Heechul was sitting in the science officer section of the military base outside Seoul that his father had moved them to. They were in an orange warning lockdown as far as Heechul could tell, which meant he’d be spared from classes for a while, which also meant he was bored as hell and trying to find a way to pilfer more information about what was going on here.

His father hadn’t told him exactly, just that there was some kind of chemical warfare happening. They hadn’t found the source, but they had suspicions. The chemicals so far were just making people really sick. Some of the subjects his father had looked at had recovered within a few days, others had died. Their corpses were under clearance with lots of security. Heechul didn’t exactly want to go looking at them, but it was interesting that they were being protected so well. He was playing with a paper airplane when his silence was imposed upon by a brown paper bag dropped in his lap. Heechul looked up to see Siwon.

Siwon was a military brat like him, one of the few other young people on the base right now. Like Heechul, his father was before him in the military career, but unlike Heechul, Siwon took it seriously and planned to be military for life. Heechul couldn’t wait to serve his time and get out, he couldn’t wait to find a way out of here now and Siwon might just be the ticket he needed. The guy was soft like warm gummy bears on the inside, an easy target.

“What’s this?” Heechul asked, holding up the bag.

“Lunch,” Siwon said simply and made himself comfortable in a chair beside Heechul.

“Thanks.” Heechul began pulling out sticks of grilled meat and a couple of pastry wrapped sausages. He figured Siwon intended to share this, so he offered some of it over.

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Siwon said, “How have you been?”

Heechul only saw Siwon during staff retreats his father took him too anymore. They used to hang out more when they were kids, before Heechul moved off base to live like a normal person and met Leeteuk. “I’m good,” He said as he took a bite of chicken. “How are you doing in all this?” Heechul motioned the base as a whole.

Siwon chuckled. “It’s actually kind of fun. School is boring, but we get special training sessions with some of the top guys, so that’s nice.”

“You’ve put on some muscle.” Heechul teased and ate more.

“Really? It’s not much. I just do the standard military routine.”

Heechul smirked. “And then sneak in a few more hours when no one’s watching.”

Siwon could have been blushing as he held his hands palm up to assure Heechul he wasn’t doing anything like that. Heechul shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

“So besides eating and working out, or trying to figure out what the hell is going on, what’s there to do around here?” Heechul asked.

Siwon shrugged. “Not a whole lot since we’re on lockdown with no shore leave.”

Heechul smirked. “You know what we should do?”

Siwon waiting expectantly.

“We should sneak out, just to see if we could do it.”

Siwon shook his head. “That’s stupid.”

“Oh come on, you can’t tell me you’re not interested in what’s going on out there.” Heechul tried.

“Not really, it’s more fun in here. I mean, we get information as soon as it’s necessary to hear it.”

“Boring.” Heechul drolled.

“Maybe for you, but I like it.”

“You always have liked it.” Heechul chuckled and shrugged. “Alright, then show me around or something, I don’t want to just sit here.”

Siwon nodded and stood up. “You want a full tour?”

“Anything.” Heechul nodded and tossed their garbage before getting up to follow along.

With Siwon showing him everything, Heechul began his escape route, paying close attention to which guards were good guys and when their rounds were. He may actually have a chance to get back to Leeteuk after all.

Leeteuk was sitting in his first class of the day, half listening as Donghae talked about Eunhyuk as if he were crushing hard. Leeteuk was staring at the back of Sohee’s head. The girls’ return had brought the end of Heechul’s friendship and the loss of Kangin too. He went back to being the protector of the girls and ignored Leeteuk and his group of nerds altogether now. Maybe if the girls had just stayed out, Heechul would still be here with him. Maybe if he wasn’t being retarded right now, he could forget Heechul existed, his brain chided him. Sighing, Leeteuk looked at Donghae and gave him a soft, fake, smile.

