Hojoon watches the city lights slide by through the window of the taxi cab.  He’s deep in thought so at first he misses the cab driver’s question.  “Late night business?”

“Yes,” he answers simply.  His arm is resting on his leather bag.

“I hear that the nights have been getting more and more unfriendly in this city.  It’s sad to think that some of the best business in this city used to happen over late night meetings at the bar.”  As the cab driver starts to reminisce about dance halls and cigar smoke, Hojoon smiles obligingly while his own mind is sliding back to an event not so far from recent memory. . .

The sky was bright and empty, but there was a pulse in the air.  Hojoon never forgets a heartbeat once he has anchored to it.  At first he thinks he must be mistaken but he squints against the light and catches sight of a woman moving toward him.  Her back is perfectly straight and she has one hand loosely on her opposite wrist.

“Wheein?” he questions.

“Long time no see,” she says with a faltering smile.  Her hat is tilted on her head.  She looks beautiful but old fashioned.  Wheein had always had trouble letting go of the past.

“If you were going to be in town you should have called,” Hojoon says, remembering his manners.

“I hadn’t planned to stay for long,” she feigns. “I’m afraid I’m here on business.”  There is hesitation on the word business.  A tightening of her lips draws her face into a sober expression.

Before Hojoon can finish asking what she’s in town for, she says, “Someone tried to take one of my girls—succeeded actually.”

Hojoon puts his bag down on the ground slowly.  He waits with wide eyes for Wheein to say more.  Eventually he’s forced to ask, “How did it happen?”

“A lapse in my judgement,” she answers stiffly.

“Wheein, I’m so sorry.  Anything you need. . .”

She holds up a hand to stop his pledge.

“We have already taken care of it, thank you.  She has been returned for the most part unharmed.  I’m telling you because the person who took her is very interested in us.  You should keep a closer watch on those boys of yours.”

Hojoon has a creeping feeling tracing up his spine.  “Is this anything like the ‘40s?  With the investigations?”  They had almost lost everything, t

“I’m afraid this may in some ways be worse,” she says with a sympathetic frown.

Hojoon can’t imagine how that could be true.  

. . .

The cab came to a rough stop, pulling Hojoon from his thoughts.

“That woman you had me drive to the countryside at our last meeting was quite the lady.” The cab driver smiles through the mirror.  “Haven’t seen the likes of her in over 40 years.”  The elderly man’s voice wobbles as he speaks.

“Me either,” Hojoon answers, looking pointedly out of the corner of his eye.

The cab driver chuckles knowingly, “So, she was one of yours, eh?”

“Thank you for your service,” Hojoon says by way of response, handing over the fare.

“Point taken,” the old man says, “I know you’re private folk.  Look at you, the same as the day we met all those years ago.”  Hojoon steps out of the cab but lingers at the driver side window.

“And you reliable as ever,” Hojoon says generously, “I always appreciate your willingness to respond to late night requests.”

“No problem, no problem.  You saved my business in 1962.  I never forget a friend.  Especially one who never changes his face.”

Hojoon pats the driver on the shoulder and catches himself before he can frown, feeling the constriction in the man’s right leg.  “Take care of yourself,” he says kindly, knowing he may not see the man again if the clot he feels is any indication.

“You as well,” the old man responds, blissfully unaware of the fate he carries in his leg as he pulls away from the curb.   

Hojoon watches the cab until the headlights blink out of sight.  Even then, he waits for the sound of the cab to fade until he crosses the road toward a one story building with a boarded up window. 

Yuhwan is sitting on the railing to the front steps.  He straightens when Hojoon approaches.  “I didn’t think any of you were coming tonight.”

“Change of plans,” Hojoon says airily.

Without turning, Yuhwan knocks on the door with the back of his hand.  “We started taking turns watching the house,” Yuhwan says as they wait, “We wanted to be extra cautious since we don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.”

“Can never be too careful,” Hojoon agrees. He is certain they have nothing to worry about as normal as the rest of them are.  Except for Sungmin.  That was the important part.

The front door opens. 

“Hojoon,” Taewoon says, rather surprised, “I didn’t think anyone would be coming tonight.”

“That’s what I said,” Yuhwan echoes. 

Hojoon doesn’t respond so Taewoon invites him in.  They leave Yuhwan at the front of the house. 

“Thank you for coming on such short notice.  I’m feeling lost here.  It’s like he completely reverted.  You remember what it was like.”

Hojoon nods and follows him deeper into the house.

They enter a small backroom, dimly lit by a desk lamp.  Sungmin sits limply in a wooden chair staring at the ground. 

