39 — DISTRESS CALL

it's like walking on thin ice.

—

"seungyoun-ah~"

eunsang knows the moment he laid his eyes upon seungyoun, for sure he had something bothering up his sleeves. of course seungwoo and wooseok immediately noticed there was something different of the latter. wooseok clears his throat, trying to keep his concerns subtle. "you look.. pale."

seungyoun scrunches his forehead as he tries to maintain his smile. "i'm always pale."

"are you sure you're feeling okay?" seungwoo puts his hand on the latter's forehead, checking on him intently. "i don't think you look well."

"seungyoun hyung really did look unstable in class," minhee mentions a detail.

seungyoun eyes him in judgement. "yah, don't overreact."

"so you are unwell." seungwoo sighs in concern.

dongpyo, noticing daniel's presence when everyone (except eunsang) didn't, decided to greet him properly. "daniel-ssi, i didn't expect to see you here again."

"ah, dongpyo-yah." daniel was quite relieved to finally be included into the narrative. "eunsang, we didn't said a proper farewell the last time we saw each other."

eunsang remembers what he was referring to, that was when junho suddenly spoke something provocative and things started to go out of hand.

daniel turns to wooseok and seungwoo. "and you must be seungyoun-ssi's friends... interesting, seems like the whole team's here."

wooseok did not bother to answer to his complimentary conversation starter— seungwoo however was much more tolerant to strangers. seungwoo nods. "i think we haven't been able to introduce ourselves. my name is seungwoo, and this is wooseok."

"seungwoo, wooseok, it's a pleasure to meet you." daniel says as he bows lightly. "so are you here by dongwook's favor too?"

"yes, we are the substitutes for biology." seungwoo looks at his phone. "but it seems like we're not that tight of schedules at the moment, we only had one and that's for eunsang and dongpyo's class."

"ah really?" daniel turns to seungyoun. "we only got one class for today too, right?"

seungyoun seems distracted. "today? ah.. yeah."

"i guess if that's the case that means my job here is done," daniel smiles in advance. "and it seems like i still got a lot of spare time to redeem, that's great." he glances at seungwoo and wooseok. "any of you up for an early lunch? we could stop at a local restaurant or the mall, if it's already open."

"lunch?" wooseok tilts his head in confusion.

"yes, well.. if you want to, of course." daniel replies shortly. "of course, without our dongsaengs here who still have a half day of school to go through."

hyeongjun frowns. "why can't you go after school? we could have supper together with the whole group.. i wanna go.."

"unfortunately my time isn't that flexible, hyeongjun-ah." daniel tells him as he pats his head gently. "i wish that we could really try to bond with each other some other time." he turns to the hyungs again. "so.. what's your call?"

seungwoo glances at wooseok and seungyoun questionably. he wasn't expecting seungyoun to answer for himself so quickly.

"i think i'll pass," seungyoun raises his hand. "i think i need to go home now, i'm really not feeling well."

eunsang looks at him in concern. seungyoun hyung's never been like this before.

what's wrong? eunsang tries to reach the latter through his thoughts, but it seems like the older boy's actually ignoring him purposely, as he did not react one bit.

"see? i told you." seungwoo scolds him. "i'll go with seungyoun, this kid thinks that he's better of alone when he's clearly sick. i'll take you home, seungyoun-ah."

"no hyung, you don't have to—"

"don't try to stop me from babying you, that will never work."

daniel's last option was wooseok. he glances at him. "how about you?"

wooseok pauses for a moment before answering. "i'll pass."

"why? just go with him, he won't bite." seungwoo's tone was just the same as a mother encouraging his son to socialize more. "i'll take care of seungyoun-ah, don't worry."

wooseok sneers. "that's not the problem here."

"so then what is?"

"i think we're forgetting one important aspect, forgot it in such a short amount of time." he eradicates. "junho's gone. he's gone and you're expecting me to use my spare time for a small brotherly bonding instead?"

the boys went silent. daniel himself looks terribly stunned. he lowers his head. "ah, so those are your thoughts.."

seungwoo grabs wooseok's arm tightly, a small spark of fire grazes his fingertip. "daniel-ssi, wooseok really had no intentions to be rude—"

"i was speaking as a rational person." wooseok adds impatiently.

"you see, we as a group were very affected by junho's disappearance, so i hope you understand." seungwoo says with a smile.

"yes, i truly do." daniel nods. "wah, i really hope you'll find him soon."

so just like that the boys get back to their classes, whereas seungwoo brought seungyoun back to his mansion where he is supposedly going to rest. dongpyo gestures at eunsang to follow him to the next class, but eunsang shakes his head, telling the boy that he'll catch up later. he simply felt like that he wasn't able, let alone deserve to go through life normally as he's ever been.

perhaps wooseok's last argument really did hit him hard. through the last busy week eunsang discovers that the older boy wasn't one to expose his concerns easily; he tends to stay subtle as he continues to maintain his ignorant image. but what happened earlier just now showed that wooseok definitely reached his peak— he was worried enough to actually spill his worries to others, and because of that eunsang starts to grasp back how important the situation really is.

what has he actually been doing throughout the day that could help tracing junho's whereabouts? nothing. he's done nothing.

eunsang decides to reside from reality for a moment to contemplate himself. he was the last person to see junho,

the last to even get to hear his voice.

if only he held him by the hand just like what he did the rest of the day..

if only he falls unconscious even by the touch of his skin..

perhaps he would still be here by his side right now.

he can't imagine what had happened to yohan to ever happen to junho. what worse is that junho never knew of the yohan situation, so if he were to be captured by the same people who were targeting at dohyon, he had to go through it without knowing anything, just like how yohan had gotten through it.

how much eunsang wished he was the one captured, not junho.

not the person he cares about the most.

drowned by his own thoughts, eunsang's inner conscience suddenly brought himself to the certain staircase that leads to the fourth floor, the one where his first conversation with junho took place merely just a week ago.

