trouble - evnne

25

When Junghyun and Jihoo came to, they were being slapped. Well, more like Junghyun was being slapped awake, Jihoo got youngest privileges and was left unharmed. The slapping did come from a place of worry and care, though.

Once the two regained their composure (Jihoo stood up and Junghyun rubbed his sore cheeks), Keita broke into a scolding, which of course, fell on deaf ears.

"But what he means to say is," Hanbin cut Keita off about ten minutes into his rant, wrapping his arms around the leader to keep his still and silent, "Is that we are very happy that you two are alive and here with us but if you pull that stunt again, I will ground you. Especially you, Jihoo."

The other older members just stood around, shaking their heads in mock disappointment. "On the bright side," Seungeon piped up, "We have an exit now." Where the tall frame Jihoo had been entranced by used to be, was now a similarly-shaped dark hole.

"You sure it's an exit?" Jeonghyeon asked, cold hand sympathetically pressed to Junghyun's flushed cheek to help soothe him.

"Positive," Jihoo suddenly chirped. When everyone simultaneously shot him strange looks, he added, "We met god. I think." Which did not provide any clarification but rather produced more questions.

Nevertheless, they tentatively stepped through the portal, bracing themselves for yet another abstract space with weird mirrors or perhaps a mildly intimidating tea table but fortunately, were greeted with the familiar scene of hunters and staff.

"Oh, what a relief," Seowon gushed as he ran up to them, tugging the first person (Keita) he could reach into a tight embrace.

"How long we were in there?" Yunseo asked as he swept his gaze around to ground himself.

Seowon, chin resting on the top of Keita's (he pushed Keita down a little to do so), replied, "You definitely spent the longest. You took seven hours to get out. Tiot took six and Onepact was out in three. Disappointing, I expected better from Evnne-" Seowon was kicked harshly by Keita, who managed to free himself as Seowon winced in pain.

"So...what happened while we were in there?"

Seowon beamed, now free of pain, "Well! You guys were on full blast, so I have a lovely video of Hanbin confessing his undying love for Evnne, which I will send to you so you guys can have it put up on one of the walls of your building, I suppose. Yeojun, I heard, has a clip of Junhyun screaming at clowns." Yeojun, surprisingly, was right there as well, smiling from ear-to-ear.

"Yeojun? If you're here...that means-"

Behind him, Tiot could be clearly seen, mildly frazzled but completely unharmed. Keonhee had a massive white feather sticking from his hair, blissfully unaware. Junhyn was running up to them, looking a little desperate. "Keita, Hanbin, finally," He choked out in pants, "How was your dungeon?"

Evnne exchanged glances, unsure how to even describe it, before Jeonghyeon shrugged, "Definitely not a normal one. We barely had to fight."

"Are you telling me we got the hardest dungeon?" Junhyun yelled, almost tearing his hair out as he fell to the ground. Minseoung looked drained, "We got the shortest end of the stick, huh?"

"What did you get?" Jihoo asked, curious. Woojin made a face, "You don't want to know. It was a nightmare. Literally."

Wordlessly, Yeojun showcased a video clip on his tablet, where Tiot was in a large circus tent and Junhyun was shrieking in a whole different octave. While everyone doubled over laughing and clutching their stomachs, Junhyun threatened suicide and buried his head into the shoulder of a giggling Minseoung.

After that, they were rushed to the hospital for checkups to ensure there was as little damage as possible done to their physical and mental state. Then, they were graciously given a month off work, which delighted all of them but Toz, who would be handling any dungeons that popped up.

-

A month later

Surprisingly, there were hardly any raids carried out in the month that the three groups were out of commission for. Jihoo claimed he knew why but no one bothered asking him about it. Evnne spent a lot of time discussing their experience in the dungeon, Keita even offered them the opportunity to leave if they saw fit, but Evnne ultimately agreed that for now, their places were with each other.

One sleepy night, after they had cooked a disastrous dinner and randomly picked two members to clean up the mess, Evnne heard a soft chime.

"Evnne! We have a B-class for you. Please get here soon, it's in the middle of the reservoir."

"Well," Hanbin smirked, tossing the cleaning rag he held onto the kitchen counter, "We've got a job to do."

A brilliant burst of electric blue lightning exploded in the sky as Evnne moved, as a group, into the night.