I really couldn't be bothered to beta 14.5K words, so if you see anything, just give me a shout. I hope you enjoy the first part. It is only 7165 words, no biggie.

“I hate this.” Jongin complained, planting his face heavily against the table in front. An arm encircled its way around Jongin’s back.

“You can do it Jongin, I know you can. You have always achieved great things. I still can’t believe you are top of the class!” The person next to sighed handing a glass of water to the complaining male.

“Yes, but this final year dissertation is going to kill me, I swear. I don’t even know what to do.” Jongin turned to the male next to him, staring at him hopefully.

“Don’t look at me, I have no clue what you even need to do. I am not that academically capable unlike you.” Jongin opened up his laptop, typing in the term ‘medical mysteries’ into the search engine. A list of results flashed on the screen and he glanced through the outcomes.

“I have to do an essay on a medical mystery, but it just seems impossible. There are so many different ones, which isn’t the problem. The issue is that there is pretty much no information about any of the diseases or infections because no one knows anything about them. How am I even meant to find anyone with the disease? There aren’t exactly many people with, I don’t know, a water allergy.” The other male laughed. Just because Jongin was the cleverest person in his class evidently did not correlate with common sense.

“I can’t believe you are being so naive Jongin, there is one medical mystery that is around everyone. It just a coincidence that we weren’t affected by it. Or maybe we are or will in the future. We don’t even know.”

Jongin stared blankly at the other male, trying to work out what he was talking about. “What?”

“Why don’t you do your final year dissertation on the Greyscale Pandemic?”

It began in the year 2000. They called it the Greyscale Pandemic. On a person’s seventeenth birthday, at the time they were born, would become colour blind and only see the world in black and white. However, this only affected a few people: about half of the population. The rest of society lived life normally with coloured vision.

That was until some people who had Greyscale was suddenly able to see the colours again whilst other people who had ordinary vision became colour blind all of a sudden.

It remained a medical mystery for many years.

The illness created problems. Many people who required coloured sight as part of their job lost their profession as they could not perform the appropriate tasks properly. Occupations included doctors, designers and teachers. Nowadays, before a person could go to university to do their chosen degree, they would had to take an extra test to see if they were affected by Greyscale.

Most people came accustomed to the illness with the assumption that everyone had it and it was part of the luck in whether they got affected by it or not. In a way, it helped with society being that everyone thought that if they were good to the culture, then they would be rewarded with normal sight when they became seventeen. Others just lived life to the fullest where they would try to achieve as much as possible before they reached the age.

It was the perfect topic for Jongin’s essay, really. He could try and find the cause of the disease or infection (whatever it was). He had been particularly lucky. For he was one of the fortunate people who did not get affected by it and was able to chase his dreams of becoming a doctor. Because of the lack of people passing the Greyscale test, Jongin was able to get into a respectable university to study the course of his dreams.

Jongin sat at the table on his own at a local coffee shop, pieces of paper sprawled out where he had written possible ideas of the causes of the illness. He was still waiting for his order to arrive, a caramel macchiato, but he could tell that the café was a little busy so he continued to focus on his work.

That was until some brown hot liquid spilt onto him and his work.

“Oh my goodness! I am so sorry! I honestly didn’t mean to. The café is really hectic right now and I just slipped as I tried to bring you your drink. Hang on let me get you some tissues.” Jongin stared at his work as the worker ran off. His pieces of paper with all of his work! What was he going to do!? He was certain that now he would probably fail this project and then fail university and live out the rest of his life on the streets.

A wad of tissues were thrown onto him and the table as the worker came back. “I hope this is okay and that I didn’t ruin anything. Oh my goodness, I am going to get fired. I really don’t want to get fired. I need the funds if I want to go to univers-”

“It’s okay.” Jongin smiled, inspecting the worker. Tall, probably taller than him, with a light shade of brown hair. He turned to the worker’s name badge: Sehun.

“Honestly, if you want me to do anything for you, I will do it. Do you want me to rewrite your notes for you?” Sehun asked, continuing to wipe the table with the tissues and throwing them away in a nearby bin.

