Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Hyunjin! Will you calm down?” Minho exclaims, trying to drag him along as he frantically looks behind himself. “We have to go !”

Hyunjin shakes his head, panic overtaking his brain as he tries to get Minho to let go of him. “No! They took Seungmin! We have to go back! ”

“Then we’ll all get caught!” Minho retorts, his strength winning against Hyunjin’s panicked movements and managing to move them further away from the government building. “We have what we came for but we got compromised, we can’t go back.”

“Ugh! But—” Hyunjin’s voice breaks and tears blur his eyes as strength seeps out of his body. “Seungmin—”

Minho growls in frustration and calls Chan over as they keep on walking, almost running, taking many turns to shake off anyone that might have followed them. Hyunjin barely processes anything in his hysterical state, sobs wracking through his body as his mind provides horrible scenarios regarding Seungmin’s situation. 

“Minho, can you help Jeongin and Changbin, then?” Chan’s voice sounds as Hyunjin stumbles when Minho stops dragging him along. Minho’s arms are replaced by Chan’s and Hyunjin finally takes a deep breath when he’s surrounded by Chan’s comforting scent. 

“Hey, Hyunjin, it’ll be fine,” the alpha tells him. “Seungmin is strong and smart, and they won’t kill him. The government might be corrupt and full of bastards, villains, but they won’t go that far, especially if they want to get him to talk. Right now we have to get the rest safe, yeah? Then we can think about what to do next.”

Hyunjin nods shakily, his sobs dying out as Chan guides him further, rubbing a comforting hand over his arm. He slowly comes back to his senses as they come closer to their hideout, and he frustratedly wipes away his tears, berating himself for getting this emotional. He thought he left that part of himself behind— or, at least he thought he reserved that part of himself for the rare moments he and Seungmin get to be alone and in their own world for a second, but apparently he’s still capable of being emotionally labile and bringing everyone in danger. Hell— he is the reason that they caught Seungmin. If he had been paying better attention to his surroundings he might’ve noticed whatever Seungmin noticed right before he basically took one for the team and threw himself in front of the lions (lions meaning the government). 

Hyunjin still has no idea what exactly happened, the only thing he knows is that Seungmin told him to find the rest and run because they had been compromised. Hyunjin barely had the time to respond before Seungmin quickly kissed him and told him he loved him and that they shouldn’t wait for him, urging Hyunjin away and running off after. Minho later told him that something tipped off one of the silent alarms, but they still have no idea what went wrong. 

“It’s not your fault, Hyunjin,” Chan pulls him out of his thoughts, probably smelling his distressed mood. Hyunjin didn’t even notice that he had begun crying again. “We all don’t know what went wrong, which can happen, but we should be grateful that Seungmin did notice that something was wrong. Otherwise we would all be caught.”

“You-you’re right,” Hyunjin sniffles, shaking his head and taking a deep breath to try to calm down. This isn’t you anymore, Hyunjin! Get yourself together. For the team. For Seungmin . “Sorry.”

Chan waves him off, telling him that it’s fine and that he understands, which helps Hyunjin get himself together before they arrive at their hideout. There, Chan lets go of Hyunjin and helps Minho, Felix, and Jisung get Changbin and Jeongin to their makeshift infirmary. Hyunjin wants to help too, but his legs give out and he has to catch himself on the nearest couch, the shock from the mission catching up to him. 

He buries his face in his hands and sighs, no tears coming out anymore— he used to cry a lot, back when he was still afraid of everything, and Seungmin and the rest had to constantly assure him that they would be fine, back when he hadn’t learned how to control his emotions yet. Soon, though, Hyunjin thinks, they will be able to feel freely again, be themselves without being judged for their secondary gender, without being forced into boxes that they don’t fit into, without being treated like objects or property of anyone. 

That’s what they’re fighting for right now. In this wolf-hybrid society where omegas are oppressed, treated like the property of alphas, forced into relationships and roles they don’t want to be in because ‘that’s how nature wants it’, Hyunjin has sworn to try to make a change. 

It all began in high school, which is where he met Seungmin. If you didn’t act the way alphas wanted you to act, you got bullied, ignored, or even beaten. Hyunjin had a pretty face, so he was often the target of uncomfortable and way too forward flirtations, but whenever he brushed them off or even rejected them, they got mad, and even other omegas would disapprove of him, telling him that he should be grateful that alphas wanted to be with him. Hyunjin felt lost, powerless, and he was contemplating giving up his fight— his parents told him his rebelling was just part of puberty— until Seungmin once came to him when Hyunjin was crying in one of the bathrooms. 

"Uhm… Hyunjin?" 

Hyunjin freezes, slapping a hand in front of his mouth to muffle his sobs. It sounded like Seungmin's voice, but Hyunjin isn't sure. Seungmin is one of his kinder classmates, not one to conform to people's expectations (but he is also less forced to meet those expectations than Hyunjin is), and Hyunjin would maybe even call him his only friend besides Jeongin. They talk sometimes and Seungmin has comforted Hyunjin a few times after people were mean to him, but Hyunjin is still embarrassed to be caught bawling his eyes out, even if omegas are expected to be emotional (but not too emotional, of course, that will be annoying for the alpha). 

"Are you okay?" Seungmin sounds again, his voice gentle. 

Hyunjin only answers with a muffled whimper, not yet able to properly speak as he only cried harder because of Seungmin's gentle voice. 

"I— I know that it might come out of nowhere, but I… I just wanted to say that it's really admirable how you don't let people tell you how to act," Seungmin tells him and Hyunjin lets out a grateful sob. He doesn’t know where it's coming from, but he appreciates Seungmin's words. 

"I have been wanting to stand up for you and other omegas, but I was too scared," Seungmin continues, and Hyunjin calms down a little as he just listens to Seungmin talk. "So I hoped to at least help you this way, because I really want to do something. Make a change." 

Hyunjin smiles through his tears, recognizing the frustration in the other's voice all too well. 

"That's sweet of you, Seungmin," Hyunjin whispers shakily. "I want that too. But… I don't know how. I am not that smart, I— I only know how to just be myself, that's why I don't let people tell me how to act." 

"Well, I think that's only a good thing," Seungmin says, a smile in his voice. "I don't know how to do it either, but what do you say about finding it out together?" 

Hyunjin's eyes widen and he looks up only to see the stall door in front of him. He quickly unlocks the door and hesitantly meets Seungmin's eyes, which are shining in determination. 

"Do you mean that?" Hyunjin asks, and Seungmin nods with a smile extending his hand for Hyunjin to take. 

"Are you in?" 

Hyunjin grins, feeling the dried tears on his cheeks as he says, "Heck yeah." 

From then on, Seungmin and Hyunjin stuck together whenever anyone would harass them or insult them, and when Hyunjin told Jeongin about it, the younger joined. But their high school classmates weren’t the only problem, outside of schools omegas get harassed too and there are no laws protecting them. Omegas generally get disadvantaged when looking for jobs, their achievements are dismissed or, if they’re in a relationship, the alpha gets credited, and you can go on like that. 

They rejected the society they live in to the extent that they got kicked out of high school, and even out of their houses, forced to live on the streets, like other omegas that refused to live according to any stereotypes. That is where it all really began, that is where they had to steal and scam people in order to keep themselves alive. At first, they were clumsy, inexperienced, emotional, and they got caught a few times, but they were still minors so they got away with it. Slowly, though, they got better at stealing, at acting, at keeping their emotions in check, and one time, when Jeongin was sick and Seungmin and Hyunjin had to steal some medicine for him, Seungmin came up with an idea. He thought of a scam where one of them acted like an alpha and the other like their omega partner to avoid suspicion, and then do what they usually do: steal. It worked so well, that from then on, Seungmin and Hyunjin had become sort of official partners in crime together. They tried it with Jeongin too, but Jeongin was less comfortable with acting like a couple, so eventually they decided to just let Seungmin and Hyunjin always go together while Jeongin would be on watch. 

They switched up who played the alpha and who played the omega many times, and it was fun, but they were also serious in their mission to help omegas. It wasn’t always easy, especially not when Hyunjin was dealing with his feelings for Seungmin and whether a relationship would work in their situation, but they always managed to overcome it with the three of them (and Hyunjin was very relieved when he eventually found out that Seungmin returned his feelings).

Slowly, they met more omegas and even one alpha, Chan, with the same goal, who were willing to help, and this team came to life. To many omegas their team members are heroes, but to many alphas they are villains. The bigger their team became, the bigger their goals became, and now they are even planning to overthrow the government. Hyunjin isn’t that confident about the plan anymore, though, because Seungmin basically is a core piece of setting up their plans together with Chan. Yes, they all contribute to making the plans, but Seungmin is experienced in making plans, so he always has good ideas. Hyunjin isn’t sure if they can do it without him. 

“Hey, Hyunjin, are you okay?” Jisung pulls him out of his thoughts and comes to sit next to him on the couch. “We’re all worried for Seungmin, but I can only guess how hard it might be for you.”

Hyunjin sighs and shakes his head. “I— I’m fine— mostly. Don’t worry about me, are Changbin and Jeongin okay?”

“Yeah, they are. They’re our strong boys, our fighters, they won’t be defeated by a simple scratch,” Jisung waves off and Hyunjin chuckles, although there isn’t much emotion in it. Jisung then hugs him from the side and rubs a hand over his back, making Hyunjin feel some emotions bubble up again. He isn’t sure if he should push them down or let them out. 

“It’s okay if you’re not fine, though,” his friend tells him. “Let it all out, then you’ll feel better when we’re going to get him back to us.”

Hyunjin gulps and looks down, a lump forming in his throat as he chokes up. Jisung is right, if he’s going to be like this and not have his emotions under control, he should let it all out so he doesn’t ruin their plans later. 

“Talk to me, Hyunjin, let it all out,” Jisung says as Hyunjin lets out a sob. “Plans come later, when we have more info, now it’s essential to rest and heal, both physically and emotionally.”

