We were situated in a room, staring anxiously at Ren who avoided our gaze. He sat tucked into his hotel bed while we stood or sat around him. He bit his lip nervously as he knew that he had to tell us what was going on right now.

“First of all, who are you?” Kris engaged and Ren sat up straighter still avoiding our gazes.

“Almost everything about me that I have told you about is true.” He started out slowly and softly. “My real name is Choi Min Ki and I am fifteen years old. I was born in Seoul and Ren is a…nickname of mine.” He breathed deeply as if preparing himself for the next piece of news he would reveal to us.

“But there are things that I am keeping from you and that I had to keep from you. If you would listen to me before asking any questions, I would gladly tell you almost everything.” A few of us opened our mouths to protest until he spoke again. “There are things that I can’t tell you because I’m not obliged to. As much as I want to tell you, I can’t. When it is the right time, I will but for now, I really can’t. I hope you understand.” He bowed to us in apology and when he raised his head, he saw that we were waiting for him to continue.

He sighed. “I’m not exactly human.” He said, flinching a bit. “But I’m not exactly like you either.” He paused, flinching before continuing. “Inside of me, I have been injected with the blood and the DNA of multiple creatures.” He took off his shirt and we all gasped at the amount of tiny holes decorated on his body. A huge scar ran down his back and a few other scars and scratch marks dotted his skin. He groaned, pursing his lips together.

“Werewolf, vampire, fairy, elf, angel, demon, and merman DNA and blood are all in me. I’ve been…” He struggled for his words, wincing for a moment and sighed once more. “I’ve been experimented on for the past six years. Six years ago, I was a perfectly fine and healthy human being who had no idea that a sort of world like this with mythical creatures existed. But then, I was experimented on again and again. Strangely enough, my human blood was the only type of blood capable with the other types of bloods he injected me with.” He paused and turned his gaze to his hands that shook in fear. He was flinching every now and then whenever he tried to finish a sentence or say a word. 

“I’m not exactly human anymore. I’m practically a walking and living experiment. I-I-I’ve been living like that for six years now and it’s agonizing.” He stared up at us with teary eyes. “I miss being just human. Now I have to watch my every action so that I won’t make a mistake or cause any trouble. If I didn’t control myself, a simple touch could cause a person’s death. And I don’t want that.” He whimpered painfully.

Eun Mi made a move towards him with sympathetic eyes. “How-How could you survive all that pain?” She patted his back lightly and he shook with sobs. Turning to her, he shook his head with a wry smile. Chuckling dryly, he said, “Not if I was alive.”

Eun Mi’s eyes widened in shock and her jaw gaped open in disbelief. “Wait, wait, what do you mean by that?” Baek Hyun stepped forward, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Ren scoffed dejectedly, turning his gaze to his hands once more. He clasped them together and clenched them tightly. “Not if I was alive. I wouldn’t have survived all those experiments if I was alive.” He shook his head. Slowly, everyone was beginning to understand his words.

“You’re-You’re-You’re-”

Ren turned to stare at everyone before coming to a stop at Eun Mi’s black eyes widened in realization and horror. “I’m dead.” A moment later, he grimaced painfully and he shook his head rapidly to clear his thoughts.

“But that doesn’t make any sense! You’re here right now and you’re breathing and living and-”

“And that’s what makes it all the more impossible. I’m not supposed to be breathing, living, and eating, and doing whatever humans whom are alive are supposed to do. When you’re dead, you’re heart stops and your body basically shuts down. When I died, everything shut down for me and I died. The reason why I’m able to sit and talk like this,” He flinched. “It is because my heart is basically a machine. My heart has been replaced with a real live running machine that regulates my pulse and pumps my blood for me. It reacts to my emotions and my thoughts with a wire that connected to my brain.” He pointed to his forehead, flinching while doing so.

“I’m able to be alive because of the blood that has been injected into me as well. The blood in me isn’t mine but a mixture of all the bloods of the creatures. Your blood is magical. It keeps you guys alive as well as dead humans alive. The properties in your blood include a lot of healing cells that repair and heal injuries and wounds. And these cells are what keep most of you alive when you are severely injured. To you, it is injuries that trigger the cells. To humans, it is a dead pulse. The blood running in me basically keeps me alive. Though it does nothing for my complexion, leaving me pale as a ghost, it does a whole lot for my body.”  He explained, biting back a wince.

“But how?” Chen stepped up and faced Ren curiously.

“How did I die?” Ren blinked at Chen for a moment before nodding. “It’s related to today’s incident.”

“Six years ago, I was a fifteen-year-old. I had no parents and no siblings. I was an orphan and I lived in an orphanage along with other children. It was summer time and the orphanage brought us all out to the beach to have fun. Have fun we did. I was too caught up with playing that I didn’t realize I was slowly being carried out to the ocean. Once I realized, it was too late. I couldn’t swim and I was drowning. I called out to everyone I knew for help, my hyungs, the couple who owned the orphanage whom I called mom and dad, and everyone at the orphanage. But they couldn’t save me; I was too far out. When I couldn’t keep myself up anymore, my h