𝐑𝐔𝐁𝐘. nct

fifteen

Ruby had never seen the boys in so much tension before. She knew something was wrong the moment Yangyang had stepped in the house, drenched in red. They acted normal yesterday, but she saw the looks being passed around — the cautious steps they took from room to room with files.

She knew from the way Taeyong, Jaehyun, Doyoung, Johnny, Yuta and Taeil were up all night yesterday and were standing near the kitchen counters with dull faces.

Ruby wasn't stupid, she knew what was going on. Her heart was sinking every moment she spent on the silent breakfast table. There were no jokes from Sungchan, no retorts from Yangyang and no laughs and giggles from Donghyuck. She hated to say that it reminded her of the breakfasts back home, she knew this aura really well.

She glanced at Taeyong, sitting at the head of the table with hooded eyes before trailing onto the man beside him. Doyoung's gaze looked back at her, her eyes asking if anything was wrong yet all she got in reply was a shake of the head. He wasn't ready to tell her. Why?

What was so secretive about it? Ruby would've genuinely understood if they had kept quiet all along because she was an outside, but they had been discussing about mission all the time front of her. So what was stopping them now?

Frustrated, Ruby grabbed the empty plate and placed it in the sink before silently making her way back to her room.

"She's going to realize soon enough. Why are we keeping this from her?" Donghyuck spoke in a soft voice. "She won't find out as long as we don't say anything. We have to do this." Taeyong sternly replied to the younger's words before leaving the table himself.

-

Ruby lay on her bed with her eyes shut, she didn't know the last time she had spent so many hours locked up. She had gone out a while back to see everyone missing, she didn't want to bother them in case they were busy so in the end she ended up trailing back to her room.

Her eyes opened at the sound of commotion outside the door. Yelling and screaming before the sound of a gunshot echoed through the halls. No siren, no nothing, just pure silence.

Ruby wondered if she was hearing things for a while, but she decided against it, she knew she wouldn't be getting hallucinations so real like this. Pushing herself off the bed, she took slow steps towards her door.

Pulling it open, she glanced down the hallway. She heard nothing but silence, there was no way she imagined it. Shutting her bedroom door behind her, Ruby made her way downstairs — finding a trail of blood leading to the combat room doors.

It must've been one of the boys, only they have access. Ruby's heart sunk, running over to the combat room doors as her fingers shakily entered the code. The door in front of her slid open, her eyes coming face to face with the blood covered stairs.

Gently making her way down so she doesn't trip on the liquid, she came to a halt when the blood was trailed to Yuta's practice room. Would Donghyuck have lied to her?

"The first door on the right is the common training center for normal practicing. The second door is specially for hand to hand combat and knife handling, it contains way more specialized practice tools. The last door is Yuta's room"

She remembered it clearly, Yuta's room.

"Yuta's the leader of the combat and tactical team, that's his special practice room. He never lets anyone in there most of the time, unless you've fucked up bad in a mission and he needs to give you special training."

Ruby hesitantly took a step back when she heard yells of help coming from the room which was immediately shut down, she heard muffled voices talking on the other side of the door.

Putting the code in, Ruby pushed the door slightly open and peeked inside. A man lay on the floor bloodied and bruised. Red painting his entire face, his eyes carved inside, nose broken and teeth shattered. Mark and Yuta hovering over the man.

Glancing at Mark's bloodied hand, she knew he was the one who had done this. "Who do you work for?" Yuta asked, harshly grabbing the man's collar. The man remained silent, "We know you work for a gang, we've seen the logo!" Yuta persisted.

Ruby pushed the door open, stepping inside as eyes turned to her. "Ruby" Donghyuck softly called out, not expecting to see her presence. On the mention of her name, Taeyong looked up at the girl from the computer screen in front of him.

"You're not supposed to be here-" Taeyong spoke, ready to tell one of the boys to lead her back to her room. But Ruby cautiously approached the black jacket lying on a desk a few steps away from her.

A yellow logo shining on the satin cloth. It was familiar, she had seen it before. Taking the jacket that was drenched in blood, Ruby figured they had taken it off the man on the floor.

Her shaky fingers that were now covered in a hue of red, trembled as it outlined the logo. Tears sprang in her eyes as her breathing became uneven. Upon her reaction, Taeyong spoke up.

"Do you know who that belongs to?"

( note! ) finally some action 🫢🫢
there's so many good comebacks coming up I'm excited 😔