chapter fifteen

Jaejoong's widened gaze were trained after his dongsaeng's... no, that guy wasn't his Junsu! His brother didn't have golden cat-like eyes nor did he have sharp fangs and claw-like fingernails whenever he was in a fit of emotional imbalance.

It couldn't have been him and yet--

The knife aimed at Yunho's head only missed him by a hair's breath and Jaejoong was quite sure that he just lost half of his life watching the object of his affection nearly sliced in two by someone that shared the same face of his deceased younger brother.

Clutching at his chest, Jaejoong sagged against the kitchen table, his legs weak, threatening to give out under him.

Breathe. He needed to breathe!

"Jaejoong-hyung." Changmin exclaimed and was just in time to catch him before he fell to the floor. Side-glancing at the temporary battlefield that the two hybrids were currently fighting in, Changmin wanted to cry at the sight that met him. The glass tables were broken, couches torn apart, CD racks scattered everywhere, wallpapers torn, and as much as he wanted to throw a fit at the state that his apartment was in, Changmin knew he couldn't do a damn single thing.

Those two meant serious business.

As the fight continued to unfold, Changmin realized that had been right all along. Yunho and Junsu were alike. He looked to Yoochun who was rooted to the spot, staring at the chaos happening right before him, eyes wide in disbelief and shock. "Dammit, we have to stop them!"

By some kind of miracle, Jaejoong managed to find his voice, rasping out Junsu's name through clogged lungs.

"What?" Changmin asked with a frown.

Jaejoong pointed a shaking finger at the living room where the two hybrids were currently in the middle of an intense fight.

Changmin looked at them then back at Jaejoong. Emotions of devastation, sadness, disbelief and just about everything warred in the older man's gaze. Unshed tears misted his glassy eyes while choked sobs escaped his throat. "My baby..." Jaejoong said in a whisper, lower lip trembling at the realization that no matter how impossible it seemed, that really was his baby brother. "Su..."

It didn't take a genius to understand what Jaejoong had meant. Changmin's eyes widened considerably in realization.




"You ing murderer!" Junsu growled menacingly as he whirled around and attempted to slash Yunho for the umpteenth time.

Yunho ducked low as he avoided the assault, his leg sweeping out in a wide, graceful art, connecting with Junsu's calves, throwing him off balance. Junsu intercepted the attack as he braced his arms against the floor and pushed his weight against gravity, setting himself upright again. But then suddenly, something that he had been too late to block happened. Yunho pressed his fingers on various pressure points on his neck and shoulders. In a split second, Junsu was frozen solid, unable to move.

He couldn't talk. He couldn't even move one single finger. He struggled, heatedly glaring, burning holes into the other's forehead.

! Junsu mentally cursed. Even though he might have shown great promise during his training days, the bastard that he was fighting against was still after all the top experiment in the agency. He had been stupid to think that he could win against him.

There was a reason why he was the most coveted hybrid that the scientists always loved to lord around. Whenever he was in the laboratory with his father as he conversed with a fellow scientist, they always talk about him and how much of a success he was.

But look at what such a success had done to them. The agency was in ruins, the scientists were dead and his father was in a coma.

Junsu waited in growing dread as the other hybrid leapt from the floor, feet landing on the ceiling as he kicked back on his legs, pushing himself down and charged straight him, arm raised, and from that view point was aiming the dagger at his eyesockets.

As he was about to strike, he heard Yunho hiss through gritted teeth. "I should have killed you when I had been instructed to."

At the impending death that was waiting for him, Junsu didn't have the state of mind to wonder what Yunho's words meant.

Reality was crashing down on him. No, he couldn't die like this! Not without making sure that his father was alive and well again.

Junsu's eyes screwed shut as tears trickled down his cheeks, his father's face flashing in his thoughts, followed almost instantly by Yoochun's own, of the things they've done and shared the previous night, and of how passionate Yoochun had been with him.

A broken sob blocked his throat, his heart clenching at the thought of never seeing him again. Yoochun ah....




