Jongho was humming when he was bringing the 8 to the Hongjoong guy. Chan decided that he's probably easier to talk with comparing with the first intruder.
"Why do we need to come here?"
"You will know when you see Hongjoong hyung." Jongho simply replied.
"And who's this Hongjoong?"
"Our leader, duh." Jongho stopped humming, "If you are trying to get info from me, give up - I mean, you can ask as much as you wish when you see Hongjoong hyung."
Nevermind, he's just as hard to crack.
"Oh, 5 of you are still sleeping so, maybe I should give a room to you first?" Jongho suddenly mumbled, then took out his walkie-talkie.
"Hyung, should I show them their room first?"
A few moments of silent.
"Probably," Chan recognized the voice as the first intruder, "Hongjoong hyung doesn't like that many people at once anyway, so just bring 2."
"'Kay." Jongho turned to them, "We'll go to another place first."
He made a U-turn, went back to where the stepped on the ship, and went upstairs quickly. All while carrying Hyunjin on his back. Even Chan had difficulties in following him closely.
"Sorry but can you slow down?"
"You were able to follow me anyways so no." Jongho replied, "Also we arrived."
Chan could hear Minho snorting. He could tell Jongho also heard it, but the kid ignored Minho and dumped Hyunjin onto one of the mattresses in the...very huge room. It was almost 5 times the size of their tent, which was already able to hold the 9 of them with a little more space.
"Okay, put down the sleeping beauties and just get 2 following me."
"Jeongin, you are definitely staying," Chan said instantly, and the youngest nodded eagerly - he didn't want to see the "pirate leader" anyway, "Minho, can you come together?"
"I can," Minho replied, "But who will take care of the others?"
"It's okay. As long as they remain asleep I don't need to do anything." Jeongin insisted, "I won't do anything stupid."
"I can see you made up your minds. Please come. Hongjoong hyung doesn't like waiting."
Jongho lead them to the original path and went up another flight of staircases. He knocked on the door at the end of the stairs, which probably led to somewhere like the control room.
"Come in," The person inside said. He sounded a lot younger than Chan and Minho imagined.
Jongho opened the door and motioned the two to follow him in.
"Sorry, hyung. Half of their companions were still aslept so I brought them to their room first." Jongho reported to Hongjoong as Chan and Minho gaped at how large and modern the control room was. "There are a total of 8 of them, but since you don't really like unknown crowds so much I only brought 2 of them here."
"Got it," Hongjoong waved his hand, "It's none of your business now. Let me talk to them in private."
"As you wish."
Jongho swiftly left and shut the door, and Hongjoong finally turned around to face the duo.
His face was nothing like what they had imagined. He was young (probably even younger than Chan, he guessed), but the aura he radiated was indeed powerful enough for Chan and Minho to keep silent.
"So? You don't have anything to ask me?"
"Uh...right..."
"Why did you basically kidnap us here?" Minho went straight to the point before Chan could even try to find a less offensive way in order not to offend the leader.
Fortunately for them, Hongjoong didn't seem to mind the harsh words.
"It would be a long story. Do you mind hearing me out?"
The two shake their heads.
"Good. Oh, but still, take a seat wherever you want. Just don't touch the panels." Hongjoong offered, and the two carefully sat down on the floor. "Here is what happened before we ended up here."
~
"Hyung, do you believe in a perfect society?"
Hongjoong looked up from his laptop. Yeosang's question took him off guard.
"Yes...? Why do you ask?"
"Don't you think it's weird? There are so many fictions on utopias, but they all ended up as dystopias. It's almost like they are telling us that they don't exist." Yeosang said, "Plus, I haven't heard of a single country where all people are happy."
Yeosang was quite right, and Hongjoong couldn't think of a reasonable argument.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Jongho, you need to stop eavesdropping on any conversation involving Yeosang," Hongjoong grunted, "We're discussing about a philosophical topic."
"Hardly a discussion, hyung. You haven't talked back to me." Yeosang retorted.
"First of all, if I were eavesdropping I wouldn't have asked you what were you talking about." Jongho also retorted, "Anyway, what topic?"
"Whether utopias exist."
"Why don't they?"
"This is the first time I see you and Yeosang have different opinions."
"Do we?" Jongho shrugged, "So Yeosang doesn't believe in them?"
"Don't twist my words, hyung." Yeosang huffed, "I was only rasing doubts on whether they truly exist or not, theoretically. I wish they exist, but there are a lot of suspicious points."
"From his words, for example, there are hardly any utopian fictions with happy endings, and so far none exists." Hongjoong finished.
"What if it's just because there are too many people?" Jongho suggested. "Say, if you take care of an entire field of flowers, a lot of them may not be able to grow up. But if you just take care of a few pots of flowers, most of them can bloom. And that's the same with humans. That's my theory."
"No, Jongho, you're probably right." Hongjoong felt somewhere in his brain clicked, "If utopia doesn't exist, we're creating one."
~
"Okay, I get your goal," Minho frowned, "But I still have many questions. For one, how the hell do you get this ship? Are there only 3 of you? Most importantly, why do you need us?"
"One by one." Hongjoong said slowly, "We bought this ship legally. One of us is a rich kid, and there are 8 of us."
"And the last question?" Chan pressed.
"We stopped by a place every night, because we haven't been able to find a way to create neccessities by ourselves yet. This night, we arrived here and Yeosang was planning to buy some food, but then they saw your tent." Hongjoong explained, "He thought you were some kind of stray kids or something-"
"We are." Chan interrupted. "We are straying. The place we were at was our base."
"And no one ever approached you?"
"This pier you are at is abandoned. No one even bother coming through."
Silence fell among them, and it was Hongjoong who broke it.
"I would very much like to hear your story. Before that, let me invite you once again," His eyes were sincere, "We are now off to create our own utopia. Will you join us?"
Chan and Minho looked at each other. Chan could see the glint in the latter's eyes.
He turned to Hongjoong.
"Yes, we will."
