PRISONERS (18/?)
Title: Prisoners (18/?)
Author: qrn
Pairing: OT6
Rating: M (Mature), for sexual & violent themes
Summary: Each of them has their own problems that may just be too hard to cure.
Author's Notes: Can't believe it's Chapter 18 already... *wipes sweat off forehead* Sorry for the long wait again~ I found this one pretty hard to write, as I had to incorporate a lot of details from past chapters and link them together with Hyunnie's way of thinking (not to mention his flashbacks). There are more analysis & interesting facts introduced here, so please read it slowly =) I hope you guys don't kill me for the overly depressing & disturbing content >.< Feedbacks & comments are welcome, as always ^^ Enjoy!
18. HYUNSEUNG
"He's still in prison."
I found Mom and Dad sitting in their room, the door slightly opened. They didn't seem to notice that I just came home from school.
"So Hyunseung is safe for now," Mom sounded relieved, placing a hand on her chest. My head perked at the mention of my name.
"The judge gave him six years, remember?" Dad said with a sigh. "He might as well be sentenced for life."
I tilted my head. I didn't know what they were talking about, and I'd never seen them so serious like this.
"That sick man." Mom shook her head. "He was so disturbed."
Who?
Dad took off his watch and put it on the table. "No one needs to remember what happened." He sighed. "Good thing we moved here."
I was about to walk closer so I could hear more, but Mom saw me.
"Hyunseung-ah." She got up from the bed. "You're home."
"How was school?" Dad asked.
"The teacher made us learn the multiplication table," I answered.
"Was it hard?" Mom asked, leading me to the family room. I shrugged in response.
Then I was distracted by some show on TV for the rest of the night.
With that, I forgot that the conversation ever existed.
The door slammed open.
I held my breath.
Junhyung (so he was still alive!) was there with Yoseob standing behind him, bits of blood on their clothes. Their expressions were that of extreme terror.
Did they witness the same thing?
"What the--" The brunette didn't finish; his gaze was fixed on the red stains on our shirts.
Doojoon ran to the door and hugged Yoseob, who started to break down into sobs.
"They got you, too?" Junhyung started, his eyes widened at me and Kikwang. For a moment, I thought I saw a flash of concern in his eyes.
Doojoon nodded, not saying anything. Ever since the tragedy in Room Six, the three of us spent the remaining night in silence. We refused to return to our individual cells, so they put us into this dreaded room. We barely got any sleep, and none of us even went to get breakfast this morning (who could do, after seeing that kind of thing?).
Kikwang's face turned pale at the words, his eyes swollen from last night's crying. He clung to my arm so tightly, as if never letting go.
"Fuck this place," Junhyung said, shutting the door behind him. I caught a glimpse of his fingers trembling. "We have to get out of here."
I raised my eyebrows at the word 'we'.
Since when does he care about us?
"Come on," Junhyung urged, clenching his teeth.
Yoseob choked, "Where's... Dongwoon?"
The five of us stared at each other in horror.
They got him.
"We need to find him." Yoseob wiped his wet eyes.
"But we don't know where he is," Doojoon blurted out. "This buil--"
"They put fucking cameras everywhere!" Junhyung interjected.
Cameras?
"I bet they put one in here as well!" He looked around the room, clicking his tongue. "If we risk ourselves going after him, they'll explode us, too!"
The image of Sunggyu's body disseminating into bloody pieces once again creeped into my mind. I shut my eyes, shuddering at the thought. I could feel Kikwang trembling and tightening his grip.
"But we can't leave him here," Yoseob said, his voice quivering.
Doojoon exchanged anxious glances with Junhyung. The latter shook his head. "No," he said, raising his voice. "Are you crazy?"
"But--"
While they argued about saving Dongwoon, my mind was still pre-occupied with the Room Six people. I swallowed nervously.
I can't believe they betrayed us.
After Sunggyu died, Myungsoo fell into a hysterical fit. Dongwoo and Hoya were too shocked to be able to move, and Woohyun lost consciousness. Before we could do anything, the staff dragged us away from the room. We never knew the rest of the story.
What will happen to them?
If all patients in this place had chips implanted in their bodies just like Mr. Yoo said, then we could never escape. Furthermore, he also mentioned nonsense like telepathy and GPS.
That's too screwed up.
My heart was pounding. Such things only happened in movies--it couldn't be real.
Was he bluffing?
