Never Love Again

117. Waging War

"The standard unit of measuring scents is called Naks abbreviated as NK. The scale of measurement specifically begins at 0 to 5, 5 being the strongest."

"What's yours?"

Yeon looked away from Stan and adjusted his white lab coat. "Let's talk about yours since I've experimented on it more thoroughly. During your coma it was 2.3Naks but post recovery, it rose 3.2Naks. You'll notice your scent improved by a larger mirgin since before your accident while conducting my first project, it used to be much lower scaling at 3.0Naks."

"A difference of 0.2? I woundn't call that much.."

"It is much. This is not economics Stan. In medicine it's a big deal. If your temperature rose to 38 on a Celcious scale instead of a normal 37, we'd have to find out why that happened, and probably administer some fever reliever. That 0.2 difference is enough to change your cellular respiration...." Yeon halted suddenly upon noticing his fated's look of disinterest. "You know what, let's not discuss this further."

"Thank you. My brain can't explode this quick just when we've started working together."

"You shouldn't be in the lab." Yeon went about changing his gloves and began winding up his duties as Stan swirled around on the seat his uncle ussually occupied.

Upon realizing his uncle's absentia around Yeon during his shift, Stan had jumped at the opportunity to sneak into the lab, knowing Yeon would be there. He'd been given a walkaround at the hospital by one of his uncle's staff and was adviced to wait for him in his office.

Stan had hoped him and Yeon would be sharing the same work space but that wasn't going to be so. His uncle too had been from one surgery after another that he'd gotten bored staying in his office and went to the lab, which was on a diferent building separte from the main hospital alltogether.

He hadn't realised just how much time apart Yeon and his uncle spent working that he wondered why his uncle often bragged about being in the lab with Yeon all day and whenever he'd asked after his uncle, Stan was informed to wait in his office since after scrubbing, he was not to be disturbed unless there was an emmergency.

"What about uncle's scent."

"3.8 Naks."

"What? He has it higher than mine? And aunt's?"

"3.9Naks."

"No way! If what you said earlier about each number being a great deal then how come mine is much lower?"

"I don't know...it's just you. You may share an almost similar DNA with your uncle but that doesn't mean you'll have the same scents."

"What about yours? Tell me..."

"Nope." Yeon shook his head in dissaproval. "Let's talk about something else. Elric and Niel visited this facility together with his mom a few days ago and I got their samples. You should probably check on Elric, he was quite unwell..."

"What did they get?" Stan asked eagerly, showing no interest in the health of his friend.

"You wouldn't believe, Niel's is 4.2Naks! I was shocked! It owepowers Elric's by a difference of 4."

"So Elric's is 3.8?"

"Yes!" Yeon couldn't hide his enthusiasm. "I'd thought Elric's would be more actually! This is why I love silence."

"And the mom?"

"It's similar to yours."

"This sucks. I wish I didn't have to know."