baseCODE 3/?
Title: baseCODE 3/?
Pairing: Jaejoong/Junsu, Changmin/Yunho, Donghae/Eunhyuk, Heechul/Yoochun, Leeteuk/Kyuhyun, Siwon/Ryeowook
Rating: R for this chapter
Disclaimer: Not mine to rate track or own. I really wish I could order them to have sex with each other and let me tape it, but ... yeah, can't do that.
Summary: Junsu is a normal twenty-three year old. He has retired from Duty to the People and he's content to spend the next two years relaxing before his Date of Expiration. His biggest fear is that the love he carries for his roommate will be discovered. But Jaejoong is not who he says he is, and Junsu finds himself in a race to save not only Jaejoong's life, but ultimately his own.
This fic is first person from Junsu's POV and it is written in present tense. Chapter titles are quotes from "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.
Poster credit goes to yceam!!! It's awesome, darling! ♥
Part 3: If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.
... for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
From Romeo & Juliet
I stare. Freely, even as a warning voice tells me to look away, another is saying that it’s not longer forbidden. Or that it’s forbidden, but there are no rules here. The low light in the bedroom makes deepens the curves of his abs with shadows. His waist is so tiny. My fingers clench. I want to touch his hips where they stick out from the top of the towel. My eyes widen. There is a metal piercing just above his navel.
Jae sees the bear in my arms and frowns. “Are you okay?” he whispers.
“You have a piercing,” I say, awed.
He smiles. “I only wear it when I’m here.” He nods at my lap. “Clutching the teddy bear. Are you okay?”
I finally glance at my lap, away from him, breath harsh, willing myself under control. “I-I think so. Are you okay?”
Jae says nothing. I stare at the bear. Behind me, fabric rustles, and then the bed dips. Jae’s lips press against my neck.
I flinch. Part of me really hopes he has clothes on.
“Junsu? Look at me.”
“Are you dressed?”
“Yes.”
I turn my head. He is in shorts and a tank top. Barely dressed. I blush and look away again.
“I feel like you hate me,” he whispers. “You won’t even look at me.”
“If I look at you, I’m going to touch you.”
“That’s okay here.”
I shake my head. “Maybe if you weren’t d-different.”
“Different?”
“I-wh-who are you, Jaejoong?”
His hand slides along my arm, but I don’t release my hold on the bear to take his hand. He pulls away after a moment.
“You feel like I hate you,” I say. “I feel like I don’t know you anymore.”
“You don’t hate me?”
“Of course not,” I say and turn around. He lying on his side, propped up on an elbow. “I love you, but …”
Jae smiles. “Give me a second chance?”
I swallow and bite my lower lip.
“I … I had to lie, Su. I mean, I was going to tell you, of course I was, but not until later. Not until you were almost twenty-five. I was going to ask if you wanted to come, and prepare you for the possibility, not throw it all at you at once. I’m sorry about it. I am. But if you hadn’t agreed to come with me, I wouldn’t have. I would rather die than live without you. But if you’re not … I …”
I smile. It’s just as Siwon said. He was worried that I wasn’t happy here. I crawl over to him, leaving the bear in my hand. I’m shaking a little bit because he’s practically naked and we’re alone and I’ve never been particularly forward with Jaejoong before.
I can’t bring myself to touch him, so I sit, cross-legged next to him. Our fingers lace together again.
“You don’t need a second chance,” I say, “because you haven’t done anything wrong. I would have come with you if you had explained it to me. You didn’t force me to come. You didn’t force me to follow you, trust you, or love you. I do all those on my own. This is going to take me a few days to get used to, but don’t treat me like I’m going to break, okay?”
Jae nods. “I’m sorry. I’m worried about you.”
“I know.” I lean down and kiss him. It’s only a press of lips. His grip tightens on my fingers, and after another moment, our lips part, move and caress.
There is a knock on the door.
“Oh my god,” Jaejoong yells. “Can you guys please just leave us alone for ten minutes?”
“Sorry, Jaejoong,” Siwon says. “Yunho says that Changmin called and he wants Junsu’s physical and stuff done before he gets back.”
