PROJECT: SEVENTEEN. seventeen au

☏ ONE

The sky is blue and cloudless, the sun hot and heavy outside the Block House when a ragtag team of teenage boys arrive.

It's something that you can't miss, really: the sound of rumbling motorcycles and chattering mouths drowning out all other sounds floating in the air. They did so much as to cause a minor uproar in this strangely remote place, which was in this subdivision, placed almost on top of a hill where you could overlook the whole city.

Situated in Seoul's most private and most luxurious subdivision, the Block House was home to the participants of the mandatory mission. It stood two stories tall, with lofty, clear glass windows-and it truly lived up to its name, too, for it resembled a large block of white concrete. Lush green trees and exotic plants surrounded its area. Decorative hollow blocks on top of brown stone circled around the base of the house and acted as a tough fence, similar to the design of the nearby houses in this subdivision-and the refined atmosphere made the white edifice seem more lavish than it already is.

A familiar auburn-haired boy and his friends get off their motorcycle and stare at the simple yet elegant house. He never expected themselves to be here, in all honesty. The memory of his groupmates expressing their dislike for this mission thing flashes through his mind-causing him to almost laugh out loud. Sometimes those weirdos were indecisive as fuck.

If he wanted to back out, it was too late now, anyway. He'd just have to deal with it.

The boy shrugs off his scarlet leather jacket and throws it over his shoulder, a satisfied grin on his face. "Ya, what do you guys think?" he drawls out lazily, eyes tracing the exterior of the place. It was pretty, and had a modern vibe to it. The pristine white walls blended well with the sky and the lush green trees scattered around. "Nice house, isn't it?"

How fortunate the rich are, he wanted to say, but decided to keep his mouth shut.

One of his friends join him. "Hey, Han. Yeah, I think it's a...nice house," he sniffs, his parted black hair slightly covering his eyes. "And it's clean. I don't sense anything that's gonna happen."

Jeonghan grins and swings his arm over his friend. They both look up at the house for a while. "Ah, that's good to know, Won. You're always looking out for us. Oh, by the way, where's Jihoon?"

"I'm right beside you, you fuckaronis." another voice joins them, undoubtedly belonging to their short, grumpy friend who was currently half-frowning and half-pouting beside Jeonghan. He and Wonwoo momentarily cooed over Jihoon's cute face before he hissed at them like a tiny kitten. "Don't tell me you didn't see me 'cause I was short!"

Jeonghan grinned and pulled Jihoon close to him. "You may be short, but at least you're cute!" he laughs, eyes gleaming in amusement. Both of them laugh as Jihoon turns into an embarrassing shade of red.

Then the crunching of boots on the gravelly road catches up to them. "Hyungs!" Eight-or Minghao, you choose how you want to call him-and Seokmin jog toward them, face lightly flushed from the light exercise. Since the House itself was on top of (or at least it seemed like) a hill, they had to jog up a steep path to actually arrive near the entrance.

They join their friends and take their place beside them, looking up at the house. "Oh," Minghao makes a face. "This is it?"

Wonwoo nods. "Yeah, I think so." His eyes scan the address on the white card. Then he looks up and around. The area was quite empty-no locals or other neighbours seemed to roam around or approach them. Not even the kids in suits or in graphic tees and colorful jackets from yesterday. "Wait. Should we have arrived here earlier or later?"

"Says 10:00 there," Seokmin points at the card in Wonwoo's hand. "What time is it though?"

Minghao looked at his watch and opened his mouth to say something, but the voice that came out was not his.