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wooahaeruby · 27 days ago

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Chapter 50: A Girls Best Friend

sexually suggestive, implied torture & interrogation tactics, murder

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You wouldn’t say that Jeonghan’s call interrupted a very intimate moment, but it did, and he almost instantly clocked it when Seungcheol answered. Jeonghan laughed and laughed until Cheol told him that he was glad things went well, but he had important business to take care of.

You weren’t going to hear the end of it.

You woke up to Seungcheol attached to your back, squeezing you tightly like you’d slip away in the night. The shirt you wore – his shirt – had ridden up, enough that his warm hands rested on the skin of your stomach. His breath was gentle on the back of your neck, calm and relaxing.

There was shuffling beyond the door, the hushed chatter of the morning. You needed to get up and start the day, who knew exactly what happened to Jeonghan and his team the previous night. All was fine, but they were radio silent for a while.

As you attempted to get up, Seungcheol grumbled in protest, muttering a string of ‘ no’s . Your heart fluttered.

“It’s morning, Cheol, we need to get up.”

“The bed is comfortable, Angel…Stay longer.”

“You already missed all of yest-’

The door opened suddenly, light piercing the darkness from the hallway then the lights within the room were flicked on. You both hissed, covering your eyes, but that didn't stop the only person who’d do such a thing.

“Good morning, love birds!” Jeonghan cheered, practically skipping towards your side of the bed. “I had such a wild day yesterday, thanks for asking! And when I called my girlfriend to check in, like she asked, imagine my surprise when her third boyfriend answered instead!”

“Hannie please-”

“But not only that!” He exclaimed, jumped into the bed, pulling you away from Seungcheol. “You guys were doing the nasty! Right in front of my salad!”

“Dude, shut up-” Cheol mentioned to the door, sitting up. Your front was now fully pressed into Jeonghan’s chest. “You left the door open!”

“The door didn’t save anyone’s ears last night!” Mingyu’s voice rang through as he passed the room.

“The walls aren’t thin, but dear god.” Jihoon complained, joining Mingyu wherever they were heading to in the penthouse.

“Some of us were trying to sleep,” Wonwoo wasn’t far behind.

You hid your face in Jeonghan’s chest, screaming so half-heartedly that both your boyfriends laughed. “ I want to die-”

Soonyoung appeared at the door, leaning against the frame. “At least you are getting something-”

You sat up, exasperated, “Are all of you here?!”

“Yep,” Jeonghan popped the ‘p’. “All fourteen of us.”

“Can we forever not talk about my sex life specifically?”

“Too late-” Joshua moved past Soonyoung, standing with his arms crossed.

“To be fair, we didn’t hear anyone come home.” Cheol tried to defend, but Joshua shook his head.

“Only because you were too busy coming somewhere else.”

Your face was burning up with embarrassment, no doubt the same shade as a tomato. Cheol wasn’t much better, cheeks burning red, and Jeonghan was living for it. Joshua looked a little miffed, but there was definitely a hint of a smirk that threatened to break out on his face. Soonyoung took the moment to take his leave.

“You know,” You stood on the bed, pulling the t-shirt down to cover as much of you as it could. “I’m going to do the walk of shame and sit on my computer going through the SVT server-”

“Not much of a walk of shame if your apartment is a floor down-” You kicked Jeonghan in the arm, leaning down to kiss both him and Seungcheol.

Jumping off the bed, you gathered your discarded clothes, along with any other item you had brought, and dashed to Joshua, giving him a kiss as well. You struggled to quickly put on your pants, hollering a goodbye and trying not to make eye contact with any of the guys as you rushed out. A few of them laughed in your wake.

Your apartment was dark, expectedly, a slight chill to the air before the heat kicked on to warm the space. Jeonghan and Joshua probably wouldn’t be too far behind, more than likely to tease you, then to head off to their work for the day. You needed to change desperately despite how much you like Seungcheol’s t-shirt. You were going to keep it either way…

As you changed, the sound of the front door opening, closing, and the sing-song tone of your name falling from Jeonghan’s lips was heard. He sounded entirely too entertained. That stirred trouble for you if he had the chance.

“Mouse~” Joenghan sang as he entered your room.

“Do not start,” You said pointedly, half-heartedly throwing a glare his way.

He leaned himself against the door frame of the closet, arms crossed over his chest. The smirk was ever prominent. “Sounds like you and Cheol had a lot of fun last night.”

“Jeonghan!” You tossed the sweater you were going to put on at his face, which he caught effortlessly. “Come on.”

“What?! It’s good to know when Shua and I are busy, someone can keep you satis-”

“I don’t want you to finish that statement.” Joshua peered over to you past the other man’s shoulder. You grabbed your sweater back from Jeonghan to put it on in a huff.

“Jealous, Joshua?”

“Barely.” He was definitely lying. “Now can you stop being a little shit?”

Jeonghan pushed off the door frame to gather you in his arms, peppering gentle kisses all over your face. You couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of your chest, letting him finish off with a tight hug. “Now I can.”

Joshua sidestepped Jeonghan when he parted from you, hearing the latter man chuckle quietly. He placed a kiss to your lips then another to your forehead, hands resting respectfully on your waist.

“Are you coming to the warehouse?” He asked, head tilted to the side.

Shaking your head, you gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’m going to stay here and follow up on the MX server stuff. Wonwoo didn’t have time to check. Who knows, maybe I’ll find something to give us any important information.”

“Good luck. Dinner tonight?”

“One or both of you?” Your eyes caught on Jeonghan.

“Probably just you two.” Jeonghan hummed. “Fight club stuff tonight. Planning for future events and prep for upcoming nights. Might be back to sleep here if it isn’t too late.”

With small goodbyes, way more kisses than necessary, and Joshua telling you he’d text you about dinner later, they were off for the day. You ordered breakfast and something to heat up for lunch, knowing you had to go food shopping sooner or later if you were going to stay in the city longer. Another day’s problem, you told herself, but there was always delivery, unless Sona kicked your ass to leave the apartment.

Sitting at your computer, cuddled up with a blanket, food, and tea, you pulled up all the systems needed to begin your spoof hunting.

Finding the spoof file, giving the information from ATZ’s server, was relatively easy. Honestly, it felt a little too easy to find the files just sitting there out in the open. From the server info, it was at least easy to spot, but it was literally a file with nothing in it. You lost a brain cell thinking about it, but relayed the info to Wonwoo, who wasn’t surprised. You let him know you’d be going through the system again to see if anything was left over.

Now, as you stared at the screen for the fifth hour, something stood out to you.

Random lines of unnecessary numbers embedded into the code. The sequence of the numbers, the groups of them, were spread out, so you didn’t catch the pattern at first. Unless Wonwoo did it, which you highly doubted, you know this was their thing.

Pulling out a pen and paper, you wrote the numbers down.

1 12, 19, 9, 7, 18 18, 5, 1 14, 5, 9, 18, 6, 4 5, 20, 2, 19 15, 1, 9, 4, 19, 1, 13, 14

And if they were going with the same simple cipher…

A Girls Are Friend Best Diamond

You rolled her eyes

Diamonds were a girl's best friend.

“So original.”You started at the top of the code, hating that you’d have to go through every single line to delete it all. Once you were done, you’d tell Wonwoo.

The process was slow, finding each sequence and making sure it was nothing of importance before getting rid of it. Somehow this felt more mentally torturous than the actual torture they subjected you to. The thought did make you laugh now. Maybe you’d tell Tessa that when you spoke with her next.

Joshua did text you as he said he would, asking if you wanted to go out or stay in. You were deep into the code, maybe half way through, but you knew you’d need to see the proper light of day sometime. He told you he’d be back to pick you up soon, and you just realized how late it got. The sun was barely seen, darkness creeping into the night. How did the day slip by so easily?!

You got up quickly, feeling the angry hunger from missing lunch and no snacks to sustain you. Joshua sent a follow up text, telling you he was craving something casual, thank god , and you only needed to freshen up.

By the time he arrived, you were waiting patiently in the garage and slipped into the passenger seat.

“Hey.” He took your hand when you settled, kissing your knuckles. “How was the day?”

You grimaced. “Okay, stared at a computer from the time you left to the time you texted.”

Joshua smiled gently, heading off to the dinner spot, one hand constantly in yours. “Anything good?”

“Yeah, but it was nothing, just a spoof code on top of the spoof they left on everyone’s servers.” You gave an exaggerated fake gag. “ Diamonds are a girl’s best friend . Like, come on, that is dumb but I know they left it for me to find.”

“They are just trying to get under everyone’s skin.”

You took his hand into both of yours. “How about you? What happened today?”

“Cheol, Jeonghan, and I went through all the stuff from last night's op. There was a lot of stuff being brought over all night so it took all day to get through and organize. Plus, with you going through the files, Seungkwan and Mingyu are ahead on those reports.”

You couldn’t hide the small smile on your lips on being helpful in some way. Joshua snickered as he glanced at you, pulling into the diner’s parking lot.

