The night before they had their arranged due date of their conditioning project results, Chan sneaked into the bus area near the conditioning building and prepared everything.
He prepared a lot of canned food just in case, to make it easier as they adapt, and inside a bag put some of the clothes that all of the other eight had given him in order for them to not have to wear the ugly white uniforms all the time.
When he finished, he carefully closed the back doors of the bus as to not make too much noise.
He left the bus area without looking back, rushing to his headquarters so he would not get caught.
—
Jisung stood there motionlessly. In front of the white doors he hated so much.
In order to not make it obvious they had something planned, Chan asked everyone to go to where they were supposed to meet separately and at different times. Jisung was the first one to go, so here he was now, standing in front of the elevator doors waiting for them to open.
With a ding sound, the white elevator doors opened with a hiss. After the white doors opened, the other metal gated doors opened.
Why so many doors for just a stupid elevator... Jisung thought with a huff, stepping inside. He pressed the button to whichever floor he had to go to and waited for the doors to close, which took a painfully long amount of time, or maybe that's how it seemed to Jisung.
The elevator ride took quite a while, since the elevator was old, so Jisung relaxed and closed his eyes.
When he closed them he saw something strange.
He was stepping out of the elevator, no white uniform to be seen, and ahead of him was a huge field filled with tall, purple flowers. He looked behind him at the elevator. It was just a box and it was orange, no buildings around it. On the top of the elevator it had the words with lights (that were turned off since there was daylight) saying "elevator," and on the panel to chose the floor to go to, there was the word "hell" as one of the options.
Jisung furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at the sight, but he looked ahead nonetheless. Looking at the field gave him a great urge to run, so without even thinking about it, and before he knew it, his legs were moving and he was running.
He turned around as he ran, and there, he saw the eight others, running as well. He smiled, no white uniforms, but rather darker coloured clothes. They looked good. But then he noticed something odd.
Felix and Woojin were blond, and Chan had silver hair.
What the hell is this? Jisung thought, but was cut off short when the elevator dinged again and he opened his eyes.
He stepped out of the elevator once the doors opened and stood there as he waited for the others. He was almost disappointed when he was met with the white walls outside of the elevator instead of the beautiful, wide, field of purple flowers.
Jisung just hoped the others wouldn't take too long. He didn't want any of them to get caught and ruin their chances to escape. He was putting all of his trust in Chan.
—
The rest of the group went up by pairs, in order to not make the others who had ascended earlier wait too long.
Chan was waiting with a fidgety Changbin on his side. Chan had never actually had a conversation with Changbin before, just one on one, so he didn't quite know how to interact.
"Are you ready?" Chan spoke softly, hoping for the atmosphere to not turn awkward. "Ready to get out of this hell?"
"Yes, as ready as ever." Changbin said, obviously nervous.
Chan put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it reassuringly, trying to calm the younger down. "We're going to make it, alright? I got this under control, just trust me, and let things flow. I won't let them do anything to you, alright? Any of you." He said, looking intensely in the younger's eyes.
"All of you are my responsibility now, and I will protect you, and I won't let anything happen to you, so trust me. Really do trust me."
Changbin nodded and the elevator dinged once more, the two stepping in the elevator and making their way up.
—
Minho glanced nervously at his partner besides him. The younger had a glare in his eyes that looked like he would kill anything or anyone that got in his way if they annoyed him. Minho didn't want to be one of those ones that got in his way or annoyed him.
Not knowing the younger well, or at all, he thought the fox-eyed male was a ticking time bomb.
Jeongin could feel Minho's nervousness and it had started to frustrate him. He didn't know the older well, and his cold appearance just set something off in Jeongin that he didn't quite like.
"Ugh, just cut it out already, will you?" The younger snapped, startling Minho and making the older look at him in the eyes. The younger glared at him. "Stop being so nervous, it's annoying!" He said with a huff.
Yep, I was right... Minho thought before apologising. "I'm sorry..." He said in a small voice. "I just really want to get out of here, but I'm scared about all of the things that could go wrong..." He said, rubbing his left hand out of habit.
Jeongin noticed too, and he noticed the older's beat up, scarred hand. He wanted to ask about it, but since he had an outburst a while ago he thought it wouldn't have been appropriate.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you," the younger said with a soft tone, catching Minho off-guard. He definitely wasn't expecting the younger to apologise. "I was rude, and you're my hyung, I shouldn't have talked to you like that."
"It's okay, I understand it can get quite annoying having a nervous person next to you or around you." The older said, the two of them facing each other and looking at each other now. The older flashed a smile, hoping to make things less tense.
Upon looking at the older's cute, cat-like smile, Jeongin couldn't help it but to smile slightly at the older too. (Just reading this made me smile as well)
Oh thank goodness that worked. Minho thought, and perhaps he wasn't as nervous as he was before.
Maybe I was wrong about him and his "cold" personality. The younger thought as they waited for the elevator. His smile is quite the opposite...
