••••

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE

❝YOUPUTTHEDREAMINMYREAILTY❞

He was cold.

What happened?

His fingers twitched, rubbing against the damp gravel.

Where was he?

He took a deep breath. It took a moment, at first, but pain began to register in his mind. Everything began to ache. He lifted his arm only for it to crash back to the ground with a painful thud. He had no strength to move. A quiet moan of pain escaped his mouth.

A continuous liquid slid down his cheeks, and he realized that it was raining. It was still raining. He flinched, feeling heavy raindrop after raindrop land on him. The young man’s eyes fluttered open, but the continuous downpour falling onto him forced him to keep them shut momentarily.

God, everything hurt.

He took another deep breath, mentally willing himself to move. The young brunet, with all of his strength, pushed himself up. He emitted a loud cry of pain as his body throbbed in agony.

“,” he moaned, doubling over as all of his senses were overthrown with pain. He fell face first back onto the ground, his cheek scraping along the ground as he lost all strength to move. He coughed, and he could taste metallic in his mouth.

He stayed still, taking shallow breaths. He had no strength, no will, no energy. He blinked a couple of times, his vision blurring along the edges. His head throbbed. There was a constant ringing in his ears. He shivered, the weather taking its toll on him.

He lied on the ground, watching the raindrops patter against the earth. It was a very soothing sound, almost enough to relax him and lull him to sleep, almost enough to help him deal with the immense pain he felt all over his body, almost enough to make him forget the events that led him into this current situation. He closed his eyes.

He’s been through a lot since coming to this time–a terrible car crash, being tortured, falling out of an elevator shaft–but the pain blossoming everywhere from that er’s punches were definitely something he didn’t want to experience again.

Wait…

L–Myungsoo!

Woohyun gasped, opening eyes.

Myungsoo had punched him. He had knocked him out after seeing Woohyun listening in on his conversation with the scientist from the BEQP. Myungsoo was the mole, the traitor that had been messing with INFINITE for some time now.

…INFINITE.

Sunggyu!

The thought of Sunggyu alone was enough to give his body renewed strength.

He needed to warn them, warn Sunggyu!

Myungsoo was the traitor this entire time. And if he didn’t hurry back to the headquarters, then it would be too late.

What time was it? How long was he out? Was it too late?

Woohyun took a deep breath as he slowly pulled himself to his feet. His world spun, his vision went white, and he felt his body crash into the brick wall behind him. He slid against the wall back down to the ground

“,” he muttered under his breath as he attempted to stand up again. He swallowed thickly, doing his best to ignore the pain. He used the wall as leverage as he stumbled to his feet. He leaned against it as he eyed his surroundings. He was still in the small alleyway that Myungsoo and his cohort left him in earlier. He was deep within the backstreet, too far from the entrance to see if anyone was around. He doubted it, though. With how heavy it was pouring, no one would want to traverse the streets this late. And he had no clue how long he had been out.

If he remembered correctly, it was a little after seven when he had left sector five. The brunet looked up to the sky; the rain thrummed against him steadily. The never ending sunset sky had turned a dark shade of orange and various tints and hues of red and blue mixed together, giving the sky an evening twilight appeal.

With a shaky sigh, the young man looked down. He raised his hand, placing it gently against his chest. He could still feel the infinity necklace cold and wet pressed against his skin under his shirt. Thank God he didn’t lose that again.

The brunet blinked and gave another sigh before lowering his hand. He couldn’t remember how long it would take to get back to sector two from here, but he needed to hurry before it was too late. He pushed himself off the wall but kept a hand pressed against it for in case he lost his strength and footing again. His other hand clutched his side. The quick jab Myungsoo landed on his torso hurt like hell, and he briefly wondered if any of his ribs were badly bruised.

He began to slowly walk down the path, deeper into the backstreet. With each step, his body screamed and howled in agony, but he persevered. Warning Sunggyu was more important than his own wellbeing.

“You can do this, Woohyun,” he mumbled to himself. “You have to hurry and get back to Sunggyu.”

His body had grown numb. He couldn’t feel much anymore. He was freezing from the rain, and he felt like he would collapse at any given moment. A path that should had only taken an hour at the most had turned into almost three, but for the first time in a while, Woohyun was able to feel a sense of relief wash over him as his eyes fell upon the worn down warehouse that housed the headquarters of INFINITE below it in the distance.

With strength he was not aware of still having, he felt his body move on its own accord. He ran as fast as he could towards the entrance. When he reached the doors, he grabbed the handle and slid them open.

The warehouse reeked of damp and mold, but there were no signs of a struggle, no signs of a forced entry, no signs of Myungsoo and YGs people attacking the headquarters. All seemed well at the moment. He wouldn’t truly know what the situation was till he reached the main floor. He prayed and prayed for the wellbeing of everyone as he approached the elevator doors.

