A/N: Things are heating up it seems ^^

The ones who were all seated, stood up and turned to bow as Gain exited the room, brushing past Hyukjae without a glance and honestly Hyukjae just wanted to throw something at her head right now.

“Guys, meet up at lunch” he heard Kangin saying curtly, a few heads nodded and soon Donghae was by his side, threading his fingers through his still somewhat wet hair, the other hand finding Hyukjae’s easily ‘Come on, we are heading to the mess.”

Hyukjae stalled a little “I was hoping for some alone time.”

Donghae grinned cheekily “ Me too, after lunch, kay?”

Hyukjae nodded, his serious expressions just made Donghae’s smile falter “I meant to ask questions.”  Donghae noted how Hyukjae’s expressions had hardened “Hyuk, what was that earlier with Gain?” he whispered and Hyukjae nudged his side lightly “Not now.”

Donghae nodded in understanding, whatever it was Hyukjae could not talk about it openly, they begun to walk and soon got surrounded by Kyuhyun, Sungmin, Kangin and Leeteuk.

“Who do you think will be selected as team leaders?” Kyuhyun wondered out loud after having quickly introduced himself to Hyukjae, who felt sort of surrounded. Their small group was entering the mess,  where people were already busy getting or eating food from a long counter in the front of the room. “ I’m calling dibs on Leeteuk-hyung.” He threw his arm over Leeteuk, causing the other to giggle “I’ll keep you in mind” the older teased as he ducked from under Kyuhyun’s arm “Let’s all get food and meet up at the usual table.” While the rest hummed, Hyukjae felt like the new kid around the block. Soon he was being dragged by a very hungry Donghae, who filled up his plate till food piled on top of each other, Hyukjae only got some salad, the place did look a lot like a school cafeteria.

They returned with their trays to the table of serious looking faces, Hyukjae’s raised a brow had them glancing at each other as if silently debating something.

Kangin leaned forth, Kyuhyun finally joined them and the food was left untouched. Hyukjae liked hos Donghae was partially leaning towards him, their arms making contact as they both folded their forearms onto the table “So first thing is first, we have here someone whose known Gain longer than most of you.” He turned to Hyukjae “Your behavior in there was not exactly wise Hyukjae-ssi. ”

Hyukjae was surprised at how doubtful Kangin sounded right now and he just got not hold back either, hissing in a hushed whisper “ I can’t believe you guys are actually working for her!! Do you guys even know her past?!”

“Hyukjae, down boy.” Kyuhyun snorted in a not-so-friendly and Hyukjae’s pupils blazed with anger, Donghae had to whack Kyuhyun ‘s head from acrss the round table quickly before placing a gentle hand over Hyukjae’s as he whispered with a tender smile “Hyuk, we know her past has not been the most ideal, which is why we have been taking precautions of our own….like not taking our doses of the syrum” he added in a hushed tone after some hesitation and Hyukjae glanced at each one of them “All of you? Stopped?”

“Well we decreased it gradually, we were wondering anyways so we wanted to see just what happened if you stopped taking the syrum.” Sungmin added and then pointed to Donghae “ He volunteered to be the first one to stop taking it. As for now some of us are still taking it.”

Donghae nodded as Hyukjae’s gaze switched back to him “It varies from individual to individual but for me, initially I felt lethargic, as if I would run out of energy real quick, or get upset too quick, so mood swings I suppose but then, then I realized just how I was not that keen anymore about following orders, that’s where the discontentment came in.”

“Is this syrum the so called energy drink?” Hyukjae murmured to which donghae simply nodded “Okay, something is not right about this syrum either.” Hyukjae voiced out, not aware of the observant eyes on him.

Leeteuk however was staring at Donghae “Hae, since when have you been feeling this ‘discontentment’? Because at first I was hesitant of saying this, since I was not sure if you guys felt the same but…so have I.”

All eyes on the table turned to him in surprise mutterings of ‘me too’ began to chorus and then there was silence.

“So you became less of her slave…less keen to follow orders?” Hyukjae muttered more to himself. Kyuhyun spotted Joon come in and hushed them, Joon passed by, expressions as emotionless as ever  “what is up with that guy anyway” Sungmin wondered “he always seems so out of life. Anyways, Kyu we need to look more into just exactly what the syrum does to us? Kyuhyun nodded and it seemed as if he was making mental pointers.

There group huddled together even more, Kangin leaned further in “but Donghae, that would mean you would also be far from being able to go into Demon mode”

“What’s Demon mode?” Hyukjae immediately asked and Leeteuk responded “Might as well tell him, since he’s pretty much one of us now.”

“Probably the only quality of the syrum that kept some of us still taking it, it’s said that you need to take it for three days and the Demon mode will still work, but of course it would wear off sooner as well. Basically it allows your animal form to grow as large and tall as mountains.” Kyuhyun was speaking with hushed vigor. “Hence the name ‘demon’ “

Hyukjae’s brows were nearly reaching his hairline “You mean…if I take it for appropriate time I’ll be able to grow in my wolf form to become some demon wolf sort of thing?”

“That too, at will, you can return to your average size and increase once again, of course it depends just how much syrum you’ve taken” sungmin added.

It sounded like a double-edged sword.

“Wait a second, if you all already don’t trust her, why follow up with her plans? To top that why involve more people?” Hyukjae voiced out, donghae ran a hand through his hair, they needed to answer carefully so he spoke up before anyone else could. “That’s what we are going to talk of now, I was thinking, if we keep to the extent of finding out what’s really going on, we’ll have our answers and then we can act accordingly to what we see fit.”

“A rebellion” Kyuhyun muttered and all eyes were on him, his gaze travelled up to sungmin and he smirked “Hyung shares the same sentiments.”

Sungmin folded his hands on the table, his gaze steady and face entirely serious “Tonight we do our research, snoop around, find out more, talk to people, make friends, we never know, we might or might not need to resort to rebellion.”

“But guys, that’s exactly what happened back then” Hyukjae huffed, brows knit in deep concern “I used to work under Gain long ago, alright? Back then I don’t know whether any of you were around.”

“ Teuk hyung and I were. Donghae here was just a trainee back then” Kangin nodded.

“Right. We were given a task to follow, I was working under my task force leader, he was a middle-aged kind-hearted man. He probably found out something about her and within our group there was talk of rebellion. Next day he was reported ‘missing’.”

Hyukjae’s words caused a heavy hush to fall “My Father” Donghae’s flat voice caused Hyukjae to stare at him “It has to be. Gain mentioned you once worked under my father and now you saying this, there’s no doubt anymore.” Donghae clenched his jaw, his expressions dark. He recalled how insensitively Gain had talked of his ‘disappearance’. His nostrils flared “She doesn’t seem too concerned about it.”

“Then…chances she had a hand in his disappearance?” Kangin carefully muttered.

“100%” sungmin grunted darkly, chewing on his bottom lip.