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the streets were quiet and he loved it. his steps able to echo off the stone buildings as he walked home. he didn't speed up to catch up to the male in front of him, no. he kept his pace.
"are we going to get our test results soon?"
he filled to silence calmly, his high voice quiet as to not desturb the environment around them. the other man's footsteps came to a halt.
"i hope not."
the youngers steps stopped as well, a few feet behind the man in a thick coat. it was snowing but the snow was ugly to the older man, to the younger it was absolutely beautiful.
"why not, don't you want to know how we did?"
"it's not that easy, seungjun," the voice was barely above a whisper, "this is the lab. we were being tested by the lab. im nervous."
"so what," seungjun mumbled, kicking at the thin layer of snow on the ground, "it's still just a test, hyojinnie, there's no need to worry."
hyojin grabbed seungjun's hand, tugging him forward, "let's go. you're only wearing a sweater and you'll get sick."
"what if i want to get sick?"
"fine," hyojin mumbled, letting go of seungjun's hand and contined walking, seungjun crossing his arms and standing back in his heels. it was around half a block where hyojin stopped and turned around, "please?"
seungjun giggled, running to catch up with hyojin.
the walk was short for them, so used to the path of gray streets and building. they didn't have to think twice about where they were going.
hyojin flicked open the metal mailbox, seungjun cringing at the sound of his finger hitting the metal, the male reached it, blank faced as he grabbed the letter, immediately tearing to envelope open.
"i passed," hyojin whispered, he repeated it, voice raised and happy, "jun, i passed!"
"if you passed there's no way i failed," seungjun laughed as hyojin took his wrist and dragged him over to the house that was only 2 houses down.
seungjun opened the mailbox, fingers brushing over letters that weren't his until he landed on that one letter. he grabbed it, ripping it open with his teeth as he simultaneously closed the mailbox.
grabbing the paper inside, he let the envelope fall to the ground as he unfolded it, hyojin bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"this isn't fair," was all seungjun could muster up once his eyes scanned the information he was looking for, "i... failed.... and they want me. tomorrow."
-
when he heard tomorrow he didn't think at 7 am. he normally wasn't a morning person but something told him to get ready early that day, hyojin didn't regret it.
seungjun's voice was something his ears were trained to and hearing the younger yelling had him running outside.
city security guards stood around him, 4 of them, they looked more like soldiers. seungjun's family was held to the side.
"i can't say goodbye? i can't bring anything?"
there was no response except for him being shoved forward.
hyojin was careful, creeping forward until he was in front of seungjun's house, the guards more concerned with seungjun's resisting than anyone watching.
"seungjun!"
"hyojin!"
hyojin gave himself away, desperate to at least get a goodbye from his best friend. he hoped they could see each other at the lab and be together soon but he still wanted a temporary goodbye.
though, seungjun was held back and as hyojin reached to take his hand, seungjun was shoved to the ground just to be dragged to a car.
hyojin was in shock, if going to the lab was a huge honor why were they treating seungjun so roughly?
-
"welcome to hell."
seungjun gulped, staring at the two other males in the cell with him. there were three mattresses on the floor, one of the males laying on his stomach, arms stretched in front of him. his eyes were blazing blue, and he looked tired. the other was a bit smaller and he sat cross legged on the cold floor, in the dim light seungjun could make out an arrow shaped scar above his right eye. the arrow pointed up and to the right and as the other shook his head to fix his hair, the scar was covered.
"yu, you're intimidating him."
"what do you mean? all i did was shake my head."
seungjun was frozen. confused. scared.
he was terrified.
"someone's coming," 'yu' said, the other rushing to his feet to pull seungjun away from the door.
"my name's minseok," the blue eyed male spoke in attempt to calm seungjun, then pointing to the tensed male who was watching the door, "and he's yuto."
"seungjun," seungjun plainly introduced, beginning to relax in minseok's hold as he begun to rub his shoulders.
"how old are you?"
"18, almost 19."
before minseok could speak to try to comfort seungjun more, the door opened roughly, yuto jumping and hurrying as far from the door as possible. seungjun squeaked as minseok's grip on his shoulders tightened.
"lee seungjun, step closer."
the voice was monotone, almost robotic, seungjun shivering as he did as told, too scared to disobey.
