SEVENTEEN

Chapter 24

   Chapter 24

Last time on SEVENTEEN....  

       Anyway, Seungcheol shook his head to get himself out of his thoughts. He turned his attention back to the cellphone in his hand. It had a number displayed across it that Jihoon found for him. He waited a couple of beats, pondering on what he should do. He knew that he had to do this, people could die if he didn't but that still didn't get rid of the anxiety he felt about doing this. Deciding just to bite the bullet and do it he pressed call and put the phone up to his ear. "Hello." He said. "This is Choi Seungcheol, I don't know if you remember me or not.." Seungcheol said as he trailed off on the phone. He really hoped that this went a lot better than he thought that it would. It has been a while after all.   

            "Yah! Choi Seungcheol as I live and breathe!" The voice on the other end of the phone said. "It's been a while hasn't it Cheol?" He asked. Seungcheol just chuckled to himself at that, yeah it has. "Yeah Doyoon-ah it has." He told him. "How have you been, man?" Doyoon just chuckled at him some more. "How have I been?" He asked. "How have you been, it's been years since we last talked to one another." Doyoon said. "How did you even get my number Cheol? It's changed a lot since the last time that we talked." He told him. "You have one guess, but two hints are short, and anger issues." He told him. "Ah, how is our dear Jihoonie then?" He asked him. "He's okay at the moment for the most part, pissed off but what else can you do about it?" He told him.   

          "But in all seriousness here, what's wrong?" Doyoon asked him. "What are you talking about Yoon?" Seungcheol asked as he was trying to play dumb. "Can't old friends just look each other up and call each other every once and a while without something being wrong?" He suggested. "They can." Doyoon told him. "But it's been years since Seungcheol, and if I know you as well as I still hope I do, then you're still up in your old business am I correct?" He asked him. Seungcheol couldn't help but to agree with that. "So what if I am?" He said instead. "If you are then I know that part of the reason that you never contacted me before now was to keep me safe." Doyoon told him. "You wanted to give me time to focus on my family and get my life together so you left me alone so you wouldn't hinder it." Doyoon told him. "And the only way that you would ever break that rule of yours and contact me is if something is wrong." He told him. "So to reiterate what I just asked, what's wrong?" Dooyon asked. :And don't lie to me Cheol." He told him. All that Seungcheol could do was sigh on the other end. Damn Doyoon and how well he could still read him.    

        "You know me too well Doyoon-ah." Seungcheol told him. "Yes, there's a specific reason that I called you." Seungcheol told him. "We've gotten ourselves into a little bit of a pickle here." He said. "We're still working on the semantics as to why it happened, but we kind of, sort of managed to piss off some very dangerous and powerful people." Seungcheol explained to him. "They're after us, they want us to work for them to scam other people." He told him. "Or take us all out trying to force us to work for them." He told him. "That's awful Cheol, are you guys okay?" Doyoon asked him. "Define your definition of fine?" He asked him. "That's not making me feel any better about this Cheol, exactly how dangerous are these people?" Doyoon asked him. Seungcheol paused for a couple of moments, he knew that if he told Doyoon about everything now then the other was going to freak out. But on the other hand, he was going to find out anyway so it was better just to go ahead and bite the bullet.   

                 "Do you remember MingMing?" Seungcheol asked him. "He came in with Junnie just right before you and your family left town." He reminded him. Even though Doyoon had dropped out of the group early on, he still stuck around in Seoul for a little while and would come check in on them from time to time before they moved. He left not that long after Jun and MingMing joined. "Yeah, vaguely, why?" He asked him. "Well, MingMing left after almost a year of being with us." He told him. "Junnie stuck around and is still with us, but MingMing vanished off the grid." He told him. "Until a couple of months ago when we went on a job, and encountered him again." Seungcheol told him. "He was working for the people that are after us, and he shot Jun and he almost died." Seungcheol told him. He heard a loud gasp on the other end of the line.