rendezvous • johnten

2.

it was around 7pm, and ten had been dismissed by his ceo for the night. as he made his way to the elevator, he messaged his driver and surely enough, he had arrived just as ten stepped out the door.

ten was headed to the wayv headquarters, a mansion just on the outskirts of seoul— a strategic location as to remain undetected, but close enough to keep tabs on almost everything.

a few minutes after his ride had begun, he received a call from kun.

"hey, kun." ten spoke, unable to mask the exhaustion in his voice.

"you sound tired. are you sure you can work tonight?" kun asked, worried about the former. they were the only two in wayv that were the same age, and being the among the oldest came with responsibility for the younger members.

ten sighed and rested his head in his free hand. "yeah, it's fine. i want to be able to see 127's headquarters, and plus— winwin needs a partner. i don't want to risk you or xiaojun getting hurt at the fault of my absence."

xiaojun was one of the younger members, yet he preferred to work with medicine and technology over fighting— much like kun. in consequence, the two usually partnered up for missions, staying in the van working as getaway drivers and aiding with communications. they were the two to hack into cameras and scout the sites, while the teams of ten/winwin and hendery/yangyang were more hands-on, and did the brute of the spying and combat.

of course, the two knew how to fight and how to handle a gun, but it was easier and more efficient for the team to operate this way— ten and winwin pairing due to their high agility and ability to sneak past people unnoticed— and hendery and yangyang working together due to their weapon handling ability and combat skills.

kun paused for a moment. "ten, after this mission is over— i want you to take the weekend off. i've noticed how tired you've been lately, and being mentally unavailable is just as bad as being physically unavailable."

ten couldn't help but feel like he was being scolded, and replied "kun, i'm fine. i may not be getting as much sleep as the rest of you, but it's because of the life i chose for myself— and i chose it knowing damn well i could handle it."

ten could hear kun sigh on the other line. "if you say so. but if you ever need a day off, please tell me. you are valued much more when you're awake and sober than when you're exhausted."

"thanks, really," ten replied, "i'm almost to headquarters. we'll talk there."

with that, ten hung up the phone, and fell immediately asleep— only to wake up not even 5 minutes later as he felt the car stop at his destination.

as he stepped into the wayv mansion, he immediately smelled cooking from the kitchen— and his stomach growled, reminding him that he had not yet eaten. he couldn't manage this mission with an empty stomach on top of his exhaustion, so he made his way over to the kitchen, which he immediately found yangyang inside of.

"ten-hyung!" yangyang exclaimed upon seeing his teammate. "how have you been? do you want dinner? you look hungry, i made braised pork rice and xiao long bao!" yangyang was already scooping a portion onto a new plate, and handed it to ten.

"thank you." ten nodded, and yangyang cheerfully smiled back.

"i tried out a different recipe with the xiao long bao- i filled them with crabmeat instead of pork, and i tried a seafood broth this time. is it good? i figured we all needed something warm and filling before our mission to 127 tonight." yangyang continued, and watched in delight as ten tasted each of the foods.

"wow, yangyang." ten sighed through a mouthful of braised pork. yangyang, being both german and taiwanese, knew lots of recipes from his cultures, and was the unofficial chef around the house. he lived in the mansion full-time unlike ten, and so the other members got loads more samples of his cooking— which made ten's opinion even more important as he was not present as often to try his food.

"yangyang, this is incredible." ten felt himself melt into the warmth of the food, and felt more energetic immediately. "this is exactly what i needed. you're amazing."

yangyang laughed and returned to the stovetop to set all the foods to a simmer. "i'm glad you like it. only the best for the man who discovered our rival's base."

"it wasn't me." chuckled ten, "it was an anonymous tip, and felix suspects that it was given either by a member of 127 or..." ten trailed off, trying to think of who would report them.

"...or?" yangyang leaned on the countertop, intrigued.

"felix thinks someone from dream reported them." ten finished, picking up another mouthful of rice and pork.

"dream!?" yangyang sprung up. "but why the hell would someone from dream tell us? wouldn't they want to find 127 and raid the base themselves?"

"felix thinks it's because they're falling off the radar. they aren't powerful enough right now to attack 127 themselves, so they might've tipped us off to then leech out our information, meaning we need to be extra cautious tonight." ten explained to a confused yangyang.

"ohh, that makes sense. but then wouldn't that mean they plan to get the information from us afterwards?" yangyang was putting the pieces together.

"exactly." ten stated, "dream probably wants to find out more information through us, basically making us do the dirty work of scoping out 127's location, and then attacking the less intimidating target— us."

"but then shouldn't we not investigate tonight, if dream is just gonna go after us later?" yangyang asked.

"do you really think dream has the power to get information out of us?" ten and yangyang turned around to see kun walking through the front door, taking off his large jacket and laying it along a bench near the entrance. "there's only 5 of them and 6 of us."

"but 6-5 has better odds than 9-5," yangyang explained his thought process. "it would be easier for dream to take us down over 127."

"true, but we still have an advantage, not only in numbers, but in skill. from our experiences with dream, we know that they're all much younger than us and have less experience fighting and interrogating," kun explained, "they don't even have an official leader, and from our sources— their oldest member is 23. that's the age of our youngest." kun glanced at yangyang who was, in fact, the youngest.

yangyang sighed. "yeah, i guess... but we still have to be careful, y'know?"

"naturally. we still can't let ourselves slip just because we have more power than dream." kun agreed, and ten nodded, popping a xiaolong bao into his mouth.

yangyang noticed this and immediately went to fix kun a plate. "do you want any food, kun? i made braised pork rice and seafood xiaolong bao"

"it looks like you're already on it, thank you. it looks delicious." kun chuckled and sat next to ten at the counter as yangyang handed him his plate.

within the next few minutes, the rest of the team gathered in the kitchen, yangyang serving them all plates of food— and once everyone was served, he served himself with the remains— earning a scolding from kun, who told him to put himself first. yangyang just brushed his scolding off with a laugh, as he knew kun wasn't actually angry— he just cared about the younger.

ten chatted with winwin and hendery about the mission— the information he knew, and his thoughts on dream's tip— as kun, yangyang, and xiaojun continued to converse.

after about 30 minutes had passed, the time was just past 8pm— the team made their way to their respective rooms to get dressed and prepared for the mission at hand. it was a big night, and lots of nervous and tense energy was filling the air.

kun and ten loaded the van, and each member began to file in one by one. once everyone was in, guns were passed around and kun began to drive.

...

a/n:  hey gamers. sorry these first two chapters were pretty boring and expository...
i swear things will get interesting next chapter and the story will progress faster. most chapters will be around this length (1000-1500 words), as i tend to prefer longer scenes and chapters— plus it feeds u guys better lol
ten and johnny will meet next chapter and things will pick up, i just had to get a bunch of YAWNNNNN BORRRINGGGG info out of the way in these first two.
thanks for reading, see u guys in the next chapter!! dont hesitate to comment or dm if u have any questions at all about the story!! constructive criticism is heavily welcomed!