16 – KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

watch out!
huge trouble lies ahead.

-

"they're guiding us into the basement."

static sounds make it hard to hear yohan's last line, which it is then followed by utter silence.

"to the basement? that means you're heading the right way!" dohyon says with a little excitement. "oh my, you better keep me updated, hyung, for the curiosity is seriously brewing inside me – hyung... hyung?"

no answer, for only hopeless sounds of the radio return back to him. minhee raises his eyebrow. "what happened?"

after his last statement, it seems like yohan and dongpyo have suddenly disappeared without a trace. dohyon looks around his workspace, hesitating. "i don't know, there must be something wrong with the connection. the basement's too far down for me to reach."

"are they gonna be alright?" hyeongjun asks faintly.

"they'll be fine." dohyon says, though unsurely. "i trust yohan-hyung, he must have his senses straight. besides, they're there with the other students, treated with the utmost care, it's most likely for them to leave the building harmless."

"it's either they leave harmless or they don't ever leave at all." minhee says with shortness of breath. "hyeongjun-ah, i see kang seulgi coming back down from the east. i think she looks quite determined, you should check out on her."

"got it," hyeongjun answers, quickly heading towards the said area.

"be careful, hyung!" dohyon says now with his confidence deterioriating. not knowing what clearly happened to yohan and dongpyo had certainly got into his nerves.

"she's heading down," hyeongjun announces, "down the stairs. looks busy... and in a hurry. i'm following her from behind."

"any signs of where she's going?" minhee asks.

"no... wait, she's stopping." hyeongjun stops abruptly. "we're at the end of the staircase, there's a huge, suspicious door in front of us. i think she's going in."

"what floor are you in?" dohyon asks.

"i'm.. not sure. we're way down, i lost count." he whispers. "wait, she's opening the door with her lock, i'm going to go in. i think i'm gonna miss my chance if i don't go in now."

minhee wasn't fond of the idea. "wait, hyeongjun-ah!"

before he even got the time to argue, hyeongjun had already zapped his way into the room the second seulgi had opened the door. seulgi didn't notice the light figure going pass her, cluelessly she opens the door widely for herself and closes it with her back without thinking anything, as her hands were already full with paperwork.

what she didn't notice was the sight of hyeongjun, fully hiding his small body behind the door she had just closed.

hyeongjun was only able to breathe again the moment the woman had disappeared into the dark hallway, leaving him behind. he looks around his surroundings. all of the sudden, the moment he went through the door, suddenly he had lost all his abilities to move ever so quickly. what happened? he holds the door handle, hoping for some sort of an explanation. it's locked.

"good thing that it's dark in here, i would've been gotten noticed by her in just seconds if the lights were on. i suppose i was quite lucky, dohyon-ah." hyeongjun says with a sense of relief. "dohyon-ah? why aren't you answering?"

only radio statics appear from the other line. that was the moment when fear starts to creep behind his back. hyeongjun tries his best to keep himself steady. okay, i'm locked in here, powerless and with no connection. there must be only one explanation to all of this.

i'm in the other part of the basement.

-

"hyeongjun-ah? hyeongjun-ah!"

minhee is now practically screaming to the other line, but no one responds. "where is he, did he get caught? dohyon!"

"i don't know!" panic arises within dohyon's voice. "judging from his last sentences, i have a feeling he had stooped low enough for him now to be in the basement, that'll explain his disconnection... but, i can't be certain as to what happened to him."

"ah, i did not expect this to happen," minhee mutters in distress. "i should go check on them-"

"no, don't! i can't lose another one of you again!" dohyon says in resentment.

"lose another one?"

without dohyon noticing, hangyul had now stepped into his room out of curiousity. dohyon quickly hides his laptop. "hyung! what are you doing here?"

"i wanted to check on you, to make sure that it doesn't take you that fast to do something stupid," hangyul says with a bit of concern. "so how are you doing?"

"we're doing great! uh, nothing really dangerous happening whatsoever." dohyon says, sweating.