“Give me ten minutes. Ten fucking minutes.”
I’m trying not to laugh and failing. Jae glares at me, and then smiles and jumps up and I’m suddenly on my back with Jaejoong over me. He kisses me, strong and forceful, and I fall into it, arms wrapping around his strong shoulders. We are both shaking, me from nerves because I know Jaejoong wants more, and him from trying not to take more.
He pulls away, gasping, head lowered, breath at my neck. It makes me shiver.
“Alright?” he whispers.
“Yeah. I won’t break, remember.”
He moves hair off my forehead, kisses the skin, and my eyes shut just before his lips brush over my eyelashes. He presses another kiss to my lips before rolling away.
“Come on. We’ll have to continue this later. Changmin is a prick, but around here, his word is law, especially now, when I’ve screwed up, and-”
“Yunho said it wasn’t your fault.”
“That was before he had to cut his hair.”
“It’s not your fault,” I say and place a hand on his back.
He shakes himself and stands up. My eyes widen at the half hard cock tenting his shorts. I swallow as it grows. He snaps his fingers in my face. I look up at him, dazed, and he smiles.
“Later,” he says, and I blush. I take his hand and he leads me from the room. We walk though the living room and past the kitchen. There is a set of stairs at the end of a short hallway. The door is locked and Jae enters a code. It beeps open.
“Only those of us that live here know the code,” Jaejoong says. “Well, except Donghae. If you enter it wrong three times, the control panel explodes, and Changmin got tired of replacing the control panel. Donghae has destroyed four of them. The last time, he’d locked Changmin and Kyuhyun in the basement, and Changmin had to call Yunho and transfer complicated directions on how to override the system and get them out.”
I laugh. “Sounds fun.”
“Donghae isn’t allowed around anything electronic. When you get a cell phone, don’t let him touch it.”
The stairs to the basement are metal. The railing chills my hand. At the bottom of the stairs are three heavy metal doors.
Jae points to the one on the left. “Don’t ever go in there. Changmin will kill you. This door is our version of a hospital. Changmin and Kyuhyun are amazing with medicine and stuff, but it’s Ryeowook and Siwon who will patch you up if you’re ever hurt. The other door leads to Changmin’s file room. You can go in there, but Changmin has his own odd way of filing. It’s easier to let him do it.”
Jae opens the middle door.
I’m led into a white room with a very familiar feeling. Medical instruments, tables. Everything is clean and smells of disinfectant.
“Junsu,” Ryeowook says and smiles.
I smile back, suddenly embarrassed and nervous.
“First, we need to get a few basics: weight, height, blood pressure. That sort of thing. Jae, it’s better if you’re not here.”
“Why?” Jae demands.
Ryeowook smiles. “You’re going to mess with his heart rate, and he’s going to be nervous as soon as I tell him to strip, and having you in the same room when he’s naked is not going to help me get accurate readings.”
Jae frowns.
I blush. He’s right. Just the thought of Jaejoong seeing me naked already has my heart rate up.
“Fine,” Jae says. He comes to me and kisses me, leaving me breathless. “Two hours. You have …”
“Jae,” I say with a pointed look. “I’ll be here as long as it takes.”
Jae doesn’t look happy about it, but he nods once and leaves. The heavy door slams behind him, and I wince.
“It’s not you,” Ryeowook says quickly. “Jae has control issues.”
“So I’ve noticed,” I mutter.
“Okay. Strip.”
I blush and remind myself that Ryeowook is a doctor (or at least, he is right now). It is no worse than my bi-monthly appointments at the clinic. Well, it’s not nearly as embarrassing, because after seeing my face, Ryeowook says, “Don’t worry. No rectal exams are on the itinerary.”
After that, it’s easy to talk to him. We talk of our favorite music, and I tell him about my own attempts at composing. He weighs me, measures my height and body fat ratios and my grip and pain tolerance and reflexes. Halfway through, I mention the need to go to the bathroom and he sends me into a small bathroom with a sample cup. After, he attaches nodes on different parts of my body and then has me do a few simple exercises while he monitors my vital signs.
“Okay, now, don’t hate me, but I need a semen sample.”
I blush bright red.