"you're code is J-0113"
and before he knew it, a syringe was plunged into his arm.
he was out of it and stunned and the next thing he knew he was on one of the mattresses, yuto's hands on his face as he spoke.
seungjun couldn't make out anything he was saying though.
pain suddenly coursed through his body, leaving him writhing in pain on the mattress. slowly, his other senses were starting to return as well.
"count with him," he heard from minseok but he couldn't hear the numbers coming from yuto beside him.
he didn't know how long it was until he heard the soft counting.
"2,346... 2347..."
"2,348..."
"welcome to reality. you made it. you survived the first one."
seungjun sat up, hissing at the aches in his muscles. he closed his right eye, frown on his face as he tried to make out the faces of the two males using his left eye which was failing him, "why... is it blurry...?"
"it's a side effect. it might heal but don't count on it. they'll do more tests and stuff and now that the first shot has targeted your eye, any side effect will ruin your sight in your left eye. either that or make you super sensitive to light," minseok explained, kneeling on the floor next to the mattress, "im super sensitive to light and it hurts to open my eyes in the light so it's kinda a relief it's dark down here."
yuto let go of seungjun's arm once he was sure seungjun was stable enough to sit on his own.
"your eyes are red now. eventually you'll be able to control the color. well... if you live long enough. but let's not fret on that. we've been here for a year and we're still alive."
seungjun's mouth felt dry.
"now for a proper introduction, im mizuguchi yuto. i was human trafficked from japan."
it was obviously a joke but none of them laughed. they were too serious to laugh. this wasn't the place for smiles.
"i failed the test and was taken here. minseok was brought in the same day."
"i failed the test on purpose, though," minseok interrupted, "i thought they'd let me stay home with my family if i failed. i miss my family."
"were you able to bring anything here with you," seungjun asked.
"no. when i was taken i was walking home from a gaming cafe. i happened to have polaroid pictures of my friends and family in my pocket. a lot of them are me, though, and too few are my family.... they're all under my mattress where they're safe from being taken."
"taken?" seungjun echoed.
"i miss japan. i miss my family," yuto whispered, knees pulled up to his chest.
"how old are you both?"
"16"
they answered at the same time, yuto then speaking up, "seok's younger though."
seungjun nodded, rubbing at his face.
"where are you from?"
"the city... it lab's city..."
the two both let out a quiet "ohhhh" as seungjun stopped talking.
"people there are practically raised to be test subjects," yuto hummed, taking minseok's hand to fidget with. "they want us to show powers so they can send them off or something. i can sense people's energies so i can often tell when someone's coming."
seungjun nodded, listening as the two explained as much as they knew.
-
over weeks of being there, yuto became seungjun's teacher to teach him things the school system of the city hid from him and minseok became seungjun's teddy bear to hug for comfort.
the two knew how hard this was to adjust to. they knew the abuse was a lot to suddenly deal with.
it'd been about 2 months, seungjun was pacing while yuto tried to quiz him on continents or types of clouds to distract the anxious male.
"someone's coming," yuto suddenly said.
"is it minseok? i really need him right about now," seungjun mumbled. he didn't know what had him so anxious but he had the idea it was from not being around hyojin for so long. he was worried about hyojin. hyojin was an overthinker and seungjun was what kept him more relaxed. hyojin was also what kept seungjun from doing reckless things or getting anxious when his "go with the flow" life style took a turn.
or maybe his anxiety was over minseok. the second to last time the youngest went for tests, he came back barely breathing. he had felt better in the next few minutes though so they decided to not worry too much about it. when he had came back he had sat on the floor for about 10 minutes until his breathing regulated. even with the pain and sudden jolts, he never had flare ups.
minseok never showed any signs of having any power, even seungjun was beginning to show signs such as things breaking or exploding when he was nearby. often it was waves of pressure that would cause things to break. it never affected humans though.
unlike minseok and yuto who had permanent physical damage, seungjun's sight had returned. it wasn't as good as it used to be but he could still see. yuto's scar had somehow formed from the drug causing his skin to react to it. once that arrow scar had formed, his only reaction was dizzy spells or migraines.
minseok struggled when he had to go to the lab, the bright lights were hurting him more and more with each dose. because of him not showing powers, they often gave him 2 shots per visit to see if that could bring up a power.
