2516...

As that year registered in my head, my widened gaze slowly moved down to my lap. Another year was also resonating in my head and it made me feel very emotional all of a sudden.

"...five hundred years..." I barely whispered as my vision became clouded with tears.

Minho blinked and leaned in a little closer. "What?"

"It's been too long..." The tears dropped from my eyes and landed on the fabric of my pants. "E-everyone I know is..." My eyes clamped shut and I suddenly felt nauseous.

Minho slowly leaned back with widened eyes. "Five hundred years? So...you're a millennial from 2016?"

My body shook a little as my breaths became shorter and my head lowered as more tears fell from my closed eyes.

"Oh my god..." Minho breathed. He seemed a bit nervous again. "This is..." Something came over him and his expression seemed to get gentler. "H-hey, it's okay." I felt his hand slowly grasp my shoulder and it made me even more upset.

"H-how could you bring me back like this?!" I shot him a tearfully furious glare. "How could I possibly live the rest of my life in such a futuristic time?! I don't know how anything works and all of my family and friends don't exist anymore!" My arm wiped across my mouth roughly and I flinched a bit. My throat was burning again from yelling and all I could do for a few seconds was breathe in and out loudly, occasionally coughing out pained cries of grief.

Minho was very quiet the entire time I caught up on my breathing and became relatively calm again.

"...I know that what we did wasn't fair to you...but there's no way we could know anything about your past life or even how you died. Only you know and we want to do as much research as we can to gather up a convincing report to send to the government."

"Why?" My voice was very raspy.

"The government is funding our project right now and if we don't give them a well put together report on your progress and condition, they'll stop sending us money and will want you..." Minho paused and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

I slowly looked at him with still wet eyes.

He slowly met mine. "...they'll want you terminated. We'd have to...put you down."

"I want you to do that." I said without hesitation. "I don't want to live in this time. I should be meeting with my family and friends right now..." I felt more tears coming to my eyes and I lowered my gaze back to my lap.

Minho didn't say anything for another few seconds as I sniffed a couple times and slowly rubbed my arm under my nostrils.

"...I'm sorry. I really am." He said finally. "I'm sorry you feel so bad right now. This wasn't my team's intention. Please try to understand that. We think you are very special and we want to continue getting to know you and hopefully learn more about your past life. Can you at least be on board with that?"

I didn't respond.

"Please try to put yourself in our shoes as scientists. We always have curious minds and with you our minds haven't calmed down since you were awakened. We want to ask you so many questions all at once but we also know that's too overwhelming. So we'll be polite to you, regardless if you won't be polite to us. Okay?"

I glanced at him slowly and sighed a little bit. There was nothing but sincerity in his eyes. I couldn't deny the concern he had but I also couldn't stop thinking of my parents and close friends. Their faces were a bit unclear to me but I could feel warmth pulsing through my body every time I thought about them.

"...so will you cooperate with us?" Minho asked quietly, his gaze glancing at the black cube in the corner of the room.

I continued to stare at him for a couple seconds, then slowly lowered myself onto the bed and turned toward the ceiling with narrowed, tired eyes.

"...I'll take that as a 'yes.'" I heard Minho chuckle quietly. "Okay...I'll leave you alone for a while. Then when I come back, I can introduce you to the other scientists on my team. Okay?"

I didn't respond.

"...great." The chair he was sitting in creaked a bit as he stood up. "I'll come back in about an hour." His footsteps moved toward the door and then paused for a moment. "...it was nice meeting you. Really."

I still didn't respond. I just wanted to sleep.

A moment of silence passed and then I heard the door close carefully.

Everything I thought I left out suddenly welled up inside again. I held my face with both of my hands and cried for a very long time.

I walked by Minho’s side past the grey walls of the hallway. The light was a bit bright but I got used to it pretty fast. I was still feeling very upset but even that subsided a bit. The longer we walked down the hallway, the more my curiosity came back. Even if I didn’t want to admit it out loud, a part of me wanted to learn more about this time. There must have been so many improvements from my previous time that have been upgraded and fixed…

Minho knocked softly on one of the doors to our left and then opened it. Inside were six other scientists, all looking like they were in their thirties or early forties. Just from appearance alone, I guess that Minho was the youngest member on the team.

