PROJECT: SEVENTEEN. seventeen au

FIN.

three days after the night of the final act.

the first thing they all remember is waking up.

wow, so we're following their morning routine now? one might ask. for the following sentences, you might expect me to describe something along the lines of bed, shower, change clothes, ignore your mom's calls to have breakfast and check social media first instead.

and i just might, except no, we're not talking about the usual opening-your-eyes-and-groggily-getting-out-of-bed thing.

not that kind of waking up.

it was more like waking up from a dream.

the thirteen members of the team were all sitting in an empty gray room. they weren't together, though— and why they were placed in separate rooms, they didn't know either. it didn't matter which member we were talking about, because their environment was all the same: there was a steel chair and steel table in front of them, and soundproof walls wrapped around the four corners of the room. they were all dressed in lonely gray jumpers, too, as if the room wasn't gray enough.

a beep pulses through. the sound is shrill, but it was something more akin to a scream underwater.

their legs push through the air like it's thick syrup when they stand up and walk out the door. a long hallway of rooms is there to meet them, and as they go along the path, doors open up and the rest of the members join the lot, too.

their feet take them to a place at the end of the corridor. as much as at least fifty percent of their brains were mush right now, how come they knew where to go? where was this place, anyway?

and why were they here?

"hey, they've arrived."

a voice rings through their ears. like a light at the end of a long tunnel, the voice sounded too far away. who was this? why were they talking?

"hi, everyone. please take a seat."

oh, it's getting closer. the light must be hitting them now. amidst the foggy echo of their brains, the syrupy trance of their dreamlike state, the muted peacefulness of water drowning them into this groggy mindset, the pulsing sound of an alarm going out over and over and over and causing them a massive headache—

they resurface.

the voice is smooth and clear like glass. the world looked a little brighter, a little more high definition. no more did they feel like their brains were stuffed with cotton. when they blinked, two figures came into focus. the boys could breathe again.

"good." one of the two figures said. her long, dark hair ran all the way to her shoulders. a bobby pin clipped her bangs. she and her companion were sitting down and facing the group, so the boys formed a u-shape around the two of them. they haven't seen this woman before. "how are you all feeling?"

the boys mumble out quiet answers.

the woman chuckled silently. "i see you're still a bit tired. that's okay. it's natural. anyways. i'm miss jane, an agent here in the mission department. i'm also jieun's senior, if you remember her?"

that made a few of them stir. seungcheol, mingyu, jisoo, and seokmin, especially. they all looked like they either wanted to punch someone in the face or break down in tears.

the other person beside jane lightly sighed. "we knew mentioning jieun's name would garner this type of reaction from you. don't worry, though— we'll get into that later. i'm miss gemina, by the way, and jane and i work together."