GD suddenly faints in front of me, his body limply falling down on the floor. Scared yet worried, I kneel down in front of him and start to shake him awake. "G! G!!" I shout, calling him but his eyes remain close.

His Esurient is glowing, like what Chaerin described before whenever it's activated. It's too late--I am too late. It's been activated before I can even save him.

I am about to stand up to check on the others when I feel something cold on my shoulder. Looking down, I see GD looking up at me with the same warm eyes.

"G." I call out, my eyes starting to tear up. "Are you fine? Do you--Uk!" His hand on my shoulder suddenly grasps my neck, preventing air to go in my windpipe. GD stands up, pulling me up until my feet can no longer touch the ground.

"G--D!" I call, my voice stuck and warm tears start to go down from my eyes. "Don't--do--this! This--is--not--what--you--want!"

His hand starts to tighten around my neck, making it harder to breathe. He's definitely going to kill me unless I remove the Esurient from his body, but even if I reach out my hands, it won't grasp his piercings.

The door opens suddenly, calling my attention, and the other members come in. Seungri is drooling while he keep on mumbling, "Kill mundanes. Kill the unfavored ones!"

They close in on me but I can only focus on their glowing red piercings and the fact that I have failed Chaerin. I close my eyes and prepare for my death when suddenly I hear a loud clashing of metal. Hastily, I open my eyes and see Top clutching a metal bar in his hand.

"T-op!" I exclaim and GD suddenly tightens his grasp on my neck. Top places a finger on his mouth, indicating for me to keep quiet and he sneaks in behind GD. He raises the metal, aiming closely at GD and hits him behind his back. GD lets go of my neck as he falls, dropping me on the floor between him, Seungri and Daesung.

I cough violently and Top helps me up. "Are you okay?" He asks, dropping the metal bar on the floor. I nod, still grasping for air.

"How--did?" I can't finish my sentence. My neck hurts so much from GD's violent grasp. Top slowly replies, "You told me to take off my Esurient for an hour remember?"

I raise my eyebrows. "N-o!"

He shrugs. "Anyway, I took it off before it turned red. Mine exploded. What happened to the others?"

Top takes a glance at the other members. "I took down Youngbae when he tried killing me."

"There's no time to...explain." I say, massaging my neck. "Let's go to Chaerin's house."

"Chaerin?" He repeats but I pull him out from the house to shelter, not answering his question.

The shortcut is still there. Top looked absolutely normal if it weren't for his makeup after he took off his piercings, and it was easy hiding him. We took the rocky path towards the Lees' mansion, where the door to the dirty kitchen is located.

We entered the house quietly. All the lights were turned off, which means everyone is in bed. I pulled Top to the stairs, and turn right to Chaerin's room. She quickly answered the door. "Dara!" She hisses then looks around. "Come in."

We enter her room that smells faintly of strawberries and sugar, and Top cringes in disgust. Chaerin lets us sit on the couch before her bed, and walks deliberately to the small table where her dose of red bull is located.

She handed us a can each, and Top incredulously looks at his own. Chaerin crosses her arms and asks, "What are you two doing here in the middle of the night?"

I open the can for Top and then open mine before replying, "The Esurients were suddenly activated."

Chaerin nods at Top. "Then what he's doing here?"

Top looks at her back. "I should be asking the same to you. What are you doing here, CR?"

"I told him to take his Esurient off for an hour a day. It was lucky that he took it the same time it was activated." I answer, trying to ease the negative air between the two. But Top's still glaring at Chaerin.

"I am Lee Chaerin, Kwon Jiyong's little sister." Chaerin introduces herself, probably deciding it’s no use to have a glare fight with Top. "And also CR, Lee Seunghyun's girlfriend."

“You’ve been deceiving us, eh?” He asks, clicking his tongue against his teeth and then turns to me, “And you know all along?”

I was about to reply when Chaerin suddenly speaks, “Don’t be too hurt, Top. I did it for all of you. If I didn’t get Dara inside the Haunted House, you won’t be standing here peacefully. You’d be in the Terribilis Locus, waiting commands from the president to kill.”

“Then why the others are not here?” Top asks, his hand almost crushing the can of Red Bull he’s holding.

“Obviously,” Chaerin starts. “We started too late. It’s a good tactic for Dara to ask you the favor but then she maybe found it hard to convince the others. Moreover, the Pax sighting caused the mayor to prematurely attack.”

“What are your reasons for doing this?” He asks again, inquisitively and starts drinking. I’m glad he has already relaxed.

“My father died investigating something. Dara got hold of his documents, which we never finished up to the tenth. We’re down to eight, I think.” Chaerin answers. “What we know for now is that my father is a Pax, as well as the other members of 1TYM.”

“So what are we doing again?” Top asks as we all sit in a circle as I open the envelope Kwon Henry left. We’re down to eight. We can save humanity.

