A Cruel Twist Of Fate

Chapter 19

[Yeonjun's POV]

We finally arrived back at the safe place... Still will heavy hearts full of sorrow. It was especially the hardest for Chaewon because now she's responsible for leading us. I feel so bad, if only we did listen to her suggestion to not meet with Stray Kids, we would still have Taehyun around...

Everyone saw us and our distraught faces, I'm assuming they know what happened since Taehyun wasn't here with us. We all walked inside the safe place, Haerin, Eunchae, and Yujin decided to go in their rooms as to be left alone while everyone else gathered in the lounge. No one spoke a word... It was just silence... They were just as upset as we were... Losing Changbin hurts a lot and when I finally moved on from it, I lose another close friend of mine.

"So... What happened?" Tzuyu asked breaking the silence.

"Where's Taehyun-ah?" Dahyun asked.

I sighed. "We lost a good person today guys... Taehyun is now infected..." I said. Everyone knew, but they couldn't help but feel upset.

"N-No..." Jungkook said.

"How did it happen?" Taehyung asked.

"When we met with the survivors, turns out it was an ambush. It was a group Chaewon was a part of before called Stray Kids..." Mina said.

"Wait... The very same group Chaewon talks about?" Sana asked.

"Yes... It was them..." Chaewon said.

"Chan..." I said.

"Yes?"

"I saw him... Choi Soobin..."

"Soobin!? The criminal we arrested?!" Chan shouted.

"Yeah he was leading them... Turns out his group also infected Changbin somehow," I said.

Once I said that, everyone had different reactions. Taehyung, Sana, and Mina gasped, Chaewon felt guilty, maybe because she was part of the group, Jungkook, Tzuyu, and Dahyun couldn't help but feel bad for us, and Bang Chan was furious.

"That lunatic has gone too far! First he infected our best friend and now he infected another close friend of ours?!"

"I know. So here's how it went down. They took Taehyun and we couldn't do much against a group who was fully armed. We decided to follow them and take him back so we followed them to a refinery. Once we did manage to find him, turns out they locked him in a room with an infected. When he looked at his arm he was one of them... We had to leave without him, but no before him passing on a will you could say."

"A will? Like who will become the leader next?" Tzuyu asked.

"Exactly right Tzuyu. Chaewon will be leading us," I said.

"Chaewon, I'm so sorry that you had to face the harsh truth about him..." Dahyun said.

"It's okay... I still need some time to accept the truth though. I'm still broken..." Chaewon said.

"Eunchae seems to be upset about what happened too, but I'm sure Haerin and Yujin are the most broken out of all of us..." Taehyung said.

"They'll come to terms with it soon. For us to escape he said he'd provide a distraction for us," I said.

"A distraction? What did he do?" Sana asked.

"He exploded the refinery..."

"Whoa! Isn't that very extreme?!" Jungkook shouted.

"Wait did he make it out though?" Dahyun asked.

"We think he did, he probably knew a way out and planned it out. Nobody died luckily, but they're clearly gonna be out for us..." Mina said.