Doubler || NCT || Completed

62

Yujin's heart nearly jumped out of her body when a quiet, melodious noise greeted her outside the window she had broken through a moment ago. However, her body relaxed immediately when her panicked eyes found the cause of the sound, and she realized that it was the tiny, nightingale, and not some kind of alarm system she had triggered while looking for a way to open the office building's backdoor.

"Kun", she greeted the bird in a hushed voice. The bird flew inside and landed on the large desk Yujin was searching while trying to find the control panel Jisung had told her about.

The bird tilted his head in questioning manner.

Yujin swallowed. "It's so dark here, I can't see very well", she explained her slowness to him. "I don't want to turn on the lights in case there's someone in the building or something."

She continued rummaging through the messy desk, feeling around its sides and corners, trying to find a button that would open the door.

Another bird flew in and Yujin didn't have time to even be surprised about the appearance of the bluish whistling thrush, Xiaojun, who let out a quiet song as a greeting.

Kun nudged Xiaojun and twittered a short but commanding melody at him, nodding towards the table. Then they got to work, trying to help her in her mission.

Yujin hadn't thought that anyone would be shifting to their animal forms unless it was completely necessary. Taeil had suggested that instead of Yujin rappelling down the office building wall, either Kun or Xiaojun could break into the headquarters but the idea had been rejected immediately, since they couldn't have broken the window safely in their bird form.

Kun cooed victoriously, gaining both Yujin and Xiaojun's attention. He had found the control panel underneath a binder and some loose papers. The panel had multiple buttons but luckily all of them were labelled clearly.

Yujin pushed the one for the backdoor.

"I have the burner phone I was supposed to use to let everyone know that they can get in but now you can go tell them", she told the birds, nodding towards the broken window and her backpack next to it.

They twittered as a response before flying out and leaving her alone again.

Yujin looked around in the dark lobby of the poacher headquarters, trying not to feel sick when she remembered how the poachers had dragged her through the room like she was nothing but worthless piece of junk.

She went to the door leading to the stairwell, and pushed it open carefully. It was completely quiet and dark, which hopefully meant that there was no one in the building. She left the door jarred, jamming it open with the closest binder she could find so that she would hear if someone was coming.

Jisung had said that the backup hard drive - the one holding the poachers' information system - could either be in the lobby or in one of the top floor offices. That meant that she could start searching for it while waiting for the rest of the pack to join her.

Yujin was going through one of the cabinets filled with all sorts of paperwork, when she heard a lonely beep from the stairwell. Someone had used the elevator and arrived the floor Yujin was in. She dropped on her knees, hiding behind the desk, and held her breath.

"Are you here?" Jeno's voice returned life to her body.

Instinctively she got up and hurried to greet Jeno, who caressed her cheek and hair the moment she was close enough. His brow was furrowed. She tried to smile at him despite the fear that wouldn't leave her alone before they all had exited the building safely.

"Yeah, you were separated for like twenty minutes, how horrible", Haechan commented dryly, pushing past them. "Aren't we supposed to save the doubler community now? You can be lovey-dovey later."