Chan sighs, but doesn’t answer immediately. Hyunjin didn’t expect him to.

The night stretched out in front of them, quiet and empty, but not in a peaceful way, more like something holding its breath. Hyunjin slipped his hands into his coat pockets, gaze fixed on the street where Felix had disappeared, though his focus had already shifted elsewhere.

“You’re distracted,” Chan said at last.

It wasn’t an observation. It was a warning.

Hyunjin exhaled softly, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips. “Am I?”

“You’re already deeper than you think,” Chan finally said, stepping up beside him. Not looking at him, just watching the street like he was expecting something to move.

Hyunjin let out a soft breath, his gaze fixed on the empty road Felix had disappeared down. “Then I guess I’ll have to learn how to swim.”

Chan huffed once, something humorless in it. “That’s not how this works.” That was all he said. No lecture. No warning dressed up as advice. Just the truth.

Chan stepped closer, lowering his voice. “You know what will happen if you involve him…and it’s not pretty. But tonight is important. You don’t get to be distracted. Not tonight.”

That smile faded off of Hyunjin’s face just as quickly as it came. A pair of headlights turned the corner, slow and deliberate, before stopping in front of them. The car idled, engine low, patient. Waiting.

Hyunjin didn’t move right away. He let the silence sit a moment longer, like he was deciding whether the night was worth his time.Then, finally, he stepped forward.

Chan reached for the handle, pausing just long enough to glance at him. “You don’t have to come tonight.”

Hyunjin sighed defeated and met his eyes, steady. “Yeah. I do.”

For a moment, Chan studied him, really looked at him, like he was trying to figure out what Hyunjin was really thinking. A flash of concern and empathy crossed Chan’s face before he realized that there was no changing Hyunjin’s mind. 

 Chan opened the door for him without another word.

The inside of the car smelled like leather and something sharper, clean, but not comforting. Hyunjin slid in, the door shutting behind him with a quiet finality that felt louder than it should have. Inside, the air was cool, untouched. No driver spoke. No one greeted them. They didn’t need to. The door shut. The car moved.

Neither of them spoke for the first few minutes. They didn’t have to fill silence with meaningless conversation, there was always something underneath it, a sort of understanding. Plans. Numbers. Names.

“Who’s already there?” Hyunjin asked, voice calm, uninterested on the surface.

“Most of them,” Chan replied. “Minho arrived first. Changbin not long after. The others followed.”

Hyunjin hummed quietly, gaze flicking to the window as the city shifted around them, brighter streets fading into darker ones, familiar roads giving way to routes no one took unless they knew exactly where they were going.

“And the shipment of guns?”

“Delayed.”

That got his attention.

Hyunjin’s eyes slid back to Chan, sharp now. “Delayed?” he repeated.

Chan nodded once. “Port held it longer than expected. Someone flagged the manifest.”

A beat of silence.

“Accident,” Hyunjin said.

It didn’t sound like a question.

Chan’s jaw tightened slightly. “Unlikely.”

Hyunjin leaned back against the seat, considering. Not surprised, just calculating.

“Then someone’s getting careless,” he murmured. “Or confident.” Neither option ended well.

The car slowed as a building came into view; plain, forgettable, the kind of place people passed without ever looking twice. But the cars lined outside told a different story. Clean. Expensive. Parked with intention.

Men stood near the entrance, still and watchful.

As the car pulled up, one of them stepped forward immediately, opening Hyunjin’s door before the engine had even fully stilled. Respect. Not politeness.

Hyunjin stepped out, adjusting his coat as his gaze swept over the entrance, the guards, the subtle shifts in posture as they recognized him. Everything in its place.

Good.

Chan moved to his side, just half a step behind.

“Well, let’s get this over with,” he murmured.

Hyunjin’s expression didn’t change.

“Lead the way.”

He started toward the door, not slowing, not hesitating. Because whatever was waiting inside, wasn’t something he was walking into. It was something that had been waiting for him to arrive.

The room fell quiet the second he stepped in.

Not completely; there were still the faint sounds of glasses being set down, a chair shifting, someone clearing their throat, but the conversation that had filled the space moments before cut off too cleanly to be natural. Hyunjin didn’t acknowledge it. He walked past them like it was expected; like it always happened.Because it did.

