Worlds Apart

3. Endivergus

Endivergus.
Don't kill yourself over the term. I was taught to break it down.
Endling: The last (or so) organism of a species.
Divergent: Branching off or developing differently.
It didn't take me too long to figure it out.

Anyway, that's what I have. My eyes have a thin, ice blue ring in the centre of the black hue. Everyone tells us we are special. That we're different from all the other people. I often ask them if I can go outside, but the answers always the same.
Just go to the courtyard.
They tell us there are bad people after us because we're special and that they want to hurt us. The place where we live and are kept is there to protect us from these bad people.

Sometimes I toss and turn at night at the fear that one of these "bad people" will make it into our little area.
However, they assure us that no one can get in.
Or out.
My name is Byun Baekhyun and I am an Endling.

-

Endivergus is not a disease. It's a condition all of us in the Endling sector were either born with or developed when the virus hit. It's made obvious by having the ice blue eyes set against the natural eye colour. What lies under the surface is what makes us really different, the strains of DNA that were mutated by the virus.

We were taught from a young age that the pestilence had wiped out every female about 17 years ago. The epidemic had also changed the genetic material in all males, mostly affecting their reproductive systems. It made it so that some males were in fact capable of carrying, but these newly mutated systems were very much dormant and needed a special hormone to get them working. That's where we come in. In certain males, the virus had manifested in our eyes and brains, changing their colour and starting the production of the divergus hormone.

In short, the rest of humanity needs us in order to keep surviving.

But they tell us that's why we're here. The virus turned all these other males savage and that they don't deserve to keep reproducing. The only race that should continue on is ours. You see a few pregnant Endlings wander about the facility every now and then.
Basically they're separating the lock from the key until the locks die out.

There's only a few thousand of us left in the world, hence the Endling term.
They told us that when the virus first broke out, it turned the eyes of the original Endlings blue and that the "bad people" went around killing every Endling they found, regardless of how old they were, thinking that we were possessed by some otherworldly entity.

At this point during the lessons, Jisoo would usually tug on my sleeve and make some smart ass comment about how there were aliens living inside us. I usually proceeded to roll my eyes.
I think I would know if there was an alien inside of me.

Every now and then, that comment gets to me.
All is well, except that we seem to have a considerably shorter life span than the humans that weren't affected by the virus. I've watched the older Endlings waste away and die in the short 14 years I've been here. And when I say older, I'm talking about the ones who are only about 25 years and older.

It seems that once you hit 25, whatever it is starts to wear you down and you're gone not too long after that.
I try not to think about it too much.
I'm just grateful for the life that the nice people in the long, white lab coats provide for us.

-

"YAH BAEKHYUN-AH! THAT'S CHEATING!" Jisoo hyung yelled into my ear, causing me to drop the petroleum jelly and his sneakers.
"Trying to sabotage our next race, huh? Even with jelly shoes, I can still kick your ass," Jisoo jeered into my face.
I pushed it away irritably.
"Yah, don't scream into my ear," I huffed.
"Serves you right for lubing the bottom of my sneakers," Jisoo singsonged.
"You're the one who shoved me last time!" I defended myself.
"Whatever, I'm still gonna kick your ass again next time and thanks to you, maybe my shoe'll get firmly lodged up your-"
"JISOO! BAEKHYUN! You two are supposed to be cleaning the refectory!" Dr. Song reprimanded from the doorway of the rec room.
We both hung our heads in shame and trudged out dragging our feet.
"What a fucking bitch," Jisoo whispered to me once we were out of earshot.
I shoved him away out of respect for our teachers.