Silence & Chaos | Kim Jungwoo

Chapter 21 - Allegretto

The pact that Jungwoo and Lucas had made was actually working well for both of them. Lucas's mood had lightened, and he and Jungwoo made an efficient team as they had before. That following week was incredibly productive for not only them, but the case as a whole was on the move as well.

Thanks to Jungkook's limited knowledge, and Sunhee's face sketches that were put into the database, the unit was able to identify a few possible spots for the next Rogue-GreyRaven meetup that NCT was anticipating.

Pairs of agents were being sent out to scope out the locations undercover, and report back on their findings. Geography, Risks and blind spots, credibility of hosting a gang meet, etc.
Every member was becoming highly motivated. Everyone was on their A-game save for a few exceptions.

Johnny was spending his last days in the hospital, and Jaemin was barely out of his sling. Jeno and Ten were paired together to maximize manpower and the number of partnerships at the disposal of the unit.

Including Mark and Donghyuck in the "preoccupied" column, they were down four members. The new probies only made up for three of them, and although spritely and hungry they were, they still lacked the experience of the other agents. Tayong had to make due, since his other agents that had some of the most versatile experience, he had tasked with babysitting duty.

"I'm gonna go crazy." Donghyuck flopped over the back of the couch, startling Mark who was watching tv with Sunhee. Sunhee reached up and patted Donghyuck's back in absentminded comfort.

"Go stupid while you're at it, eh?" Mark found more humor in his own joke than the other two did, and shamelessly laughed at himself.

Sunhee sighed in discontent. "I actually agree with Hyuck. I'm losing my mind here." In the time she'd been there, she had grown comfortable enough to call them by their first names, and even enough to use Donghyuck's nickname.

"Well then let's try something different today." Mark suggested, pressing pause on the tv and turning to face the other two. Donghyuck hopped over the back of the couch and landed in between the two, ready to brainstorm activities.

"Blanket fort?"

"Already did that."

"Hide and seek!"

"We are three people in a very cramped space, where are we gonna hide?"

"I mean..."

"What about origami?" Sunhee chimed. The men looked at her, contemplating the idea. "Ever filled a jar with paper stars?"

Sure enough, they sat around the dining table and cut up many strips of paper until they had a hefty pile. Sunhee taught them the steps, and Donghyuck got it almost immediately. Mark took several tries until his stars started to look decent enough to put in the jar they set out to fill up.

"I used to do this all the time with my cousin when we were younger." Sunhee remembered the times she would spend hours on this same objective with her cousin whenever she visited, then they would wrap it in a ribbon to give it as a gift to someone, or put it up on a shelf somewhere.

Sunhee missed being younger with so much to look forward to. She missed her cousin as well, and made a mental note to visit her when she was next able to. Her mom as well. Sunhee ached for something familiar, and the paper stars were as close as she could get to familiarity at that point.

"This is such a meaningless task," Mark grumbled as he dropped another messy star onto the table.

"It's a lot more fun when you can do it right, Mark." Hyuck poked fun at his friend, who was holding his forehead in discouragement.