17 — FEAR

what the hell are we supposed to do now..?

—

drunk and unstable, the man sits alone at the cheap bar, shameless.

"the guy in yohan's video." seungyoun breathes heavily. "his torturer."

"the guy who lost his job to my sister," daniel sighs. "look at him. he's practically hopeless now."

"who is he?" eunhee asks seungyoun cluelessly.

"he was one of the bad guys, the one who captured yohan and tortured him to expose himself." seungyoun briefly explains. "i did not expect to meet him in person."

"and he doesn't expect to meet us either," daniel gets up from his seat and raises his hand for the bill. "but he will."

"we're gonna go talk to him?" seungyoun asks. "why?"

"the enemy of my enemy is my friend. he must've hated my sister's guts after what she had done to him. she basically stole his job."

"but if it wasn't because of you in the first place, exposing his bad deeds and saving yohan and all, your sister wouldn't replace him." seungyoun points out.

daniel glances at him. "do you have a recurring habit of proving myself wrong or am i just sensitive?"

"... i'm kinda leaning to the 'you're sensitive' one, but with also confirming the fact that i'm nonetheless always right."

eunhee giggles. "stop with your childish bickers, will you."

"are you sure you wanna go see the guy, eunmi-ssi?" seungyoun asks her cautiously. "you can leave now if you want. this isn't your problem to manage."

"well, for the sake of my curiosity, i would like to come." she says without a doubt. "if it has something to do with eunsang — which i'm pretty sure it is — i would indefinitely like to now."

seungyoun glances at daniel, asking for the permission. daniel simply nods.

so they left the cafe and proceed to move on to the bar across the street. seungyoun lends eunhee his jacket, covering up her school uniform. the trio quietly heads towards the drunken man, striding unnoticeably. the man however was quick to discover their appearance. his eyes immediately shift to daniel.

"oh my, won't you look at that. it's the brother of the bitch." he sputters bitterly. "but then again, you're the one who exposed the whole thing, making me lose my job, so you're also a bitch. a family of bitches."

daniel takes a seat close to him, taking control. seungyoun and eunhee just look at them from afar, casually listening. daniel sighs. "you look horrible."

"thanks, i did not notice. how's the ghost kid doing?" he asks, referring to yohan.

"safe under my protection. he's none of your concern."

"and.. is he safe from her?"

".... also none of your concern."

he plausibly grins. "that woman? fucking crazy. she was the one who gave me the earth boy case, the one who practically got me yohan, but she ended up exposing me to you. got me tricked real good, i tell ya. all to get me fired and to take over my place.."

"she told you about the earthquake case?" seungyoun bats his eyelashes. the hangyul case, which was caused because of him trying to protect dohyon, ended up to them capturing yohan instead because of a slight misconception. it turned out to be a lucky coincidence when they found out yohan was also indeed an x1. "you weren't the one who captured yohan.. it was her?"

"it was hers to begin with, but she lent the case to me. said that the boy's definitely gonna be more scared to be interrogated by a stocky guy like me." he grumbles. "but like a fucking stone, i didn't get anything from him. i ended up getting fired instead. boy, how much i want to strangle him right now—"

"don't even bother. he'd do it first to you once he meets you." seungyoun cuts him off with no hesitation.

the guy looks at him confusedly. "who is he again? why are they here—"

"they're no one, don't bother." daniel glares at seungyoun. please stay out of this. he signals to the latter. seungyoun just shrugs.

"so why do you think she wanted to take your place so much?" daniel asks again, now in a more calmer state.

"she wanted the senior researcher position. it gives her the ability to conduct her own experiments without any legal permissions." he simply explains. "seulgi and i have very different perspectives. i wanted to experiment the xyy individuals so that i could use them for personal preferences, a weapon for my own. she wanted to become an xyy herself. even without the chromosomes — barely even a y in her– she's so obsessed of getting into one. she wanted to do experiments on herself."

daniel looks at him, stunned. "and you disagreed with her on that?"

"i don't see it as an advantage to the institution. she was only doing it for herself, not for the society, of course i disagreed. that's just plainly impossible anyway." he spits out with a tone as if he's stating the obvious. "all the effort she does to please her father who is not even her own.."

"father?" daniel snorts. "i thought she's his favorite. i'm nothing but a disgrace to the family."

"daniel-ssi, seulgi could never be able to be you. she's not even his biological daughter anyway, you're the only one. with your mother and father's genes— ahn junyoung and kwon boah — you are quite an extraordinary folk to begin with."

yet i am not even an xyy. seungyoun hears those words coming out of daniel's head, and he immediately feels bad.

"the reason why she was never granted the senior researcher position in the first place, though she has all the connections to be one, is because she was never seen as worthy as you might thought she was to your father." he looks down. "that's why she's so desperate into becoming an xyy. she wants to prove that she's a product of hardwork and resilience, achieving the number one thing her father always wanted : to become superhuman. to not ever experience what had happened to kwon boah. to not do the same mistakes of letting her die again."

daniel stares at the wall, taking his time to digest this all entirely. with a shaky breath, he does his best to keep up. "she's searching for the x1.. so she could be like them. so ahn junyoung could avenge my mother's untimely death.."

"there's one specific xyy individual she's so in dire to find though, i don't know if this particular one really exists or not, it's a questionable myth."

