Taking my hands into his, he ran his fingers over my palm, tracing the lines and wrinkles as he stalled for more time. I knew because he wasn't looking at me and rather, anywhere but at me. The floor, my hands, off to the side where the guys were working, at Jongin sitting on my right.

"Hyung, please hurry up and talk already. You're making this out to be worse than it is," Jongin sighed, leaning back and running a hand through his black hair. He turned and looked at me with the same expressionless eyes from before, "Just pinch him or something, or he'll take another million years before he tells you. Seriously." The way his eyes twinkled showed his amusement at the idea of Chanyeol being pinched.

And the way he spoke to me sounded so familiar and friendly, his banter as if he already knew who I was. Where on Earth could I have met him? I wondered.

Chanyeol looked up then, "He's your best friend, okay?" He said, exasperated. Finally, finally he was looking at me. Searching his eyes, I could see he was telling the truth. 

"My... best friend?" I frown. I clearly do not remember this. Since when have I ever had friends? Especially because I have yet to make another friend apart from Chanyeol. "Are you sure you're not making this up?" I ask, because everything that they seem to be expecting right now is the opposite of who I am. "Sure, I sounded bold earlier when I said I wanted to hear about the truth. But that also doesn't mean you can make up weird... facts."

Throwing his hands in the air, Jongin stood up while mumbling incoherent words as he stalked away to join the others.

"He said you're 'such an airhead'," Chanyeol commented, making air quotes, "But I know you're not," he added, leaving me to blush at his little side comment.

"You don't even know me that well," I quipped, doing my best to remain unflustered. This boy sure is cool and collected when he says these things. Does he know what he's doing to my poor heart? I'm going to kick the bucket soon if he keeps it up. "We hardly know each other and most of the time, we only see each other in the hallway of our apartments or randomly bump into each other at university."

"Oh, but I do know you. Every possible thing," he replied. The way he now stared at me compared to his hesitation to do so from before unnerved me. Are you bipolar or something? Sheesh. "No. I have an absolutely, perfectly fine mental health, thank you very much," he huffed, pouting cutely.

"Please don't do that," I mutter, looking away. See what I mean about dying early? He has very deadly moves, this one.

I hear him shift his position and feel the seat beside me sink as he sat down. "Are you going to talk about the... stuff or not?" I ask.

"Shush. I'm getting there, but I'm sure you are not going to be pleased. At all," he grimaced, his warms hands still rubbing warm circles on my palm. "Listen closely, okay?" I nod and he launches into my history. Our history. Little did I know that it would change my life 360 degrees.

---

Chanyeol fiddles around with his ripped jeans and my hand before finally taking a breath and beginning his explanations. "Please don't hate me when I say that I know pretty much everything about you after reading your file by accident and then stal- looking for you just to find out more?" He blurted out quickly.

"Uhhh, should I?" I ask. I heard him stumbling over a word and correcting himself, but I left him to continue because I wanted to hear more. I guess I should also be angry but since Chanyeol is already being so honest with me, I had no reason to be; sure, he now knows me better than I had first thought and he probably knows -

"Yeah, I kinda sorta know your fears enough to blackmail you," he muttered amidst my thought processes. "So, yes, you should really be quite angry. Enough to go Hulk on me," he joked, pretending to be the said character to relieve the quiet tension. 

When I gave no response except for the deadpan look on my face, he said, "Alright, alright. No need to give me that look."

"I suppose I'll begin from the start and do my best to answer your questions," he sighed, suddenly looking exhausted and like he had aged ten years.

"We -" he pointed at the others and himself, "- are all people who have been experimented on. Our abilities as such are simply enhancements of what we excelled in, though Jongin's for some reason seems the most extraordinary out of the five of us. It's not something we were born with, is what I'm saying. We... kind of ran away three years ago with what you can see here. Mostly just because Jongin could teleport the stuff to another place." Chanyeol looked at Jongin then,