hydra | svt

CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR.

wonwoo

i squint at my bright phone screen, making a note of the time before shutting it off and sliding it into the back pocket of my jeans. we're cutting it close to midnight - seungcheol, jeonghan, junhui, soonyoung, jihoon, chan and myself are the first to arrive at orbit cafe, which makes sense since we were the closest. junhui lets us in using his employee key and sets some water to boil in case anyone would like a drink whilst we wait. he also fishes around for some pastries, despite all of us polishing off three pizzas between us before we'd left.

only one light is on above the booth we have chosen as our base and it flickers, washing over our belongings with a faint yellow hue. the box of rings sit at the bottom of my bag, buried in the middle by everyone else's.

i'm not sure how much time passes before the door sweeps open and seokmin, joshua and minghao shuffle in quietly despite there being no one around but us; i had preemptively warned them about the three newcomers but it's still hard to describe the look of astonishment/happiness/something else that causes their lips to tremble slightly as they confirm with their own eyes that seungcheol, jeonghan and chan are finally with us.

joshua, no longer the oldest out of us all, claps his fellow 95 liners on their backs - he's still radio silent but pleasantly surprised. i allow them some privacy to catch up and focus my attention back to the rings.

not long after one reunion of many to come, seungkwan alerts us that he's just left the airport and will be with us soon. no one else replies but me and all i send is a bleak thumbs up emoji.

the next to arrive are mingyu and vernon.

both of them seem to have the stoic, emotionless man act down to a T but mingyu breaks almost immediately after seeing our leader - a man he has always respected and will probably continue to respect as long as he is alive. and of course chan is happy to have everyone together but i notice that he frequently glances outside, probably looking for seungkwan's taxi. with the two of them being closest in age, it comes as no surprise to me at his subconscious action.

just before one o clock in the morning, a black car pulls up outside the cafe. immediately we're on edge because technically we're breaking and entering and sitting in a jail cell until someone could bail all of us out would make for one depressing reunion. just as we fall silent, seungkwan launches himself out of the passenger seat and up the steps, bursting into the cafe with a face damp with tears.

we wait for the taxi driver to peel down the street before we exhale collectively and rush to encapsulate seungkwan in a 12-person bear hug. he's a blubbering mess as he greets us all and mumbles indecipherably about how well we've grown and how he's so glad to be reunited again. although on the surface it is a little amusing to see, i value his sentiment and try not to get too misty-eyed myself as i give him another hug to prove that he really is here in seoul, all the way from jeju.

seungkwan absolutely refuses to let go of chan, pinching his cheeks like a mother and batting away his feigned annoyance with more tears.

it doesn't take long for seungcheol to call for our attention. instinctively we group around him and fall quiet as he guides us through our next steps; i've never been more glad to just blindly follow orders without straining my braincells for answers to questions i wish other people hadn't asked.

"i spoke to wonwoo earlier and he mentioned that putting on our rings might cause some of you guys to pass out, or at least get a bit of a headache. there's medication for that in the front pocket of my bag."

as he explains, he gently taps the front pocket of his backpack with his index finger before slinging one of the straps over his shoulder.

"jeonghan's got a first aid kit in his bag too if we need it. but try not to get a concussion please," he tacks grimly onto the end and we nod in understanding.

"i guess... whenever you're ready then, wonwoo."

i shovel through the pile of bags and coats until i reach my own backpack. the sound of the zipper opening is amplified by the cumbersome silence of my friends and i try to ignore everyone's eyes boring into the back of my head as i bring out the box of rings with caution. now that the light hits it properly, i hear multiple breaths being sucked in when the state of the lock is revealed and how ugly the scratches are compared to the expert craftsmanship. clearing my throat, i carry it to seungcheol like a servant bringing his king his sacred sword for battle.

seungcheol seems to want me to open it and show the others the rings so i oblige, popping open the latches to reveal the plush velvet and the four silver rings that sit snugly in the folds.

i visit chan and seungkwan first, letting them have first pick. seungkwan gravitates to the second to last ring on the bottom row, whilst chan doesn't hesitate to dislodge the last from its velvet confines.

the only ones left are the first two on the top row, which go to seungcheol and jeonghan respectfully. now that the box is empty it feels infinitely lighter, but the damage just serves as a reminder so heavy i slam the lid shut and put it back on the table immediately like it weighed me down and i needed to take it off of my hands.

"on three?" seungcheol says, twisting the ring at the top of his pinky finger.

"on three."

the rest of us wait with bated breath as seungkwan counts down, his voice no louder than a nervous whisper.

"one."

"two."

"three."