Guilty Parties [ NoRenMin ] | ✓

- Fifty Two -

"Are you sure you aren't a Defect?"

"No," the boy answered, both Jaehyun's question that he had asked out loud and the ringing of Taeyong's in his mind.

"But this says otherwise," Taeyong voiced aloud.

Renjun scoffed lightheartedly at the two older boys, cleaning up and organizing his papers into neat stacks.

The 'coding' that Renjun had compiled were only lines and dashes, something indecipherable to both Taeyong and Jaehyun.

"I don't think anyone else could read this besides you," Jaehyun said, gesturing to the papers that Renjun now held in his clutches.

"If anyone were to study coding like I have, they'd be able to understand just like me, or even better," he said, absentmindedly turning to look back at the table he had been working at, seeming to look for something.

Taeyong noticed the sudden distraction that the youngest boy had focused on, the deflation of his voice as he searched longer stood out to him.

"What are you looking for?"

Instead of answering the question, Renjun's thoughts seemed to straighten themselves out, looking at the dismantled cube and quickly walked to the object, closing it and picking it up to hold to his chest.

He moved back to the other two.

"I needed this," he explained vaguely.

"What for?" Jaehyun asked this time.

"This, is the main communication to and from Abigail's base, although I haven't had time to decoding the message, I recognized some patterns, and if I'm successful, I can find a way to reverse it and use it to listen in and find the next moves she plans to do," he said, holding the object closer to the others.

Taeyong was in awe, looking at Jaehyun, who reflected the same reaction as the older.

"Still, I have to decode the messages I've been able to gain, translate them to Chinese, then to Korean so everyone could understand," Renjun felt like he was going to be having some late nights ahead.

Sighing at the thought, he brushed past the shocked older men, before looking back at them.

"Aren't you coming?"

The soft timbre of the younger's voice seemed to pull the older boys out of their thoughts, making them turn and look at Renjun in confusion.

"What?"

"You guys came to let me know that dinner was ready, is it not?"

"Oh! Yes, it is," Jaehyun made eye contact with Taeyong, before going towards the stairs, Taeyong slowly making his way in that direction as well.

Renjun nodded at the other two making their way towards the end destination, and leading up to the dining area.

When they had finally made their way to the table, everyone was already sitting, talking amongst themselves while they waited for the trio.

They didn't miss the rather thick amount of papers in the young Chinese's arms, nor the ominous black box in his clutch as well.

They started to speak in curiosity at the boy before he motioned to the crowd to be quiet.

He placed the pile of papers in front of both Jaemin and Jeno before heading to the side of the room.

Confusion spread throughout the boys as Renjun placed the box at a spare small table that sat beside where Jungwoo and Johnny sat, before walking quickly to the kitchen.