He felt like he was floating as they went into their next class. His body was still there in the motions of habit he’d created for himself, but his soul was reliving the short amount of time he’d had with his best friend before he’d gone away again. Leeteuk should have kissed Heechul. He should have pinned him to his bed and pressed Heechul to his will with soft and hard kisses, made him moan. These thoughts took up the majority of their second class and first break.

Leeteuk broke out of that melancholia just long enough to hear the homework for his two favorite classes. Lunch was worse. His friends knew he wasn’t interested in anything anymore so they’d stopped trying to get him involved in their dance routine. Leeteuk just sat near them in silence, remembering how Heechul used to sit purposefully close to him.

In their last two classes, Leeteuk stared at Heechul’s chair and let his boiling anger take over in him again. It was easier since once in a while he’d catch Kangin’s eye and get a glare in return from him. If he were stronger, Leeteuk would punch him in the face.

This daze of life continued for Leeteuk through the week. He spent time with his sister at home and she managed to lift his mood, but only a little. It was just like when Heechul left the first time. Leeteuk was so unsure of everything he did, he didn’t want to do anything for fear someone else would leave him. He’d even stopped filming his vlogs because he couldn’t bear to look at himself longer than a few seconds in the mirror every morning.

Inyoung went back to college and destroyed what was left of Leeteuk’s fragile well-being. Without his sister, he felt lost. Even though his mom had always been supportive, she just didn’t feel like a safe place Leeteuk could hide his fears and worries. He spent the weekend alone, in his room, ignoring all texts and phone calls from Sora and Donghae.

The next Monday’s class woke everyone from their ignorant stupor.

Leeteuk was staring at the back of Sohee’s head again but this time because he’d noticed her hair falling out. It wasn’t a rapid shedding, but she was definitely developing a sizeable bald spot on the back of her head.

Donghae hadn’t noticed but as soon as he realized Leeteuk was far too interested in something else, he looked up. “What the..?” He asked softly.

“Did that start over the weekend?” Leeteuk asked.

“It must have,” Donghae whispered.

Leeteuk and Donghae kept their distance as they walked past the girls on the way to their next class. Leeteuk noticed Jessica’s skin as they walked by and it wasn’t looking good for her. Most of the skin on her arms and fingers was peeling off like some kind of bad sunburn was finally sloughing off. But where the hell had she gotten a sunburn in the middle of autumn?

 Donghae made a face like he might puke when Leeteuk told him about it and they both stared at the girls as they walked into the class. They didn’t act sick and they weren’t even trying to hide what was happening to them, which was even more curious. Leeteuk wondered what Heechul knew even more as his voice popped into his head about avoiding the sick. Were these maladies the girls had, contagious? And if so, what the hell was it? Leeteuk had never seen an illness like that.

They discussed it heavily during first break. Even Sora and Eunhyuk dropped talking about the dance to join in the search for what Jessica and Sohee were going through. Donghae found what he figured was a match, first.

“Desquamation,” he said and pointed to the images he’d found. “Jessica’s hands look exactly like that.” He kept reading and shrugged. “Maybe they have scarlet fever?”

Leeteuk kept searching, because that wouldn’t explain Sohee’s hair. He found radiation poisoning, but they were nowhere near something like that. No one had been bombed and no nuclear plant was leaking that he was aware of. Mercury poisoning, toxic shock syndrome, Leeteuk kept flipping through notes to try and find something. They ran out of time before they could conclude anything. Donghae stuck with the scarlet fever theory and Leeteuk was leaning toward radiation poisoning, even though it made no sense.

Unable to pay attention in class, Leeteuk kept searching on his phone. He found Solanum and nearly laughed in class. The zombie virus seemed as ridiculously pointless as radiation poisoning.

They reconvened at lunch in time to watch Jessica being taken home by an equally sick looking parent. Leeteuk was starting to get scared. Even if it was just scarlet fever, that was still pretty nasty. But why would Heechul want him to stay away from sick people? Just in general, stay healthy, or was it something bigger that the military was involved in now? None of their group could focus enough to eat lunch and they spoke under the tree in whispers about what was happening.