Sophie's pov:
My heart was pounding heavily as we were nearing our destination. Yunho was sitting right beside me in the van, holding my hand tightly trying to calm me down which helped a bit. His hands were warm and huge enough to fit my entire palm in just a few of his fingers.
"Don't worry, everything is well planned and it's a very simple mission. It's gonna be alright." He whispered in my ear rubbing my back slowly but even then, the uneasy feeling wasn't going away.
The NCT boys' car joined us just after a while and we exchanged the members according to our groups. Yunho and the others were going to go in from the north side while me, Seonghwa and others were going from the back of the complex.
"Hey." I heard Mark. "Hey." I replied with a nervous smile. "Thank you so much for coming." He continued and I nodded.
The trip was quick and soon we were at our planned location, guns in pockets, slowing sneaking in the abandoned building. It was cold and stuffy in there as there was nothing but empty halls and rooms, but it had most of the light bulbs and doors properly working meaning the building was in use.
I had to stick with Seonghwa and Mark and as planned, we tried to stay in one place most of the time and move very slowly. Seonghwa was continuously being updated about the situation by other members as their main work was to find out Jiah's location and let our team know so that we could rescue her while they distract our enemies.
"How have we still haven't found her yet?" Mark asked. It has already been thirty minutes since we barged in and everyone one was already searching their respective floors. Seonghwa looked at Mark who frowned.
"Hongjoong and Taeyong listen, our team will hide for ten more minutes and if there's still no sign of Jiah, then everyone split more in teams of two instead and our team is going to join in the search too." He almost ordered through the earpiece that at least one member from every team had.
Ten minutes passed by too quickly and we finally decided to make a move. Our team was still a team of three because we didn't have any other team with us close to the area we were hidden in.
"Shh" Mark got cautious as we were nearing one of the rooms in the passage. We could hear few people talking to each other as we came closer. "We need to quickly cross this passage without getting spotted. Avoid engaging in a fight, remember?" Seonghwa asked me as if I was a baby. I rolled my eyes and nodded.
"And if by chance we get split up-" "Then I must directly wait in front of the exit of B wing's fire staircase and if there's someone there too, then go to A wing's fire staircase. I have heard that way too many times now." I cut him off. They were treating me like a child, and it was getting annoying. "I'm going first now." I declared as I started moving forward slowly. I could hear Seonghwa whispering something, but I was not able to hear him clearly over the voices of the men chatting in the room as I was going closer.
It was simple, crouch on the ground, peek through the window to make sure they are not looking in our direction and swiftly sprint to the other side when they are not on alert.
I did as I was told. Slowly, I was almost crawling on the ground and had a little peek from the window. The place was like a store filled with mostly food items and three men who I didn't recognize were talking to each other, more like they were fighting...over a packet of chips one of them was holding. His hair was blonde, and he had a mullet and it looked like there was just one chips packet and all of them wanted the same one.
I shrugged my shoulders, relieved that all of them were busy talking and none of them was on alert as I swiftly made my move and reached the other side. What I didn't notice was the plastic bottle lying there which I had accidentally stepped on, making a sound loud enough for them to notice it.
"Did you hear that? Someone is outside? Can you check it, Felix?" "Must be Jeongin." One of them spoke as I could hear footsteps approaching in my direction. Mark and Seonghwa mouthed a "run" and I instantly started tiptoe-running in the other direction, fast enough to escape the area. The only big problem was...I was now alone, separated from my team and without any device to contact anyone.
I found an empty closet-sized room and instantly hid in there, thinking of what to do next. Now I had no choice but to follow the emergency plan – find the B wing's fire staircase and wait for Seonghwa to come. I had the whole plan memorized so finding the place was not the problem but getting there sneakily and not getting caught was the main problem.
I was at the D wing right now, two wings away from my destination and I was supposed to get there on my own. "I can't do it." I murmured to myself and decided to stay hidden. I might get killed if I was caught and I was too scared now.