Hyunjin nods and lets himself cry on Jisung’s shoulder. He hasn’t cried this much in years, but it’s also the first time that he feels this hopeless in years. He just feels like he’s useless without Seungmin. Every mission they did was them acting together . Seungmin and Hyunjin together are in charge of doing the scam, the acting, infiltrating whatever they need to infiltrate, just like Jeongin and Changbin are in charge of being the muscle, dealing with guards and keeping everyone safe, like Felix is in charge of hacking into whatever they need to and disguising everyone with makeup, like Minho is in charge of helping with hacking and sabotaging or adjusting any mechanics, like Jisung is in charge of crawling through tight spaces, staying hidden and out of sight, being swift and quick, and like Chan is in charge of making sure the mission all goes well as they’re doing it, and using his alpha privilege where they might need it and Seungmin and Hyunjin can’t get away with an act. He voices his thoughts to Jisung when he’s finally able to talk through his sobs, and his friend hums in compassion. 

“Yeah, it’s going to be difficult without Seungmin, it would definitely be easier if he was there with us, but I also believe in you, Hyunjin,” Jisung tells him determinedly. “I believe that you can do this, and I believe that we’ll think of a plan to get Seungmin back to us. You might not believe it yet, and that’s okay, but we’ll have to do this without Seungmin. For Seungmin.”

Hyunjin sniffs and sits up, drying his tears. Jisung is right, even if it’ll be hard, they have to at least try to get Seungmin out of the government’s hands. Hyunjin will do anything to free his boyfriend, and he wants to already get started on a plan right now, but everyone tells him to go to sleep first. Hyunjin doesn’t think he’ll be able to sleep well in a bed without Seungmin by his side to talk to him and hug him to sleep, but he guesses that he’ll have to try. 

His friends offer to help him, ask if he needs anything to help him sleep better, and Hyunjin appreciates it, but he waves them off. The only thing that’ll make him sleep better is if Seungmin would be there with him, safely in his arms. 

“Jinnie, what is going on with you lately?” Seungmin asks him, examining his scratches and wounds. His look is stern but his voice is soft and not accusatory at all. “You almost gave yourself away!”

Hyunjin presses his lips together and looks away, not being able to handle Seungmin’s worried gaze on him. It's already a lot for him to handle whenever Seungmin patches up his wounds after a mission and they're sitting close together in Seungmin's bedroom, but now Seungmin is also worriedly scolding him. Hyunjin gives him a shrug and a noncommital answer, trying to hide his stirring feelings. 

“I’m just not as good at acting as you are.”

“Nonsense,” Seungmin dismisses, his fingers grazing Hyunjin’s skin as he disinfects some scratches on his face. Hyunjin’s heart is going wild in his chest as Seungmin is sitting so close to him. “Maybe that used to be true, but now? Now you’re at least as good as I am, but not if your mind is somewhere else.”

Hyunjin gulps and blushes, feeling caught. Damnit, why can Seungmin always see right through me? He keeps quiet, hoping that Seungmin lets it slide, but unfortunately he doesn’t. 

“Hyunjin, please talk to me,” he pleads, his tone breaking Hyunjin’s heart. Seungmin rarely shows his emotions lately, they’re too busy, so hearing it now especially affects Hyunjin. “You seem so distracted and distant lately, and I just wanted to let you deal with it yourself, but it's also compromising the missions, and sooner or later it is going to get you or us caught.”

Hyunjin scoffs softly, feeling a pang of disappointment in his chest. He only cares about our missions, his mind provides, and while he logically knows that it isn’t true, he can’t help but feel like he will never have a chance with Seungmin romantically, like all that’s important to Seungmin is to make things better for omegas— which is okay, but Hyunjin just wishes that he could be important to Seungmin as well. 

Seungmin’s hand finds Hyunjin’s and Hyunjin looks at him to see his worried and pleading look again. It confuses him, and it makes emotions swirl in his stomach. He has been trying to hide his feelings from Seungmin, but now that Seungmin is looking at him like this, his resolve is wavering. 

"You don't have to tell me , necessarily, but just talk to someone about what's bothering you," Seungmin continues when Hyunjin keeps quiet. Seungmin might be able to see right through Hyunjin, but Hyunjin can also see when Seungmin is trying to hide his feelings, in this case, how he’s feeling hurt. 

Even though Hyunjin knows that Seungmin doesn't want him to think that he cares whether Hyunjin tells him or not, even though he knows that Seungmin doesn't want Hyunjin to see that he's hurt by the fact that Hyunjin doesn't seem to want to tell him, Hyunjin has the urge to show Seungmin how much he means to him, show him that he would tell him everything, except for this. 

"I want to tell you, but I don't want to burden you," Hyunjin admits, shaking his head. 

"If it relieves some of your burden, then I'll gladly take it," Seungmin tells him as he squeezes Hyunjin's hand, his voice wavering ever so slightly, a sound Hyunjin hasn't heard in a while. "You know that, right?" 

Hyunjin swallows thickly, tears threatening to spill. "I— I know, sometimes I just— sometimes I just wish we could stop for a moment and feel. " He shakes his head, taking a shaky breath. "I know that feelings get in the way of our missions— mine definitely are— but I just— I just don't seem to be able to suppress these feelings—" 

"Which feelings?" Seungmin asks. He seems nervous, but Hyunjin barely notices it as he blurts out, 

"My feelings for you." 

Seungmin gasps sharply and lets go of Hyunjin's hands in shock. Hyunjin flinches and his heart drops in worry as he involuntarily looks up. Seungmin just looks at him with wide eyes, a faint blush covering his cheeks and his mouth hanging open. 

"I'm sorry— see? I told you it would be a burden—" Hyunjin stands up and wants to walk away before he bursts into tears and makes Seungmin feel bad, but Seungmin quickly stands up too and grabs his wrist to stop him. 

"Wait— I— it's not a burden," Seungmin stammers, looking uncharacteristically conflicted, unsure of what to say or do. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before he stutters, "It-it's just a shock to hear. I— I think I need some fresh air." 

He lets go of Hyunjin’s wrist and walks away, letting Hyunjin hang, not knowing what to think. 

Hyunjin jolts up in bed, heart pounding in his chest because of his dream. Why did he have to dream about that stressful time? He knows that everything worked out fine in the end, but he still clearly remembers how he thought that he had seriously fucked up, that Seungmin would never want to see him again. 

He tries to shake away the heavy feeling settling in his stomach, but he can’t stop the dreadful feeling from tugging at the back of his mind. He gets up and heads to the bathroom to freshen up and take some suppressants. He's glad that he got some sleep, he needs a clear mind in order to help his team come up with a plan to rescue Seungmin, but his dream didn't help his mood. 

As soon as he enters the living room, he sees Minho, Jisung, Felix, and Chan bent over their planning table, discussing something. Once they notice Hyunjin, their faces light up and they motion him over. 

"Hyunjin! Did you manage to get some sleep?" Felix asks as he hugs him warmly. 

"Yeah, a little," Hyunjin mutters, distracted by the plans lying on the table. "You guys already started on making a plan?" 

"No, we just did some research," Chan says and continues before Hyunjin can protest. "Before you get mad that we started without you, it's important that you get rest and get a bit of a break from it because you are the most affected, and we were planning on telling you every detail once you would wake up." 

"Yup, we only did some research, nothing important yet," Minho backs Chan up and Hyunjin sighs. They're right, but Hyunjin can't help his anxiousness. He needs to get started on this rescue mission so that he can focus on getting Seungmin back rather than the fact that he's not here. 

"Tell me what you found," Hyunjin urges before he stops himself. "Or are we waiting for Innie and Bin?" 

"They're still resting, we can fill them in later," Felix says before he pulls up some slides on the beamer near their planning table. "Seungmin was captured in this building yesterday, and I've managed to get some footage from one of the nearby surveillance cameras where we can see them throw someone that looks like Seungmin that is tied up into a van." 

Hyunjin squints at the blurry video, and even though the person is surrounded by guards and has a bag pulled over his head, he recognizes the clothes that Seungmin wore yesterday, the way they fall over his broad shoulders and hug his slim legs, so it’s not someone else wearing his clothes. (Hyunjin is reminded of one time Seungmin dressed up as someone else in one of their scams, but Hyunjin still had no problems telling him apart from the real person, so he's confident in his ability to recognize his boyfriend.) 

"That's definitely Seungmin. Could you track the van?" 

Felix shakes his head and Hyunjin’s stomach drops, but then Felix shows some more slides showing blurry images of the van on the road. 

"I didn't manage to catch the license plate, but I did spot it on a few traffic cameras, so we know the general direction it went in." 

"Unless it took a distraction route," Hyunjin chimes in bitterly. 

"True, but do we think government people are smart enough for that?" Minho chuckles. "You know that alphas don't tend to think with their brain— except for Chan, of course." 

Everyone snickers at Minho's joke except for Hyunjin, who isn't in the mood for jokes. 

"They did manage to compromise our mission, though." 

"Because their security systems are smart mostly," Jisung shrugs. "And maybe they have someone like Chan that they managed to brainwash into working for them, but we don't think they took a distraction route— Lixie, next slide?" 

"Right!" Felix clicks to the next slide and shows a map of a big area around the government building they infiltrated yesterday. "So, we think that they went in this direction, which is coincidentally the direction you have to go in to reach one particular highly secured prison— mainly one where they keep most of the omegas that are convicted for things like treason, "illegally" protesting, "assaulting" alphas (aka defending themselves), and so on, but it is also where they keep omegas for questioning or during their trial if no one pays their bail."

Hyunjin's eyes widen. That sounds like a difficult place to get in, but also a likely place where they’re keeping Seungmin, and judging from Minho’s sly look, that isn't the only thing that he wants to do there. 

“It’s the perfect opportunity for a massive prison break isn’t it?” Minho’s eyes light up in determination, but Hyunjin is a bit apprehensive about the idea. 

“I don’t know. First of all, we’re one short, a crucial member of our team. Second of all, our main goal is getting Seungmin out of there and I think we’ll already have our hands full with that,” he retorts. 

“True, but we can at least consider it.”

