Second Update

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I was stunned at first, but then I didn’t know what I felt. A little bit of me was angry and another part was smug. The look on that traitor’s face was great. He hadn’t expected me to be with Kyuhyun and he probably hadn’t expected the kiss either.

Sure, as a rival I held some sympathy for him when it came to Kyuhyun. I mean, I had been in that position before, looking in on the person I love with someone else. But from a completely different perspective, I hated Ryeowook. He was a disgrace to everything that I valued. We stood on opposite ends of a struggle between careless rebels and the established law.

How could someone raised by a law-abiding officer grow up to be the pawn of a goon? No matter how horrible of a father he had, there was no excuse for turning away from the light. I couldn’t respect him and therefore I couldn’t find it in myself to respect him and his decision. Most of all, I couldn’t accept him being anywhere near Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun…was a special case. His actions were cute in a teenage punk sort of way. They made for good after school specials but nothing more and when I looked at Kyuhyun I could already see him reforming as the weeks passed by. He was growing up and away from all of that .

Then there was Kim Ryeowook – the boy with an angel’s appearance and a devil’s minion attitude. I knew I wasn’t wrong in my calculations. He had the capability of flying off the handle. No matter how quiet the guy was, I could tell that his personality was far from it. Deep inside, he was bottling up some serious feelings that had to find an outlet eventually. That outlet turned out to be rebellion against the entire order of the world.

When I saw him through that train window, I witnessed everything – the way his dark eyes shattered, the shadows forming around his features, and the melting away of what little grasp on our reality he still held. If I hadn’t been sure before then, I was definitely sure at that moment. He would rise up and he would wreak havoc without a doubt. The scary part was, I had no doubt that he would succeed in whatever ambitious plans he set out to accomplish.

Kyuhyun and I barely exchanged any words for the remainder of the train ride. After arriving, he took a phone call and came back pissed and probably more than a little helpless. It had been heavily masked by his prideful shell, but I could see past it. That didn’t mean I would say anything.

We were met at the station by two well dressed figures. They led us to a black van and when the doors were pulled back, five or so other young adults were inside. I nodded at them, checking on Kyuhyun to see if he was greeting anyone. As expected, he simply climbed in and silently edged to the far window. I sat down beside him, not sure what to do. Being good at analyzing a situation was different from handling a situation well.

“Hey, what’s your name?” The van started moving out onto the road and I turned my head. There was a handsome, dark haired young man sitting in the row behind us. He smiled easily.

“Changmin, you?” I replied.

“Jungmo,” he answered, “what about your friend?” He nodded towards Kyuhyun curiously.

“That’s Kyuhyun,” I said, earning absolutely no reaction from the brooding boy. He didn’t even flinch.

On the other hand, Jungmo nodded understandingly. “So why did you join this project? It’s pretty risky when you think about it.”

He was right. If you failed to pass initial tests and training, then you were immediately removed. There were no second chances in this game. “I don’t plan on being kicked off,” I shrugged, “besides, I didn’t want to be a normal government dog.”

“Is that the same for your friend?”

I was about to answer for Kyuhyun again, but he butted in, saying, “I have a score to settle, so stop asking questions.” He closed his eyes, putting in ear buds.

“Short temper?” Jungmo mouthed.

I shook my head. “Bad day,” I mouthed back.

He nodded knowingly.

“What’re all of you talking about?” a girl’s voice inquired. She had been sitting in the back by herself. At that moment, she came up, sitting down beside Jungmo.

Giving her a once over, I could already see that she had no real intentions of being part of the program. From the looks of it, she was either a planted intelligence agent or someone who was just really stupid and wanted to meet boys. It wasn’t completely unlikely after all, the world had some crazy people.

“Idle chit-chat,” Jungmo replied smoothly, “do you know what the first test is going to be like?”

She sheepishly shook her head no. “Sorry.”

“It’s no big deal,” he laughed, yawning and reclining on the seat. “We’ll find out soon.”

No kidding.

Upon arrival, we were pushed into testing rooms. It took roughly two hours to complete all of the written exams and then we had half an hour to lounge while waiting for the results. There were approximately one hundred people in the room. They whispered answers to one another, comparing and re-evaluating helplessly.

Kyuhyun was listening to his music though. People gave him numerous looks, some annoyed, some interested, and a good chunk was sultry. I couldn’t blame them. He was attractive – incredibly, so.

Results were digitally posted on a monitor. Kyuhyun opened his eyes, smirking for a mere second before dropping back to whatever beat he was listening to. To say I was surprised wouldn’t be completely true. He had been an overachiever since I met him, even if that overachievement was being a punk.

The top score belonged to Kyuhyun, followed by some other no names. There were only fifty scores displayed, followed by the announcement: Only the top fifty advance to the next round. A shuttle waits outside for any eliminated contestants.

In a flurry, we were faced with physical tests. They were simple stamina and strength assessments. I scored higher than Kyuhyun in this category at least. He was somewhere between top ten and top twenty. From that round, only ten were eliminated; probably because physical endurance could be trained more easily than brains.

There was only one more round after that. It was a public declaration of intent. Any number of people could be eliminated from this round, depending on how satisfied the project administrators were with your answer. The first five failed quickly.

“Are you nervous?”

I glanced at Kyuhyun. That was the first thing he had said to me since the train ride. The facility we were in had no natural light, so I really had no idea what time it was, but it felt like that train trip was far away. “No, not really,” I answered.

He sat forward in his chair, hands pressed together. “It’s easy to bull this stuff.”

“You don’t think they’re qualified to judge us?”

“Kind of,” Kyuhyun grinned a little, “but it’s more like they want a puppet.”

I wanted to ask if Ryeowook’s vigilante ways were getting to him, but I thought better of it.

“Cho Kyuhyun,” the judge called.

Although it wasn’t me, I still felt on edge. If he didn’t make it, I wasn’t really sure what I would do. He wasn’t the reason I was in the program, but he was a significant part of the future I wanted for myself.

He stepped onto the stage in front of all of us. There were three middle aged agents sitting in a row before him, their profiles to us. I watched the one in the middle lean forward and ask, “Why are you in this program?”

“Because I want to be your puppet,” Kyuhyun deadpanned.

I think I had a tiny heart attack. A ripple of whispers circled through the crowd.

Kyuhyun wasn’t done shocking us though. “I’ll be the best government dog you’ve ever seen, so long as you let me pursue someone.”

“Is it for revenge?” the one on the left inquired, sounding somewhat concerned.

He scoffed, “Please, I don’t need revenge.” Leaning back in his chair, he rolled his neck, saying, “I let someone important walk away, and this program is the best chance I have at bringing him back to my side.”

They were silent, but the inevitable happened. What could I think, but “Damn.”

“Pass.”