[Xiaojun]

Xiaojun was freaking out. He was muttering to himself while he paced back and forth. Jaemin had left with Jessie for a moment and I placed a hand on Xiaojun’s shoulder, the male trying to regulate his breathing.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, Xiaojun gnawing on his finger nails.

“Just.” He closed his eyes. “I need Yangyang.”

Yangyang must be his Johnny, I realized. Their friendship was strong and I realized that Xiaojun depended on Yangyang more than he showed. I chewed on my bottom lip, not knowing how to comfort him. As a Seasonie, we all were very attached to certain things.

“How are you feeling?” Xiaojun asked and I shrugged.

“Sometimes I feel something then it goes away.” I didn’t understand it as well but I didn’t have a safe space around. “I also can’t fall asleep.”

“You’re still alert,” Xiaojun told me and this was the first time I was having a proper conversation with him. He seemed to feel better now, the male sitting down on the chair when Jaemin bounded out of one of the rooms, his hair pale blue.

“Hyung, you changed it,” Jisung said from beside me.

“Blue! Of course, blue. Without Jeno, I am blue!” Jaemin rambled on, twirling in the middle of the room when there was a rumble from above. An automated voice saying ‘incoming visitors’ repeated from the stereos when a slot from the wall opened and two men fell onto the ground.

“JENO!” Jaemin screeched.

Jeno?

“RENJUN!”

And then we saw Jaemin rush towards Renjun first, kissing his street partner on the cheek before tackling Jeno who was on the ground. I saw Renjun stand up and dust himself off, looking around the base when Jessie showed up.

“Nunu,” Renjun greeted, toddling over to Jessie to give her a hug. Jaemin was too over the moon to care about anything else, Jeno taking in his surroundings. “The government is bad.”

“Of course, they are,” Jessie said gently and the way she acted with Jaemin and Renjun was noticeably different.

“We saw the famous GOT7 though. They were there. The ones who used to work for you before us,” Renjun told her, Jessie nodding at the male.

“SM, always stealing my people.” She shook her head when Jaemin began to pull Jeno to Jessie, his eyes sparkling with happiness. “Ah, you must be the famous Lee Jeno—”

“Look at him, Nunu! Look at that smile!” Jaemin gushed, motioning to Jeno. “And that face! Tell me he isn’t a work of art!”

“I’m Nunu,” Jessie said, extending a hand when Jaemin slapped it away.

“No! Don’t touch him! Look, Jeno. I dyed my hair pale blue because I was blue without you! RENJUN! GET THE PINK HAIR DYE!”

“I like it,” Jeno complimented, making Jaemin beam.

“Nevermind. Blue, it is!”

“You don’t even like blue,” Renjun told him, Jaemin waving a hand in the air nonchalantly, staring at Jeno.

“What do you mean, I don’t like blue? If Jeno likes blue, then I like blue too! Blue is now my favorite color! Oh, I’m so glad you all are here. I was almost certain I would have to go back to SM!” Jaemin gushed, Renjun crossing his arms.

“Nana, guess what Jeno said to me in the submarine.”   

“What?”

“He called me a Shoulder Gangster,” Renjun tattled, a smirk going up his features when Jaemin’s jaw dropped. He turned to Jeno, hands on his hips.

“Jeno!” he began, Renjun waiting for Jaemin to get mad at Jeno. “That’s genius!”

“What?” Renjun snapped in annoyance when Jaemin made his way to Renjun.

“Come here, my cute little Shoulder Gangster!” he cooed, tackling Renjun in an attack of cheek kisses. “My baby Shoulder Gangster!”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile in SM

Doyoung wondered why everyone was so tense. He had the day off and he was lounging in his bedroom, his fingers fiddling with a pen. GOT7 had a mission and Doyoung just came back from a meeting. He was about to accept the mission when Jaebum interrupted him and said that it was time to bring Yugyeom on the field. He seemed antsy so Doyoung agreed.

Maybe it was time for Yugyeom to go onto the field.

He walked to the door frame, his eyes running over the rooms on his floor. Taeyong was reading a book and the intercom was telling everyone that the Medics and Labs building was under security. Doyoung couldn’t shake the feeling off.

That and Yangyang had come a moment ago, asking where Xiaojun was. This had sparked alarm on Doyoung’s part, the male noticing that the rooms opposite of his was quite empty.

“Did you hear anything about why they would put the school on lock down?” he asked Taeyong who shrugged. Taeyong was used to it, SM always had something going on. The strategist believed that ignorance is bliss but it seemed like his best friend did not agree with him. “Jeno’s door has been open for a while now. I wonder where he is.”

Doyoung paced around the room, his eyes on the window while he watched people march towards the Medics and Labs building. He let out a sigh.

