As Jinyoung stands there, hand on the doorknob, staring at his mother just a few feet away, he doesn't know what to feel. A part of him was glad to see his mother, definitely missing his parents a little since the moment he had left for elite life, but the other part wanted nothing more than to run for the hills. Being his mother, Suzy always had an uncanny ability to read what Jinyoung was thinking and feeling. A trait which made her a great parent in Jinyoung's eyes. But as of that moment, it is nothing more than a skill that Jinyoung wishes she never possessed in the first place. 

"Hi Mom." Jinyoung greets her, putting on the most genuine smile he could muster even with the internal turmoil of meeting his mom. "What are you doing here?" He adds questioningly, knowing immediately what a stupid question it was. Goes to show that Jinyoung is incapable of having logical thoughts during moments of mental distress.

"I work here remember? I should be the one asking you that question." Suzy answers back, raising an eyebrow at her son. 

"Right. Well um... I'm here for training purposes." Jinyoung replies, walking over to his mother to hug her for a bit. Even though he's dreading over this meeting, Jinyoung really did miss his mother, especially her warmth.

"Ah! My elite son doing what he needs to do." She smiles proudly at Jinyoung, doing the usual motherly inspection of her kid. "Look at you... looking so sharp in your new clothes." She coos, clasping her hands on Jinyoung's shoulder as she gave him a once over. Jinyoung could only revel in the feeling. He always did love it when his parents expressed their pride and amazement for him.

"Mom, stop it. You're embarassing me." Jinyoung laughs, though he was gushing inside. "How's everything back home? How's Dad?" Jinyoung adds, redirecting the topic so his mom won't fuss over him and his elite-looking appearance any longer.

"Everything is just fine hun. The house is a little quiet since you left but nothing we can't handle. What about you? Everything going well with this whole elite thing?" His mom asks, looking worriedly at Jinyoung.

"Yeah I guess you could say that. Everything's been well so far. Raymond and the others have really helped me throughout this difficult transition. And knowing that you and Dad are supporting me on this, I really can't ask for anything better." Jinyoung honestly replies, though leaving out all the ups and downs that he has experienced since moving into Helios Grove. All of which had to do with the elite currently standing in the other room. 

"That's really good to hear." She says, wrapping her arms around Jinyoung as she hugged him tight. "I've missed you so much Nyoung."

"Me too Mom." Jinyoung smiles through the exchange, returning the warm embrace of his mother. 

"Okay. So I'll just head down to the systems' mainframe and get this done. If you'll go input the codes into the hospital records, everything should be up and running by today." Jinyoung hears Mark's voice fill the hallway as the elite exits the room he was just in moments ago, Jaebeom quick at his heels. 

"Yeah no problem. I can't wait to get this over with." Jaebeom beams in his overly excited tone. 

Jinyoung turns to them as he was coming out of his embrace with his mother, just in time to see Mark looking in his direction.

"Oh! Just who I wanted to see. Suzy, can you get me the files labeled HS-121 on my desk and bring it to the records room? Thanks." Jaebeom orders, turning even before waiting for a reply and strides down the hall.

"Sure." Suzy replies, a little too late as Jaebeom has already disappeared around the corner.

"Does he always talk to you like that?" Jinyoung asks his mother, his brows furrowed at what he just witnessed.

"Nah. He is actually a pretty nice boy. Just a little aloof sometimes. Don't worry about it." His mother reassures him.

"You sure Mom? Because..." Jinyoung starts but was cut off by his mother quickly.

"Jinyoung, it's fine. I can take care of myself." She smiles. Her eyes moved a little, looking past Jinyoung just behind him. Jinyoung turns, seeing Mark standing there with a smile plastered on his face. 

"Oh right. Um... Mom this is Mark. He's the son of the elite mentoring me. Mark, this is my mother." Jinyoung introduces, motioning for Mark to come closer to which the elite obliged to.

"Nice to finally meet you Mrs. Park." Mark greets, stretching out his hand to which Suzy graciously returned the handshake.

