Five Months Later

“No!” Yoochun groans, running his hand through his hair as the others look on. Holding the phone close to his ear, “What do you mean the bear has been fed?” He asks, eyes wide. Standing up, Eunhyuk and Junsu stare in surprise. This was not good. “What do you mean the ranger is feeding him daily?!”Yoochun nearly shrieks, eyes horrified. “What has he been feeding him?” Jaejoong looks at Leeteuk and Sungmin as they pace back and forth, bags under their eyes. “You don’t know?” He asks sitting down on the couch, unable to comprehend what he was hearing. “This bear cannot go in the woods! There should be no ranger after him, feeding him! He likes the circus. He wants to stay in the circus. He needs to stay at the circus,” Yoochun says, as the others are begin muttering amongst one another, worry painting all of their faces. “You made sure he was chipped, right?” He asks after a moment. “So as long as his collar is on him, we can track him? Okay, good. We’ll try to keep it on,” Yoochun nods. “Have you been able to find out anything about this ranger?” Sigh, Yoochun shakes his head. “Fine, yeah, let us know if you.”

“Hyung?” Ryeowook asks, concerned.

“Kyuhyun has been given…gifts,” Yoochun sighs, “Daily, by the someone we can’t identify. We don’t know what kind of gifts, but we just know this person has been giving him things for the past three months.”

“What?!” Heechul demands, “How do they know that he’s giving him gifts, but not know what they are?!”

“Apparently,” Yoochun groans “He’s been giving it to fans to give to Kyuhyun,”

“Dammit!” Kangin shouts, hitting the table.

“Kangin-ah,” Leeteuk whispers, patting his shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay,”

“How is any of this going to be okay?” Kangin yells, “Kyuhyun’s fainted twice from exhaustion while at his schedules, he can’t sleep at the dorms so he can’t rest. We have to nearly force feed him all of his meals, and we can’t get in contact with his family! Oh! By the way, in case you forgot, there’s some guy on the following for Kyuhyun, for a reason we still don’t know, yet we can’t tell the police because then we’d have to explain that we hacked the FBI’s database to unlock a file on our magnae. We’ve risked our careers and our lives in an attempt to save Kyuhyun from something he refuses to acknowledge, let alone talk about!”

“I know it’s a bad situation,” Shindong says calmly, “But we’ve made progress,” Donghae nods.

“With Jaejoong Hyung’s help, we were able to dig through Kyuhyun’s family’s history,” Donghae says.

“And how does digging through Mr. and Mrs. Cho’s trash help us?” Kangin asks, wary.

“Well,” Eunhyuk says, pulling out some paperwork, “We all assumed that Kyuhyun came from a wealthy family,” Everyone nods, “But actually,” Eunhyuk looks around excitedly at the others. “That doesn’t make sense. Kyuhyun, as we all know, is a frugal and thrifty boy. Where would he learn these skills? Well, according to the financial records of Kyuhyun’s parents, his family was actually lower-middle class until he was about twelve. His parents, though they were in charge of administration at schools, were paying for his uncle’s hospital bills in Busan. Even though he died when Kyuhyun was ten, the bills still kept coming in. Then, in October of 2000 there was a sudden deposit of eight million dollars,”

“Eight million?” Yunho sputtered, his accent coming out. “How? From where?”

“We aren’t sure,” Eunhyuk sighs. “But it seems like they paid off the debt, and invested in their businesses and their kids after that. With the hospital money paid off, and the remainder of the eight million, they were able to save a lot of money from their businesses. They moved houses, paid for intense tutoring for both Ara and Kyuhyun, sent their daughter abroad for summers in Europe, had college trusts for each of the kids, that kinda thing,”

“Wait,” Changmin, who was silent through everything, finally decided to speak, “Kyuhyun told me something about that,”

“What?” Leeteuk asks, hands on hips, “What did he say?” He demands.

“I-I’m trying to remember, it’s kinda fuzzy.”

“Changmin,” Yunho says, voice stern. “Can you please contribute something?” He asks, provoking Changmin.

Since they found out about a month ago that they were being followed and having their phone conversations listened to by government agents, the boys had been more on edge about everything and decided to start covering their tracks. They started talking in code when discussing things about Kyuhyun, referring to him as a bear at the circus. The boys even endorsed a (animal friendly) circus so no one would suspect anything. However, the pressure has taken a toll on everyone. The boys were tired, forgetful, and sensitive right now.

