Chapter Text
Soonyoung was scrambling; out of everybody he's the one who's probably been pulling the heaviest weight, but the overloading distress of feeling incompetent was eating him alive. Especially now that he's faced with the biggest responsibility of all.
He and Seokmin had been working tirelessly to fill the gap of their pre-made overarching details. There were some aspects that needed their tending like the warehouse's security, floor plan, surveillance, etc. For the most part they've managed to collect several important details, but Soonyoung couldn't help but feel there's a chasm in the middle of everything. An important oversight.
The door creaking made Soonyoung look towards it, only realizing that the sun had apparently risen, blinding his eyes as a first mission. "Hey," he said to whomever it was, shielding his eyes from the backlight.
"Have you been awake all night?" Seokmin's concern was evident in his voice, but Soonyoung truly didn't see anything that should be cause for concern.
"I've been trying to get into their security system," Soonyoung explained between a yawn. "There's something that I'm missing, I keep-" the laptop in his lap jostled, his body teetering of the side of the bed. He felt dizzy. Seokmin approached him tentatively, holding an arm out for support.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Perfect." Smiling, he felt the tightness in-between his eyebrows. Maybe he wasn't okay. "I just need to get this done - the plans tomorrow and I need-"
"Rest." Seokmin's hands were warm, rubbing softly onto his back, messaging his arm, then cradling his palms. "You need rest, Soonyoung."
"But the plot hole," Soonyoung whined, the sound adorable enough to squeeze a chuckle through Seokmin's concern.
Grabbing the laptop away from the hacker, Seokmin found it scarily easy to ease the other backwards into a reclining position. But even when Soonyoung's body's halfway melting into the mattress, his eyes are still stubbornly open. And he wouldn't let himself succumb to exhaustion.
Seokmin sighed; he's been around stupidly scattered-brain people all his life. And yes, he'd admit that he's included in said description, but the absurdity of his upbringing contributed to his actions currently. He knew what to do and when to stop a derailed train.
"Okay then. What're you thinking?" Playing along, he hoped trapping Soonyoung would result in the best outcome.
"I've been hacking the shit out of their security system but it's nothing like I've ever seen before." There was some sort of signature to every system that Soonyoung had never encountered before. The fact that they needed the information today had been stressing him to death.
"Have you research any external resources? Another company associated with them?"
Soonyoung's eyes that'd been drooping shot open. A solution so simple had been staring him dead in the eyes all night, and yet he didn't see them. "Oh shit."
Seokmin patted his newfound friend's chest, feeling an erratic rumble of heartbeat beneath it.
Soonyoung grabbed the hand, shaking it in disbelieve, looking up at the other's eyes imploringly. "Oh shit."
"Yeah, that's why you need to rest. Your brain works quicker that way," Seokmin berated, tapping gently at the side of the other's head.
"I just wanted to do my best."
"So do I - I mean, I'm not a hacker like you, but I'm still trying my best." Tucking the other in who had relaxed from the realization that he did required sleep, Seokmin smiled encouragingly. "But doing your best means knowing your limit."
Shifting around, they decided on Seokmin to finish Soonyoung's discovery. Letting the hacker rest before their final preparation.
After getting comfortable himself, Soonyoung stirred, sitting up when Seokmin tried to pull away. "Hey," he said softly, blossoming with tenderness, pulling the transducer close by the shoulder. "Thank you," he whispered, giving the other a tiny kiss on the cheek.
"You're welcome."
💊💊💊
Jeonghan visited Soonyoung's room sometime during the afternoon, meaning to ask the other if he wanted lunch, bringing the plate he'd pre-prepared alongside him. Only to find Soonyoung fast asleep, with somebody inside the room, tapping frustratingly away at a laptop.
"You're going to break that."
Seokmin yelped and Jeonghan found himself suppressing a laugh.
"Oh - uhm...hello. Soonyoung's asleep." Seokmin recognized the shapeshifter milling around Soonyoung, protectiveness coming off in waves. Jeonghan, if memory served him correctly, was Soonyoung's brother. Seokmin half-thought it was Seungkwan visiting him again.
"I can see that." Jeonghan cracked the door wider, stepping inside and sitting beside the snoring hacker. He didn't remember a time where Soonyoung slept this unguardedly, with drool pooling liberally onto the pillow beneath him. "What are you doing?"