“Do you know where the rest of the kids are?” Doyoung finally asked Taeyong who put down his book and studied his friend. “I feel worried for some reason.”

Taeyong sighed. He too, was used to Doyoung being ridden by anxiety. He had been roommates with Doyoung for the longest time and he knew that Doyoung was the type of person to look into something a little bit too much. Taeyong grabbed his phone knowing that the only way to calm Doyoung down was to just try to ease his concerns.

“I’ll ask them where they are,” Taeyong said, opening the group chat on his phone before typing.

Taeyong: Roll call

Kun: Here. WayV?

Chittaphon (Ten): Here.

Hendery: Here.

Yangyang: Here with Lucas.

Winwin: Here.

Haechan: I’m here too, with Mark and Yuta.

Moon Tae-il: Here, Leader.

And it went on, Taeyong seeing Doyoung stare at the group chat as he gnawed on his lip. Taeyong looked down on the screen—who were they missing? Where was Jisung, Renjun, Jaemin, Jeno, Chenle, Dana and Xiaojun?

Doyoung: Renjun, Jaemin, Jeno, Chenle, Dana, Jisung?

Kun: Jaehyun and Johnny too. But I heard that they are being kept in the suspension room.

Doyoung frowned at Kun’s words, typing down on the screen.

Doyoung: What does that mean?

Kun: I don’t know, ask Winwin.

Winwin’s typing icon came up when he wrote down a paragraph.

Winwin: I saw them escorting Jaehyun, Johnny and Kyungsoo to the suspension building. No one is allowed to see Kyungsoo. People have been coming to the tech department to tell us to track every SM phone to know where everyone is. The only people I have not been able to track down are Dana, Jisung, Chenle, Xiaojun. Jaemin is in his room I think, his phone pinged in his room.

Doyoung: Jaemin isn’t in his room. So isn’t Jeno.

Taeyong looked up in surprise as to why Doyoung knew that and saw that he was already walking down the hall to find all of them. Taeyong was beginning to feel something too. Going on missions for a long time had gifted him with a very accurate hunch.

But Doyoung had more of it than he did and Doyoung entered the room, grabbing a jacket.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m heading over to the suspension building. I need to find out what’s going on,” Doyoung said, Taeyong jumping to his feet.

“They won’t let you in to see Kyungsoo, Doyoung,” Taeyong told him, Doyoung saying that he’d go see Jaehyun. “Then I’m coming with you. It might not be anything, you know.”

“Better safe than sorry, Taeyong,” Doyoung told Taeyong who nodded. The least he could do was to accompany Doyoung, both of them making their way to the suspension building. It was just as he thought, the security not letting them through.

But Kim Doyoung was known to be persuasive and he asked for five minutes. He told them that it was a life and death situation and that Jaehyun’s pet fishes seem to be dying. All he wanted to do was to ask what to do next, the security finally letting him through.

“Only one person.”

“I’ll go,” Doyoung said to Taeyong, moving to the room where Jaehyun was at. He knocked on the door and Jaehyun looked up, his dark shadows more prominent than before. What was going on? Doyoung sat down, leaning forward when Jaehyun took a seat across from Doyoung. His eyes darting back and forth nervously as the security people stood by the door.

“Jaehyun—”

“I can’t explain everything,” Jaehyun croaked and Doyoung could see the amount of stress he was under. Jaehyun his bottom lip, hand slipping into his coat to bring out a band aid. The man began to remove the white part of the bandaid, his fingers trembling. “The Seasonies are in trouble.”

Doyoung saw him tense up, Jaehyun pressing the band aid against his finger.

“Johnny and I are collateral damage. Kyungsoo took the fall for them leaving.” Jaehyun’s words were clipped.

Leaving? Where? But Doyoung knew better to ask, Jaehyun slipping him the band aid carefully. The way Jaehyun was holding it was enough for Doyoung to know that it was important.

Doyoung held it carefully in his hand, looking down at the band-aid. Jaehyun had pressed his finger against the taped part, the prints could still be seen. Suddenly a man came and told them that time was over.

“Feed my fishes, Doyoung,” Jaehyun said, the man grabbing Jaehyun’s arm. “Feed the fishes or they will die.”

Doyoung watched Jaehyun’s pleading gaze disappear when they dragged him away. Doyoung held the band-aid in his hand, his mind reeling. Something was wrong, something was really wrong. Stepping out of the building, Taeyong stood there, waiting for him.

“Do me a favor and bring this to the tech department,” Doyoung said to Taeyong, placing the band-aid carefully on Taeyong’s palm. “Extract his fingerprints.”

“What’s going on?” Taeyong asked, suddenly worried. “Did Jaehyun give you this?”

“Yeah.” Doyoung began to brood. “Jaehyun told me to feed his fishes or they will die.”