“I’m trying!” Changmin shouts angrily. “I’m doing my best!” He says desperately, “You think I don’t want to help Kyuhyun? I’ve been glued to this laptop, learning codes and hacking operations, breaking federal laws, risking everything! I’m risking you guys!” He yells once more, causing a very tense situation in the cramped old apartment they’ve rented, after they found a agent listening in on their conversations at the dorm. Changmin's words stillwere in the air, as the othes were forced to watch the situation, due to the lack of space. Jaejoong gives Yunho a quick glare, letting him know that he was wrong to say that to the magnae.

“Okay, okay,” Jaejoong says, giving the hurt Changmin a hug, trying to comfort him. “Let’s all take a deep breath and calm down,” Letting go of Changmin, Jaejoong proceeds to take a couple of deep breaths. Everyone follows Jaejoong example. It releases some of the tension, and Changmin feels better. “Now, why don’t you tell us what you remember?” Jaejoong asks softly.

“Well,” Changmin closes his eyes, thinking back to a night long ago. “We were drinking one night, and started talking about our families. We were talking about what it was like when we were young, and I told him how we struggled to find housing at one time. Kyuhyun nodded and said to that he understood, because that happened to him once too. I didn’t believe him, so he told me that his parents were barely making ends meet when he was a kid, but then something changed when he was twelve. Was it twelve? Anyway, he didn’t say what, or how, but he said that his parents came into a lot of money. So they paid off all their debt and started to invest more in his and his sister’s education. He said he ended up feeling trapped because of the money, so when he was accepted to college, he refused to take his father’s money and use it for tuition. He said that he won multiple scholarships because of his grades and through singing competitions.”

“Did he say where he got the money?” Yunho asks, as Changmin shakes his head.

“N-No,” Changmin says, trying to sort through all the fuzzy memories from that night. “But he said he hated that money, how it was not to be trusted.”

“He hated it?” Sungmin asks, tilting his head. “Wait,” Sungmin says, looking through all the paperwork. “When did they receive that money?”

“October of 2000,” Eunhyuk says, reading off the paper. “Why?”

“Because,” Sungmin says, shifting through all the papers on the coffee table, lifting a sheet to his face so he could read it better, “Here it is,” He shows the others, the highlighted paper. “He went to that summer camp in August of 2000,” The wheels in everyone’s head starts turning.

“So, whatever happened that summer led to his family gaining all this money?”

“Can you find out who deposited the money?” Junsu asks, as Changmin was already checking the laptop one of Yoochun’s hacker friends gave them. This laptop had software that left no trace or I.P. address, so the government could not track them when they were looking into their system.

“Okay, checking their bank records from 2000,” Changmin mutters, sorting through all the trigger firewalls and what not. “I think I got it!” Changmin says, reading the screen. “It’s from the Onyx Dragon Society,” He says confused.

“That’s code!” Yunho, Donghae, Kangin, and Yoochun all yell, eyes wide. The others stare at them.

“It’s a secret fund set up by the government,” Donghae says. “I encountered this while working for the police department,” He adds, as Eunhyuk gives him a weird look.

“It’s to help victims of tragic disasters get through it,” Kangin says, “I was once assisting a man who was given a sum from them,”

“But usually,” Yunho says. “This money is hush money.” He looks at the others. “It’s to keep people quiet about what happened that could affect the country and its people or what they saw the government do. They usually don’t give more than a couple hundred thousand,”

“The more money they give,” Yoochun says, staring at the others, worried. “The worse the situation, which means Kyuhyun and his family must had gone through something unfathomable, something that could have disrupted the country.” Eyes stare at Yoochun, petrified.

“What are they keeping from us?” Eunhyuk asks, breaking the eerie silence.

“They wouldn’t keep anything from us,” Junsu asks, “If it wasn’t for our own good, right?” No one says anything, but the silence speaks for itself.

“Junsu-ah,” Yoochun says quietly, “This trust, the Onyx Dragon Society, is set up specifically to keep people quiet about things the government doesn’t want the people to know. Whether it’s the fact that the entire country is being recorded and listened to through their skype sessions, or the fact that last year there was an attempted terrorist attack,”

“What?!” Heechul gasps, “Where?”

