~ Chapter II ~

Jinyoung

“What do you mean, Jin?” The boy’s words rung in Jinyoung’s head. Things worse than death. “What could be worse than death?” Jinyoung wasn’t the only one that was surprised, Jungkook, Taehyung, and Jimin also turned to look oddly at Jin.

Jin, despite all eyes on him, did not answer, instead, he simply shook his head. Almost immediately, the other boys backed away, surprising Jinyoung. However, Jinyoung still wanted to ask, there was something about the look in Jin’s eyes that bugged him.

“Jin-”

“Hey, Jinyoung!” Jungkook spoke loudly over Jinyoung’s voice, earning a raised eyebrow from the him, “Do you want to see our room?” The boy pointed to the same hallway that Mark had left to.

Jinyoung drew his eyes towards the hallway and then back to face Jungkook, letting the incident die away. There would always be another chance to ask him about it, “Yes, please.”

Jungkook’s lips grew into a smile and he begun to make his way across the hallway. “Each room holds eight people, four bunk beds. There’s a small washroom and stuff but the showers are at the end of each hall,” Jungkook explained as Jinyoung and the others caught up to him. “The rooms are quite small so most of the boys like to spend their time in the rotunda.”

Jungkook suddenly stopped short in front of one of the doors, “This is our room, number 9,” He turned and lifted his hand, gesturing to the door with a pride that was practically cringeworthy.

“Oh?” Jungkook’s eyes grew wide and bright, “So you do know how to smile!”

Jinyoung hadn’t noticed, but his lips had spread into a small smile when Jungkook had acted like that. “It can’t be the first time…” Jinyoung looked away timidly.

“It is! It’s definitely the first time!” Jungkook jumped up and down in excitement.

“Now now, Jun, you’re going to scare him,” Jin said, landing a small chop on the top of Jungkook’s head with his palm. Jin met Jinyoung’s eyes, ignoring Jungkook’s whining, “Why don’t you come in?”

Jin pushed the lively Jungkook out of the way, reaching for the metal doorknob, turning it, and pushing open the door. The door opened into a small room just as Jungkook had described. However, Jinyoung definitely wasn’t expecting to see the three other people that were already in the room.

“Oh, you guys are back? What took you so long-” A boy with ashy brown hair came leaping off of the top bunk, “Who’s the new guy?”

The two other guys who had been conversing next to one of the bunks came wandering over with curious expressions, one with messy black hair, the other wearing a bandana over his unique purple hair.

“Suga, J-hope, Rap Monster, meet Jinyoung,” Jungkook smiled, gesturing again.

Sugar? J-Hope? Rap Monster? What kind of names are those?

“It’s Suga, with a  S-U-G-A, got it?” Suga slung one of his arms over Rap Monster’s shoulder.

Jinyoung slightly shocked with how Suga noticed that was exactly what he had been thinking about, could only nod his head open and down slowly.

“Anyways,” Jungkook pushed the other boys back into the room so that the rest of them could enter, “Jinyoung can stay here right? For the meantime?”

What? Jinyoung nearly said aloud. What was Jungkook talking about? Jinyoung looked at the other boy’s faces in dismay, expecting them to be revolted, disgusted even.

“I mean, sure,” J-Hope shrugged, “we have the extra bunk anyways. Feel free,” J-Hope gestured towards one of the bottom bunks, the thin blankets smooth and untouched.

“Then it’s decided,” Taehyung smacked Jinyoung on the shoulder as playfully as he could manage, “I’ll warn you though,” He smiled, “Jungkook tends to snore.”

“Hey!” Jinyoung watched as a pillow flew centimeters from his face towards the back of Taehyung’s head. “I do not snore!”

The pair began bickering immediately, occasionally hitting with their pillows; Jinyoung simply watched on. “You can just ignore them. Sometimes they argue for hours.” It was Rap Monster who said this, patting Jinyoung on the shoulder before jumping up onto the top of his own bunk.

“By the way, Mark was acting up again,” Jungkook said, breaking himself free of Taehyun for a second.

Jin sighed, the boy sitting on the lower bunk across from Jinyoung’s, “When isn’t he? He acts up every time a new kid shows up. Honestly,  someone needs to put him in his place.”

“Do you want to be that person, Jin?” Jimin asked while prying Jungkook off of Taehyung’s back. “You saw how he acted. If anyone tries to talk back to him, who knows what will happen to them? Remember what happened with Hakyeon?”

Jin immediately backed off after that. “Hakyeon?” It was Jinyoung who spoke, “Who’s he?” Yet again, all of their eyes were on him.

“That’s right… you wouldn’t know,” Taehyung had straightened himself out. “It happened about a few months ago. Hakyeon was 2 - 16, he was the second one to come right after Mark. Since they were the first ones, him and Mark were quite close. But… after a while, Hakyeon started to change,” Taehyung stopped to breathe in, eyes clouded as if he were reliving that moment in time, “Hakyeon wanted to become the leader for some reason, soon the two became enemies, they didn’t talk at all past that point. Then…”

Taehyung’s voice trailed off, the seemingly carefree and playful aura had disappeared from him, what remained was the small innocent boy he would’ve been.

“One morning, on a regular and ordinary day, we came out of our rooms, and in the middle of the rotunda, was Hakyeon,” Jimin had picked up where Taehyung had left off. “He was beaten up, blood spilling out from his head, eyes open, blank. That was the only death in this lab. After that, the doctors monitored us closely. But honestly,” Jimin sighed, “they won’t intervene unless someone is close to death as it gets.”

“Then,” Jinyoung suddenly felt sick in his stomach, “Mark and his underdogs killed Hakyeon?” Jinyoung felt his hands close into fists, a sickening picture of Mark’s face vivid in his mind.