But everything was too vivid--the fear on those kids' faces, and the remote he had in his hand...
We're all going to die.
"What is this place?" Yoseob cried, falling down to his knees. "I'm scared!"
I looked at him; he seemed to be the most scared compared to Doojoon and Junhyung.
What kind of therapy they made him go through?
Junhyung landed a punch on the wall all of a sudden. We all flinched in surprise. "We need to find a way..." he growled. "...somehow." The wall was left with a small crack.
My head was hurting. Too many things have happened over the past few days--mostly bad and painful memories. When I first came here, I suspected it would be just like any other rehabilitation centres I'd been to before (except for the fact that the timetable only allowed us to shower twice a week). But the staff abused the patients, and did inhumane experiments on them.
None of us will ever be able to cure our problems.
"I tried looking for an exit door this morning," Junhyung said. "But I couldn't find it!"
"What do you mean...?" Doojoon asked, the color draining from his face.
"There's no way out," Junhyung leaned on the wall, hanging his head back. "It's like Alcatraz."
We exchanged frightened looks.
"We don't have any other choice," he said. "They'll kill us eventually."
The room fell into dead silence. Like he said, it wouldn't matter if we escaped or stayed--we'd die either way.
I don't want to die.
"But I, for one, am not gonna die from some electrotherapy shit," the brunette added, clenching his fists.
Electrotherapy?
"What?" I asked incredulously. Did I hear right?
He looked at me bitterly. "They forced me to sit on a fucking electric chair."
Holy shit.
My eyes widened. How much electricity did they use to knock him unconscious?
He could've died.
"This is crazy," I heard Doojoon mutter, a hint of remorse in his voice. I realized that he never told me what kind of therapy he had to go through before he found me in the corridor last night. I was shocked to find his shirt covered in blood, but he didn't offer me any explanations.
What did they do to him?
"What kind of institution--or rehab facility, whatever--would do such things to their patients?" He was shaking.
"We're not patients," I managed to get the words out. "We're prisoners!"
They all stared at me. By looking at their fearful faces, I could tell they agreed with what I said.
"They're going to hold another session tomorrow," Junhyung continued.
How does he know?
"I'm not getting electrocuted for the second time!"
We didn't need to hear anymore. "Maybe Dongwoon is in his room!" Yoseob cried, getting to his feet. "We have to get him!"
"But we don't even know where his cell is," Doojoon argued.
The blonde froze. Doojoon was right--although the six of us were assigned in the same common room, we weren't aware of each other's individual rooms. For all we knew, Dongwoon could be on this level, or even upstairs.
Or he could be in the basement.
I shook my head. That can't be. I remembered Woohyun telling me about the previous Room Eleven occupants yesterday, who died horribly. He also mentioned about the bodies buried in the basement--some were even in the morgue. I wondered how many sessions they had to go through before they gave in.
Are we going to end up like them?
"So what do we do now?" Yoseob asked anxiously, biting his nails.
Kikwang tugged on my sleeve. "Hyunseung," he called in a very quiet voice that only I could hear. He sounded terrified (but then again, who wouldn't be?).
I bit my lips, suddenly feeling angry. It wasn't fair to him--he'd lived most of his life being tortured and bullied, and now he had to suffer and die. I closed my eyes, remembering how he fainted after listening to the odd tune playing from Myungsoo's music box.
He's hiding something from me.
"This is Kikwang," the friendly-faced woman placed her hands on the boy.
I looked at him curiously. He was short and small, and appeared to be quiet introverted.
"Kikwang-ah, say hello to your new neighbors," Mrs. Lee urged.
With his hands behind his back, he kept his gaze on the floor. I exchanged glances with my sister.
Mom smiled. "Not much of a talker, is he?"
"I'm sorry," Mr. Lee let out an uneasy laugh. "Our Kikwang is a very shy one."
"Is he the only son?" Mom asked.
"His little brother Hyekwang is still taking a nap," Mrs. Lee explained.
"It must be nice being a kid," Dad joked. "I can't sleep until we finish unpacking our things."
"It's understandable, seeing how much stuff you brought," Mr. Lee motioned towards the big moving truck parked next door.
As the adults continued chattering about boring things, me and Geurim stared at the kid who was standing quietly in front of us.
Well, it sure was awkward.
"How old are you?" she tried to strike a conversation.
Kikwang shuffled his feet. "I'm 8," he said quietly.
