“Minhyun?”
“Oh, hey Aron. What’s up?”
“Is Minki with you?”
He could feel his heart sink inside of his chest and the tears started to poke the corners of his eyes. Again, he only wanted to know about Minki.

“No, he’s not. I haven’t been to school today at all hyung, I had to go see a doctor”.

“Fine, but if he calls you or anything, please let me know”.

There was a small beep and the line was disconnected. Minhyun threw his phone at the wall as hard as he could. Then he started to cry again in the empty room, the pain of his back drowning in the all-consuming pain of his heart.

He tenderly moved Minki’s sleeping figure a little so that he could rise from the sofa and pick up his mobile phone before the ringing woke him up.

“Yes?”

“Jonghyun, it’s me. Is Minki with you? I’ve been calling and calling, but he’s not at home and he’s not with Minhyun either…”
“Relax Aron, he’s here. Lower your voice a bit, you’ll wake him up”.

He could hear Aron draw a sigh of relief on the line.

“Thank God…”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you make sure he doesn’t leave your house until I call again?”
“I think so… Why?”

At first Aron didn’t answer. Jonghyun had gone to the kitchen so that he wouldn’t wake the blonde on the sofa. He bit his lip, wondering.

“Aron, what’s wrong? Why can’t he leave my house?”

“Promise me you won’t tell him this, but there’s someone out to kill him”.

“WHAT?!” If his hand hadn’t been wrapped up he would have slammed it to his mouth to keep himself from shouting, but he had to do without it. “What are you talking about? Aron, what the heck is going on?”

“Jonghyun, I’m serious, if he leaves your house he’ll be in danger the moment he’s out the door. I don’t have the time to explain, just…”
“Don’t you dare keep me in the dark! You explain everything to me right now!”

Restlessly he had left the kitchen and was now walking to his room. His hands were shaking and he pressed the phone to his ear as hard as he could.

“Just remember that you’re not supposed to know anything, and neither is Minki, got it?”
“Yes. Hurry up and tell me!”

Aron took a deep breath, as if he tried to calm himself, but his voice in the phone when he spoke again made it clear that he was about to panic.

“Okay then… Minki has a very rare blood type, called the Helix blood type. There are only a few hundred people in the world with the Helix blood in them today. It used to be more common, until people found out that this type of blood was actually poisonous to others”.

“Like, if they were to have a blood transfusion?”
“Yeah, exactly. Of course you couldn’t get a blood transfusion at the time they discovered the Helix blood, that’s two centuries ago, but you could still be poisoned by it if you were to consume even the tiniest drop by a mistake. And well, some people meant that people with this blood were a mistake, that they were a freak of nature and should have never been born at all, obviously because they were so dangerous. They formed an order called Solum to get rid of the Helix for good. The order consisted of six assassins who killed off any Helix they came across. Through time, the Helix has become a mere legend and people haven’t even heard of the word if you ask them today, so no one believes that Solum still exists but they do, and right now they are out to get Minki”.

“What? Aron, you’re not making any sense, how could all of that be possible?”

Jonghyun had to sit down on the floor as he tried to swallow the amount of information.

“Well, it is! I’m a member of a company whose job is to protect the remaining Helixes. Six months ago I was assigned to this case as Choi Minki’s guardian and I have been trying to protect him ever since. Our former teacher, the one who vanished a few days ago, he was a servant of the Solum order and that is why he had to disappear. I took care of him before he got to Minki”.

“You’re serious…”
“Jonghyun, please, you have to believe me! If you don’t, then Minki will die! I know you care about him, too, trust me for his sake!”

The brunette leaned his head at the side of the bed, staring into the ceiling while trying to find out how to answer.

“Jonghyun?...”
“Okay… Okay, I trust you. So what’s the situation?”

Aron sounded as if he was about to cry from relief.

“For some time now I have been aware of a spy close to us. It was him who poisoned my water. Well, I have finally uncovered who he is, but that means that all five assassins of Solum will be out to get Minki before I get to them. They probably already know where he is”.

“... But we should run then! If they are on their way here they’ll get to him in no time!”
“For God’s sake, don’t even think about leaving the house! I promise you, as long as you stay inside they won’t touch you. That’s their strategy to keep their exsistence a secret from the police. They always make Helix deaths look as if they’re accidents. That’s why they tried to push Minki off of that bridge, remember?”
“Are you sure?” Jonghyun bit his lip. He could taste the blood in his mouth, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of his heart racing painfully faster.

“I swear on my life, you’re safe as long as you stay inside”.

“Okay then. I will make sure none of us step outside”.