“This is another reason why Jae couldn’t be here. It’s very important that you come in the cup. It can’t be contaminated by your skin or by Jae’s mouth.” He smiles as he leads me to another room. There are beds along the walls.
“This is the medical ward. If you’re ever sick, even with the flu, this is where you sleep. Changmin likes to poke people who are sick, because with the baseCODE system, you’re not supposed to get sick. Pick a bed, and take your time. Just come in the cup.”
I finally smile. “I’ve never had to aim before.”
Ryeowook grins. “If you miss, you’ll just have to do it again.”
“Oh, the hardship.”
He laughs and claps me on my shoulder. He shuts the door behind him. The room is a bit cold, empty, quiet. I climb on the nearest bed and set the cup next to me. It feels foreign against my thigh.
It’s easy to get hard, just thinking of Jaejoong is enough for that. I stroke, light and quick. It’s not the first time I’ve done this with Jae’s image in my head, his name threatening to spill from my lips. Thinking of Jaejoong above me, kissing me, touching my skin. My eyes shut as that image of him in a towel, hair wet, water dripping down his torso fills my mind.
“Fuck,” I whisper and it’s loud in the quiet room, and it embarrasses me, but I’m too far gone in lust to care.
Come in the cup, a voice reminds me.
I snatch the cup up at the last moment, and bit me lip from screaming Jaejoong’s name. The come splatters in the cup and a few drops land on my lower stomach.
My gasping breath echoes through the emptiness. With thoughts of Jae still going through my head, I wish I had missed the cup. And I wish I had screamed his name. I can now. I whisper it, and it embarrasses me more than when I swore.
As soon as I’m sure I’m not going to fall over, I stand up and move across the room to open the door.
“Wow, that was quick,” Ryeowook says.
I blush. “Yeah, well, Jaejoong is hot.”
Ryeowook laughs. “He is.” He holds his hand out and I hand him the cup. He tosses a towel at me. I scrape the small mess up from my stomach.
“You can put your clothes back on,” he says and hands them to me. “Go lay on that bed over there. On your stomach. I have to run some tests on your baseCODE.”
“Is that safe?” I ask as I lay on the bed.
“Yes. It’s just a different group of genes. That’s all. No matter what the government wants you to believe, they can’t track you through it. If they could, do you think we’d be here right now?”
“Good point.”
“How long has your CODE been green?”
“Um, right after my twenty-second birthday, it changed.”
He nods. “Was it fast, or gradual?”
“Fast. One day I looked in the mirror and it was blue, the next day it was teal, the next day it was green.”
“This is going to fucking hurt,” Ryeowook warns right before an intense pain shoots up the back of my neck and into my head. I scream. Only habitual will power from being poked and experimented on keeps me from jerking away from the pain.
It fades slowly, and I’m whimpering when sounds and sights register again.
“Sorry,” Ryeowook says. “I know it hurts. That’s how they torture you, you know. They remove your baseCODE one line at a time and your body either goes into shock from the pain and you have a heart attack, or your brain explodes, but it can take hours to die this way.”
“What the hell,” I ask. My tongue feels thick.
Ryeowook holds up a cup. In the bottom of it is green goo.
“Part of your baseCODE,” he says. “It’s hard to explain without getting technical and really I don’t know the details of it. The genes of the baseCODE connect to the genes in your body. It’s inserted after four months in the growers. If the creation rejects it, another is injected. After the third or fourth rejection, defects start to form, and the creation is destroyed. Changmin’s serum-”
“Frog piss,” I whisper.
He laughs. “Yeah. Nasty shit. It finds the genes of the baseCODE, isolates them, and changes them. Changmin is trying to work out a way to remove the baseCODE permanently, but so far, he refuses to test it on anyone. If he’s wrong, the person will die.”
“You’re right. It’s confusing.”
“This sample of your baseCODE will allow Changmin to make a serum that matches the genes in it. Not all baseCODE genes are the same, which makes Changmin’s job even more difficult. If we’re lucky, your baseCODE won’t match one he already has in stock, and we’ll have another serum to manipulate.
