“How did you get out before me?” Jungwoo asked when he walked out of the building through one of the backdoors, only to find Doyoung already leaning against the brick wall, waiting for him.

Doyoung pushed himself off the wall and turned to face the younger. He scanned him up and down and the other was confused for a moment before he realized and mumbled a small, “Oh,” and instantly transformed back to his normal identity. “Right.”

“Did you get the files?” Doyoung asked once Jungwoo finally looked like Jungwoo.

The younger smiled. “Of course, thanks to Doctor Death’s distractions I was able to get the prints.”

“You’re lucky that I am also in need of the files.” Doyoung spoke out, instantly snatching the folder from Jungwoo. He began to flip through, eyes scanning every single document. “Damn. I knew the funds distributions were fishy, but I didn’t think it was this bad.”

“Really? I thought it was pretty obvious with the way the school is going. In fact, I think there is more than this. Most likely document fund transfers that I couldn’t find.”

Doyoung nodded, closing the file and handing it back to Jungwoo. “Make a copy for me.”

“No need,” Jungwoo said with a shake of his hand. “You take it and make me a copy. You did well today. You deserve the first look.”

“You’re right, I deserve it,” Doyoung said, pulling back the file. “I was in the middle of my meeting with Jaehyun when you called and I had to drop everything to come here.”

Jungwoo’s entire demeanor changed when he heard those words, but it seemed like the older didn’t notice the drift. “You were meeting that Jaehyun guy again?”

“Yeah, he’s my partner. We were working on the assignment at this book store when you called.”

“You and that guy meet often these days.” Jungwoo hummed. He remained silent for a while, thinking deeply to himself before deciding to speak up again. “Are you sure you don’t like him?”

Doyoung looked at Jungwoo once again, finally realizing where he was going with this. And he knew what answer the younger wanted to hear, but he couldn't bring himself to answer the question.

“Jungwoo, you and I-”

“Stop, I don’t want to hear it. Let’s just focus on what it is inside that file.”

“Okay.”

“SM Enterprises.”

Renjun didn’t say anything. He was unresponsive.

The entire team exchanged looks of worry, before they all turned to face him once again.

Realizing they were all waiting for a response, Renjun took a deep breath and finally opened his mouth to say the only thing he could think of in that moment. “Is that why you were all suspicious that one day, Jeno? Because you guys were trying to break in or something?”

“Yes.”

Jaemin was the one who answered.

“But -- I work there. I don’t understand.”

“We realize it may be hard to understand at first,” this time it was Haechan to speak, “but we all have gone through it. We have all gotten our powers through SM Enterprises. We have all had to go through the struggles of dealing with the powers the first time they appeared. And we have all joined this team and found out our ties. It’s okay.”

“I just can’t believe it.” Renjun was mumbling in disbelief, a slight shake of his head, his sight not leaving his hands. “I’ve interned there since -- oh my gosh. Since around the time I got my powers.”

“Then that’s how you might have gotten your powers.” Mark responded. “I got mine at the SM Laboratory on a science trip in high school. Jaemin got his powers when he went to Han river near the old factory. Haechan got his when he went to the hospital owned by SM Enterprises. Jeno, similairy, got his volunteering with his cousins at the psychiatric hospital. Chenle at the airport, part of the SM Enterprises airlines. And Jisung on the same field trip as mine, but years later.”

“This is so crazy,” Renjun said in disbelief as he shook his head. “Can one company seriously do that much damage? How even? I don’t understand.”

“It’s hard to understand,” Jisung jumped in, “but I have done the research and there is a lot of shady stuff going down with that enterprise. All their different branches, franchises -- there are so many different reports and many of which relate to the ways we got our powers.”

Renjun sighed, closing his eyes as he leaned back on the couch to take it all in. “How is it possible for one company to be everywhere and be able to do this? What have you guys heard of besides this?”

“Many things. One thing that led us to uncovering SM’s secrets, though, was their reputation for scamming.”

“Hmm, I remember that,” Mark said with a nod. “Especially their bank. We had to hack in and do some undercover stuff to figure out how much they were stealing from the people.”

“Oh! And their university funds!” Jeno jumped in, sounding a little too excited for the topic at hand. “The sponsors and funds they get for their student’s scholarships go to higher up people -- and they also go to their laboratories so they can continue doing their shady research.”

“Don’t even get me started on their shady research.” Haechan groaned. “We could literally go on about that for hours.”