“He’s been this way for days,” Taewoon whispers.  “He goes through the motions:  he sleeps sometimes and Jungwoo gets him to eat a bit but mostly he sits around and stares at nothing.  The most active he’s been was when I got him to sit on the floor with me and mess around with some marbles.  It ended like that, though,” Taewoon gestures across the dark room toward a cracked mirror.  Hojoon’s not entirely sure what scenario Taewoon wants him to imagine, but he nods anyway.

 “Where did you find him,” Hojoon asks.  He moves across the room and crouches in front of his patient.  The boy doesn’t look at him.

“He was just sitting on our front step one morning like nothing had happened.  But he won’t say anything.”

Hojoon takes a moment to study his subject before he sets to work.  He sees nothing out of the ordinary.  Fortunately, he doesn’t have to rely on sight.  He lifts the boy’s arm and takes a pulse, finding it slow.  His breathing is equally shallow.  It’s almost like the boy is asleep sitting up.

He takes a small tool out of his bag—a metal stick with a sharp end.  He gently pokes different parts of Sungmin’s arms—not enough to hurt, but enough to hopefully draw a response.  With his opposite hand he monitors the other’s heart rate as his particular ability allows.  There is no change. 

Frowning, he puts the tool away.

“We tried everything before contacting you,” Taewoon says. “Actually I sent Jongkook and Sejoon out to find you yesterday but they didn’t have any luck.  It was just dumb luck Yuhwan ran into Seogoong.”

Hojoon hums in response, focused on Sungmin.  He pushes the other’s pulse, trying to get it to rise.  It works while he’s actively trying, but the second he stops it falls steadily again.

He’s hesitant to try harder.  The result can be detrimental when he pushes a physical response too hard.  He looks closer at Sungmin’s arm.

“Did you give him anything?”

“No.  Unless you’re counting soup and crackers.” Taewoon answers.

Hojoon hums in response.  Taewoon keeps going.

“Before all this he had his moods still but he was never this bad, even when he first came to us.  The voices don’t get him this bad.”

Hojoon grabs a reflex hammer from his bag and tests out the boy’s knees.  He gets a typical response, though Sungmin still stares to the side like he’s looking out a window.

Taewoon continues, “You know, we’ve been through some .  And he’s come out of all of it okay.  He’s never shut down like this.”

Hojoon believes it.  He hears Wheein’s voice in his head and drifts back to that moment a month ago,

“I’m telling you because the person who took her is very interested in us.”

“What do you mean?” he had said.

“I mean to say that the person who took her did so because she is Kingdom born.  Whoever he is, he knew quite a bit about us .  Insider knowledge.  He took her because he wanted to learn more.”

“Where is he operating out of?” Hojoon demanded. 

“Rather unfortunately, the exact address escapes recollection.  She was very shaken up. The building was somewhere in the western part of the city is all she could say.”

"How did you free her."

Wheein hesitated.  "It seems he let her go."

Hojoon doesn't know what to say.  Wheein eventually fills in the silence.

"He may be very knowledgeable--the man is educated and he understands the Kingdoms.  He’s trying to take people from each of them.  He’s trying to find out something about us--but I do not think he is sane  He's running experiments.”

 “What kind of experiments?”

“Some of them were quite routine medical tests:  blood samples, oxygen levels.  Others were rather—unorthodox . . . medieval even—nonsensical pseudo-science.” 

With the past swirling in his mind, Hojoon shifts his focus upward.  He puts his hand to Sungmin’s forehead, hearing one of his old college professor’s voices in the back of his head--‘look for any errant gathering of electric pulses or oxygen species.’  Hojoon notices the signs of a concussion.  A small concussion wouldn’t render someone so young and healthy incapacitated.

He stretches out his hand, barely allowing his fingertips to brush Sungmin’s neck.  He controls the boy’s next breath, swirling oxygen deep through the lungs and pulling the carbon monoxide back out.  He tries to combine the breath with the energy, to feel the strain of kingdom alleles, the voice of his old professor is in the back of his mind again, “Come over here, Hojoon.  Look, it’s not a mutation, it’s the activation of latent alleles.”

On the third breath he draws through Sungmin he senses a slow thawing:  the shallow, almost non-existent breaths deepen on their own, the faint pulse rises like an approaching drum. 

“He’s a total punk this kid,” Taewoon’s voice continues behind him.  “He’s always causing trouble.  I never thought I’d say this, but I miss him running his mouth and being a smartass right now more than anything.”

Taewoon’s voice fades in the background.  Sungmin’s eyes meet Hojoon’s face. 

Hojoon slowly pulls back his hand. 

Sungmin’s mouth opens and a breath rattles into his lungs.  What comes out is not his voice.  “Subject 5-3—appears to be Lion Kingdom.”

