𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐒

40; 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜

tw: mentions of rape

+a/n: sorry if i was not updating recently! online classes are ongoing and i'm a bit busy, and this chapter is a 'lil bit of a filler, but i'll post several chapters on the weekend! promise!

"wait, you're telling me that you were a mafia member?! and the first one you told about it was chan!?" minghao leans forward to look at seungcheol who drove their van. seungcheol purses his lips and only gives him a nod.

"oh, and then, you acted like a couple again, then you made a whole ass commotion in the mall while the three ex-mafia members of yours are searching for the weapon supplier of neko mafia but you caught two neko mafia guards instead! that's just.. crazy!" soonyoung remarked, making hand motions as he narrated.

chan facepalmed, being reminded of the ridiculous things he'd done to be the center of attention for like, an hour. seungcheol did some crazy things too—but his deeds are unparalleled to chan's embarrassing deeds that would probably drive him nuts and ram his head into a wall. they even got to be on the news! what a shame!

"darling, keep that camera away from my face or i'll make you drown in my endless wads of money! said jung rijan, the wife of detective choi seungcheol earlier in the mall today. the incident has caused a commotion. however, netizens on twitter have mixed thoughts about this." seungkwan mocks, remembering the report from the news yesterday word for word.

thanks a lot, seungkwan. chan will now be burying himself(no, not in his 'endless wads of money') and he will never resurface again unless w systems and neko mafia have taken over the world.

"chan's probably so red right now," mingyu laughs, tapping furiously on his phone. he was apparently playing a fishing game which wonwoo was intently watching. "it's okay, you used your fake name!"

"yeah, what about me?!"

"you can manage. you're not the one who whined about a detail on sneakers being too crooked." minghao replies with a snort. the whole van fills with laughs, making chan's face fully evolve into a tomato.

"the lee estate. i've never been here," jeonghan says, looking out the window to see the humongous gate made of the best materials. one could only wonder how much they spent just on the gate. "i like it already."

"rich vibes," soonyoung says, as seungcheol steers the car to the right. seokmin jumps out of the van and presses a button, before the gates opened automatically. seokmin got in the car.

seungcheol drives through the pathway, seemingly endless. the green, tall trees on both sides of the pathway look very alive, amusing the members for a while since the pathway was so long. when seungcheol reaches the roundabout, he takes the first exit out of the three.

"okay, what the fuck, you said it's only like a small village with one street?" soonyoung leans to seokmin, squinting as if he was inspecting a piece of evidence. seokmin furrowed his eyebrows. "what?!"

"it is like a small village."

"but it has a roundabout with three fucking exits?!"

"okay, the first exit is where the houses are and the parking lots. second exit, clubhouse, third exit, garden maze. seokmin is rich as fuck." seungcheol explains, firing up the fuel, starting an argument. seungcheol and chan don't participate in such activity.

once seungcheol has parked, seventeen heads to the second house on the right block. seokmin simply barges in and invites seventeen inside.

"okay—what the heck, you didn't knock!" lee minho, seokmin's brother, shows up in the foyer after hearing chatters and laughs. minho places his hands on his waists as a judging expression elicited on his face. "your three guests are so picky."

"i heeeaaaaarr you, minho!" jisung had said, from the kitchen. "i seeeeee you toooooo!"

seventeen quickly shuts up upon hearing the new voice, while minho and seokmin sighed. is it a coincidence that they did it in unison? "see? that piece of shit had been requesting 'cat pancakes', a goddamn squirrel, and a coral red hoodie. why did you leave these three shits with me?"

"i don't know, i don't want them to stay with my wife or minseok since jinha's there," seokmin replies. "anyway, we split up. wonwoo, mingyu, vernon stays at my house. minghao, soonyoung, jihoon, jeonghan, jisoo, at minho's house. junhui, chan, seungcheol, seungkwan, you stay at minseok's. stay vigilant."

seungcheol snickers. minho gets to deal with all the loud ones. "alright. oh! i get to play with jinha! let's go, chan!" the (still) embarrased chan was dragged out.

"why are we doing this again?" junhui asks, scratching his scalp.

"duh, because of chan and cheol, the little stunt seungcheol did in the correction center—basically because of cheol, our base is getting mobbed. we'll get back there when the coast is clear." jeonghan replies, luckily going unnoticed by seungcheol(who would've started an argument if he heard that).

wonwoo grazes his hand on a thorn, causing him to retract his hand from the rose he was admiring intently. this made him frown, since he really wanted to look at the rose for longer. the garden maze of the lees don't just have bushes, but roses growing out from the sides of the paths. everything was green, red and blue.

wonwoo liked how calming it seemed.

"hello." the voice of kim mingyu makes wonwoo look up, to stare at his face. wonwoo couldn't help but notice the sketch pad and pen that mingyu held. "thanks to you and soonyoung, they've indentified the mastermind of neko mafia. we're just going to locate them now."

"time is running." wonwoo replied, wiping off the blood from his index finger on his pants. "i can tell that yachi and the others are on the move."

mingyu approaches, with furrowed eyebrows. "hm?" wonwoo noticed how mingyu's hair bounced with every step. "you're with seventeen. there's nothing to worry about."

wonwoo laughs, turning around to take the other path. mingyu follows him anyway, when wonwoo walked away. wonwoo paid no attention to mingyu, preoccupied.

mingyu stayed silent for a couple of minutes, until wonwoo spoke himself.

"all of seventeen may be ability users, but w systems has an empire. they've got a little bit of influence, and they have a lot more connections since they're based in the us and different kinds of people drop by that place." wonwoo simply replied. at this, mingyu wondered if wonwoo was up to something else. "yi-eun's ability may be nothing special, but it's powerful."

"hmm, really? we have chan."

"correct, but still." wonwoo says, picking another rose. the thorns gave him cuts, but this time, wonwoo doesn't pay any attention to the blood oozing out of his fingers. he simply just wanted to admire the flower up close. "a nekoma member kidnapped me, to use me as blackmail but then he suddenly sent me to los angeles. i remember being out of it for days.

"i also remember pretending to be unconscious while yi-eun raped me. i had tears in my eyes but i doubt that yi-eun paid any attention to what i felt. or if i was even alive, after the endless hits to the head when i was on flight to los angeles. yi-eun is merciless, and so are his men." wonwoo adds, handing the rose to mingyu. though bloodied, mingyu took it by the stem and admired it for himself.

"if we die, it's okay." mingyu replied, feeling a stinging sensation on his middle fingertip. he notices blood seeping out of a new cut. "they'd be dying with us anyway."