“In Seoul,” Yoochun says, “But because a certain anonymous tip, he was found before he could do anything,”

“Who tipped him off?” Shindong asks, making Yoochun smile.

“A group of hackers who want to break the stereotypical image that all hackers are trying to destroy the country.” The others nod.

“So,” Heechul sighs. “Let’s review what we know so far,” He tapes a large piece of white poster paper on the wall. He looks around, marker in hand.

“We know that Kyuhyun’s family started out in lower-middle class,” Jaejoong says, grabbing the marker, writing on the paper.

“He then went to a summer camp in August of 2000,” Sungmin nods, taking the marker from Jae, and writing on the paper. “And it was in a secluded area in the woods,”

“We know that there were fifty kids at that camp,” Kangin writes on the paper, throwing the marker at Shindong.

“The guy who Kyuhyun calls out for, Lee JiHyun, was part of the camp. That was where they met.” Shindong throws the marker at Eunhyuk.

“We know that the camp was for the intellectually advanced, and that they would have many distinguished alumni,” Donghae takes the marker, “Who refuse to acknowledge anything about the camp,” he adds bitterly.

“Maybe,” Changmin says quietly, “We should check if they were paid to keep quiet as well.”

“Good idea!” Donghae says, high fiving the magnae.

“Okay, let’s do that, but back to what we know right now.” Leeteuk nods. “Two months after going to the camp, Kyuhyun’s family was paid eight million dollars by the Onyx Dragon Society, which is a cover for the government. So in other words, two months after going to that camp, Kyuhyun’s family was given money by our government to keep quiet.”

“And Kyuhyun knows where the money came from,” Junsu says, taking the marker, “Because he refused to take any of it once he got older, and he thought that the money was evil.”

“Now, nearly two decades later, Kyuhyun is having nightmares about whatever happened to him and his friend,” Ryeowook writes.

“His parents, his sister, and his brother-in-law have left the country,” Heechul nods, “And they aren’t picking up any of our calls or responding to our emails.”

“The government is following and listening in on us, but only after we started looking into Kyuhyun’s history, which is top secret.” Yesung writes on the paper, handing the marker to Yunho.

“He is being followed by some strange man, that we can’t exactly confirm for what reason, and said-man is giving fans gifts to give to Kyuhyun.”

“Okay,” Yoochun nods, “So what should we do next?”

“A-Actually,” Changmin stutters, “I think I found something,” Everyone turns to the wide eyes magnae, staring at the laptop.  “I realized that a special test is needed in order for Kyuhyun and the others to qualify for the summer camp, so I decided to look at Kyuhyun’s school records and cross them with ours, so I could pull up all the differences.” Changmin explains. “There were too many things, so I then proceeded to limit the school records to twelve years old,”

“What did you find?” Shindong asks, bewildered by the brilliant magnae.

“At age ten, like many of us, Kyuhyun took an IQ test, but scored 178. After that, for the next year, his teacher would administer tests to Kyuhyun while everyone else was on break. He took a series of tests and was believed to be a genius.”

“Okay, so how does this help us?” Jae asks.

“Well,” Changmin says, clicking away. “If we cross reference all the people born around the same time as us, use the names of all the campers, and add the series of tests Kyuhyun took but we didn't and use that across the names,” Changmin says, eyes wide as the list of names continues to shrink. The others surround the magnae, watching in amazement. “Now pick only the highest scores from each name and...there!” Changmin shouts excitedly. “Fifty names, with addresses and files we can now open,” Yoochun laughs in amazement, how had his magnae learn how to hack so quickly? The Super Junior members jump in joy, they finally could finally talk to other campers! Yunho and Jae smiled proudly at their smart baby magnae, who was no longer a baby but an intelligent man. Junsu patted Changmin’s head, and told him how smart he was.

“What are we waiting for?” Yoochun laughs, “Let’s crack these files open!” Everyone cheered as Changmin started pressing buttons.

“Okay, camper number one, let’s see where you live now,” Changmin says pressing enter. The smile that was once glued to his face was now nowhere to be found. “Hold on,” Changmin says. “It says that the girl died in 2000,” The others stop cheering as the atmosphere turn sombering.

