"Everything is shattering and it's my mistake."
Taeyong
hwara's been kidnapped
When Jisung saw the message, he was sitting in his room reviewing the information he'd gathered about Choi Jina and her relation to Sungchan and Hwara. He'd been frozen for a good ten seconds before he burst out of his chair and room, quickly running to Taeyong's office as fast as he could.
Now, he sits in the meeting room right next to Taeyong and Winwin, anxious but not letting it show on his face. To the others, his face is blank to an unnerving point—worse than it used to be.
"Okay, I'm guessing everyone knows why I'm here?"
Every member of NCT nods their head, and Taeyong takes a deep breath before continuing.
"Hwara was grounded, but Ten explained everything that happened. Although she didn't know it, we grounded her so that she wouldn't leave the house unless she was with another member."
At this, Jaehyun turns to his co-leader, confusion clearly written all over his face. Hwara was grounded on purpose? "What do you mean?"
Taeyong just points to Jisung, who takes a deep breath before standing up. "Taeyong, Johnny, and I have been trying to find out everything we can about Choi Jina for a long time now. On Wednesday, Taeyong received information that Choi Jina was looking for Sungchan and Hwara—that she wanted to kill Hwara. That's why Taeyong grounded her."
Hearing this news, all of WayV feels slightly guilty. They all had thought she was grounded because she cursed in front of Taeyong again or something along those lines. They didn't know she was in danger. After all, everyone in NCT knows just how deceptive and powerful Choi Jina is. She has allies everywhere, always feeding her constant information to keep her all-knowing.
Sungchan, who has kept quiet this entire time, finally speaks up.
"I have something to announce," the boy starts, causing everyone to turn to him. Sungchan had been talking to Winwin about how and when they can reveal some of the secrets about Hwara—such as her Solus. "Hwara's...different. I think you all noticed that by now."
Renjun scoffs at Sungchan's choice of words. She's a psychopath–there's no way around it. How could he possibly excuse Hwara's attitude on missions?
"She has Solus Alexithymia..."
Renjun tenses at the news, having no idea it would be something of that magnitude. It's the one condition everyone knows of but no one's really seen in real life. One wouldn't believe it's actually real.
"Wait, really?" Chenle asks. No wonder she talks in such a weird way. Her body's full of dull expressions when she's not around them.
Sungchan only nods his head.
"I mean, yeah that's a shocker. What does this have to do with Hwara being kidnapped?"
This time, Taeyong takes over. "Now, I'll answer that. We have two suspects for this—other than that, there are no other leads. Suspect number one is obvious and someone we all want dead or captured—Choi Jina. Suspect two, on the other hand, is someone not many of you know. Yoon Minseok."
A gasp comes from Jaemin, causing Taeyong to pause for a split second. "That's Miyeon's adoptive brother—"
"Yeah, we know. The reason we suspect him has to do with Hwara's personal life. I won't disclose that to you. Just know that he knows Hwara has Solus, and her being kidnapped a week before her birthday is extremely strange."
This next bit is news to Jisung. So, Yoon Minseok knows Hwara. And Hwara must've known him before she lost her memories. It makes sense, given how she reacted whenever she was around him that day two months ago.
"Here's how we're splitting up teams—127 will be searching for Hwara through the Yoon Minseok lead. Dream minus Jisung, who'll be helping 127 out, will be searching for Hwara through the Choi Jina lead. Finally, WayV will have to look for new leads and do an extensive search for Hwara using the equipment we have. Sungchan will help NCT Dream, and Shotaro will help WayV. Am I clear?"
Everyone in the room nods their head.
"You better find Hwara. Dismissed."
Everyone leaves the meeting room, heading over to their offices or their rooms to begin working. Jisung locks his door shut, continuing to work on everything by himself. Taeyong had given him another task—track down Hwara. Jisung's given permission to enter the field and search but not to act on his own. He has to track her down by whatever means necessary. Jisung is too blinded by focus and rage to care that the request Taeyong had given him was outlandish.
Speaking of the leader, he's now massaging his head from the massive headache ensue. He's extremely worried about the girl. Sure, Hwara has Solus so she should be fine emotionally—that's what most people would think. She wouldn't care too much, right? Wrong. One, it's Yoon Minseok. Although no one really knows why, Jaehyun, Sungchan, and Taeyong know that her trauma with the man runs deep. Second, she's been learning emotions from Jisung. The thing with Solus is that as long as the other person in the bond teaches the affected person emotions, it doesn't really matter if the bond has activated or not—meaning, everything Hwara learns from Jisung actually sticks.
Thinking about her emotions, Taeyong immediately snaps his head up. He needs to know what Jisung taught her.
Jisung, while doing his studying, also comes to a realization. Two months ago, they broke the peace of Fantasia for files. If Yoon Minseok ever attended, his information would be in those files. Updated or not, it'd still be extremely helpful. He needs those files.
Before Taeyong can even leave his office, Jisung slams it open before consecutively closing it shut, getting ready to bombard Taeyong with questions.
"Taeyon—"
"Jisung! Can you quickly relay to me all the emotions you tried teaching Hwara?"
Jisung freezes, wondering why he'd need that information. However, he gives it to him anyway. He's not going to defy the leader of NCT. Plus, it must have something to do with Hwara.
"Pain, the feeling of missing someone or something, and just yesterday I taught her fear of actions."
On Thursday, in his small moment of free time, he used their experience at the Neo Carnival and it's rollercoaster to explain fear to her. He thought it was a good start since it's such a simple yet extensive emotion.
Taeyong nods his head. Not good. But he's not going to let his worry show onto his face.
"What did you need?"
Jisung lets out a sigh. "The files from Fantasia. If Yoon Minseok ever attended..."
A look of realization crosses Taeyong's face. "All of his information would be in them."
***
In an unknown location, a girl is tied to a chair and completely passed out. She probably won't wake up for another couple of hours.
Outside the darkroom, standing in the hallway is two men. One is extremely familiar—the man himself, Yoon Minseok.
"Why did we take this girl, again?" the other man asks. It's his right-hand man, Lee Kyungsoo. He'd do any errand his best friend Minseok asks him, but he's honestly wondering why he did this particular one.
Yoon Minseok just gives him an eery smile before opening the door. When his eyes land on the girl, he darkly chuckles.
"You know how much I sacrificed for my love, Choi Jina, right?"
Kyungsoo nods his head. The man in front of him had done so much for his soulmate, which Kyungsoo himself had witnessed.
"Well, if this psychopathic bitch turns eighteen," Minseok starts, turning back to his friend.
"All of that is a waste."
A/N: oOOoOo just what do choi jina, yoon minseok, and jung hwara have in common?
anyway, sorry this chapter took a hot minute. i got confused with the whole disappearance of chapter 11, so this chapter's being published today. I'm not much of a fan of this chapter, but it did give you a lot of context—if you know where to look. honestly, the past ten chapters have been doing that lmfaooo.
i kinda want to know yalls theories.
but yeah, renjuns finally not being dumb anymore (even though it only lasted like one chapter)—or is he?
who knows, that's up to my mind who hasn't planned that detail yet.
cya in the next one :)