𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐒

47; 𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨

"hyung." chan muttered, clasping his hand atop his mouth. so, that was why, that was why he didn't get mushed to the ground like wonwoo and mingyu. that's why seungcheol very carefully handed the little ragdolls from jinha.

the little ragdolls had a device like sands of time in them, just very small that they looked just like normal doll eyes. seungcheol entrusted his ability to chan.

that's why he miraculously avoided all those debris back with mingyu and wonwoo. that's why, just now, he was able to unintentionally phase through a wall and enter koushi's building. he had two abilities now.

was it to ensure their victory, or to ensure chan's safety?

"oh! there's the kid i bragged about!" chan hears koushi's voice nearby, and he tried to set aside his feelings to fix this problem first. he was still a bit confused as to how this all happened and how he didn't fall off the plane whatsoever.

not knowing what to do(aside from crying), he called for joshua using their earpieces. "hyung?"

only having said 'hyung', joshua already understood why chan suddenly called. "yeah, pretty impressive, isn't it? it's a new kind of tech i developed."

"...huh?"

"seungcheol wanted to give his ability to you on a whim, after eavesdropping on you and wonwoo that day. he knew i was working on this modified version of sands of time, and he made me give one of it to him. it can only allow one person to give their ability, not like the sands of time you always saw. and used." joshua says, while chan inspected the ragdoll. "and, the actual exchanging process will happen once i turn it on."

"so..." chan continued, despite seeing koushi and yi-eun coming closer as they fought for victory. "it wasn't turned on when i was in the plane? and you had the controls, but you kept it from me?"

"gotta go." joshua avoids the question swiftly. "but, hey, you know why i didn't say it to you? because you'd be totally against it. second?"

chan anticipated, relaxed because he won't get hit by anything from koushi and yi-eun's way. he can wait for joshua to answer all day, actually—and that's how selfish chan is.

"seungcheol loves you. you know? very much, that he gave up his ace card in spite of danger, from neko mafia."

"hey!" chan jolts, hearing a hoarse and unfamiliar voice coming near. he looks up and sees the mature physique of yi-eun. chan refused to look at yi-eun's bloody face. "koushi's close to death. what about we test you, you little scoundrel? let's see if you're all that he says, yea?"

chan stood up, looking down on his feet.

as he remembered, seungcheol did not do these sacrifices for him, just to get himself killed. he needs to use these things that seungcheol had given him properly—like this second life, this ability, this slot in the armed forces, this place in his current 13-member family.

"you attack first." chan challenged, lifting his chin a little to face his fear little by little. "a headstart for the weakling."

"oh, considerate! you're just like koushi there, yea?" yi-eun points to koushi, who was curled up on the floor, surrounded by flower petals as he coughed and gasped.  "why are you even here? didn't you get what you want? wonwoo? oh, maybe you don't like waiting for our attack since you took our ace, so you attacked instead?!

"wow, pure joy. unconditional love. everyone, give it up for chan!" at that, chan looked at yi-eun in the eyes angrily—how dare he mock chan right now?

wait, isn't 'looking yi-eun in the eyes angrily' just glaring?

"okay then. i'll wait here all day." chan replied, still glaring, while yi-eun looked at him like he just wore a wedding dress to a 7th birthday party. "i'm already giving you the privilege of attacking first."

suddenly, yi-eun rushed towards chan(who didn't know if his borrowed ability from seungcheol was turned on) and charged at him, but the huge debris of what used to be a wall in pyxis hq was hit instead—leaving it almost pulverised.

good thing his borrowed phasing ability was turned on. yi-eun just went straight through him. it feels weird though, did seungcheol get used to this?

suddenly, just as about yi-eun was going to charge again with his basic-ass ability, the location was swarmed by fragrant petals, which caused almost zero visibility.

chan's eyes widened. "so, this is koushi's abi—"

"HEY!"

"AH!"

"AHHH!"

"AHHHHHHHH!!"

"it's me!" chan turns around, meeting the owner of the hand that gripped his wrist. this is bad! the ability was off all of a sudden, what if chan just suddenly becomes solid or something and he turns into a meat patty for burgers?! "it's koushi!"

"you look bad," chan says, not implying anything offensive. it's just that koushi was injured! he'll never insult anyone upfront ever.(seventeen is not counted.) "your ability's amazing though, hyung! it's just that i can't contro—"

"if you keep on letting him try and try until you're opaque, you'll lose energy and it'll be hard for you to use the phasing ability and even your own cancelling ability. you should regroup with your teammates from seventeen and form a plan. this won't work, since you'll only get exhausted. i'll distract him. go!"

what the fuck. why is chan being told off every single time? the poor boy just wants to help!

"where are we gonna fucking land now?!" minghao complained, looking at the radar. "we'll catch attention!"

"i mean, from me alone, heh," seokmin smiled proudly, loading his gun. "top 3 artist on billboard this year, top 5 album of the year and top 9 handso—"

"no one's there to see your face. they're there to destroy our faces." jihoon deadpanned, figuring out how where to land as well. hey, all the man wished for was for his teammates(seokmin) to get some common sense, you know?

please, grant jihoon's wish. just once. (or he could bribe seungkwan into giving seokmin some common sense using his jinxed ability. gossip ability? whatever.)

"maybe we could just jump out of the plane like you know—action movies? leave a trail of money behind?" seungcheol suggested, being a little too creative.

"what are we, millionaires?! we don't have enough money to throw around!" seungkwan complained. "seokmin can give us money, though, right?"

"oo. sugar." vernon started, innocently gasping.

"don't you dare continue whatever you're gonna say, sol."

vernon smiled mischievously. "daddy."

"no, seokmin doesn't look like a sugar daddy. he just has a lot of money, but actually joshuji is the real sugar daddy." jeonghan interjects, crossing his arms atop his chest.

"what? no! it's definitely vernon. he looks young, but look at the fat fucking rings he always wore! that's just—rich!" soonyoung quips, gaining mixed responses.

"oh, those fat rings that you were wearing for a whole week? and also in the bath?" junhui teased, giggling. the chinese man was glad to pick soonyoung to blackmail on for this month. oh man. his secrets were juicy.

"what?! those are my rings! you didn't ask me for permission to wear them!" vernon tells soonyoung, tone sounding like his mannered child just got life sentence in jail.

"guys, are we really arguing about this?" minghao deadpanned, glaring at every single one of the members. seungcheol pretended to fiddle with the radar, jihoon and seokmin went back to playing with the weapons, and the others simply diverted their gazes on something else.

"that's what i thought. anyways, we're near. where do you want to land? we're kinda short of ideas. it's a complete wasteland." minghao continued.

"DISNEYWORLD! COME ON! BEST PLACE EVER NO CAP ONLY FAX-"

"JUNHUI!"