Chapter 3: Yook Sungjae

"One more round," said Sungjae as he grabbed another coin from the pouch and found there was nothing left. He glanced at Changsub who looked very haggard and started feeling his pockets. 

"W-what are you doing?" said Changsub feeling very flustered at the other man's actions on him. 

"Give me more of those coins. There is no way I'm losing over you."

It wasn't that Changsub didn't have the right to push him away or that he was enjoying his touches (he definitely likes women), he was simply too exhausted to move. They were playing for a very long time and even his muscles started to complain despite having a slightly different body than the average male.

"Aren't you tired, Sol?" Changsub's voice barely a whisper. He was leaning against the air hockey table with no strength left on his legs. A single push would definitely send him to the floor.

Sungjae then went to the drawers at the corner and opened each one with force, his eye radar sensing for any circular metals in the place. "That was my warm up, Changsub. I'm only getting started and this time you will lose." Changsub could only sigh. Forcing himself to move his legs and walk to a nearby chair to collapse instead of bothering his company to drag his heavy through the shiny, sweaty floor. "We have played for nearly twenty-four hours. It's not my fault you are so bad at air hockey."

Sungjae stopped, pondering assumed Changsub, and then suddenly fixed his hair and his clothes. "Since I lost like you said," he cleared his throat, hoping to cover his words. "I'll cook some rabbit stew for you."

Bile suddenly rose up in Changsub's throat and an energy out of nowhere possessed his body and he ran out of the room with a hand over his mouth. 

"How dare he look disgusted with rabbit stew. It's one of the luxuries of this place and the only thing I actually know how to make," Sungjae muttered to no one. "He should be honored I offered to cook." 

A few minutes of waiting, Changsub appeared refreshed after his short visit to the toilet. No signs of fatigue apparent on his face.

"Where are we off to today, tour guide?" Sungjae asked while munching on a red apple he grabbed from a fruits basket on his huge dinning table. 

Changsub glanced out the window and saw clear blue skies. Compared to the previous day, everything was less gloomy and more bright. As they took a step outside, the cold air blew and ruffled their hair. The snow piled up looked soft and both men were tempted to jump on it and swim in it if possible as there was no such thing as snow in their home. With the current weather, no skies in the sky and the sun shining, snow would disappear later in the day.

All of a sudden, Sungjae felt a strong push from behind and landed face front on the cold, soft snow piled up just beside the entrance of the mansion. "That's for saying you want to cook rabbit stew." Changsub then headed to the white car where he fastened himself on the driver's seat. Sungjae easily got up and dusted off the wet snow from his face and from his clothes as he walked to the car. "That was not nice, Changsub." He then opened the passenger door and hopped in.

Gaping was all Changsub could do after seeing him opening a car door. Considering Sungjae has never seen a car, he was surprised that he knew. "How did you...? I thought you haven't been here for a very long time."

Sungjae answered his confused looking right-hand man before his whole jaw would drop on the floor. "Remembered where I 'landed'?" Everything starts clicking in Changsub's mind and finally understood. Sungjae arrived in the middle of the street where dozens of motorists were driving through. Hearing Sungjae tell this story just cracked him up. Imagining someone as great as Sungjae looking like he was at the bottom of the food chain would never be erased from Changsub's memories.

Changsub pressed the start button and put on his seatbelt. "Please wear your seatbelt, dear passenger," he told his only passenger who looked at him with confusion. Realizing Chansub's mistake, he unfasten his seatbelt and helped his master with his'. Sungjae did see how people got into their cars but he has never seen them put a belt across their chest. "This is what you call a seatbelt, Sol. It increases our rate of survival if ever we get into an accident," he explained.

"Our bodies are not that fragile though," Sungjae argued.

"But that is not the case for them." Sungjae understood. He may not have a deep understanding of humans but he knew their bodies were more vulnerable and more likely to break easily. With a single snap of his finger using the most bare minimum of his powers, a human body would break into half. "So where are we off to?" 

With a smirk on his face, Changsub replied, "A place you will really love."

Her body felt lighter the second she opened eyes. Sooyoung guessed she only slept for a few hours but felt like she slept for a hundred years, if that was enough to compensate for the time she didn't sleep. Taking a glance around the room, she noticed Irene was not there. She sat up ever so slowly to ease the wave of dizziness during her movements. Once the spinning stopped, she noticed a blood pressure cuff was wrapped around her arm and a probe around her fingers and removed it all. The after a few seconds of not getting any readings, the machine beside her started beeping. Not long after, Irene came in carrying two white cups.

"How are you feeling?" she placed down the cups on the desk and silenced the beeping machine. 

"If you didn't turn that off in time," she pointed at the equipment. "I would've poked my ears and thrown that out where I will never hear it again." Irene chuckled.

"I rather you not to do that. I want to use the money on more important matters." Irene handed a cup to Sooyoung. "It's lemon tea." 

Sooyoung took a sip and that small volume of hot tea made her feel even better. "So what happened while I was knocked out?"

"A lot happened during the sixty hours you were passed out."

