Final Heist [Nct Gangster! Au]

12. The Painting

10:30 pm
4 hours and 30 minutes left
Mark's P.O.V

"Looks like we've found our prize," Yuta says, smirking.

"Yep, now all we have to do is get it out of the glass. Sicheng, can you please disable the alarms?"

Sicheng nods in a cute manor and walks over to the base of the platform where the keypad is. He quickly types in a few numbers.

"Emergency alarm disabled. The emergency alarm will turn back on in thirty minutes," a robotic voice from the ceiling says.

"Great, now we're being timed," Yuta says annoyed.

"It'll be alright, this won't take me long. You gotta remember, I'm good at my job," I say taking my glasses out of my pocket.

I take these glasses with me on every mission. One lens was to spot faults in glass. The other was to see faults in the object we're stealing.

"Aww look at our little Markie in his glasses. So cute," Yuta coos in a teasing manor. I shoot him a dirty look.

"You're lucky Johnny needs you cause if he didn't, you'd be in the hospital by now," I say angrily.

"Pft, you wouldn't hurt me. You know I'd win in a fight," Yuta shoots back.

"Yeah yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night," I say brushing him off and walking up to case.

I push a button on my glasses and small virtual cracks appear on the glass. I begin circling the glass looking for the crack that goes deepest.

"AHA, found it," I say smiling proudly to myself.

"Great! Now crack this glass and get the painting."

"Twenty minutes left until the Emergency Alarms are reactivated."

"Listen to the robot lady Mark! Hurry up," Yuta says.

I just sigh and roll my eyes grabbing the glass breaker out of my pocket.

"Oh, you had a glass breaker with you. Why did we have to go through all of this!"

"Shut up Yuta, I'm doing my job correctly," I say scoffing at him.

"Stop arguing! Mark just break the glass," Sicheng finally chimes in.

"Alright, alright," I say before returning my focus back to the glass.

I slowly pull my arm back then hit the glass as hard as I can. The shattering glass sends a loud echoing sound through the room.

"Well that as fun," Yuta says, kicking aside some of the glass.

"Now we get to the best part. Stealing," I say with an eyebrow raise.

I grab my gloves out of my pocket and put them on. Then I press the other button on my glasses and the room goes green.

I step back and stare at the painting.

'Scanning painting...' appears in front of my eyes.

'Scan complete. Item valid.'

A wide smile forms on my face. I love when my job is easy.

"Yuta, grab the case. It's real," I say not looking away from the painting. I take my glasses off and put them back in my pocket.

I step up onto the platform and grab the painting from it's stand. I step down and gently place it into the case and zip it.

"Jaehyun, get ready. We're on our way up. We'll be right beside the basement door," I say into the earpiece.

"Copy that," Jaehyun says in a barely audible whisper.

"Ten minutes left until Emergency Alarms are reactivated."

"Well it looks like we better get out of here, and fast. Don't want to alert anyone," Yuta comments.

"Yeah, Jaehyun is waiting on us," Sicheng adds.

I pick up the case and we begin walking towards the exit. I look over at Yuta, who looked a little worried.

"Yuta, what is it," I ask him.

"It's nothing," he says quickly.

"What's-"

"It's nothing Mark. I'm fine."

He wasn't joking anymore. He was dead serious. He's seen something. What could he have saw?

I shake my head. It was probably nothing. Stay focused Mark. You have a job to do.

We exit the vault and begin walking through the hallway. The hard part was over, now all we had to do was get the painting to L.A.

"Hey! You," I yell running after the guy who had been watching us. He had long legs and ran quickly but I managed to catch up.

I tackled him and wrestled with him. I finally managed to get a hold of him and bring him back to his feet, holding a knife to his throat.

"Who are you and why were you watching us," I hiss.

"Hey, hey, hey! Mark, calm down," Taeyong says.

"But he saw us. He knows who we are," I argue.

"What's your name," Doyoung comes over and asks ignoring Taeyong and I.

"Lee Donghyuck...But you can call me Haechan, if you want," he says nervously.

"Mark, hand him to me, I'll take care of him," Doyoung says. I let go of him and Doyoung grabs his arm, leading him inside the van, Johnny shutting the door behind them.

He was young, younger than me. I could tell. There was the look of innocents and youth still in his eyes. Something that had been robbed from me long ago.

I was forced to come to Korea. I was eighteen, and planned on staying in Canada, but my parents had other ideas.

"Mark, we've chosen your future job, you're going to school in Korea and that's final!"

I arrived here and hated everything about it. The people, my school, my classes, everything.

It wasn't until one day I heard some students talking about an underground rap club. I followed them that night. Since I didn't have an invitation I broke in, no one noticed me though.

Rapping had always been my passion but I was never allowed to peruse it. That night was the first time I had felt alive in a long time.

Taeyong also happened to be there. He'd seen me break in. He approached me and we began talking. A few weeks later I met the guys and joined the gang.

I guess I joined for a silly reason, to make my dreams come true but was good enough reason for me.

"He's in," I hear Doyoung's voice echo through my brain.

I look at the boy. Lee Donghyuck. It was then that I swore to protect him. He was to young for this. I wanted that youthful glint to stay in his eyes as long as possible.

It was that night that I gained a new reason to stay in the gang.