“I have to draw some blood. And I have to draw a lot of it. That’s why we’re doing it last. As soon as I’m through, I’m going to call for Jaejoong to take you up to bed and I want you to rest for the remainder of the day.”
I roll over. Pain stings along my neck. He putters around me, hooking things to my body again. The prick of the needle is a familiar sensation.
“How are you the doctor?” I ask.
He smiles. “My baseCODE is black, Changmin hasn’t been able to produce a serum for me yet. He says the genes in my baseCODE are all twisted. Since I can’t be a sprinter, I’ve learned to be helpful. Changmin can’t be here all the time.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“How did you get here?”
“Changmin, Kyuhyun and Siwon have been friends since they were children. I met Siwon at a concert about four years ago.”
“This makes my head spin.”
“That’s the loss of blood actually. Hang tight. I’m going to go get Jaejoong.”
He leaves for a moment. I hear his voice, and then a static voice acknowledge the message. My vision is blurry, everything is light, things swim around me, and I see Jaejoong’s face.
I reach to touch it. “So pretty.”
The apparition smiles at me; everything goes black.
I remember waking up a few times, for water, and something else warm dripping down my throat, but I’m not aware of anything until much later.
My whole body aches, and I’m tired, too weak to move much. The back of my neck still stings, and I reach to scratch it, but just touching it causes a sharp pain, and I hiss and pull my hand away. The tip of my fingernail is green. I wipe it on the front of my shirt.
There is a warm body next to mine. A lamp is lit on the nightstand. The clock shows a time well into the early morning hours.
I roll over and watch Jaejoong sleep, long black lashes fluttering, mouth slightly open. He’s so beautiful. I want to touch his face, but I don’t want to wake him. Staring at him, I decide that I don’t need to know who he is exactly. I don’t need to know what he’s done. At least, not all at once. I will take this opportunity to get to know him, and if he lets me, and stops being so cryptic with me, I will fall in love all over again.
His eyes flutter, and I shut mine.
He shifts around, closer to me. After a moment, he says, “You’re awful at faking sleep. You’re smiling.”
“I’m having good dreams. Be quiet.”
He chuckles. “How are you feeling?”
I open my eyes. His fingers trace over my cheek and jaw. “I’m tired. A little weak.”
He nods. “You will be for another day. Please promise me that no matter how much Eunhyuk begs, you will not play soccer tomorrow. You have to rest after losing that much blood at once.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Good. Here. Drink some more water.”
“I actually have to pee.”
“Okay.” Jae helps me stand up and supports me across the hall to the bathroom. When he comes in with me, I panic. He smiles. “I won’t watch, I promise. Trust me when I say that I don’t want the first glimpse of your naked body to be that of you peeing.”
I laugh and lean against his body. He holds me tightly as I use the bathroom, and then he shuffles us to the sink so I can wash my hands. I make a face in the mirror.
“What?”
“I need to brush my teeth.”
He makes sure I’m secure on the counter, then moves to a cupboard and finds a new toothbrush.
“I’ll put up a shelf for you tomorrow.”
I brush my teeth. Jae runs his fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. He kisses the back of my neck. I hiss at the pain.
“Looks like Wookie took a baseCODE sample.”
“Yeah. Hurts.”
“It will for a couple days.”
He takes me back to bed and I let him tuck me in, I cuddle the bear between us.
“Did you ever name him?” Jae whispers.
I shake my head. “No. He’s … he’s you when you’re not around.”
Jae kisses my cheek. “I’ll be with you for awhile now. I hope you don’t get sick of me.”
“I hope I fall even more in love with you.”
“You shouldn’t be-“
“Shut up, Jaejoong,” I say with a smile. “It’s not your fault. I love you for bringing me here, for giving us another life where we can be together.” My hand shakes as I run it down his stomach. “Really be together.”
He swallows and then covers the minute distance between our lips and kisses me.
“Let me rest,” I whisper. “And then later, we will threaten them all with no more Master-Chef-Jaejoong-food if they interrupt us.”
Jae chuckles. “That will definitely work.”
Part 4: Not mad, but bound more than a mad man is.
Part 2: O, teach me how I should forget to think.
