Sophie's pov:
"You guys know Jiah right?" Taeyong asked he looked at Hongjoong. "Mark's girlfriend?" Wooyoung immediately spoke as he looked at Mark who had a small frown on his face.
"Yes. That's her. You and San have met her once." He continued speaking as San nodded, trying to remember.
"What about her?" Mingi asked curiously leaning further into his chair.
"We guys need your help to get her back. She was kidnapped." Johnny, as I remembered his name spoke suddenly. My jaw dropped as everyone gasped and looked at Mark who was clearly sad and furious.
"Kidnapped by who??" Jongho asked. "And why do you guys want our help? You are more in number than us and even more experienced in this." Yeosang spoke in his usual cold tone.
"That's because you guys know them better than us. And you know their area better than us too. Our common enemy." The long haired guy spoke whose name I had forgotten.
"No way! Are you talking about Chris and his bunch of friends who pretend to be like us?" Yeosang was already standing in his seat, gritting his teeth.
"Unfortunately, yes. They are ones we are talking about." Taeyong replied.
"They go by the name Stray Kids right? But what do they have to do with Jiah? Why her?" Mingi asked curiously.
"Well, it was like hitting two birds with one stone for them. They already wanted to take a revenge of their insult we did few months back and Jiah is from a wealthy family. And now she's with them." Jaehyun spoke suddenly, almost making me jump from my seat. He had been silent for a long time.
"So they want money and want to threaten everyone with their power huh?" Seonghwa said, a small smirk on his face. "Their non-existent power" Yeosang quickly added with a chuckle which was followed by the long haired guy's laugh.
"Oh stop laughing at almost everything Yuta, Jiah is in danger." Mark spoke, clearly annoyed by how the atmosphere suddenly changed. I registered the long haired guy's name as Yuta and frowned when I saw him frowning.
"Okay understood. We wanted to take a revenge too anyway so I think we can help you in this one. What do you guys think?" Hongjoong asked, glancing at Mingi who was already nodding.
"Let's do it." Jongho and San agreed. "I'm in." Yeosang and Wooyoung spoke together. I looked at Yunho who was nodding too. "We have always helped each other and we are helping each other this time too." He said with the cutest smile on his face.
"Okay but Sophie is sitting this one out." I snapped my head at the mention of my name and not so surprisingly, it was Seonghwa. I opened my mouth to object but was instantly cut off by Yunho.
"She is coming." Yunho spoke, as he glared at Seonghwa. "You are no one to decide." Seonghwa snapped back. "And you too." Yunho replied quickly which made Seonghwa abruptly stand up in his chair.
"Yunho. You know I can take these decisions. You are crossing the line." "I can take these decisions too because she is my girlfriend." Yunho spoke harshly, emphasizing the word 'my'.
My jaw dropped at Yunho's statement as everyone stared at me in surprise. "I just knew you guys liked each other but when did you both even start dating?" Wooyoung whispered in my ear which lead to a hard elbow bump by me in his stomach. The guy whose name was Taeil (as long as I remembered) noticed us and left out a chuckle.
Seonghwa stayed silent for few seconds before speaking again. "I don't care. She is our member before she is your girlfriend and we are talking about a mission here." He looked at Hongjoong as if he was waiting for him to back him up.
The room was too silent now as both the boys looked like they might kill each other any minute. I couldn't think about anything else but the thing Yunho said kept repeating in my mind. I was waiting for Yunho to call me his girlfriend for so many months but somehow, I wasn't very happy about it right now.
Jaehyun snapped his fingers beside me as I came back to reality and focused on what was going on. "You are quite popular. Two men are fighting for you." He spoke, loud enough that only I could hear it. I gave him an annoyed glance and looked at Hongjoong who was equally annoyed at the current scene.
"I'm sorry Seonghwa but I think she should join us in this one....what do you think Sophie?" Hongjoong asked.
"I want to join." I replied right away without overthinking about it. I was almost done with the training and I wanted to test myself.
"Are you serious? You haven't even completed your training." Seonghwa looked furious and for some reason, I was enjoying it.
"She has. Just few more days, only her target training is left and she will be ready hyung." Jongho assured him. I smiled at Jongho. He always managed to handle the situation somehow.
"True. She needs to be in a small mission like this before her biggest one." Mingi added.
"Biggest one? What is it?" One of the NCT boys said. We glanced at each other for few seconds, not knowing what to say.
"Stop being so nosy Haechan. We have nothing to do with it." Taeyong gave him a glance at which he shrugged. "Well, true." I sighed. Saved.
"Since this is a critical decision, I would like to add something. We will keep her the safest in this mission and one of us will always be with her all the time. How does it sound?" Mark suggested.
"Sounds good. Also, pretty sure Jiah would love to have a girl around to comfort her even if you will be there. She must be terrified right now." San spoke at which Mark nodded.
"Okay, it's decided then! Sophie will be coming with us but there shouldn't be even one scratch on her at any cost." Hongjoong concluded as everyone nodded with his decision. I was delighted to know that finally I will be joining a real mission, even if it was just rescuing someone with a sort of bodyguard around me all the time.
I glanced at Seonghwa who was now in his seat, eating his food silently. I shrugged and shifted my gaze towards Yunho who was already staring at me. He gave a small apologetic smile and I realized he said that because of the circumstances. I smiled back and decided to avoid thinking about it.
Few minutes passed and our guests were already about to leave. I felt a little bad as I was having a lot of fun talking to people from the outside. It had been months and I had never left the mansion or talked to anyone else except the owners of the mansion and the servants.
"Uh...I need to use the restroom before I go. Do you mind showing me the way, Sophie?" Jaehyun spoke as he got up from his chair. I nodded as Taeyong gave him a 'comeback soon, we're late' glance.
I strolled through the passage with a quick pace, Jaehyun following me. It was awkward, at least for me as I didn't know what to say till we reached there. I could soon feel his presence right beside me as he caught up.
"By the way, I wanted to ask you something." He asked suddenly making me slow down and look at him. "Yes?" I arched a brow, pretending I wasn't much interested in what he wanted to say.
"Was Kevin really that much of a jerk? I didn't ever notice that he was." I stopped in my tracks at the mention of Kevin's name.
"How do you know him? And why do you want to know what kind of person he was?" I slowly turned to face him. He was too tall, I could barely see his full face from my height. My head was already throbbing at the topic.
"He was my friend. Or...you can say, someone I knew? We were a bit close but...later, after he disappeared...I heard everything about him and was left in shock. I sometimes really hate the people you are working with you know." He left a short sigh and turned to continue walking.
I small frown appeared on my face and without noticing what I was doing, I had already forcibly stopped the older by pulling him by his wrist. He looked a little surprised at my sudden gesture. I withdrew my hand quickly as I realized.
"What the fuck are you even talking about? And what did you find out after he disappeared? And what does it have to do with my friends?" I spat. I was too short tempered and ill-mannered and that was really my biggest drawback.
"Oh, you really don't know? Interesting." Before I could realise, Jaehyun was already towering me, a smirk painted on his lips as he shoved his hands in the either pockets of his expensive pant.
I had nowhere to go as I looked like a small trapped puppy in front of him, waiting for him to go.
━━━━━
A/N:
A gentle reminder that everything about this book is purely fictional! Everything the characters do is purely my imagination and has nothing to do with the real groups lol
And yes, I don't hate any group or any idol :)
-hope everyone is enjoying the story tho! Suddenly, I could see this book getting added in many reading lists and getting a lots of votes and comments lately which highly motivated me. Thank you everyone, who are new or old, for supporting me ♥️ I appreciate it a lot!