[CONTENTID1]chapter seven - [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] “Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.” [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]When we get to the main building, the first thing we hear are the sounds of sobs and screams. Eunseo stood with her hands crossed over her chest, Cheng Xiao and Jin quietly standing next to her. No one else was present. We were the only group who had come completely. Cheng Xiao slightly smiled towards me, and motioned me over. Jin kept a straight face but dared not to look at anyone other than Cheng Xiao and the ground.

The poor guy had been placed inside a small closet that was locked with chains, the sounds of his crying growing louder and louder as he banged repeatedly on the wooden door. Eunseo looked annoyed but continued to ignore the man’s screams and tapped her fingers over her arms. “You mean to tell me,” she shook her fingers. “that none of you noticed he was bitten.”

“His sleeve hid it, Eunseo,” Jin reminded her and she shot him a glare. He looked at me with pity as if he felt sorry for us.

“Eunseo, we really didn’t know,” Cheng Xiao pleaded, playing with her fingers due to nervousness. “It was dark. And we were in a hurry.”

Eunseo clicked her tongue and finally looked at the door that has slowly become silent by the minute. “You brought a danger to our town. He’ll die anyways. Our vote is to keep him or kill him. Take your pick.”

“Why would we keep him?” Wonho scoffed. “He’ll turn to an it. Let’s just kill him.”

Minhyuk looked at him disapprovingly, but said nothing. It was for the best. Why won’t any of us want to keep him alive if he was bitten? He’d cause a havoc and put ourselves into a lot of danger.

There was a moment of silence before Eunseo clapped her hands together and picked up her shotgun that sat next to her hip, announcing, “So it’s settled. I’ll just shoot him in the head.”

“Wait!” Changkyun said suddenly, pushing himself from the back all the way to the front. “Wait, just a minute. Please.”

Eunseo raised her eyebrows in curiosity. “Wait? He’ll turn any minute now. What could you possibly want? I thought we agreed that we would kill him.”

“What if . . .what if we let him turn?” Changkyun asked. Everyone around him looked at him as though he was insane. Kihyun looked baffled, Jooheon just looked confused. “We can keep him in a cage. Study him. Try to find a cure. You have certified doctors here, right? They can help. We can have a chance, we can use him.”

At the corner of my eye, I can see Eunseo acknowledging and putting it into thought. We allowed her to gather her thoughts before she nodded her head. “Okay. We can do that. Okay, vote, to keep him or to kill him.”

She gave each person in the room a small post-it note and a pen. Each of us scribbled down our votes, folding it quickly, and dumping it on the table that separated us. Eunseo unfolded each note quickly, tallying the votes before looking up, “3:6, looks like we’re keeping him. I hope I don’t regret this.”

“So, it was your idea?” Dayoung asks, gathering herself and stretching her back. Changkyun, Dayoung, Yeonjung, and I had been assigned to care and pick for the crops and fruits that grew in the main garden. Sokcho was the place to stay, I had never seen such carefully built and pleasant greenhouses in my life.

Yeonjung smiled softly, clipping the thorns slowly. “Thank goodness you thought of that. I wouldn’t want anyone else to die,” she said happily.

Dayoung opened but quickly kept it shut, as though she was afraid to let out her thoughts. She shook her head and replaced it with a smile. “So, have you two ever grow crops before?”

“Uh, no,” I say, and at that time I wish that either Wonho or Minhyuk was with me. It wasn’t that I wasn’t comfortable with Changkyun, it’s just either of two would be able to respond for me and that would have been easier. I sense that Eunseo noticed that which is why she separated me away from those two. Genius bastard. “Actually, I’ve never been to a greenhouse.”

Yeonjung widened her eyes. “What do you think of this one, then?”

“Yeonjung, this is the only one they’ve been to,” Dayoung replied, nudging her shoulder. “I bet they like it!”

“Yeah, we do,” Changkyun said with a stiff smile, the tool used to clip the berries still in his hand. I had never seen him so silent. Changkyun proceeded to do his work in silence as Dayoung shot me worrisome looks. I dismissed them with a wave of my hand and with that, she and Yeonjung resumed their work.

I couldn’t help but wonder about the man we had just rescued. Was it really a wise choice to just let him stay here? My thoughts passed by quickly as the doors of the greenhouse busted open. Yeonjung turned her head quickly only to roll her eyes and shook her head.

There, stood