Chapter Text
AUGUST. The hottest month of the year, when most people preferred to have the cool air of the air-conditioner trained on them 24/7. However, Wooyoung found himself sprinting down the grassy path towards the front of his university building, two minutes from missing the only thing he was looking forward to all year: A field trip to the Hala Corporation, the leading company in scientific discoveries.
Wooyoung’s hair was still slightly damp from his morning shower. His phone decided that yes, this morning out of all mornings would be the perfect time to glitch out and turn his alarm off for him. So needless to say, when his ringtone rang through his dream about being at a BTS fansign, he was thoroughly confused.
“...Hello?” He had answered, half-yawning. Only when the annoyed voice of his friend, Yeonjun, tumbled out of the speakers telling him the bus was leaving in ten minutes, did Wooyoung jump out of bed with a shriek.
He was panting and sweating heavily when he climbed aboard the bus with 20 other students, plopping himself down next to his friend with an exaggerated sigh.
“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” Wooyoung pouted at Yeonjun while he reached into his bag to get some wipes for his sweat. Not much point in that morning shower, he mused.
“Young-ah, I’m your best friend, not your mom,” Yeonjun answered, flicking Wooyoung in the head with the faintest trace of fondness in his voice.
The bus trip was uneventful aside from some squeals from the back of the bus when some girls found a giant dead moth between the seats. Wooyoung busied himself with the brochure of HalaCorp that his professor had passed out to everyone.
“Isn’t this crazy? They invented the world’s first actual freeze ray,” Wooyoung gushed to Yeonjun. “I mean, how cool is that?”
“You know, I didn’t take you for a science nerd, but you’ve been talking about this trip since this year started.”
“Excuse you, I am not a science nerd!...It’s super cool…Regular people would get excited too,” Wooyoung whined. “They also have a giant star projector with constellations you can touch at HalaCorp too and you know you can’t get in without some major connections! It’s not like you can just walk in!”
“Technically, we’re going to be doing that in exactly…” Yeonjun looked at his phone. “...15 minutes.”
Wooyoung nudged him with his shoulder. “You know what I mean. If it wasn’t for Professor Jang being actual friends with the freaking Head Science Engineer, we wouldn’t even be able to get through the front doors. This field trip is once in a lifetime. We’re probably the only school that ever gets to do this.”
“And yet you were nearly left behind, doomed to regret this day for the rest of your life if it weren’t for me, the bestest best friend in the whole world,” Yeonjun smirked.
“Shut up!” Wooyoung groaned, before returning excitedly to the brochure to show his friend the other marvelous inventions HalaCorp had created.
To say the HalaCorp building was grand would be an understatement. As Professor Jang’s elective class moved through the revolving doors, Wooyoung couldn’t help it when his jaw hung open. The students took turns loading their bags onto the conveyor belt, and the lobby area was relatively quiet except for the low hum of the X-ray machine and the occasional voice of the guards telling the visitors to walk through the security gantry.
For a building this huge and with people in lab coats and lanyards bustling by, it was almost quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Wooyoung gulped and shifted his bag back onto his shoulders as the guard waved him through. Even though he hadn’t done anything illegal, the cold stares of the security guards made him feel like he had.
He caught up to Yeonjun and the other gave him a glance when he grabbed his hand. Yeonjun was no stranger to Wooyoung’s almost constant need for skinship. He noted Wooyoung’s nervous glance around them as they waited for the rest of the students to rejoin the group, and squeezed his hand in return. Wooyoung gave him a small smile.
“Come on, you’re supposed to be excited. Don’t get scared now,” Yeonjun whispered close to his ear.
Wooyoung only nodded and willed his heart to beat at a normal pace. He was excited to see what secrets the HalaCorp building held, but the atmosphere inside was a bit different than what he was expecting. Even though it was a school field trip, and his professor was indeed friends with one of the scientists here and had gotten them special access, he couldn’t help but feel that maybe they weren’t all that welcome.
Finally, all of the students had shuffled through the security gantry and were now gathered around a holographic display panel in the middle of the lobby. Professor Jang cleared her throat and motioned to someone standing beside her.
