47 — SORRY TO BREAK IT TO YOU

what's the matter, cha?

—

"that little smile of yours, one that i love. you're looking good, dear."

eunsang didn't expect to see cha junho coming up from the basement without a single fragment of him broken. he saw him getting beaten up less than an hour ago, experienced it all himself, that was until the woman pushed the buttons and successfully zapped his soul out of the boy for good. a part of him wanted to come up to the latter and just surprise him with a sudden confrontation, but he knows for sure that is a stubborn move. so he pulls himself together and tries to keep his cool as his eyes gaze upon junho intently.

daniel gets up from his seat, the suspicion in his eyes looked clearly visible. he quirks an eyebrow as he raises his hand, gesturing the boy to stop walking. "when did we last see each other?"

junho pauses his motion. he tilts his head. "i'm sorry?"

that's definitely junho's voice, and that's definitely him. eunsang tries to encourage himself. if it's a robot, then it must be hard to differentiate it with the real junho. if they created a clone.. they did well with the details.

he shakes his head at the wild thoughts. no, eunsang. this is junho, stop being ridiculous.

deep inside he's not sure whether he should be happy if that's junho or some sort of a doppelgänger they seemingly created; if it's a doppelgänger, that means junho's still stuck in the basement somewhere crying for help. but if it is junho.. god knows what they purposely did to mess up his head.

daniel takes a step further back. "the last time we encountered each other, me and you. just us."

junho looks down, then he laughs. "ah, i really think this isn't necessary.."

"i don't think you have the rights to question the poor kid, euigeon-ah," miss kang mumbles profusely.

"oh no, no. it's okay, doctor." junho turns to daniel again. "the last time we saw each other.. it was at the funeral. please forgive me for my sudden outrage, i shouldn't have blamed you for her death that day. it must've been my fueled up emotions talking."

daniel nods blankly. "no, it's alright..." he clearly wasn't intrigued by the situation, he expects to see guards pointing guns towards the latter's head somewhere from afar, but he did not find any. the boy's clearly alone.

"sit down here, junho-yah." miss kang says as she points to the seat beside her. "daniel-ssi has been wondering your condition here at the compound. he said he's worried about you."

"oh really?"

"yes, he sets an attempt here to 'get' you out." miss kang laughs. "i told him off though, claimed that it's quite ridiculous. why would you wanna leave? you're our best contender who clearly deserves the scholarship."

daniel quirks an eyebrow. "scholarship?"

"yes, you heard it right." miss kang turns to the latter wistfully. "he's here for a program from the company that offers him a scholarship for seoul national university's medical school, and we're just getting started. daniel dear, what really makes you think that we're holding him in captive?"

eunsang notices the disgruntled look in daniel's face, and knows for sure that the latter wasn't intrigued by the scenario either. daniel gives a questionable smile. "a scholarship. from a group of academic-driven extremists— seriously junho-yah, you really don't think something's fishy here?"

junho stares at him blankly before answering. "the only thing in this room that i don't trust is you, daniel-ssi."

a moment of silence. daniel stares at the boy in disbelief, even to the point he's now deliberately desperate, he knows that there wasn't anything much he could do for the night. junho clears his throat uncomfortably. "forgive me if that came out as rude and misplaced; for really i have nothing against you.. but that doesn't mean i'm not in the position to be cautious of you either. you and me, we had quite a rough history, don't you think?"

miss kang doesn't even try to hide her grin. "bad news for you, iron man. you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved."

daniel visibly clenches his jaw, and eunsang knows that he has finally fallen into a dead end. without mentioning another word, the man starts to quickly pack his stuff in defeat, eager for an early departure. of course because of that miss kang's satisfaction doubles exceptionally, eunsang could definitely see her smiling from ear to ear. she turns to junho. "alright, champion. i think it's best for you to sleep now, you don't wanna be late tomorrow. your new accommodation's upstairs next to my office."

junho nods as he bows before leaving. "good night, miss kang."

eunsang was too busy catching up with his own feelings that he didn't notice junho literally walking towards him. the moment he did notice though, junho had his eyes laid upon him earlier on.

shit, shit, shit, shit.

he's looking at me.

