Chapter Text
It was quiet in the jewelry store. The sound of people discussing prizes and the register ringing having long since vanished into the silent night. Like a ghost had swept through the aisles and cleared everything out. There was no sign of life left in the small department store in their hometown mall. No sign of life except -
Mark was holding his breath. Cautiously, he sneaked around a corner, always pressed against the wall to not be seen. With a quick glance he scanned the room. As always, he had prepared, checking out which angles of the building were left unseen, having studied the floorplan of the store thoroughly before coming here. The security cameras were still blinking, the red lights looking like the reflection of eyes when photographed too harshly, signaling that they were recording the entire store.
On his toes, Mark crept forward, leaving the ring and bracelet section behind and entering the room that was the very heart of the store.
Again, screening the ceiling, Mark noticed four more cameras, all positioned to film exactly one object.
Shimmering mysteriously on top of a marble pedestal was a diamond and emerald tiara, placed right in the middle of the room, the centerpoint of all the camera lenses. Just yesterday the valuable treasure had been brought here, right on time to be auctioned off for a big charity event tomorrow held by the governor himself.
That's where Mark came into play. The only reason why he was allowed to be here in the middle of the night in the first place. Since the store owner had been worried about sufficient security, they had contacted him to watch over the expensive piece of jewelry until the morning, having the inkling that something was ought to happen to their treasure. Friendly as he was - and since he knew the store owner briefly through a few connections, having lived in the town all his life - Mark hadn't hesitated to agree to this mission. A simple guarding job had fit right into his schedule and usually didn’t mean a lot of trouble.
Hoping for this to be a quiet night, Mark settled down in his spot from where he had the best overview of the room, observing all the blindspots the cameras were failing to record with their limited range. He was about to get out his communicator to share his position when the tiniest of cracks disturbed the silence.
Immediately, Mark's gaze fixated on the diadem, on high alert and ready any time to jump out of hiding and defend the object. In the next second the lights went out, leaving Mark in utter darkness. He groaned internally. So much for a quiet night.
In alarm, Mark's muscles tensed up. All the cameras must’ve stopped recording, at least judging by the missing red dots that had indicated their power before. Only the faint moonlight made it possible to see anything, reflecting mysteriously in the green crystals of the diadem that stood out even more prominently in the otherwise dark black room that absorbed all lighting.
Skillfully, Mark rolled forwards, ending up right next to the pedestal with the tiara, crouching to stay hidden as he brought his hands up, ready to fight whoever was obviously trying to steal it.
His eyes were slowly getting used to the darkness, being able to recognize the outlines of his surroundings better and better. A strange silhouette appeared right next to the door, shuffling towards him.
Mark smirked as he took in their carefree stride. They were clearly not expecting him.
"Looking for something?" He asked into the room.
The element of his surprise was on his side. The silhouette shrieked, frantically turning around until he had discovered Mark right next to the object of his desire.
"What? Who are you?" the deep voice of a man uttered in shock, before catching himself.
But Mark remained unfazed. “Mark Lee. And you should probably leave.”
In hindsight, he should’ve went with something cool like ‘ Your worst nightmare ’ - but these ideas only occurred to Mark when it was already way too late.
“Mark Lee?” The man seemed unimpressed. A devious smile spread on his face. "Well, you’re not going to stop me today."
Before Mark could retort anything clever, the man was surging ahead. Smoothly, Mark dodged his first attack, jumping aside as the thief stumbled over his own feet at the missing impact of his swing.
Right on his tracks Mark didn't even let him think of escaping, running after him and catching him by his wrist. With all his power he pulled him back while stemming his feet behind his legs, forcefully bringing him to the ground. Just as he was about to fasten his hand together behind his back, the sound of glass shattering made him stop in his motion.
The diadem!
Quickly, Mark spun around, having turned his back to the pedestal in an effort to restrain the thief.
Behind him a second man had used his moment of distraction to sneak into the room. With one swing of a metal rod he had destroyed the delicate glass cabinet that had been the last instance of protection, now no barrier left between him and the diadem.
Grinning provocatively, the second man swung the tiara around in his fingers, the diamonds sparkling even in the complete absence of light as he stepped into the shadows.
Mark grunted in frustration, reluctantly letting go of the first man to chase after the real culprit. His mission was to protect the crown and keep it safe until tomorrow - he should at least make sure to get it back now, so that nothing happened to it.
