••••

CHAPTERNINETEEN

❝KEYBOARDSCANBEDANGEROUS❞

"H-How?" That was the only thing Woohyun could utter. He took a step back, and he collided into the computer monitor. He reached blindly for something behind him that he could use to defend himself. His hand was palpitating with terror. He wished that Hoya had given him his gun back.

“You honestly thought that a metal pipe would kill me?” Tao gave Woohyun a murderous smile, chuckling a bit. The brunet swallowed thickly; he felt his heart beat against his chest rapidly. He was sure Tao could hear it.

“B-But…” Woohyun couldn’t say anymore. The man he thought he had killed was standing right in front of him completely unharmed. There was not a single bruise on his face. It was as if he and the others had not met and fought Tao.

Woohyun jumped slightly as his hand crashed into something. He wasn’t sure what it felt like, but he was able to easily grasp it. He lifted it a bit to make sure it wasn’t heavy and to not gain Tao’s attention. His whole hand enclosed on the object. He could tell that some wires were attached to it. Hopefully, whatever he was grabbing would be good enough to defend him.

“I would like to thank you, though. If you hadn’t ‘killed’ me, I wouldn’t have known the limits and capabilities of the drugs Dr. Wu and Dr. Lu gave me,” he explained. “I should thank Sunggyu as well. Our fight was the first time I had truly used my strength since the tests had started.” He clenched and unclenched his hands, admiring them.

They looked boring and normal to Woohyun, though.

Tao slowly looked up to Woohyun. “And you’ll be the second person I’ll test my skills on.”

The moment the young mercenary took a step towards Woohyun, the brunet pulled his arm from behind him and swung his newfound weapon at Tao. However, the object was much lighter than what Woohyun thought, and it flew out of his hand towards Tao. Said man saw the move coming and held up his arms to block the attack. He closed his eyes, waiting for the impact, but all he felt was a little tap.

Woohyun’s stomach dropped, realizing that the object he had used to defend himself from Tao was just a small wired computer mouse.

Both Tao and Woohyun watched the mouse as it fell to the ground and rolled to the side. Then they both slowly looked up at one another. The brunet gulped, afraid to make a sound, afraid to move even the slightest. That mouse was the only weapon he had, and, obviously, it had done nothing for him.

“Well… I give you an ‘A’ for effort,” Tao offered.

Woohyun’s brows furrowed. “I honestly thought it was something that would actually do some kind of damage...”

“Next time go for the keyboard. That might disorient me a little.”

“I don’t think this particular computer had one. I think it’s a touchscreen.”

Tao frowned. “I hate touchscreen computers.”

“Really? I think they’re quite convenient.”

“I suppose. I guess I’m just old school…” Tao shrugged.

They both grew quiet as the conversation died. Throwing the mouse at Tao seemed to had made the situation a bit awkward. Woohyun leaned back against the table behind him, not knowing what else to do. The brunet was surprised that Tao didn’t try to shoot him for throwing the mouse. It actually had seemed that Tao had forgotten that he was intent on killing the young time traveler.

Woohyun wanted to say something, but he didn’t want to remind Tao that he was supposed to cause him harm.

“So… How’s the arm?” Tao asked suddenly, pointing to Woohyun’s injured shoulder.

Woohyun’s brows furrowed. The question threw him off. “It’s… been better,” he glanced at his shoulder.

“Exactly how did you injure it? I remember you said you were attacked by jellyfish and lions, but that was a lie, right?” Tao crossed his arms.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. You had a rocket launcher, and I was scared less that you were going to blow us up.”

“Bringing that launcher wasn’t such a good idea, huh?” That rocket launcher caused more harm to both parties than it was originally intended for.

“No, it wasn’t.”

“So…?” Tao was referring to Woohyun’s shoulder again.

“It happened when you tried to blow our car up… with that rocket launcher…”

“Oh…”

“Yeah…”

“Sorry?”

“It’s okay, I guess…” Woohyun was confused by his own sentence. How long were they going to have this meaningless little conversation before Tao killed him?

“What was your name again? I never caught it.”

“It’s Woohyun.”

“I’m Tao.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“How have you been since out last encounter?” Tao had said it like they had met several times in the past.

“Not so good.” Woohyun wasn’t lying.

“Oh yeah?” Tao raised a brow in curiosity.

“I passed out for a couple of hours because of a concussion I developed because you blew up our car.”

“Sorry?”

“I fell out of an elevator.”

“How–?”

“I was called Sunggyu’s girlfriend.”

“…You’re not?”

“I was dragged down several flights of stairs by Lee Taemin. You know him?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Wu Yi fan injected some drugs into me.”

“Ahh, so you’ve met Kris?”

“The man didn’t know what drug he gave me, so there’s a good chance I might have prostate cancer…”

“Or the chicken pox.”

“I also just found out that my mom was telling the truth about her time traveling and a younger version of herself is out there, somewhere, in the world, running around. Her name is Bae Suji. Do you know her?”

“No–”

“And I just found out that my estranged brother has been dead for the past six years, and I don’t even know how he died.”

“…Wow you’ve really been through a lot.”

Woohyun sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. He felt another oncoming throb in his head. This time it felt like the back of his head was pulsating. It was also similar to ache he got right before he passed out back in the tunnels. “Tell me about it…”

Before the conversation could continue, Sunggyu walked into the room. “Woohyun, did you find… anything…?” He trailed off when he realized that Woohyun was not alone. His eyes widened when he recognized the person.

Tao slowly turned around. A vengeful smile formed as he saw INFINITE’s leader standing in the doorway. “Hello, Sunggyu. I was wondering when you would appear.” Several emotions played on Sunggyu’s face: astonishment, d