“No one saw it happen, but everyone believes that Mark and his dogs did it. Ever since then, no one has talked back to Mark. We all have to listen to him.” Taehyung spoke through gritted teeth, earning a concerned look from Jin.

There was a silence after that, no one willing to speak up, no one willing to break the solitude. Amidst the silence,  Jinyoung thought hard to himself. Mark’s face. His sinister smile. That guy actually murdered someone…

There was a sudden beep that drew Jinyoung out of his thoughts. “What was that?” Jinyoung asked, looking around at the others for answers.

“It’s time,” Rap Monster jumped off of his bunk, straightening out his gown after he landed, “they’re going to take our blood.”

By the time Jinyoung and the other young boys had left their room and made their way into the rotunda, it was already crowded with all of the other children. Through the masses, Jinyoung noticed several adults in white lab coats at the entrance of the rotunda.

“So, why are they taking our blood?” Jinyoung asked.

“Not sure to be frank,” Jungkook scratched the nape of his neck, “they’ve never told us why.”

“What, you mean no one’s ever asked?” Jinyoung thought that to be highly unlikely amongst the masses of young curious children.

The young boys looked to each other, each of them shaking their head or shrugging their shoulders, “If anyone’s ever asked, I doubt they ever got an answer from the doctors,” Jimin answered.

“Number 53!”

“Oh, looks like it’s my turn,” Jin said, taking notice, “I’ll see you guys in a bit.” He smiled slightly, eyes flashing with worry for a split second before he turned and headed to the exit.

The adults in white had been calling out numbers in increasing order for a while now, which Jinyoung could conclude was based on their codes. Slowly, the amount of boys in the rotunda began to thin out, members of Jinyoung’s own group leaving one by one as well.

“Will it hurt?” Jinyoung asked the remaining member Taehyung.

“Number 65!”

“Oh, that’s me!” Taehyung jumped slightly at the sound of his code. The boy looked straight into Jinyoung’s eyes, “Don’t worry, no matter how much it hurts, you won’t die,” His lips grew into an unsettling grin, “Let your screams be heard.”

The boy sprinted down to the exit of the rotunda, not once looking back at Jinyoung. The way he had said his words, unsettled Jinyoung even more; time passed until he was the only one left in the room.

Jinyoung had never seen the room in this light before. A room that had at first, held horrible impressions, seemed so beautiful when it was empty. Yet it was so artificial. No sunlight, just white paint, emptiness.

“Number 77!”

It took Jinyoung a moment to realise that 77 was his number, in which he turned and made his way to the exit where a single man waited at the door for him.

It was a different man to the one he had first woken up to, instead of the cold intimidating aura he had been expecting, this man smiled, “Jinyoung was your name, right?”

Jinyoung looked up at him in surprise, “Y-yes,” He stammered.

“Since you’re new, I’ll explain what this process is,” The man said with a soothing voice as he placed his hand on the keypad, opening the door to the both of them. “We’ll take you to the same room as the other children. There we’ll take your blood in one of the beds,” The man explained as he guided Jinyoung down the endless hallway.

“Will it hurt?” Jinyoung felt the need to ask the same question again.

“It will hurt, a lot,” The man said with a more serious tone than before so that Jinyoung could finally understand - there was no way this wasn’t going to hurt.

After a while, the man had led Jinyoung to one of the doors. Oddly, this door didn’t have a pad, instead, there was a single red button that when pushed, would slide the door open.

The door opened into a room that was painted just like everything else in this building, white. Inside the room, there were rows upon rows of white hospital beds, each occupied by one of the boys.

Jinyoung stopped dead in his tracks, heart plummeting to the floor, his body shaking with a sudden fear. It wasn’t the array of the furniture or the sudden attack of white that scared him. No, nothing like that. It was the screams he heard, the yells of pain that erupted as he watched the boys writhe in their beds, scrunching up their bodies and gripping onto the cushioning of their beds with long nails.

“Jinyoung?” The doctor had turned to face Jinyoung once he realised that the boy was no longer following him. Jinyoung took a step back in fear. He felt sick to his stomach, so much so that he had to look to the floor in fear that he might throw up if he looked at the scene any longer.

The doctor came up to Jinyoung, placing his large hand on Jinyoung’s shoulder, “I know it looks bad, and terribly painful, but the faster we get it over with, the better.”

Jinyoung didn’t want to get it over with. It had only been a matter of hours since he had woken up, not remembering a thing, now he had to go through this? Jinyoung swallowed down hard. He knew the doctor was right. If Jinyoung didn’t do this himself, they were going to do it by force.

Jinyoung nodded with a pained expression and followed the doctor down the row of beds. He didn’t dare to look at the people in the beds, afraid that one of his group would be there. Jinyoung didn’t want to see them in that state.

After some time of walking, the doctor stopped in front of an empty bed, Jinyoung’s bed. “Lie down, while I set up,” The doctor said as he started fiddling with the syringes and tubes on a table next to the bed.

As Jinyoung sat down on his bed, he inevitably had no choice but to look up at the boy laying on the bed beside him.

In that instant, Jinyoung’s breath escaped him. Like the eye of a storm, the calmness in the chaos, a boy laid unmoving in his bed, his brown hair poking slightly into his closed eyes. The boy didn’t scream, he didn’t writhe in pain, he simply laid there, fists clenched tightly. That boy was unmistakeable. It was Mark.

A/N: How are you guys enjoying the story so far? You like it? It's been awhile since I've written MarkJin, so please be forgiving that my style might had disappeared slighty /.\ (let's hope it come back soon... it seems like it's getting better, slightly). Let me know what you guys think~ It helps motivate me to write ^^

Shoutouts to the people that upvoted/subscribed (love for you ^^)