“Hyung, I don’t think your plan is working.” He heard the younger hiss out to him as he continued to play with his elf-like ear, his eyes darting over to where his leader was conversing with the strategist to see if the the younger’s kiss on his cheek elicited any reaction. “I feel sorry for Kun-ge.”

“Look, this plan has to work,” He insisted as Sicheng stared at him in disapproval. “If it doesn’t, I’ll give up. I’ll apologise to Kun when all of this is over.”

“What makes you think that I’m going to let you give up, hyung?” He heard the younger ask with determination flashing in his eyes. “You deserve love too and if Sorn-noona couldn’t give you that then Taeyong-hyung can.”

“I doubt he’ll change the policies for anyone, let alone me,” He sighed out, ruffling Sicheng’s hair and ignoring the fact that the younger rolled his eyes at him. “You know how strung up he is on Eunji-noona’s death.”

“I don’t know, hyung. He changed his answer, after all so I think…I think you have more of an effect on him than it seems, hyung,” Sicheng whispered to him, voice low as if the information was illegal. “And he has more of an effect on you as well.”

“Taeyong liking me? What universe are we living in?” He asked bitterly, scoffing and trying his best to not laugh out loud at the ridiculous thought of Taeyong liking him. “He’s got the emotional capacity of a computer monitor.”

“But monitors don’t-“

“That’s the whole point, Winwin,” He sighed out, glancing towards Taeyong who was now in a very heated argument with their strategist. “Seems like I’m going to have to break that up.”

“Seems like Johnny-hyung is already on it,” Winwin replied and sure enough, Johnny had walked over from where he previously was sitting on the couch near the door. Helpless, Yuta stood up and slowly walked over knowing that calming Taeyong down would be a two person role. 

“Taeyong, you have to stop letting these impulses get to you!” He heard Johnny shout, the words attracting the attention of everyone else in the room. “You can’t keep leading NCT like this and if you do, I will personally ing disobey Eunji just to make sure that her members are safe!”

“The policies are there for a ing reason,” Taeyong hissed back, eyes having never left Taeil who was still sitting and leisurely turning pages that he was reading.
“The fact still remains. We will collapse if we don’t change and adapt,” Taeil pointed out, eyes looking over the edge of the book cover to survey Taeyong and Yuta felt chills when Taeil’s eyes swept over his own form as well. “The reason why Eunji failed was because we didn’t adapt. We didn’t change and we made love our enemy. Can’t you see that you would do anything to save those you love?”

“Getting attached makes you do stupid and reckless things,” Taeyong rebutted, taking a step forward and causing Johnny and himself to restrain him from attacking Taeil. “We can’t afford that.”

“So you’re telling me that Renjun getting help for a dying citizen was stupid?” Taeil asked incredulously, letting out a short laugh before putting the book back on the shelf and standing up. “You’re telling me that Jeno killing someone who could have done much worse to his fellow NCT member was stupid?” Yuta watched as Taeil took several steps forward and had to restrain Taeyong even more in fear that he would attack the shorter male. “You’re telling me that if someone were to point a gun at him right now, you wouldn’t do anything because you’re attached and it would be too stupid for you to act on it?” Yuta simply watched as Taeil withdrew his gun from its holster, loaded it and swiftly placed the tip of it on his forehead.

The metal was cold but the act that Taeil was putting on was icy. 

“What if I were to pull the trigger now, Taeyong? What would you do?” Taeil asked and although Yuta couldn’t see Taeyong’s face in that one moment, he knew that there was conflict flying across the restrained male’s face.

“Taeil, stop-“

“Shut it, Johnny. I am sick and tired of him thinking that it’s okay to follow bull policies that make something as strong as care for someone else into a crime!” Taeil shouted, digging the gun more into his skin and Yuta couldn’t resist the groan of slight pain that escaped him. “I could pull the trigger and you wouldn’t dare to shoot first. I could pull the trigger and you would only look the other way. I could get rid of the gun altogether, him, torture him, brand him, enslave him but you wouldn’t do anything because you’re ing attached and you hate it because it’s something stupid-“
“Fine. Go ahead. Pull the trigger. Do what you want.” He heard Taeyong state, the other’s voice completely void of all emotion except desperation. “But if you did, I would do the same thing to you.”

“He wouldn’t know that,” Taeil stated, taking the gun away from his forehead and placing it back in its holster, causing him to sigh in relief since he did believe that Taeil would have pulled the trigger at some point. “And what good is your heroic act if he’s not there to witness it or thank you for it? Not everyone has a conscience, Yong, and not everyone understands your policies. They need to change or we will fall. Who are you trusting more at this stage? A strategist or a dead leader?”

“If they change, we lose our brand as NCT,” Taeyong whispered, hanging his head low as Taeil sighed and tapped his gun against his leader’s head. 

“No, if they change, we lose our current NCT and we build a stronger one,” Taeil reprimanded, as if he were talking to a child. “Love isn’t stupid, Taeyong. It never was.” Yuta watched as Taeil resumed to read a random book on the couch he was on prior and released his grip on Taeyong slowly in fear that his leader would lose his temper again. 

“Taeyong, just think about it-“

“I have been,” Taeyong cut Johnny’s sentence off, glaring at the taller male who raised an eyebrow and smirked. 

“Tae, why can’t you just-“

“I can’t,” Taeyong said, cutting Johnny off again and dismissing him - the other moving away fairly quickly. Not being able to resist the urge, Yuta reached out to caress Taeyong’s wrist, the comforting gesture familiar to the both of them.

“Tae, just think about it please?” He asked, squeezing Taeyong’s wrist and letting go, turning away to annoy Winwin once more. 

~ ~ ~