Today was the big day! 

After a few weeks, Johnny had finally, finally, caved in to Donghyuck’s demand (with help of Doyoung nagging Johnny, of course). So now, Johnny was finally going to let Donghyuck take a visit to the palace. 

It wasn’t because it was full of money and important people and expensive stuff, no no, although that would be cool to see too. No, Donghyuck’s main reason to visit – 

It was big. 

That was about it. 

He had always loved exploring ever since he could remember, but of course, he had been stuck inside for far too long. It was pretty boring staying cooped up all day, alone in the apartment, and how he so longed to be able to run through long corridors, cobblestones, pathways in the forest, being able to listen to many noises and sounds at once and being presented with many options on where to turn. Not like their apartment where you could find Johnny’s socks every five seconds. 

Donghyuck had only been to the forest once in his life, and it had been a life-changing experience for him. Granted, he was only seven during that time, but it had not only been with Johnny, but also their two parents. 

It had been one of the happiest memories that Donghyuck had ever had, and he hasn’t had a memory like that for a few years now. 

Until today. Yes, today would become a very happy memory for him. 

He jumped out of bed, not even bothering to put on his slippers as he marched out of his room and rapidly knocked on Johnny’s bedroom door. “Johnny!! Johnny Johnny Johnny wake up!! Johnny!!”

He didn’t hear any commotion happening inside, so he turned the knob, delighted that it wasn’t locked – Johnny never locked his door, but those rare moments when he did lock it, Donghyuck could swear he could hear someone leave the apartment in the morning. Why Johnny would let people sleepover and not tell Donghyuck, he had no clue, but his brother wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. 

He opened the door and launched himself onto the bed, not caring that there was someone beneath him. “Wake up!! Johnny!!”

Johnny immediately yelped in response, scrambling to get off the bed. “WHAT THE ?!!?” he yelled, pushing Donghyuck onto the ground. 

Ignoring the fact that his brother said a bad word, Donghyuck yelled when his head fell on the floor. “Ow, why did you push me?!” He yelled at his older brother. 

“I think you broke a rib!” Johnny yelled. “What’s got you throwing yourself onto my bed so early?”

Donghyuck pouted. “You promised to take me to the palace today,” he whined. 

“It’s seven in the morning!! I promised to take you at noon!”

Donghyuck squinted his eyes and glared at Johnny. “Right that it doesn’t feel good to wake up so early? Right Johnny? Right?”

Johnny was taken aback. What the hell was his brother talking about? “What are you referring to?”

“Remember when you started cleaning the house before the freaking crack of dawn all those weeks ago?!” Donghyuck screeched. “Plus I wanna go now~.”

Johnny really wanted to go back to sleep, but when he remembered that he could see a certain someone, he forced himself to get out of bed. “If you broke my spine, I’m kicking you out.”
 

***

Jaemin entered the lab, balancing three containers of cake and one of cookies in his hands.  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to turn them all one?” he asked Jaehyun. “What if they suddenly decided to overthrow us?”

Jaehyun waved him down. “Nah, I trust them, keep an eye on Model R, though.” He took the containers from Jaemin and set them down on the table. “This sure calls for a celebration.”

Jaemin crossed his arms and pouted. “If only Lee-eun wasn’t a meanie and let Jeno be here.”

“We’ll save him a slice of cake,” Jaehyun reassured him. “Hey, did you guys come up with a name to call Model R? I feel like I’m dehumanizing him every time I say that.”

Jeno and Jaemin had taken a liking to Model R, so Jaehyun gave them the right to name him. He had yet to come up with names for Models L and M, and of course now that Model K was out of the picture, he couldn’t exactly give him a name either. 

“Oh, we did decide on a name for him,” Jaemin said. He ran back to the side desk, his personal spot, scrambling to find his folder. “I had the slip right here-“

“You don’t remember what it is?” Jaehyun asked him, confused. Did they not decide it together? 

“No, it’s just – I don’t know how to spell it – ah, here it is!” Jaemin rushed back to Jaehyun and handed it to him. 