"Taking over," Seokmin smiled tensely, his finger tapping softening. Occasionally switching to swiping through the electromagnetic wavelengths.
Jeonghan was curious; he hadn't spoken much to anybody else besides the people he knew, the detectives, and Seungkwan. He didn't know what half of their powers were. "What is that?" Jeonghan pointed towards the finger swiping.
Seokmin chuckled, a redness coming over his features. "My thing," he muttered shyly. He's aware of how idiotic he always appeared just swiping over everything that nobody but himself could see.
Jeonghan moved beside the transducer curiously, curling on the opposite end of the bay window. He placed the plate on a near table and watched fascinated as the other work. "Explain it."
Seokmin eyed Jeonghan suspiciously, expecting to see some sort of joke and amusement that he himself wouldn't find funny. But all he saw was curiosity and friendliness. "It's like...holograms, I guess. I can see colorful lines for different things and I can touch them, expand them. See what's inside," he explained.
"That's cool."
"Only when you can see it." From his perspective, a world of wonders was visible. Colorful and full of knowledge. It's beautiful having the capability to witness these thin connections that connected everybody together. Sometimes he got caught up in said wonders, escaping for the horrid reality he tried so hard to change.
"I'm sorry," he shook his head, "It's just, growing up people made fun of me for it." It's not like he could physically prove these connections existed. All he appeared as was a madmen finger-tutting over bare air.
Jeonghan moved closer towards the transducer, taking the laptop balanced precariously on his lap before it tumbled. "Well people are stupid. Fuck them."
"I wish I can - I kinda take things to heart."
Smiling, Jeonghan found himself another somebody he desperately wanted to take care of. He wished such warm interactions wouldn't solidify itself as quickly as it did. It’s difficult knowing you'd probably get hurt in the end.
"Think of it this way. You're saving everybody within the city and nobody even knows it, besides us." Jeonghan pointed. "You should reward yourself - be proud. it doesn't matter how idiotic you look using your powers. What matters is what you do with it."
Seokmin nodded, a tiny smile gracing his features. "Thank you."
"It's fine. God knows I've embarrassed myself with my shapeshifting for...less." Grabbing the plate of food, Jeonghan thrust it towards his new friend. "Eat," he instructed, knowing how engrossed one could be whilst working.
"Isn't that for Soonyoung."
"Soonyoung doesn't need it." Eyeing the hacker fondly, Jeonghan shook his head. "He'll eat his own body weights' worth after he's done defiling the sheets with his spit."
Seokmin chuckled, accepting the plate as a token of their friendship-
"Oh shit, I found something."
💊💊💊
Soonyoung slept like a baby, expensive silk sheets and goose down pillows did wonders for his body. Stretching himself awake, the first thing he noticed was the windows, curtain drawn open letting inside the shining moonbeam "it's night already," he mumbled, before hearing the telltale click-clacking of a keyboard.
Soonyoung woke up begrudgingly, noticing Seokmin still occupied the room, back turned towards him.
"You're still here," Soonyoung mumbled in disbelief.
Seokmin turned, his face brightening up the way the other usually did Soonyoung noted. And the hacker - bedhead and droopy-eyed - found himself smiling back.
"I found your thing, already informed Seungcheol. Just doing some last minute checking."
Soonyoung groaned, stretching again for good measure. "God, you're a genius."
Seokmin chuckled, "Tying a bow on a finish present is hardly brilliant." The transducer perched himself beside the drowsy hacker, who leaned automatically onto him. "You did all the work."
Soonyoung hummed, hoping the sound would be taken as ascent. He's still unsure of his worthiness in the group, but he's glad to have found somebody caring for him. Even if it's only temporary.
"So what's next?"
"We brief the others."
💊💊💊
"So that's everything?"
Seokmin nodded, "hopefully."
They're all gathered together inside a lounging area to discuss their upcoming mission for the final time, all tensed and nervous energy. The room was stifling hot despite the air conditioning being cranked full force.
Seungkwan couldn't stop fidgeting. All eyes were on him when they'd ask if he'd be able to handle it. "Absolutely," he'd managed to strangle out.
Practicing every day’s proven to be an effective thing. They've thankfully confirmed the reasoning behind his previous decline was purely mental. And judging by the way Vernon's eyes kept meeting him tenderly, encouragingly - Seungkwan could confidently say that he'd gotten that department cover.
