Hi all - apologies for the long delay (well, to me it feels like I long time). I'm keen to finish this story but I don't want to rush it. Maybe I'm drawing it out a lot, but I hope it will have an ending that does it justice.

Ciphertext – Chapter 37: Dirty Laundry

Zen turned up exactly half an hour later, sporting a tight-fitting shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. His skin looked bright and radiant as ever, clearly as a result of the exercise he'd just done. He seemed to shimmer effortlessly as he stood under the light in the entrance.

Luciel offered him the slice of pizza he was holding. "Want some?" Zen shook his head to decline.

"No thanks. I wouldn't want to ruin all the hard work I've just put in."

"Aww, come on. It's just a slice of pizza. It's not like it's going to damage your waistline. Anyway, you've got to eat something to replenish your energy after a workout, right?"

"Honestly it's fine. I had a protein shake a couple of hours ago. Trust me, that'll keep me going. Pizza won't exactly help." Zen looked content with that.

Luciel raised an eyebrow at him. "Eh? But your metabolism is totally ridiculous. I mean, look at how slim you are, and yet so…" He stretched out his arm and lightly traced the contours of Zen's ripped abs through his shirt, "…muscular."

Grimacing a little, Zen stepped backwards at his touch. "Ugh. Seriously dude, I'm really glad you're back to acting like the Seven I've always known. But please don't tease me all afternoon!"

"Hmm? Well, that depends."

"On what?" Zen was growing uneasy.

Luciel led his friend into the living room. Vanderwood, Yoosung and Eun-ji looked up as the two of them entered. But before anyone had a chance to open their mouths to greet the actor, Luciel delivered a line which sounded like a parent cautioning a child. "Can you promise me you'll be a good boy, Zenny?"

Zen felt flustered all of a sudden. He thought everything was resolved between them now. "W-what do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Mr. Wolf!" Luciel winked conspicuously.

That didn't explain the playful tone in his voice. "Uhm … I thought everything was fi-"

Luciel looked over his shoulder mock disapprovingly. "No chasing after my maid. Got it?"

Feeling his muscles start to relax again, Zen let out a small laugh. "Dude, you already know there's no guarantee that won't happen. Your maid is such a babe after all! That delightful red hair and those sexy eyes!" he joked, nudging Luciel in the side. "So, come on. Where is she? Or is it her day off?"

"You're really serious about that? Looks like I'll just have to keep you on a leash in the corner of the room, so you can bark all you like but not bite!" Luciel's eyes suddenly had a strange, wild fire roaring in them, but he was smirking at the same time, which signalled that he was in on the joke.

Zen tried to shake off the mildly perverse mental image that had suddenly popped into his head. "Huh? But your maid isn't real. I mean, that was just you in drag. So, why would you need to keep me away from her?"

Eun-ji looked down at her feet. "I think he's talking about me… probably."

"Uhm. Sorry, am I missing something here? Are you telling me that Eun-ji is your maid!?" Yoosung interjected whilst munching on a pineapple chunk.

Vanderwood sighed and turned to face Yoosung. "No, that can't be true because, I suppose I'll confess it now, I'm his maid." He paused, waiting for some kind of comeback or joke, but there was none. "Judging by body language and what Luciel just said, I can only hazard a guess and say that something happened between him … and her," he noted, pointing at Zen and Eun-ji in turn.

Zen clenched his fists by his sides and Eun-ji gripped at her skirt nervously.

"Bingo!" declared Vanderwood, making a peace sign with his fingers. "I knew it!"

His pulse racing with frustration, Luciel gritted his teeth. "Seriously, you can be so fucking annoying sometimes!"

"Seven. Can't we just leave this conversation for another time? We don't need to talk about it right now." Zen could feel the beads of sweat starting to trickle down his temples. This was the first time he had seen Eun-ji since the incident, and the tension hadn't subsided in the slightest, although he was trying his best not to let it show.

Luciel ignored Zen's concern and instead shifted his attention to Vanderwood, squaring up to him a little defensively. "Listen. I don't give a shit about your secret agent abilities right now. There are times when you just don't reveal your inside knowledge. This is one of those times!"

"All I'm doing is stating the elephant in the room, Luciel. Don't hate me for trying to clear away the cobwebs. After all, that's what maids do best!"

"I'm really not laughing at your joke right now Vanderwood."

Vanderwood remained silent, not wishing to engage in battle of wits.

"Well?"

Still nothing.

"Don't you have some explaining to do? You're not some prolific mind-reader, so how the hell did you know where Eun-ji was?"

"You were the one who asked me to track her phone."

Eun-ji shot Luciel a look of contempt. "What!?"

Now he'd really gone and done it. "Don't take it the wrong way. I only wanted to make sure you were safe."

"So you were keeping tabs on me, to see what I'd do?"

