Chapter 1: a few screws loose

The night was both familiar and unfamiliar.

It was dressed in warm air, but sharpened with the chill of the dying sun.

The city center was crawling with the shadowy silhouettes of strangers, each with their own mission in mind. The asphalt was as black as the sky overhead, a hefty obsidian that shut out the stars without empathy. Small puddles of golden light, gathered from the light that shone down from the streetlamps, illuminated the thin edges of the night market.

Shadows of people jumped from stall to stall. It was deep into the bosom of the night, but the market was alive. There were multicoloured paper lanterns strung between stands, hinting at the extravagant flow of colour that moved in the wind with unknown purpose.

The warm breeze carried the smells of freshly baked goods, as many tried to peddle their sugary treats to the passersby. Separate cohorts travelled together, some pointing out strange merchandise with loud, proclaiming voices. A small group of teens ducked through the shadows, laughing freely with glow sticks around their wrists. Many couples leaned into each with joined hands, more often than not sharing one of the vender's pastries.

It seemed each one had someone else to share the beauty of the night. Life's apparent mocking of the lone figure who ducked between the happy gatherings silently.

His face was turned down, and people moved out of his way carefully. The whispers didn't cling to him for long as he broke through the crowd and into the next street that was less crowded. Almost scarce, in fact.

Seeing all of those smiling faces only served as a bittersweet memory of who he was missing.

Among all the joyful partying and wonders of night life, Jongho walked alone.

If he could, he'd be out with his best friend. Laughing freely at the simplest things, like the vendor who had nearly dropped a steaming hot pastry on one of their customers and earned an earful for it. Or maybe the children who scampered under the tables in one big game of hide and seek, who'd eventually been caught by the tarot reader who had the shock of her life. She must not have foreseen the bundle of six year-olds crouching under the table covered in dirt and dust.

Kang Yeosang had been his best friend since high school, and he felt almost lost without him. They had spent so many years as friends that they felt as if they were one and the same person. Many of their other friends always claimed they were constantly attached at the hip. When one was missing it felt as if the balance had been upset, like a seesaw with only one person riding because the other had dropped off the face of the Earth.

Jongho's bittersweet pondering gradually slipped into gut-clenching concern.

Five days ago, Yeosang had disappeared without a trace. No clues, no messages left behind or anything. It was like he had simply stepped off the world, or had only existed on Jongho's plane of imagination. Many would brush off the incident nowadays, but deep down, some part of him just wouldn't settle. He was unnerved and without Yeosang to be his balance, he was teetering on the edge of nervous breakdown.

In the past, disappearances were taken very seriously. Possible kidnappings were investigated thoroughly, and people actively participated in cases to help find the missing.

Nowadays, their society had been cut up and molded into a different way of thinking. A disappearance was common. As normal as breathing in some parts of the surrounding areas. People simply didn't fear them anymore, because they found no reason why they should.

These specific disappearances lasted exactly five days. And following this procedure, Yeosang was due to appear again any moment now. There was nothing supernatural about these disappearances, Yeosang wouldn't just 'appear' out of thin air. Instead he would randomly show up in a situation or place with no memory of how he got there.

That was possibly the most infuriating thing about these common cases. Anyone who experienced this would have absolutely no memory of the past five days they had been missing. Jongho didn't want to accept that Yeosang would reappear and automatically slip right back into routine like nothing had happened, because something had definitely happened. Jongho wasn't sure if he would be able to keep up appearances if Yeosang brushed it all off. He hadn't spent every night for the past four days worried out of his mind for his best friend's safety for it to be pushed to the side with a simple, 'it was nothing'.

Jongho couldn't help but question the normality of this situation.

What if Yeosang didn't return? Would people even look for him?

There had been an entire different story when the very first person disappeared. It made headlines around the city, as all missing cases did back then, but there was something so unexplainably different about this one.

