Trigger - NCT Mafia

Chapter 8

Aera's POV: 

The cult leader guy pointed towards a seat, gesturing for me to sit down. I sat down and looked to my right to see who I was sitting next to. Taeil gave me a small smile and I returned it.

"To start off we should introduce ourselves and our positions in the group." He turned towards me and continued. "Aera, my name is Taeyong and I'm the leader of this group as well as head of statistics." He nodded towards another man, implying for him to continue.

"We met earlier today, in the basement. I don't know if you remember. I'm Kun, leader of WayV." He bowed his head slightly and I did the same.

"I'm Jaehyun, leader of 127." He glared at me before nodding to another man I recognized. It was Mark. He stepped up to the podium and made eye contact with me the whole time. We stared at each other for about ten seconds before Jaehyun broke the silence with, "Any minute now, Mark."

"Oh right. Uhh, I'm pretty sure we're already familiar with each other, but I'm Mark, leader of Dream." He smiled at me before walking off the podium.

After that, a few more people introduced themselves, each of them either bowing, waving, smiling, or just glaring at me.

"I don't think I have to introduce myself, since we're already fairly close with each other," Xiaojun said. He smirked, stepped off the podium, and walked towards me. He put his hand out, and said "I'm Xiaojun." He raised his eyebrows with a smile and pushed his open hand towards me.

I hesitated for a few seconds then slowly lifted my hand and shook his. "Aera."

"You shook my hand this time."

I smiled and replied, "Of course."

He bent down and whispered, "You should smile more often. You look pretty."

Taeyong cleared his throat and glared at Xiaojun. Xiaojun let go of my hand, winked and walked back to his seat.

The next guy was the one who I fought with on the first day. Ten, I think. He stepped on the podium, still avoiding eye contact, and said, "Ten. Mechanic, and statistics." His voice was cold, yet soft. Rough, yet gentle. He nodded his head and walked off the podium.

The rest of the men introduced themselves, as I watched the clock for time to pass by. I didn't have enough patience to sit through 23 men talking about themselves.

Finally, the last man, Johnny or something, introduced himself and it was over. Taeyong stepped back onto the stage and continued, "Now that we've all introduced ourselves, would you like to tell us anything about yourself?"

I nodded my head no, and he shrugged. "Introvert much. Now that we're finished with introductions, let's move on to more important matters. There are no empty dorms, which means, Aera has to stay with someone until we find a place for her."

Some of my new 'team members' whispered amongst each other while I just stared at the clock. Taeyong coughed lightly for silence and then continued, "Aera, would you be uncomfortable with that, or is it alright?"

I paused a few seconds then shrugged. "I've lived with men before, so I'm sure I'd be fine. But I don't want to be a hindrance to any of the other members... I don't think anyone here would be willing to share a room with a random stranger, all of a sudden, with no warning." I let out a loud sigh and pouted.

"You're right. No one would be willing to share a room with a random girl who showed up out of nowhere. But lucky for you, they don't have a choice. So I take it as you're okay with it." He said with a smile.

I stood there, not knowing how to react, so I just said, "Of course!"

Under my breath, I muttered, "Not like I have a choice anyways."

Taeyong smiled again before saying, "I'll pretend I didn't hear that last bit. Anyways, Ten and Winwin, you guys are sharing a room with her."

I heard a few whispers and I could feel people glaring at me from a distance.

"Fuck no. I'm not sharing my room with the enemy."

I looked over and saw Winwin glaring at me.

Taeyong looked towards Winwin, sighed and closed his eyes before saying, "It's not your choice. We don't have enough rooms for you to have your own, so just put up with it for a while."

Winwin clenched his jaw and closed his eyes for a few seconds. The room was dead silent.

Suddenly Winwin yelled and punched the table, causing water bottles to topple down, and papers fly everywhere.

"WINWIN!" Taeyong screamed.

Winwin picked up his jacket hanging on the back of his chair and walked towards the door. He made eye contact with me and glared for a few seconds before storming out of the room.

Taeyong let out an angry sigh and looked towards Ten. Ten shrugged.

"Ten, can you try to convince Winwin?" Taeyong asked.

Ten slowly nodded and looked back towards the ground.

Taeyong cleared his throat and said, "Well then. Aera, sorry about that. Winwin's a little immature sometimes, but I'm sure he'll come around to it." He said with a tired smile.

I nodded, taking in some key points about the relationship between Taeyong and his team members as well as Taeyongs body language.

"Okay, thank you everyone for coming, the meeting is now over. Ten and Aera, please stay back for a few minutes." Everyone got out of their seats and proceeded to the door. As they passed me, a few of the members glared, some of them smiled, and some of them just ignored me. I shrugged and walked towards the stage, where Taeyong and Ten were standing.

"Ten, can you help Aera get settled into your room? And help her get used to the place and all."

Ten nodded his head and picked up his jacket from the back of his chair. Taeyong turned towards me and said, "If you need anything, you can ask Ten or Lucas, or anyone else you're comfortable with." I nodded and smiled, turning back to Ten.

He walked out of the room, and I followed close behind. We walked through the corridor to the dorm rooms. He opened the door and held it open for me. The room was messy. But that was expected. There were three beds, two of them were part of a bunk bed, and one was single. There were clothes hanging on the side of the chairs, and a pile of clothes sitting on the bed. There was a small hallway on the right of the entrance, which I assumed led to the bathroom and closet. The whole room was grey, and there was no window in sight. It was lifeless.

I stepped into the room as I looked around, grasping my surroundings. Ten walked towards the bed and began cleaning it, taking the clothes off and putting them onto the chairs. I stared at him as he silently cleaned. He had been acting weird ever since we got into that fight.

He paced around the room, from the chair, to the closet, to the bathroom, and then again. He didn't say anything as he cleaned, nor did he look at me. Once he finished cleaning, he went to the desk, sat down, and began writing something in a book.

"Are you avoiding me?" I asked. He looked up from his book and after a few seconds of thinking, replied "No."

"Really? Because you've been acting weird ever since last time."
He furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "Last time?"

"When we fought."

"Oh."

He paused for a few seconds, pursed his lips slightly and then asked, "Are your wrists okay?"

I looked at him, and then looked down at my wrists. They were red and aching. The bleeding had stopped, but I still had a rash. "I'm fine."

I noticed he was looking at my wrists, so I quickly covered them up as I shuffled my feet and looked to the floor. He got up from his chair, walked towards me and looked me in my eyes. It was the first time we made eye contact since then.

He lifted my hand and stared down at my wrists. He pressed down on my wrist and I winced. I snatched my hand away and covered my wrist with my other hand. I turned around and was about to walk through the door when he stopped me in my tracks and said,

"You're not fine."