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CHAPTERSEVEN

❝THOSEWHOARESUFFERING❞

"Here“ you go,” Hoya mumbled, stopping in front of a door. Woohyun opened the door and walked into an empty bedroom. Before going into the meeting room with Dongwoo earlier, Sunggyu had ordered Hoya to take Woohyun to one of the spare rooms they had. However, they stopped by the kitchen first, wanting Woohyun to make them something to eat first.

That was a mistake.

The bedroom was pretty plain, just a small twin sized bed in the corner and another door leading to, what Woohyun assumed to be, the bathroom. There were no windows, but the entire ceiling was made out of glass, showing the night time sky.

“We’re running low on spare bedrooms, so this is the best we have at the moment,” Hoya continued. “That door leads to the bathroom. I’ll have someone come by in a second to give you some toiletries. There’s your bed,” he pointed to said object. “There’s the floor. There’s the wall. There’s–”

“I get it,” Woohyun scoffed.

“Just making sure. Oh yeah, since this is one of our old rooms, there’s nothing you can do about covering the ceiling. So I highly suggest you sleep with face in the pillow so that you won’t be blinded by the sun come morning. Just try not to suffocate yourself.”

Woohyun looked up. “Aren’t we underground? How is it that we can see the outside world?”

“Advanced solar technology that gives us the ability to make our walls and ceilings barren, channeling sunlight and…” he trailed off as Woohyun gave him a puzzled look. “Um, basically, with the technology and equipment that we have set up here, we can broadcast what’s going on…” Woohyun kept giving him a confused expression. “We have video cameras outside that transmit the images they record onto our walls and ceilings. We use it to keep an eye on anyone that approaches the warehouse above, but most of us use it as a way to make it feel like we’re actually outside and such.”

“Why not just go outside?”

“Because we’re all criminals in the eyes of people who don’t support our cause. All of our faces, at one point in time, have been on the news, wanted posters, and in the police's criminal database. About ninety percent of the people in INFINITE could easily be recognized if we were to walk outside. It would be dangerous to walk outside.” Woohyun nodded, understanding Hoya’s explanation.

The brunet walked over to the bed and sat down. He looked up again, observing the night time sky. Stars littered the sky. The last time Woohyun looked up at the heavens, a shooting star propelled itself across it. Woohyun frowned. He was never ever going to wish upon a star again. 

“Are you really from the past?”

Woohyun slightly jumped, forgetting that Hoya was still in the room. Said man was leaning against the doorframe, watching him. He seemed generally curious about the matter.

“Who told you?” He asked back.

“I overheard Sungjong and Sunggyu talking about it before the, uh, spaghetti incident,” Hoya visibly shivered when he mentioned the kitchen fiasco.

Woohyun wondered if Sungjong was alright.

“This is the year 2862 SE, right?” Hoya nodded. “Well, I was born in 1991 CE. That would make me well over 5000 years old. The only plausible explanation I can think of is time travel. But for the record, Leeteuk is the one who came up with it first.”

“Time travel…” Hoya mumbled but loud enough for the brunet to hear. “The government has been working on that concept for a very long time. I’m pretty sure they would be ecstatic to find out about someone like you. If they ever got their hands on you… I don’t even want to think about the experiments they’d put you through.”

“Is the government in this world really that bad?” Woohyun was never really big on politics. Sure, he always did his part when it came to voting for whoever should be a city official and the like, but he never paid much attention to it. He knew all governments were corrupted in some way, some more so than others, but the thought of a government that forced people out of their homes to be experimented on was just terrible.

What happened in the past to create a world such as this?

To grow up in a world like this must’ve been hell, though that would explain why everyone seemed so hostile.

To think Suji could’ve grown up in a world like this.

Who knows how long Woohyun was going to be here in the INFINITE headquarters or in this time period in general, but while he was here, he was definitely going to figure out where his mother was. He hoped this was the same time she claimed she was from. He hoped he would be able to recognize her. She would look much younger and possibly be somewhere around his age.

“You have no idea,” Hoya answered, his expression turning dark. “If you really want to know, then ask Sunggyu or Dongwoo. Sunggyu knows more about the terrors of the government than anyone I know.”

Woohyun turned from Hoya, giving a snort of indignation at the mention of Sunggyu. There was no way he was going to ask the caramel haired man about the government. He would rather not see that man ever again. He was a jerk with anger management issues that was willing to throw someone innocent, like himself, to the police.

