This vision seemed to take over all of my senses and suddenly I was walking through a heavily forested area in a place I recalled was nearby my old home in my past life. There was a park a little way through the forest but I wasn’t walking there. Old thoughts began flooding through my mind and other footsteps walked next to me.

 

Then I turned and met the person’s eyes. “Isn’t this kind of silly?” I asked.

 

The person looking back at me had short, dark brown hair covering his ears and was one year younger than me. “Wasn’t coming out here your idea?” He asked me.

 

“Yeah…but now I’m starting to think it’s pretty pointless. I mean, no one’s going to find this.” I looked down at a kind of heavy thing I was holding in my hands; a small, empty glass jar with the lid screwed on securely.

 

“We don’t know that.” The person next to me shrugged. “Honestly I’m a little curious about who would find it. And in what time in the future.”

 

What he said made me feel curious too, but at the same time I couldn’t shake off a nervous feeling flowing through me as well.

 

We walked a few more feet until my eyes caught the sight of a large, healthy tree with healthy mulch covering the trunk. I decided it was the ideal spot to bury the jar and stopped in front of it.

 

“Here?” The person stopped as well and looked at me.

 

I nodded. “This tree is the tallest tree here, so it would be easy to remember where the jar will be found, if it even is found.” I knelt down in front of the tree and pulled a small pair of scissors out of my backpack.

 

I heard the person gasp a little. “You’re going to cut your hair right here?”

 

I glanced at him with a small smile. “Well if I did this at my house, I think my parents would be concerned.”

 

“Yeah, no joke. But how much hair were you planning on cutting off?”

 

“Just enough for it to stand out in the jar.” I shrugged and smooth some of the hair resting on the back of my neck.

 

The person sighed and quickly took the scissors from me. “Let me do it. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

 

“I won’t!” I sighed a bit as he sat down in front of me and held my head still with his free hand.

 

“You gave yourself a paper cut today. And in the stupidest way possible.” He smirked and gathered some of the longer hair resting above my eyes.

 

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up. And don’t cut all of my bangs off! Just a little bit.”

 

“Don’t worry.” He smoothed out a small section of bangs resting above my right eye and moved the tips of the scissors toward the ends. I saw him move the tips a little, measuring out more or less hair to cut off, which made me feel a little antsy.

 

“Just do it already! I told my parents I’d be back home to study in five minutes!”

 

In that instant, the scissors came together and the loud snip echoed in my ears. My right eye could see a lot clearer now that a large wad of hair fell toward the mulch.

 

I looked down at the hair with widened eyes. “What…h-how much did you take off!?”

 

The person was trying not to laugh but his mouth was curled up in a grin. “I said don’t worry, didn’t I? You look fine.”

 

I quickly grabbed my phone and the reversed camera. Looking at my face, I almost gagged. “I…I look like an idol! With a really bad hair day!”

 

“You look hot.” The person shrugged.

 

“My parents are going to kill me!” I yelled at him. “How am I supposed to hide this!?”

 

“Just pin it back! You have hair pins, don’t you?”

 

“No! I’m a boy!” I groaned and rubbed my face.

 

“Then go out and buy them. Nobody will judge you.” The person crossed his arms.

 

“Whatever, let me just put this hair into the jar and then I’m going to kill you.” I sighed huffily and grabbed the empty jar, screwing off the lid and gathering up the fallen pieces of hair from the mulch.

 

“You love me too much to kill me.” The person grinned.

 

“I hate your guts.” I mumbled, burying a small hole in the mulch and placing the glass jar inside. Once the mulch was covering the jar completely, I looked at it for a moment, then stood up.

 

“What?” The person asked.

 

I continued to look at the buried glass jar in silence. “…if someone really finds this jar in the future…what do you think will happen?”

 

The person was quiet for a moment. “…maybe just do typical scientific studies on it? I don’t know. You want to dig it back up?”

 

I shook my head. “No.”

 

“Then let’s go?” He motioned back toward the main road.

 

I stood in silence for another few seconds until the entire area started to fade around me. I only focused on the buried jar until that image faded away as well. Soon my gaze was settled on the trunk of the totem pole in the middle of the 2516 city.

 

I blinked several times and slowly raised my head. I could see other people glancing at me questionably but the voice that rang clear in my ears was Minho.