“Everything is status quo aside from that. The clubs are fine, Pledis is fine, and we aren’t worried.” Shrugging, Joshua got out in a rush and hurried to open the passenger door for you. “Shall we?”

Taking his hand, you hugged his arm once the door was closed. “We shall, and I’m always here to help you guys out.”

“Trust me, Cheol would not stop joking that you should be in charge some days so he can take a break.”

You let him lead the way inside, taking a seat in a secluded corner. “It’s just a desk job with a lot of thinking. With all of you involved, I’m surprised Cheol does so much himself.”

“He’s always been like that,” Joshua tucked you into his side, greeting the waiter when he came over. You both ordered drinks before he continued. “He shoulders all the responsibility, doesn’t want to stress others out, only to stress himself into early balding.”

“With all the hair he has currently, him balding seems more traumatic than the shit they did to me.” Your joke only got a grimace from Joshua, but when you snickered, he did join in. “You know who would look worse bald? Mingyu with his big ass head.”

“Oh lord,” Joshua nodded, hiding his face in your hair. “I don’t want to imagine any of the guys bald, especially not Chan.”

“You wanna know who I think would look good bald? Vernon. Good egg shaped head.”

“Do you think of all of us bald often?”

“Nah,” You shook your head. “Only when I got tired of staring at you guys at dinner. Before I sat back at the table with everyone.”

You couldn’t sleep, nor for any particular reason, you just couldn’t close your eyes long enough to knock out. It was one of the first restless nights in a while. Joshua was asleep at your side and Jeonghan was in the shower, scrubbing off the remnants of the long day. He apologized if he woke you, but you only brushed him off.

“Go to sleep.” Jeonghan was at the side of the bed, drying his hair with a small towel.

“I wish I could.” You spoke in a hushed tone, not wanting to rouse Joshua in any way. “Been awake since he passed out.”

“Penny for your thoughts?” Sitting now at the edge of the bed, Jeonghan reached out to run a hand through your hair.

Shaking your head, you took his hand, holding it over your heart. “Nothing pertinent I can think of. Just a night with a little too much energy,” Jeonghan looked down at you tiredly, a crooked smile on his lips.

“I can stay up with you.”

“Don’t,” You moved to sit up, Joshua stirred at your side but stayed asleep. “You’ve been up for a while. I’m just going to find something to do around the house then come back to bed.”

“You sure, love?”

Standing now, you pushed him to lie down, tucking him in like he wasn’t a full grown adult. He chuckled as you fretted over him and Joshua, placing a kiss to both of their cheeks. Out in the hallway, you know you could clean, even though there was little to clean with how decent you left it, or you could bored yourself into oblivion.

You sat down at your computer and pulled up the lines of code, hoping to continue the deletion of MX’s lovely message. Pricks, And you forgot to tell Wonwoo-

You did end up losing track of time again, line after line scrolling past your vision as you skimmed, found, checked, and removed the numbers. By the time you reached the end, your eyes hurt, back ached, and you were finally tired. Luckily the sun hadn’t risen, so you shuffled to bed, body light, eyes heavier, and went to sleep.

Morning came way too quickly, Joshua’s phone ringing loud enough to wake all three of you up. You, plastered to Jeonghan’s back, groaned and grumbled, hearing the third of your current trio answer the call.

“Hello-” He cleared his throat, but Jeonghan rolled over to smother you, leaving you unable to hear much of the rest.

“Too early, shut the fuck up.” That you could hear loud and clear from Jeonghan. He only pulled you closer, tucking you into his body with his chin atop your head.

“They sank another one of ATZ’s boats.”

“What?”

You were wide awake now, pushing back away from Jeonghan. Joshua got up, same with Jeonghan, both starting to get ready.

“When?”

“Last night, but they caught one of their guys. Cheol wants Soonyoung, Jeonghan, and I to meet up with them and get the interrogation going.”

You stood too, moving to join them in the closet. “I’m coming with you-”

“Mouse, no-”

“I’m coming with you or I’m calling Wooyoung to tell me where you’ll be.”

“That is devious.” Jeonghan snickered, tossing you a dress shirt. “But effective, let's go.”

The sun was barely on the horizon when you arrived. Seungcheol and Soonyoung weren’t surprised to see you with Joshua and Jeonghan. Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and Mingi were, though, standing before the entrance to the shipyard, owned and operated by ATZ. They greeted you with simple nods as you and the guys followed them further in towards the docks to a small, metal building, vents seen, but not a window in sight, the door thick as Hongjoong pushed it open.

“So far, we haven’t gotten him to talk.” Mingi spoke first once the door was securely shut. “But we also only found him an hour ago in the water right before we called you.”

“I can give it a try.” Soonyoung hummed , a dark look in his eyes.

It clicked with you that this would be the first time seeing Soonyoung work . ‘Interrogator’ he once called himself. You’ve seen enough movies to know what he was talking about with his aid.

“Be my guest.” Hongjoong mentioned forward, your eyes catching on yet another metal door that Soonyoung eagerly moved towards.

A hand was pressed flat against your lower back, warming the skin beneath your shirt. Seungcheol appeared in your peripheral vision, a brow raised in curiosity.

“Surprised to see you here, Mouse.” Hongjoong hummed, giving you a once over. His eyes looked as tired as you felt. “But good to see you nevertheless.”

“Can’t miss out on the action, can I, Captain?” You could see the quirk of the corner of his lips. “Was anyone hurt?”

“No, thankfully,” You saw relief in his eyes, some of the tension he held in his shoulders fading. “After the first attack, we put out decoys to hopefully catch them and put some of our people that could safely use dive equipment to get away. We had some patrols in the water too so help wasn’t too far behind. That’s how we managed to catch this straggler.”

Soonyoung and Mingi were already beyond the next threshold, the door left open behind them. You took an assertive step forward, each step after leading you closer to a scene you knew all too well.

The man, who you could only guess wasn’t much older than you, was tied down to a wooden chair, face beaten and bruised. A single, large construction lamp blazed down on his form. He wore a heavy, tired glare, eyes flickering between Soonyoung and Mingi. By how hard he was breathing through his mouth and all the blood on his face, you guessed his nose was broken.

Soonyoung whistled in amusement, “Already had a number done on you and you still won’t talk?” The rhetoric question hung in the air, the man never dropping his glare.

You stepped to the side of the room when Mingi moved to get something, the rest of the guys following in. A second chair sat not far from where the man sat, and a small metal cart with a tool roll sat closed atop it on the other side of him. Seungcheol hung in the back with Hongjoong while Seonghwa flanked your left with Jeonghan and Joshua standing on your right.

Soonyoung discarding his jacket onto the empty chair off to the side, a hum leaving him once more the entire time. Mingi was opening and sorting through the rolled up pack of tools, most clean while others were speckled with rust or crusted, dried blood. Your stomach turned, but you kept your expression neutral.

“We can do this the easy way, man,” Soonyoung spoke to him as if he was speaking to a friend, moving towards the cart. He picked up a small hammer and pliers in one hand, his other hand motioning vaguely in the air. “Or we can do this the hard way, which would you prefer?”

The man didn’t answer, clenching his jaw before spitting blood the best he could at Soonyoung’s feet. His eyes took in the others before landing on you, a sneer spreading on his lips.

In the moment, a realization hit you, a recognition you didn’t put together until you locked eyes, blood pumping in your veins like a roaring fire.

Along with Joker , when awoke in the second van while being taken, he was there, the same sneer before you were knocked out.

Your fists clenched tightly, his eyes boring into yours. The sneer turned more into a smirk, him seemingly coming to the same realization you did.

Soonyoung and Mingi followed his gaze to you, a haunting look on both their faces.

“They said your actions of preparing were predictable.” He was speaking to you for some reason, like no one else was in the room. “They still are.”

Hands were on concealed weapons as the man finally spoke, as if he could do much tied up tightly. The rush of blood through your body was loud in your ears.

“Oh yeah?” You cooled your temper, stepping close. No one liked that based on how they all tensed. “I will admit, Mouse caught in a trap was clever. Almost spooked me. A lot of planning must have gone into plotting that out, huh? What I don’t get though, is why Monsta X has been playing children’s games instead of going full force on us.”

You moved to Mingi’s side, nodding at him to back up. Eying the tools on the cart, you picked up a folding knife, easily opening it.

“Then I reminded myself that Monsta X thinks we aren’t a much bigger, much scarier force to go against with our allies.” You saw a familiar flicker of uneasiness behind the man’s eyes. “So…I’m going to take a guess here, please tell me if I’m wrong, but something big is coming that you have knowledge about.”

Turning the knife over in your hand, you watched the metal glimmer in the light. “Or they left you in the water to be caught and you know something, a pawn to put it simply. One option makes you a fool while the other makes you a fool and valuable. Which are you?”

“Unlike all of you, I’m no fool, Mouse.” He swallowed thickly, keeping his eyes on you. “Neither is Monsta X and the rest of our people.”

