120k ~ such a pretty number, thanks for reading <3

49 — YOU'RE JUST NOT YOU

eunsang doesn't know what to do.

—

it was a quiet ride back home.

eunsang stares at the empty road, counting the minutes until he reaches home. the driver was so quiet to the point eunsang couldn't even hear him breathing— maybe this is a normal thing to do by well trained drivers, they learn to mind their own business. eunsang grabs his phone from his pocket, dismissing the 'low battery' notification before entering his passcode.

3:19am.

right now all he wants to do is to scream into the void, just express how infuriating he actually feels at the moment, but doing it alone doesn't feel as satisfying than doing it with someone else, that's why he decides to scroll into his recent contacts and search for someone for him to at least leave a message to (after all, he's not expecting anyone to be up at the moment). he checks on the recent missed calls, the ones that came out as a spam at its time because eunsang ignored all of it; it was during his spontaneous getaway with junho, and seungyoun called him more or less two dozen times. he taps on seungyoun's number and immediately spills his thoughts without even caring whether it has connected or not. "SEUNGYOUN HYUNG! you wouldn't believe what happened just now—"

"oh my god, lee eunsang?" eunsang gasps by the appearance of a voice from the other line.

"hyung?" eunsang puts the phone closer to his ear. "why are you up this late?"

"i should be the one asking that to you!" the older one doesn't seemed too pleased to hear him. "why are you up this late?!"

"it's about cha junho. seungyoun-hyung, i coincidentally switched bodies with junho and—"

"wait hold up, where are you?" seungyoun asks. "i hear car engines. why aren't you at your home?"

"i'm on my way."

"what? where did you go? why aren't you home yet? who are you with right now?" seungyoun goes full worried mode. "yes, seungwoo hyung! eunsang's not home—" "give me the phone. seungyoun-ah. give me the damn phone right now—"

that was seungwoo's voice. eunsang was starting to question everything. "seungwoo-hyung, you're up this late too?!"

"lee eunsang!" seungwoo has now taken control of the phone. "please tell me you're safe. you're now on your way home right, sweetheart? who's taking you home? please tell me it's someone you're familiar with."

"seungwoo-hyung, please, i'm fine. i'm now with kang daniel's personal driver and he's taking me home safely."

eunsang immediately realizes that bringing kang daniel into the conversation was a bad idea he notices that seungwoo's tone has changed drastically. "kang daniel?"

"kang daniel? he's with kang daniel?" wooseok's faint voice was heard from afar. "hey, give me that."

eunsang had enough of it. "okay, timeout. just put this into speaker mode, hyung. it's a nuisance to hear you guys fight for the phone all the time."

seungwoo agrees to his suggestion, because eunsang could immediately feel the difference having the phone on speaker, he gets to listen to the three of them equally.

"so you met up with daniel?" seungyoun asks curiously.

"yes, and junho."

"you met up with junho?!" seungwoo gasps in surprise. "how is he, is he alright? what happened? how did you end up finding him?"

eunsang explains it all in detail, from his wishful thinking and his shaky attempt of trying to switch bodies with junho, him getting the address, him bumping into a very startled daniel, until to the part he froze at the sight of junho. the whole scenario sounds too good to be true, because there was so many questions he had in his head, and most of them were answered by the occurring events that happened this night.

"wah, daniel wasn't lying when he said he's going to save junho.." wooseok mumbles. "i honestly thought it was merely a joke."

"wait, he said that to you?"

"he came here earlier today, gave us information too much for our brains to compress." seungwoo replies. "and now added up with the encounter you had with him.. i'm fully convinced. he's actually here to help."

"how about junho?" seungyoun asks quietly.

eunsang sighs. "i'm not sure if that was him, hyung. he said he recognized me, but i'm not convinced. they must've planted something inside his brain, something more powerful than the chip, that causes him to go against me and daniel instead."

"let's just hope that's the scenario, kid." wooseok huffs a sigh. "that's seriously one of the best case scenario."