“Let’s first focus on making a plan to get Seungmin out of there, and then see if we can squeeze something else in,” Jisung suggests, easing the tense mood a little. “Maybe we can even incorporate Minho’s idea as a sort of distraction.”

Chan agrees and Hyunjin admits that that is a good idea, after which Jeongin and Changbin finally show a sign of life and enter the living room. They still look a bit bruised, but they also look healthy and well-rested, and Hyunjin is glad that it seems like they were able to sleep well. They quickly fill them in on what they found and what their first ideas for a plan are before they brainstorm some more with the seven of them. After that, they separate to work more on the parts that they’re individually in charge of, but Hyunjin finds himself stuck as soon as he even tries to start thinking of a way to get inside the prison with all of them, maybe minus Jisung if they find somewhere where he can sneak in separately. 

“You look troubled,” Jeongin comments and places his hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder. 

Hyunjin sighs and dodges Jeongin’s knowing gaze even though he knows that his friend can basically read his mind already. 

“I just don’t know if I can do this without Minnie, even though I have to,” he admits defeatedly. “I’m afraid to mess up, I’m afraid I won’t be good enough. Seungmin always comes up with the important parts of the ideas.”

“But don’t you come up with the characters? Don’t you come up with ways to distract people?” Jeongin counters, crossing his arms. “That seems pretty important to me.”

Hyunjin groans and hugs his friend, placing his forehead on his shoulder. “I know but… I just can’t get my brain to cooperate.”

Jeongin pats a hand on Hyunjin’s back and hums in compassion, pausing a moment before speaking up. 

“Remember when you confessed to Seungmin and he freaked out and you two basically didn’t talk for like a week because Seungmin needed time to think? Right before Chan, Changbin and Jisung joined us.” 

“Of course I remember,” Hyunjin huffs, muffled by Jeongin’s shirt. “I dreamt about it last night— well, the part up to my confession.”

“Yeah, well, then you also remember that we went to steal some suppressants with the two of us, without Seungmin, because you two weren’t able to communicate properly without it being incredibly awkward and Seungmin was not present with his mind at all, also because he needed the suppressants the most.” Jeongin places his hands on Hyunjin’s shoulders and gently pushes him back so that he can look him in the eyes. “And even though you were also absent with your mind and it was tough, we succeeded.”

Hyunjin presses his lips together and shrugs. “Yeah, but that was easy. We steal suppressants all the time yet still we didn’t even do that well—”

Jeongin shushes him with a long finger, shaking his head. “Don’t be such a negative nancy, ‘Jin. We broke into a new place because the other place ran out of suppressants for omegas and they never care to restock before they run out. It had better security, and we only did fine because you came up with a plan on the spot. If you can do that , you can do this.” 

Hyunjin sighs and relents. Jeongin is right, he needs to get rid of this negative mindset and get thinking. Said is easier than done, though.

“Just think about that, or take inspiration from past scams you did with Seungmin,” Jeongin tells him as he squeezes Hyunjin’s shoulders. “If you want Seungmin’s input so badly, just channel him! Just think about past missions! You know Seungmin like no one else, but even by yourself I know you can do this, Hyunjin.”

Jeongin’s words finally manage to fill Hyunjin with some confidence and determination to do this, to start brainstorming, because Jeongin is right, he can just take inspiration from past scams they’ve done, he can just pretend that Seungmin is there with him to give him ideas. 

“You’re totally right, Innie, thank you.” He hugs his friend tightly and Jeongin groans in fake annoyance. 

“I know I’m right,” he chuckles and pats Hyunjin’s back. “Now go make sure we get your boyfriend and our friend back.”

“Hyunjin, can you change to your wolf form?” Jeongin asks him as they’re running away from the pharmacy. 

Hyunjin is limping and Jeongin is supporting him, but they aren’t going too fast, and they are being chased at the moment. Usually they change into their wolf form after escaping because then it takes longer to recognize them and they’re faster that way, but not if Hyunjin is limping. 

“I don’t think that will go well,” Hyunjin grits out, groaning at the pain in his ankle. 

“Damnit— I am supposed to protect you and prevent you from getting injured,” Jeongin berates himself softly before he pats his back. “Jump on my back and hold on tightly, okay?”

Hyunjin nods, understanding what he means, and jumps on Jeongin’s back as soon as he shifts to his wolf form and starts sprinting. 

“It wasn’t your fault, Innie,” Hyunjin whispers into the fur as he holds on tightly. “You couldn’t have predicted that someone happened to see me and that they would trip me.”

Jeongin growls in return and starts to run even faster. Hyunjin looks back to see if they’re still being chased and he lets out a breath of relief when it looks like they’ve been able to shake them off. Hyunjin is impressed by Jeongin’s speed and strength, he’s been exercising a lot lately in order to be able to contribute to their missions more. Hyunjin already thought he did fine, but Jeongin seems to be enjoying the exercise, so that is only a plus. 

Once they get back to their hideout, Jeongin changes back to his human form and helps Hyunjin to their makeshift infirmary. Hyunjin’s pants are torn and he has a nasty graze on his knee together with that he probably sprained his ankle, but it’s not too bad. 

“Ugh, I hate this. Seungmin is way better at it,” Jeongin complains under his breath, grimacing as he gets something to clean Hyunjin’s knee. Before he can properly start cleaning, though, Seungmin knocks on the door and hesitantly peeks inside. 

Jeongin turns around and Hyunjin perks up, his heart rate picking up as he sees Seungmin’s drawn together eyebrows as he examines the room. His eyes widen once his gaze falls on Hyunjin’s knee and he rushes forward. 

“What happened? Are you two okay?” he asks as he inspects Hyunjin and Jeongin for any other injuries. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. They made Hyunjin trip, though, so he sprained his ankle and grazed his knee on the pavement,” Jeongin explains, gesturing to Hyunjin’s legs. “The usual pharmacy ran out of suppressants so we had to find another one.”

Seungmin’s eyes widen and Hyunjin smells a spike of worry in his scent, his scent stronger since he hasn’t taken suppressants in a while. 

“Did you go to the one with higher security?” Seungmin looks disapproving, biting his lip in concern, scowling when Jeongin nods. “Why? What if you got caught?”

“What were we supposed to do otherwise, then?” Jeongin asks instead of answering. “Waiting for a restock takes weeks and we don’t have any means to comfortably help someone through their heat may it occur.” He takes a breath between his sentences, and it seems like he isn’t done yet. “Hyunjin came up with an adequate plan on the fly but yeah, it all would’ve been better if you were there but you two aren’t talking so we had to make do with what we have.”

Hyunjin grimaces at Jeongin’s accusing tone and he hopes that Seungmin doesn’t feel too bad about it, because it’s not really his fault that they aren’t talking, he couldn’t have predicted that Hyunjin would suddenly confess his feelings to him. Seungmin presses his lips together and softly apologizes.

“It’s not your fault, Minnie— Seungmin,” Hyunjin assures and Seungmin ducks his head in embarrassment. “It’s mine—”

“It isn’t,” Seungmin cuts him off, his head flying up to look at Hyunjin, whose stomach flips. “I— I’m sorry for being so difficult and absent for the past week. I promise that I’m trying to get myself together as soon as possible.”

Hyunjin opens his mouth to say something but Jeongin beats him to it. 

“We know that, Min, but maybe talking to Hyunjin would help,” he says. “You can also try talking to me again, but I really think that this is best solved by the two of you, and not by the two of you only talking to me.”

Seungmin sighs, his shoulders slumping a little. “You’re right.” He holds out his hands to take the cleaning cloth and first aid kit from Jeongin. “I’ll take care of Hyunjin’s knee. Thank you two for getting the suppressants and getting back safely.”

Jeongin gives him an encouraging smile and Hyunjin an encouraging pat on his leg before he tells them that he’ll leave them to it and that they can call him over if they need him. He then leaves the infirmary, leaving Hyunjin and Seungmin in a tense silence as the latter cleans Hyunjin's wound. 

"You—" "Look—" 

They both stop and look at each other in surprise. 

"Uhm, you can go first, if you want," Seungmin says, focusing on the wound again, but his eyes are wavering, a sign of nervousness. 

"I just wanted to say that you don't have to do this— patch me up and talk to me— if you don't want to," Hyunjin begins softly, leaning back on his arms. "I know that Innie means well, but don't let him force you into things if you're not ready for it yet— don't let me do that either." 

Seungmin shakes his head and looks up again, but he can’t hold Hyunjin's gaze, eyes flickering between Hyunjin and elsewhere. 

"I won't. I— I should've talked to you more, though, I shouldn't have let you wait this long without saying anything." Seungmin sounds regretful, and it pains Hyunjin to hear it, even though he wishes that Seungmin talked to him sooner as well. 

"It's okay, you— you probably weren't ready," Hyunjin waves off, flinching at the sting of the disinfectant. 

"I wasn't— at least, I thought so, but maybe talking to you would've helped," Seungmin says softly as he moves on to putting a bandage on Hyunjin’s knee. "I may not have been ready to give you any definitive answer, but I could've given you my thoughts at least." 

Hyunjin presses his lips together sadly as he hears Seungmin out. It seems like Seungmin really had a difficult time with Hyunjin's confession, and he wishes that he could've helped, but he didn’t want to push Seungmin. He hopes that Seungmin will open up now, though, and he doesn't even care anymore if Seungmin returns his feelings or not, he just wants to be his friend again, talk to him, be there for him and have Seungmin be comfortable in being there for him too. 

“Do you want to share your thoughts now?” he asks, not wanting to force Seungmin into anything yet hoping that Seungmin will talk to him now.

Seungmin finishes up taking care of Hyunjin’s knee and putting some muscle ointment on his ankle as he nods. After he puts away the first aid kit, Hyunjin makes room for him to sit on the infirmary bed too, and Seungmin joins him with a pensive look. 

“Where to start,” he sighs, looking down at his hands that are folded on his lap. “I— well, I’ll start at the beginning. I was overwhelmed when you told me about your feelings, so I reacted confusingly, contradictory almost— much like my feelings were.”

