TARGET

일곱

"Hey kid- How old are you?"

Jeonghan observed the skittish boy, if his legs weren't tied to the chair, Jeonghan guessed they would be bouncing up and down due to his anxiety.

The boy refused to answer- so Jeonghan tried a different approach.

"We know what you did and we know your Stargift, so you might as well spill kid."

The boy opened his mouth in surprise, as if he was going to protest the fact, but closed it and turned his head away from the voice source to accentuate the fact that he wouldn't comply easily.

Jeonghan sighed and walked out to call Minghao in, he knew more about the boy than Jeonghan and would know how to prod the information out of the boy.

"Hey Hao! Come handle the kid with me," Jeonghan called out into the hall, a few seconds later, Minghao came into the room with Jeonghan.

After the door closed behind him Minghao studied Jaemin's body language. He was stiff and extremely jumpy, scared out of his wits, Minghao assumed.

Hey, who wouldn't be at that point?

"So Jaemin-" Minghao started, walking circles around the boy strapped into the chair in the middle of the room.

"Why'd you steal the money?" His voice was soft, his Korean, slightly tainted with an accent, made him sound sweet- but something about his tone sent chills down Jaemin's back- like his honeyed voice was smothered lethal position.

Despite this, Jaemin stayed silent.

Minghao scoffed, "Look, I'm not like my friend Hannie over here, I won't hesitate to rip the words right out your throat, kid." Minghao got close to Jaemin so his lips brushed his ears, his words dripping in venom.

Jaemin gulped.

"I'll give you three seconds."

"One..."

Jaemin looked up to the sky, asking the heavens above to help him in his predicament.

"Two..."

Jaemin jerked in his chair as if he would be able to get out at that point-

"Thr-"

"OK! OK I'LL TELL YOU PLEASE JUST...." Jaemin chocked out, his voice tremulous, the suspense killing his poor soul.

"That's the spirit!" Minghao mused sarcastically, crouching in front of the shaking boy, "We're all ears."

Jaemin sighed for the nth time,

"My friends and I... were all orphans. It's hard getting cash so I- I'm- I had to." Jaemin's voice started to crack with regret, the tears that weren't absorbed by the blindfold slid down his cheeks that had a faint blush from all the shifting.

Minghao was speechless, he had no idea how to deal with this type of sentiment, turning to his Hyung for help, Jeonghan nodded and took his spot in front of the trembling boy.

Jeonghan removed the blindfold from Jaemin's eyes. His gaze was full of disparity and hopelessness. Jeonghan could sympathize with the boy since cared so much for his friends as well, and if he were in Jaemin's situation, he would've resorted to the same measures.

"Look...Jaemin. We're not here to hurt you- we're actually here to help you." Jeonghan wiped the tears from Jaemin's face and stroked his cheek with his hand. The aura Jeonghan gave off was motherly, causing Jaemin to become a little less restless and calm down. Jaemin felt comfortable around him and took his words to heart.

"We're Ursula Minor, I know you know who we are." Jeonghan started-

Jaemin's eyes lit up at the familiar name,

"If we had turned you into the police, you would've been facing jail time. But we didn't." Jeonghan's voice was soft, his hand left the boy's cheek and rested at his shoulder instead.

"We want to recruit you."

Jaemin took a second to process the offer and was completely taken aback.

"I- we. I can't- I'm not-" Jaemin's voice sounded brittle with shock.

"I know this is a bit much, but this is the only way we can keep you from the police. So you have two choices-"

"Stay with us, we'll provide you with food and clothes, a roof over your heads for free- just work with us. Make this fucked up world a better place." Jeonghan's voice was soft and modulated, prompting Jaemin to believe what he was saying. Jeonghan's voice was so irresistibly convincing, but what he spoke was the truth.

The only way Ursula could cover up for Jaemin is to take him and his group under their wing since all of the members of Ursula's true identities were conceived to the public as a whole.

Jaemin's lips pursed, in deep thought.

"O-Okay. But you'll have to talk to the others first-"

"HE DID WHAT?!?!" The boy with the bright orange hair shrieked in disbelief.

The group winced at his particularly shrill voice.

"N-Na Na wouldn't do that. He wouldn't." The boy with a baby face but a slender build mumbled. The rest sat in disbelief.

"I could've given him the money if he asked-" the orange-haired said quietly to himself, but was picked up by Joshua despite the loud ruckus above his soft voice.

What did he mean by that?

"Yeah, your little friend isn't as honest with you as you think. He stole approximately 900,000 won from the cashier of the cafe down at Jongno." Seungkwan smugly remarked, fiddling with a pen intertwined in his fingers as he crossed his legs on the singular couch parallel from the hostages.

"He's being interrogated in the other room, and we'll present you with the same offer your friend is being offered." Joshua crouched down next to Soonyoung, in front of the boys but keeping their distance.

"And what is that." A boy, who sat in the middle, of which the captors noticed was calm and collected the whole time, asked. He was obviously not Korean, you could tell from his features, but didn't have any type of an accent that would indicate that conclusion.

"Join us, or get turned to the police for helping to plot a robbery." Wonwoo finally vocalized, folding his arms over his chest.

"We didn't help-" The aforementioned said in a monotonous tone.

"-Who would know. More importantly, who would believe you." Soonyoung cut him off, meeting his composed tone. This made all the boys silent.

After a while of contemplating, the "spokesperson" of the group quarried again.

"Who is 'us'?"

Soonyoung chuckled lowly,

"Ursula Minor, of course."