“Alright everyone, you’re all adults already so I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that you’re expected to be on your best behaviour and listen to Dr. Nam here as he brings us on this tour.” The professor gestured to the man beside her. Wooyoung craned his neck to look over the shoulder of his classmate in front of him. There was a man in a white lab coat, his hair impeccably styled and he didn’t look any older than forty.
“Hello students,” he smiled tightly. “I am Dr. Nam Kyungsu, and I will be your...tour guide for today.”
His voice was quiet as a whisper, but in the cavernous lobby, it seemed to bounce off the walls.
Professor Jang and Dr. Nam seemed to exchange a few words before gesturing for the students to follow them towards the elevators.
They had to walk in two straight lines in order to not take up so much space as scientists hurried around them, and Wooyoung felt like he was in elementary school again. His hand was still in Yeonjun’s - not that the other minded.
An hour of the tour had passed and still no freeze ray. No giant star projector. Wooyoung frowned. They had only been to see boring stuff like the scientists’ cafeteria and the conference halls. Wooyoung wanted to see the cool stuff! The cool weapons! The tower of cards held up so perfectly by a wind vacuum that even blowing on it wouldn’t cause it to topple over! The dog collar that allowed pets to communicate with their owners - okay, that one was still in the experimental stages, he heard, but he still wanted to see it!
Wooyoung could tell the other students were feeling a bit restless too. He caught a few of them stifling yawns and two girls had been sending memes to each other since the tour started. Professor Jang had sent a few of them warning glares, but even the fear of her couldn’t make them enjoy the “tour” any more than they were.
And Wooyoung could feel the pressure building up in his bladder. In his rush to get out of bed, he hadn’t even had the time to go to the toilet in the morning. He looked around the hallway as Dr. Nam was explaining to them what kind of bulletproof glass these conference rooms used, trying to spot a restroom sign.
Finally, he saw it behind them, pale glowing in the shadows at the end of the hallway. He nudged Yeonjun, miming towards the sign and then at himself, hobbling back and forth a bit. Yeonjun rolled his eyes and nodded his head towards Professor Jang. Wooyoung watched her; she seemed to be minding the kids in the front of the group and smiling at Dr. Nam every five seconds. She wouldn’t notice him slip away to the restroom.
“I’ll be gone for like, less than five. I’ll be back, like, super quick,” Wooyoung mouthed to his friend. “He’s probably gonna be talking about that glass for another twenty minutes, fifteen if we’re lucky.”
“Fine, fine,” Yeonjun shooed at him with his hands. “Just hurry up and go pee. If the group moves off, I’m totally leaving without you though.”
“Bestest friend ever, indeed,” Wooyoung replied, sticking his tongue out childishly.
He looked back at Professor Jang one more time before tiptoeing his way backward. Wooyoung followed the glowing restroom sign down two more corners before he found it.
Sighing with relief after he finally felt the pressure in his bladder let up, Wooyoung was about to turn right to head back to his group. But, out of the corner of his eye, he could see a doorway to his left and a sign that read - ‘Weapons Lab 3 - PROJECT SUPERNOVA’.
Wooyoung’s steps halted. Weapons...Supernova...if there was going to be anywhere to see a freeze ray or a giant star projector...well.
He could still hear Dr. Nam’s voice echoing through the hallway. The man didn’t even sound remotely close to finishing his mini-lecture. Wooyoung bit his lip. Surely, if he just took a few extra minutes to look around, it wouldn’t be so bad right?
Like he told Yeonjun earlier, even being inside the HalaCorp building was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And he wasn’t leaving without seeing something worthwhile. So Wooyoung steeled himself and turned towards the door. Looking over his shoulder, he took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
This lab seemed to be a long hallway lined with several heavy-looking doors. As Wooyoung took more steps in, he noticed that there was no one around at the moment. The lab was empty, which was fortunate for him. He didn’t know how he was going to explain this to his Professor if he got caught - “Hi, sorry I was looking for the restroom...which was right outside this room and was super brightly lit but...surprise?”
