"man, you should be glad jeno let the meeting be moved to today."

it was days after the first meeting with nct and jeno and donghyuck's fight. taeyong had made mark ask for dream's meeting to be moved to the day it currently was, friday.

mark glanced at jaemin who was walking next to him through the empty halls. "yeah, i guess i am lucky."

"is your brother okay now?"

ah yes, the excuse mark pulled. his brother was sick and in the hospital, so he had to go and spend time with him.

"yup! a lot better. he got discharged yesterday," mark smiled. "my other brother finally has off today so he can stay at home."

"why are you two so late," jeno asked when jaemin and mark finally made it to their lunch table.

mark glanced at everyone at the table, all of dream there with yangyang gone. yangyang had been sitting with donghyuck since the fight. mark normally joined them but today was important.

"jaemin wouldn't wake up from his nap," mark immediately blamed, sitting down.

"hey, you were asleep too," jaemin scoffed. "but yangyang smacked you with a book and you woke right up."

mark rubbed the back of his head where yangyang had hit him, a frown on his face. "okay yeah but yangyang literally gave up on trying to wake you up."

"what was he saying when he walked away?" jaemin asked. "i heard mumbling but didn't care enough to focus."

"something in german," mark shrugged. "multilingual things i guess."

"the meeting is at midnight in the normal spot okay?" jeno reminded everyone.

"meet you there."

mark was the first there as per usual. he sat against the wall, leaning his head up and staring at the barely visible stars that poked out over the tall buildings.

"you ready?" donghyuck's voice scared the male and his hand went up to the ear piece.

"don't do that again you fucking asshole. i get caught and you're fucking dead when i get home, got it?" mark snapped.

"yes sir," donghyuck mockingly answered.

mark rolled his eyes, leaning back against the wall again. "i'm always ready."

he heard the noise of bicycle wheels and looked over to see renjun and chenle racing, renjun trying to kick chenle.

a smile made its way on mark's lips as the two chinese males cursed in mandarin at each other and flew by.

the sound got closer and mark looked up to see jisung right next to him.

"ah, jaemin and jeno aren't here yet?" jisung asked more than said, looking down at mark.

"yeah," mark replied. "jeno is probably trying to get jaemin up."

jisung laughed, sitting down next to mark after leaning his bike on the wall.

"we'll be okay, right?" jisung asked softly.

mark smiled and wrapped his arm around jisung, pulling the younger closer and ruffling his hair with his fist. "of course."

"mark! no! stop!" jisung whined, trying to stop mark from messing up the younger's hair any further.

"jisung park!" chenle yelled from down the alleyway when he saw his best friend, quickly making his way over with renjun trailing behind.

"your fight is over?" mark asked chenle as he let jisung go.

jisung stumbled to stand up and hide behind chenle from mark.

"yeah, i won," renjun beamed, slowing to a stop near the group.

"we're here!" the group heard jeno yell.

they looked over to see jeno and jaemin finally making their way over, a bag of snacks in jaemin's hand.

the group sat in a circle, passing snacks and drinks around and talking about meaningless things, trying to avoid the elephant in the room.

jeno cleared his throat once everyone had what they wanted and they all quieted, looking at the leader.

"so you guys all know why we are here today," jeno got straight to the point. "oldest to youngest we'll say how we feel."

the group looked at renjun who was "the oldest."

"i don't think dream should disband, but i think we should stop going after nct," renjun said, playing with the bottle in his hands. "we should deal more with gangs in that territory and leave nct to do what nct does."

"i agree," jeno nodded his head, crossing his arms over his chest. "nct is out of our league, we should've known that from the start. i mean look, we've gotten shut down so many times and last time we went head-to-head, i got shot and jisung was knocked out. all from a warning. that wasn't even them actually fighting."

"what a scary and dramatic warning," jisung mumbled. "i don't ever want to go through that again."

"well we didn't exactly take their other warnings now did we?" jaemin scoffed.

"jaem..." mark put his hand on jaemin's shoulder to try and calm him down.

