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The walk to Mark’s apartment was filled with a tense, anxious silence. Mark could tell Jinyoung was purposefully restraining himself from questioning Mark on the spot, something which the former was thankful for. He wanted to use the walk to collect his thoughts. Youngjae’s words had left him uneasy. Mark had no idea why Youngjae looked so flabbergasted at whatever was written in Jinyoung’s Memrase history, nor why he would let a non-supernatural be privy to the existence of supernaturals.

Honestly, nothing involving Jinyoung made sense.

By the time they reached his apartment, Mark felt significantly less collected than when they had started. His mind was still a complete mess, and the added exhaustion probably did not help. Plus, on the way up the staircase to his third-floor apartment, he started fretting about letting someone else into his apartment. He tried not to show his embarrassment as he opened his front door. His was not the most interesting place to look at; he only had the basic necessities and never was much one for interior design. Or anything at all, for that matter. When Mark snuck a glance at Jinyoung, he could tell the other was curiously eyeing his Spartan-like decor, just like expected.

Mark went into his small kitchen and the hot water kettle. It may be 4:30 in the morning, but he thought it would be courteous to offer Jinyoung tea. That, and he needed to escape seeing Jinyoung stare at his apartment in curiosity, like if he stared long enough everything about Mark would suddenly make sense.

Mark was not entirely sure why that embarrassed him so much.

Jinyoung eventually followed him to the kitchen area, taking a seat at the small dining table when Mark brought over two cups of tea. They drank in silence for a moment. Neither knew how to begin, even though Jinyoung’s leg was shaking in anticipation.

“Alright, so,” Jinyoung began nervously, “I’ve come all this way. Will you tell me now?”

No matter how invested Mark wanted to be in the swirling colors of his tea, he knew he had to answer.

“What do you want to know?”

“I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.”

“Right...”

Mark quieted down again. He obviously would not start explaining until Jinyoung gave him somewhere to start.

“Who do you work for?” Jinyoung decided to ask first, thinking of it as an easy answer to start with.

“I work for a company that protects supernaturals.”

Jinyoung waited patiently for Mark to elaborate, but the other still was intent on staring down at his tea.

“Supernaturals?” Jinyoung prodded.

“Right. Um. They’re normal people, just with powers. It can be as small as changing their hair color just by willing it, or it can be as dangerous as having the power to control the minds of thousands of people at once. My company protects them from discovery by non-supernaturals because...well, they would probably be killed or researched or something. And we protect them with these things.”

Mark brought out his company phone from his pocket and set it on the table in front of Jinyoung. The other picked it up to examine, turning it over and over between his palms. Something about his face changed as soon as he picked up the phone, like it bestowed on him some sort of knowledge just by holding it.

“It’s called a Memrase, short for ‘memory erase,’” Mark eventually continued. “It also functions as a phone for the company, and looks very unassuming and normal when non-supernaturals see it. The Memrase is used to erase the memory of a non-supernatural experiencing a supernatural event. And that’s what my job is: a field operator that deals personally with these cases.”

Jinyoung nodded slowly as he processed the new information. He slipped the phone across the table, returning it to Mark.

“So...you’re a supernatural, then?”

“Kind of,” Mark sighed. “When I was younger, I was a supernatural. Duplication type. I could make an infinite number of copies of myself. And...got into an infinite amount of trouble, too.”

The slight chuckle that escaped from Jinyoung made Mark’s heart flutter for some strange reason.

“When I hit puberty, though, I lost my power.”

“You...lost it?” Jinyoung asked confusedly.

“It happens sometimes, losing one’s supernatural power during puberty or gaining a power after puberty. Supernatural power could also skip a generation. Usually those born into a supernatural family without a power join the company I work for to protect their friends and family.”

“Is that why you’re called ‘mutts?’ Since you’re kind of in between supernatural and non-supernatural?”