"I'M SORRY?!" the ceo yelled at his employee who flinched at the sudden noise.

there was a long awkward silence until the employee finally broke it.

"donghyuck has escaped." he repeaded.

"and how the hell is that, junmyeon?" the ceo rose to his feet.

"the rookies didn't do the job." the said junmyeon responded.

"how come you have rookies? and how come wasn't i informed about it?"

"well, you know..." junmyeon rubed his nape. "since kris, luhan and tao left, the gang seems empty. and we needed people to fulfil their roles." he explained.

"that's quite a rational explanation  i agree, but WHY HAS HE DISAPPEARED THEN??!!" the ceo yelled louder than before.

"we captured him, as you asked, but we had to go on a mission with exo, so we decided to ask the rookies to guard him, for one day, before we would come back." junmyeon looked bravely in his boss' eyes.

"and...?"

"and we came back at night to a bloody house with our three rookies tied together on a single chair, all bloody."

"interesting..." the ceo faked a smile. "what do i have to say more than 'throw these rookies away and find new competent ones' then?"

"oh, and i found that, between their corpses." junmyeon finished, handing his superior a little card, almost like those you find at the entrance of the doctor's cabinet. except that this one was pitch black, with messy letters written in a neon green ink.

"next time don't send the trainees, it was almost too easy... yongie" the boss read out loud, then looking at his employee. "well, you see... this little piece of paper is something important..."

XXXXXXXXXX

donghyuck felt sore.

he was starting to waking up, eyes not even opened, and he could already feel pain rushing through his body. he let out a groan sitting on the bed, noticing he was nowhere near his bedroom.

the room he was in was white, but it had neon green curtains on each side of his bed. judging by the wires and all the medical stuff that was surrounding him, donghyuck deduced he was in an hospital. as he was trying to get up, a man appeared at the end of his bed, wearing a white bloodstained blouse.

"hello. nice to meet you donghyuck. i'm kun." the boy said.

"h-hello." donghyuck responded weakly. "w-which hospital am i in?"

kun sighed silently. "you're not really in a hospital."

donghyuck looked at the stuff surrounding him. it all seemed like medical material.

"where am i then?"

"well..." kun thought for a second. "think of this as an infirmary. yes, the infirmary of our house."

donghyuck eyed him strangely. he was about to answer when somebody groaned behind the curtain, making kun walk away.

donghyuck rose to his feet and opened slightly the curtain to discover his best friend sitting on a bed similar to his.

"where am- " renjun tried to ask but was cut by donghyuck.

"renjun!" he said, throwing himself on the older.

"donghyuck! oh my god i thought i would never see you again." renjun engulfed donghyuck in a hug.

"i see they woke up." a new voice said. donghyuck and renjun turned their heads and both identified the man.

"you're the one who brought me home the other night." "you're taeyong." renjun and donghyuck said at the same time.

the red-haired chuckled.

"thank you kun, i'll talk to them for a minute." kun nodded and left the room, leaving taeyong with the two boys.

"hello, renjun, you're right, i am lee taeyong. and donghyuck, yes, i was the one who brought you home."

the two teenagers muttered a small 'hello'.

"you may ask yourselves where you are and why you are here. i'll answer those in two minutes, but before that, i need to ask you a question."

there was a silence.

"what do you know about nct?" taeyong asked, very seriously. "and i want any small detail, even if you think it's irrelevant."

renjun spoke first, voice very low. "hum, they are a gang. they are the bad guys. the police are always trying to go against them."

taeyong nodded and then looked at donghyuck.

"they are dangerous, and feared, and yeah, i'd like to never meet them because they kill people pitiless and i don't want to die."

taeyong looked at the boy in disbelief. "okay... well, i'm very sorry for you then..."

donghyuck raised a brow.

"i am lee taeyong, nct's leader."

to say donghyuck regretted his life choices was an understatement. he actually wanted to die on the spot.

"i-i'm...i'm v-very s-sorry." he mumbled, fear visible in his eyes.

"don't worry." taeyong stated. "i know how much of a bad reputation we have out there."

a phone rung, statling donghyuck. taeyong got it out of his pocket and looked at it.

"i'm sorry, i need to go. i'll let you talk alone. kun will come back in two minutes, don't worry." he quickly said before leaving the room.

the two teens looked at him leaving and stayed in silence, looking at each other.

"what happened to you?" renjun asked.

"i came back home monday night, you know, just after going to the parc. when i was about to go to bed, the lights went out, nxt thing i know is i managed to put them back, but there were people in my living room, pointing a gun at me, and i don't remember anything. i thought it was nct, because they're the only ones to do such things, but turn out they weren't. what about you?" donghyuck asked unsure.

"you weren't at school, so i sent you messages but you replied late and you had told me that you were really sick and that your mother was there to take care of you. si, yeah, i came to your house and you were tied on a chair passed out and three men were there to keep you. they caught me and people started to shoot from outside and everything became all bloody. that's when the taeyong guy came to me and told me he was there to help, but i fainted. it was horrible. i was like paralysed, i wanted to call my father, you know... he's in the police, so he could have helped, but i couldn't move..." he explained, head low.

"renjun... it was so brave of you to come; you don't have to be ashamed of things like this. not after having witnessed such scenes. do you realise what you just lived? people of our age don't know that usually. we go to school, have fun and... yeah..." donghyuck reassured his best friend. "speaking about that, what day are we? aren't we supposed to have class now?"

"it's tuesday evening." a voice barged in, making both boys jump. they recognised kun. "your classes took end twelve minutes ago." he finished.

"oh. thank you." donghyuck answered.

"i need to check your bandages. and after you'll be able to leave." kun said.

"oh yes. i want to go the furthest away from that taeyong guy, he's scaring me so much..." renjun told.

"are you crazy! don't say that out loud! he's in a gang, he could have installed cameras all over the room to look at everything we do!" donghyuck panicked, making kun chuckle. that caught the two boys' attention.

"don't worry. we don't have cameras in here... and taeyong is not that scary, you know." kun explained, examining donghyuck's arm.

"you're part of that gang as well?!" donghyuck yelled.

"shit donghyuck stop yelling for once..." renjun sighed rubbing his nape.

kun nodded. "you are in our house. every single person in here is in the gang."

"are you going to kill us?" donghyuck asked looking at the nurse with puppy eyes.

"no, we aren't, don't worry." this comment made donghyuck smile.

the door of the room opened again revealing a boy donghyuck recognised immediately. he had pitch-black hair with blond highlights at the front, and seemed depressed. "taeyong wants them now." he stated without any emotion in his voice before leaving as if he never came.

donghyuck tugged on renjun's sleeve. "it's him!" he whisper-yelled.

"who?" renjun asked.

"the smoking boy."