"i don't know why we even started this anymore! i hate seeing everyone hurt!" jaemin cried. "i don't want this anymore! i can't stand it!"

"i kind of agree," chenle quietly stated. "seeing jisung passed out and jeno on the verge of passing out himself- hell, on the verge of bleeding out was fucking terrifying. if we didn't decided to recruit mark and have him, what would've happened? would we have one less member? or would we be exposed for being dream?"

the group went quiet for a second, digesting what chenle said.

"mark? you've been quiet," jeno pointed out. "go ahead, say what you want."

mark cleared his throat. "i agree with chenle and jaemin. what if i wasn't there? is that a risk we're willing to continue to take? nct is scary... there could be a hundred of us and it would still be difficult to take nct down. i'd rather we stop... but there is always other stuff we can do, we don't have to officially disband."

"well that was helpful," renjun mumbled sarcastically. "you really took a side there."

mark held himself back from rolling his eyes.

"i think he was trying to say we shouldn't disband, but we should try to stop doing super dangerous stuff," jeno deciphered. "right?"

"right," mark nodded.

"jisung? what's your stance?" chenle asked the boy next to him.

jisung bit his lip, looking down at his bag of chips. "i don't know. i'm so scared, but at the same time, i don't want us to disband. something keeps telling me if we disband, we'll never be the way we were. hell, just in these few couple of weeks it's been awkward and we hadn't even made a decision yet."

"of course everyone else is worried about that jisung," jaemin sighed. "we're dream, right? what can tear us apart? we've been friends for so long-minus mark... we can take something like this."

"it might take some time for everyone to be comfortable again, but we'll be fine," jeno sent jisung a smile.

"so that's two for disbanding and four for not disbanding, but leaving nct alone?" jeno looked at each of them who nodded.

"however, no matter what we do, we'll always have that target on our back now," mark said before jeno could say anything. "nct knows who we are and they're obviously pissed- what would be the safest option for us?"

"i honestly didn't even think about that," renjun mumbled. "would disbanding get them to leave us alone?"

"possibly," jeno replied. "probably actually. however, there's got to be a way we can get them off our case without disbanding-"

"holy fucking shit!"

"what? what's wrong?" the group all asked jaemin, looking around.

"am i hallucinating," jaemin asked. "or is that member of nct that mark 'killed' walking towards us?"

"holy shit it is him," chenle breathed out in shock.

dream all scrambled up and together, looking at the tall male who walked over with a goofy smile on his face.

"a way to get nct off your case without disbanding, huh?" lucas asked, pretending to be thinking. "let me think."

"ah! i think i have a solution," lucas's smile grew and he put his hands in his pockets, sauntering over more.

the group turned to run away, but yuta, ten, johnny, and winwin all stood there in their way, a gun in johnny's hands.

"i suggest you listen to him," yuta said, crossing his arms over his chest.

the group turned to look at lucas who now had jungwoo next to him, a bag over his shoulder and a bright smile on his face.

"hello again!" jungwoo waved.

"what do you guys want with us?" jeno asked, trying to keep calm.

"you'll see," lucas replied.

"this a pretty inconvenient place to talk though, isn't it? we aren't even in nct territory," jungwoo said, crossing his arms over his chest, tapping his cheek with his index finger.

"got any ideas?" jungwoo turned to lucas.

lucas scratched his head, "where we could take them?"

he cocked his head to the side, looking at the boys.

"okay stop fucking stalling guys," donghyuck's annoyed voice rang through their ears. "we're all ready over here and kun is pulling up now."

"nice," yuta whistled. "go ahead ten, winwin."

winwin walked over calmly before hitting jisung's pressure point, catching him before he fell to the ground.

"one," he handed the male to yuta who dragged the male over to the wall.

"stop struggling you're just making this worse for yourself," ten scoffed at jeno, gracefully dodging punches being sent to him.

"stop playing around," johnny told ten who nodded and hit jeno's pressure point, not even bothering to catch the male as he fell.

"taeyong is going to be pissed," jungwoo sang, walking over and quickly hitting mark's pressure point.

at this point, all the boys were unconscious.

