Jonghyun ran across the school yard to catch up with the skinny brunette.

“Hey Minhyun, have you seen Minki anywhere? He didn’t come to class this morning, and neither did Aron. Do you think something’s wrong?”

Minhyun shrugged and looked thoughtfully at Jonghyun.

“Maybe they just overslept. Or they just didn’t care about gym class. I don’t know, I haven’t heard from any of them either”.

“That’s strange, they usually call…”

“Yeah, that’s true. But Jonghyun, I really have to go, I promised that hot senior to help her with her art project during lunch break…”
“Oh, sure. You just go then, don’t let her wait”. Jonghyun smirked at Minhyun as he left, then he went back to class to get his lunchbox. He crossed his arms and his eyes became annoyed when he saw both Aron and Minki sitting in their seats next to Dongho. They were all eating lunch.

“Jonghyun, hey! There you are”. Minki smiled and got on his feet to hug him. “Why are you looking so serious?”

“And you’re asking? Where were you this morning? You too Aron. None of you called or texted or anything, I thought you’d ditched me to go shopping or something…”

“Hyung, don’t think that!” Minki pouted his lips and looked hurt. “We would never do such a thing, it’s just… My parents weren’t exactly happy when they saw what I did to my hair yesterday and my father ended up hitting me…”
“WHAT?!” Both Aron and Jonghyun put their arms around Minki at the same time, but he shook them off, smiling bleakly.

“It’s okay, it wasn’t that bad. But I got a bruise and I had to cover it up with make-up. So I couldn’t go to gym class where I would have to bathe, it would be visible to everyone. And I don’t want people to think that I am having trouble at home”.

He looked down, avoiding their looks, and his face looked a lot paler than Aron recalled, probably because of his new blonde hair.

“Well, I still think you look gorgeous.” Jonghyun couldn’t help but keep holding on to Minki’s hand as he turned to Aron.

“So what’s your excuse?”
“I overslept…” he muttered, trying to sound more sorry than he felt. The truth was that he had spent the night trying to get rid of the scout’s dead body and it had taken forever to drag it to the nearest landfill without being seen.

Jonghyun sighed.

“Well, at least you’re both okay. Next time, wouldn’t you please call?”

“Of course… Sorry”. Minki looked truly ashamed, and Jonghyun had to suppress a sudden urge to pull him close and to comfort him, telling him he didn’t have to be sorry anyway. “So, have you seen Minhyun yet? He totally disappeared too, why aren’t you out to scold him?”

Minki smirked, and Jonghyun smiled.

“I actually talked to him a few minutes ago. He was off to help one of the seniors with an art project”.

“Really?” The fresh blonde sat down by his lunch again and looked interested at Jonghyun. “An “art project” you say? That sounds scandalous!”

The four of them drew closer together, all quite excited.

“I know, right? I’m sure it’ll be just as last time! If you know what I mean…”

“Well, as long as he doesn’t have anything against her photographing his body it should be fine. I mean, as long as nobody finds out it’s him on the pictures”. Aron leaned back in his chair, curling his lips when he thought of how awkward it had been when they had first found out about their friend posing in front of a camera.

Jonghyun and Minki had walked in on him in one of the small rooms in the basement of the school, where two of the older girls had had set up a mini-studio for the occasion. Needless to say that all five of them had been screaming from chock for more than five minutes, while Minhyuk had gotten dressed again and Jonghyun had woken up Minki, who had fainted on the doorstep out of utter surprise.

Yeah, what a mess…

“That’s true, if a teacher finds out he’ll be screwed. His parents doesn’t know anything either, right?”
“Not that I know of. I don’t think they care for him that much to be honest”. Dongho shrugged and leaned back in his chair, too, while eating a piece of cucumber.

“You’re right, they never even call him when he stays out late…” Minki bit his lip and looked away, worried. His girly face was all brightened up by the new hair colour and every feature were now shown more clearly, expressing his concern like an open book. Aron couldn’t help but think he looked quite stunning like that.

He got pulled out of his thoughts when his phone started to ring and he excused himself, hurrying out of the class room.

The leaders scrambled voice whispered from the phone.

“I hope it’s not an inconvenient time?”
“Not at all. Any news?”

“Solum has found out that you killed one of their scouts. I don’t think they believed you to be so bold in your actions. They are scared now, they are going to go after you with all means, is that clear?”
“Yes sir”.

