Treasure tales

Short 11: Interlude #2

Yoshi looked around nervously and checked his watch. He couldn't believe his luck. He thought that he finally had a day off, and even used it to meet Rin, but Jeongwoo had suddenly messaged him saying he detected suspicious activity in one of the more desolate areas of the city.

Yoshi had no choice. He had to find out what was going on. He was worried that the cause behind the situation was dangerous and would prematurely put all of them, even the innocent Rin, in danger. He was the one gifted with the brains and the 'Spy' ability. He should fulfill his duty if only it meant that it will protect the others.

Yoshi, invisible, darted across the dark alleyway. What kind of weird thing awaited him in such a rundown place anyway? Whatever it was, it could not be good. He panted heavily, tired from running. The bad thing about his powers was that he could teleport to a maximum of only ten places or anywhere within 10 meters radius, and to add a new destination means to lose another. He also certainly could not teleport to areas he had never been to before. What was useful about this power, was that it would get him out of sticky solutions in a flash.

Yoshi gazed around the place nervously, searching for signs of suspicion. Jeongwoo wouldn't have disrupted his dayoff with trivial matters. Something had to be up.

Yoshi's well trained vision caught a brief glimpse of movement. In an instant Yoshi had teleported over. He chased after the shadow, and pinned it down in a flash. He took a good look at his captive. It was a masked man, fully clothed in black.

Yoshi unveiled the man's mask.

"Junghwan?" Yoshi let out a gasp. He looked at the youngest Treasure member in disbelief. "What are you doing here? It's not safe, return home!"

"D...don't tell the others about this," Junghwan stuttered as Yoshi released him.

"Oh I most certainly will report this. We don't want to see our precious youngest risking his life like that. And we will question you about yout whereabouts and intentions behind this risky behavior once I'm done with my work here," Yoshi responded sternly. His eyebrows furrowed. "Please don't endanger yourself like that."

"You don't understand," Junghwan complained as he replaced his mask. "I have business here."

"And what could a fifteen year old possibly have to do with such a shady place?" Yoshi asked, skeptical of Junghwan's words.

"I have my reasons," Junghwan snapped coldly. "I hope you understand that you don't know everything there is about me, and you might never will."

Yoshi looked down quietly, feeling hurt. He was shocked by Junghwan's sharp tone. All along, in front of them Junghwan was always smiley and cheerful, and would look into their eyes with wide innocent eyes that inevitably made the members fawn over him. Yoshi would have never expected him to have this side of him.

"Don't tell the hyungs. I bet you Jihoon will be nosy about the matter," Junghwan insisted. "Please, hyung?"

Yoshi bit his lip, feeling conflicted. How could he possibly resist the adorable youngest member? Yet, he was worried that if he told nobody about this, something bad will happen to Junghwan, and possibly the other members as well. In such a place, he couldn't believe what Junghwan was up to could be possibly good.

Yoshi's train of thoughts were disrupted by the sound of hissing. He decided to drop the Junghwan matter for now. Perhaps the cause of this sound was what worried Jeongwoo.

"Sorry Junghwan, I gotta go. I'll deal with you asap," Yoshi said. He turned invisible, and quickly moved to approach the sound.

The sound was coming from somewhere above. There was a small square hole in the ceiling of the building. It must be somewhere there. Yoshi fixed his eyes on the ceiling and teleported.

Now he seemed to be on some bridge connecting two dilapidated buildings. Yoshi looked around, searching desperately for the source of the sound. He carefully followed it, and found himself standing on top of a transparent glass window. Below his feet was a boy in blonde, breathing heavily as he wrestled something big, dark and black.

Yoshi instantly recognized him. The boy was named Hamada Asahi. After Jaehyuk, he had been the trickiest to track down during the days when Hyunsuk was working hard tracking down all 12 boys. Furthermore, after they finally found him and gave him the details of the group, Asahi had showed up to their group meetings only once--just once and afterwards never showed up again. Neither had he ever opened any chats or messages that any member tried to send to him. The group had debated whether to go and visit him, but nobody had the guts or heart to even think about pressurizing anyone into joining the group.

Yoshi narrowed his eyes. Asahi must have been the cause of all the ruckus. After all much of Jeongwoo's algorithm involved detecting signs of high magical activity in hopes that it would allow them to track down a certain group of people. Nobody even knew if that certain group of people even existed on earth at the present. If Asahi was near the source of the magic power, then he was most likely the source.

Yoshi did not want to have to confront the loner, but Yoshi could not allow Asahi to continue whatever he was doing. Overuse of power over a short period of time was dangerous, and Yoshi was sure Asahi knew why.

Yoshi stopped being invisible, knelt down and rapped the window above Asahi. The blonde boy took no notice of him.

"What are you doing?" Yoshi heard Junghwan's voice said from behind. Yoshi looked up, startled.

"You should have said so earlier. I was also tracking down Asahi," Junghwan said. His usual innocent smile had returned. "Why not we work together, hyung?"

"What for?" Yoshi could not help but ask. "Didn't you say..."

"I was feeling a little guilty," Junghwan admitted. "That he's always excluded. I wanted to ask him to join us."

"That's nice of you," Yoshi relented. "All right. Let's deal with him together. I really can't predict how he's going to act."

He knelt down and knocked on the window again. This time Asahi heard it. Asahi looked at Yoshi expressionlessly. After a while he raised his left hand, and the window slid open. Yoshi turned over, looked at Junghwan and the two nodded at each other comfortingly before entering Asahi's abode.