He crept slowly down to the first door to see if he could get a good look inside through the small glass panel in the middle of the door.
All he saw was his own reflection staring back at him.
He moved down to the second door, and this time the room inside seemed to be lit up. He slowly peeped his head up in front of the glass, and almost couldn’t contain his gasp. There it was on a table in the middle of the table. The freeze ray from the brochure! It looked to be in a state of disassembly but Wooyoung recognized the bright blue and silver design. He tried pushing against the door, but he noticed a scanner next to the door.
He sighed, well at least he managed to get a glimpse of it at least. He was already more satisfied with this than the last hour he had spent with Dr. Nam.
Wooyoung spent a few more minutes looking into the different rooms before he got a ping on his phone. It was Yeonjun.
Yeonz
Dude where r u? Dont tell me ur doing number 2
Wooz
Im heading back now chill
Wooyoung slipped his phone back into his back pocket. He couldn’t wait to tell Yeonjun what he saw. Oh wait, maybe he should take a photo. Yeonjun was always one for proof. “Receipts or it didn’t happen, period,” he would say.
Wooyoung walked back towards the room with the freeze ray. He silently took the photo, and as he was slipping his phone back into his pocket, he heard something that made him freeze.
Voices.
And they were coming from the door that he had entered from. The door that would lead him back to his peers.
He looked behind him down the winding hallway. There was only one way to go.
He scrambled further into the lab and ducked into another left hallway before he heard the main door open, two voices floating in.
Wooyoung tried to contain his breathing and he looked to his left and right. This hallway stretched perpendicularly to the main hallway and just seemed to contain more doors. He was screwed. There was no place to hide. The halls were blindingly white as all science labs seemed to be. The doors were all locked behind a heavy-duty barcode scanner.
“Nam wants to push the project date up - and while you know I definitely do not want to question anything Nam says, it can’t be done,” he heard one voice say.
“He’s crazy, there’s no way we’ll be able to find a suitable subject by the end of the month. There are tests to be done. Clinical trials! We haven’t even had one success since we moved up from the rats,” a second voice piped up.
“You’re saying that like the rats were a success in the first place,” the first voice scoffed. “I don’t know how we even moved up to human trials at all. To hell with ethics, I guess. Nam is one sick guy.”
The second voice chuckled and the first one joined in.
Wooyoung knew he wasn’t supposed to be listening to this at all. He backed further into the hallway and turned around to look for any door - any door at all - that would budge.
“Hey! What are you doing here?” He heard someone say. Wooyoung froze. That was it, they caught him.
He turned around, excuse ready on his lips, but to his surprise, there was no one behind him. The two scientists were still in the main hallway. Wait, but if they weren’t talking to him then…?
“What are you doing here? Who are you?” He heard Scientist One ask.
A strange humming sound emanated from the hallway and the lights seemed to flicker. Amongst the flickering, a bright blue glow spilled out into the hallway Wooyoung was hiding in.
“W-What...what are you doing? G-get back! Get...Agh!” Wooyoung heard Scientist One say before he seemed to get cut off. There was the unmistakable sound of flesh being cut. A coppery scent wafted in the air, and Wooyoung thought he was going to be sick.
Backing down the hallway at a heightened speed now, Wooyoung was tugging on every single door as he made his way further in. He could hear sounds of a scuffle and more fearful begging. Wooyoung’s breathing picked up and tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes.
Suddenly an alarm sounded.
He heard the main door bang open.
“Halt, intruder! Put your weapon down or we will open fire!”
From the way the sound of bullets reverberated in his skulls, he guessed the supposed intruder didn’t listen.
Wooyoung’s hands started shaking. What was going on? A gunfight in the middle of a science lab? In HalaCorp? He didn’t stop pushing on every single door he came across, praying for some sort of miracle.
The flickering hallway lights combined with the eerie blue glow and nozzle flashes going off was way more ‘horror movie’ than he ever wanted.
Wooyoung heard a groan. He turned around and back where the two hallways met, he saw a bloodied hand pulling itself into the hallway he was in.
