ILLICIT ° nct dream, wayv + srg

Chapter Twenty-five: Coffee Break

Dedicated to:
persephoneun

~*~*~*~*~

With one eye closed, she raised the knife at the back of her head, holding it from the tip with her thumb and index finger.

Careful, Koeun.

A soft breath escaped her slightly parted lips as she concentrated, followed by another, and another.

Almost got it.

She carefully looked at the target that was meters away from her- specifically the middle red dot. One last throw and she will finally accomplish her second task.

"Aim for the bull's eye." She heard Jeno reminded her from beside. "You only have a minute left." She didn't bother answering him because she thought it'll only lose her focus.

Not good. "A little more..." She mumbled to herself. "...and..." She waited for another second. "...go."

Finally, she threw the knife in the air, sending it towards the target. Not just a second later, it made a little thump as it hit straight in the middle.

Koeun felt relieved and fluttered her eyes close as she let out a deep breath. "Twenty." The word escaped from her lips.

"Twenty-nine minutes and four seconds. Great job." She opened her eyes again to see Jeno with an impressed look, holding a pistol. "You finally accomplished the knife task."

"Thanks." She replied before asking. "What's the next one?"

"Here." Jeno handed her the gun, which she gladly accepted. "It's fully loaded."

"What am I supposed to do? Hit a hundred bull's eyes?" Koeun asked.

Surprisingly, Jeno replied. "No, only ten."

Koeun raised an eyebrow at this. "Ten? I thought you said this will get more difficult."

"I did," Jeno agreed. "but it won't be for the bull's eyes. You'll be hitting ten swinging bottles."

As soon as she heard this, Koeun found herself gaping at him. "You've got to be kidding me." Jeno has never trained her about this.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Jeno pointed at his serious face.

"But you haven't taught me about this!"

"That's why it's harder." Jeno told her. "Now do you still want to continue the challenge?"

Koeun thought about. Finishing this challenge would really mean a lot to her since it'll only give her enough confidence to do the mission later- getting this done means she's finally ready- but finding out about the third task, she began to doubt if she'll get pass it.

As she thought about it, she asked Jeno a question. "How much time do I have?"

"Forty minutes." Raising the object in his hand to show her, Jeno already restarted the timer.

~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, as Koeun started her third task, the other members of the team continued to do theirs.

"Could you walk a little faster? We are in a hurry here."

After the negotiation for weapons with a powerful gang in the city, Mark's unit left the place and hid the weapons well in their van. Once they were done, Mark gave another order for the group.

"We can't go back yet. We need disguises for our mission tonight."

This made Jaemin huff. "Fine, but I need my coffee first."