really sorry for the long wait ;-;

i've been wanting to update too because sjsksjsks idk.. all of your comments make me excited HAHAHA and somehow confused...

buT let me get this straight... after reading some comments... there are some readers who have been getting closer to solve the clue :0

hehe

RECAP!

< i also suggest re-reading a few chapters back maybe start from ch50 >

weijung is a new student in hanyul academy and happened to join a club which is dream team

turns out... there were more than just simple secrets being hidden within the school grounds

the club has been going through up's and down's just to solve the mysterious case of nam eunji's 'death' in which they found out to be a fraud.

lately, they have been receiving riddles from a person called killerkiller and said person is the infamous killer behind the numerous deaths in hanyul academy

dream team has been solving killerkiller's riddles in order to prevent someone from dying, just because killer thinks the student should die for their 'sin'

now, hanyul academy is going through a week long annual event which is the FAIR

rumor has it, every year terrible things happen during the week of the fair. especially... on the last day.

currently, dream team has been trying to survive the whole game week, solving riddles and cases every now and then.

however, a new student just enrolled and it happened to be someone weijung knew

midnight of the 3rd fair day, weijung and renjun had a deal with a new unknown and went out of their club room around 3AM

they came back with one of the keys in solving code they have been receiving through random notes that had been appearing anywhere

weijung, renjun, and donghyuck made a seal between theirselves that if there was a traitor amongst the three of them, that traitor must be punished and kicked out of dream team

somehow, there could be a traitor within the dream team but the three are still suspicious on who

moving on...

—

FAIR, DAY 3。

n a j a e m i n

"weird. they're not here yet." i mutter and look around our area, not seeing any trace of the others.

"hyung, where are they?" i questioned mark, wanting immediate help as soon as possible. "the fair is about to start," i said impatiently.

mark sighs and continued typing something in his computer. mark has been very busy these days, due to him moving up and with the whole dream team situation going on. as the vice president of the club, my heart always ache whenever i see mark so tired of everything, and i'm annoyed at my self for not being able to talk to him about it.

i frown and walk closer to the table where he had been working nonstop since awhile ago. director kim has been pressuring us both about different projects for the dream team, and the school. honestly, i just want a break.

"are you okay? you sure you don't want me to help you?" i questioned, a worried tone visible in my voice.

"you know, you don't have to be so hard on yourself, we can do this, we're not the dream chasers for nothing." i told him, nudging him a bit causing him to stop typing and face me.

a crooked smile crept up his face, that smile doesn't reflect the emotions he contained under his eyes. they were the complete opposite.

"i'm not okay, jaem. i don't know what i could do anymore. i feel so useless in this team. i can't– i don't think i can... lead you anymore." he stammers, the smile breaking into a frown. his hands were shaking uncontrollably, he looked so fragile. and there, i knew, he was hurting so much inside and we did nothing but put more weight on his shoulder.

my lips parted at his sudden statement. shaking my head, i disagree to what he said, "don't. no. you're one of the best leader that i have ever met. you are the best at leading us. you do everything for us, understand us, and help us. mark, don't downgrade yourself. there's no other lee minhyung that we'd accept unless it's you." i say, reaching out to hold his hand.

"we can do this. we're going to go through this together." mark mutters before squeezing my hand. i gave him a reassuring smile before seeing the others start to approach the booth.

"finally! took you guys some time." i mutter as they slowly entered the booth.

"jisung," i call as the young boy turned to face me with a raised brow.

"yeah, hyung?"

"where's chenle?" i ask, "gone? again?"

jisung rolled his eyes in annoyance, muttering a few incoherent words, "you guessed it!" he forces a smile.

i chuckled bitterly and wrapped my arm around jisung, "you seem very annoyed by it, huh?"

"i think you all are starting to feel the same as well." jisung shrugs and sent me a look.

"chenle keeps on disappearing, i'm starting to get more concerned than i already am." mark announced, his eyes looking around to check out attendance.

"where's the trio?" mark tilts his head.

"trio?"

"he means juyuju..." jeno sniggers.

"juyuju?" i raised my brow.

"renjun, donghyuck, and weijung." jeno grins as his new born nickname for the trio, "isn't it a fun name for them?"

i gave him a bored look, "you're really not funny."

jeno sent me a small glare, "guess you can't join the 'slight not funny club' then."

"okay, that's not even a thing!"

mark coughed loudly to grab back our attention, "so? where are they?"

"they are probably still in the club room," jeno answers the president.

mark nodded in acknowledgement, "good to know." he says before looking down at his papers, "but where's the dolphin kid." he grunts.

i glanced at him before offering, "do you want me to go look for him?"

mark was startled by this and looked at me, "what do you mean?"

"i can go look for him if you really need him around."

mark chuckles, "oh i definitely need him around. he's been always gone, i don't even think he's been doing the papers i assigned him to do."

"then let's go look for him?" i suggest.

mark presses his lips into a thin line, looking down at the schedule he had. "i guess we have some time to go look for him..." he trails off before settling the clipboard on one of the tables.

