Empire | ATEEZ

032

I had gathered what I could about Nocturne's plans for the gala and I refused to push Jeongin any further.

That's what I had told the others as we gathered in the meeting room, forcing myself to keep my posture tall and proud as I held Hongjoong's eyes, tightening my grip slightly on Seonghwa's hand which was holding mine underneath the table, only to relax as the leader, at last, nodded.

The gala would be held at the end of the week, this Sunday. It was only days away and I was so, so close of getting what I wanted.

Seonghwa rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand in lazy circles as I gathered myself and continued, having already told the others about the alarm and the rooftop, having been careful not to leave any of the fragments of the plan out in case they were crucial.

"Chan has paired each member up with one of you to make sure that, when chaos erupts and all order disappears, he will still be able to execute his plan without losing sight of anyone important. The idea is to keep you separated, distracted, so you won't be able to come to each other's aid."

Seonghwa gave my hand a reassuring squeeze, and I took a deep breath, grateful for his silent support, as I continued, "Jeongin was assigned to Jongho which gives you an advantage, the upper hand, considering the fact that they're one member down."

Hongjoong nodded slowly, and I could see in Yunho's eyes that he was working out a plan of his own as well, "Hyunjin is assigned to Wooyoung, Changin to Mingi, Jisung to San, Seungmin to Yeosang, Felix to Yunho, Minho to Seonghwa, and, obviously, Chan will be hunting down Hongjoong."

The leader scoffed at that, a couple of cerulean blue locks falling into his face as he shook his head, "Hunting down," he said, "As if."

"I say we go with their plan, then," Mingi said, speaking up for the first time since we had sat down. I offered him a small smile, happy to hear what he wanted to suggest.

His eyes found mine and he quickly continued, "With Jeongin here, they might expect us to know some of the plan but surely not the entire thing. Intelligence was never any of their strong suits so they probably won't expect us to have figured out everything. Chan has been underestimating Nari since the beginning so let's use that to our advantage."

Yeosang nodded, "They'll be taken by surprise once they figure out that we already knew which one of them was assigned to us. We can tail them as well. Distracting the others gives us more time to single out Chan. They don't have that kind of luxury when they're already one member down."

"Are you going to be armed, then?" I asked, already knowing the answer as the corners of Wooyoung's mouth tugged upwards in a smirk, "Are we going to be armed?" he chuckled, winking at me with a playful look in his eyes.

"Honey, we're going to be armed to the teeth," the supplier said, wincing a little as San whacked him on the back of his head and rolled his eyes.

"And are you shooting to kill?" I asked; another question I already knew the answer to, one that I had asked Jeongin as well. But I felt that it had to be done. I had to be sure.

Blood would always have blood which meant that the more any of the men surrounding me spilled, the more we would lose on our side as well. It was inevitable.

"Are they?" Hongjoong countered, and it was enough. I nodded. They were criminals, after all, bad people as Seonghwa would have phrased it. And not only that. They were leading Seoul's most notorious criminal organization. Of course, they were shooting to kill.

Seonghwa tightened his grip on my hand a little as I thought of him and turned my head slightly to his side as he moved our intertwined hands so that they were now resting atop his thigh; warm and tightly locked together. He kept his focus on the leader, but I knew that he could see me looking.