As soon as Jaejoong saw the dangerous situation and the tears sliding down Junsu's face, something in him just snapped. His legs moved before his mind managed to catch up with what his body was doing. "Don't hurt him!" he screamed as Yoochun run past and hurtled himself into Junsu's direction.

Yunho's gaze swept over to Jaejoong, the tears in his beloved's eyes momentarily wrenching him out of his intent to kill the other hybrid. Below him, Yoochun collided with Junsu as he encased him in his arms, knocking him over to his back as the two fell in a tangled heap to the floor. Yunho landed steadily on two feet. Jaejoong was instantly in front of him, hugging him tight, pleading for him to stop as he sobbed into his chest. Yunho's raised arm fell to his side as he trapped Jaejoong in his embrace.

"Please... please, don't hurt him!" Jaejoong wept as he pulled back and stared brokenly into Yunho's eyes. "Not my Junsu!"

"Jaejoong." The confusion in Yunho's gaze was evident.

It didn't make a of sense but that guy there, that was his baby brother. Jaejoong couldn't be mistaken; and after all the years that passed, the scars in his heart were opening up again at the very sight of him. Pulling away from Yunho's arms, Jaejoong squatted beside Yoochun who was cradling a frozen Junsu in his lap. Jaejoong reached out a hand and a sharp gasp fell from his lips as his fingers touched the soft skin of the other's cheek, his eyes welling up with more tears. He felt so real. "Junsu... baby..."

"It's him." Yoochun's broken sobs followed after Jaejoong's own, when he finally realized that what was happening right that instant wasn't a dream. He held Junsu tighter in his embrace, causing for the river of tears to intensify. "Jaejoong-hyung. It's really him."

Junsu's eyes were fixed on Jaejoong. Just when he thought that he was going to die, Yoochun saved him from certain death and then this person comes as well. A man that was shedding tears for him, calling him by his name like he knew him, calling him baby in such a loving and affectionate manner. It caused Junsu's heart to ache painfully in his chest. And now, just like how he had always felt whenever he saw Yoochun crying, Junsu also wanted to wipe the tears off this person and take away the sadness in his eyes.

Yunho approached them and was wrapping his arms around the person called Jaejoong. The act alone made Junsu want to bite him until he bled and died of blood loss. The sudden need to protect him was confusing Junsu. He watched as Jaejoong clung to the other hybrid as if he was an achor for support before speaking. "Yunho, please whatever it was you did to him, undo it."

Wiping the tears off his eyes, Yunho cupped his face and gave his mouth a soft kiss. Junsu's eyes relatively widened at the display. Last time he checked, this monster didn't have any emotions nor did he cared for another being. "He's dangerous Jaejoongie."

"He's not dangerous Yunho." Yoochun wept and Junsu's eyes snapped to him. Wait, Yoochun knew him too? "Please, don't do this."

"Please Yunho-ah." Jaejoong pleaded, fingers clutching on the fabric of Yunho's clothing. "I... I don't know what's going on but..." He looked at Junsu again and held his hands in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze, tears blurring his vision. "He's my baby brother."

Yunho's eyebrows furrowed into a frown, not quite understanding what Jaejoong meant. This guy was a hybrid, just like him.

"I can't believe this." Changmin exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Junsu-hyung, Yunho. You're both experiments."

Yoochun's silent sobs subsided, his eyes widening. "W-what?"

"It's clear to me now." The maknae said, voice laced thick with amazement and shocked realization as he pointed at Junsu. "The dead brother you guys were telling me about and the first love you had Yoochun-hyung. That was Junsu. It had been him all along!"

Looking at Changmin then back and forth at the two men crouched on his either side, Junsu could just blink in confusion.

Dead... brother?

"Changmin ah!" Jaejoong suddenly exclaimed as if a sense of epiphany dawned on him. "H-how did you meet him?!"




In the next several minutes, Junsu had been released from his previously frozen state by Yunho after Jaejoong and Yoochun along Changmin made him at least promise to be somewhat tolerant of the other hybrid's existence inside the apartment building's walls.