"So you're older than me," she said. "I'm Geurim." She extended out a hand.
The kid returned the handshake hesitantly. I frowned; it seemed as if he was afraid or something.
"This is my brother Hyunseung," she took my hand in hers. "He's one year older than you."
He looked up slowly, looking at me square in the eyes. I raised my eyebrows. Although it was an innocent expression, I sensed nervousness in his eyes.
I had to say something. "Hey."
He was fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. "...Hello."
Geurim cleared her throat (I could tell she was slightly impatient). "The two of us are planning to go exploring tomorrow," she said. "Can you show us around?"
Kikwang's eyes widened. "...Me?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
His lips slowly curved into a grin. "Sure!" he answered, somehow excited.
Geurim shot a confused glance at me. This kid might not talk much, but he sounded too happy just then.
"You'll like it here." He gave us an infectious eye-smile. We were surprised--it was completely different than the gloomy face he was showing us a few minutes ago.
I missed that smile.
"It's nearly lunchtime, isn't it?" Doojoon asked in panic. "If we try running away now, people will catch us!"
I blinked and held to my stomach.
I'm hungry.
"Mr. Yoo said he controls everyone here--except us--through telepathy," he said seriously.
The others' eyes widened in bewilderment. The blonde opened his mouth, but didn't say anything. Judging from his face, I could tell he didn't believe Doojoon's words (of course--who would?).
Junhyung's face was also skeptical. "A-Are you for real?" he stammered.
"It's true," I added firmly. "He told us about it last night."
"That's bullshit," the brunette mumbled. "That sort of thing..." When he noticed the tense atmosphere that was filling the room, he realized we weren't joking. He opened the door slowly. "But how?" he asked, keeping an eye on the hallway.
"He mentioned about implanting some chips into the patients' bodies," Doojoon explained. "That way, the staff is able to keep a track of our locations by digging information from the other patients."
"Chips?" Junhyung scoffed incredulously. "That's fucking impossible!"
That's what we thought at first, too.
Doojoon kept a straight face. I saw Yoseob slowly staggering backwards in fear.
"Are you saying that they'll transform us into fucking robots and then attack the government?" Junhyung threw his hands exasperatedly. "What is this, some fucking sci-fi movie?"
At least if it was, it wouldn't be real.
"This is too much," he shook his head in disbelief. "They really have weird shit going on here."
Before we knew it, Yoseob rushed out of the door. "I'm going to find Dongwoon!" he yelled.
Doojoon turned around, startled. "Wait!" he chased after the blonde. "Yoseob!"
I stood up from my chair in alarm.
No!
"Those idiots," Junhyung clicked his tongue in frustration, and followed them.
I exchanged frightened glances with Kikwang. Without a second thought, we ran outside. As we stepped out of the door, a familiar voice called out to us.
"Hyunseung?"
Darn it.
I turned around. Hyomin was nearby, making her way to the dining hall. "Why are you in such a hurry?" she asked.
I was taken aback. "I--We--"
"Your friend Junhyung seemed to be in a rush, too," she said, pointing to the three people running off to the opposite direction. "Where are you guys going?"
Kikwang gripped my wrist. I swallowed nervously. If Hyomin also has the chip in her, then... "Just... somewhere." I regretted that answer; it was too vague, and she would ask more questions for sure.
As expected, she did. "Somewhere?" She tilted her head. "Aren't you going to lunch?"
I could feel my stomach growling. I shook my head.
I'm not hungry.
Then she added meaningfully, "You know, just to get a drink."
Based on my observation of Room Six, common rooms other than ours got to keep snacks and drinks; in other words, there was no need for her to go to the dining hall to get any drinks. I also recalled Myungsoo saying that the staff nor the guards inspected during lunch time. I glanced at her bony figure, frowning.
So why is she heading to the dining hall if she's not going to eat anyway?
"Why are you going?" I asked.
She smiled. "To socialize," she replied. "It's fun."
I bit my lips.
Is that so?
"You can meet and talk to a lot of people who have similar problems to you there."
It's better than to be cured, isn't it?
"Where's your friend?" I kept forgetting that short-haired girl's name. All I remembered was that she called me 'pretty' last time.
"You mean Eunjung?" she asked. "She's waiting for me there."
"I see." I thought they were in the same room.
"What's his name?" She stared at Kikwang in curiosity. The black-haired boy flinched.
"He's Kikwang," I said.
