A/N (please ignore if you read my other stories lol)
anyways, as ive mentioned before, the rundown is ive been suffering with family issues, work, school, depression and shit, also I might be pregnant and I hope not cause Im not ready to be a mother but I'm back from my accidental hiatus I'm so sorry!! I've been updating more frequently now, i hope you guys like this chapter!also, I have a twitter again, @jongkey_krisho if you guys want updates or to ask me questions!
Jaehyun, in one go, dramatically swept the entire contents on one of his tables with his arm, immediately afterwards unrolling a huge blueprint and slamming it down. "This is what we are going to do with Minhyung and Yukhei," he said to the other three present. The other three being Jaemin, Taeyong and Renjun, obviously.
Jeno, unfortunately, couldn't be present; despite being Jaemin's friend, he was Lee-eun's assistant after all, and Lee-eun often forced him to work long hours doing tasks for him. The only good thing about it was that Jeno could act as some sort of informant, keeping them up to date with anything Lee-eun had planned.
"I hope no one from the palace suspects a thing," Taeyong said quietly, chewing on his thumbnail.
"Pfft, don't you see, this is the perfect time to go through with this plan!" Jaemin exclaimed to Taeyong. "Haven't you heard the palace rumors?"
Renjun sighed. "Not this gossip again-"
"Prince Jisung is gone right now," Jaemin continued to explain. "Rumor has it that he went to the countryside to visit a lover-"
"That's so fucking stupid," Renjun argued. "Dude looks like he has no thoughts-"
"Cause he's in love! It makes perfect sense-"
"The less members of the Royal Family here, the better." Jaehyun grabbed the pencil behind his ear and circled a small location that was towards the edge of the blueprint. "We're going to have to get some supplies here if we want this to work, I'm going to have to make tiny silicon processor chips and I'm going to need a few platinum ingredients that I can somehow never obtain-"
"So what are you making?" Renjun said. "It must be complicated if you're using silicon chips."
Taeyong raised an eye, rubbing his arms. "We have a vast array of silicon chips spread throughout our bodies."
"I think you mean you two," Jaemin said, pointing at Taeyong and Renjun.
Renjun gave him a fake smile. "I will personally rip off one of my silicon chips with the blood still on it and shove it up your-"
At that moment, someone rang the doorbell of the lab, confusing the four of them. They rarely expected company, and the only ones who came often were Jeno and, unfortunately, Lee-eun- shit.
Jaemin immediately lifted the blueprint off the table and rolled it up. "We got to hide this from him-" he said in a hurry, grabbing a rubber band off a small table with stationery nearby to keep it rolled up.
"This motherfucker," Jaehyun muttered under his breath. He grabbed a handful of the shit that he had thrown on the floor just minutes prior and dropped it on the table. "Pretend you guys were organizing the table or some shit-"
"Why in the world would we be doing, he's definitely going to suspect something," Renjun started to say, but then the doorbell rang again, causing him to equally go into panic.
To not waste anymore time, Jaehyun ran towards the main door, opening it without even thinking. "I- Ten? What are you doing here?"
Ten, one of the doctors that worked in the palace, was holding a blueberry cream cheese strudel in his hand, raising an eye. "Is there a problem with me being here?"
Jaehyun shook his head. "No, just thought it was someone else," he said, opening the door wider for the doctor to come in. "You can come inside, we're just- organizing, yeah."
"Like I'm supposed to believe you probably weren't just canoodling with your boyfriend over here," Ten muttered before stepping in, surveying the lab. "Damn, this place really is messy."
Jaehyun turned his head, surprised to see Taeyong behind him, who must have followed him in case it had been Lee-eun at the door. "We're not boyfriends," he said rather quickly.
"Yeah, sure, Jae- YO! Jaemin, bud, what are you doing here, trying to get electrocuted again?" Ten shouted at Jaemin. Last week Jaemin did indeed get electrocuted and passed out for an hour, and of course Ten had to treat him. Again. For the third time that week. How does this Jaemin guy keep getting injuries?
Jaemin gave him a grin. "Of course!" he said. "We're working on some stuff right now."