“How?” Junsu asks, sitting next to Changmin.

“I’m trying to find out, but there is a serious lock on the autopsy file. I need to insert a certain software so no one find s out someone was viewing the files,” Changmin says pulling out a flashdrive and inserting it into the laptop, like he was taught. “Okay, just give me a sec,” He says, typing away. Finally a multiple pictures pop up, pictures showing the burned body of a little girl, doctor’s notes on the side. Changmin and Junsu look away from the screen, eyes closed, wishing they could erase the images from their memory. Yoochun walks over and swallows, before reading the doctor’s notes out loud.

“Third-degree burns, dehydration, lungs filled with smoke, the size indicates the girl had been starved before she died,” He reads, before walking away and sitting down, shaking his head in disgust.

“What month did she die?” Jaejoong ask, eyes closed.

“The file doesn’t give a date,” Changmin says getting back to work, trying to stomach through all of the images. “But the autopsy report has a date, it says August 21, 2000.” Everyone grows quiet.

“Next,” Eunhyuk says, as the others look at him in horror. “Someone keep count of how many kids are dead,”

“Camper number two, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: fire.”

“Camper number four, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: beheaded, roughly a week before the others were burned.”

“Camper number seven, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: shot in the head.”

“Camper number twelve, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: starved to death.”

“Camper number fifteen, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: dehydration and starvation.”

“Camper number twenty, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: drowned, and skull bashed in with weapon.”

“Camper number twenty three, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: fire.”

“Camper number twenty six, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: shot in the chest.”

“Camper number thirty one, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: asphyxiation, strangled.”

“Camper number thirty three, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: dehydration and starvation.”

“Camper number thirty four, deceased.Year, 2000. Cause: shot in the head.

“Camper number forty, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: beheaded.”

“Camper number forty two, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: fire.”

“Camper number forty four, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: beaten to death.”

“Camper number forty six, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: shot in the abdomen, fire.”

“Camper number forty seven, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: beheaded

“Camper number forty nine, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause:asphyxiation, strangled.”

“Camper number fifty, deceased. Year, 2000. Cause: asphyxiation, strangled, set on fire.”

Everyone on the room was quiet, as Changmin saved all the information onto a flashdrive. He was beyond repulsed. He was furious.  

“This was just there cause of death,” Changmin says, disgusted, staring at the now closed laptop. “There was evidence of , of torture, of abuse, and so much more,” Changmin closes his hands. “Out of fifty campers, only four survived that summer. And that includes Kyuhyun.” He looks at the others, pained. “Kyuhyun was there with them,” He continues. “He saw these things happen, he experienced all of this,”

“Guys,” Yoochun swallows. “These kids were our age, they could have gone to school with us, played with us, they could have been our friends,”

“They were,” Kangin says, eyes dead. The others look at him in confusion,“They were Kyuhyun’s friends.” His words hit the others like a ton of bricks. Once again everyone goes silent.

“How?” Junsu shakes his head, looking at the others. “How could this happen?” Junsu asks, close to tears. “How could none of us know about this?”

“This is wrong!” Heechul shouts, hitting the wall. “Who would do this?! They were just children!”

“It’s okay Hyung,” Ryeowook says, hugging the crying Heechul. Though he doesn’t usually get emotional like this, the thought of these kids dying such horrible deaths was something no one was prepared for.

“How?” Heechul asks. “How is any of this okay?” He looks at the others, pained by everything they’ve learned. “How is it okay that all these kids died like this? How is it okay that Kyuhyun had to suffer though this, is still suffering through this? How is okay that we didn’t even know this happened to him? How is it okay that someone is after him, again?!” Heechul yells. “We came into this thinking, ‘Okay we can handle whatever happened, we can accept the past, no matter what,’ but we can’t! Whoever did these horrible things, did it to children! Innocent children! And they did this without flinching,” He looks at the others, fear and anger clear in his eyes. “What will they do to us? To Kyuhyun?”

No one speaks, because they know Heechul is right. They all thought they were prepared for anything, but when the reality of the severity of this situation finally hit them, they couldn’t think of what to do.

