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14 — THE SPACE BETWEEN
a strange looking usb was found inside yohan's pocket. the real truth unfolds.

-

"yohan, where did you get this?!"

eunsang looks over the thing seungwoo is referring to, examining it quietly. he has never seen it before in his life, but it does look unusual. the snake head-shaped usb isn't something you'll see in normal stationary stores. the carvings are so well-made, it doesn't look like it's worth for sale. the word 'imnet' could be seen on each sides of the usb. his eyes shift to a very confused yohan, awaiting for his answer.

yohan's mouth falls wide open. "i'm not sure how that ended up in my pocket.."

"yohan, do you even know what this is?"

seungyoun grabs the usb and examines it himself, his expression quickly changes. "this is authentic, you definitely have this for a reason."

"i don't know what that is! i don't even know it was in my pocket!" yohan answers frantically. "what is it anyway, why are you guys taking it so seriously?"

"kid, this is what we're trying to protect you from!" wooseok exclaims, his eyes burning ablaze.

"what is it? what's imnet?" eunsang asks.

"it's a research company that has been stalking us for years." seungyoun explains with a damp expression. "they have plans for people like us and let me tell you, it's not pretty. might as well call it as a specific sector of human slavery."

"they do experiments on you, treat you as lab rats." seungwoo utters. "i've experienced it before. they don't care about the risks, don't care about your wellbeing. all they care about is searching ways to transform themselves into an x1 too."

"and if they're in need of money, they'll rent you to crazy rich people with their own death notes to be fulfilled." wooseok continues.

"that's why we've been trying to search for the other x1 individuals." seungyoun sighs. "it's not because we want to fight back or anything, we just want to make sure that no one ever experiences what seungwoo hyung had experienced, not in our watch."

"so now it returns back to you." seungwoo glances at yohan. "how did you get that? was it from any part of your trip?"

yohan shakes his head. "i really have no memory of retrieving that thing, i've never even seen it before in my entire life."

seungwoo and wooseok exchange glances. seungyoun raises an eyebrow. "before you revealed yourself to wooseok and eunsang earlier this day, do you remember where were you before? where was the last place you teleported to?"

"the desert, somewhere around there."

"how about before you woke up? what were you doing?"

"it was—" yohan stops. "it was.. i swear it was there, it's right at the tip of my tongue, why can't i remember.."

"how could you not remember something that happened barely two days ago?" eunsang asks in concern.

"something's wrong here," wooseok declares. "and i think we're fools for missing such a huge point."

"well, all that we can do now is to check out what's inside the usb." seungyoun shrugs. "who knows? perhaps we'll get our answer."

—

they all return to school with thoughts lingering inside their heads. seungyoun is the one who felt the most uncomfortable, because he's been trying to calm himself down yet the thoughts of the people around him aren't really a huge help at the moment. what bothers him the most is reading yohan's thoughts, finding nothing but confusion and distress.

he is simply disappointed of himself. why didn't he discover this earlier when he did his readings on yohan when the boy's still unconscious?

they encounter minhee and hyeongjun on their way to a spare class, bringing the boys with them as well. hyeongjun uncomfortably gazed at wooseok, his hands fumbling the hem of his shirt. wooseok fumes. "stop looking at me like that, it makes me drown in my own guilt that i'm not supposed to have."

"are you mad?" hyeongjun's voice as soft as a whisper.

"i'm—"

"senior, i'm so sorry for i have wronged you." hyeongjun apologizes. "i'm so so sorry, i deserve your resentment!"

"why can't i ever hate on this kid..?" wooseok whispers at seungwoo.

"he says he forgives you, kid." seungwoo clarifies to hyeongjun. "and that he'll be buying you ice cream once we're done with this."

hyeongjun's eyes brighten. "wait what, really?!"

"what, really?" wooseok also asks the same question to seungwoo who just shrugs.

eunsang has finally reconciled with seungwoo, him now calling the latter and the other ones older than him 'hyung' more freely without having to have any hard feelings. he walks with minhee whilst asking him questions. "how's your head?"

"still got a migraine, but other than that i'm fine." minhee answers with a smile.

"you must be very shocked at the moment, with all the superpower reveal and all."

"yeah, it's crazy— honestly i feel like i'm still in my sleep and none of this is really happening." minhee sighs. "like how did i end up like this? i mean my powers are one thing, but the fact that i've experienced the most of my excitement in a span of one day than the rest of my entire life—"

eunsang laughs. "what's that supposed to mean?"

"it means that i spend most of my time in bed. with my phone." he replies. "i sleep without notice, i sleep everywhere and anywhere i could. that's why my mind still believes that all of this is a dream, cause i'm having trouble digesting it honestly."

eunsang nods. he understands it completely; though he knows of the x1 world way before him, he still has trouble processing it inside his head. it makes sense because he also just knew about it yesterday. it must've been a huge shock for minhee who discovered it after falling from a 4 story building, and for yohan who was completely alone without assistance when he found out about his power.

yohan. eunsang shifts away from minhee as he walks beside the older boy, checking on him. "you're good?" eunsang asks.

"i wish i could've just stayed frozen." yohan mutters silently. "like that i wouldn't discover the truth."

"that's inconvenient." eunsang whistles. "what are you so scared of, exactly? it's not like anything bad's going to appear inside the usb. it's not like you did anything wrong."

"that's the problem, what if i did?" yohan scrunches his forehead. "i must've forgot how i got it for a reason. you must not know how it feels having a memory yet you can't even remember it all, like it's locked away in another part of your head."

eunsang thinks of the memory he had of seungyoun. "trust me, i know."

"you must think i'm overreacting but i'm just really really scared." yohan sighs. "whatever's inside that usb, i know it's not going to be good news."

"and whatever it is, we'll stick with you in any circumstances if we must." eunsang holds his hand. "we're in it together, are we?"

yohan nods. "yes.. we are."

they find a spare classroom, as seungyoun immediately opens his laptop and plugs in the usb. the rest of the boys except yohan circle around him, waiting in advance.

"i'm surprised that it worked." wooseok says. "i thought it wouldn't be that easy to break in."

"well, it is just a regular usb." seungyoun points out. "if there were any important documents here, it should've been locked inside with a password."

inside the usb kept only a single video file. the file has a series of supposedly random numbers as its title. "this is very straightforward." seungwoo mumbles.

"so what are you waiting for? click it!" hyeongjun says.

seungyoun turns around, his gaze shifts at yohan. "yohan-ah,"

yohan lifts his head.

"don't worry too much, you're not going to die." seungyoun smiles.

seungwoo laughs. "i mean, we won't ever let you die. who's left to annoy wooseok if there's no you?"

wooseok tilts his head, hearing his name being called. "yah! for the record, you all annoy me. he's just better at doing it."

a smile appears in yohan's face. seungyoun grins. "that's better."

he clicks the video file.

—

a filler chapter meant for buildup with no specific plot, i hope you guys didn't get bored reading it.

80 votes for next chap~