Chapter Text
Agent 17 and Agent 4, please report to the boss’ office for your briefing.
Youngjae looked up from where he was filing away the paper work for his last mission. He slipped the papers into the appropriate folder and slid it into its place in his filing cabinet. Each special agent was assigned a cabinet that would house all the details of each mission they were assigned. A green sticker was placed on the file for each completed mission and red stickers were used for ones that were still in progress. Youngjae’s cabinet was crammed full of files, each one with a green sticker slapped on the front. He was well known for his extraordinary turnover time and he had the best completion record in the entire company, with his partner coming a close second. The two of them were excellent agents on their own, but together they made the most efficient team in the entire agency.
The agency dealt mostly with collecting and distributing information that some people in power may not want the public to know about. It was each agents duty to seek out fraud, corruption and injustice, to document it and expose it anonymously to the public once they made sure their information was sound. Each agent went through hand to hand combat training and they all carried guns, despite rarely needing to use them. It was more of a precaution than a necessity. In fact many agents went through their entire career without ever firing a shot.
Youngjae, Agent 17, and Mark, Agent 4, excelled in collecting information. Both of them were observant without being obvious and they were good at getting people to trust them, Mark with a decent amount of flirting and Youngjae with a childlike innocence that made him appear completely harmless. They both knew how to use what they were born with to gather information.
Another part of their job was attaining information through less than honest means. They had, on more than one occasion had to break in to a secure facility to gather the information they needed to push the authorities in the right direction. In short they were the best spies that the agency had to offer and it was time for them to begin their new mission.
Youngjae began to walk down the long hallway of their headquarters, an old office building that was owned by one of the higher ups in the agency, his black oxfords clipping against the polished floors. Another pair of footsteps joined his as Mark caught up to him.
“What do you think the boss has planned for us this time?” Mark asked, mischievous grin plastered on his face and an excited glimmer in his eyes.
“I have no idea. I just finished the paper work on that judge and I hoping for a couple days of down time before he needed us again.” Youngjae answered, slowing his pace so that he and Mark were walking side by side.
“I hope its another business man. Those are my favourite.” Mark’s smile grew even wider as he thought about their potential mission.
“Oh god, I hope not. Business men always mean stuffy gallery parties, black tie events, poor catering and some asshole just trying to show off how much money he’s got.” Youngjae says with a look of disgust.
“You have to admit, though, it’s majorly satisfying when you catch them.”
“True.” Youngjae says with a shrug as they reach their boss’ office door. “What ever it is, I hope its simple.”
Mark let out a soft chuckle as he reached for the door knob. “Nothing about this job is ever simple. You should know that by now, kid.”
“I resent that! I’m only, what, three years younger than you? That hardly makes me—“
Youngjae cut himself off abruptly. He had expected to be dealing with his and Mark’s supervisor, Jinyoung, or Junior as everyone under his command called him. He certainly didn’t expect to see the head of their entire operation reclining in the sleek leather chair that sat behind Junior’s desk. Their supervisor stood at Mr. Park’s right shoulder, hands folded respectfully behind his back, for not only was Mr. Park Junior's boss, he was also his father.
Youngjae and Mark both bowed respectfully, on full alert as soon as they had entered the room. They saw that the files the agency had compiled about the two of them were laying open on the desk along with a sleek black folder that was unfamiliar to the two agents.
“Mr. Park. What a pleasant surprise. We weren’t expecting to see you until the quarterly assesments.” Mark says. To any outsider he looks like a picture of control. It would appear that he is in command of the room. Youngjae knows better. He can see that Mark is guarded, suspicious and, most of all, frightened. There aren’t a ton of reasons why Mr. Park would show up at their agency unannounced. Either something had gone wonderfully right or something had gone horribly wrong. Mr. Park’s stern expression and the tension in the air made Youngjae more inclined to believe it was the latter.
“Yes, Agent 4, I was also not expecting this unscheduled meeting but something came up.” Mr. Park pushed the sleek black folder towards the two young agents. Mark picks the file up from the desk and opens it quickly scanning the contents before looking at their superior.
“We don’t deal in the theft of material possessions. Our job is to collect and distribute information. We’re spies, not thieves.” Mark says.
Youngjae takes the file out of mark’s hand and looks at the contents. Inside there is a photo of a ring. It looks old. It had a thick silver band that appears to be made from silver tree branches woven together. In the centre there is a stone set into the band thats a milky white with shocks of sky-blue streaking through it. It looks like some on had captured a cloudy summer sky in a tear drop and pressed it into silver tree branches, twisting them until they formed a ring. There is also a photo of young man around Mark’s age. It had appears to have been taken out of a car window from a considerable distance away. Youngjae could just make out the crest of the local university on one of the pillars behind the man in the photograph.
The only other thing in the file is a sheet of information, presumably about the man in the photo. It had his name, (Jackson Wang, Youngjae filed that away for later.) His birthday, height, weight, parents name, address, the whole nine yards.
“So what, this ring is important to someone and this guy has it? And you want us to get it back?” Youngjae said. “What’s the catch?”
“The ring belongs to an old friend of mine. It is a family heirloom passed down from the head of the family to the next in line for generations. I accepted this task as a favour to him. I suppose the catch is that no one outside this room can know whats going on. Not any civilians, not the police, not the government, not even any other agents. Any information exchanged cannot leave this room. I am entrusting you two with this case because you are our best agents and I believe that you can complete this task without any complications.”
“Can we at least know who we’re working for?” Mark asks, still tense.
Mr. Park smiles a little.
“I’m afraid that’s confidential.”
He stands and gathers the files on agents 4 and 17 leaving the black file with Youngjae.
“I trust that you’ll take good care of that, Agent 17.” He says. “Junior will brief the two of you on the extraction plan. Good day to you both and good luck.”
And with that he sweeps out of the room, body guards following him closely as soon as he exits the room. The tension seems to have followed the head of the operation and Junior finally relaxes from his place to the right of his usual chair.
“Okay agents, here’s the plan.”