"what do you mean chenle has really been kidnapped?!" jisung yelled, anger building inside of him at everything he was learning.

"let's remain calm- "

"calm?!" jisung repeated. "chenle has been kidnapped!"

"jisung, calm down." jeno spoke sternly, making the younger member realise how he had reacted. "let's listen to what manager-nim has to say."

nct dream's manager nodded slowly as all the boys looked up at him, waiting for a more detailed explication than the flash news they had seen on tv.

"we were contacted by the police after chenle's mother reported his kidnapping. apparently, someone would have hit their car and then taken chenle. her mother immediately called the police, and they started an investigation right away. they called us to warn us after a while, and here we are now."

the six boys stayed silent after their manager's words.

all of them had their eyes widened in shock except jisung who was fuming in anger because he had an intuition on what was really happening, and this meant nothing good.

"w-what are we going to do now...?" renjun asked worriedly. "will chenle be alright...?"

"i really hope so." the manager sighed. "the police told us he had most likely been kidnapped by a mafia. they keep striking these days."

jisung gulped the lump in his throat.

his mafia, death park, was the main suspect.

but they were innocent. they would never attack chenle, jisung wouldn't let any of them.

but he couldn't stand up right now, yelling that the responsible for all this mess was dark danger. he knew it, but he couldn't. not now.

nct was too much of a mess for jisung to add them another problem.

"you guys need to be extra careful. all idols' activities are cancelled for a few days, and we'll surely postpone the date for glitch mode. and it's not just you, guys. other idols have started a hashtag 'find chenle' that is trending on social networks." the manager continued. "the whole country is affected by this."

"so... what happens now?" sungchan asked timidly, his heart beating fast in anticipation. none of the boys was in a good state right now.

"i'm going to talk to 127 and wayv to explain everything to them. we'll surely have a meeting with sm and all the other managers tomorrow." the manager explained. "for now, i want all of you to stay safe here. no one steps out of the dorm under no circumstances. chenle's kidnapping is already a national heartbreak, and we don't want another to occur."

five of the boys nodded energetically – jisung had his head lowered while he bit the inside of his cheek in anger.

he didn't want to explode in front of the others, so he was holding himself, but he was on the verge of a mental breakdown right now.

"bye guys. stay safe, and call me if anything happens, alright?"

and with that said, the manager walked out of the dorm, leaving a long silence behind his back.

jisung walked to the front door, locking it before heading to his bedroom under 5 pairs of eyes.

he slammed his door shut and locked it, making sure that none of his members would try approaching him.

he hoped that they would leave him alone.

they were all aware that jisugn and chenle were closer to each other that to anyone else, even thgough they weren't aware of the events of the night prior.

jisung wished they'd take his actions as frustration for having his closest friend disappearing.

jisung pulled his phone out, pressing harshly on the screen to dial his godfather's number.

he answered almost immediately

"jisung, i saw- "

"they fucking kidnapped chenle." jisung growled in the phone, his brows furrowed in anger.

"yes, i just saw the news." heesun nodded.

"i want everything we have on dark danger. shit is about to happen. make sure everyone is ready to take action, because we're getting rid of dark danger as soon as we find those fuckers."

⇄

jisung knocked loudly on the familiar door waiting for someone to open it.

a woman did after a minute, looking at jisung with her eyes full of tears.

"j-jisung..."

"hello mrs zhgong."

yes, jisung had disobeyed the only order his manager had given him: stay safe at home.

but he would be safe anyway.

he was a mafia leader; he knew how to fight and he wasn't scared to kill.

also, jisung new the real purpose of this, he knew which game dark danger was playing. chenle wasn't in real danger right now. he was just used as a bait, an hostage.

oh god, jisung wanted to kill successively every single member of dark danger for making chenle endure all of that.

his poor little chenle was in the hands of the worst mafia existing.

but jisung would make sure things wouldn't keep being like that for long.

"i'm sorry for what happened mrs zhong. they will find chenle, i know so." the young boy assured.