"ugh, teenagers," ten groaned, trying to drag jaemin over to the car.

johnny walked over and easily picked up jaemin and threw him over his shoulder like a potato sack. "don't even bother chitta."

ten huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "okay show off."

johnny, lucas, and yuta carried all the males to the car while ten and winwin scanned the area and jungwoo looked through his bag.

"what are you looking for woo?" yuta asked, noticing the male still standing away from them.

"oh?" jungwoo's head shot up and he met yuta's eyes. "nothing much... just a piece of gum."

yuta stared at jungwoo in disbelief. "really? right now?"

"hey i had nothing else to do," jungwoo retorted, closing his bag and putting it back over his shoulder, strolling over to yuta. "i didn't have to use my halothane which makes me sad."

"breathing in gas masks sucks, so i'm not upset you didn't have to use it," yuta sighed, pulling the door shut as he got in.

jungwoo mocked yuta quietly, sitting in the row behind him and looking at mark who was sitting next to him, unconscious.

"poor baby mark," jungwoo sighed. "if only taeyong just exposed his identity before."

"that's not as much fun though," yuta turned around in his seat to look at jungwoo. "i bet taeyong wants to see the look on their face when mark leaves them."

"sadist," jungwoo muttered, looking out the window.

"no," johnny quickly shut down. "just amusement."

jungwoo looked at them, dumbfounded. "really? this is why you shouldn't drop out of school jesus christ."

"hey, i was kicked out, there's a difference," johnny teased.

"why the fuck are you all like this?" kun asked while driving. "we're on a fucking mission with unconscious teenagers in the back of our suspicious looking van- which by the way is illegal on so many different levels- and you guys are just like la-de-da! let's insult each other and bicker and drive kun fucking insane."

"damn kun snapped," donghyuck snickered through their ear pieces.

"i keep forgetting about this brat," johnny jumped, scared at donghyuck's voice.

"brat?" donghyuck questioned. "hope you aren't talking about me. your phone is surprisingly easy to hack-"

"okay! okay! we get it," johnny cut the youngest off.

"jesus fucking christ. one calm day- one," kun mumbled to himself, shaking his head. "just one calm day."

"oh, blondie's waking up," jungwoo pointed out, looking at the back when he heard moving around. "can i use my halothane now?"

"no! you'll put kun to sleep and then we'll all be dead," yuta groaned. "you know pressure points, hit one."

"but that's so much work," jungwoo mumbled, pouting, but doing what yuta said.

"did you just call him blondie?" donghyuck snickered.

"i don't know their fucking names!" jungwoo cried. "give me a break demon."

"hey i could hack your phone as well-"

"shut up donghyuck."

"we're here," kun parked in the parking garage under the office building.

"rock paper scissors for who takes the one who's complete muscle?" johnny asked, turning around to face yuta and lucas.

"no!" johnny cried when he lost, dramatically crumbling down with his hand still in a scissors formation above his head.

"sucks to suck," yuta stuck his tongue out teasingly before getting out of the car and going to the back.

"jungwoo grab mark," johnny told the male as he walked by jungwoo.

"i'm sorry what? did i hear you right?" jungwoo asked, baffled. "you asked me to carry mark? look, i do science, not exercise-"

"too fucking bad," johnny shrugged. "we need to move them fast and you're here and strong."

"define strong," lucas mumbled teasingly, dodging the empty water bottle jungwoo threw at him.

"i heard someone calling for someone strong," dejun teased, walking over.

"nice, dejun you take mark," jungwoo tried to get out of his orders.

"no there are six of them. jungwoo take mark and dejun come take one of these other losers," yuta commanded.

"jaehyun's coming to help as well," dejun said, grabbing chenle and putting him over his shoulder.

"cool, we'll leave blondie for him," yuta said, picking up jisung.

"why is mark so heavy," jungwoo whined, pulling the younger male out of the car.

"you're carrying mark," lucas tried to reason.

"yeah, but mark is only muscle," jungwoo struggled to say as he picked up mark and put him over his shoulder.