"Alright, anything else?" Seungcheol asked.
After reconfirming their roles, Seokmin had come out with a mother load. Something Soonyoung was incredibly butt-hurt on not discovering himself. But also thankful for finding a new friend who's incredible at what they do. Who's not afraid of taking over whenever Soonyoung's not ready.
It's a new feeling. Maybe he liked it.
The basic surmised of everything Seokmin found had changed their entire viewpoint of the mission. The infiltration group and the people staying behind were still solid, but everything else was shaken up when Seokmin uncovered the mother load - or more - the motherboard.
"It's a security system company that protects you on all fronts." Seokmin could see the appeal of a jack-of-all-traits type of company. But if there were a failure within their inner dynamics then everything surrounding it would most likely crumble alongside it.
That's what happened when the company filed for bankruptcy few years ago. Their last customer was anonymous, but with several semi-illegal traces Seokmin found that the warehouse had hired them. For everything.
"Idiots," Jihoon agreed. "So there's a motherboard with blueprints of everything? Projects, machines, everything?"
Seokmin hummed his ascent.
Rounding back to the Achilles heal. There was a flaw within the company's inner mechanism. The way they specifically control their data is by inputting something inside. Unfortunately, it made the data easily traceable and if one copy is deleted, everything else - even outside the motherboard. Would also be deleted.
"I could erase my entire mechabots blueprint," Wonwoo realized. Suddenly he wanted to go to that warehouse now.
"So is that everything?" Seungcheol confirmed.
"Everything's covered, I-I think-" Seokmin stuttered. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more."
Soonyoung elbowed the transducer to his side. "Don't be." you're perfect.
"Alright."
The mission would transpire accordingly. The group infiltrating would be equipped with everything protective under the sun. Jihoon had taken the liberty to create some hybridized plant-life that might help them. Bombs, tranquilizer, and some with healing properties. Everything was ready.
Vernon had also taken the liberty of making something that could aid him in seeing their infiltration team better once inside. Something to discern them from afar.
Seungcheol and Junhui managed to steal everything they could from the agency. Somehow managing not to get caught. They needed equipment for reinforcements. Junhui had promised to start changing things as best his position could allow, within the agency. Every Single problem he'd encountered that had cause so much pain towards the people in this room. To everybody.
Everything needed had been packed inside a car - several, courtesy of the elites.
"Everything should be okay if we stick to the plan."
"And if we don't?" Chan countered, eyeing warily at Jeonghan specifically. If he lost him again then-
Jeonghan linked their pinkies together, smiling as unrestraint as humanly possible. "We'll try our best." He was sure, for some of them, if the roles were reversed then they'd sacrifice themselves without hesitation. But that's exactly why they're all arguing.
"You better," Jihoon and Joshua muttered at the same time. They hadn't converse much during their stay, but they have the same principles going on so both were sure everything would continue between them far after tomorrow’s mission.
Jihoon needed friends, the technician begrudgingly admitted to it. Maybe he needed something more - and his eyes cut towards Mingyu who was tensed and wrought with anxiety. But then he looked towards Jihoon like he'd senses his presence and Jihoon could never return from this. He won't.
Joshua just hoped when everything is said and done he'd be able to invest himself better. That there wouldn't be any more worries and dividing himself, stretching himself sore. He'll enjoy every investments he had put into his relationships with every single person inside the room.
Some sacrifice, some exercises of trust needed to be made.
"For whatever its worth I'm glad to've met all of you." Wonwoo had to say it. Days prior he had believed his future would only be filled by status and technology. That he'd take his last breath alone in his deathbed. Now he had hope for something better.
"Me too," Minghao echoed. Who would've thought an anti-hero like him would ever stick his head out for anybody other than Junhui. These people, he'll fight with them.
"Alright then."
💊💊💊
Seungcheol found it his responsibility to check on everybody before their sleep. Wonwoo had walked away from everybody the second they dispersed and he found himself somewhere else instead of comforting Wonwoo. He looked like he needed space.
He found Seungkwan, Seokmin and Mingyu in one of their 'secret' hideouts. A small room with a bar that used to be filled with milkshake machines and candy bars when they were younger. Now everything was decorated sophisticatedly. All rosewood and candelabrums versus paint splatters and gummy bear chandelier.
"Hey," he greeted the two, hoping he won't be kicked out. Honestly he was baffled to see this hideout still up and running.