"it's.... it's not.... it doesn't feel like his energy. but they're coming fast. i don't like it. he hasn't been back for hours, he's normally back from the lab by now.... he never takes more than an hour."
they knew he would be back by now. if the second to last time wasn't bad enough, the last time he went for his tests he came back throwing up, even when he stopped having anything to throw up. he was in agonizing pain too, constantly turning and crying for about 2 hours until he was left laying on his back, breathing heavy. he had coughed blood at that point too. yuto and seungjun couldn't do anything about it either.
minseok had tried to tell them he'd be okay. who were they to believe the boy with blood on his lips and blue eyes dull and exhausted. if anything, they worried more.
and that was yesterday.
seungjun only got more restless, though he stopped pacing and stood, foot tapping and arms crossed as yuto sat on one of the mattresses, knees pulled to his chest as he stared at the door.
it was only a minute until the door was flung open, yuto and seungjun staring expectantly at the guard that — if they didn't know — they wouldn't be able to tell if they were a human or robot.
"if L-0812 had any belongings, please pass them now."
"why?" seungjun pried, rocking on his feet, chewing his bottom lip, "not that he had anything to begin with because we were kidnapped."
there was a bit of silence, the guard debating on telling them or not. eventually the two recieved an answer.
"L-0812 is no longer a subject."
the door was slammed, seungjun's eyes wide as he stood still.
"what's.... what's that supposed to mean....?"
suddenly yuto began to cry, small sniffles turning into pained sobs in no time.
"yuto. what does that mean?"
yuto just cried harder, punching seungjun's leg, the older hissing and rubbing the spot the younger punched.
"he's dead, jun! the test killed him!"
seungjun's eyes began to tear up, he wouldn't accept that answer though, "stop lying. that's not true. maybe he got released or is going home?"
yuto stood, weakly shoving seungjun, "d-don't try your optimistic shit with me! he's gone! we both know he'd be back by now if he was okay! if he was alive he'd come here immediately no matter what state he's in!"
seungjun bit his bottom lip, drawing blood as he used his hands on yuto's shoulders to guide him to lay on the mattress. he was fighting his own tears to not upset yuto who was drowning in his own, holding his head as the world spun around him.
yuto only sat up though, laying down made him nauseous.
though it may not seem like it with the dark room and thick walls, there was too many people around. and yuto, with his emotions, was picking up on all of them.
and seungjun couldn't do a thing. he couldn't make either of them feel better. the only one who could do that was minseok at that moment and he was gone.
gone.
seungjun couldn't hold back anymore, no matter how hard he fought, tears were falling. he walked away from yuto, walking in circles in the corner of the room, hands tugging at his matted hair.
"no. no no no no. this isn't fair," he whispered, "t-this wasn't supposed to happen, we weren't supposed to lose him, especially not like this...."
"i want to die," yuto muttered, "we went through a year of hell together and he just... he couldn't have toughed out another dose? i don't want to do this anymore...."
"what, so you're going to leave me too," seungjun snapped, he was emotional and getting angry instead of sad, "we all got snatched away from our families! you guys told me to tough it out and hold on because once it really kicks in we could rule the world if we wanted to! you wanted to try to stay happy as if it'd help anyway!"
seungjun broke into sobs, crouching down, hands on his face to hide how red his face was. not too long later, he threw up. his crying got harder as he stumbled backwards, falling onto his butt and pulling his knees up to his chest.
"it's not fair," yuto wailed, "h-he's the youngest, h-he should have lived the longest!"
yuto fell quiet, he was shaking, unsure what to do with his hands, he cupped his cheeks, elbows on his knees, staring at the ground in front of him.
he could barely think past the sharp pain in his head, he wasn't even sure what he was looking at. anything that slipped through made it only for a moment and any word that slipped past his lips he didn't have time to understand.
after of hours, sitting apart and crying, they cried themselves to sleep together, too angry and sad to try to reason with themselves anymore, curled up against one another on the mattress minseok had claimed as his.
-
hyojin arrived 2 weeks after seungjun was taken, he was trying to be bright, hoping for the best as seungjun would tell him to. he was hoping to see his best friend but with how differently they were treated, he was beginning to doubt that possibility
hyojin was treated kindly, given time to pack and say goodbye to his family. his family was then paid a great amount of money and he was praised for doing well on the test.
he was escorted to a building beside the lab, taken up an elevator and down the white hallway to a room with his name engraved on it.
his lips parted in awe as the door was opened, allowing him to see the grand interior.
he settled in and as he took another look around the apartment looking room, someone stood at the doorway since he left it open.