“We’re going to see the next answers.” Chaerin answers, rolling her eyes. “If my grandmother is still alive, maybe she can make us another concoction or there is another way to change this.”

I sigh and rip the sleeves of my shirt, showing my Pax tattoo. Top shrieks, “You’re a P-P-Pax?”

“Shut up!” Chaerin shouts, slapping his thigh. “This is not the time to react harshly. She has always been a Pax.”

“S-So S-S-She’s--?” Top asks, tilting his head. Chaerin rolls her eyes again and answers, “Of course.”

Ignoring them, I open the envelope and grab the next paper. It’s a runny handwriting, as if drenched in water.

May 11, 1981

I was appointed as the president's advisor and his direct command, even being the leader of a Haunted House. I report and give him advice every month.

And today, he specifically asked me what to do with Paxes.

I told him to let them be because they mean no harm but the president looked as if it's the opposite. As if Paxes can do something that can turn the balance of monstrosity and humanity in this world around.

Chaerin frowns. "I don't like where this letter is going."

The president asked me to advise him plans to do with Paxes. Lately, he adds, they have been killing monsters for fun. They drink their blood to satisfy their hunger, or make them slaves in turn for not eating them.

He specifically told me to make a bomb to kill my kind.

As I was making a bomb, that can make Paxes temporarily die, I decided to make tests with a monster’s, a Pax’s and a mundane’s blood. I’ve clearly made a promise to myself to answer the things I cannot answer just by being a Pax.

“That’s it.” I announce, narrowing my eyes. “The other parts are unreadable.”

“For the love of Kwon Jiyong!” Chaerin exasperatedly shouts.

“Yah, don’t suddenly shout Kwon Jiyong. It gives me the creeps.” Top scorns Chaerin, rolling his eyes.

“Kwon Jiyong?” I ask, looking at them as the paper turns into dust.

Chaerin’s eyes widen and she whistles. “The cat’s already out of the bag.”

“You were the one who took it out from the bag.” Top rebuts, sighing. “He specifically told us to keep it a secret from Dara.”

I frown. “Hey, who’s Kwon Jiyong?”

They both look at me with resentment and answers, “It’s GD.”

“GD’s Kwon Jiyong?” I repeat, exasperate. If he’s Kwon Jiyong, then the reason why I hold myself from loving GD before then was because of himself? And I indirectly told GD that I want to marry him?

I blush in embarrassment and Chaerin was about to point it out when a silver ball appears from god-knows-where and faces the blank wall. Then, it started to project something.

I recognize Kwon Henry beneath his thick lab coat and round glasses because of his resemblance with GD, though his hair is black and shaggy. He’s observing something as he writes on a parchment. In front of him were three vials with black, pink and red fluids.

The door suddenly opens and Kwon Henry spills a clear fluid over the parchment. He groans and speaks incoherently under his breath. A brusque man appears from the left, his muscles ripped and big.

“Oh.” Top gushes monotonously. “It’s Hyu, the president’s personal bodyguard. He hasn’t changed even up to now.”

“You mean his face didn’t change or his body?” Chaerin asks but her eyes are still focused on the video. Top shrugs. “Both actually. What he looked like that year is still what he looks like this year.”

“That can’t be.” Chaerin snorts. “My mother changed for the past 20 years—“

“Hyu-sunbaenim.” Kwon Henry greets the newly arrived man, his face showing his stress. Hyu crosses his arms, unintentionally flexing his biceps and answers, “I was told to watch you do the bomb by the president, in case you die.”

Kwon Henry smiles. “Well, that’s a thoughtful act, sunbae. And may I remark that you haven’t changed since 20 years ago. Just like the president himself.”

“I don’t like where this is going so shut up, Henry.” Hyu answered, his muscles hardening. Henry must’ve sensed the tension and decided to continue on his research. The ball detonates and explodes into a puff of smoke, leaving no evidence it existed behind.

“It must be because we don’t have that much connection from the government that we don’t know anything.” Top suddenly speaks. “I thought before that Hyu’s family call all the sons Hyu to retain the name and the job but I didn’t realize it’s physically impossible to look exactly alike your first ancestor. And the president himself, I don’t know if the throne is given to his heir or there’s a voting session the citizens are not aware of.”

“The government is really mysterious.” Chaerin commented and then asks, “You haven’t seen the president at all?”

“My father’s one of Kwon Henry’s colleagues in Research and Development and I quite have seen the president before in my father’s work. But I can’t remember his face clearly. Moreover, the president is really meticulous when it comes to meetings. He prefers calls than meeting in person. I don’t know if I’m talking of the same president up to this day.”

“Well that’s odd.” Chaerin comments. “But then how can we know?”

I look back at the place where the ball had been. Learning things at once, I find it hard to think between GD being Kwon Jiyong all along, and the mystery behind Hyu and the president.

However, my heart is straight on its goal to save GD.