"we're not doing great!!" minhee's voice is heard from the laptop, clearly audible for hangyul to discern. "hyung, help us!! we're gonna die!!!!"

hangyul could only sigh in disappointment, but he for sure wasn't surprised by his plead of help. "i knew it."

-

the lift is fully occupied yet strangely quiet, which makes it harder for yohan to move around freely.

stuck in the tiny gap he's standing in, he barely got a chance to even take another step – a critical amount of social distancing is needed not to get caught if you're now in invisible mode. dongpyo saves the space up from him with his long legs, hoping that no one notices. he flinches when suddenly the person in front of him turned around, engaging him into a conversation.

"byeongari!" the current student body president, na jaemin, flings his arm around the tall boy's shoulder. "yah, why are you here?!"

"uh... i wanted to come," dongpyo tries his best to act natural. yohan tries his best to hold his laugh. "no actually, i was forced to come by my mom. why?"

"hmmm, just asking. i just didn't expect you to be here." jaemin looks quite close to the latter, because from what he's experiencing the older boy's just too clingy enough not to take notice. "anyway, i'm glad to see you here. you're happy to see another familiar face too, right?"

dongpyo nods. "yeah, i'm happy to see you, hyung."

"hyung?" jaemin backs off slightly. "woah, that caught me off-guard. you never call me hyung."

ah shit, that's a huge mistake.

"oh, hmm..."

"but you know what? i like it," jaemin continues on. "makes you sound cute and less like a disrespectful ass. maybe you should call me that more frequently now."

dongpyo could feel yohan shaking his head in disappointment. dongpyo clears his throat. "yeah... perhaps that's just going to be a one-time thing, i suppose."

"aw, why the sudden change? so you could call me chagiya instead?" jaemin laughs. "just kidding. anyway, junho's doing quite a lot of work for his campaign, ain't it? so eager of him to take my spot."

dongpyo had made sure there was no junho in the lift before answering. "yeah, um, but i'm not thinking of voting for him, honestly."

"ah really? who are you voting for?" jaemin asks curiously. "i'm still quite neutral so perhaps a recommendation would help me decide."

anywhere, anytime, i end up becoming kang minhee's number one hypeman. "i'm thinking of voting kang minhee,"

"kang minhee? hm, he does seem interesting.." jaemin raises his eyebrow. "and from my experience befriending you, you usually have the best recommendations. my, now i'm triggered."

having the previous student body president vote for you? bingo. yohan also seemed to be satisfied by the results.

they have now reached the basement, the lift door creaking as it opens, revealing a neatly-groomed junho (which is something they haven't seen since the real junho's disappearance) and another labcoated person from the pr team. junho smiles. "welcome. glad to see that you're all here. follow me."

the dozen or so students quickly obeyed and follow the ones in charge, everyone except for the one who left unnoticed. the team started explaining about their surroundings that were mostly just lab equipment and pharmaceutical objects. dongpyo didn't even notice that the older one had already left the scene for something that catches his attention more.

from what he had noticed, the basement was slightly dim, lack of fresh air, and quite eerie, if you ask him. there was a lot of noticeable security cameras, but he didn't mind it that much because he knows dohyon had turned them off.

dohyon. i wonder how's he coping..

leaving the huge laboratory, yohan started venturing through the open doors and hallways. his senses are activated now when he realizes he had brought himself into a quite memorable place, some place glued unto his past memories...

he stopped abruptly.

the scenery of this particular room looks oddly familiar. the small space, the table separating two chairs, the wistful atmosphere...

it's the place he was quarantined when he got caught by the mad scientists. by kang seulgi.

shocked, the boy backed away, crouched himself at the edge of the room and hid his face. though he had no exact memories of what happened because it was erased before he escaped, the images shown in the video he managed to get from the usb still haunted him.

gathering the strength he had left, yohan raises his head. what he immediately realize was indeed the sudden flickering of the light that quite surprised him.

what the?

the lights however doesn't seem to flicker randomly, it's consistency was the reason that made it all more suspicious. he carefully studied the upcoming flickers before the sudden realization hits him: it's all morse code!

c-o-m-e, that's what the lights had told him. come where? yohan decided to step closer to find out more of this strange occurrence.

