Purple Scent

Ch. 5: Something Incoming

Younghoon, Heeshik and Jaehwa had cooked some food for late breakfast since we haven't eaten anything yet. While Hyunki, Jaewook, Doyun and Yowoo kindly helped me arrange the weapons on a wall, while I was busy hammering nails we could hang the weapons unto.

"Oh, I forgot to tell, I think Soobok is also looking for you. He asked me a favor to contact him if we ever met.", Heeshik suddenly said, which made me stop from what I was doing.

"How did he contact you?", I asked and continued hammering the remaining nails, the four guys listening at our conversation.

As far as I knew, there's no internet connection; messaging or calling via phone is impossible, too.

"Telefax.", he simply said and turned his head towards me to see my reaction.

My eyebrows furrowed. Last time I met him wasn't a good meeting, and whenever I reminisce it, all it made me feel was disappointment. It was full of betrayal and regrets. He was a traitor.

“How will you contact him?” I asked and added, “I have a walkie-talkie.” Heeshik answered.

I rolled my eyes, ”You really have your way.” I added, “Wait, so he’s not that far from here, was he?” I asked.

He shook his head with a small smile. I sighed.

"Let me think about it later.", I said and tried to avert my attention back to what I was doing.

Honestly, I want to let him come since I have few questions and I badly wanted to confront him, but I had second thoughts. He wasn't trustworthy. I know it happened in the past, but that stupid past drew us to this chaotic scenario I didn't thought would happen sooner.

Yul suddenly appeared beside me, in his hand was the cute little Coco. I smiled at him and patted the puppy which just wagged his tail excitedly. I looked at Dokhun and Soljun as they shook their heads when our eyes met. That was a relief.

I assigned Dokhun and Soljun in charge to check the periscope for surveillance.

Ever since we knew it was possible for Violet Harpies to roam at a broad daylight unlike how they normally do, we kept an eye on the surroundings, for security measures. We couldn’t be too relaxed.

"Why are you hesitating at that Soobok guy?", Yul asked out of curiosity. “Was he a bad guy?”, he added.

"Yes he was. It was a long story, Yul.", I simply said as I watch the others hang the weapons on the drilled nails, dodging the question.

It's a story I wanted to bury deep under the ground.

---

Mom sighed as she removed the Violets from its clear-glass vase. I smiled and asked, "What is it, mom?", I asked before I peeked on the microscope, watching the micro-organisms in different forms move.

"Why would this flower wilt so fast? I just bought these three days ago.", she complained. I giggled at her cuteness.

"Mom, if flowers wouldn't wilt, then new flowers won't bloom.", I said and took another plate and placed it under the microscope.

"But still, it would be nice if flowers would last long.", she said and smiled, wiping her hands on her long skirt. She added, "Sometimes flowers needed to last long for its real beauty to be more appreciated, as well as its importance.", she smiled sadly, sympathizing to the flower.

I nodded at her and smiled, understood what she meant.

I have nothing to do but to test if the algae would react to some kind of chemicals I don’t know of. Dad gave me that task for his study. But I've tested all of it and none of them reacted to the chemicals my Dad gave me. I sat on a chair and stared at the laboratory room. Since my mom had left the room, the room became quiet.

Few crumpled scrap papers scattered all around the floor, the table full of stains from previous experiments and tests. Laboratory tools and equipments laid above the tables, each with masking tape and its label written on it.

I took one flower from the vase and studied it. My Mom was right; these violets are too pretty to wilt.

I suddenly had a random thought to examine it.

I stood up and brought the flower to the sink and washed it before I prepared the tools needed for DNA extraction. I plucked each petals, and cut every part of the flower from stem to pistil. When I finished extracting its whole DNA, I scooped it with a clean cotton swabs and placed it on a new plate, under the microscope.

My mom basically gave me a great idea to study its DNA components, and thought of possibility that it couldn’t wither and last for a long time.

My father would always nag me that I was thinking of impossible things. He had said it when he also was the one who made me believe that science also make a million of possibilities.

We had a serious fight just because of that possibility. There were just days I couldn’t understand him.

One day when I was testing the violet and how it would react to the chemicals I had it test with, I was surprised because I accidentally and unintentionally placed a wrong chemical mixture with it.

I thought it would just be another failed experiment, but the next morning, it turned out to be a good news that made me run into his study room, and forgot we just had fought.

"Dad! I accidentally found something!", I excitedly said, but I think he wasn't that paying much attention, so I brought him on my own science lab, and let him see my accidental experiment and discovery.

"Geuhan! You're a genius! Don't you know that this might help us in our future researches?", he excitedly said and hugged me. “I’m so proud of you.” He patted my back and let go of me before he smiled.

I failed to make the flower stay fresh and not wilt, but I found out something greater than that.

I accidentally mixed a chemical mixture that reacted on the DNA of the violet, which made it regrow petals, even leaves. It means, the flower may not be "stand-alone" without water, or much sunlight, but it will last forever since it regrows petals and leaves.

"Geuhan?", I was awoken from my flashback when Heeshik’s voice registered to me.

I looked at him and raised my eyebrows and hummed for him to continue with what he was saying.

"Your food will get cold. You're staring at the empty space for almost three minutes now.", he said. I gasped and looked at everybody else who was watching me intently. I noticed that they already emptied half of their food.

"What were you thinking about? Are you okay?", Heeshik asked once again with his ever so brotherly concerned eyes, but I just smiled.

"Nothing. I just remembered some things.", I said and started to eat what they prepared so they won’t ask for more. When I was on my nth scoop, I stood up and I brought my food with me to look at the periscope, since Soljun and Dokhun was still eating. I sat at a tall wooden stool and ate while looking over the periscope.

"Hey, you can eat there and let us do it. We’re done anyways.", I looked up to see Jaehwa and Hyunki smiling at me, a cup of water on their hands. I nodded and stood up before going back to where Yowoo and Dokhun were still eating.

Are they eating that much, or were just slow eater? I sat across them and ate there in silence..

"So, you're living here all alone for almost two years?", Yowoo suddenly asked when we finished the food, and already was collecting the trash, since we were the last ones to eat.

I looked at him before I nodded and smiled. "Yep.” I said and stood up.

“Isn’t it hard? You know, you are alone. You don’t have anyone else to share chores or tasks or anything.” Dokhun asked as well.

I pondered for a while. It wasn’t hard to live alone, since I could do a lot of things without having to look after someone that could’ve been with me. But, the loneliness was nearly unbearable. It’s actually scary, too. Knowing you sleep alone in a big place, barely even sleep thinking about how to depend yourself in case. I had to sleep with my crossbow and bolts beside me, and it were just cold piece of non-living thing. Well, I survived through that all alone, which is already was a good thing.

But then I smiled, “Nope, I managed all alo—", my sentence were cut when Jaehwa and Hyunki called me.

"Geuhan! There's something outside!", Hyunki called me, and I could see on Jaehwa and Hyunki's face how panicked they looked, which made me ran towards my bed and swiftly took my crossbow and bolts before I peeked on the periscope.

"What the heck?", I flared out of frustration.