Beautiful Deception

S I X

word count: 3, 538
pages (paging mode): 23
warnings: language
**

September 12th, Thursday, 9:35 AM
location: west wing, underground.
mae

"There you two are!" Exclaimed Taeyong as he emerged from one of the West Wing rooms. "I've been looking everywhere."

"Sorry, hyung," Mark said sheepishly, "we were playing hide and seek again."

The red haired leader brushed the apology off dismissively, instead focusing his attentions on me. "It's fine. Seun-Mae, can I borrow you for a little while? It's important."

I nodded, eyes wide, "Why are you asking me? You run the show here, you're the boss man."

He chuckled lowly before gesturing that I follow him, and Mark waved me off with a smile as he reluctantly continued to the kitchen, rather than trailing after us while Taeyong rounded a corner.

"True, but I see no point in being unreasonably demanding. One of the biggest factors of being in a leader's role, is having the trust and loyalty of those you lead. If the gang leader has no respect for the members, then nothing good can happen once the members lose respect for their leader." He explained, and my mouth formed an "o" in understanding.

"Oh, I see. So where are you taking me, Taeyong?" I pried as we made another turn towards what I believed was the decode deck.

"I want you in on today's meeting to see how you think before we put you into training." He told me.

"Ten said you were impressive with your scores in the assessment, and I want to witness it for myself so we can properly choose how to train you."

I nodded again, but realizing he couldn't see it, I cleared my throat and responded, "As long as you don't want me to try my luck with time bombs, I should be fine."
There was a lull in conversation as we made our way through the halls, and eventually we wound up at the door that read "Planning Room".
Taeyong opened the door and gestured for me to go in first, so I stepped in, swallowing nervously.

The room was full of people, unlike the last time I'd seen it; around the large glasstop table sat Yuta, Johnny, Jaehyun, Haechan, WinWin, and Taeil, and Ten was standing in the front by a big screen.

"Ah, hello, Mae!" Greeted Ten, and a few more "hello"s drifted my way. I gave a little wave before Taeyong nudged me fully into the room and shut the door behind him.

"Thanks for finding her, Ty. I assume Mark's on his way now?" Ten continued.

I turned to find his counterpart facepalming, cursing into his hand. "Shit, he's down by the kitchen. I didn't know you wanted them both." He grumbled.

Ten sighed and rolled his eyes, raising his watch up to press some yellow button. "Alright, I commed him; can you go get him from the office?" He addressed Taeyong.

The leader cursed again before agreeing, heading out of the door he'd just come in through.

"Here, have a seat, Mae." Jaehyun offered the space next to him, which I politely accepted, sliding in and letting out a breath of relief.

"Since not everyone is here yet, I want to take a minute to announce, officially, that Mae is now a part of the gang." Ten told the group.

Everyone clapped, and Yuta had a sarcastic grin on his face, saying, "Welcome to the wonderful world of killing off your brain cells!"
I returned his smile.

"There isn't any sort of decision yet on which group you'll be in," Ten spoke, "but for now we're going to put you through basic training. We can start tomorrow, if that's alright with you." Ten's voice had an authoritative edge to it that made people sit up and take notice, and his personality was perfect for being second in command.