- twenty nine -

The others stood around, letting the words read off of the paper sink into their thoughts, debating the move.

Mark spoke up, breaking the blanket of silence that seemed to settle on the group.

"It says that she's been giving us experiments. Has anyone felt any changes? In behavior, or thinking?"

Mark was looking at everyone, but sneakily looked at Renjun, hoping that he could speak up about these attacks Renjun may have been having.

Jaemin raised his hand, looking at the oldest in slight confusion.

"I've been getting tired lately?" he said, making it sound like a question.

"Like, really tired. I feel sluggish, and I can barely fall asleep after Renjun right now," he said, almost whispering the last part.

Renjun flushed a bit at the younger's words, but knew that there would be more problems to come up.

"I've been really hungry," Chenle said, "and it seems like I can't quite get the left word in Korean." Chenle said, accidentally saying 'hungry,' and 'Korean' in English and not saying right, and instead left.

Jisung looked at him with a slightly worried face.

"My tongue just gets twisted up," Chenle said, focusing hard on his words, while Jisung patted his back in support.

"Well, I've been getting really hungry lately too," Donghyuck said, and as if on cue, his stomach growled, "even late night cravings are getting a bit burdensome."

"I've been really easily agitated recently," Jeno said, and Renjun nodded. That explains the sudden hatred towards someone writing Renjun.

"I don't know if it counts, but I've been kind of really hyper lately," Jisung said, his leg being quickly bobbed up and down as he sat on the couch, "I can't keep still."

Mark still wanted to have Renjun speak, but, to him, it didn't seem like the younger was up for it. Nodding to himself, he accepted it, and decided to tell his own problem.

"For some reason, my skin is getting really sensitive. I had gotten a paper cut, which isn't so bad, but it too almost three hours to stop the bleeding. That, and my heart feels a bit weak, and I can't quite breathe as deeply as I could before," he confessed, and a shocked Donghyuck by his side started rubbing his shoulder.

Mark looked at him and smiled lightly, glad that he had someone's support and care directed towards him an-

Mark's thought was cut off by Renjun.

"Guys, I have something to tell you," he said, looking down at his fingers, and not looking up at them. All of their attention was placed on Renjun as he seemed to hesitate.

"I- I know you've been working hard, especially with my attacks, giving me information to stop them, and just being here, but," everyone was hanging onto the 'but', fearing the worst situation possible.

"I've been having these, sort of 'mini' attacks. They last about ten minutes if that, and they start with this slight headache. I didn't want you guys to worry, because I thought that they were just migraines at first, but with the amount of information you guys give me is more than enough to imput well, so this letter explains a lot," he finished, looking up nervously at the others.

They all held a worried face, but Mark with a knowing one, Renjun let out a breath, and settled on the couch with the paper in his hand, accidentally letting it land on Jaemin's hand.

The younger flinched away, feeling a searing burning sensation on his arm.

Renjun looked at him with wide eyes, instantly apologizing.

"Oh my goodness, Jaemin. I'm so sorry," he said, and continued to repeat his apologies.

The younger laughed slightly, hugging the older when his 'sorry's were getting a bit too much.

"Don't worry, it was an accident," Jaemin said.

Renjun smiled, but Mark interrupted their slight moment.

"Guys, we all have a problem, and it's not the individual ones we just said. Are we going to trust Lee Taeyong, or Abigail Cathwright?"

Renjun snorted, causing the others to look at him again.

"Did you just snort?" Donghyuck asked, holding in a laugh at the older boy.

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Don't judge him because he's adorable," Jeno said, trying to hold onto Renjun like Jaemin was doing earlier, but the older blocked him, not wanting to feel coddled in their embraces.

"Yeah, I did," Renjun scoffed, "Why the hell would we ever trust Abigail Carthwright?? I would trust Lee Taeyong even if he was a stranger, even though he kind of is. But he's giving us this choice, and he's also warning us about Abigail," Renjun said.

The others nodded, still trying to think their situation over.

Either way, they were in some sort of screwed up situation.

Mark clapped his hands, and brought everyone out of their thinking trance.

"Let's vote," he said.

"O.K., but if we make a decision, you can't go against it like the last time," Jisung said, pointing at Mark.

"Yeah, but the last vote was the type of ice cream we wanted to eat that night," Mark said, "not a life-altering decision."

"It was pretty life-altering for me since you decided to get chocolate swirl instead of cookies and cream," Jisung muttered, crossing his arms.

"Enough of that," Mark said, brushing off the maknae's last comment, "Who is in favor of leaving?"

Everyone raised their hands, although some slowly.

"So that settles it. Now we just have to wait for Lee Taeyong."

. . .

Renjun laid in his bed, accompanied with Jeno and Jaemin of course, holding onto them tightly.

He was scared about them leaving, not really sure what to prepare for when they finally go Outside.

He had been running his hands through Jeno's hair and holding Jaemin's hand until Jaemin started to talk.

"Injoon, why didn't you tell us?" he asked, whispering the question in the peace that surrounded them all.

Renjun sighed, letting his hand go limp into Jeno's hair as Jeno looked up at him, curious as well.

"You guys have been going through so much, and the attacks weren't that bad. I guess I didn't want to raise drama because we all know how Donghyuck reacted last time," he answered, looking at Jaemin with kind eyes.

Jaemin smiled slightly, "But we could've helped. Why suffer alone like that?"

Renjun looked down at Jeno's face, seeing his sleepy appearance, and shrugged.

"That's how it's always been."

Jeno raised his hand to Renjun's face, holding it slightly.

"I just guess I'll have to get used to you guys being here," he finished.

Jaemin nodded, hugging Renjun closer to his body as Jeno did the same.

Renjun smiled.

"I'm so lucky to have you guys."