“Debatable.” You flipped the knife for the blade to face down and slammed it into the seat of the chair between his legs. He jumped with an audible hiss of fear. “Guess it’s the hard way, Ace, Lion , have fun.”

Turning, Soonyoung was smirking, you thought he was impressed with your little show of power, spinning the pliers between his fingers now. “Gladly, Mouse. ”

Looking past him, a wide smirk was on Jeonghan and Hongjoong’s faces, but shock and disbelief were on others. You stepped back between Seonghwa and your first two boyfriends, saying nothing as Soonyoung and Mingi got to work.

The questions started simple; Why did Monsta X sink the ship? Where is their current hide out? What do they have planned? The list went on.

Whenever a question went unanswered, much like Monsta X did to you, they hurt him. One of two things happened, either a fingernail was ripped out or a hammer was slammed into one of his fingers, one at a time, to break the bones there. The man’s screams and shouts of pain reverberated off the walls, each more weak than the last, energy drained. His head drooped and his breathing was laboured, the harsh sound of teeth grinding together reached your ears.

You didn’t feel sorry for him, part of you attributed the apathy for the necessary retribution for your torture. The first step in a long line of reckoning Monsta X would face at the hands of you, SVT, and your allies.

The next crunch of bones breaking reminded you of breaking Joker’s nose, the sound ringing through your thoughts. You didn’t stop the smirk that spread on your face.

“Okay!” He shouted before Soonyoung brought the hammer down again, gasping out a break, visibly shaking. “I’ll talk- I’ll talk but only to her-”

“No-” Jeonghan stepped forward.

“Deal.” You cut him off, “I’ll listen.”

“Mouse,” Seonghwa didn’t like the idea, clearly frowning. “You don’t have to-”

You turned to Joshua, pushing his jacket open to take the holstered gun at his side, checking the safety. Even he looked bewildered.

“Just in case.” You turned to the man when Seungcheol stopped you.

“You don’t have to end it if you don’t want to,” You knew what he meant, killing the guy once you got what everyone needed. If he was released, he would be killed either way. “We can.”

“I know,” You nodded towards the door. “Go, I got it.”

Placing the gun down on the cart, muzzle towards the guy, you pulled the second chair closer to sit down. It took a few moments for all of them to exit, leaving you with the bloodied and broken man before you.

“You wanna talk? Then talk. I don’t have all day.”

“Look,” He heaved in a breath, “They were keeping shit locked down for months. We, the henchmen I guess, haven’t seen them, aside from those who aided in snatching you. We got orders ahead of time to hit certain locations, certain ways, everything planning out to the T, however they wanted. We figured they’d tell us when they had a plan for SVT or anyone outside of these smaller marks.”

“So you were a fool like I thought. A pawn.” Your response was blasé, crossing your arms. “Were you given an order for somewhere after this?”

“ Loki’s fight club, next fight.” Your eyes locked with his and you instantly knew he was lying.

“You need to do better than that if you want to lie.” Reaching out, you pulled the knife from the spot between his legs. “Try again and don’t lie to me this time.”

The man held your bored stare, catching a glance at the knife you held. “There wasn't any other mission after this one, not yet at least. As far as we know, Monsta X has been radio silent. No contact since we got this info to hit a ship a week ago.”

Nodding, you stayed quiet to let him go on, looking at your nails, continuing your uninterested look.

“Did you enjoy the message within the servers?” Though he was still drained that smirk from earlier was back on his face. There it was.

It gained no outward reaction from you but you were piqued. “ Diamonds are a girl’s best friend . Still will the children’s games. Why are they so fascinated with me? I’m bored of it all.”

“Playing with their toys is their favorite pastime, to know how long it takes to break them.” He cleared his throat. “You were just the easiest target for them.”

“Riveting,” Rolling your eyes, you stood up. “Are we done here? Or will you annoy me with your nonsense for longer?”

“Personally, my favorite part of your capture was when you were locked inside the box.” His words were sharp and you froze no longer than a second. “Screaming and begging to be let out or just crying.”

The knife was gone from your hand and the gun quickly replaced it, safety off before you could process it. The muzzle was pressed firmly to the center of his forehead, and the sick fuck pushed forward into it.

“You sounded so pitiful in there.”

You stopped hearing him, seeing his lips move but no sound reached you. Your hand was trembling, trying to stay grounded in the moment rather than being thrown back into your demise. Your current location didn’t help. Kihyun’s face was stark in your mind when you closed your eyes to breathe.

Next time your eyes opened, the man was no longer before you. Tied to the chair now was Kihyun, grinning maniacally, staring dead into your eyes.

“Your apology was so genuine.” That was Kihyun’s voice that you heard. “ I’m sorry for not-”

You pulled the trigger with all the hatred and anger that rested in your very soul, boiling just under your skin, under the brand that was a constant reminder.

Your ears rang from the shot. Almost in slow motion you felt the splatter of blood hit you, some even landing on your face, the smell of metallic iron thick in your sense. You took a single deep breath. One blink and the man was staring back at you, lifeless, limp. You dropped your arm holding the gun and placed it on the cart, his body sagging as the door swung open.

“Mouse?” There was hesitation in Jeonghan’s voice. You didn't hear the door open.

You raised your head, breaking your eyes away from his body, anger bubbling still, and you looked over your shoulder to them. “He said there were no other hit locations after this one as far as he knew. The last one, this one on the ships, was planned for a week. MX has been radio silent outside of that. They hadn’t heard from them in days.”

“Okay,” He spoke slowly, the rest of the guys entering the room, taking in the situation, the man, and you more importantly. “Do you need anything?”

“A towel and some rubbing alcohol would be nice if I can’t take a shower somewhere around here.” You looked down at the blood on your hand and the small, wet splotches on your shirt. “And probably some new clothes too. I’ll get blood on something.”

“The dock house’s office has a shower for when Hongjoong has a long night here.” Seonghwa spoke up. “I can take you over there while this is…cleaned up as well. I’ll find some clothes too. Wooyoung needed to head here sometime soon so I’ll have him stop to get something.”

“Thanks,” You took another calming breath, some metaphorical weight raised off your shoulders unexpectedly. It confused you. You moved towards Seonghwa, seeing the various expressions on everyone’s faces. “I’m okay, don’t worry too much.”

Your boyfriends shared a look, even Hongjoong joined in.

“We can…talk later. Go get cleaned up.” Seungcheol added, calm in his tone but worry in his eyes.

“Come on,” Seonghwa ushered you out with haste.

The moment the door closed, Jeonghan felt like he would fall over. He wheezed out the breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Holy shit,” Seungcheol whispered, the words barely reaching Jeonghan’s ears.

“She,” Soonyoung picked up his discarded jacket from the chair, taking in the dead man before them. “She actually did it.”

Jeonghan ran a hand through his hair, the look on Mouse’s face when they came in etched into his mind.

She looked okay, actually okay, like she stated. However, despite her eyes looking fully aware and there, something else lingered beneath the surface, something he couldn’t put a word to yet. She didn’t have that hollow, vacant look most have when they killed someone, especially if it was their first kill. He swore she looked calm, like something within her was at peace for the time being. He didn’t know anyone that ever looked like that after such a deed.

“They didn’t talk for long, maybe ten minutes,” Hongjoong spoke up, rounding the cart and standing behind the man, avoiding the blood splatter on the floor. “Clean through, she must have pressed the muzzle to his forehead before taking the shot.”

“His eyes were open.” Seungcheol moved closed, leaning down to look at the man before his eyes went between everyone. “When someone, think of us, our people for example, go through their first kill, they usually are panicking after, doubling over to throw up. She…She didn’t do any of that, or maybe she will when they get to the dock house, but that wasn’t normal. That look in her eyes. She was more worried about blood on her hands, not the metaphorical kind.”

“I’m all for trauma responses being different but that was weird.” Soonyoung shook his head.

“Agreed,” Jeonghan sighed, collecting his thoughts. “We’ll have to talk to her and figure out what’s going on in her head.”

“Just don’t push her,” Mingi added, moving to wrap up the roll of tools, focusing on the task. “Right now, she might not fully understand what she did or why. I’ve been there.”

“Observe her, she isn’t like the guys.” Hongjoong pulled out his phone, sending off a quick message.

“We can head back to the dock house, our guys will be here in a few to clean up.”

You and Seonghwa didn’t speak the entire, short walk to the dock house. You didn’t see a single worker. Seonghwa led with you at his side and you’d occasionally feel the glances he sent your way.

It was understandable, the worry he, or any of the guys, had. You killed a once living, breathing person, without hesitation.

Your brand itched.

“I just replaced all the towels in there so they should all be clean.” Seonghwa pushed the bathroom door open, flicking on the lights. “Wooyoung is on his way with clothes, shouldn’t be long. The cabinet to the side had medical supplies so you can replace your bandages. Take your time though.”

You gave him a thank you , eyeing the red splotches on your hand. The sports were nowhere near warm anymore, the cold air outside having chilled his blood and your skin on the walk over.

