Tablo began to pace, his footsteps muffled by the dense carpet.  Ji Ae’s gaze was locked firmly on his shifting form, her eyes wary and grim. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t recognized him from the posters; she had often caught herself staring blankly at his grainy photography whilst on the tram. Plus, it wasn’t like the posters weren’t abundant across the city. Yet this foreign girl, whose Korean had an strong accent to it that was noticeable now that she spoke with her ‘inside voice’, had managed to recognize him almost instantly. Then again, Ji Ae wouldn’t have been surprised if his posters were as popular from where she had come from as they were in South Korea. He had quite a legend about him.

Though his posters only hinted at the crime of housing S4S16s away, there was a darker, more sinister legend behind Tablo. Pasted from word of mouth and over forums on the internet, it was thought that Tablo was the ‘father’ of the S4S16s. Various details, newspaper clippings and photographs left a weak paper trail, but one nonetheless, leading back to Tablo’s past. It was said that 25 years ago, he was part of company or government project that was working on the original S4S16 serum; they had been trying to weaponize it for the army. Something went wrong, Tablo and his team became infected, and they escaped into the world, infected others. So began the natural birth of the S4S16s into the human race, as normal women and men began to infect each other. He started the population boost for the S4S16s, hence why he was the ’father’.

However, there were a few things that didn’t seem to match up in the various stories Ji Ae had heard about the man. For one, no one could seem to pin point which country he had come from, though it was popular belief it was somewhere in North America; the outbreak had started there. And two, the larger hole in the story: S4S16s were born, not infected. It had been proved over the years that being in the same area as an S4S16 wouldn’t cause someone to develop Powers. Perhaps that was why the mutant race was so feared; they looked like anyone, yet underneath they held immense power, both figuratively and literally.

Now that the living legend was actually in front of her, Ji Ae didn’t seem to find the stories too unrealistic. There had been something about him, something that seemed just strong, uncaged, ready to lash out at a moments noticed. That was what frightened her about him. That was the reason she had moved away from him when Sanghee had chosen to share with everyone the information she knew, all the while keeping her eyes on him.

“Hah, I knew one day those posters would actually get someone to recognize me. No matter how many they tore down, there were hundreds more up in their place the next day,” Tablo bitterly chuckled, running a hand through his hair. The boys seemed to fade into the background as he prowled, his presence overshadowing them.

Sanghee didn’t seem to notice how many feathers she had ruffled, as she rearranged her long, willowy skirt more properly around her knees. Ji Ae immediately pegged her for a noble woman of sorts; the way she held herself, as well as how she moved and looked just screamed ‘rich’ and ‘mannerly’. “So are is your own personal legend true? Are you really the madman who killed hundreds and infected thousands more?” She asked, interlocking her slender, dainty fingers upon her knee, all the while watching Tablo with curiosity; she definitely had a backbone, as no fear found its way into her voice.

Ji Ae couldn’t help but frown at what she had said. This man was mighty, and could obviously murder Sanghee without a thought; but she had personally had never heard of him ‘killing hundreds’ before. Maybe the rumors were different from where the other girl had come from.

Tablo stopped in his tracks, cocking his head. “Well…not exactly. For one thing, I wouldn’t call myself a madman, and I don’t think I’ve killed ‘hundreds’ per say…” Ji Ae could see the other unknown girl intake her breath sharply, her face creased with lines of anger and disgust.

“But you have killed some, I’m guessing? Accident, of course, you don’t seem like the type to go after people intentionally. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be hiding here, making them,” the foreign girl glanced over at Sunggyu and the others, who had their eyebrows raised at her in surprise, “do all your work.”

Suddenly he was laughing, shaking his head in disbelief. “Miss Sanghee, you’re just full of surprises. Not one to believe rumors unless you seem them yourself, do you?”

