Deja Vu // Ateez

Twenty-Three

longer chapter ahead!

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"How'd you get these?" San ran his finger over the outline of the city on the blueprints. "Actually, how long have you been here to be able to get these?"

San watched as Chan went back to the same cabinet that held the blueprints. "I've been scouting this place for fifteen years."

San's mouth opened as his eyes got wide. "Fifteen years?"

Chan hummed in response, digging through some more files and grabbing a handful before going back over to San. "Finding these things on your own is not easy. Plus, not everything is stored in the main tower."

"Main tower?"

Chan nodded again. "We're in the main tower, where everything happens." Chan grabbed a green folder from the stack that had 'Defaults 001'. "Basically the main tower runs the entire city."

"What is that?" San grabbed the folder from his hands and started to flip through it.

"The very first defaults list."

San once again looked up at Chan, who had a grieving face. "There's over a hundred kids in here."

The folder had pictures of young boys and young girls, who didn't look over the age of ten all smiling, paper clipped to another sheet of paper that had their birth names, birthdays, blood type, IQ level, and what was special about them for them to test. And over each paper, a red stamp that said 'DEFAULT' was plaster on them.

"That's just the first list."

San flicked his eyes over every child that was put in the list. When he was about to close the folder, he paused at a specific person he landed on.

"You know him?"

San nodded his head. "Park Seonghwa..."

He read over his file, his curiosity taking over as he wanted to know why Seonghwa was considered a default.

Name: Park Seonghwa.
Birthday: April 3rd, 1998.
Blood Type: O.
IQ level: 170

San wondered how someone with an IQ level of 170 failed the test. It seemed like Seonghwa should have, seeing how the others had lower IQ levels than him.

But at the bottom of the paper, San saw the smudged handwriting and lifted the file closer to get a better look. His eyes widened once again as he read the readable words.

"Possible...serum....not...blood...cure?" He read out loud.

Chan stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. "What?"

San stared at the words for a while before shaking his head and closing the folder, handing it back to Chan.

"It's probably nothing."

Chan nodded and threw the folder back with the others. San kept his eyes on it until he lost track of it. "So do you have a plan on how to find my friends?"

"The vents."

San let out a laugh but stopped once Chan gave him a serious look. "The vents? How are they going to help us?"