SHADOWS OF DECEIT

Chapter 38

The underground studio, dimly lit and humming faintly with the low buzz of overworked fans, felt like a cocoon — tight, suffocating, and deceptive in its sense of safety. 

The walls were concrete, wires snaking like veins across them, glowing faintly with the blue-white glare of outdated monitors. Joshua sat hunched on an overturned crate, arms crossed, eyes heavy with exhaustion and fury barely concealed beneath that taut, quiet exterior.

Across from him, Samuel was hunched over the terminal Yoongi had set up — his fingers moving with a twitchy precision, tapping through encrypted layers and proxies like a madman cracking open a locked diary. He was good, and they both knew it, but Joshua had little patience left.

"You shouldn't be doing this," Joshua muttered for the fifth time, jaw clenched. "You're in hiding, not shopping for bullets. You're going to get yourself killed."

Samuel didn't even turn. "Yoongi's system is built for a making music and there is not much I can really do hyung," he replied, tone too casual, too naive for the stakes. "I'm not going deep, just scraping location history. I'm careful, hyung."

Joshua scoffed, the sound dry and bitter. "Careful? You're one false packet away from someone blowing this place up. Jesus, Samuel—"

But then everything paused.

A muffled commotion from upstairs. 

Raised voices. Feet scuffing against the ground. 

A thud. 

Then came a voice Samuel hadn't heard in a while, slicing through the underground hum like a whip.

"Samuel! I know you're down there. Don't make me repeat myself."

Samuel froze, hands still hovering above the keyboard, the cursor blinking like a warning shot.

Joshua's eyes narrowed. "No."

Samuel stood.

"Don't you fucking move—"

Samuel shook him off, not unkindly. "Hyung. It's Jeonghan hyung. He's the one who told me to hide. If he's here, it's not a coincidence. I need to explain."

Joshua's lips parted to protest again, but Samuel was already gone — rushing toward the stairs with a mix of fear and determination rippling down his spine.

Joshua cursed under his breath and followed. Because of course he did. Because it was Samuel, and because this wasn't a world where you left your people behind.

They reached the top.

And then they saw them.

Samuel halted so abruptly Joshua nearly collided with him — but when he looked up, the breath caught in his lungs like glass in his throat.

Jeonghan was there. Sitting in a sleek black wheelchair like it was a throne. 

Calm. 

Composed. 

Wearing that unsettling expression that always felt too smooth for reality. Like a blade hidden behind silk.

To his right stood Seokmin — DK — expression unreadable, body a silent threat carved in human form. The air around him buzzed with quiet rage. 

To Jeonghan's left, Chan stood tall and motionless, eyes sharp and watching everything. There was something feral just behind his gaze, restrained only by the thin leash of self-control.

For a heartbeat, no one moved. No one spoke.

The sound of Jimin shoving someone outside and slamming a metal shutter echoed in the background.