My mind was made up. If my uncle refused to give me answers, then I had to find them myself. My trust in him had been shattered when he had threatened me, and I wasn’t willing to obey him blindly anymore. Park Minho’s illegal experiments and his connection to the death threats I had received could no longer be ignored. I wouldn’t rest until I got to the bottom of all this, and thus, I waited for my chance to strike.

An opportunity to set my undertaking into motion arrived one afternoon when I stood at my window and saw Minhow entering his car in the driveway. He left the property, presumably attending a business meeting. I couldn’t be sure, but it didn’t matter. As long as he was gone, I was free to search his office. He had forbidden me from entering it, which meant he had something to hide…

B with determination, I left my bedroom and wandered to his office in the eastern part of the mansion. I was careful to be silent so that none of the household staff would notice me. When I reached the room at the end of the hallway, I opened the door and peeked inside. As expected, no one was there, and I slipped inside hastily.

Bookshelves lined the walls behind an expensive wooden desk. Its surface was littered with loose papers and folders, indicating that my uncle had been working on something before he left. I sat in the chair behind the desk and inspected the various folders in front of me. Some of them were linked to his pharmaceutical company, but this wasn’t why I was here, so I searched on, hoping to find information about Baekhyun and the experiments. My eyes flew over headings and texts as I went through folder after folder, stopping only when I read something that stuck out to me. “X-EXO?” I muttered, opening the folder with curiosity. It felt like I was doing something forbidden. I would surely be in trouble if anyone ever found out, but I couldn’t stop now. I was too close to getting the answers I desperately needed.

The first page contained a register with several numbers. “94, 88, 61… 04,” I mumbled as I skimmed over them. I flipped through the pages, realizing I had found the profiles of the people who took part in the illegal experiments. Several pages with detailed information including a photo and a number were dedicated to each of them. The only thing that was missing were their names.

My fingers trembled as I reached a page titled 04. I breathed in and out to calm myself down. Unable to keep my curiosity at bay, I began reading, noticing a picture of Baekhyun in the left corner of the page. He glared at the camera with a vengeance, his eyes filled with blazing hatred. It was scary to see him like this; he never glowered at me like he did in the picture.

“Test subject number 04. Age: 25. Number of successful experiments: 5. Enhanced speed. Enhanced strength. Enhanced senses. Altered DNA,” I read, my eyes growing bigger with every word. “Element: Light.” I had to stop and let all of this sink in. It was a lot to take in, especially the last part.

“It looks like my uncle wasn’t lying when he told me about the experiments, but why would Baekhyun agree to something like this? It doesn’t add up at all. I doubt it was really consensual.”

When I read on, I noticed a location I had never heard of. “Laboratory A1, section 1, Seoul. What in the world? Don’t tell me he used to stay in a laboratory?!” I whispered, my stomach dropping at the implication. It was hard to fathom that something like this was possible nowadays in South Korea without anyone noticing. Baekhyun must have been forced to take part in the experiments, whether he wanted to or not surely hadn’t mattered. No wonder was he so reluctant to trust people.

Why would my uncle support something so cruel and inhumane? It wasn’t acceptable. Minho had hidden this dark secret from me all this time. According to his documents, these experiments had been going on for years, and I hadn’t had an inkling about them.

My uncle must have done terrible things to Baekhyun and the other people during these experiments… the question was, what? I went back to the file and read on, my eyes coming to rest on a code at the end of the page. “Security level: 10 - highly dangerous. Security code: 9204,” I mumbled. It looked like this piece of information was important, so I used my smartphone to take a photo. Maybe it would be useful sometime in the future.  

Suddenly, I heard noises from the hallway. Footsteps approached the room, so I hurriedly closed the folder and hid underneath the desk. It was closed on three sides and it would be impossible to see me unless somebody walked behind it where the chair stood. Only seconds later, the door opened and someone entered the office. Not knowing who it was, I held my breath.

“Why did he leave such a mess behind?” a familiar voice grumbled. It belonged to Min Daejun, the secretary of my uncle. “He should know better. If the girl comes here to snoop around, we will be in trouble,” he breathed and approached the desk. I heard rustling and a banging sound that indicated he was sorting and stacking the folders. He moved around the desk, closer to my hiding spot. Terrified, I pressed my hand on my mouth to muffle any sound that could have escaped me. My heart was pounding hard against my ribcage as his legs became visible. He lifted the folders and carried them away. Hearing another bang, I flinched and almost started to cry in desperation.

Suddenly, the door opened again and someone else entered—I cursed my bad luck. “Did you find her?” Min snapped angrily.

“No, I have no idea where she went. This is bad, he told us to keep an eye on her and the ing lab rat,” Li Chang barked.

“Where is he? I told Minho a thousand times it’s a bad idea to keep him in the house, but he thought the bastard would do a good job at guarding his precious niece. It’s ludicrous.” The sarcastic tone felt like a stab to my chest. I knew Min didn’t like me but had no idea it was this bad.

“I don’t know where the bastard is, haven’t seen him either, but you shouldn’t worry too much. I have ways to keep him under control.”

Oh God, what did he mean by that? What did he do to Baekhyun? Hurt him? Tears welled up in my eyes, rolling down my cheeks. It was too much to bear—I was overwhelmed by the amount of new information I had gathered and couldn’t process it.

“Come on, we need to look for them,” Min said and they left the room, closing the door behind them. As they walked away, I slumped to the ground. My heart was pounding madly and the tears kept coming.

My uncle had kept me in the dark about all this, and his kind personality had just been an act to hide his true self. Was he a psychopath? A human being had to be very deranged in order to hurt other people so badly and still get a good night’s sleep afterward. I couldn’t allow myself to trust him any longer. It was too dangerous. He was the only family member I had left, and it hurt so much to come to this realization, but in the end, it would be for the best. I would have to be careful around him from now on and be cautious about the things I told him. There were still too many secrets left, too many things I didn’t understand.

For now, all I could do was try to avoid my stalker while simultaneously keeping up a stro