MESSAGE CHAT
HOMIN: "Do we need to discuss the ramifications of this?"
JIN: "I believe the report covered them,"
TYPING...
JINKI: "I don't think it's a wise idea to underestimate the magnitude of this... difficulty,"
JINKI: "Particularly not with the current instability factor in development."
HOMIN: "I agree. Things like this have a way of getting out of hand. First the secondary in Seoul, now the Cove."
JIN: "That is to say, I believe there should be a more thorough investigation into these matters. Don't you think so, Hyeopil?"
Hyeopil turned around at the window, eyes fixated on his phone, wondering how these people- his friends had ever managed to get where they were.
He didn't smile.
Hyeopil type his fingers on the keyboard on his phone.
HYEOP: "I'm afraid I'll have to get back to you on that,"
Even though he can't see it, but he can imagine Homin nodded quickly while he was typing on his phone. They don't do video call since they doesn't want other people to stick their nose into their business once they eavesdrop the conversation.
HOMIN: "Of course, take all the time you need. No hurry, gentlemen, am I right?"
Without another word, Hyeopil turned off his phone and looked at San who standing in front of him. He nodded and San too, he turned and walked out of the room, outwardly as intimidating and precise as Hyeopil expected him to be.
Hyeopil wondered how much longer the game could go on.
____

Hyunsung stared himself in the mirror. He just cut his long hair and right now he really looks like Hyeopil- and the face only remind him of Hyeopil.
He miss him and he knew Jeongsun felt the same way.
He throw the last piece of hair color box inside of the dirty trashcan. After cutting his shoulder length blond hair, he did dye it back to dark. Bangs smoothly hang above his eye lid and he let out all of his pent-up breath in a rush.
His knees went weak and rubbery and he had to grip the edge of the cold porcelain sink to keep from falling. He felt unpleasant tingly-hot sensation creep behind his ear and then slowly fan out all over his face. A cold sweat broke out all over his body and he began to tremble violently.
He keep stared himself in the bathroom mirror.
Dark green and red veins were visible all over his torso and crawled up before stopping right in his neck. His eyes were dark and gloom, staring his reflection.
Remembering Hyeopil... remembering all the memories they shared together.
"I have this virus because... I force myself into him... " He mumbled quietly and smiled. "This virus is the only thing he left for me... and I need to take care of it... I'll cherished it."
Hyunsung collapsed on the dusty floor, feeling the cold floor against his naked body.
He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms tightly around them. He squeezed his eyes shut as the painful sob ripped through his body.
How much more pain could he stand?
How much more could his heart and body take?
The virus is slowly taking over his mind... it was time to breed but he don't know where Hyeopil at. Every time he thought about it the violent virus was kicking in and he become extremely angry- violent all over.
But he have the strong humanity. He can fight it.
Unknowingly, he suddenly cry and cried; crying while screaming to ease the pain.
Hyunsung wasn't shock anymore of why he acting like this. He had been suffering in a long years since the terrorist attack in Sesong University. San and him miraculous survive in the explosion but in exchange...
The phone suddenly rang, echoing through his whole lonely house.
Hyunsung walked out of the bathroom and into the living room while he wrapped a towel around his waist and stumbled out into the cramped living room, nearly tripping over a still unopened box of books in his haste to get to the bleating phone.
He snatched up the receiver with one dripping hand and tried not to sound too out of breath from all the crying he had done. Wiping his tears...
"Yes?"
"Hwang Hyunsung, it's Minazaki."
Unconsciously, Hyunsung stood up a little straighter, still clutching the damp towel.
"Yes, ma'am."
Mina was her squad leader. Hyunsung had only met her twice, not enough time to get a solid read on her, but she seemed competent enough as did the other guys in the squad.
Competent, if not exactly up-front like Hyunsung, no one talked much about their past, although he knew for a fact that Mina had been involved in gun running through Tokyo a few years back before she'd started to work for G. Inc.. It seemed that everyone
he'd met on the G. S. N. C. had a secret or two most of them involving activities not strictly legal.
"Orders just came down on a developing situation. We're calling everyone in on this, ASAP. You got an hour to report, and we leave in two, that's 1500 hours, comprehended?"
"Uh... yes, ma'am." Hyunsung had been fluent in japanese for years, but he was still getting used to speaking it full-time. "Is there any info on what kind of situation?"
"Negative. You'll be briefed along with the rest of us when you come in."
Mina's tone of voice suggested that she had more to say.
Hyunsung waited, starting to feel chilled by the water drying on his body.
But aside of that, he can also feel the itching inside his body. The veins were still visible and it won't go away until he took the medicine that Hyeopil was also taking.
"Word is, it's a chemical spill," Mina said, and
Hyunsung thought he could hear a thread of unease in the squad leader's voice.
"Something that's making people ... making them act differently."
Hyunsung doesn't know about the creatures or anything about the X0 virus or A-virus. The only he knew that the not so harmful virus.
He frowned. "Differently how?"