The man was fast, but this wasn't Mark's first rodeo either. Obviously not having planned his next moves carefully, the thief tried to stop Mark, mindlessly throwing objects - chairs and racks and flyers for tomorrow's auction - into his way. Not even fazed in the slightest, Mark avoided each of the sudden hindrances, rolling and jumping while not letting the culprit out of his eyes.
Thinking ahead, he could cut a corner in the next aisle, dashing through a fake display of roses and was now slowly catching up towards the man. Getting slightly concerned about the success of his robbery, the man broke out of the lane, now not directly going for the main exit anymore but heading towards the fire escape.
A hasty mistake. As soon as he pushed the door open, the fire alarm went off, alarming not only the fire department but also the police that something wasn't right in the store.
Completely out of his panicked mind, the man took a look at the metal staircase, the cold wind of the night hitting his face and decided that up was the way to go.
More than hurried to escape, the man took two stairs at a time, throwing the door shut behind him violently and trying to outrun Mark to the roof of the building.
Having been delayed by the heavy door closed in his face, Mark was now heaving out of breath, the distance between them getting bigger again.
Suddenly, there was a loud battle cry and someone swung himself over the railing of the staircase from a floor above, landing right on top of the thief and throwing him to the ground.
However, Mark's attention wasn't on the man anymore. Like in slow motion, he watched as the diadem was being thrown into the air due to the sudden fall by the thief. It headed right over the banister about to drop two stories deep and unavoidably splatter into a thousand pieces on the ground beyond repair. Not even a professional could restore that kind of damage.
Acting quickly, Mark jumped onto the handrail, almost losing his balance before steadying himself as he lowered his core. Grabbing onto the ceiling above him, he reached out, leaning forward even further - for a second seemingly levitating despite gravity, dangerously close to tipping over and reaching a more severe fate than the crown would've.
Stretching as far as he could, Mark's fingers grazed the headpiece, snapping shut around it securely once it was in his grip.
Now succumbing to gravity, Mark's body toppled over and towards the ground. Luckily, his reflexes kicked in just in time, making him turn around his axis midair, managing to grab the railing and swinging himself into the floor underneath them.
Once his two feet landed back on the stairs, Mark let out a deep breath. Slowly, he looked down. The crown was safe in his hands, unharmed from its sudden journey. That had been close.
In the distance Mark could already see the blinking lights of the police, the sirens roaring through the peaceful night. Like a moth Mark stared ahead, attracted to the bright colors, forgetting where he was for a second.
The rustling coming from the stairs above him pulled him back into focus. Right, this wasn't over yet.
Hurrying upstairs, Mark watched confused for a few seconds at how the two people wrestled.
"Donghyuck?" He asked and the boy in question huffed, trying to pin the thief to the ground who was struggling with all his might.
"I told you to call me Haechan when we're on missions!" The boy whined despite his current position. "Now help me!"
Mark chuckled before joining the small fight. "So, you finally decided to show up?" He joked as they locked the culprit down with ease, overpowering him together.
"Shut up, you know I was only up here to make sure our set up was alright! And then my communicator was losing signal for a second," Donghyuck pouted, getting up on his feet and letting Mark handle the culprit for now, who started tying him up without a problem.
"Sure, always blame the equipment." Mark rolled his eyes fondly.
Donghyuck turned his head away defiantly. "I showed up at the perfect time regardless! See, I even caught the thief."
Mark cocked an eyebrow, seriously doubting that Donghyuck had planned his dramatic entrance. To be honest, he found it more believable that Donghyuck had swung into the culprit by complete accident. (It didn't matter in the end - dumb luck had played a huge part in their previous missions and Donghyuck in particular seemed to attract luck wherever he went, so Mark couldn’t really complain.)
A noise in his pocket distracted him from their conversation. At the same moment they saw how the lights inside the store turned back on through the windows.
"About time," Mark mumbled, getting out his communicator.
It was a small and handy device, a unicum. Only him and Donghyuck possessed one of these rarities. They were almost like a phone, but untrackable - and they came with some other techy features that the common phone shouldn’t necessarily have.
The screen lit up, showing Chenle smiling at him apologetically. "Sorry about the lights. I was only checking if anyone was trying to mingle with them online - someone must've turned the security system down manually. But now it's all back in place. Is everything alright?"
Mark let out a deep sigh - but it was impossible to stay mad at Chenle for long. "It is now. Two guys broke in - we got one, but I had to let one get away. Maybe the police will catch him."
In the background, Donghyuck was fiddling with his own communicator that had somehow turned completely black at the beginning of their mission, making Donghyuck search for a signal on the rooftop, leaving Mark behind inside the store so he could at least start with the observation on time.
