Chapter Text
Born together, their birth was considered a great blessing. Not just by the numerous doctors and nurses who oversaw their coming to the world, but also the government. They, however, were never the same. Unless, of course, one looked at them.
Hongjoong was always the rougher of the two. He wrestled, climbed trees, scraped his knees and punched the local kids in the face if they got too mouthy. His twin, his identical twin and beloved older brother was the timid one, he was studious, and had an interest in science. He collected pond water and checked its p.h levels. They were a mirror-image only physically and that was where their similarities ended.
Hongjoong had a certain level of obedience to the circumstance of their lives. The family was not wealthy - nobody was - but their father worked for the government and so they were afforded a better education than most children. The younger twin chose to go into criminal justice, before transferring into an officers education department. He wanted to serve the government, and use his body for it.
Minjoong, well he and Hongjoong never really agreed, they always argued. Minjoong had a more curious mind, and so he often asked questions that best not be asked of the regime they lived under. But, in his tepid nature he never got punished for it outwardly. He did well to keep his mouth shut in school and Hongjoong was glad for it, it was one less place he had to defend his brother physically.
They started their jobs the very same day, in the same government building, but in entirely two different departments.
The hiring process was different, but they had signed paperwork that had explicitly outlined that they are not to talk about their work to each other. Though Minjoong was in a far higher security clearance department than Hongjoong, the two would inevitably end up working together - just not quite in the way that either one of them would ever imagine.
The two walked in together, mirror images as always in their black trousers and white button-up shirts, they stopped in a large entrance lobby together, an atrium. It was all white walls, reflective pale tiles with black trimming and furniture. There were people milling around, but mostly just security guards, and a singular secretary that sat at the front.
Hongjoong smiled and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Do well today, yeah?"
"I'll try, you too?"
"I'll do great, don't worry about me."
Hongjoong didn't seem to doubt himself as much as Minjoong did.
"Alright."
"And don't drop all those binders, what do they have you doing? School work?"
Minjoong blushed in return.
"No, I just... Wanted to be prepared, in case they ask me... Something. Anything."
"They have you studying for a test? I'm glad I'm in the military." The bewildered twin exhaled, shaking his head a little towards his older brother. Who pouted slightly in return, his shoulders rising in annoyance as he nudged Hongjoong.
"Alright hyung, I'll be seeing you." Hongjoong hummed pleasantly with a small chuckle.
"See you."
Hongjoong nodded and turned with a confident stride that only belonged to Hongjoong. He walked to the elevator by himself, and scanned a card that he had been given a week ago during his initial training for the job, which had included an extensive medical exam. Today was his first full day and he was being introduced to his team, so they could embark on a mission tomorrow.
A captain couldn't be a captain without his team after all. He had been looking forward to this day for a very, very long time. His entire life, in truth.
It had been a long time coming. He had spent so many years studying criminal justice, and longer yet learning all that there was to learn when it came to being an officer. There was also plenty of physical training for him, he was not to be a purely standard soldier but there would be high-risk missions that he and his team would be taking on where he would need to be on the ground leading them as any good captain was supposed to.
Captain, of course, because this was the rank he had achieved before he had left the officer training to begin his proper government-sanctioned career. He could be promoted in rank in the field.
The government preferred their leaders to be a reasonable few ranks higher than the soldiers they were commanding. Though not so detached that they could not fight alongside them. Thus, Hongjoong's endured physical testing alongside the mental fortification throughout officer school. He had also undergone more generic training protocols when he had signed a severe non-disclosure agreement when he was hired to work in the government. Those that were not with the proper clearance would not be allowed to know anything he was doing. He was in truth, quite excited to have such a high level of responsibility on his shoulders, and to be carrying such secrets with him for what he felt like would be forever.
Hongjoong stepped out of the elevator. It was silent, it never made a sound, as if there were any breach in security it would not announce where the intruder might be. It was an attempt to discombobulate those that were not meant to be there. He followed a series of dark gray arrows that were along the otherwise extremely plain light gray walls of the corridor which snaked in harsh right-angles with little to no variation. Everything was plain and standardized.
The world that they lived in was rather bleak, the world having gone through a great deal of upheaval about fifty years ago had been taken over by a firmer hand. Once the dust of the civil war settled, there was only the strongest voice left. It was their current leader, but nobody had ever seen his face. He was always inexplicably masked and his voice heavily distorted during speeches if he ever addressed his people. Nobody ever stood against it, it was much easier to comply. Not to mention, the city had been safer and wealthier ever since the regime had come into power.
Hongjoong and Minjoong had never known any better. Hongjoong had never thought any better.
Several right turns and one left later, he was at the door that he was supposed to meet his team in. He waved the card in front of a scanner, inside there was another door that required a retinal scan which he provided quietly, shuffling inside. It was a generic conference room of a rather modest size. It fit a large polished wooden table that along its longest sides fit about six chairs on each side.
