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After Hana and Jungwoo's visit to their mother, they drove to Hana's apartment, intending for Hana to pack some bags and stay homed with the seven members she'd been staying with prior.
This was mutually decided between Taeyong and Jungwoo, since Jungwoo had been worried about the fact that his sister was chased, nearly kidnapped, and he wasn't sure if she could possibly still be targetted. It was only temporary, he assured her, until he would be able to be sure she'd be okay.
The drive to said apartment was silent, which didn't bother Hana much, though it bothered her brother. Hana assumed he didn't want to talk, maybe because he was still grieving, so she understood and gave him the space and quiet she assumed he needed. Jungwoo on the other hand only wanted to connect with his sister. He was practically beating himself up over the fact that he couldn't even start a conversation with his blood sister.
Eventually, Hana grew sick of sitting in silence. She just got her brother back, and she didn't want to waste their evidently precious time anymore. This is how they ended up playing Categories, a dumb car game they made up--or at least they thought they made it up--during road trips with their mom when their car's radio broke, and they had nothing else to do.
And in that moment, it felt like no time had passed since they were those tiny kids with zero problems in the world.
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As Hana packed her bags inside her bedroom, Jungwoo stood in the living room, observing. Hana had a lot of decorations. It's what she had a knack for. She wasn't the most artsy person, but she made sure her belongings had a pop of color in the right place, and just the right amount of clutter.
She walked out of her room, finally having packed bags after thirty minutes of sorting through what was and wasn't worth bringing. Jungwoo, who was slouched on her sofa, stood up as she looked just about ready to leave.
"You still have this, I'm amazed." He held up the stuffed animal that was on Hana's couch. It was the one he'd won for her in a claw machine after the two walked miles and miles to the arcade when they were younger. Jungwoo figured Hana would've been too young to remember, or probably just ended up throwing it away, but he was wrong.
It was a soft pink octopus with a fat head, and six tentacles instead of eight. This lead the Kim siblings to joke that it was a hexapus, which Hana ended up naming it. Mister Hexapus.
"How could I not?" Truthfully, Hana was a hoarder. Everything she has ever been gifted, or anything that she attaches sentimental value to, which is almost everything, has a place in her home. Hell, she even had a place where she stored used movie and concert tickets, for memories' sake.
"You're apartment's cute," Jungwoo gave her apartment one last look around, "and cluttered..."
"Ew," Hana scoffed at his dig. "I forget you're a minimalist.
The two left with the bags, and began heading back to Hana's new temporary home.
"What do you think of the guys so far?" Jungwoo inquired, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel in complement with the music that played softly in the background.
"Renjun is an ass." Hana rolled her eyes and shook her head slowly.
"I figured." Jungwoo laughed, amusedly. "What about the others?"
"Chenle and Jaemin are pretty nice, I can tell they've tried to make me feel comfortable in such a new place. Haechan's also cool, Mark is a bit intimidating but not to an uncomfortable extent, and I haven't really seen enough of Jeno to know much of what he's like." Hana got down to the last person, whom she couldn't forget, of course. "I also don't know much about Jisung, but he saved my life like twice last night so I do owe him some appreciation."
Jungwoo nodded approvingly, as he was happy she was at the very least forming connections. But there was one question that Hana had been holding off on asking. She wanted to know what they did for a living to which they were so wealthy. With a mansion like that, and probably another one where Jungwoo and the others lived, Hana could've maybe came to the conclusion that they were entrepeneurs or businessmen of any sort, but that wouldn't explain why they had guns and went on "missions."
She refrained from asking, for the time being, at least.
The siblings finally arrived back at the mansion--which Hana learned from Jungwoo that they named it Forte--where they could hear distant commotion when they walked in the front door, which could only mean her newlyfound roommates were back home from whatever mission occupied them earlier.
Hana noticed the familiar Taeil come from the direction of the kitchen, meeting the two in the foyer. He invited her to help him set the table, as Doyoung and some others were bringing back takeout to eat. The forgotten Jungwoo brought Hana's luggage to her room while the latter followed Taeil to the dining room.
"Do you guys have dinner here everyday?" Hana asked the older as she placed down the plates in their respective spots.
"No. Me, your brother, Taeyong, Doyoung and some others you'll probably meet later, have our own home." He handed her utensils to place down as well.
"So how many of you are there, total?"
"Twenty."
"Oh." Hana's mouth fell slightly, her eyebrows furrowing. She was finally getting to the bottom of this whole situation, with all the answers she needed.
"A lot, I know. But we have three different homes, divided into units. I'd explain more but I don't want to overwork your brain."
Hana nodded, not wanting to burden him or anyone else with her nonstop questions. If she'd be living there, she'd get her answers, sooner or later, so she had no problem putting her curiosity on hold.
The front door opened, as Hana and Taeil could hear but not see since the foyer was rooms away. Multiple voices poured into the home.