"welcome to hell."
"how's this hell? it seems pretty nice?"
hyojin looked over, the male who stood there had his arms crossed and leaned against the doorframe. his dimples showed easily as he talked.
"this is the high hell. then you see what they do below and it becomes hell. we can't do a thing to stop it."
"what do they do...?"
"i can show you tomorrow."
tomorrow it was, at around 8 am the same male knocked repetitively on the door. hyojin hurried to get ready and meet him there.
"we should hurry before it gets busy. they try to get everyone done around the same time except they do newer arrivals earlier since they're in pain for longer they have time. later they do people who are used to it so they just walk it off."
they had only begun to walk to the elevator when they were stopped.
"park minkyun, what do you think you're doing?"
"showing the new guy around," the male, now identified as minkyun, replied, spinning to face the guard.
"aren't you under isolation?"
"but he's new. so, i can't show him the lab?"
minkyun yelped as he was grabbed by the wrist, the guard leading him back to his room.
the guard let go and returned to hyojin, "i will show him if he's curious."
hyojin couldn't miss the way minkyun's eyes went wide with fear. as he was lead away he could hear the yelling.
"don't believe everything they say!"
-
"what's this for," hyojin asked for the nth time, this time he was referring to a room.
"burning."
"burning what?"
the guard seemed tired with the constant questions but hyojin wanted the whole truth. he wanted to know everything. he wanted to know where seungjun was.
the door to the room was opened and hyojin backed up. his question was answered by the smell.
they moved on, allowing hyojin to see the testing rooms.
"they're trying to come up with a drug that can give humans powers. we're trying to find a dose that doesn't give such physical changing side effects."
suddenly there was a loud crack noise, the guard tensing and instructing hyojin to stay still.
there was no way hyojin was going to listen.
he followed quietly, just observing as the guard inspected the crack in the glass to one of the test rooms.
"a flare up," the guard spoke into a walkie talkie.
hyojin watched as the door was opened.
he knew the person who stumbled out.
he didn't say anything though, he just watched from his hiding place.
seungjun was unsteady on his feet and the guard shoving him forward didn't help, almost falling over if it wasn't for another male with blue eyes catching him before he hit the ground.
"L-0812 you are to get to where you're supposed to go."
"i finished already, im just here to get him. it's only his 4th dose, there's no way he'd get back without me or yuto."
"well then," the guard grabbed the walkie talkie, hyojin seeing the red light as he talked, "L-0812 and J-0113 are to return to their room with Y-0316 in 10 minutes."
seungjun was helped back to his feet and that's how hyojin saw. seungjun's eyes were red, bright red, practically glowing until he appeared steady on his feet. his right eye went back to the pretty brown hyojin adored while his left stayed red.
if hyojin were to be asked about what had happened there he wouldn't know. all he knew was that he saw seungjun and none of this was the utopia they expected it to be.
-
"tell me everything you know."
minkyun huffed, "i didn't invite you here."
"every door in this place is unlocked so i think it's okay to pry for facts," hyojin responded, arms crossed as he looked down at the male laying on his couch.
"they want us for when the drug's ready. they plan on giving it to us to give us powers so whatever government they sell us to can use us. they plan for us to cost like 16 mil or something. they needed more test subjects so they've been sending the test out to people they heard are especially good with obeying the law or who are smarter than regular population. they don't want to risk people with good learning minds learning too much."
minkyun sat up, patting the couch for hyojin to sit down. he took the offer.
"why'd they need more people?"
"because too many of their test subjects died and they needed to test more."
"i-it can kill?"
"of course it can," minkyun scoffed as hyojin's eyes widened, "they try to hide it all from us. they don't want us to know. they show us the areas but then panic when something goes wrong and we see it."
-
hyojin soon began to spend his time in the cremation room, though the bodies weren't actually cremated. there was an area that could be used for cremation but it was closed off and most bodies were tossed in a separate flame and just burned or disposed of.
hyojin sat on a bench out of the way of the worker, he noticed something different though, the area for cremation was open and being prepped.