Hongjoong went to the end and dropped himself into one of the plush black office chairs. He leaned back into it, his fingers wrapping abrasively against the plastic armrests of the chair.
He could only wonder what his team would be like.
Would they like him? Would they think he was an insufferable know-it-all and not listen to him at all? He wasn't known for being a know-it-all. That was more Minjoong's style, but that did not alleviate his worries, the show of confidence from before seemed to melt away as he was faced with his immediate reality. He wanted to make his superiors proud, wanted to show that he was an extremely adequate hire and soon-to-be leader.
He hoped that they would like him.
But, there was no time for such worries, because he heard the high-pitched sound of the retinal scan going off on the other side of the door only minutes after he had settled comfortably in his chair.
The comfort seemed to bleed into tension within his body. A muscular relaxation to a deep stress in them. Hongjoong sat up a little bit, no longer feeling it was appropriate to lean back. His team was arriving, he had to appear like a real leader, not someone who was lax and did not know what he was doing. A genuine fear that he did not want to project onto the new team. He leaned forward as the door slid open with a defining hiss. On the threshold stood a tall dark-headed male, he was thin and lithe like a feline, and he seemed to be almost entirely leg, his hair was slightly slicked back, but was otherwise rather neat. There was an illustrious tone to his eyes, and his skin was made of gold.
Hongjoong almost gawked.
Almost.
Instead he stood to greet, and the man stepped forward, placing a manila folder down on the conference table, before bowing to Hongjoong to his waist, a full ninety degrees.
"Captain Kim Hongjoong. It is an honor." He seemed robotic in his reciting of the words.
"I am Park Seonghwa. I will be your right hand with this team."
"It is a pleasure," Hongjoong remarked in return, but before Hongjoong could properly settle back down in his seat another walked in.
And another, and another.
Until seven stood around the conference table. Eight if one counted Hongjoong.
The seven bowed to Hongjoong, similarly to the way Seonghwa had. But they did not introduce themselves immediately. They seemed to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, as if they had paired off.
Two were rather tall, but had undoubtedly the most innocent faces out of the rest.
Another two consisted of a fox-faced boy, whose lips were pursed together in a pout. Next to him stood a slightly shorter boy with tan skin, glued to the fox-faced one tensely.
There was a boy with nervous energy too, he was the most muscular without a doubt, but as he stood there he was fidgeting with his fingers that were clasped together in front of him. He didn't make eye contact with anyone, just stared down. Hongjoong wondered if he had a nervous tick.
Between the glued couple, and the nervous boy stood one other. He was pretty, in a way that a government employee should not be with blotches along his face that made him particularly distinct to Hongjoong. He radiated a strangely confident aura, as if he knew the majority in the room.
"Introduce yourselves, to your captain." Seonghwa spoke, his gaze meeting with Hongjoong's for a moment before the crew started to speak. The air had been tense and stale up until this moment where they all spoke. But, the crackle of their voices broke the cold air of the conference room and gave Hongjoong a glimmer of hope.
"Kang Yeosang." He was the one with a confident aura, and a ubiquitously beautiful face.
"Jeong Wooyoung!" Though he was clinging to the side of the fox-faced male his voice rang like a bell, and he smiled in his greeting.
"Jeong Yunho." He was the tallest and had an overly pleasant face, if such a thing were possible. He radiated warmth and a feeling of comfort. His introduction triggered the one next to him to speak, he was quiet and his voice was quite low, clearly a bit shy.
"Song Mingi."
"Um, Choi San." The one with the fox-face murmured, his pout becoming a little more prominent.
"A-And I'm Choi Jongho."
Seonghwa stepped in then.
"Jongho-ssi just joined our ranks, he's the youngest." Though one could not tell his youth due to how muscular he was, he was rather reserved or at least that was the energy he seemed to radiate outwards.
"We have all been looking forward to this day, Captain. We have all been training for quite some time, excited to be put on a team finally." Seonghwa explained.
“So, you all know each other?” Hongjoong asked, he was standing there quite staunchly, though his thumb did keep rubbing against a loose piece of string that he had found along his black trousers.
“We do. Many of us trained in duos and trios going on mock missions together already.”
“Oh,” Hongjoong offered a smile to Seonghwa and then to the rest. “Then I have a lot of catching up to do, huh?”
Seonghwa seemed to not know what to do with the smile, and none of the rest of the team returned the smile aside from Wooyoung who found a bit of comfort in the humanity of Hongjoong's expression. It was not common to see such expressions, especially in the confines of the government - it was frowned upon, seen as a breach in what the government prescribed. Hongjoong wholly appreciated the return of the smile, it made him feel a little more comfortable.
