"We have to meet with the others now. Let's go, Nari."
Before she followed him, she hesitated. "What's your name?" she asked, her voice barely louder than a hoarse whisper.
Faintly, he smiled, his features softening. "I'm Chenle."
° ° °
The truck was cold, and the metal seats weren't doing much to keep the warmth in her body. Nari raised a hand to the blindfold wrapped around her eyes, awkwardly maneuvering her bound wrists. She hissed through her teeth as the tightly tied rope chaffed against her skin, and dropped her hands into her lap.
A hand patted her shoulder. "Don't worry," Chenle said. "Almost there."
Someone else gave a low chuckle. She wasn't sure who, because as soon as she had been hauled into the truck, the blindfold had gone on.
"Why are you bothering? It's obviously not helping" they said. Nari tried harder to hide the fact that her hands were trembling and rubbed her bare feet together.
Chenle huffed. "Trying to calm her down is better than nothing," he retorted. "Mind your own business, Hyuck."
The other boy, Hyuck, laughed again. "Just stop talking to her, she's our prisoner, for God's sake."
"Quiet down you two," the driver piped up. Nari could feel Chenle cross his arms next to her, and he huffed.
"You're no fun, both of you," he sulked. The driver scoffed.
"This isn't supposed to be fun, Chenle. It's an extraction, we need to be professional."
"When are you ever professional, Johnny?" Chenle giggled, shaking with mirth. Hyuck shushed him, and the boy tried to contain his laughter, but ended up almost choking in the process.
The vehicle made a sharp left turn, and Nari swayed to the right, only to be pushed back into her seat harshly. Johnny slowed, then stopped and parked the van. Nari estimated that they had driven for about a half hour. She groaned inwardly. They could have taken her anywhere.
The back of the van opened, and someone grabbed her bound wrists and pulled her out, helping her exit. When her feet were on the ground, something heavy and hard poked into her back. Nari swallowed, and the gun coaxed her to start walking, propelling her blindly forward.
"Hold on," a voice said. An arm linked through hers and guided her footsteps.
"Thanks, Chenle," she murmured. The gun stabbed into her back and she clamped her mouth shut.
Before long, her feet hit a flight of steps, and she climbed them with Chenle's help, marveling at how big the building they were traveling to must have been.
Chenle stopped, which must have meant they had reached the front door. Someone grabbed her other arm and pulled her away from the boy.
"Dream, 127, go and give your reports, and get some rest," they said. "Jaehyun, Yuta, you're with me."
A chorus of "okays" and "yes sirs" came from the group. Nari jumped, startled. There were a lot more people there than she had originally thought.
The hand yanked her inside, and she could immediately feel a cold aura encompass her. As they walked on, she shivered, itching to take her blindfold off and look around.
Her captors led her up several slights of stairs. What was with gangs and huge houses?
When they stopped, the man holding her arm pulled a knife out and sliced through the rope around her wrists in one swipe, then opened a door and bumped her inside, slamming it shut.
She didn't dare move. For a few minutes, Nari just stood there, blindfold still on. The room she had been left in was just as cold as the rest of the building, but it smelled different, almost delicate. Her fingers trembled at her sides, fumbling against each other, aching to do something.
Finally, she worked up the courage to reach up and tug the blindfold off, tossing it carelessly on the floor. Her eyes, used to the darkness of the cloth, stung for a second, and she rubbed them carefully before examining the space around her.
The walls were painted a dark red, and curtains of deep black were draped around the room. The windows had been covered, and the fluffy carpet felt amazing on her bare toes.
She risked a step forward, then another, keeping her senses on high alert. Slowly, Nari approached a single desk in the center of the room, circling it. When nothing happened, she slid into the leather chair occupying the desk and began to snoop around.
It was pretty empty, nicely organized, but sparsely decorated. Two picture frames sat on one end of the desk, and Nari picked up the first one.
It was a shot of boys, lots of boys. Twenty one to be exact. The group was very diverse, and they were all smiling, arms thrown haphazardly around each other. They looked like they trusted each other, like they were very close. Like they were a family.
Shaken by the happiness captured in the photo, Nari moved on to the second one. It was a family of four, posing casually for the camera. As she looked closer, a spark of familiarity flared in her chest as she looked at the son in the photo, though she couldn't quite place where she knew him from.
Before she could further scrutinize the picture, the office door opened. Nari sprang half out of the chair, her heart slamming in her chest.
A man walked in unaccompanied, leaning against the door after he closed it. His dark eyes glinted in the dull light, and he stayed by the door, watching her. Nari held her breath, bracing herself for whatever was coming.
He pushed off the door and slowly walked towards her, almost like he was trying not to scare her. A tired but young, very handsome face came into her vision. His lips parted as he studied her face, unable to speak. When he reached the side of the desk opposite her, he ran a hand through his tousled hair and leaned his hands on the wooden surface, taking in her expression.
Nari hadn't expected NCT's leader to look so kind. The way he looked her over was almost concerned, his brows tilting down and mouth pinched.
His eyes met hers again and he shook his head, letting out a small laugh.
"Hey, sis."
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sorry this took so long! writer's block be coming for me :/