“We even heard about some shady stuff going down in their different hospitals. Just the overall health branch.” Chenle also jumped in as he shook his head.  Jeno and Haechan both snorted. “They have no morals.”

Renjun went silent once again, completely freezing everyone out as he thought. Neither Jaemin nor Jeno could feel or hear what he was feeling, and they exchanged worried glances. But then he spoke up.

“So, how do we stop them?”

“Well, my dear friend Renjun,” Haechan stepped up, “that is what our current mission is about. Hacking into SM and exposing their dirty secrets. But for that, we have to actually get in.”

“That’s going to be very hard,” Renjun said, being an intern at the main branch and knowing much about how the company functioned. “And what about the gun?”

“Oh, that,” Haechan said, “one night, Mark and I were out fighting crime and stuff, the usual, and we found these bad guys and I was super cool, you know the same old, and they pulled out these weapons. Which, you know are illegal. So, I took the gun so we could do research, but I searched and searched and couldn’t find anything. Even Jisung, our hacking prodigy, couldn’t find anything.”

“That’s crazy,” Renjun spoke in astonishment.

“Trust me, we were shocked at first too.” Jeno said.

“All of this is so hard to believe, but I am thankful you guys have welcomed me into the team.” Renjun looked around the room, glancing at every single member of the team. And he smiled the slightest.

“You’re a dreamie now. We all work together.”

“Jaehyun! Jaehyun I have to show you something! You won’t believ--”

Yuta stopped shouting as soon as he opened the door and walked in, only to find Jaehyun sitting in the middle of his room, face and ears red, as he faced the wall. Completely still.

“Uh, are you okay?” Yuta asked, still holding on to the doorknob with one hand and phone with the other.

Jaehyun nodded as he slowly began to snap out of his daze. “Yeah,” he mumbled, though his face and tone said otherwise. “I was just thinking about, uhm, what Doctor Death said…”

“Oh right!” Yuta exclaimed, instantly rushing to Jaehyun’s side to gossip about the previous events. “What did he say to you? I was wondering about it all through class. I thought about just leaving, but I don’t think my professor would have liked that, so I had to wait until class ended so I could come home and ask you and-- okay, why is your face red?”

“It’s embarrassing!” Jaehyun said, shaking his head in strong refusal.

“Okay, it can’t be that bad,” Yuta said with a roll of his eyes, “what did he say? Did he call you a loser for always getting your kicked? Because, come on, it’s not that big of a deal. I’m sure there are plenty of heroes who have lost many battles in a row before winning.”

“It’s not that,” Jaehyun said, finally calming down. “What he said -- I, uh. He--. I can’t say it.”

“What is it? Just spit it out.”

"He said 'see you later.'"

Yuta raised an eyebrow, wondering if something about this had deeper meaning. "Okay, and?"

"And then he winked."

Yuta went dead silent, staring at Jaehyun with a wide open mouth and equally wide open eyes.

Jaehyun closed his eyes, knowing exactly what Yuta was going to say.

“This is exactly like chapter seven of that fic you were-”

“Don’t mention it!”

Yuta suddenly burst into a fit of laughter and Jaehyun sighed, leaning against his bed and covering his face with his hands. “I don’t get what the point of that was. Was he trying to make me flustered so he could escape?”

“Why would he want to escape? No offense, but he could have demolished you if he wanted to.”

Jaehyun rolled his eyes. “Okay, whatever. My point is, what the hell was he trying to accomplish with that?”

“I have no idea, but,” Yuta gasped, hand going up to his mouth, “what if he likes you?”

Jaehyun was appalled. Completely and utterly one-hundred percent disgusted. A villain - his nemesis - liking him? Yeah, Yuta had read one too many fanfictions.

“You are literally crazy.”

“Didn’t that happen with Batman and Catwoman though? It can’t be that far fetched.”

“First, Batman and Catwoman aren’t actually real. And second, yes. It is.”

This time it was Yuta’s turn to roll his eyes. “Okay, moving on since you are clearly annoyed with this conversation -- I filmed your entire fight scene and you will never guess what I found.”

“What did you find?”

Yuta looked around the room before standing up and walking to the doorway to look into the hallway. He turned back to the younger. “Where are Johnny and Taeyong? I think they need to hear this too.”

“They went out grocery shopping. We ran out of toilet paper again.”