Part 1: I must be gone and live or stay and die.
.
Pairing: Jaejoong/Junsu, Changmin/Yunho, Donghae/Eunhyuk, Heechul/Yoochun, Leeteuk/Kyuhyun, Siwon/Ryeowook
Rating: R for this chapter
Disclaimer: Not mine to rate track or own. I really wish I could order them to have sex with each other and let me tape it, but ... yeah, can't do that.
Summary: Junsu is a normal twenty-three year old. He has retired from Duty to the People and he's content to spend the next two years relaxing before his Date of Expiration. His biggest fear is that the love he carries for his roommate will be discovered. But Jaejoong is not who he says he is, and Junsu finds himself in a race to save not only Jaejoong's life, but ultimately his own.
This fic is first person from Junsu's POV and it is written in present tense. Chapter titles are quotes from "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.
Poster credit goes to yceam!!! It's awesome, darling! ♥
Part 3: If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.
... for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
From Romeo & Juliet
I stare. Freely, even as a warning voice tells me to look away, another is saying that it’s not longer forbidden. Or that it’s forbidden, but there are no rules here. The low light in the bedroom makes deepens the curves of his abs with shadows. His waist is so tiny. My fingers clench. I want to touch his hips where they stick out from the top of the towel. My eyes widen. There is a metal piercing just above his navel.
Jae sees the bear in my arms and frowns. “Are you okay?” he whispers.
“You have a piercing,” I say, awed.
He smiles. “I only wear it when I’m here.” He nods at my lap. “Clutching the teddy bear. Are you okay?”
I finally glance at my lap, away from him, breath harsh, willing myself under control. “I-I think so. Are you okay?”
Jae says nothing. I stare at the bear. Behind me, fabric rustles, and then the bed dips. Jae’s lips press against my neck.
I flinch. Part of me really hopes he has clothes on.
“Junsu? Look at me.”
“Are you dressed?”
“Yes.”
I turn my head. He is in shorts and a tank top. Barely dressed. I blush and look away again.
“I feel like you hate me,” he whispers. “You won’t even look at me.”
“If I look at you, I’m going to touch you.”
“That’s okay here.”
I shake my head. “Maybe if you weren’t d-different.”
“Different?”
“I-wh-who are you, Jaejoong?”
His hand slides along my arm, but I don’t release my hold on the bear to take his hand. He pulls away after a moment.
“You feel like I hate you,” I say. “I feel like I don’t know you anymore.”
“You don’t hate me?”
“Of course not,” I say and turn around. He lying on his side, propped up on an elbow. “I love you, but …”
Jae smiles. “Give me a second chance?”
I swallow and bite my lower lip.
“I … I had to lie, Su. I mean, I was going to tell you, of course I was, but not until later. Not until you were almost twenty-five. I was going to ask if you wanted to come, and prepare you for the possibility, not throw it all at you at once. I’m sorry about it. I am. But if you hadn’t agreed to come with me, I wouldn’t have. I would rather die than live without you. But if you’re not … I …”
I smile. It’s just as Siwon said. He was worried that I wasn’t happy here. I crawl over to him, leaving the bear in my hand. I’m shaking a little bit because he’s practically naked and we’re alone and I’ve never been particularly forward with Jaejoong before.
I can’t bring myself to touch him, so I sit, cross-legged next to him. Our fingers lace together again.
“You don’t need a second chance,” I say, “because you haven’t done anything wrong. I would have come with you if you had explained it to me. You didn’t force me to come. You didn’t force me to follow you, trust you, or love you. I do all those on my own. This is going to take me a few days to get used to, but don’t treat me like I’m going to break, okay?”
Jae nods. “I’m sorry. I’m worried about you.”
“I know.” I lean down and kiss him. It’s only a press of lips. His grip tightens on my fingers, and after another moment, our lips part, move and caress.
There is a knock on the door.
“Oh my god,” Jaejoong yells. “Can you guys please just leave us alone for ten minutes?”
“Sorry, Jaejoong,” Siwon says. “Yunho says that Changmin called and he wants Junsu’s physical and stuff done before he gets back.”
“Give me ten minutes. Ten fucking minutes.”
