27 — THE ELEVENTH PILLAR

with junho completely knocked out, the rest of the group desires to reveal the truth.

—

"faster, redhead!"

seungyoun closes the phone, groaning disgracefully. he can't believe the moment he let eunsang escape with the other x1 he detected earlier, even just for one moment, suddenly something bad happens to him. several boys he has taken care of throughout these few days, and now you're asking him to heal another one?

seungwoo appears from the bathroom, his whole body soaking in water after he took a quick shower. he dries his hair with the towel, his well-built body shows an appearance as his wet clothes became see-through. he heads towards seungyoun. "what's wrong? you were yelling to the phone just now."

"lee eunsang. remember the kid that came into the lab earlier?"

"the one who came immediately to call eunsang?"

seungyoun nods. "i told you that he's an x1, right? though his powers are still very limited to the eye, i think he holds great potential." he appraises. "eunsang left with him before i could even tell him anything. he even ignored my messages!"

"prolly he was busy, needed his own time to explain." seungwoo says.

"yeah, that was what i thought of too, but guess what?"

"what?"

"he just called me to tell that the kid's now laying unconscious." seungyoun tells him with a distressed tone. "how much i wished i told him earlier— now we're faced with worse revelations, and all we could do is to wait."

seungwoo hums. "eunsang must've been in a huge shock,"

"yeah, that's what i thought too," seungyoun sighs. "now, if my guesses stand corrected, yohan must have reach this place right—"

a big pop sound appears in the living room, surprising the both of them.

"now."

"wah, seungyoun-hyung! did you redecorate?" yohan appears with a body of a teenage boy resting in his arms. "it's.. chic. though i liked the old design better because it looks like donald trump's bathroom but hey, this looks great too. OOH, SEUNGWOO HYUNG!"

quickly the boy places junho in the sofa just to fix seungwoo's wet hair. "for god's sake, comb your hair. you don't wanna look like a homeless guy, don't you?"

seungwoo grabs yohan's arm, stopping him. "get the kid, bring him here."

yohan purses his lips. "ah, you're not fun." he grabs junho easily from the sofa and brought it to his hyungs, placing him gently on the bed.

"where's eunsang?" seungyoun asks as he gets his hand trailing over junho's neck.

"he's coming. i couldn't take him with me because of his powers."

"oh, is that so?" seungwoo murmurs. "i really thought his power restrictions ain't that serious."

"you told him the way to get here?"

"he's a wizard, he'll be fine."

seungyoun shoots him a look. "you should've reminded me that he can't travel with you, that way i could call someone to pick him up."

"yeah, he'll pick him up with a limo if it's necessary," seungwoo adds.

yohan chuckles. "really, sometimes i forget that you're like, nick young rich."

"i think i'm more like peik lin rich, but hey, i appreciate your compliment." seungyoun lays his hand on the unconscious boy's chest, checking at him intently. "wow, he's been knocked off real bad. the shock clearly affected his nervous system, good thing you brought him in quick."

"what, so is he like thor or something?" yohan creeps behind seungyoun, gazing at his processing work ethic. "does his eyes glow in electricity? does he do that breaking the ground thing with his hammer?"

seungyoun shrugs. "electricity, an element full of risks. it's gonna get a bit painful healing him, it sucks as much energy as healing seungwoo hyung, as fire and electricity both are such strong elements."

"don't burden yourself, seungyoun-ah. you can always stop if you're tired." seungwoo says to him. "we could take turns, perhaps my fire massage skills could make much of a help."

"just make sure wooseok-hyung's not the one who takes care of junho, god knows what'll happen when water and electricity goes together." yohan chirps. "speaking of wooseok hyung, where is he? i thought you three always come as a package or something."

"he's in his art course, he'll probably come back in a hour."

"art course?"

"you don't know? he teaches little kiddies how to draw," seungwoo replies to him.

"wooseok and kids? that's the last thing i expect to see." yohan scoffs.

"just for the record, he's actually very gentle." seungyoun mumbles. "even i have to admit that. he has a very fragile heart."

"so no matter how much he looks like he dislikes you, that's clearly untrue." seungwoo glances at yohan. "he cares about all of us, just in a.. questionable way."

noticing their serious looks, yohan nods in understanding. maybe he should be gentler with the older one from now on.

seungyoun sighs as he caresses junho's head, staring at him curiously. "i see something in him, something special."

yohan sneers. "i bet you say that to every x1 you encounter."

"he didn't say that about you." seungwoo reveals without a tint of regret.

"ouch."

"sorry kid, but that's the truth." seungyoun murmurs. "the only person that could hit me hard was definitely eunsang. dohyon and hangyul had their traits, but it was because they're quite a senior to their own powers, there's no need to train them anymore. but this, this boy, he's so vulnerable yet dangerous at the same time that i don't know what happens if he really wakes up." he lays his head on the bed, leaning closer. "this is not newly activated power that i see here, it's.. power that has been neglected for such a long time."