She tilted her head. "Oh." Surprisingly, she didn't try talking him into a conversation (perhaps she noticed how agitated he looked).
I threw a sideway glance to the hallway, searching for those three. My eyes widened in panic; they were gone.
Oh, crap.
"Look, we gotta go..." I trailed off, trying to think of a clear, specific excuse to get rid of this girl. "...to the toilet."
She looked at me weirdly, then to Kikwang, and then back to me. "I didn't know boys go to toilet together," she said with an amused chuckle. "You're funny."
There was no time to be embarrassed. "Yeah," I answered hurriedly. "He's scared of going alone." From the corner of my eyes, I could see Kikwang cringe slightly. "Talk to you later, okay?"
She seemed dubious, but nodded anyways. "I'll see you in the dining hall, then."
Only if we don't make it out of here.
She turned on her heels and walked away.
I cracked my knuckles nervously; she must've reported about us not going to lunch to Mr. Yoo. Holding my breath, I pulled Kikwang with me and we ran off to the direction where Doojoon and the others went to. "I hope they didn't go too far," I told him.
As we ran, we were lucky not to bump into other people. When we reached the end of hallway, we met a set of staircases, going both up and down.
Where did they go?
I clicked my tongue. If we chose the right path, we could save Dongwoon--but if we got it wrong, we might not see them ever again.
Kikwang tugged on my sleeve. Judging from his expression, it seemed as if he didn't want to the take the stairs down (it did look dark). Crossing my fingers, we dashed upstairs.
It's a 50:50 chance.
We arrived at a long corridor of cells. It was quiet (presumably because it was lunchtime), so we walked carefully not to make a noise. We burst into grins when we spotted the three guys in the distance, outside a cell room.
They're here.
We ran closer, but stopped when we saw them not moving while looking into the room. Doojoon had one of his hands on the door, his jaw dropped, speechless. Next to him was Junhyung, whose face was pale in shock. Yoseob was on the floor, his back on the wall across the room, with a panicked expression on his face. I felt a cold sweat on the back of my neck.
What's in the room?
Doojoon turned around slowly to me and Kikwang. His eyes were filled with fear.
I felt a lump in the back of my throat.
Did anything happen to Dongwoon?
Then he said in a grave voice, "We're too late."
Author: qrn
Pairing: OT6
Rating: M (Mature), for sexual & violent themes
Summary: Each of them has their own problems that may just be too hard to cure.
Author's Notes: Can't believe it's Chapter 18 already... *wipes sweat off forehead* Sorry for the long wait again~ I found this one pretty hard to write, as I had to incorporate a lot of details from past chapters and link them together with Hyunnie's way of thinking (not to mention his flashbacks). There are more analysis & interesting facts introduced here, so please read it slowly =) I hope you guys don't kill me for the overly depressing & disturbing content >.< Feedbacks & comments are welcome, as always ^^ Enjoy!
18. HYUNSEUNG
"He's still in prison."
I found Mom and Dad sitting in their room, the door slightly opened. They didn't seem to notice that I just came home from school.
"So Hyunseung is safe for now," Mom sounded relieved, placing a hand on her chest. My head perked at the mention of my name.
"The judge gave him six years, remember?" Dad said with a sigh. "He might as well be sentenced for life."
I tilted my head. I didn't know what they were talking about, and I'd never seen them so serious like this.
"That sick man." Mom shook her head. "He was so disturbed."
Who?
Dad took off his watch and put it on the table. "No one needs to remember what happened." He sighed. "Good thing we moved here."
I was about to walk closer so I could hear more, but Mom saw me.
"Hyunseung-ah." She got up from the bed. "You're home."
"How was school?" Dad asked.
"The teacher made us learn the multiplication table," I answered.
"Was it hard?" Mom asked, leading me to the family room. I shrugged in response.
Then I was distracted by some show on TV for the rest of the night.
With that, I forgot that the conversation ever existed.
The door slammed open.
I held my breath.
Junhyung (so he was still alive!) was there with Yoseob standing behind him, bits of blood on their clothes. Their expressions were that of extreme terror.
Did they witness the same thing?
"What the--" The brunette didn't finish; his gaze was fixed on the red stains on our shirts.
Doojoon ran to the door and hugged Yoseob, who started to break down into sobs.
"They got you, too?" Junhyung started, his eyes widened at me and Kikwang. For a moment, I thought I saw a flash of concern in his eyes.