“By the way,” Woohyun spoke, turning back to Hoya. “Do you know someone by the name of Suji–?”

Hoya was gone.

That jerk left without saying anything.

Woohyun frowned, missing another opportunity to ask about his mother. He shook his head and lay down. He wiggled and squirmed and rolled around till he was comfortable on the bed.

Woohyun looked up at the transparent window, observing the sky again. The moon was in full view. The brunet noted that this moon was much bigger and brighter than the one in his time. The light it reflected from the sun and the stars that it surrounded illuminated the room. Seeing a moon this big reminded the brunet of when he took astronomy his freshman year in college. He loved everything about the stars, the planets, the galaxies, and the universe it surrounded.

Thinking about the astronomy class reminded Woohyun that his college classes for the fall semester was going to start on Monday. He forgot to tell Eli so that he needed to either change his shift at the café or become a part-time worker again. It was unfortunate, though, Woohyun thought, he was probably going to miss the first day of school.

Who knows how long Woohyun would be in this time. He wasn’t even sure how he got here. And he had no clue how to get back. What if he couldn’t go back? What if he was permanently stuck here in the future?

Besides school, he would miss work next week. He wouldn’t be able to see his friends at school or his friendly co-workers at the café. He wouldn’t be to greet the evil, old lady who lived next door to him. He wouldn’t be able to finally figure out exactly why his brother disappeared five years ago. He wouldn’t be able to visit his mother’s grave and tell her what’s been happening in his life.

Woohyun was twenty one. He had his whole life ahead of him, yet, due to some unknown circumstances, here he was in the future where he could be killed on the spot for just a little mistake or a misunderstanding. The brunet closed his eyes and prayed that he would be able to find something out about his transporting here and maybe send him back to his time before something dangerous and possibly fatal happen to him.

The young man began to wonder if anyone would notice his sudden absence. Since Suji just died, many of his friends that he would hang out with often would probably assume that he was just grieving over the loss of his mother and not actually missing altogether. If he didn’t find a way home soon, he wondered what would happen to his house and all of his possessions. Would they sell it? Or possibly give it away to his close friends–that is if they actually wanted anything of his.

Like any young adult, Woohyun’s most prized possession was his laptop. Everything from his school work, his personal information, his billings and account data, his life was stored on there. It broke the brunet’s heart at the thought of never seeing the machine again.

“Oh god,” Woohyun choked, his emotions and feelings becoming unbearable. “All the on my laptop…”

Woohyun felt like crying on the spot.

“Are you okay? I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” a new voice said. Woohyun opened his eyes and looked to the new voice. A young man with indigo blue hair was standing in the doorway, looking a bit hesitant at Woohyun. It was obvious that the man had something important to say to Woohyun but seemed a little tentative to even walk in the room completely.

Woohyun sat up, swallowing the sob that threatened to come out of his mouth. All those videos… “I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed right now.”

The blue haired man nodded as he walked further into the room. “I heard from Sunggyu and Sungjong about, uh, the reason why you’re here. It seems like you been through a lot today.”

Woohyun hummed in response. He eyed the blue haired man in front of him. He remembered seeing the man earlier when everyone was voting to either let Woohyun stay in the headquarters or not. He and Sungjong were the only ones who voted for him to stay.

It was obvious that he was older than the brunet, but definitely shorter. His blue hair was styled similar to Woohyun’s, though seeming to have more volume to it. What surprised the young male the most was the man’s attire. He was wearing an oversized dark brown hoodie and washed out skinnies with a few rips here and there around his knees and thighs.

The brunet had never been so happy to see a normal looking outfit before.

“I guess I should introduce myself,” the man muttered, feeling a bit disturbed from Woohyun’s fixed gaze on him. “I’m the second-in-command of INFINITE. The name’s Jang Dongwoo.” He held his hand out so he could shake Woohyun’s.

“You’re the guy with the jars of blood!” Woohyun gasped, covering his mouth with one hand and pointing dramatically at Dongwoo with the other.

“What?”

“Nothing!” Woohyun squeaked, lowering his hands. He hoped that Dongwoo wasn’t here to murder him and use his blood as a replacement.

“Right,” Dongwoo fr