"so another x1 since birth?" yohan clicks his tongue. "interesting."

"but seeing his condition, he must've been stopped abruptly when he was working with his powers, like a huge bang. this must've been eunsang's doing— no one's able to do that except for him." seungyoun furrows his eyes. "which makes me kind of worried of how eunsang's doing.." seungyoun turns to yohan. "are you sure he was fine when you came to get him? did he show any signs of pain?"

"oh relax, he'll be fine." yohan chirps. "weasley's tougher than you think."

seungyoun's phone rings again. "wait, i'll take it for you." seungwoo tells him before seungyoun even had the time to get on his feet. seungwoo checks on the caller, his eyes flutter. "seungyoun-ah,"

"hm?"

"it's hangyul."

seungyoun curses under his breath. "what is it again?"

seungwoo shrugs as he answers the phone on speaker. "what's up, kid?"

hangyul's voice sounds mildly distressed. "yah, hyung! black widow just collapsed, found him in the subway. dohyon's crying on my shoulder so i couldn't really do much— what should we do about him?"

—

eunsang stares into the void, his thoughts running wild.

after he anonymously called the police to investigate the house with a payphone, he decided to take the subway instead of the taxi because he realizes that he was actually low in money and that taxis aren't really convenient in such busy times. he could've ask seungyoun or summon yohan again to ask for money, but he feels like he's been a huge burden for the both of them so he decided to choose modest decisions as possible. as long as he's capable enough to walk on his own, he'll be fine.

but the thing is, he is starting to regret choosing the modest way. not only he has no idea where exactly seungyoun's mansion is located, the excessive pain he persists until further ado has started kicking in, targeting his head at most.

to eunsang, junho's case has affected him the most from the rest of the members because he did not only disable his power, he absorbs it. he held unto the electrocution until there was nothing left. if he was a normal kid he would've been dead by now.

he places his head against the window, sighing repressively. ignoring the vibrant crowd among him, he closes his eyes, making use of his spare time. he thought of the woman's body getting cut into pieces, the sight of junho with his sudden power reveal, to the part he mumbles of the blonde man that eunsang wasn't quick enough to see.

the fact that he's been hunting for x1 individuals not realizing the person he's been searching for has been with him this whole time.

ironic, when he thought of the times he felt he needed to protect the boy from anything regarding about x1, when in reality junho was truly capable of protecting himself and is indeed, an x1.

all of it just doesn't make sense. . .

eunsang's eyes were sealed shut, and he did not take interest of opening them any sooner. he lets his body take the flow, slowly letting go of the throbbing pain that has been keeping him in torment for a while. he takes a deep breath.

meanwhile, dohyon and hangyul are in the other side of the train, all caught up in a brotherly quarrel. dohyon glares at the older one in dislike.

"no, you're not allowed to get martial art classes. you still gotta catch up with your japanese!" hangyul scolds him.

"why are you the one allowed to do martial arts where as i am stuck with language courses?!" dohyun yells at him. "this is the reason why i'm not good at any sports, you're not letting my body to evolve?"

"trust me kid, you're body's definitely evolving." hangyul gestures at the boy's tall height. "you can't do martial arts because you're still a baby and i forbid you from doing so. i bet mom is definitely going to agree with me on this."

"you always bring out mom, mom, mom, i'm her real kid, not you!"

"but she had me first!" hangyul snaps back. "so technically speaking, she loved me first."

"fine, i'm going to ask her myself, so that i could prove you wrong." dohyon grumbles. "i'm also going to ask her if she allows me to dye my hair."

hangyul furrows his eyebrows. ".. dye your hair?"

"yeah, i'm planning to dye my hair to a more chromatic color," dohyon replies stagnantly.

"is it because of black widow?"

dohyon pauses.

"it is about black widow," hangyul grins. "interesting."

"i think it's pretty cool, him being able to do that," dohyon mumbles. "snaps his fingers and suddenly disabling my power in a split second."

"might as well call him thanos rather than black widow,"

dohyon shoots him a look.

"what, you want me to call you thanos instead?" hangyul sneers. "try dyeing your hair purple instead, i think it'll fit you. then you'll end up being thanos, disappearing the half of the world's population in a snap—"

hangyul snaps his fingers, then suddenly a loud bump was heard from the other side of the cabin. dohyon looks at him. "dude, what did you do?!"

"nothing!" hangyul replies to him defensively. he grabs dohyon's arm and takes him with him, heading to where the bump sound came from.

the crowd became a spurning chaos, encircling a figure of a boy who fell to the floor unconscious. "i got a bad feeling about this," hangyul mutters.

"you can't even see who fell."

"yeah, but something's off."

"you want me to float the person to the ceiling so we could see who it is?"

hangyul glares at him. "stop."

"okay."

the crowd finally gives a way for the unconscious person so that the evacuation process could go on smoothly. dohyon catches a grasp of the said person, then his mouth falls wide open. "hyung, hyung, hyung, hyung!"

"what?"

"i-it's black widow hyung!"

—

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