Road to Utopia - NCT

3 - BUMP

"Kill me?!" What have I signed up to?

"Only if you don't join us." Mark tried to reason with me. "You don't have to do much: work at the noodle shop during your shifts, then go to HQ and deal with the requests when you don't."

"That's just blackmail!" I tried to move slowly towards the door to get away, but Taeyong blocked and locked it.

"Listen," he held my shoulders, making me hold eye contact with him, "I'm not asking much. I'm giving you an hour to make up your mind. Mark, stay with him so he doesn't run."

"Sure." He made himself comfortable on the couch.

"Just remember: the wrong choice may cost you your life." Taeyong left the room, locking it once more. Like I could leave with Mark still here.

I stared blankly at the door. I didn't want to join, but I didn't want to die. Actually, all options seemed to lead to death, but which would lead me to death the slowest?

Wait, isn't this treason? Are they terrorists? Oh my gosh, am I now a terrorist? I'm gonna be hunted by the government.

Calm down.

"If it makes you feel any better," Mark interrupted my spiraling thoughts, "I can tell you how I got here?"

He gestured for me to sit next to him on the couch. I complied, settling myself down and he sighed.

"I was kinda in the same position myself. Except, instead of me being here in the restaurant, I was at a government office being held at gunpoint." He explained.

My eyes widened. There are guns involved?

Mark chuckled at my response. "Yeah, gunpoint. I was an intern for some official, but he was secretly sending big shipments of cocaine to China. NCT helped to kill him without being suspicious, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I walked in with some files to see Hendery shoot him and Xiaojun ransacking the office. Hendery held me at gunpoint and told me to not say anything, so I didn't. He also offered me to join or get killed, so I joined."

Hendery? Xiaojun? Guns? My head started to hurt again, which was probably caused by the overwhelming information.

"It's not bad. Since there's so many of us, you don't have to do much unless you're a leader. You get the odd mission two or three times a week and a meeting twice a week. It's probably the best thing that's happened to me and I don't regret it at all."

As soon as Mark finished his story, Taeyong came back with a tall man. I didn't realise it had been an hour (probably because it hadn't, but this man probably had a gun ready to shoot me if I said no).

"Have you made a decision then?" He asked, slipping his hand towards his waistband and revealing the gun. I knew it.

"I'll do it." I stated without hesitation.

"Cool. Johnny, take him downstairs. And don't forget the cargo while you're at it." Taeyong left again, going towards the cash register to count the money for the day.

"Come on, kid, let's go." The man named Johnny said, walking towards the bookshelf next to Taeyong's desk. What, is it a secret room behind a bookshelf? How cliché.

He looked like he was going to pull a book off the shelf, but he ended up grabbing his necklace and shoving it on the second shelf. Then, a whirring noise filled the air, but I couldn't see anything move.

Johnny beckoned me to follow him to the desk and look down. It was only then I realised what I saw: a trapdoor under the desk, with stairs leading into the unknown. He flipped a switch, which somehow was at the side of the inside of the desk, and went down the stairs.

I stared at the contraption in awe. How does that even work?

"Are you coming or not?" Johnny asked, who was at the bottom of the 17 steps and not visible anymore. I think around the sixth step the light just stopped working. Realising, I still hadn't followed him, I tried to rush down the stairs to follow him.

Big mistake.

I managed to bump my head on the bottom of the desk and trip over the last few stairs. Great, my head was now hurt and my ankle was probably twisted. Johnny chuckled at my pain.

"Ah, I forgot to tell you to duck down. Maybe a slide was better to put there?" He wondered before swiftly moving to the bar in front of the door and taking a seat. "Sit."

I followed and chose the seat next to him. Having a bar here was a bit weird, but I'll let it be since I came here from under the desk. Narnia has got nothing on me.

"So, welcome kid! I'm Johnny, your mentor for this week, or forever if you'd like. I'll be introducing you to our team, guiding you through missions and anything else you need help with." He stated happily, though it did seem rehearsed.

"That's nice, but I still don't trust any of you."

"That's OK, it's very typical of newbies. But we are doing this to save Korea from being corrupt again, so you might wanna start soon." He handed me a double-sided sheet. "This is who we are, what we do and the roles we perform in the group."

"Thanks?"

"No problem! Also, the back has a list of roles you can pick from. Pick two or three and come and find me soon so we can start preparing you for it." He stepped down off the stool and went through another door, leaving me to read the sheet.

Wow, 22 members? For a group that isn't known, 22 members seemed like a lot. 2-4 missions per week and a regular group meeting every Sunday, plus another meeting with sub-unit leaders and/or role leaders. That's a lot of meetings, and who needs that many meetings? They aren't even active!

Snipers, alchemists, hackers?! Are these guys running a mafia group?

"You're new, aren't you?" A voice called out after seeing my shocked face.

"Is it that obvious?" I turned to face the person.

"Just a little. Well, that, and you looked like Shotaro when he joined last month."

I nodded and looked down on my sheet trying to find this Shotaro guy's name. He was near the bottom, training to be a gun-supplier, drug-stopper and flirt? What the heck is a flirt? Is he a playboy or something?

"Oh, I'm Kun by the way." I tried to scan for his name but he interrupted. "I'm 3rd in command, a sub-intel, driver and I sometimes work with the medics if we have a big casualty."

OK, so I'm talking to some high-up person from a mafia. How nice.

"We're not a mafia." Did I say my thoughts out loud? "We're a revolutionary group who want change, though I can see why you think that." He chuckled at my thoughts.

"So, any idea what you want to be?"

END