lost hotline | wayv ✔︎

33

a/n: another cw for some more death and also mention of a bomb explosion

"TWO MINUTES."

junhui laughed evilly through the loudspeaker, making them all jump.

fuck.

two minutes left, kun, ten, and xiaojun were still stuck, and luli couldn't figure out the lock. she'd tried to everything she could think of.

their own and their parent's birthdays, both of the days rong was arrested, the days jun was arrested. the day he murdered their mother. none of it worked. she'd even tried putting the numbers in different orders, but still the lock wouldn't budge.

luli sat there in thought. if it wasn't any of these dates, then what could it possibly be? what other specific day in their sad lives could be significant enough for jun to make it a lock combo?

the day i left china? nope.

today? again, didn't work.

hell, minghao's birthday? nah, jun didn't care about him that much. he literally just killed him.

when rong offed himself? the lightbulb went off in luli's head, and she desperately crouched over the lock once more.

click. the old thing unlocked, and she let out a sob of relief. the rest of the room looked at her.

"you got it?" winwin asked, almost done with the key ring he had. luli nodded, then felt her heart sink when one thought crossed her mind as she saw their still trapped feet.

they're not going to make it.

ten seemed to read her mind, because he gave her a sad smile before he spoke up.

"you guys should go," ten whispered. xiaojun and kun, also realizing their fate, looked down in agreement. "there's not enough time."

winwin and ningning both paused their key searches. the painful silence couldn't have been louder.

"what, no," ningning softly demanded, "no, i'm almost done." she tried to start finding the key to free them again, but kun gently took it from her and let it fall to the ground, making her lose her place.

she started to sob, throwing her arms around kun. he rubbed her back, comforting her softly. "it's ok ning."

"i'm sorry guys." winwin choked out. the three gave him bittersweet smiles, murmuring words of comfort towards him.

luli hastily wiped at her tears and got up, remembering the time. "we need to go." she said quietly, prompting winwin and ningning to nod solemnly and get up.

she looked at kun, ten, and xiaojun, remembering three of her best friends' faces for one last time.

the bomb ticked. one minute.

"i'm so sorry. i love you guys."

they said it back in unison, and luli, winwin, and ningning all looked at them one last time before beginning to walk away.

"hey luli," xiaojun called out, making her stop and turn around, "i'm sorry for matching with you on the hotline."

luli smiled at him sadly, saying one last thing to him before running away just in time.

"me too xiaojun."

qian kun - dead

chittaphon leechaiyapornkul - dead

xiao dejun - dead

𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁

three days later

after they had said their goodbyes, the three had made it out of the warehouse just in time when the bomb went off.

the attendant at the nearby gas station had heard all of their ruckus, so she had called the police. when they had made it out there had been law enforcement there to comfort them and get the truth.

jun hadn't seen the police, and when he had attempted to get out of the warehouse he had been arrested, and put to death. his execution was tomorrow.

so now luli was sitting in a waiting room with winwin and ningning, waiting to give the press conference of her life. to say the truth, and all of it.

she intended to expose all that she knew of the organized crime in china, starting with the wen family, then with the zhongs and huangs.

it was a dangerous idea, but the zhongs and huangs wouldn't be able to do anything to her or winwin or ningning, due to how obvious it would be regardless of how stealthy they were, and with the new security the three had around them at all times.

"luli," her lawyer, lingyun, peeked his head through the door, "it's time."

luli nodded, taking a deep breath before standing up and wiping her hands on her pants. "wish me luck." she said to winwin and ningning, who gave her reassuring smiles, and walked out to the podium.

half an hour later, luli began to feel overwhelmed, and looked at lingyun for help. he rushed up, standing in front of her and speaking into the mic.

"ms. wen will no longer be taking any questions, thank you." the room erupted into chatter, the reporters trying to get just one more question out and answered.

but luli was already out of the conference hall and back in the waiting room, in winwin's arms. he kissed the top of her head, murmuring in her ear, "you did good luli."

she let go, noticing ningning spacing out in the corner. she had probably been listening to the entire conference, and was now deep in thought.

she crouched in front of her, brushing some of her hair out of her face. ningning gave a weak semi-smile, showing that she at least still stable at the moment.

luli sat next to her and let ningning's head rest on her shoulder. as she began to soothingly stroke her hair, winwin sat with them. nobody needed to talk, each other's presence was enough to comfort each other.

luli, winwin, and ningning had been to hell and back, but they still had each other.

that was enough.

-

i've got tissues y'all sorry for this depressing ass chapter wipe yo tears real quick
one more chapter, ten more days, and then we're done! holy shit
to fill the hole in my heart since this book is over:

i wrote another book lol, just published the first chapter. maybe give it a chance yeah 😳