The bloody hand was soon followed by an equally blood-covered man in a white lab coat. And around his neck: a lanyard with his ID. The scientist collapsed, seemingly out of strength. The gunfire still raged in the background. Wooyoung stumbled towards the scientist, grabbing at his neck for the lanyard. He finally ripped it over the man’s head and with the lanyard came the man’s blood as well, sticking to Wooyoung’s hands.
Wooyoung’s hands were shaking even more now, and his vision swayed for a bit before he rose up from the man’s body and ran back down the hallway.
He ran up to the last door in the hall and held the ID up to the scanner. It flashed red, making a not-so-subtle error sound. Wooyoung frantically tapped it against the scanner several more times, each time accompanied by the red light and loud buzz. He pulled the ID away from the scanner, using his shirt to wipe away the smears of blood on the card before jamming it in front of the scanner once more.
A miracle. A flash of green, and the door he was leaning against swung open. Wooyoung fell into the room and scrambled to shut the door behind him. He breathed heavily against it for a moment, before looking up at the room.
It was pitch black, save for the light pouring in from the glass panel in the door. In the middle of the room stood a giant glass chamber big enough to fit a car. The door was open. There was a control panel next to it, with a small glass vial sitting prettily in a dome on top of it. Various wires connected the dome and the box, tiny electrical wires glowing with energy. The vial itself was a pale orange, and Wooyoung could swear it was actually glowing.
He hugged his knees to his chest with one arm, the other shakily trying to get his phone out of his pocket. He tried to unlock it but all he succeeded in was smearing blood over his screen. When he finally got it open, to his dismay there was no cell service at all.
“No, no, no,” Wooyoung muttered to himself. But he had cell service just now when he texted Yeonjun? Did the world hate him that much? He thumped his head against the door and tried not to cry in the thundering silence.
...Wait. Silence?
Wooyoung’s head shot up. There was no more gunfire, no more screaming. It was silent. The only thing he could hear was his own breathing.
Then footsteps. Coming towards him. He could hear them through the door. And the light streaming into the room was suddenly covered by a shadow. Someone was outside. Looking into the room.
Maybe they couldn’t see him...Maybe they’d move on and leave. Wooyoung held his shaking, bloodied hand over his mouth.
And then a bright blue blade came through the door on his right and he screamed.
And just as quickly as it came in, the blade was pulled out. Wooyoung scrambled further into the room, tripping over wires, elbows hitting buttons and he flung himself into the glass box. The blue blade stabbed into the door again, cutting right around it.
Wooyoung shut the glass door as the metal door fell inward. The room lit up. Machines whirred to life. The glass chamber made a hissing sound.
Standing there in the doorway was a man. He was lean and muscular, dressed in all black. His hair was black with streaks of white in the front. He was holding a glowing blue blade.
And when he looked up at what would be the face of the stranger, he saw two equally blue glowing eyes.
Wooyoung’s heart jumped into his throat when the man tilted his head and stepped into the room.
Wooyoung felt a tear slip down his face. Did he seriously just lock himself in a glass box when this man had just cut through a metal door with his weird alien sword? He was going to die. This man was going to kill him like he killed that scientist. Yeonjun was going to kill him for dying.
Wooyoung would have very much liked being back with the tour group, listening to Dr. Nam drone on for hours about nothing.
The stranger with the glowing eyes stared at Wooyoung, slowly advancing towards him. Then he looked at the pale orange vial in the dome, and his attention shifted away from Wooyoung.
As Wooyoung was savouring the extra few seconds of life he had, the machine whirring continued. The wires connected to the glass chamber glowed brighter.
“SUBJECT ACQUIRED.” A mechanical voice spoke from the ceiling.
“ADMINISTERING SERUM.”
“Wait...what?” was all Wooyoung could say before an orange gas started billowing into the glass chamber. He started coughing and ran to the door, trying to pry it open.
Death by gas box? Or death by a sociopathic blue blade-wielding maniac? It was like choosing between a rock and a hard place, but Wooyoung still tried to get out of the box. He started hammering on it with his fists, hoping it would break. A voice in the back of his head reminded him that all glass that came out of HalaCorp was bulletproof, so there was no way his tiny hands would do anything. Still, he pounded away.