"Hi!" Seokmin announced brightly.
Mingyu nodded his acknowledgement, shifting a couple cards in his hand, whilst Seungkwan smiled at him immediately. "Grab a seat," he said, dragging a chair closer to them.
"Poker?" He asked, taking the seat.
"Yeah."
Quickly he found himself steadying into a familiar rhythm. Difference was, he didn't find it as guilty as he did before.
"So, is everybody okay?"
Seungkwan smirked, "Cheap move, Cheol."
Seungcheol chuckled good-humoredly. "Worth a shot." He said playing his turn. "But seriously."
"I'm great. Me and Vernon are...okay."
Seungcheol nodded, "You sure you could do the invisibility thing, right?"
Seungkwan hummed in conformation, "Your boyfriend is something else." He wasn't fond of the whole ordeal. It was embarrassing, but he couldn't deny the results.
"Seriously," Seokmin agreed. Nobody even knew the two had an interaction.
Drinking the amber liquid given to him, Seungcheol smiled behind the rim of the glass. Neither confirming nor denying Seungkwan's statement.
"I like our new friends." And of course Seokmin did.
Mingyu giggled, elbowing the transducer beside him. "You like everybody - wait, are you cheating?"
Seokmin put his hand down immediately, ceasing his swiping. "Nooo..."
Shuffling the cards in his hand, Seungkwan smiled knowingly. "By 'like', did you happen to mean one particular person?"
Seokmin eyed Seungkwan suspiciously, hands stopping midway towards his drink. "Nooooo..."
"Okaaay," Seungkwan drawled, knowing how hard Seokmin had worked when Soonyoung was asleep. He'd been scrambling and it would've been understandable if he was doing it purely for everybody's benefit. But Seungkwan knew when Seokmin was trying to impress somebody.
"Speaking of liking-" Seungcheol put his cards face down on the table, eyeing Mingyu incessantly. The others eyes were stubbornly dodging him. "Jihoon-"
"No."
"If you hurt him-"
"Shut up," Mingyu gritted, this was embarrassing. "What are you his keeper?"
Seungcheol shrugged, "Might as well be. Jihoon is kinda a loner." This made the other susceptible to overloads of emotion.
If Mingyu's trying to pursuit his friend, the least Seungcheol could do was make certain that they were ready. "I saw Wonwoo on the balcony."
Mingyu's body tensed and that's how Seungcheol knew the other hadn't interacted with Wonwoo besides their brief encounter at the pond. At least it was a positive encounter, but it wasn't good enough for Seungcheol. "Here's a bet, if I win, you talk to him."
Mingyu didn't say anything, but he didn't protest so they kept playing.
Eventually, Seungcheol won. A royal flush in diamonds.
"Son of a bitch." Mingyu threw his hand. Seungkwan grumbled whilst Seokmin whined.
Seokmin's hand came up comfortingly patting Mingyu's back, "Come on, we'll accompany you."
"I never promised that- ow!" Seungkwan glared, rubbing the arm Seokmin pinched.
They went to send off Mingyu, Seungkwan arguing a little as encouragement. And they watch from afar as their friend began approaching the other.
"I cheated by the way."
The two frowned, before realizing. "I forgot that you could do that," Seungkwan muttered.
They decidedly went their separate ways after. Night was coming to a close and they needed rest. Seungcheol decided to approach Jihoon, and maybe somebody else later. A deep fondness settling inside him from their game.
Promise me we'll do this again, he wanted to say to all of them. But he didn't have to voice anything to know they all wanted the same thing.
💊💊💊
Jeon Wonwoo wasn't somebody that displayed his heart unabashedly on his sleeve. His latest decision - as it revealed - had been the origin of uncountable destructions throughout the city. He simply couldn't sleep everything off the way everybody else were doing on the eve of their infiltration.
After the brief explanation surrounding their responsibilities tomorrow, everybody had dispersed moments after, towards each of the available guestrooms free for the picking. Mixing and matching sleeping partners to memorize their last positive moments together before...well, the inevitable.
Some fell asleep on the couch, like Lee Jihoon, the talented technician Wonwoo had been acquainted with via numerous conversations and brief reprise of casual interaction in between heavy silence. Jihoon's actually somewhat similar to him. They have mutual values surrounding mutant laws and the politics puppeteering behind it. Considering everything, screening would probably help.
