The return trip felt quieter than usual.
The truck rumbled down the uneven path leading back to the facility, its suspension creaking under the weight of several bloodstained weapons, half-full sacks of mana stones, and one massive, discolored tarp barely containing the remains of a rare monster. Its acidic blood still hissed faintly, even as it dried.
Hexin sat cross-legged near the back, swaying with the motion of the vehicle, orange eyes locked on the shape under the tarp. He had been humming earlier—some happy, strange tune—but now he was oddly quiet. His fingers tapped a slow rhythm on his thigh.
Ha-Yoon sat beside him, arms crossed, exhaustion hidden behind practiced indifference. There was a rip in his sleeve, and a thin trail of dried blood on his collarbone, but his expression never wavered. The only time he moved was when Hexin gently nudged his shoulder with a gooey elbow.
"Summer~," Hexin whispered, soft and giddy. "You were amazing."
Ha-Yoon glanced at him. "You nearly got your head taken off."
Hexin shrugged. "But I didn't. You saved me." His smile widened. "Like a knight."
The boy rolled his eyes but said nothing. Hexin took that as agreement.
When the truck finally pulled into the steel docking tunnel of the facility, the brakes screeched. The reinforced doors slid open with a hiss. Bright, sterile lights bathed the returning experiments in white as guards approached, barking orders.
"All off. 043 to 150—into decon. Move."
The group filed out. Two guards immediately moved toward the corpse, eyeing the thing like it was made of gold. One of them muttered into a radio. The other paused only briefly to glance at the pair who brought it in.
"Which of you killed it?"
Hexin raised a hand proudly.
The guard stared at him, uncertain, then turned to Ha-Yoon. "You?"
Ha-Yoon said nothing.
Hexin grinned. "We did it together. Teamwork!" He threw an arm around Ha-Yoon's shoulders. "Well, mostly him. I was the distraction. A very gooey distraction."
The guard made a sound of disbelief and walked off.
Inside the facility, whispers traveled faster than announcements.
A rare corpse.
From the dungeon's deeper sector.
Survived? Both of them?
---
The gate hissed shut behind them.
The air was colder inside the facility. Not freezing, just… sterile. Too clean. The kind of clean that made everything feel wrong.
Hexin bounced as he walked, humming tunelessly, the rare monster's remains still fresh in his memory. Ha-Yoon walked beside him, quiet, gaze flicking from hallway to hallway. His right eye remained covered, the bandages stained slightly redder than before. Neither of them spoke, but Hexin didn't mind. His friend was tired. And Hexin had enough energy for both.
They passed through Checkpoint A with little issue. Or rather, Ha-Yoon passed with little issue. The guards nodded toward him—one even gave a quick, "Good job, 091."
Hexin got nothing but narrowed eyes.
One guard muttered something under his breath. Hexin didn't catch it. Or maybe he pretended not to.
Instead, he offered his best grin and waved. "Hello friends!"
No response.
A second guard shoved a scanning baton roughly against Hexin's side. It fizzed through him, making his goo sizzle faintly. He didn't wince. Just blinked. "Oop—tickles."
The guard sneered. "Watch it, slime."
Ha-Yoon turned slightly at that, but said nothing. His eyes lingered on Hexin for a second longer than usual.
Hexin just kept smiling. "They're shy," he whispered to Ha-Yoon, "That's why they don't say hi."
They made it to the debriefing sector—a wide, grey room with a few chairs, a couple of desks, and several more guards flanking the walls. Other experiments were filtering in, many limping or bruised from dungeon runs. Some nodded vaguely to Ha-Yoon. Almost no one acknowledged Hexin.
Still, he waved enthusiastically at each one. "Hey! You made it back! Ohh, I like your hair today, Friend! You too, tall-Friend-with-the-scar!"
The "scarred friend" gave him a confused frown.
Ha-Yoon sat down against the wall with a tired sigh. Hexin plopped beside him, legs curled under his gooey form, still buzzing with restless energy. "Hey, Summer, guess what! I counted seventeen bugs on the truck ride back! One was this big!" He stretched his arms wide. "Okay maybe not that big. But still! Pretty big!"
Ha-Yoon looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "You name every bug too?"
"Of course," Hexin said proudly. "Bug-Bob, Bug-Betty, Bug-Too-Fast-To-Name..."
A faint smirk tugged at Ha-Yoon's lips. He shook his head, but didn't stop him.
Then the door to the observation deck opened. A man stepped in, black hair with a streak of maroon, white coat crisp, notebook already in hand.
Hexin sat up straighter, his eyes lighting up. "Junnieee!"
Seo-jun gave a cursory glance across the room. His gaze lingered on Ha-Yoon for a moment, nodding slightly. Then it moved to Hexin—and stopped.
Hexin waved dramatically.
Seo-jun didn't wave back. But that was normal. He never did.
He moved toward the desk, spoke to one of the guards in low tones, and scribbled something in his notebook.
One of the other experiments—a taller girl with curved horns and darkened skin—whispered to another, "That's Seo-jun. Protocol Director."
"Really?" the boy whispered back. "Didn't think he actually showed up to these…"
Hexin blinked, then giggled. "That's Junnie. He always shows up."
