J E O N   W O N W O O

and then, the breaking stops. his grip loosened, and mingyu called my name. i almost forgot his name due to surprise.

"w-wonwoo!" mingyu said, kicking the architect down as i turned around. turns out he was not alone, he was with minghao. "let's run, now! i can't control him for too long!"

he had soonyoung's ability after all. "why can't we fight him?"

"because we'll lose!" minghao grabbed me and dragged me to the car i drove to get here. he sits on the passenger seat, and uses jihoon's telekenesis to control the car without me driving it. minghao makes the car door open, then mingyu jumps in.

the car we rode stopped at a mall's basement parking, courtesy of minghao. "dude, we were checking if you needed help, and you did. you just faced the mastermind of pledis mafia." minghao combs his hair back using his fingers.

that kind face, that proper posture that screams rich, that smile all belonged to pledis mafia's leader? what was he doing there? why is he exposing himself? maybe, to also lessen speculations of him being a mafia boss, so he tries to be just a normal person? to blend in? why isn't he afraid of the spotlight?

he is beguiling, i must say. his strategy and reasoning is beyond my expectations. i must figure it out later.

"hey, i used my—jihoon—whatever, i used telekenesis to move this car and you didn't have any initiative to move it yourself!" minghao continued.

that would be true, i was sitting in the driver's seat. but, i wouldn't be sure if everyone wants to go where i want to go. rather, i wouldn't know where to go. "i'm sorry for not driving. but, the mission's comple—"

"jeez, wonwoo!" mingyu, from the backseat, grabs my hand and examines it—to which i wince. it was the one that the architect/pledis mafia boss held. "if we didn't come to you any sooner, you would've been skinned to death! this is horrible, this is horrible, what did seungcheol do about this? should we ask him? should we—"

"relax, bitch." minghao flicks mingyu's forehead, causing the latter to stop talking. "we have jeonghan." minghao says jeonghan's name like he's the solution to every problem in the world.

maybe not in the world, maybe not all problems. he's the solution to some of the problems of the seventeen members.

"if i immediately made a solution to our ability exchange fiasco, this wouldn't have happened. sorry," joshua was the first one to speak. he looked at my eyes, telling that his apology is directed to me.

"no, it's not your fault." i looked at my bandaged arm. mingyu was the one who did that, jeonghan still was on the drive home. he went to the mall today.

did i just call seventeen's base 'home'?

"thank god we have jeonghan, or else that will hold you back from everything." seungcheol said. "i also had that in my abdomen, but jeonghan healed it. living with that is hell."

at the corner of my eye, i saw chan shyly scratching his nape. "what is his name, though? the mafia boss?"

"wang jia-er." junhui pops a candy in his mouth. i nod.

"wait, he's chinese?!" jihoon asked. "what if pledis mafia is all over china too?!" he continues, and i nod, understanding the possibility of jihoon's theory.

"we don't know that yet." seungcheol said. "not our informant nor we know that, we're just seoul's supernatural division. not worldwide."

"so, based on what you said, there are other supernatural divisions?" i asked.

"yes, there are."

we wait, chatting about this particular situation. my knowledge has widened about this line of work—which i should know about because i'm in this line of work.

if i speculate:

the boss of pledis mafia is probably fired up due to the latest events. one of their sub-groups, fukuro mafia, has lost so easily to seventeen who fukuro won over for several times. karasu mafia gave up, and lost the fight against joshua and jeonghan. i set their upcoming 'idol agency' building on fire, and they caught me. but we got away. this must be the last straw.

being that given, i would expect big attacks against seventeen. maybe bring our team down, seriously injure one of us, or kill one of us. maybe even kill all of us, just to shut seventeen down and they could continue doing their thing.

or, they would use innocent people as blackmail. blow up the city, or kill about hundreds of people. they won't ever try to expose the supernatural society, they'd get exposed too.

i tell my speculations to my teammates. seungcheol, as expected, was the first one to react. "that's a good observation. we should be ready for anything. joshua?"

"yes. right after i fix the ability exchange fiasco, i will finish the new weapons." joshua nods. i look at him curiously. was he working on new weapons these past few weeks? i didn't see any of it in the eighth floor, though. "jeonghan just texted the group chat. he's here."

as if on cue, chan's phone dings, a notification from the group chat. not too soon, jeonghan enters the room and takes me away, in my room. you could imagine the gore that i witnessed just to get healed.

"wonwoo-ah, there's something in the construction costume you had on earlier," mingyu enters my room.

"wait, why are you digging what wonwoo previously wore?" jeonghan gushed, rushing to the taller member. he grabs mingyu's hands and  looks directly into his eyes, like they were in love. "are you like me?! are you....?"

"no!" mingyu chuckles and walks closer to where i sat. "here, there was a piece of paper inside."

i unfold the piece of paper handed to me and i read the contents. it was hard to read, though, the writing was too sloppy for anyone to read.

dear, seventeen member,

you faced our president today, but little did you know, you encountered me too. you didn't just see me, so that's sad! :(

i hope we can meet properly soon!

lots of love, mj

"who's mj?" mingyu asked, which scared me.

if they had fought pledis once, then they should be familiar with most of the organization's members. if this mj is unknown to the past seventeen members, then facing him would be dangerous. all of us don't know anything about this 'mj'.

"there's a note at the end!" mingyu exclaims, so i look at the paper again.

p.s. ask chan and seungcheol, 'who brought you two together?' that's a clue on our next attack!

jeonghan, mingyu and i, had only one answer. it wasn't 'what', so we couldn't say training or that swimming outing brought them closer together. wasn't a when, so not a clue about the date. not a how, not where. who.

jeonghan states the obvious. "jinha?"