The elevator finally dinged and the two stepped in.
Jeongin spoke again. "Hyung, I really don't understand why we're doing this."
"We were born and raised to all be equal..." The young man sighed, looking seriously at his companion dead in the eye. "No individuality... Even though we've seen this our entire lives, something feels wrong about it, does it not?" he asked his companion who eyed him with slight confusion. "As if it was never meant to be like this... and there was another way of life." He continued and looked at his hands. "They even force everyone to write with the same hand, to be equal, but they don't realise that by doing that we can actually write with both, which technically does not make us equal. That is why, Jeongin, we are getting out of here. Because there is no point in living life like this..."
Jeongin looked at the older's hand, maybe now was a good time to ask what had happened. "Hyung, your hand... Wh-what happened?" He asked, unconsciously reaching out to grab the older's hand and inspecting it, rubbing the skin on the older's hand carefully as to not hurt it or cause pain, even though the pain had been long gone.
Minho was taken aback by the younger's sudden actions but he didn't mind, he was quite a touchy person anyways, so he didn't mind the physical contact.
Minho laughed a small, bitter laugh just thinking about what had happened.
"I'm left handed." Minho started by saying that.
Jeongin's eyes widened. "You mean you originally wrote with your left?!" The younger questioned and Minho nodded. "I've never met one of those before!" The older chuckled at the younger's excitement and "one of those" statement. "But then again... I don't really talk to people so..." Jeongin said with a small voice. Minho made sure to make a mental note to ask the younger about it later, hoping the younger would open up.
"Maybe you have, you just never noticed because the system forces us to use our right hand." Minho said.
"So you're ambidextrous then?" Jeongin asked.
"Wow, I'm kind of shocked you know the term... Not many do." Jeongin just nodded, not quite sure what to say.
"I never knew the system forced left-handed people to write with their right..." Jeongin said, realising there were many things he wasn't aware of that the system did. They never mattered to him, so why bother? He would think.
"Yeah, which is why this," Minho said, wriggling his fingers of his left hand to point out he was talking about his left hand. "Is the way it is. Y'know, sometimes as reflex I grab things with my left-hand even though I can use both, so quite some years back I accidentally wrote notes with my left, and my teacher got mad. I accidentally did it again and my teacher got mad again, so she got an official to hit my hand so I would just use my right."
"That's terrible..." Jeongin said in a small voice. "Sometimes I grab stuff with my left hand too! It comes naturally. But I can only write with my right."
Minho chuckled. Despite the kid's usual bitter attitude, he was quite sweet and cute, the older noticed. "Maybe I should learn to use both too!" He said, an excited glint in his eyes.
The older just smiled at him. "You go ahead and do that if you want. Once we're out of here you can do whatever you wish." He said and ruffled the younger's dark brown, almost black hair.
"Enough talk about me. If you don't mind telling me, why are you like this?" Minho asked and Jeongin stared at him confusedly. "Why do you 'hate' people?" He said, doing air quotes on the word "hate."
"Oh..." The younger scratched the back of his neck. "Well... I have two brothers, one older one younger, and let's just say we never really got along. Same thing with my parents. They always seemed to... Hate me... When they seemed to adore my older and younger brothers. I was always the disappointment in their eyes. My brothers, well, my older brother knew about this so he always pointed it out and made me feel bad. People at school somehow knew about it, and they always teased me and made fun of me. I never really had any friends, and the few ones I did were all fake. So I kinda just got annoyed of people and I don't try anymore." The younger said with a sigh.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Minho said and hugged the younger.
Jeongin hadn't realised he really needed a hug, or good human interaction until now. Minho thought the younger would push him away, since they still didn't know each other too well, but instead, Jeongin hugged him back tightly. Tears threatened to fall, but Jeongin tried to hold them in, so he buried his head on the older's shoulder. Minho just rubbed Jeongin's back reassuringly. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." Minho said once more.
"Don't be. It's not your fault it happened." Jeongin said with a sigh.
Minho grabbed the younger's shoulder and pushed him lightly so they were looking eye to eye. "Look, I'm pretty sure the other guys, specially Chan, are not like that. And if they ever try to do something to you I'm pretty sure Chan won't let them, and even if Chan isn't around, I won't let them, okay? So give it a chance and try interacting with them."
"Okay." Jeongin said, nodding his head.
"I'm sorry about being rude earlier Hyung." He said once more.
"Meh, water under the bridge kiddo, it was really nothing." Minho said smiling, and finally, the elevator finally arrived in their destination.
—
All nine had gathered now, and they stood in front of the doors that would lead them to the buses.
Chan looked at them before nodding once and pushing the doors open. "Run!" He yelled as they stepped outside towards the bus Chan had prepared. Everyone followed Chan.
Jeongin was never one to do much physical activity. Despite the system being against it, he had always been more of a singer. So now as they ran, Jeingin cursed himself internally for not being very active because his running was quite slow. Either he was slow, or the others were too fast, or maybe both.