Hyunjin nods and hums to show that he’s listening. He has the urge to hold Seungmin’s hand, but he thinks that it might be better to give him some space as he’s talking. 

“I…” Seungmin trails off and bites his lip in hesitation, taking a shaky breath before he says, “I do have feelings for you too, Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin gasps softly, his heart starting to pound faster in surprise, but before he can even process it, Seungmin continues. 

“I have had them for quite a while, but I haven’t let myself feel them since we started doing missions together, acting like a couple and stuff… I didn’t want to push my feelings onto you when doing missions, so I just stuffed them away.” He looks at Hyunjin now, an apologetic expression on his face. “And when you told me, suddenly the seal I put on my feelings burst open again and I didn’t know how to handle it. I didn’t know— I still don’t fully know what kind of impact it’ll have on our missions, or on us in general— I mean, we can’t really have a normal relationship—”

“I don’t care,” Hyunjin blurts out, wincing at himself, but he can’t just leave it at ‘I don’t care’. “I mean, I know that we can’t have a normal relationship, but I don’t need one. We don’t live a normal life to begin with, but we still survive, we still make it work with the three of us. If we both want this, and both put in a bit of effort, I think we can make a relationship work too. I’m open to just trying it out and seeing what works, maybe even deciding that it doesn’t work.”

Hyunjin realizes that he’s rambling a bit, and he apologizes, saying that he doesn’t mean to pressure Seungmin into anything, and that he can still have his own, different, opinion on it.

“No, you’re totally right,” Seungmin sighs, but his sigh isn’t heavy, it feels more relieved, and he places a hand on Hyunjin’s, sending tingles through Hyunjin’s nerves. “I was all up in my head and the solution was just talking to you. I do want to try to be in a relationship with you…” he admits and shyly looks down. “And I will try to communicate with you better.”

Hyunjin smiles softly, feeling all too fond and giddy for his friend, his chest filled with warmth as he uses his free hand to cup Seungmin’s jaw and make him look at him. Seungmin’s eyes sparkle in anticipation, his lips slightly parted and his cheeks rosy, and Hyunjin thinks he looks stunning . 

“You’re fine, I get that you felt overwhelmed and needed some time,” he says, gently brushing a thumb over the soft skin of Seungmin’s warm cheek. “You’re always great at communicating, so I know we’ll be fine.”

Seungmin leans into the touch with a sweet smile and places his free hand on the hand that’s on his cheek. “I hope I can make it up a little for making you wait.”

“You don’t have to—” Hyunjin shakes his head but stops before a cheeky grin grows on his face. “Well, maybe a kiss would make it all better.”

Seungmin snorts, his cheeks reddening as he lets go of Hyunjin’s hands and cups his cheeks with a bashful smile instead. “Sure, I can do that.”

Hyunjin closes his eyes and leans forward until his lips find Seungmin’s soft ones. It’s a chaste brush of lips at first, but when they chase each other for a second kiss, they move their lips more confidently in harmony, Hyunjin’s heart feeling like it's bursting out of his chest as he tilts his head, their noses brush, and he dives in for another kiss.

They kiss on that infirmary bed until Jeongin comes to check on them, wanting to ask if they’re actually talking, but as soon as he opens the door and sees his friends kissing, he screeches and Hyunjin falls off the bed in surprise, making all of them laugh. 

Hyunjin makes a lot of progress in thinking of multiple scenarios to infiltrate the prison as he thinks back to his and Seungmin's previous scams. It's difficult to adapt it to only one person, but Chan also offered to help if Hyunjin wanted and would be comfortable with that, so maybe he'll have to do that. He has written down many ideas, but he doesn't know what to do yet, he really needs it to be an airtight plan, get everyone in and enough time to look around, find out where Seungmin is, and get him and maybe other prisoners out. 

Once they get together to share what they’ve found and help each other out, Felix and Minho tell them that there are no digital blueprints of the prison available or hackable anywhere on the web, only some pictures of the outside, which can help Minho and Jisung find another way in, but they still need to know what’s inside to be able to actually get Seungmin out. It reminds Hyunjin of another time they had to do a sort of scout of the building before making a move, and he is suddenly struck with inspiration.

“Oh! We can do the rich investor scam!” Hyunjin says and Jeongin gasps in recognition. “You know? The one we did to expose that medicine manufacturer that was purposely messing with their suppressants.”

“Right!” The rest seems to remember the scam that Seungmin and Hyunjin came up with now too and they agree that it’s a good plan. 

“So then we need an investor— last time it was Seungmin, so do you want to do it now, Chan?” Hyunjin asks, and Chan nods, telling him that if he’s comfortable with that too, he’ll do it. “Great. Minho, Felix, you will have to make a profile for him, make Chan believable for if they do a background check. What else do we need?”

“Well, I know that their security system is very good, so preferably we need to infiltrate their systems from the inside,” Felix reasons out loud. “That might be difficult if we don’t know where their server room is, though.”

“Wait—” Minho slaps a hand on Felix’s shoulder as he seems to get an idea. “We saw on the surveillance cameras in the area that they’re doing construction nearby, right? Maybe Jisung and I can use that as a way to separately get in and find the server room.”

“Genius!” 

Like that, they brainstorm and manage to get quite far with cooking up at least the scouting mission, and it’s a nice distraction from the fact that Seungmin isn’t with them. In Hyunjin’s mind, Seungmin contributed to their plan— he was the one that partly came up with the scam the first time they did it. 

That evening, Chan calls the prison to make an appointment to check out the perimeter and see if it’s worth their investment or not, and Hyunjin feels a little hope that they can do this for the first time since yesterday. 

His teamwork with Chan will probably be less smooth than his teamwork with Seungmin, but that is purely because his teamwork with Seungmin is just unparalleled. Hyunjin had a blast acting like Seungmin's "dumb omega boyfriend" even though it was also pretty draining and tough to perpetrate a stereotype, and he's sure that he'll do fine with Chan too, but he probably won't be able to be as convincing as with Seungmin. On the other hand, though, he'll probably also be less distracted by Chan than he is by Seungmin, he is still Hyunjin after all, and he can only do so much regarding blocking his feelings for his boyfriend when he's right there with him. 

A few days of preparation later, they finally get to the day of their appointment to check out the prison perimeters. Hyunjin managed to keep his mind off Seungmin and focus on the mission for the most part, but it was already becoming more difficult and he was becoming more restless as the days became more filled with waiting than with preparing. He is still restless and a tad nervous today, even though he has been doing this for years now, but now Seungmin’s safety is on the line, and he has never felt such personal importance in a mission before. 

“Hey, are you okay? Are you up for it?” Chan asks, laying a comforting hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder.

They’re in the car on the way to the prison, Changbin is driving, Hyunjin and Chan are in the back, and Jisung is hidden in the trunk. Changbin is pretending to be their driver, and they’re sneaking Jisung in, placing the car in such a way that Jisung can sneak to the back of the prison without being caught by any cameras. There are fewer cameras at the back of the prison because there are no windows or doors there, and there’s a big sturdy fence around it, and they hypothesize that there are no cells near the back, so there are no cameras because there’s little risk of prisoners escaping via the back. Minho, who has already joined the construction workers near the prison will pretend to go for a leak behind the prison and then help Jisung get in— there is one air shaft vent at the back of the prison a few meters up, and Jisung wouldn’t be able to reach it alone so Minho will lift Jisung onto his shoulders and guide him through removing the ventilation grille so that he can get in (and Jisung is agile enough to get out himself). 

“Yeah, I’m up for it,” Hyunjin answers with a half-genuine smile. “I’m just nervous. I want to do it right.”

“You will,” Chan assures him, squeezing his shoulder. “You have done this so many times, and you will be fine if you don’t put too much pressure on yourself. We also all understand if it all brings up too many emotions and you’d rather help behind the scenes with Felix.”

Hyunjin shakes his head. “No. I’ll go crazy if I’m not actively helping. I can get over myself, I know I can. I have to, for Seungmin.”

Chan’s eyes soften and he pulls Hyunjin in for a brief hug, his scent calming Hyunjin down as always. “I know you can do it too, Hyunjin. We’ll get Seungmin out.”

Hyunjin nods, but he also reminds himself that this is just the scouting mission, and they shouldn’t rush things, even though he wants Seungmin back right now . He takes a deep breath to calm himself as they arrive at the prison and they double check everything again— whether their comms are working, whether they know the plan, their characters, and the back up plan. Okay, Hyunjin. Character. He tries to flip that switch in his brain to get into character as Changbin opens the car door for them, but it shouldn’t be too hard since he already played this character once. He clings to Chan’s arm and puts on a goofy smile, but he still feels conflicted as to whether he should imagine that Chan is Seungmin, or if that will only bring up mixed feelings that will definitely show on his face. He decides against it eventually, hoping that his acting will be good enough (and it’s not like Chan isn’t lovable at all, so it’s not too difficult). 

“Greetings, Mr. Bang,” someone greets them. “I’m Kim Yoosung, we spoke on the phone.”

“Yes, right, nice to meet you in person.” Chan shakes Yoosung’s hand as Hyunjin waves. 

“Hi, I’m also Mr. Bang— well, soon to be at least!” he says in an exaggerated voice, giggling at himself as he shows off his fake engagement ring. “But you can—”

“Right. You brought your omega, as you said,” Yoosung cuts in, obviously not interested in whatever Hyunjin had to say, and Hyunjin bites back a scowl at the mention of ‘your omega’.

“Yeah, he gets very clingy and doesn’t like it when I go work without him,” Chan explains, playing along with acting like Hyunjin isn’t even there so as to not cause suspicion. “But don’t worry, he usually isn’t too bothersome.”

Hyunjin grins and nuzzles his nose against the side of Chan’s head, pretending to be flattered by the ‘compliment’. 

“That’s good, otherwise we’ll have to lock him up with the rest of the omegas here!” Yoosung laughs and slaps Chan on the arm before beckoning the two of them inside. “Let’s go inside.”

What an asshole. Hyunjin can’t hold back a scowl, but it’s okay since no one is looking at them right now. He then tugs at Chan’s arm and puts on his sweet and innocent voice again. 

