Seven Months Ago
You slowly made your way along the dark road, your only source of light a mixture between the few dim street lamps and the moon above your head. Since it was so late, it seemed as though the streets were totally lifeless, everyone having retreated into the safety of their homes to hide from the unknown dangers that lurk in the darkness.
You moved quickly, your thoughts straying every once in a while, but mainly focusing on finding the person you were looking for. You remembered how Minhyuk had told you he was going to be gone for a bit, leaving you alone in the house. You hadn't thought anything of it since it became a normal thing over the past few months: him going out on his own without you. You figured it was for personal reasons or so that he could have some time to himself. Either way, you grew more and more curious over those few months, but avoided nosing around in his business.
This time was different. It wasn't like Minhyuk to stay out past dark, but he didn't come back yet and you became extremely worried, eventually deciding to search for him yourself. Now, you were rushing across each street, scanning everything in your field of vision.
Your footsteps were loud, the soles of your shoes grinding against the hard gravel. A few times, you had even called out his name, but you were met with nothing except the silent air. It was a miracle that no one else heard you as well.
After moving around for the past hour all the while hoping desperately that you would find something, you had just about given up. You leaned against the side of a random building, its features hidden by the black night, and you rested with your hands on your knees, trying to catch your breath. It took you a good few minutes before your ragged breathing blended back into the quiet atmosphere surrounding you.
You had just decided to head back to your house, praying inwardly for Minhyuk to be there when you returned, when you heard a noise. You froze immediately, straining your ears to try and catch anything else. You didn't wait long before you managed to hear something: a hysterical laugh in the distance followed by the sounds of a few others. You identified that the voices were male, but not just any...
Your eyes widened as you recognized those voices. Without hesitation, you quickly guessed which direction the noises were coming from and took off, not caring anymore about making an effort to keep from waking the dead town. As you ran along past a couple more alleyways and blocks, a smile of relief had crept onto your facial features and you let out a small chuckle. You were going to find him and bring him back so you could finally get a good night's rest.
It only was a few more moments before you easily reached the source, but as you slowed to a stop, your smile faded into a frown when you laid eyes on the building the voices were protruding from. Why would they be in a green house? What business could they possibly have in there?
You realized that this wouldn't seem suspicious to anyone except you. After all, Minhyuk had deliberately excluded you from joining him, therefore giving you a perfectly valid explanation as to why you were genuinely confused at this sudden discovery.
No doubt you were curious to know about what he was hiding. And judging by the multiple voices that could be heard, he wasn't the only one in on this secret. You felt slightly betrayed that he didn't let you know about this and was trying to hide it from you. You took a cautious step forward towards the door that had been left wide open. A bright, flickering light shone through the open doorway, illuminating the ground a few feet outside the door.
You moved quietly so that you wouldn't be discovered. When you reached the door, you slowly and carefully peeked around the corner, almost immediately letting out a short gasp.
All seven of the boys were adorned in black clothes which stood out immensely against their pale skin and allowed the colorful paint that was lathered across their skin to contrast as well. The paint practically glowed due to the light bouncing off of it from the small fire they were huddled around. A mixture of smoke and steam shrouded them, lazily hovering in the air and coiling around the boys' heads and limbs.
As soon as you happened to breathe in just a small bit of the thick fumes, your vision began to blur and you felt dizzy. You instinctively covered your mouth in disgust and gagged into your hand, making a face. Another bout of hysterical laughter and shouting could be heard and you squinted through the haze to see the boys clapping each other on the backs. Then they reached up to eagerly grab something a figure standing at the head of the group was dangling precariously overhead. A figure that you recognized as Jooheon.
He grinned widely, almost maniacally, and slowly passed the object to the person sitting to the right of him. Wonho. The object was apparently a bowl or a cup since Wonho lifted it to his smirking lips and tilted his head back to drink from it. You watched with wide eyes as he pulled it away and passed it to the next person, Shownu. However, once the metal dish left his hands, Wonho's head jerked violently to the side and a menacing expression flashed across his facial features.
As the bowl got passed around to the other members in the group, Jooheon waved his arms wildly above their heads and chanted loudly, as if he were casting a spell on them. After each person took a drink from the strange bowl, you noticed that they would do something unnatural. Shownu threw his head back, a wide smile across his face and Minhyuk, whom you recognized because of his light blonde hair, aggressively shook his head for no reason.
