Part 18 ❀

"Here we are." Beomgyu revealed hands on his waist, in front of the closed door of the computer lab.

He's going there to arrange a visit to not only see but also get Taehyun out of EFN.

« Indeed » said Jessica who is on his head.

When Beomgyu opened the door, he was welcomed by some guy who gasped at him like he was a ghost.

Normally you'd gasp at the living teddy tiger, But looks like Beomgyu's existence is more shocking.

"Oh my god" the guy exclaimed then shook the other's hand aggressively. "It's such an honour to meet the protagonist!"

The dark haired's eyelids flickered in confusion "the wha-"

The guy bowed "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Cha Woonggi the awareness ebyser, a second year."

Beomgyu tilted his head slightly still puzzled, why is this random guy talking to him, he thought.

"Okay? Awareness? What ebys is that?"

The boy put his hand on his chest all proud "I am aware of everything, even the fact that we are in a pure world of fiction!"

The older made a tight-lipped smile, he didn't want to be rude but he wasn't up to listen to whatever this guy was on. "Nice um.. can you move a bit? I wanna go to one of the computers."

"Wait no!" The orange-haired waved his arms around "Fanfiction to be exact! This is my cameo appearance, Do you want to know the ending of the story? Y— ow ow ow" the boy was interrupted by a girl harshly pinching his cheek.

"Woonggi can you stop saying this crap? No one is ever gonna believe you. Just go to your friends if you even have any" Nari was pushing him out.

"For your information, I do have friends. Man-eating tomato people, and I'm gonna find them!" He said that random phrase then walked away for good.

Beomgyu who was already putting the password of the school's computer, thought 'Oh is that Nari? Why am I always surrounded by second years.. Wait....'

"NARI?! What are you doing here?!" Beomgyu brusquely turned around in the rotating chair. The boy then hastily tried to cover his eyes and ears to avoid being mind controlled.

The girl rolled her eyes with an annoyed sigh "Did you forget that I got suspended because of you? And that I'm obligated to wear this single handcuff (rebystraint) because of you?!" She spat. "Well thankfully it's only at school.."

Beomgyu chuckled, liking the result of what happened 'last year', and turned to the computer again "NIce" he then googled the name of the organisation. The tiger jumped off from his head and sat on the desk.

Nari leaned over which made the male flinch "Hey get lost you!" Beomgyu said, hating her presence.

The girl hummed interested "Isn't that the place where my Taehyun is? I was thinking of going there again.."

"You still haven't given up yet?! And what do you mean by Again?!" Beomgyu yelled while still trying to keep his voice down.

The short-haired girl stood straight with an evil grin "I naturally went over there, I think it was 8 months ago. He missed me so much so I'm thinking of going back"

Beomgyu's face suddenly winced in disgust when he realised what she said priorly "Stop calling him 'my Taehyun' you don't own him."

She scoffed then flipped her hair "I kind of do, he's my pretty doll that I can play with whenever I want" And with that she skipped out of the room, not wanting to know what the older has to reply to that.

Beomgyu groaned and almost pulled his hair out in frustration "That freaking.. ugh!" He briefly shook his head since he has something else to deal with right now, he went on the EFN website and clicked on 'visits'

After peering at the screen, Beomgyu's eyes lit up "Yess there's still some space!"

So Beomgyu entered basic things for example his name and age. But then his eyes widened at what he saw "I need to pay!?"

« It's kind of understandable, have you seen the images? Your half Korean friend was right, this place is quite futuristic »

"Sure.." he said that with an eye roll, and Jessica felt the need to comment something « Keep rolling your eyes, you might eventually find a brain back there »

"Ok." He sighed "I'll have to do the transaction on my phone then, let me just fill in the rest... they're now asking me what my relationship with the patient is.."

Jessica looked up at him with curious eyes.

Beomgyu then made a sly smirk while uttering what he was typing at loud "L o v e r"

The teddy turned from the screen to face him and scratched its head

« Is this what people call a delulu? »

*

The boy left the computer lab, It was still the break so Beomgyu could already make the transaction on his phone "Wait I just saw the location.. IT'S SO FAR! Like It'll take so much time and money to go there"

The teddy that was clinging on to his arm like a koala hummed «What are you gonna do?»