“Okay, then I’ll just show you then,” Yuta said as he walked back to the younger and sat down besides him. “Look at this video I filmed.”

Yuta then his phone, opened up his gallery, and instantly clicked on the latest video. Captain J and Doctor Death appeared on the screen seconds after, talking up above the school’s courtyard. Yuta skipped most of the video, going directly to the end where Doctor Death looked up at the crowd and that shady guy gave the okay sign before disappearing off.

Jaehyun’s eyes widened as he watched the video closely and snatched the phone from Yuta’s hands to get a closer view. “This can’t be real,” He mumbled as he replayed the scene, “Doctor Death working with someone? Is that what that was?”

“Trust me, it’s real. I saw it with my very own two eyes.” Yuta shook his head. “But I can’t believe it either. I thought Doctor Death was a solo guy. But working with someone else? Someone that we were able to catch on camera?”

“If he really is working with this person, we have to find him as soon as possible.”

“We have to show this to Johnny so we can use his technology to find this person.”

“Jaehyun.”

“Yes?”

“What is that?”

Jaehyun looked up at his wall where Yuta was looking at and mumbled a soft, “oh that,” when he saw his giant board with all the clues Doctor Death had dropped. The entire wall was just pictures and sticky notes with written hints, all tied together and interconnected by strings and thumbtacks. “Yeah, I made that the other night when I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about Doctor Death’s words.”

“That’s sad.” Yuta said, getting up to have a closer look. “But smart.”

“It would be smart if it actually helped in anything,” Jaehyun said, also standing up to walk over to Yuta’s side. “But so far, I’m back to square one. Nothing. Nada.”

“I’m sure there’s something you can do to better understand the hints.”

Jaehyun hummed as he began to think. Suddenly he tuned  back at Yuta, a look of alarm on his face. “You know what? Gongmyung said something that gave me an idea earlier!”

“And?” Yuta asked raising an eyebrow, waiting for further elaboration.

“How would you feel about being the Watson to my Sherlock Holmes?”

“I feel underestimated.”

“A psychiatric hospital, Jaehyun?” Yuta asked as he looked up at the building, confused as to why he had to drive the two of them to the other side of town to end up here. “Why?”

“This is where I fought Doctor Death the other day.”

“And we are here because?”

“Because he told me to dig deep, and Gongmyung told me to familiarize myself with the situation. So, my dear Watson, are you ready to help me?” Jaehyun looked over at Yuta who only shrugged in response, and with that, the two walked in.

“So, what’s the game plan?” Yuta asked as they walked up to the counter.

“Plan?” Jaehyun asked, suddenly realizing one crucial part to this whole thing that he forgot: An actual plan that would let them know what to do once they got there.

“Yeah, Jaehyun, we need a plan! You can’t just walk into a hos -- Smile we’re at the counter.” Yuta responded, the second half said through gritted teeth.

“Hello, he’s Japanese!” Jaehyun said to the lady at the counter as he pushed the other forward.

“Konnichiwa, you want to see some magic tricks?” Yuta asked hurriedly with a forced smile plastered onto his face.

“Okay, sure,” The lady said awkwardly, sending Jaehyun a glance that made him think she thought Yuta was perhaps crazy.

Yuta took off one of his metal bracelets and brought his hand up. He glanced at Jaehyun who nodded before looking at a water bottle on the counter. He shrugged and brought his hand up, instantly levitating the bottle. The lady gasped and her eyes went wide before she -- oh. She fainted.

“That was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Jaehyun said, looking at the lady that was passed out on the chair.

Yuta shrugged. “What can I say? My powers are magic.”

“Okay, I’m going to go scan the area and see what I can find, and you stay here and make sure she’s okay and maybe take a peek at that computer for any important files.” Jaehyun explained the plan that came up to his head less than ten seconds ago.

“Okay,” Yuta said with a slight nod and hopped over the counter to check on the poor lady.

Meanwhile, Jaehyun did a turn and found a map of the place. Therapies, wards, etc. But there was one section that caught his eye: An unlabeled branch. So, Jaehyun turned and headed for that hall. There were many empty rooms he passed by, nurses here, patients there, but nothing interesting. Nothing that could be of any use to him.

And as he turned a corner and sped up his pace (he was worried the lady would wake up soon and call security or something), he wondered: What exactly was he looking for? Jaehyun wasn’t very sure why he decided going there was the right way to go about the investigation, and he wasn't sure what the goal was. All of this was impulse. Spur of the moment.