The stranger seemed to look a little alarmed when gas started to fill the chamber as well, and he raised his sword towards the control panel. With one cut, sparks flew everywhere. The control panel was cleaved in half.
The stranger reached to grab the vial in the dome, but it was too late. He cursed when he saw it was already empty, turned into gas, and currently entering Wooyoung’s lungs.
The gas slowly began to clear and Wooyoung was slumped on the floor now, coughing relentlessly. It felt like his body was on fire, burning from the inside out. It hurt. It hurt so much. He couldn’t breathe. Wooyoung felt his vision tunneling.
Before he completely blacked out, he saw a flash of blue swinging down onto the glass door, and then two dark chocolate eyes hovering over his own.
Wooyoung sat up with a gasp. His heart felt like it was going to skyrocket out of his chest.
Where was he…?
There was a faint beeping towards his right. Wooyoung lifted a hand to his head, but to his surprise, his arm came attached with an IV drip and several other wires and patches going to who knows where.
He tried and failed to not panic, the machine beside him picking up in speed along with his heartbeat.
He was in a wide room filled with a few medical cots. It looked like a hospital ward, of sorts. The wallpaper in the room was kind of peeling off, but it felt like Wooyoung was in the interior of some old manor. Light was leaking in from the tall windows that lined the room between the beds.
What was going on? Where was he? What...what happened?
Wooyoung was struggling to remember what had led to him waking up in this unfamiliar room. Then it struck him all at once like a punch to the chest.
The science lab. The bullets. The blood. The glowing eyes. Fire in his lungs.
Okay...maybe...maybe someone found him and he was in a hospital. A weird, old, hospital. And his parents would be here and it’s a hospital...no evil villains here. Just gotta wait for a doctor or nurse to show up and they’ll explain everything, Wooyoung thought to himself.
A door to the left of the room suddenly creaked open, and Wooyoung tried to press himself further against the headboard. It was him. The man with the glowing eyes.
Except, now they weren’t glowing, and the stranger was wearing a tight black t-shirt and matching cargo pants.
Okay, forget everything about a hospital. This wasn’t any doctor. He’d been kidnapped by an evil villain and this was his evil villain lair and he was going to get murdered here.
“You’re awake,” the stranger said. His voice was not what Wooyoung was expecting. It was normal, soft even. But while his voice was soft, his face betrayed no emotion. It was impassive, indifferent. His face was angular, coming to a sharp point at the chin. The man was almost fox-like if he had to describe him.
The stranger took a step towards the bed, and Wooyoung let out a small shriek.
“D-don’t come near me!” he yelled. “Where am I? Who are you? What am I doing here? I just want to go home! Please don’t kill me!”
The stranger rolled his eyes and tapped on something in his ear. He seemed to be listening to someone. He shot Wooyoung a glare, then stepped back out of the room, the door slipping shut with a thump.
He was totally going to get murdered. He needed to get out of here now.
Wooyoung took one look at the various wires in and on his arm, and in one confident motion pulled everything off. Which was not his best idea.
Wooyoung bit his lip to contain his cry of pain. Then he struggled off the bed. His knees were wobbly and he felt like a baby learning how to walk again, but he managed his way to the door. To Wooyoung’s surprise, the door wasn’t locked. Not sparing a single moment, he quickly crept out of the room.
Great. A hallway. It’s always a hallway.
Wooyoung leaned against the wall as he made his legs move as fast as he could. Now looking down at himself, he realised he was in a white hospital gown and (thankfully) a pair of white shorts, definitely not what he was wearing when he left his dorm. Someone would’ve had to have changed him. Not liking the thought of that, Wooyoung shook his head and spurred on.
The hallway opened up into a wider room. There was a fireplace and it looked like a stereotypical manor. There was a small open kitchen to the left, and a living room set-up to the right. What kind of weird evil villain lair has a cosy living room. Also, is that a PlayStation…?
In his confusion, he failed to notice two figures entering the room from a separate archway. They were laughing with each other but immediately stopped when their eyes fell on Wooyoung.
