CHAMPION | NCT

o47

(A/n: Two updates again. Please enjoy)

C H A P T E R
F O R T Y - S E V E N

A ballasting scent of burned wires and soldering iron bursted throughout the room, like setting flames to oil.

The hideout's space seemed smaller, with equipments, screws, and papers scattered all over the place. There was a powder of smoke evident on Mark's cheekbone, his tongue stuck out on his upper lip as he twisted a yellow screwdriver towards a screw on the disfunctioned cyborg's chest.

Yuta was on the table, twirling a pen around his fingers in spiral movements. He was examining a grooved hollow cylinder, face fixed into a rationalizing expression.

Jeno was sitting beside Mark, wagging his body side to side, like a dog's excited tail.

From the kitchen, I could hear the other boys arguing over who would wash the dishes. As if on cue, Jungwoo stormed out of a certain door in an instant, appearing to the kitchen and offering to do the task, which silenced the younger boys.

"Sooji!" Mark beamed, wiping the sweat on his forehead with his arm. "You're here!"

"Is that the cyborg?" I asked, eyeing the robot that they're... dissecting.

"Uhn," Mark nodded enthusiastically. "I was trying to figure out how to alter its command. You know, to make it fight on our side or something."

From his seat, Yuta huffed a breath, "Just be honest, Mark Lee, and tell her that you're fixing it so it can to do the chores."

As if to support Yuta's stand, I heard Donghyuck whine from the kitchen, "If only that cyborg could wash dishes!"

Jeno made a boyish laugh. "Busted."

Mark looked embarrassed. "Hey, I'm just utilizing how we could use it!"

"And if only it knows how to shave Seagull's eyebrows-" Donghyuck added from the other room this time, as if he deliberately made his voice higher so we're able to listen.

Mark cringed, hesitated, but ended up shouting, "Donghyuck, turn off your gabby mouth for a while, will ya?!"

As their argument continued on, Yuta stood up from his chair and approached me.

"I came back to the woods," he said in a low tone.

I frowned. "If something bad happened to you, I swear to god-"

He silenced me right after handing me a machine, the Regulate. "Came to take a spare. It might be dangerous travelling without it. Here, have it."

"You still got yours?" I asked.

He nodded. "Of course. I wouldn't have returned without having two."

"Okay."

"By the way, the house by the shore, the old woman's house, I didn't enter it or anything but I was watching it sometimes," he breathed and added, "It seemed empty. And the fireflies were gone."