𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐒

32; 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙨

"jinha, i like your barrette!" seungcheol exclaimed, striding to the living room. he almost looked like an embarrassing dad with that goofy grin on his face. "it suits you!"

"mingyu-samchon gave it to me!" jinha happily pointed to mingyu, using a lollipop. it concerned seungcheol lightly. "he's very kind, papa! he gives me anything i want!" the kid mused, giggling while chan tried to fix her sleazy barrette.

"no sweets before dinner, though." chan warned, making jinha pout. seungcheol was worried for jinha's dental health, too. "would you want all your teeth to fall off? it will hurt more than a normal toothache. and, you will use your gums to chew! wouldn't that take a lot of time when you eat?"

jinha's gamut of expressions amused seungcheol. "okay! no sweets before dinner, mama!" jinha happily grinned at chan, who giggled and ruffled jinha's hair. "mama, you messed up my barrette!"

"sorry!"

"come here, papa will fix it!" seungcheol cooed, making jinha skid to seungcheol happily. chan rolled his eyes. fighting for the favorite parent now?

as mingyu watched the three play around, he found himself lost in thoughts while a mindless smile was plastered on his face. though seventeen might be fixed, there is still yi-eun who'd go for wonwoo and possibly all of seventeen. they can't just lay back and live without fear, because there are still unsolved problems to conclude.

"you're too busy, i think," mingyu turns around to a voice and a poke on his shoulder. "how're things going with that.... with wonwoo?" he spat out wonwoo's name with disgust, almost in a loathing tone.

"koushi! why're you here?" mingyu's eyes widen. koushi laughs, seeing the two other seventeen members perk up and eye him. koushi smiled at them as a greeting. "is there intel, or are you just here for wonwoo? he's doing fine."

"i need your help."

and so, that's how seventeen and koushi ended up in the conference room, with jinha occasionally banging on the door for permission to enter. she was not allowed, because (and i quote chan:) 'the grown-ups are dealing with taxes and other grown-up problems'.

"so you know, w systems had a partnership with pledis mafia here in korea. that means, fukuro, karasu and neko mafia are all involved too." koushi starts, dropping a manila folder on the table. he slides it across, and seungcheol took it. "have you ever encountered neko mafia?"

"they told us that neko mafia is the biggest mafia out of the three that pledis mafia is handling," jihoon answered, remembering the first time he was introduced to pledis mafia. "but we've never really encountered them."

"but they'll be easy to conquer, right?" jeonghan asks, furrowing his eyebrows. koushi turns to look at him. "i mean, we defeated pledis mafia."

seungcheol drops the manila folder after skimming over the pages inside. "this is your plan to take w systems down? are you asking us to help you with it? i..well, we're based in seoul, but..."

"no, no," koushi made an 'x' with his hands, pouting slightly towards the manila folder. "the w systems issue is for me to handle. it's about neko mafia. they're easy to take down, but hard to find. they're the best escape artists among the four mafias, they get away with almost anything. they blend in well with the civilians. they... i think they took wonwoo."

wonwoo shrugged. "whatever you say, bruce wayne." it seems like his hatred for koushi was still there, from their endless fighting when wonwoo was still in w systems.

(even though wonwoo wasn't exposed to koushi that much, yes, they're still enemies.)

koushi growled. "i'm not bruce wayne!" and then, he recomposes himself and spoke again. "neko mafia has less manpower than pledis, but they're not exposed, and that's what makes it hard for anyone to take them down. they're still affiliated with w systems. please, please, i don't want to see seoul getting cases of mass murder everyday."

"we got a hostage case just last week, if anyone cares," junhui states, drumming his fingers on the table. "eight of eight hostages died."

aw. sad junhui. nobody responded to him.

"i know what neko mafia's boss look like," wonwoo states monchalantly, swirling in his swivel chair. "he hosts drug parties. he likes curvy women."

seungcheol beamed. he was goddamn happy that he got ex-mafia members on his team. maybe a little too much. "great! it'll be a little bit easy then!"

"MAMA! PAPA!" jinha busts through the door, finally succeeding in lockpicking the conference room door. chan ran over to her and sushed her. "oh, everyone is here! hello, samchon!"

"jinha, be quiet! don't—"

"jinha?" koushi asked, turning all attention to him. "lee jinha?"

seokmin confusedly stood up, squinting at koushi. "you know my niece?"

"the windows are sealed!" koushi exclaims, trying to find a big weapon or anything that could bust through the sealed windows. "the fire is growing, mr. and mrs. lee, can your ability help?"

the lees only smiled at koushi, before eyeing each other sadly. koushi was confused. "koushi, before you go back to los angeles, can you do a favor for us?"

koushi always served anyone righteously, like he was a fucking superhero. "what is it? please hurry, the fire will get to us soon! we need to go!"

mrs. lee hands koushi a key. "geokkyeo street, building 504, apartment number 32." koushi took the key reluctantly as she spoke.

mr. lee added, "that's the babysitter's address."

"wait wha— why are you giving me the address of a babysitter? please cut to the chase!" koushi coughs, the smoke was suffocating now.

"lee jinha is her name. please take care of her for a while, give her to lee minseok when you've found him."

"w-wait!" koushi screams, but it was too late. the lees had already jumped in the fire, their undercover job to bust the drug dealers in this party was finished. they failed in arresting the criminals and they're going to die—koushi is on the same page as them too—but there's jinha.

koushi can't die if there's lee jinha, waiting patiently with her babysitter for her parents to pick her up and take her home. koushi needs to pick jinha up in the place of her parents.

"you knew my cousin?" seokmin asked, furrowing his eyebrows further. "you're the one who took jinha from the babysitter two years ago? you left jinha by minseok's doorstep with a goddamn note! why were you in korea?!"

the members reacted to seokmin's statement. it seemed like koushi was a broke parent from those fanfictions so he decided to sell or ship off his daughter to one direction or 5sos or something. a less weirder depiction would be: koushi dropping his daugter off in front of an orphanage with a note on her pyjamas because his line of work is dangerous for the both of them.

hopefully not fukuro mafia's orpahanage.

"because i was in a mission as well that time. i failed my initial mission, but," koushi chuckled, looking at his feet. "i think i did a good job in the mission that mr. and mrs. lee gave me before they died."

koushi looks at jinha, being reminded of his little brother by her goofy smile and pout.