Doojoon nodded, not saying anything. Ever since the tragedy in Room Six, the three of us spent the remaining night in silence. We refused to return to our individual cells, so they put us into this dreaded room. We barely got any sleep, and none of us even went to get breakfast this morning (who could do, after seeing that kind of thing?).
Kikwang's face turned pale at the words, his eyes swollen from last night's crying. He clung to my arm so tightly, as if never letting go.
"Fuck this place," Junhyung said, shutting the door behind him. I caught a glimpse of his fingers trembling. "We have to get out of here."
I raised my eyebrows at the word 'we'.
Since when does he care about us?
"Come on," Junhyung urged, clenching his teeth.
Yoseob choked, "Where's... Dongwoon?"
The five of us stared at each other in horror.
They got him.
"We need to find him." Yoseob wiped his wet eyes.
"But we don't know where he is," Doojoon blurted out. "This buil--"
"They put fucking cameras everywhere!" Junhyung interjected.
Cameras?
"I bet they put one in here as well!" He looked around the room, clicking his tongue. "If we risk ourselves going after him, they'll explode us, too!"
The image of Sunggyu's body disseminating into bloody pieces once again creeped into my mind. I shut my eyes, shuddering at the thought. I could feel Kikwang trembling and tightening his grip.
"But we can't leave him here," Yoseob said, his voice quivering.
Doojoon exchanged anxious glances with Junhyung. The latter shook his head. "No," he said, raising his voice. "Are you crazy?"
"But--"
While they argued about saving Dongwoon, my mind was still pre-occupied with the Room Six people. I swallowed nervously.
I can't believe they betrayed us.
After Sunggyu died, Myungsoo fell into a hysterical fit. Dongwoo and Hoya were too shocked to be able to move, and Woohyun lost consciousness. Before we could do anything, the staff dragged us away from the room. We never knew the rest of the story.
What will happen to them?
If all patients in this place had chips implanted in their bodies just like Mr. Yoo said, then we could never escape. Furthermore, he also mentioned nonsense like telepathy and GPS.
That's too screwed up.
My heart was pounding. Such things only happened in movies--it couldn't be real.
Was he bluffing?
But everything was too vivid--the fear on those kids' faces, and the remote he had in his hand...
We're all going to die.
"What is this place?" Yoseob cried, falling down to his knees. "I'm scared!"
I looked at him; he seemed to be the most scared compared to Doojoon and Junhyung.
What kind of therapy they made him go through?
Junhyung landed a punch on the wall all of a sudden. We all flinched in surprise. "We need to find a way..." he growled. "...somehow." The wall was left with a small crack.
My head was hurting. Too many things have happened over the past few days--mostly bad and painful memories. When I first came here, I suspected it would be just like any other rehabilitation centres I'd been to before (except for the fact that the timetable only allowed us to shower twice a week). But the staff abused the patients, and did inhumane experiments on them.
None of us will ever be able to cure our problems.
"I tried looking for an exit door this morning," Junhyung said. "But I couldn't find it!"
"What do you mean...?" Doojoon asked, the color draining from his face.
"There's no way out," Junhyung leaned on the wall, hanging his head back. "It's like Alcatraz."
We exchanged frightened looks.
"We don't have any other choice," he said. "They'll kill us eventually."
The room fell into dead silence. Like he said, it wouldn't matter if we escaped or stayed--we'd die either way.
I don't want to die.
"But I, for one, am not gonna die from some electrotherapy shit," the brunette added, clenching his fists.
Electrotherapy?
"What?" I asked incredulously. Did I hear right?
He looked at me bitterly. "They forced me to sit on a fucking electric chair."
Holy shit.
My eyes widened. How much electricity did they use to knock him unconscious?
He could've died.
"This is crazy," I heard Doojoon mutter, a hint of remorse in his voice. I realized that he never told me what kind of therapy he had to go through before he found me in the corridor last night. I was shocked to find his shirt covered in blood, but he didn't offer me any explanations.
What did they do to him?
"What kind of institution--or rehab facility, whatever--would do such things to their patients?" He was shaking.
"We're not patients," I managed to get the words out. "We're prisoners!"
They all stared at me. By looking at their fearful faces, I could tell they agreed with what I said.
"They're going to hold another session tomorrow," Junhyung continued.
How does he know?
"I'm not getting electrocuted for the second time!"