I’m trying not to laugh and failing. Jae glares at me, and then smiles and jumps up and I’m suddenly on my back with Jaejoong over me. He kisses me, strong and forceful, and I fall into it, arms wrapping around his strong shoulders. We are both shaking, me from nerves because I know Jaejoong wants more, and him from trying not to take more.
He pulls away, gasping, head lowered, breath at my neck. It makes me shiver.
“Alright?” he whispers.
“Yeah. I won’t break, remember.”
He moves hair off my forehead, kisses the skin, and my eyes shut just before his lips brush over my eyelashes. He presses another kiss to my lips before rolling away.
“Come on. We’ll have to continue this later. Changmin is a prick, but around here, his word is law, especially now, when I’ve screwed up, and-”
“Yunho said it wasn’t your fault.”
“That was before he had to cut his hair.”
“It’s not your fault,” I say and place a hand on his back.
He shakes himself and stands up. My eyes widen at the half hard cock tenting his shorts. I swallow as it grows. He snaps his fingers in my face. I look up at him, dazed, and he smiles.
“Later,” he says, and I blush. I take his hand and he leads me from the room. We walk though the living room and past the kitchen. There is a set of stairs at the end of a short hallway. The door is locked and Jae enters a code. It beeps open.
“Only those of us that live here know the code,” Jaejoong says. “Well, except Donghae. If you enter it wrong three times, the control panel explodes, and Changmin got tired of replacing the control panel. Donghae has destroyed four of them. The last time, he’d locked Changmin and Kyuhyun in the basement, and Changmin had to call Yunho and transfer complicated directions on how to override the system and get them out.”
I laugh. “Sounds fun.”
“Donghae isn’t allowed around anything electronic. When you get a cell phone, don’t let him touch it.”
The stairs to the basement are metal. The railing chills my hand. At the bottom of the stairs are three heavy metal doors.
Jae points to the one on the left. “Don’t ever go in there. Changmin will kill you. This door is our version of a hospital. Changmin and Kyuhyun are amazing with medicine and stuff, but it’s Ryeowook and Siwon who will patch you up if you’re ever hurt. The other door leads to Changmin’s file room. You can go in there, but Changmin has his own odd way of filing. It’s easier to let him do it.”
Jae opens the middle door.
I’m led into a white room with a very familiar feeling. Medical instruments, tables. Everything is clean and smells of disinfectant.
“Junsu,” Ryeowook says and smiles.
I smile back, suddenly embarrassed and nervous.
“First, we need to get a few basics: weight, height, blood pressure. That sort of thing. Jae, it’s better if you’re not here.”
“Why?” Jae demands.
Ryeowook smiles. “You’re going to mess with his heart rate, and he’s going to be nervous as soon as I tell him to strip, and having you in the same room when he’s naked is not going to help me get accurate readings.”
Jae frowns.
I blush. He’s right. Just the thought of Jaejoong seeing me naked already has my heart rate up.
“Fine,” Jae says. He comes to me and kisses me, leaving me breathless. “Two hours. You have …”
“Jae,” I say with a pointed look. “I’ll be here as long as it takes.”
Jae doesn’t look happy about it, but he nods once and leaves. The heavy door slams behind him, and I wince.
“It’s not you,” Ryeowook says quickly. “Jae has control issues.”
“So I’ve noticed,” I mutter.
“Okay. Strip.”
I blush and remind myself that Ryeowook is a doctor (or at least, he is right now). It is no worse than my bi-monthly appointments at the clinic. Well, it’s not nearly as embarrassing, because after seeing my face, Ryeowook says, “Don’t worry. No rectal exams are on the itinerary.”
After that, it’s easy to talk to him. We talk of our favorite music, and I tell him about my own attempts at composing. He weighs me, measures my height and body fat ratios and my grip and pain tolerance and reflexes. Halfway through, I mention the need to go to the bathroom and he sends me into a small bathroom with a sample cup. After, he attaches nodes on different parts of my body and then has me do a few simple exercises while he monitors my vital signs.
“Okay, now, don’t hate me, but I need a semen sample.”
I blush bright red.
