A second closer - Seventeen Fanfic

Chapter 4

March 10th, 1989.

11.10 PM

" I still can't believe Jun Hyung convinced you to come with us," Seungkwan laughed, getting his checklist out to make sure he has everything ready before the meeting with the advocate that night. He along with Joshua and Jun have been there a couple of times ever since this special case came into their lives, to be precise.

Anyone as a third person could simply tell that the mysterious case the policemen were assigned to was exaggerated and could have been close in the first few days of the occurrence. The irony is that even they had thought the same.

It wasn't just another missing case. It was a case their seniors failed and passed it on to them. A few weeks ago, the senior officer who usually doesn't come without prior notice came to discuss some important matters with Seungcheol. It wasn't taken seriously by him though. Asking the process of the next batch of inspectors or promoting the next group of the newbies into a new sector was pretty much what he thought given the fact that nothing else was told by the security

Upon the inspector's visit, his assumptions were only limited to the usual talks he had with him, but that simple assumption crashed instantly when he saw the look on the inspector's face.

"I need help, Cheol...". Something Seungcheol never thought he would ever hear from the man in front of him. The person he looked up to his whole life, who he thought was fearless about anything. But now, though he looked like he was fine on the outside, Seungcheol, knowing him so well, could see the fear and the desperation in his eyes.

"When should we start, sir ?" his words came out so fast before he could comprehend what it was about. He wasn't a person who would think of the pros and cons or the benefits he gets out of the cases he gets as his own mission. But he's definitely the person who puts a lot of thought when it comes to all 13 of them doing it. He became the person who puts them in front of his own safety. If he was a regular police officer slash detective it wouldn't have mattered much but being the leader for the 13 most reputed officers and also the most cherished people in his life, he can afford to be anything less.

He had to learn this lesson the hard way, as it were. He knew they were always there for him when the squad was initially created, a year before Seungkwan and Hansol arrived and two years before Chan. Over time, he began to take it for granted. Consequently, he accepted cases and assignments without much regard for the safety of the team, and neither did they. All of them were as enthused as he was and no one questioned his choices. As he was so confident in his brother-like squad, he didn't bother to look at his opponent's strengths or weaknesses On one particular operation. The last mission he was ever so careless.

That was when Soonyoung was kept as an enticing bait for the kidnappers, who were kidnapping people to sell them away to different countries as slave laborers, as per their plan but what they didn't know was that the kidnappers were a step ahead of them, and Soonyoung was really taken away, but fortunately, Mingyu, Mingyu was a novice at the time, but he was quickly accepted into the team due of his fast thinking and rapid actions, was barely in time to corner them in a short route he knew, saving soonyoung and others managed to capture the kidnappers.No one would have known what would have happened to Soonyoung if he had been even a second late on that day. It was a crazy day for everyone, especially for the leader. It took a toll on him so badly that In order to forget what had transpired, he went days without eating and worked day and night. Others including Soonyoung attempted to persuade him out of it but in vain. It did take a while for him to settle down, but he never dared himself to make a decision that put anyone at risk ever since then.

"You know, Officer Choi, you don't have to say yes if you don't want to" the officer spoke up after seeing Seungcheol became more tensed than him.