“After growing up surrounded by them, I’ve learned to judge people after I meet them, Daniel.” It was like a battle of wits, it seemed. Sanghee appeared to be deducing things about Tablo, and based off his reactions, she was an extremely good guesser. Ji Ae couldn’t help but feel a pang of relief as Tablo seemed to relax; maybe they could all get away with their lives today.

The other girl decided to speak up now, her tone hostile, but her words obviously picked carefully. “This is all very nice, but when exactly are you planning on letting us go?” She had moved back to her previous position by the table at some point, her back against the sturdy wood so she had all of them in her line of sight.

Turning towards her for the first time, Tablo pursed his lips as his eyes raked over her. “And what might your name be?”

This girl puffed up her chest, her eyes narrowed until they were just dark, glittering slivers in the firelight. “Jinri.”

“Well, Jinri. Why are you so afraid of us?” He spread his hands wide, genuine interest on his face.

If looks were deadly, Tablo would have died instantaneously, “Why? WHY?!” Jinri roared, standing up so fast, her shoulder clipped the edge of the table. Ji Ae could see Sungjong flinching away, his eyebrows pinched in worry, his eyes filled with grief. “Why am I afraid of YOU?! Don’t get this wrong, Tablo!” She spat out his name in revulsion, moving forward two steps. “I’m not afraid of you; you, and all of your kind disgusts me! You are the reason this world is going to hell! Thousands die each day because of you, innocents die because of you!” She moved forward with speed that Ji Ae wasn’t aware she possessed. If Hoya and Dongwoo hadn’t stepped in between her and Tablo, she probably would have wrapped her fingers in the neck cuff of his sweater and punched him. Instead she strained against the boys, fighting to get through them to Tablo, her hands stretching between their arms as one gripped her waist and the other, her shoulders. She attempted to kick them, but they didn’t seem to feel it as they dragged her a few feet further away from the man. It all happened in a matter of seconds, leaving Ji Ae stunned, and on the edge as she prepared to jump into action if things got physical. For a moment, Jinri stopped struggling, her eyes fixed on man, her face too calm, her limbs too tense.

“I watched my family burn, burn to death, as our restaurant went up in flames. I watched an S4S16, a mutant, a thing, murder them in cold blood. Their blood will be on my hands until I find the bastard who killed them. And don’t tell me that my anger is unjustified, monster.”

Horror filled Ji Ae as she watched the other girl shrug off Hoya and Dongwoo’s hands, snarling at them and moving further away. She never would have guessed such an incident would have happened to the lively girl with the package at the station. But Jinri’s story held a little too much bitter reality to be fake; her story was like many these days. S4S16 accidents happened daily, tales of people being slaughtered in their homes, families divided, children tortured. The blatant propaganda the government spread about the S4S16s worked so well because there was already enough proof of their crimes happening to the normal citizens regularly.

Tablo was silent, having not moved since he had laid eyes on her. Finally he nodded, his gaze sad, and his shoulders slumped. “There are some of us who have lost our minds to our Powers. The incidents have increased, and the Hunters only seem to be finding the ones who wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Jinri let out a bitter snort of laughter, looking away. He raised a brow at her cheek, and shrugged. “If a group of humans have all commited the crime of murder, should the innocent ones pay the price? Killing isn’t in an S4S16’s DNA. It’s what the crazed do; we’re just like humans. Some of us WERE human once. Whether by choice, accident, or having it forced upon us, being an S4S16 doesn’t make you mad. Many different things can contribute to the madness; anger, fear, lack of hope. Loss of control after losing the internal battle with your Powers. Just a few ways some lose it. I’m sorry for your loss, I really am. ”

Having calmed down a bit after hearing him speak, Jinri only managed a narrowed glance, her arms crossed over her chest. It wasn’t an improvement, but at least she didn’t spit or make any comments. Meanwhile, Ji Ae was finding her outlook on S4S16s shifting in a way she never would have expected. Everything Tablo said made sense; the honesty was right there in his voice. Plus common sense was playing into it; if all S4S16s were heartless murderers, why had Sungyeol and Sunggyu risked their lives to get everyone out of the station?

