the game ➳ kpop au

05

"...S-Son Chaeyoung?"

Chaeyoung glared back at Somi for a second, then her glar slowly faltered when she realised who it was. "S-Somi..? What are you doing here?"

Behind her, the eight other girls looked equally shocked.

"Forget me, what are YOU doing here?"

"We're following JYP's orders, of course. He told us to raid I.O.I's base and retrieve an 'information package' that he didn't tell us the appearance of, have you by any chance—"

Mina put her hand over Sana's mouth before the older Japanese had time to finish, her own eyes widening in realisation. "You're here... in the I.O.I base... the base of a group of rebels. You've betrayed JYP..? Is that why you don't show up at training anymore? You gave up on us?"

Somi felt her heart sink. They had it all wrong!

"This is a misunderstanding, guys, I can explain!"

The girls of I.O.I looked utterly confused. They obviously didn't know what was going on, and Somi couldn't blame them.

Somi took a deep breath in, closing her eyes.

Just tell them. You won't have to see I.O.I ever again, and you'll get to go back to JYP with your friends.

Yet, she couldn't quite find it in herself to explain.

"Well? We don't have all day!" Jeongyeon snapped, tapping her foot impatiently.

Somi opened her eyes again and looked straight at Nayoung, who was looking at the JYP girls in pure confusion. Turning her gaze back to Chaeyoung and the other 8 girls, she shakily began, "I never left JYP. Park Jinyoung assigned me to I.O.I as an undercover agent. I was supposed to collect information on their gangs and report to him. The information package you're looking for? That's me."

Somi had her eyes closed again, yet she could hear the sounds of hearts breaking behind her.

"Wait," said Sejeong, hurt, "so this whole time, you were never really... one of us?"

Somi nodded, her back turned to Sejeong. Everyone in the room looked at her in disbelief, and there was an awkward silence until Momo cleared her throat.

"Uh... So will you come back with us to JYP..? So that we can prove if you were really sent on this mission? And we kinda still have to take care of the I.O.I girls."

Somi nodded yet again, walking past the JYP girls and out the door before they could process her actions.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to no one in particular. She knew the girls wouldn't die, JYP couldn't risk being traced for the crime, but yet she still felt guilty.

The last thing she heard before she shut the apartment door was the sound of screaming.

.xXx.

"Jennie Kim, would you stop being a useless dumpling and help me get down from this goddamned window?"

Jennie rolled her eyes and reluctantly climbed onto the dumpster, reaching upward to help Jisoo down. "Remind me again why we can't just use the front door?" Jisoo whined, hopping off the dumpster.

"Because there'll be someone who'll ask questions, questions require answers and if anyone found out what we were about to do then we would never get to fight at all."

"Okay," Jisoo replied innocently.

Jennie and Jisoo pulled their baseball caps lower and walked with their heads bowed in the streets until they arrived at a tiny corner café: the kind that felt homely and warm and happy. They entered the store and immediately walked up to the counter.