THE BABY MILL [[{SHINee}]]

THE BABY MILL [[33] 1ST TRIMESTER

            “We have the files,” he repeated with more confidence.

            Key appeared stunned. “How could you have gotten those? H-How can you even be standing here?” he screeched in a whisper. His eyes moved to the camera and back to the two boys. JongHyun shook his head, allowing MinHo to explain what they’d discovered.

            “The power’s out. Nothing is working; we overheard the workers talking… And we have a sort of clock figured out,” MinHo explained, ignoring the tortured expression the carrier was evolving.

            “We’re not lying…”

            Key shook his head several times; chapped lips frozen into a grim line. He looked at neither of the two boys, concentrating himself with the welfare of the ceiling instead. As nothing was on the only sound JongHyun could concentrate on was the breathing of the boys. Without the roars of ventilation systems and machines everything seemed clear again. He closed his eyes… Chest rising and falling to allow his muted breaths to run through his lungs. MinHo’s breathing quirks he’d familiarized himself with already so he narrowed his mind to center only on one person…

            Crackling was in his every breath as if he’d acquired a respiratory virus. It was followed by a slight hiccup every now and then. It was a struggle for him to breathe like it was for JongHyun to keep sane.

            “I Just…” Key started. He took a deep breath, the air cracking in his throat. “Can’t believe you found a way…”

            His eyes opened again and found Key. An urge to smile came over him as he saw how relieved he looked. He, too, was content at uniting. Solace could be found in this one carrier’s face. A face mangled by pain but managing to look peaceful in that moment then.

            MinHo spoke again, dropping the filed in Key’s reach. “We have these if you want to look at them,” he said.

            Key reached for them, taking the one pertaining to him first. With trembling hands he managed to open it, picking out pictured of himself and JongHyun. One picture of him at a distance holding a coffee cup while some women fixed his hair stole his attention. His finger brushed over the length of the cat walk in the background, landing on his face finally, keeping it hidden from the rest of the world. The relief, JongHyun was disappointed to see, faded into an upset expression. Nostalgia seemed to ripple between his kempt brows until he’d had enough with the picture and tossed it away. Instead of skimming through suspicious pictures of himself he picked up the few things describing JongHyun which embarrassed him somewhat.

            “You were an intern here?” Key asked. His big eyes stared at JongHyun in surprise.

            The donor was struck by the angles of his face, flabbergasted by the depth in his eyes. Even washed out he held a handsome quality that explained his success in the fashion industry.            

            Dumbfounded by this revelation, JongHyun hardly managed a nod.

            “Did you know about… About this?” Key’s voice dropped down to a whisper. Surprise was quickly replaced by suspicion, stinging somewhere profound in JongHyun.

            As if to save his budding relationship Key he shook his head intensely. He hovered over Key and scanned the report he was reading, trying to find the section that would save his reputation. Down at the bottom, in the second last paragraph, two sentences in he found what he was looking for, pointing it out with a finger.

            Key followed his guidance and read the sentence. “Oh…” he murmured. “He had a fertilization clinic that you worked in?”

            JongHyun nodded, glad to have cleared that up.

            MinHo, who’d been silent till now, cleared his throat to call for their attention.

            “Where’s the other carrier? Where’s TaeMin?” he asked. A pitiful expression crippled his face. JongHyun tried to picture what it had been like when they’d snuck through the halls. Excited… Nervous… None of that was perceptible then. The tall boy was sitting on the corner of the adjacent bed, one hand grazing the sheet like he’d be able to feel his carrier any more that way.

            “I don’t know where they took him,” Key answered earnestly.

            “Is he okay?” MinHo asked, suddenly alert.

            “He went for an examination and never came back…”

            It sounded odd even to JongHyun’s ears. The way MinHo sat stiffly he knew that he was worried about him. Ever since they’d gotten the filed he’d been odd. Or more like since he’d seen the pictures…

            “Is he sick?” MinHo asked.

            “No… He’s getting really close to delivering, though…” Key answered.

            “Delivering? He has… One of those in him?”

            A shiver fought its way down JongHyun’s back at the thought. To keep it from rippling throughout his body he clenched his hands into fists. Key had once been in that state, too, he reminded himself.

            “Yes… He’s really not doing well, though…” Key explained.

            “He’s had two miscarriages, hasn’t he?” MinHo asked, grabbing the file from Key who’d been rifling through it.

            Something like annoyance ticked in the carrier’s visage but he hid it well behind a sigh, flopping his head onto his pillow with a groan. It looked like he was going to say something however his hands flew to his stomach. An agonized wallow was omitted from him, eyes slamming shut.

            Both donors were on their toes waiting for the spell to recede. Understanding eyes watching him squirm to free itself from his sadistic body. When Key finally settled his eyes were glazed and sweat beaded on his upper lip. His over all look appeared clammy and ill.

            “H-he’s on his third strike,” he wheezed, the words barely passing.

            MinHo said nothing. Like JongHyun. His nostrils flared, churning the air around his face. Something was eating him alive from the inside out that he wasn’t sharing. Part of JongHyun was itching to know what it was.

            “I went to school with him,” he admitted quietly. With nimble fingers he pulled the photos out of the envelope, placing the ones of him on the bottom of the pile. The picture left on top was one of TaeMin in a school uniform, long hair fastened in a pony tail with the fringe left out to frame his face on both sides of his smile. A tender look possessed MinHo as he held it out for them to see. “He was a year younger than I was and got bullied a lot… I… I stood up for him a lot… He disappeared…”

            The tale left a bitter taste on JongHyun’s tongue, like a film of negativity. He thought about Key and himself who’d had relatively good lives before arriving in the hell fires. And even MinHo, who never spoke much of his past, but whose file said he’d come from a well off family… They had had some happiness at one point, one good memory to cling to when things got real tough. TaeMin had nothing.

            “I was hoping he’d be anywhere but here…” MinHo closed off. His eyes lingered a moment longer on the picture of his carrier, flicking back to the empty bed, then to JongHyun and Key on the bed together, back to the picture.

            Disappointment… JongHyun didn’t need words to understand MinHo on that one…