Unlike the last time you were covered in some amount of blood, when Mingyu was shot, you didn’t feel sick. You didn’t feel the numbness radiating down your limbs. You didn’t feel like crying. Nothing moved in slow motion. Your senses weren’t in overdrive.

You undressed easily, more disappointed that your nice dress shirt got dirty. You washed your hands before carefully moving the bandage from your chest, no hint of anger or annoyance as you stared at it in the mirror.

Somehow you felt calm, the piece of a puzzle you couldn’t fully see falling into place. Like you knew what you had and needed to do.

The calm wasn’t confusing, you welcomed the peace, the quiet, much more accepting of the unknown the future brought.

You would do anything to protect those you cared about, no matter what happened to you. You promised yourself that, standing under the spray of the shower head, the warm water washing away the chill of the late winter outside.

You showered in silence, scrubbing your skin gently but thoroughly, thinking back to the little room and the man.

He deserved it, the bullet to the head for working with Monsta X, for aiding in your kidnapping, for everything he had done that you didn’t know about. He deserved it for mocking your pain and torture.

All of Monsta X would deserve it when you got your-

No.

You shook your head to clear your thoughts.

When everyone got their hands on them. Everyone was involved, not just you.

A knock came and Wooyoung’s voice floated in from the now open door, telling you the clothes he brought were in a bag by the door. You were quick to towel off and rebandage your chest, taking a moment to give yourself a once over.

It was a little funny, thinking back to your shower after helping with Mingyu, how different you looked. Back then you looked sad, hollow, a ghost of yourself, while now, you held yourself with a stronger composure, a strength you hadn’t seen in yourself, a need of purpose. It was a good change, but you would need to watch yourself for sure…

Stepping out, the small group of guys, with the addition of Wooyoung, hung around the office. Hongjoong was at his desk, Seonghwa beside him, reading some papers. Your boyfriends, along with Soonyoung, Mingi, and Wooyoung, sat at a smallish table with mismatching chairs that you didn’t notice when you came in originally. The members of SVT looked over you head to toe with worry. Wooyoung and Mingi shared a look you couldn’t read.

“I’ll have your clothes cleaned,” Seonghwa broke the silence and you ruffled your hair with the towel as you stepped closer. “Do you need anything?”

“Nah, I’m okay, thanks.” You shook your head, “Are we heading to the warehouse?”

Jeonghan, Joshua, and Seungcheol shared a look, but all of them relented.

“Yeah, we can go,” Joshua spoke first, nodding. “You ready?”

“Mhmm, I’m good.” You hung the towel in the bathroom, thanking the ATZ members once more, in full, before leaving.

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wooahaeruby · 2 months ago

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Chapter 49: Taking Control

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With a few texts to Rheia and full access to everything in Pandora, you were set on trying to get into Monsta X’s mainframe. It was a task to keep yourself busy and try to help the cause overall.

You had been at it for days on end, running through every program, dark web back access, and piece of code you could get your hands on, but each option came up empty. It was a pain in the ass, frustrating to all hell even, since you weren’t getting any answers.

Tossing your headset off, you sighed, putting your head down on the countertop to give yourself a break from staring at the screen for hours on end.

“Nothing?” You jumped up, completely forgetting Wonwoo had entered not long ago, sitting on the couch, playing a solo video game.

“Nothing at all. It’s hard to even find what Rheia was talking about now, or if it was even real. I’m starting to think that there was a spoof and whatever Rheia had was just a front.” And you still couldn’t figure out the numbers, they were haunting you.

“You sound fried. You've been down here for hours every day.” He paused the game, patting the couch beside him. “Come sit and forget about it for a little while. If you are going to continue to go in circles, there isn’t a reason to persist until something new pops up.”

Heaving a sigh, you stood up from his desk and shuffled over, falling into the spot beside him.

After your date on Sunday, Cheol had dropped you off at Jeonghan’s room, a goofy grin on his lips the entire time the hand off happened. It was a little funny, seeing the grin on Jeonghan’s face as he opened the door and the broody pout on Joshua’s lips when you shuffled in and the door was shut.

Joshua didn't let you up from bed the entire night, not until you all went into the city the next day. It was the first night in a long while that you spent at your apartment, but sleep found you easily nuzzled between your significant others.

Tuesday, with you still in the city, Seungcheol took you for lunch and dinner, to – mainly – Joshua's dismay. Jeonghan just smirked the entire time. You were wined and dined, keeping your, now, second kiss a secret only for now. Maybe until Joshua settled. Maybe until Seungcheol decided to be cheeky. But for now it was your secret.

“I’m going to take a break later.” You voiced your thoughts to Wonwoo, seeing the quirked side of his lip in a smirk. “I’m serious! If I can’t figure out something to help, I might lose my mind.”

“If only things could be spelled out to us.” Wonwoo stared at the game once more, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. “But I’ve learned that’s too easy.”

“They will never make our lives easy, that’s the whole point of the Big Bad Evil Guy – Group in this case.”

Your friend only chuckled low at your comment, eye scanning across the screen as he played. You didn’t move your eyes from the screen either, watching each of his moves, how he defeated boss after boss, exploring the semi-open world the game provided…

Yeah, you didn’t end up going back to finding any assemblage of Monsta X’s firewalls or whereabouts. Your eyes were already hurting before Wonwoo said anything, tired and dry from the constant gaze on the monitors, four to be exactly. He had upgraded recently, you noted.

Trudging upstairs, it was relatively quiet in the house. Most of SVT were in the city, working wherever necessary. Wonwoo was only here since he had a rare day off thanks to Cheol. Though, you thought you heard someone else in the house, shuffling around earlier, but it could have just been Wonwoo…

You turned into the kitchen, meeting the sparkling brown eyes of Seokmin, who was pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“Hey!” He cheered, a brilliant smile on his face. “Have you been down there all morning and most of the afternoon?”

“Uh, yeah, why are you here?” You moved past him as he leaned against the counter, sipping the scalding drink.

Seokmin hummed, “Cheol owes me three days off for something so I decided to take today off…I’m meeting my sister for dinner tonight, but she lives a few hours away now so I’ll need to get on the road sooner or later.”

A smile bloomed on your features, “I’m glad you can go see her, Minnie. I hope you enjoy dinner.”

“Planned on it,” He said cheekily, even looking a little shy as he stared into the mug. “She will probably kick my ass for not going out to see her sooner, but I can handle it. I…want to see her before everything happens with MX.”

You understood, it made sense, there was a lot that could happen and probably would happen. Some of SVT has family left, you know of Seungkwan’s family and Vernon’s sister, even Wonwoo’s brother. No one really knew how the next weeks might go, preparing for the worst wasn’t the worst idea around…

“I think, either way, that it would be nice to see her, Min. Enjoy the company even if the drive is long.”

Seokmin continued to drink down his coffee as you looked in the fridge for something easy to eat, but…you need to go food shipping for the house soon.

“How do you fuckers eat so much, even when you aren’t home? It’s actually insane.”

“I dunno, metabolism?”

The disappointment must have been noticeable on your face by the way he chuckled. He was such an annoying brother to have…

You settled on something simple; stealing a pack of Jihoon’s precious ramen that he had hidden in the back of the bottom shelf of a lower cabinet, behind some barely used items. He didn’t know you found it one day while cleaning things in the house and you would continue to be a stealing gremlin even after he found out. Perks of being you.

Staying by Seokmin’s side until he left, he promised to text you once he arrived and when he left before you even had a chance to ask. He squished you into a tight hug, rocking side to side before he hurried out, leaving you smiling in his wake. Wonwoo hadn’t emerged from Pandora and your body thrummed to do something other than sitting around at home or in front of a computer for another minute.

“Wonu?” You stepped into the man cave that Pandora was, hearing the rapid fire clicking of the controller stop instantly.

“What’s up?”

“Do you want to go out? I don’t know where, probably to the food store – I wanted to get out of the house and wanted to see if you’d like to join too.” His eyes flickered to the game on the screen for a split second. “You can say no, dude.”

He opened his mouth, pausing for a moment as he motioned towards the screen. “Can I-”

“Yes, finish the fight, you of all people should know I wouldn’t not let you do that.” You laughed, nodding your head to the stairs. “I’ll wait in the living room.”

With Wonwoo roped into food shopping and maybe more, you were going to pick up some face masks and see if you could convince him to sit with you…

You did notice he grabbed his nice, fancy camera, remembering the one he got you for Christmas, sitting in a pile of almost all other presents from the holidays in Jeonghan’s closet. You had mentally added it to your list of shit to get back to once everything was settled, once Monsta X was said and done with, when you weren’t always looking over your shoulder. Beneath Wonwoo’s thick jacket, between that and his layers, you knew he was carrying a handgun, hearing him check the magazine clip before holstering it, concealed well. That…was a conversation you wanted to bring up again with your… Three boyfriends, and probably a few others so everyone was on the same page.

