It was light, Changmin said so. Five kilos could be lifted by even the weakest women, so why couldn’t Jaejoong do a good bicep curl with them? “Jaejoong, you need to breathe as you curl your arms. Stop lifting your elbows from the machine; that lessens the workout. Come on, it is only three sets of ten!” Jaejoong wondered again how Changmin knew things that only people with sight would know. He was able to find out where foods were without being told, exactly how much weight the machine was set to, how much Jaejoong was actually lifting, and what faces he was making along with his irregular breathing patterns. How could Changmin see all that?

“Imagine how weak our governor was compared to how I am.” Changmin laughed bitterly at the image forming in his head. An image he shouldn’t even be able to conjure up.

“Funny Jae, but you still need to do seven more reps.” Jaejoong slowly pulled the weights to his chest, huffing when he couldn’t hold the load. He dropped the weights and they flew back to their start position using the pulley system they were hooked up to. Six more to go. “Trust me hyung, you’ll learn to love these. I’m sure you’ve had more than enough comments about how beautiful you are when you would rather hear how manly you are. Building up some muscle will have all the ladies swooning over you.” Jaejoong let go after another rep. He was still confused. Unless someone told Changmin of his appearance, he wouldn’t have the vaguest idea on what he looked like.

If they were to describe each other he was sure that Changmin would know him better than the other way around. To him, Changmin was a tall, lanky guy with short cropped hair that didn’t get anywhere near his eyes. He had rather large lips that were perfect for on desserts and protruding ears that twitched like mad. His hands were large and able to wrap around Jaejoong’s forearm completely from thumb to index finger. His legs took up half of his height. Jaejoong envied his masculine build and did agree that he wanted to be called handsome, but by who? He already had Yuri bound to him, why would he need praise from other women?

There wasn’t any real purpose in Jaejoong doing the weight training other than to build up his strength and solidify his health. ‘My muscles would attract women. That is how it would be if people still had relationships based on love and appeal.’ He could see a faint bit of realistic knowledge in what Changmin said. Would a woman want him because of his defined arms? Quite possibly, yes. The women in the colonies were rather strange to Jaejoong. They all had their pride as independent and preferred to keep themselves covered and decent looking. In the domes, unless they were working, the women went around or in revealing uniforms.

The last rep was the hardest because Changmin made Jaejoong redo it several times. He wanted to finish the tedious exercise and kept halfway lifting the weight. He finally gave in and struggled to finish a respectable rep. Jaejoong flopped onto the edge of the equipment and leveled out his beating heart. He let his curiosity wander and finally voiced out his question. “Changmin, how do you see me?”

Changmin stopped his tapping into a calculator which was determining the amount of progress he was making. He turned his head around to Jaejoong as if he could see the look of concern on his face. Jaejoong seriously didn’t know how he could see but couldn’t see at the same time. “What are you talking about? I am blind, so I can’t see.”

Letting out a deep sigh, Jaejoong shook his head. “You know how I look Changmin. Stop denying that there is some way you can see me. I just want to know how, possibly why as well. What is allowing you to see?” Changmin stopped altogether and just stared at Jaejoong. He knew what Jaejoong meant and he was waiting for the question to pop up. It was always the smart ones that asked, always the one that had potential.

“We should go back to your room first, I’m sure some nurse or doctor will want to check up on you again. I’m pretty certain that they wanted to discuss the affect of microwaves and electronics to you. Something about your head.” As the blind man led Jaejoong out of the workroom, Jaejoong wriggled in his hold.

“I’m going! Just promise me you will explain how you can see!” Changmin only nodded as he glided passed a food cart. Dirty trays of different mixed foods piled up and made Jaejoong cringe. It had an awful smell. Changmin’s nose crinkled and he sidestepped even farther to avoid it. “Stop doing that!”

Changmin turned down the last hall and slowed down as they neared Jaejoong’s room. “Doing what?”

“Things that only people that can see do! It’s weird for the blind man to lead the one that can see around! It should be the other way around!” Changmin halted as he reached Jaejoong’s room. He opened the door and Jaejoong in before locking the door behind him.

Changmin shuffled to the couch and lounged lazily in the cushions. “Jaejoong, I am blind, but I can see. I’m sure that you have heard of the enhanced sense people with my type of disability have. I can’t see, but my touch, sound, and smell receptors are heightened. My taste buds are rather dull though. All is well; I tend to enjoy more food that way. I was called a nontaster by the doctors, but I would rather just be labeled as not a picky eater…”

From the bed, Jaejoong growled. “Changmin, I don’t care about your love of eating! Tell me how you see?” He grasped the sheets in anticipation as Changmin his hairless chin.

“Imagine being able to see the temperature of something by touch. Now imagine that everything in this room is like that. The heat waves or lack of, in this room create a picture for me. The window is rather warm from the sun, and it takes up a quarter of the space on the wall directly in front of me. The wall is the same temperature as the bookshelf, which is odd because I was sure all the walls had insulated heating for the winter months. Your bed is racking up thermal energy, but you are very blue, very cold.” Changmin stood and touched Jaejoong’s cheek gently. “You should be the hottest thing in this room besides me, but you are the coldest instead. That is odd to me.”

Jaejoong slapped his hand away in annoyance. “You see by feeling the temperature?”