stupid ass, you're gonna get yourself killed! but he ignored that sound from his head, for this occurrence feels slightly like a forgotten dejavu...

standing in the middle of the room, he notices an open laptop sitting at the desk, its screen on but with a very low brightness. before he took his time to find another clue, his eyes catch the sight of the usb portal flickering before him. he grabs the snake usb he had in his pocket the whole time, the same usb he stole from this specific room. the usb had also turned invisible, following his likely figure. he inserts it into the portal.

connected! ready to export...

the door flings open. yohan quickly turns around. kang seulgi tirelessly brings all of her documents altogether, throwing them all out the moment she steps into the room.

shit, shit, shit!yohan tiptoes his way back, now daring to use his invisibility trait. he stays silent.

the young scientist was too tired to even bother. she takes a short rest by sitting on her workchair, staring at the ceiling before she tidied herself so she could properly meet upwith the fellow guests in the other room. before leaving, she heads to her laptop for a quick look. she tilts her head in confusion. yohan just wishes she doesn't notice the invisible usb still injected into the portal.

"what's this? i don't see any additional disks.." she mumbles quietly as she clicks the eject option. and just like that, she leaves the room without sparing yohan a single glance.

surviving from such circumstances awards himself a wave of relief. he quickly takes back the usb that is now upgraded with new information for him to breach. "strange lights, whoever you are, i want to thank you for this. i owe you one!"

unfortunately, yohan left the room too early for him to notice the lights giving him its answer.

'np, hyung'

dongpyo was having trouble keeping himself awake. hence, he did not expect the course to become so boring. not only they were explaining everything that they had already know, they explained it in such a robotic way that he just feels like he's in a sea full of cha junhos. his disinterest soon resides when he notices the change of moderator. he corrects his posture.

kang seulgi, the woman in the video, appears from the back corridor, revealing herself subtly. "miss yoon, i'll take it from here now."

"yes, miss kang." the woman quickly dismisses herself.

dongpyo knows that the woman standing before him, she is for sure the real deal. he tries his best to pay attention.

"okay, before we start i would like to introduce myself," the woman says with a soft voice, "my name is kang seulgi, head of the research department. i take care most of the experiments here, that includes pharmaceutical and medicinal purposes." she explains herself in a 'i'm kind and i don't bite' manner. "for today's course, i would like discuss about genetics and its ability to fully... transform someone. you must've heard about this in school, right? the dna, it's components, and the importance of chromosomes..."

"wow, this is an interesting topic," jaemin mumbles softly, "i always wanted to become a geneticist."

dongpyo is starting to feel a bit uncomfortable, especially at the mention of 'chromosomes'. he looks around, hoping to have yohan close behind.

"so today, we're going to play a little experiment. something related to these special chromosomes of ours. junho-yah, do you mind to become my apprentice for a short while?"

junho nods eloquently, his behavior clearly scripted. he sat on the strange looking chair in front of the woman, following her instructions. "now i want you to circle around, find a nice spot, because this is an interesting experiment that you guys might want to see. you – the one at the back right there,"

jaemin flutters his eyes. "me?"

"yes, pretty boy." seulgi seems to be injecting some sort of syringe into junho's wrist, still keeping up with the conversation. "do you know the usual type of chromosome cells? the ones that determine the sex?"

"women usually have the homogametic sex chromosomes which is double x, whereas men have an x and a y as a hetero pair."

"you are absolutely correct," seulgi says with a smile. "i for once find this concept really interesting, the sex-determination of the chromosomes. you know why?"

a series of results appears from the screen in front of them. junho's results. positive – 1x, 2y.

"because there are certain people who defies this certain concept. people like junho, for example." she says, pointing out the abnormality of his gene. "interesting, right?"

everyone stare at the results in awe. dongpyo was already thinking of running away.

"now, it's your turn to find out."

—

OOooOoOoohhhhhhh
STAY SAFE, GUYS!!!! STAY HYDRATED AND PLS DONT LEAVE YOUR HOMES, STAY HEALTHY AND I LOVE YOU<3

150 votes for next chap~

- yuehwa