"who's the special one?" hyojin questioned, fixing his facemask as it moved when he talked.
"no one."
"im not going to tell."
the sentence was ignored as the worker moved the body, the blanket sliding off the face. the eyes were still somewhat open and it made hyojin nauseous how he could see the dull blue eyes.
"i have a friend in the underground."
"the underground? is that what the cells are called?"
there was a nod.
"what's this supposed to do?" hyojin asked the male finished doing whatever he was doing, which appeared to be cremating a certain body.
"he died 3 days ago," the worker mumbled, motioning to the wooden box over the flame, "and it broke his friends. they've been unresponsive to tests or there's been power flare ups a lot. i feel bad."
the worker sat on the bench next to hyojin since he just had to wait now, "i want to be able to give them his ashes, i feel so bad. ive been trying to see them since one of them is pretty new and doesn't know me well."
hyojin just listened and waited.
he learned the male's name was jaeyoung and that he was the son of one of the lab workers which was why he had a job there, even if he didn't like it. he would try to get to know those who were taken from their families to be tested on, even knowing that it was more likely they'd die than not.
eventually he left hyojin to his thoughts so he could ground any of the remains into ashes which he put into two, obviously custom, necklaces. they both had a name on it which hyojin couldn't see well from where he sat but he assumed it was the name of the dead man.
"can i go with you?"
"i don't see why not."
-
"here," jaeyoung mumbled, fumbling with keys in his hand to unlock the door.
"jaeyoung!"
hyojin knew that voice and it caused him to back away and out of sight but not far enough he couldn't see.
"do you have water? yuyu can't move, he can barely open his eyes. the test this morning made him worse."
"im sorry, pup, i didn't bring water. i will next time, i promise, im sorry, i just wanted to get these to you both."
hyojin heard a gasp from seungjun, and not too long after, repetitive "thank you"s and sobbing. he heard a week voice too, the voice managing a weak cry of thank you.
hyojin peaked in a little further so he could see seungjun crying against jaeyoung's shoulder and a male on a dirty mattress on the floor was fidgeting with the string to the necklace, tears silently streaming down his face. they were both skinny, way too skinny. it was also clear that there was more abuse with the two having bruises too close to their eyes or marks that clearly came from slaps or shoves.
hyojin clenched his jaw.
he wanted to be the one comforting seungjun but he didn't. he didn't want to risk himself getting caught interacting. apparently minkyun was supposed to be under isolation because of interacting with the "subjects" but minkyun somehow always slipped past the rule and would interact with the others freely. he even made it part of his routine to randomly enter hyojin's apartment to cuddle no matter how hard hyojin shoved him off.
he knew he, himself, wouldn't have the courage to disobey rules so easily.
"y-you need to keep yuto from leaving tomorrow," seungjun mumbled, "he can't. im don't want to lose him too, with his are ups and the testing he's going to crash."
"i'll try my best," was the response before jaeyoung gave a few gentle head pats to seungjun and a gentle touch of his fingers to yuto's forehead before he left. if was clear how much the two craved for a gentle touch from people other than each other by how they leaned into it, almost begging for more but knowing they wouldn't get it.
hyojin fidgeted with his fingers as jaeyoung closed the door so they could leave.
-
seungjun placed the milk carton on the floor in front of minseok's mattress. it would always be minseok's mattress.
now that minseok wasn't there, if they wanted they could drink the singular milk carton they were given. their food was given once a week, it only being stale bread or almost rotten fruits. jaeyoung would sneak food sometimes but not too often so he wouldn't risk getting caught.
before, they would always give the milk to the youngest since he loved milk. it made them happy to see minseok at least a bit satisfied. they didn't want it, especially with minseok gone. the two shared the water bottle, though once it got to less than halfway with them taking turns sipping at the water, seungjun passed it over to yuto.
"it's yours."
"b-but-"
"im not losing you, too. you know it doesn't take very long to get attached to good people down here."
yuto frowned but accepting and taking a good drink to the water. it was hot and tasted like plastic but it was better than nothing.
seungjun stood up, leaving yuto with the other half of an almost rotting plum, grabbing the polaroid pictures of minseok from the floor next to his mattress.
yuto had accepted it already, he was still hurting but he had no choice to accept it. he had stopped choking on his own tears and grief once he woke up but it was clear he didn't know what to do anymore without minseok.
seungjun didn't know what to do either.
even now, with minseok's ashes in his necklace, he still couldn't accept that he was dead. he wouldn't accept it. he would stare at the pictures and try to tell himself that minseok was just let free. was able to return home and see his family he was snatched away from.