Nosy as he was, Chenle stretched his neck to see where the noise was coming from, even though it wouldn't have any effect on what he could see sitting in front of his high-tech computer at home. Mark had mercy on him, turning his communicator around so Chenle could see the scene himself.
"Hey Donghyuck, did you get to do anything this time?" Chenle asked him cheekily.
Donghyuck glared at him, although with no real fire behind his eyes. "It's Haechan," he grumbled. "And I caught him!"
Knowing his two partners and how their bickering could get a little out of control at times, Mark swiftly pointed his communicator back at himself. "Anyways, I'll talk to you later. The police are here."
That hadn't solely been an excuse, as only seconds later the first officers were climbing the stairs, having spotted them from the parking spot in front of the store.
After Mark and Donghyuck had given their statement, by now very familiar with most of the police officers in their city, they were let go with the assurance that the thief would be arrested.
The store owner had shown up as well, almost drowning in between all the commotion. She wasn't stingy with her gratitude when Mark returned the diadem to her, locking it up in a spare safe for the night.
In the end, she even offered to drive Donghyuck and Mark home, who happily squeezed on the backseat of her luxurious car, watching the buildings fly past them as the morning slowly began to dawn on them.
A perfectly normal night for two teenagers. Well, two teenagers whose job it was to protect their hometown from various crimes.
It was early in the morning when Mark's alarm started ringing. Groaning in annoyance, Mark hid his face in his pillow, blindly reaching for his phone and turning off the unpleasant noise.
He moaned into his pillow a little longer, until he choked on his own spit and finally made it out of his bed due to a sudden coughing fit.
His older brother Johnny was laughing at him, although with a look of slight concern in his eyes as they crossed each other’s paths on the way to the bathroom, Mark's face still a dark shade of red.
After splashing himself with some cold water, Mark looked at himself in the mirror. He couldn't help the deep sigh leaving him. Time to get ready for the first day of school.
His old and trusted bike was clattering dangerously as he pulled it out of their garage. The red color it had once been was splattering off already, rust peeking through and the synthetic material of the handles were also proudly showing off their age and usage. It had been his birthday gift when he turned thirteen, around four years ago now. Ever since it had been his trusted companion on his way to school. (For the sake of his missions, Mark had actually gotten a drivers license, but he preferred his bike any day of the week. I mean, a way to be environmentally friendly and activate your brain before school through some physical exercise? That's what a sweet deal sounded like to Mark!)
Putting in only one of his earplugs so he could still hear the traffic - Mark was a very conscientious bike rider - he let his playlist shuffle through the Kiss&Tell album. Judge him all you want, but that Selena Gomez album was a timeless classic. Plus, the woman had once dated Justin Bieber so it was a proven fact that she had great taste. He'd actually dyed his hair blonde this summer because of her album. Well, actually Donghyuck had tried to dye it blonde for him. It had come out a splotchy orange in the end. Luckily, the local hairdresser was still grateful for the time Mark had fished her dog out of the river and had gladly fixed the mess Donghyuck had created on his head.
To everyone's surprise, the end result hadn’t been a total disaster - at least Mark thought he looked kind of nice as a blonde. Donghyuck, well…he had ignored him for a few hours and then returned with rainbow highlights in his own brown hair, mumbling something about not letting himself be outshined.
Some days Donghyuck still felt like an enigma to Mark. He was an uncontrollable force that had entered Mark's life and become such a big part of it in what felt like a wild spiral of random coincidences, resulting in an unlikely partnership.
They had met in a math camp of all places.
Around a year ago, Mark had as usual looked for a way to spend his summer holidays efficiently. While most people liked to spend their summer doing nothing but relax, Mark quickly grew bored if he had no schedule. Maybe he just had that Type A kind of personality, but Mark liked being challenged and busy.
So, in an attempt to better his math grade for the upcoming year - since that was one of the subjects that he struggled most with - Mark had enrolled into math camp. Only after he had arrived at the camping site, his parents' old two person tent neatly packed underneath his arm, did he realize that the camp had not been intended for highschool sophomores like he had been at the time.
A bunch of twelve year olds had given him judgemental stares when he sat down at their table during lunch. Mark could only awkwardly smile through the pain of embarrassment that he’d grown more than familiar with over the span of his life.
Under normal circumstances Mark would ask his parents to come pick him up - but they were out on an actual romantic vacation that they had been looking forward to for ages - and Mark would rather sit through a seventh grade math camp than admit this disaster to his older brother. Johnny had more than enough reasons to tease him, Mark wouldn’t add this one to the list if he could avoid it.
