THE BABY MILL [[{SHINee}]]

THE BABY MILL [[33] 1ST TRIMESTER

            JongHyun couldn’t tear his eyes away from Key. Key. A name he could finally match to a face. One could imagine his excitement at finally meeting his second half in hell.

            It felt a bit like an ancient Egyptian soul thing he’d studied during a history course before becoming a pre-med student. The Egyptians had believed in their souls being split into two parts: Ka and Ba. The Ba resided in the body and the Ka floated around until the person died. The ritual of the weighing of the heart and feather was to test if the deceased had lived well enough to move on into the after life; to reunite their Ka and Ba to make one soul again. If their heart weighed more than the feather Ahmut, a goddess feared and not worshipped by the Egyptians, with her crocodile head and human body, would devour the person and their Ba, leaving the Ka to roam around for the rest of eternity… Unable to reunite with its Ba.

            JongHyun had been at that ritual for a long, long time. He’d been biting his nails as he prayed for that feather to fall. He had flinched at every shuffle from restless Ahmut (thinking about it, Dr. Park was probably her descendant). But now he’d found his Ka. He could feel the parts of his soul rubbing together. For the first time he felt content.

            Each time he looked at Key a piece of him broke off. A piece of his sanity? Of his heart? He wasn’t too sure… But there was a pang. Who wouldn’t feel broken inside up on seeing the boy, though? Due to the files he’d been able to learn that his carrier was younger than he was by a good year or two. Pictures had led him to believe that he’d once been a stunning man. He had been handsome… JongHyun had seen him on a billboard or two at times…

            Key had been something outside of these walls; something real special. If the photos hadn’t been enough to prove it then the countless jotted details about his routine, entourage, and locations in the file was enough to convince JongHyun.

            Now, however… The tight body from the profile had vanished, replaced instead by grey tinged skin sagging off brittle bones. A face that had accustomed itself to the perks of make up now lived barren of all colour with the exception of the purple-black bags cushioning his feline eyes. The only jewel to his face that indicated he had any supreme beauty left to him was the crystalline green of his eyes; a treasure in a stormy sea.

            The real shock of meeting Key, though, was realizing that he had housed a child in his model body. A child that had contained part of his DNA…

            “I don’t… How do I know you’re not lying?” Key suddenly asked.

            For an answer to Key’s question, JongHyun turned to MinHo, concerned of his silence. The taller boy was staring at the empty bed whose sheets were still rumpled and polka dotted with stains. Neither of them knew where the second carrier was. The files MinHo clutched now had stated clearly in a bold font that Key shared a room with a boy named TaeMin. Lee TaeMin, Carrier 32, room 14. It had said that with a little note on the side that had read: “temporary lodgement”. And yet there was only one boy in the room.

            Key’s question still lingered in the air. When it looked like he was going to pull out of bed to get attention, JongHyun broke from his side and tapped his roommate’s shoulder.

            MinHo started, moving out of his trance to get the situation regulated.

            “We have the files,” he murmured.

            JongHyun fixed him with a firm look, a silent plead for him to get his act together. Thankfully, without even noticing his expression, MinHo realized what he was doing. Giving a tousle to his curls with a hand he stood tall at the base of Key’s bed and held the files up for him to see.