Element - Loona

Chapter 9: Forgetting Everything

"Alright, let's go find the scar," Yerim says and carefully places the book in her purse.

"Scar?" Haseul asks.

"It's the exit to a passageway between two time dimensions. We can get through it by looking for the location it's in."

"And how do we know that location?" Yeojin asks.

Silence.

Yerim starts, "Don't worry. Think about the positives! We'll figure out a way. Let's just get healed and then-"

A thump resonates through the barren landscape, interrupting her sentence.

Yerim turns around to see Hyunjin and her arm wrapped tightly around a man's neck. His black mask and cap cover most of his features, except his perfectly clear blue eyes.

"Tell us everything," Hyunjin orders.

"Let go. I'm too injured to hurt you guys anyway. I'm just gonna die soon," the man says weakly.

Hyunjin releases her grip.

"Hyunjin, what are you doing?" Haseul asks.

"Information," Hyunjin responds and turns back toward the man. "Alright man, tell me what's the deal. Why are you fucking killing us? Isn't that a great question."

"I can't respond to that 'cause I don't know."

Hyunjin sighs, "Wow, I believe that completely."

"It wasn't my choice," he says.

"What wasn't your choice?" Yerim asks, now intrigued.

"Killing you guys. It was just," he pauses and sighs. "Never mind."

"You can tell us. Jiwoo will heal you," Haseul says.

"Sure why not. You guys might fucking end them for once. They're putting out the worst agents right now. Not to brag, but I'm one of them," he says sarcastically. "I have no idea why, and it's so stupid, but it's not my decision."

"Elaborate," Hyunjin says.

"They've been training some guys for a decade and they're not putting them out here. That would make more sense, especially cause he wants you guys dead so much."

He puts a special emphasis on the word he.

"Why does he want us dead?" Hyunjin says, also exaggerating the he.

The man responds, "As I said before, I don't know. But I always have to follow he."

"Why did you join them?" Haseul asks.

"Oh, I would never join if it was my choice. I was forced to join. I joined very late too. It was just a normal day," he chuckles. "Damn. I can't even think of 'normal' anymore. Then I black out and I wake up with fucking superpowers. 5 shitty, labor days later, they put me here."

Jinsoul told us about the hostages

"Do you have any other information?" Yerim asks.

The man says, "Almost nothing. I'm guessing that he has hundreds of shitty labor camps all over."

"Who is this he person?" Hyunjin asks.

"No clue. Haven't met him and haven't met a single person who has met him. But everyone seems to know one sentence," he says. "That is, 'Don't fuck around with he.' "

"That's nice to know," Hyunjin says.

Yerim watches Jiwoo walk up to the man. She takes her tiny hands and places them on the man's blood-stained palms. She lets her eyes close.