13 — SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH

everything didn't have to end up like this, you know.

—

junho didn't participate the remaining classes until lunch break.

dongpyo suspects it is because junho wanted to inform about the imnet course not only to his class but to every class, therefore dongpyo didn't bother to spread the news in the x1 groupchat because he knew sooner or later they'd know without him telling.

there's no junho, no eunsang. during the lunch break, dongpyo originally planned on meeting up with hyeongjun and minhee to discuss of the matter (having junho collaborating with imnet is certainly not the best scenario out there) but as he was climbing up the stairs to the second floor he encounters someone else who turns out had awaited for his presence.

a steady hand holds on to his shoulder. dongpyo turns around. "what..?"

"dongpyo-yah!" kim yohan glances at him hopefully.

dongpyo scoffs. "you."

"you and your everlasting frown. you know it takes more muscles for you to do that than smiling?"

"and do you know it takes more muscles for me to hit you in the face?" dongpyo huffs. "but if my calculations are correct, it must be worth it."

"ouch." yohan smirks. "anyway, you were there when robot informed things to your class, right?"

dongpyo nods uninterested. "junho's in my class. he spoke to my class first before he proceeds to visit the other classes."

"great, that means we're on the same page." yohan gestures to follow him. "dohyon and i got an idea, you're included. come and i'll explain it to you later."

"just me?"

"dohyon's calling minhee and hyeongjun from the other class too, we're going to discuss somewhere out of junho's radar."

dohyon and yohan? such a random pair, a strange one at most. dongpyo raises an eyebrow. ".. is this an offer or an obligation?"

"a threat," yohan laughs. "if you decline, maybe i'd actually consider burning your limited edition bts photocards."

dongpyo's eyes widen.

".. i'm just kidding."

"good, because if you do plan to lay a finger on a single photocard of mine, i'm going to kill you."

"how? by turning into a pencil again?"

dongpyo glares at him. not wanting to pick up a fight, the boy grabs his phone instead and swipes to the x1 group chat that is pinned right above. "wait, lemme just tell everyone about it—"

"nope," yohan snatches the phone away from him before dongpyo could even type a word.

"huh, what's with the secrecy?"

"because.." yohan takes a deep breath. "technically, not all the boys are invited."

—

"dongpyo-yah, finally you came!" hyeongjun's voice brighten.

dongpyo gets into the class smoothly, leering at hyeongjun. "what, you really think i'd let this slide?"

dohyon gives him a look. "i certainly almost thought you were going to let go of the offer. i was this close to forcing your body up this floor so we could talk."

"but then again, that doesn't sound very much friendly, dohyon-ah." dongpyo sits down at the table, crossing his legs. "so what's with the sudden meeting here?"

"alright, so!" yohan clasps his hands in excitement. "as we all know, junho has been very.. dedicated to his elections, offering not only just hope, but also extra commodities for others to enjoy."

"how dare he? he's such a scumbag." minhee mutters in disgust.

"i thought you didn't care about the elections," hyeongjun whispers to him.

dongpyo laughs. "he only started caring until.. you know,"

"shut it, son." minhee reiterates.

"you guys must have heard about junho's courses right? the ones held by imnet." yohan continues on. "now the plan's simple. we're going to go to that course and see what's going on."

the three boys had suspected this to happen, but they needed the thought to succumb as it's quite obvious this is nothing but a suicide plan. hyeongjun looks around. "if you're planning for such huge mission, why aren't the hyungs here to supervise us? they always do."

"because.. we won't be doing this with them." yohan answers.

dohyon irks a smile. "hell, they don't even know about the course, let alone our plan."

dongpyo fumes. "may i ask who's plan is this?"

"it's mine." dohyon answers.

yohan turns at him. ".. no, it's technically mine."

"i said to you about the plan first when we met up, it was quite obvious-"

"but then again, junho came to my class first, and the thought immediately appeared in my head to do something like so, it's theoretically my plan to start off with—"

"okay, shut up. i have no interest involving myself into this banter." dongpyo sighs. "i must have asked the wrong question, so let me rephrase it. what made you go through such circumstances until you decided that we aren't letting the hyungs get involved into this.. dangerous mission? it's not something that i expect y'all to do all of the sudden.. especially yohan-hyung."

yohan turns to dohyon, expecting him to have an answer. dohyon shrugs. "we're doing this.. to prove ourselves. prove them that we're much stable than they think."

"they've always dismiss us out to the sidelines, hiding the truth from us when all we need is just a simple explanation as to what is going on." yohan frowns. "hell, for all we know there's still tons of things they haven't told us. they haven't told us how they saved eunsang, what happened to eunsang, who's imnet as a whole, who's kang daniel to us, they don't bother to answer our questions, whereas we need an explanation, dongpyo. i need an explanation."

dongpyo looks at him unsurely. ".. is it about the time you got caught by imnet."

yohan nods. "there's so many things i don't know about. in this way i could find out.. and maybe i could start trusting the hyungs again."

dongpyo sees that as a validation. "proofing yourselves.. my type of thing. that's definitely something that i could cope up with— i'm in."

"but it's.. dangerous, isn't it, yohan-ie hyung?" hyeongjun mumbles. "after watching your video getting tortured and all.. i'm actually getting pretty scared.."