"what's the worst?"

"him getting his previous memories erased, him getting rebooted to  the core. that's the worst case scenario." wooseok repudiates. "if it's an updated version of the chip we're talking about, that's way better. that means the real junho's inside there somewhere, and there's still a possibility of us bringing him back."

"we will bring him back." seungwoo says tensely. "you don't have to worry too much, eunsang-ah. we'll find the solution to this, we won't let them take him away from you that easily."

eunsang nods, hoping that his hyung's words of reassurance weren't just exclamations of false hope.

—

wooseok has removed junho from the chatroom

hangyul: ouch

seungwoo: guys, i encourage you not to interact with junho too much for today. don't bring up anything about x1 either okay? this is an order.

hyeongjun: junho's backkkk??? (*^o^*)

wooseok: kind of

seungyoun: @.hyeongjun if you see him anywhere close to you, turn your back from him and walk away. do not engage. we need to take precautions.

dohyon: lol y'all be talking as if he's been brainwashed or something

minhee: celebration dinner !!!! free food!!!! @.seungyoun

seungyoun: not today @.minhee

eunsang: we can't even guarantee the return of the real junho minhee-yah, you're expecting for a celebration dinner?

minhee: alright junho celebration dinner!!! without junho!!!

seungwoo: we're going to get him back, @.eunsang. don't worry.

first period. eunsang reaches his first class, expecting not much from the day. he tries not to be too overwhelmed by the fact that he's probably going to meet 'junho' again today. honestly for him, he doesn't know if that's good news or bad news. he scans through the fairly full class, scanning for dongpyo among the students. his confidence falter once he sees that the seat next to him was occupied by guanlin instead.

"dongpyo-yah."

eunsang heads towards the latter, feeling a bit betrayed after they gone through two days of becoming chairmates. "dongpyo, aren't you supposed to sit with me for today?"

dongpyo shrugs. "your boyfriend's back. i don't see why i should."

dongpyo gestures at the seat next to the window. eunsang glances to where he is referring to, and for some reason he shudders at the sight of junho sitting alone, casually reading a book. eunsang turns to dongpyo again. "hey, i didn't say anything about changing chairmates again after junho returns back."

"i didn't say anything about sitting with you in the first place either but look where we are right now." dongpyo smirks.

guanlin notices eunsang's appearance. "oh hey, eunsang-ah."

"guanlin. is it alright if i switch places with you?" eunsang asks with no shame.

guanlin doesn't seem to have any problem with it. "yeah okay, it's alright—"

"guanlin-ah, stay." dongpyo stops the boy from standing up. he turns to eunsang. "i'm not sitting with you again. go sit with your boyfriend."

eunsang leans on the table, attempting on encouraging him again. he whispers, making sure guanlin doesn't catch a glimpse of the conversation. "did you read anything from the group chat? we were told not to interact with him."

"if i interact with you, i'll end up interacting with him anyway. this is my way of protecting myself." dongpyo shrugs. "get back there, dropout. he's waiting for you."

eunsang curses under his breath. there wasn't much he could do because the sight of him avoiding junho itself might look suspicious for the rest of the class, maybe that's what dongpyo had in mind. so with a heavy heart, eunsang takes a sit next to the brown haired boy. junho breaks his focus on the book to acknowledge the boy's presence. he smiles lightly. "eunsang-ah."

if he continues to become this junho-like, eunsang's probably not going to suspect anything. he returns the smile. "junho."

"we didn't have a chance to talk yesterday— this morning, i mean. daniel-ssi seems to be in a hurry. i was quite disappointed."

eunsang nods. "i was disappointed too." and he wasn't lying. that certainly wasn't the reunion he expected.

"i missed you."

eunsang couldn't help but be startled by the sudden sensitive expression. don't let your guards down, eunsang-ah. this is his way of trying to regain your trust.

still, it wouldn't hurt to return the phrase of affection.

