N0 B0DY, N0 CRIM3 | Bang Chan

Ripple

Bang Chan's eyes widened at the television scream. Around him, there was a mixture of gasps and a shriek of horror. Stray Kids had been watching the live stream of the Campbell press conference when all hell broke loose. They heard the shout of "stray kids everywhere, all around the world" before the shot fired. 

Beverly Campbell was dead in a matter of seconds. The bullet instantly scrambled her brain. As soon as it hit her, she fell back from the podium, and hit the ground with a thud. Secret service members instantly piled themselves onto the president. The crowd scrambled away in different directions. The video feed finally cut out as Willie and his daughter were being dragged away to safety. 

"So..." Felix finally started, "which one of you did that?" His eyes locked onto Changbin. 

"Don't look at me like that!" Changbin shook his head, "I didn't do this!" 

"You have sniper friends!" 

"Why would I have them do this? Chan said we're working anonymously by ourselves now. There is no way in hell I'd do this. What would I gain from killing her? I'd rather go after him instead." 

Chan stood up from the couch. "Did any of you do this? If one of you did it, I need you to come clean about it. This isn't a fucking joke. Who did it?" 

Chan glared around the room, but none of them flinched. They were used to this kind of behavior from him. "None of you did this? Are you serious?" 

"Well, we do have fans," Han finally spoke up. "They don't know us, but I've been watching recently. People have started to support us online. We've been gaining popularity, so maybe someone decided to take things into their own hands." 

"And now we're going to get the backlash for it," Felix grumbled. 

Chan let out a sigh and shook his head. "Well, it already happened, so we can't change it. However, this also means that we're going to get a lot of hate too. I wasn't kidding when I said we're working anonymously on this." 

"We always work anonymously," Seungmin pointed out. 

"Yeah, but we get help from outside sources. Not for this case. In this case, we trust each other, and that's it. Do you hear me? Do you understand? We have no idea who is a friend and who is a foe anymore." 

Hyunjin let out a sigh and laid his head on the back of the couch. "Beverly Campbell is dead, so now what?" 

Chan remained silent for a moment. What were they supposed to do now? The first lady of America was dead and their group was going to get blamed even if they hadn't planned it. Things were starting to get incredibly tense now. 

Lee Know snapped his head up. "There's going to be a funeral sometime." 

"Well, duh!" Seungmin rolled his eyes. "It'll probably be a whole big thing." 

"Han and I went undercover at their luncheon, so we should show up. Chan, didn't you say that you were going to have Hyunjin try and sneak Kiera out of the white house?" 

"Mm-hm." 

"Seungmin, do you have Kiera's number?" 

"Of course, I do." 

"Why don't we let everything play out and tomorrow morning, Hyunjin can start texting Kiera? You can send her a condolence text message and get the conversation flowing. If you're lucky, maybe she'll invite you to the funeral, and that's when we can act." 

Chan paused for a moment, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. 

"What?" Lee Know asked. "Unless you have a better idea?" 

Chan shook his head, "I think you're right, but this will add fuel to Willie's fire. If we kidnap his daughter, we have no idea what might happen. It's getting very dangerous, very fast. If some of you want to leave, I'm not going to hold it against you." 

"What?" Seungmin scoffed. "Are you being fucking serious?" 

I.N shook his head, "why would we leave?" 

"We knew what we were doing when we joined the group. We're here for the long run. None of us are going anywhere." 

Lee Know glanced over at Han. His face seemed to lose some of its color. Lee Know nudged him in the side, "are you okay?" 

Han hadn't grown up like everyone else. He grew up with two lovely parents. They hadn't been nearly as rich as Hyunjin's parents and they hadn't been murdered like Felix's parents. His parents were still alive and well. In fact, he was lying to them about what he was doing as a career. 

He told them that he got a job working at a bank, but he never bothered to tell them which one. He didn't tell them which one and he didn't tell them why. They had accepted that at face value. He still talked to his parents twice a week on the phone and he loved them. 

The other members had let go of the fear. They were okay with what they were doing. They were completely secure in their life decisions. Han still wasn't sure if he made the right choice or not. Sure he loved the guys and he loved the money, but it scared the shit out of him. 

His anxiety gnawed him alive day in and day out and yet here he stayed. He used to work with Lee Know at a coffee shop. The two were baristas and Han had been complaining about wanting to make more money. Lee Know insisted that he knew a way and mentioned it wouldn't be legal, but Han was desperate. He was renting an apartment and barely had enough to cover the rent, let alone groceries. 

Lee Know took him to Chan and soon the two of them started doing different missions together. The money kept piling and piling up. Lee Know offered Han the chance to move in with them. He jumped at that offer three years ago and they'd all been a team since then. 

Han finally nodded and glanced up at Chan. Chan's eyes continued to scan around the room waiting for someone to announce their leave, but nobody did. He nodded, "so it's official then. Tomorrow morning Hyunjin will text Kiera on a burner phone and we'll move onto the second part of things. 

A grin slowly made its way across Felix's face. He pulled the sucker out of his mouth. "Stray Kids everywhere, all around the world."