Crap, I can't fall behind. What if they catch me and I ruin everything for them? Jeongin thought, hoping that wouldn't happen.
Minho on the other hand, didn't see Jeongin anywhere. Afraid the younger had been caught, he turned around to see Jeongin running as fast as he could, but it was still obviously not fast enough.
The older ran to where the younger was and held his hand, helping him catch up with the others.
The doors of the bus opened and they quickly closed them once the nine were in. Chan immediately headed to the driver's seat and turned on the bus with the keys that had already been left there.
All nine relaxed now that they were in, just one more thing to do and they'd be free. They changed out of their uncomfortable white uniforms and into more comfortable clothes.
Minho tended Jeongin, who was having trouble breathing and looked like he could pass out any minute.
"Jeongin, Jeongin. Look at me and do as I say." The older said, cupping his head carefully so he would be looking at the older. "Try to even out your breaths. Breathe in... And now out. In... And out." The older said and Jeongin tried to follow as best as he could until his breathing was back to normal.
The younger was pale, sweaty, and looked exhausted, so Minho placed him on one of the seats and told the younger to rest once they had changed out of the uniforms.
Everyone except Jeongin was looking out the window seeing everything go dark but the lights of the bus illuminated their surroundings lightly.
Then, it hit. Literally. The bus his the barrier and shards of glass went flying everywhere. Everyone held on to their seats upon impact but the bus was pretty undamaged and worked perfectly fine.
"Where are we going?" Woojin asked.
"I have no idea," Chan said looking at the very unfamiliar surroundings around them. "Just anywhere and as far away from the system as the bus's gas can last." Everyone nodded and took a seat on the bus.
Minho was sitting on one of the seats by himself while the others either sat together, or sat by themselves.
Seungmin and Hyunjin sat together, Seungmin sitting by the window, and a sleepy Hyunjin resting his head on his best friend's shoulder.
After a while, Jeongin woke up feeling much better than before. He saw Minho looking out, it was dark since it was night time, you could hear a few whispers here and there from the other kids.
"Hey hyung." Jeongin whispered and tapped the older's shoulder. Minho snapped his head at the direction it came from and smiled at the younger, schooling over so the two could sit together. Jeongin took a seat and rested his head on the older's shoulder. "Is this okay hyung?" He asked and Minho nodded, patting his head lightly.
After some silence between the two, Jeingin spoke again. "Thank you hyung... For everything." He spoke softly and lowly.
"It's no biggie. Anytime kiddo." He said and ruffled the younger's hair. "We should sleep now." Minho said and rested his head on top of Jeongin's, the younger just nodding in return.
Jeongin sang a melody lowly, and before everyone knew it, the bus was completely quiet except for Jeongin's singing. Soon, everyone was asleep.
—
The System was chaotic. Nobody had seen the nine leave, but upon seeing the barrier broken, everything turned chaotic.
"There has been a breach!" Officials kept yelling and running around to different stations.
The official who had gone over Minho's case smiled triumphantly. I'm glad you could get out of here. She thought and walked to her assigned stations.
"Bang Chan, Kim Woojin, Lee Minho, Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin, Han Jisung, Lee Yongbok, Kim Seungmin, and Yang Jeongin have been reported missing from the conditioning buildings!" An official yelled through their talker, and soon, a lot of the officials around the area knew about it and kept spreading the message.
They sent searching parties to look for them and a few squadrons even crossed the barrier that had been broken, but upon not finding anything, they returned, afraid of what was outside the barrier.
Annoyed at the disappearance, but afraid of any more rebellions, the system did a public punishment of 9 of the other kids who had gone to their conditioning claiming it was the 9 that escaped who they had successfully caught, which was an obvious lie, but people didn't know, so they didn't question it.
They re-sealed the barrier and made it harder for people to penetrate it.
"Shouldn't we keep looking for them?" An official questioned.
"Nah," the chief of the officials spat. "They're kids who know nothing of survival, they will probably die anyway, serves them right."
The others nodded and the case was closed, gladly letting the kids be.
—
They started a fire, not only for light, but also for warmth, even though it wasn't too cold.
Hyunjin and Seungmin huddled close together at night. Seungmin seeming happy and excited to finally have escaped from the system's and his parents' oppression. He was lightly bouncing around while sitting as Hyunjin sat still and quietly, chin resting on his knees. After a while, Seungmin noticed Hyunjin's behaviour and questioned him about it.
Living outside of the system was going to be a challenge, but they would get through it together.
It was the nine of them together, or none...
3109 words
What I meant with Jeongin sometimes grabbing things with his left hand is that I have noticed that most of the time when he sings he holds the mic with his left hand.
Just a little fun fact if you haven't noticed (;
AWWW as I was revising and going back to check for which words I had to italicise I was listening to Mixtape #2 ((":
Also I finally developed more of Jeongin's background yay!! I had kind of forgotten about him as I wrote )): so this was a good opportunity to finally talk more about him and the way he was.