"Hey Shadow," Jungkook greeted her when she walked into their hideout.

Breezing past Hoseok who was immersed in some code encryption on the computers, she went to join Jungkook on the sofa.

"Oh, Jiah, hey!" Hoseok finally said when he saw her and she winced at her name, wanting to tell him straight away not to call her that, but she decided against it, flopping down next to Jungkook.

"I'm impressed," he smiled smugly.

"Of what? You've seen me wearing nicer clothes than this before," she thought he was talking about her attire, of course. The gang had a special stash of office clothes that Jiah had been using to wear to work, but the clothes that she would wear on operations in which she was undercover at a gala per se, were much more revealing and much sexier than this pencil skirt and white blouse.

"I'm impressed you didn't tell Hoseok off for calling you by your name, dumbass."

"Right," she had rested her head in his lap and was feeling her eyes start to close.

Jungkook was more surprised at the fact that she seemed tired already and it was only eight in the evening, as opposed to their skinship. It wasn't like they weren't close enough to be able to touch each other in this way - one night six years ago when they were intoxicated on the empty promises of their youth, they did a lot more than just touching each other, breaking the awkward barrier they once had. They vowed to never again talk about that night, but although it was possibly one of the biggest mistakes the pair had faced, it built a special bond between the two that could never be broken.

"I thought we could go grab a drink tonight," Jungkook sighed, looking down at his best friend, "I guess not."

"Jungkook, you try working as the secretary of the country's biggest conglomerate's CEO's, and then I'll let you off for your sass," she said with her eyes closed, making Jungkook shake his head.

"I'll never let you off for your sass," he muttered under his breath and looked over to Hoseok, "Have you figured out what to do about Diamond?"

Jiah then perked up, sitting again and shooting a questioning glance at Hoseok.

"What do you mean?"

"He's going to find out, Shadow," he sighed, "You'd think we could cover our tracks better than that."

"I don't really know, the company has a steel firewall I've been trying to hack into the bank accounts all day today and can't seem to edit it. It's crazy, I've never not been able to hack into anything before."

"Why would you need to edit it?" Jiah asked cautiously. Why was she so worried about the company?

Jungkook seemed to be wondering the same thing because he spoke up.

"Are you trying to protect the other side, Shadow?"

"Huh? No, why would I-"

"You do know, you're not working for them, Shadow, not for real anyway. Do we need to keep reminding you of that?"

"I just don't want him to get caught, Jungkook."

"Don't worry," Hoseok grinned, clearly not realising he shouldn't be trying to make light of the situation, "I won't get caught."

"So what's the verdict?" Jungkook spun away from Jiah and looked to Hoseok.

"I'm thinking, we have to change it at the source," and that was when the two men turned to Jiah.

"What?"

"We're gonna need you for that, Jiah."

"Okay, let's get this over and done with," she sighed, jumping up and pulling her blouse over her head, to what Hoseok let out a very high pitched scream.

"Oh my God, Hoseok, someone's gonna think there's a girl being kidnapped in here!"

"H-How can you just take your clothes off like that? J-Jiah can you give a guy some warning!" he yelped, "Jungkook! H-How are you okay with this?"

"She does this all the time Hoseok, you should probably learn to get used to it."

She turned to look at them over her shoulder, a small smile creeping on her lips. Taking her black bodysuit off the top shelf, she faced them fully. "Alright, you two look away now before you scream again when I take my pants off."

"Okay, that I want to see," Jungkook teased, licking his lips and Hoseok screeched again, jumping off his chair and running to the couch to cover Jungkook's eyes with his own hands,

"Don't look!"

And then they were done, Jiah was now dressed to go back to the office - this time in her more comfortable black on black on black.

Just as Hoseok and Jiah were about to leave, however, they got a call from their leader.

"Yes, boss," Hoseok had obviously learnt how to answer his calls from Jungkook.

"We're just checking in on any updates you guys have to share with us? How's our operation going?"

"Diamond and Saturn are getting closer and closer to figuring it out, boss, we're trying our best to stop them, however," Jungkook started and motioned for Hoseok to continue.

"Shadow and I are just about to go to the office and try to unlink our bank accounts with the Mexican and Australian mafia," he sighed, "we can't remove our link with the Japanese mafia because that's where our money is coming from. But we're going to try and tidy those transactions up a little bit."

"It might be best for someone to talk to the company as one of our rep's, about us utilising their transportation services. Maybe we should stop for now?"

"If we stop, Crown, how do you expect us to make any money?"

"Boss, I was just suggesting, in case they catch on."

"You won't let them catch on, though, will you?"

The three of them sighed, Jiah urged Hoseok to somehow pretend the call was getting disconnected and hang up.

But he couldn't do that.

"If you guys fail to do this, you know what's going to happen to you? Right? Especially you, Hoseok, your brother isn't all that fond of his job at the moment and he's only got you to blame."

He bit his lip, and the other two saw it in the way he looked at his phone; he wished he could just run away, take his brother and leave the gang, never looking back.

But again, he couldn't do that.

"Yes, boss, we know."

"Good. Alright, I'll let you two get to it, talk soon."

When he hung up, the three exchanged glances, before Jiah shook her head and tied her hair back.

"Let's just go, Hoseok."

--

With Hoseok humming an unfamiliar tune in her ear, Jiah left the van from the third basement level and entered the elevator. Hoseok froze the security cameras on her route; the elevator and the eighteenth floor.

"Okay, what do I have to do?" she hissed into her earpiece when she got to her desk.

"Are you in Diamond's office?"

"I can't do this from my own computer?"

"Are you dumb? Do you really think they'd give you permission to edit profiles? You're gonna need your boss's computer, Shadow."

"Okay, you need to stop hanging out with Jungkook, his attitude's rubbing off on you."

She took in a deep breath when he hands rested on Taehyung's metal door handles, slowly opening one side. The light that she was met with on the other side, however, surprised her.

"Oh crap," Hoseok whispered in her ear, "I think your boss is there."

No shit, she wanted to say, it's too late, idiot.

But she refrained from making a sound.

Because there he was, her boss, lying on his couch, one hand resting on the couch's back, and the other holding onto a couple of pieces of paper, outstretched and hanging over the side.

That was a moment she would remember for the rest of her life. Because it was as if her spinning to look at him caused the cage around her heart to crack once more.

Looking around, she found his coat hanging on the hook by the door and she grabbed it, tiptoeing to him and softly draping it over his shoulders.

But she froze when she realised how close she was to him, she froze when she realised what she was doing, she froze when she felt light streaming through that crack in the cage around her heart.

What am I doing?

Eyebrows furrowed, she shook her head, fury starting to burn inside of herself.

What do I think I'm doing?

Before she could lean back, she felt something grab onto her wrist.

Looking down, she saw Taehyung's hand grasped around it, his hold so strong she couldn't free herself to run away.

Or was it that she could... but she didn't want to?

His eyes slowly opened and widened when they met hers.

She noticed, however, he seemed to match her furrowed eyebrows, and not in a way that was surprised or alarmed, was it worry she saw in his eyes?

It was as if clouds had gathered, calling for thunder and lightning, two things Jiah loved, but at this moment she wanted them both gone from the world. She wanted it to vanish and there to be only clear skies for the rest of her days. Somehow, that weather which she adored, made her uncomfortable when she saw it in his eyes.