"They're here," Taeil set the stack of soup bowls down, ushering Hana. "come on, I'll introduce you."
Awesome, Hana thought, following shyly behind Taeil, more people to meet.
Taeil introduce Hana to each of them individually, and it was odd that they knew her as Jungwoo's sister, yet she had no idea who they were.
There was Johnny, Yuta, Jaehyun, who greeted her, and of course Doyoung and Taeyong who she'd already met.
Johnny and Jaehyun held the bags of takeout in their hands and brought it to the dining room, followed by the rest, including Jungwoo who'd finally came down. Hana noted how chatty they were.
And finally, the seven members whom Hana would now be living with, made their way to the dining room. Most of them smiled or waved at her, but Jisung and Renjun spared her no attention. Their hairs were wet, indicating they'd had a shower. Right, Hana reminded herself, they'd just come back from a mission.
She wondered what their missions consisted of. If their average day was anything like their warehouse task where she met them, that must make them mafias. Hana couldn't stop speculating.
Hana of course sat next to her brother, before digging in on the plate she served herself. There were conversations all around the table of fourteen, excluding her own self. She did a head count. If there's fourteen of them at this table, and there's twenty of them total, where's the other six?
Jungwoo took quick notice of the girl beside him who was deep in thought.
"You alright?" He leaned in. "You stopped eating."
"Mmm, yea I'm fine, just thinking." Hana assured her brother quietly, taking a bite of her food to reinforce the assurance.
"Is there something you wanna know?" He asked, a grin of mischief as he continued eating his own food.
"A lot, actually." She nodded.
"Ah." Jungwoo then faced the rest of the table. "Guys, my sister has a question, or a few." He announced to his members, making Hana's jaw drop in disbelief.
"Did you have to put me on the spot like th-" The girl who was whisper-shouting at her brother stopped when she saw many pairs of eyes looking at her, supposedly waiting for her to saying something. She pinched her brother's arm under the table, her way of cursing him.
"Right, um--I was kinda just wondering what you guys do for a living. You don't have to answer though, it's not an obligation of course--it's ju-" Her ramble was cut short by another voice at the table.
"Calm down, would you please?" It was Yuta. "We don't mind answering, it's really no secret." He let her know, before sipping from his glass.
"We're a group funded by the government to keep control over the country. That's the simplified way to describe us." The one named Johnny patiently explained. "For the most part, we minimize violent crimes and exploitative organizations, as well as underground transactions and trafficking as a whole."
Hana nodded, reciprocating his explanation. "So, kind of like a mafia?" Stupidly, she asked, regretting it as soon as it came out of her mouth, and even more when many heads turned toward her.
"If you'd like to think of it that way, go for it. But I don't think there's any real way to label what we do." Johnny clarified.
"Okay." Hana nodded, taking a bite of her food. She kept her eyes glued to the plate in front of her, too humiliated to look up.
"If you think about it, we pretty much are in control over our government, for the better, though it's so strange how we've risen to power." Doyoung stated, and it was clear in his tone that he was passionate talking about his group.
"Oh god," Haechan groaned. "you got him started, now he won't stop talking about or lore for the next hour or whatever."
Doyoung put his finger up in the younger, Haechan's direction, signaling him to keep quiet. "We're NCT, but we started off as just five of us, me, Taeyong, Jaehyun, Ten, and a very young Mark."
Hana didn't recognize the name Ten, and she figured he must be one of the other six members she hadn't met yet.
He continued. "Gradually, more members joined us, and we broke up into units. Firstly there's 127, which is me, Taeil, Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Jaehyun, your brother, and occasionally Mark and Haechan. We're called 127 in reference to Seoul's coordinates, since we're the unit who tend to hold down the fort in Seoul. Then there's WayV, who you have yet to meet yet, but they're based in China, even though they live here. They were brought into the group through Ten, who introduced them to Taeyong. They specialize in hacking, and technology in general. Then finally, there's The Seven, which is Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung. They used to be called Dream, but I guess they decided they were too old to be called that anymore, so now they're just called The Seven. They're our youngest unit, though through several years of training and experience, they became just as skilled as the rest. They specialize in the more hands on missions. And, uh yeah, I think I covered everything."
Doyoung could hear Haechan mutter a "finally" from the other end of the table, causing Jaemin from next to Haechan to kick his ankle under the table, making Haechan curse under his breath.
Taeil was right, Hana did consider this an overload of information, but she found the context to be useful.
After the group finished their dinner and hung around one another for some time longer, the 127 members finally returned to their own mansion, which, leaving Hana and The Seven, as she now knew as their name. Hana, Jeno, and Chenle began washing the dishes as the rest were plating leftovers and clearing the dining room.
"I'm surprised you guys don't have cleaners to do this for you, given how rich you are." Hana made another one of her dumb comments, but nobody seemed to mind how she impulsively spoke whatever came to her head. It was a tricky habit of hers, so she appreciated how they didn't make her feel bad about it.
