YOON | Prequel to THE8

SIX

| CHAPTER SIX |

"Water?"

Jeonghan looks at Seungcheol from across the table, blanket wrapped around his shoulders, "Seriously?"

Seungcheol grins, "Not sure if you heard your own screaming over the sound of me saving your life... but it was loud. Your throat must be sore." Seungcheol urges him, "Take it."

"It could be poisoned."

Seungcheol just looks at him, suppressing a sigh, "Still don't trust me?"

"You pointed a gun at me, lied about coming back, picked me up in a helicopter, and are now offering me a bottle of water. I'd say there's a 70% chance it's—"

Seungcheol unscrews the cap, taking at least 2 or 3 gulps.

Jeonghan's stuck in the middle of his sentence, hands frozen mid-air.

Seungcheol swallows it, offering the bottle again, "Believe me now?"

Jeonghan stares at him for another moment or two, pulling the blanket further around his shoulders, "Poison takes at least 10 minutes to fully—"

"You're so stubborn." Seungcheol groans.

Before Jeonghan can reply—

"And that's why we want you to join us." It's an older man. He enters the room with a smile. Jeonghan assumes it's the man Seungcheol always calls his Father figure.

The legs scratch on the floor as the man pulls up a chair, taking a seat.

"Cheol explained things well, didn't he? That must be why you're here."

Jeonghan stays silent, looking at Seungcheol right now because if he had to trust one of them, it'd be him. This man was way more intimidating than this strange boy who was just around the same age as Jeonghan himself. He feels closer to him.

"You're cautious. That's good." The man says, "For what we're planning, we wouldn't want anybody—"

"What you're planning?" Jeonghan's heard about how you shouldn't ever cut off someone older than you, but so far, he's never met an adult who deserved the respect, "Pledis— I know. But what, it's not already a thing?"

"It's in progress." Seungcheol pitches in, "You'd be one of our firsts."

Jeonghan blinks.

After the helicopter save, they'd flown god knows how long, Jeonghan must've passed out. But he had woken up by a shake on the arm and concrete grounds surrounding him.

He was still in Seoul... but a part he'd never been to before.... the part where buildings were rotting and forgotten... the part nobody knew existed. The abandoned.

And then Seungcheol had led Jeonghan inside one of them, pushing open a rusty, creaky door to the unknown.

And here Jeonghan was, 30 minutes later, covered by a blanket and facing 2 people he barely knew.

"Why did you pick me?" Jeonghan asks, gaze down, eyes burning holes into the wobbly table, "I'm... not fit for this type of stuff."