“This is another reason why Jae couldn’t be here. It’s very important that you come in the cup. It can’t be contaminated by your skin or by Jae’s mouth.” He smiles as he leads me to another room. There are beds along the walls.
“This is the medical ward. If you’re ever sick, even with the flu, this is where you sleep. Changmin likes to poke people who are sick, because with the baseCODE system, you’re not supposed to get sick. Pick a bed, and take your time. Just come in the cup.”
I finally smile. “I’ve never had to aim before.”
Ryeowook grins. “If you miss, you’ll just have to do it again.”
“Oh, the hardship.”
He laughs and claps me on my shoulder. He shuts the door behind him. The room is a bit cold, empty, quiet. I climb on the nearest bed and set the cup next to me. It feels foreign against my thigh.
It’s easy to get hard, just thinking of Jaejoong is enough for that. I stroke, light and quick. It’s not the first time I’ve done this with Jae’s image in my head, his name threatening to spill from my lips. Thinking of Jaejoong above me, kissing me, touching my skin. My eyes shut as that image of him in a towel, hair wet, water dripping down his torso fills my mind.
“Fuck,” I whisper and it’s loud in the quiet room, and it embarrasses me, but I’m too far gone in lust to care.
Come in the cup, a voice reminds me.
I snatch the cup up at the last moment, and bit me lip from screaming Jaejoong’s name. The come splatters in the cup and a few drops land on my lower stomach.
My gasping breath echoes through the emptiness. With thoughts of Jae still going through my head, I wish I had missed the cup. And I wish I had screamed his name. I can now. I whisper it, and it embarrasses me more than when I swore.
As soon as I’m sure I’m not going to fall over, I stand up and move across the room to open the door.
“Wow, that was quick,” Ryeowook says.
I blush. “Yeah, well, Jaejoong is hot.”
Ryeowook laughs. “He is.” He holds his hand out and I hand him the cup. He tosses a towel at me. I scrape the small mess up from my stomach.
“You can put your clothes back on,” he says and hands them to me. “Go lay on that bed over there. On your stomach. I have to run some tests on your baseCODE.”
“Is that safe?” I ask as I lay on the bed.
“Yes. It’s just a different group of genes. That’s all. No matter what the government wants you to believe, they can’t track you through it. If they could, do you think we’d be here right now?”
“Good point.”
“How long has your CODE been green?”
“Um, right after my twenty-second birthday, it changed.”
He nods. “Was it fast, or gradual?”
“Fast. One day I looked in the mirror and it was blue, the next day it was teal, the next day it was green.”
“This is going to fucking hurt,” Ryeowook warns right before an intense pain shoots up the back of my neck and into my head. I scream. Only habitual will power from being poked and experimented on keeps me from jerking away from the pain.
It fades slowly, and I’m whimpering when sounds and sights register again.
“Sorry,” Ryeowook says. “I know it hurts. That’s how they torture you, you know. They remove your baseCODE one line at a time and your body either goes into shock from the pain and you have a heart attack, or your brain explodes, but it can take hours to die this way.”
“What the hell,” I ask. My tongue feels thick.
Ryeowook holds up a cup. In the bottom of it is green goo.
“Part of your baseCODE,” he says. “It’s hard to explain without getting technical and really I don’t know the details of it. The genes of the baseCODE connect to the genes in your body. It’s inserted after four months in the growers. If the creation rejects it, another is injected. After the third or fourth rejection, defects start to form, and the creation is destroyed. Changmin’s serum-”
“Frog piss,” I whisper.
He laughs. “Yeah. Nasty shit. It finds the genes of the baseCODE, isolates them, and changes them. Changmin is trying to work out a way to remove the baseCODE permanently, but so far, he refuses to test it on anyone. If he’s wrong, the person will die.”
“You’re right. It’s confusing.”
“This sample of your baseCODE will allow Changmin to make a serum that matches the genes in it. Not all baseCODE genes are the same, which makes Changmin’s job even more difficult. If we’re lucky, your baseCODE won’t match one he already has in stock, and we’ll have another serum to manipulate.
