Monsta X: The Clan Pt. 2

21: Tension Higher

"Call me a fighter"

"The atmosphere is hot"

"The tension is higher"

A few weeks before...

Jooheon:

They lay before me like lifeless corpses.

Of course, they weren't dead; at least not yet. One could tell from the rise and fall of their chests. Yet there was this eerie sense of mourning and sadness the hung in the air, that neither the executed nor the executioner could escape from.

Hyungwon sat on the cot but was sleeping, while Minhyuk was sitting on the floor with a blank expression on his face, staring directly at the white wall. Thankfully, after spending hours of glaring at us from behind the glass, he had given up.

"Jooheon, are you ready?" The doctor next to me said, snapping me back to reality.

I nodded and shifted uncomfortably in my nurse scrubs. Here, everyone wore these outfits with a sense of dignity and self-pride. As if wearing the uniform placed them higher than the people behind the glass.

I tried hard to get myself to focus. If I even let out the slightest hint of dismay during the procedure then I'd alert either the doctors or Hyungwon and Minhyuk. Both would blow my cover. 

The procedure that was about to occur acted as a twisted conclusion or final experiment on Hyungwon and Minhyuk before their deaths. After months of brainwashing, the government wanted to see if their brainwashing worked. If they had finally found a way to subdue the people.

I had been unexpectedly chosen to carry it out. I had been preparing for months just for this moment.

It made me feel absolutely helpless. I had little control over my body which clumsily grabbed at the pills resting on a tray.

Everything seemed like white noise as I walked to the hidden entrance to Minhyuk and Hyungwon's room; a perfectly white panel in the wall that could be accessed by very few people in this building. I had finally gotten the authorization to enter just this morning.

Stumbling to the panel, I pressed my finger to the keypad with shaking hands and slid through the now opened panel.

Whereas before we wouldn't even dare to open the panel in risk that they escape, now they simply stayed where they were. At most, Minhyuk's eyes drifted over to me and stayed there. There was no expression on his face. 

Shivering, I stepped towards them, trying as hard as I could to focus. Somehow, the room before me seemed to blend in to form this unidentifiable shape. Blinded by the white, I could hardly see, nor could I hear the clear voices of the doctors on the other side of the wall. The cold pills in each of my hands seemed to burn and the stethoscope around my neck seemed to grow sickeningly heavy and tight as I opened my two palms.

On my left palm was a purple drug that looked exactly like a gummy bear. On my right palm was the same drug, except it was a blue gummy bear.

The doctors seemed to say something on the other side of the wall. I was so disoriented by the whole situation that I didn't understand but whatever they said woke Hyungwon up.  He too stared at me and then the gummy bears in my hand with a blank expression.

Clearing my throat I said, "You have two choices. The purple gummy, and the blue gummy."

I tried my hardest to explain to them how they had no choice but to pick one as part of an experiment by the government on human behavior. I also explained the side effects: how one drug brings death and the other sets you into a delusional, happy world in your head. How one drug would give you the cold reality and the other will keep you from it. I then distinguished which drug was which, making sure that they understood.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence in the room. I could tell that they were thinking from their facial expressions yet it was so unsettling that I almost went insane.

"You're doing this to save them," Wonho's voice suddenly came into my mind. He first said these words to me when I told him that I was spying on the government. "You're going to be a hero."

Then the voice of the President rang through my head, even louder than Wonho's, "You're doing this to save us. You'll be the hero of our country."

No matter what happened today I was still a hero. No matter who lived and who died, no matter what state the world is in, I was a hero. I was on top. That was what I always wanted.

So why was I so unhappy?

Before I could get in over my head, Hyungwon cleared his throat and pointed towards the purple gummy, and, in a trembling voice, said, "I want that one."

Goosebumps ran across my skin as I handed him the purple gummy in silence. Minhyuk was now staring at Hyungwon intensely; perhaps because those were the first words Hyungwon had said in the past several months

Of course, that left the blue gummy for Minhyuk. Placing it on his palm I quickly backed away as if it were a bomb.

Minhyuk was still staring at Hyungwon, but Hyungwon wasn't staring back. Instead, Hyungwon was looking down at the purple gummy in his hand, surprisingly content. Minhyuk too didn't seem particularly upset in the gummy that he had gotten.

Turning around, I quickly strode across the room and closed the door, turning away from the glass wall as the two of them both placed the pill in their mouth, chewed, and swallowed it.

Of course, the effects weren't going to occur right away. Still, I couldn't bear to look at them. There was this overwhelming feeling of guilt that hung over me just at the thought of them.

But I was just doing what I had to do, right? 

My job was to act just like a government official to get information for the rebel forces. I was doing my job, wasn't I?

After all, what better way is there to act as a part of the government than to poison it's own citizens?

A/N

Jooheon's character is complex in this chapter, so I promise to go over each detail in the Explanation Chapter after this story finishing!

In case you're a bit confused one pill = death/mercy-killing, the other pill = happy simulation/illusion/no mercy-killing. Jooheon, Minhyuk, and Hyungwon know which pill does what, but I won't spoil that for you guys just yet. You'll find that out soon ;) (can you guess?)

The timestamp for this chapter is 3:09-3:20 and the next update will be this Sunday, March 31!

This story is so close to the end! Thank you for all of the support so far. Don't forget to vote!