"How long is this assistant phase going to last- AH SHIT, I FORGOT WHY I CAME HERE FOR!" Ten took another bite of the strudel in his hand, chewing it quickly. "Damn, Taeil's pastries hit the spot-"
"If you're here to piss me off because you didn't bring me any of his desserts, I'm going to kick your ass," Jaehyun said, only half-kidding; they were Taeil's pastries, after all.
"Oh god, I got some gossip about Si Cheng, you know how quiet he is but I managed to get some information about him from Taeil, so you know how he's like seeing this bodyguard that works here, Nakamoto Yuta-"
"HOLD UP!" Jaemin dropped the coils he had been carrying onto the table and sped walk towards Ten, his eyes wide. "Yuta as in the personal bodyguard of Prince Jisung, right? Is it true that Prince Jisung has a lover-"
Renjun groaned, slamming his head on the table. "Not this again," he muttered.
"Are you even legally allowed to talk about that should you have any info?" Jaehyun pointed out. To be honest, he had no idea who had started the rumors (he didn't even know there were rumors in the first place - in all honesty, Jaehyun rarely left the lab.)
"THAT! Is a fair point but to be fair, the King has other stuff to worry about," Ten said. "Anyways!" He took a deep breath. "My boyfriend needs your help."
Jaehyun raised an eye. He had heard about the so-called boyfriend of Ten, some guy named Johnny who worked at the palace. "What about him?"
"Well, if you can help keep it a secret-" Ten scratched the back of his neck with his free hand, wondering how much information he could spill without getting Johnny into much trouble. Sure, Johnny gave him the get-go, and Jaehyun was a close friend of Ten here in the palace, but Jaehyun, as the royal scientist, still had royal obligations, after all. "So they've been calling this dude a superhuman."
***
Jungwoo brought a plate with bread, cheese and some dried venison to the barn they had out at the field, where they kept some of the supplies they used for farming. There was a little corner up in the second floor that was hidden, which had been the perfect place to hide Lucas.
The stranger had fainted in their yard just a few days ago, when Jungwoo noticed the commotion outside when he couldn't fall asleep. He had dragged the tall male to the barn when he passed out, not answering many questions when he woke up either.
He introduced himself as Model L, which freaked out Jungwoo for a bit until he suspiciously added "newly named" Yukehi, though Jungwoo had to admit, he decided the name Lucas out of nowhere.
"Wouldn't you have a name that starts with an L, then?" Jungwoo had asked, confused. "Yukhei doesn't start with an L."
"But it's Cantonese," he had explained. "They wanted me to have a Cantonese name."
Jungwoo raised an eye. "Who's they?"
The man had not given him a straight answer. "People I work with."
"Uh... well, many Cantonese here have non traditional names, it's not uncommon," Jungwoo continued. "You can have a name that starts with an L, like.... Lucas!"
The man blinked at him, titling his head. "Lucas?"
That's when it hit Jungwoo that this man probably had selective amnesia, only keeping a handful of memories. He must not remember his real name and everything, maybe just his work name or assigned position.... whatever that meant.
He started to wonder what kind of job the man had; he was wearing clothing that looked quite familiar to Jungwoo, as if he had just seen them somewhere.
"I shall be known as Lucas, then, for the meantime," the guy - Lucas - said, grinning. "I'm sure my boss won't mind in the meantime."
Jungwoo climbed up the small stairs that led to the second floor of the barn, finding Lucas curled up in his corner, staring out the window (more like a hole in the wall). "I brought you something to eat," he said, sitting cross-legged across from Lucas. "I hope you like it."
Lucas turned his attention from the outside view through the hole in the wall to Jungwoo, giving him a small smile. "Oh, thanks," he said, though he didn't grab the plate. "I probably don't deserve it."
Jungwoo frowned. "Why do you say that?" he asked. "I already told you it's fine for you to stay here, my mother still hasn't even suspected anything."\
"No, not that," Lucas said. He looked outside again, sighing. "I think I did something bad, why else would I not have my memories?"
"I- Lucas, I really doubt that." Jungwoo held the plate outward. "You should eat something."