“Jaehyun? Doesn’t sound like something he would say,” Taeyong said. “Besides, doesn’t Rose usually feed his fishes for him when he’s not around?”

“Not sure. I’ll try to gather everyone first. Come to Kun’s room when you’re done with the extracting.”

Taeyong nodded, leaving Doyoung to head to the Technology building while Doyoung went back to the dorms. He was almost certain that the rest who weren’t present were in danger. Doyoung grabbed his phone, typing down into the group chat.

Doyoung: NCT assemble

Haechan: right now?

Doyoung: Code green.

Yuta: What’s wrong? Who’s in trouble?

Kun: Are we using my room?

Doyoung: yes.

Code Green was something they made up when they first were put under the NCT group. Even though they were divided into subunits, they knew they were part of NCT. Code Green was for if any one of the NCT members were in trouble and everyone needed to be part of the planning instead of allocating individual tasks.

[Kun's room]

And that is how everyone gathered in Kun’s room, Taeyong joining them after a while with a synthetic piece of material that had Jaehyun’s print on it. Kun didn’t ask Doyoung what was going on, knowing that he would say it in his own time. Only Winwin wasn’t around, Doyoung finally telling everyone that Jaehyun said that the Seasonies were in trouble.

“It might not be anything,” Yuta said, Doyoung shaking his head.

“If Jaehyun says something like that, it means something is wrong, Yuta,” Doyoung said. “He also told me to feed his fishes. Because of that, I believe he hid something in his fish tank.”

“There is no reason to doubt your hunch,” Kun said, leaning back on his chair. “Chittaphon, you want to do the honors?”

Ten blinked, standing up. Of course, if it had something to do with the vents, it would have to be him.

“What do I have to do? Just take a look at the fish tank, right?” He asked, massaging his shoulders. Kun nodded. It was a simple enough task, Ten inserting his own earpiece before exiting the room while everyone sat in Kun’s room, staring at each other.

Awkward.

“When I typed down NCT Assemble I expected it to be a little bit cooler,” Doyoung said, Kun cracking a smile. Chuckles could be heard from his co-members when Kun heard Ten’s voice in his ear.

“Okay, I’m here. They actually closed down the whole building so I have to go in from the back.” Ten said to Kun. Kun could hear Ten heaving himself up, the male crawling through the small area as the sound echoed. Ten then told him that he arrived to the infirmary.

“Kun, there are people walking back and forth outside the infirmary.”

“Any way you can try to go unnoticed?” Kun asked, Ten humming to himself. He trusted Ten when it came to flexibility and his speed. He heard a thump, Ten telling him that he had jumped down.

“Oh, fish! Fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy—”

“Focus,” Kun ordered, the sound of water whirring through the aquarium loud in his ear.

“I see a red light,” Ten said. “I’m grabbing it and I’m coming back.”

Kun could hear Ten hum to himself and it didn’t take long until the echoes came back, Ten finally exiting the building and running back to the dorms. He had gotten a USB from the aquarium and if no one knew what they were looking for, they wouldn’t have found it. It was covered with a lid and it looked more like a device than a normal USB.

Entering Kun’s room, Ten threw it to Taeyong who caught it and studied it.

Well, no wonder Jaehyun gave them his fingerprint.

The USB could only be opened if there was a print. Doyoung and Taeyong exchanged looks, Taeyong grabbing the material that had Jaehyun’s finger prints on it before pressing it down on the front part of the USB.

Like magic, the red light turned green and Taeyong slid the lid of the USB off.

“What do we do with it?” Haechan asked, his eyes on the USB. “Why are we here again?”

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Mark whispered to his friend, Kun’s eyes falling onto his laptop.

“Do we just stick the USB in?” Doyoung asked Kun who blinked. They weren’t hackers. They didn’t know much about technology. Taeyong knew only what to do at missions and he too, wondered if it was safe if they opened the files under SM’s network.

“Oooh, oooh! Incognito mode,” Hendery said, taking the lead. “No one will ever find out what we were doing if we’re in incognito mode! I saw it on Youtube—”

“I don’t think it works that way,” Yangyang said, everyone telling him to shut up. No one listened to Yangyang except those in WayV who patted him. “I swear, guys—”

“I’m putting it in,” Taeyong said, inserting the USB into Kun’s laptop that was on incognito mode. “Look…. It’s loading.”

And right then, documents were brought up on screen and everyone pushed each other to try to take a look at it. Taeyong frowned at the number of people shoving each other when he raised a hand.

“Only the adults,” Taeyong said, Kun telling Ten and Hendery to stay away. Yangyang pouted, sitting back across from him. “And Yuta, come here and look at this instead of Tae-il—”

“But I’m the oldest!” Tae-il said but gave up without a fight. He too, walked away and sat beside Yangyang who consoled him. The rest of NCT watched as Kun, Doyoung, Taeyong, and Yuta began to read the files.