It hadn't been easy to persuade him to not get back at Yunho but they managed. Junsu sat in between Jaejoong and Yoochun while Yunho was by Jaejoong's side, holding his hands possessively as the two hybrids occasionally hissed and growled at each other amidst Changmin's explanation of how he came to know of Junsu, from the time he saw him injured outside his apartment, to when he revealed his true identity up until when he made plans for Yoochun and Junsu to meet up with each other and make friends.

As Changmin recounted the events that led to their current situation, Yoochun had never let go of Junsu's hand that were entwined with his own. And from the looks of it, he didn't seem intent to let go of him any time soon. Jaejoong was holding Junsu's other hand as well, while Junsu in between them remained looking confused and lost. But he knew in his heart that he wanted to understand.

After the explanation was done, Yoochun excused himself, asking for a moment to think. Jaejoong followed suit, after asking Yunho to be a good boy and to never attack Junsu again. Yoochun told Junsu the same thing and the two had no choice but to comply.

Changmin had been left to watch over Yunho and Junsu as they kept their distance away from each other. He had thought that when Jaejoong and Yoochun were out of sight, the two would instantly be at each other's neck, but they proved him wrong.

They stayed still. And then it dawned on Changmin that his hyung-deul might have a sense of control over them.

The turn of events continued to amaze him. Junsu was Jaejoong's brother and Yoochun's first love. And yet he wasn't.

Everything that had happened so far has been surreal. Outside the apartment, Jaejoong and Yoochun talked, their conversation involving a lot of tears as they hugged each other tight, whispering gentle words of reassurances into each other's ears.

Seeing Junsu alive, and though they've gotten kind of used to seeing him since an hour ago, the reality that a dead person had been moving and talking and was looking anything but the weak and fragile brother and friend that they remembered him to be, it was just... too much for them at that point. At instances, Jaejoong and Yoochun would even smack each other, expecting to wake up.

When they went back inside the building, they knew that they had to get to the bottom of things. Yoochun was still reeling from the things Changmin had told him about Junsu. It was hard to swallow. The realization that the person he loved so much with his heart was once again within reach and yet... he wasn't the same person. They had the same face, voice and the same traits maybe, but he wondered if that was where all the similarities ended. Did this Junsu even remembered the memories they shared in the past?

But no matter how much he tried to rationalize his feelings, telling himself that his emotions were not real. It was already too late. Because even if it was the experiment Junsu or the Junsu of the past, fact remained that he couldn't stop loving him.




Sitting opposite Yunho and Junsu, the two young men directed them with intense gazes as they took deep breaths and started asking questions. Junsu and Yunho answered them with facts. Yunho's time in the agency wasn't really a secret from Jaejoong since they've already talked about it many nights ago whenever Yunho would wake up from nightmares of his victims and Jaejoong had to comfort him and reassure him until he fell asleep again that nothing had been his fault. Yunho always looked vulnerable during those times.

Junsu's background was what took them by complete shocked surprise. Especially when he began to talk about his creator.

"Appa..." Jaejoong exhaled, a hand covering at his mouth as soon as he heard the name of the man Junsu considered his father. He knew that his father was a scientist but he never expected him to be the kind to experiment on humans. But then again, as he thought about it now, his appa had been pretty damn depressed and disconnected with the outside world ever since Junsu's death.

The previous year before he left home with Yoochun, Mr. Kim was never home and was always at the university where he worked for his researches. Jaejoong had been mad at his father at that time. It didn't make sense to Jaejoong, how he could claim to love Junsu more than life itself and yet he wouldn't tear himself away from his work, not even going to Junsu's first death anniversary.

But now... Jaejoong kind of understood, the reason behind his father's obsession with his job.

If the face that he was seeing right before his eyes had been the result, he knew he had no right to question his father's actions. And yet still, the voice in his head that was saying that this Junsu wasn't really his brother wouldn't leave him in peace.

