Rebooted |NCT GANG AU| ✔️

sieben | vii

Meeting NCT was a lot, but it was nice. Now I had officially meet about 17 of the members. They were quite kind, besides Jaehyun glaring down my back. Kun, who was one of the members specializing in technology, gave me their version of a phone. The only contacts were the NCT members, Seulgi, Irene, and Yuri. I pretty much only used burner phones, so having the closest thing to an actual phone was nice. Taeil and Ten had given me my gang tattoo before dinner, and they were a pleasure to talk to.

My new gang tattoo was the word 'neo' in black block print (NCT 2018 style) with a thin black square outlining it. It sat on my ankle, and was about the size of a battery.

I sighed, sitting up from hammock I had been resting in. I didn't sleep well often, and tonight was another one of those nights. Johnny had mentioned that their was a snack cabinet in the kitchen that I was free to use, so I threw on a hoodie and made my way down to the first floor. The younger members had all gone to sleep, as their was a mission for them tomorrow early in the morning. Yuta, Doyoung, Ten, Taeil, and Sicheng were sitting in the living room watching some movie.

"Can't sleep?" Doyoung asked, noticing my presence in the room.

"Yeah. This is normal. I'm just gonna grab some food and then go back to the hammock." I said.

Doyoung nodded, and wandered into the kitchen. The light was already on, and someone was standing with their back to me in front of the microwave. The guy turned around and his eyes widened.

"Melanie?"

"You?"

We both just stood there, silent.

"Are you the new gang member?" Hendery asked.

"Yeah. Are you also apart of NCT?" I asked.

"Yeah." Hendery said.

He pulled a bowl of ramen out of the microwave, grabbing a fork before going to leave the kitchen.

"We never speak about that time."

"Agreed."

::

"I guess some parts of you never changed."

I turned my head to see Jaehyun, holding a cup of coffee.

"It's nice to have things that you hold onto despite how hellish life is." I responded, as Jaehyun came over and sat down next to me.

We sat in silence, feeling the brisk morning air on the rooftop. Our feet were dangling over the edge and the small amount of steam from our coffee cups danced across our faces.

"I'm sorry for how I acted." Jaehyun finally said. "I'm over everything, it's just, the sight of you after I thought you were gone brought everything back and I was mad."

"It's okay. We both did bad things, but we can both learn from things." I said, taking a sip.

"How was it?" Jaehyun asked.

"How was what?"

"Travelling the world, being free as a bird." He asked. The familiar warmth in his eyes brought me back to the days we spent together.

"It was nice. I'm never truly free, but that was close enough for me. I could decide anything, and go wherever I wanted. But everything comes to an end. I was bound to come back to Korea, I just needed time." I said.

Jaehyun nodded, taking another sip of his coffee.

"So how did you get involved? Coming from someone born into gang life I never expected the high-school all-star to join this life." I asked.

"After you disappeared, I was sad and worried. Then I began searching, and became a target of some gangs under YG. A Super Junior member found me and took me in, and your dad offered me a spot. I didn't know it was him, but I joined the newly created NCT. Sometimes I run into people from highschool, and they wonder where I went after highschool since I had like three scholarships. I just tell that I studied in America and that I work at my uncle's company now." Jaehyun explained.

"I'm sorry for causing you to find this life Jae." I said.

"It's fine. I found my home now. My parents moved to America after I finished highschool, so NCT is my family." Jaehyun said.

We sat in silence, sipping our coffee and staring at the morning sky.

Our watches beeped, and a message from Taeyong displayed across them.

"Time for breakfast." I said, going to stand up.

"Mel, we're good now. Right?" Jaehyun said.

I smiled softly at him.

"Yeah we're good."