“A confirmed experiment proposal,” Doyoung whispered to himself. “What does this mean?”

“They were going to experiment on the Seasonies,” Kun said, his eyes scanning the paper. “Sorry, I mean… they are.”

“Where did Jaehyun get this?” Taeyong whispered. “Look at this, it says that there is no limit to what they can do to them. “This means that it can even go to the point where they kill them.”

“Limitless,” Haechan said from beside Tae-il. “It’s limitless.”

“Go to the other files,” Doyoung said, Taeyong clicking down on the other files. “That one— Wait. G.O.D?”

“G.O.D is the name of the board of the directors of SM,” Taeyong told Doyoung. “We learned about them in class, remember.”

“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the list of investors of G.O.D. They’re all circled. Why are they circled— Wait. What’s happening?”

The files suddenly disappeared from the screen and it turned black, Doyoung quickly pulling out the USB from the laptop.

There was a crash and everyone looked up, the sounds of footsteps running down the halls.

“Oh, sorry,” they heard Winwin say when another voice apologized back. The door was pushed open and everyone heard V yell out to them.

“Are you out of your ing mind?” V asked when Winwin grabbed Kun’s laptop and threw it out the window. Everyone froze, V hissing. “Everyone knows not to open classified files under SM’s network!”

“I’m not a hacker and I know that!” Winwin told them, the Head of Tech fuming. “I ran over here the moment I got a ping for suspicious behavior. You should be glad I was the one looking out for suspicious behavior. If it was someone else, you all would have already be turned in for questioning!”

V kicked the door shut. The guy was pissed.

“Ah, .” He shook his head. “I need to calm down. Give me a moment.”

And with that, V proceeded to remove his left hand that was a machine and shook it. Everyone gawked at the sight, Haechan whispering a small “wow” when V put it back on and turned to them.

“You know what’s going on,” Taeyong said this as a statement.

“Of course, I know. I’ve been keeping in contact with Jungkook. Long story short, SM is under the same syndicate as YG. Blah, blah, blah. What’s important is that Seasonies are now going to be hunted down and all our missions were just a set up because—”

“Wait, wait. SM and YG under the same syndicate? Impossible. They’re our enemies,” Taeyong said and V glared at him.

“What you didn’t see from the files, Leader, is that YG and SM have the same investors,” V said and Taeyong’s face faltered. “The files were taken from YG. That was what Ace wanted. I have already given GOT7 a heads up and they decided to leave for a mission and never come back.”

“What?” Doyoung frowned. “I just came from a meeting with them. Is this why they told me that they wanted to bring Yugyeom instead?”

V nodded.

“I’ve already told Suga. We’re leaving as soon as possible,” V told Doyoung. “I don’t know what your plans are, but Suga is never going to stay here with new information coming to light. SM may be under the government, but at this point, the government is bad.”

Winwin sighed, a hand going up to rub his head when Yangyang asked.

“Is this why Xiaojun is gone?”

V nodded again, going to pat Yangyang on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry, little guy. But I heard that Kyungsoo is being blamed for their disappearance. If my hunch is right, you guys better get ready to choose sides. It’s not long until they’ll ask you to locate and extract the Seasonies, telling you that they’re bad.”

V turned and began to walk to the door.

“So, you’re leaving? Just like that?” Doyoung asked, V nodding.

“We have no choice. Choose what you do very carefully, Doyoung,” V told them, opening the door. “We’re three steps away from a losing battle with the law.”

And with that, V slammed the door shut behind him, leaving NCT staring at each other in confusion.

“So, Dana is gone,” Taeyong murmured. “And so, is Xiaojun, Chenle, Renjun, Jaemin and Jeno?”

“And Jisung,” Doyoungn said. “And Johnny and Jaehyun are in suspension with Kyungsoo.”

“Are we leaving? Are we not?” Jungwoo asked, his eyes filled with concern. “You think BlackPink knows what’s going on?”

Taeyong chewed on his bottom lip, his mind working. Their loyalty was with Kyungsoo, they would never go against the Director of Operations—and if he was in the suspension building and in trouble, they had to make sure they got him out. But how were they going to do that?

“Jisung is missing,” Doyoung said, his eyes connecting with Taeyong’s. “Jisung is missing.”

Taeyong blinked, realizing what Doyoung was trying to say.

“You… You sure?”

“Park Jisung is missing. Kyungsoo is in suspension. The only people who would know what to do at a time like this would be them, don’t you think?”

Kun chewed on his bottom lip, knowing where this was heading.

“I’m game if you are.”