Mr. No || NCT || Completed

55 - Where stairs are for running

After managing to lose their tail for a moment while running up the stairs and fleeing to the closest hallway, Renjun pulled Chaewon behind a corner where they hid between a cabinet and wall. The hallway was barely lit and quiet, making it easy for them to listen to the footsteps of the men running in the staircase. Renjun was still holding Chaewon's wrist as they stood in the tight space, trying to breathe without making a sound.

The footsteps approached rapidly and Chaewon bit her lip, her eyes wandering from side to side, her hands curling into fists. Renjun could feel the pulse in her wrist against his fingers and cursed himself for allowing her to come to the research facility with him. Now it was too late to try to keep her out of danger.

The men reached their floor and Renjun held his breath when they stopped in their tracks.

"Did they go to the next floor?" one of the men barked at the others. They all were out of breath. It had been a proper workout for everyone to run around the hallways and sprint up the flight of stairs.

Renjun and Chaewon looked at each other anxiously. If the men would walk past them instead of running, their hiding place might be compromised since the wedge they were hiding in wasn't very far from the hallway. Renjun saw the fear in her eyes, most likely reflecting his own. While they might take down some of the thugs, they were outrageously outnumbered.

"Let's just go", another one of the men decided. "We can split up if we don't find them from this floor."

They ran through the hallway, and their footsteps first got near and then distanced away again while Renjun and Chaewon stood still, frozen in their spot.

Chaewon's shoulders slumped and her forehead bumped against Renjun's shoulder as she relaxed slightly. Renjun petted the back of her head with his free hand and closed his eyes for a split second while leaning his cheek against her hair, allowing the relief to calm down his heart beat.

As soon as the sound of the men searching for them grew distant enough, they returned to the hallway and the staircase. They needed to reach the third floor and find the correct hallway in order to get to their destination and the locker. While attempting to make their footsteps as quiet as possible in the echoey space, they finally got up the final flight of stairs to the third floor.

The third floor contained a lot of small labs and most of the walls of the hallways were covered in lockers and cabinets of varying sizes. Renjun looked at the ceiling, searching for a sign of the direction they were supposed to head in for the correct hallway.

It was Chaewon's turn to take a hold of his arm and pull because she had noticed a sign pointing towards the D and E hallways. Her cheeks were flushed red, because of adrenaline and the constant running. They jogged towards the correct hallway and Renjun kept looking back to make sure that the men hadn't followed them. When they found the E hallway - which was located in the remote corner of the building and led to a wall - Chaewon started checking the labels on the lockers. Some of them were covered in a thick layer of dust, indicating that the hallway wasn't in as frequent use as the others.

Renjun took out his phone to search for the key code to the locker in advance, while keeping an eye on their way out. As the hallway had only one opening, it was important for them to make sure that they wouldn't be cornered in there.

"I found it!" Chaewon whispered, capturing Renjun's attention.

Locker E3528 was smaller than a shoe-box and had they not been searching for it, Renjun wouldn't have paid any attention to its existence.

He shoved his phone to her. "This is the opening code for it." He didn't want them to speak any more than necessary to avoid any attention from the people after them. While Chaewon opened the locker with the code, Renjun kept looking at the hallway, trying to listen to any hints of the men getting closer.