Wonwoo, on the way to the food store, asked you to pull over near a trail entrance learning into the woods. You obliged, interested in what he was going to capture, finding a safe spot to pull off. The moment the engine cut, he was hopping out of the passenger seat, shuffling down the trail as you tried to catch up.

He stopped here and there, capturing the decay and stillness that was nature in winter. You fell in step behind him as he continued down the path, letting nature guide his photography.

You heard the rustling of the dead brush not far from you, meeting the red eyes of a pure white rabbit that quickly scurried away. Wonwoo didn’t stop much, wandering without concern between each shot he took. The trail opened to a clearing, dead grass crunching under each step. Trees were dried and gray, near lifeless until the spring came back around. The area was unsurprisingly void of people with how frigid it was, almost silent, neither of you breaking the stillness.

A few steps behind your friend, you took in the mute scenery cautiously. It had been a long time since you came anywhere close to a trail, the home body you were, and you didn’t like the decrepitness that the winter woods were. It felt hollow and dreary, much like how you felt after…everything. A shiver went down your spine as you pushed the thought away.

“We should come back when it warms up.” Your gaze fell on Wonwoo, his focus on the fallen branch branches, all tangled up as they hung from weeping tree limbs.

With a gloved hand, he pushed his glasses up when he finished his shot, nodding. “It’s fucking cold out here.”

The puff of laughter had a small plume of breath appearing in front of your face. “Then can we go? My hands are going numb.”

On the trek back to the car, he showed you the raw photos, yapping on and on about how he would edit them later to look even better. You didn’t stop him, hearing the joyful lilt to his voice, not that you would stop him anyways. He only stopped talking as you drove the rest of the way to the store, the radio filling the space around you. You enjoyed the silence the both of you could sit through.

Food shopping, despite the amount you ended up getting, went quickly with Wonwoo. You went through every aisle, strolling casually as items were tossed into the cart, running through a mental list of different meals to know what ingredients to collect. Wonwoo insisted that, since it would more than likely be the two of you for dinner, to get easy food from the freezer section and you humored him, piling some boxes into the cart.

It took decent Jenga and Tetris skills to put most things into your car’s… frunk , front trunk, with some at Wonwoo’s feet and on his lap. You did get a text from your Fourway chat that they wouldn’t be home as Wonwoo thought. Wonwoo went into the Squad chat you had made, confirming that you were with just him for the night until Seokmin came home late that night.

“So…move the console upstairs?” Wonwoo must have read your thoughts as you peered over at the living room TV.

“Oh, definitely, dude.”

You both lost track of time between different games, sprawled out on the couch with piles of blankets, pillows, snacks, and platters of junk food. Seokmin let you know that he arrived via text somewhere in that period.

You did manage to get Wonwoo to sit with the face mask that you bought. His hair was pushed back by a headband, wildly sticking up in different directions atop his head, glasses on over the sheet mask. You both looked ridiculous, a little horrifying with the cartoon animals printed on them, but you sent a picture to the chat with all the guys with the caption of ‘ wish you were us, huh?’. Both of you were flipped off the camera and you laughed together for a good bit after, especially when texts flooded in from a few of the guys asking Cheol to let them go home.

That got a ‘ Really, Mo?’ and ‘The faster some of you work and get shit done, the faster you can go home’ .

You did not feel back at the chaos you created.

It was nearly ten-thirty when Seokmin informed you he was going to start heading back, a two and a half trip ahead of him. You asked if he would be alright to take the drive so late, which he assured he’d be a-okay.

By midnight, you were yawning along with Wonwoo, and there was bare minimum clean up that followed before you parted to sleep. You fell asleep not long after your head hit the pillow, jolting awake when Seokmin came in from the garage, trying to be quiet, but he must have ran into something based on the curse he let out.

Then, you laid there, attempting to fall back into slumber for god knows how long, staring up at the ceiling. Seokmin would feel terrible if he knew he woke you up, so you promised not to tell him in the morning. You’d need a fuck ton of coffee if you ended up staying awake the whole night.

So you did the only thing you could think of to maybe bore yourself to sleep; think of all the ways you could get into MX’s servers. You loved the skills you had, but you also knew they could be boring when you needed it to be. Somewhere in the mix, you recalled what Wonwoo had said earlier in the day.

If only things could be spelled out for us.

“Oh…my god.” You sat up instantly, grabbing your phone off the nightstand as things, somehow, became clearer. “Oh my god, that’s it-”

Hastily, you threw on some pants and darted out of the room and down the hall to Seungcheol’s office, needing something to write on. You found a notepad under some scattered documents and started to write out all the numbers that still had on your phone.

First month: 5 - E, 13 - M, 15 - O, 19 - S, and 21 - U Second: 1 - A, 3 - C, 7 - G, 8 - H, 20 - T, and 21 - U Third: 9 - I and 14 - N Fourth: 31 - Z / Maybe 1 - A? Fifth: 1 - A, 16 - P, 18 - R, and 20 -T

You were the only thing that happened in December, you were one. You were A.

Mouse caught in a trap.

“These sick bastards.” You scoffed, staring down at your discovery with abhorrence.

Your stomach churned horribly, a new found anger and dread settling in the pit of it. You had to tell someone, find someone awake at this time, which – glancing at the time, it was just past three in the morning. There were two, maybe three or four of the guys who would be awake.

Pulling Soonyoung’s number, hitting call, you remember skimming the group chat and he was closing Quarts with Jihoon.

“‘Yellow?” Soonyoung’s voice came through happily, music still playing in the background. “Why are you up?”

“Who’s that?” Jihoon was heard not far from him.

“Couldn’t sleep, knew you guys would be awake.” Your free hand was shaking and you clenched it into a tight fist at your side.

“Whoa, you sound ‘lil angry there, Mo, what’s up? Wait, let me put you on speaker so-” You heard the phone clatter to the floor and a startled yelp from Soonyoung.

“Nice job, idiot.” Jihoon sounded close before addressing you. “ What’s going on, you okay?”

“Physically, yes, aside from not being able to go back to sleep.” You shot a glare at the notepad. “Remember how I said that the dates from the sabotages meant something? But I couldn’t figure it out?”

Both hummed in agreement.

“Yeah well, I just figured it out.” There was a shake to your voice. “It’s all planned, all of it. The number dates correspond with a letter, it spelled out ‘ Mouse caught in a trap’. I’m…I called Soon right after I spelled it out.”

There was a moment of silence over the phone.

“Okay, well, that fucking sucks.” Soonyoung spoke first, exclaiming in pain with the sharp sound of a slap heard. “Ow! What was that for!?”

“You are terrible at comforting people, dude.” Jihoon scolded, sighing. “Mo, do you need someone to come home?”

“Nah, I’m okay,” You sighed along with the second man, sitting down in Seungcheol’s chair. “But I’m probably gonna come to the city tomorrow, be around everyone. I called you because I think I needed to tell someone or I would have woken up Wonu or Minnie.”

“Give you guys a call in the morning to fill them in.” Soonyoung hummed. “ We are closing up-”

“Who is ‘we’?”

“Jihoon has been closing up so we’ll be heading home soon.”

“Try to get back to sleep. At the moment, nothing else has happened so this has to be a scare tactic. I’m not saying to not overthink it, but try not to.” Jihoon definitely was better at words than Soonyoung.

“I know, I had that nervous, scared energy in my stomach, along with the anger.”

“Which is understandable, it makes sense. They hurt you, you probably won’t feel safe until they are dealt with. But seriously, get some sleep. We can talk more tomorrow, okay?”

“Thanks for answering the phone, guys.” You sagged in the chair, the anger somewhat fading to stagnant fear.

“Always, day or night! That’s what family is for, Mo.” Soonyoung hollered and you held those words in your chest, heart squeezing.

You wished them both a goodnight, dropping your phone on the desk once the call dropped.

Hate was a good work, loathing even – it best described the feeling deep without your mind. It made you ill, knowing they were still toying with you specifically, even more so your family and friends. It made you feel small, weak, powerless, but you’d swallow down those unwanted emotions and turn them into unbridled strength, even if it was pure strength of spite. You were going to help end this with everything in your power.

You needed a plan to manifest, but first and foremost, sleep was necessary.

Tearing the page from the notepad, you shuffled through the house until you were met with Seokmin’s door. Gradually, you opened the door to slip in, trying not to make any noise, slipping in and letting your eyes adjust to the lack of light. He snored rhythmically under the covers, able to see some thanks to your phone screen lighting the way to the edge of his bed.

Seokmin jolted for a moment when you peeled the blanket back, a sound of bewilderment leaving him upon realizing there was no threat, only you. With a murmured apology, you slid in next to him, letting him stare at you, eyes half-lidded and disoriented. Seokmin muttered something incoherently before moving himself close, getting snuggled up to your side.

As you settled in, pulling the covers up, Seokmin wormed his way closer until his arms wrapped around one of yours, head bumping against your shoulder. He was really warm, but the feeling was more than welcoming, comforting. You appreciated his sleeping brains and you fell asleep yourself.

