I. DAWN

It’s started when she heard the loud noise one night, before it become a monthly activity for her, and it was really hard to ignore when she could literally feel something was coming under her skin. She knows it’s the time of the month again.

“Eun, it’s time,” Myungsoo whispered, as he got closer to his sister. “Hm,” Eunsoo mumbled back before she got up and startled Myungsoo a bit by her sudden move. “That nervous?” Eunsoo grinned, which caused Myungsoo to frown. “No, I’m just a little more excited than I should,” Myungsoo replied. “And why is that?” Eunsoo said as she grabbed her leather jacket and passed Myungsoo his. “I have this feeling that something interesting going to pop out from that train,” Myungsoo shrugged slightly. “You say that every time the train comes,” Eunsoo said nonchalantly. “Not particularly this one, I have a better instinct than yours, you have to admit it,” Myungsoo said. “You do, but that doesn’t make your instinct right, Soo,” Eunsoo whispered when she opened the door slowly.

“I am always right, Eun,” He whispered back as the slowly went through the corridor of rooms when they heard the train’s sounds and they quicken their steps to the east wing of the headquarter, where the train station located. It was super quite because everyone is asleep; it was almost dawn after all. They finally arrived at their destination as they watched the train came from a far, in case there were extra guards as the chance of getting caught was higher after midnight – and it’s not because they were afraid of getting caught, more like they were afraid they’ll miss out the fun part. 

“Forty six,” Myungsoo muttered. “That’s quite a lot,” Eunsoo replied. “Most of it were because of drugs and depression, I’ve been reading their cases and some of it was severe,” He said. “How surprising, what actually those humans could do better anyway? It’s almost pathetic,” She rolled her eyes. “Wanna bet?” She suddenly nudged his arm as her lips formed a smirk. “It has to be more than ten at least, forty six is a lot, I’m going to go with eleven,” He shrugged. “You are underestimating them, Soo, I’m going to go with twelve,” She said. “That’s unfair, it’s too close to my guess,” He snapped. “Life is unfair, deal with it, brother,” Eunsoo said before they could hear the sound of the stopping train.

At that moment both of them was focusing on the train’s door, holding their breath as it opened and revealed a couple of human’s polices and a group of older reborn who work at the medical field welcomed them. The next thing they saw was the polices were exchanging a couple words before the older reborn called someone. “There’s Jiyong hyung,” Myungsoo whispered suddenly. “Jiyong is always there, why are you so surprised–,” “And Sunggyu – wait, now what is that hyung doing there?” Myungsoo raised his brow. “What the-,” Eunsoo mumbled under her breath when she saw Kim Sunggyu entered the scene with the fake sickening smile he always shows whenever he deals with a human, actually standing beside Kwon Jiyong, who wass also showing a tight smile – and how she have to hold the urge to scoff out loud watching how those two trying so hard to be polite.

“What is he even doing there? Can he even wake up at this ungodly hour?” She hissed. “Why are they always loading the new reborn at this ungodly hours? Well, these types of questions are always left unanswered, right?” Myungsoo shrugged and got a light punch from Eunsoo. “Well, the train always come at midnight, but Sunggyu never came and you know that,” She replied. “Probably something excited will happen, just like what my instinct said,” Myungsoo snorted. “Shut up, here they comes,” Eunsoo said when she saw the first reborn come out, from a far he looked like a girl, but Eunsoo can tell that it’s a he. Then, all the new reborn started to come out one by one as they both counted.

“Impossible,” Eunsoo hissed when the train’s door was closing, means there are no more reborn. “Are you sure there are no more train coming?” She said. “Seriously, Eun,” Myungsoo rolled his eyes. “Six,” Myungsoo continued with a disbelief tone. “I won the bet then?” He said nonchalantly. “Six out of forty six people under twenty five who died,” She muttered. “Only six survived as a reborn,” She continued as she stared at her brother who nodded knowingly. “Human is getting weaker,”.