"dude you're barely struggling," johnny laughed at jungwoo who really wasn't struggling.

"what's going on?" jaehyun asked as he walked over.

"jungwoo is being his dramatic self again," yuta answered, walking towards the door to the elevator.

jaehyun laughed, picking up jaemin like a sack of potatoes and putting him over his shoulder like the others did. "let's go."

kun closed the doors and locked the car, walking behind everyone to try and enjoy the few minutes of peace he had.

"here," kunhang lead them into the meeting room. "taeyong said to use there chairs."

he gestured to the line of chairs against the wall closest to the door.

the males complied, putting dream down on the chairs and simply handcuffing one hand to the chair.

jungwoo made sure to slip the key to mark's handcuffs in the younger's pocket, right where it was planned to be.

"they're different than described," kunhang said to dejun, the two sitting down in their chairs.

"yeah, yangyang really is shit at describing people," dejun replied.

"hey! i heard that!" yangyang complained, walking in the room with donghyuck who was typing furiously on his laptop.

"you guys clean up well," johnny teased yangyang and donghyuck.

"i know right," the two replied at the same time.

"eyy," they both said, giving each other a high-five. before donghyuck could pull what he did last time, yangyang dodged the high-five and made a peace sign.

"wow," donghyuck mumbled in disbelief, sitting on top of the table near dejun.

yangyang stood next to the male, giggling. "i have outdone the master."

"they should be waking up soon, where is everyone?" jaehyun questioned.

"struggling to get dressed," donghyuck exposed, turning his laptop so the underboss could see the security cameras. the members of the family were all running around in them, trying to get dressed.

"how are these people in a mafia family?" yuta asked in shock.

"we recruited them for their ability to fight and think, not get dressed in a suit," johnny reminded the other, throwing his arm around his shoulder.

"true," yuta mumbled as donghyuck turned his laptop back around and continued to type.

"ten and winwin are in the elevator," donghyuck updated. "everyone else but taeyong and doyoung are on this floor on their way."

just as he said that, everyone else walked in, making comments about the boys in the front of the room and finding their spot.

they all formed a semi-circle in front of the dream boys, some sitting and most standing with jaehyun in the middle, talking to johnny about something.

"oh shit he's waking up," yangyang said, motioning to jisung.

jisung woke up and looked around, shock prevalent on his face until his eyes landed on his two schoolmates.

"yangyang?" he yelled. "donghyuck?"

this woke up chenle and jeno who were next to him.

"sup," donghyuck looked up for a second from his laptop before looking back down and pushing his glasses up his nose.

"long time no see," yangyang teased, swinging his legs as he sat next to donghyuck.

"where are we?" jeno asked, looking around, trying to move. "are we handcuffed?"

"yeah, safety procedures, ya know?" ten responded. "never know what shit you guys might pull."

"i'm getting impatient," jaehyun grumbled. "where are doyoung and taeyong?"

"elevator," donghyuck responded before closing his laptop and looking up finally.

"wake the others up," jaehyun commanded.

"my time to shine finally!" jungwoo cheered, opening his bag and pulling out a tube.

he walked over to jaemin and opened the tube, putting it under jaemin's nose.

"ew what the fuck is that," jeno cringed from next to him.

jaemin woke up immediately which make jungwoo grin.

"ammonia inhalant," jungwoo looked at jeno before moving over to renjun and making him smell the strong scent.

jungwoo woke them all up one by one before returning to his spot in between yuta and lucas.

"wow just in time," johnny said when the door opened and taeyong and doyoung strolled in.

"no more like a little late," jaehyun corrected before moving away from the table he was leaning on and over to taeyong and doyoung.

taeyong looked over each one before looking over at jaehyun who moved closer to inspect them all.

"so?" taeyong asked.

"perfect," jaehyun moved back over to his spot next to taeyong.

"perfect?" renjun questioned.

"i think we have a way for you guys to not be a target of nct anymore," taeyong spoke, a completely serious and deadpan face on, his arms crossed over his chest.

dream looked at each other before looking back at taeyong.

"we're listening."