You woke to an empty bed but the blankets tucked snugly around your body.

Sucking in a deep breath, you managed to slowly sit up, tired eyes gazing around the room, letting the events of the previous night catch up to you. Glancing to the nightstand, your phone rested atop the torn note page and you groaned.

The door swung open quickly, thankfully not thudding against the wall, as Seokmin paraded in with two mugs and a half-awake Wonwoo trailing behind.

“Good morning~!” Seokmin handed you a mug, the warm, mild smell of coffee perking your senses up more.

Wonwoo took a seat by your feet near the foot of the bed, shoving his hands between his thighs to warm up. Seokmin got to the other side of the head, criss-crossing his legs as he sat down, humming to himself as he sipped his drink.

“Jihoon texted me that you called Soonyoung last night.” Wonwoo’s groggy voice met your eyes, hearing him clear his throat. “At three in the morning.”

Bastards.

“Then you crawled into bed with me. Was everything okay?”

Taking a long gulp of your coffee, you grumbled, feeling their eyes on you. “Couldn’t sleep, tried to fall asleep, then I remember what you said yesterday about having things spelled out for us and something clicked in my head.”

You grabbed the paper off the nightstand, seeing the scribbled mess of words and letters from your findings. Handing it over to the older man first, Seokmin scooted over to read over the page, adjusting his glasses. They shared a look, quick and nearly missed, before Seokmin spoke up.

“Guess you got spooked? Not that I minded the cuddle buddy for the night.”

You gave a quiet laugh, drinking down more coffee. “A bit, but I’m okay. I told Ji and Soon that I was going to head to the city today.”

Seokmin bobbed his head in a nod. “Well, good thing we need to be there, right, Wonu?”

Said man scratched his cheek violently, the skin blooming bright red, along with such a man sniff in from his nose. He even slow blinked. “Can we get food before we head to deal with shit?”

“Second the idea,” You chimed in, nodding. “Diner in town?”

They both agreed easily, moving to get up and their day properly started. You weren’t surprised to see Seokmin up early, he always was, but you were joking with Wonwoo as he stumbled through the house to get his stuff that he was up early. He muttered that Minghao and Jun woke him up with a confirmation that they completed their mission , letting him know they’d be on their way home. You felt a little bad that those types of communications had to go through him to get securely to Seungcheol, Jeonghan, and Joshua.

Your small trio grabbed brunch, with Wonwoo riding with you all the way to the city after. It was agreed that you’d bring him to the warehouse, meeting Seokmin there. You’d tell those at the warehouse of your discovery, then you’d…figure out the rest from there. Maybe go back to your apartment…

Only Seungcheol, Mingyu, and Vernon were in the office, the younger two at the conference table while the leader was at his desk. Seokmin was barely through the door behind you before Cheol was asking him to see Jeonghan across town with Vernon for something. You gave them both a sympathetic wince as they quickly left. Mingyu greeted you and Wonwoo warmly, a stack of files – for the clubs he informed you – sitting before him. Seungcheol was focused on a message on his phone before the device was tossed aside with a huff.

“Hey guys,” He properly greeted, eyes dull and eye bags heavy. “Wonwoo, I need you to head over to ATZ, Yeosang believes Monsta X left something on their servers when everything went down and needs help getting into it.”

You tossed your keys at Wonwoo, watching him fumble to catch them. “Take my car, I’ll steal Cheol’s if I need to go anywhere.”

“I never agreed to that.”

“Girlfriend privileges.” Both you and Mingyu spoke, a smile breaking out on the taller man’s face before giggling.

Seungcheol denied nothing, only slouching back into his chair, giving a sharp roll of his eyes.

You let your gaze wander over Seungcheol when Wonwoo left with a promise not to wreck your car and Mingyu returned to his paperwork. Cheol didn’t sleep, it was evident to the world based on his body language. You wouldn’t be surprised if he was mostly in the same clothes as the previous day. He was staring up at the ceiling, letting his eyes slip closed slowly as if he’d fall asleep right there. When was the last time any of them got a proper, long rest or vacation?

“I figured out the numbers,” Better to get it over with to maybe let Seungcheol rest.

Said man’s eyes opened wide, sitting up straight. Mingyu placed his pen aside to give you all his attention. You went on to explain the numbers, their corresponding letters, and the message it all spelled out. The anxiety you once had was now only annoyance and hatred. You placed the page on Cheol’s desk from your pocket, watching him peer over it with a long, weighted sigh. Both men didn’t look pleased, but you brushed them off with a lazy wave of your hand.

Oh well, really.

Seungcheol slouched a second time and you strided around his desk, clicking your tongue in disappointment.

“Go back to the penthouse and rest.” You didn’t ask, he’d say no if you did, and would make excuses.

He shot a glare at you.

“Would you look at the time-” Mingyu gathered the files quickly, looking at his watch. “I should get to Quartz, lots to do-”

“For fucks sake.” Seungcheol sighed for a third time .

Probably for the best , you thought, hearing him leave quickly, hollering back a ‘good luck!’ back to Cheol.

“I’m fine, just didn’t sleep well.” He continued to glare, weakly you might add.

You leaned against his desk, scoffing as you glanced about the room. “No one to act tough for, Cheol. You look ready to pass out while sitting up.”

There was a fight before his eyes, like he wanted to argue, but the glare dropped, along with the last bits of his energy it seemed.

“It’s been hard to sleep the last couple days.” Based on his tone, it seemed hard to admit. “I tried everything I could to find them and my mind has been racing too much to get some shut eye.”

You dropped the defense in your shoulders, stepping closer to gently rest a hand on his cheek. Seungcheol learned into your touch, shutting his eyes tiredly. Your heart swelled, running your thumb over his cheek. Reaching up, he took your hand, lacing your fingers together as a pout formed on his lips.

“Nothing more can be done currently, we are doing everything we can. Rest a little before chaos begins, you’re going to need it.”

Gazing upon you, Seungcheol stayed quiet, taking your entirety in slowly, sighing through his nose. You tilted your head to the side, letting him savor the peace.

“I have a lot to do, Mo, I can rest later, promise.”

“Hm…” You hummed, asking as if you were actually thinking his words over. “Nope, I’m sure I can hold down the fort while you go get some rest.”

The snort, followed by a carefree laugh from him had you laughing as well.

“Don’t laugh at me!” You grinned, seeing some light come back to his expression. “Who knows, maybe I’ll do great and you’ll have a new assistant.”

Seungcheol continued his laughter, pulling you close until you stood between his legs. He let your hand go to hold your waist, lovingly staring up at you. “I wouldn’t be able to work if I had you this close everyday.” There was a suggestive lilt to his voice that had you raising a brow.

“Seems like a you problem if you can’t keep your hands to yourself.” He tightened his hold on your waist ever so slightly.

“What can I say? You are a very pretty distraction.”

“And you need sleep.” Leaning down, you placed a sweet kiss to his lips, hearing him hum happily. “I can handle myself and SVT for a few hours, just leave your phone.”

“And if someone calls?”

You brought your hand to your face, miming a phone with your thumb and pinky extended. “ King’s phone, this is Mouse. How may I help you?” Your voice was sickeningly sweet, like a bimbo secretary on some drama show.

“That will go over like a lead balloon.” He chuckled. “And if they ask where I am?”

You continued in the same horrid voice. “Oh? Where is he? Well, currently he is busy doing none of your fucking business . Can I take a message?”

“One day, you will get your ass kicked-”

“Eh, already did,” You shrugged, a smirk on your face. “And because you said something so mean, you have to go back and sleep. What’s your phone password?”

Seungcheol, prior to reluctantly leaving, asked you to make note of who called and to go over the files he placed on his desk, needing someone to check over the math on the numbers for errors. Invoice reviewing, in simple terms. You teased him that you’d figure it all out with ease and pushed him from the room, needing him to forget about work for a few hours to sleep.

The files were extensive, well documented and notated. They were for Pledis Shipping , the monthly income for January and the last few days of February. Every little cost was accounted for, down to stationeries for tax purposes. It was amazing to see just how much came in from that side of the business alone. While you couldn’t say you worked closely with business expenses before, you could do some decent math and review invoices to take at least one thing off everyone’s plate.

You were a generous amount through a folder, maybe two hours in if you had to guess, when Cheol’s phone lit up, the shrill of his ringtone on the lower end.

KHJ

Swiping to answer, you grabbed a blank sheet of paper to write anything important down.

“ King’s phone-”

“ Mouse?” Hongjoong asked, confusion laced in your nickname. “ Where is Seungcheol?”

“Forced him to get some sleep, I’m playing leader for a while, what’s up?”

The leader hummed over the line. “ Wanted to update him on the thing that Yeosang found, the encryption. But first…You and Seungcheol, huh?” There was a teasing snicker.