But he just had a feeling. A feeling that what he would find something useful. And he was sure he would know what he was looking for when he found it.

With that in mind, Jaehyun took another turn, this time reaching a darker and longer hallway

It was like a scene out of a movie; a horror movie to be exact. Perhaps he’d find something at the end of the long, and dreadful hallway, or a dead end. Either one was very likely. It was odd, this area of the wing was very secluded compared to the rest of the place; there weren’t any maps nearby either - unlike at the front - which was very odd, but Jaehyun didn’t poke on that topic too much. Not when he was so close to finding something. Yes, he was so close he could feel it, just a step more and-- the door was locked. Jaehyun pulled on the handle but sadly, the door was locked.

“This can’t be happening,” Jaehyun mumbled as he began to walk around, looking for another door that could lead him inside. Think Jaehyun, what would Captain America do?

“Okay, I think Captain America would -- Oh who am I kidding? I have no idea what he would do.”

So, Jaehyun turned around and continued walking down the hall, looking for another doorway, another room, anything. But all the doors he found were locked, and all the empty rooms he stumbled upon were -- empty.

Until, that was, he e final corner, leading to a dead end. Though, it wasn’t actually a dead end. It was one door. Just one, long, metal door. And even though he was 99% sure it would be locked, it was that remaining 1% that had him trying to open the door.

And he succeeded.

The door was heavy, but Jaehyun also had super strength. And when he pulled the door open just a crack, his first instinct was to peek inside to make sure there was no one else there. From the angle he was looking, there was no one, so he pushed further and further until he stood inside in awe.

The room was completely white and filled with a series of metal cabinets with glass frames to look inside. The ones at the far back were filled with different colored chemical tubes, followed by a few syringes on the counter by it. The ones closest to Jaehyun contained different pill bottles with different labels: Lithium, Serotonin, and--

Jaehyun sighed, slamming a fist against the wall. He had made it all the way over here for what? This? Everything seemed normal. Nothing seemed out of place. There was no secret lab where an evil scientist was performing crazy and illegal tests on clients. There was no secret lair where illegal drugs were being stashed away underground. Everything was absolutely normal and Jaehyun was a fool for thinking Doctor Death could actually have been leading him to something.

Except, as Jaehyun’s hand ran through his hair in desperation and his head tossed back, something in his peripheral vision caught his attention: A lock. One at the far back of the room, holding the one metal door that did not have a glass window to look inside, locked.

Jaehyun frowned and began to walk across the room, when he felt a sudden vibration coming from the left side of his jeans. He reached inside his jean pocket and pulled out his phone. Yuta was calling him.

“Hey, what’s up?” Jaehyun asked, still inspecting the lock.

“Yeah, so I was looking through some files on this computer, and you know I sort of with technology which really put me back, so all I could investigate was the list of patients, the list of guests, and the list of workers. So, I printed them out and long story short, while I was getting the papers, the lady woke up and called security and I had to run, so now I’m hiding in one of the restrooms.”

“Yuta, what the hell?!” Jaehyun hissed when he heard the older’s explanation. Immediately, he turned around and began to head out the door, walking down the hall and making a sharp turn and running straight into something.

Jaehyun’s hand went up to his head as he looked up and -- oh no.

“Gongmyung?” Jaehyun asked when he saw his partner’s older brother standing in front of him, giving him an equally confused frown.

“Jaehyun? What are you doing here?”

“Uh,” Jaehyun’s eyes shifted around as he tried to come up with an excuse, “I could ask you the same thing.”

“I volunteer here. So, why are you here?”

Jaehyun bit his bottom lip and he began to look around, avoiding Gongmyung’s gaze. He was not the best liar - he was awful - and he didn’t want to tell him the truth because, how do you tell you possible crush that the reason you are at a psyciatric hospital is because you’re secretly a superhero and your arch nemesis, the villain you always fight against, told you the place would be a hint?

“I have a friend,” Jaehyun started, hoping his ears wouldn’t fail him this time, “who is suffering because of misophonia. Yeah, it is like real bad. He slapped me yesterday and said it was because I was breathing too loud. But I lost him and now I can’t find him.”

Gongmyung didn’t look like he was buying it. He was giving him a suspicious look. Jaehyun mentally cursed himself for being a horrible liar and he blamed it all on his stupid ears that had no sense of control and turned red at any glance directed in his general direction. Or maybe, Gongmyung just didn’t know what misophonia was.