 

“Taemin?” I felt his fingers gently touch my upper arm and I turned around to look at him. “What happened to you just now? You looked like you were in a trance.”

 

My gaze slowly moved down. It felt like I had woken up from a dream and was slow to respond. “…I…I remembered something.”

 

“From your past life? Something else?” Minho’s eyes widened.

 

I nodded.

 

Minho glanced at the people around us and quickly pulled me out of the general area. “What did you see?”

 

I thought back to the person at my side and a well of emotion surged through my heart. “…my best friend.”

 

“Your best friend?”

 

I nodded a bit stiffly. “He cut my hair and my parents punished me as a result.”

 

Minho laughed a little. “Were you best friends in elementary school?”

 

I shook my head. “High school.”

 

“So he cut your hair when you were in high school?”

 

“No, we were in college.”

 

Minho blinked. “Oh…you two were really close then.”

 

I felt tears sneak into my eyes but I forced them to stay in, lowering my head a little.

 

“What was his name?”

 

I was quiet for a moment. “…Kim Jongin.

 

Minho nodded and we were both quiet for a moment. In that time only the natural sounds of the city rang in our ears.

 

“…why did he cut your hair?” Minho asked.

 

“…I wanted to bury some part of me in the ground as a kind of time capsule.” I responded quietly.

 

Minho didn’t reply right away and I glanced up at him. His eyes were widened. “S-so…you were the one responsible for us finding…you?!”

 

I blinked, slowly realizing the truth. “…y-yeah…I guess I am.”

 

“Oh my god…” Minho slowly shook his head and let out an amazed laugh. “This is too amazing! I have to report this to the leader!”

 

“We have to go back to the facility now?” I asked a bit quietly.

 

Minho blinked. “Did you want to look around some more?”

 

I glanced around me but the atmosphere seemed to get a bit boring. I kind of lost interest to look around after remembering Jongin. I didn’t particular want to go back to the facility either, but it seemed like that was the only current option.

 

“…no, we don’t have to.” I responded, lowering my head again.

 

“Are you sure? I didn’t mean to sound so impatient.” Minho said quickly.

 

I shook my head. “It’s okay. We can go.”

 

 

 

 

 

When the two of us entered the facility again, I immediately pulled off all of the heavy clothing I was forced to wear, including the white mask. It was covered in my sweat and it made breathing just a little bit more difficult.

 

“Welcome back!” One of the scientists standing in the main room greeted us warmly. “How was the trip into the city?”

 

“Good!” Minho nodded enthusiastic. “Listen, I need to speak to the leader! Taemin remembered another really important personal memory!”

 

The scientist’s expression widened. “Oh?”

 

“Yes! He said he remembered his best friend and a specific memory they shared that relates to how we came to find his DNA!”

 

The scientist seemed speechless for a moment. “I…I don’t know what to say…”

 

“What do you mean?” Minho asked.

 

“The leader…he became a little impatient and started writing the report today. He’s been in the main office for the last three hours typing non-stop without any breaks.”

 

“W-what? But we agreed that the report would be written over the weekend!” Minho exclaimed, clearly upset.

 

“Yeah…we did agree on that, but the leader suddenly…” The scientist looked uncomfortable. “We don’t know what’s going on with him, but his attitude is really unstable.”

 

“I noticed that too…” Minho mumbled, slowly rubbing the back of his head.

 

“…he must be feeling a lot of stress.” I said quietly, glancing in between the two of them.

 

“That’s pretty obvious. We all are.” The scientist replied. “But he takes it out on us so rudely…”

 

“I’m sure after this Monday, everything will be a lot more peaceful.” Minho said. “I just wish he would have waited until we came back before starting the report.”

 

“Can’t we just find him and tell him so he can include it?” I asked.

 

The scientist and Minho both looked at me wide-eyed.

 

“That’s a request for death!” The scientist exclaimed.

 

“H-he didn’t know. Give him a break.” Minho said quickly, holding up his hands.

 

I blinked. “What do you mean?” I asked the scientist.

 

“When a scientist writes his report, any inkling of a distraction could mean the loss of the report.”

 

I glanced at Minho very confused. “Seriously?”

 

“That’s not the same as in your past life?” He asked me.

 

I shook my head. “I mean…some people had attention problems…but not that extreme.”

 

“Interesting..” The scientist mused.

 

I let out a small sigh, internally glad my attention span was still relatively normal.