Jung Sangmi was her name. She'd been reported nearly immediately after her disappearance because of how naturally punctual she was. Her parent's immediately knew something was awry when she didn't show up at home before midnight, one cool evening at the beginning of last fall. However, there wasn't much law enforcement could do without a single strand of evidence. No signs of struggle, no notes left behind demanding ransom, no traces of DNA were found. Like Yeosang, it had seemed as if she had simply become a ghost or was invisible to the naked eye.

Then another had disappeared. A boy in his early teens.

Then, a woman in her late thirties.

Suddenly the depths of this particular case plummeted into utmost priority. The invisible switch on what was once a single missing persons case was flipped into a dire possible kidnapping ring situation. Trained professionals were called in. The best detectives in the country were transferred to the case. Every news channel you could turn to was covering what was quickly beginning to attract international attention. In the span of three days, three different people had gone missing, all with similar memos.

The families and friends of the victims demanded answers that the higher ups couldn't provide. They sought any explanation for this alarming occurrence, as the country surrendered to panic and pandemonium. During this time, the streets were practically empty as people became extremely paranoid about leaving the safety of their homes. The rate of disappearances were high and irregular and concerning. The people were afraid, and they had good reason to be.

However, the morning of the fifth day, news broke of an astounding miracle.

Jung Sangmi, who had been the subject of international attention, showed up at her parent's apartment without a single scratch. Only five days after she had vanished and sent the city into turmoil, she'd reappeared once more. Her only difference? The winding circular tattoo of a bird taking flight, and no memory of the events that took place over those grueling five days.

Quickly news stations hopped on the bandwagon and pestered her for interviews. Many wanted the chance to report on the now famous case firsthand. Law enforcement took initiative first, sheltering her and her family from further publicity as she was re-integrated into her life. Detectives had managed to question her, but even she had no answers to give. The greatest crime solvers and investigators were stumped.

Over the next few days, even more people went missing. But even stranger, more people began reappearing. Always paired with the mark of the bird, which was now becoming a famous symbol of this unexplained mystery.

The case only went on to become more and more confusing as months of investigation gave way to no new information. With no way to stop the disappearances from happening, the public slowly began to accept it as their new normal. Law enforcement were soon forced to drop the case after the immense pressure from the government to let things play out. There were still people even now that didn't trust the strange disappearances but they were few and far between.

The majority of citizens viewed the mystery as harmless. If affected, you disappeared for five days exactly. Never more, never less. Returning with a tattoo and a blank space in your memory.

Eventually the disappearances were given a name to identify them. They were known as 'hatchings'. A name earned from the strange tattoos that appeared branded on the victims' left arm. Every time someone would return from a hatching, it was like a new bird had been born from their realistic feathered tattoos.

Jongho had never been particularly concerned about hatchings. In fact, most times he disregarded them. He believed that behind all the mystery there was something bigger going on, but if the trained professionals couldn't crack the case, then how was Jongho supposed to make a difference? The purpose of their job was to solve cases like these, Jongho was a simple civilian college student that had no business in what was going on behind the scenes.

Besides, at the time when hatchings were booming and cases were popping up all over the place, Jongho didn't personally know anyone that had the mark of the bird. There was a missing layer of connection with those affected by hatchings because Jongho just couldn't relate to the experience.

He should have known it would come back to bite him. He had been a complete fool in thinking that those he cared about would be immune for long.

Yeosang was one of the more recent people claimed by a hatching. And Jongho was definitely feeling his absence.

Yeosang was naturally bright, but also serious. His level of concentration was almost alien for someone his age, and he used it in his Chinese classes to surpass his older classmates. He also had an unhealthy obsession of fried chicken, and he dragged his skateboard along with him pretty much everywhere. Jongho really admired his hyung, and he often turned to him for advice when he was struggling.

Yeosang had been skateboarding back from a hangout with another one of his high school friends just before he'd disappeared. While on his way back to their shared apartment, he'd stopped at an intersection before crossing just to let Jongho know he was on his way home.

That was the last time Jongho heard from him.

Yeosang never arrived at the apartment, and wouldn't respond to any one of Jongho's messages. Jongho had tried to contact someone, but everyone he talked to brushed it off as yet another hatching. They tried to reassure him that Yeosang would reappear again in five days, but deep down, Jongho was horribly paranoid. He felt that every second Yeosang was away, was another second he could be in danger. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the pessimistic thoughts from his mind. 