“Yep, Cheol and I.” You rolled her eyes, snickering along. “But he looked like shit this morning when I came here so I forced him to get rest. I’m running some numbers for him, taking calls, you know.”

“Well, I’ve now lost five hundred bucks to Minji, so thanks for that.” He joked. “ But to actual business, Yeosang and Wonwoo are still working on whatever Monsta X left, but it could be a spoof to mess with us. Neither of them seem hopeful. I informed DC and SKZ so their techies are checking servers. I would check SVT’s things again if there is anything. Didn’t want to interrupt them to tell Wonwoo though.”

“Got it.” You quickly scribbled down some notes, placing an asterisk beside the part of reviewing your group’s servers. “Fucking blows.” You muttered and Hongjoong agreed, adding that the entire situation was weird, how Monsta X were very much an in-your-face type of chaos, not stubble and sneaky. That made your stomach do summersaults, asking no one in particular what they could have planned.

“ I don’t like it either, the longer they are quiet, the more worried I become.”

“You and me both.”

“You doing alright?”

“Yeah,” You nodded to yourself, leaning back in the chair. “As best I can but I’m not letting them shake me as much as they did before.”

“I expect nothing less from the resident badass. You have many shoulders to lean on now.” There was someone talking on his end of the phone and Hongjoong scoffed. “Hey, I gotta handle this. We’ll speak later, Mouse, bye.”

With the call ending, you returned to your meticulous math and reviewing, playing some music off your phone to fill the dull space. You weren’t bothered by anyone for a while which let you work quickly, completely in the zone, humming along to whatever song played. You were thankful you hadn’t found any issues within the documents. Adding sticky notes that the files were finished for any final review that was necessary.

The shrill of Cheol’s phone broke your concentration a second time, Evil #1 staring back at you. Before you could greet Jeonghan, he was already talking.

“Hey, so we have a small problem – Or well, a big problem but we can handle it. But we are going to need to get out of the city to handle it further-”

“Uh-” You cleared your throat. “What happened?”

“ Mouse? Why do you have his phone?”

“Hi to you too, he is back at the penthouse, hopefully sleeping.” You grabbed the notepad. “What happened?”

“Nah, wait a minute, he let you have his phone and left? Because you told him to? I don’t even know his phone password! I’ve known him since we were younger!”

“Is that a problem?”

“Babe, listen to me very closely-” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “ That’s really fucking hot- You have weird ass magic-”

“I’ll take the compliments later, babe , tell me what's going on so I can tell Cheol later.”

“Too long, don’t read; we came to check out the dealer he ordered stuff from, but he took our money and ran. So, Vernon managed to track him down and we need to pay him a visit.” Your boyfriend sighed, you could mentally see him pinching the bridge of his nose. “ I’m going to come back with S- Tempest, Watcher, and Omen, gotta change and get some man power then head out. We have eyes on the guy but he has a following too.”

“Alright,” You wrote down what was necessary to tell Cheol, “I’ll see you back here soon, do you want me to have Sona gather some people?”

“ Yes, you are a godsend.” He praised, filling the three with him in on the plan. “I’ll see you soon, love you.”

You hummed. “I love you too, drive safe.”

Standing from Seungcheol’s desk, you stretched your stiff limbs, weeks since you sat at a desk working as such. At least Wonwoo’s desk setup was ergonomic.

You left the office to the balcony just beyond the door, phone in hand in case you didn’t see Sona. Looking about the bottom floor, you dialed her number quickly, watching as SVT’s people moved about with their work.

“Hey, what’s up?” She answered on the second ring, thankfully.

“I need you at the warehouse if you aren’t here already. Loki needs a group to roll out with and I need you to help gather them.”

Sona stepped through the warehouse doors not a second later. “ Did he say how many?”

Shaking your head, you leaned against the railing. “The deal they went to went bad, they found the guy and wanted to pay them a visit , you’d know better than me about how many he will need.”

“ Heard,” She started towards a group of people, calling out names and giving out orders. Sona placed the phone between her shoulder and ear, telling the slowly groaning group to gear up and wait for Loki to arrive. You thought about hanging up, but as the group dispersed to gather what was needed, Sona made her way over to the stairs, hanging up in the process.

“So you’re in charge?” She raised a brow, sliding into the space beside you, joining in on the people watching. “We saw King leave. He looked pissy.”

“More like playing secretary. Answered some phone calls, looked over some files.” You shrugged. “Is there a secure laptop around here that Archivist uses? I need one for something.”

“If he does, I don’t know where it is. Majority of the time he is a one man team and occasionally brings others in for his stuff.” You huffed at her words. “Best to contact him and ask.”

But he was busy with Yeosang. You huffed a second time.

“I’ll figure it out. Thanks for gathering a team, he didn’t sound too happy over the phone.”

“Yeah well, I assume they lost a lot of money so I wouldn’t be too happy either.” She peered down at her phone. “Any MX news?”

“Rumor has it they might have left something on the servers.”

“And you need a computer to test that theory?”

“Something like that. I’d like to be useful with the skills I spent years learning.”

“Nice fancy degree.’ Sona drummed her fingers on the railing. “Since you are currently in charge, do you want me to go with him or stay here?”

“Again, only an assistant- But that isn’t my decision to make. I should call Shu- Hades to let him know what's going on.”

Sona snorted quietly. “I’ll tell Loki to stop up here before leaving if you don’t come down.” And she stepped away, leaving you in solitude to call Joshua, completely unsure of where he even was today.

You’d mess with him by calling from Cheol’s phone.

Typing in Seungcheol’s pin, SVT’s start date – 0526 – which you teased him about, you went through his contacts until you guessed Joshua’s name. Evil #2. You also found your own – Angel with a pink heart emoji. You would be sick with how much you’d lay into him later for being cute.

It took no time for Joshua to answer, instantly rambling about a couple late trucks due to a weather delay for Pledis , which answered your main question.

“You good, Cheol?” He asked when you didn’t reply until you snickered. “You aren’t Cheol-”

“Don’t hang up!” You scurried into the office, shutting the door behind you. “I have his phone.”

“ Wild!” He laughed, “Why?”

You sat on the couch, kicking your feet up on the small coffee table. “Did you see how shitty he looked this morning? I sent him home to sleep like I was his mother.”

“Everyone is right, you have magic.” Joshua mused. “Enjoying the power?

“Immensely, but I did call you for a reason.”

“Yes, ma’am, what’s going on, boss ?”

“Not you too, please,” But you smiled. “Hannie, Vernon, Chan, and Seokmin are taking a team out of town since someone stole from us, that dealer Cheol wanted them to check out. They tracked him down and will be rolling out soon. I’m waiting for them to arrive back. I also heard from Hongjoong, but no dice on the stuff found on their servers yet.”

“First day on the job and you are already organizing a hit team.” Joshua sounded a little too happy for that. “But thanks for the heads up. Have him call me if he needs more back up, I’m at Pledis all day today. Seungkwan is here too, but I can spare him if necessary.”

“Got it, I think Hao and Jun should be back and resting from their thing, I can rope them in if things go south.”

“Kinda like you in charge, no one is bitching at me.” The flirting was thick. “ Could get used to it.”

“Keep talking like that and I’ll take the job offer from Minji.”

He clicked his tongue, scoffing in offense. “Over my dead body, sweetheart.”

“Promise?” You said sweetly.

“Cheeky, you are lucky I'm in love with you.”

“Until the day you die.” You purred. “Now get back to work. Hopefully I’ll see you later.”

He mirrored the sentiment, the call dropping as you hauled yourself up to stand. You still had the paperwork to finish, maybe you’d explore the warehouse, having never looked around properly.

Checking the time, it had been nearly four hours since Cheol left. With his phone in your possession, you had no idea if he was asleep or on his way back. You did have to fill him in, but that was a later issue, things were running fine aside from Jeonghan’s current issue. Though, he seemed to have a plan so you weren’t too worried. You were curious how much money was stolen by the asshole they were going after. You’d ask later when it was said and done.

Taking the stairs two at a time down to the bottom floor, you spotted Sona with her group, more or less waiting around for Jeonghan to arrive. They milled about until you approached standing a little stiff as any conversation hushed.

“Jesus, please don’t act like I’m some scary being,” You could see Sona holding in a snicker. “I don’t bite.”

“I don’t know, Mo,” Sona stepped to your side. “They might be scared you’re crazy.”

Covering your mouth as you laughed, the workers looked at each other warily. “Crazy? Probably. I have done some wild shit since joining SVT.”

“Remember, some of their first interactions with you were when you ran in after Fenris got hurt. Then almost everyone heard very quickly about the guy in Ruby.”

“Ma’am,” One of the men, spoke up, raising a heavily tattooed hand. “No offense, but you are intimidating. Deceivingly scary, like a cat can be. However, I do see you as tenacious and intrepid.”

Several others nodded and you beamed, bowing your head to them respectfully.

“Thank you, I appreciate it, along with all the hard work everyone puts in here.” You did end up smirking though. “If any of the main group give you a hard time, come find me.”

