ILLICIT ° nct dream, wayv + srg

Chapter Four: The First Encounter

Dedicated to:
loverenjun

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"I said tie it. Tie. It!" Chenle yelled in frustration as he and Renjun watched Jeno's unit struggle in executing the third phase in the bathroom.

"Don't yell at me! I'm older than you!" Yelled back by Jaemin, who was also becoming frustrated by the situation, causing his grip on the thread to tighten.

"I told you to follow my instructions!"

"You're too hard to understand! Make it clearer then!"

"You were tying it around the body and not the neck!"

"You should've told me before! Quit complaining!"

"Can you, guys, shut up?!" Renjun finally intervened, fed up by their unnecessary bickering. "We're in the middle of our mission here!"

"Hey, hey." Mark decided to butt inafter hearing the commotion, his tone warning them. "What's going on in there?"

"It's weird hearing you speak with the voice changer device." Haechan commented beside Mark as they walked, letting out a short chuckle.

While Jeno's unit focused on following Chenle's instructions, Mark and Haechan remained looking for a way to reach their destination. The building had a lot of floors, which was why it was taking them a long time. They didn't mind it though, as they thought it would be better to do things at a steady pace instead of risking their plan because of their hasty actions.

They didn't want to repeat the same mistake, especially Haechan. He knew better.

"Jaemin's doing the wrong thing." Chenle told Mark, on the brink of giving up on him. "He's not following my directions."

"You're the one who can't tell directions properly." Jaemin shot back as he finished tying both ends of the thread around the two bottles' necks.

"Enough of this." Mark spoke with authority, making the others shut up and listen. "Take the mission seriously, everyone. We can't risk wasting time and lose this chance because of your actions." 

"Yes, sir." All of them responded simultaneously.

"We are getting closer to the chief's office so you better hurry up." Was Mark's last reply.

The remaining members of the X-Force sulked and proceeded to do their mission. Chenle instructed the other two about the next steps and Jaemin finally did it without making a mistake. Jeno, too, remained focused on their task.

"Hang the bottles on the string." Chenle told them.

They did what they were told, slowly hanging the bottles on the thread that was attached to the hooks they had drilled on the opposite walls of the bathroom stall. Then, they were told to cut a cigarette in half, stick it onto a matchstick, and place the stick back to its box. Chenle reminded them to make sure that it was popping out. Lastly, they wrapped the matchbox on the thread that was tied around the bottles.

They weren't sure if it would really work but Chenle already made an experiment about it beforehand. Add to that, Jeno poured a drop of the mysterious substance Chenle had prepared, as instructed, in both bottles before Jaemin tied the thread.

"Light it up."

Flickering his lighter, Jeno set the cigarette burning, closed the stall's door, and casually left the bathroom with Jaemin and their things. "Everything's set." He reported as he and Jaemin walked briskly back towards the elevator they went into.