And that’s when Wooyoung sprinted.
“Hey! Stop!” a voice called out behind him.
Like hell he was going to stop. Did people think that really worked? You yell at someone to stop and they’ll just stop?
Wooyoung didn’t know where he was running to, but there had to be an exit here somewhere, right? He ran down two more archways.
“Seriously, stop!” the voice sounded nearer.
Wooyoung turned a corner and came into a huge hall with two grand staircases to his right, and what looked like a front door to his left. And He was stumped for a moment at the size of the building he was in, but as he heard the footsteps behind him he sprinted for the front door. Just as the tips of his fingers met the doorknob, he felt his body lift off the floor. What the…?
He was floating. He was floating in the air. And he had absolutely no control over his body whatsoever.
“I thought I told you to stop,” the voice sounded behind him.
Wooyoung was slowly rotated in the air until he came face to face with the stranger. He was tall, with a mop of black hair. He had his hands in the air, fingers moving back and forth, and his face was slightly strained. The weird part: his eyes were taking on a purple tinge, glowing brighter the longer the seconds ticked on. A second person came up behind him, jogging.
“What the hell? WHAT THE HELL? Am I...Are you...WHAT THE HELL?” Wooyoung could only scream. He wiggled back and forth, trying to break out of whatever mystical force was holding him in place. Was he dreaming? He had to be dreaming. How was he in the air?
“Hi, I’m really sorry about this, but we can’t let you leave yet,” the stranger spoke. “But you don’t have to be afraid. We’re not bad people, I swear.”
“Oh yeah? The scientist whose blood I had on my hands would beg to differ!” Wooyoung countered. “How are you doing this? Why are your eyes glowing?”
“If you could stop struggling, that would be a really great help actually,” the stranger ignored Wooyoung’s questions. “I’m not that good with lifting people yet, and I would really like to not drop you.”
Wooyoung stopped moving.
The second stranger scoffed. “I can’t believe he brought this stranger here.”
The first stranger turned to frown at the other. “We couldn’t have left him there-”
“What makes this guy so special?”
“P-please...I won’t tell anyone what I saw,” Wooyoung stuttered out, eyes welling with tears again as he was so sure he was going to die. “I just want to go home. I didn’t even see that much, promise!”
“You’re scaring him, Jongho,” the first stranger said.
The second stranger - Jongho - stared incredulously at the first. “Did you just- Hyung! No names in the field!”
“Well, we’re not in the field, and he’s scared out of his mind, so I think we could be just a little friendlier, don’t you think?”
The stranger turned back to Wooyoung, who was still floating some feet off the ground. His eyes turned soft. “Hi, I’m Yunho. That’s Jongho. Would you mind telling me your name?”
Wooyoung gulped. Okay, this man may look kind but he’s definitely still an evil villain. He shouldn’t trust him.
“How about you tell me your name, and I’ll put you back down, okay?” Yunho smiled.
Wooyoung found himself relaxing a bit when he looked into his smile. He nodded his head jerkily.
“Woo...Wooyoung.”
As soon as his name left his lips, he could feel himself being lowered to the ground. His knees buckled immediately and Yunho reached forwards to grab him before he could hit the floor.
“Okay, Wooyoung,” Yunho said. “I’m really sorry about this.”
“Huh? Wha-” Wooyoung felt something jab into his neck and his vision started to darken.
“Sorry…” he heard again before the darkness swallowed him whole.
When Wooyoung awoke the second time, he wasn’t alone in the room with the hospital beds. This time, the man that lifted him off the floor without touching him - Yunho, was there with another older man.
He made eye contact with Wooyoung as soon as his eyes opened. Wooyoung shifted his eyes to look at Yunho, who had the decency to look at least a bit guilty.
“I’m really sorry about that, we needed you to calm down,” Yunho tried to give Wooyoung a small smile, but it came out more like a grimace.
“Please...what’s going on?” Wooyoung’s voice came out small.
“Hello, Wooyoung,” the older man spoke. “I am Eden, and I will answer all your questions as soon as you answer some of mine, alright?”
The man was smiling, but something told Wooyoung he should do as he says. He nodded.
