Aishhhh, sorry for the super late update, I was on a trip for the last two days... Mianhae!!!

Welcome 11 new subbies and thanks Eunriehyun for upvoting!! :)

Author’s POV

“Hyuk, take a look at this,” Leeteuk swung the microscope lens towards Eunhyuk. “Tell me what you see.”

Eunhyuk took a peek and then arched his eyebrow at the elder. “What do you want me to see? Isn’t this the same slide we saw last time?”

“Just look carefully. Bottom left corner, again.”

“Hmm, I really don’t see anything.”

Leeteuk hummed and drummed his finger on the table. “True, I realized that what I saw could only be seen by chance. You and Kanginnie must have the worst of luck, ever.”

“Hey, that’s not very nice, hyung.”

The elder smirked. “That’s why I’m such a nice hyung and snapped a micrograph just when the tiny white spot appeared again.” He gestured towards the screening room. “I’m such a genius hyung, right?”

Eunhyuk rolled his eyes while grinning. “But why so secretive and everything? You could have just shown Kangin hyung or told Hae to tell me about it. Why did you want me to see it in person?”

“I don’t really know why, I just had this feeling in my gut. Pun intended.”

Rolling his eyes for the second time, Eunhyuk followed Leeteuk into the screening room. The latter spoke up. “Do you remember the last time I showed you the micrograph of the bacteria?” His expression turned dead serious as he turned around to look at Eunhyuk. Getting a nod in reply, he continued. “I’ve found out the cause for its mutation. It’s actually because of a phage. A bacteriophage, to be precise. The bacteria was only acting as a host.”

Eunhyuk widened his eyes. “A bacteriophage??? That’s really awful!! That means it can replicate itself from one single virus to hundreds and thousands and millions of copies!!”

Leeteuk nodded in affirmation. “I didn’t want to believe it myself, but it seems that it’s true. I have a really good friend in the biomed research department and sent in a sample of the blood. She told me the bacteria was innocent and actually scolded me for blaming the bacteria. Can you believe her?? She said the existence of E. coli is totally normal in humans. Aish, as if I don’t know that myself.”

Eunhyuk was pacing about the room with one arm folded across his chest and another hand holding his chin, thoroughly processing all the new information he just received. He furrowed his brows for a moment before meeting Leeteuk’s tired eyes. “But that doesn’t really make sense, does it?? I thought bacteriophages weren’t supposed to affect the host at all? They just use them to reproduce, and then they leave the host, right?”

“This isn’t a normal bacteriophage. Ahh who am I kidding, bacteriophages aren’t normal at all. You forget that once the phage is done replicating itself, the whole lot bursts out of the host, thus completely destroying it and releasing millions of themselves into the environment.”

“That’s exactly my point, they shouldn’t mutate the bacteria at all. Unless…” Eunhyuk paused for a moment.

“Unless what?”

“I don’t know, I thought you would finish the sentence for me.”

Leeteuk tried to hide a grin as he began putting the micrographs into the screening device. His face returned to serious as the images showed onscreen.  First, there was a picture of the same mutated E. coli they had seen before. He tapped on the screen right in the middle of the picture, where small, faint lines could be seen. “Tell me, what are they?”

“Chromosomes?”

“Are you sure?”

“Aren’t they?”

“Take a closer look.” Leeteuk zoom