Enhanced || JJK

II. First Day

I was in front of the big building and my stomach was upside down. The private lab where I was supposed to be doing my internship, the ALF Lab, was on the 5th floor. Such a weird name, I thought when I had first heard of it, but after a bit of research I learned its real meaning: Always Looking Forward.
After that, I grew fond of the name as well as the lab itself. Throughout my years in university, I had read all of their publications and found them all very interesting and fascinating. Their researches and discoveries always kept me wandering about all the infinite possibilities we had, to do better in the future in the field of genetic engineering. That's why I had asked to do my internship there and sent my resume with an emotional motivation letter, but I never thought they were actually going to take me as an intern. It felt like a dream, but now it was getting more real than ever.

It was 8:55 a.m., so I decided to get inside. I took the elevator and reached the right floor.
There were a few doors which led to different laboratories; when I read the 'ALF lab' sign, I rang the bell.
I heard the sound of the door being unlocked and I pushed it. I found myself in a big open space, but I didn't have much time to look around, because a man walked up to me.

"Hi, you're one of the new interns from SNU, right?" He asked, with a wide smile.
"Uhmm... Yes, I'm Moon Luna..."
"Oh, right, Luna! I read your name somewhere, apparently I'm gonna be your mentor... I'm Jung Hoseok, nice to meet you..." He introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you, Dr. Jung..."

He looked like a really nice guy, he wasn't terrifying like I had imagined him to be nor he was an old man. He must have been still in his 20s and he was also really good looking but I wasn't sure if he was a GM or not. But that wasn't important, I was just grateful to have a nice mentor.

"So, what about your colleague?" He asked.
"My... colleague?" I repeated, like a dumb person, not understanding what he was talking about. I thought that if it wasn't already clear to him that I was a natural, now he must've gotten the hint.
"Yeah, I read someone else was coming from your same faculty... I can't remember his name..."
While he was looking around, trying to remember, the door bell rang.
"Oh, must be him!" He exclaimed while taking a small remote out of his lab gown's pocket and clicking a button.

The door opened and a mass of black hair made its way into the room. I would recognize those big eyes anywhere.
"Jeon Jungkook..." I said under my breath.
"Yes! That's the name! Jeon Jungkook!" Dr. Jung repeated.

The guy entered, closing the door behind him. Once he had eyed us, he rapidly came over.
"I apologize for the delay, sir... I'm-" He started to introduce himself, but Dr. Jung interrupted him.
"You're not late, Jungkook, don't worry... Your friend just got here too..."
"Oh no we aren't-" I tried to explain that me and the kid there weren't actually friends, but his voice stopped me.
"Hey, Moon..." He still had that habit of calling me by my last name. Annoying.

Me and the Jungkook guy, well, we have history.
He's a GM kid, but you can pretty much tell from how perfect he is, his parents had enhanced anything that could be enhanced. Beauty, intelligence, social skills, athleticism, he had it all. Obviously, in order to make all these enhanced traits flourish, they also sent him to a private school full of GM kids like him.
My parents, on the other hand, weren't as rich, but they made many sacrifices to be able to send me to a private school, in order to give me the best opportunities because they thought that being a natural was already gonna take a lot of those opportunities away from me.
Well, it just so happened that we went to the same private elementary school. And that's how we met, in first grade, when he stole my pencil case and made me run after him around the whole classroom to get it back. I hated him ever since.

"Great, guys, now that you're both here, let me start the tour..." Dr. Jung started walking and we followed him closely.
"So, as I was saying to Luna, I'm going to be her mentor, but you, Jungkook, will be working with someone else... Let me see, where is he?"
Dr. Jung was looking around, peeking into conference rooms, when he finally found who he was looking for.

"Oh, Yoongi! Look what I've got here! Fresh meat!" Dr. Jung laughed at his own joke but the other guy wasn't having it.
He was walking out of one of the rooms and then walked up to us, while putting his pen back into the pocket of his lab gown.
"Don't forget the meeting at 10." He said serious.
"Yoongi, did you hear what I said?! The new interns are here! These are Luna and Jungkook! Guys, this is Dr. Min!"
Jungkook and I said hi and he responded with a nod.
"Jungkook, Dr. Min will be your mentor!" Dr. Jung announced.
"Oh, I'll work hard, sir!" Jungkook said politely.

It was weird seeing him like that, all nice and polite. He had never been like that to me. Always teasing me and making fun of me. The thing is, I'm used to being teased because of being a natural, but he never teased me about that. He teased me about stupid stuff, like how I held the pen or how I danced in a weird way or how my glasses kept sliding on my nose or get tilted for some reason that I'm still unaware of. And that annoyed me more than the comments about me being a natural.

"Dr. Min, shall we show them the lab?" Dr. Jung asked Dr. Min.
"Make them wear gown, gloves and mask... I'll go tell the boss they're here..." Dr. Min walked away, leaving us confused.
We followed Dr. Jung through a hallway leading to a door on which there was a sign saying 'authorized personnel only'.
Next to that there was a cabinet. Dr. Jung opened it and gave us the lab gowns, gloves and masks. We wore them and we were finally ready to enter the real lab, where the cool stuff happened.
I was so excited, but I was trying to keep my cool.

"So, you applied for this lab too?" Jeon's annoying voice had to ruin the moment, of course.
"Yeah, well, it's the one who's published the greatest number of-"
"-articles about advances in genetic engineering with CRISPR-Cas9... Yeah, I know... That's why I chose it too..." He completed my sentence with a smug smile.
"And that's because we're all smart in here, guys!" Dr. Jung heard our conversation and chimed in.
"See, our boss, he is a visionary... He created this lab only five years ago and there's still only few scientists in here, but they're all the best scientists around... He always challenges us with questions and possibilities and pushes us to make new discoveries and find new routes... You'll meet him soon and you'll be amazed... In the meantime I'll show you the lab..." He said, finally opening the door to my dreams.