ILLEGAL ° nct dream, wayv + srg

Chapter Twelve: Spitting Lies

Judging by how Mark acted a few seconds ago, he could tell he was expecting something... good to hear. And his response proved it.

"Are they sure about this?" Surprisingly, Koeun spoke up for the first time since the meeting started. "Maybe someone had disguised themself to avoid being caught. Or m-maybe they did it to hide their identity."

"They already confirmed it." Lucas urged. This made Koeun clamp her mouth shut, not asking further questions.

So she didn't have an alibi, Koeun thought as she tried to connect the information to her suspicion.

"From what I can see, the enemies were planning to ruin us with the same method for exposing Jaehyun last year." Mark brought the topic up after pondering. "If this keeps up, our personal information will be leaked in no time."

"It'll be more difficult for you to clear your names and earn the public's side." Chief Moon let out a short sigh.

"This is why we need to act fast." Mark gave a nod of an agreement at Lucas' statement.

"But regarding the information in the broadcast—" Chief Moon's eyes averted towards Renjun. "—was it true?"

Renjun became uncomfortable when he felt his eyes on him, and even more when the rest did the same. For some reason, he felt small and helpless in this situation, as if the only way was to accept their criticism.

The X-Force already received a backlash before and it didn't bother him that much, however, this was a different case. His personal life was involved.

Renjun tried to ignore the stares he was getting from the Elites by facing the chief with professionalism. "Yes."

The X-Force remained unmoved but the Elites only gave him different looks: curious, disagreeing, and sympathetic. The sympathetic one coming from Koeun.

"So your mother was imprisoned for scamming people, is that right?"

She already knew this story from last night.

Instead of settling with a single-word answer, Renjun took this opportunity to clarify things. "I admit, my mother is in jail... but for something she's not even guilty."

"What are you trying to imply?" Chief Moon was confused.

"A few years ago, a small company offered her a job to be their sales representative." Renjun began to explain. "My mom took the job and went door-to-door to deal with beauty products. The families found the products impressive and made deals with her."

"What happened?" Hina found herself blurting out as she listened.

Renjun threw a glance at her. "The products turned out to be fake and caused health complications. The families wanted to sue the company that created the products but it was nowhere to be found, leaving my mom to take all the blame."

Koeun looked down and pressed her lips into a thin line, remembering what he said last night.

"This is why I didn't tell you about it before. I'm worried you'd pity me."

"She wouldn't be in jail if it wasn't for me. She took the job for my sake."

"This is the reason why I joined the team. I want to prove her innocence. It's the only thing I can do as her son."

The sympathetic look was wiped away from Koeun's face as her eyes widened. This was the first time she was seeing Renjun filled with determination. She couldn't help but be amazed that despite going through a lot while being in the group, he didn't quit.