"junho-yah," eunsang murmurs softly.

daniel's senses kicked in the moment he catches the voice of eunsang. utterly ratified, the latter throws in all the documents aggressively into his bag and quickly sprints towards eunsang, pushing him from the back, stopping him before he had the chance to say anything. "don't mind him, don't mind him. he's just a colleague of mine, don't mind him." he says in a rush as he tries to cover eunsang the best he could.

miss kang turns around to see what's going on, looking more puzzled than intrigued. "who brought a stray kid into the building?" she scrunches her nose. "i thought this is a fully-secured building— guards?"

"hey! noona, there's really no need." daniel encourages her quickly. "we are really just about to leave. come on,"

eunsang wasn't able to do much, he was practically questioning at how he's able to become so stupid; junho literally heading towards him, why didn't he take cover? why did he stare into the void like a confused idiot instead? he lets daniel control his movements— he feels the latter pushing both of his hands on eunsang's arched back, strong enough to cause him to fall if he refuses to move.

"lee eunsang," junho's voice was as soft as a whisper. "i know you. you're my friend."

he melts.

he forgot how much he missed junho calling him by his name.

eunsang desperately wishes that he could turn his back just to make sure how genuine the look on junho's face was when he mentioned those words, but daniel's quick reflexes made him hard to react like so. "junho, junho.." he tries to form a sentence but as he was in such a hurry, nothing came out just as what he expected.

in a blink of an eye, daniel and eunsang had nearly reached the exit. eunsang's quick responses kickstarted only after junho was no longer next to him. he leans over daniel. "daniel-ssi, that wasn't junho— well that was him, but it wasn't him. he wouldn't even do that merely for a scholarship, they must've had done something to him—"

"no shit, sherlock." the latter mutters. eunsang was quite surprised to hear him curse. daniel's only intention as for right now was to leave the building as soon as possible, that's why he didn't bother to comment on eunsang's ramblings that much. "you got into the building without my permission."

"i had no guarantee that you were on my side."

"on your side? dude, you and your trust issues might as well be the death of me." this was also the first time eunsang ever seen him so offended. "seriously, this wouldn't happened if it wasn't for that lightning kid. he caused a huge tantrum on me that it clearly ruined my image to the rest of you, i'm disappointed."

"just because he couldn't prove your act of evilness, doesn't mean that proves you to be innocent." eunsang points out sharply. "what you did these past few days, what you did in spite of what going on, it's questionable from the start. we have all the reasons to not trust you."

"were you even listening throughout the whole conversation? i bloody tried to save your friend and it didn't bloody work." daniel groans in dislike. "this is the first time it has ever ended up this way. they're advancing faster than i expected."

they eventually reached the door that leads to the exit. eunsang turns to him. "so what are we going to do now? how are we going to save him?"

"we? haha. no. the last thing i need is for you to be here." daniel grabs his phone as he quickly dials someone. "what you need to do is to get back home and sleep, you got school tomorrow."

eunsang doesn't seem impressed by the plan. "but—"

"no butts, no interfering. i'm telling this to you specifically. don't try to run away because seriously, there's nothing much that you can do at 3am in the morning." a car stops in front of them, then daniel quickly pushes the boy into the backseat and closes the car door afterwards. he turns to the driver. "i don't want you to return back to the base until you see him reach home and crawl into his bed."

the driver nods. eunsang lowers down the car's rear window. "daniel-ssi!" he calls out.

daniel sighs. "no more questions, eunsang—"

"who are you, in this narrative?"

that question definitely deserves to be repeated. daniel arches an eyebrow. "what?"

"who are you.. to us?" he emphasized the word 'us'. "though it's clear that you definitely know who we are, what we are, especially after the effort you put to.. let's just say 'save' some of us.. but i still don't understand, why are you doing this? who are you to do this?"

daniel pauses for a bit before answering. "i'm nobody."

eunsang looks at him strangely.

"and because of that, i try my best to help all of you just so that i can feel like I've become.. somebody." he bows slightly. "goodnight, eunsang. see you tomorrow."

—

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