𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐒

43; 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪

(a/n: a little bit of a filler chapter, but still relevant hehe)

mingyu didn't expect chan to be sat beside wonwoo this early in the morning. he's looking very awake, no eyebags, which meant that he didn't stay all night too. what's the cause of this peculiar sleep schedule shifting?

"good... morning," mingyu dubiously greets, watching the barren scene in front of him unfold. both chan and wonwoo turned to look at him, which made him feel a little awkward. "what's up?"

"chan saw the news about what's happening in los angeles. he said he wanted to help koushi kill yi-eun, since chan has a negating ability."

if mingyu can be any more loud, he would've shouted louder. "WHAT?!" he shouted that mainly because he wanted the others to wake and take a look at chan's request. mingyu wants seventeen to have a mutual decision about this.

"shh, hyung!" chan sushes the tallest immediately, fussing. wonwoo takes a bite out of his pop tart. "i don't want them to know. i want to... i want to go there alone."

"i'm joining," wonwoo said. "i want to help and plus, i know a lot about koushi."

mingyu facepalms, recieving a lot of stress this early in the morning. not that he minded, though, he'd rather talk this out with chan and get stressed than let chan and wonwoo go but get scolded by seventeen for not doing anything.

"what's yi-eun's ability?" mingyu asks, walking behind the counter to grab a pop tart for himself. "can't koushi handle that for himself?"

"super strength, hyung, kinda like the main character from that hero school anime we always watch!" chan exclaimed, referring to the green haired hero. "wonwoo-hyung says that yi-eun is very fast, so his opponents don't have any time to back up or prepare an attack."

"yes. once yi-eun's punch lands on chan, his ability will be negated and we can attack him from behind. i can elaborate our plan, but," wonwoo shrugs, stealing mingyu's pop tart. mingyu glared at him and grabbed a new one. "we'd have no time to prepare and head to los angeles."

"you're tolerating his plan?" mingyu crossed his arms over his chest, squinting at both the men in front of him. "i expected more logical things from you, actually. is this because w systems poisoned you?"

wonwoo rolled his eyes, to chan's excitement. mingyu took note of chan's reaction. "lee chan here is being reasonable. i trust his decisions because that's what i would do too, especially when assassins are everywhere and i could drop dead anytime. i should kill them first before they kill me."

wow. how childish. it was mingyu's turn to roll his eyes, processing when wonwoo had gotten that 'me first' mindset. but then again, mingyu would like to kill his murderer first before he could be murdered—so maybe it made sense.

"i'm joining."

fucking hell. when did joshua get up so early without jeonghan clinging to his arm? does he usually make illusions to spy everyone? mingyu needs chan(who can sense if anyone is using their ability) around if he doesn't want joshua to know his nasty sleeping mannerisms.

"joshua-hyung?" wonwoo turns around, his confused frown turning into a smile. "ah, right. illusions. we totally need that. we are cordially inviting you to jo—"

"what if you guys die?! jeonghan is so far away from the three of you! i mean, it's good that you're selfless and all, but remember when wonwoo was abducted and we thought you were dead? seventeen fucking dismantled! we became shit!"

"if one of us dies, or if all of us dies, hmm.." joshua hums, unable to make up a statement reassuring enough for mingyu. not because mingyu is a hard person to please, but because this planned backup for koushi is literally a suicide mission. and then—voila. a great idea. "how about you just join us?"

"but—"

"great! resources! we get him anything and he can turn it into anything!" wonwoo claps, exciting chan further. joshua nods and smiles at mingyu, tempting him to join.

mingyu contemplates. if he stays here, he has a high chance of staying alive, because he won't be in a suicide mission, duh. but, still—mingyu also wants to help koushi. not did he only help mingyu when wonwoo knocked mingyu out and tried to kill him, but he also helped several other seventeen members and he helped in some missions.

"alright." mingyu fished out his special pen—the one that wonwoo made for him years ago, the one which had a great ink branding. that was his best weapon. "let's go."

mingyu was quite surprised that he decided in such a whim and he's actually ready for how painstaking his death would be under yi-eun or some other unfortunate inconvenience. though, he said yes now, and he can't turn back.

wonwoo laughs, turning around and grabbing his car keys. "this shows your naive side, mingyu-ssi. but, i don't have time to make you contemplate about the choice you made, and i seconded joshua's motion. let's go."

wonwoo grabs mingyu's wrist, dragging him into the elevator as he thrashed and whined that he could walk to the basement himself. the two other people involved followed, just watching mingyu in amusement.

wonwoo threw mingyu inside his car, and immediately revved his i8. "one, two, three—where's chan?" wonwoo's eyebrows knitted after his head count.

"i think, with seungcheol." joshua simply replied.

"l-lee chan!" seungcheol pants, grasping chan's hand to stop him from walking to wonwoo's car. "you have to be careful, alright? here."

chan was taken aback, watching a frenetic seungcheol fish out something from his pocket. chan was dead curious: what is that?

"these dolls are from jinha. no, they're not real people, jinha bought these three rag doll keychains while seventeen was dismantled. she gave them to me, and she said that it reminded her of... of us. of her family," seungcheol was still breathless, but he still talked for that long in one take of oxygen.

stunned, chan takes the keychains with the three dolls on it. chan inspects it and admires it for a while before wonwoo honked—which meant that they should get going. chan has to leave.

"lee chan. i did not save your life back in that bar years ago just for you to die two years later. okay? okay. be careful. jinha's waiting, seventeen's waiting. i'm waiting." seungcheol sighs, cupping chan's face with his calloused hands. though, it felt warm.

"i will come back with my hyungs. please be vigilant in here too, you never know." chan's heart did a backflip as seungcheol smiled wider. "i love you."

"i love you too. now, be safe. wonwoo's honking too loud," seungcheol scratches his nape, nodding to wonwoo's car. chan laughed as he pocketed the doll keychain. "bye!"

"bye!"

seungcheol doesn't spare chan another glance as he steps inside the lift immediately. before seungcheol could even have a gay freak out moment, an annoying and disrupting call from seokmin came, signalled by the annoying beeps and vibrations from his phone.

"what?"

"the vents—the vents. they're spraying out sleeping gas. we're trying to find the e-escape route but there's a smoke wall u-up, hurry a—" seungcheol drops his phone while the elevator shakes and the lights turn off.

i knew this would happen. seungcheol did his best to stay awake as the elevator started to fill up with smoke, which oddly makes seungcheol sleepy. seungcheol drops on his knees and feels for his phone, and a smile elicits when he's finally found it.

seungcheol quickly scrolls through his contacts, ignoring the irrelevant names—ah. there it is.

"hello, bang chan? me and seventeen are about to be kidnapped in a few seconds. you're up."

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