However on the outside, there wasn't much Jongho could do about the predicament. All he could do was message his friend's professors to let them know of Yeosang's upcoming absence, and sit tight until the five days were over. You'd think it was easy, but for some reason those five days lasted metaphorical years and every minute was dragged out painfully.

Jongho was so tense and worried by the fifth day that everyone surrounding him on the sidewalk, and during his walk through the night market, made a wide berth around him. He earned many strange looks, many wondering what was up with this strange young man who walked with such a downtrodden look and was followed by a looming storm cloud. It wasn't difficult to ignore them though, as Jongho was swallowed up in his own thoughts. His feet carrying him straight back home to the apartment building he lived in out of routine instead of conscious thought.

He wasn't particularly looking forward to another lonely night in his empty apartment.

His apartment building came into view all too soon, and he brushed past the few stragglers in the lobby with only a simple nod of acknowledgement.

The steady ascension up the weathered flight of stairs felt more difficult than usual. Partly due to the dread and hopeful anticipation that dragged at his feet, weighing them down as if they were painted with lead.

Jongho remained distracted by his swirling thoughts, even as he pushed through the stark white door to the empty hallway. His tired eyes failed to notice the familiar figure leaning against his apartment door.

A single glance up, after fishing out his keys, left Jongho scrambling to catch them again.

A few doors down, Yeosang nonchalantly lay along the wall beside the scuffed oak door, his skateboard leaning against the wall at his side. His attention directed at the phone in his hand, scrolling absentmindedly. He tapped his foot slightly to a rhythm that only he could hear, scuffing the red carpet with his rough black top boots.

Jongho's voice erupted from his vocal chords before he even thought to speak.

"You're back!" Jongho cried out joyfully, running up to meet him and nearly bowling him over. Yeosang's leg bumped against his skateboard as he leaned with Jongho's weight, knocking it over. At first his worry stricken mind had assumed that this Yeosang was another hopeful mirage. But as soon as they collided into a hug, his familiar chuckle was all the confirmation that Jongho needed.

After 5 endless days without answers, his best friend was finally back.

"Oof," Yeosang huffed with a good natured smile. Jongho's perpetual ache of forlorn emotion was rekindled just at the simple sight of his smile. "I wasn't gone that long."

Jongho gripped him tighter, afraid that he would disappear again, while leaning back to look clearly into Yeosang's eyes with disbelief, "Not long? You were gone for five whole days," Jongho paused when a thought slipped into the forefront of his mind, "Do you remember anything?"

Jongho knew what answer to expect. Extensive questioning from investigators had never uncovered any new information when hatchings were still being taken seriously, but a small part of him hoped that Yeosang remembered something. Anything that could quench the curiosity in him, and make sense out the mystery everyone had given up on.

Yeosang's eyes flickered uncertainly, and his expression shifted into pensive recollection for a shy moment, "The last thing I remember was texting you. I stopped for the light at the intersection between Yeomans Street and 22nd Avenue, but everything after that is one huge blank. You sure it was that long?"

Jongho raised an eyebrow as he released his friend from his smothering embrace. He scooped up his copy of the keys to their apartment and worked to unlock the door. "Of course I'm sure. You went through a hatching. They always last five days."

Jongho jostled the key slightly as was custom to open their busted lock. Meanwhile, Yeosang collected his scuffed skateboard from where it had fallen on the cherry red carpets. He hummed but didn't elaborate. Jongho hadn't been expecting such a weird response from Yeosang and decided to drop the subject for now.

Maybe he was just tired.

He was determined to figure out what had happened to his best friend, but he didn't want to push Yeosang to answer all his questions after he'd just come back.

"I probably don't even need to ask what you want for dinner," Jongho chuckled, trying to lighten up the air between them. He already had his phone in hand.

Yeosang sent him a lazy grin from over by the couch, collapsing onto it with a heavy sigh.