"jun, we gotta sleep."
"not yet."
yuto frowned, licking the plum juice off his fingers, he knew that seungjun was grieving harder than he was. he couldn't blame him. he and minseok had accepted the fact they'd likely lose one another at some point. he hadn't told seungjun at the time but he had known the fact minseok was dead by the second hour. he just didn't know how to take it once he knew it was true.
it hurt more than he thought it would.
he couldn't blame seungjun. he'd been torn away from his family, his best friend, and thrown into a new life of abuse and pain. he only really had yuto and minseok left once he accepted that his old life was gone.
losing minseok was devastating for seungjun, it was taking more from him after he lost everything in a span of 2-3 months.
"you need to, please. you've been up for 3 days straight, just sleep."
"i want to look at him more."
yuto took the polaroids from seungjun, the older letting out a small noise and reaching for the pictures but not really having the strength to grab them.
"please, sleep. you don't want to lose me and i don't want to lose you."
-
that day when jaeyoung brought them water and sandwiches, seungjun was furious.
he couldn't pretend he didn't see him. right there, at the door.
3 weeks since minseok died and about 2 weeks ago, jaeyoung would check on seungjun and yuto everyday.
"how long have you had someone following you," yuto finally spoke, jaeyoung turning to the door but not calling hyojin out.
"a little after....... seok."
"i can feel him but i haven't said anything. but i think seungjun knows him."
"i dont," seungjun seethed, watching as hyojin's eyes widened. he was too close to the door which led to him being seen and seungjun couldn't word the amount of emotions he felt.
the worst was anger. he felt betrayed. hyojin has been watching. he had been listening to him grieve and cry for 2 weeks but didn't even say hello or it'd be okay. all he wanted was to know hyojin was there, that's all he needed to know. but hyojin hadn't talked to him.
jaeyoung left the food and water, soon leaving when he realized he'd been there too long.
seungjun was too mad to eat.
even late at night he was mad.
"jun, you need to cal—"
"don't you dare!" he snapped, head snapping to yuto, and as he did so his eyes blazed red and the wall behind yuto cracked and the door was pushed out of his spot, breaking the lock.
yuto's lips parted, head snapping in the direction of the loud cracking, eyes trailing the damage seungjun had done.
seungjun felt a bit better after destroying something, even unintentionally.
he grabbed the polaroids of minseok, putting them in his pocket and taking yuto's hand. he pushed on the door, gently at first, before with enough force to knock it out of place completely.
and he bolted, dragging yuto behind him. they found a file room first, it wasn't guarded though.
seungjun rushed through, finding yuto's file first, Y-0316 in bold at the top. he ripped up the paper befor digging around for his own, finding it and tearing it.
"hurry," yuto whispered shouted as seungjun dug around through the papers messily. he found the one he was looking for, taking it and hurriedly folding it to put in his pocket.
L-0812.
it had a read stamp with "FAILED" at the top, signifying he was no longer with them. it hurt how they were so dehumanized.
"let's go," seungjun mumbled, taking yuto's hand again, lacing their fingers and giving his hand a reassuring squeeze.
finding their way out while avoiding guards and cameras was way harder. though, once they found an unguarded handgun, seungjun wasn't passing it up. he had something to do before he could exit, just to get some anger out.
hyojin was in his room, sitting at the desk and on his (lab provided) laptop. the click behind him is what caused him to turn around, his eyes going wide.
"you wouldn't."
"wrong," seungjun spat, gun held towards hyojin with absolute certainty. hyojin felt unsteady and sick. but hyojin was actually very right.
"jun—"
"no. we've known you'd been watching us. we didn't know who, but we knew we were being watched.... and for it to be you. you, just watching, not even a hello. had you said something or even made just showed me you were alive i don't think id be as angry right now."
hyojin just stared at seungjun.
"it's hell down there, absolute hell! wouldn't you love being starved for a week, drugged, hit, dehumanized! you'd be nothing to them than another test subject to shove around. h-he was only 16...."
seungjun was shaking and it hurt hyojin to watch, he wouldn't move though. seungjun still hand the gun, finger way too close to the trigger.