They left the station, and sneaked to the laboratory, where every new reborn goes before they can be released to the main building. And just like how a classic professional stalker they are, they entered the air vent, the one right above where the newborn laboratory located. The inside was quite spacious and they can hear clearly whatever conversation inside from the ceiling. A couple minute later – like how they expected, some of the doctors and a group of newborn entered the room, also Jiyong and Sunggyu were trailing behind them. “Look at the first one, blonde, skinny–,”. “Twenty seven,” One of the female doctors said. “What to expect honestly, another under a hundred, another under fifty,” Myungsoo shrugged. “Their yellow dorm is going to blow up anytime soon with this kind of new reborn coming every month,” Eunsoo scoffed. “Look at those thin arms, Eun, did you really expect him to be like, a hundred and fifty?” He raised his eyebrow as he smirked. “Because you can always judge how many minutes they had died before they woke up by their looks, can we,” She replied sarcastically.

They continued to watch as the doctors scanned the newborn’s wrist to detect their number and eventually sending all the newborns to their rooms with the guards. “Just like every month before, nothing really special, Myungsoo, there isn’t even someone above a hundred, the highest was sixty five and that blonde dude was the lowest,” Eunsoo sighed. “There won’t be any other reborn that can exceed us–,”. “Wait,” Myungsoo cut. “Sunggyu hyung isn’t there to waste his time to watch the usual newborn procedure, Eun, he is going to flip, so there has to be something,” Myungsoo muttered.

“Jungyeop-ssi,”. They froze when they suddenly hear both Jiyong and Sunggyu greeted the president. Myungsoo and Eunsoo stared at each other blankly as they saw the figure came into the room. “What is that uncle doing here?” Eunsoo mouthed. “I’ve told you something wrong, or great is happening,” Myungsoo mouthed back. “I want to introduce you guys to someone,” The president said as he signaled the guards to bring that someone in and it was a boy. And before he could say or do anything, the president grabbed the scanner from one of the doctors and held the boy’s wrist. A number was revealed and left the twins frozen once again.

“No – ing way,”.

---

“You guys, I know what you two did yesterday,” Dongwoo said when he reached the table, eyeing both Myungsoo and Eunsoo. “Stop hacking the database,” Dongwoo continued, rather seriously. “And who told hyung to warn us this time?” Myungsoo said, grinning at the end of the sentence. “Someone from the technical field, I don’t know his name,” Dongwoo replied as he put a slice of bacon inside his mouth. “Why didn’t he tell us himself then? If he has to pass the message through you, isn’t that mean that it was not that important?” Eunsoo smirked playfully. “Give him a break, Eun,” Dongwoo chuckled.

“Dongwoo hyung is probably the only one he have the courage to talk from any of us,” Sungjong snapped in as he disgustedly stared at his plate. “Bacon, bacon, gosh, do you want mine, Sungyeol hyung?” Sungjong groaned. “Give it to me, I need it more than Sungyeol,” Hoya snapped Sungjong’s hand before Sungjong put the bacon on Sungyeol’s plate. “I’m getting newborn today, the thought of it killing me already,” Hoya groaned with his mouth full of bacon. “I’m getting one too today, so quit being greedy with bacon,” Sungyeol hufted. “And since when you can stand a newborn, Yeol?” Myungsoo said. “Since the president requested it,” Sungyeol shrugged nonchalantly.

