Taken (BTS Fanfiction) (LEMONS)

Chapter 18

Hwan had never been on the sixth floor before.

Previously, meetings were scarce and held only in small groups, usually in the lobby of each floor. They consisted of only the people on that floor. Only the higher ups stayed on the sixth floor and did most of their business there. Hwan had imagined it would look the same as all other floors only with generic office spaces replacing exam rooms and subject chambers. He retried this thought in his head as he made his way to the floor, trying to keep his mind off the actual situation at hand until he absolutely had to address it.

He'd taken the stairs two at a time, not keen on the idea of taking an elevator overfilled with his many co-workers. The hallway conflicted with those of the five floors below it, painted a mossy green color with dark, smooth wood paneling the lower halves of the walls. He passed room after room, glancing inside each small window adorning the door. A break room, two men watching security camera footage, a petite woman typing rapidly at her laptop, and, as he had anticipated, generic offices. He briefly wondered where they all slept, knowing that the design of this floor was too different for him to figure it out without actually wandering and looking.

When Hwan reached the board room it was packed, all of the reps and some of the higher ups in the building standing around a large table, spilling out into the hallway. Despite the overwrought chatter filling the empty space, Hwan felt self conscious of his heavy breaths and attempted to stifle them. He spotted Sofia on the far right side of the room and considered weaving his way through the crowd to get to her but decided he didn't want to be caught in between the large crowd of people so he stayed put. From just outside the door he could only catch fragments of words and sentences but he was pretty confident that he knew exactly what they were talking about. Around fifteen more people arrived, packing in too close in order to hear before everyone began shushing each other. Hwan looked between the heads of the now quiet crowd in front of him to see.

An old balding man, presumably someone of supreme importance, sat hunched over the large table, the only sitting person in the room. His fingers dug into his scalp through his thinning hair. He looked so beyond tired, so at a loss and Hwan found himself sympathizing with him easily though they'd never met.

"Well." His voice cracked, not from disuse but from years worth of stress. "As I'm sure all of you are aware, we're in quite a... difficult situation." He glanced upwards, scanning the faces of the men and women standing around him before sighing deeply and sitting up straight, popping his back loudly. "The video that was recently leaked of one of our more well known subjects has reached quite a large audience and now they're coming for our heads. Our board of directors and I have made a... decision of sorts. It depends entirely on all of your, all of your participation," He finished. The room was entirely silent for a moment, name for the sound of him scratching his head in frustration.

"Mitch, all due respect but we don't have the time for dramatic pauses," Someone spoke impatiently. He looked up, glanced around the room before sighing but nodded anyway.

"You're right, you're right. I'll be frank," he paused once again and Hwan could actually feel people repressing groans. "We'll take a vote, aunanimous vote. We either all stay or we all leave." At this sentence, the room instantaneously erupted into frustrated, angry arguments. The man, already having anticipated the outrage, rubbed the back of his neck, tuning out the overlapping shouts presumably until they had all calmed down. Hwan took a second to run the thought over in his head.

Both ideas were undeniably stupid, definite to end in disaster yet Hwan couldn't think of any other option they could possibly pursue.

Leaving meant a group of 100+ homeless people in the middle of the forest. Each one of them would have to remake a new life for themselves and trust that no one questions their lack of housing, family, transportation, job experience and all other things they'd all given up in working here. If they stayed they'd be caught and thrown in prison, assuming they aren't given a death sentence, but at least they'd be assured a bed to sleep in and food to eat in prison.