HUMAN | YUWIN [ ✓ ]

TEN | RED LIGHT

"where did he go?" is the first thing out of ten's mouth.

he had already angrily stabbed a knife meant for food into the table they were sitting at watching mansik talking to johnny. he had now resorted to gripping the knife in a death grip, his eyes blazing with anger.

"some room in that back hall," yuta points out. "we should follow."

sicheng narrows his eyes, seeing the little hallway leading to the back, but he had no idea what door he could've gone in. the angle from which he was looking at prevented him from seeing properly. with hopes, while they're figuring it out, johnny can handle him himself. he can't have doubts, well, no, he shouldn't have doubts.

yuta was standing up, moving off to the side a little to see properly while ten looked ready to dig the knife right back into the table. on either wall, there was a door. the most important one seemed to be the one at the end of the hall. he squints hard enough to see 'meeting room' engraved on it.

"there, we go in that room," he says suddenly. both sicheng and ten look confused at his words. at their looks, he adds, "how else are we supposed to help our teammate?"

"how are you so sure?" ten asks, almost suspiciously.

"i can tell it says meeting room from a distance, besides, considering what mansik told johnny, he's going there," yuta says knowingly. "c'mon. let's go!"

sicheng doesn't argue, giving yuta an encouraging smile that he returned. ten, on the other hand, looked at yuta with an unreadable expression before finally standing up. sicheng does the same. then, with one last glance at each other, they all went towards the back corridor.

meanwhile, johnny didn't enjoy being the centre of attention. he just had to sit right beside mansik at the front of the table, everyone else's eyes on him. he just wanted to melt into a puddle so no one would be interested in him anymore. why was johnny basically brought to be on display?

wait. that's what mansik meant by others wanting to see him. oh god. of course he was introduced as a pretty new toy mansik had brought with him.

he sits there, listening and watching his surroundings, hearing the comments about his appearance. they weren't negative per se, but they damn well made him downright uncomfortable. johnny hugs himself and wishing he can just get this over with and he'll feel better about it all later. he hopes, anyways.

"he could make a good superhuman, like that little experiment yang tried out," one man remarks, pointing a finger at johnny. "we could have one of our own to match with him."

jokes on you, johnny thinks as he looks down. yuta's my teammate.

"but isn't he too pretty for that?" mansik's hand suddenly grabs johnny's chin, forcing his head upwards. he would've preferred to stare at his lap. "look at him! he could be used for something else."

johnny was listening to everything he was saying, his eyes rounding seeing others look at him, stares that dug into his soul. no, no, he can handle this. he wanted to be the bait, the false sense of safety for a reason. he has to do this. he forces himself to also think of ten — that helps loads. imagining that ten is the one looking at him lovingly, that look he missed dearly —

"take off your mask, johnny," a man who was rather large around the middle says, leaning in far too close for johnny's comfort. "there is no need to cover up your face."

"i — i just want to," johnny stammers, wanting to lean back but that would mean touching mansik, who had thankfully let go of his chin. "i don't need to take it off."

"perhaps it's best that taking it off is better done in private, hm?" mansik says, turning his eyes on johnny. "isn't that right, pretty boy?"

johnny sees his chance. "y — yes."