"we lost minseok, i didn't think.... we weren't supposed to lose him!" he was using this chance to tell hyojin as much as possible, he knew he didn't have the heart to shoot him. he loved hyojin too much for that. he wasn't planning on lowering the gun though, "the fact yuto had known to move on so quick, yet here i am, the older one who doesn't know how to accept the fact he's dead. he had a life to live. he was the only one of us not showing powers so they would have purposely killed him anyway.... it's just.... it was so sudden."
his finger was slowly coming to the trigger, he was trying to calm his shaking enough to aim correctly.
"it hurts, everything just hurts down there. once they get what they want they'll discard of us. they'll kill us all because we've seen what they've done. they think if they let us go we'll tell everyone."
"jun, we have to leave," yuto pushed out the vent he was crawling through, jumping out and putting a hand on seungjun's shoulder. "and now."
seungjun bit his bottom lip, finger shaking as he pulled the trigger.
hyojin knew he wasn't going to shoot him.
seungjun would have shot again to try to scare hyojin if it wasn't for yuto pulling him. they had to leave. but seungjun was even more mad now. hyojin didn't look one bit scared when the trigger was actually pulled, when the bullet wizzed by him and hit the wall. he knew seungjun couldn't shoot him.
he let yuto lead the way, the younger crawling through vents that would get them out of there. he found the ones he was looking for, a happy noise passing his lips as he couldn't feel anyone's energy at their exit. he pushed out the vent and jumped out, seungjun following.
they were outside.
"we're going to go this way, remember that so we don't accidentally walk back."
yuto lead the way, seungjun was too busy fidgeting with the gun in his hands to pay attention. even if yuto told him to remember that, the younger would just do it himself.
they walked for days, not stopping for anything no matter how hungry or thirsty they were. any weight they had regained from jaeyoung feeding them was lost again.
they finally got to the edge of the lab property where there was about 3 guards stationed by a watch tower.
they didn't have the time to walk further down from the tower, they needed to get away from the lab and after all this time walking to get to the edge of the property they didn't have the strength to walk until there was an unguarded place for them to escape through.
there was no one in the tower.
"stay here, run when they're distracted."
"wait- where are you going?"
seungjun smiled, "i found a tracker in the gun, i can't take it off without tools. im going to distract them and throw the gun."
yuto squeezed seungjun's arm, "be careful."
seungjun pressed a soft kiss to yuto's forehead, "no promises."
yuto squeaked, "no, wait— you will come back. you will meet me over there—" yuto demanded, pointing to the tall grass and bushes on the other side of the tower.
"okay, okay," seungjun mumbled, finally pulling away from yuto's hold and trying to get further into the forest they had walked through.
once he was sure he was far enough away from yuto, he raised the gun to aim at the ground in front of the guards. he used his foot to dig a hole next to him to bury the gun before he ran.
it was a handgun so he was sure it wouldn't shoot far enough but he began to shoot, getting the attention of the guards who shot in his direction. he was scared. he could hear his heartbeat in his ears. then came the sound of the gun being empty. once the guards seemed to realize the shots had stopped they seems to get closer.
seungjun hurried to bury the gun and bolted, careful of tripping or hurting himself. twigs cut his arms and hands as he tried to protect his face, his legs and lungsl burned.
when the guards had made it to the tree line he ran past the tower and into the bush behind.
he heard shouts, proving he'd probably been caught. he dove for the bush, flattening himself to the ground, trying the crawl further in.
he had no idea how long he waited there, not moving to not give himself away, before he risked crawling further and further.
it was around sunset when he finally came out of the bush and into a clearing where he found yuto sitting and rocking himself, the younger mumbling seungjun's name repetitively. he wasn't focusing on himself or his power, he was in shock, otherwise he would have known seungjun nearby hours before.
"yu."
yuto's eyes went wide as he looked up to see seungjun, lips moving but nothing coming out for a moment until he managed to get strained words to leave his mouth.
"y-you're mean."
seungjun laughed, kneeling beside to younger and hugging him, "im sorry, i didn't mean to scare you... we have to move. we have to get as far as possible."
"im tired, jun."
"i know," seungjun whispered, "i am too."