Hojoon’s eyes dart across the boy’s face, looking for the intention or the joke.  But Sungmin is an answering machine—a voice recorder—an echo.  He captures voices and moments.  He keeps speaking in the same voice.

“Thank you for taking part in this experiment.”

Hojoon’s throat dries.  A thousand silent curses stay trapped there.  He had feared so much being right.

“Knowledge is how we transform lives for the better.”

“What’s he saying?” Taewoon asks. 

Hojoon doesn’t answer.  Sungmin doesn’t stop.

 “My work is built on a principle that everything, no matter how strange, can be explained.”

“Who’s voice is that?” Taewoon finally catches on that Sungmin’s voice is not his own.  Hojoon wavers on the tightrope between his desperation to gather more information and his fear of what the voice might say—what it might expose.                                                                                                                                                                                   

“Your contributions today will help us one day know for certain what causes the average homo sapien to respond negatively to your variety of the species—”

“Sungmin?”

Hojoon shushes Taewoon but misses some of the words spilling unchecked from Sungmin’s mouth.  When he focuses again he is in time to hear the start of an introduction,

“—being terribly rude.  I should introduce myself.” 

Hojoon’s eyes widen, his heartrate rising rapidly.  He can’t let him say it.

“My name. . .”

He jumps and wraps his hands around the younger’s neck.  The exhaled words turn into a sharp inhale that Hojoon catches and seals. 

Sungmin’s mouth is open but breathless.

“Hojoon.”  Taewoon’s voice.  “What are you doing?”

Hojoon can feel Sungmin’s throat bobbing against his hands but he doesn’t stop, trapping the words he had almost spoken in his throat.

 “Hojoon, I don’t think he can breathe,” Taewoon says.

Hojoon keeps his hands there.  He’s not pressing down.  He doesn’t have to.  He holds the breath in his hands.

Taewoon takes a step forward.  “What are you doing?”

Hojoon feels Sungmin fading under his hands but he holds on. 

“Hojoon!” Taewoon grabs at his shoulder and he finally lets go.

Sungmin gasps into life.  Taewoon shifts his focus to the younger, trying to catch him to keep him upright in the chair.  Sungmin shrugs him off, pushing himself up and back, “What the ------,” he says gracelessly, “Why do I feel like pudding?”  He sounds very confused and annoyed.

A confused laugh escapes Taewoon like he’s too relieved not to laugh—like there’s nothing else to do but to laugh.

Hojoon is now standing, dusting off his hands.  “Like a clogged drain” he says evenly, though no one seems to be listening.  “Needed to unplug the lungs to drain out the voices.”  

“Seriously, what the every loving------is going on.” Sungmin’s voice is rough and he looks uncertain as he blinks and shakes himself like he’s trying to rattle his functions back to normal.

“I wouldn’t recommend shaking your head too much,” Hojoon advises.  “You seem to have a slight concussion.”

Sungmin lowers his head into both his hands like he just felt the aforementioned concussion. “Oh god, what happened to me,” he complains.  His voice is rough with disuse. 

Taewoon looks concerned, “You don’t know?”

“I think I got jumped or something.”

“What do you remember?”

“I remember walking home . . .something about—I don’t know water?”  He looks down at his arm.  “Did you give me something?”

“No,” Taewoon says. 

“My arm hurts.”

Taewoon takes Sungmin’s arm to look. 

Hojoon already knows there’s a mark though.  There would have to be if someone had drawn blood.

“What are you doing here?” Sungmin asks looking past Taewoon at Hojoon for the first time.  “Was I sick?”  He closes his eyes and shakes his head and then immediately seems to regret it as he hisses through his teeth.  “Ow.  Son of a—”

“Let’s worry about that later,” Taewoon interrupts, noticing the escalating confusion in the younger, he already looks exhausted, “I’m sure the others will want to know that you’re okay.”

“How long was I out for?” Sungmin mumbles, rubbing at his eyes tiredly.

“Don’t worry for now,” Taewoon says, seeming worried enough for the both of them.

A few moments later, they leave Sungmin fending off a pack of very eager guys who all want to celebrate his recovery to gather by the front door with hushed voices.

“Do you think that whoever did this gave him something to make him forget—to make him like this?”

“We don’t even know if anyone took him,” Hojoon lies, “My best guess is that the stress was too much for him and on top of the concussion and his ability he just shut down. There aren’t too many Lion Line with powers.  Those that have them tend to have a harder time.”  Hojoon does not remind Taewoon of the mark on Sungmin’s arm.

“I guess so,” Taewoon breathes.  “But we still don’t know what happened.”

Hojoon knows.  “Just take good care of him.”

“We do what we can,” Taewoon says wearily.