“Okay.”

“What?” Jaehyun asked in reflex, and once again mentally cursed himself for being so dumb. “Oh, I mean, yeah. So, do you think you can lead me to the restroom? I think my friend said he’s in one of them.”

“The only restroom on this side of the building is at the second left turn of the next hallway,” Gongmyung said, “I’ll walk you over there.”

Jaehyun nodded and tried his best to contain his smile and the red shade of his ears, which proved to be even more impossible than he thought. But he didn’t mind so much, and stayed happily by Gongmyung’s side as they walked down the hall and then turned the corner.

“Yeah, I’ve been volunteering here since I turned eighteen. Doyoung and my cousin joined me for a while, but after some time they stopped.”

Jaehyun almost perked up at the mention of his project partner. To be honest, he was curious about him. He had known Doyoung for a while now, and they were certainly closer now than they were before, but Jaehyun knew he had only scratched the surface with him. He felt like Doyoung was someone with a lot of depth, and Jaehyun wanted to get to know him more. He wasn’t sure why, but he did.

“Why did he stop?” Jaehyun asked out of pure curiosity.

Gongmyung stopped walking and turned to face Jaehyun, resulting in the younger freezing.

“We’re here.”

“What?”

“The restroom,” Gongmyung said, and that was when Jaehyun finally turned around and saw the restroom sign.

“Oh,” Jaehyun mumbled, slightly disappointed their conversation had come to a stop.

“Jaehyun! It was your voice I heard- oh? Who’s this?” Yuta’s voice came instantly when the door to the men’s restroom opened.

Jaehyun looked at Yuta, and then at Gongmyung. And the first thing he wondered was if he should really introduce the two. Yuta had a tendency of talking too much. But he realized the longer amount of time he spent not saying, the more awkward the atmosphere got. So, he introduced the two.

“Yuta, do you remember when I told you I have a partner for an assignment named Doyoung?” Yuta nodded. “This is his older brother Gongmyung. He’s a TA who volunteers here.”

“Oh,” Yuta said with a slow nod, his eyes glancing over at Gongmyung before looking back at Jaehyun to give him a look.

“And Gongmyung, this is Yuta. We live together along with some other friends. I told you about him before.”

Gongmyung nodded and shook the hand that Yuta held out to him. “It’s nice to meet you, Jaehyun has told me you are very wise. And I am sorry about your misophonia case. This place has a lot of great therapies you could try that would help you with the rage it makes you feel and it is very nonjudgmental too.”

Yuta nodded slowly, an obviously confused look on his face. He glanced over at Jaehyun who winked. He smiled back at Gongmyung and thanked him for the offer. “But uh, is there a back exit, turns out I forgot I have that thing and we have to go, and we parked in the back.”

Gongmyung frowned, sending Jaehyun a glance. But he didn’t question any further, and showed them another exit they could go through that led to the back parking lot. Jaehyun thanked him for his help, and the older assured him it was no problem.

And when Jaehyun and Yuta were alone, walking through the parking lot…

“Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“No, but you were going to.”

Yuta smiled, nodding to himself as if Jaehyun had just revealed some valuable information. Which he did. “So, you like him?”

Jaehyun’s face flushed, and that was enough a sign for Yuta to continue teasing him. “You know, I think you two would be very cute together.”

“I don’t like him, I just--” Jaehyun paused when he realized he didn’t have an answer. “Okay, maybe I like him the slightest, but I’m still trying to get to know him. Anyway, can you just tell me what you found? Because I found nothing.”

Yuta nodded quickly and took off his backpack. He ped it and pulled out a stack of papers that he handed over to Jaehyun. “I printed the list of patients, visitors, and workers/volunteers. They were all long lists, so I’m not sure if I got them all because I was standing there for fifteen minutes when the lady woke up, and I’m pretty sure it was only halfway done.”

“That’s fine,” Jaehyun mumbled as he began to flip through the pages, “at you least you got more than I did.”

“But Gongmyung’s name should be there, right?” Yuta asked, another sly smile appearing on his face. Jaehyun gave him a shove, but didn’t say anything else. He focused on flipping through the list of volunteers, scanning for one specific name: Doyoung.

But the list only went as far as two years, and Doyoung’s name was not in sight. Gongmyung’s however, was there multiple times, as expected.