Lucas didn't respond immediately, taking one last view of outside before facing Jungwoo. "Thanks," he said softly. "I'm glad."
***
Mark went outside to the back of the house, sitting on the deck quietly.
He had to admit, he spent all of his fair time with Donghyuck, the youngest, and it was oddly comforting. He spoke a lot and was often full of energy, so during moments like these, where Mark was alone, it felt quiet and... unsettling.
Since he had perfect memory, he was able to replay many moments from the past few days, even to before him being controlled, but with his control panel ripped out of him, he couldn't remember the memories of him during that state.
Johnny always brought up that Mark had tried to kill Donghyuck, but why? Why would Mark do that? He has no memories of Donghyuck prior to the so-called assassination attempt, so what caused him to want to kill him?
As Jaehyun always mentioned, the five of them had been created for good causes, it just didn't make any sense.
Though there was one characteristic about Donghyuck, but it seemed like the latter didn't know, and Mark did not want to make any inferences.
At that moment, he could hear someone open the back door, causing Mark to turn around and see Kun standing there, the two making eye contact. "Oh, hey," Mark said, and then, against his better judgement, added, "...Model K."
Kun looked away, closing the door behind him. "What stopped you from mentioning it to the others?" he said in a low voice.
Mark shrugged. "There's just... a lot of mysteries and secrets being kept and I don't know the purpose of all of them," he said nonchalantly. "If you don't mind me asking... how did you do it?"
"Do... do what?" Kun asked, stepping closer to stand behind Mark. "Escape?"
Since they had better eyesight than the average human, they were able to see out in the fields where the two friends were, one of them setting a worm on his head. The two of them watched them, not making eye contact with each other anymore.
"To be fair, that was my first time experiencing consciousness," Kun explained. "I felt like...like, I was suffocating, and I just had to get out, so I guess that's why I'm a failed experiment or whatever."
Mark nodded in understanding. It had been a wild trip when he first woke up and stared at Jaehyun and Jaemin in confusion and panic. "I don't blame you," he said. "Jaehyun created us for good, though, so I feel like as long as you stay true to that, there's no need to call you a failure."
"I mean... that might be your opinion," Kun said. "But aren't we doing more harm then good by keeping all these secrets?"
"I- what do you mean?" Mark asked, raising an eye.
Kun gestured towards the inside of the house. "I get the feeling they don't know about Donghyuck having royal blood," he explained.
Oh. Yeah, about that... "I- I don't know why it's a secret in the first place," Mark muttered under his breath. "I think it depends on who created the secret, I guess. I wish I had the answer to that."
***
"You know there's a thing called talking to people, right?" Yuta pointed out to Jisung.
The latter, in question, was behind a tree, observing the two friends out in the field. Yangyang had just placed a worm on his head, and Chen Le was laughing at his antics, though they couldn't hear the exact words they were uttering to each other.
"Shut up," Jisung said, slumping onto the ground, sighing. His clothes were for casual outdoor wear, so it was fine to get a grass stain here or there. "You have no idea what it's like."
"How in the world do you think I managed to ask out the cute bakery assistant in the first place?" Yuta reminded him. "Who I left to come here and follow you out in the country only for you to stalk at people from afar-"
"I am not stalking," Jisung defended himself. "I am merely curious about him. Nothing else."
Yuta sighed, pointing at his head. "You have this, please use this your highness," he said.
Jisung rolled his eyes. "Oh, we're pulling the highness card, aren't we?" He got up from where he sat on the ground, dusting the dirt from his pants in order to make himself look more presentable. "That's the thing, I quite frankly don't believe I have one."
"I- you know what?" Yuta said. "You probably have a point. Now, you can use that empty head of yours to either invite him for a meal or to continue wallowing from here-"
Jisung widened his eyes at Yuta's suggestion. "In-invite him for a what?!"
Yuta glared at him. "I'm giving you etiquette lessons on how to court him, bitch, take it or leave-"
"TAKE IT! I TAKE IT, JUST- just, Yuta, please help me, I need answers to this whole courting thing."