ʟᴀ ᴄᴏꜱᴛᴀ | ɴᴄᴛ ✔️

Chapter 9: Alarm Bells

"What about Y/N? Did she come?"

"I'm here." You announced. "What's wrong? And where is Jaehyun? I left you both alone last night..."

Your outright question made his eyes water – that was when the feeling you had in the hotel came back, tenfold. "Taeyong, don't tell me-..."

"I...couldn't do anything..." He hissed through his tears.

"What does that mean? What happened to him?" Jaemin stepped in.

Taeyong gulped and wiped his eyes. "You guys remember our rival camp from a few months ago?"

You look around at the rest of the boys to observe the variety of different facial expressions they all held.

"What...about them?" You frowned, turning to Jaemin for some sort of context.

"There's...this one camp on the other end of the woods that makes it a point to constantly fuck with us." Jaemin sighed. "They never knew how to leave us alone..."

"They kidnapped a few of our people back when this all started. A group of them ambushed us last night and...they took Jaehyun..." Taeyong ran a shaky hand through his hair. "I tried to reason with them, but one of them fucking shot me."

He removed his coat to showcase bandages wrapped around his shoulder, a speck of red dotting the center of his wound. "It was a bullet – it didn't go through, so Ten was able to get it out..."

"Doesn't matter. Why the fuck do they think they have the audacity to shoot at any of us?" Doyoung seethed. "As if there isn't another camp somewhere else that they can go fuck with..."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "I'm saying..."

"Did Jaehyun say anything to you?" You narrowed your gaze at Taeyong.

"Nothing – he just told me to go. We talked about what we'd do if they ever came back before, I just didn't think it'd be this soon..."

Your eyebrows began to furrow – for some reason, you had an inkling that he might've been lying.

But at the same time, he did sound pretty shaken up, so you had at least one reason to believe his words.

Other than that, he was starting to look mad suspicious to you...

"I wanna get him back." Johnny's voice dropped an octave. "Taeyong, I know how you feel about us going past the zone, but please, for the love of God, let me go and find that camp..."

"It's too risky, Johnny, you know that..." Taeyong waved his hand in a dismissive manner.

"Okay, and?!" Johnny then raised his voice at Taeyong. "They've been messing with us- only us, for months since this all started! It's about time we taught these motherfuckers a lesson, and all I'm asking for is your permission, man..."

"And I'm telling you to slow down and think, goddamnit!" Taeyong snapped. "You remember what happened to Lucas the last time he tried to pull a stunt like that, don't you?!"

"Yeah, but-"

"So, do you honestly think I'd risk the same shit happening to you, huh?!" Johnny fell silent. "Look, I'll be damned if those bastards kidnapped even more of you just because your ass was too fucking stubborn to listen, do you hear me?!"

Taeyong's booming voice echoed out through the resort, creating a thick, almost impenetrable layer of tension amongst the boys and yourself.

You felt so conflicted. As mentioned before, part of you felt like Taeyong was making this whole story up,

But with the amount of emotion he exerted, it was nearly impossible for you to tell the difference.

"What do we do now then?" You asked in an attempt to break the silence.

"Well, for starters, we need to crack down on our security." Taeyong sighed. "We'll need to set up more watch towers – who can get started on those?"

"I can." Hendery volunteered. "Xiaojun, do you think you can help me get started on the blueprints?"

"Sure thing."

"One more thing," Taeyong announced. "Everyone has their own set of weapons, right?"

While most of the boys gave verbal confirmation, one of them spoke up in a soft tone.

"I don't."

"Who said that?" Taeyong looked around, spotting a raised hand that belonged to Jungwoo. "Okay, have Johnny take you to the armory to get a set. The more of us armed, the better."

The boys continued with their discussion while you stood off to the side, closer to Jaemin, immersed in your thoughts.

You couldn't even keep track of whatever it was you were thinking about because of the boys' overlapping voices, so you stepped away, back into the hotel without most of the boys' knowledge.

All except Jaemin, who appeared more or less confused by your behavior.

So, looking around at the boys for a few seconds, he stepped away from the group as well, following you deeper into the hotel.

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