ILLICIT ° nct dream, wayv + srg

Chapter Twenty-four: Five Tasks for Koeun

Dedicated to:
GorjessMates

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"Hello?" Koeun asked to no one in particular. "Is anybody here?" She asked again and waited for a short moment for someone to answer her back.

But no one did. The uppermost floor was as deserted as it would be if there's an apocalypse happening.

"Where is everyone?" She asked herself, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Is this some kind of a joke? She wondered. Well, it's not funny.

When Koeun woke up from her creaky, steel bed, the sun was already shining through her face. She redid her hair, wiped her face with her fingers, adjusted her clothes before she left her room, only to find the entire floor empty- no X-Force members walking around and preparing themselves for the mission.

Checking her watch, she found out it was only 8:12 in the morning. "Weird." She said before letting her arm rest at her side. I'll go check downstairs.

On her way down, Koeun couldn't help but to become curious about the situation. Where did they go? Did they leave me here behind? Why would they? That curiosity turned into a spark of an evil thought. Does this mean I can leave? Which also turned into guilt. But I made a promise to them! I can't leave them without fulfilling it. And later turned into suspicion. Maybe this is just a test if I run away or not. Added by a hint of betrayal. Does this mean they still don't trust me?

"Koeun, relax." She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Maybe it was something important. They'll be back." Reopening her eyes, she finally walked down the remaining steps on the stairs. And when she reached the bottom, she taken aback of what she caught up with.

The whole, spacious floor would've been completely empty- even the walls weren't painted- if it wasn't for the targets that were placed at the other end and training equipments like the ones back at Chenle's mansion. Lightbulbs weren't really needed during this morning because the floor had many shattered windows, in where the sunlight goes through.

"Took you long enough to come down here." Her eyes averted to watch Jeno leaning against the edge of a square, steel table, as he wiped a gun clean. "Fifteen minutes is already a lot of time."

"How did you calculate that?" Koeun started approaching him, her boots scraping against the cement dust on the floor.

"We have few cameras installed in the building, as well as outside." Jeno jutted his chin at the opened laptop surrounded with wires at one corner. "I've been checking how you were doing."

"Oh." She replied, stopping a few feet away from him. "Why are you alone? Where are the others?" She decided to ask once she noticed it was only him and her on the floor.

"Chenle and Jisung went out to buy food. As for the others, they went out for supplies and things needed for the mission." Jeno explained to her.

"Why are you here then? Shouldn't you be joining Mark's group?"

"I volunteered to stay for your last training." He said before he put he gun on the table along with the other weapons. "And also for another thing." He threw the cloth he used for cleaning away, looking at her straight in the eyes before he stood up and walked towards her.

The way he acts made Koeun a little intimidated, sensing there's something odd about how this training will go. "What is it?"

Once Jeno stopped in front of her, his cold eyes looked down, gazing hard at hers. "I heard what you and the others talked about yesterday. Something about... personal information." He emphasized.