So much more was happening, but everything about the scene before your eyes overwhelmed you to the point where you hadn't even realized that you had taken a few steps further into the greenhouse. In a rush of panic, you instinctively dropped your hand away from your mouth and turned around to leave. Because you had completely forgotten about the sickly fumes surrounding you, your brain immediately turned fuzzy and your vision clouded over, causing you to stumble on your way to the door.
Quickly, you covered your mouth again to block out the smoke and you managed to safely make your way outside, but the focused concentration to do it had drained you. You started coughing harshly when your lungs finally received clean air and you practically collapsed into the side of the greenhouse, having to sit because your legs felt so weak.
The stuff they were drinking, the concoction, was obviously a drug of some sort. Their reactions after they drank were proof enough. Not to mention the smoke from the fire was bad too, possibly a hallucinogen. But the question was: how? What did they use?
The boys definitely weren't acting like themselves. They were acting careless, as if they didn't know what was happening around them and instead giving in to the chance of being able to experience this euphoria even if it doesn't last forever. Is this really their plan? To escape our hardships by drugging themselves? You shook your head. They know that their reveries won't last and they'll only be disappointed again once they're back to normal. Why do they have to do this to themselves?
You peeked around the corner while making sure to keep yourself from inhaling the smoke. You stared hard, trying to see the shapes of plants inside the building and it wasn't long before a specific flower immediately caught your eye. In fact, it was the only type of plant growing in there, overflowing until all the surfaces it covered were veiled by a thick blanket of the mysterious herb. That must be it.
They obviously prepared the flower a certain way to create drug-inducing effects and then drank their strange potion. They also must've thrown some of the herb into the fire to burn, thus releasing even more of its desired effects.
You were so deep into your thoughts that you didn't notice the sudden drop in noise at first, the sounds of the boys' laughter having faded to soft chatter. You suddenly snapped to attention, trying to hear their conversation.
"We should go back," came Wonho's voice, raspy and worn, but clear enough for you to understand him. Murmurs of agreement followed his words as well as the shuffling of feet, causing you to panic and shoot up from your spot outside the door. You managed to dive behind a couple of empty crates just as the footsteps reached the doorway and crunched against the gravel street, the sound echoing loudly off the surrounding buildings.
You peaked over the top to see Jooheon and Minhyuk carefully holding on to Hyungwon since he was struggling to walk by himself, and Shownu leading them away as they disappeared into the dark. That means only Wonho, Kihyun, and Changkyun are left. Maybe they'll tell me what's going on.
You quietly stood up and made your way to the entrance of the greenhouse one more time, stopping in the middle of the doorway and staring at the remaining boys in complete silence. They were currently cleaning up the mess the seven of them had made. Kihyun was busy putting out the fire, Changkyun was rubbing some excess paint off the floor, and Wonho was gathering together an assortment of metal dishes and equipment, probably used for the preparation of their drug.
Wonho stood up first and turned around to stash the objects in his arms away somewhere, but as soon as his eyes rested on you, he froze. His eyes grew wide, a mixture of surprise and confusion flashing across his features, before a defending crash sounded as he dropped everything.
"What are you doing here?" He rasped, his voice completely hoarse. Changkyun and Kihyun swiveled around to see who Wonho was talking to.
"I could ask you the same question," you replied, your voice cold.
"We were... uh..." he stuttered, frantically searching his brain for an excuse that would work in his favor. "...planting stuff." Murmurs escaped from the two boys behind him as they hastily agreed with his choice of words, but Wonho instantly regretted his decision to lie.
You narrowed your eyes. "Is that what Minhyuk wanted you to say to keep me from seeing your little cult?" You spat bitterly. "To keep me from seeing you all high and drunk off this drug you've been gorging yourselves on? Don't lie to me."
Wonho flinched at the venom in your voice, and he seemed to shrink a bit, shame clear on his face upon realizing that you knew he was lying. "So you saw us?" He whispered.
You scowled, and gestured to the colors spattered across his clothes. "It's hard to miss the bright paint."
He hung his head, his blonde bangs covering up his eyes. Changkyun let out a deep breath that he had been holding in and started to continue his cleaning. Kihyun stood up, his almond brown eyes trained on you. "You're not going to tell anyone are you?"
You snorted. "Who am I going to tell? I may be pissed by what I had to find out for myself, but you're still my friends."
A loud scoff escaped Changkyun's throat and he slowly rose from the floor as well, but with a dark look on his face that unnerved you. He wobbled slightly, proving that he must still be feeling addled. It didn't surprise you since he was the youngest in the group after yourself. His body probably isn't strong enough to cope as well as the others'.