"We all mostly come from middle-to-lower class homes, so we'd feel weird not doing our own cleaning and stuff." Jeno answered the random thought on her mind, and Hana responded with a brief, makes sense, as it truly did make sense when put into perspective.
Chenle, momentarily after, mentions how Jungwoo had told him that he (Chenle) and Hana attend the same university, much to Hana's content. They compared schedules, and as it would turn out, they both start class around the same time, nine in the morning, and both had Wednesdays off. Their schedules were similar, so they decided it'd be convenient if they carpool to campus together, with Chenle driving of course. Hana had no objection to this, so it was now set in stone.
A mafia member who happens to be a university student, interesting. Hana made yet another mental note, and decided she'd ask about that another day.
After the dishes were done, Hana retired to what she could now call her own room so she could finally shower and sleep early as her soul most desired, despite The Seven being well awake and still hanging with eachother. She was in no social mood, as her body's circadian rhythm--sleep clock--decided it was time to rest.
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The following evening, Hana arrived back to Forte from university with a mixed feeling of exhaustion and anticipation for some downtime. It was her first day of carpooling with Chenle, and she found him to be the most approachable of The Seven, as he made consistent efforts to make her feel included and comfortable.
She sat in the study--a large room composed of many computers, seating areas, and items you'd normally find in a typical office cubical. She spun on the chair, unable to focus on her studies for Economics. The Chenle from across the room, on the other hand, was fully engrossed into his work, whatever it may be. On a beanbag he sat, resting his temple into his palm as his eyes observantly scanned the screen of the laptop situated on his lap.
After some missed attempts of getting her studying done, Hana abandoned her work, rolling across the room on the chair she found to be fun, settling a short distance in front of Chenle. Bored out of her mind, she inquired: "What's everyone doing today?"
Chenle didn't mind her conversating with him while simultaneously doing his work, and replied without taking his eyes off of the screen. "Out and about, why?"
"Just bored... hungry too."
"Well, we do have a kitchen for a reason, help yourself." Chenle suggested, looking at the girl with an airy shrug.
"I should, shouldn't I?" Hana was moreso asking herself. She hadn't completely felt at home yet, even if [most of] the members were kind and welcoming to her. She felt like too much of an outsider to rummage through the pantries and fridges of their kitchen for food.
"Go for it."
Needing no more cues, Hana set her pride aside and traveled down the stairs and finally into the large kitchen. To her surprise, Jisung was there as well, his back turned to her, unknowing of her presence as he unloaded the dishwasher in no rush.
His back remained turned, although she was sure that by now he'd heard her enter. Irregardless, she opened the fridge in search of something she could potentially eat.
Spotting the leftovers from the prior night, her spirits lifted. "Nice, there's leftovers from last night." She cheered softly, mainly hoping she could engange in a conversation with the quiet Jisung.
But Jisung only glanced over at her briefly before returning his attention to the cabinets. "Great." he replied curtly, his tone flat and devoid of any warmth.
That asshole is being rude on purpose. She swore, biting back the urges to call him a name she shouldn't. "You could be nicer, we're both living under the same roof."
Jisung chuckled with arrogance, still not looking away from his task. "I live here, you're staying temporarily. Don't push it."
Hana clenched her teeth. She was no longer interested in going on with the conversation and she was sure he felt the same.
Pulling a container of food from the fridge, she set it down and went to grab a bowl, and luckily she knew which cabinet held the bowls, so she wouldn't have to ask Jisung for help. Even more luckily, the kitchen was spacious, giving her room to get around while her and Jisung could still keep a distance.
Luck wasn't completely on her side, though. As she reached for the glass bowl which was notably high up, her fingers slipped and the bowl came down crashing at her feet. How awesome.
She took a couple of steps back to see the mess she created, when she felt two hands firmly at her hips, holding her in place.
"How slow are you? You're about to step in it." The voice said, quietly. She looked down to her feet, and he was right. There were shards of glass close to her feet which she would have stepped on, had Jisung not stopped her.
Not removing his hands from her hips, he somehow lifted her into the air, placing her to sit on the island.
"Just stay there." He said as he moved to the pantry, before returning with a broom and dustpan in his hands.
He began sweeping away at the mess as Hana watched, processing what the hell just happened while feeling embarrassed. One moment she had a glass bowl crashing down, and the next she was sat at a countertop, not even by her own doing.
Catching notice of her stare but not looking up from what he was doing, Jisung spoke. "Are you gonna keep sitting around staring at me?"
"Well what do you want me to do instead?" Hana made a fair point. By his own words, he did want her to stay put.
But Jisung didn't respond, only keeping at his task until he was done. And once he disposed of the shattered pieces of the glass bowl, he left the kitchen, saying nothing.