Changmin plopped back down. “Oh no, it is a combinations of all my enhancements that allow me to see in a way. I can also sense the shifting in air so when someone is moving or there is something in my way I can feel it. I guess I have my own version of sonar as well because I can judge where things are according to how things echo. That also allows me to tell what types of substances are around me because some things allow sound to transfer better than others while some just absorb the waves.”

“And your smell?”

“I can use my nose to see, but things get a little blurry that way. There are many different scents to each thing and I often confuse things. Smell relies solely on the air, so it is often difficult to breath. Also, why would I want to inhale things that make me gag? There is a lot of pollution around if you didn’t notice.”

“Everyone notices, Changmin.” Jaejoong shifted in his sheets and stared at the window. He was cold? That was strange. He could comprehend how Changmin could see, he still didn’t understand why, but he didn’t really want to know why. “Is the radiation out here really that bad?”

“Jaejoong, there is radiation everywhere, even in the earth below us! Sure, if we spend too much time in the sun we will get skin cancer; there is no way to avoid it. These extra rays have allowed me to be able to see with my body as a replacement for of my eyes. There will always be problems around though. We should be lucky that we can breathe carbon dioxide at all!” Jaejoong flipped over and faced Changmin again.

“We should be grateful that Kim Kibum created domes before we all died out.” Changmin rolled his eyes. Several Kim Kibums before Key there was the great savior. In those times people were freer, there wasn’t all this arranged marriage and ‘make me babies’ crap going around. It was before the domes leaked and the people became young until death.

“What bull! I’m sure we would have evolved faster without any help from their family. You are without a doubt in a better situation now than when you were under his rule. Be grateful instead that Jonghyun lived and we can thrive now!”

A fiery response built up in Jaejoong, but he bit his tongue and remained silent. Changmin took it as a sign of acceptance, but Jaejoong still had doubts. “When can I meet him, Jonghyun I mean.”

“Have you ever met Key?” Jaejoong shook his head. “That’s not how things work here. There is a chance of meeting Jonghyun during the parade to welcome him to our little colony. After that he will want to talk with you because he takes an interest in the survivors.”

Jaejoong closed his eyes silently and cuddled up in his sheets. Things outside the domes were much better than inside, and he wanted everyone to feel this happiness. The joy of music was to be granted to all, the beauty of art, the intoxication of food, the freedom of life, it all needed to be shared. It didn’t matter what similarities or differences the two places shared. He didn’t care if Jonghyun was another Key. Whatever Yuri thought was meaningless to him. All that crossed his mind was the desire to share a common wealth with the deserving people.

“Changmin, how do I look to you?”

A deep sigh echoed in the room as Changmin lifted himself up. “Jaejoong hyung, I am blind, I can’t see.” Being ignored drew up a faint irritation in Jaejoong. He had a right to know Changmin’s opinion. He drew the sheets closer to his face. Maybe Changmin thought poorly of him. He was uneducated, frail, and uncaring to his movement. Perhaps Changmin only nurtured him in hopes that he would be a good addition to the cause. Jaejoong didn’t know anything about fighting; he had never been on the winning side of things. If anything, Changmin should let him wander away in the safety of an easy life.

Jaejoong was almost ready to drift of to sleep even with Changmin blowing air to the ceiling on the couch beside him. The sun was close to setting, and it was a little early, but Jaejoong suddenly felt tired. He couldn’t keep himself awake and he had no energy to even turn over. Was he sick? He had embarked on the path to recovery, and he was making great progress. There must have been some other factor that was draining him. Despite his lack of energy, he jolted up when the door swung up.

“Looks like I got the room correct this time. Great, now Jaejoong let us discuss your head.” The stranger and Jaejoong held a gaze for a moment before Changmin stood and held out his hand for a handshake.

“About time Leeteuk! I was worried that Jaejoong might call me a liar. I let it slip that you would want to talk about that problem.” The angel man giggled in a rather unusual way. He grinned and shut the door behind him before proceeding to Jaejoong’s bed. “He was going to fall asleep before you even got here!”

“I’m here aren’t I?” Changmin frowned a little before plopping back down. “Anyway, Jaejoong sshi, there is the matter of the chip in your head we need to go over. You are aware that the conditions outside the domes are comparatively like sticking a phone into a microwave. That tiny piece of electronics has been fried silly.” This sent Jaejoong on a rollercoaster of worry. He had been hearing voices since the chip was changed to hold information and even after he was blown out of the sector. Maybe he heard voices because he was schizophrenic, but he was sure that he had a problem.

“And what does that mean exactly?”

Leeteuk shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and flipped through his clipboard like he was actually searching for an answer. “Nothing really, there is just absolutely no way for Key to keep track of you. As we have been informed, the use of the tracker was changed to store memory. All the information inside the circuit board has already seeped into your brain via electronic signals. There is pretty much pointless metal in your head. That is all.” With another little giggle he left the room as quick as he came.

Jaejoong frowned. “For an angel, he didn’t leave much of an impression on me.” Changmin rolled over onto the floor out of boredom.

“If you aren’t dying then there is no reason to save you. Isn’t that obvious?”

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I'm back! I kept looking at this for several days and wondering how I was going to add in the twist, so I just left it like this after several debates with the other voices in my head. There is so much to look forward to in Utopia, the Jonghyun parade, the secret training of Jaejoong in military services, the mutations that get to everyone. Hee Hee Hee. I hope I snagged some readers with those little reveals!

Comments are motivation!~♥