Winter had never been up to Youngjae's taste. Yes, it might have been synonym of lightheartedness and prosperity for many people; Feasts, family, presages of start-overs for the new year. Growing up, Youngjae had known none of those things. To him, Winter meant the entire opposite. Loneliness, that was all it reminded him of. And needless to say, if there was one thing that terrified him, it was Loneliness.

Ugh, he mentally told himself. Coco can wait, right? I'm sure Mark hyung has some work he needs my help for. Or I could also stop him from working to death. Then on that thought, he spinned around and made his way back into the building.

The Neo Seoul Research Center was one of the biggest buildings in South Korea's capital city. After its renovation in 2470, it was elected as one of the most esthetic buildings in the world; indeed, the Research Center alone attracted thousands of people to the city, becoming one of East Asia's main assets in modern tourism. The tremendous amount of multicolored lights that shone through the glass facade of the architecture at night, as a result of many various experiences, created an aura around it that was pretty much comparable to the Milky Way. The most mysterious thing about the Neo Seoul Research Center though, was that no one knew what could be happening inside of it, except, of course, for its employees and a small handful of foreign scientists that were invited to private conventions once a year.

How had Youngjae gotten into one of the world's most powerful Science and Technology Centers? Don't ask his old classmates. Ask his old teachers instead, they'll say, Ah, that goofy kid who laughed at everything and for nothing, Choi Youngjae. All perfect results. A student prodigy, really. It's no wonder. 

Jackson was the first of his colleagues to notice Youngjae showing up back into the lab, since Mark, Youngjae's partner, was busy caught between several transparent computer screens. 

"Oh my God, Youngjae," Jackson cried, fainting tragedy, "Was I so involved on my project that I worked all night, not noticing how time flew, and it's morning already? HOW!"

"Very funny," Youngjae deadpanned, obviously trying not to laugh. "It was just too cold outside, and I gave up on going home for the moment."

"You do realise that it'll quickly get colder as time passes, right?" Mark said as he appeared beside Youngjae, shuffling his air. "That wasn't really smart coming from you. It might start snowing too."

"Whatever," Youngjae shrugged, pouting a little. "When I go again I'll have tons of regrets and I'll realise how dumb I was to not leave earlier and I'll have my lesson learned."

"I should walk you home," Jackson offered, turning to him from his desk in deep contemplation. "I'm so hot my aura would probably warm you up." He then raised his hands in defense at Mark's infamous, judging rolling of eyes and Bambam's Jackson hyung, not today, in the background, before adding excitedly, "you walked in on time, though, I think I just invented teleportation." 

"What? You mean in the space of five minutes?"

"Of course not, idiot," Jackson said, facepalming himself hard. "Watch this." On that, he dug out of his pocket a ball that couldn't be bigger than a ping-pong ball, but only in the matter of seconds, its volume started doubling and tripling. Thin, luminescent blue lines started tracing patterns similar to a football's on the sphere, which was now as big as a human head. "Youngjae, catch," he then whispered, and without any further warning, he threw the object at Youngjae who gasped and almost tripped. The first thing Youngjae noticed was how much lighter than expected the sphere was. The second, was that Jackson had disappeared from his previous spot. 

"Awesome, right?" Jackson's voice again came from behind him, making Youngjae jump, nearly dropping the sphere in the process. ", sorry," Jackson added, frowning. "It still needs developping though. I feel dizzy. Mark baby, last time I looked at you, you didn't own two pairs of eyes and two mouths, even though the kissing would be awesome."

Jackson's last statement could barely make Mark snort out a laugh, while on the other hand, it inspired Youngjae to practically roll on the floor, holding himself.
"Wait, hyung !" Youngjae shouted at Jackson (while simultaneously trying to sit up) who was making his way to the bathroom hurriedly. "How did you do it?"
"He's probably gonna throw up," Bambam said unapprovingly from behind his screen. "Warned him it would have that kind of side-effect!" 

A couple of minutes later, Jackson came back in looking a little pale and shaken, but with a bright smile on his face. Everyone came to sit around him, even Yugyeom who wasn't to be disturbed, well supposedly, since Bambam would throw pranks on him every five seconds.

"This bracelet," Jackson started, rolling up the sleeve of his coat to let appear a thin, metallic band around his wrist, "and this y sphere right here, thank you, Youngjae, are linked. Wirelessly, of course, this crap took me months of equations. The sphere, it creates tracks in the atmosphere as it goes, and the bracelet leads you through all the tracks that were created. Of course, you need to create them, but that's not the point - also, basically, you're being dragged through space by your wrist."

*

When Youngjae found himself standing on the entrance of the NSRC again, a little more than an hour and a half during which Jackson's finding had become the main center of attention of him and his colleagues had passed. Mark had been right - it was snowing. And not just slightly; the ground was already fully covered. Sighing, Youngjae crossed his arms on his chest and pictured his lab partner in his mind scolding him, Told you so! Sighing again, a bit louder this time, Youngjae wriggled his toes in his shoes. It was freezing. It couldn't be that bad, though, Youngjae lived in a penthouse a few blocks down the avenue. If he hurried, defying the law of the icy sidewalks, maybe the cold wouldn't get to him.

A few meters into his course though, Youngjae froze on spot. Something was off. It was dark, yes; typical early winter evening, but something was definitely wrong. There was no one in the perimeter except for Youngjae alone, which was rare even at this time of the day, and the streets a little too quiet to Youngjae's linking. After what seemed like an eternity, Youngjae narrowed his eyes and noticed flashing red lights between the buildings afar. It only took seconds, for something to come crash at his feet, creating a fuming hole in the snow and making Youngjae lose his balance. Dozens of people in black, some armed, and some not, started emerging from everywhere. One of them ran into Youngjae, making him fall backwards for good, and shot him a deadly glare, before shouting "Move the away from here, kid!" and disappearing behind a car.