"i miss you, junho." eunsang replies back.

"'miss'?" junho arches an eyebrow. "but i'm right here."

"are you, though?"

silence. eunsang expects him to deny his suspicions and come up with another topic, but he was surprised to hear a sly laugh coming out from the boy. "well okay, i should've known better. there's no use of disguising myself in front of you, your smart ass will end up finding out about everything anyway."

eunsang feels his throat tighten. "who are you?"

"who am i? i'm junho." he replies with a smile. "well, not technically junho. i'm the mimicry version of junho, the other version of himself that's fighting for domination right over here." he points at his head.

"mimicry?" eunsang tilts his head in confusion. "you're that small chip?"

junho nods. "it's inside my brain, so you can't scrape it off easily just like what you did before. it was cool though, when you were able to discover me so fast. i'm quite impressed."

eunsang stares at the boy puzzled. "how are you talking to me.. like you have—"

"thoughts?" he finishes his sentence.

"you're talking like an actual person, not like some sort of a program planted on his head." somehow eunsang was more curious than scared. "you'd easily pass turing's imitation game, no joke."

"i'll take that as a compliment." junho's way of talking sounds more human than how he usually is, and that makes eunsang more impressed by how this is figure he's talking to is claimed to be the work of artificial intelligence. "though i received many, it's an honor to receive one from you. it's a delight to know that you approve of my credibility, i mean, i wouldn't be able to take control of this body if it wasn't for my amazing skills. poor junho's just there hopelessly protecting what's left of him."

"junho's still inside there?" eunsang's eyes brighten.

"oh yes, he is. he's not doing a great job, though. wishes to be more dominant than me when we all know for sure who's the owner of this body."

eunsang quirks an eyebrow.

"which is me, of course." he says as if he's stating the obvious. "but this poor junho, he lacks coordination with me. there's so much of this brain i haven't been able to take control of because of him. long story short, he only shows the memories and information that he allows me to know. the rest of it remains a secret." he sighs. "kang daniel, bad guy. kim wooseok, scary but cool senior. lee eunsang, bestfriend— that's it! it's as if this app i download requires in-app purchases and trust me, i do not like what i'm seeing here."

eunsang was glad to know junho's actually fighting back. "junho-yah, keep fighting. i'll try to find a way to remove that annoying virus out  of your head."

junho shakes his head. "don't get your hopes up, lover boy. he's not going to survive this."

"i'm sorry?"

"he's not coordinating with me, he's trying to fight me off when he knows it's clearly impossible. i control the body, he controls a part of the head. it's a small percentage, don't you think?"

eunsang felt like his hopes and dreams were dragged down in just a snap. he scrunches his forehead. "he controls the brain."

"he controls a part of the cerebrum. i control another part of the cerebrum, the cerebellum, the brainstem— hell, basically anything else other than that tiny space of his that's slowly reducing over time." he says with a dramatic sigh.

eunsang shudders. "don't you ever try to kill him. if you do, i won't even hesitate to kill you."

"eunsang-ah, remember. i am only a program. you can't kill me. i might as well keep a backup inside kang seulgi's laptop. remember that you have no power against me." he laughs. "however, because i'm the only humane artificial intelligence you'll ever encounter, i am quite merciful. this poor guy inside my head, he's trying so hard to protect the information he has left, he doesn't realize that he's actually dying."

eunsang gulps. junho dying. number one worst case scenario for him.

"you can save him though, save him from trying." he leans closer to eunsang, breathing directly close to his ear. "tell me what i want to know. tell me what he's been dying to filter the most, and just like that i'd let him stay like a parasite here inside my head."

eunsang pauses, loss of words. he looks down. "what do you want to know?"

"simple. i have a feeling you'd know." he whispers close to his ear. "who are the other ten x1 individuals?"

–

the mimicry doesn't know that eunsang's an x1.

btw i've just published take me to church's first chap so be sure check that shiz out 🤘🏽

200 votes for next chapter~