BETRAYAL <NCT OT23>

T E N

⚠️TW⚠️

"Kun's gone."

The people in the living room looked at Taeil at the same time. They then looked around, he was right, Kun was nowhere to be found. "Did anyone saw him enter his room?" They shook their heads as a response from Sungchan's question. "That bastard must've escaped." Yangyang murmured. He immediately shut his mouth when he felt Xiaojun's hand giving his shoulder a pat, telling him not to say bad things about him since he's still their leader. "Sorry." Yangyang then added.

"Well, since it's getting late, we really should get to bed now." Jeno spoke up, putting his glass of water on the table before heading to his room. The others followed, except for Xiaojun and Yangyang. "That was a harsh word you said towards Kun-ge, Yangyang." Xiaojun broke the silence, getting Yangyang's attention. "I already said sorry okay?! Damn..." After Yangyang's response, the place went silent again. The sound of their forks and plates colliding are the only sound echoing the entire living room, the silence is suffocating and comforting at the same time. "We really should get to bed now, Xiaojun." Yangyang, stood up, waiting for Xiaojun to stand up as well. "You go first, I'll just finish this food here. Goodnight Yangyang."

"Fine, if that's what you want. Goodnight, Xiaojun." Yangyang then turned around and headed to his room, leaving Xiaojun alone. He got pretty worried about leaving him alone in the dark, quiet living room. The killer was more active in the night.

Xiaojun sat silently in front of the table, completely forgetting the current happenings of the house.

He then felt an echoing pain on the back of his head, his vision then turned blurry all of a sudden. And there he realized that his head was being hit with an object, but it was too late, he's losing his consciousness.

Jaemin, on his way to grab a glass of water heard something strange in the kitchen, sounds like something fell off the floor. As he reached the end of the hallway, he saw a man dragging Xiaojun's body to the door. The man then stopped to look at Jaemin, they just made eye contact. Seconds later, Jaemin entered his room as if nothing happened, as if he saw nothing. He calmly locked the doors, totally forgetting the main reason why he came out of his room.

•

Jaemin sat on the couch with the other members after he washed his face. He was confused about their behavior, they are weirdly silent again. "Whose shirt is this? A white long sleeves with lime green stripes?" Jaemin turned his head to where he heard Doyoung's voice. "That's mine, Doyoung hyung..." Jaemin raised his hand as he answered Doyoung's question. He then saw the older nod in response after he heard him. "Okay..." Now Jaemin is confused, what's wrong with his shirt? And how did he know he has that shirt? "Okay, Jaemin... So, what did you do to Xiaojun?" That sudden question made Jaemin frozen with a confused look on his face, Doyoung was staring at him with coldness and anger in his eyes.

"W-Where did you get that?" Jaemin slowly stood up from his seat, guilt slowly entered him without any reason. "Don't switch up the topic Jaemin, please. What did you do to Xiaojun?"

"I-I don't know what you're --"

"ANSWER THE GODDAMN QUESTION!" The room then went silent, fear are all written in their eyes. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Jaemin raised his voice, but that didn't scared Doyoung. "Then what are these stains of blood? Don't tell me you've been chopping meat when I DIDN'T EVEN SAW YOU DOING THAT EVER SINCE WE CAME HERE!"

"Jaemin... Please, you have to tell us. It's okay..." Jeno gently whispered to Jaemin's ear, making his anger get worse. But even though he's extremely angry, he couldn't let those out through words. "Hmm, smells like guilt to me." Winwin jumped in to the conversation. "Shut up Sicheng! You're scaring him!" Jaehyun stood up to face Winwin. The room was now in a total chaos. "Then explain these stains!" Doyoung, again asked Jaemin who was in the verge of crying. "I-I haven't worn that thing! I didn't wear it ever since we arrived here! I don't even know how it got there!" Jaemin defended himself, but the others were just not convinced of his words.

"Oh? Really huh?" Doyoung, let out a sarcastic laugh, then facing Jaemin with anger. "What kind of bullshit is that?!" He then added. "I am NOT LYING DOYOUNG HYUNG!" Jaemin already ran out of patience, his voice made them silent in the blink of an eye, making him guilty in an instant as well. "... I am not lying. I would never do that to Xiaojun." He gently spoke before taking a seat. They then went silent again, their eyes were on Jaemin. "But last night, I saw a man dragging Xiaojun's body, we even made eye contact!"

"And you didn't even bothered to tell us about that?!" Haechan shouted, letting his buried anger out. "Yeah! Haechan's right! You should've told us!" Jungwoo seconded. "It's not that easy! That guy was only a few meters away from me! I don't wanna get killed!" Jaemin defended himself, but the members didn't seem to get his point. "Just shout or bang our doors! It's not that hard! Xiaojun obviously doesn't want that to happen to him too!" Jungwoo faced Jaemin, turning the room into a complete chaos again.

"Okay okay, don't pressure the guy. You guys can wash up now, I don't want the house to smell like a rotten human being." All of them exited the living room after Doyoung spoke up for the last time.

Jaemin then called Yangyang's name, which was a relief to him because he smiled like the usual. "Uh... About what happened to Xiaojun, can you tell me what he looked like when you guys saw him?"

"Oh, he got chopped... Lengthwise. Eyes are gouged out..." Jaemin immediately got traumatized just by imagining it, Yangyang had it way worse because he saw the body with his own eyes. "Oh, damn. That's fucked up. Sorry for your loss."

"MY loss? Jaemin, he is our brother. It's OUR loss, not just mine." Yangyang then proceeded to walk on his way to his room, leaving Jaemin in the hallway empty, and guilty.

•

Shotaro, the only one left in the living room was arranging the newly washed dishes in their respective places, he was the third one to finish taking a bath so he took the opportunity to make the sink clean. While doing it, he saw something outside the window in the corner of his eye, it was a man looking like he's needing someone's help. He then took a closer look to make sure that what he's seeing is true, and he was right, it was his member who needs help. "Hyung? Hyung!!" He hurriedly ran to him without any pinch of hesitation.

"Hyung! Are you oka--" He then hit Shotaro's head with a bottle when he got closer to him, making his vision turn blurry. The man didn't even waited for him to be unconscious, he just tied his wrist and ankles, then putting a cloth on his mouth after to shut him up while doing something that Shotaro and the others wouldn't like. He dragged him back inside, chuckling while feeling Shotaro trying his best to set himself free. "Quit moving you idiot, you're still gonna die." Shotaro didn't listened, he kept moving and moving even though there's no hope left for him.

His heartbeat abnormally rose in panic when the man stopped in front of the big freezer in their kitchen, he opened it before taking a glance at him and finally carrying him to put him inside. "This freezer's pretty big, you'll be okay here." He said while taking the cloth off his mouth. Shotaro then took a deep breath, knowing that this is an opportunity for him to shout for help. "HEL--" The man suddenly shut the freezer's door close, not letting that opportunity go out. After that, he immediately walked away when he heard a faint footsteps coming towards them.

Jaehyun, on his way to the kitchen saw someone walking away from the freezer seconds ago and he was sure about that. "Who could that be?" Jaehyun walked closer to the freezer, he was about two steps closer to it when suddenly--

"Jaehyun hyung, can you help me with this?" He heard Mark calling his name from his room. Since Mark needs his help, he turned around to see what Mark was struggling with, completely forgetting about the freezer.