How My Brother And I Kidnapped An Assassin

14. Bookworm

Donghyuck, true to his word, did spend his time reading books all day, lying down on the bed as he held the book above him, ignoring how tired his arms were getting.

He was so engrossed in his reading for what must have been at least two hours that he almost missed someone knocking on the door, calling out his name.

Disoriented from reality a bit, Donghyuck set his book down beside him and sat up, rubbing his eyes from staring at pages for too long. "What happened?" he yelled, yawning.

He heard someone ask, "May I come in?"

Oh, right, the superhuman.

Donghyuck nodded for a second before realizing that Mark wasn't in the room with him. "Yeah, go ahead," he said, yawning again.

The door opened slowly, Mark poking in his head. "I think your older brother is worried about you," he said quietly, as if Johnny were to hear them. "Are you okay?"

"I mean-" Donghyuck picked up his book and waved it. "I told him I was reading. I don't know when he interpreted that to be miserable, but he has issues, I think."

Mark didn't say anything for a few seconds, merely blinking in response. "Are you miserable?" he asked finally.

Donghyuck glared at him. "Uh, what's that supposed to mean?" he asked. "Don't tell me I look miserable."

"No, it's not that, it's just-" Mark scratched the back of his neck, cheeks flustered. "I mean, your brother must know you better, it's why I'm asking."

Oh. That makes sense, Donghyuck supposed. "Well, he acts like he knows me," Donghyuck insisted. "Johnny is such an oddball, don't listen to him. He worries about the dumbest stuff."

Mark nodded in understanding. The fact that he probably hasn't even been alive for probably more than one month, Donghyuck assumed, yet showed more emotion than Doyoung was really interesting-

Hey, no wonder things have been feeling weird lately. Doyoung wasn't around to forced him to do aegyo.

He would take that tortue over this any day.

"You know what?" Donghyuck said, standing up from the bed. "I am miserable, all because Johnny decided to panic over nothing. So I was being choked to death by you, big deal."

Mark frowned. "Excuse me, I did what?"

"You tried to murder me?" Donghyuck reminded him. "Do you... really not remember?"

Mark remained quiet, and for a split second Donghyuck wondered if he accidentally made the robot - sorry, superhuman - short circuit (that's the mechanical version of having an existential crisis, right?) until Mark spoke again.

"I was created for good," Mark said finally. "By the royal scientist Jung Jaehyun. I don't understand why I would be controlled for harm."

"Wait, why would you be controlled?" Donghyuck asked him. "That's- that's creepy, not gonna lie."

He didn't know how much he could tell Donghyuck. "It's just the way I was made," Mark explained. "But when I am controlled, those memories are stored in the control panel, which your brother ripped out of me."

Blame Johnny for being an idiot. "Yeah, that might be a bummer," Donghyuck agreed. "So... you can't tell me why you wanted to murder me."

"Unfortunately," Mark finished. "And whatever it was... I really do apologize."

Donghyuck shrugged. If it weren't for Mark for trying to kill him twice, Johnny wouldn't have overreacted and taken him practically to the other side of the whole entire world. (Or, to the countryside, whatever.) "Eh, bad people exist," he said. "And it's not like your lying, I've seen the wires in your eyes. Hey, doesn't that hurt, by the way?"