This wasn't how Luciel wanted their downtime to end. "No Eun-ji, that's not it! Like I said … I was concerned about your safety. I'm sorry if it feels like I didn't trust you. I did, but I just-"

"But if you were tracking me, you knew exactly where I was the entire time. That I was at Zen's place and when I was kidnapped. Why didn't you come and find me sooner?"

"Believe me, I had no idea where you'd gone. I was worried sick." He turned to Vanderwood again. "Because someone told me that the tracking signal had been blocked!"

Vanderwood sighed. "I was trying to protect you."

"You're such a bullshitter. I don't understand why you wouldn't tell me you'd managed to disable the firewall?"

"Because that's not the case. I was able to track her the entire time."

"What!? You should have said so in the first place!"

"I needed to use it to locate Tom. She was the only lead I had."

This pissed Luciel off big time. "So you used Eun-ji, knowing fully well that she would be captured and then you followed the signal for your own benefit? Why the fuck did you just sit back and watch from a distance? I was counting on you to find her."

"Hey. You should be grateful, I saved you."

"How exactly did you save us? I only knew where Eun-ji was because Tom lured me into his lair. He would have killed us both if Jumin hadn't got the government involved. Those American soldiers ended up being on our side too. But Vanderwood … you had information that could have saved us a hell of a lot of trouble."

Vanderwood was growing equally frustrated now. "What good would it have done? You would have wound up in the same situation, or you might have gone straight to Zen's place and-"

"Yeah. I could have prevented all of that from happening if you'd have just thought to fucking let me know!"

"You're holding onto all this with such resentment, Luciel. Just forget about it. You're both safe now. I thought you were back to your usual light-hearted self."

Zen stepped in and put a hand on Luciel's shoulder. "Dude..." He crouched down a little to try and follow the hacker's gaze. "Did you invite me here just to taunt me or what?"

Luciel was silent, his face expressionless.

"Look. I've apologised to you all I can. What else can I do?" He thought about this for a second. "I don't believe I'm saying this, but … would it make you feel better if you hit me?"

Luciel looked at him like he was a complete idiot. "Zen …"

Yoosung felt so out of the loop. He blinked a few times as he ran through everything he'd just heard. "Zen's telling Seven to punch him!? I'm definitely missing something. What the hell is going on? Will someone please tell me!"

"Come on man. Take a swipe at me if you want to get this off your chest once and for all. Go on!"

Eun-ji felt awful. "Zen! What are you saying? Don't demean yourself for my sake. Please!"

"I feel like this is all I can do to make him realise how serious I am about keeping our friendship. I thought I'd explained everything. Now, maybe it's time to finally fight it out man-to-man."

"But your face is precious to you, isn't it? And it's precious to your fans," said Eun-ji, trying to find another way to reason with him.

Vanderwood started clapping slowly to try and encourage the fight. "Go, go, go Luciel!"

"Ugh. Shut up Vanderwood! I'm not going to punch him!"

Zen rolled up his sleeves to reveal his brawny arms. "You really want to pass up this opportunity?"

"I said I don't want to punch you …"

"Seven! Just do it already!" He pointed at his nose. "Right here. Break it, disfigure me!"

"NO!"

"You're not embarrassed to do it front of Eun-ji because she's a girl are you?"

"Heh. Now that's the most ironic thing I've heard in a long time." As soon as Luciel started speaking, he noticed how dangerously close he was to letting Eun-ji's secret out without her permission. "No, of course that's not the reason!"

"Ironic … how?" Zen wondered aloud.

Eun-ji stood up and clasped her hands against her chest, feeling her anxiety rising up again. She opened her mouth to speak, determined to bring this secret out into the light for all to hear.

"GUYS!" Yoosung exclaimed, looking every bit as angry as Luciel and Zen. "What are you doing?"

Everyone turned to face him.

"Yoosung …" Luciel clocked the boy's serious expression. "I know none of this is fair on you."

"No, it's really not fair. Why have you guys been keeping this quiet? Something happened between Zen and Eun-ji, right? So what was it and why are you fighting?"

Vanderwood clicked his tongue. "Do we really need to spell it out for you? They fucked."

"WHAT!?"

"They had sex," said Vanderwood, leaning in slightly towards Yoosung. "Do you know what that means?"

Yoosung shot the agent a cutting glare. "Shut up and stop being such a jerk!" he barked. "These are my friends we're talking about here."

Vanderwood assumed a mock surrender pose and smirked a little.

"ACTUALLY…" Eun-ji finally spoke up, trying to compete with Yoosung's sudden outburst. "A-actually, we didn't get that far. It just sort of-"

Zen sighed. "It's okay Eun-ji. I'll take it from here, don't worry."

"No. Please just let me finish. I feel like I need to tell my side of the story." She cleared her throat. "First of all, I haven't been entirely honest about my true identity. There's something about my past that I feel I want to bring out into the open."

Luciel approached her before she said anything further. "Eun-ji! Are you sure you want to do this? It really is your choice."

She smiled at him.

"Yeah, it's fine. I've made up my mind."