“Are they going to lock me up here?” he asks with a pout. 

“He was just joking, sweetheart, don’t worry your pretty little head about it,” Chan assures as they get inside and are searched for any weapons or other devices— luckily not checking their ears for comms that are hidden by their hair. “Hey, be easy on my fiancé, okay? Only I’m allowed to touch him like that.”

Hyunjin internally cringes at the stereotypical behavior, but he’s glad that the guys searching him ease the touching a little. 

“Yeah, only my Bangie is allowed to touch me,” Hyunjin repeats, blinking fakely innocently, and he hears Yoosung sigh— good. 

“Let’s just move on,” he orders, and the guys let Hyunjin through without discovering the button camera on his shirt with which Felix can map out the prison. “This omega is too dumb to form a threat anyway,” Yoosung adds under his breath, and Hyunjin internally smirks. Yeah, that’s what we want you to think, and for once I’m thankful for the prejudices. 

The first part of the mission, getting inside without being caught, is successful, but they still have to see if they can map out most of the prison, find out where Seungmin is, and have Jisung and Minho successfully find and infiltrate the server room. 

The tour is pretty boring in Hyunjin’s opinion, Chan just does all the work, asking questions about security (so that Felix knows what they’re dealing with), and Hyunjin just has to sometimes make some dumb comments like ‘Bangie once bought this for me, he’s sweet, right?’ when he sees something that looks like a wardrobe (but obviously isn’t), or ‘Do they serve three-course dinners in the cafeteria?’ . Yoosung looks mildly annoyed with him, but that’s the point because his annoyance will cloud his ability to be suspicious. 

When it seems like the tour is almost done, and they have only seen the cells on camera footage, Hyunjin thinks it’s time to go explore some more on his own.

“Bangie…” he begins, pouting at Chan and putting on his best puppy eyes. 

“What is it, love?” Chan asks, turning to him with an eyebrow raised. 

“I need to use the bathroom.” He blinks at his “fiancé” and hears Yoosung sigh.

“Okay, well, we have a tour to finish, so you can go alone, right, sweetie?” Chan says and Hyunjin whines. “Come on, do it for me? We’ll meet back at the car, yeah?”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Yoosung immediately agrees, exactly according to plan. “It would only be a hassle to wait, we don’t have too much of the tour left anyway. I’ll get someone to show you the bathroom.”

Shit. That isn’t according to plan, but maybe he’ll be left free to explore after using the bathroom. He can’t really say that he can find the bathroom himself, that wouldn’t fit his character, and it wouldn’t fit Chan’s either. Unfortunately, when Yoosung gets someone that looks like a guard, he tells him to show Hyunjin to the bathroom and then bring him back outside. 

“I'll miss you, Bangie!” he calls after Chan as the guard guides him to the bathroom. 

"That's my fiancé," he tells the guard. "He's handsome, isn't he?" 

The guard gives a meaningless grunt in response, and Hyunjin thinks that he might have to summon his most annoying side. 

“I know right?” he sighs infatuatedly. “And Bangie isn’t only super handsome, he’s also super sweet, and funny, and also rich,” he chuckles at himself with a high pitch. “Oh, and don’t get me started on how strong he is. He carries me like I weigh nothing, and in bed— ”

The guard clears his throat loudly, interrupting Hyunjin just as Hyunjin had hoped, and he announces that the bathroom is just ahead. 

“Ah, you’re not coming with me, right?” Hyunjin asks and the guard rapidly shakes his head, telling him ‘definitely not’. “Okay good, that would be awkward, right? And we wouldn’t want my Bangie to get jealous.”

The guard holds back a sigh and hums absentmindedly, obviously slightly uncomfortable with the conversation. 

“Anyway, I’ll go use the bathroom now— promise me no peeking!” Hyunjin points a stern finger at the guard, clenching his jaw to hold himself back from cringing. “Or— do you still want to hear the story about Bangie in the bedroom before that? I can hold my pee—”

“No!— Please, no,” the guard snaps. “Just use the bathroom.”

Hyunjin snickers and lightly slaps the guard’s arm. “Okay, whatever you say. Maybe I’ll tell you after.” 

Once Hyunjin is inside the bathroom and on the toilet, checking that there are no cameras, he lets out a big sigh and takes a second to compose himself after the embarrassment that he just had to go through. He kind of feels bad for the guard, but he hopes that he managed to shake him off with this act and that he can explore the prison by himself and hopefully find Seungmin, or at least a clue to where he is. 

He actually uses the bathroom and heads out when he feels like he’s ready to say incredibly embarrassing things to get rid of the guard if needed. He’s not dreading it or anything, he’s fully ready to do way worse things to get Seungmin back, not only because Seungmin would do the same— he already did something similar by sacrificing himself for the team and especially Hyunjin when they were found out while stealing government secrets— but also because Hyunjin loves Seungmin. 

“I’m back!” Hyunjin announces cheerfully when he exits the bathroom, seeing the guard’s face fall. “Now I can tell you—”

“You know what?” the guard cuts in. “I just remembered that I have to help a coworker out. The front entrance where you came from is just through the hall, then at the end you go right, then the second one left, just tell the doorman that you came with Mr. Bang, he’ll let you out, and from then on there are signs pointing to the exit, you can’t miss it.”

“Okay! I think I can do that!” Hyunjin smiles brightly, but the guard doesn’t seem convinced. “Thank you Mr. guard!”

“No problem,” he waves off. “Just remember through the hall, then right, then the second left, yeah? Can you repeat that?” 

“Through the hall, then right… and then second left!” Hyunjin claps at himself. “See? I can do it!” 

The guard scoffs and sends him off, and Hyunjin begins walking down the hall as the guard said, remembering that they came this way earlier. Once he turns right, he stops and takes a good look around, trying to assess which direction is both the best to go in and the most likely to have gotten lost in, might the guard or someone else find him. He decides to go on and take the third left, which takes him to a hall that looks like it’s for things like storage and staff locker rooms. Here he won’t be able to do something useful, but he walks to the end of the hall and looks around for anything out of the ordinary anyway. When he doesn’t find anything, he walks back and turns right again, now walking past where he came from, pretending to be confused in case he stumbles upon someone. 

Hyunjin internally whoops when he comes across double doors that seem to be leading to holding cells. He pushes the doors open and indeed sees holding cells line the walls, and Hyunjin holds his breath for a moment as he subtly looks around for Seungmin, preparing himself to remain calm if he sees Seungmin, and he hears Felix whoop in his comm, but he can’t really talk back, that would give him away. His hands twitch and itch to get the extra comm out of his ear and hold it in his hand to subtly throw at his boyfriend when he sees him, but he is able to stop himself, he can’t look too suspicious and he knows that he will let his hands nervously play around with the comm if he takes it out of his ear— hell, he doesn’t even know if he’ll find Seungmin here. The omegas in the holding cells all look at him curiously, but they don’t say anything, fortunately. 

“Oh gosh, seems like I’m lost,” he mutters to himself, hoping that Seungmin might recognize his voice, but not wanting to alarm any guards might they be around the corner. 

He keeps walking slowly, checking out all the cells, but still not finding his boyfriend. His step falters for a second when he suddenly hears soft humming and tapping. At first, he thinks it’s just someone being bored in one of the cells, but then he unmistakably recognizes the voice. That’s Seungmin— he realizes, and his eyes widen out of impulse, but he quickly schools his expression again and focuses on the tapping. It must mean something, even if he didn’t hear Hyunjin just now, Seungmin is smart enough to hum and tap more often so as to not make anyone suspicious. 

Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap. Clap clap tap. Tap tap tap—

“There he goes again with his concert.” A voice that is not Seungmin sounds and Hyunjin slows his step a bit. It could be a prisoner or a guard, but Hyunjin shouldn’t be too careless if he wants to get close to Seungmin, because he doesn’t estimate his chances to be very high if there is more than one guard. 

The tapping faltered for a second as the voice sounded, but now it’s continuing, and Hyunjin pays extra attention, slowing his pace even more in order to not reach the corner and have to turn and possibly face a guard just yet. He needs to know what Seungmin is communicating to him in morse code first. 

Tap tap clap clap clap. Clap clap tap. Tap tap clap. Tap clap. Tap clap tap. Clap tap tap. Tap tap tap. Tap tap clap clap clap. ‘Two guards, two’, Hyunjin deciphers, and he internally curses. This probably means he won’t be able to sneak the comm to Seungmin. He’ll be lucky if he even gets to see him. 

Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap. Clap clap tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. Tap. Clap tap clap tap. Tap tap clap. Tap clap tap. Tap tap. Clap. Clap tap clap clap. Clap tap clap tap. Tap. Tap clap tap tap. Tap clap tap tap. ‘High-security cell’. Shit. Hyunjin’s heart drops and he tries to wrack his brain for anything to get that comm to Seungmin, because if the cell has high security, they will need Seungmin's inside input. 

If he stops walking it'll be suspicious too if they decide to check the surveillance cameras if they suspect Chan or Hyunjin or anyone else of something, so he just decides to turn the corner and hope that with his dumb omega act he can get close enough to the cell to somehow get Seungmin that comm. 

"Hey!" one of the two guards at the end of the hallway calls out. "What are you doing here?" 

Hyunjin jumps in surprise and holds his hands up in surrender. "I'm lost! Can you please help me? Please don't lock me up! Bangie said that it was a joke!" 

One of the guards approaches him as Hyunjin walks as far towards Seungmin's cell as he can until the guard stops him a few cells too early. Hyunjin has to use his full focus to not let his nerves and racing thoughts show when he's supposed to be the empty-headed omega. 

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" the guard asks Hyunjin. 

Hyunjin pouts and tilts his head, blinking innocently. "I'm Sam Bang— well, soon to be." He giggles and shows his ring again. "I'm here with my fiancé, Bangie, and we got a tour but I had to go to the bathroom and a kind man showed me there, but I forgot how to get to the car, where I'd meet my Bangie again, so I got lost. Can you bring me back to my Bangie again?" 