The girl stared at him. "You… you call the Protocol Director Junnie?"
Hexin smiled like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Mhm! We're best friends."
The girl raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"
Hexin tilted his head, thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Not really. But that's what makes it fun."
The conversation ended there as Seo-jun stepped closer. He pointed at the rare monster corpse a group of guards had hauled in. "Report says these two brought it in," he said, his voice even.
Ha-Yoon stood, giving a short nod.
Hexin waved both hands. "We totally did! Summer here was like slash slash, and I was like goo to the face! It screamed so loud I think it lost its teeth!"
One of the guards scoffed. Another one muttered, "Accident, more like."
Seo-jun said nothing. Just scribbled again. But when his pen paused, it was just for a moment—and his eyes drifted toward Hexin again.
Then he turned away.
"Credits will be applied," Seo-jun said aloud. "Return to holding."
The announcement was short. Cold. Final.
But Hexin was used to cold things.
As they left, he gave one last wave to the others, most of whom ignored him.
Ha-Yoon didn't speak again until they were alone in the hallway.
------------------*.✧ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ｡*ﾟ-----------------------
Their footsteps echoed through the sterile hallways—one soft and tired, the other squishy and almost musical.
Ha-Yoon kept his arms folded, gaze locked ahead.
Behind him, Hexin bounced.
"Well, that went better than I thought! Nobody exploded! The guards only poked me once! And you didn't pass out, which is a first, Summer~!"
Ha-Yoon said nothing.
Hexin didn't mind.
"You know," the slime continued cheerily, "I think the monster back there really liked me. I mean, it tried to bite me, sure, but maybe that's just its way of saying hello! Like a monster hug! With acid."
He giggled to himself, bubbling slightly. "I should come up with a name for it! Hmm… Bitey? Screamy? Sir Chomps-a-Lot?"
Ha-Yoon blinked slowly.
"…You're ignoring me," Hexin said in a sing-song tone. "Which is fine! I'm very used to that. I've had years of practice, Friend-Summer. Want to guess how long I've been talking to walls? I even gave them names! That one near the mess hall? Wallace. Very polite."
He bounced once. "Ooooh! Also, you were seriously cool earlier! With the slice and the stab and the swoosh—! I was this close to gasping out loud but I didn't wanna distract you. Okay I did gasp but it was a quiet gasp. Like gasp~ not GASP!"
Ha-Yoon didn't respond, but the tiniest twitch of his eyebrow betrayed him.
Hexin noticed.
He grinned.
"And don't think I didn't catch the way you shielded me back there, Mr. Hero! You were all like, 'don't touch my goo-friend!' and the monster was like raaawr and I was like aaaahhhhhh!"
Hexin mimicked flailing with his noodly arms, which made a gross wet sound against the tile.
Ha-Yoon finally sighed. "You're loud."
"You're welcome."
"…That wasn't a compliment."
Hexin poked his arm with a wiggly finger. "Sure it was. It's my job to be loud. You're all stoic and mysterious and handsome and emotionally repressed—somebody has to balance it out."
Ha-Yoon snorted under his breath. He hadn't meant to.
But Hexin beamed at the sound.
"See? You can laugh! Well—okay, snort. But still! Progress!"
The hallway bent ahead, turning darker, quieter. The security lights flickered above them.
Ha-Yoon's smile faded.
Hexin's voice didn't.
"They don't like me, you know," he said, still bright. "The guards. The others. The staff. Most people. I mean, it's kinda obvious, right? But don't worry! I like me enough for all of them. That's how it works, right?"
Ha-Yoon didn't answer.
Not immediately.
His steps slowed.
He'd seen the way the guards shoved Hexin harder than the rest. How the others looked past him like he was just a puddle on the floor.
They saw goo and not a person.
It reminded him of something he hadn't let himself remember in a long time.
She was kind. She was strange. Her hands were always warm, even when people turned away from her. Even when they called her things they didn't say around him. She was a bridge between two worlds and belonged in neither.
Just like Hexin.
"They treat you like garbage," Ha-Yoon muttered.
"Hm?" Hexin blinked.
"The guards. The staff. The other experiments. You know."
Hexin made a thoughtful sound. "Ohhh. That. Yeah. They do. A little. But it's okay!"
"Why is that okay?"
"Because I decided it is."
That answer made something ache behind Ha-Yoon's ribs.
Hexin kept going, still smiling. "I figure… if they're gonna hate me anyway, I might as well love them first. Like an emotional sneak attack! Bam! You've been friended!"
"That's not how that works."
"It is if I say it is." He gave a triumphant bounce. "You can't stop the friendship train, Summer. Toot toot! All aboard!"
Ha-Yoon shook his head. But his eyes softened.
Just a little.
It didn't fix the way Hexin had been treated.
It didn't erase the tension in Ha-Yoon's shoulders. Or the bitterness simmering low in his gut. The way some people were punished for looking like monsters. For being born wrong. For reminding the world of something it hated.
But Hexin's voice filled the silence like light leaking into a dark room.
And for now, Ha-Yoon let it stay.
Want to follow up with a scene in the holding area? Or maybe Ha-Yoon remembering more about his mother and connecting it to how the system treats hybrids and monster-blooded kids like them?