HUMAN | YUWIN [ ✓ ]

TWELVE | WINWIN

without a tv in the break room, mark happily brought his laptop to show them the recent news. mansik's company, cha enterprises, had already gotten a new owner — his nineteen-year-old nephew, park jisung.

he answered every question thrown at him with clear tiredness, obviously not wanting to be there at the moment, surrounded by a huge crowd of people wanting to know everything about him.

"don't blame him for not wanting to be there," johnny comments from where he sat (unsurprisingly) next to ten. "i'd be suffocated."

"who wouldn't?" yuta chirps. "why does gibeom want us to see this?"

"well, according to him, park jisung's supposed to help us," mark answers, clicking onto jisung's first interview. "i don't know how."

"by giving us information on gibeom's rivals to get rid of him," donghyuck says in a know-it-all voice, sitting up straighter in his seat. "i never knew mansik even had an ally. gota is his name, i think."

"sounds like mine," yuta comments with a snicker. "are we supposed to kill him too?"

when he says those words, his mood drops. he probably didn't want mark nor donghyuck to confirm that. now that sicheng waits for either of them to talk, he notices that ten is oddly quiet. usually, he always has something to say, even when no one asked.

as for yuta, he had just stepped out of the bathroom after staying in there for a suspiciously long time. he could hardly look sicheng in the eye when he walked out. that's when johnny came to them and said they had to go to the break room for a team meeting including mark and donghyuck.

which leads to now.

"gibeom didn't say," donghyuck answers, adjusting the collar of his lab coat. he had just been brushing it off before that. "i guess that means no."

yuta looks relieved. "thank you."

"but he does want you to destroy his plans to make another you," donghyuck is quick to add. "he doesn't want anyone else successful, especially not him."

"ah, that sounds fun," sicheng remarks.

"another me?" yuta whispers.

"of course," donghyuck looks at him with a slight smile. "you're human but more. loads of people would love to create another superhuman for their own reasons. mr. yang doesn't believe they have good intentions."

"what was his intentions for me then?" yuta asks.

donghyuck couldn't answer that, opening his mouth before closing it. sicheng's eyes narrow — suspicious. not even donghyuck knows. to make things even better in the most sarcastic way possible, donghyuck never got back to him on yuta's memory problem. when this little meeting is over, he'll make sure to pull him aside and ask about it.

but ten stops him first when it's over. he tells johnny to go off without him before tapping sicheng on the shoulder, starting off with, "i'm sorry."

"okay," sicheng rolls his eyes. "i know you're probably joking."

"actually, i'm not," ten says and he looks like he really wanted to snap at him, as usual. "i'm being serious. i'm actually apologising to you."

"wow," sicheng says, actually pleasantly surprised. "i'm shocked."

that definitely wasn't sarcasm. the black-haired crosses his arms across his chest as he lets out a huff and continues on, "look, i'm only apologising because johnny told me to. i shouldn't have punched you in the stomach because yuta was right and i was in the wrong. again, i'm sorry."

"well, thank you for apologising and it's fine," sicheng retorts and he finds himself smiling in reaction.

ten does too, though it's a weird one. like his face muscles were unsure on how to pull off a genuine smile even though he's given those several times to johnny with no problem. heck, he's smiled at sicheng before! but, it's a smile and that's all that matters.