The guard pulls a face that Hyunjin interprets as disgust, surprise, and maybe a bit of suspicion. 

"Right, Yoosung said a rich investor would stop by today," the other guard says, and the guard in front of Hyunjin seems to relax a little. 

"Yeah! That's my Bangie!" Hyunjin claps happily and the guard rolls his eyes. 

"Okay, I'll show you out. You said that you were supposed to meet outside again?" 

Hyunjin nods rapidly as he's still trying to figure out if he can still get close to Seungmin somehow. He can’t really focus, though, he has never been good at thinking fast.

"Yeah, it was, uhm… right at the end of the hallway, then…" He trails off when Seungmin suddenly starts humming and tapping again, and Hyunjin’s heart jumps into his throat. What is his plan? 

"Oh? What's that?" He curiously turns to the cell and slowly starts walking over, hoping that they'll let him. "It sounds pretty." 

Unfortunately, the guard catches him by the arm and stops him before he can reach the cell. 

"Don't mind him, let's bring you to your fiancé." 

"Right! My Bangie!" Hyunjin tries to hide his deep disappointment with a cheerful voice. "I already miss him so much. " He emphasizes his words for Seungmin to hear, and there's a slight tremble in his voice at which he winces, but the guard doesn't seem to notice. 

As they walk down the hallway back, Hyunjin focuses on the tapping again, wondering if Seungmin wants to say something or if it's just nonsense, because before it were just random claps and taps, probably to distract from the fact that they’re using morse code.

Tap tap. Tap clap tap tap. Clap clap clap. Tap tap tap clap. Tap. Clap tap clap clap. Clap clap clap. Tap tap clap. 'I love you'— shit. Hyunjin fakes a sneeze to hide the rush of emotions surging through him and excuse the watery eyes he's getting. 

"Whoops! Bless me!" He chuckles awkwardly, his heart trying to pound out of his chest. "Maybe I'll ask Bangie to invest in some more cleaners."

His acting is getting less convincing both because of his disappointment and because of Seungmin’s message, but the guard doesn’t seem to pay much attention to what he’s saying, just dragging Hyunjin along to the door the previous guard meant to send him to. The doorman lets them through, and Hyunjin is glad that they reach the exit quickly so that he can lose the act soon. Chan and Yoosung aren’t back yet, fortunately. It would be best if Yoosung doesn’t get to hear too much about Hyunjin's shenanigans.

“Thank you so much, Mr. guard!” Hyunjin thanks the guard. “Now my Bangie won’t have to worry about me.”

“Sure. Next time don’t wander off, okay?” the guard tells him and Hyunjin nods before the guard goes back to the prison, just as Chan and Yoosung come out.

“Bangie! I missed you!” he runs over to Chan and all but jumps into his arms, Chan catching him with a laugh as Hyunjin buries his head in the crook of Chan’s shoulder for a second and lets his scent calm him down.

The guard looks back briefly before continuing back inside, and Yoosung doesn’t seem to notice that it’s a different guard than he sent with Hyunjin in the first place, which is good. 

“I missed you too, baby.” Chan smiles and pats Hyunjin’s head. “Were you okay without me?”

Hyunjin pouts and shrugs. He should be honest for Yoosung to hear, because if he finds out that Hyunjin was wandering off and he didn’t say anything, that’ll be a dead giveaway. “Well, I got a little lost finding my way back here, but luckily a guard helped me!”

Yoosung and Chan frown. “Didn’t the guard that showed you the bathroom bring you here?” Yoosung asks. 

Hyunjin shakes his head. “He showed me to the bathroom, and I was telling him all about Bangie, but then he said he had to go somewhere else.” He puts on an exaggerated pout. “He did tell me how to get here, but I still got lost… It was a shame he had to go though, I couldn’t even tell him about how strong my Bangie is!” 

Yoosung gasps as he seems to connect the dots and understand why the guard left Hyunjin alone. Chan chuckles and fondly shakes his head.

“Oh sweetie, you’re so cute,” he says and kisses Hyunjin’s cheek. “Go wait in the car for me while I finish things up with Mr. Kim, yeah?” 

Hyunjin nods and kisses Chan’s cheek back, waving at Yoosung before walking to the car and waiting for Changbin to get out and open the door for him. Once he’s in and he sees that Yoosung's back is turned to the car, Hyunjin lets out a long and drawn out sigh. 

“I heard most of it through the comms because Jisung and Minho were done early, but is it true that you almost found Seungmin?” Changbin asks curiously. “Felix said you found the holding cells?”

Hyunjin nods and puts his head in his hands. “I— He managed to communicate in morse code, and I almost got the comm to him, but I failed.”

“What?” Jisung sounds from the trunk and through his comm. “If anything you succeeded! You found Seungmin pretty quickly, and there was nothing you could do about the guard.”

“I know, but— but…” Hyunjin sighs. “Seungmin said his cell has high security, so I just feel like it would be beneficial to get that comm to him, and maybe if I had thought better I could’ve done that—”

“None of that,” Changbin turns around in the driver’s seat with a stern look. “You did as well as you could, and none of us would’ve done better. I know that you want Seungmin back as soon as possible, we all do, but we have to be patient.”

Hyunjin groans. He knows that, but his brain has been all scrambled ever since Seungmin was taken. He just wants Seungmin back by his side so badly. 

“Changbin is right,” Minho says through the comm. “Even if you could’ve gotten that comm to Seungmin without anyone noticing— which already would’ve been an impressive feat with those two guards and probably constant surveillance on his cell— Seungmin probably wouldn't be able to communicate with us a lot.”

“But we would’ve been able to—” Hyunjin stops when Changbin gets out of the car to open the door for Chan, and he gets himself ready to get back into his role for the last time, even though Yoosung already seems to be heading back to the prison. “Bangie!” 

“Hi, baby,” Chan chuckles as he gets in, but his face becomes serious as soon as Changbin closes the car door. “Hey, you did well okay?”

Hyunjin looks down as he presses his lips together, all the adrenaline catching up to him. He slumps forward and leans his forehead against the driver’s seat as he takes a shaky breath. 

“I just want to tell him that we’re coming to get him, and…” He squeezes his eyes shut, swallowing away a lump in his throat before he whispers, “and tell him that I love him too.”

Felix gasps in the comm and Hyunjin hears Jisung move somewhere in the trunk in surprise. 

“He said that?” Jeongin exclaims through the comms. “Also in morse code?”

“Yeah,” Hyunjin murmurs, his heart aching and his stomach feeling heavy. Chan rubs a hand over his back as Hyunjin tries to take deep breaths, his knuckles becoming white with how hard he’s squeezing his shirt. Why am I always so emotional? “Seungmin probably— probably meant it to encourage us, but here I am— not able to keep myself level-headed.”

“It’s okay, Jinnie, you’re allowed to let it all out now. We finished the mission well, and we should have enough to cook up a plan to rescue Seungmin, especially since Felix should have full access to their systems thanks to Jisung and Minho,” Changbin tells him as they’re driving back. “And we know where they’re keeping Seungmin, which is very useful too.”

Hyunjin nods against the seat, calming down a little. Now that they’ve come so close to Seungmin, he wants to do this as quickly and as well as possible, because he still doesn’t know how Seungmin is, if he’s injured (probably), or if they’re treating him well (probably not). 

The rest asks Chan about how it went with him, and the alpha tells them that it was very difficult to not lash out at Yoosung when he started shit-talking Hyunjin and omegas as soon as he left for the bathroom, but Hyunjin tunes the conversation out.

The whole ride he thinks about Seungmin’s words. I love you. It isn’t the first time they’ve said it to each other, but this is the first time that Hyunjin has gotten this emotional about it, because the first time it was him who said it first, and never before he wasn’t able to say it back, except for now, which is another reason he wants Seungmin back as soon as possible. Hyunjin also wonders what went on in Seungmin’s mind as he signaled those words, because he could say anything, but he decided to say those words, and thinking about it makes a single tear slide down Hyunjin’s cheek. Don't worry Minnie, we're coming to free you soon. I love you. 

—

The guards next to Seungmin’s cell are quietly talking amongst each other as Seungmin is sitting on the cell bed, anxiously listening if he can hear the doors at the end of the hall open. He has been focusing on that all day, because he heard the guards talk about a rich investor stopping by today. That must be the team, it’s too much of a coincidence otherwise, and he and Hyunjin have done the rich investor scam once to be able to stop by the target building multiple times. First, to check out the area (Seungmin imagines that blueprints of the prison aren’t available online anywhere), and then work towards their ultimate goal. 

“No concert today?” One of the guards mocks, and Seungmin ignores him as always, keeping his focus on listening for the doors opening or any other unusual sounds. 

Seungmin is thankful that he hasn’t had an interrogation in a few days because it means that the pain from the last one has faded so he can focus on listening better. Because their team stole government secrets, they want to make Seungmin talk and give up the identities of his team in exchange for that they don’t prosecute him, but when Seungmin refused that and refused to even give his own name, they started using other methods, like beating him, to get him to talk. The beatings aren’t too bad, because they’re still a government facility, but bruises all over your body, a bleeding nose, and some cuts that stay barely treated aren’t too nice for Seungmin’s concentration. 

Seungmin barely manages to stop himself from jolting when he hears a faint sound similar to opening doors. The guards have stopped talking to each other, but they don’t seem to have heard the sound, so Seungmin doesn’t know if he should feel relieved that they didn’t notice or scared that he misheard. He keeps his ears open, and contemplates starting signaling, but maybe he should wait just a tad more, so that it doesn’t look like he’s signaling because he heard the doors open. 

“Oh gosh…” a very faint voice sounds, and the guards look up for a second, seeming to think that it’s just an inmate talking to themselves, which happens more often, but Seungmin knows better. He recognizes that voice from kilometers away, and his heart leaps when he hears it. Hyunjin.  

