Area One

28

As it turned out, the place they were brought to was not only close to the company, the city also consisted mostly of their employees. Yoon Donghyun assured them several times that they would be safe here with everyone knowing who they were and to just ask if they needed something.

The accommodations they were brought to were clean and spacious, equipped with TVs and air conditioning and in general nothing like Luhan's home that had been far too small for all of them. Everyone had his own room, most of them were not even in the same building, and everything they needed was close to them: countless shops, the doctor, parks, fitness rooms, Chronos had even organized therapists for all of them to deal with their past.

Junmyeon hated it. Everything of it. The city was loud, he heard the noises until deep into the night and they kept him from getting any sleep. At least he told himself that they were the reason. He didn't know what to do with his big apartment, he had brought nothing with him to fill it with. He had visited the park right outside his building. No matter where he looked, the grey buildings were still towering over the treetops, constantly reminding him of where he was. Not even in the middle of the park did the noise die down. He hadn't visited the fitness rooms even once. Why would he need to? Then there were people everywhere, and it seemed like everyone knew exactly who he was. They kept asking how he was feeling. As if he would respond with anything other than "I'm fine, thank you." He had already had a few appointments with his therapist but couldn't shake off the feeling that she was not actually trying to help him. The sight of a person with a clipboard taking note of his condition and thoughts alone kept him teetering on the brink of a panic attack every single time. He knew he needed to talk to somebody, it wasn't like he didn't feel the need to talk about his feelings, but if it happened it wouldn't be with this woman. He didn't like her. He didn't trust her, either.

The worst aspect of his new life wasn't the new environment. It wasn't the lack of nature and it wasn't the amount of people he had to deal with either. It was the type of people.

They hadn't all gotten apartments in the same buildings, and Junmyeon understood that. It wasn't like they could make other people leave their homes just because he wanted to be closer to his friends. Sehun, Chanyeol, Yixing and Minseok were the only other ones in his building. But he didn't even see them regularly. They all had numerous therapist appointments per week, doctor's appointments he didn't want to think about and they had also agreed on starting to tell Chronos everything that had happened. Every few days someone visited him along with a doctor to tell them what happened while taking care that he didn't force himself to talk about especially hurtful memories. They also kept him up to date with Chronos' progress in the test area. They had arrested the people who had pulled the strings in this deception. Everyone collaborating with the Red Force in the City and the villages was being questioned while special teams in the City were further investigating the case. They sent people to the villages, telling them about what happened and offering them to leave the area. Most of them were eager to leave, others hesitated.

He was also told whenever the families of his friends were brought out. Chanyeol had been reunited with his parents who were unscathed and over the moon to have their son back. He was spending a lot of time with them and Junmyeon saw him even less often than the others. He didn't hold it against him. He too would want to spend time with his family if they were anything like Chanyeol's parents.

Jongin's father had been arrested, just as the parents of Baekhyun and Taehyung. The three of them didn't seem to mind. Yixing was reunited with his father and they moved into one apartment together. Kyungsoo had made sure that his parents were arrested as well.

Since the families of Junmyeon and Sehun had done nothing criminal the two could prove, Chronos was unable to arrest them. But after a few weeks had passed, Junmyeon was told that both of their families wanted to talk to them. Ms Han, the woman who took note of his experiences and gave him updates added: "On a completely unrelated note: everyone in the villages was told about what you guys did. You are their heroes now; everyone knows your names and rumours spread like wildfires. Your family would also like me to tell you that they wouldn't have sold you to the Red Force, they just wanted to deceive the other villagers. They of course wanted to hide and protect you."