We didn't need to hear anymore. "Maybe Dongwoon is in his room!" Yoseob cried, getting to his feet. "We have to get him!"
"But we don't even know where his cell is," Doojoon argued.
The blonde froze. Doojoon was right--although the six of us were assigned in the same common room, we weren't aware of each other's individual rooms. For all we knew, Dongwoon could be on this level, or even upstairs.
Or he could be in the basement.
I shook my head. That can't be. I remembered Woohyun telling me about the previous Room Eleven occupants yesterday, who died horribly. He also mentioned about the bodies buried in the basement--some were even in the morgue. I wondered how many sessions they had to go through before they gave in.
Are we going to end up like them?
"So what do we do now?" Yoseob asked anxiously, biting his nails.
Kikwang tugged on my sleeve. "Hyunseung," he called in a very quiet voice that only I could hear. He sounded terrified (but then again, who wouldn't be?).
I bit my lips, suddenly feeling angry. It wasn't fair to him--he'd lived most of his life being tortured and bullied, and now he had to suffer and die. I closed my eyes, remembering how he fainted after listening to the odd tune playing from Myungsoo's music box.
He's hiding something from me.
"This is Kikwang," the friendly-faced woman placed her hands on the boy.
I looked at him curiously. He was short and small, and appeared to be quiet introverted.
"Kikwang-ah, say hello to your new neighbors," Mrs. Lee urged.
With his hands behind his back, he kept his gaze on the floor. I exchanged glances with my sister.
Mom smiled. "Not much of a talker, is he?"
"I'm sorry," Mr. Lee let out an uneasy laugh. "Our Kikwang is a very shy one."
"Is he the only son?" Mom asked.
"His little brother Hyekwang is still taking a nap," Mrs. Lee explained.
"It must be nice being a kid," Dad joked. "I can't sleep until we finish unpacking our things."
"It's understandable, seeing how much stuff you brought," Mr. Lee motioned towards the big moving truck parked next door.
As the adults continued chattering about boring things, me and Geurim stared at the kid who was standing quietly in front of us.
Well, it sure was awkward.
"How old are you?" she tried to strike a conversation.
Kikwang shuffled his feet. "I'm 8," he said quietly.
"So you're older than me," she said. "I'm Geurim." She extended out a hand.
The kid returned the handshake hesitantly. I frowned; it seemed as if he was afraid or something.
"This is my brother Hyunseung," she took my hand in hers. "He's one year older than you."
He looked up slowly, looking at me square in the eyes. I raised my eyebrows. Although it was an innocent expression, I sensed nervousness in his eyes.
I had to say something. "Hey."
He was fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. "...Hello."
Geurim cleared her throat (I could tell she was slightly impatient). "The two of us are planning to go exploring tomorrow," she said. "Can you show us around?"
Kikwang's eyes widened. "...Me?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
His lips slowly curved into a grin. "Sure!" he answered, somehow excited.
Geurim shot a confused glance at me. This kid might not talk much, but he sounded too happy just then.
"You'll like it here." He gave us an infectious eye-smile. We were surprised--it was completely different than the gloomy face he was showing us a few minutes ago.
I missed that smile.
"It's nearly lunchtime, isn't it?" Doojoon asked in panic. "If we try running away now, people will catch us!"
I blinked and held to my stomach.
I'm hungry.
"Mr. Yoo said he controls everyone here--except us--through telepathy," he said seriously.
The others' eyes widened in bewilderment. The blonde opened his mouth, but didn't say anything. Judging from his face, I could tell he didn't believe Doojoon's words (of course--who would?).
Junhyung's face was also skeptical. "A-Are you for real?" he stammered.
"It's true," I added firmly. "He told us about it last night."
"That's bullshit," the brunette mumbled. "That sort of thing..." When he noticed the tense atmosphere that was filling the room, he realized we weren't joking. He opened the door slowly. "But how?" he asked, keeping an eye on the hallway.
"He mentioned about implanting some chips into the patients' bodies," Doojoon explained. "That way, the staff is able to keep a track of our locations by digging information from the other patients."
"Chips?" Junhyung scoffed incredulously. "That's fucking impossible!"
That's what we thought at first, too.
Doojoon kept a straight face. I saw Yoseob slowly staggering backwards in fear.
"Are you saying that they'll transform us into fucking robots and then attack the government?" Junhyung threw his hands exasperatedly. "What is this, some fucking sci-fi movie?"
At least if it was, it wouldn't be real.