Seungmin is glad that he is already keeping his head down and mostly faced away from any cameras out of habit, otherwise they might see his eyes widen and him swallow in nervousness. His hands are getting clammy, but he must communicate something to Hyunjin. He waits for a second more to think of what to say before he starts humming and randomly clapping and tapping, giving Hyunjin some time to recognize what he’s trying to do before he starts signaling the message that he wants to. First of all, he should warn Hyunjin about the two guards near his cell, and second of all, he should warn him about the high security of his cell, that he’s under strict supervision. 

“There he goes again with his concert,” a guard sighs as he always does, and Seungmin internally curses because he was interrupted and he has to start over again after faltering.

Come on, Seungmin. Stay calm, don’t show that you’re affected, he thinks as he keeps on humming, tapping, and clapping. Once he’s done conveying what he wants to, he transitions into randomly clapping and tapping until suddenly one of the guards stands up and calls out,

“Hey! What are you doing here?” 

Seungmin can’t stop himself from tensing in surprise, his heart going into overdrive even though he knows that Hyunjin most likely has a well thought-out excuse for wandering to the holding cells. 

“I’m lost! Can you please help me? Please don't lock me up! Bangie said that it was a joke!” Hyunjin squeaks in response. 

Ah, the dumb omega boyfriend role, Seungmin thinks. It’s a very cringy and frustrating role to play, because it plays into people’s stereotypes about omegas and they’re portraying an image of an omega that they want to abolish, but it is very effective (unfortunately and shockingly), and Seungmin thinks that it's a good idea for now too, considering the people in this prison are very rude towards omegas. Hyunjin can play the role very well, but Seungmin also knows that it definitely isn’t his favorite role to play because Hyunjin has been called dumb and only good for his looks many times during high school. 

The guard asks Hyunjin some questions, and it seems like he’s keeping Hyunjin away from Seungmin’s cell, which is frustrating on one hand, but on the other hand it might be better since Seungmin doesn’t know if he will be able to keep his expression neutral if he sees Hyunjin. 

"Okay, I'll show you out. You said that you were supposed to meet outside again?" 

Shit. Seungmin doesn’t want Hyunjin to go just yet, but his brain is blanking on how to get him to stay, so he eventually just starts humming, clapping, and tapping again. 

“Oh? What’s that? It sounds pretty.” 

Seungmin’s heart starts pounding faster and faster as his eyes flick to the side to see if Hyunjin is able to get to his cell, but his stomach drops when he hears the guard stop Hyunjin and Hyunjin complies. 

“Right! My Bangie! I already miss him so much .” Hyunjin emphasizes the last words, and Seungmin can even hear a slight tremble in his voice, hopefully small enough that only he notices, but it still tugs at Seungmin's heartstrings, because he knows that Hyunjin is referring to missing him. 

Seungmin feels the need to say something back to Hyunjin, but he doesn't know what, he can't think straight— Hyunjin has always had that effect on him and he still does. He lets his instincts guide him and he starts tapping and clapping morse letters without thinking about it, his feelings taking over. 'I love you', he signals, somehow desperate to get this message across to Hyunjin. 

He hears Hyunjin sneeze— something he does when he's threatening to go out of character due to emotions that he can't stop, and Seungmin’s heart drops. He silently berates himself for being selfish and making Hyunjin emotional on a mission, and his humming, clapping, and tapping is getting a bit offbeat before he eventually stops. 

He has to do his damned best to hide the emotions rushing through him. He was so close to seeing Hyunjin and the rest again, and while he knows that he should be patient because planning something like a prison break for a highly secure prison takes a while, he can't help but want to be back with his team, and especially with Hyunjin again. He just wants to be able to have hushed conversations with Hyunjin before bed, kissing him before falling asleep in his arms where he feels the safest, wake up to Hyunjin sprawled out over him, card his fingers through his boyfriend's long hair and sneakily place a kiss on top of his head, and just be with him in between all the hectic missions. Nothing is better than winding down while cuddling with Hyunjin. 

He shakes his thoughts away and tries to think of something else before his thoughts start to show on his face. They can't know that there is someone who Seungmin cares about more than anything in the world, because Seungmin can live with them beating him up, but if they so much as lay a finger on Hyunjin, Seungmin will never forgive himself. 

"And?" the guard— Seungmin calls him the lazy guard in his mind— asks as the other comes back. 

"Just a poor helpless omega missing his alpha," the other guard— the cranky guard— explains and Seungmin bites back a scoff. You have no idea how capable and smart Hyunjin is. 

"Well, at least you reunited them," the lazy guard shrugs before he turns to Seungmin. "Omegas are better with an alpha partner, you should try that." 

Seungmin rolls his eyes and the cranky guard gasps sarcastically. 

"Oh my! He can actually react!" 

Seungmin ignores him and sits back on the bed, leaning against the wall as he starts humming a song again to distract himself, hoping that time will go by faster like that, so that he can be reunited with his friends and lover sooner. 

Seungmin is glad that they seem to have given up on interrogating him because they see that it’s not working, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean that they’re going to give Seungmin enough food and water. He guesses that if they can’t play mindgames with him or torture him with beatings, they’re going to slowly torture him or try to make him delirious by giving him just enough food and water to survive. Seungmin thinks that this should be illegal, but he’s at least glad that it’s happening to him, and not someone else from the team. 

“Are you sure you don’t wanna talk, punk?” a guard asks, seeing Seungmin lie in bed all day for the past few days, too weak and bored to move. “We’ll not only give you full protection and exempt you from any punishment, we’ll give you more food too.”

Seungmin ignores them and turns around on the bed, facing the wall now. His team will come for him soon, he believes in that, but he can also survive for a few days more, it’s not like they will actually let Seungmin starve. And besides, accepting their offer would be the most selfish thing he could ever do, not only would he betray his team, he would go back into a world where it isn’t even that good for omegas, and without a team to help him fix it, and all their progress would be negated. For all he cares, the team continues their missions to make the lives for omegas better without him, and he hopes that maybe they have another plan to execute simultaneously with freeing him, so that they’re not risking a lot just for him.

Seungmin dozes off for a second before he’s suddenly startled by loud clangs. He shoots up in the bed and watches the guards jolt in surprise too. Chaos erupts as Seungmin hears voices yell through each other, and he can’t see what’s happening, but he can guess who is behind this. 

“Fuck— I’ll deal with this, you get the punk to talk— he must be behind this.” The cranky guard stands up and runs out of Seungmin’s view as the lazy guard stands up, opens the cell, and yanks Seungmin out of his bed harshly.

“Talk. Now,” the guard demands as he drags Seungmin out of his cell, and Seungmin sees that the rest of the holding cells are open and empty. Oh? A distraction for the real goal or a side goal? 

Seungmin hopes that his team isn't planning to rescue him out of his cell, but he fears that they are , because he doesn’t think that they'll know where they'll take Seungmin in case of chaos. He hears the guard talk to someone through his walkie-talkie, and if he wasn't feeling this tired and weak, Seungmin thinks he could've caught the guard by surprise and escaped, but now he can only stumble along to wherever he's being taken. 

He sees prisoners and guards run around in chaos, and he thinks that he can see some of his teammates in the chaos, but he doesn’t have enough time to see it well, since the guard is hurrying him somewhere to a basement and into another cell. The guard basically throws him onto the floor and Seungmin is only barely able to stop himself from falling on his face, his reflexes slowed by fatigue and hunger. The guard then turns him around and presses his shoulder into the ground harshly, Seungmin hissing at the pain. 

“I said talk, ” the guard growls, his fingers digging into Seungmin’s shoulders. “How did your accomplices find you? How did they get in?”

Seungmin scoffs. “I can guess, but even if I knew, why would I tell you?—”

The guard cuts him off with a slap to the face and Seungmin presses his lips together to suppress a whimper. “Stop being so smug, punk. If you don’t cooperate, we won’t be so nice anymore.”

As if you were nice to begin with, Seungmin thinks and groans as the guard punches his fist into his stomach. He screws his eyes shut as he takes another few punches until the guard seems to be bored and walks to the opposite side of the cell to hiss some things through the walkie-talkie while Seungmin catches his breath. A faint rumbling sounds above his head, but Seungmin is too uncomfortable to think much about it, dismissing it as fighting upstairs.

His limbs tremble and everything hurts as he sits up and crawls back to lean against one of the walls. He hopes his friends are safe and that they managed to at least free some of the omegas that were unfairly held here, but he also hopes that maybe they’ll manage to find him and get him out of here soon. It takes a lot for Seungmin to break, but he’s not unbreakable. No one likes to suffer, and Seungmin’s suffering is starting to actively bother him now, everything over the past few weeks having built up without time to heal. 

Seungmin tenses and unconsciously crawls away when the guard puts away his walkie-talkie again and approaches him with an angry look and smell, fists clenched and growling. Seungmin gulps as his back hits the corner walls of the room and he prepares himself for another beating.

“You— what the fuck?!” The guard’s head snaps up and Seungmin sees a piece of the ceiling fall down and Minho jump down with something that looks like a chainsaw but isn’t a chainsaw. 

The guard stumbles back, eyes wide and trembling as he sees Minho with the weapon, but Minho throws the thing to the side and starts to fight the guard with his fists instead. Minho is a good boxer, but with the element of surprise it’s even more easy for him to punch the guard unconscious. He then whips his head around and helps Seungmin up.

“Hey, are you okay?” he whispers, and Seungmin nods, softly thanking Minho for helping him. “No problem. Jisung will sneak you out, and I’ll find my way back myself, okay?”

“Okay.” Seungmin lets Minho lift him up to climb into the hole in the ceiling, Jisung sticking his arms out to help him into it too. 

“Follow me,” Jisung says, and they crawl through the small spaces while he hears Minho take what he assumes are the guard’s keys and open the cell to get out.

As they crawl through what seems like a self-made hole in the ceiling until they reach the vents, Seungmin hears the chaos in the prison, and Seungmin can’t help but be curious about their plan. 

“Are you planning to actually take some prisoners with you or are they only for distraction?” he asks in a hushed voice. 

Jisung looks back over his shoulder for a second and grins. “We asked Yeji and her girls to help us out. We’ve got multiple vans ready to take them, but we had to reinforce the vans first, that’s why we took so long.”

