For the first time in a long time Baekhyun leaves a room without immediately forgetting about the occupant of it, for the first time ever Baekhyun leaves a room without the feeling of a job well done.

He walks at a fast pace to his lab in the basement with the file in his hand. He paces back and forth a few times before he tells himself to get a grip on his senses, he had been bored out of his mind waiting for a challenge all this time and when he finally gets one there is no sense in being so thrown off by it. Or maybe it is ok to be thrown off by it, maybe that will be the thrill of this, the newness of all of this, the excitement, the new discoveries. 

He opens the file and is immediately flooded by the sheer amount of Examination Centers this man has been to. 6 months in Hanyang, 1 and half years in Daejeon, another year near the DMZ, 2 months in some facility down in Busan and it goes on for a long time till near the end of his 6th year when he gets to the facility that Baekhyun is at. 6 years, 6 years of being bounced from Center to Center, and still unbroken? Interesting. 

He flips through the details of what the other Examiners had tried with him at this Center, the Physical Exercises, the Mental Exercises, the Reality Factors, but there is nothing about what had happened in the other Centers, of course, those files would be ash now. Each Center had its own secrets, which had even more secrets, layers beneath layers of things that even the Founder probably knew nothing of - and everything always in handwritten in pristine white sheets, ready to be turned into ash at the shortest notice. 

But then no one is the Monster, Baekhyun knows this. When Sehun had called Baekhyun a Monster he had known too, that Baekhyun was a little different from all the other Examiners. No one is the Monster and no one could really do what he could do. This he is sure of. 

When he says the next morning to the General Examiner that he might need some time with this guest, the look of surprise is not lost on him. 

“He is a tough one, eh?” the tall man nods his head of violently red hair. 

Baekhyun tamps down the distaste that rises up in his throat at the word. “Yes, a ‘tough’ one. A little different to what we get here usually.”

“Yes, yes, that there was. Didn’t even flinch at the Physical Exercises I hear. And was completely unshaken by the Reality Factor. He almost remind me of -“ the General Examiner trails off. His piercing, exceeding the number Baekhyun has due to his seniority, glints and winks almost in suggestion. 

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow in query. 

“Well, never mind. You take your time with this one. I don’t think he is an emergency case.” 

“Yes, General Examiner. ” 

Baekhyun pauses in front of Room 412 and takes a deep breath. Yesterday the clean room and the classical music was a surprise but today it won’t be, today nothing will be a surprise. 

Baekhyun opens the door and steps and is nearly blasted back by the heavy metal playing in the room. The room of the floor is littered by paper figures. Actually on closer inspection they are not litter. They are paper cranes made of magazine paper arranged in concentric circles all pointing towards the center where Kyungsoo sits, calmly folder yet more paper cranes. Baekhyun picks his way through the paper cranes till he is standing directly over Kyungsoo’s figure. Kyungsoo folds the very last paper crane, pulling at the wings delicately to straighten them up before placing it, at carefully measured angles to complete the circles. Still he doesn’t look up. 

Baekhyun lifts a foot and deliberately brings it down on the very last crane, the sound of the collapsing paper lost in the voice of the screaming musician playing on repeat. Kyungsoo’s face makes a slight twist as if to say ‘Ah, what a pity.’ 

Baekhyun sits down next to Kyungsoo. He just needs to be patient enough till he gets a Story. After that things become easy. Kyungsoo picks up the crushed the paper crane again, smoothing the paper out painstakingly and starting over. He gets up then and brings over yet another pile of magazines, starting to lay down yet another layer of concentric circles of cranes and Baekhyun watches him; the serious purse of his lips, the hunch of his small shoulders, the tips of his square fingers smoothing over the edges of paper, and the occasional bob of his head to the loud music. 

When he has made enough paper cranes to fit wing to wing surrounding them in circles he stops and sighs in content. And finally, finally he looks up at Baekhyun. The whiteness behind his eyes are still there but there is the slightest hint of expectation in his face. Baekhyun looks into his eyes, and looks and looks, he knows, he feels a Story there but there is something that Kyungsoo is doing, something that has kept him safe for all these 6 years in Center after Center. And it’s still working. 

Doesn’t matter. He has time. Time is all he has.

Over the next few weeks he comes to visit Kyungsoo regularly. 

He sleeps in pain, he wakes up in pain, he eats alone, he writes his reports, he listens to the little pieces of conversation that wafts in his direction, and he visits Kyungsoo. 

On some days Kyungsoo is a white corridor all by himself, sitting in the recliner, staring at a wall, the whiteness behind his eyes so blinding that even Baekhyun is unable to stare at them for too long. 

On some days, however, he is puttering about his room, involved in various projects. Paper cranes and rock music on one day, walls plastered of CD cases and  hip hop music the next day and unmaking sweaters by pulling out the wool thread by thread and old trot music on yet another day. 

He knows why Kyungsoo’s case has dragged on for so long. There is no reason to use any extreme methods with him, he is obedient and polite to just about everyone. Firm in his ways but perfectly unthreatening. The Examiners are at a loss as to how to handle someone who gives away nothing but also doesn’t try to escape and leave or even rebel in the slightest. Baekhyun sometimes wonders whether he should try using a Physical Exercises. He is not a big fan of unnecessary touching. He touches his guests a lot. But never with force. When he does touch them, his guests are always so desperate for it. The Reality Factor is his forté, after all, the Reality Factor with a twist. 

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