“Good day, girls!” Seulgi chimed as she burst into the prison cell that the guys surprisingly had in their basement.

“The do you want?” a girl snapped at her, Seo Soojin, she thinks it is.

“I’m giving you es food,” she plastered on a fake smile and showed them the multiple take away bags from Panda Express.

“I promise you, when we get out of here I’m going to let Suga strangle you to death,” Miyeon threatened her and Seulgi felt her lips curl up into a sly smirk. She walked closer to the bars and made sure her face was close to Miyeon’s.

“Why? Can’t do it yourself?” she challenged, causing Miyeon to shoot her a dirty glare. “Besides, you should be glad that I’m here. I made sure the guys considered having you guys as hostages here instead of cutting you all up and selling your organs in Mexico.”

“Are we supposed to feel grateful?” Yuqi gritted her teeth as she looked Seulgi dead in the eye.

“Yes,” she simply answered with a sweet smile and then turned back to Miyeon. “Besides, if you want to ask someone to strangle me to death, I think I’d choose Jin instead.”

“How do you know Jin?” Miyeon quickly asked, suddenly interested in communicating with her.

“Oh, you want to know that, huh?” Seulgi replied with a sweet and high pitched tone. “All I can say is,” she then spoke, thinking over the small plan that formed in her head. “I’m not the enemy here, and if you girls consider to help me then I will gladly return that favor.”

“Why should we believe you?” Soojin questioned as she crossed her arms, quirking an eyebrow.

Seulgi didn’t answer her question and proceeded to put the food in the small glass box. She glanced briefly at Yuqi who sat down in the corner, noticing the small rose tattoo on her ankle.

“I assume Taemin still give s rose tattoos, right?” she then asked as she closed the box and turned around, knowing that the girls would see her tattoo on her right shoulder since she was only wearing a one sleeve shirt.

“You were on our side this whole time?” she heard Miyeon ask her softly. “Is that why you convinced the guys to let us stay here?”

“Make sure the guys don’t see your tattoos, or else I won’t be able to get you out of here,” she then addressed before walking out of the room, not turning back even once to face the girls.

The rose was a sign for Taemin’s gang and no one except s knew about it, but if NCT saw the same model of their tattoos things would definitely not end well. Seulgi was most definitely sure that the guys had seen her tattoo already and could not let them see the other girls’ tattoos.

The guys only wanted her to deliver the food so they were probably already wondering what took her so long. Therefore she couldn’t stay longer and discuss her plan with the girls, but she was positive that they would help her now that they knew she was ‘on their side’. Not that she wasn’t on their side, but not that she was either.

“Jisoo!” she could hear Lucas call for her as she walked up the stairs to the hallway.

“Yeah?!” she shouted, not seeing a glimpse of him in the hallway nor in the living room.

“I’m in the kitchen!” she then heard him shout and walked over there.

“What is it?” she asked him and let out a small giggle as he held up a whole, raw chicken in front of his face. “And why is it so dark in here?” she muttered and the lights, getting a better view of the huge kitchen.

The oven was opened and she felt the hot air on her skin combined with the cold breeze from the open window. Then there was Lucas, standing in the middle of the kitchen with a white apron around his waist stating: “I don’t know what I’m doing,” in red and of course- a big, raw chicken in his hands. Did he even wash his hands?

“For how long should I roast the chicken in the oven?”

Seulgi couldn’t help but laugh at the younger man who was looking at her dumbfoundedly. “First of all,” she said and took a closer look at the chicken in his hands. “I don’t know how to cook,” she admitted, now noticing that they had only ordered takeout for the past three days and that no one had cooked anything from scratch.

“Who usually cooks in this house?” she then asked Lucas and pulled out her phone from her back pocket, looking up a recipe for ‘roasted chicken’.

“Taeyong and Jaehyun usually do all the cooking, but they are still at the hospital,” he told her and she looked up from her phone.

“What about that girl… Bomi! Her name’s Bomi, right?” she said and Lucas shook his head.

“We only call Bomi when we need medical help. As for food, it’s only Taeyong and Jaehyun who cook in this household.”

“They have been at the hospital for three days now, what are they doing there?” she asked, noticing how Lucas’ whole body suddenly tensed at her question.