"Go there."

« ...Why did you even complain in the first place? »

Beomgyu lightly coughed "So when should I go?"

« As soon as possible since I'll probably leave this teddy very soon. And you wouldn't want to go without your sIdeKiCk. »

"I guess you're right... tomorrow then!"

« And you don't think that's a tad too quick...? »

Beomgyu already had his mind set, and made the payment with his Apple funds. "Voilà it is done."

The teddy shook its head with his paw on it

« Unintelligible mortals these days... »

~~~

At Ebys Forces of the Nether

Taehyun was sitting on the floor in the middle of a big pink space, seeming to be in deep thoughts.

"Taehyun-kun, nani shiteru no?" a 14 year old boy in an all-white outfit was loosely floating in the air in a lying position with his hands supporting the back of his head.

The blonde snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at the other "What I'm doing? I'm thinking of a way to escape from here.. maybe if I throw a fire bomb to the walls..?"

The younger decided to sit next to him, well not really since he was slightly hovering above the floor "Yes you do that, I'll create a tornado and Maya a tsunami!"

Taehyun sighed "Hikari it's not that easy... plus look at all the security cameras"

And as if on cue, an European little girl in white came running towards them with tears in her eyes and fell into Taehyun's arms "Maya? What's wrong?"

She replied with little sobs "The mean people.. they.. they ran electricity through me"

"What?!" The blonde exclaimed "Your body is made out of way more water than the average person, why would they do that??"

"I-I don't know.. but it hurt..."

All three suddenly heard some footsteps approaching them, and shivers ran down the oldest's spine because he knew he was next.

4 ladies in lab coats were now in front of the minors and one of them spoke up "Taehyun, a boy from Ebys Academy who claims to be your lover is planning on visiting you tomorrow."

The blonde chuckled faintly 'Is that Beomgyu?'

One of the four leaned down to pull Taehyun up from the arm "You're going to the blue room."

Taehyun's eyes widened in terror "N-no not the blue room.. ANYTHING BUT THAT ROOM, didn't you say that when Maya comes back we'll have some free time..?"

"Nope. We never said that" the grip on his arm got stronger and the three other women helped her "You're coming with us!

"N-No!"

"Leave Taehyun-kun alone!" Hikari conjured then attacked them with a crescent-shaped wave of compressed air that caused the group to fly away then brutally fall on the floor, Taehyun included. But he knew his dongsaeng didn't mean to.

One of the researchers difficultly got up and scoffed "Those freaking brats, it wasn't a good idea to put them in one of the rooms where their ebyses aren't nullified.."

Another nodded "Get our guard to give those two a beating while us three take Taehyun to the blue room."

"No!" Taehyun protested "Don't touch them! Hit me instead!" But before he knew it, he was thrown in a dark small and enclosed blue room, there's nothing but a bed, a room where he always gets claustrophobic. "Beom..." And it wasn't long until the special gas that the room emits made him faint. A gas that only affects him.

~~~

The school day was over,

On his way home, Beomgyu discussed the whole thing with his three friends.

"Wah.." Kai exclaimed "You're gonna try to get Taehyun out of there?"

"Is that even possible..." Yeonjun wondered. Soobin also added "It's really not going to be easy at all."

« Your friends are so supportive » Jessica remarked to the dark-haired.

Beomgyu got slightly pissed "Yah! I'm going to bring him back. I did it once so I'm going to do it again."

"What is he on about..?" Kai wondered to himself, and started to really get worried for his older friend's brain.

Soobin pouted "Well I do really miss him..." he then looked at Beomgyu with a soft smile "Promise that you won't come back without Taehyun then." The other two smiled at him as well.

Beomgyu scoffed "Yep promise!"

~

After a while, he split up with his friends since they were going in different directions. And sudden excitement took over Beomgyu as he started running with his arms up "I love Taehyun!"

« What's with the random love confession? Are you good? »

"The way I'll do anything for that fool.. do you know how much money I'm about to spend to go to EFN?! And I'll also risk my life since the security guards will probably pull guns on me!!!"

The teddy who was sitting on his shoulder just stared at the boy« You don't think you're being a bit too dramatic? »

"See how I just learned about that place and I'm already going there? My ideas are seriously always the best, don't you agree?!" He asked ecstatically.