“I too have lost personal friends to S4S16s, as well as humans and Hunters. But every time I watch someone I love go down, it just strengthens my resolve to complete my dream. You see, it wasn’t a coincidence that Sunggyu and Sungyeol were at the station today.” He smiled faintly at them, causing Sungyeol to scratch his head shyly again.

“Yes, you said you had a vision,” Sanghee spoke up softly, looking at Sunggyu, who nodded. “Did the vision lead you there?”

Tablo spoke up, his gaze proudly averted to the boy with goggles. “Yes, one of Sunggyu’s Powers is to get visions of disasters. They have been happening much more frequently now, and he doesn’t always get warning for other incidents, but for the ones he does, we try to help out with. You see, we’re trying to change the image of an S4S16. People see us as monsters, things that purely kill.” She had to fight the urge to look over at Jinri to see her reaction. “But the truth is that I think someone is setting us up. Someone or a group of people.” That got both her and Sanghee’s attention; even Jinri seemed to be listening, despite her stubbornly looking elsewhere. “There has been an increase of accidents over the past few years. More S4S16s are suddenly ‘off-ing’ themselves, to put it harshly, and they’re doing it in public places, which means lots of citizen casualties. It used to be on record of maybe 4 to 5 incidents a week, but now it’s become a chance of having 1 to 2 a day. Within the Hunter association having an all-time high in employees and volunteers, and S4S16s having an all-time low in population, it just seems strange that more incidents are happening than less. Any S4S16 with common sense would be in hiding, or at least, keeping a low profile. It’s difficult to find us if we’re trying our hardest to not be found.”

“You think someone is making them kill themselves to increase the mob mentality against you?” Ji Ae asked, her mind slowly wrapping itself around the idea. It made sense actually, a lot of sense. She wondered how many conspiracy theorists had thought of this already. Perhaps not many, since no one dared to go against the government when it came to S4S16s. If anyone even hinted at a somewhat positive emotion or even neutral emotion towards the S4S16s, they usually went missing. The world had become a scary place.

He nodded, “It would seem so. I highly doubt the accidents within the past few years have actually been caused by any S4S16 on purpose. Maybe 35%, but I don’t think all of them.”

“What about the Wando Institute; was that an accident?” Jinri spoke up, her eyes once again narrowed at Tablo.

She could see where Jinri was coming from. The Wando Institute had been a massive stepping stone for the government when it came to convincing the citizens about how horrible the S4S16s were a few years ago. It was usually mentioned in their propaganda.

The Wando Science Institute was one of South Korea’s finest buildings and programs. It was considered an extremely high honor to have worked at the institute, as it had been extremely difficult to get a job there. A series of buildings like the Institute had been created around the world, and South Korea housed only two, where the best and brightest men and woman worked towards furthering mankind’s achievements in the world of science.

At least, it had been doing so. On March 23, 2261, the Institute had been burned to the ground, with nearly every one of its 650 employees. The flames had burned unnaturally fast, and had been too thick and hot for any of the firefighters or emergency crew. It had taken 35 hours for the flames to burn low enough for them to put it out. By then, there was no sign of life. The flames had been traced back to a spot within the institute, where an outline of feet stood. From the clues about the heat and power of the flames to the lone foot prints, it had been concluded an S4S16 had done the damage. It was assumed the S4S16 had died from its own destruction, and with it’s death, it had become just another pawn; an extremely influential one nonetheless, for the world against S4S16s.

If the incident could somehow be proven to be an accident, something a person had purposefully caused to give the S4S16s a bad name, it would be the first step to winning over part of the population.

Ji Ae looked up at Tablo hopefully; did he think it was an accident? Did he have clues that they didn’t know about?