But then it only took one look at the emotions shining in Yoochun's tearful eyes, and Jaejoong knew that it didn't really matter at all. What mattered was that Junsu was back. If he didn't remember the past, then they were going to make new memories with him. Make him feel at home, loved and cherished. He locked gazes with Yoochun and common acceptance passed between the two.

Minutes passed. It didn't miss their notice how Junsu was beginning to grow agitated with the way they were looking at him. When they tried telling him about the truth to his... previous life, about the accident when he died, of how his creator was indeed his real father and might have done everything in his power to bring him back and that Yoochun at one point had been his best friend and that Jaejoong was his brother, Junsu seemed to distance himself farther away from their stares and their touches with wary eyes.

"Junsu-yah..." Yoochun muttered and Junsu's eyes darted to his. "It's okay. I know... this all sounds so sudden and believe me this is just as... hard for us to comprehend but..." Taking the wallet out of his jean's pocket, Yoochun pulled the photos of their childhood days that he always carried with him and handed the photo that he had been looking at just a few nights ago to Junsu.

Junsu took the picture, and it didn't take long before his eyes widened as he realized the boy in the middle of the picture looked like him. He looked back at the two, realizing that the two boys in the photo on either side of him was also them. "It's... It's... us."

"Yes baby." Jaejoong said as he clutched at his chest, hope blossoming in his heart. "Do you believe us now?"

Junsu lifted his head and looked at him with still unsure eyes. "I... I don't know... what..." He took a deep shuddering breath. "I always knew that father was treating me different from the other experiments and the scientists didn't seem to like me because of that. Father said that I was special. That he reminded me of someone but I..." He looked down at the photo again, eyes tearing up. "I don't know."

"Junsu-yah." Jaejoong collected him into his arms as Yoochun joined the older male on his other side. Junsu would have wanted to jerk away from their hold but the warmth that both men were radiating made him want to sink in their embrace instead.

The touch of their skin against his and the soft intakes of breath by his ear was very comforting. And so, Junsu let himself be held.




A considerable amount of time had passed. Breakfast was by now the farthest things on their minds as Yoochun and Jaejoong talked in Changmin's guestroom, their thoughts in a jumble and their hearts feeling as if they were twisted in knots.

Junsu and Yunho were in Changmin's company in their own corner of the apartment. After the hug that the three of them shared, Jaejoong and Yoochun deemed it best to sort things out between themselves first, trying to adjust to the recent development in their lives without having to collapse from a nervous breakdown. It took about ten minutes before Jaejoong was able to convince Yunho to go with Changmin while he and Yoochun talked. Jaejoong's chest had refused to stop hammering against it's ribcage ever since.

"Appa has to wake up. He's the only one that can completely explain everything. The agency, Yunho and..." he trailed off, still in shock that his baby brother was alive. "I feel like my head is about to explode and my heart about to burst from worry Yoochun ah."

"You're not the only one trying his best not to lose consciousness." Yoochun said, voice strained while kneading his scalp.

"I can barely deal with the thought of Yunho this morning being dragged away by the government or that blasted agency. And now I find out that my brother is alive? Coming back in a form of an experiment just like my lover? And if that wasn't enough, the first thing they did when they saw each other was try to kill the other one." Jaejoong clutched at his head. "This is driving me crazy!"

"Jae..." Yoochun hugged him tight and Jaejoong instantaneously held him back.

"I'm scared Chun. I'm ing freaking out right now. I don't even think I still quite believe what is happening."

"It's okay. We're gonna be fine." Yoochun shushed his best friend, rubbing his back in circles. Whenever Jaejoong showed any signs of vulnerability, it had always been his job to be strong for him. Sure he was freaking out just as much, and his skin still felt like he was being pricked by needles and his heart felt like it was about to give out, but Jaejoong needed him and he refused to let him down.

"How can you even say that with such a firm voice?" Jaejoong said, burying his face deeper into Yoochun's chest.

