“I can’t believe I’m saying it,” Ravi let out a sigh of delight. “But I’m kind of relieved to be at work again.”

Hongbin smiled as he climbed out of Ravi’s car and headed towards the back door of 24 Hours. “Well, anything beats being stuck with four lunatics for a week, right?”

“Not to mention that two of them were anime nerds on crack,” the janitor shivered violently. “I mean, the boss and Leo-hyung actually seemed normal compared to... What, Luffy and Zero?”

“It wasn’t all that bad,” Hongbin cocked his lover’s chin with this sort of glint in his eye. “We did get to spend some quality time together.”

Ravi’s face turned blank at this statement. “... Why are you saying it so suggestively? All we did was play video games and fill out work papers.”

The brunet rolled his eyes jokingly. “Way to ruin the mood, Wonshik.” He pulled the door open and watched it fall apart from the hinges. “By the way, we really need to get this fixed. Anyone could’ve just walked in while we were away.”

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘the mood’!? There was a mood?!” Ravi whined as they walked in, continuing to do so until he heard the clink of glass under his shoe.

It was then they realized the state of the kitchen; it was dark, dreary, and destroyed. Glass shards were scattered on the floor and food was littered everywhere to create an unpleasant, week-old odor. Plates and utensils were out of their drawers, and most notably, the walls were smeared with blue paint.

Shocked, it took a moment for either of the two to speak. “... Th-This... This is something N would do.” Ravi uttered, side-stepping a pool of spilled oil.

“... Except we were with N for an entire week until yesterday morning,” Hongbin went pale just thinking of the amount of money to fix this mess. “Even then, he was home the whole time. Everyone was—” Suddenly he shoved his way through the disorder and sprinted to the front of the bar. “... W-Wonshik?”

Ravi quickly followed suit. The other was standing there, eyes wide and both hands over his mouth. He watched as Hongbin completely broke down; crumbled, until he fell onto his knees shaking. Ravi turned his head to look at the bar counter and immediately hitched his breath.

The shelves were empty. All the wine bottles that their bartender had spent his lifetime collecting were gone. Their most valuable alcohol was gone, only leaving behind dust and marks of blue paint.

As soon as he heard a sob, Ravi turned away and started to walk out. He didn’t want to see it, any of it. He didn’t want to see the mess in the kitchen nor the empty shelves that were supposed to hold the pride of 24 Hours. He shut his eyes away from the terror that ravaged their precious workplace, and then some.  

He especially did not want to see his lover crying. He didn’t want to witness the proud, witty, and clever Lee Hongbin shedding tears of despair, even if he had to die not to.

“… I’m going to ing kill whoever did this,” he cursed under his breath and simply walked away.

After getting the call and rushing over, N stood silently outside on the parking lot. The police had been alerted earlier and were already surrounding the place. As he watched officers paste yellow tape all over his bar, a gentle hand touched his shoulder.

“Are you okay.” Leo asked softly, concern swimming in his eyes.

N stiffly nodded, swallowing a lump in his throat. “Just… Just keep comforting me until I realize this is actually happening.” He let out a shaky sigh and glanced around the area. “Where are the others?”

A piercing wail startled the two of them. They turned around to see Ravi holding a sniffling Hongbin and a wailing Ken on either shoulder.

“MY KITCHEN!!!” The blond cried, burying his tear-stained face into Ravi’s neck. “THIS IS LIKE THE THIRD TIME! WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?!”

“Who would do such a thing?” N murmured, going through his brain for any potential suspects. No one came to mind; no one would hate him enough to ruin the thing he loved most, save for perhaps Thomas Lee. But last he heard, that idiot was somewhere frolicking in the states. “Do you guys think it was just a random intruder? Or—“

“How many people know that our back door is broken?” Hongbin spoke up, his sadness subsiding for anger. “It was just us and—where is Hyuk?”

Ken looked up with furrowed eyebrows. “What are you implying?!”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that he isn’t here right now?”

“He wouldn’t do something like this!” The chef retorted back with an unfriendly glare. “You’re just mad that your dumb alcohol was stolen!”

“WHAT THE DID YOU JUST—“

“SHUT UP!” N grabbed both of their heads and smacked them together. “Your bickering isn’t helping, you morons! If you followed Hyukkie on Twitter you would have known that he’s sick, that’s why he isn’t here! We need to figure out exactly who did this to us.”

With a scowl, Hongbin adjusted the glasses on his face and cleared his throat. “CCTV,” he muttered. “Let’s just check the damn security footage.”

--

Sanghyuk pawed the cell phone under his feet, trying to get it to light up magically once more. He meowed out of frustration when it wasn’t listening to him.

“Stop it,” Hyuk scolded as he sat up in his tissue-abundant bed. “You’re going to scratch it again—ACHOO!” The boy sniffled and groaned as he picked up his phone from his desk and opened the text he just received.

It was an image file from Hongbin, followed by ‘somebody broke into the bar while we were away. We got the culprits on tape. You recognize anyone?’

Hyuk shoved a couple more tissues up his red nose before squinting at the small screen. It was a screenshot taken just outside of 24 Hours, and it showed several men dressed in blue suits standing in front of the back door. He noticed that one of them held a paint bucket and another held a duffel bag and crowbar.

“… Why the are these guys walking around in glitzy outfits carrying those in the middle of the day?” He asked Sanghyuk with a dumbfounded expression, as if the feline could actually answer him. “It’s almost as if they’re trying to be found out…”

He squinted a bit more and scanned the faces of these men, or at least what he could make out from the blurry picture. Out of the seven males there, he recognized one.

