Chapter Text
Heavy steel chains bound to his wrists, the stench of blood mingling with that of medicine, the intolerable beats of several lying hearts surrounding him and the colour white. That was the world Beomgyu had always known, well, ever since he could remember. He didn't like it. He couldn't say he disliked it either, because he simply didn't know what he was supposed to like. If he didn't know the world outside, how could he dream of it? What could he dream of it?
'Experiment successful. Doctor Soobin, with you on our team, we've really been acing several fields of expertise smoothly.'
'It's a pleasure working with you too. Would you mind if I need the lab evacuated?' Soobin smiled to the said group of doctors, his gaze still fixed on the subject of experiment. 'I'm afraid, I'll have to take a few precautionary steps to prevent our test subject from... collapsing... in future tests. Privacy would be appreciated.'
'Very well, doctor. The lab is yours.'
One by one, everybody left the glowing white room, leaving Doctor Soobin and his subject, Beomgyu alone. The subject looked meekly through the curtain of bangs over his eyes, with his limbs all restrained and blood drying on everywhere it was spilt. Soobin gently took a wet cloth to wipe it off.
'I'll get you something good for complying all day today.' Soobin chirpily said, brushing Beomgyu's hair aside.
'T-Thank you, d-doctor.'
'How do you feel right now?'
'Tired... i-it hurts.'
'Where does it hurt?'
'My eye.'
The doctor sighed. He gently put his hand on Beomgyu's eye, making him close it and give it rest.
'Hot chocolate sounds good in my opinion. I'll get you some. Then you can go to sleep.'
Beomgyu nodded. His head pounded like crazy. His entire body had gone numb from all the experiments being run on him. He hazily stared at whatever he could see with a single eye, the ceiling lights hanging over his head. Everything was white. Too white. He could see nothing but white. The only colour that was there was Doctor Soobin's deep red hair. Red like his blood. It didn't smell like medicine. It smelled like the warm honey and almond milk that Doctor once brought him.
'Can you stand up?' Soobin asked.
He stood up. There were chains clinking from his wrists and ankles, all tied to the ceiling, barely allowing him room to move around. Soobin pushed the noisy surgical table back in its place, and went outside the room's glass walls. He returned a moment later with a plastic cup in his hands. Beomgyu sat down in his favourite corner, waiting for him. Soobin sat on the floor next to him. He brushed his hand through Beomgyu's overgrown brown hair, as the latter sipped on his hot chocolate carefully.
'Beomgyu.' Soobin whispered. Doctor Soobin was the only one in the vicinity to call him by his name. Everybody else would call him Subject 15. It made him feel less alive. But Soobin would always make it alright. Soobin would always make him feel like he was something with a life. That was definitely not human. Beomgyu wasn't human. Humans were dreadful creatures. Humans destroyed everything they could get their hands on.
'Hmm?' He hummed sweetly; mouth full of warm milk.
'Do you want to ask me something?'
'I don't have anything to ask, Doctor Soobin.' He gulped his milk, gaining energy to talk.
'Are you sure? You haven't asked me a single question since we met.'
'I might have. Hundreds of them.'
'I meant more serious ones.'
'I don't know what to ask. Would you even be able to answer me? I thought you didn't like it when you don't have answers.'
'Well, I don't have any answers. But I like having you around.' Soobin responded. Beomgyu heard his heartbeat. It was going at a steady pace. Soobin wasn't lying. Soobin liked him.
'Then why don't you ask me something? I'll answer if I remember.'
'Why are you here? On this fucked up planet?'
He had never heard doctor Soobin curse before. Seemed like the world he was living in was not to his taste either. It made him smile. Soobin knew that his peers weren't exactly his admirers. They were all driven by jealousy.
'Yup, I don't remember... feels like... I had no other choice. Would you let me go if I say I don't want to live here anymore?'
'I can't. It's my responsibility to keep you safe.'
'Heh, you sure are responsible.' He spoke after a little hesitation.
'Let's call it a day, shall we? Good night, Beomgyu.' Doctor Soobin stood up. He slowly walked past the glass doors, weaving his goodbyes. He didn't want Beomgyu to feel any discomfort by his questions, so he was always quick to flee when the atmosphere got heavy. Preferably so, if Beomgyu had to add.
Staying bound there all day had got him bored beyond the point that he had acknowledged each scratch on the chains, each drop of dried blood on it. His bounds were only let lose twice a day, that too only to allow enough movement for him to have a shower in the bathroom cubicle attached right next to his observation room.
This observation room consisted of two layers of glass walls, double doors at both levels, the outer one of which could only be opened by scanning an ID given to only the head doctors. There was no furniture other than a surgical table and a book shelf. It held some picture books, a bottle of water and the only 3 pairs of clothing Beomgyu owned. Apart from that, there were only long, noisy chains, attached to the floor and ceiling, keeping him bound there all day.
There used to be a period, when he was let out, at least four steps away from the observation room, still bound in chains and under complete control of doctors there, just so the staff could provide him a cleaner environment to be observed in. Soon they stopped caring and he was left by himself to clean his own space.
