Red Notice // seungjin

06

this chapter is so bad. It's readable but not the best (imo)

With their mission being accomplished, SKZ arrived back home. They left the children in the care of Wonpil and Brian. Those two were introduced to the group a while back when Minho got stabbed during one of their missions. And now, they're unofficially SKZ's medics. The moment they stepped foot into their base, they immediately dropped their bags and jumped into their beds. During the time they were in Egypt, the children told them anything they could remember about the time they were in the laboratory.

According to the twins, they grew up there and were numbered based on the order of who the lab received first. The highest number that they could remember was five hundred and they were all separated based on the class they were in. Those classes were determined by an endurance test. But they had no recollection of what specific tests they had to go through. However, one that stuck with them the most was being cut several times to see who could withstand the pain. Those who couldn't bear the pain were either discarded or died during the action.

During the flight back to Korea, Seungmin did his own digging and was able to locate the location of the laboratory, a list of people they experimented on, and the person who conducted the experiments. He could only stare at his computer screen in disbelief when he read what he found. I thought they died. He couldn't help but frown when he flipped through the documents.

After a night's rest, they were all gathered for a meeting. Seungmin started it off with his findings during their flight back. "The person who conducted these experiments is proclaimed deceased on official government documents. However, as you can see in the photos in the file I handed out, they're alive and breathing."

Jisung gripped the papers and quickly looked up at Seungmin with a shocked expression. Seungmin glanced at Jisung and quickly shook his head to not mention anything. Minho, who has a reputation of spacing out while staring at his beloved darling, noticed the interaction between the two. But he decided to remain silent.

"Isn't this the leader of ELX?" Changbin noticed after a closer inspection of the photo. "Didn't she die from an explosion? Her corpse was found under a fallen pillar."

"ELX? They only import and export drugs and weapons. Nothing crazy as experimenting on humans and turning them into weapons. Even if they did this under the wraps, they don't have enough manpower to do so." Chan tried to recall everything he remembered about the group.

Hyunjin, who also tends to stare at his boyfriend, picks up on the suspicious exchange between the two and decides to test the waters. "Seungmin, is there something you would like to share?"

Seungmin flinched as he was caught off guard. Hyunjin wasn't one to use his name until he was either annoyed or furious. But he couldn't figure out what he had done to push his boyfriend's button. The others also picked up on the sudden shift in Hyunjin's attitude, but they knew better than to intervene in his relationship when he didn't ask for assistance.

Seungmin hesitantly nodded. "The Nuls sponsored them in exchange for sixty percent of whatever profit they make."

"The Nuls?" Felix tapped his finger repetitively against the wooden surface. "They're the Russian mafia. From what I know, they took over ELX's supplier and shipping port. Why in the world would they invest money in ELX, when they could have stolen the idea themselves and take all of the profit?"

"The Zeros." Jeongin used the Russian group's other name. "Were the ones behind the mad scientist's death." He was referring to the woman who created human weapons for sheer profit. "Nothing is adding up. They took over ELX profits but funded them to make weapons- just to kill the creator in the end? But years later, the creator is still breathing."