Hyuk bolted out of bed as he dialed someone’s number. “M-Minah? It’s me—ACHOO! … N-No, I’m not sick, this is a small bug... Anyway, who was that guy from class B, the really tall one? Yeah. Yeah. I think so, yeah. Do you happen to know where he works? Yup. Alright thanks, you’re the best. No, I didn’t really mean that. Bye.”

He hung up and attempted to pull his pants on as he dialed another number. “Hongbin-hyung? I think I know who did this. I’ll text you the address, if I don’t sneeze my sanity out first… Meet me there in ten.”

Around ten minutes later, Hyuk met up with the others in the middle of the busy city.

“You look like crap.” Ravi commented, pointing at the kid’s bed head.

“I feel like crap,” Hyuk groaned tiredly while Leo wiped the snot off his upper lip. “But back to the business at hand… One of the guys in the picture you sent me is someone from my school.”

Hongbin raised an eyebrow. “Do you have ill-relations with this person? Enough so that he’d steal thousands worth in alcohol?”

N smacked him across the head. “I told you to shut up! We’ll get your wines back. Hyukkie, who is this person?”

Hyuk coughed repeatedly for a moment before coming to himself. “I don’t know him personally, but his name is Yook Sungjae. He’s my age. Minah told me where he works, and here we are.”

The employees looked up to a very flashy blue neon sign reading ‘Melody; bar and café’. They noticed the fancy music emitting from inside and all the elegant décor that surrounded the building. There were even spotlights and a blue carpet that extended until the curb. Most notably of all, they noticed just how many customers were filing in and out of the place; more than they have ever seen since the founding of 24 Hours.

“… How long has this place been here?!” Ken blurted, mouth wide open at all the gaudy embellishments. “I swear to god I drove by here a month ago and I’ve never seen this before!”

“That’s because it opened a month ago,” muttered Hongbin. He showed them a webpage on his phone, which displayed this new bar’s site. “Melody, a brand new line of food and entertainment. We bring to you the finest of wines and service, all provided by our lovely staff. Established February 2014.’ Apparently they’ve already been reviewed by the top critics… Five stars, all of them.”

N made a horrifying face of disgust. “I never knew we could get more than three stars! What is this?!”

“I say we infiltrate!” Ken huffed, rolling his sleeves up. “If these snobby rich guys are the actual culprits, we beat them up!”

“Except if they are the actual culprits, they probably know who we are.” Ravi spoke, “I doubt they’re just going to let us walk in. And besides, what good does it do just to beat people up?”

“Like you should talk,” Hongbin shook his head. “Ken and Hyuk-ah should go in. Ken isn’t seen by a lot of people and Hyuk’s still new. You should be fine.”

Hyuk had another coughing fit before he answered. “I-If you insist…”

“Call us right away if there’s an emergency!” N yelled before the rest of them hid behind a trimmed bush. “DON’T DIE!”

The younger rolled his eyes and pushed Ken in front of him. “Come on, hyung. Be inconspicuous.”

Ken nodded, although he gulped out of nervousness. The two stepped onto the blue carpet and casually strode up to the front door, where a bouncer was standing with a clipboard. “IDs, please.”

They exchanged panicked looks. “I don’t have any on me!” Ken whispered, starting to freak out.

“It’s okay, I have mine.” Hyuk pulled out a card from his pocket and handed it to the intimidating guard.  “I’m legal.”

“Han Sanghyuk…” The bouncer murmured while checking out the board in his hands. “… Yup, you’re on the list. Table eleven, on your right.”

“… What just happened.”

Carefully and cautiously, they walked into the building and were immediately overwhelmed. The place reeked of fancy and money, with what all the chocolate fountains and chandeliers everywhere. They slipped past all the snooty women in silk gowns and went down the right hall, where tables dressed in blue silk stood around the room.

“Here’s table eleven,” Hyuk sat down and pretended to read the menu while scoping out the area. “This place makes me very uncomfortable.”

“Same,” Ken sat in front of him with nervous eyes. “I feel like they’re going to turn out the lights and kidnap—"

The lights turned out, and the chef promptly screamed.

A spotlight shone on the grand stage just before them and from the blue curtains appeared a short guy with bright orange hair under his snapback. “Hello everyone. As some of you may already know I am the owner of Melody, Jung Ilhoon,” he greeted with a lethargic yet spine-tingling voice. “I appear before you today to introduce some very important guests. Please welcome from down under the sewer drains, the employees of 24 Hours!”

Before they knew it, another spotlight and everyone’s attention was put on them. Hyuk took that moment to sneeze and have boogers come out.

The guy named Ilhoon waited until the immense applause died down to speak again. “Hello. You two must be surprised.”

“SURPRISED?! I ALMOST PISSED MYSELF!” Ken shouted. “WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS? WHO ARE YOU?!”

“Like I said, I’m Jung Ilhoon. I understand that you two are not the heads of 24 Hours, but I will still give you my letter.” With a snap of his fingers, someone had placed a blue envelope on their table. “Give that to your boss. And tell him…”  

The two had absolutely no idea what was going on and were sputtering out of flabbergast.

“—tell him that if he doesn’t give up his puny little bar to me,” Ilhoon smiled a cryptic smile. “24 Hours will have twenty four hours to be completely and utterly demolished.”

Here's BTOB (or at least 1/7 of them) as promised!
yes i did just plant a scene where it looked like Hyuken were on a date
i'm a little surprised at all the comments regarding S.Minor's complexity and
tbh I never really took this fic seriously at the beginning but
I guess it developed into something awesome and something that I'm proud of ^^ (it never intended to be this long lmao)
I LOVE YOU GUYS! /giant group hug/ <3 
VIXX just announced their world tour... If Toronto isn't on the list I will burn someone