Stronger || NCT mafia au

Chapter 42 | "are you kidding?"

"Jihyun?" Taeyong exclaims in shock, causing all the other members to whip their heads towards the staircase.

"Jihyun!" They all yell out, scrambling over to her.

"Are you okay?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Do you need anything?"

"What can we do?"

"i'm so glad to see you"

"We've missed you."

She smiles as shes bombarded with questions, all of the members quickly trying to hug her at once.

"I've missed you guys too, and I'm sorry that I wasn't here when you guys needed me." she breathes out, staring at all her members with a warm gaze. Most of them exchange relieves glances, finally seeing some emotion on her face and some life in her eyes.

"You needed time for yourself too, it's ok. We're fine." Yuta says, smiling at her as all the other members nod along.

"Well, it's time to move forward. We're gonna fix this, okay?" The members smile at her, nodding happily. "Taeyong, Jaehyun, Mark, and Sicheng, I need you guys in my office right now." The four members, stand, walking towards her office.

Before following them, Jihyun walks over to Jaemin, grabbing his arm and pulling him to the side of the room, away from the others.

"We need to talk later, okay?" She says, him nodding in response.

"I've missed you." he whispers out, pulling her into a hug. She wraps her arms around his back, letting him hold her for a moment before pulling away.

"I know. I've missed you too." Jeno watches, his eyes full of jealousy as she walks away from Jaemin and heads to her office.

Taking a seat at her table, her eyes linger on the two empty chairs for a minute before she forces herself to snap out of it. Sighing, she turns to the four remaining members of her council.

"They did it right beneath our noses...two members of the council." she says quietly, the other members shifting nervously in their seats. "But I can trust you guys, right?"

"Absolutely" Taeyong answers immediately. "We'd never betray you."

"I know. I left the gang in quite a mess and we have some decisions to make. So what do we do?" She says, looking around the room.

- - -

They talk for a few hours about council replacements, the Johnny situation and other things until they get to the mention of her trainees.

"I think you're boys should form a new team?"

"What?"

"Yeah. I don't think we can split them up, plus Mark and Donghyuck would be able to join them." Taeyong answers with a smile.

"Why those two?"

"Because we trained them too, and we really like them!" Mark responds happily from across the table.

"Wait a minute, are you saying that they passed?" she says, only now realizing what he was insinuating. She looks around the room as the boys smile at one another.

"Jihyun, we took a vote last week while you were still upstairs. It was unanimous. After how they did not only in the evaluation but also how they did during the real fight, we see how talented they are." Mark says with a smile. Jihyun lets out an astonished huff of air, a smile forming on her face.

"You think you're up for that Mark? You'd be in multiple units and plus you'd be leading this one."

"I'm ready. I promise." She still looked at him skeptically, not totally convinced about the idea.