POISONED YOUTH: TWISTED

CHAPTER 56

A week eventually passed, and somehow, everything started to feel normal again.

Maybe a little too normal.

It was the kind of normal that made them suspicious because whenever things became peaceful for too long, the boys had learned to expect something terrible waiting around the corner.

For now, though, they were too exhausted to care.

They had just finished what Taeyong proudly called hell training, while everyone else had already decided that whatever Taeyong called it was a personal attack.

Yuta was sprawled across the carpeted floor, staring blankly at the ceiling as though he had just returned from war.

"Gosh, I completely forgot how training works," he mumbled.

Hendery dropped beside him with a groan. "We're so not fit."

"Be shy, will you?" Taeyong rolled his eyes as he looked at the older men scattered around the room. "Look at the kids. They handled training much better than you."

"Duh. It's because they've been active all these years," Johnny argued, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "We haven't trained like this in an eternity."

"Exclude me from that," Renjun said as he entered the room, casually tossing bottled drinks toward the exhausted men. "I'm a black hole when it comes to physical training."

A few of them laughed.

Yoonoh leaned back against the wall and glanced at Jeno, who was still standing despite looking just as exhausted. "Jeno became more muscular than Yuta, though."

Yuta immediately lifted his head. "Excuse me?!"

"What?" Taeyong called out. "Jaehyun's right."

Doyoung, who was sitting nearby, nodded in agreement. "He is."

Yuta stared at them as if they had personally betrayed him. "This is ridiculous."

The room slowly filled with laughter again, and for a few moments, the exhaustion didn't matter. They were all together, joking around like they had done countless times before, and the old NCT members were slowly getting used to being around the younger members again.

Xiaojun leaned back with a long sigh, his gaze drifting toward the ceiling. "It's too chill in here."

Johnny glanced at him. "I know, right? Something's not right."

Taeyong looked around the room, watching everyone settle into the familiar chaos. There was something strange about seeing all of them together again after so many years. It almost felt like nothing had changed.

"Let's just appreciate the moment for now," Taeyong finally said, his voice quieter than before. "We're joining the fight tomorrow."

The laughter disappeared. Silence settled over the room.

Tomorrow.

The word hung heavily in the air, turning the comfortable atmosphere into something much more serious. Everyone knew what it meant. The remaining IKON headquarters were waiting, and so was Hanbin. They had spent the past week destroying branch after branch, gathering whatever information they could and preparing themselves for the final fight.