"who?"

"she's searching for the one who has the ability to heal other people. she wants to find him.. because she knows that her father searched everywhere for the type when he tried so hard to find a cure for your mother. she wanted to turn herself into one of those beings, to finish what her father had started."

daniel flinches, but did not elaborate. seungyoun tries his best to keep his cool. eunhee turns to him in shock. is he really talking about you? seungyoun does not answer.

seulgi.. wants me. she doesn't need the other x1, she just needs me.

the sudden realization hits him.

"but well, i told her that's a fucking conspiracy theory. if your mother had met someone like that before, wouldn't she ask him to heal her herself? that's just plain ridiculous." he sneers. "but then again, your whole family's ridiculous. i don't even know how you're able to cope with whatever shit happening there all the time—"

he stops abruptly.

the ground underneath his feet is shaking.

"well, well, well! look who managed to come along!" he laughs hysterically. "hey, earth guy! come out, come out wherever you are!!"

"it's an earthquake!" eunhee cries out.

daniel turns to seungyoun, seeking for answers. seungyoun however immediately realizes what was happening.

this isn't an earthquake.

this is hangyul.

he immediately gets out and ran.

—

dongpyo feels a gust of wind near him.

"hyung!" he faintly whispers. "what should i do now?? bring us back!"

"i can't!" yohan says quite frantically, strong enough to be heard by the whole room. thankfully the other students are too immersed into the chromosome experiment, so they didn't bother the strange noise. "it's like my power's been blocked or something, i can't feel anything!"

"but you're still invisible!"

"yeah, and you're still lai guanlin!" he shoots back. "i think whatever is in this basement caused us to freeze in our previous forms, and it disables us from using our powers. you can't turn back, right?"

dongpyo shakes his head. as much as he tried to use yohan's method, he can't seem to turn himself into a pencil again. he's just screwed.

"hyung... what should i do now?"

"oh my, look at that!" seulgi's voice rises higher than before, showing clear delight. "we got another one, fellas! a boy with 2 y chromosomes!"

dongpyo scrunches his nose. "that's impossible, it's not even my turn—"

"dongpyo, look." yohan cuts him off, forcing him to raise his head up.

sitting on the testing chair is no other than the school's current student body president, the pink-haired na jaemin. he beams excitedly, showing off his perfect teeth. "really, doctor?! i had no idea!"

"well then, you must be very proud of yourself." seulgi pats jaemin's back whilst glancing at junho, giving him a look. junho nods subtly.

"na jaemin? no way!" yohan snarls. "not the cotton candy guy, he's not one of us!"

"if he is one of us, seungyoun would've had known by now. he appeared as a speaker at the first day of school, right?" dongpyo mutters. "what the hell is this?"

dongpyo was too occupied to realize that it is now his turn. jaemin heads over him happily and touches his shoulder, dragging him back to reality. "yah byeongari, good luck!"

".. what?"

"lai guanlin," junho calls out his name. "the last but not least. guanlin-ah, come here."

fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!! yohan holds on to his arm, squeezing it tightly. dongpyo has never felt the need to die this much.

the journey towards the chair is a torturing experience. he glances at the satisfied kang seulgi, back to junho, back to the empty space he assumes there's yohan in it. he bends down and positions himself on the chair, shaking tremendously.

seulgi laughs. "calm down, big guy. are you scared of needles?"

"ma'am, it's way more than that." dongpyo mumbles inaudibly. i'm scared for my fucking life.

junho smiles. "you'll be fine, guanlin-ah."

seulgi prepares a clean syringe and places it close to his long arm. she leans closer and closer.....

suddenly, the fire alarm rings, and the ground begins to shake.

"earthquake! everyone, get out!"

—

hyeongjun felt like he's going to cry at any moment now.

he's been stuck in the darkness for around half an hour now, with no other signs of life other than him and the flickering light. he stares at the light in annoyance. "stop flickering, will you?! i hate you."

the flickering stops. he lowers his head down his thighs and sobs. just as he was in the middle of a mental breakdown, suddenly the ground begins to shake.

earthquake..?

earthquake!

he gets up his feet and quickly finds shelter. "i'm not going to die here, i won't allow that!!" as he was looking for another way out, suddenly the door in front of him opens like a christmas miracle.

"finally!" hyeongjun jumps out. "whoever you are, thank you—"

"come on kids, get out fast!" the familiar voice greets him, bringing shivers to his back.

"mom?"

"hyeongjun-ah, what are you doing here, sweetie?!" the woman in the lab coat gets him up and kisses his forehead. "are you alright? wait, there's no time. you need to get of here now."

"but mom—"

"get out, quick! it's getting stronger!" the woman pushes him away, pleading him to run.

hyeongjun sprints away just as what he's been told, but in reality he's just very far off from being okay. tears start streaming down, wetting his red cheeks.

my mom is one of those monsters in lab coats.

one of them.

—

it's been a while since I updated so I let the last target slide bc I guess you guys have been waiting for quite long~

you know after this chapter it's now confirmed that 3 of the last student body presidents are x1 individuals (seungwoo, jaemin, junho/minhee) LOL

ok there's nothing much i'd like to say other than i hope y'all enjoyed this chapter~

130 votes for the next chap:)

- yuehwa