bandage - n.jm

31.

"Wait till you all get back, Taeyong will go crazy!" Kun paced back and forth, voicing his stressed thoughts to the boys.

"Yeah we know, he'll cut our food supply like the last time we failed a mission.." Jeno grumbled quietly as he rolled his eyes.

They were all sick of Taeyong's harsh changes. But what was there that they could do about it? They couldn't fix his torn and broken heart even if they wanted to.

"But it's not our fault FPC got to us first. It was an ambush and we weren't at fau-"
"He'll find a reason to make you at fault and he'll find a way to punish you. We're all hurt after Hwayoung died but of course he doesn't care about us anymore."

While they all discussed the tough situation, Mark sat back quietly and watched. Were his eyes deceiving him or was it true? Surely..he was so sure that it was Hwayoung. But there was no possible way - she died.

There was only one thing Mark could think of doing after the mission - going to Yuri. Until he had a proper answer, Mark was going to keep quiet.

. . .

"The one thing they needed to do was get rid of FPC! How is it hard?!" Jungwoo was taken aback by his boss' raise in volume.

"Boss they were ambushed and there wasn't much they could do.." He spoke quietly.
"Ambushed?" Taeyong scoffed, "I prepare them for the worst and you wanna say they got ambushed?!" He stood from his chair and slammed his hands onto the table. "They were stupid enough to not watch their surroundings."

As Jungwoo wanted to defend the Dream unit, a loud knock on the door was heard. "You may leave, Jungwoo." With a respectful bow, Jungwoo opened the door and left the room. Walking through the doors were Jaehyun and Yuta side by side.

"Boss," Jaehyun spoke first, "there has been a report from Kun." Taeyong cleared his throat and sat down in his seat. "What is it?" Unlike the years before, Taeyong's voice was now monotonous.

"FPC has been wiped out." As the words left Jaehyun's mouth, their leader shot his head up with eyes split wide open. Yuta stepped forward and placed a manilla folder on his desk. Taeyong glanced down from the folder and up to Yuta who stepped back. In disbelief, he grabbed the folder and opened it.

"TOO has reported to us that FPC has been taken down from the leaderboard and massacred. Cameras show a figure entering their base from the underground escape route - the route leads to the same place the Dream unit was ambushed. The identity of this person is unknown still. Shall we look into it for you?" Yuta explained the situation briefly.

"And they..were alone?"
"Yes, they were alone."

Taeyong kept silent for a moment. He thought carefully about what to do. This person would be a great addition to the team..but he knew nothing about them.

"I want you to look into who they are and report back when you find something."

. . .

"What?! What do you mean they've been massacred?!" Kun was on the phone with Yuta that moment. He looked down at all the other members with him and shrugged his shoulders.

"Now what do we do?....Are you sure?.....Okay, we'll see you then." Once hanging up the phone, Kun sighed and sat down beside Hendery.

"FPC have been massacred by a lone person and we can go back to the base. C'mon, let's get going back." All the Wayv members including Sungchan and Shotaro helped the Dream members up from the ground.

While Ten threw Mark's arm around his shoulder, Ten looked down at the younger and sighed. "I've known you long enough to know something is wrong- what happened?"
"Could you drive me to the hospital..? The one we took..her..?" The older stopped walking for a moment to process what the younger has just said.

"Mark you're injured, you really sho-"
"I'm going to a hospital hyung, I'll be fine." Ten said nothing and chose not to question his decision. Ten being the only one that came in his daily car, they both bid their goodbyes to the other group and left.

. . .

Mark limped his way into the hospital and towards the reception desk. The receptionist, Miss Oh, looked up from her desk and flinched at the sight of a bloody male.

"Sir..?"
"I need to see Jeong Yuri, we're friends." The receptionist nodded her head and spoke into the intercom.

"Jeong Yuri you are needed at the reception desk, Jeong Yuri." Within minutes, Yuri had appeared at the desk and gasped once seeing Mark standing there.

"Mark..?"
"Miss Jeong, this young man requested to see you. While you're here, please take care of his injuries." Yuri nodded her head and led Mark to an empty hospital room.

"Why are you coming to see me in this state? Donghee told me you guys went to Cross District for a mission so why are you here?"

Mark winced in pain as she pat his skin before bandaging it. "Hwayoung..I think I saw her today.."
"She's dead Mark, there's no way she's here." But Yuri knew otherwise.

"No you don't understand. There was a random person near the van so I tackled them and their eyes..they looked just like Hwayoung. She was covering it but her hair is like..ash blonde now. Yuri, you were in charge of her surgery- you know more than what I know." Mark looked at Yuri with desperate eyes.

He wanted to know the truth. He needed to know the truth.

"She died, Mark. I said it then and I'll say it now, her surgery was unsuccessful. She died and she's not coming back."
"Then you don't mind doing a polygraph test tomorrow? In private of course."

"Fine, let's do a polygraph."

this is exciting