Crescent // ATEEZ ✔

53 [human]

"Lee Eunbi and Jeong Yunho. You do know who Lee Eunbi is, don't you?" Hodong asks as a sad feeling creeps up onto him and he presses his lips together.

"She was the daughter of Mr. Lee Kyung." One of the previous Bifidensis board members. "The rest of the board members decided to collectively have him and his family murdered in the deliberate fire set up, because he got married and tried to start a new life. But she survived because Jeong Yunho saved her."

"Lee Kyung was like a brother to me, we shared a sentiment that the rest don't agree with."

"Both of you wanted to see the end of the facility," Eric decides. "To end this training facility which only gives prosperity towards the higher-ups while the trainees have to suffer."

"That was our goal, but it stopped when he was murdered in the fire, but I don't know what the rest was thinking of when they decided to take in his daughter. To tame her? When they killed her parents, then tried blaming her for the fire because she survived? The other Bifidensis board members are not humans," he utters. "We need to end this crazy facility, but in order to do that I need people who understand what I'm trying to do."

"You're trying to turn the system on itself, sir. Is that what you're trying to do? Assembling a team to bring this down. You find that these 9 people are the perfect candidates for that because they displayed compassion. The ability to feel sympathetic pity when misfortunes fall on others."

"The trainees here are not allowed to have emotions, because they are trained to believe that emotions will only be their downfall. Like you said, they're robots. But these 9 trainees displayed something different; they're the outliers of the system. Jeong Yunho-" he presses a finger on his profile, "-tracked down Lee Eunbi when she was taken away, even though if it meant throwing his own life away." He takes out two more profiles from the stash and opens them. "Jung Wooyoung and Kang Yeosang- two more examples of the ability to feel sympathy for others. Did you know this Jung Wooyoung asked to be taken away because he wanted to follow his best friend? They showed what it means to sacrifice their lives for others."

Eric takes longer to studies the details of each of the trainees he laid out for him. All of them have varied backgrounds. His eyes linger on Wooyoung's profile. "He was supposed to be a son of business tycoons- the life he could have had before he was sent to the orphanage."

"Some parents don't deserve to be one," Hodong supplements. "Jung Wooyoung was apparently the supposed son of a rich couple, but he was sent to the orphanage because his birth was an unplanned one. It was never confirmed, of course, but those are what the orphanage had come to know. However I believe Jung Wooyoung had no idea what his life was like before he was left at the orphanage."

"We say that this training facility provides a life better for them, but you know how that's not true."

"Of course it isn't, Eric. What more do they want to milk out of these trainees? How many more robotic trainees do they want to churn out before they realize what they're doing is inhumane?"

"You are a part of them, sir," he blurts out, no fear on his face even when he realizes how it must have sounded to him.

He chuckles again. "Yes, yes I am a part of them Eric. But Lee Kyung changed my mind and I see how it really is in this facility. That's what I'm trying to change, to stop whatever's going on here, but I can't do that alone."

He stands up, walks back and forth behind his desk as his hands are clasped behind him. Urgency laces his tone as his eyes dart around his room. "You know how these 9 trainees were considered failures for one of the modules that they had to go through?"