After ordering chicken, Jongho sunk into the leather beside a face planted Yeosang, nudging him to the side easily.

Yeosang sat up with a groan, the sleeve of his sweater riding up along his arm just enough to reveal the outer edges of black ink. The strange anomaly on Yeosang's skin immediately caught Jongho's eye, and he honed in on its presence. The mark of the bird was now present on his best friend's left arm, something that forever tied him to all other hatching victims.

The intricate edges of the twisting tattoo resembled the tufts of feathers, and Jongho brushed his thumb over the edge in an attempt to reveal the rest. Yeosang paused and held perfectly still, but shared no audible protest. Before he could change his mind he'd already reached out and pushed up Yeosang's sleeve to unveil the full tattoo.

Yeosang was silent as Jongho's searching gaze soaked in the detailed addition to his friend's arm. The body of the bird was revealed as a sparrow with speckled wings spread in flight. It was without colour, but the shadows mimicked some sort of twisting movement. It lay frozen as if trapped on his skin, ringed by a solid black circle. Every realistic element aided in its beauty. Jongho tilted Yeosang's arm back and forth to study it, but let go when Yeosang pulled away shyly.

"What do you think?" Yeosang ran a careful hand over his tattoo with practiced delicacy. His natural response made it appear as if he was trying to hide it from sight.

Jongho gave him a reassuring smile, watching as Yeosang's tense shoulders relaxed slightly. "I think it suits you. I just wish we knew why it was there." Jongho replied honestly.

Yeosang clearly wasn't as curious as he was about the tattoo, he simply shrugged off Jongho's comment as if he hadn't even registered it. Yeosang avoided his calculating gaze, and Jongho couldn't help but think that something about Yeosang was just . . . different. But he didn't want to dwell on it long, Yeosang was most likely tired and didn't want to deal with Jongho's over curious nature.

Yeosang pulled himself to his feet, most likely to grab his phone from the kitchen. Jongho had plugged it in a few moments ago to charge, as it was extremely low on battery when Yeosang was waiting outside the apartment. Which Jongho was still wondering about, did Yeosang lose his copy of the key?

Jongho's thought train was abruptly cut off when something completely unexpected happened.

One moment Yeosang was trying to dodge around the coffee table, the next he was frozen in shock staring at something on the ground.

Jongho who had also watched the whole thing go down, exclaimed loudly in disbelief, "What the hell?!"

Yeosang's hand had just fallen off.

Several small clinks of small metallic pieces echoed as they fell to the floor. Jongho watched with widened eyes as one of the small familiar shapes rolled closer. His eyes grew impossibly wider as he realized the small shape was a screw.

The tense moment between the two best friends was almost suffocating, each frozen in their respective places. Jongho was in utter disbelief, and perhaps leaning towards the idea that this was yet another dream of Yeosang returning home. The sorrow that encapsulated him at the realization made his heart drop from its careful nest in his rib cage to his stomach. Where he almost wanted it to sink forever.

He would have pinched himself to check, but he felt as if the utter absurdity of the situation was enough proof of the dream.

However, reality clicked back into place when Yeosang's natural brown eyes shifted into a brilliant cyan, and he tackled Jongho to the ground.

The force of Yeosang's body against him was definitely a wake up call. A dream couldn't possibly be this realistic, could it?  The driving force of Yeosang's elbow into his shoulder was enough of an incentive for Jongho to snap out of his stupor.

He folded the front of his foot in order to gain some pushback in order to roll over, shoving the disconnected hand as far away from him as possible. The sudden change in momentum sent Yeosang sliding across the floor in the opposite direction.

Jongho scrambled to his feet, the breath in his lungs flushing out in desperate pants.

Yeosang's figure looked up at him from the ground, the hard set glare in his icy blue gaze was sinister in nature and sent ominous chills down Jongho's arms.

Jongho glanced at the now sparking hand abandoned on the carpet. It was mechanical, wired with colourful connections and flashing alarms that failed to make a sound. Small tabs of a dull metal were inlaid with small punctures, the perfect size of the screws scattered around the floor. It was clearly attached, or previously had been, to the socket of Yeosang's wrist, which was now sparking slightly as well. Yeosang had clearly not expected his hand to fall off, which was contrary to Jongho who hadn't even known it could.