However, the children had not been the only ones who had stared at him funnily. Back then, Mark hadn't known the boy with the tan skin and the moles on his cheeks by name, who was a year younger than him but went to the same highschool.
Donghyuck had known him, though, for some reason. Maybe he had seen him play at one of their basketball matches. At least, that was the post-hoc explanation Mark had later come up with for himself, never having asked Donghyuck personally.
Showing Mark some mercy, Donghyuck had invited him to sit with him the next day, questioning with eyebrows raised to his hairline what on earth Mark Lee was doing in a math camp for middle schoolers.
"I'm bad at math," Mark had explained with a crooked smile. "Thought I'd get a headstart before the next semester."
Donghyuck had laughed at him, because of course he did - it was a ridiculous situation that only someone like Mark could get himself into.
Turned out Donghyuck was a camp instructor here, his math knowledge good enough to teach basic algebra and geometry to some young boys and girls that had annoyed their parents to the extent of being sent here for the holidays.
"If you want to have something to do during summer vacation, why don't you just get a summer job like everyone else?" Donghyuck had asked him, munching on Mark's fries after he had devoured his own in record time.
Perhaps, Mark didn't only struggle in math but with thinking in general, because how had he not come up with that idea himself?
Again being more than helpful, Donghyuck had shown him a website where Mark just needed to fill out a form and people could contact him if they wanted his help. It had been how Donghyuck had gotten this math instructor job as well.
Donghyuck had even helped him fill out his form. Mark had felt slightly weird when Donghyuck had put 'absolutely fully capable ' as his personal description, but Donghyuck had only shrugged, claiming that you needed to exaggerate with these things if you wanted to get noticed.
"But if you get hired and it's a job for two people, you better hit me up," Donghyuck had threatened him playfully. Back then, Mark had just awkwardly chuckled, not really expecting anyone to contact him for a job.
The wheels of his bike squeaked as Mark took a sharp break in front of his school. Around him students were laughing and chattering, some more, some less excited for the new school year.
Quickly, Mark parked his bike in the designated spots, making sure to lock it to the bicycle stand.
As always, Mark was early for classes. Punctuality was something he had inherited from his mother, always being the first kid to show up to a birthday party and the first kid being picked up as well.
Nowadays, this personality trait helped him manage his tight schedule - and if you were as busy but as clumsy as Mark, you needed a well-timed schedule.
Leisurely, Mark strolled down the familiar path into the school. Contrary to many of his peers, Mark actually liked going to school. Not that he didn’t like holidays and weekends as well! He just thought it was very neat to learn something new everyday and be able to see your friends while doing so.
His first trip today was to his locker, which was located on the second floor. Setting up the computer he had installed inside last year had been at the very top of his mental to-do list for the day. Chenle had already beeped him over the communicator twice, complaining that he didn't have access to said computer as long as it was shut off during the holidays.
Wanting to save power, Mark had dutifully plugged out all the cables from the small battery that was stored inside the locker after the school year had ended last term. Swiftly opening his locker, Mark reminded himself that he should probably come up with a new combination for the new school year, just for safety reasons. With his tongue poking out to the side, Mark got to work only to realize that all the cables had mysteriously decided to become one big bundle of chaos while he had been gone.
A big sigh left him. But there was no way around it.
Luckily, he had prepared a manual and color coded all the cables before he had shut off the computer, so now he only needed to organize them back into their original state and follow his own instructions. An easy plan that only got slightly more difficult when Mark discovered that the manual that he had placed on top of the screen last year before leaving for the holidays had accidentally fallen behind the computer.
With deep concentration he tried to fish it out with his fingers when someone suddenly tapped him on his shoulder. Startled, Mark shrieked back, hitting his head against the locker door.
A sharp sting pulsated through his skull and Mark rubbed his head with a painful hiss.
Someone snorted, obviously amused by his clumsiness and Mark noticed Donghyuck and Renjun standing by his side - the latter only hardly containing his laughter.
Donghyuck nudged him with his elbow and Renjun's expression changed into a more sophisticated one.
"Hey, Markie!" Donghyuck greeted him brightly and now Renjun rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"How were your holidays?" Renjun still asked politely.
Mark gave him an unsure smile. He wasn't really close with Renjun, but ever since he and Donghyuck had started working together, it had been inevitable to get to know him. To be brutally honest, Mark was sometimes a bit scared of Renjun - people said he was tiny but vicious. (And while he trusted Donghyuck's sense for best friends...Renjun could be very intimidating. Not that Mark would ever say that out loud.)