“Isn’t it so convenient that the guy you like showed up at the place your arch-nemesis led you to? Like fate?” Yuta asked.

Jaehyun flipped the pages back to the front and passed them back to him, shaking his head. “I don’t think so. I mean, maybe. I don’t know.”

“Your ears are turning red again.”

“So you fought against Doctor Death today,” Johnny said, looking at Jaehyun before he turned to Yuta and pointed at him, “you recorded and saw someone walking away suspiciously as if they were working with Doctor Death?”

Jaehyun and Yuta both nodded like a pair of five-year-olds talking to their teacher.

“And then you both went to an psychiatric hospital because a friend told you to familiarize yourself with the problem? And you got caught and had to escape?”

They nodded again and Johnny was already growing gray hairs from stress.

“It’s settled. I can’t leave you two alone again.”

“In defense, I think we handled all situations very nicely,” Yuta said with a shrug.

“Can I look at the video now?” Johnny asked, extending his hand out.

Yuta pouted and took out his phone and handed it over.

Johnny tossed the phone over to Taeyong who caught it and hooked it up to the computer. He typed in a series of things and the recording flashed out in a hologram.

Johnny crossed his arms and frowned as he watched while Jaehyun and Yuta stood behind him nervously. “Yuta, we need to talk about your camera skills, because they .”

“Just keep on watching.”

They all remained silent as they kept on watching the recording. Doctor Death and Captain J fighting here and there, kicking each other around, falling to the ground, going back and forth with the push and pull and -- the time finally came. Johnny told Taeyong to slow down the video and fix the pixelation and -- it was clear as day.

In the crowd, someone was walking through, sending a signal to Doctor Death, holding some files, and then the villain nodded before disappearing.

“I can’t believe it.” Johnny spoke in awe. He told Taeyong to replay the part and once it was over, he walked over to his desk and began to type some things in. “The only way to find this person would be to make a search to see if anyone in the government matches him, but I’m no hacker and it could take days before we could find a result.”

“Why don’t we start with looking for someone that attends SMU?” Jaehyun asked.

“Already on it. But chances are, if they had to do all of that to find those documents, they most likely don’t attend the school. Still, it’s good to look.”

“So what now?” Yuta asked. “Do we go into the office and see if we can find what was stolen?”

“It’s pointless looking for something if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Especially if it isn’t there anymore.”

“Sounds a lot like what we did today,” Jaehyun mumbled, still angered with the mere thought of all they went through to only find nothing.

“What I want you two to do is focus on your academic work and if needed, fight Doctor Death here and there. But don’t let yourself think too much about this. It can’t control your life.”

Jaehyun and Yuta both nodded and headed to their respective rooms.

But despite what Johnny told them, Jaehyun couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why was Doctor Death so ominous? Why couldn’t he be forward with his plans? If he really did do everything with reason, then why? Also, what was behind that lock? And how funny was if that Gongmyung happened to be there when--

Wait. That hallway was completely empty. All doors were locked, and they seemed like they had been locked for years. And the doors that were open led to rooms that also looked like they had been left empty for years. Everything there looked abandoned. The only thing he had found there was the smaller hallway that led to that room. So, why exactly had Gongmyung, who was only a volunteer, been there?

Perhaps Jaehyun was on edge. Doctor Death had him going back and forth with all of this, it was getting to his head. He must have been paranoid.

Shifting to his side on his bed, Jaehyun closed his eyes, deciding to leave everything for tomorrow. A long day that was to come.

“So what is the plan for today?” Jaehyun asked, reaching over the breakfast table to grab a red apple.

Johnny momentarily stopped his typing and looked up from his laptop. He glanced over at Taeyong who was writing in a journal, and then at Yuta who was finishing up his bacon, eyes shining in delight. “Seeing as how you did so much yesterday, why don’t you take a break today? Get ahead in your school work or something. Go out shopping and buy yourself something nice. Whatever it is that people your age do.”

“First of all,” Yuta said in between of his fingers, “we’re the same age, and Jaehyun is only two years younger. And second of all, speaking about shopping, Jaehyun and I want to get paid.”

Johnny raised an eyebrow, amused by Yuta’s statement. He looked over at Jaehyun who nodded eagerly in agreement.

“First of all, I’m not going to pay you for helping keep the nation safe. But, I can give you an allowance every two weeks.”