« If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong. »

After coming back home, he told his older brother about what he decided to do. Taehyung was kind of perturbed at first but the younger looked so determined that he couldn't say no.

He also called Mrs Kang, but she wasn't really happy with that, for some reason. But Beomgyu assured her that he will bring her son back.

~

« Beomgyu » It was the next day and the boy was packing his stuff « Are you bringing any weapons with you? »

He slapped his forehead "Jess I'm not going to kill anyone..."

« You know Beomgyu, I thought of you this morning, and it reminded me to take out the trash »

"You're a teddy tiger! You don't have any trash to dispose of!" He yelled irked, having an idea what she meant.

« You sure about that? » if the teddy was able to physically smirk, it would do it right now.

He just shrugged it off a bit amused then zipped his backpack closed, put the teddy on his shoulder then headed downstairs

"Bye hyung!" Beomgyu hastily gripped the front door handle.

"But Gyu what about break-  fast..." the younger was already outside and ran like he was being chased by someone.

"Time to catch the train!!!"

« Do you even know the address... »

"I'll know when I get there!"

A few hours later

Beomgyu got off the train looking tired even though all he did during those few hours was sitting down, but the thought of seeing Taehyun lifted his spirits up instantly

"Okay!! So.. according to my map, the place is around the coastline. Which basically means that we should just keep moving forward."

« Observant. » She said in a bored tone.

After walking for a while, Beomgyu's jaw dropped when he saw what was supposed to be the place.

"Wow.... What is this place...? it's so.. like I've never seen anything like this."

« If we ever don't make it out alive I just wanna tell you... that I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by calling you unintelligent. »

« I just really thought you already knew »

"I—

« No more talking, let's go inside. »

The male slowly approached the big white building and rang the bell, after a few seconds he heard a voice "Who is it?"

"U-um Choi Beomgyu, I'm here to visit the blazing ebyser.."

The person told him to wait a bit, since they had to check if, a Choi Beomgyu was indeed expected to come over.

The big door suddenly made a sound, Beomgyu assumed that he had to push it open and he was right. His eyes widened, inside of the building was sparkly white and very vast, everything was white.

It even lacked furniture, it was just a bunch of whiteness.

'I guess they like that colour..'

Beomgyu finds himself standing in the middle of a white space awkwardly "Looks like they're not going to welcome us in.."

« They're probably really busy »

"This is actually a good thing, it will be easier to get Taehyun out if they aren't even watching."

"Who are you talking to?"

Beomgyu heard an unfamiliar male voice. Kind of high pitched, with an accent that doesn't really seem from here.

He then perceived a cute boy with ash-blonde silverish fluffy hair and big cristal blue eyes approaching him.

He was shorter, weirdly had a red mark on his cheek and was seemingly younger than Beomgyu by like 5 years.

Beomgyu really thought he was out of some shōnen anime.

"Oh hi there.. I'm Beo—"

"Nice bear. I see you're one of those people who can't let go of their childhood toys. You freaking wussy."

'Why am I being disrespected by this handsome boy first thing when I come here?!!!'

"First off it's a tiger and I'm free to carry it around if I want" he humphed.

« Not like you have a choice. »

"I'm just here to see Taehyun"

"I'm Hikari not like that matters, Taehyun-kun is in the blue room next to us" this boy gave laidback vibes but his voice was kind of cold.

Beomgyu glanced to his right and saw a blue door

"I see, well can I go in?"

"I believe you can, it's almost been 24 hours, so I don't think the people will get mad. But be careful." The boy then walked away to join the hydrokinesis ebyser who he left alone for a moment.

Beomgyu turned to face the door, he started getting nervous, without understanding why.

'Wait why should I be careful?' He then recalled something Huening Kai told him, he was sure he heard 'blue room' somewhere.

"Beomgyu hyung, if you plan on visiting, do not go in the blue room with Taehyun, it has this effect on him and uh.. he might um......Ooh it's getting hot in here"

He slowly and warily opened the door but it wasn't long until someone brusquely pulled him in by the collar.

« Well.. » Jessica fell on her backside from the sudden action « That happened. »