"as long as we're together we can do anything, hyeongjun-ah. i mean, look at the team we assembled!" yohan turns to dohyon. "dohyon, the mastermind. he's the coordinator of all the plans we got here."

"thank you for acknowledging my genius mind." dohyon nods with pride.

"and dongpyo! sleek as a feather, god of mischief. all you need is a snap of your fingers and you can get yourself a pretty little pencil."

dongpyo groans. "can you please stop bringing that up—"

"minhee! nine lives minhee, our future president here, i heard that you're now able to jump up to a building. is that true?"

minhee purses his lips. "as long there's a space for me to headstart, then i should be good."

"then you! hyeongjun-ah, i heard you start to have control of your speed, right? you can get into the building without even anyone noticing!"

hyeongjun looks down, blushing by the thought of someone complimenting him.

"and then there's me, the coolest boy with the coolest powers that'll save your asses from the evil beings once we're done with the job. that's me, of course." yohan grins. "so don't fret, hyeongjun-ah! we'll think of this real deeply and we'll make sure our plan cover up all the details. fun, right?" yohan turns to everyone. "i need to make sure that everyone agrees to the plan before we continue on."

"i fully agree." dongpyo raises his hand. "i'm not going to let the fake junho enjoy his supremacy. whatever he's teasing me for, patronizing me to register for the course, he must have a specific cause for it, and i'm not going to let it slide."

"i'm in too." hyeongjun smiles. "going through my first mission which such inspirational hyungs is such a huge honor for me! i can't wait to see what we're up against."

"i was about to dodge the plan for a netflix binge, but because i feel like this might be more important for my elections.." minhee shrugs. "i'm in. but i do have one question in mind, though."

"what is it?" yohan asks him.

"if this is a mission set only for the younger ones.. then why are we missing one member?"

"because i wasn't invited by them."

a raspy voice appears from the door, shocking almost all of them. hangyul gets into the room with a little disappointment carved upon his face, but he chooses to hide it. he glances at minhee. "thank you for pointing it out, mr president. thought that i won't be acknowledged throughout the whole meeting."

"how.. is.. he here?" yohan's eyes widen. "dohyon-ah, shouldn't you be aware of this?"

"oh, he knows that i've been eavesdropping the whole time. he keeps looking at the door for a reason, you know." hangyul smirks. "i'm not going to tamper you for not inviting me yohan-ah but i must say i'm quite disappointed."

"of what?"

"after all that effort daniel took to save you, you chose to head back to imnet." hangyul sighs. "and then you, dohyon-ah. after all the effort i took to save you, you're here going to prance back to the enemy's lair unprepared?"

"trust me, we're all prepared." yohan mutters.

"oh no, from the looks of it, you aren't." hangyul points out. "you haven't said anything to the hyungs. hell, you chose not to say anything. you sure you're going to survive the course under this circumstances? without the help of someone experienced?"

"you know, this is why we ended up not inviting you, hyung." dohyon snaps. "don't you know that you trust those hyungs too much? just because they're one of our kind doesn't mean that they're perfect. just because we're connected to daniel by blood doesn't mean we have to wholeheartedly trust him."

"i am doing this for i am loyal. i'm loyal to my hyungs just as i am loyal to you."

dohyon gives him a look. "if you want to stay loyal, then fine. get out of here and stay as their dog as long as you like."

"okay, dohyon— that's way out of the line." yohan says, backing them off. "those are not words you should use to your older brother."

"hey, because that's how he is, right?" dohyon says without hesitation. "i let you eavesdrop us because i wanted you to understand the situation. i wanted you to join us, because i care about you, hyung. i always have. but because you're not cooperating just like you always do, i can't include you into the plan. i'm sorry."

hangyul looks at him disappointed. "i don't know what made you think so badly of your hyungs, dohyon-ah."

"you want to know?" dohyon stomps towards him. "fine, then i'll let you know. hyung, if you know the things daniel and seungyoun know about our mother's death—"

"then i would rather not know." hangyul cuts him off.

".. what?"

"you're about to tell me, right? things you got from eavesdropping." hangyul raises his eyebrows. "keep that to yourself, dohyon-ah, i don't want to be involved to any of it."

"but..."

"if the hyungs hid the truth from us, then they must've done it for a reason. and i'm fine, i'll go along with it if i have to." he turns to yohan. "you probably know about this too, right? don't worry too much about it, yohan-ah, for i am fine."

hangyul's response quite struck yohan and dohyon quiet for some reason. the three other boys could only watch them from behind without understanding a clue of what they're talking about.

"i won't tell the hyungs about this, but i won't be participating in your plan either." hangyul takes a breath. "so don't involve me into this, for i'm not one for betrayal. just.. be careful, okay?"

hangyul leaves the room, also leaving the rest of the boys speechless.

"i didn't know such meeting could end up into a overreacting weekend drama," minhee whispers to hyeongjun who seemed petrified by the scene.

dongpyo sighs. "well that's not something i planned to see.. but i certainly enjoyed it."

dohyon turns around, raising up a couple of books or so as part of his 'calming meditation'. yohan takes a deep breath before returning back to the previous subject. he gets back to his boys. "okay, so here's the plan..."

—

hangyul is loyal.. but too loyal.

X1 IS RETURNING AFTER CJ GAVE AN APOLOGY YAAAAAAAASSSSSSSS 2020 WILL BE A GOOD YEAR!

200 votes for next chap~

- yuehwa