Jongho blinked once and Yeosang surged forward with inhuman speed. Shoving the coffee table and its contents to the side with no concern for the glass that crashed to the ground and shattered into crystalized shards.

Jongho ducked the incoming swing of who Jongho was certain couldn't possibly be Yeosang. This imposter was dressed in Yeosang's face, but Jongho knew that it wasn't him.

That thought gave him enough courage to push the fake forward, sending him flying backwards as he tripped over the coffee table and crashed onto his back.

Jongho wasted no time to scurry over to snap his arms down against the floor. Putting his weight into the hold, as the strange Yeosang struggled fervently. Though he knew that with the unnatural strength this man or machine possessed, he would not remain in control of the situation for long.

Frantically he searched for a way to cease the movement of what had finally clicked as an android copy of his best friend. His eyes passed over the sparking wrist of the stranger and immediately thought better of using it.

His eyes were once again drawn to the intricate sparrow painted in ink on 'Yeosang's' shoulder, its bent wings mid-flight in mockful movement. The slight protrusion of the tattoo caught his immediate attention and he leaned closer to inspect. That was a mistake as as soon as he leaned closer Yeosang's head snapped up in an attempt to headbutt him.

Jongho flinched back, but tightened his grip as Yeosang surged upwards. Jongho had enough control that he was able to push the struggling Yeosang down again. He was running out of time.

Once again he focused on the alien tattoo that marred Yeosang's skin, now its presence sent bitter chills down Jongho's spine and he almost didn't want to touch it.

The tattoo protruded slightly as if the bird itself was reaching for the sky, speckled wings outstretched.

On a whim, Jongho reached out and pressed it in. It clicked back out at him again, but there was no valid change to the livid android beneath him. In a second attempt, he tried to twist the rugged edges to the left first, and then to the right. To his surprise something gave.

A small careful pop sounded, and the fake Yeosang dropped to the floor practically lifeless. As if all light had left its body, the brilliant blue in his eyes had faded into black emptiness.

The small click of what sounded like the latch to a small compartment opening restored Jongho's eternal curiosity, despite the eerie feeling that came from seeing someone wearing his best friend's face. The additional sight of how limp and lifeless they now seemed, wore at his empathy. Despite him knowing that they weren't necessarily real.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a miniscule movement that brushed against Yeosang's sweater. Something had moved between his flattened back and the floor, a strange lid had opened just slightly.

He heaved Yeosang up into a seated position, draping his head over his shoulder cautiously. Still wary of the carbon copy springing to life again. His head lolled, dipping into the crook of Jongho's neck like a puppet without strings to hold himself up.

Jongho pinched the edge of Yeosang's sweater, lifting enough for the edges of the compartment to slip open further. There was a thin panel cut into Yeosang's back that swung open freely, now that the restricting fabric of Yeosang's sweater had been moved out of its way.

Jongho had to faintly squint his eyes from the onslaught of brightly coloured dials and the erratic blinking of different lights. He was met with the sight of advanced circuitry unlike any he'd ever seen.

There was no apparent pattern in the twisting wires that ran around sparkling circuit boards. Messes of cords were tangled in a loop around the inner compartment. One of them appeared to be linked to a small alarm, but the connection was frayed and detached. Jongho had no idea if it was intentional or not.

As soon as his eyes had had their fill in drinking the complex and well thought out detail of what was most certainly an android in, Jongho considered one specific blinking light.

It was small and almost insignificant, but Jongho found his gaze lingering on it more often than not. Along its darkened section, there was the flashing light paired with an accompanying button. Engraved on the surface of the button was the barely visible visual of a camera.

Jongho's current train of thought led down the uncertain path that maybe the light was signalling memory contained in a drive or file somewhere in the complicated software. Perhaps the android had recorded or taken a picture of its previous location? And hopefully, it was the same location as where his real Yeosang was waiting.