“I know what both of you did last night,” Sunggyu suddenly sit beside Dongwoo as he glared to both Myungsoo and Eunsoo. “Ha, that technical guy has enough balls to ask you to tell them both to stop hacking to the database?” Dongwoo said. “No, I’m talking about spying on the newborns,” Sunggyu hissed. “What are you talking about now?” Eunsoo shrugged. “Ha, nice try,” Kwon Jiyong – who was coming out of nowhere – suddenly snapped at Eunsoo as he passed through their table before he left to his group’s table and Eunsoo could only glared at him from the distance. “What’s the problem with that hyung? We know both of them do that occasionally,” Sungyeol shrugged. “That doesn’t justify their action, actually,” Hoya shrugged. “Stop being a , Hoya,” Eunsoo glared. “For goodness sake, you are all just have a problem with me, are you not?” She hissed. “But, yeah, you know, except Sunggyu hyung was there last night,” Myungsoo replied nonchalantly. “Sunggyu hyung managed to woke up at midnight? This need to go down on history,” Hoya snapped, again. “For your information, I am able to wake up anytime you want and I came because that uncle asked me to come, he said something interesting came up,” Sunggyu said as he eyed the president who was eating breakfast at the second floor. “If it was me, I am not going to settle with just interesting but suit yourself,” Eunsoo suddenly slammed her plate violently with her fork.

“What happened? Please do enlighten our morning,” Sungjong said. “It will be no fun to spoil the surprise, won’t it?” Sunggyu said nonchalantly. “No ing way, your face tells it all. So, there is really someone who surpass–,”. “Good morning reborns,” Kwon Jiyong suddenly greeted from the small stage at the end of dining room. The dining room itself was a big spacious area with a lot of table and chairs, more like a high school’s cafeteria, and it was divided into two sections at the first floor. The second floor was smaller and specializes for the older reborns. “I hope you all enjoy your breakfast and as you guys may have notice, the time of the month has come for the newborn to join us,” Jiyong continued with a tight smile on his face. “Skinny blonde was up first,” Myungsoo said as a boy climbed the stage.

“Kim Kibum, twenty seven,” Jiyong said and the said-Kibum bowed. The right side of the dining room clapped along with some cheers while the left side only clapped a bit before they got back into silence. Eunsoo only exhaled deeply when the others clapped whenever Jiyong introduced the newborns. “Six? Only six? Yah, Kim Myungsoo, you told me there were like, fifty people who died. Is this a joke?” Sungyeol said frantically. “Seven,” Eunsoo gritted her teeth when she saw the boy who will soon steal everybody’ attention got up to the stage.

And he was smiling widely while getting up to the stage; of course he was smiling. Unlike Eunsoo, this boy is still pretty much human. “The last one is Nam Woohyun, he is, uh, I will let you introduce yourself,” Jiyong suddenly gave the microphone to the Nam Woohyun, who accepted it like he just got an award. “Hi everyone,” Nam Woohyun was still showing off his smile as he waved to the crowd, he was trying to impress them. “My name is Nam Woohyun, or at least, they told me that Nam Woohyun is my name,” Woohyun said. “I, um, I died before, I guess. And seven minutes later I woke up and here I am,”.

The whole room fell silence and Woohyun feel a little bit scared when nobody reacted to his introduction. Does everyone hate him already? The dining room itself was weird to start with for him. It was divided into two sections, like sad and joy, delight and despair, black and yellow or yet, death and alive. The left side was more calm and contented while almost the entire of other side was more cheerful and wild. And there are a couple of tables at the very back of the room and it was like the mixture of both sides. Woohyun was confused. He had no idea how he got there honestly, and what the hell he supposed to do when suddenly the right side clapped their hand and shout loudly and the left side stayed calm but all of their eyes are going straight to his direction, it almost like he was an attraction.

“A new record, yes,”. The room suddenly fell silence when the figure went down from the second floor. “Woohyun-ssi, and the other newborns, welcome to Reborn’s headquarter. I, as the president of the Reborn, would like to congratulate all of you for passing,” The president said. “I hope you all enjoy your stay here, it’s quite happy and comfy, especially because all of you belong to under a hundred, and of course like every other newborns, you guys will have to follow the certain training for beginner,” The president said as he smiling widely and the crowd cheered for him.

“But do not worry even a bit. We will take a good care of everyone of you,”.