Wooyoung. He would certainly remember him and in that moment he felt he might even grow fond of the boy whose cheeks blushed pink like apples.
His smile faltered, he did not wish to linger on it for too long, it was not appropriate. There was a drawn out silence before Hongjoong cleared his throat and motioned with his hand for everyone to sit. Like well trained canines, they did. Every single one of them. Seonghwa sat the closest, and Hongjoong felt his heart leap into his throat having not at all been expecting for the man to sit next to him. Though it made sense as he had introduced himself as the second in command next to Hongjoong, he wondered if those stern looks ever softened. The captain felt his stomach tighten, curdling into feelings of want for a moment, to watch Seonghwa melt...
But it occurred to him that there were seven sets of brown eyes staring at him, all of them waiting for him to speak or to command them to do something. He remembered that this was meant to be a meeting to discuss their first mission together, and that it was not just an introduction and nothing else.
Hongjoong's training was over, and their mock mission days had come to a close. They were a team of eight now, a real team.
"Well, it is a pleasure to be meeting all of you and I am truly honored to be named your Captain. I know you did not pick me, but I will do my absolute best to do well by every single one of you. Though our job is quite dangerous, none of us need to die at the hands of rebellions, or criminals that stand against our government. I will be sure of it and will always stand at the front lines with all of you if the powers overhead permit it." He watched their faces, they were all quite severe and he wondered for a moment if what he had been saying was all wrong. Though, the reality was likely that they were simply trained to be this way and there was nothing here to be taken so personally.
"Well..." Hongjoong cleared his throat, looking towards Seonghwa who was perhaps the most intense of them all. Though, they looked at each other with no contempt, and Hongjoong saw the severity of the other's looks soften when they made eye contact. He had never seen a man so ferociously beautiful, and yet he knew better than to voice such an opinion. The government did not allow for such feelings to be aired, let alone exist. It was best if he simply looked respectfully, he was to be a subordinate, a right-hand man not someone to grow exceptionally close with.
Friendship was perhaps the worst thing one could do in this dangerous line of business. It was how feelings got hurt, and missions went sour.
But now was not the time for such contemplations, he allowed his gaze to trail down from Seonghwa's eyes to the lines of his neck, down his shoulder, his arm to the manila folder that was flat against the table almost invisible were it not for the fact that Hongjoong had seen it before, seen it when Seonghwa had entered to introduce himself to the captain.
"Will you introduce our first assignment, Seonghwa-ssi," Hongjoong called out, shifting the energy in the room towards his right-hand. Chairs creaked, fabric brushed against fabric and six sets of brown eyes moved to look towards Seonghwa who looked towards his folder and nodded. A well-manicured thumb lifted one corner of it drumming it against the table with a rush of snaps.
"Yes. Thank you, Captain. It is as I said an honor, and we will all be doing our best to be the best team in this building." Seonghwa started, clearing his throat as he moved to stand the motion of his doing so pushed the chair he sat in back a little, it twirled to the side on an axel. Hongjoong simply observed as the folder opened to reveal eight sheets of paper which had printed text on them, but they were quite small and from his vantage point he could not read them, not until they were being passed out. One sheet for every single member of the team. The folder would close and Seonghwa would stand upright to read. Hongjoong's eyes never left Seonghwa. It was sheer perfection, even the way his fingers held onto the delicate paper so steadily, and they were thin and long. His heart skipped a beat when he shifted...
"Captain Hongjoong will proceed forward..-"
"Hm?"
"I was simply saying, that after we have infiltrated the outdoors site of our target, you will proceed forward, ahead of us and determine enemy positioning?"
"Oh. Yes, please continue." The captain swallowed, there was a dull droning in his head as if he were persistently hearing white noise. But it was only because he had not been listening to his right-hand read the mission assignment. Right? He should have been more diligent, he was the captain. He had to know everything, Hongjoong looked down towards the paper in front of him and looked it over. There was an outline here, he would have to memorize it for tomorrow - the day of the mission.
It would be the first official mission, not only for him, but for the team. It was well known, among their superiors, that the first one was indicative of how the rest of their careers would go. But it also was the most nerve-wracking one, it was the first time lives were actually in danger and a team could face very real threats without the option for being pulled out of the simulation early from being over-exposed to unsavory elements.
Their first gunshots ringing through the air.
The first time they would see death.
Hongjoong felt a distinct tension arise in his throat, it was the moment he had been waiting for, for so long. Yet excitement did not seem to fervently beat in his heart. Instead, it was a strange welling of anxiety, meet with a distinct buzzing at the back of his head. Slowly, he would bring his attention back towards Seonghwa who was still giving the full report to a silent room, eyes sternly against his person like daggers not out of malice but from the intense acuity, a byproduct of the team's rigorous training. Hongjoong was not as sharp, he had a softened gaze, dull indeed this dullness carried a silent authority. It would work well with the rest of the team, or so Hongjoong believed.
