Monsta X: The Clan Pt. 2

23: I'll Just Run

"I'll just run"

"My eyes are on fire"

Hyungwon:

A bright light flashed before me and I could hardly believe my eyes.

An entire panel of the wall had slid aside, revealing the same doorway that Jooheon had entered through about a week ago. 

Before I could see what was through the doorway, Jooheon himself appeared, a bright smile at his face as he looked at me. 

For some reason, I felt the urge to smile back.

A bright white light seemed to come out of nowhere behind him. Rather than wearing his agitating green scrubs and dangling stethoscope he had simple white clothes just as Minhyuk and I had worn for so long.

Whereas I previously viewed the clothes with disgust, they now seemed to make Jooheon appear as an angel. The once blindingly bright clothes that I wore were now dimmed down to a manageable mute white. There were even some shades of gray in the room to offset the stupidly excess white color.

"Something isn't right," I thought. "This is impossible."

The more I considered that something was wrong, the more confusing my surroundings seemed to be. 

Choosing to ignore it, I stood up with an unbelievable amount of strength. Was I always this strong? Was this what it was like before I locked in here?

I never realized how much I was missing. 

Instinctively, I searched the room for Minhyuk but didn't find him there. It was strange that I had relied on him for almost all of my life and yet now, I felt free. 

Running towards Jooheon, I embraced him in a deep hug. Somehow, despite the clothes being foreign to him, they smelled just like him: a sweet, tangy scent that reminded me of the days when we would run through the fields of his family farm and pick up juicy fruits to eat under the shade of a nearby oak tree.

Somehow, it felt like we were going back there. That we were finally leaving this place.

Jooheon pulled me out of the room into the hallway; the first time I stepped out of that awful room in months. I finally got to see the hall that, although usually swarming with doctors and scientists, was now completely empty. In fact, most of the equipment that would liter the hall was gone too, leaving only bare, white and gray walls. 

"Just that way," Jooheon said, pointing to where the hall forked. "That's where the others are."

My heart seemed to skip a beat and I turned to him in surprise. "The others? The others are here too?"

"Of course," Jooheon said, a radiant smile that reminded me of his younger self. "We all came here to save you."

Head swimming I followed Jooheon down the hall.

What was going on?

I knew it wasn't good to dwell on it. I was terrified that if I questioned too much, the dream before me would vanish. All of my hopes, my new-found strength, my friends, all of that would disappear. I couldn't let that happen. 

I just couldn't.

Turning the corner, I could see them standing there; Wonho with his bright blue hair, Changkyun with his child-like smile, Kihyun's cotton candy-like hair, and Shownu's tall figure were there, all laughing and speaking to Jooheon without a care in the world. All of them were fitted in the same, dull white outfit. Somehow, they appeared to almost glow in it.

I sprinted towards them and they all saw me, wide grins on each of their faces.

"Hyungwon!" Wonho said, embracing me. "God, I'd thought we'd never reach you."

I was about to ask how they reached me but I bit my tongue and stopped myself.

"Don't question," My mind told me. "Never question."

"God, when we finally get home I'm taking a month-long vacation to rest," Kihyun said with a mirthful laugh.

"Agreed. Maybe I can finally try out Wonho's new levels!" Changkyun half-yelled in excitement.

"Come on, you know that those levels are nearly impossible to beat," A voice chimed behind Shownu.

The figure behind Shownu, which I hadn't noticed before, stepped out into the light and flashed a smile at me. I felt a shockingly cold wave past through my body as I stared at him.

"Hyungwon! I'm glad you made it out in one piece," Minhyuk said, wrapping his arms around me.

I froze as a million thoughts rushed through my mind. Stiff as a piece of wood, my mind spaced out as several memories came back at once.

The teddy bear gummies that Jooheon offered. He let me choose first which one I wanted.

I chose the purple gummy. The gummy that puts you into an endless dream, in which no problems existed. It placed you in a fake, ideal world, all inside your head.

That meant Minhyuk, the beaming boy now in my embrace, was forced to eat the blue gummy. The gummy that brought death.

Initially, I had no regrets after making my choice. I had wanted to be liberated from my pain for so long and yet death seemed absolutely terrifying. If Minhyuk was gone, then I could finally lift that burden that had been resting on me for so long. It was better him than me.

It was so easy to think about such awful thoughts after not seeing or speaking to Minhyuk for so long. Despite him being a constant thought on my mind, he had hardly seemed human to me. It was more as if he was a ghost, a mere thought in my mind.

Yet, after seeing him before me, the weight of my consequences was too much to bear. I had practically issued his death warrant.

That's why he was before me, alive and healthy. Because this wasn't real. It wasn't real at all. I was stuck here, in this strange, unnatural world. Yes everyone here was alive and well. Yes I was finally free from that claustrophobic room. But it was clear that it wasn't real. 

And there was nothing I could do about it.

They all began to race each other towards the exit and I followed in the back, terrified of what would meet me on the other side of the door.

Minhyuk smiled back at me and gave me a look that said, "Don't worry. It'll be just like the way it was."

And I had no other choice but to believe him. 

A/N

This chapter finally reveals which gummy's were which! This is also the second to last chapter of this story. All that's left is the final chapter and the explanation. Thank you so much for all the support!

Timestamp is 3:34-3:54 and the next (and final) update is this Sunday, 4/21.

Thanks for reading, and vote if you enjoyed!