“What are you, team mom?” Sona nudged you with her elbow.

“They-”

“Are we bothering Mouse?” Jeonghan’s smooth, mischievous voice came from behind you. You rolled your eyes.

A few scrambled to respond but you spoke first to give them a break.

“You are more of a bother, Loki . Don’t you think?”

“Ah~” He stepped forward, arm snaking its way around your waist, placing a kiss on your temple. “Only for you.”

“Don’t you have a job to do?”

“Oh~ Bossy, power got to your head?”

You took his chin between your thumb and index finger, planting a quick, fleeting kiss to his lips, patting his cheek after. “In your dreams. Get your shit and get on the road.”

Moving out of his reach, you greeted Seokmin, Vernon, and Chan. “ Jester and Hades are available if you need backup. I can contact Shadow and Echo too.”

They went off quickly to gather items for themselves, coming back not ten minutes later. Chan was hiding a series of knives, seeing some of the metal catch in the light, Vernon had a single handgun, some full ammo clips, and brass knuckles, and the other two wore double holsters, extra magazine clips on hand. Jeonghan was messily tying his hair up, calling out exactly where they were heading and Vernon sent out a message with a picture of who they were looking for. Seokmin added that, for the disrespect of stealing, they were looting the entirety of the place, since it seemed the guy was hiding at his main hub. It was KOS, Kill On Sight.

“Good luck.” You stopped Jeonghan with a gentle brush of his hand as the group started out the doors, Sona staying back. “Be careful.”

His gaze softened, cupping your hand and kissing your forehead. “Always, my love. I’ll call you later once we are all done.”

“Call if you need back up.”

“Promise.” He muttered the words into your hair, policing another kiss to the crown of your head, giving a tight hug before parting. “Hold down the fort for us, boss.”

“You know it.”

Wonwoo had returned back from ATZ a little over two hours after Jeonghan’s team left. He found you lounging on the couch, going through the files still, looking around for Cheol. The leader didn’t return, really you were going to check on him once you had finished what you were working on. You filled Wonwoo in on the current status of events, no word from Jeonghan, but Wonwoo or Cheol (or you, since you had his phone) hadn’t heard anything.

No news was good news for these things, you learned.

He returned your keys, letting you know Mingyu would be picking him up to train, another fight at the club coming up relatively soon. You asked him about a secure laptop when he mentioned the ATZ servers coming up with a spoof. Hongjoong texted you, not Cheol, that SKZ and DC were spoofed as well. TXT didn’t have anything either.

He frowned when he reminded you of the computer you received after your apartment got torn apart. Wonwoo chuckled at you, only to tell you that MX was messing with everyone, there wasn’t anything of importance left. You agreed, but both of you agreed it wouldn’t hurt to look. He sent all the information for ATZ over to you so you know what to look for.

You gathered all the documents you were reviewing, plus the notepad, deciding to leave not long after Mingyu picked up Wonwoo.

You stopped Sona, telling her to keep you informed on things as time went on, which she half-saluted at as you walked away.

The penthouse was quiet when you arrived, gently closing the door behind you. The lights over the kitchen island were on, enough to see a majority down the hallway. You didn’t see a soul in sight, Minghao and Jun were still probably knocked out since they were out last night. You could cook if the fridge had anything of sustenance.

Creeping down the hall, you peered into a few rooms, finding Jun passed out in one and Minghao in another, thankful you woke neither with how light of a sleep the latter was. You found Seungcheol asleep in the very last room, limbs tangled in the comforter, face buried in the pillow.

You were going to check if he was breathing as a joke, but the snore he let out was enough to answer the question.

Keeping his and your phone in your pockets in case of any calls, you hurried back to the kitchen in the hopes to start on something to eat. There wasn’t a surprise in your mind when the fridge was packed with old take out and definitely some moldy containers of homemade food. You did make a disgusted face as you cleaned the shit out.

You internally joked that they needed to hire both a cleaner and a cook.

With some luck on your side, you managed to find an unopened box of pancake mix and some eggs that weren’t past their expiration date, determining the best course of action was going to be breakfast for dinner until more food was bought. You did order a package of bacon and different fruit from the store.

Half way into cooking, Minghao stumbled through the hallway into the living area, face puffy and lips pouty. He rubbed his eyes to clear the sleepy blur from his vision, stopping his steps. He honed in on you, still coming to consciousness as he started to move close, sitting at the kitchen island.

“Sleep okay?” You turned to the stove to check on everything, peering over your shoulder to him.

Minghao nodded, ruffling his messy hair. “Yeah, we got back early and luckily everyone was gone so no disturbances came through.”

“Hungry? I’m almost done so I was going to wake up Jun and Cheol.”

“Cheol’s home? And asleep?” The surprise was evident in his tone as you refocused on cooking.

“Blah blah blah, girlfriend powers,” You waved the spatula in the air. “Blah blah blah I played leader while he came back here. Hannie is out on an op, I need to feed you guys then tell him shit, then finish up what he asked me to do.”

His signature giggle was infectious, making you giggle along. Minghao stood to help finish up, shooing you away to wake the other two. You started with Jun, easily, gently shaking him away. He looked up at where you stood with sleepy confusion, stretching his long limbs as you told him there was food in the kitchen. Jun needed a little more coaxing to get up, letting you tug him by the hand.

Stepping into where Seungcheol rested, his rhythmic breathing and snoring filling the air. It was nice to see him getting such a deep sleep. He didn’t move since you checked on him when you came to the penthouse.

You sat on the edge of the bed, grinning as you could now see how squished his full cheeks were in the pillow. His hair was sprawled on his pillow and in his face wildly. You had a pang of guilt in your chest that you had to wake him up.

Reaching out, you slowly ran a hand through his hair at the back of his beck. He inhaled sharply, all the muscles in his body tensing at once but you didn’t stop, twirling the strands around your fingers and smiling at how soft it was. Seungcheol barely opened his eyes, muttering your name when he caught sight of you. Under the covers, he stretched out, a groan and popping of joints leaving his body. You ran your hand down his back, letting him awaken on his own time.

“What time is it?” He asked, finally rolling over to his back and rubbing his face.

Your hand now rested on his chest, drumming your fingers on his sternum. “Almost five I believe, when did you fall asleep?”

He cleared his throat, taking your hand into one of his own. “Like, almost immediately after I laid down. Guess I really needed the rest.”

“Clearly.” You let him toy your fingers, watching his eyes close. “I made food, Jun and Hao should already be eating. Hopefully they haven’t eaten it all.”

“Food sounds amazing.” You stood when he hauled himself to sit up, heaving out a huff as he got to his feet as well.

Once you turned towards the door, strong arms caught you around the waist. Seungcheol pulled you close until your back was flush against his clothed chest. He pressed his face into your neck, placing a gentle kiss to the side of your throat. Your hands rested on his arms around your middle, smiling at the affection and leaning into his body.

“Thank you,” He mumbled into your skin, “for forcing me to get some rest and taking care of today.”

Seungcheol leaned some of his weight onto you, just enough that you could hold him up easily, but you could feel the unspoken, unseen weight there.

“That’s what I’m here for, Cheol, now let's get some food, come on.”

You were happy Jun and Minghao didn’t eat all the food, leaving plenty for you and Cheol. Cheol asked for the updates he missed, which you filled the three in on, letting them know that Jeonghan would call soon for an update. Hopefully.

Anxiety bit at your insides.

When Jun and Minghao went off to do their own things after cleaning up the kitchen, you tried to go back to the files, but Cheol had other plans. You wouldn’t say you were manhandled into bed, but he didn’t give you much of a choice.

Seungcheol laid on top of you with his head low on your chest, avoiding your brand, arms firm around your middle with some movie playing on the TV. You learned this was one of his favorite ways to hold you; holding you so close, listening to your heartbeat, and no words needing to be said. When you asked earlier why it was his favorite, he explained that it calmed him, reminding him that he didn’t need to worry about you or anything in the moment. You called him the biggest cheese ball on the planet but he only snuggled closer to you somehow. He’d crawl into your skin if he could.

“I read your text messages,” You had both hands in his hair, combing through any knots as he watched the movie. “From when I was gone and unconscious.”

“Oh, uh-” He lifted himself into his elbows, cheeks flushed a deep pink. “I forgot about those-”

He gazed at you with a hint of embarrassment, like a child caught doing something silly.

“Things got a little busy.” You booped his nose, using your finger to lift his chin more. “But I am curious about what you wanted to talk to me about.”

Seungcheol searched your eyes, knowing he could only find teasing behind your interest. He moved to be eye level with you, hands on either side of your head as you laid against the pillows, trapped under him. You smirked up at him and his still pink cheeks.

“I’ve loved you since the moment I set my eyes upon you. Since the moment you walked into my office and said my name like you hated me. Since you gave up everything and nothing for us.” He leaned down and your smirk was almost completely wiped from your face. “And now that I can have you like this, right here, almost whenever I want…I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”

“Then don’t.”

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