"what makes you think you can talk to me?"

now that he thought of it, eunsang was definitely straight off rude, though he had no intentions of acting like so. he knew that he was low of self-esteem and he thought no one was going to plan on inclunding him into a conversation other than his parents or his teachers. that's why he was genuinely shocked by junho's sudden greeting, and somehow it came out rude to the ones who heard it.

he slowly goes up through the stairs, feeling the cold wall against his fingertips. he frowns indelicately, his unresolved emotions made his head a lot heavier than how it used to be. he slowly sits down as he tries to gather what's left of him. he rests his eyes, his eyelids closes gently. he lets himself venture through the recurring darkness.

what was before quiet and pitch black, he suddenly hears muffled voices surrounding him, lights flickering though he still had his eyes closed shut.

he listens.

flicker, flicker.

he has no control of his hands.

the room is dark and secure. there are no windows nor anything to keep the air circulating, maybe that's why he's having a hard time to breathe.

"those were very successful 3 days, miss kang. i believe you deserve a raise." a voice of a woman.

another woman laughs. "there's still nothing to congratulate, not until i could pry my way into this patient's nervous system."

"the invention you just made—"

"i call it the mimicry."

"the mimicry.. it's incredible." the woman says in astonishment. "the way it could perfectly disguise itself as a thin layer of the boy's skin.. the way it's just designed to be so practical— i can't believe you've managed to invent something like this."

"it still has its flaws. a highschool kid discovered its whereabouts quite quick."

"but you can't deny that it fooled them for quite a while, and that's an absolute increase of compatibility if you ask me."

"this thing, it is practical." the woman holds the chip by her hand, gazing at it intently as she heads towards the body eunsang was watching this from. "however, it's not powerful enough to take over everything, it barely controlled one arm. that's why this research is in need of enlightenment."  she goes through her collection of syringes, scanning for the perfect one.

"what's the pretty boy's name?" the other woman asks as she steps closer. "hello there. if you were anything else but special, i'd marry you off to my daughter."

"you gotta write your name on the waiting list then, i bet he got plenty." miss kang laughs. "the name is cha junho. ace in his class, best at controlling his feelings." she fiddles on the chip. "this thing never really affected him until he showed an immense amount of emotion, and that only just happened today. that means his emotions are nonetheless very stable, and it's quite hard to break through his strong foundation. i need to find a way to access his feelings completely."

"you got to use your time wisely, miss kang." the other woman reminds her. "remember just last week, when that senior researcher held interrogations to a kid he captured for so long? he got fired the next day."

"i'm fully informed, thank you for your concern." she says calmly. "i was there as the supervisor at that time, the one who scolded him to hurry up. he clearly did not listen."

"so you know that you must be extremely careful too, then." she says. "you got the boy here right in front of you, the next thing you should be concerned of is to how to make sure you got enough time testing him."

"i'm sure i'll be fine."

"how come are you so sure of that?"

without warning, the woman heads immediately towards eunsang's perspective and injects a syringe right on the neck.

pain.

absolute pain.

his eyesight worsens, the voices surrounding him slowly becomes inaudible. the last thing his ear was able to catch was the woman's answer.

"because i have something the last researcher doesn't."

eunsang did not notice that the moment he opened his eyes, his whole face was just as red as his hair. he had been crying so intensely to the point his cheeks were just numb, his eyes bleary. worry brushes over his whole body after he discovers what junho had to face, clueless and alone.

junho-yah, i'm so sorry.

"tissue?"

he glances up. the figure of the blonde man makes his heart drop. daniel looks down at him blankly, no emotions appear in his face.

eunsang shakes his head lightly, declining his offer. he puts his face back on his lap, brushing of the tears that was still embellishing his face.

daniel kneels down. "just take one, you still got something in your face there."

eunsang couldn't help but feel annoyed. why is this guy here and why is he ruining the only time he could be alone? before eunsang could express his discomfort, a voice from the other side surprised the both of them.

"daniel-ssi." wooseok's voice was soft yet tense in a way, like a shiver of icy air that breezes without warning. he walks towards the latter, each step he takes rises the tension. he stands in front of a very devastated eunsang, shielding him over. "get out of here."

-

soon to be forty chapters sdfdsjfk +50,000 words im quite surprised by myself

im lowkey thinking of writing a rly short lee hangyul fic just for my personal desire but idkkk with this story still ongoing i think writing another story would just cause me a writer's block sdjfhjdfhsd crying

so far into the plot, what are your theories of what's actually happening? i would like to know your guesses :D

200 votes for the next chapter n