Detonate Me, Granulate Me | BTS

Chapter 24

"What do you mean we're all dying?"

Jungkook's voice rings out in the room, cutting across the narrow space, and Namjoon raises a hand to silence him. Jungkook looks to Jimin, who has a similar look of unease on his face, then grits his teeth, turning his gaze back to Hoseok.

"I don't know exactly what's going on," Hoseok says, "but there's something wrong with us all. Something wrong with all the Morphus." Hoseok licks his lips, voice softening. "I had a friend. Lee Jaehwan. He was Equidae like me, but where I'm a Thoroughbred Base, he was had a Friesian as his Base animal. Really smart, probably too smart for his own good—he figured out they were drugging us and conducting experiments on us at night, but we never let on that we knew. He dug around and found a lot of dirt on Paradisus, too, on the stuff that was going on in the science labs in HQ. Anyway, a few months back, he started getting these dizzy spells, and his reactions slowed, he kept bruising himself during training and wouldn't heal. They took him to ICU when he gashed his arm open, and we never saw him again. Weeks later, the same thing started happening to me. Getting injured and not healing as fast as I used to. Getting tired. Blacking out."

"Jimin," Jungkook breathes, hair on the back of his neck standing up straight. He turns, taking Jimin's arm in his hand, lifting Jimin's hand so he can see where he'd bandaged Jimin up earlier in the day. Sure enough, there's a fresh patch of red seeping through the white bandages. "Jimin almost fainted earlier. He hasn't stopped bleeding the entire day. Is this the same thing?"

Jimin jerks his hand out of Jungkook's grasp, hiding his arm behind his back, but Namjoon's already striding over with his lips pursed.

"Jimin," Namjoon says, stretching his hand out. "Jimin, give me your arm." Jimin hesitates momentarily, before raising his arm and placing it on Namjoon's hand gingerly.

"I thought that maybe," Hoseok continues, "maybe it was just a really unfortunate coincidence, that it was just us two, you know. But then, today, before you guys came to bust us out, when all the Morphus were still inside ICU, we were talking, and I found that this wasn't unique. All the Morphus from the other Domus have been affected too. The same symptoms. I don't know what it is, but—you're scientists, right? You said you were scientists. Can you figure this out?"

"Maybe," Namjoon says, taking a cotton swab and dabbing at the wound on Jimin's palm. It soaks the blood up almost immediately, leaving nothing but a raw, fresh cut, and Namjoon frowns, taking out a vial and collecting a couple of drops of Jimin's blood that flows from the cut. He sticks that into a little plastic bag, then holds up his hand. "Sorry, give me a minute, can you just—hold it there while I double check Jimin's samples, hmm?" Namjoon runs off to the lab in the far end, past the experimental room, hastily rushing around and fiddling with the machines.

It's a good five minutes before Namjoon walks back to the room, face ashen.

"Yoongi," Namjoon says, beckoning Yoongi to follow him. "Hoseok, do you mind if Yoongi takes your sample, too? Just a cheek swab should do." Hoseok shakes his head, then opens his mouth so Yoongi can swab inside, before the two of them disappear into the labs once more.

"Well," Jimin says, breaking the silence as they wait, nervous dread vibrating in the air, like a government drone ready to swoop down and attack at any moment. He rubs at his lower arm absently, and Jungkook's eyes flicker down again to where Jimin's palm is still bleeding. "Doesn't feel like good news, does it?"

"I'm sorry," Hoseok says, coughing as he leans his head back down on the couch handle, forearm pressed against his head. "I didn't want to be the one to say it either, but there's no one else who can help."