Notorious ⊷ Haechan

8 ⊷ Juno

they look so innocent but are both so chaotic lmao

⊷ 8

Jungwoo smiled, eyes on his cup as he poured himself a drink. The ice cubes inside clinked as they hit against the walls that contained them. 

He let out a relieved breath as he watched the golden-brown liquid run down, hitting against the bottom of the glass before it quickly filled it up. 

"You think she wouldn't know?" he asked in surprise. "She has a license, of course she knows the limits of her profession."

"It was worth a try," Renjun mumbled, eyes on the bottleneck that was stuck between his index finger and thumb. "Why didn't you ever introduce her to us if she is so important to you?" 

"Why didn't you ask me about her before trying to get rid of her?" Jungwoo shot back without hesitation. "I only asked you to work with her and you can't even do that. She is not your enemy, she is just worried about her friends."

Frustrated, Jungwoo took a sip of his drink. Letting it draw a burning trail down his throat, he ran a hand through his hair. 

All of the boys there noticed the tense atmosphere. If not through Jungwoo's glares, then at least through the words he had spoken and through the puppy eyes Jaemin and Jisung threw at him in sympathy. 

"Talking about it," Jeno said in an attempt to break up the tension as well as show his interest in the topic for Jungwoo's sake, "I've spent quite some time with Shotaro, as you asked me to." 

"And?" Haechan wondered curiously. 

"He is really nice," he observed. "Polite, bubbly, smart. He thinks really highly of Taemin and Ji-yoon too." 

"They must be really close," Taeil pointed out. 

"Very. They are like siblings. Ji-yoon is the youngest but apparently she bosses both of them around whenever she feels it's necessary," Jeno explained with a smile. 

He seemed to have grown fond of - if not the girl herself then - the way she treated and was treated by others. The way she talked and was talked about. From all he could see, LTM was a good place, led by good people. 

However, he also noticed that there were a few things off. Nothing really bad, it just felt like they had quite a few secrets.

"Hyung," Jeno called out. His eyes found Jungwoo right away but the rest of the older ones felt addressed just the same. "By any chance, have you ever heard of someone called Juno?" 

Jungwoo tried to remember. "I think so? It's said that Juno protects the company. Like defending employees or enforcing contracts whenever the law doesn't do it. But no one has ever seen them." 

Jisung hummed thoughtfully. "So are they good or bad?" 

"Probably both," Jeno mumbled in return, remembering the conversation he overheard between Ji-yoon and Shotaro that day. 

"Please," Ji-yoon pleaded, anxiety dripping from every word she spoke. "Please leave. Just for a couple of days at least."

"We will be fine!" Shotaro reassured, not quite getting how serious the situation was. He put a hand on her shoulder. "I will be fine too, I promise." 

She pushed out a flat exhale, her entire chest feeling heavy from the worry she felt. "You won't be, Taro."

"But we have help!" he retorted, making Ji-yoon go quiet right away. She stared up at him emptily.

"What?"

Shotaro grinned confidently. "Didn't you hear? Juno is on our side."

He seemed so sure. He seemed so endlessly sure that a faceless name was all it took to take away from the threat imposed by three dead bodies. 

Ridiculous. 

She felt that it was ridiculous. While she appreciated how pure his trust was, she couldn't help but hate it as well. Although it made her laugh, actually. 

"Juno?" she asked. "What did they manage to do so far? Three of your colleagues are dead. How can you trust them so much when they didn't manage to prevent that?"

"I know, Joon," Shotaro said softly. "But they are here now. Didn't you hear that that guy that presumedly killed Byung-hun is missing? Who else is responsible for that?"

Good question. Who else? 

Who else could it be? 

"Don't get caught up in a fantasy," Ji-yoon pleaded, getting more desperate. "They aren't what you take them for." 

"So Juno is avenging them?" Jisung wondered but Chenle didn't seem so sure. 

"From what Jeno said, Ji-yoon seemed like she doubted it was them," he pointed out. 

Turning around to get a glimpse at the two chatting boys that were sitting in the corner of the room, Johnny got himself involved in the conversation. 

"Kun, Ten," he called the younger ones. "You guys are kinda close to her, right?" 

Kun raised a brow, nudged Ten's arm softly. "He's talking to you." 

The younger of the two frowned. "You know her too, don't push this onto me." 

"I know her, but you are pretty much best friends," Kun mumbled. 

"You sound jealous," Ten joked with a smug smirk. 

"Guys...?" Jeno asked through an awkward laugh. "About that Juno guy?" 

After finally getting to the topic at hand, Ten merely ended up shrugging. 
"She never mentioned that name." But then he narrowed his eyes at the boy. "But Jeno and Juno sound pretty freaking similar if you ask me. Are you hiding something?" 

He didn't expect to get called out like that, leaving him so confused that he didn't even have it in him to think of a reply right away. After sitting still for a moment in a confused daze, he eventually replied. 

"I can't really do much about my name," Jeno noted. 

Ten nodded. "Fair enough." 

Which sent them back to the beginning, having only the tiniest bit of information on the person that had nothing more to them than four letters. 

However, there was also something else they should concern themselves with. 

"JYP," Yuta said out of the blue. "Was that it?" 

"The company LTM is competing with. Why?" 

"One of my co-workers worked for them for a while," he remembered. "He said they pay good but it's a lot of dirty work. He advised me not to take them as clients." 

Jaehyun nodded in agreement. "He mentioned it once. He got in trouble for that though." 

Taeyong hummed. "Then you should be careful around them." 

"Don't worry," Haechan reassured with a smile. "We will be." 

"Yeah," Jisung agreed confidently. "We are pretty competent. Who could harm us that easily?" 

Juno ⊶

this chapter is so short in comparison to the last one hahaha but I liked writing it, so I hope it was enjoyable to read! 

I hope everyone is feeling well 💚