𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐒

2; 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙙𝙚

"you are a bitch. a complete bitch." mingyu flips out his notebook and pen, writing 'knife'—which alarmed both taehyung and seungcheol. maybe scaring mingyu like that was a bad idea? yeah, definitely is.

"hey, woah! settle down, i just got released from work!"

"u-uh, please calm down!"

mingyu huffed as he puts down his notebook and pen. who, in their right mind, would sneak up on a very pissed and stressed magazine editor? who, by the way, can literally obliterate you in seconds? "you shouldn't do that again."

seungcheol chortled. "yeah, yeah, i'm sorry!" seungcheol drapes an arm around mingyu, and taehyung. "so you're the tresspasser?"

"n-not really, but yeah. i went in the base." taehyung chuckled nervously, failing to meet seungcheol's eyes. a bit scary to converse with seventeen's leader—who'd killed approximately 194 mafia members!

"i don't know where chan is, though. i'm sorry." seungcheol says with a smile, while mingyu starts walking away with his phone pressed to his ear. "oops, i think you gotta go home. i have business too," seungcheol waved at taehyung, who smiled crookedly in return. as seungcheol passes by mingyu, he slaps the taller's back as a goodbye.

mingyu nodded at seungcheol. even though it was just for a short amount of time, it was good to see him face to face. that way, mingyu knew that seungcheol had been doing well.

what about the others?

"thanks, yachi." mingyu says, receiving the folder which contained next month's magazine issue drafts. "did you include the kim hyun interview article here?" mingyu smiled after he asked, to which yachi nodded.

the young lady gets the folder back from mingyu, and opens it to the page of the kim hyun interview article. "i'm sorry if it's too daft, mingyu-sunbae. it's my first time actually writing for the magazine!"

mingyu chortled. "no, no, it's alright. i'll point out your mistakes after i check it, so you can improve. see you later," mingyu raises his hand, a gesture that was meant to dismiss yachi. mingyu starts reading yachi's article as soon as the clink-clank sound from his assistant's heels were gone.

she can kick my ass off the editor position. mingyu laughed, impressed at yachi's work. it definitely caught his attention, yes—but what's this little index card doing here? is this a part of the drafts?

mingyu picks up the index card, smaller than the size of the editor's palm. it reads:

jwoleooionsvnwae •••• •- •- - •- •• ••

"excuse me. i'm not in seventeen anymore." mingyu huffed. he walks out of his office, stands on the doorway and shouts: "WHO GAVE ME A DUCKING CODE TO SOLVE?! IS THIS SUPPOSED TO TELL ME THAT I SUCK OR SOMETHING?"

but mingyu knew that it didn't mean anything obscene about him. there was 'hawaii' written in morse code and mingyu isn't, in any way, connected to hawaii.

"ah!" yachi clumsily hurried over to mingyu. mingyu frowned at her, as she knocked off some things while hurrying over to her boss. "kim hyun g-gave that to me. i don't know what it m-means, mingyu-sunbae." to that, mingyu raised an eyebrow.

"you sure nobody's making fun of me?"

"no!"

"not even you?"

"n-never!"

"alright." mingyu paused, before he turned around and went back in his office. though he didn't like doing much brain work(surprising for a magazine editor), he still solved the other part of the code that he didn't get. "hawaii. morse code. pretty common, so what did they use in the other code? are these just jumbled letters?"

"i'm making caesar salad. want me to make extra for you?"

"yes, i believe today is julius caesar's birthday, and i would like to celebrate the festivity by eating caesar salad and cracking codes using caesar's box."

"caesar's box? is that like his magic code-solving machine?"

"aha, no, it's not a machine. look, i will demonstrate."

"caesar's box!" mingyu perked up, raising his pen up a little as he remembers the time that he made caesar salad for he and wonwoo. ah, the times that he was with seventeen was the best part of his life. specifically, spending mornings in the kitchen while conversing with a smarter person.

no, don't get emotional! just decode the goddamn thing! mingyu nods, sniffing. "okay, i hope it works." mingyu mutters as he counts the characters: sixteen. mingyu writes the code in another paper, top to bottom, four letters in a row—because the square root of sixteen is four.

mingyu ended up with this:

jwol
eooi
onsv
nwae

"okay, now read from top to bottom for every row." mingyu says, leaning closer to the table to read it better.

mingyu writes his final answer, and reads it aloud while still in shock. "jeon wonwoo's alive...?"

who the fuck sent him this? right, kim hyun. mingyu was fuming, as this matter is not something to joke about; this kim hyun is abhorrent. what was kim hyun's connection to the supernatural society? how in the world did he know about wonwoo?

anyway, let's set that aside for later. he needed to tell this to the other members. mingyu started with seungcheol. that guy would know what to do, right? maybe it's his agenda after all! he is unexpected.

but, sadly, the supposed intriguing conversation with seungcheol about this code went to voicemail.

who will be interested in this now? mingyu was sure that the other seventeen members did not want anything to do with their past, or wonwoo.

maybe joshua? no, he'll be busy. he always is. minghao? he knows how to deal with sick jokes like these, and he knows when a sick joke isn't a sick joke at all. right. right! minghao!

mingyu scrolled down his contacts, trying to find the name 'minghoe'—which hit him like a huge wave. a wave of nostalgia. the time that mingyu created minghao's contact was the time that he was still actually close with the skinny man, and when mingyu still liked minghao.

on second thought, minghao might not answer the call; because, the last time that mingyu talked to him, minghao was fuming mad at a comment that mingyu made about minghao being a 'pussy' because minghao wanted to leave seventeen.

anyway, mingyu disregards that, and calls minghao. as the continuous ringtone played, mingyu chants. "pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up, pick u—— minghao!"

"what's up, dipshit?"