[Na Jaemin out to get Jeffrey]

The sun had set and we could hear the sound of Jaemin sharpening a kitchen knife from down the hall. I peeked out of my bedroom to see Jaehyun quickly walk into his room. He slammed the door shut, locking it and we heard Jaemin sneer.

“Oh, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey,” Jaemin spoke, his voice deeper than usual. “That’s not going to work, Jeffrey—”

“Go away, Jaemin!” we heard Jaehyun yell.

“Oh, I will, Jeffrey. I will go to hell and I’m bringing you with me.” A stabbing could be heard and Jaemin stabbed the door with the knife, Renjun walking over with Jeno.

“Jaemin, that’s enough.”

“What do you mean, that’s enough?” Jaemin pouted. “But it’s so fun! What are you going to do? Put me to sleep? JENO! Don’t you dare! Oh, pretty girl!”

“Go to sleep, Jaemin,” I told him and he beamed at me, giving me a flying kiss before I retreated back into my room. It didn’t take long for One and Luhan to come, One climbing up onto the bed and asking me to tell him the same story I told him every night.

Cinderella.

So, I began to tell him the story and by the time we reached the part of the fairy god mother, One had knocked out. He fell asleep, his eyes fluttering shut and he began to breathe slow. I looked to the side to see Luhan staring at the ceiling.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked, Luhan sighing and turning to smile at me.

“At the fact that since Johnny arrived, you have distanced yourself from us,” he said and I blinked.

“Wow, and you say I’m blunt.” I managed to tease, Luhan chuckling. I pressed my lips together. “I’m sorry, it’s just been very confusing for me. I realize that everything I have been doing is selfish.”

“I guessed as much,” Luhan said. “I guessed that there was something going on but it also seems like you and Johnny haven’t been speaking.”

“It’s complicated, I guess.”

“And I know I make you feel safe but I guess a part of me wanted it to be me who you’d turn to but it seems that Johnny and I are the cause of it.” Luhan exhaled. “And I had to get that from reading Jeffrey’s experiment proposal.”

“Oh my god.” I turned red. “Okay, that’s pretty embarrassing.”

“Yeah, the results were pretty much self-explanatory.”

“Luhan, I’m sorry—”

“No, Dana. Please stop apologizing,” Luhan said and I frowned. “It’s okay to be confused. You’ve been nothing but honest with me and I appreciate that. Emotions are hard to handle for a normal person and you’re far from normal—”

“Okay, no idea if that’s an insult or you reassuring me and telling me that it’s okay that I’m all over the place.”

“Maybe a little bit of both.”

“Luhan!”

Luhan laughed. “I have One, you know. And he really likes you so I guess I naturally felt closer to you because not everyone likes One. He’s a handful. I’m like a single dad at this point and being a single dad is not very attractive to women.”

“That’s not true. You and One are incredibly cute together.”

Right when I said it, One splayed his arms wide open and I could hear him muttering to himself.

“Brother Luhan protect One… One like… One love… EXO one…. EXO none….”

Luhan blinked at One. “I have no idea what that means. Am I supposed to be worried?”

“No, you’re from EXO-M, aren’t you?”

“EXO-M…” One continued to drone on. “EXO Mess… NCT… Neo confused technology….”

“Now, I’m concerned.”

I laughed, nodding. “You should be. Neo Confused Technology shall be NCT’s new tag line.”

One finally shut up, Luhan removing One’s finger from his mouth.

“I see how confused you are. I stand by my word, Dana. I’m here if you need me, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Why is everyone standing by their word? Why can’t everyone sit down? Why does everyone ‘see’?” I grumbled. “Why am I the only one who doesn’t see?”

“Because you’re stubborn. Johnny is too,” Luhan told me, smiling.

“I know, but I’m trying! I just want to have a conversation with him but he makes it so hard.”

“You’re not one to give up, Dana,” Luhan urged and I turned to my side, an arm going out to hug One.

“That’s true,” I said softly. “This is the first time I’m actually trying for someone.”

“Well, it’s Johnny. Besides…” Luhan shrugged. “There’s a first time for everything.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Today was the day everyone had to gather to finally talk about what we should do. I woke up early to One shaking me softly. I winced when his finger pressed down a little bit too roughly on my skin, One mumbling a sorry.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Luhan greeted, rubbing his hair with a towel. “Get up, we have a revolution to lead.”

“Sounds like a great thing to hear first thing in the morning,” I grumbled, standing up and freshening up. Everyone had already filed into one of the meeting rooms, the windows wide open to show some light and I sat down with Luhan. Sehun walked in, Jisung following close behind.

It wasn’t long until almost all of NCT came in and older members of SM, to which they called themselves Super Junior. Xiaozhan cleared his throat, dragging down the screen and motioning to Chenle who opened up the laptop to connect it to the screen.

