The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

15

Bang.

The sound of hands colliding with the top of a desk filled the room, immediately silencing everyone inside. Piercing blue eyes scanned the room before landing on a specific individual with a glare.

"That's impossible," he shook his head.

"I saw it myself, sir," she responded instantly with her gaze fixed on his desk, unable to look directly at him.

"Then you saw wrong. There's no way they can be waking up. It's simply impossible."

She sighed, "I thought so too, sir, and I'm sorry to speak back to you but I know I didn't see wrong. I know what I saw. And I saw them become aware of their surroundings."

"You have been in your office day and night, Avery," he rolled his eyes. "You are exhausted and seeing things. Take the day off if you must but don't ever try to cause such commotion again, got it?"

"It wasn't just me who saw it, sir, my whole team did. Every single person that was in that office at the time saw it, even the cleaners."

He shook his head, releasing a heavy breath as he sat back down at his desk.

"Then perhaps all of this work is too much for you. You promised me, Avery, that you could handle this but apparently not. When I took this job off the former Chief Operating Officer's hands, you promised you and your team were the best for it. I trusted you with this. Don't make me question my decision. If it's too much for you, please tell me so I can pass this responsibility on to someone else."

"I am not making this up, Mr Brown!" she snapped, finally finding the courage to meet his gaze. "Insult me and my intelligence all you want but don't look down on my team. That office is filled with some of the world's best neurologists and software engineers. They have not been studying for decades upon decades for you to question their knowledge. The people sitting in that room, all eighty-three of them said they saw the teenagers break character. Maybe we are sleep deprived but that wouldn't explain how all of us saw the same thing at the same time."

He raised an eyebrow, eyes burning fury as he opened his mouth argue only to be interrupted.

"Sir," a man with short grey hair and large brown eyes mumbled. He wore a black suit with a red tie although it all looked too big for his short, lean body. "Sorry to interrupt but I believe this lady has a point. I have been in this institution for thirty-five years now. I was part of the first generation of workers and I watched the first generation of teenagers fight for survival. In all my years, only once has something like this happened. I remember his name: John Oakfield. What a brilliant young man. He woke up once and it intrigued us so you put him back to sleep to see how he would react. He killed all the teenagers with him and then himself. There was nothing we could do from then on."

"So?" Mr Brown, the CEO, asked, rubbing his hand over his face in frustration. "You believe they really are waking up, huh? Then let them wake up. What can we do about it?"

"We can't do that, sir," Avery responded.

"And why's that?"

"It could be very dangerous," the short elderly man who went by Roger stated. "Too dangerous. If they find out who they are and why they are here, if they remember everything, this institution will be in grave danger. Our very lives might be at stake."

"Then what do you suppose we do, Roger? Seeing that you are the only that dealt with that John guy," Mr Brown asked.

"You need to lead them out. They'll be so overwhelmed by the thought of escaping that they'll do anything to feel safe again. It takes three to four years for their memory to completely return. If we work quickly, we can get them out and far away from us so that once their memory comes back, they won't even be able to get to us. They won't be able to do a thing."

"No," Avery shook her head. "We can't do that either."

"Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I was there when-"

"When John Oakfield woke up, you mentioned that but I've heard the story. The situation we are faced with right now is completely different. We need to pull the plug. Now."

"Pull the plug?" Mr Brown chuckled. "We are halfway through a season, Avery. We can't just end it. The people have spoken and they need their entertainment. They need to watch a kids mess around and fight for survival. We can't just pull the plug."

"When we signed the contract to build this institution, we agreed that as much as it is entertainment, it is also educational. I don't know about the rest of you but I signed a contract which guaranteed my safety. I remember it stated that this whole project will be shut down if our lives our on the line and they are. We aren't dealing with Mr John Oakfield anymore. John was the eight of clubs, right? Eight of clubs. Eight is a lucky number so he was the gentle and happy one of them all and the fact that he was a club means he valued his team and their amazing teamwork was what made them stand out. If even he, the most gentle of them all, could go to the extent of kill all the clubs and then himself, we don't even stand a chance if they wake up this time. Right now we are dealing with three Aces and both the Jokers waking up at the same time," Avery sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Either we kill them or they kill us."