A five-foot eleven black muscular dude with decent short dark hair and neon shorts, emerged from the door. His phone was held high and behind it was a ring light blazing like a small burning star that stung Mingyu's eyes as he'd been in the dark for close to thirty minutes.
This dude was shirtless. Not that Mingyu cared for it but..... whatever. He was smiling so warmly and something about it had Mingyu's full attention.
"It's your boy Leo, coming right at ya, Live!" the man greeted. His voice echoing softly in the empty room. He continued. "I'm in Seoul, Korea and oh my God, It's so good to be here guys. Everything is amazing and peak. I've only been here for like three hours I believe and yeah, I'm in love. Valentine is gonna rock!"
'Mine's definitely going to suck' Mingyu said with a scoff as the man mentioned Valentine's day.
Leo continued. "Yes guys. You have to come here and see it for yourself. But...nothing is going to distract us from our what?..... that's right, our Sunrise Glute Workout everybody. We're talking,"
He stopped mid-sentence, noticing someone moving somewhere across the room. He turned and stared directly at Mingyu with a shocked expression.
Mingyu stared back, frozen in a crouch, one hand still inside the wall panel. For exactly five seconds, he held his breath calculating his next move before,
"Yo! We've got a K-pop Idol in the building!"
'What the fuck!' Mingyu had never been annoyed with anyone this much in his whole twenty-se even years of existence. Now, did he have anything against K-pop idols? Definitely not. Absolutely not. He was never a hater. He always vibed alone to Twice deep inside his room, in the dead of the night. What he was annoyed about was that this 'Leo' of a guy swung his phone around, perfectly catching Mingyu's face in crystal-clear 4K.
"Bro, that outfit is fire!" Leo was in awe witnessing a 'K-pop idol' for the very first time. He continued. "And I love your what you did with your hair! Who's your stylist?" Then he turned back to the phone, "Chat, what do we think, get the K-pop Idol on camera or...,"
Before he could finish, Mingyu moved swiftly. One second he was across the room, the next, his hand was around Leo's phone, yanking it downward. But Leo's grip was firm and he was still talking.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay. Someone's very serious about their pre-workout privacy or whatever's going on here. Is that a k-pop thing or are you...,"
"Delete it!" Mingyu barked. The sound of his voice cut through Leo's sentence. He was mad at the whole situation itself. "Delete it, right now!"
Leo blinked, then chuckled. "What are you talking about, it's already live." He said rasing the phone higher to capture the moment and Mingyu's face, again.
'Shit!'
"Look. We've got like four hundred thousand plus people watching right now. Oh nice, the chat is blowing." Leo faced the phone to himself and read out the comments for Mingyu to hear as if he cared. "Awn...guys, I love you too. Hey, you wanna say hi to my..."
Mingyu's knee slammed into Leo's stomach. Not hard enough to seriously injure him or damage anything, because he still needed the phone intact since Leo's grip on it was firm, but the kick was hard enough to double Leo over.
The phone clattered to the floor and Mingyu immediately snatched it up as quickly as he could. His thumbs flew across the screen as he tried to end the stream, but the damage was already catastrophic.
'427,000 people watching?' He thought. '...just perfect!'
The crazy part about all this was that the chat was a complete chaos: "Guys! Did you see how he held his neck, OMG! it was so hot, I'm gonna die...ahhhh" "yasss! The vibe is giving 'strangle me daddy.' I love it. Do one more Leonardo" "Leo, you said you would remain single for ever and now you have a boyfriend? I'm sad" "get out, loser! Leo you have a good eye, you k-pop idol hubby is so cute. Can we share?" "Omg, the k-pop idol is holding our Leo's phone. Do an agyeo for us, pwees!!"
"Agyeo!" Mingyu yelled. "Are you kidding me?!" He sounded so done and offended after reading the chat. He wanted to just slam the freaking device down and get over with it but thankfully he got a hang of it and ended the live.
"You gotta chill, Man." Leo whined stretching up. Arm still wrapped around his tummy. Mingyu hissed. He didn't care to answer. He tossed him the phone and ran behind the wall panel, as something started beeping almost immediately.
No…no!
