in the hand over.

“if you need any help, just let us know,” you said, as they continued to read over the casefiles and documents you had given them.

hangyul glanced at the clock on the wall, before turning to the rest of you. “as much as we’d love to stay and help you sort through all of this, we need to go meet our client soon.”

you glanced at the clock, taking in the numbers 3:25, and suppressed the urge to groan. in the time that you were handing over the case, you had forgotten about your impending meeting with the kim’s and you wanted nothing more than to go back to that bliss of ignorance. you bid the boys goodbye, leaving the meeting room with your team in tow, and prepared yourself for the shitstorm you were going to be walking into. 

here goes nothing.