He would often wonder, since wondering was all that could be done at that point, about how things would have been different if he was a human. He did have a human heart, human body and human feelings. He had often asked Doctor Soobin if he could only perform surgery on him to remove all parts of him that weren’t human.
‘I don’t specialize in that kind of things, Beomgyu.’ He would pout. ‘Plus, even if I could, I wouldn’t have done that. Because these are what make you, you.’
What if he didn’t want to be himself? It’s not like he hated himself. He wasn’t even familiar with the terms self-love and self-criticism. He simply wanted to experience anything that was not medicine, syringes, pain, tiredness or blood.
He had been facing the truth all along. He was not a human, and according to human logic, he didn’t deserve the things a human should deserve. He was an alien, a subject for scientific study, a life without feeling. And had a huge bounty on his head. If you’re intelligent like a human, but not a human, you fetch a grand sum of money just by existing. Unless you’re a monkey.
Look at this though. Imagine being an alien. You could be sold to another country for research purposes for amounts of money that you couldn’t spend in 7 lifetimes. Thus, for the purposes of keeping him in a stable location and prevent a potential dispute globally, he was an SS Tier secret. Not a word about him was out to the public.
Forget public, most of the staff members in the building didn’t know of his existence. He had never seen them nor had they ever seen him. There were barely 20 people knowing about him being an alien.
If 15 or so people were the doctors and the staffs, there were five other people who knew of him. Few of them were from those sketchy organisations willing to sell him out to bigger international co-operations. Another was a journalist paid to keep quiet about him. The very journalist who led him into the mess in the first place.
He, of course, didn’t remember where he was from. He had only been told that a journalist brought him to Doctor Soobin, as doctor was his friend, to check on something peculiar that had been happening to him. It was then realised that he was not human and brought to the lab for more tests. Then he legally became their subject of experiment and was now here.
This horrible place. The place where the only thing keeping him alive was a bit of oxygen and Doctor Soobin. He was literally hanging on strings (or rather chains, in this case). His will to live had long since ceased existing. His only purpose was Soobin’s success. Though the doctor claimed otherwise.
Every night, after all the tests and experiments were done with, he would tell the dear alien why he must have a reason to exist. The conversation would take a heavier turn and the doctor would rush out of the scene, keeping Beomgyu waiting till the next morning, when they met again, pretending like not a word was shared between them.
Tonight too, the atmosphere was heavy and the doctor had fled. Beomgyu waited once again for the morning. Sleep was something he didn't require a lot. He was no human. But he could fall asleep if he was really drained and up to the task of closing his eyes willingly. A good sleep was one of his greatest desires. Along with human food. Technically the only good thing about their planet. This wasn't even their planet, what were humans doing, claiming authority over it? Just like what was this man doing, crawling under vents of places he wasn't supposed to be crawling under?
'I know you're there.' Beomgyu smiled.
A vent popped open and a figure clad in black poked his head out. He removed his numerable layers of masks before flashing a smile at him.
'You always know, don't you?'
'You have been there for 20 minutes, waiting for doctor to leave. What if he caught you?'
The guy walked closer to the glass as the lights were all dimmed off, indicating time for closure. He knelt down, his hands against the glass. He knocked softly. Beomgyu crawled over to him, trying to not allow his chains to give him away.
'They really did you bad today, huh? Your shoulder is still bleeding.' He pointed. Beomgyu wiped the blood off and pressed on it for a minute, till the wound disappeared.
'I want to know your name.' Beomgyu demanded again. Everyday this man would creep up to him, have a small conversation and leave, without bothering to even share his name.
'It's for my special someone to call me.' The man smiled.
'And why am I not special? You come here every night to see me.'
'I wouldn't give a shit if you didn't have a 7 lives worth of fucking bounty on your head.'
'Doctor cursed today too. He wasn't mad tough.'
'Doctor is growing up, eh?'
'You're more of a child though. Doctor doesn't need to hide. He comes in through that gate.' Beomgyu pointed.
'If I had an ID card, why wouldn't I come in myself and fuck your brains out?'
'What does fuck mean anyways?'
'Nothing you need to know.'
'I do need to know! Everyone keeps saying it around me. I just get it's bad.' the alien pouted.
'Not particularly. I can make it feel really good if you let me in.' The man whispered, squinting his eyes and displaying a smirk.
'There's a vent overhead me, then. If you can pass in through the storage room.'
'Ha! Thank you, baby! I haven't wasted all week trying to befriend you.' He put on his masks again. He climbed back to the vent he came from.
Beomgyu watched him till he got out of eyesight. Suddenly, sirens wailed off and the lights turned red ('Ah! Colour!' He exclaimed happily.), flashing as panic stirred up in the laboratory. Humans were entertaining for sure. Alas, that entertainment lasted no longer than a few minutes but the boredom stretched for an entire night longer. It became worse when doctor didn't show up the next day at all.