The elevator gave a small jingle as he walked in and inputted the code that allowed him to go underground. As the lights flickered in and out, Woohyun clutched his side again and leaned against the wall. With no longer running in the rain and the sudden adrenaline from seeing the headquarters fading away, he was feeling nearly dead with fatigue. He was exhausted. Everything hurt. And his head was still badly throbbing.

He felt his body give in, and he slid to the floor. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, his chest shuddering in pain. It would be a couple of minutes before he reached the bottom floor. Maybe it would be okay to take a little break? His body needed it. It was screaming at him in pain. He was at his limit. The brunet’s head lulled to the side as the joggling of the lift somewhat relaxed him. The constant ringing of the elevator grew faint…

“Woohyun?” A very faint voice called out. It sounded concerned.

It sounded scared.

Everything was still. Did the elevator stop? Had he already reached the bottom? But didn’t he just get in? There was a lot of noise in the background, but it sounded muffled and far away.

“Woohyun, can you hear me?” It was the same voice, so rich and melodic.

So soothing.

A cool hand pressed against his neck before moving to his cheeks and then finally his forehead. He gave a low sigh of relief; the hand felt amazing against his feverish skin. “You’re soaking wet and burning up…”

Woohyun’s eyes fluttered open, and he saw Sunggyu crouching in front of him. He was still in the elevator. The voices in the background grew louder as his mind continued to register what was going on around him. Sungjong was standing behind him, holding the doors open. He looked scared and confused.

The brunet blinked, taking in Sunggyu’s appearance. The older man looked haggard. A frown marred his face. And his brows were deeply furrowed. But his eyes spoke differently. There was relief and happiness that swam in them, but behind it all they glinted with unease. Woohyun wondered if he was the reasoning behind such an expression.

“S-Sunggyu,” Woohyun whispered. He wanted to say more, but suddenly, he couldn’t find the right words. So much had happened today. Where would he start? How would he explain who had and continue to be behind the slow, inevitable downfall of INFINITE?

“What happened? Where’ve you been?” Sunggyu started. He reached out, and Woohyun felt a thumb graze his skin below his right eye. He quickly hissed and flinched away in pain, missing the look of pure contempt that momentarily flashed on Sunggyu’s face. “Who did this to you?”

Woohyun opened his mouth, about to blurt out his name, but he was interrupted.

“Sunggyu, we need you back. This discussion is important, and we need to make an immediate decision about what we should do with… oh, well speak of the devil.”  Myungsoo walked into the elevator, his attention falling onto Woohyun. Said young man narrowed his eyes, seeing the ravenette.

How dare he?

Sunggyu felt the brunet tense up the moment Myungsoo entered the lift. He eyed Woohyun, taking in his apprehensive state. He then glanced at Myungsoo, not liking the smirk that graced his usual stoic face.

“Look who finally decided to show up?” Myungsoo snorted.

Woohyun sneered, “You son of a–”

“You have a lot of guts to show up here after what happened,” Myungsoo turned around, leaving the elevator.

“I do?!” Woohyun pulled away from Sunggyu’s grasp, and using the elevator wall as help, the brunet pulled himself to his feet. He pushed passed Sungjong and stumbled out of the elevator, following after him. How dare Myungsoo act like nothing had happened, like he didn’t overhear his conversations of committing mutiny.

“Do you think you can get away with…?” The brunet trailed off as he fully stepped out of the elevator. His brows furrowed, and he frowned as he noticed that the entire main room of the headquarters was full of the members of INFINITE. All the voices had died down.

Everyone was staring at him. Woohyun wasn’t close to the people whom made up INFINITE–excluding Sunggyu and the others–but he never thought they would be staring down at him like this, even when he first showed up. Some were sneering and frowning. Others were muttering under their breaths, obviously talking about him. The look of betrayal etched on their faces.

“W-What’s going on?” Woohyun frowned, eyeing everyone.

“Woohyun,” Sunggyu started, walking out of the elevator. He was frowning at the brunet, the concern in his voice and eyes were gone. The detached Sunggyu was back. Sungjong was standing next to him; his arms were crossed. He avoided Woohyun’s questioning glance. “Where’ve you been?” His voice was stiff and distant.

The brunet stuttered, swallowing thickly, “W-W-What? I–”

“Why don’t you tell them, Woohyun,” Myungsoo said, gesturing to everyone in the room.  “Tell them how I caught you conspiring with the enemy! Tell everyone how, from the moment you stepped foot in here, you’ve been working with YG and his people to mess with us, to distract us, to destroy us.”