"please come in."

jisung stepped inside the house, following chenle's mother to the living room.

she pulled a tissue out from the box on the table and blew her nose loudly while jisung sat down.

"i'm so scared for my little baby... he's so young..." she cried, drying her tears immediately with her tissue.

"mrs zhong, chenle will be alright." jisung told.

"he's been taken by a mafia, jisung. a mafia... they're so dangerous..." she continued crying. "my poor baby could already be cut in pieces, and his limbs sent all over the world... oh my god..."

"mrs zhong, mafias don't do such horrible things for pleasure. they do that for money." jisung explained calmly. "this is why chenle was taken away. because your family is wealthy, and the mafia knows you are ready to pay a huge amount of money to have chenle back."

self-control.

this was jisung's best friend right now.

the mafia leader wanted to scream, he wanted to share mrs zhong's shoulders and to ask her why she had accepted help from dark danger.

but he couldn't do that.

not only, this would ruin his cover, but it will also scare mrs zhong more than anything, and make her less likely to give jisung the answers he needed.

"h-how can you know all of that...?" chenle's mother asked between her small whimpers.

"i watched a documentary." he lied with ease. every soothing word that came out of jisung's mouth was trusted by chenle's mother at that point. she was in such a desperate state...

"if m-money is why death park want, i'll give them all of it. i don't want my chenle to be hurt." she sobbed loudly.

"mrs zhong, i have questions to ask you." jisung spoke calmly. "i need you to answer truthfully. can you do that for me?"

the woman sniffled, nodding her head as he wiped her nose with the tissue she had been holding for a while.

"do you happen to know this man?" jisung asked, handing his phone to chenle's mother.

"y-yes..." she approved, zooming on the picture.

"is he hu ilsung?" jisung continued his interrogatory.

"h-he is." mrs zhong nodded again.

"you met him, am i right?" jisung received another nod from the woman. "did he tell you what was his job?"

there was a pause. "i-i... i c-can't tell you..." she shook her head.

"mrs zhong. i need this answer. chenle is perhaps getting tortured now. i need the truth." jisung spoke slowly.

mrs zhong started crying loudly again.

"h-he's the l-leader of dark danger... t-the mafia..." she said between her cries.

"did he give you a way to reach him?" jisung asked.

"a p-phone number." mrs zhong sniffled loudly.

"can you give me this number, mrs zhong."

chenle's mother stood up and grabbed her phone before opening it and finding hu ilsung's contact name.

she then handed it to jisung who copied the number on his phone and sent it to his godfather.

"are you sure the number is working?" jisung asked.

"i-i called him a while ago." mrs zhong admitted.

"what for?"

"t-to tell him a-about chenle's kidnapping." she gulped loudly. "i-i asked him to f-find my baby..."

jisung sighed.

if he was presumably dead, there was no reason for him to use an encrypted code. the number had to be registered on a different name.

and if mrs zhong and dark danger's leader communicated through this, this gave an opportunity for jisung and his own mafia to get to him.

but this implied help from mrs zhong. and this wouldn't necessarily be easy.

"mrs zhong, you need to believe me when i say i can help you to find chenle." jisung stated.

"h-how...?" the woman bit her quivering bottom lip.

"i know someone. he's... a hacker. he'll be able to trace the call and find where dark danger's leader is hiding." jisung told.

mrs zhong frowned. "b-but w-why h-him...?" she asked.

"i have reasons to believe he is the cause of the kidnapping. would you agree for the hacker to come here and help us?"

chenle's mother seemed to be thinking for a while before she nodded, wiping her tears with her.

jisung smiled sadly, pulling his phone out and dialling a number.

"i'm listening."

"killer tech." jisung let out a sigh of relief hearing the voice of their main hacker. "i need your help."

"tell me everything." the guy on the phone replied.

"i need you to trace a phone number. is that possible?"

"it is." killer tech announced. "but i need to have my stuff branched to the phone during the call for that."

"perfect." jisung nodded. "tomorrow, 7am sharp. i'll send you the address."