“You do just fine,” he assures, shaking Taewoon’s hand.  He continues to hold onto Taewoon’s hand, his expression serious, “Remember, though, a day will come when you have to let him go.  You know what happens with us.”

“I know.  One day we might turn on him.”

“Not might,” Hojoon insists.  “Will.  One day you will start to hate him, to fear him.  We don’t know why, but normal people always reject kingdom born eventually—and it usually ends very badly.”

“I know that.  I do know. But being with us makes him happy for now.  He likes being part of this crew.  I want him to enjoy that as long as possible.”

“At the first sign that he’s affecting someone—”

“I will find you.  That’s the arrangement. I know.”

Hojoon nods, letting go of Taewoon’s hand.  He could tell he was telling the truth.  His heartrate had been even the entire time. 

“We will be by to check in soon.  If anything strange happens in the meantime give us a call.”  He picks up his bag and heads out the door.

Behind him Taewoon says, “With what phone?”  He laughs as he shuts the door.

As he steps away, Hojoon makes a checklist.  He had taken at least one dragon lion and one lion line.  There’s no need for him to wonder how the man knows how to find them.  He’d taught him to recognize the signs of each kingdom himself.  He’ll be out of luck for knights, at least.  There’s nothing distinctive about them.  Nothing that sets them apart.  Not like wizard lion.  At least when they’re still young.

Again his mind falls back—to blinking the sun out of his eyes as Wheein’s long fingers drum against her wrist. 

Hojoon drags his eyes from her hands to her face, knowing she’s anxious to leave.

“What Kingdom was your girl from?  The one he took.”

Wheein looks at him evenly. “Dragon.”

He tries to think of which girl that would be.  The blood-line is ancient and rare.  Before he can find the answer she says, “But listen, Hojoon, I have to get back.  I don’t like leaving them this long.  Especially under the circumstances.”

“Of course,” he apologizes, though he has so many questions.  “I can get you a cab.”

“That would be lovely.  Oh, wait, there was something odd. He mentioned something that stood out to her.  He seemed to think he was helping—finding a cure to that curse the newer generations face.  That odd push that makes the average folks reject them.”

Hojoon’s throat tightens and he valiantly keeps his reaction to a small twitch of his mouth.  But Wheein notices.

“You alright, dear, you’re very pale.”

“Yes.  I’m fine,” he says.

“I don’t need your gift to know you’re lying.”

 . . .

Hojoon looks up at the night sky as he stands on the curb.  There are no stars.  As soon as she’d mentioned the curse he had known who was responsible.  As soon as she’d mentioned a search for a cure he knew who was at fault.  And it wasn’t the man running experiments in secret in some unknown part of town.  It was him.  All of this was his fault.   

A/N  Is it legal to disapper for 10 months and then just show back up and pretend you haven't been gone for 10 months? No? Ahhhhh, okay.

Honesty hour:  I had this chapter done since August last year, but a lot of things happened at once:  my computer finally quit charging and died for good, I got a full time job on top of my second job, it was all a lot of time consuming stuff and I couldn't wrap my head around having to start the whole chapter over.  I just kind of gave up on it.

But now it's summer for me again and I have a new computer and a miracle worker got the files off of my old one and honestly I don't know what's going to happen.  I've never finished anyting in my life and I'm not sure people even remember enough about the story to want to keep going with it.  But heck, I had this chapter and I have free time and  I can't get the story out of my head so at least for now. . . I'm back. 

I feel like this chapter is wicked confusing but I didn't know how else to write it.  It just kept coming out this way.  Especially after such a long hiatus I feel like it will be even harder to understand.  It's more of an exploration into Hojoon then it is new information.  We still have the same facts as before.  So here are the hard facts to remember:

There is someone kidnapping Kingdom people (but then seemingly letting them go?)
Hojoon knows about it and feels responsible but he hasn't told anyone but P Goon what he knows.
The other members aren't really aware of what's going on because Hojoon seems to want this to remain secret.
Hojoon has lived for a long time and so he knows lots of people (like Wheein [Yes, borrowed her from Mamamoo.  I swear that it's only this little section of the story where I reference so many non-Topp Dogg folk.  It really is all about them otherwise] and the cab driver).
And Kingdom people make normal people go crazy after a certain period of time like some weird genetic curse.

The new info is that this person kidnapping kingdom folks seems interested in maybe stopping this curse which would SEEM like a good thing but clearly isn't based on how he seems to be affecting people.

Anyway, share any questions, comments, or concerns or just enjoy.  Thank you so much for those of you whose comments kept me feeling guilty and inspired enough to come back.  <3

(And BanaWarrior I hope this answers your question :p  You and my best friend had the same fair question when I was writing this chapter so I was really happy to show there are awesome kingdom girls as well!)