“Stay out of trouble, and for God’s sake, keep them away from Choi. I got a report this morning from India, a girl named Shanti was found dead, along with her guardian, both killed by Solum because of her Helix-blood. They had dumped their bodies in two different rivers so that no one would see the connection, but of course we did. Be careful Aron-sshi. Choi’s life depend on you”.

“Understood. I have to go to class now. Call me up later if you find out anything”.

“Of course. Is your cover still working? No one seems to think that you’re too old to be a freshman?”
“No sir, everything is just fine. I’ll have Fisher calling you if anything happens.”

He hung up and hurried back to class. Minki looked up when he entered.

“Was that your sister? Is she alright?”

Aron smiled.

“She’s fine. The surgery went well. Maybe she’ll even be able to go live with my mom and dad for a while”.

Luckily, he thought, the teacher entered the class room before he had to come up with more details about his made-up family from his cover story. All the lies he kept tangling them with would someday end up destroying him and he knew. But there was absolutely nothing he could do about it as long as Minki couldn’t find out about the ones chasing him, neither their reason for doing so. He turned his attention to the teacher, took a last sip of his water bottle before putting it back into his bag and started to copy the blackboard like everyone else.

It was extremely boring and probably the third time he had to go through this, but he had no choice. He had hoped never to set foot in high school again, but that decision had only lasted for a month. Then he had been given a plane ticket to Seoul and a file on the newly discovered Helix-boy, Choi Minki, and there he was, undercover as a freshman. Again.

Suddenly he could feel his stomach starting to ache and his pencil fell from his grip and hit the floor with a loud clatter that made everyone look at him.

“Aron-sshi, is there something you would like to say?” The teacher widened his eyes when he noticed Aron properly. He was soaked in sweat and his whole body was shaking in cramps. “My God… Aron-sshi, are you all right?”

Aron couldn’t focus anymore. Completely numb and hurting he fell from the chair, his head hitting the edge of his table on the way down.

“Aron!” Minki almost jumped off of his own chair to try and catch him, but he wasn’t fast enough. “Aron, please say something… Aronah…” He started to sob, desperately clinging to the older boy. The teacher had thrown his chalk on his desk and was now kneeling down next to Aron, too.

“Minki-sshi, please move away a bit”.

But Minki wouldn’t let go.

“He is going to be okay, isn’t he?” His voice was frail and high-pitched as he looked at Aron’s dilated pupils, which clearly weren’t able to see anything anymore. “Do something!”

The teacher ended up pushing Minki away and tried to get Aron to stand up.

“Jonghyun-sshi, please help me. We’ll take him to the nurse’s office and call an ambulance right away.”

Jonghyun nodded and helped the teacher carrying Aron out of the class room. Behind them Minki hid his face in his hands, unable to control his crying. Dongho and Minhyun both put an arm around him, but nothing seemed to be able to comfort him.

“He is going to be fine… right?” he muttered, every aspect of his voice full of devastation.

Carefully Jonghyun slipped his fingers into Minki’s as they walked along the river on their way home. Minki’s eyes were all swollen, and from time to time he had to oppress a sob.

“I’m sure he’ll be up and about again in no time Minkiah…” he tried helplessly, but Minki wouldn’t even look up from the pavement.

“I’m not so sure” he mumbled, tears welling silently up in his eyes. “Did you hear what they said? They said that he had been poisoned. By chloroform…”
“But… but it’s not certain that he won’t be fine…”
“Jonghyunah, do you even know how ing dangerous chloroform is?! It’s a miracle it didn’t kill him!”

“Sorry…” Jonghyun looked away, trying not to let it show how much Minki’s words had hurt him. He couldn’t stand seeing him so sad, but that he wouldn’t even let him try to give him comfort was even worse.

Next to him Minki started to cry as they kept walking and the brunette kept staring in another direction because he knew how much Minki hated to let others see him this sore.

His thoughts were in a world of his own, when a hooded figure rapidly approached. He tried to step a bit closer to the road to make way for him, but as soon as the stranger stood between them he pushed the still whimpering Minki as hard as he could towards the low fence, guarding them from the fall into the river.

With a heart-breaking scream he stumbled to the side and fell off the bridge before Jonghyun even knew what was going on.

“MINKI!”

The small boy’s body quickly disappeared in the dark water.