"Sixty hours?!" Sooyoung exclaimed. She was so sure she only slept for a short time but never expected to sleep for nearly three days. What's more, this was the first time this happened. The maximum recovery time for her body was less than a day despite the lethality of a pathogen and so she wondered if this was more deadly that the other ones that were tested on her. "Was this specimen more fatal?" 

For some reason, she was scared. Not for herself but the people who might get this. If it took three days for her body to get better, what more if it was an ordinary human body. It would've killed them in an instant. At the same time, she was beginning to have hope that she thought she lost. This was the closest she had to her main goal. A lot more of that pathogen, it might really kill her.

Irene then began explaining, "Specimen 1925A is actually in the middle class. It shouldn't take that long for your body to kill it off considering we also injected a dose of the vaccine prepared by our very own team. What worried us the most was your body's reaction before we injected that vaccine. You started sweating, your heart rate was high and your blood results were all over the place to the point where you were convulsing. We never had plans to inject an incomplete and untested vaccine on you since we were only studying the physiology of that microorganism and we trust your body's amazing antibodies to do all the work but with the deterioration of your body, we didn't have a choice but to give you the vaccine."

On the inside, Sooyoung wished they left her alone to be eaten away. At least then, she could've died without suffering because she thought she was having a good sleep all this time without realizing all those things were happening to her body. If she was really awake during those moments, she was sure she would be in great pain. "Wouldn't my reaction to it be a symptom?"

She shook her head, "It was but it was so severe. It should not happen like that. With more lethal viruses and bacteria, it would be normal for that kind of reaction but this was not one of those. If it was, we wouldn't inject it in the first place because of your work."

"That means..."

"To be able to study about a high mortality rate microorganism, we would have you in induced coma. It's easier that way instead of constantly giving opioids (strong pain relief) and end up with toxicity."

All emotions were building up inside Sooyoung. She didn't know what she was feeling anymore with all these information her brain soaked up. Was that fear? Anxiety? Relief? She could no longer tell. "If you gave me that again without any interventions, then I would...."

"More than likely die," Irene continued her words. A smile appeared on her lips, not any smile Irene had seen before. "It's not the pathogen we are worried about at this moment. It seems that your body is slowing down instead, Sooyoung."

It was finally happening. There was something that can end her. Permanently. 

Before she could ask the greatest and maybe her last favor, Irene interjected. "You will more than likely die and come back to life again."

"What?" Color disappeared completely from Sooyoung's face. "...Again?"

"We didn't tell you but there were times where your heart stopped for a few minutes and started beating again without interventions. We did a series of assessments everytime that happens and no brain damage were found or any sort of abnormalities."

"And what is the reason for not telling me?" Sooyoung grabbed Irene by her shoulders in a tight grip.

"Blame it all on me," spoke Irene in a hushed voice. "I insisted of keeping this confidential because I know what you want."

Sooyoung was appalled. The person she trusted the most betrayed her. Maybe because she trusted this person that Irene decided on this. The only problem, Irene would never understand her. In another person's point of view, she may be suicidal but there was a reason for it and Irene stopped her altogether thinking it was for the best.

"You don't understand," she cried, dejected of Irene's actions.

"I do understand!" Irene shook her with a voice louder for her to hear. "Now is not the time to take away your life when you still haven't reached your own happiness. This is why I am here."

Any other words escaping from Irene's lips were blocked from entering Sooyoung's ears. She grabbed her things, especially her car keys, and left the laboratory with an outburst. The blame wasn't on Irene, she would never blame her. It was the universe that cursed her. Knowing she died a few times and came back to life just proved nothing would work. She would live even after the Earth dies. What now? Sooyoung no longer knew which direction or action to take. The loneliness kept digging deeper, leaving a growing void that nothing seemed to fill. There would be something to fill that void every now and then but sooner or later, that something would stop pouring and as a result, it would leave a bigger hole to fill.

'What have I done to deserve this?' was a question she constantly asked. Even until she locked herself up in her mansion in the mountains, she would pray to the heavens for answers and maybe she will accept her fate until they decide it was time for her to rest eternally.

"What is this?" Sungjae looked at the construction site with awe. It had tall pillars and weirdly shaped holes dug on the ground. It was obvious they only started but the size of the place when it was finished would amaze every single being in the universe.

"It's going to be the largest recreational park in the world," said Changsub. "It's been a long time since you have played around so I got this built. This is my earthly present to you."

"I wouldn't be able to use it if it's not finished."

"That's why you are coming back when it is." Changsub grinned. "When that time comes, I want this place to be able to release the weight of your shoulders while you are here."

"I'm not sure if this is a reward for whatever hard work I did or a manipulation to come back for your benefit," Sungjae glared hard. He knew Changsub. He wouldn't do this with nothing in return. There was something he wants and if he built a park this huge just for Sungjae, he may really want it so badly. "I don't know my schedule yet but I'm sure I'll be busy five years from now."

With a sly grin, Changsub said, "About that..."

Sungjae didn't know what the plan was for that day five years later, but his guts were telling him it was not good. Maybe he would cancel this trip back or ignore whatever Changsub had in mind. Yes, that was his plan. Sungjae was going to stick to it even if the galaxy was telling him to go back to see this 'present' of his'.

The irony was the galaxy did tell him to go back not for the recreational park but for something else better.