“Okay, good,” Eden moved forward to sit in a chair next to the bed. He gestured towards Yunho, who moved to leave the room.
“W-wait!” Wooyoung didn’t know what possessed him to say anything. But the words had already left his mouth. “Can he please stay?”
Yunho seemed stunned that Wooyoung would ask him to stay, especially after he jabbed a syringe into his neck not even an hour ago. He looked to Eden, and after the other man gave a nod of the head, Yunho settled himself against the wall next to the door.
“Alright, Wooyoung,” Eden leaned forward, clasping his hands together in front of one crossed leg. “What do you remember?”
“I...I was on a field trip. My school - I go to Hybe University - we went on a field trip to HalaCorp,” Wooyoung gulped. Yunho moved from his spot by the door to hand him a glass of water.
“It was really boring, so I snuck off for a bit to...you know, look for something more interesting, like, the freeze ray or something…” Wooyoung took a sip of his water. “I heard voices so I went to hide but…”
Wooyoung could still see the eerie blue glow behind his eyelids, hear the sound of metal meeting flesh in his ears.
“There was a man...with blue eyes. He was here when I first woke up. But, he was-” Wooyoung took a breath. “He was killing people. I ran into this room with some weird glass box thing and there was a glowing test tube, and I ran inside and I don’t know - I must have hit something on my way in.
“When I was inside, the man with the blue eyes came in and the box started to spray out some weird orange gas and,” Wooyoung could feel tears springing into his eyes. “It...it hurt so much. It was the worst pain I’d ever been in in my entire life. And that’s all I remember.”
Wooyoung looked up from where his eyes had been trained on the bed sheet between his fingers to look at Eden.
The man nodded in what looked like approval. “Yes, that matches up with what San told us as well.”
“S-San?”
“That’s the ‘man with the glowing eyes’ as you called him. He’s the one who brought you here after you were exposed to the serum.”
“Serum? What serum? What was I exposed to?”
“Do you have family, Wooyoung?” Eden asked, his eyes growing a bit darker.
“Yes, in Ilsan. And I have a- wait, my friend! He was in the building when all the fighting started, his name is Yeonjun, is he okay?” Wooyoung said frantically. Yeonjun was in the building. He definitely heard all the gunfire, right? He must be so worried.
“Your friend is all right. The tour group from Hybe at HalaCorp have already safely returned to the school,” Yunho spoke up.
“Oh,” Wooyoung sighed, his friend was safe. Wait, but - “Wait, what about me though? They know I’m missing. My friend, he must be wondering where I am! I have to let him know-”
“You don’t have to worry about that, Wooyoung,” Eden held his hand up, stopping Wooyoung mid-sentence.
“What do you mean? They would care that a student is missing- my friend would call the police-”
“They would if they thought you were missing.”
All the air left Wooyoung’s lungs. What did that mean?
“I suppose it’s time I gave you some answers as well,” Eden smiled. “You are currently at the KQ Institute for the Gifted. I am Eden, and I am the handler for ATEEZ, a seven-member metahuman combat unit that operates outside of government jurisdiction, to combat threats that the military is unable to handle, or is not at liberty to handle.
“Your schoolmates and professor do not remember you being with them at HalaCorp. After the attack, all unnecessary personnel was subjected to memory alteration, courtesy of one of the metahumans in our employ, Memento. They do not remember you on this trip, because to them, Jung Wooyoung transferred to KQ last week. Memento is currently on his way to - Ilsan, did you say? - He’s on his way to your family to offer them the same treatment.”
Wooyoung couldn’t believe his ears. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I don’t understand- Why? I’m not-” Wooyoung choked out. “Why? Why would you do that? You’re going to let me leave, right? I’ve got to go back to school-”
“Because you cannot be with them anymore, Wooyoung,” Eden continued, not fazed at all by the turmoil Wooyoung was going through. “What you were exposed to was an experimental meta-serum created by HalaCorp in an attempt to make an army of Metahuman soldiers. We sent San in to eliminate the research team in charge of the serum and to destroy all prototypes of the serum, which he did...except for one.