"Why wouldn't you tell?" He sneered. "It's a harsh world out there. People would do anything to gain favor with those military prats, wouldn't they? So why wouldn't you?"
A hurt expression passed over your face for a moment and you took a step back. Then your anger started boiling again and you glowered at him. "I would never do that and you know it! My point is that you all deliberately excluded me from what you were doing and, worse yet, lied straight to my face! You don't have any right being mad at me!"
"I don't?" He returned your cold glare with his own. "You were the one who spied and eavesdropped on us," he pointed out. "You think that isn't a wrong in itself? You think you're completely innocent? Why were you even walking around alone at night? Were you stalking us?"
You were fuming at his accusation. "I was out looking for Minhyuk because I was worried, not because I was stalking you guys!"
"And you think the streets are safe at night? Where anyone could be lurking to attack?"
"No one was going to hurt me-"
"Really? What about us?" He started sauntering dangerously close to you, forcing you to take a few steps backwards as the color drained from your face. "I'm still heavily intoxicated from the drug and could do anything I want to you because I'm thinking irrationally. Hell, I won't even remember any of this tomorrow-"
"That's enough," Wonho growled at him, holding out his arm and successfully blocking Changkyun from coming any closer. He just sent a sarcastic smirk your way and shrugged before turning back around, muttering "only trying to prove a point".
Deciding to ignore Changkyun until he was acting normal again, you faced Wonho once more while your anger simmered down into hurt. "Why?" You demanded. "Why is this place so important? Why do you all feel the need to be doing any of this?"
He smiled despite wanting to escape your hard stare. He didn't want to get into trouble with the others for explaining too much, but he also felt that you deserved the truth after going through the past few months constantly being lied to.
"Hyungwon found the seeds for this herb in his father's storage," he explained, gesturing to the bright blue flowers. "Apparently, it has exceptional healing abilities and we've been developing it into an advanced medicine. We also discovered that it could also be used as a drug and kind of got carried away with that part, but overall our main goal has remained the same: to finalize this medicine. It's important to us. We were going to tell you, but once we started using it as a drug, we didn't want to get you involved in that kind of thing."
Your curiosity replaced your hurt. "I have to admit, it's impressive that you're all dedicating so much time and effort into inventing something big like a medicine. I didn't know you guys were into that kind of stuff."
"Thanks!" Kihyun jumped in, beaming proudly. "Hyungwon has learned a lot from his dad even though he won't admit it. But he's taught us a lot and Minhyuk's been planning on-"
"Shut up," Changkyun hissed, cutting Kihyun off before he could accidentally reveal anything else.
"I think that now's a good time to bring you home," Wonho interrupted almost instantly, silently agreeing that Kihyun had said too much. You opened your mouth to object, but he spoke before you could get another word out. "Besides, Minhyuk is probably worried that you're not home. You went out to look for him right? What if he goes out to look for you since you're gone?"
You shot him an annoyed glare that let him know he proved a valid point before spinning around to march out the door, leaving the three of them inside to finish cleaning. "Wait!" Wonho called, catching up and placing a gentle hand on your shoulder. "I'll walk you home."
"Fine," you huffed, shrugging his hand away in annoyance and kept walking forward without sparing him a second look. The two of you walked in silence for the first few minutes, but just as you rounded the street corner, Wonho stopped you. Since it was pitch black outside and your vision hadn't adjusted yet, you couldn't see his face properly.
"Please don't let them know that I told you everything," he requested softly. "They'll get upset at me. If anything, just say that you found us in the greenhouse. Okay?"
You shook your head in disbelief and then realized that he couldn't see your reaction.
"Well I definitely won't say you told me 'everything' since I know that you didn't," you retorted. You sensed him tense up at your tone. You felt slightly guilty and you calmed yourself before continuing softly. "I care about you guys. I want you all to be safe even though I understand I'm asking for a lot. But if you feel I shouldn't know something because of how I'll react to it then I'm not going to force you to tell me."
Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around your waist and you stiffened as you were pulled into an affectionate hug. You were hesitant to hug back at first, but you slowly raised your arms to give him a soft squeeze. He tightened his hold on you and you felt him bury his face into your shoulder.
"Thank you," he tenderly breathed into your shoulder and a tiny, caring smile tugged on the corner of your lips. "Please don't ever assume we're doing this to hurt you. No matter what you may think, we're all in for each other. And that includes you."