"Nice to meet you too but I've got to say, I've never heard an elite call me Mrs. Park before." She says, surprised by the greeting. As an indigene working in a hospital that was frequented by many elites, she has always been addressed by her first name. On the other hand, indigenes were required to address elites by their last name preceded by an honorific. Just another example of the difference in social classes on Selene.

"Well, manners maketh man." Mark explains, making Suzy give the elite an approving nod.

"Well then, how should I address you then?" Suzy asks.

"Mark will be just fine Ma'am." Mark answers, still smiling gloriously.

"Mark here doesn't believe in the distinction between social classes Mom." Jinyoung explains to his mother who is clearly growing confused yet amazed at her exchange with the elite.

"Well it's not everyday I get surprised by an elite. So congratulations Mark." She says, smiling warmly at Mark. "But I should really get those files for Mr. Im. Do excuse me fine gents." She smiles at the both of them before turning to head to get the documents asked of her.

"Sure Mom... I'll talk to you later." Jinyoung shouts to his retreating mother. 

"I like her. She reminds me of you." Mark says when Suzy's out of earshot. 

"Oh you have absolutely no idea. She's more opinionated than I am." Jinyoung says, turning as Mark directs him down the hallways. "Anyway, I'm relieved she didn't start giving me the shifty eyes that Jaebeom had been giving us all day." Jinyoung adds.

"You noticed that too huh?"

"How could anyone not? The guy isn't very good in the art of subtlety." Jinyoung sarcastically quips to which Mark let out a laugh. "Can't say that I'm not a little worried though." He adds worryingly.

"A little? You practically left the room before you had a panic attack about it." Mark smirks. 

"Yeah yeah. I'm not as good as you in keeping my emotions in check, Mr. Psychology." Jinyoung rolls his eyes. "And don't act like you're not a little bit worried about Jaebeom."

"Okay fine. I am a little on edge about the whole thing too, but what can we do besides pray that he can keep his mouth shut. That is asking a lot when it comes to Jaebeom, need I remind you." Mark replies. And for the first time that day, Jinyoung could really tell that Mark was indeed genuinely worried too, although the elite was a lot better at hiding it.

Jinyoung just shrugs his shoulders, dismissing the subject as the pair made their way through the hallways of the hospital on their route to the server room. "You know, all this talk about this project and I don't even really know what it's about?" Jinyoung queries as they entered the room which was cramped with computer hardware from the floor up to the ceiling. Column after column of electronics, with little wiring leading from one module to the next, lined the huge room. Little blinking lights shined through the dimly lit room and the humming sound of small fans in the servers filled the somewhat silent space. 

"The hospital is putting in place a new droid system which complements the human elements of the hospital. These droids would have excess to the vitals of all the patients as well as serve as an assistant to the nurses here. In doing so, we hope to achieve a much shorter ward time and increase patient satisfaction." Mark recites from memory, the lights in the room brightening with the entry of two new occupants. 

"Wait... but aren't the nurses already capable of doing that?" Jinyoung asks, recalling that all nurses of duty carried around a tablet with all their respective patients' vitals and records. 

"Yes, but a human can only focus on so many things at a time. The droid however, is programmed to not only alert when a patient has any critical vitals but also even predict it. That's where Jaebeom comes in." Mark adds.

"You need to elaborate a little more for me."

"You see... his father created the vital monitoring software in our BICs and by extension, helped with the development of the hospital's healthcare network. Jaebeom, being his son of course, is able to have excess to the vitals of every single Selenian. Unlike the nurses who only have excess to the patients currently warded in the hospital. Basically, he is one of the few people who are authorized to program anything into this system, hence why he's here. It doesn't hurt that he's a doctor too."

"It's hard to imagine someone like Jaebeom having such a huge responsibility. From the way he acts, you'd think that the only thing he is responsible for is his hair." Jinyoung marvels, making Mark chuckle as the elite sat down at a desk in the far right of the room, the interface immediately coming up in front of him. 

