the city needs some saving from a group of lethal criminals running loose. it takes some honor students, a bunch of gamers, and a rookie gang - thirteen teenagers to get the job done.
the ride home was longer than they thought, so the boys opted to examine the jar in the van.
jihoon is the first to open it. "huh. the fuck is this?"
seungkwan frowns and scoots over to him, taking in the sight of the small ship figurine. "i-i'm not sure, that's the ship right? it has to be. there wasn't anything else like that there."
"let me see." it's minghao who's talking. "well shit. when he said it was a ship, it really is a ship, huh..."
"so what do we do with this?" wonwoo pipes up. the boys purse their lips. he was right— what were they to do with a mere figurine? were all their efforts— those early mornings, tireless afternoons, sleepless nights— wasted?
"i don't know you guys." whispered jun. the ship is passed to him, and he observes it with gentle hands. "this doesn't look like a flash drive or usb or anything, right? but it looks pretty expensive. hand-painted. i don't know, maybe ship was an idiom or metaphor for something else? and they...no. no, that can't be."
jeonghan looks in the rearview mirror by the front. "they what?"
jun gulps. "no, this is actually fucking ridiculous— but what if they knew? what if someone knew we were coming and placed the ship there? and the real thing is somewhere else?"
silence. dead, heavy silence. "so you're saying this one's a fake?" mingyu.
"no, not like that! look, it's just a thought— but it makes sense, doesn't it?"
"damn it all even if it makes sense! so we almost got killed in there and probably imprisoned if we weren't careful just for...for this?" soonyoung.
"shit, guys, calm down—"
"how do we fucking calm down? dude, we fucked up! starting from mission not so possible, i knew i did something wrong there. please. our efforts were wasted for nothing, shit, i'm sorry—" minghao.
"don't say it like that! you haven't even looked carefully at it!" dino.
"how the hell do we not say that when there's literally nothing here!?" jihoon bursts out. "don't be stupid, dino. we went wrong somewhere along the way—"
"oh, there we are again with your superiority complex, jihoon. we tried our best, i tried my best okay? don't fucking call dino stupid! i've been trying to warn you about this, remember?" seungkwan.
"then where does this leave us?" it's seokmin who makes them think. "guys, seriously. let's not be immature and irrational. okay, this is a fake, but we can try again, right-?"
soonyoung shakes his head. "no, we can't try again. we can't try again. the mission ends on may 31. it's may 25. we can't fail."
"why do you keep saying we'll fail and shit? what the hell, guys? we'll find a way—"
"this is the reality, dino! sometimes we fail and it fucking happens and it will hurt and we can't be able to do anything with it! we don't live in a fairy tale, not everything can be fixed with fucking fairy dust."
hansol takes in a shaky breath. the voices around him were getting loud. too loud. the most he could do was silence it with a small voice. "guys, please stop. please stop. don't fight."
they keep getting louder. it's not stopping. even the three eldest in the front are starting to get uneasy and restless.
when the yelling almost punches a hole through the roof, seungcheol lets the vehicle screech to a halt, and he nearly slams his hand on the dashboard. "didn't you hear what hansol said?hell, STOP FIGHTING!"
"stop fighting," hansol echoes, knuckles turning white from how hard he gripped the fabric of his jacket. "please. stop it."
and they do. the boys realise what they've done again, and all they could do was slump in their seats and stubbornly avoid one another's eyes. dino sadly hands over the jar to hansol, who was probably the only one who he could talk to freely. hansol sighs and shivers at the cold coating the glass.
he notices the cork on the jar. he unplugs it. the bottle— jar, whatever— opens in half. hansol furrows his eyebrows at that. how was that possible?
he puts half and half of the bottle together and closes it with the cork again. ah. the cork acted as a holder, a stopper that held the two parts together. the way it was designed was quite interesting. hansol plugs out the cork again, immediately taking the ship out of the bottle. the boys watch as he lifts it near his eyes.
"oh, wow." hansol mumbles. "you guys, the sails."
everyone else curiously peered at hansol, who quickly took apart tiny pieces of the ship and unscrewed its paper sails. handing the three pieces of paper to dino, he looked at the bottom of the ship as well— and detached the two wooden pieces that acted as its little stand.
hansol lifts up the wooden stick for everyone to see, uncapping the top and revealing a usb port. "its a flash drive."
their jaws drop. silently, hansol shows them the pieces of paper, too. "there are words— no, names written here. i don't know what they are or who they're associated with, but there's plenty of names. if this is how ariah, tw, or anyone else, really— wanted to hide their secrets, i have to say that it's quite clever."
he carefully puts it all back again. the boys look around, sheepish, suddenly feeling awkward at the way they panicked over for...well, for nothing earlier. hansol musters a little smile.
"above all, i think it's definitely not a fake."
they all get home and hug their worries out after.
—
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