A long table stretched through the center of the room, already half-occupied. Familiar faces, sharp eyes, unreadable expressions. No one smiled.

Minho leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, watching. Changbin stood near the far end, speaking quietly to someone who immediately fell silent the moment Hyunjin got close.

Chan took his place behind Hyunjin’s chair. Hyunjin didn’t sit right away. He let the silence build. Let them wait. Then, slowly, he pulled the chair back and sat. Only then did anyone else move.

“Let’s not waste time,” Hyunjin said, voice even. “You called this meeting for a reason.”

A glance passed between two men across the table before one of them finally spoke. “There’s been… interference.”

Hyunjin tilted his head slightly. “Be specific.”

“Routes are being watched. Shipments delayed. Contacts backing out last minute.” Changbin hesitated. “It’s not random.”

“Someone’s testing the boundaries,” Minho added, voice low. “Seeing what they can get away with.” “And so far?” Hyunjin asked. A pause. “No one’s stopped them.” That made Hyunjin laugh, but there was no humor or warmth in it.

“Then that’s an issue,” Hyunjin said quietly. “ As the head of security and protection it’s your job to make sure things like this don't happen.” The tension in the room tightened instantly.

Changbin stepped forward slightly, cutting in before it could escalate. “We don’t know who it is yet.” “That’s worse,” Hyunjin replied. Silence again. This time heavier.

“They’re careful,” Chan added from behind him. “No patterns. No names. Nothing consistent enough to trace.”

“Which means they’re not new,” Hyunjin said. That landed. A shift in posture. A flicker of unease.

“They know what they’re doing,” Hyunjin continued, fingers tapping once against the table. “And they know how to stay invisible.” “For now,” Minho said.

Hyunjin’s gaze flicked to him, sharp. “No one stays invisible.” Another pause. Then, quieter this time, more honest than before,

“They’re not just interfering,” Minho muttered. “They’re… pushing. Testing. Encroaching. Challenging. They want to see where we are weak.”

Hyunjin leaned back in his chair, eyes scanning the room slowly, deliberately “And that worries you.” It wasn’t a question. No one answered. They didn’t have to. For the first time that night, something close to tension settled beneath Hyunjin’s chest. Not fear.  But something more menacing. Careful, measured interest.

“Good,” he said finally.

A few heads snapped up.

“If they’re bold enough to step into something that isn’t theirs,” Hyunjin continued, voice steady, “then they’re bold enough to make a mistake.”

He stood, the movement abrupt enough to command attention instantly.

“And when they do,” he added, adjusting his sleeve, “I want to know who they are and I want them to know they fucked with the wrong group.” No one argued. No one questioned.

The meeting ended not with agreement, but with understanding.

By the time Hyunjin got home, the city had gone quiet again.

Different from before. This was more tense and frustrated silence that threatened to swallow him whole with how quiet it was.

He stepped inside, the door shutting softly behind him, sealing off the night, the tension, the weight of eyes and expectations. For a moment, he just stood there still.

Thinking.

Shipments delayed. Routes watched. Someone moving where they shouldn’t. Someone bold enough to try. Someone careful enough not to be seen. It should have been the only thing on his mind. It wasn’t.

Hyunjin let out a slow breath, running a hand through his hair as he moved further into the room, shrugging off his coat while his mind wandered back to where his night began.

Felix.

The way he’d smiled.

The way he had laughed like no one was watching. The way he had felt so careless and free.

A quiet laugh left him under his breath, softer than anything he’d allowed himself all night.

“Dangerous,” he murmured, to himself this time. Not the meeting. Not the unknown threat circling at the edges of everything he controlled.

Felix.

Because for the first time in a long time, Hyunjin wasn’t thinking about who was coming for him. He was thinking about someone he might actually want to let in. He knows it’s wrong. He knows the last thing he should do is get involved with Felix, but he can’t help that being in his orbit made him want more. He felt like a starved man that was left in the desert finding an oasis. He found himself craving Felix’s attention and that thought scared him. How can he break something off when he wants nothing more than to run to it?