▬ Chapter 4: Cautious Warning ▬

Once the INFINITE gang and Hoya reached the dormitories, they tried to be as silent as possible while walking down the halls until they were back safe into the confines of their room. That was because the last time they looked back, a guard was still chasing after them. All of them held their breaths when they heard the sound of keys clanging against each other as footsteps were getting closer by the second. After a few minutes, the sounds finally died down and the seven boys plopped down on the floor to heave a sigh of relief.

“Ah, that was close,” Sungyeol sighed as he grabbed the bottle of water beside him.

“Damn it, Sunggyu hyung,” Sungjong gritted his teeth while his eyes pierced through the oldest one whose back was leaning against the foot of the couch.

“What did I do?” Sunggyu scoffed. “I just warned you, kid.”

“You screamed my name at the top of your lungs so now they probably think I did it.”

“Well, you didn’t listen.”

“If I hadn’t put on that lock back, they would’ve been even more suspicious, you know?” Both of them continued to bicker until Hoya finally interrupted them once his beating heart and cold nerves went back to normal.

“Hey, why were you guys barging into the restricted area of the library anyway?”

“No one’s ever been into a restricted area, at least none that we know of anyway, and we were just curious what they kept hidden,” Dongwoo responded nonchalantly. “Since you’re new, you probably don’t know this yet but the administrators always told us that although all facilities are open for students to freely use, areas that are marked with the restricted sign are totally off limits. No excuses.”

“Plus,” Woohyun added with a smirk while wiping off the sweat trickling down on his forehead, “we got bored so we wanted some thrill.”

“It did say ‘restricted’ so being the delinquents that we are, we accepted the challenge,” Sungyeol grinned.

Tch, the nerve of these guys, Hoya thought.

“Welp, I’m headed to dreamland,” Dongwoo stood up and waved. The silent guy also stood up and went into the same room as him.

“Does he talk or is he mute?” Hoya pointed towards the closed door where the silent guy just entered.

“L? He barely talks,” Sungyeol began. “Ever since that ‘incident,’ he shut himself from the world.”

“Incident?”

“Don’t get too excited, squirt.” Sunggyu chuckled while he tried to block Sungjong’s pillow from hitting his face, “He doesn’t like it when people into his business. Let him tell you about it personally. Believe me, when we pestered him to tell us what happened, hell broke loose.”

“Yeah,” Sungyeol shivered as he remembered the past. This made Hoya become even more curious.

What exactly happened?

“Well, when he opens up to you, he might tell you what happened,” Woohyun added.

“For now, let’s sleep!” Sungyeol stood up with a yawn and went into his shared room. Sungjong then followed suit a few seconds later and went into the smallest room at the end of the hallway with his pillow tucked under his arm.

“Good night guys,” Sunggyu and Woohyun said in unison as they both headed to the same room.

Hoya stood up last and plopped down on his bed. He noticed that Sungyeol was already fast asleep above him the moment he entered the room. Before he closed his eyes for the night, he suddenly remembered that he had something in his pocket. He got out the cell phone he had stolen earlier and stared at it for a couple of minutes.

“There’s something weird about this phone,” he whispered. “Why would they just leave it sealed in a glass case in a corner of the library?”

Numerous unanswered questions lingered in his head but for now, he decided to just sleep and wait until he can uncover the truth. With the determination to reveal the secrets behind the mysterious phone the moment he gets the chance, he settled his thoughts by sliding the phone under his pillow to end the night.

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The next morning, Hoya groaned as he was awoken by the sound of something – or someone – banging on the door. He sluggishly sat up and ran his fingers through his hair while he leaned against the wooden frame of the bunk bed. He yawned and opened one eye when he noticed the banging getting louder.

“Sheesh, are they on drugs or something?”

Irritated by this type of wake up call, Hoya got up and headed towards the door to see what the fuss was all about this early in the morning. Along the way, he noticed that no one was up yet since the dorm room was extremely quiet. Well, except for the continuous banging on the door, of course. Looking over at the clock by the doorway, he noticed that they had about an hour and a half left to get to their first period class.

“Why aren’t they up yet? Did they die overnight?” he murmured as he turned the doorknob. Once he opened the door, he faced a man who was just a few inches taller than him. He had nicely combed hair and wore a black suit topped off with sunglasses which see