▬ Chapter 16: Incidence ▬

Day 2 - D1 - Second half

“Is it just me or did Hoya seem to want to help when we played soccer?” L grabbed a bottle of water in the fridge and gulped down about half of its contents before returning it back inside. “Yeah, I messed up and didn’t get his pass but hearing about him being a soccer player before, he wouldn’t have missed that easy shot.”

It was now half past two in the afternoon and the INFINITE members retreated back into their dorm to rest. They invited Hoya to rest with them but he dismissed them saying that he had something else to do then wandered off in the opposite direction. Sungjong headed in the shower to freshen up first while the others either drank water to replenish themselves or went to sit lazily on the couch in front of the only standing electric fan in their living room.

“I’m too tired to think right now,” Sungyeol sighed. “We basically played soccer for the entire morning just to wait for something that didn’t even happen.”

“You’re such a pessimist,” Woohyun chided.

“And you’re not?”

“No, I’m a realist. I guess it just wasn’t meant to happen so yeah, I accept defeat.”

“That was quick,” Dongwoo chuckled. “The first time you came here, you would never accept defeat.”

Woohyun shrugged his shoulders in reply. “What can I say? I’m a reformed man.”

“I guess what we read about the students being transformed when they leave this place holds true,” Sungjong came out of the bathroom with a towel around his neck. He signaled Sungyeol that he was now free to use it next since he won second place when they played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors the moment they entered the dorm.

“That aside, there’s also the question of how Changjo managed to get the darn ball.” Woohyun added to their earlier conversation. “He always did seem to be like a magician. Remember that time when he rescued that tabby cat and he slipped from the tree but miraculously didn’t seem to feel any pain? Do these guys have unlimited lives or something?”

“You know that’s not possible. Maybe he just doesn’t feel pain?” Dongwoo tried to reason out.

“Yeah,” L sat down next to Woohyun to join their little circle, “and it’s also not possible to live past a hundred years and still look like to be in your late teens.”

“Point taken.”

A knock on the front door earned all of their attention followed by the confused looks from one another. Sunggyu and Hoya both had keys and it seemed like none of the guys had guests in mind. Without a word, L got up and walked towards the door to see who it was. When he opened the door, he was greeted by five familiar faces.

“May we come in?”

“Of course.” L opened the door wider to let the students enter the dorm. “Hey guys, guess who dropped by.”

Three pairs of eyes were locked by the door and they were surprised as their guests showed themselves one by one. At that moment, Sungyeol just came out of the bathroom and stopped when he felt the new presence enter.

“I see someone has showered,” a hand lightly slapped Sungyeol’s back to which he looked up to see a casually smiling JR. “Hey.”

“JR, Haeri, Changjo, Minkyung, and—” Sungyeol began to name their guests and before he could name the last one, Dongwoo stood up.

“Toma? What are you,” he pointed to his friend and then towards the small group by the door, correcting his earlier remark, “you guys doing here?”

“We need to talk,” Haeri weakly smiled. Having known her for a while, Haeri wasn’t afraid to speak her mind when prompted. However, whenever she needs to ask for a favor, she becomes shy at the thought of having to rely on someone else to meet her needs. She was mostly an independent woman so asking for something in return made her sheepish.

It was now three thirty in the afternoon when all of them sat around the living room floor with refreshments provided by Woohyun strategically placed in areas easy for anyone to grab. The five members of INFINITE began to feel nervous while on the other hand, JR and Haeri remained calm and composed, Changjo and Minkyung sat comfortably, and Toma sat beside Dongwoo awkwardly smiling.

“So JR tells me that you guys know something about us,” Haeri began.

“Actually, it was Sunggyu hyung who told me that he suspected something so I did my own digging,” JR explained. “That’s why I went to see each of you one by one and from what I know, Sungjong came the closest.”

“As expected of the leader,” Changjo clapped and JR laughed.

“You mean sub-leader. Haeri is the leader here.”

“I think that if Sunggyu wasn’t older than you and had more experience in this matter, you would have been the leader,” Minkyung proclaimed. “Plus, you naturally have those leadership qualities even though you say you don’t.”

The other students nodded and even the members of INFINITE agreed. JR could only shyly rub the back of his neck with a smile. “I didn’t know you guys thought that. Thanks.”

“Moving on,” Haeri casually changed the subject, “since you guys already know of our… condition, we would like to ask for a request.”

“A request? From us?” Dongwoo looked confused.

“You guys are the only ones who know and we’ve been sworn to secrecy about our matters for years now. Plus, it’s not like we told you about it. You guys just knew and unfortunately got involved.”

“Unfortunate indeed,” Sungyeol complained. “I didn’t sleep soundly for months until I moved out of Hoya and I’s shared room to sleep with Sungjong. Wait, that didn’t sound right.”

“First of all, I can’t believe that it’s only now that this happened. I mean, students here are delinquents, right? How come no one has been able to break into the restricted section and steal that cursed cell phone until now?”

“That’s a good question, Sungjong. It’s actually a mix of yes and no.” JR took the liberty to explain. “There have been students who broke into the restricted section a couple of times and stole a few things along with them but every time they see the phone, they get creeped out. It’s supposed to be a natural feeling to ward off people to touch it.”

“I knew Hoya wasn’t normal,” Sungyeol whispered to himself.

“Then can you explain from the beginning? Like what actually happened, how Hyerin got stuck in that phone, and how you guys got stuck here?” Sungjong let out some of his curiosities to hopefull