Seungmin chuckles, wincing at the pain that shoots through his sides as he does so. “It’s okay to wait a little longer if we can free some others that way.”

Jisung hums in agreement and soon after they reach something that looks like a ventilation grille, and Jisung skilledly removes it— Seungmin imagines that Minho taught him that— before climbing out and telling the rest through his comm that he got Seungmin out. Seungmin climbs out too, and Jisung asks him to lift him up so that he can put the grille back and leave as few traces behind as they can. Seungmin hesitates, not knowing if he’ll be strong enough, and Jisung tells him that they can also just leave it, but Seungmin decides to try anyway. Jisung is not that heavy, and Seungmin manages to not collapse in the short time that Jisung takes to put the grille back. After that, Jisung supports him to one of the vans parked outside. 

“Jisu will take you to the hideout, can you survive until then or do you need medical attention?” Jisung asks hurriedly as he helps some other prisoners into the van. 

“I can survive— but wait, what about you guys? Shouldn’t I help?” Seungmin grabs Jisung by the wrist before he can run away.

Jisung shakes his head. “You’re obviously injured, and it’s dangerous if you stay here. We’re not going to risk you being captured again, okay?” 

Seungmin presses his lips together, but he understands what Jisung means, however frustrating it is. Jisung quickly hugs him and tells him that they’ll see him soon before closing the van door and telling Jisu, who’s behind the wheel, that they can go. 

Seungmin looks out of the window for as long as he can, seeing guards run at the van and Jisung swiftly distracting them, dodging their punches before giving a kick to the kneecaps, effectively taking them out one by one without getting hit too many times himself. When Seungmin can’t see the prison anymore, he lets out a small breath of relief, but he still bounces his leg up and down nervously. It barely feels like he’s freed, because he’s frustrated with the fact that he can’t do anything and that he still has to wait for his team to finish the mission. The comms don’t work all the way from the hideout to the prison so he can’t even communicate with them, but even if he could, he would probably only distract them, so he just has to wait without knowing if everyone is okay. 

Jisu drops the former prisoners off at their local omega shelter, where people already seem to be expecting them, before she drives Seungmin to their hideout. She helps Seungmin out of the van and safely gets him inside and on the infirmary bed. 

“You can go back, in case they need you,” Seungmin tells her as she seems to want to grab the first aid kit and tend to his injuries. She freezes and gives him an unsure look. 

“Are you sure?” she asks. “They— specifically, Hyunjin , told us to prioritize getting you safe and making sure that you’re okay.”

Seungmin huffs, his heart stuttering at the mention of his boyfriend. Seungmin has been trying to not think about Hyunjin too much, otherwise he’ll probably break down.

“I bet they did,” he chuckles, but there’s an obvious tremble in his voice. “But I’m safe and okay, so go help them, please.”

Jisu presses her lips together, contemplating her options before she relents with a sigh. “Fine, I’ll go there in case they need me, but don’t hesitate to call me if there’s anything, okay?”

Seungmin nods, and with that, Jisu brings him some food and water before she leaves him and heads back to the prison. Seungmin gratefully gulps down the water and eats the food before he falls back on the bed with a deep sigh. He closes his eyes for what feels like only a few seconds, but he probably fell asleep, because he's startled awake by the infirmary door flying open and Hyunjin stumbling in. 

" Seungmin! " he sobs loudly as Seungmin shoots up and accepts his bruised up boyfriend into his arms, both the reality of the situation and his boyfriend slamming into him. 

Seungmin’s breath is knocked out of his lungs and tears well up as Hyunjin hugs him tight and cries into the crook of his neck. 

"Are you okay, Jinnie?" Seungmin asks softly, rubbing a hand over Hyunjin's shocking back as his other hand tangles in his boyfriend's long hair and soothingly rubs there too. 

"Of course I am!" Hyunjin whines into Seungmin's skin that is wet with his tears, squeezing him tight— which hurts a little, but it's okay because it's Hyunjin, and Seungmin doesn't want him to let go. " You were imprisoned for— for weeks. I should be asking you if you're okay!"

Seungmin smiles a watery smile, his heart clenching as Hyunjin looks up with a pout. 

"Yeah, I'm okay," he murmurs, hands moving up to cradle Hyunjin's jaw lovingly, wiping away some tears, "because I'm with you again." 

Hyunjin whimpers and surges forward, almost desperately kissing him. Seungmin gasps softly before he melts into the kiss, which is salty because of Hyunjin’s tears yet sweet because of his lips. 

Gosh, it feels nice to finally kiss Hyunjin again even if his tears are still falling, it feels nice to have Hyunjin's arms around him, his own fingers entangled in Hyunjin's long locks, and be enveloped in his warmth. He is finally reunited with his team and his boyfriend, they're all safe and managed to free some unfairly imprisoned omegas. It’s all good now, and Seungmin lets himself get lost in the feeling of Hyunjin’s lips on his own.

He automatically chases Hyunjin when his boyfriend pulls back a little, stealing one more kiss before leaning his forehead against Hyunjin's, wanting to stay close. 

"I love you too, Seungmin," Hyunjin shakily whispers against his lips. Seungmin’s breath hitches once he realizes what he means and he lets out an ugly sob in surprise, all his emotions suddenly catching up to him. 

"Oh Jinnie—" he whimpers, finally breaking just as Hyunjin has calmed down a little. 

Hyunjin pulls him close, his hand finding the back of Seungmin's head as Seungmin's head finds the crook of Hyunjin’s neck, finally able to breathe in his sweet scent again. He cries his tears of relief and overwhelming love as Hyunjin sniffles and cards a hand through his hair and whispers sweet nothings and encouragements into Seungmin's ear. Right now, nothing else matters except for Hyunjin, except for the fact that he’s back with his boyfriend safely, and that he can hug him and get lost in his arms for a while, not thinking about anything else. Because when he’s with Hyunjin, there is no pain, no worries, no sadness, only the feeling of Hyunjin’s warm skin on his, and the knowledge that everything will be fine. 

“Uhm…” Chan clears his throat, bringing them back to reality. Seungmin squeezes Hyunjin tight and Hyunjin leaves one last kiss on his cheek before they slowly pull out of the hug a little to face the rest, but not enough to completely let go of each other. 

“I don’t mean to interrupt your moment, but maybe it would be nice to have your injuries treated?” Chan suggests, and Seungmin notices that not everyone is there. As if Chan can read his mind, he says, “Jeongin and Changbin went with the girls to get their injuries treated.” 

“Did they hurt you a lot?” Hyunjin turns to Seungmin with a worried frown, examining the bruises on his face. 

“A… a bit,” Seungmin says truthfully, leaning into Hyunjin’s touch a little. “But Minho knocked one of them out cold.” 

Hyunjin chuckles and gives Minho a grateful look as their team technician shows a proud yet bashful expression. After that, Felix, Jisung, and Minho, who had the least injuries, treat Seungmin, Hyunjin, and Chan’s wounds. Seungmin and Hyunjin are still sitting in each other’s arms and like that they catch up, telling each other what they missed and Chan even turns on the comm so that Jeongin and Changbin can listen in.  

“I am curious. How did you eventually manage to find me?” Seungmin asks as Hyunjin lays his head on his shoulder, a feeling that Seungmin definitely missed. “Because they moved me to another cell last-minute, and I imagine that you were planning to get me out of the cell that Hyunjin found me in.”

“Yeah, we were,” Jisung chuckles. “Minho and I were already on our way to your cell when Hyunjin suddenly said that he thought he smelled you. Chan went to check it out because Hyunjin thought he wouldn’t be able to keep himself calm if he saw you, and indeed, Chan saw a guard take you to the basement and told us the location so that we could sneak you out safely.”

Seungmin nods and looks at Hyunjin, whose head is still lying on his shoulder, and his boyfriend looks back at him with a fond smile. So Hyunjin managed to find me again? 

“It seems like Hyunjin has some kind of sixth sense when it comes to finding you, Seungmin,” Felix comments as he finishes up treating Seungmin’s injuries, and Seungmin laughs and agrees, hugging Hyunjin closer. 

“I’m glad that he does,” Seungmin says, earning himself the sweet sound of Hyunjin’s giggles and the sweet sensation of Hyunjin’s lips on his ear, jaw, cheek, and then lips. Seungmin hums into the kiss pleasedly, his hand finding Hyunjin’s shirt to pull him closer before whispering against his lips, “I love you, Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin kisses him again. “I love you too.”

And the warmth and fondness that Seungmin feels is almost indescribable. It was tough being separated from his team and it wasn’t fun to get beaten and deprived of sufficient food and water for a few weeks, and he especially missed Hyunjin a lot, but with a large group of omegas freed from the prison, of which a big fraction will probably be open to helping them overthrow the government, Seungmin also thinks that maybe ultimately it wasn’t all bad, and he’s glad that his team managed to get the best out of the unfortunate situation. 

The government and future missions won’t be Seungmin’s priority right now, though, for the rest of today at least Seungmin will allow himself to rest and be spoiled by his boyfriend. And as if Hyunjin read his mind, he stands up and lifts Seungmin off the infirmary bed, eliciting a gasp from him. 

"You don't have to carry me," Seungmin mutters, cheeks heating up and chuckling as Hyunjin groans from exertion. 

"I want to." Hyunjin gives him a strained smile, but Seungmin sees that he is speaking the truth, so Seungmin lets himself be carried and he gives Hyunjin a few kisses as thanks when they reach their bedroom. 

There, they just lie in each other’s arms, exchanging slow kisses and hushed words about how much they missed each other, how they’ll do anything for the other, and how they won’t let go. Eventually they fall asleep in each other’s comfort, and Seungmin dreams about happy things. He dreams of a world where he is as safe out in the open as he feels with Hyunjin, where he can be himself without any expectations, where he can be with who he loves, be with Hyunjin without anyone judging them, and a world where every omega is treated as equally deserving of a good life as alphas. And maybe he also catches up on some kisses and cuddles from Hyunjin in that dream, and maybe that dream is closer to becoming reality than he realizes just yet. 

The end.