Yoochun held him tighter. "It doesn't look like it but I'm actually clinging to you for support." he said, voice breaking. "Jae, I feel like I'm about to die. Junsu's...back and yet, just like what you said, it's scaring me less knowing that... he's the same like Yunho."

Jaejoong gently pulled back and cupped Yoochun's face in his hands, wiping the fresh tears from the corner of his eyes. "Chunnie..."

"I don't care if he's an experiment. To me, he's still the same person that I've always loved but... everything's gotten complicated."

Knowing the cause of Yoochun's worries because it wasn't letting his heart at ease as well, Jaejoong murmured. "The agency."

"I know Yunho said that he's burned the place down. But what if... those weren't the only scientists that knew of his existence? I'm dreading the chances that someone else, someone more powerful might be behind all this." Yoochun's lips quivered. "What then?"

"We can't think about such things Chun ah. Please, I can't bear to think about the possibilities."

"I know Jae but...."

Changmin came bursting into their room, interrupting them. "Hyung-deul you have to help me. They're fighting again."

Yoochun and Jaejoong didn't need to be told twice as they quickly got to their feet and ran towards Junsu and Yunho's direction.




"You tried to kill my father!" Junsu cried out as he kicked Yunho in the stomach that sent him slamming against concrete wall.

Grimacing, Yunho clutched at his middle as he got back on his feet. "For the last time I said I didn't try to kill him."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Junsu roared as he punched Yunho on the face. "Why aren't you fighting me back?!"

Yunho spit out blood, the corner of his mouth bleeding. "I kept a promise to Jaejoong that I won't hurt you."

"What the hell do you know about promises?" Junsu yelled as he toppled Yunho to his back, strangling him.

"You were constructed... after his brother's genetic make up." Yunho choked out. "You're important to him. So I won't... fight you."

"You're full of crap!" Junsu retorted, eyes filled with tears as he squeezed Yunho's neck tighter.

The door slammed wide open.

"Junsu! Yunho!" Yoochun and Jaejoong exclaimed in unison, their eyes widening in shocked alarm at the scene that they had walked in. Quickly, they rushed towards their respective lovers. Yoochun pulled a fuming Junsu off Yunho's form, holding him back as his best friend fell beside Yunho, hands roaming his body, checking him for any wounds. His eyes landed on the cut on Yunho's lips.

"I'm fine." Yunho assured, coughing as he slowly got up with the aid of Jaejoong.

"But you're bleeding."

"This is nothing."

"Yunho-yah."

Yunho massaged his neck before he answered. "I've been in a worse condition. You know that. So don't worry about me."

"Yoochun ah, let me go." Junsu continued to fume as he looked at Jaejoong, who was frowning at him. "If you're really my brother then you should understand what I'm going through!" he yelled, voice desperate. "He tried to kill Appa. He tried to kill him!"

Jaejoong looked between Junsu and Yunho. He was confused, feeling ed up and just... what was he supposed to say?

"I told you I didn't hurt him. I didn't even see him that day!"

"You burned the agency down!" Junsu pointed out the obvious.

It was hard trying to talk sense to this hybrid. Yunho knew that he was brought up as a human being by his creator, thus he tends to act like one, but it didn't mean he had to like it. "Your father said that he was going to get out of the place right after I escaped!"

"W-what did you say?" Junsu suddenly stopped in his angry fit, Yunho's words sinking in. "When did you talk to my father?"

Yoochun's hold on him loosened as he gently pulled Junsu's back to his chest, trying to calm him down. "Shhh. Sunnie, stop now."

Yunho had been sworn to secrecy by that particular scientist as a subject. But he guessed, he didn't have to anymore. Not when he had been living his life as a human for nearly a month and thus in extension, had freedom and the will to do whatever he wanted.

"I had nearly gotten terminated myself because of the decision that I made. But you see, I don't regret it, because it led me to Jaejoong." Yunho replied, entwining Jaejoong's fingers with his own. "That day when I went back to the agency, they gave me the file for my next assassination mission. The last target I had been instructed to terminate..." he trailed off, as he locked gazes with Junsu. "It was you."