“I–What?! N-No, that’s not true!” He claimed. “You’re a lying piece of , you know that?” Woohyun pointed at him. He couldn’t believe this. What was Myungsoo trying to do? “I haven’t betrayed you; none of you! Why would I? What would I gain from it? I’m not even from here. He’s the one–”

“Woohyun,” Hoya interrupted, stepping out of the crowd. He stood next to Myungsoo. He took a deep breath; the obvious confliction was written in his eyes. “L has told us about your secret meeting with that scientist from the BEQP. You were spotted in sector four–”

“That’s not true! He’s lying, Hoya. I–”

“Then where were you today? You obviously weren’t in the headquarters. You were last spotted this morning before leaving the premises. Is that not true?”

“I–Yes, I did leave, but not to meet some damn scientist. I just–”

“What were your reasons for leaving then? After everything we’ve been through, that you've been through, you know how dangerous it is to just up and leave without–”

“It’s not like I wanted to really leave, but I just…” What was he supposed to say? How could he just tell everyone he left because he almost walked in on his mom and the man he had fallen for sharing an intimate moment with each other and he couldn’t, emotionally, handle it? “I didn’t sneak out, though. Sungjong saw me!” He turned to the younger, mentally pleading for some help.

“Is that true, Sungjong?” Dongwoo asked. He also stepped out of the crowd to address the situation.

“I–Yeah. I saw him leave,” Sungjong stated. He was quiet for a moment before continuing. “We, uh, talked for a second before I helped him with the code to use the elevator.”

“So you were in on this too?” Hoya assumed, frowning.

“No! I’m not in on anything! I would never betray INFINITE. And neither would Woohyun. You all know this,” Sungjong defended. He stepped forward, standing beside the brunet. “Woohyun may have not been with us for that long, but he is just as dedicated to us and our cause just like the rest of us!”

“Then why were you out? What was the reason?”

“I… I…” Woohyun was at a loss for words. “I just needed some air. I have been cooped up in this place for a little over a month, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore.”

“And so you left and went all the way to sector four to contact your comrades?!” Hoya snapped.

“No, I didn’t! I just wondered away for a while. I stumbled into sector five and walked around the little street festival that had going on. That’s all. I did end up in sector four afterwards–”

“So that you could meet up with that–”

“–Only to find my way back home! The last time I was in that area, I was with Sunggyu. Earlier, I had recognized the area and knew how to get back here, but then I saw him!” He gestured to Myungsoo, disdain towards the latter evident in his voice. “He was the one talking to the scientist! I saw him scheming with that man. They were talking about orders Yongguk gave them. A-And his name is not even L! It’s actually Myungsoo!”

Muttering filled the room as the members of INFINITE conversed about Woohyun’s side of the story. Some seemed confused while others shook their heads in disbelief. A look of utter astonishment flickered across Myungsoo’s face for a brief moment before a smile reappeared.

“Is that so? And with what proof, Woohyun?” He shot back. The brunet’s brows furrowed at the question. “I’ve been at headquarters all day. You can look at the cameras. I’ve been working on the plans for our next mission till our leader rounded some of us up to go and look for you. Right, Dongwoo? I’ve haven’t been in contact with any scientist, like you said.”

“Uh, yeah…?” Dongwoo frowned, looking at the ravenette.

“It doesn’t take long to get to sector four from here. You had enough time to contact your bosses during the meantime,” Woohyun claimed. The doubt and skepticism could be seen returning on the rebels’ faces.

“Uh huh,” he shrugged. “How long did it take for you to come up with this sorry excuse of a story?”

“This is a load of bull,” Woohyun mumbled.

“Hmph,” a young woman huffed. The brunet glanced at the person the voice belonged to. It was Suzy. “Sounds like he’s lying to me,” she pointed to Wooyun. “L’s been with us for a couple of years now. He’s trustworthy. But you, on the other hand, I’ve heard that INFINITE had been compromised on every missions since you’ve arrived. I think we all know what’s going on here.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Woohyun groaned. “Listen here, woman–”

“What’s your intake on this, Leader?” Myungsoo asked, looking to Sunggyu.

Woohyun turned to him. Sunggyu had been quiet this entire time. His calculating eyes flickered between Myungsoo and Woohyun before settling on the latter. He crossed his arms, frowning.

The rebel leader was quiet for a moment before finally speaking up, “We’ve heard both sides of the story, and despite the proof we’ve been given, I think it’s best that for the meantime you two are both put under surveillance while I go over–”

“I don’t mean to interrupt, sir, although you may be our leader, don’t you think it’s a bit unfair that you get to make this decision without anyone else’s input? You have all the proof you need to see your Woohyun as the mole, the traitor that has been screwing