Chenle looked happy to be useful again, Shotaro beside him—both of them clicking down on their individual laptops.

Jaemin walked into the room and I noticed that he seemed dully quiet, his eyes empty and his bright smile nowhere to be found. Jeno took a seat and he had a look of concern on his face. Renjun moved into the room, raising a hand at Xiaozhan.

“Yes, Renjun?”

“We’ll be a little late for the meeting today, I have something to handle with Jaemin,” he said and Xiaozhan nodded slowly.

“Take your time, we’ll wait.”

And with that, Renjun nudged Jaemin and both of them went outside. I looked out the window and finally saw them walk towards a tree. I frowned when I saw Renjun hold something in the air and it looked like an apple, Jaemin shoving a shovel into the ground to dig a hole.

Jaemin went on his knees, Renjun standing behind him. Jaemin seemed to be muttering something and finally, Renjun placed the apple into the hole and Jaemin covered it up with dirt. Jaemin stood up and I could have sworn that he looked like he had been crying, Renjun stepping forward to hug Jaemin tightly.

What was wrong?

I frowned, seeing Jaemin rock Renjun back and forth, both of them conversing when he finally nodded and turned towards the building. Jaemin broke into a smile.

It wasn’t long until both of them entered the meeting room again, Jaemin looking happy again as he twirled by the entrance, announcing to the whole meeting room.

“I’m healed.” He beamed, sitting beside Jeno.

“From what?” Jeno asked, Jaemin shrugging.

“You don’t need to know.”

“Right… Everyone, say happy birthday to Jaemin,” Renjun quipped, settling on a chair beside Jaemin and everyone gasped, their eyes widening at the news. “Oh, c’mon. Everyone has a birthday!”

“Oh, yes… Yes. On this very day—exactly at this time! I was developed from a tube…” Jaemin wagged his finger at Kyungsoo who sat by our SM Alumni’s. “And I learned that recently, D.O. I was blessed by science and the god almighty! And brought upon this world by an incubator which I shall name my parents—So…”

“So… ICU67-X?” Kyungsoo asked, and Jaemin clapped his hands loudly, everyone jumping at the sudden sound.

“Yes, ICU67-X! Now, I have a question…. Why, ICU67-X? Why am I alive?”

“Wow,” Jeno muttered under his breath.

“Wow, indeed,” Renjun whispered back.

“The nightmares of this day! I am haunted by my preborn memories of my beating heart in a glass machine—”

“You had nightmares?” Jeno asked, a bit too loudly. “Is that why you were shaking last night? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

Oh, Jeno… I found myself thinking of how concerned he sounded.

“Wow,” Haechan whispered, Jungwoo nodding as he stared at a changed Jeno.

“Wow, indeed,” Jungwoo whispered back.

“Because, Mr. Jeno Lee… I am healed! In your arms!”

“Don’t worry, Jeno. Every year we manage. Every year on Jaemin’s birth week we terrorize doctors.”

“Sorry, what?” Jaehyun asked, lifting an eyebrow at the information.

“Yes, Jeffrey. We terrorize doctors… Oh.” Renjun blinked at Jaehyun. “You’re the only doctor around.”

“Right.”

“Time to give you hell, Jeffrey,” Renjun replied simply and Jaehyun looked flustered, Jaemin clapping his hands, bouncing his shoulders up and down.

“Okay, Xiaozhan. Sorry for the delay, shall we?” he chirped.

Xiaozhan nodded, a small smile on his face.

“Thank you for being here today. I’ll start the meeting by talking about the U.S… United Syndicate or the Umbrella Syndicate. The U.S are usually politicians, people of power or people who work for people of power in the public eye.” Xiaozhan paused, putting up a list of people onto the screen. “Now, what the U.S wants is for the world to be equal. They want a world void of weakness, both mental and physical and that is why they asked YG and SM to concoct a Marvel and a Hulk drug.”

“The problem is that not everyone can take the Marvel and the Hulk drug. The Hulk drug, as we know had caused a lot of infant causalities and only One survived out of 67 babies,” Luhan continued. “And what happens when people can’t handle the Marvel and/or the Hulk drug? They die. And that is how genocide comes in.”

“They are taking it as a chance which is genocide and people will die,” Sehun mumbled to himself. “Henry did some research on the investors. A lot of them are people who often see on TV—”

“That’s true. This is like Noah’s Arc. People in the U.S is Noah and the animals are the civilians. It’s a godly concept but it’s meant to wash out the remaining on the world who don’t have the choice but to die,” Henry added. “Besides, not everyone has the Warrior gene. A lot of people are going to drop dead because of that.”

“Exactly, Henry. Not everyone can take the drug.” Xiaozhan nodded. “This wipes the e