"Good, yeah," Mark replied, his voice cracking in the middle and he awkwardly cleared his throat.
Renjun's lips twitched again, but then his expression turned menacing. "So, I've seen you prevented a robbery last night. It was all over the local news this morning. You sure are spending a lot of time with Hyuck, aren't you?"
"Oh, errm, yeah," Mark answered, eyes flickering to Donghyuck. "We make a good team."
"Team? So-"
"Hey, Renjun, I think I see Jeno coming your way!" Donghyuck suddenly interrupted Renjun.
Within a heartbeat, Renjun's teasing glance changed into panic, complexion paling and without an explanation the boy bolted away.
Laughing awkwardly, Mark scratched his neck, not knowing how to properly react to Renjun’s sudden flight.
"Is he okay?" Is what Mark settled for. "I'm never sure if he likes me or not."
"He's fine, don't worry," Donghyuck told him, disregarding Mark’s concerns. "And everybody likes you."
Mark was about to brush the overstatement off and return to his messy cables, when Donghyuck raised his voice again.
"Hey, so, do you want to maybe go for kimchi stew this afternoon? I know we usually only go on Fridays, but since it's the first day of school and we solved that case yesterday, I thought we could make an exception."
At the offer Mark chuckled in disbelief. It was a well-known fact that Donghyuck loved his stew, but sometimes Mark still wondered how you could eat so much of the same food and never get sick of it.
"You're already craving for kimchi stew again? Eating it once a week should be more than enough."
Acting insulted, Donghyuck pouted at him. "Well, after you dragged me out last night, the day before school starts, might I add, you need to compensate me. I barely got any sleep."
"As if you would've gotten any sleep if we hadn't gone on a mission," Mark deadpanned, knowing all too well about Donghyuck's affinity to play games late into the night.
The younger squinted his eyes at him. "Well, are you coming or not?"
"I would, but I have martial arts training after school. Sorry," Mark had to decline the invitation in the end.
"Oh, right," Donghyuck huffed, for some reason more disappointed than Mark had expected. "Forgot how busy you are during the school year."
"Sorry," Mark apologized sincerely. "We'll go on Friday, though. It's already marked in my schedule."
Donghyuck nodded, giving him a tight-lipped smile before another thought seemed to cross his mind, "By the way, I got another job. I work at the CT store now."
"Oh, another job?" Mark questioned, surprised.
"Yep, Kimchi stew doesn't pay for itself," Donghyuck said, mood already lifted again as he patted Mark's cheek like you would the one of a little kid. "But don't worry, our work has first priority."
Mark was about to retort that he was the one who usually paid for Donghyuck's kimchi stew, but Donghyuck had already skipped his way to class.
Like Mark said, an unpredictable enigma at times.
Shaking his head in amusement, he focused back on the task at hand. Setting up his computer. Chenle was probably already waiting to get his access back.
Biting on his lip in concentration, Mark stuck his head back into his locker to get a good look at the various cables.
A sudden impact on his back interrupted his work, again . Maybe he should just leave this for tomorrow, Mark thought as he turned around.
Jeno was smiling his infamous eye-smile at him, a basketball tucked underneath his arms. The two of them had become somewhat casual friends after they had both been accepted to the basketball team last year.
"Mark," he greeted him cheerfully, but not really looking at him with his full attention. "How were your holidays?"
"Oh, erm- fine?" Mark replied, slightly irritated by the way Jeno's gaze kept drifting to someone behind him.
Jeno nodded absentmindedly, before focusing back on Mark. "Listen, I just wanted to remind you that basketball tryouts are tomorrow afternoon."
"Already marked in my calendar," Mark let him know, but Jeno wasn't paying attention to him any longer, fixating on something happening behind Mark's back.
"Yeah, great, dude, I gotta go-" Jeno mumbled, patting Mark's shoulder before stalking down the hallway right to where Renjun had disappeared to earlier.
That was weird, Mark thought to himself.
Dismissing Jeno's short conversation with him, Mark figured that now he'd finally get to his computer.
He had just untangled two of the main cables when the school clock announced the start of the first lesson.
Panicked, Mark realized that he hadn't even checked out his room plan yet. Fumbling with his backpack he pulled out his phone, loading his term schedule.
His first lesson was physics. With a groan Mark shut his locker close. Then he started jogging. The physics department was the furthest away. He was so gonna be late.
What a great start.