"uhh, no one's gonna patrol for now, not until jaemin and i come back." mark told the rest of the members. "is that clear?"

"understood, minhyung." nayoung pointed.

"good." mark smiles, "we'll be looking for chenle, if trouble happens to occur, your bracelets. don't forget."

"oh and jisung?" i looked back at the youngest again.

"contact juyuju about the change of plans. tell them that you aren't allowed to patrol until the president and vice comes back." i ordered him.

jisung nods and whips out his phone to text the trio, meanwhile i could feel jeno's cheeky smile right behind me.

i sigh and turn around, facing a now cocky looking lee jeno. "what do you want?" i pursed my lips.

jeno smirks, "juyuju is a pretty convenient name, isn't it?"

i rolled my eyes and walked out of the tent, "whatever!"

i now stood beside mark, trying to guess where on hanyul academy could he be.

"well, all i know is that he could possibly be with that hyeri girl again." i wince in disgust. "he must be having a hard time if he were to be in such situation again."

"or," mark starts off, "he might be at the cafeteria."

i furrow my brows together, "huh?"

"i don't know, sometimes i catch both of them near the cafeteria." mark shrugs as we walk through the crowded field.

"i don't think he'll be at the cafeteria though." i mumble as i continue to look around for the boy.

"actually..." mark trails off, grabbing my attention.

"what?"

"...isn't that him?" he points somewhere. i followed his pointer finger and it somehow was directed to a person amongst the long line for the ferris wheel the school had provided for the fair week.

i squint my eyes, that's definitely chenle.

"who's he with?" i ask.

"isn't that the girl he's always with these days?"

i scrunch my nose in annoyance, "ah, that hyeri snake..."

"should we call him?" i ask lowly, turning to look at mark, who had his eyes darted onto the boy in the long line.

mark didn't respond which made me confused. i looked back at chenle and saw him looking really annoyed by hyeri. i could see how hyeri was bugging him, she probably kept blabbering nonsense to him.

"hey, mark? i was asking you..." i trailed off, averting my attention back to mark who seemed to be really deep in thought.

i sigh and waited for him to start talking again. he must be analyzing the situation. i should be too, but for me, i think the real problem here is just hyeri. what is it with chenle that she just had to stick around him so much?

honestly, i'm scared of what may happen. hyeri doesn't seem to be afraid of the fact we're not in good terms with her. she knows that we know she's up to something, yet she still tries to be innocent. the way she just watches chenle from afar, it seems like something bad is about to happen.

but what?

suddenly, a hand patted my shoulder causing me to flinch, "don't scare me like that!" i whine at mark.

mark laughed, "i'm sorry."

"anyways," he mumbles, "i'll text chenle to get out of that line."

"any reason?" i question.

"it's dangerous." mark replies as he quickly pressed the letters of his keyboard. once he was done, he kept his phone and waited for chenle to receive the text.

"what is?" i ask and watch as chenle received the text from mark. the shocked boy kept looking around until he spot us, he seemed... restless.

chenle said something to hyeri before leaving the line and started walking towards our direction. i sense trouble.

"that ferris wheel is." mark pointed out.

i tilt my head to one side and couldn't help but stare at the ferris wheel in front of us. well, it could be dangerous if someone were to tamper it.

"you're saying..."

mark nods slowly, "someone could have tampered with the ride, though i don't know who."

"that's insane..." i mutter as chenle got closer to where we stood.

"isn't it? that's what the trio reported to me. we shouldn't just go and have fun with the rides in general, someone could tamper with it the moment they find out we're going to be involved." mark stated, "as long as we aren't riding those somehow suspicious rides, we won't get anyone hurt."

"hyung!" the familiar young voice called for us.

chenle seemed disturbed, i don't even know why.

chenle sighs and rubs his hands together, "is there something wrong?"

mark crosses his arms, "there is something wrong. you have been spending less time for your club than usual, what's going on with you?"

chenle scrunches his nose, "nothing, really. i'm still doing my work, i'm just... getting pulled away, i'm sorry."

mark didn't really seem convinced by this and just stared openly at chenle. "i'm not gonna tolerate this kind of behavior anymore, chenle. if that girl is being a bother to you, i'm gonna have to do something about it then."

chenle's eyes widened, "please don't!"

"don't?" i gave him a weird look.

"chenle, she's practically bothering you! frankly speaking, you shouldn't even be hanging out with her." i told him, my voice raising a bit.

i could see chenle flinch and hesitate a bit, "i know! but, not right now."

mark sighs, "you're coming with us."

"where are we going?" chenle questioned as the three of us headed back to the booth.

"to the booth." i answered him.

"i have a shit ton of work for you, chenle. that serves as your punishment. if you don't finish them, the punishment is gonna be increased." mark uttered while i could see chenle wince at it.

once we were back at the booth, the others couldn't help but stare at chenle like he's some kind of ghost.

"well, look who decided to come!" jisung sarcastically stated.