“You are very lucky to be alive, Wooyoung. The serum has caused death in 100% of HalaCorp’s human tests up till now. You are the sole survivor and the only remnant of the metahuman serum. You were initially ordered to be terminated, but I requested a pardon for your life.”
“Terminated?” Wooyoung let the word escape his lips. “B-but then, why would you keep me alive?”
“The government sought you terminated because they do not understand the serum, they fear it and the powers that an artificially-created meta might possess. But I can help you. We at KQ can help you learn to control your powers. I believe you can be a great asset to us, Wooyoung.”
“Help you? As in, join your ‘metahuman combat unit’?”
“Yes.”
“I...I can’t leave, can I?”
“Unfortunately, no. While the government has allowed me to train you, I have received orders to keep you here, because we do not know the extent of your powers, and until you can access them and control them, you are a danger to yourself and the people around you.”
Wooyoung couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening. This had to be a sick twisted dream. He was not someone’s property. He was human. He was going to wake up in his bed in the dorm, and he would see Yeonjun and he’d yell at him for being late for something or other. He was...He wasn’t…
Wooyoung felt his chest breaking, his tears coming out like a dam that had collapsed. He felt large hands on his shoulders and through his teary vision, he saw Yunho, brows furrowed and eyes sympathetic. Seeing a kind face made him cry even harder, and Wooyoung started to feel a warm sensation in his body. He looked down at his hands and saw glowing orange running through his veins. He let out a shriek and started shaking his hands in a flurried attempt to get rid of them.
“Wooyoung! Wooyoung, calm down,” Yunho grabbed onto his wrists.
“I don’t-! I don’t want this! Make it stop! Please!”
“Wooyoung, you need to calm down!”
Wooyoung only began to thrash harder in Yunho’s grip until he could feel a heat building behind his eyes. It felt like he was burning again. The lights in the room began to pulse before they shut off completely, dipping the room into darkness aside from the orange glow from Wooyoung’s body. The heat in his eyes built up to an unbearable sear and Wooyoung wrenched his hands from Yunho’s and slammed his palms onto his face.
“I can’t…! Something’s coming out, Yunho! It hurts!”
“Eden-hyung! Get Seonghwa-hyung!” he heard Yunho yell. “Just hold it for a few more seconds, Wooyoung. Please.”
Wooyoung dug his palms into his face harder as the pressure built up. His vision was drowning in orange. He barely registered the door slamming shut before being flung open seconds later, another body rushing in.
“Shield! Now!” Yunho told the newcomer exasperatedly. Warm hands were once again on Wooyoung’s shoulders. “Okay, Wooyoung, I’m going to count to three, and then you can open your eyes, okay?”
The hands left him and he heard Yunho counting as his voice got further away. “3...2..1..
”Now!”
Wooyoung trusted Yunho and dropped his hands and opened his eyes and the blast that flew out from his eyes nearly flung his head against the headboard. His vision was still slightly tinted with orange, but he saw that the beam of energy pouring out from his eyes was hitting a green field of light around his bed. The beam kept going till Wooyoung felt the pressure dissipate and he fell back against the pillow. The field of light stayed up and Wooyoung saw a grey-haired man standing next to Yunho, both of them behind it. Now that Wooyoung could see it better, the field of light was more reminiscent of an aurora borealis, beautiful waves of green, blue, and purple mixing together. If Wooyoung wasn’t so exhausted, he would’ve shown his amazement.
The shield dropped and Yunho rushed to Wooyoung, quickly cradling him in his arms. Wooyoung was sobbing again, scared by his body and what he had just done. He looked at his hands, and besides the fact that they were shaking uncontrollably, his veins were no longer glowing. The lights in the room slowly flickered back on.
“Shh...It’s okay,” Yunho whispered. “You’re okay, I know it’s a lot to take in, but you have us, other metas, and we’ll try our very best to help you.”
Wooyoung only sobbed harder, and his need for skinship, especially after all that happened, won over any sort of apprehension he was feeling, and he gripped on to Yunho’s shirt and buried his face in his chest, crying until he could no longer.