Nosferatu || Seongjoong ✓

8| Strange dark liquid

Finally, I got chapter 8 written down! The reason why it took me so long was primarily because of school, but also because I'm currently working on an ATEEZ short story, which is getting pretty good I think haha xD

Maybe it was too fast to say that the next week's time had passed easily and without problems. For it was not, however, quite the true version of the story.

Seonghwa had worked a full week at the research center and had already become really happy with it. It was exciting to work and dive into a new subject he had never really studied that much. Since the last clash with the boss, she had yet not spoken to him, thankfully for Seonghwa's nerves. He didn't quite know if he should try to talk to her again, but then he agreed with himself just to let it go. In time, she would probably forget about it anyway...

With the investigations, Seonghwa had finally moved on to look at other blood types than O positive. He had observed how the others did the work, and from there could find a good rhythm on his own work table, but still where he tried hands with his own ingenious techniques. It worked well and Seonghwa was happy with it all, there was no pressure or fixed times where something had to be finished for, no, this seemed more like a self-study where he could work at his own best thought pace. And Seonghwa loved it. The boy himself had never been bad at getting started with work or projects and therefore suited himself quite well for this kind of workplace.

The red liquid circled around in the glass beaker, Seonghwa had just moved it after he finished his research on it. The black-haired boy pushed his chair backward and got up from his seat, then reached for the buttons that sat on the side of one of the under-drawers under the table, and pressed one of them down so that the table rose to a custom height for him to stand by it. The lifting of the table was almost completely silent. Then Seonghwa reached for the cup, lifted it up to the edge of the sterile funnel, and carefully poured it back into the test tube. His eyes watched the red blood droplets, which rolled down the middle of the funnel and dripped into the test tube. For a brief moment, the sight left him thinking blankly. So much blood, but for what use?

Then he lifted the funnel away again, dabbed the last drops of blood off, and closed the glass airtight again. This was already becoming his new routine, after only a few days, and he could look forward to doing it a million more times. But he did not hate it.

Seonghwa's footsteps echoed across the floor as he walked towards the 'source of life' with the small test tube in his left hand. It was completely quiet here in section Z. With a smooth motion, he ran his ID over the scanner when he reached the door and it immediately went up and led him directly into the cool room. The black-haired man closed the door behind him and continued towards the row of glasses, which had been set to the side where they had already been examined. There had come a lot since the last time Seonghwa checked, but he also knew why. Jongho was an efficient employee, and strangely enough, at a glance, he could see if the blood was worth examining or not. It was something Seonghwa had also found out; you should not underestimate the abilities of the youngest.

After putting the glass in place, Seonghwa walked along the rows of blood that had not yet been examined. His gaze followed the different shades of red, they were pretty much the same, but a minimal difference could also be seen. But couldn't he find one that stood out extra much?

As if the power of thought could change the surroundings, a darker color sprung into his eyes, and Seonghwa found himself looking up at the light in the ceiling and then down at the test tube again. Was it just the angle of light onto the liquid that created the color variation? Or had he actually been a psychic and knew he would find a separating fluid?

Seonghwa didn't knew it, and no longer took the time to wait to reach out for the blood test, which had a different nuance than the others. He took the cool glass up into his hand and lifted it studying up to his eyes, where he slightly wrinkled his eyebrows. The blood looked strangely thick and there was even a part of it that had settled as an almost black mass at the bottom.

To put it mildly; the liquid looked really disgusting. And Seonghwa was usually not the type to think such a thing as the first thing about anything. But this just looked so disgusting and the young man immediately wanted to put the test tube directly back to where it was before, but something inside him made him reconsider the decision once again. This blood test was just so different, and actually also interesting if you now really looked at the fluid as a whole, that it would be impossible for him to just put it back. He just had to examine it, even though it looked so uninviting. But well, didn't all blood do that too in reality?

Now Seonghwa had made up his mind and the black-haired man left the cool laboratory with a new blood sample in his left hand and placed himself at his work table again. It gave him a whiff of excitement that there might now be a chance that he would find out something new or more interesting for all this research. Seonghwa lowered his eyes to the label, which had been very thorough put on the glass, and to an even more adrenaline-rushing energy, it said type AB. One of the rarer blood types.

He took a deep breath and found a new unused clear beaker, which he could easily pour the liquid into, and which stood sterilely packed away in one of his containers at his table. With careful fingers, he pulled the lid off the test tube and thereby shut off the trapped odor throughout the room. Furthermore, he poured the dark red liquid into the beaker so that it spread out over the new surface. And this blood certainly did not look like blood.

A snort could be heard further inside the room, and it continued until it became a faint cough.

"Damn it stinks in here."

Startled, Seonghwa turned around, still holding the test tube in his hand, and caught sight of Jongho, who, with his fingers pressed to his nose, was looking around confused. And then his eyes landed on Seonghwa and his test tube.

"Arhh Jongho be quiet, you just ruined the good silence!" exclaimed Eunha, sending a scold across to the youngest.

Jongho turned his head towards her, "But I'm not kidding! There really is something that smells absolutely awful here. Almost like it is poison? "

The woman rolled her eyes, "Seriously Jongho, poison? Ad where is that supposed to come from?"

It didn't make sense to Seonghwa either, and he looked around a bit for an answer to his question.

With a slightly dramatic motion, Jongho struck out with his arms, only to wrap both of his hands over his mouth and nose and steer toward the door out of the room.

"I simply have to go, this is unbearable!" he exclaimed, one last glance cast at Seonghwa.

When the door closed, Eunha walked with frowned toward Jongho's workplace. She pushed a little to the spread out papers to look for the epicenter concerning the smell he described as poison. But even though she removed papers and moved around on the boy's things, she did not find anything abnormal at his desk. Then Eunha turned around towards her two other employees with a questioning, still deeply confused expression.

"Can you smell it?"

Seonghwa fixed his gaze on Geonhak, who seemed to be concentrating on the stinking stench inside the room. But he just shrugged.

"Not really," replied the blonde male, looking over at Seonghwa.

"What about you, Mr. Park?"

They still used the most formal indictment toward Seonghwa and he did the same toward them.

"Me neither."

Eunha pulled out an already stressed sigh and ran a hand through her hair. She straightened her glasses a little, which had fallen a little crookedly over her nose.

"I don't get it," she muttered as she sat down at her own desk again and continued where she left it before. She clearly didn't have enough surplus to worry about anything right now.

Seonghwa took another look at Jongho's loose papers across his table before turning around towards the liquid he had just poured into the beaker. The man couldn't help it but think that the atypical dark liquid had a connection with the supposedly foul smell Jongho had caught a whiff of.

The rest of the day, Seonghwa didn't see Jongho again.

†