"This is too much," he shook his head in disbelief. "They really have weird shit going on here."
Before we knew it, Yoseob rushed out of the door. "I'm going to find Dongwoon!" he yelled.
Doojoon turned around, startled. "Wait!" he chased after the blonde. "Yoseob!"
I stood up from my chair in alarm.
No!
"Those idiots," Junhyung clicked his tongue in frustration, and followed them.
I exchanged frightened glances with Kikwang. Without a second thought, we ran outside. As we stepped out of the door, a familiar voice called out to us.
"Hyunseung?"
Darn it.
I turned around. Hyomin was nearby, making her way to the dining hall. "Why are you in such a hurry?" she asked.
I was taken aback. "I--We--"
"Your friend Junhyung seemed to be in a rush, too," she said, pointing to the three people running off to the opposite direction. "Where are you guys going?"
Kikwang gripped my wrist. I swallowed nervously. If Hyomin also has the chip in her, then... "Just... somewhere." I regretted that answer; it was too vague, and she would ask more questions for sure.
As expected, she did. "Somewhere?" She tilted her head. "Aren't you going to lunch?"
I could feel my stomach growling. I shook my head.
I'm not hungry.
Then she added meaningfully, "You know, just to get a drink."
Based on my observation of Room Six, common rooms other than ours got to keep snacks and drinks; in other words, there was no need for her to go to the dining hall to get any drinks. I also recalled Myungsoo saying that the staff nor the guards inspected during lunch time. I glanced at her bony figure, frowning.
So why is she heading to the dining hall if she's not going to eat anyway?
"Why are you going?" I asked.
She smiled. "To socialize," she replied. "It's fun."
I bit my lips.
Is that so?
"You can meet and talk to a lot of people who have similar problems to you there."
It's better than to be cured, isn't it?
"Where's your friend?" I kept forgetting that short-haired girl's name. All I remembered was that she called me 'pretty' last time.
"You mean Eunjung?" she asked. "She's waiting for me there."
"I see." I thought they were in the same room.
"What's his name?" She stared at Kikwang in curiosity. The black-haired boy flinched.
"He's Kikwang," I said.
She tilted her head. "Oh." Surprisingly, she didn't try talking him into a conversation (perhaps she noticed how agitated he looked).
I threw a sideway glance to the hallway, searching for those three. My eyes widened in panic; they were gone.
Oh, crap.
"Look, we gotta go..." I trailed off, trying to think of a clear, specific excuse to get rid of this girl. "...to the toilet."
She looked at me weirdly, then to Kikwang, and then back to me. "I didn't know boys go to toilet together," she said with an amused chuckle. "You're funny."
There was no time to be embarrassed. "Yeah," I answered hurriedly. "He's scared of going alone." From the corner of my eyes, I could see Kikwang cringe slightly. "Talk to you later, okay?"
She seemed dubious, but nodded anyways. "I'll see you in the dining hall, then."
Only if we don't make it out of here.
She turned on her heels and walked away.
I cracked my knuckles nervously; she must've reported about us not going to lunch to Mr. Yoo. Holding my breath, I pulled Kikwang with me and we ran off to the direction where Doojoon and the others went to. "I hope they didn't go too far," I told him.
As we ran, we were lucky not to bump into other people. When we reached the end of hallway, we met a set of staircases, going both up and down.
Where did they go?
I clicked my tongue. If we chose the right path, we could save Dongwoon--but if we got it wrong, we might not see them ever again.
Kikwang tugged on my sleeve. Judging from his expression, it seemed as if he didn't want to the take the stairs down (it did look dark). Crossing my fingers, we dashed upstairs.
It's a 50:50 chance.
We arrived at a long corridor of cells. It was quiet (presumably because it was lunchtime), so we walked carefully not to make a noise. We burst into grins when we spotted the three guys in the distance, outside a cell room.
They're here.
We ran closer, but stopped when we saw them not moving while looking into the room. Doojoon had one of his hands on the door, his jaw dropped, speechless. Next to him was Junhyung, whose face was pale in shock. Yoseob was on the floor, his back on the wall across the room, with a panicked expression on his face. I felt a cold sweat on the back of my neck.
What's in the room?
Doojoon turned around slowly to me and Kikwang. His eyes were filled with fear.
I felt a lump in the back of my throat.
Did anything happen to Dongwoon?
Then he said in a grave voice, "We're too late."