~<*>~ Pain in me ~<*>~

Chapter 40

Wonwoo taps his fingers on the bedsheet as he stares into the darkness. He just took a one hour nap and he texted Scoups asking him to come over. This evening, when they were all eating pizza, Wonwoo felt that spark again. A spark he hasn't felt in a while, but he is more than happy to feel it. The spark of being useful, finally getting to be the one that helps someone else. For the past few months, Wonwoo has been the person who needed help way too many times, now he can finally change it up. Wonwoo already starts thinking, should he already start investigating while he's waiting? But right when Wonwoo wants to grab his laptop, he hears the front door opening. Wonwoo sighs relieved, finally Scoups arrived. Wonwoo listens closely as Scoups' footsteps are nearing and the door of his room opens slowly. Wonwoo can't hold back a smile when he notices Scoups' insecure posture, he's trying to sneak in without waking Wonwoo. While his leader closes the door behind him, Wonwoo reaches for his nightstand. They're in complete darkness and Wonwoo counts to ten in his head. On ten, he flicks on his night light and the room suddenly lights up. Wonwoo watches Scoups getting startled and he even gasps, holding back a scream. Wonwoo chuckles amused, he scared his leader badly. Scoups shakes his head, but he's smiling as well.
"You got me there", he whispers chuckling. 
"Let's get to work", Wonwoo says, trying to change the subject. He really wants to make himself useful, so they're getting to work. But Scoups doesn't seem so certain.
"Are you sure you want to keep doing this every night?" he asks and Wonwoo looks at him confused.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Why?" he answers and Scoups sighs.
"You're sick, remember?" Wonwoo looks at his hands for a few seconds. Why is everyone still so protective over him? It's not like the sickness is everything Wonwoo is. It's annoying, it's like Wonwoo himself doesn't exist anymore, only his stupid cancer.
"I may be sick, I'm not stupid", Wonwoo answers, "I can still help you out and I know my limits. Believe me, I'm feeling so much better!" Scoups looks him in the eye with a look Wonwoo can't place. Is it worry or frustration? 
"You can also do that when you're awake, when the sun is shining", Scoups states carefully.
"I know, but Mingyu would never allow me to do it so please just do me a favor and let me help you", Wonwoo begs, he really doesn't want this opportunity to be taken away from him. Scoups exhales deeply and shrugs.
"All right", he mumbles and Wonwoo grabs his laptop. Immediatly, he searches for articles about Stray kids, but there's no clear line towards Woojin. Wonwoo decides to take a whole other road, he searches events that have happened recently that Woojin did, such as Jun's death or maybe even Aylen's death. Wonwoo widens his eyes while he looks at the articles popping up. Those nasty journalists have taken every opportunity to write something dramatic. 
"Look at this", Wonwoo says and Scoups stops tapping on his keyboard to look at Wonwoo's screen. His eyes widen as well and with fear, Wonwoo opens the first article. It's about Jun's death and of course the journalists make it seem like the police killed the brunette. They're nothing with this article. Wonwoo grunts annoyed and closes his laptop. 
"How are we ever going to find anything if journalists keep changing the truth?" he whines and Scoups shakes his head frustrated. After a few minutes of anger, they both open their laptops and continue searching. But after an hour, they still haven't found one single clue.
"Time for a break", Scoups states tired and Wonwoo nods agreeing. He closes his laptop and lays down on his bed. Some seconds later, Scoups lays beside him.  Wonwoo didn't dare to ask before, but he feels like now is the time.
"Are you all right?" he asks and Scoups lifts his head to look at him confused.
"You seemed a little distracted", Wonwoo adds and Scoups lets his head fall on the bed again. Wonwoo did see him stopping constantly to look around and he can't deny that it was quite strange.
"It's just weird for me to be here again. It reminds me of Hoshi, sitting around in his room. I can't help but think that maybe you three have the same fate as we did", he explains, but Wonwoo doesn't understand.
"What do you mean?" he asks.
"Well, Woozi and Joshua were both the first to die. And you're in Hoshi's room, I...", Scoups breaks his sentence and shakes his head, "nevermind." 
"I understand", Wonwoo mumbles. 
"And to be honest, I pray that fate will be the same again because that means that I would die before Mingyu. If one of us has to die, I hope it's me. You probably understand, you would feel the same about Dino", he adds and Scoups nods.
"I remember how we used to be back then, when I first joined you. We were all so happy, so naïve. Remember when we tried to get into the police's database?" Scoups mutters and suddenly, something in Wonwoo snaps. He gasps surprised and sits up straight, to which Scoups blinks startled.
"What?" he asks and Wonwoo starts to smile.
"That's it," he says, "I know how we could find Woojin." Scoups' eyes light up and he looks at Wonwoo interested.
"The family Joshua wanted to rob has a data base, if we search Woojin in there, we can try to find him on a camera. Then we'll know where he is", Wonwoo explains and Scoups' eyes widen.
"You're a genius!" he whisper-yells excited. "But we only have a few days until the robbery."
"Well then we should start planning", Wonwoo answers. He can't deny that he's quite proud of himself, he may have found the solution to their problem. Wonwoo sure hopes this works.