PROJECT: SEVENTEEN. seventeen au

☏ STAGE 3: COMPLETE

Where did Hansol see that?

Those five words are spiralling in everyone's minds. The minds of the twelve boys frozen from shock in the middle of a parking lot, the minds of the readers, and the mind of the author. In this empty, spacious, you-can-see-everything-at-a-glimpse area, how and where did Hansol manage to find the pay phone?

The said boy didn't need to reply. After a few minutes of talking into the phone, he hung up and turned around with a big smile on his face.

"Uh, guys?" Hansol stammers, scratching his head. "I think we, uh,"

"I think we did it."

No one moved. Not even Hansol's group.

"So...so we're chosen?" Dino squeaks out, and tiny tears threaten to fall from his eyes. "We're gonna do the mission?"

"Stage three: complete." the same deep, robotic voice echoed from the speakers.

"We're chosen!" Dino squeals in delight, and he helps Jisoo up from the floor and engulfs him in a bone-crushing hug, with Junhui scurrying over to join them too. They erupt in peals of laughter amidst the silence. The other groups look at them in disbelief-especially Eight, who looked like he wanted to slap Junhui again, and a seething, silently angry Suit Group. It wasn't fair.

"Whew! That was easy, wasn't it?"

The boys look around again. Where did that voice come from? It was deep, and kinda loud-but not really masculine. They look at one another, then at Hansol, who still stood wide-eyed by the pay phone.

Seungcheol points his finger at him. "Did you speak?"

Hansol shakes his head. "That wasn't me!"

Seungcheol points at Eight. "You?"

The gangster smiles sweetly at him. "Hon, do you think I sound like that? If I were you-"

"Alright, calm down." Seungcheol snaps and rolls his eyes. He shoots a glance at the others. None of them said a thing. Silence passes by again, and they hear the sound of approaching footsteps-

"Actually, that's me," the foreign voice says, and they come striding in with a megaphone in hand, a lazy smile on their face. They stand in the center of the room and looks at each of the boys' faces. "What?"

A wave of emotions struck their faces all at once-"Who are you?"

The person laughed and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "Well, in simple terms, I'm kinda the manager for this mission."

They blinked at her. "...You work for the government?" a terrified Seokmin squeaks.

She blinks back under her dark, messy bangs. "Yeah."

"How'd you know we were on a mission?" Wonwoo inquires.

The girl broke into a sarcastic smile and retrieved something from her pocket-a license, or an identification card-and held it up for the group to see like how a certain bureau would in movies. "Come on, I'm official. Trust me, I'm not just some random gal walking in to see you fight." she says, then shoves the card in her pocket again. She clears her throat. "So, uh, anyway... that was easy, wasn't it?"

"Easy!?" a raging Seungkwan yells, throwing all 127 pounds of himself onto the girl. "I almost got my head torn off by that lice spawn in a blue jacket! And do you not see the bruises my friends have, hon? Do you see it? Now, tell me if those are easy to heal!" Seungkwan shakes the girl's shoulders back and forth, aggressively pointing to Dino, who immediately retorts, "Hey! That's not my fault!"