The alarm system had cycled early and he didn't notice. The download was only at 73%. If he pulled the device out now, the key fragment would be corrupted and he'd have to start all over and If he stayed any longer, the building's security would definitely figure out that someone is trying to breach their system and lock down the entire floor in less than ninety seconds. 'Shit.'
"Okay." Leo wheezed, still bent over but somehow grinning. "So you're, like, an assassin or what?"
No answer. Mingyu was calculating a sure way out of this situation, he didn't have any time for unnecessary distractions.
"Oh wait I think I got it!" Leo said answering his own question.
"Shut up!" Mingyu yelled, shooting him a look.
But Leo continued regardless, "Common, you haven't even heard me yet. Can I at least get a picture,"
Mingyu ignored and instead grabbed him by the throat. Leo's hands came up instantly. Not defensive, just reflexive and in minutes he attacked back. The casual way he gripped Mingyu's wrist told a very different story than the golden-retriever personality suggested. This man definitely had some form of martial arts training.
"You just killed us both," Mingyu hissed. "Don't you understand? The people who own this building don't call the police. They call cleaners."
"Cleaners?" Leo was totally confused now.
"People who make other people…..ugh! You disappear! Completely."
Leo's eyes widened. "Bro. Wait. Is this good or bad?"
"You're hopeless" Mingyu snapped pulling away from his grip and taking the opportunity to hold him firmly. But the beeping intensified. His brain ran the calculations in half a second: there were only three exits out of this room, all biometrically sealed now. The security team were already converging from the opposite stairwells. The download would finish in approximately forty seconds, but he'd be trapped by then. Unless…..His eyes flicked to the window. There were thirteenth floors up.
Leo followed his gaze. "Oh hell no. I know you're not thinking...my answer is no!"
"I never asked you anything." Mingyu released him, spun back to the wall panel, and ripped the device free at 89% download. Not ideal, but it would have to work. He was already moving toward the window when the studio lights slammed on full blast. Five men in tactical gear appeared in the doorway.
They were definitely not gym security. They looked the kind of men he had earlier described as 'cleaners'.
"Down on the ground!" The first one raised his weapon. It didn't look like a gun, it was something worse. "Both of you! Now!"
Leo raised his hands slowly. "Listen, guys, I think there's been a misunderstanding. I'm just a personal trainer. I teach people how to do squats. I don't even know this....dude!" He yelled.
Mingyu ran forward and threw a fire extinguisher at the window. The glass exploded outward in a shower of diamonds. Then he yanked Leo by the arm and leaped forward.
"What the….dudeeee!"
They went flying through the window together. For one perfect, crystalline moment, they were airborne. Leo screaming all the curse words he could think of, and how he was going to die without getting married and having kids.
"Shut up!" Mingyu was so done with him. But Leo was still screaming his lungs out. Mingyu had to ignore him. He was calculating the trajectories. The beautiful Seoul sunrise painting them both in gold and pink and few seconds later, gravity kicked in.
Mingyu twisted mid-air, catching the edge of the window-washing scaffolding one floor down. His shoulder screamed in protest, but he held on. Shirtless Leo slammed into him a second later, and the scaffolding swung so wildly the cables shrieked. Above them, the tactical team appeared at the broken window.
"Move!" Mingyu snarled. They dropped again but this time onto a delivery truck that was 'miraculously' filled with yoga mats and foam rollers.
Leo landed flat on his back, wheezing. "I take it back. I don't know who the fuck you are, but I don't like you. This is bad. No, it's terrible."
Mingyu was already rolling off the truck, hitting the pavement in a crouch. "Get up!"
"My phone, we have…"
"Leave it. You wouldn't want to be tracked down by those guys, trust me."
"Bu...but my entire 'life' is on that phone. And my inhaler too." His voice was sad as he stared at the building they'd just jumped out from. But Mingyu didn't have time to worry about this for now. He'd wanted to tell, 'I'd get you a new one!' but right now they need to find safety and prepare their next move.
"I'll explain later. Lets go."
A black SUV screeched around the corner but Mingyu didn't wait. He grabbed Leo's wrist and ran.
"Where are we going?" Leo asked, following his Lead as he was yanked forward.
"I can't explain anything to you right now because it's going to sound crazy," Jae said. "...but you just have to trust me."