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"Don't touch me," Seungjun said calmly. His voice was cold, his gaze was sharp, showing an absolute disgust as Hyojin tried to reach his hand.
No, he wasn't Hyojin.
"Just seeing your face make me want to kill you, so don't bother to add more reason into my consideration," Seungjun said again. "I still can't trust you, whoever you want to call yourself as."
"Hyojin said it's fine for me to have Hyojin as my name," the Fake spoke without any sign of resentment. As if he didn't feel any anger at Seungjun's distrust.
"Don't talk as if you're his friend."
"But I am."
Seungjun quickly took out his gun and pressed it into the Fake's forehead. "I said I already have enough reason to kill you."
The Fake sighed. He reached Seungjun's hand and moved it away. "Listen, Yuto is in danger and you need to act fast," he said, not paying any mind at Seungjun's threat just now. Seungjun gritted his teeth in annoyance. "It seemed like he tried to let Changyun get out from our territory by putting the attention on himself."
"Who is this our you spoke of?" Seungjun asked.
"The same people who tried to kill all of you through me," the Fake answered easily.
Seungjun went silence. He stared at the ground, trying to calculate what should he do next. Whether to trust Fake's info or just kill him right here right now.
"Also, I think you leave Jaeyoung recently? Why?" Fake asked.
"I don't trust him," Seungjun said. "Even if he's actually the Jaeyoung I know, he will survive on his own. Honestly, it's better like this."
"And because you think I would kill you back then, so you told him to leave you alone in the worst way possible to make him not coming back to save you," the Fake added.
Seungjun's eyebrows twitched, disliking how the person he loathes could see through him easily like that. That was annoying. This mere replica of Hyojin kept acting as if he knew him well. It was as if he was trying to ... be his ally. Or what was the word people usually said in normal occurrence? Oh, right. Friend.
"Shut up," he mumbled. "Don't ever try to talk over me."
"It wasn't my attention," the Fake defended himself. "You're being dramatic."
It could be his imagination, but Seungjun could swear he saw this man's lips curved up a little. He was smiling. Did he perhaps think he was being funny?
What a pure bullshit. Seungjun wanted to puke.
"Ah, right," the Fake realized the point of this conversation. "Just go find Jaeyoung first, then go search for Changyun. Changyun will definitely send signal to you once he find the box through its abnormal energy. Then you can go save Yuto afterward."
"That's what I don't understand," Seungjun interrupted. "Why do you bother to find me this far and tell me all of this while yourself can just go and save Yuto for me? It seems like you won't do anything in our favor. Why is that?"
The Fake didn't answer immediately, instead he was thinking.
"It's your trap, isn't?" Seungjun guessed with a pained smile on his face. Nothing really would ever go easy for him and his friends. He already knew it.
"No," a straight reply answered him. "It's not a trap. I will try everything I can to make sure all of you can make it."
Seungjun could only stare at him. Not believing nor questioning. He just wanted to listen this time.
"It's just...," the Fake hesitated to tell. "They have my hands tied."
Seungjun's eyes squinted, understoof where it was going. "What are they taking from you?"
The Fake looked at him in wary. That was new. He seemed rather composed this whole time after all.
"They have Hyojin."
"Shit," Seungjun hit his own head. "I know that could happen but what should I do now ..."
"Just do what I told you," the Fake talked with his composed manner again. "They won't kill him anytime soon. No, I will make they can't kill him."
"What do you mean?"
"As long as I'm deemed imperfect, they will still need the real one to live," the Fake explained.
Seungjun could only whined to himself. No matter how hard he tried to ridicule whatever this faker had said to him, he couldn't really find it in himself to distrust his words. Perhaps it was because of Hyojin's face, Hyojin's voice, and Hyojin's name, he doubted he can completely hate the imitative persona in front of him, let alone distrust him. And that fact what he hated the most.
Maybe, if only it wasn't Hyojin's fake. Maybe, if only it was his own fake, then it would be easier to just kill him right now.
"You haven't told me about Minkyun," Seungjun broke his silence.
"Minkyun isn't here," the Fake said. "No matter how hard you try to find him, you won't find him. He is in different space from us, but he can see us. He should be your destination. He is fine."
That was true. The fact that this person knew it meant that Minkyun trusted him, because only Minkyun who could explain his situation to anyone he wanted to. What was Minkyun thinking? It wasn't like Seungjun can ask him anyway, so he would just try to follow his guts this time.
"Then, I will trust you," Seungjun sighed. "But I will take Hyojin back. Even if you are controlled or threatened, I won't care. I will get him back even if I need to leave you behind."
"You lie," the Fake said. Was he smiling or Seungjun's eyes just playing with his vision this time? "Hyojin always said that you have much more empathy than you ever try to admit."
This bastard. Seungjun really wanted to kill him. Everything about this faker irked him to his core. The fact that he hated him, and the fact that he couldn't find reason to hate him. He wanted to part away from this person immediately.
"Why must you be Hyojin's ...," Seungjun said quietly under his breath. He couldn't stand to have conversation with him any longer.
"Then, that's all I can say to you. I will see what can I do to halt their attention toward Yuto," the Fake said. He stared at Seungjun for a while before taking his step around.
Seungjun didn't say anything, no thanks nor goodbyes. After few steps, the Fake turned around. He looked up at the sky before turning to Seungjun.
"You know, even if you kill me, no one will blame you," he said. "Not even Hyojin."
Seungjun startled and gave him a confused look. "What—"
"I'm not an actual human. You don't need to treat me like one," the Fake said.
"Don't talk nonsense!"
"Ah, right. If you kill me they will just create another fake of Hyojin. It will give you guys trouble," the Fake said as if he just realizing something important. "Then, just hold it till everyone is safe. After that, you can do whatever you want about my existence."
Seungjun couldn't say anything as the other person kept walking away from him. His silhouette started fading away from his sight. And when he couldn't see him anymore, Seungjun dropped himself to the ground, sitting there with terrible look on his face.
He really couldn't stand it. The fake, its existence and its anomaly. Hyojin once said that he liked that fake, that it was funny to see people with a complete similarly with him. So Seungjun trusted beyond Hyojin's word, that maybe he could accept its existence to their life.
But when the fake showed up, clearly threatening their life as the front line of their enemy, Seungjun couldn't help but felt horrible about it. They should've known, that fake was a creation to stop them, or worse, to annihilate them. They should've known he was a threat for their safety. But their silly sense of humanity couldn't have themselves to kill that fake when he wasn't significant for the enemy's force.
They had the chance, but they didn't take it.
Everyone got hurt—for God's sake, Yuto almost died—and got separated. Hyojin even blamed himself for it. Everything went down hill, because they couldn't bring themselves to kill person who was clearly a threat for them, because he hadn't done anything to them yet.
Seungjun curled himself into his knees, putting his head on his legs, and sighed.
He hate that fake, but he also couldn't hate him. It felt terrible, it was annoying. He couldn't do anything about it.
As far as he concerned, that fake was like a walking nightmare to him, to all of them.