Yuta and Jaehyun looked over at each other eagerly, surprised Johnny would pay them at all. Johnny ordered Taeyong to bring him his checkbook and the two guys could barely hold in their excitement when they saw the older scribbling some things down before ripping out two slips and handing them over.

Jaehyun’s face instantly lit up when he saw that Johnny had signed him off a total of five-thousand dollars for just two weeks. He almost got teary eyed thinking about how generous Johnny was.

While on the other hand, Yuta was frowning when he saw his allowance for two weeks was only five dollars. “Johnny,” He spoke in disbelief, “can you even cash in a check this low?”

Johnny seemed to think about it for a few seconds before he reached over for the check and took out his wallet, only to hand him over a five-dollar bill instead. “There you go.”

“But I even quit my internship to train more,” Yuta mumbled, still staring at the bill in his hand in utter disbelief.

“When you start saving the nation like Jaehyun instead of staying up watching anime, you’ll get a higher allowance.”

Yuta grumbled something underneath his breath that none of them were able to make out, but still stuffed the dollar bill into his empty wallet.

And with that discussion over, Johnny went back to typing as he shifted the conversation onto something else. “I’m going to have that Taeil guy over later, so make sure you’re not here around one.”

“Seriously, can’t we just say we’re the maids?” Yuta asked, but no one paid attention. He sighed, leaning back in his seat, and began to think about all the things he could do that day. He only had one class, and that was early in the morning. He had no friends outside of his housemates. And he didn’t do much for fun. When he was younger - wow, that made him sound old - he would dance for fun, he would play soccer as a passion, and he would have plenty of hobbies to keep his youth busy. But over the past few years, he was so busy with classes, and reading in his free time to become more knowledgeable on topics he thought he didn’t know enough. So, what was he supposed to do now? It also wasn’t like he had much money to spend. He only had a five dollar bill in his wallet.

“Jaehyun, what are you going to do?” Yuta asked when the two were walking down the hallway that led to their rooms.

Jaehyun slowed down his steps as they reached the door to Yuta’s room. “I think I’m going to head to the library to work on my assignment with Doyoung.”

Yuta nodded and began to head into his room, his head hanging low in disappointment. He would just have to find a better thing to do on his own.

And that was how he found himself standing outside of the coffee shop again that day, clutching the straps of his backpack tightly as he stared inside. His eyes scanned for that worker, Winwin, and he didn’t have to search for long because there he was, smiling brightly as he took a customer’s order.

Yuta thought he was gorgeous, smiling and all. And all he wanted to do in that moment, was walk inside and talk to him. Get to know him. Perhaps, if he wasn’t reaching, become the reason behind his smile.

Taking in a deep breath, Yuta walked up to the door and his hand found its way to the handle. But it never got further than that. He couldn’t push. He had enough guts to make his way over there, and put his hand on the handle, but his cowardice - and the part of him that disallowed him happiness - could not push.

He was so close, all he needed was that push. But today would not be the day.

And all Yuta could do was walk away and head over to the ice cream shop across the street with his head hung low, hoping that one day his guilt would set him free and allow him that happiness he longed for.

“What are you looking at?” Ten asked, turning his head to look around the room before turning back to look at Sicheng.

“I thought I saw Yuta,” Sicheng said, shaking his head slowly as he convinced himself it must have been someone that looked like him, “but I guess it wasn’t him.”

--

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAE! YOU'RE FINALLY [redacted]!!!

We really had to push ourselves to finish this chapter because it is so long... But I really wanted to upload today, because it is my sister's birthday it is time for celebration. Except it is almost 2 am right now and I have class in the morning.

But I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the Doyoung flashback story is in the works. Next chapter will include more Dream and some other members as a break from the Jaehyun/Doyoung/Captain J/ Doctor Death arc. But yeah. I need sleep.

Fun fact: I have misophonia and one time Nae was in bed three whole days sick and coughing uncontrollably every night, but I would tell her to shut up because she was triggering my misophonia. But I still love her I promise <3

-J

This chapter was very hard for me to read because it was very frustrating and I will say it's one of our more weirder chapters. Also, I am very excited for our next chapter because we will be [redacted] and I've been looking forward to it for a while now. 

J is NOT invited to my super swag, amazing birthday bash; sorry (not sorry) you had to find out this way.

~Nae

Nae try not to spoil our story challenge failed [again]

On another note, while Nae was typing, I went on twitter and... Jeno's hair. That's all I'm saying.

-J