PROJECT: SEVENTEEN. seventeen au

PROJECT: SEVENTEEN-finalization

here we are again, usual setting.

the sun's high up outside, so the boys were forced to stay in and retreat to the comfort of the living room and their bedrooms. not that anyone's complaining. the peace and quiet was much needed after all the explosions and panic-induced yelling that went down during operation boomboom.

so like all the past afternoons they spent, the team enjoyed their time lazily today. soonyoung had his legs all thrown up on the couch while he played some game on jun's nintendo ds. wonwoo and hansol busied themselves by scanning and encoding the list they got from the ship (what kind of normal human would even try to do work on a perfectly good break?), seungkwan happily tuned in to a random documentary while munching on some oranges, and jeonghan (quite warily, to be honest) scrolled through some past contacts on his phone. all the other boys were either sleeping away in the rooms upstairs or messing around in the basement.

"hey," soonyoung piped up after some time, deflatedly putting the gaming device away. "what are you guys doing?"

"lost again, huh?" said hansol, eyes not leaving the screen. soonyoung lets out a tiny huff and crosses his arms. "it's not my fault if i can't get past that stage! my god, let me live for once, will you!"

wonwoo snickers at soonyoung and throws a stray orange peel at him. "noob."

an orange peel flies back in wonwoo's direction. "noob yourself, woo woo!" soonyoung sticks his tongue out at wonwoo, then breaks out into a thin smile. "anyways, what are you guys up to?"

"just finalizing some things here," hansol says, eyes still glued to the screen. his fingers briefly fly over the keyboard, and soonyoung wiggles over to watch. a loading bar changes into a block of text that says complete in capital green letters. slowly, a scanned document appears in one long stretch of pages— and upon closer inspection, soonyoung and wonwoo realise it's the list of names from the ship.

"woah," the two breathe out at the same time. soonyoung makes a noise that can be recognised as a half-yelp, half-laugh. "that's insane!"

hansol clicks his tongue. "yep, it really is, bro. the names on the paper sails weren't actually the final clue to it all— me and the noobmaster boys had to access a password-protected file and shit. it was hectic, but—" hansol stuffs an orange slice in his mouth and continues, mouth full—"here's the fruit of our labor."

the three stayed blinking at the long document plastered on the screen. wonwoo squinted to read it, soonyoung muttered name after name under his breath, and hansol simply furrowed his eyebrows at the astounding length of the whole file. there were names after names after names, some crossed out and some underlined in a bold font.

"so, yeah," those are the words hansol says after fifteen solid minutes of reading the list. "we'll explain what that was for later. the names that are crossed out, though...we don't really know. anyways, and, uh— wonwoo-hyung? here's your bag."

without another word, hansol pulls out a black bag from under the couch. soonyoung watches, puzzled, as hansol handed it over to wonwoo and gave him a thumbs up.

wonwoo opens the bag. there's money. lots of money.

soonyoung gasps loud enough for everyone in the house to hear. "what the shit, wonwoo? where'd you get that?"

"oh, this?" wonwoo nonchalantly blinks at soonyoung. he shrugs and holds up a wad of cash. "it's—"

"hey guys what's up— what the fuck why is there money right there?"

it's seungcheol's voice that takes the trio by surprise. standing by the staircase, eyes popping out at the bag of money, seungcheol really looked like a dad that caught his kids stealing a bill or two from his pocket.