Depreciation (Criminal AU) (WayV x Reader)

Visiting Hours

Chapter warnings: mild language

Word count: 1361

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After being released from her initial questioning, Y/N immediately took to Twitter. While she no longer had her original phone, (she had told the officers she lost it- in reality, WayV had confiscated it from her), they offered her a temporary replacement. She knew she would have to get a new one soon, as the likelihood of this one being monitored was almost a guarantee- it was the only way they would have offered to give her a new phone. Still, for now, she had no choice. What she was searching for wasn't suspicious, anyway.

The first thing she did was type "WayV" into the search bars. The results that came up were expected, but unsettling.

WayV concert

WayV Lucas

WayV postponed

WayV is over

What could this mean? Had SM released a statement? What did the general public know? She found it almost impossible to fathom that they had managed to keep the allegations completely under wraps, so what was the excuse this time? Heart twisting in tension, she clicked on the first tag, clicking through until she came to an official article.

WayV Tour Postponed Due to Unforeseen Complications

She began to read the content of the body, skimming to the paragraphs that caught her interest. Most of it was corporate bullshit, but she managed to get the gist based on various lines.

"Unfortunately, Wong Yukhei of WayV, commonly known as Lucas, had suffered a mild injury. While we believe he will be in good health shortly, WayV will be postponing their tour until further notice. We thank you for your concern and your patience in this matter, and we will keep all of the WayZenNi updated as much as we are able."

So they weren't planning on releasing the extent of Lucas's injuries? The last she had seen him, he was covered in those gashes, but he was still very stably alive. Hendery had said he killed the man, along with Xiaojun, but... that couldn't have been the case. He wouldn't have had time to incapacitate Xiaojun and completely kill Lucas in the few seconds she had been in the basement. He had just been saying it to cause her pain in her final moments.

Still, the article was right about one thing- Lucas wouldn't be performing any time soon. It was clear that they intended to keep all of the allegations under wraps. In the event that WayV was proven innocent, they needed to be able to put them back on stage with no controversy. If any of this got out, it was over. Still, it was fairly easy to demand an unbiased jury, so the people who did act as jurors wouldn't be involved afterwards.

At this, she started clicking through fan tweets. Some were nicer than others, and each one weighed on her like a mountain.

I'm so sorry bbysss, get better soon! :(

Haha I bet Lucas got hit by a truck or something

This is so lame lmao when has sm evr relaesed a statement this fast?? it's for sure a coverup

Y/N forced herself to take a deep breath. No matter the scandal, injury, or announcement, there would always be people who made crazy wild guesses for the purposes of humor or sensationalism. There was no way any of these people knew what was really going on, right? Forcing herself to pry her eyes off the thousands of tweets, she chose to look at a few other things. If her phone was being monitored, it may be suspicious that her first actions was just to search WayV on Twitter.

Her next decision was to try and visit them. She knew where the detention center was, and they were technically just in holding until a temporary decision was made, so she had the right- if they accepted. Her guess was that they were all being held separately, although she wasn't sure if they'd be tried that way as well. Walking into the station, she told the man at the front desk of her intentions.

"I'd like to speak to the group of men that was brought in last night?" He looked up at her.

"Which one?"

"Are they detained separately?" He looked to his computer, clicking a few things.

"Not all of them. Not enough room. They're all in smaller groups."

"Who's with who?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Look, lady, I can't just hand out names. Either you know who you want to speak to or you leave before you get into trouble." She held up a hand in defense.

"Sorry, sorry." So who did she want to talk to? She wanted to ask for Lucas, but she assumed he had been taken to urgent care or a hospital of some sort. The chances that he was here were slim to none, and producing an incorrect name would be more than suspicious at this point.

"Ten." She finally said. Seeing the look on his face, she amended, "Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul." She was embarrassed at how flawlessly she could produce it, but she was a WayV fan, after all. His gaze changed from confusion to understanding.

"Sorry. The nicknames are written on here, his is just... kind of off the page."

"I get it." She watched as he stood, keys jingling as he unlocked the door to the back room.

"Hold on, I'll ask them if they want to see you." He disappeared for a moment, leaving her to wonder what their response would be. Maybe Ten had some kind of plan, maybe they had already escaped? It wasn't long before he returned.

"We're good to go." Leading her back, he explained, "We can't take them out of the holding cells, but you can talk from the hallway. Try not to bother the other inmates. It's fine if you want to talk to the rest of the group, but don't force them to do anything." She nodded. "I have to work the desk, but don't try anything. I can see you on the security cameras." She thanked him profusely, only daring to look through the bars once he had turned the corner.

Looking into the cell, relief flooded her body. Although it didn't look the most comfortable, she saw Kun and Ten both looking intently at her, seemingly surprised at her presence. She convinced herself that it wasn't a dream, that they were sitting right in front of her. She had gotten so used to being around them twenty four hours a day that being separated seemed ethereal.

"Oh, thank God." She wrapped her hands around the bars, leaning in. Kun and Ten glanced to each other, and then back to her. Finally, the leader muttered,

"Keep it down. The cameras don't have audio capabilities, but if we talk too loud the officer might hear us."

"What are you doing here?" Ten asked, basically destroying any semblance of official-ness that Kun had been trying to imbue. "Aren't you like, ratting us out to the cops?" Putting a hand to the back of her head, she laughed awkwardly.

"Yeah, about that..." She explained what she had told them during her questioning, earning several insane looks from the both of them.

"You're kidding." Ten stuttered, "You really care?"

"That seems illogical." Kun stated quite bluntly. "You now put yourself in a position of perjury, as well as aiding and abetting should we be convicted. The only risk you run by admitting our situation is that we walk free and retaliate, which would be highly unlikely in that situation. It's frankly a stupid decision." Glaring, she mentioned,

"I can always walk back out there and tell the truth." Sighing, she continued, "Look, we need to find a way to bust you out."

"Impossible. Breaking out is practically admitting guilt." Kun stated. "We'd have to stay on the run forever, our music careers would be over, and our entire business network would shatter. Not only that, but we're more easily recognizable than any random criminal." At this, Y/N was starting to feel hopeless again. She knew he was right... Still, what could she do about it?

"Well what are we supposed to do?"

"Earn our freedom."