𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐒

18; 𝙨𝙪𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨

"all fine now? your fingers feel good?" jeonghan asked, putting away the materials and antiseptics that he used. "if you feel okay, we'll call vernon and kwan to meet us at the lounge now."

mingyu sat up, looking at the blood stained covers of his hotel bed. jeonghan noticed this, so he says: "don't worry about that. we're not going to sleep in this hotel, and joshuji will set an illusion so that the staff won't be suspicious of what we did here."

"okay, let's meet them." mingyu nods subtly. jeonghan nodded back, standing up to leave—but mingyu grasped his wrist. jeonghan furrowed his eyebrows.

"mingyu-ssi, i'm married."

"no. i just.... ugh.." mingyu lets go of jeonghan's wrist. he buries his face in his hands, frustrated. "do you think it's worth it? going through all the trouble just to get wonwoo back? i mean, regarding w systems, there's koushi to take care of that. and, most of us has moved on and have nice, normal lives."

jeonghan paused, licking his dry lips as he prepared to speak. the said man sits back down on the bed. "if we're not on this mission, soonyoung would be gone. if not for wonwoo, we would all act as if we were strangers, like we didn't have lots of memories together; it feels like we're pretending that we're not a family.

"good job, mingyu. you're the one who pushed most of us to do this with you." jeonghan patted mingyu's back, pulling him up after. "let's go? seokmin said that vernon and kwan are already downstairs."

"alright."

the two grabbed their valuables, taking the elevator to go downstairs. they met joshua and junhui standing near the elevator; junhui being there to escort mingyu to where the others were, with vernon and seungkwan. joshua was there for jeonghan to take upstairs to their hotel room, to set the illusion on the blood stained sheets.

"hey, jeonghan." joshua pouts a little, watching the elevator doors close. "you have a humongous blood stain on your shirt."

"what?! i was cautious while i healed mingyu!" jeonghan frowns, looking down on his shirt that had a 'blood stain'. he pinches his shirt with his left and right hand, lifting the clothing from his torso to see the stain better. "aw. i liked this shirt."

joshua giggles, inching closer to jeonghan as he looked at the blood stain suspiciously. joshua slowly removed the blood stain illusion on jeonghan's shirt, amusingly watching his husband's expression change from upset to enlightened. "hmm, a blood stain?"

"you fraud—!" jeonghan cuts himself off, looking up to meet joshua's eyes—but he was taken aback at how close joshua was to him. "what is this? j-joshuji, step away. we're not teena—"

"what is wrong with observing the love of my life? quite funny, actually, you seem so innocent." joshua smiled, winking teasingly at jeonghan. the other only rolled his eyes, scoffing playfully. "notice how i said 'seem'."

"yeah, yeah, i know." jeonghan shook his head, preventing himself from laughing along with joshua. "by the way, the sub dermal transmitters?"

"done. you just have to check if it irritates the skin, or something like that." joshua stepped away from jeonghan, fishing out his phone. he scrolls, before showing his screen to jeonghan. "here are the five active ingredients of the ink."

"is the germanium really needed?" jeonghan's eyebrows furrowed, frowning. watching jeonghan, joshua's expression softened. before joshua spaced out and got caught staring, joshua looked back on his phone screen. "i guess we could make it work. it's okay if i moderate the quantity of this one, right?" jeonghan pointed to some text on joshua's phone, but joshua wasn't paying attention.

"yes." joshua replied. he shoves his phone down his pocket, crossing his arms after. jeonghan nods curtly.

"hey, joshua?"

"yeah?"

"you're not smooth. i saw you."

joshua paused. he giggled. "love you."

seungkwan softly hugged mingyu. vernon did as well, smiling awkwardly. "i know you messed up our sheets. i don't know if you weren't informed that this is our hotel, but i don't care, i'm charging you for it." seungkwan says, making the seven other men laugh. it was funny because it was true. "hey, sorry for thinking you were delusional."

"i mean, yeah, i would expect mingyu being—ow! i never get screentime, stop cutting me off!" seokmin angrily shoved jihoon off of him, making the group laugh louder. "nice to meet you two again, by the way. there are pending cases back in korea that we would like for you to take."

"anyway, yeah, thank you for coming back too." seungcheol says, playing with his hands. "hey, mind if i get some free food from your hotel?"

seungkwan scolds seungcheol as the older heads to the dinner buffet, while the others trail behind them. guess they'll be feeding six other full grown men(who can finish everything in the buffet in less than thirty minutes).

joshua and jeonghan caught up with them sooner, having a good time with seventeen(minus two members) while swindling seungkwan and vernon's money by eating everything in the buffet. joshua mentioned that mingyu can replace them in no time, and that he was a chef before.

(vernon was relieved, conned by joshua. seungkwan was not fazed.)

"by the way, chan?" vernon asks, saying the name of his best friend after quite a while. vernon doesn't have contact with chan anymore; not because they fought, they were still on good terms when seventeen split. "did he refuse to go with us?"

"honestly, we don't, uh, really know." seungcheol says. "joshua can't track him. it's like he just disappeared, you know? his name.. it wasn't anywhere."

"now that you bring it up, i'm kind of worried." jeonghan added, pouting slightly. "chan is a wise kid, but he makes clumsy mistakes sometimes. oh, he's not a kid anymore." jeonghan remembered that chan was twenty.

"time flies fast." minghao added. "it felt like an eternitt when i was in pledis, but when i was in seventeen, it's like we lasted for just a second." minghao crossed his arms, as everyone silently agreed.

"if i knew that wonwoo was going to be taken away that day, i would've done everything i could." seungkwan added. "anyway, we'll find chan. i can't say anything about wonwoo yet—i'm a little too anxious to predict anything yet."

"seems like your ability really works," mingyu added, pointing to the two persons who just joined their clump of people, trying to blend in. "you summoned the man in all white. with a plus one."

"hey!" koushi exclaimed. everyone from seventeen stared at him like he had three eyes, making koushi a little uncomfortable. "i'm koushi alexandersson! i have news!"

"yeah, i'm also here." minseok raised his hand. "i tried to kidnap him for information but he was a good guy." minseok jerked his thumb to koushi. mingyu's eyebrows furrowed.

"okay, um, what's the tea?" seungkwan asked, raising an eyebrow. "you all barged in suddenly."

"we found jung rijan!" koushi exclaims. "which is, lee chan's new name for himself!" this earned gasps, comments, and loud chatters between the members. this just proves that seungkwan's ability is truly amazing.

seungcheol facepalmed. "if he's going to pick a new name, he shouldn't just jumble his original one. stupid ass."

(a/n: thEre's gonna be a lot of action after this oNe sO—)