"was about to say the same." nayoung chuckles.

"oh, jaemin?" heeyeon voiced out, "the trio are still working on with something, they hope that's okay with both the pres and vice."

i nod my head, "it's okay, tell them that. i'm pretty sure what they're working on is important anyways."

heeyeon smiled, "noted!"

"what are the work you needed me to do?"

mark clasps his hands, a smirk creeping up his face, "paperwork!"

chenle's jaw dropped a bit, i knew that he really hated his punishment. out of all of us, chenle seemed to hate paperwork the most.

"what?" chenle mumbled, shocked.

"you heard me loud and clear, chenle." mark snickers.

"the paperworks are already on your desk, so all you need to do is go to the club room and start working."

i chuckle at mark's words. he sure did plan for all of this to go smoothly. he seemed to also have prepared everything.

chenle huffs, "fine, then."

"jaem?" mark grabs my attention.

"accompany him to go to the club room."

"sure!" i accepted right away and immediately placed my arm around the said boy.

"come on chenle."

walking to the club building felt like hours. i really know why, but it felt like time was going slower for us. probably because it was silent the whole time. no one dared to talk.

well, that's what i thought.

somehow chenle got the courage to break the silence between us. "hyung..." he calls in a low voice.

"chenle?" i side glanced at him.

"i'm... sorry..." chenle says in a weak voice, it was trembling.

i knit my brows in confusion and stopped walking, causing him to also stop. "what are you talking about?"

chenle avoided eye contact, "well, i just feel like i needed to say sorry. i didn't really mean to get dragged by that... um new student."

my eyes softened as i reached out to pat his head, "it's okay, chenle. i understand."

chenle seemed to react to my words differently. i narrowed my eyes as he mumbled something i couldn't quite catch. "let's keep going," i said which somehow broke him from his train of thought.

once we reached the club room, the whole place was actually clean than i expected it to be. i thought they would've had papers all around like last time, but it was unexpectedly clean.

however, by the table, renjun was slumped over in a sleeping position, his head being supported in his arms. they seemed to have took this time to sleep for a bit since they didn't really get enough sleep.

i scan the room and to my shock, on the ground, both donghyuck and weijung were sleeping next to each other, leaned back against one of the walls.

weijung's head happened to be leaning on donghyuck's shoulder while donghyuck's was on weijung.

i smirked at the scene in front of me. isn't that just a great sight?

i turned to look at chenle who just stared at the two. "uhh, chenle? you can go to your desk now."

chenle diverts his eyes from the two, "huh? oh... yeah right. i'm on it." he mumbles and walked over to his desk.

the said boy slumped as he sat down, i could actually hear him mumbling something. but again, it was a bit inaudible for me to catch.

i sigh and walked towards the trio. i was about to wake them up when a good idea popped into my head. i quickly ran to grab one of heeyeon's camera, which was the closest camera i could find. it was a instant polaroid camera.

though this odd feeling of wanting to break them apart keeps bugging me, i also wanted to take a picture of them, for memories i guess.

i chuckled softly as i snapped their photo, waiting for the film to come out. once it had finally appeared clearly, "lucky."

i put back the camera, alongside the picture with it. heeyeon would freak out upon seeing that photo.

after carrying out my own plan, i now decided to wake them up. i reached out to nudge renjun softly, and i'm quite happy renjun was easy to wake up.

"what's going on?" he questions in a hoarse voice.

"you guys fell asleep..." i told him.

"oh yeah, we're sorry. we actually have some things to finish... wait, shit!" he suddenly jumped up his seat and ran to weijung's office. "yah! wake them up please!?" renjun shouted loudly which alarmed me.

i looked over the two who were still sleeping peacefully.

"sleep time's over!" i said aloud and tried my best to wake them up.

donghyuck slowly fluttered his eyes open, probably feeling the weight on his shoulder as he turns to look, "w-weijung?" he stammers.

he then looks at me, "jaemin?"

looking around he groans, "i'm so tired."

"that's what you get for staying up all night." i mutter.

donghyuck snorted, "yeah, it was for the best."

"jungie-ah." donghyuck poked weijung's cheek. "jungie!" he whines. "wake up~"

weijung soon opened her eyes and her head left donghyuck's shoulder. she stretched her arms, "we fell asleep?" she says, yawning afterwards.

"yeah, i think renjun wants you both to go to your office. he seemed to be in a hurry." i told them, jabbing my thumb towards the mini hallway we had.

the two looked at each other before realizing something. their eyes widened, "SHIT!" they said aloud before standing up in a hurry and also running to the other room.

i tilt my head in confusion, "what is really up with those three." i question to my self.

—

well, hello there

it's been awhile

anyways~ hope y'all are safe and doing well!

i'm kinda wrecked? HAHAHA idek

i missed writing that's why i'm back :>
while re reading, i could've help but get excited.

*casually writing down new notes in my notebook for secrets*

oh, and i've been answering comments so...

;)

-jibin