7th March
2018
The previous day, Jongho finally managed to talk it out with Yunho and calm him down. Although Jongho can tell that Yunho doesn't trust him, he's glad the other talks calmly to him now. It's one small step in the right direction.
And even today, although Jongho would like nothing more than to get back into the lab or the library, he finds himself standing in front of Yunho's door again. He must get this job done first.
"Hey Yunho? It's just me. Can I come in?" Jongho sweetly calls out after knocking on the door. As soon as he says this, he gets a chill down his spine at the feeling of peering eyes. He turns his head down the hallway and freezes when he sees San standing there with widened eyes. "I didn't know you could sound so cute," he giggles, earning himself a silent death glare from Jongho.
The other scientist scurries away while chuckling to himself, and Jongho shakes his head. He's faced enough humiliation for a lifetime in these past two days.
"You can come in," he hears faintly from inside the room shortly after.
He confidently unlocks and opens the door but then flinches a little at the sight of Yunho sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. After closing the door behind him, he joins Yunho on the floor and mentally prepares himself to force out more soft words.
"What's up? Is there anything I can do for you?" Jongho fakely worries. "I don't understand why my life got ruined so fast. I was supposed to meet my mother for dinner that night...I need to go back and tell her that I'm okay," Yunho sobs.
Jongho paints a frown onto his face and pulls Yunho in for a hug. "You'll see her soon, I'll make sure of it. I promise I won't rest easy until I see a genuine smile on your face again," Jongho soothes. To his dismay, Yunho finally looks up with teary anger in his eyes.
"You think I'll fall for such a clichéd trick? You'll never earn my trust, I hope all of you burn in hell."
This statement catches Jongho off guard for a moment and he pulls away and goes speechless. Should he argue back, or would that only add fuel to the fire? "But I do feel-"
"I know I'm going to be used as a test subject for some experiment."
Once again, Jongho is stunned. He has a strong suspicion that Hongjoong is the one who let it slip while he was capturing Yunho, and he feels a little frustrated by it at the moment.
The two of them sit in a tense silence for a few moments as Jongho tries to gather his thoughts. He can feel the rage and sorrow seething off Yunho in front of him.
At last, he can only muster one last desparate attempt to calm Yunho. "Want to come with me to get some fresh air?" he suggests. Yunho looks like he's considering this offer deeply, probably wondering if it's worth it to go anywhere with his captor that wants to use him in such a horrible way. But he decides that ultimately, he hasn't gotten fresh air in days and it might help quell his mental anguish temporarily.
Jongho catches a subtle nod from Yunho as he stands up. Jongho joins him and forces a tight smile as the other aggressively wipes his tears. He doesn't think there's any more point in trying to fool Yunho, but he's going to keep the act up anyway. Dropping it after the confrontation wouldn't do him or the group any good after all.
According to Hongjoong's schedule, Jongho is supposed to show Yunho around the garden and library today, but now the atmosphere has gotten increasingly awkward. As tempted as Jongho was to leave Yunho in his room, he goes ahead with the schedule anyway.
The two silently stroll through the hallway and they go up the stairs. Jongho tenses when he notices Yunho's eyes glued to the front entrance of the mansion, but relaxes again when they return to the top of the stairs with no issues.
They reach the spiral staircase leading to the garden and descend them, though there's not much of a view to behold.
"It's a bit empty right now because we haven't finished planning, but this is the garden. We can stay here for as long as you'd like," Jongho smiles. It goes unnoticed by Yunho as the taller walks past Jongho, eyes wandering the small tufts of bright grass beneath them.
He takes a deep breath and sits down on the grass, cherishing the cold and refreshing blades brushing off his ankles. Jongho watches him and observes the gloom decorating all his facial features.
Although he should feel guilty at this point, for some reason he feels completely neutral.
March 8th
2018
"You can't lure him? Then brute force is the answer."
Seonghwa's words circle Jongho's mind as he stands in front of Yunho's room once again. One hand is formed into a fist, ready to knock. The other hand is behind his back, coated in sweat and gripping a syringe. Jongho trusts his strength, but he still can't help but feel a little nervous. This will be his first time subduing someone by himself.
Either the other members were genuinely too busy to help out, or they simply weren't bothered.
At last, Jongho knocks.
Unsurprisingly, Yunho opens the door hastily. This is his usual lunch time after all, so he'd answer the door no matter how much he hates Jongho. The scientist decides to not take it to heart, as Yunho is going to hate Jongho ten times more after he does what he's about to do now.
He forces a warm smile and steps into the room. "How are you feeling?" Jongho can tell that he's fooling no one right now as Yunho completely ignores Jongho's question and stares with an annoyed expression. With a sigh, Jongho glances around the room in hopes of finding a distraction for Yunho. He spots a small pile of clothes in the corner of the room and decides to give it a shot.
