PROJECT: SEVENTEEN. seventeen au

☏ ELEVEN, PART TWO

jihoon blinks. "wow. okay. but why us?"

chortling, dino slaps his thigh and finger guns at jihoon. "eh. for bonding!"

sighing and rubbing his temples again, jihoon faces away from dino. "hansol's really rubbing off you, isn't he."

"hey, but we still gotta do something after that, though," jeonghan proposed, interrupting the two. a pencil was spinning between his fingers. they all turn to him. "say, we investigate, and we actually get something from it. what can we do?"

junhui leans back in his seat, brow furrowed in thought. "maybe...with the potential "information" we get, we spy on the witnesses, track them down or something?"

["alright you guys, we got good news and bad news."

junhui and jisoo step over from the cluster of computers at the no-drinks zone, a bunch of rectangular devices in their hands. from the doorway where they stood, eight, seungkwan, and hansol eye the two warily. jun hands them a device each. "let's start with the bad news."

minghao snorts and waves his device around. "who the fuck starts with the bad news? what are you, a demon stork or something?"

"i recommend you to shut up," junhui says through a pained grin. minghao sticks his tongue out at junhui and rolls his eyes.

laughing, jisoo slaps his arm and starts. "okay, before we go- kiro installed a new program for us that recognises a person's face and stuff and can track them across all systems in the world. by a single scan of a clear picture of your face, we can know where you work and studied and access your browsing history, online purchases, and even how many steps you've ran for the day."

"woah," the youngest three at the door gape. "cool and creepy."

"yes, but the bad news is...remember the girl that soonyoung literally, like, pleaded us to scan in the program 'cause he has his 'gut feeling'?"

they all nod, bouts of curiosity and hope and desperation sparkling in their eyes. jisoo gulps. "she's a ghost. whoever she is, she's done this before-her data is erased, there's no trace about who she is or where she's worked or gone. the program recognised her as an "employee" at patro buildings- nothing more, nothing less. basically off the grid."

then junhui snaps with a wide grin. "that's where the good news starts. we also scanned that picture of cruella de vil but in red, so like cruella de elmo-"

jisoo facepalms, "jun, her name is ms. ri-"

"-and we found out that she literally owns patro buildings! so, like, if the girl works there and cruella de elmo owns the place, there's a high chance that they might be affiliated with each other."

"hmm," the three at the door hummed with wide eyes. seungkwan nods thoughtfully. "you know, that can be. but don't the high-ranking people or whatever and regular employees not really interact with each other?"

hansol's eyes trailed downward as he tried to think. "well, if the girl's an employee, there's a chance that ms. ri would probably stop by to log in- if that's even what they do, hell if i know-and make her presence known to her employees whenever she'd be there...?"

seungkwan's nostrils flared as he eyed the boy up and down. "wow, hansol...sexy brain...i like it!"

hansol blinks at him. "uh. what's that supposed to mean, boo?"

"it means you two gotta shut up," minghao puts a hand over their mouths. without any hesitation, seungkwan and hansol lick minghao's palm. minghao cries out and hisses at the two. boo and sol, one point!