Mina sighed. "They don't pay us to ask questions, do they? Now you know as much as I do. Just get here."
"Yes, ma'am," Hyunsung said, but Mina had already hung up.
Hyunsung dropped the receiver into its cradle, not sure if he should feel excited or nervous about his first G. S. N. C. operation.
G. Inc. Service Nextgen Countermeasure: an impressive title for a group of hired ex-mercenaries and ex-military, most with combat experience and shady backgrounds.
Both of him and San just recruited after the miraculous survive in the A. Inc. ambush operation, conduct San as a scientist since he was a biochemist students while they put him into training- study first then trained him to be a professional soldier. Bring them to Tokyo to be train.
Recruiter doesn't know that he had the virus running in his blood yet and Hyunsung don't have plan on showing it.
But Hyunsung escape... for only reason. The virus taking over. He doesn't have any family relatives living in Tokyo or either know anyone aside San. Until then, he become a stray person in Japan.
Many years has passed but just like Jeongsun and Hyeopil, Jihae; he still looks the same just like in high school. Hyunsung smiled to himself, remembering the past when he confess to Hyeopil then took his first kiss.
Doesn't even know about the virus he have.
Hyunsung shook the memories away as he thought about the recruiter had said that they'd be called upon to deal with situations that G. Inc. needed handled quickly and aggressively- and legally.
After three years of fighting in private little wars between rival gangs and revolutionaries, of living in mud shacks and eating out of cans, the promise of real employment - and at an astonishingly good wage - was like an answered prayer.
"Too good to be true, that's what I thought... and what if it turns out that I was right?"
But after good months, they bring him back to his real hometown.
Hyunsung shook his head. He wasn't going to find out standing around in a towel.
In any case, it couldn't possibly be worse man shooting it out with a bunch of coked-up pendejos in some anonymous jungle, wondering if he'd hear the bullet that finally took him out.
He had an hour, and it was a twenty-minute walk to the office. He turned toward the bedroom, suddenly determined to show up early, to see if he could get any more out of Mina about what was going on.
Already, he could feel the warm build of nervous adrenaline in his gut, a feeling he'd grown up with and knew better than any other - part anticipation, part excitement, and a healthy dose of fear.
Hyunsung grinned as he finished toweling off, amused at himself.
He'd spent too much time in the street in Japan province. He was in the Seoul now, working for a legitimate pharmaceutical company- working for the government what was there to be afraid of?
Still smiling, he went to find his fatigues.
-
Late September in the outskirts of the big city; it was a sunny day, but Hyunsung could feel the first whisper of autumn as he hurried toward the field office, a kind of
thinning of the air, leaves beginning to wilt on the branches overhead. Not that there were very many trees; his apartment was at the edge of a sprawling industrial area.
A few dingy fabrication plants, fenced
lots overgrown with weeds, seeming acres of run-down storage facilities.
The G. S. N. C. office was actually a
renovated warehouse on an G. Inc.-owned lot, surrounded by a fairly modern shipping complex complete with helipad and loading docks - a nice setup, although Hyunsung wondered again why they'd decided to build in such a crummy area.
They could obviously afford much better.
Hyunsung checked his watch as he headed up Gangnam Street and started to walk a little faster. He wasn't going to be late, but he still wanted to get there before the briefing, see what the other guys were saying.
Mina had said they were calling in everyone, four platoons, three squads of ten in each platoon, 120 people all total.
Hyunsung was a corporal in squad A of platoon D; ridiculous, how these things were set up, but he supposed it was necessary to keep track of everyone.
Somebody had to know something.
He took a right, his thoughts wandering, vaguely curious about where they were being sent and when a man stepped out of an alley only a few meters in front of him, a well-dressed stranger wearing a wide smile.
He stood there, hands jammed into the
pockets of an expensive trench coat, apparently waiting for Hyunsung to reach him.
Hyunsung kept his expression carefully neutral, studying the man warily. Tall, thin, dark hair and eyes but definitely-
Was this man San?
He was grinning as though he meant to share an exceptionally funny joke.
Hyunsung prepared to walk past him, reminding himself that San was in Japan- and thought of how many crazies lived in any decent-sized city, an unavoidable hazard of urban life.
"Now... you avoiding your dear friend huh? Hwang Hyunsung? Thought... I just talked to Hyeopil... I think few months ago?" San said, but it was more of a statement than a bragging.
Hyunsung stopped in his tracks, his whole body tensing, instinctively letting his right hand drop to where he wore a gun- except he wasn't carrying, hadn't since crossing the border, carajo...
As if sensing the upset he'd caused, San took
a step back, holding his hands up in the air.
He seemed amused, but not especially threatening.
"You don't know Hyeopil! Don't tell me bullshit now San!" Hyunsung snapped. "And how the hell did you find him?! Where is he?!"
"You will see him soon," he said, his dark
gaze glittering with barely suppressed mirth.
"And I'm not here to greet you... but I have some information for you."
***
END of book 4
Book 5 soon...