Youngjae was in the middle of a shooting. Shots were being fired all over the place, reducing whatever urban constructions they reached to ruins and smoke.
He couldn't stay there. Youngjae rolled on his side and weakly managed to rise to his feet, with nothing but the slick sidewalk as his only grip. Shaking hard and biting his lips to the blood, he ran towards a dark corner in an isolated alley, avoiding the potentially fatal shots by clear miracle. When he finally turned around the corner, Youngjae stumbled and fell hard face in the snow. He began to cry. It wasn't histerical or mixed with fear and frustration, but with continuous sobs as he realised that he was helpless. He cried because safety seemed to have abandoned him. Death was a reality, and in this situation, it seemed closer than ever.

Curling himself against the wall, he noticed on what he had tripped, or rather on who, and choked back a sob. A few feet away from him, a man was lying on the ground, soaked in melted snow and blood. Please don't be dead, Youngjae prayed as he approched the body on his knees. Please don't be dead.  Scooting down closer to the man, Youngjae tried to look for his pulse, but his hands were shaking too much. As he started to lose conscience himself, the man suddenly coughed loudly and came back to his senses, immediately clenching hard his shoulder with his uninjured hand.

"Oh my god," Youngjae cried, inhaling deeply, pressing his hand hesitantly on the stranger's wound. "Thanks God you're alive... I have to call an ambulance..."

"No," the stranger croaked, flinching at the touch and clenching his shoulder even harder. "Not... the hospital."

"What?!" Youngjae said, eyes widening. "You look like you're about to die!"
"Just.., not the hospital," the man commanded in a dangerous growl. "Or I'll kill myself before the ambulance even gets there."

Youngjae didn't reply this time, just took his face in his hands and tried to calm himself down. He hoped he was in a middle of a nightmare, but the shooting pain in his leg made it clear that he was awake. His house was a few meters down - running, he could get there in about twenty seconds. But he couldn't just leave this man to his death here. Choking back another sob, Youngjae rose to his feet with difficulty and reached out his hand to the stranger.

"I have to get away from here, but I can't leave you like this. I don't live too far from this alley, but you're going to have to help me or we'll never make it."
The man considered the hand for a few seconds, and stared straight back into Youngjae's eyes. He was pale and his gaze was piercing, and Youngjae felt frightened, but he hoped it was just an impression. 

Youngjae will never know if it was a suddent rush of adrenaline or the desperation to make it alive, that made him grab the stranger's hand firmly and lift him from the ground, allowing him to take support on his shoulder, even though he was several centimeters taller than him. They ran. They ran through this symphony of shots, like death was after them. Youngjae never looked behind. They slipped several times, and Youngjae might have lost his earring ability in his right ear, due to the screams and to the glacial gusts of wind that were too overwhelming, but as long as they made it alive, he would be able to stand it.

The entrance door of Youngjae's penthouse appeared to him as divine; he had never been so relieved to get home before. As soon as he stepped inside, he dropped carefully on the couch the stranger, who was almost passing out, and hurried to the bathroom to throw up his guts.

*

Closing the bathroom door behind him after having washed off the blood from his hands and face and dryed himself, Youngjae made his way to his bedroom, not before having checked on the man he had saved previously, who was now completely passed out on the couch. There, Youngjae wrapped himself inside a giant plaid and his phone.

24 missed calls and 35 texts missed from Mark, other missed calls and texts from Jackson, Bambam and even a few from Yugyeom.

I'm fine, I'm home, he typed as a response to Mark. As soon as the message was sent, he received another call from his friend. 

"Youngjae," Mark started, not even letting the other a chance to place a word. "Youngjae, - we received a notice like, five minutes after you left! We were so worried, you wouldn't answer any of our calls ! What the hell happened there-"

"I'm fine, Mark hyung," Youngjae cut in, his throat sore. "I swear I'm fine. I was in the middle of the entire thing.. I thought I was going to die. Thankfully, I managed to run back home.. I think I might be half deaf."

"God, it's such a relief," Mark sighed, his voice clearly trembling even on the other side of the line. "Do you know what that shooting was about?"
"No, but-"

"Check the news," Mark said in a hurried tone. "It's getting crazy here. I'll tell the others you're alright. Call you later."

"Sure..? Bye."

When the call ended, Youngjae opened Naver. No need to look for too long - it was on first page. 

This day on Thursday, December 2nd 2477 at around 7.30 pm was reported to have happened a mass shooting near the Neo Seoul Research Center between official forces and escapees of the High Security Prison of Neo Seoul. 11 deaths in total from both sides, 34 injured and 3 whose location remains unknown. Amongst those that remain nowhere to be found, "JB", presumed to be the brain of the operation, a dangerous criminal known to be an ex-associate of JR, imprisoned two years ago. One of JR's men who was taken back to a highly watched cell, claims JB was last seen injured and that he disappeared in the middle of the shooting, and that he wasn't seen again -

Youngjae didn't read any further. His vision started to get blurry and he felt his soul being drained out of his body. He wanted to throw up again.

At the bottom of the article, a picture. A blurred, pixeled picture, yes, but he was still recognizable. A picture of the man he had just saved and brought home.

Youngjae was now an accomplice.