Instead she was shocked with how carefully blank his face was. The silence in the room was deafening. She looked between the S4S16s to see if any of them knew what was going on. They were all grim; Dongwoo looked horrified, Sungjong was crying silently, even Sungyeol’s smile was gone, his gaze staring up. She followed it to Sunggyu and bit back a gasp. The man looked hollow, as if his soul had been taken from him. His eyes were dilated and faraway, his expression slack, his shoulders slumped. Sungjong moved to slip his hand into his, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Hoya was the only other one she could make out in the gloom who had reacted. His gaze was steely, his jaw set. His lip upturned in distasted, and his hands in tight fists. She almost thought for a moment that the air was rippling around his form, like the air above tarmac on a hot day, but Tablo spoke, pulling her gaze away.

“Unfortunately, some choices made out of anger and pain can never be taken back or washed clean.” He said softly, studying the floor cautiously.

Jinri seemed to regret her words, thought she blundered on stubbornly anyways. “Y-yeah, well, tell that to the families. Look, are you going to let us go, or not?!”

He sighed, and nodded, for what felt like the millionth time that evening. “Very well. But we can’t let you go without alternating your memory. You have seen and know too much.” He looked over at Sungjong and Sunggyu.

Panic rose in Ji Ae’s throat, and she quickly got to her feet, noticing Sanghee and Jinri move towards her. She tried to make eye contact with Sungyeol, the one who had originally saved her live, but he refused to look her way. “Wh-what are you going to do?” She backed away, preparing to run for the door.

The man didn’t seem to pay them any mind, and instead Sungjong moved forward, his eyes beginning to glow gold again. The tears on his cheeks shined dimly in the light. “Don’t worry,” He said softly, his voice shaking. “You won’t feel a thing.”

Suddenly Sunggyu threw his hands outwards, his fingers out stretched, his face grim. It was only too late that Ji Ae realized what he was doing.

“Oh shi-“

A *pop* rang through the air and then everything went black again.


-v-v-v-v-

July 7^th, 2264
Seoul, South Korea
Unknown
4:00 PM


The sound of bird song was the first thing that registered in Ji Ae’s head. Smiling faintly, she rolled over in her bed, stretching her arms above her head lazily. Funny, she didn’t recall using any air fresher that smelled like fresh grass and flowers. Blinking her eyes open, she was momentarily blinded by the brightness of the light. Sitting up hastily, her fingers grasped not cloth, but earth, sinking into the moist soil. Gasping, she forced her eyes open and looked down; fine strands of brilliant emerald grass were grasped in her fist.

“Wh-what?!”

Quickly stumbling to her feet, and then bending over at the sudden wave of lightheadedness that overtook her, Ji Ae’s mind raced to figure out where she was. When her head clear, she glanced around, dropping open in shock. It looked like a park, a normal park, one filled with grass, trees and little crystal clear brooks. Except Seoul had very few parks; she really hoped she was still in Seoul. And the parks in Seoul were difficult to access.

But how had she gotten there? She wracked her brain for a memory, but nothing jumped up at her. She didn’t drink without an occasion, and as far as she could recall, there had been no party last night, so she couldn’t have out from alcohol. Drugs were out of the question. Hesitantly, she pulled back the waistband of her jeans; nope, she hadn’t been violated.

The last thing she recalled was waiting in the tram station with her groceries. Looking around her left Ji Ae groaning in exasperation; she must have left the bags somewhere stupid, because they were not next to her. That was pretty frustrating; the best place to get good, cheap food and not worry about it being tampered with, was a little store in Cheonju. It was nearly a 45 minute ride to get there from Seoul, since she had to make several transfers, from 2 of the internal tram systems in Seoul, to the cross country one. Overall, it was an annoying and expensive process.

She dug through her pockets for her wallet and phone, and let out a little sigh when she found them, safe. Checking her phone, Ji Ae quickly began to look for the exit of the park.

She had lost 24 hours of time; it was 4:03, July 7^th. Whatever the case, she would get to the bottom of this.