“These kids,” Jaejoong says, voice hoarse. “They were our age, but they never got to experience all the things we did.” He looks at the others.

“They never graduated from high school, or learned how to drive. Many of them probably never even got to have their first kiss.” Everyone nods, pained by this reality. “But they all had dreams, and they were ripped away from them. Destroyed. All by the people who did these things to them.” Jaejoong says angrily. “So I will do anything I can to help get justice for our friends,” The others, though less vocal, wore the same face of determination as Jaejoong.

“We’re with you Jaejoong-ah,” Leeteuk looks at s, who nods back at him. “Whoever did these monstrous atrocities did them to our magnae, and to the friends we never got to know. If we don’t do whatever it takes to stop this monster, then how can we live with ourselves knowing this happened?”

“We’re all ready to help,” Donghae says, arm around Eunhyuk’s shoulder, “In whatever way we can.” Leeteuk hugs the quiet Heechul, who is still trying to calm down.

“How?” Heechul asks, no venom or sarcasm in his voice, but a genuine question.

“Well,” Yunho says, “Just like we did before, we make a list, but of what we don’t know or of questions we need to find the answers to,”

“Okay,” Heechul nods. “I’ll start.” He says, taping up another large piece of paper and grabbing a marker. “What was the reason this person, or people, chose a group of campers to murder? What was behind these murders?” Heechul writes on the paper. “If we find the reason, we might find out the reason why the government is covering this up.” The others nod. Changmin takes the marker.

“What happened to the other campers, the ones who survived? Are they being hunted or followed as well? If so, does that mean there are more than one person on the loose?” He asks, the others mutter among themselves as the idea of more than one monster lurking the streets. “Honestly, the first question isn’t too hard to find the answer to, we just need to look at their files and find a current number or address,”

“Okay, Min,” Ryeowook says, taking the marker. “You do that.” Changmin nods, rushing back to the laptop. “But where was this camp? We need to know, and maybe we can go talk to some of the locals there.”

“We need to find out what was on the report,” Shindong groans, frustrated. The others understand the frustration.

“So,” Changmin says, sighing, “One of the survivors did not survive a drug overdose, three years ago.” He relays to the rest of the group.

“Two,” Kangin says bitterly, “Besides Kyuhyun, there are only two living survivors.”

“And here is one address,” Changmin says, writing it down on a piece of paper. The others pat his shoulder for his good work. “But the other seems to have gone off the grid,” The others sigh, and go back to the previous task.

“How did Kyuhyun and the other three survive?” Jaejoong asks, taking the marker. “What made them so different from the rest?”

“What bothers me,” Yoochun says, grabbing the marker from Jaejoong. “How were these monsters able to take over such a large number of people? Where were the teachers and supervisors? What happened to them?” The others grow quiet.

“They were organized,” Yunho says. “These monsters had to have a plan, they picked these kids for a reason. Why would they pick these kids?” He asks, looking at Yoochun. “What makes them different?”

“They were geniuses,” Yoochun says, nodding. “All the kids at this camp were intellectually advanced, so advanced that their GPA challenged that of Einstein,”

“What would they need with a bunch of child geniuses?” Eunhyuk asks, taking the marker. “What was their plan, and what part of it involved child geniuses?”

“They were smart,” Donghae says, “The people who did this. They were smart enough to get rid of the teachers, and to control a bunch of rowdy children. So how do you control a lot of people?” He looks at the others,

“By separating them,” Changmin whispers, wide-eyed.

“What was that, Min?” Sungmin asks, worried. Changmin looks at everyone.

“THEY MARKED THEM!” Changmin yells. The others look on in bewilderment. “You know that Kyuhyun has a tattoo,” Changmin says quickly, the others nod. “Well he once told me how he got it! I didn’t think it made sense until now!” He says, looking at the others, who were still confused. “He said he never wanted the tattoo, but that he was forced, along with others his age, by a scary man. He hated it! It was code word for something, but he wouldn’t say what!”

“H-He told you about his tattoo?” Eunhyuk asks, bewildered. “He never talks about that tattoo! Even when we begged him, threatened him,”

“Actually,” Changmin says quietly. “It was when we were drunk and he out that night, so he doesn’t remember telling me,”

“Well,” Jaejoong says. “Now we just need to decipher the code,”