Road to Utopia - NCT

25 - Ice Cream

Doyoung's job looked like any other office job you would expect in the past: reading and drafting reports, filing folders in gigantic and never-ending cabinets and stupid team meetings where people actually stuck to the agenda. It was a shame that they weren't scrapped by the government when they took over, but then again, half the things they decided to keep or implement sucked.

It was a shame he had to work here instead of down in the basement.

When Taeyong discussed with the 127 members, he insisted that someone should try to gather intelligence by working a normal job, yet no one wanted to miss Ice-cream Tuesdays. This led to an intense battle of rock, paper, scissors (because 'it solves all problems' as Haechan stated) where he lost. After his Chinese buffet restaurant's furniture managed to 'mysteriously rip or break' due to his competitors, he forced himself to get an accounting degree and infiltrate one of the main government offices. For the sake of the group, he chanted in his head every time he questioned if he should just quit.

He sighed as he flicked through a twenty-page report from one of his juniors. Why he had to spell-check and proofread he never understood, but it was necessary or else he would get blamed for not doing his job properly. He wasn't sure where it said he had to do that in the job description and contract but bringing it up to his boss would also get him fired (probably).

God, jumping off the 75-storey building seemed better than reading about stocks, finances and whatever other nonsense the report was filled with. But he had a mission to do, with a shorter-than-usual time limit. If they had any chance of getting Jisung back from whatever secretive place the leaders threw him at then he had to sneak into the boss's office to access his desk drawers. That was where all the good files were. They may be locked but he had made a copy of the key years ago when he first joined.

"Doyoung, did you get my report? Do you want to eat lunch together?" His excited junior burst through his office door.

"I did." He gestured at the messy pile on his desk. "And I'm actually behind on work so I'll just keep working."

"Hyung, that's not good for you. You need to eat." He placed a lunchbox on the desk. "At least eat this while you work."

"I will, thank you Minjae." It wasn't that he didn't have lunch. No, it was safely stored in the mini-fridge opposite his desk, but if he didn't accept it, Minjae would pester him until he did.

Eventually, he left and Doyoung could actually think of a plan. He was aware his boss would leave the building in 7 minutes and 34 seconds and his office would not be guarded but it would be locked. That wasn't a problem since he had acquired all the building's passwords, keys and pin codes over his three years.

Scrolling through his phone's notes for the right ones, and disabling the cameras soon after, he made his way towards the glass elevators. If he was a newbie, it would scare the shit out of him, but he got accustomed to it quickly. He pressed the button for the top floor, inputted the four-digit passcode and made his way up.

~~

Back at the base, some of the Dreamies had noticed their youngest member wasn't floating around.

"Hey, does anyone know where Jisung is? I haven't seen him for a few days." Jeno asked, addressing the other 6 members in the training room. Most of them ignored him and continued with what they were doing.

"No idea. Have you checked his room?" Lucas suggested as he threw a punch to the punching bag.

"Yeah, he wasn't there."