𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 (𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐙! 𝐟𝐟)

𝙲𝙷. 𝟷𝟶 ☯︎︎ 𝚄𝚂𝙱

♊︎Year 5067, Month 4, Day 11, Time 7:00 pm♊︎

☯︎︎

The ticking of the clock in the corner of the room creates overwhelming anxiety for the woman who's tracing over the flower pattern inked on her arm. It's a calming tactic she picked up a long time ago but she doesn't remember when.

In reality, she doesn't really remember anything. While there are many things after her 20 years of age that she recalls perfectly, anything before that is just an empty black void that sucks away the life and colors of those memories every time she tries to piece them together.

Frustration gathers at the ends of her mind and distaste settles onto her tongue at each attempt and fails to recuperate these recollections.

But today, of all days, she finally remembered something: it wasn't for long yet she remembered. She had lied to Mingi when she said she didn't know what happened to her at the abandoned building, but she has to lie; there was no other way to protect herself. She was too scared to have to face the truth of what she saw and why she saw it.

There's no concrete evidence that what she saw in that room with San was ever real, but she knows deep down that she's seen it before. If not there, then somewhere else.

Those newly polished wooden walls. The freshly carpeted and vacuumed floors. The stark white room on the other side of the tinted glass separating the adjoining rooms. Even the open wound with the crimson blood trickling down San's chest.

She was sure she had seen it all before.

The longer Kurenai lingers on these things, the harder it is for her to pay attention to her surroundings and the harm she's doing to herself. Her nails have stopped tracing over her tattooed skin, digging and carving the curvature of her nails into it instead.

It's not until the doors that lead into the control room slide open that she catches herself before falling further into her quarry of endless thoughts.

She snaps her head up just in time to catch the man she was waiting for strolling carelessly into the room, getting startled when he notices her sitting in his chair.

"Uh, Kurenai? What are you doing here?" He pauses by the door, giving a skeptical look as he watches her warily from where she's seated. The woman quickly moves her hand that was clasping over her opposite arm and digs them both into the pocket of her loosely-fitting, gray sweatpants, standing up to face the blue-haired man.

"I was waiting for you to come. You know, since you seem to spend most of your time hidden away in your workroom." Kurenai looks around to emphasize all the half-finished inventions and other supplies scattered on every surface.

Hongjoong moves closer timidly, keeping quiet and making his own assumptions as to why she was even here. It's then that he notices the small trickling of a red substance sliding down the woman's forearm.

"And that?" The woman quickly catches on to what he's pointing out with much curiosity and quickly clamps a hand over it, mentally berating herself for injuring her arm. Hongjoong sighs, walking over to a shelf in the room. "Okay, you're really freaking me out here. What the hell do you want from me?"

He takes out a tiny box that has the first-aid symbol on the front and places it on the table Kurenai was sitting at with the multiple screens he uses to monitor the team when on a mission.