Jongin lifted his damp notes, inspecting the damage. “My notes seem okay actually, there wasn’t a lot written on them and I had used biro ink so it hasn’t really smudged. It won’t take me too long to write them again anyway – they were just rough notes.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I finish work in about fifteen minutes, if you want, you can come round to my place and I can wash your clothes? I am not forcing you, only if you want to.”

Jongin smiled. “Sure, that sounds great.”

Sehun walked back to the table twenty minutes later. “I am sorry that I am slightly late, the manager had a rant at me for causing such a mess. I have been docked today’s wage, but at least I haven’t been fired.” Sehun smiled as he waited for Jongin to pack up his items. When Jongin was ready, Sehun led the tanned male out of the café and in the direction of his apartment.

“So how old are you Sehun ssi?”

“Well I am sixteen at the moment, but I am turning seventeen in a few weeks. How about you?” Jongin turned his head to face the younger male. Turning seventeen soon? It was going to be a big day for Sehun then as he will be finding out whether or not he has Greyscale.

“Well I am twenty one, currently at university. Are you excited for your big day then?”

“Kind of, but I think I am more nervous. I am not sure how I would cope if I lost the colour of the world. I also want to become a photographer and an artist so if I can’t see colour, I am in big trouble.” Sehun laughed slightly before turning to the older male. “What are you studying?”

“I am training to become a doctor, so yes, I am studying medicine. It is great fun and it is really interesting. I currently have my final year project where I have to do some an essay on a medical mystery, which is interesting, but also hard. There isn’t much information online so I think I am going to resort to handing out questionnaires for people to do.”

“That sounds really interesting, it would be really cool if you could find out the cause of a mystery illness. You would get a Nobel Prize and everything! You would be known as the hero for figuring the cause. And then you would have to find some sort of medicine to solve it. You would become world famous. Ah, we are home. Hang on.” Sehun stopped walking when they reached a block of flats before typing in a few numbers to allow himself into the building. The younger male opened the door, letting Jongin in before taking him up five flights of stairs to his house. Sehun opened his rucksack, rummaging through it to find the key and opened the door. “We are home, it isn’t anything too big, but make yourself at home while I get you some clothes to borrow.”

Sehun walked off to an adjacent room as Jongin stepped in, looking at the walls. He was in awe when he saw the array of pictures and drawings, some hung up on the wall and other canvases leant against it.

Jongin could only think of one thing: if Sehun had Greyscale, then the world would miss out.

“Here.” Jongin turned before realising that there was some clothes being thrown at him. He caught it with ease before standing up. “The bathroom is to your left, just give me your clothes when you are changed. I will also remake your caramel macchiato again, if you want.” Jongin smile and nodded before walking off to the bathroom.

When Jongin returned to the scent of the coffee, he headed towards the kitchen where he found Sehun smiling as he hummed along to nothing. “Ah, thanks, just in time, I have finished making your drink. I will put your clothes in the wash and then join you in the living room.” Sehun smiled as he handed the drink over.

“So, tell me more about your project?” Sehun asked when he returned, a soft whirring from the washing machine could be heard from the background.

“Well I have to do a project on a medical mystery, as you know, so I was thinking about doing a project on the Greyscale Pandemic. But I don’t really know what to do, and how to do it. A case study would be good, but most of the people I know have already passed the age and either are already affect by it or nothing happened. The worst thing about Greyscale is that you can still get it at any point in your life. I guess that is what is most scary about it, I could just wake up tomorrow and have lost the colour of my sight and I would get kicked off my course.” Jongin explained, taking a sip of his drink every now and then.

“I know what you should do. You should do your experiment on me.” Sehun smiled.

“I couldn’t possibly do that, I barely know you.”

“You barely know me, but you willingly followed me to my house and you are still here. And besides, I am turning seventeen soon so you can do experiments on me. Think of it as my way of apologising for spilling the drink all on you earlier.”

“Alright, I guess. But I mean, you will have to spend a lot of time with me as there is a lot of experiments that I need to perform before and after you turn seventeen.”

“Why don’t we start now then?” Sehun questioned. Jongin turned into his bag, before going through one of the plastic wallets. He picked up a piece of paper and handed it over to the younger male.