"As for me, I'm here to program the droids to function in the way they're intended to. You know... fine tuning their AI and stuff. Basically, I handle the electronic and programming stuff while Jaebeom handles the medical stuff." Mark mentions as his fingers worked like lightning over the touchscreen interface, opening lines of code and tweaking them before switching over to another.

"You know... I know elites are like super geniuses and stuff but seriously, how am I supposed to be like you guys?" Jinyoung sighs in frustration. Sure, he has been learning more and more each day about the runnings and politics of Selene. And he hasn't even settled on a particular specialization yet, but he felt like this was just too much for him to accomplish, much less handle it. He wasn't genetically gifted and he didn't have the years of training that all elites had. Sometimes, it felt like the task was just too much for someone like him. 

Throughout the whole time Jinyoung has known Mark, Raymond or any other elite for that matter, he has never seen any of them work in an immersive environment like this. It was always more of general stuff and elite etiquette and all that. Seeing Mark, even Jaebeom, with their minds on the project and the scary efficiency that they carried out their tasks, Jinyoung wonders if he could ever hope to reach the same level as them. 

"Is something on your mind?" Mark utters as he continued his work on the server, his eyes never leaving the screen. 

"I'm just wondering if I made the right decision. Becoming elite that is." Jinyoung mumbles and immediately, Mark stops his work and looks at Jinyoung.

"Why would you think that?" Mark questions.

"It's just that sometimes I feel so... inadequate." Jinyoung softly answers, his hand immediately touching his right ear when he feels stressed, nervous or happy. At those words, Mark gets up and walks over to Jinyoung, hugging him tight in his arms. 

"Don't say that. You're here for a reason. The test definitely thought so, and so do I. So don't question and doubt yourself, okay?" Mark gently says, placing a kiss on Jinyoung's forehead. "If you didn't become elite, I wouldn't be here with you now, holding you like this. If you didn't become elite, I would still be hiding behind a facade. If you didn't become elite, I wouldn't be happy, like I am whenever I'm with you. So don't discount yourself. Because to me, you becoming elite was the best thing to ever happen to me." Mark adds, looking at Jinyoung's brown eyes softly. Jinyoung felt his whole being becoming lighter through the elite's words. Even if there were grueling tasks ahead of Jinyoung by becoming elite, he now knows that there's already someone who appreciates him being one, no matter how novice he was of being elite at the moment.

"Thanks Mark." Jinyoung gratefully says as he placed his head in the crook of Mark's neck, wrapping his arms around the other's waist. 

"It will take time Jinyoung. You became elite only two weeks ago. No one, not my dad, not me, is pushing you to become a full fledge elite in this short amount of time. The elite community is still reeling from the fact that an indigene could even be eligible for elite status. Let alone being integrated immediately into our life. So don't stress yourself out by this okay? We're all here to support you. I'll be by your side every step of the way." Mark adds, rubbing soothing on Jinyoung's back then kissing his cheek once. 

"Who knew you were such a romantic?" Jinyoung eases out of the hug yet still holding Mark in close proximity, returning the smile Mark gave him. Mark was about to lean towards Jinyoung for a kiss when the room door suddenly opens, both boys jumping away from each other as a nurse entered, holding a file in her hand. 

"Mr. Tuan, Mr. Im told me to get this delivered to you. He said that you have to input these into the system to allow the droids to access the medical record system." She said calmly, obviously not noticing the awkward tension between the two men standing in front of her. 

"Right... thank you." Mark thanks her, collecting the file as the nurse turned and exited the room. 

"Maybe that's a sign that you should get back to work." Jinyoung informs the elite, sighing in relief. 

"Maybe." Mark chuckles, returning to his position at the desk. 
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The rest of the afternoon flew by as Jinyoung watched Mark go about his work. Once in a while, Mark would distract himself from the project long enough to explain a facet of the hospital to Jinyoung. Jinyoung managed to catch lunch with his mother too and although Mark wanted very much to join Jinyoung, Jaebeom had other plans for him, pulling him away from the opportunity. 

Throughout their lunch, Suzy threw question after question to Jinyoung regarding his new life as a