They also agreed that killing and terrorizing innocent people, creating a contraption that could possibly destroy any semblance of peace, were definitely not a justifiable pathway.
They were both similarly composed when facing certain situations, although he noticed that the latter had a strikingly sharper tongue than he did. Casually chiding his detective acquaintances after they commented several well-intentioned, but albeit misguided, inputs.
"Choi, step back you ass, you're not smart enough for this."
Then the detective had clapped the other upside the head, and retreat into one of the bedrooms, resting himself for the night. Shuffling idly like tomorrow's nonexistent.
The interaction was something familiar and friendly; it made him ache for a similar type of friendship. It also made him aware of the fact that he hadn't spoken to much his ex-friends in any casual manner since they were reunited again. Although Vernon and Seokmin did converse a couple of times. Also, the olive branch yesterday at the pond with Mingyu...
"Come on, they need to talk."
The last bit he heard was what guided him here, enjoying dangling his feet off of the balcony, staring up at the muddled haze polluting what's supposed to be a beautifully starlit sky, calmly awaiting for the steady steps he knew was coming.
True to his prediction, it took merely seconds before his expectations came to fruition.
"You always loved looking at the stars."
"There's comfort in feeling you're insignificant. Because-"
"When you're insignificant, whatever decisions you make wouldn't decide the fate of the universe. And when you fuck up it won’t be too terrible." Mingyu sighted with practiced ease. Repeating what Wonwoo had explained to him so many starry nights ago. It was definitely a peculiar opinion on the 'we're not alone in the universe' suggestion. That's partly why Mingyu had fallen for Wonwoo. The oddity.
"Yeah well...look at me now."
Mingyu chuckled hollowly, coming to sit beside Wonwoo.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine."
The answer Mingyu had received innumerable times before, repeated in different iteration but the same idea. It was painfully practiced, even when it was truthful, as such it delivered some memory from when they were dating. Where Wonwoo would answer with calculated half-truths that Mingyu had reveled in hearing. Now that they weren't together, it's easier to discern the meticulously concealed lies.
Mingyu maintained an insurmountable amount of anger within the hollow of his stomach. It still didn't prevent him from muttering something that the other wouldn't anticipate. "I'm sorry."
Wonwoo didn't - couldn't say anything, not until he understood.
"I'm sorry that I was forcing my own fantasies onto you. That I got angry when you turned out to be different than what I expected. That I made you feel like you couldn't talk to me - any of us. After." Mingyu gripped the metal bars preventing him from plummeting over the third floor, feeling the cold rushing from his knuckles upwards his body where he previously felt raging fire. He wondered if this is what taking accountability over your mistakes had always felt like. "I know you hate being lonely, and I cornered you into feeling that way."
Wonwoo sighed, had his bumbling immature friend changed so drastically since they parted? Or was he actually finally witnessing the real Kim Mingyu, seeing the forest for the trees that it was. Perhaps he too had disillusioned himself over the depiction of Kim Mingyu. Because this person confessing his own problematicness before Wonwoo - who was objectively more in the wrong in the situation - was not the same Kim Mingyu as the one who had excluded and ostracize him forever ago, back when they broke up. It blossomed a seedling of hope within his chest.
"Jesus, say something. I don't like being the last to talk when I just said something embarrassing."
And that's it, that's what broke the tension. Wonwoo's lips stretched into a smile before a bubble of laughter escaped. It came unexpectedly, it's apparent by the way Mingyu's eyes widen, that neither predicted such reaction.
"Wow, really, you're laughing at me?" The words didn't contain any bitterness, delivered with a tug of a smile on Mingyu's lips. He watched as Wonwoo devolved into chuckles that made the other's body vibrate.
It became so loud that Mingyu was worried it'll rouse the others from their sleep, never mind the fact that his house was practically a castle, and there was enough space in between them that they'd need to call each other through their phones in order to contact one another.
"I'm sorry," Wonwoo managed to strangle out. It was unlike him to have reacted this way, all he knew was his head was nothing but static and stuffing, his heart anchored down by guilt, and it was getting increasingly difficult to see, before Mingyu's hand came up cradling his cheeks, nudging insistently pass his glasses, wiping tears away, revealing a concerned face.
Tears. He didn't realize he was crying.
"It's not your fault." Mingyu lied easily.