“Not even for a second Jonghyun, do you copy? I know they are already waiting for it to happen. This case has gone on for too long now, they’re desperate to get Minki killed. Even the slightest chance, they’ll take it”.

“I promise”.

He could feel the fear grow in his throat. His palms were sweaty and he couldn’t keep his eyes from roving between the windows.

“I’m on my way there to take all five of them down. When I call again it’ll be safe to go out, but not before that. It could take hours Jonghyun, maybe even all night. Are you prepared for that?”
“Yes... Wait a second, didn’t you say that Solum had six assassins?”
“I killed one of them along with our teacher. They haven’t recruited a sixth member to replace him yet”.

“Oh, I see…”

“And don’t let anyone in either. Not even someone you know”.

“Why not?”

Once again Aron turned silent as if he was trying to think of some way to make it sound less blunt, but he gave up.

“I told you that I found out who the spy is”.

“Someone close to you. That means that whoever it is would be close to Minki, too, and therefore also me, right?”
“Yes. I don’t know how to say this, but… Dongho is the spy”.

Jonghyun was close to screaming.

“What are you saying? Hyung, that can’t be! We’ve known each other for six months!”

“No. I’m sorry, but none of us never really knew the real Kang Dongho. Solum abducted him on the second day of school and replaced him with a look-alike from their own ranks. We didn’t really speak to him on the first day, so we didn’t notice that he had changed a bit when we got to know him. I should have seen it right away, but I was too focused on Minki, and I’m sorry. I only just found out about it”.

“But… what about the real Dongho then?”

Tears were silently welling up in his eyes now as he realised what Aron’s revelation meant.

“He was reported missing the first day of school. His parents hung up notes everywhere. I guess Solum took them down so we wouldn’t notice… They kept him in an empty house nearby so that they could regularly ask him about his life when there was anything they wanted to know. One of my partners drove him to the hospital an hour ago and talked with him.”
“So why didn’t he lie to them? Why didn’t he refuse to say anything?”
“Because they told him that they would kill someone he loved if he didn’t cooperate. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but he told them everything to save Minhyun… He fell in love at first sight a few weeks before the semester started when he saw him in the city from a distance and he wasn’t able to believe his own luck when he found out that Minhyun was in his class. Solum found out and used it against him.”
“But if they find out that he told you, won’t they kill Minhyun like they said?!”

“We’ve taken care of that, too. My partner is at his house now, watching over him, and Dongho is in the hospital, being guarded by the police, so they’re both safe. I have to go now. Please keep Minki inside that house, no matter what. I don’t care what you have to say to make him stay there, as long as you don’t tell him the truth!”

“I will, I promise. And hyung? Please be careful…”

“Sure. I’ll call you later”.

As he hung up, Jonghyun couldn’t help but feel as if his whole life fell apart around him. Aron obviously wasn’t what he had thought him to be, and Dongho…

No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remember how Dongho had looked on that first day of high school; his first memory of him was from the next day when they had spoken to each other for the first time. Or rather, when he had spoken to the Solum spy.

He wiped his tears, shaking his head to regain focus. Aron had sounded as if killing off professional assassins was everyday stuff to him, why should he be worried? His only task was to keep Minki with him for the rest of the day.

“Jonghyunah?”

He could hear Minki get up and look for him in the living room.

“I’m here”. He went downstairs, trying not to look as if he had just shed tears. “I just had to take a phone call. Apparently my parents won’t be home tonight either”.

It frightened him how easy it was to lie, but only for a second.

“Okay… But hyung, I think I have to get home. I need to clean my room before tomorrow. My father will have someone important from work over for dinner, so everything has to look perfect”.

“Can’t you do it tomorrow?”

Jonghyun begged that the other boy wouldn’t hear the slight panic in his voice.

“I guess I could, but I’d rather have it done right away. Why, do you want me to stay?” He blushed a bit as he said it, but Jonghyun was too desperate to really notice.

“You got me. I’m totally lost on our report for Monday. Would you help me write it, please?” He allowed a bit of his desperation to show to make the lie seem as if it was sincere and Minki smiled with a sigh.

“I guess I’ll have to write it for you. It’s the one for physics class, right? Which subject did you draw?”

“Something about how the Sun produces energy… Do you know anything about that?”

“Sure, that’s an easy one. I’ll help you”.

“Thank you so much!” He smiled and hurried to get his computer so that they could sit in the living room. “You are probably going to save my life by this, you know that?”

Minki looked down, blushing and obviously flattered.

“It’s nothing” he muttered, trying to suppress a smile. “So, where do we start?”