The First Steps

It had been two hours since Seojin's ride back to Seoul. The sky was beginning to light up, early rays of the sun showing up as the night's shadows slowly left the horizon.

He drew a breath, standing in front of the alliance's headquarters, almost seven years had passed since he had come here. Purposefully flunking his missions, he never succeeded in acquiring whatever was asked to, thus never having to come here.

The 50 floor tall, black screened, bulletproof building was intimidating.

Just another of the city's many business centers on the outside, inside, it was Alliance's one of the biggest quarters with a nation wide reach.

However, instead of the main entrance, he chose a service passage. After all he couldn't enter the building from the front door when he knew Ryan was soon to be reporting in.

He had heard the latter talk with Cyril, about how he was gonna receive the transfer order in person.

He pulled on his black coat once before showing the identification badge. He never really wore it, or ever had to use it, thanks to all those deliberately failed missions.

The small lapel pin, with a chain attached, was the same shape as their idol group logo, with the number seven in the middle of white wings , encrusted with exactly seven purple crystals.

Placing it in front of the identifying device, he walked in as the gates slid open without a sound, making sure his mask was well up, and cap pulled down, hiding any possible identification of his face.

He stopped in front of the hallway that said D-Class supervisory section in big letters.

"7 Archangels, Azrael. For submission of acquired item. "

The woman at the desk barely looked before answering.

"Straight to the right. Your chief is on the third table. "

Without another word, he walked in the direction the woman had told him. The man on the table was busy, his nose deep in the file in his hand when Seojin reached.

"Who? And why? "

The man in the blue executive shirt asked without looking up.

"7 Archangels, Azrael, here to report, mission successful. Item required has been acquired."

"Hmm okay 7 archangels, Azra- wait. Who again did you say?! "

The man suddenly looked up, his eyes as wide as saucers, the file in his hand dropped back to the table while Seojin pulled his mask down.

"Seojin?? What are you doing here? "

He was surprised that the man he hadn't seen for 7 years was here, standing in front of him.

Seojin once again repeated his previous words.

"You completed the mission? Successfully? And you acquired the items as well? "

He turned through the pages, calmer, it was indeed what had been asked for.

"And there were no mistakes? " He asked again, just to make sure.

"Yes. "

"Great! This will be your first successful mission in years! Finally you have decided to start climbing up the ranks. Your members would be so proud to hear it-"

"No. "

The man was cut off mid sentence by Seojin.

"The members are not going to know about this. "

"What do you mean Seojin? This is the first time you do something and you won't even let them know? You know right four more and you move up a rank. You members will obviously see that inn the list. Everyone would. "

"Only till then. That's all I ask Mr. Choi. "

Mr. Choi seemed to be in thought for a while before he spoke.

"Well then I guess it's fine. Now that you're ranking up, I can at least shift to the other rank office. It was so weird receiving and sending S class missions sitting in a D Class office. I can finally taste the heavenly coffee from higher class offices they all brag about "

Mr. Choi seemed to be on cloud nine as Seojin walked away.

But what he missed was Mr. Choi looking at his retreating back with a small smile on his face.

Choi Min Jae had been assigned to this team right from the day they debuted both in the organization and the music industry.

As a supervisor, he too moved up the ranks when all the members in his assigned agent did. But one loophole here was that the supervisor couldn't pass a class unless his whole assigned team does.

Just like Mr. Choi, who had been unable to pass up the classes since one member was still in Class D despite all his other agents being Class S.

But now it seemed he still had a chance.

* * *

"Oh hyung, you came! How was it with your friends? "

Ryan smiled from the couch as he saw Seojin walk in, his bag in hand.

"Oh yeah... friends.. It was great, we all had a lot to catch up on, it was fun.

I'll just go freshen up and come "

Seojin smiled as he walked towards his room. After emptying his bag inside his closet, he walked into the shower.

As the hot water wrapped him in it's embrace, Seojin began thinking. For the first time in years, he didn't fail a mission. In the past, he would have deliberately dropped the file back or just randomly do something to fail the mission. But instead, he had actually did it right, no mistakes, no deliberate failing.

It felt weird.

He had thought that he would feel guilty once he succeeded. After all he threw away the very belief his past self had risked everything in his life to cherish for so long, he had thrown his own moral compass into confusion. He knew he was bound to feel strange.

But instead he didn't. For the first time in years, he felt free. Instead of the expected guilt, h was weirdly calm. As if nothing had happened at all.

He felt nothing. He felt empty, his mind, muddled, because even now, a part of him still regretted his recent decisions, while another didn't.

A part of him felt like he had broken the chains that were never meant to be broken.

Changing into a bathrobe, he looked at the mirror, rubbing his hair dry, his reflection looking back at him.

'Did I do the right thing?'

Feeling his conviction waver, he took in a deep breath,,

His team. They are all that matters.

'If this let's me be with them, to be of help to them.

If I can stop being an unwanted burden....'

Closing the door behind him, Seojin walked back into his room where he found Yeon on his bed, waiting.

"You're out? We were, let's have dinner . " He said, getting up.

"But I haven't prepared anything for dinner -"

"Hyung, we ordered some take out. C'mon, let's go, I'm hungry" Yeon smiled, waiting for his hyung.

"Okay, let me just change real quick " Seojin smiled back, getting his clothes..

"C'mon "

Seojin walked out of the room, accompanied by Yeon.

The dinner table was lively, with all the chattering and conversation going on. For the first time in months, Seojin felt good.

Of course the food at the hospital wasn't bad or anything, but this, he missed this. All seven of them being together, conversing. Seojin had longed for it during his days in the hospital, when he'd be eating alone sitting on his bed.

He was yet to understand as to why Alexis banned his members from visiting.

"Oh , you had been to the HQ today right? Ryan? "

Cyril's question brought Seojin's focus on to Ryan who was nodding.

"Yeah. I was never permanent in the office anyway, it's always been the field for me. "

He took a sip of his water.

"Right, this was some temporary thing right? "

"Yea, I was called in because the one who's supposed to do this took an abrupt two month long leave, and he was managing a member of the Grecian Gods. " Ryan answered Christian.

"Oh, hyung, you'll be back in one week from now, the month end? Right? "

"Yeah I guess "

It was only after hearing Taeil that he realized he was back on the exact day the month ended. Month ends were important in the Alliance. It was when the monthly ranking would be announced. as well as the changes in these rankings.

'They'll know that day like Mr. Choi said. How am I gonna explain then? Maybe I could -'

"Ah right "

Ryan suddenly stopped, as if he just realized something, interrupting Seojin's thoughts.

"What? "

Cyril asked on everyone's behalf.

"Did any of you come to the HQ today?."

They shrugged. The younger three had been home the whole day, while Yeon and Cyril had been at the agency.

"I came home in the afternoon? But why?"

Seojin questioned.

"Nah, nothing , just that when I was giving the identification, Presence Display showed someone already reported. "

Presence Display, an option given by the identification device, that displayed the last identified of the same badge. It often helped in tracking which members came in at which time, though this information wasn't displayed without permit.

"So I thought one of you might have come before me.."

Ryan continued.

"Must have been some system glitch Ry. "

Seojin tried to change the topic. Forgetting about the Presence Display was a mistake. He should have just used the ID scanner.

Ryan wasn't the type to skip over such details, but Seojin wished, this time he would. Thankfully the members were on his side this time.

He breathed in relief as he heard the others agree.

* * *