Operatives || Park Sunghoon

19 | failed theory

Thea's POV

"What?!" I exclaimed, my anger disappearing and leaving me astounded, when I suddenly burst out into peals of laughter at the thought of me dating his friend. "Please— you just did not think that!" I said, still laughing at his assumption.

"No, but it made sense in my perspective— I had known that you guys met for the first time and the way you two spoke with each other and became friends, I wondered if something was going on." He admitted, shaking his head at his own stupidity. "I guess my theory was wrong." He added, chuckling. I finally stopped laughing, hitting the gas pedal since the light had turned green, my entire mood a whole lot better.

"Geez, you are such an idiot." I muttered, still silently laughing at our conversation. I don't know why, but I found this thought very funny rather than being offended for being shipped with someone.

Maybe because it was coming out of his mouth which made it funnier.

Otherwise I have finally lost my marbles.

"So, we are cool now?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at me. I thought for it for a few moments before nodding.

"Give me a treat and we'll call it even."

Sunghoon's POV

The sun was already setting, making the entire sky a mixture of orange and purple. We had reached the motel as early as seven in the morning, and spent the entire day scanning the entire neighborhood, along with checking out the bar where Mr. Rodriguez was supposed to be tomorrow.

We made a plan on how we would pick up Mr. Rodriguez as soon as he leaves the bar, and not before because the people with whom he would be meeting would get suspicious. Our planning was interrupted a few times in between when we called the hospital to check on Heeseung. He was out of danger but he still hadn't gained his conscious yet.

Along with all this, I had to keep Thea from devising cruel ways she can torture and kill Mr. Rodriguez after we are done with our work.

"I'll break every bone in his body one by one and then—" I heard her say while I was lost in my own thoughts. For the eighth time in the day, I took out a paper napkin from the box and stuffed it in her mouth, muffling the rest of her sentence.

Not because it looked cool, it was because I was sick and tired of telling her to stop.

"You are not going to do any of that. We need him alive." I said, laying emphasis on every word I spoke in the second sentence. She furrowed her eyebrows at me as she removed the napkin from her mouth. She was about to say something in protest when my phone started ringing, stopping her from going ahead. I quickly picked up my phone, hoping it was some news from the hospital.

"Hello?" I spoke into the phone, Thea looking at me with a puzzled expression on her face while wondering who it was.

"Hey it's me, Agent Smith." I heard Brandon's voice over the phone call, taking me by surprise.

"Why did you call me all of a sudden? Is everything alright?" I asked, curious. Thea furrowed her eyebrows, knowing someone unexpected had called me after hearing my part of the conversation.

"I'm going to replace Agent Lee for the remaining part of the mission on the orders of Mr. Anderson." He replied, sense of authority evident in his tone. I found this a bit odd because of two reasons- first, Mr. Anderson had sent him instead of Mr. Brown; second, as far as Mr. Anderson was concerned, Mr. Brown didn't like the way he thought in some cases.

"What about Mr. Brown? Isn't he in charge of us?" I asked, not really happy about this adjustment. Maybe the fact that it was done for the first time made me uneasy, but I couldn't be sure of it.

Thea patted my knee and pointed at the phone, telling me to keep it on speaker. I nodded and followed her request, placing the phone between us so that both of us could hear Brandon.

"Did you talk to Agent Lee before he got into the accident?" Brandon asked, curious. Thea looked up at me as soon as she heard that, raising one of her eyebrows at me. I realised I had forgotten to tell Thea about this in the heat of the situation. Motioning with my hand that I'll tell her everything later, I opened my mouth to respond to the question.

"Yes. He was saying about Mr. Brown but before he could finish, his car crashed." I admitted, recalling the memory when I was talking to him late at night. I heard him sigh from the other side as soon as he heard me.

"The accident was done on purpose, Agent Park. It was supposed to kill him but he somehow escaped." Brandon said, taking me by surprise. I looked at Thea and saw her staring at the screen in complete shock, her face visibly pale after hearing the new piece of information.

Meanwhile, I just tried to keep myself from throwing the phone out of window in anger.

"What?! Who did it?!" I asked, almost yelling into the phone while Thea took it from my hand in case I actually threw it.

"We believe that Mr. Brown did it."