"Well, I'm a man of my word and I'm done here. Go grab your clothes and let's get out. I'm tired of dealing with you and I'm sure you're tired of me too," Jongho orders, smile quickly dropping and voice turning ice cold. His tactic works for a second when Yunho looks a little startled. "What's up with you?" is all he asks, not moving a bit.
"I've had enough of your annoying and ungrateful self, just grab the clothes and get this done and over with!" he shouts. He's never shown this much emotion in years and feels a little annoyed that he needs to do this just to get the test subject to the basement.
Yunho rolls his eyes but finally complies. Jongho quietly follows Yunho to the pile of clothes, and in the few seconds that he's crouched down, Jongho suddenly jabs the syringe into the back of Yunho's neck.
"You-" he screams, but Jongho continues to inject all of the amber coloured liquid into the taller man. Yunho's flailing arms quickly go limp and his legs instantly fold, allowing the man to drop onto the ground.
"I was right to not trust you," he pants while looking around in a daze. It seems that he doesn't even have the energy to talk loudly anymore either. Jongho smirks at this and tosses the empty syringe to the side.
"And what did you get from that?" Jongho chuckles, taking his sweet time to stretch his arms in front of Yunho. "A one-way ticket to my lab."
Jongho can't stop smiling as he grabs Yunho's limp arms and starts dragging him out of the room, the series of curses coming from Yunho acting like music to his ears. As he's pulling Yunho through the hallways, he finally spots his next victim.
"San! Help me bring this heavy chunk of flesh to the basement," he shouts down the hallway. San jumps in his spot at the other end of the hallway and bashfully turns to Jongho. He's been trying his best to avoid Jongho all day, not wanting to take any part in carrying a body down all those stairs. It seems like he's failed.
"Coming..." he calls back dejectedly. Now Jongho carries the arms, while San carries the legs. "This guy seems to be getting creative with his curses," San notes as they walk a bit. Jongho smiles. "This is barely scratching the surface. Just wait until I tell you the things he's said in the past two days."
After a great struggle trying to transport Yunho from the ground floor to the basement, they finally reach the room with the cage. "You get him into the cage, I'll go to tell Hongjoong the good news," Jongho declares. "Wait no, you should-" San begins to complain, but Jongho has already sprinted out the room.
San sighs out of defeat and continues to drag Yunho across the concrete floor while humming his favourite song.
"Human trafficking..." Yunho mumbles to himself. San opens the door to the cage and violently shoves the man into it before locking the door. "This is not human trafficking, don't disrespect us scientists like that," San whines dramatically.
"Then what is this place? What will you do to me?" Yunho wonders with a shaky voice. San hesitates for a moment and shrugs again. "I guess you'll find out yourself if the serum ends up working!"
Jongho storms into the room shortly after. "Hongjoong said that we should get the first tests done for now. Let's go prepare the test room," Jongho announces. San nods gleefully and waves Yunho goodbye. "I'll see you again when you're tied up to a bed!" he cheers before running out the room with Jongho, leaving Yunho in a highly concerned state.
A few moments later, the door to the room opens again but this time someone else walks in.
"How's your shoulder?" Yeosang asks gently. His heart clenches when Yunho only stares back silently with a look of horror on his face. "Look, I couldn't say anything to you earlier, okay? My job was and still is to heal you. So how is the shoulder?" Yeosang tries again.
"I'm sick of all you monsters pretending to be good guys to me," Yunho weakly croaks. Although he was trying his best to hide all his fear and vulnerability, he reaches his limit as a warm flow of tears pour over his cheeks.
Yeosang feels a little stab of guilt in his chest and he kneels down in front of the cage. "I'm sorry, I won't pretend to be the good guy. But I mean it when I say that if you need anything, you can ask me and I'll bring it for you. I want you to recover fully and to prevent you from getting sick," he offers.
Yunho lifts his eyes to meet Yeosang's and shakes his head. "You're a part of the problem, there's no way you can make me believe that you care about my wellbeing," he harshly argues back. Yeosang sits down and hangs his head out of shame. While Yunho is right, he's also partially wrong.
Yeosang knows that he's actively contributing to Hongjoong's plans. But at the same time, he also wants Yunho to feel comfortable at the very least while he can. He feels conflicted and frowns.
"Call for me if you need anything," is all he says one last time before standing up and exiting the room with an odd pressure on his chest.
As soon as he leaves the room, he nearly leaps out of his skin when he nearly runs into Hongjoong, who was standing right outside the door. "H-Hongjoong," he stutters.
"Try not to get attached to any of the test subjects, it'll only hurt you more," is all Hongjoong states. Yeosang gulps, realising that Hongjoong heard everything.
"I'll try," Yeosang reassures. Hongjoong smiles and places a hand on Yeosang's shoulder.
"People will come and people will go. Forget about the test subjects and think about the bigger picture."
A/N
Double update because I won't even be home by Monday :O I'm going to see Ateez in London on Sunday :D