Road to Utopia - NCT

7 - The Cleaner and Crutch Man

"Chenle?"

"Jisung!" He ran and hugged me. Again, not a hugger, but for my best friend I'll allow it. "It's about time you got a job here!"

"You set me up?" I pushed him. All this time, was he just trying to recruit me? He was the one that recommended this place on the job site.

"Kind of? I joined this place a few months ago and I thought you'd be good here? Like, you're really good at mental calculations so you'd be really good here."

"What did you pick?"

"Shooter and flirt. Kun said to go for a drug-handler but I didn't want to, so here I am."

"Chenle, what did you want?" Taeyong interrupted our reunion. "We still have a lot to do today."

"Well, I wanted to see my bestie before you send him off doing missions and I never see him again." Chenle grinned. "By the way, what role did you pick? I'm guessing hacker, maybe gun-handler?"

I shook my head. "Hacker, alchemist and Intel."

"What? That's so hard! Well, I actually think you'd be good at it, so it's actually not that surprising now that I think about it."

"Chenle, we have things to do, can you hurry up and go do whatever you need to do?" Taeyong sighed and made his way to the randomly placed couch in the middle of the room. "I don't know why I bother; kids these days just don't listen to me."

"Alright, fine! Jisung, I hope I'll see you around here more often, don't stay up too late tryna do Taeyong's random missions that other people could do." He hugged me, still an exception I'll only make for my best friend.

"Chenle! How else do you train newbies then?" Taeyong switched on the TV and sighed yet again. "One day, I think I'll just get up, leave and never come back."

My best friend shrugged and left to go downstairs, leaving me with Taeyong sulking on the couch (is he even capable of leading this group?) and a silent Ten and Jeno, who had gone back to their computers during my little reunion. Guess that's all I'll see of them today.

"Alright," my boss stood up, stopping his little sulking session, "we have stuff to do. Let's go down to the training room. I don't think Ten and Jeno are willing to do anything to improve your skills, so let's go test your gun skills!"

~~

We reached a large room outside his office. Well, more like three rooms (four if you count the bathroom) as it was separated into a shooting range, combat arena and gym. For an underground hideout place, it was fairly large, especially since this floor probably shouldn't exist.

In the gym, it was empty except for one guy lifting weights. I honestly wasn't expecting anyone here since it was quite early in the morning, but I guess this mafia group thing works differently (and the fact that I'm also here early, but this isn't about me). On closer inspection, it was the guy from this morning, Henry or something.

"Hey, Hendery!" Taeyong greeted him as we made our way to the combat room. The Hendery person grunted in response as he lifted a dumbbell.

When entering the combat room, it was more populated. Johnny was at the side of the room, watching the two people in the middle of the room (Xiaojun and some other guy) spar. It didn't look like they were going all out, but they still punched hard judging from the sound coming off of them.

We stood watching them, none of them noticing our presence. About a minute later, Johnny saw us and blew the whistle around his neck, making the two fighters stop and lie on the floor.

"Nice work, Xiaojun, but Winwin still kicked your ass. When he comes for a knee strike, you need to either block it or change your angle." Taeyong advised before looking at the other male. "And Winwin, when were you going to tell me you're back? I wasn't expecting you here for another few days."

Winwin giggled. "Never, you would just make me clean your office again and I still need to practice my gun skills."

So this was the famous cleaning Winwin. At a second glance, he didn't seem to be Korean like the others, but his language skills were those of a fluent Korean person. Woah.

Winwin noticed me. "Hi, I'm Winwin, sniper and personal desk cleaner for Taeyong (since he can't be bothered to do it himself)."

"Jisung, I'm training to be a hacker/alchemist and Intel."

"Really?" Xiaojun gasped.

"Ah, that's so cool! I hope you become one!" Winwin cheered me on, making me smile. "So have you met all the others?"

"Not yet," Taeyong jumped in, "I think there's a few members he hasn't met yet. We're trying to find everyone before the big meeting tonight." What meeting?

"Oh, damn it, I forgot about that!" Johnny yelled and rushed out of the room.

"He's presenting some things tonight." Xiaojun whispered to explain Johnny's outburst.

"So, we'll be going now, don't tire yourselves out too much." Taeyong dragged me into the final room. He gave me a pair of headphones and put one on himself. "To protect your ears. from the noise."

Entering the room, there was a man sitting down and shooting a gun, focusing on the target 20 feet away.

"Yah, Yuta!" My boss screamed at the man once he stopped his round of bullets. He glanced at us and took his headphones off, smiling once noticing us. "What did Taeil say about your leg?"

"That I should let everyone sign it?" He grinned even more and set his gun down.

"No! That you shouldn't be here, and you need to rest!" Taeyong scolded. "Your leg won't heal properly if you're pushing yourself to work!"

"Nah, it's fine! I'm not using it, I've got crutches, so I don't put pressure on it when I walk as well, what more do you want me to do?"

"Two days." I stared at his injured leg.

"What? What are you on about, kid?" Both Yuta and Taeyong looked at me like I was crazy.

"Something's gonna happen to your leg in two days. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I trust my gut instinct 100%."

"Are you psychic or something?"

"When's the meeting?" I asked Taeyong, shifting the topic.

He looked at his watch. "Oh, shoot, in five minutes. Let's go; it'll take Yuta that long anyway."

"No it won't! And you didn't answer my question!"

I shrugged. "Probably not."

END