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CHAPTERELEVEN

❝CHEN:THEEASILYDECEIVED❞

"Thanks again, Krystal. See you soon,” Sunggyu waved, looking up at Krystal, who was looking down into the alleyway at Sunggyu and Woohyun. The brunet waved to the red head, nodding his thanks as well. “Okay,” Sunggyu looked to Woohyun. “Let’s quickly find Hoya and Dongwoo while avoiding Chen and, hopefully, Tao. And then we’ll head back to HQ–”

“Head back?” Woohyun frowned. “We’ve come too far to go back now!”

“We’re in no condition to continue this mission,” Sunggyu claimed and began walking down the small, narrow alleyway. Woohyun followed. “Our car and all the equipment that I packed in there this morning specifically for this mission had been destroyed. It’s going to take us even longer to get there on foot now–”

“Okay, okay,” Woohyun sighed. “But… from what I’ve gathered, this mission is really important. The information you could possibly gather from the scientist at the BEQP could be used to your advantage against this corrupted government. Isn’t it your goal to do whatever you can to stop YG? Why give up now?”

Sunggyu grew silent as he listened to what Woohyun was saying. He understood what the younger was saying, and he truly did want to continue this mission, but something was holding him back. Something told him that if they continued this mission, something bad might happen. Something horrendously bad might happen. If it was just himself infiltrating the BEQP, then maybe he wouldn’t care and still continue the mission, but he had three other people with him that he needed to protect. Sure, Hoya and Dongwoo are capable of taking care of themselves, but definitely not Woohyun.

Sunggyu still did not completely believe that the brunet was from the past, but it was quite obvious that he wasn’t from around here. The way he reacted to normal things–the cop that approached him and Leeteuk, the poking, how Sunggyu and the rest of INFINITE handle things, the animal pits and fish puddles–gave it away. He and Dongwoo promised the younger that they would protect him, but there is no way they could really keep that promise. They haven’t even reached the entrance to the underground transit passageways, and Woohyun already looked like he crawled out of a terrible car crash–.

Oh, wait, he practically did.

“Sunggyu?” Woohyun called, waving his good hand in front of the caramel haired man. “Are you okay?” Sunggyu shook his head, losing his train of thought. “If the reason why you want to stop this mission is because of me, then you can forget about it. Sure, my shoulder is dislocated, and it hurts like a , but it’s nothing compared to the pain that was afflicted upon me during soccer games at school.” Woohyun smiled, putting on a brave face. He was lying, though. His shoulder hurt much more than he let on, but he wasn’t going to tell Sunggyu that.

“Soccer?” Sunggyu gave Woohyun a cute yet confused expression, tilting his head slightly. His brow’s furrowed as he tried to understand what the brunet was talking about. “What is this soccer?”

“Are you kidding me?” Woohyun instantly wanted to punch a hole through Sunggyu’s face. “Forget it,” he turned from Sunggyu and continued walking down the alleyway. “Listen, Sunggyu,” Woohyun started again. “I’m fine. Fine enough to continue this mission with you. Knowing that this mission could help and save a lot of people is enough for me to keep going. My conscience wouldn’t allow for me to sit comfortably back at your secret hideout while people here on the surface suffered.”

“Our headquarters isn’t a secret hideout.” Sunggyu took offense to that.

“Does the government know where your headquarters are located?”

“No.”

“Then it’s considered a secret hideout.”

Sunggyu huffed and sped up in front of Woohyun, ignoring his insults. He was too exhausted from today’s events to put a bullet through the boy’s skull. As he walked further from Woohyun, he noticed they grew closer to the main road where they originally were before the separated from Dongwoo and Hoya.

He came to a stop at the entrance to the alleyway. He examined the area in front of him for any sign of his comrades and enemies. He didn’t see anyone. It was quite quiet. Even Tao’s grenades ceased fire. He hoped that meant that the mercenary ran out of grenades.

“Before we came down this way,” Woohyun elucidated as he finally caught up to Sunggyu. “I think Dongwoo and Hoya headed down that way.” He pointed to Sunggyu’s left. “A lot of the explosions and smoke seemed to come from that direction too.” Sunggyu nodded and headed in that general direction. Woohyun was right behind him.

“Excuse me!” Someone yelled, gaining the boy’s attention. They turned around and came face-to-face with Chen, Sehun: the Rainbow Haired Fish Warrior’s comrade.

Sunggyu quickly pulled out a .45 Winchester Magnum from randomly out of nowhere and aimed it at Chen. Woohyun slowly backed away from the scene, not wanting to get caught up in whatever conflict that might develop.

“Woah! Calm down!” Chen placed his hands in front of him, showing he meant no harm. “Don’t worry. I’m not here to kill you guys… right now.”

“Oh really?” Sunggyu kept his guard and gun up, giving the man a skeptical look.

“Look, I just wanted to know if you’ve seen Sehun. We split up earlier, and we were supposed to meet up again at the fork down that alleyway,” he pointed to the narrow street Woohyun and Sunggyu just emerged from. “But he never came back.” He seemed extremely worried.

“The Rainbow Haired Fish Warrior? Yeah, we just killed–”

“We just killed some time chilling with him! Right, Sunggyu?” Woohyun smiled, slapping Sunggyu upside his head. The resistance leader shot the brunet a deadly glare. He received a twitching smile in return.

“Uh, yeah,” Sunggyu deadpanned. If Chen was actually smart, he would have realized they were both lying.

Again.

But he’s not.

“Really? Exactly what did you guys do?” Woohyun found it odd that the mercenary found joy in the fact that they hung out with Sehun.

“Yeah, we had the time of our lives,” Sunggyu glanced at Woohyun. The brunet’s brows furrowed, not understanding the dirty look the older man gave him. “We had a nice, long, and intriguing conversation.”

“Huh?” Woohyun was confused about what Sunggyu was saying.

The caramel haired man quickly leaned in closed to Woohyun and whispered in his ear, “Just play along, okay?” Woohyun nodded.

“About what?” Chen seemed really interested now.

“Just about life and how great it is to be alive. He also talked about you,” Sunggyu continued to lie.

“What did he say?” Chen’s eyes twinkled with curiosity. Woohyun couldn’t believe how gullible the man was.

“He said–Oh, I mustn’t say!” Sunggyu dramatically place a hand over his heart.

“No! You must say!”

“The terrible things that came out of his mouth. My companion here…” he wrapped an arm around Woohyun’s shoulder. The younger man bit his tongue to stop himself from whimpering in pain as the caramel haired man squeezed his injured shoulder. He understood what Sunggyu was trying to do, though. “He is too innocent for me to repeat such horrendous words.”

“Horrendous?” Chen frowned, trying to think of all the possible rude things Sehun must’ve said about him.

“Oh yes, very horrendous,” Sunggyu nodded. “He even mentioned how he and Tao would always hang out and drank coffee while talking about you and how bad of a mercenary you are.”

“I can’t believe this!” Chen stomped his foot in anger. “After all the things I’ve done for them. After all the times I stayed up late singing and reading them bedtime stories!”

“Bed… time stories?” Woohyun was not expecting that.

“Sehun said that Tao said your singing !” Sunggyu continued to instigate.

“My singing does not !” Chen yelled. His shoulders shook as he willed himself to not cry in front of Sunggyu and Woohyun. He looked down, glaring at the random peb