What the hell had happened to her?

-v-v-v-

July 7^th, 2264
Seoul, South Korea
Daesan Station
4:36 PM


Jinri was not happy. Then again, anyone waking up find themselves buried in half crumbled newspapers, leaning against a stained wall and sitting on a grimy floor in one of the most filthy railway underground stations in Seoul would not be joyful either. Getting up quickly resulted in the newspapers falling around her and hitting people walking by, which just drew more attention to her. Snarling at the nearest looker until they looked away fearfully, she tried to brush herself off the best she could, which wasn’t much. The station was bustling with hordes of people, mostly casual citizens, with a couple of business people thrown into the lot. This station was on the border of the slums, so not many respectable men and woman used it.

It didn’t make Jinri feel any better about her appearance though. She had no clue as to how she had gotten there. She lived on the edge of the slums after losing her family, but always made special care to take the normal tram to the closest point, and then walk the rest of the way so no one knew about her embarrassing situation. The Saesun Station was at least 6 kilometers away from her ‘home’, and compared to her normal tram ride, that equaled an extra 2 kilometers to walk.

She started to limp towards the exit, deciding it was too late to maneuver Seoul’s tram system, and that it would be quicker to just walk. An older woman wearing a mixture of animal skins and tight, pink leopard leggings gave her a disgusted look after getting a whiff of her. Jinri just gave her the finger, her insides curdling with embarrassment and rage, while she continued to move up the stairs to the ground level.

She had no idea how she had gotten there. She had only been to Daesun’s once, and that was when she was a few years younger, and with her family.

Maybe this was her friends’ idea of a joke. She carefully pinched the edge of her jacket and sniffed it; she reeked of many things, but apparently booze was once of them. Maybe that was it; she had gotten blackout drunk at some point yesterday, and they had…ditched her in a potentially hostile and dangerous tram station just for s and giggles.

She growled low, her eyes glaring. There would be hell to pay.

But first, she desperately needed a shower.
     

-v-v-v-

July 7^th, 2264
Seoul, South Korea
Central Seoul Police Station
4:35 PM

‘….’

Refocusing her eyes, Sanghee blinked once, twice, before looking up at the man in uniform.

‘-‘am, ma’am?’

She smiled warmly, ‘Sorry, I seemed to have slipped off for a moment. Where were we?’

He lifted his hat with one hand, and ran a hand through his thick black hair with the other, before setting the cap back down. Arching a brow, Officer…she glanced down at the nametag again. Officer Changuk gave her a wary look.

‘You were explaining where you’ve been. Your family listed a missing person’s report yesterday, or at least, they tried; they’re supposed to wait 48 hours. Now you show up here, nearly halfway around the world. Your mother and father have been calling all sorts of authorities, trying to figure out where you are. Now, could you please explain to me, so I can tell them as soon as we phone them, where have you been?’

For a moment, Sanghee hesitated. Should she tell the truth, or lie to the good officer and her family in turn?

Giving him her best fearful look, and then down casting her eyes, she tearfully responded, ‘I don’t remember.’

 A lie.
 


-v-v-v-v-

A/N

Greetings and salutations, my beautiful readers. Did you enjoy this chapter? I had fun with it; I decided to take it in a completely different direction then I had in BHS, which makes me even more excited for this story because I wanted to give the old BHS readers something new; the beginnings were similar because, well, they had to be, but from here on out, it will be extremely different. So, I hope you’re as excited as I am!

Also, to Miss Jaimee, I had to changed Soojung’s age because I wanted to introduce her sooner than before; she will be making an appearance in the next chapter!

I hope everyone enjoys this chapter, and I can’t wait to hear from you all and your thoughts/ideas!

Love,

WhosThere13

P.S. Welcome to the new subscribers! Sorry that I couldn’t keep track of who you were exactly, but I’m extremely grateful that you’ve decided to join us with this story!