Every one of the scientists stood up and bowed politely to me once Minho and I stepped into the room. Seeing all of them greet me at the same time made me feel a bit shy and I quickly nodded back, keeping my gaze down.

“Please, come sit down.” One scientist motioned to one of the empty chairs next to him. I glanced up at it then at Minho. He nodded and walked with me toward the chairs and we sat down together.

“How are you feeling?” The main scientist asked me.

I slowly glanced at him and nodded a little. “I’m fine.”

There was a very uncomfortable silence in the room. Barely anyone made a sound and there was no building sounds like creaks or drafts wafting in from the tightly closed windows. And everyone was staring at me with major interest in my eyes. I wanted to run away so much…

“…Please forgive our awkward behavior.” The main scientist said quietly, glancing at the other members. “We simply didn’t know we were going to get this far in the project, so we are moving along with a very loose idea in our minds.”

I sighed a little bit and kept my gaze down. I didn’t even want to look at Minho.

“…we’ve been watching you through our monitoring system when Minho was talking to you.” The scientist continued. “Your mindset and behavioral mannerisms are simply astonishing to us; the fact that you can remember basic human movements after such a long time…you’re really a special case.”

“Th-thanks…” I muttered, feeling extremely embarrassed.

A soft chuckle spread across the table.

“No, thank you!” The main scientist chuckled too and seemed very surprised. “You’re teaching us so much right now about human souls and how they become ingrained with information.”

I didn’t respond and felt Minho shift a little next to me.

“Sir, when we were speaking before…did you hear what he said about…” Minho hesitated.

“Yes, I heard.” The main scientist’s tone became very gentle and solemn. “I understand you’re feeling a lot of pain right now, but it’s like Minho said, there was no way of knowing how your past life ended or even if your parents and friends are in even in the afterlife right now. They might have already reincarnated. Maybe you’ll even find them in this time!”

My gaze slowly moved toward him.

“S-sir, are we even allowed to let him go outside this facility?” One of the scientists asked from across the table.

“We can make it work somehow, right?” Minho also looked at the main scientist. “I think it would be good for him to see our world.”

The main scientist thought for a moment and slowly shook his head. “I’m not too sure right now…I haven’t even sent in the report to the government yet.”

“The most current one?” Another scientist asked.

The main scientist nodded. “They still don’t know Taemin is alive yet.”

My eyes flickered in his direction when he said my name.

“We should send in that report soon, shouldn’t we?” Minho seemed a bit annoyed and surprised. “The faster they know, the faster we can get some answers about what to do next!”

“Minho, it’s not that simple.” The main scientist took off his glasses and rubbed the side of his head a little. “You know how strict and narrow-minded our government is. Honestly….I’m a little afraid to tell them that we succeeded.”

“Why?” I asked very quietly.

Everyone looked at me as the main scientist’s eyes softened a little. “…I don’t know how your government was in your time, but ours is very careful about hiding special information to the general public about many scientific discoveries and extraterrestrial incidents.”

I slowly shook my head. “Our governments are the same. Nothing has changed.”

Another sound of awe drifted across the table.

“Really?” Minho looked at me.

I looked at him and nodded.

“How do you remember that?” One of the scientists asked.

I looked at him. “…I don’t know. I just do.”

“There must be many things that you remember.” Another scientist put in.

The main scientist nodded. “There certainly is. We’ve seen enough evidence for that.” He straightened up and put his glasses back on. “Alright, here’s the plan; everyone will pitch in to help Taemin remember more things about his past life and later we can all compile a thorough, convincing report to send to the government. We’ll work all through this week and send in the report this coming Monday.”

Everyone around the table agreed silently as Minho spoke up. “What about taking him outside?”

“…let me get back to you about that later.” The main scientist answered.

Minho seemed a bit disappointed but agreed anyway.

The main scientist called the meeting to an end and everyone stood up to leave the room. I sighed a bit, relieved that it was over, and stood up with Minho.

The main scientist also stood up and held out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Taemin.”

I looked at his hand and slowly took it, bowing slowly. Hopefully I could say the same thing later…