Jaehyun frowned and blinked, staring at the incredulous slip. 

“Uh, Jaemin, you gave me something in Chinese.” 

Jaemin’s face lit up. “Renjun. He developed an interest to Chinese culture, so we decided to call him Renjun.”

Interesting. Jaehyun would have to write that down in his notebook under observations. He remembers how Mod-he meant Renjun had taken a liking for baozis and wonton soup.

He had given the models the ability to speak a multitude of languages, but while Taeyong and Model M had done everything in Korean, he had noticed that Model L spoke a foreign language when he was talking to himself (another interesting observation – Model L talked to himself a lot), and when Jaehyun brought in a language expert, it had been revealed to be Cantonese. Renjun also found Mandarin an interesting concept. 

It was amazing how diverse all the prototypes had turned out, from their personality and behaviors to their interests. Jaehyun had created their entire DNA out of scratch using a variety of algorithms, and it was astonishing how they had turned out.

Jaehyun went into the secret room while Jaemin set up the desserts, logging into the computer to wake them up from the conscious states. It always took a while – he had to open the glass cases first, then manually remove the wires, and then access a series of codes for them to wake up. He always set them in control mode to make them unconscious, since the last thing he needed was for them to be awake and realize they were stuck in glass cases. 

First he went to Taeyong, being extremely careful so that the needles wouldn’t puncture any of his skin. Taeyong had really smooth skin, Jaehyun’s favorite observations so far. So soft and warm, even though he had been unconscious. 

He was starting to sound like a creep. 

By the time he awoke Taeyong and set him to normal mode, the latter giving him the usual greetings, he helped him step out of the glass case and went to work on Renjun. 

“Are you excited to meet everyone, Taeyongie?” Jaehyun asked him, keying in the passcode for Renjun’s glass case to unlock. 

Taeyong tilted his head, confused. “Am I supposed to be excited?”

“Well, you can be whatever you want, but I get excited when I meet new people,” Jaehyun said. “And all of you guys have worked so hard, it’ll be nice for you guys to finally meet. What do you feel?”

Taeyong didn’t answer him for a bit, choosing to watch Jaehyun remove the wires and needles from Renjun’s back. “Terrified,” he answered at last. 

“That’s also expected,” Jaehyun said. “Don’t worry, the others are nice, just don’t coddle Renjun here, he’ll bite you-“ 

Just then, Lee-eun had entered the room, a frightened Jeno and a confused Jaemin tagging behind him. “My, my, Jaehyun, why wasn’t I informed that we were going to bring everyone together today?"

Jaehyun ran to the computer to wake Renjun up from unconsciousness, Taeyong heading over to help Renjun get out. “I have no idea what you’re doing here, but I have decided that it’s time that they meet-“

“Lovely, lovely, anyways.” Lee-eun inched closer to where the computers were. “Are they in control mode right now?” 

“No, they’ll be normal for today unless one of them gets aggressive, which I don’t think so, they are all so lovely-“ Jaehyun continued to ramble as he set out to get Model L out. “I still need to come up with a name with an L, maybe we can give him a nickname for now-“

“I asked some locals for some Cantonese names,” Jaemin suggested. “There were no good ones with L, though-“

“You’re really acting like these are some live people, Sir Jaehyun.” Lee-eun said, sitting down comfortably at the table in the room. “You’re getting attached.”

“They’re people with feelings, you know,” Jaehyun reminded him, taking out the wires from Model L. “And they’re not robots either, they just have some technology implanted-”

“Better get working on that glitch, then.” Lee-eun lifted his feet up to the table. “It’ll make them sensitive.”

“That’s not a flaw, so I see no point.” Jaehyun worked on bringing Model L to consciousness, ignoring Lee-eun’s comments. He’ll have to reassure his friends that it’s all a bunch of bull. 

A smirk appeared on Lee-eun’s face. “Guards.”

Just like that, 5 guards had entered the room, arms ready and pointing at Jaehyun. They weren’t wearing the royal blue and black colors of the kingdom, though – it was more like black and green. 