"sure. i'll be there."

jisung hung up, looking at mrs zhong with a smile.

"you already called him tonight, so i think it will be better for us to call him tomorrow morning." jisung announced. "mafias sleep at night, so everything will be alright, don't worry."

"b-but chenle..." the mother stuttered.

"i'll be back tomorrow at 7am. and then, we'll be able to find a solution to rescue him. is that okay for you?"

"y-yes." mrs zhong nodded.

"great. we'll see each other tomorrow morning then."

⇄

"what are we doing with him now?"

"how much sleeping pills is he on?"

"half a bottle, sir."

"put him on that table then."

chenle's limp body was carried and thrown on a metallic table. he had been forced to swallow sleeping pills, which had him completely unconscious and made him feel nothing of what was happening.

"now leave."

the unimportant mafia member than had been carrying chenle walked out of the room, leaving hu ilsung alone with the sleeping chenle.

the mafia leader pulled his phone out.

"lee sooman speaking, how can i help you?" the man on the other side immediately picked up.

"mr lee, i have chenle with me. you said you had a safer place where he could be kept?"

"oh, mister hu... of course i have. but don't forget that a service isn't free..."

"of course, half of the money from chenle's parents. i know."

⇄

"hello."

"you're early, killer tech." jisung noted, raising a brow at the hacker who was carrying a huge bag.

"i knew you'd be there early. you're just like your father." the hacker explained.

"let's go then?"

"sure."

both men walked inside the building of chenle's apartment, knocking on the door which was opened shortly after by chenle's mother.

she had prominent eye-bags and her skin was paler than usual, sign of a very bad night.

"good morning mrs zhong. are you ready?" jisung asked.

"y-yes."

she invited jisung and the hacker in, allowing the latter to install his stuff in the living room.

it took him a few minutes to make sure everything would be alright.

"alright, we can go." the man explained, handing chenle's mother her phone which was now tied to the hacker's computer by a wire.

"mrs zhong, you can call him." jisung announced.

"w-what do i ask?" she stuttered.

"whatever you want. speak with your heart. you need to stay on the phone the longest possible, so that we can be sure of its location."

chenle's mother nodded, her trembling fingers opening her phone and searching for ilsung's number under jisung's eyes.

she gulped and took a deep breath before calling the mafia leader.

"hello?"

"h-hello..." chenle's mother let out in a trembling voice.

"mrs zhong, do you need something?" the mafia leader asked.

"i-i..."

mrs zhong looked at jisung as the young boy motioned to her to talk.

"i... i need you to f-find my son..." she said.

"i sent some men to find him already." he replied.

she looked over jisung again, the younger boy silently telling her to keep talking.

chenle's mother obliged as jisung walked behind the hacker's computer to look at the screens.

"what do we have?" he asked.

"it's narrowing, but we can't be sure yet." the hacker explained.

"do you need her to keep talking?" jisung questioned.

"yes. it would be better."

jisung walked back towards mrs zhong who was crying loudly while being on the phone.

he sighed as he started thinking himself about chenle, and what could have happened to him.

he hated dark danger so much... if only he could get rid of all of them...

"i got him. killer tech stated, not speaking too high for ilsung – who was still over the phone – not to hear.

"where is he?" jisung asked, rushing behind him.

"at sm entertainment." he explained. "why would he be there?"

"lee sooman is with them. but... something is wrong. sm's connection is shit. even in lee sooman's office. mrs zhong wouldn't be able to call him and hear him this good..." jisung told.

"they could be somewhere the wifi is better." the hacker nodded. "the connexion is really good there."

"well..." jisung through for a while before gasping. "i know! the basement!" he declared, recalling he had had to hide himself in the basement one day when his parents had asked him to threaten someone over the phone. he had chosen the basement because it was hidden from other people's eyes, and he wouldn't be disturbed. and surprisingly, he had been able to make his call.

"so... what happens now?" the hacker asked.

"you call heesun, jihu, jaehui, namseon and myungki. we're going to the sm basement, and we're saving chenle."