Stronger || NCT mafia au

Chapter 23 | "tame the savages"

"Hey Hyunnie"

"Hey Nana" she says, looking up at him. He's been cleaned up, the blood wiped off of his lip and cuts. His ankle is wrapped, having been kicked by Hongjoong, while he holds an ice pack to his jaw.

"So, you came to see me, huh?" He says, raising his eyebrows at her.

"I came to get Chaeyoung's evaluations and I figured I'd stop by" she says, going to sit on the edge of his bed, taking his hand in her lap. He hums at her with a disbelieving smile.

They sit in comfortable silence for a bit, just enjoying each others presence. Jihyun plays with his fingers absentmindedly, staring off into the distance. He focuses on her, his heart rate increasing and his body starting to feel warm.

"Thank you" she turns to him as he breaks the silence. "for helping me. I know you weren't supposed to." He smiles at her shyly as she stares back at him.

"Hongjoong has only one rule when fighting students, he never lets them yield. He lives by the rule that your enemy is only beaten when they're dead or close to it." she breathes out slowly. "we all do, but he seems to forget that you guys aren't his enemy, at least not yet." She pauses.

"He would've hurt you. bad." He softly smiles at her, slowly sitting up and swinging his legs off of the bed.

"You broke your own rules for us." She looks at him for a moment before looking at her hands, nodding her head. She quickly stands, hopping off the bed and turning to face him.

"I shouldn't have done it. Bending the rules will get people hurt." He looks down, dejected.

"but I would still do it again." He smiles at her as they stare into each others eyes. She quickly clears her throat, breaking eye contact.

"I should get going, I have to finalize ranks before tomorrow." She stands, walking to the door and grabbing Chaeyoung's evaluations.

"Jihyun?" Jaemin calls out, causing her to turn back to look at him. "Are we going to be practicing tomorrow after school?" She knows the hidden meaning behind his words. He's wondering if he'll live past the executions.

"No." His face goes pale, his eyes widening and he feels his heart stop.

"Take a break, you deserve it." He lets out a breath of relief as she turns and walks out the door, leaving him alone in the room.

- - -

Jihyun heads back home, a stack of papers in her passenger seat. She walks into the main room and is met with screaming chaos. She sees an exhausted looking Sicheng, desperatley trying to fend off an overly excited Yuta. Mark is chasing Donghyuck with a kitchen spoon. Jungwoo and Kun are singing loudly in the kitchen. Taeyong is just staring at the chaos in horror as Jaehyun sits in the corner, absentmindedly sipping on a cup of milk.

Upon seeing Jihyun, a huge grin breaks out onto Taeyong's face. He scrambles over to her, narrowly avoiding being crushed by Lucas, who was trying to carry Yangyang, Xiaojun, and Hendery on his back.

"Hi! Good day of finals? Yeah great cool awesome wow, now please help. Tame the savages before I go insane" he whispers rapidly, not even giving her time to respond. She smiled, taking note of the visible panic on his face.

She let out a loud whistle, pulling a small device from her the sleeve of her jacket. All the boys stopped and stared at her, some eyes widening at the small silver object in her hand.

"Today might've been a day off for some of you, but the rest of us are too tired to put up with your shit. Go screw around somewhere else or I will use this and you'll all have to deal with the aftermath."