Jongho was hesitant to press anything he wasn't supposed to. What if he deleted something by accident? The last thing he needed was the chance to find Yeosang again to slip between his fingers like grains of sand.

Where had this all gone wrong?

Every logical thought in Jongho's mind proclaimed that this was impossible.

Every hatching case produced the same result: the missing person returning five days after vanishing completely. Appearing once again without a scratch, imprinted with the mark of the bird, and with a convenient blank in their memory.

Jongho was beginning to think that the 'memory' trick was a little too convenient.

Jongho was starting to remember different reports of when the victim had returned almost stronger and more powerful than before. All the signs were right in front of their faces, but it had all been disregarded as people had been blinded by rumours.

Seeing his best friend like this was a stern wake up call. Despite knowing that it wasn't the same Yeosang that he had befriended in that old white rock high school in the next city over.

Yeosang had always seemed invincible to Jongho.

When they'd first met, Yeosang was the unbothered upperclassman that everyone and their mother wanted to become friends with. He was rocketed to popularity the year before Jongho had arrived, and he earned a hefty name for himself among the student body. Before they started talking to each other, Jongho only knew him as the guy who didn't care for others opinions and who could handle himself easily in a fight.

This limp form of a man was not his resilient best friend and brother figure. In appearance maybe, but not in heart.

That same Yeosang would take any chance he could, and if it came down to it, he would risk everything to do what he thought was right. So, Jongho did what he thought Yeosang would do.

He pressed the strange button next to the smallest blinking light.

As soon as his hand made contact, the robot shuddered. It quaked beneath his fingertips, as if the robot was experiencing its own personal earthquake. 'Yeosang's' head shot up and Jongho scrambled for a hold on his wrists, prepared for him to strike out.

Jongho shifted to look into its face, blinking in alarm. He watched as the reanimated fake Yeosang blinked back with its previous iridescent blue eyes, but made no move to escape his grip.

He stared in disbelief as the android's irises shuttered like the lens of a camera, and before his very eyes, a holographic figure began to materialize.

With the artificial eyes of the android acting like a projector, the blurred image of a large room came into view.

And in the center field of view, stood Yeosang.

Jongho sat cross-legged in front of the hologram, observing the image hoping to find any clues or explanations. The large room in the background reminded him of a lab, or cluttered work room. Mechanical junk was scattered across tables with different visuals and monitors strung up on the walls.

But Jongho was only focused on Yeosang.

He was adorned in strange clothing, a smooth red attire accented with scarlet leather. His hair fell in dark russet locks over his forehead, and his appearance seemed more rugged than Jongho remembered. There was an overall impression that Yeosang had gone through hell and back, and came out swinging. His expression was mostly guarded, but Jongho knew Yeosang like the back of his hand. He was able to detect the anxious desire to hurry, as if he was a child about to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Jongho," Yeosang's voice expressed the urgency that Jongho had begun to pick up on, "If you are getting this message then you know by now that the one they've sent in my place is a fake."

The sound of muffled voices made Yeosang glance over his shoulder almost in a state of unabridged panic. But he quickly reined in his emotions just like the Yeosang Jongho knew, and continued, knowing that panicking wouldn't help him in any way.

Yeosang's gaze caught Jongho's somehow, despite it being a pre-recorded message, "Before they sent this copy out, I loosened the screws in the right wrist connection. I also managed to record this message using the built-in camera and surveillance system. Hopefully it will be stored in the files for you to find. It should be the only recorded message in the system."

The voices grew louder, and Yeosang jumped forward in his message, his eyes desperately compelling. "This is so much more than we thought. We were so blind, and I hope it's not too late to fix this whole mess."

Yeosang placed his hands off to either side of the recording screen so they were no longer visible. He swallowed as if his mouth had suddenly gone dry. His brown eyes were twin pools of desperation as he pushed down his fear and levelled his gaze.

"Everything we thought we knew about hatchings was a lie."

———

there is an example above of what I intended the tattoos to look like

I don't draw birds normally so it's not perfect ♡

♡ thank you for reading ♡

dedicated to my lovely beta reader, @ceyshells ♡