"Once we have infiltrated the building, Wooyoung will take up the leading position within the group. San, you will be at his rear. Jongho to his left, Hongjoong-ssi to his right. Myself, Mingi and Yunho will remain outside and cover parameters as necessary to avoid surprise attacks. Yeosang, you will continue to provide support from our designated rooftop as an aerial visual, if the camera gets shot down and you lose visual, please continue by providing aid in what you can see with your own eyes." It was less than ideal, Hongjoong realized if their drone got shot down that they had little to no choice but to continue with a handicap but this was reality it seemed.
There was no information on the brief that he had in front of him about what it was they were retrieving - information, and papers over some cryptic radio transmissions that would be returned to be translated - but how this was relevant to the grand scheme of things was left to the abyss. Hongjoong supposed it made some sense, they were rookies, and the government was not known for being open about information. Many civilians lived in the dark on a day to day basis, there was a naivety built around civilians to keep them content with their lives and in general, life seemed without much hardship, everyone had a stable job, hobbies - government-sanctioned ones - that they were allowed to participate in. It was easy to forget that they did not have all the information. But not Hongjoong and certainly not his twin Minjoong, who had been quietly curious about the world surrounding them, so much so that he had chosen a career path so he could learn more. Hongjoong wasn’t entirely the same, he just wanted to serve the military, and little more. Needless to say he was very content at this first junction of his career path. Though nervous, he could feel the prickling of sweat dripping down from the nape of his neck down his back, soaking into the fabric of his white button-up.
Seonghwa finished his report and delicately set the briefing down against the table, his brief appeared the same as Hongjoong's, but a quick inspection of the rest of the table, the details seemed less intricate. So the team was being kept in the dark as well, far more in the dark than the captain and right-hand man.
"Will that be all captain? We will rendezvous for our mission in the morning... For now," Hongjoong watched as Seonghwa's gaze addressed the crowd.
Sheer perfection.
He couldn't tell if he was sweating from having embarrassed himself, his anxiety for the mission, or the way Seonghwa was standing. The latter definitely was being sequestered to the background. It was not an acceptable response to his right-hand, well, it certainly shouldn't be.
"Wooyoung, Jongho you were being called to Li Kihyun-seonsaengnim. He wanted to talk to you two about something?" The two youngest immediately perked up, but it was not out of excitement. They had to visit with the doctor, which was never anyone's preference, even in their world. But in this case, it was even more strange because Li Kihyun was one of the top researching doctors in the building, his interest in the two of them would not be for a simple 'check-up'.
So, Wooyoung and Jongho would rise, nod to Seonghwa before giving respectful bows to Hongjoong who stood to wave them off from the meeting room. They left and the attention returned to Hongjoong.
"Yes... Well if we are all in agreement. Rendezvous as Seonghwa-ssi stated tomorrow morning, go over your briefing, and be there on time so that we are equipped with the arsenal we need before departing."
There was no response, only Seonghwa seemed to nod his head in agreement. In some manner, Seonghwa was the voice for the rest of the team.
Hongjoong didn't know how he felt about this, but he knew that he would simply have to win the team over so that everyone saw him as a competent leader worth listening to and following.
"You are all dismissed, and if there are any questions, I will be in my office." Hongjoong had not seen his office but once when he had been in his week of training it was simply a space for him to do his paperwork throughout the majority of non-mission days.
Today, being his first day, was one of those days where paperwork would reign supreme. So, as the rest of the crew filed out he would toddle to his office, having quietly picked up the mission brief by sliding it quite unceremoniously from the flat surface of the wooden table. His office was a small space, nowhere near what one might expect of a captain. But he was a rookie, one day he would have an expanded office, of this he was certain. It was a few weaving gray corridors down from the meeting room.
Hongjoong's arrival was announced with a finger scan, and an abrasive high-pitched ding that allowed him inside. He stepped in and inhaled the strangely clean air, highly filtered by state of the art technology, another pride of the nation. It was barren and clinical, a desk at the center towards the back of the room, a swiveling chair on his side, and a chair for anyone meeting with him on the opposing side. There was a bookshelf, but it only had books of law... The windows were shuttered, and there was a camera in the corner in the ceiling so Hongjoong knew he was being watched. He felt it, so he wandered towards his seat and sat down, the metal and plastic creaked beneath his newly added weight.
That was when he noticed a folder and binder in front of him, bursting at the seams in paper. Slowly he would pull it open, feeling the weight of the white unsuspecting plastic against his fingers. It landed against the desk with a 'thunk', the other side revealing that Hongjoong had no time to sit around and waste.
None at all, and so he settled into the most mundane part of his work.
It made Hongjoong wonder how his brother was getting on.