“It’s…” he trailed off, as if pondering about whether he should tell her something or not.

“Is it-” she hesitated, suddenly remembering today’s date.

“When I was driving the van the other day,” she then started speaking. By now Lucas had put down the chicken on the small, white tray and he stared down blankly at the black, marmor counter. Seulgi hesitated once again, wondering if it really was necessary for her to continue. After all she was only there to help them with their crimes, not become emotional and listen to their burdens and problems.

“I opened the glove box because Ten had put the knives in there,” she decided to continue and looked for a sign in Lucas’ face as she still debated whether she should or not. However, his face was still blank but she knew he listened attentively to her.

“... And I saw a picture of you guys with a little boy. Jaemin, right?” she spoke and saw how Lucas’ expression immediately softened at the mention of the mysterious little boy.

“Today is his birthday, right?” she then said. “Are Taeyong and Jaehyun visiting him at the hospital? Is he okay?”

Lucas remained silent and could only let out a long sigh. Seulgi bit her lower lips nervously as he turned his back on her. This was definitely a sensitive topic and she shouldn’t have asked from the beginning.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, of course,” she stated quickly and he turned back to her.

“No,” he furrowed his eyebrows slightly and shook his head. “It’s fine.”

Seulgi looked at him warily as he sat down on one of the stools by the counter. He took a deep breath and kept his gaze on his hands.

“Three years ago,” he began, shutting his eyes close for a small second before continuing.

“Three years ago, shortly after his birthday, we were planning on stealing the royal crown from the royal family in Sweden. We had just trained Jaemin to become a criminal and he was mostly trained to become a thief like Xiaojun,” Lucas explained to her and lifted his head, gazing up into her eyes.

“I watched proudly from the security cameras as he got through the laser web with ease and grabbed the royal crown. However when he-” he paused mid sentence, turning away from Seulgi as he felt a small lump forming in his throat.

“When he grabbed the crown, a strange woman appeared out of nowhere and paralyzed him and then-” Seulgi got a strange feeling in her gut as soon as she heard Lucas’ voice crack.

“It’s okay,” she patted his back comfortingly, quietly telling him that he didn’t have to tell her everything.

“She just shot him in the head, Jisoo,” he breathed out as he managed to control his tears. “I saw it with my own eyes. And Taeyong saw it right in front of him.” He tightened his jaw at the memory. “He was fifteen, Jisoo. Fifteen.”

“I am so sorry that happened to you,” Seulgi whispered softly and rubbed his back gently as comfort.

“You don’t have to be sorry, Jisoo. It’s that damn woman,” he spoke with utter disgust. “I tried to scan her face but she was and is nowhere to be seen. None of us know who she is and until this day we are still searching for her.”

“What did she look like?” Seulgi asked him and he took a deep breath, not even wanting to remember the woman.

“She had red hair and green eyes,” was the only thing he could tell her and not even once had realisation hit Seulgi this quick before.

……………………………..

“You ready?”

Seulgi put on her earpiece and loaded her gun before tucking it in her back pocket. “No,” she then replied truthfully but blankly as she put on her green contact lenses. “I still think Yeri should steal the crown but Taemin is still at planning his crimes.”

“Why don’t you put Yeri in charge for this crime?” Seulgi asked Taemin who was reading through a few documents.

“See these?” he spoke and raised the documents in the air.

“No, I don’t,” she responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes at him.

“There are a few pages missing,” he explained briefly, indicating that Yeri was probably the one he sent to steal the missing pages. “Besides, you’re the ace of the group. You have great leader skills, you can steal, deal, kill, seduce- hacking? we’re still working on that but you’ll get better at it eventually.”

“Hey!” she hit his arm, almost making him drop the documents. “My hacking skills aren’t that bad.”

“If you just improve them a little more,” he spoke and placed the documents on his desk. “You could become a great planner for Red Velvet and decide who’s in charge for whatever crime you want,” he told her with a supporting smile.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I just need to steal the royal crown, right?”

“Yes,” Taemin nodded. “Also, if anyone comes in your way, don’t hesitate to kill them.”

“I’ll get going,” Seulgi stated and slid the door open, feeling the strong, cold wind hit her skin.

“Wa