"Of course it is. I should've told you before I built your hopes up like that. I was just...scared of losing everyone if I rejected you. And really, I thought I might learn to love you but I just - I don't think I could love anyone - Ever!" Wonwoo buried his face in his hand, the biting wind blew pass him like he was intangible. He felt freezing from within already that the night air didn't concern him as much as his tears did. "And I know that me avoiding a long overdue conversation about it is preventing you from moving on - I-I'm really sorry."
"It's okay, I forgive you."
Wonwoo took a couple of hiccupping intakes of oxygen before peaking up from his position. "Just like that?"
Mingyu sighed. "I know it's easier to blame yourself for everything, but from my perspective I made a couple of mistakes myself. I was pushy, and I didn't care enough to release you before it hurt us both. And i didn't create a safe enough environment for you to come out with the truth." Mingyu stared at him like he knew the contents of his soul. Of course it was somewhat obvious from their conversations exchanged between one another after years and years, that Wonwoo wasn't exactly streamlined. He himself didn't have a word for it, but he just knew, romance isn't for him. And sex, though he's not repulsed by it, he also didn't particularly enjoy partaking. Mingyu suspected this information long before he had asked Wonwoo out on a first date. Yet he still tried anyways. It was misguided of him at best, selfish at worst. "It wasn't your fault."
"But..."
"Some parts is, but this isn't your fault."
Wonwoo didn't acknowledge the shift in topic of conversation before it settled onto him like a billion pound. The racking guilt he was harboring didn't stem from only one of his mistakes. "Oh fuck," the words slipped out of him, desperate and accompanied with a sob, chocked and muddled.
He really did murder all of those people didn't he?
"It wasn't your fault," Mingyu repeated, drawing the other closer to his body. Wonwoo had never felt so powerless, defeated, broken and strung out within Mingyu's arms. It's probably cruel to say that it reminded Mingyu of how much he had missed this. His best friend.
They crawled backwards, Mingyu hitting the concrete wall with Wonwoo still cocooned inside his arms. He let the other cry his pain away. Allowing the pressure to release in thick rivulets of salt-water.
The other needed to release his emotions eventually, because as much as Wonwoo constantly pretend that nothing could get to him, he harbored a lot of complex and strong emotions. Mingyu had changed him in ways he could never repay, but to the other, Wonwoo had also transformed him in similar ways.
No months of hiatus painstakingly avoiding one other could possibly deprived that away from them.
"Sometimes you can't control what your decisions could devolve into. All you can do is try your damnest and not wallow in the past. Just try and take responsibility of whatever you can now." The sight of Jihoon, soundly asleep on the sofa way across the room drew Mingyu's attention automatically. He silently thanked the other for the simple lesson.
They huddled closer towards one another for what seemed like forever, but the break of dawn never overtook them so it must not have been that long.
It was unfortunately long enough for Wonwoo to feel the oncoming consequences of his sorrow. Where his face became puffy and swollen, he knew the evidence of his tears would last until morning. Maybe burying under his emotions and collecting it like water inside a dam was an unwise decision considering the dam broke and left a mess everywhere. But beneath the chaos there was relief, of every baggage Wonwoo had carried for forever.
He knew though, that some - surprisingly - wise words from Mingyu won't inexplicably change the fact that he's partly responsible. The collateral damage that had impacted countless innocence. That guilt is warranted. But it did motivate him enough for their upcoming morning infiltration.
They were going to find that fucking warehouse and blow it up sky high alongside whoever's responsible.
💊💊💊
(After the infiltration)
Jeonghan couldn't hear anything beyond the rushing blood within his ears. His heart pumping erratically that he was certain he'd die of a heart attack. And he would allow it. Anything's better than the scene unfolding before him.
"Soonyoung!" He shouted, unsure of how loud his voice actually was. His throat was horse from the amount of screaming he'd been doing.
He should've seen this coming. Not just their failure today but also Soonyoung. As his older brother he should've seen how much the other had spiraled. Jeonghan could've stopped it. The pain and suffering would probably be transferred to him but he was past the point of caring.
Swallowing the knot in his mouth, he tried again. "Please," he whispered, knowing it was no use. The guilt was settling deep. Burrowing incessantly like an unwelcomed parasite.
Soonyoung was practically slumped over. Half of his crewmates are nowhere to be seen. And the other wasn't in any position to do anything.
And through it all he had thought, the inkling of hope within his stomach dying was the perfect conclusion to his life.