“This is just confidentiality stuff. I don’t really know how to explain it, just give it a read and sign it if you are happy. Obviously, if you don’t sign it, then I can’t do the experiments on you.” Jongin stated as Sehun read the information before standing up and returning with a pen and signing the confidentiality agreement form.

“Great, now I just want a few bits of information about you. I need to know your full name, your date of birth, contact and other medical information. Obviously, if you don’t know your blood type and stuff, then I can arrange for us to stop off by at the university hospital so I can take some blood samples. We will need to do it anyway later on.”

“If you have the form, I can just fill it in myself.” Jongin handed the piece of paper over to the younger male and watched as Sehun put all of his attention onto the questions. Jongin laughed slightly as he noticed the younger male’s tongue sticking out in concentration.

“Here you go.” Sehun said when he finished, handing back the piece of paper.

“Great, well I guess I should probably go now, it is getting a little late anyway. Thank you for helping me anyway. I will call you once I have checked over everything.” Jongin smiled as he gathered everything back into his bag. A light flash struck Jongin’s eyes and he stepped back.

“Sorry.” Sehun blushed as Jongin blinked to get rid of the blind spots from his eyes. “I am scared that if I lose colour from my sight, I will miss out on a lot, so I want to take many photos to remind me forever of the small things that happen in life.”

Jongin smiled. It was quite a nice thing to do as a way to remember the memories if a person with Greyscale was able to get their coloured vision back. “That’s okay, I will see you another day then. Probably tomorrow.”

“Wait, your clothes!”

“You can give it to me again another time. It isn’t like it is the last time we will be seeing each other anyway.” Jongin smiled before leaving the apartment. As he left the building, his phone went off. “Hey Luhan, where are you?”

“That was why I was calling! I am waiting outside your apartment, why aren’t you home?”

“I am sorry, I didn’t realise that you were coming round and I met someone who wanted to take part in my experiment, so I was with him so that he could fill in some forms. I will be home soon.”

There was a pause before he received a response from the other end of the call. “Alright, I love you.”

“See you soon, Luhan. I love you too.”

Jongin called Sehun the next day announcing that he required the younger male to go to the university hospital to do some health checks.

“So why do you need to take my blood pressure? I mean, surely everyone has relatively similar blood pressures, and I doubt Greyscale affects specific people with low or high blood pressure. And with weight, I thought the illness had affected people of all weight. I swear I saw an article that some of the morbidly obese people were affected as well as the skinnier people.”

“I know that, but I need to know about you. You are my case study after all. And anyway, if there is something wrong, I might need to diagnose you, and with this information, it will make the process much easier.” Jongin explained as he reached over to get some medical equipment from one of the shelves.

“Alright, whatever you say. I feel like you are interrogating in my life, having said that, I gave you permission. I guess I just want to know more about you. I don’t even think I know your surname.”

“Kim. Kim Jongin.” Sehun sighed in relief. He had realised that after Jongin had left his apartment, the older male hadn’t even given his name. “I am from Seoul, and I have never tried drinking alcohol, drugs or cigarettes.”

“Really, I guess we will have to change that later, won’t we. Hang on, let me take a picture of you in your doctor’s coat.” Sehun winked at the older male, bringing out his camera to take a quick snap of Jongin, before placing the camera down and stepping up onto the scales. “What do the readings say?”

“Well, it says you are in the lower end of the scale in terms of weight, but you are not anorexic or overly underweight. Nothing particularly exciting. You can get off now. I just need you to sit on the chair over there.” Jongin requested, waiting for the younger male to sit down before wrapping a piece of material around his arm. “This won’t hurt, but you need to relax for this to work. This will measure your blood pressure. And then afterwards, I will need to take a sample of your blood for analysis, alright?” Sehun stared at the older male, nodding weakly and waited for the machine to work.

“Jo-Jongin, we have a slight problem that I have a phobia of needles and I don’t feel so good now.” Sehun explained. Jongin inspected the younger male, noting down that he was looking particularly pale against his already white skin. The student stood up and excused himself as he left his room, returning with a glass of water