BYUN BAEKHYUN: BEYOND DETECTIVE ▷ EXO GAMEBOOK

The Tale of the Beagle Line Detectives, and the Stake

THE TALE OF THE BEAGLE LINE DETECTIVES, AND THE STAKE

 

STANDBY PLACE BEHIND THE STAGE, THE HALL, EVERDREAM INDUSTRIES

For the first time in eternity, Fate is confused. All those unnecessary jargon might had caused unnecessary confusion. I am a bad narrator, am I?

Alright, then. To sum up things, the iFrost is a device used to travel through universes, which it can’t do now because it is stolen.  And stolen things only bring misery. Let’s say if your iPhone was stolen, you can no longer make phone calls—or worse, surf the Internet (and sadly your mom had banned you from the laptop)—so basically, you’ll be cut off from civilization. And that is misery.

As what happened to Baekhyun and the lot, if the iFrost was stolen, they can no longer debut into society. They will be left hanging. If you peeked through the curtains to the back of the stage, you would see a troupe of hopeless youngsters. Maknaes Sehun and Tao were crying, D.O was punching the wall, Lay disappeared into the folds of space and time, Kai was doing a happy dance to coax himself and Chanyeol and Hae-in were pacifying Kris, who was by then hooked up to a ventilator. To call that as misery would make the situation feel underrated.

Luhan scrolled through the news headlines on his mobile computer screen. EXO’s Debut Debunked. EXO to be ENDO. We Shall Brave More Teasers. Big Company Gets Big Time. Multiversal Travel Device Stolen: EverDream Security Systems Under Question. Multiversal Thieves At Large! Invention Proved Unsafe for the Future, Says Experts. iFrost Lost: Our Universe Is In Danger. EverDream Stocks Plunged Into Deep Sh—

“It is obvious. I knew it.” D.O’s unnatural glare grazed over everybody’s faces in the preparation room. The usually quiet researcher now spoke, voice brimmed with malice. Better run for your lives. Satansoo had been summoned. “That’s why I hate this project from the beginning.” He hissed.

“It’s an improbable event.” Xiumin linked his fingers together and popped them. “Nothing like this had ever happened.”

“I don’t get it. This is cruel. What happened to all our hard work?” Sehun asked with a strained voice.

“This is EXO Planet.” Baekhyun sighed and buried his face in his hands. “No one debuts without a contribution.”

“It’s not like we had contributed nothing!” D.O snapped. “Lay had spent his days perfecting the mechanism. Tinkering, supervising, peering. His waist still hurts. Luhan stayed up late to set up some tests for the artificial wormholes. Saw his eyes? He shouldn’t stare at bright darn things at night. That late. No one should. See little Kai over there? He spent nights reading articles—scrutinizing those tiny letters for too long that it wore him—he nearly collapsed stiff to the floor from exhaustion—and what did he get? A botched debut. A-hah. Serves us right.” He chuckled at EXO’s misfortune. Because no one else would have a heart to do just that.

“Khhhhhhh. You. You don’t know what d—did our struggles serve.” Kris spoke under his mask in the voice of a vacuum cleaner crossed with my Grandpa’s lawnmower.

D.O swung his head aside. “What?”

“Yah, Kriseu.” Chanyeol patted his good friend’s back. “You did well. You shouldn’t overexert yourself.” He offered a toothy consolation smile.

“You’re not lying, Yeol?” Kris blinked.

“Yes, Inside-Out. Rejoice!” Hae-in added. She slowly detached Kris from the ventilator. “Feeling better now?”

“Kind of.  Thanks.”

“Welcome.”

“Maybe there are other projects we can do.” Suho tried to be optimistic. “How about the concept of quantum entanglement? We can use that to make teleportation machines, or at least, faster computers. We can also beam a message to Earth instantaneously and break TVXQ’s records! We’re still a team no matter what, right, guys?”