“I have to draw some blood. And I have to draw a lot of it. That’s why we’re doing it last. As soon as I’m through, I’m going to call for Jaejoong to take you up to bed and I want you to rest for the remainder of the day.”
I roll over. Pain stings along my neck. He putters around me, hooking things to my body again. The prick of the needle is a familiar sensation.
“How are you the doctor?” I ask.
He smiles. “My baseCODE is black, Changmin hasn’t been able to produce a serum for me yet. He says the genes in my baseCODE are all twisted. Since I can’t be a sprinter, I’ve learned to be helpful. Changmin can’t be here all the time.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“How did you get here?”
“Changmin, Kyuhyun and Siwon have been friends since they were children. I met Siwon at a concert about four years ago.”
“This makes my head spin.”
“That’s the loss of blood actually. Hang tight. I’m going to go get Jaejoong.”
He leaves for a moment. I hear his voice, and then a static voice acknowledge the message. My vision is blurry, everything is light, things swim around me, and I see Jaejoong’s face.
I reach to touch it. “So pretty.”
The apparition smiles at me; everything goes black.
I remember waking up a few times, for water, and something else warm dripping down my throat, but I’m not aware of anything until much later.
My whole body aches, and I’m tired, too weak to move much. The back of my neck still stings, and I reach to scratch it, but just touching it causes a sharp pain, and I hiss and pull my hand away. The tip of my fingernail is green. I wipe it on the front of my shirt.
There is a warm body next to mine. A lamp is lit on the nightstand. The clock shows a time well into the early morning hours.
I roll over and watch Jaejoong sleep, long black lashes fluttering, mouth slightly open. He’s so beautiful. I want to touch his face, but I don’t want to wake him. Staring at him, I decide that I don’t need to know who he is exactly. I don’t need to know what he’s done. At least, not all at once. I will take this opportunity to get to know him, and if he lets me, and stops being so cryptic with me, I will fall in love all over again.
His eyes flutter, and I shut mine.
He shifts around, closer to me. After a moment, he says, “You’re awful at faking sleep. You’re smiling.”
“I’m having good dreams. Be quiet.”
He chuckles. “How are you feeling?”
I open my eyes. His fingers trace over my cheek and jaw. “I’m tired. A little weak.”
He nods. “You will be for another day. Please promise me that no matter how much Eunhyuk begs, you will not play soccer tomorrow. You have to rest after losing that much blood at once.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Good. Here. Drink some more water.”
“I actually have to pee.”
“Okay.” Jae helps me stand up and supports me across the hall to the bathroom. When he comes in with me, I panic. He smiles. “I won’t watch, I promise. Trust me when I say that I don’t want the first glimpse of your naked body to be that of you peeing.”
I laugh and lean against his body. He holds me tightly as I use the bathroom, and then he shuffles us to the sink so I can wash my hands. I make a face in the mirror.
“What?”
“I need to brush my teeth.”
He makes sure I’m secure on the counter, then moves to a cupboard and finds a new toothbrush.
“I’ll put up a shelf for you tomorrow.”
I brush my teeth. Jae runs his fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. He kisses the back of my neck. I hiss at the pain.
“Looks like Wookie took a baseCODE sample.”
“Yeah. Hurts.”
“It will for a couple days.”
He takes me back to bed and I let him tuck me in, I cuddle the bear between us.
“Did you ever name him?” Jae whispers.
I shake my head. “No. He’s … he’s you when you’re not around.”
Jae kisses my cheek. “I’ll be with you for awhile now. I hope you don’t get sick of me.”
“I hope I fall even more in love with you.”
“You shouldn’t be-“
“Shut up, Jaejoong,” I say with a smile. “It’s not your fault. I love you for bringing me here, for giving us another life where we can be together.” My hand shakes as I run it down his stomach. “Really be together.”
He swallows and then covers the minute distance between our lips and kisses me.
“Let me rest,” I whisper. “And then later, we will threaten them all with no more Master-Chef-Jaejoong-food if they interrupt us.”
Jae chuckles. “That will definitely work.”
Part 4: Not mad, but bound more than a mad man is.
Part 2: O, teach me how I should forget to think.
Part 1: I must be gone and live or stay and die.
.