I had no idea how much time I was spending there as the storage room was fully closed and I didn't even have any watch or phone with me to check the time. Few moments that felt like eternity passed by when I finally heard some movement right on the other side of the door. I stayed silent, carefully listening to the careful footsteps and low voices of at least two men. A sense a relief washed over me as I was sure it was someone from our teams because of the way they were moving through the corridor.
Just to not take any chances, I waited for them to pass by a bit ahead so that I could follow them right away and join later. The footsteps became lighter, and I couldn't hear them anymore, so I quickly came out of the closet and started going in their direction.
After blindly following for a while, I realized we had reached a totally different place, the basement parking area. It was in the plan and the team who was supposed to check Jiah's whereabouts here first had already done their job so then...who and what were they doing here? I managed to hide behind an old rusty car and watch what's going on.
I saw two silhouettes standing opposite to each other, none of them uttering a single word.
"Mingi, what's going on?" I felt relieved to hear Hongjoong's voice. It was Hongjoong and Mingi which made me happy. But what were they doing here anyways and why does the atmosphere seem so...tensed?
I shrugged away my random thoughts and focused, I was supposed to let Seonghwa know that I found Hongjoong and I had to do that quickly so finally got up to go to them when I was caught off guard by a sudden loud gunshot.
I crouched back immediately, covering my ears, and shutting my eyes tight. My heart raced like crazy.
What? No. No No No.
I turned back around and slowly peeped through the car's windows. I could see both of them clearly, standing in the same positions with their hands stretched out holding the guns pointing at each other this time. My eyes widened as I had no idea what was going on.
"Mingi...you know I can't shoot you. This is just for self-defense. Please calm down we can talk-" "I'm sorry but no. Don't be so shocked, you saw this coming." Mingi seemed dead serious as he was cocking his gun, ready to pull the trigger any second now.
"Yes, I had my doubts, but I didn't think you would actually kill me. This is not right...as a family..." "Fuck this family shit. I'm done, goodbye." Mingi pulled the trigger and before i could realise what had just happend, Hongjoong collapsed. At the same time I could see blood dripping from Mingi's hand as well. He screamed in pain and that's when I realized the gun in my hand that was pointing at him. I had accidentally shot Mingi out of fear without realizing what I was even doing.
"Fuck." I ran towards the collapsed Hongjoong and looked at the wound. My tears wouldn't stop, nor did I care about anything else now except the boy lying in my lap.
"N-Now where the fuck did you come from?" Mingi was surprised, pissed and in extreme pain. He tried to pick up his gun again, but I was quick enough to reach it before he did and kept it in my pocket.
"You ruined my whole plan you bitch." I could hear his voice breaking and I returned to Hongjoong, trying to stop the bleeding. I pulled out Hongjoong's Bluetooth from his ear and dialed Seonghwa.
"Was just about to call you. We found Jiah, she's safe but I can't find Sop-" "H-hey it's me...the basement of D wing right now...please." was all I could manage to say as I caught a lump in the throat.
"Sophie? Understood." He cut off. I placed Hongjoong's head in my lap and stared at him blankly.
"I..ry" Mingi muttered to himself. He was kneeling on the ground. I had never seen him look so miserable. "What?" I glared at him and he stood up abruptly. "I'm...I'm so sorry..." "Sit back down. Don't you dare leave." I pointed my gun again at him as he was trying to run away. "No, you can't do anything..." "I've shot you once, I can shoot you again. Do you think I would let you go? Do you see what you did to Hongjoong? How can you betray your family like that?" I had lost it. I was barely able to breathe. He did not say anything and kneeled back again. He looked hopeless and pathetic, but I wasn't feeling bad at all.
"Hongjoong!! What happened?? Hey!!" Seonghwa and Wooyoung ran quickly towards us, patting Hongjoong's cheek trying to wake him up. Mark followed them, all of them having a horrified expression on their faces.
"We need to treat him immediately." I said gesturing Seonghwa to pick him up. Wooyoung and Mark were quick to understand the scene as Mark rushed over to help Seonghwa and Wooyoung forced Mingi to walk, threatening him with a gun. Mingi didn't fight back in anyway and just started walking quietly.
"Let's be quick we might lose him if we're late." Seonghwa's voice quavered as we all rushed out from the building carrying our injured leader.