“Lee-eun, what are you doing?” Jaehyun asked him, stepping in front of Taeyong, Renjun, and newly awakened Model L. 

Lee-eun lifted his legs off the table, clasping his hands in front of him. “As much as I’d loved to kill you, the sad truth is, you’re the only competent person in this kingdom who can do what I ask. However, if you dare defy me, I wouldn’t hesitate to arrest you for treason."

Jaehyun took a step back, trying to shield the three behind him. “What do you want?”

“Wake up model whatever,” Lee-eun commanded. “We need all four.” 

Jaehyun slowly went to the computer, typing in commands. “Jaemin, give me a Cantonese name,” he said, the glass case for Model M unlocking. “It doesn’t have to start with an L.”

Jaemin and Jeno had been clutching each other near the back of the room, frightened. “Yukhei,” he stuttered out.

Jaehyun worked on removing the wires from Model M’s back. “Jeno, give me a Korean name,” he asked calmly, ignoring the fact that there were eleven pairs of eyes watching his every move. 

Jeno was shivering a lot, a lot more than Jaemin. He knew something, Jaehyun figured, and it wasn’t good news. “Minhyung." 

“’Kay.” Jaehyun woke Model M from unconsciousness. “Hello, Minhyung,” he said, helping the confused Minhyung get out, having no idea what’s going on. “Meet your brothers Taeyong, Renjun and Yukhei."

“Now that the hit men have awoken,” Lee-eun interrupted, “Jaehyun, have a seat on the computer.”

Jaehyun turned to give him a look. “Did you call them hit men?”

“Sit down Jaehyun,” Lee-eun said. “Put them in control mode.”

Jaehyun sat down, opening up the screens and putting each of the four into control mode, four different screens lighting up. He turned around and saw how rigid the four prototypes had turned into, their eyes filled with void, waiting for instructions. 

“Don’t you recall, they're having a private gala today that the public doesn’t know about? No reporters around to suspect anything,” Lee-eun said. “Tell them to kill the royal family and anyone who stands in their way.”

***

“How did you manage to get the day off, Johnny?” Donghyuck asked on their way to the palace. He had practically been skipping the entire time. 

“Top secret,” Johnny said, trying to catch up with Donghyuck. “Basically there’s an event and my boss wanted to attend. They don’t know I’m bringing you, so if anyone asks, you’re helping me out. They love free labor.”

“Got it.” Donghyuck practically wanted to scream when the main gates came in sight. The palace was so big that it could be seen far away, which is why it had been taking them forever. 

By the time they arrived, Johnny had to present a series of documents to the guards stationed so that they could grant them access, leading them to one of the side doors that employees had to use. That meant a whole other lot of walking, but Donghyuck was bursting at the seams with adrenaline. Nothing could dampen his mood.

Once they entered the premises, Donghyuck couldn’t help but marvel at everything, and by everything, he meant everything.

They already knew that the palace was the biggest thing in the kingdom, but it was another thing to see it so up close. 

When they reached the front door and stepped foot inside the castle, he had to gawk at everything. It was so grand, so expensive, so antique and noble like. The gigantic chandeliers hanging up from the ceiling, the series of arts and portraits decorating the perfectly polished walls, the furniture. 

The palace must have its own map and maze, Donghyuck wondered. Oh, how cool it would be to explore everywhere!

Johnny had to call him multiple times to get his attention, and Donghyuck would have to run up to him to catch up. 

“Where are we going?” Donghyuck asked him, marveled at how Johnny knew his way around. His brother must be very smart.

“I thought you might be hungry, and I know my favorite baker is in today, so maybe we can ‘borrow’ a snack first,” Johnny explained. 

“Isn’t stealing from the palace punishable by death?” Donghyuck asked, confused. Johnny wasn’t a rule breaker.

“Oh, come on, we’re not going to die for ‘borrowing’ a croissant,” Johnny told him. He grabbed his younger brother’s hand and pulled him forward. “We have no time to waste.”