“Name?”

“Y/N”

“Age?”

“22”

“Occupation?”

“Student”

“Ok, please have a seat over there. Dr. Kim will be seeing you in just a moment.”

You walk over to the seating area, looking around at the clean, simple room with some chairs and a coffee table cluttered with a few health magazines.

There was only one other person in the room, and he was just looking out the window not even noticing you walk over and take the seat next to him. He had black curly hair that you wouldn’t describe as long, but it wasn’t short either. His eyes were droopy and he looked really bored. You were never the type to start conversations, but you figured you’d be seeing this guy around a lot since you’d probably have to come back to this psychology clinic more than once, and none of those magazines really appealed to you at the moment.

“Hi, I’m Y/N”

The guy looks up at you before responding.

“Yoongi”

“Is this your first time here?”

“Second”

You nod, realizing that this was a man of few words and feeling embarrassed to think that you were actually confident enough in your social abilities to start up a conversation with some guy who could have depression for all you knew.

“Y/N?”

You turn around to see a tale, slim, olive skinned man with golden brown hair standing at the edge of the hallway. He signals for you to follow him to his office down the hall, a whiff of vanilla sweeping past your nose as the air picks up the psychologist’s scent and bringing it back to you, who was walking behind him.

“Are you graduating soon?” Dr. Kim asks as he offers you a seat on the leather couch facing directly across from him.

“Yeah, this semester” You answer.

“Were you referred by your primary physician or did you see one of our ads online?” Dr. Kim asks, taking out a pen from his coat pocket.

“My mom signed me up for this” You respond, sighing and remembering how worried she was when she ran into your bedroom at the early hours of dawn to find you covered in cold sweat. “She thinks I have some kind of mental disorder because I scream in the middle of the night while I’m asleep and I can’t remember my dreams.” You explain.

“Have you ever been able to recall your dreams?” Dr. Kim asks.

“No, I don’t think so, at least as far as I can remember, I’ve always had this problem”

“So nothing has changed?”

“Well, they’re just more intense now”

“How so?”

“It’s like I can feel everything that’s happening, but only mentally”

“Like only the emotional part?”

“Yeah”

Dr. Kim jots down a couple of notes, slender fingers gripping the pen firmly as he moves it swiftly across the paper. You weren’t sure if these sessions were actually going to help you deal with your condition, since for all you knew, you had no control over your own dreams, and all the issues technically only existed in your sub-consciousness.

“Do you feel stressed in school?”

“There’s a good amount of pressure from the upcoming finals, but nothing out of the ordinary.”

“How’s your social life?”

“I’m introverted, but I have a few close friends that I spend most of my time with.”

“Relationship status?”

You pause, wondering why he would ask such a question. You look at his face closely for the first time, trying to read his expression but you couldn’t squeeze anything out of his deep brown eyes. His features were very clean, tall nose bridge, slim face, and smooth sun-kissed skin. Extremely attractive and it makes you more nervous than you want to be right then. Dr. Kim notices the awkward pause and proceeds to explain.

“There’s no ulterior motive here. I just need to get a better understanding of the details of your life.”

“I’m single. Never been in a relationship.” You finally answer, feeling a bit of discomfort at how personal this was all getting, although it was expected since it was a psychology clinic after all.

“How about your relationship with your parents”

“Always been good. They are both very loving and I usually feel like I can tell then anything.”

“Any siblings?”

“Only child.”

The session goes on for about an hour, and by the end of it Dr. Kim has pretty much collected all the standard information he needs.

You quickly thank him and walk out of his office. Although only an hour had gone by, you felt like it had been centuries. The questions just kept coming and the needle on of the clock hanging in the room just wouldn’t budge for the longest time.

Walking back out to the waiting area, you notice that there are a couple more people waiting to be called, but Yoongi is gone.

...

“He’s been labeled as one of the smartest men in this generation!” Hoseok says as he twirls around on his chair to face you. “We have to go meet this guy! Maybe we’ll even be lucky enough to be accepted as one of his graduate students!”

“Hobi, don’t get too ahead of yourself now. We don’t even know how selective he is of his students, and my GPA is looking really sad” You reply from across the table. “I’ll be lucky if I’m accepted into any program at this rate.”

The two of you were studying for finals in one of the study rooms in the university library, and Hoseok was getting distracted… again. That boy couldn’t focus on one thing for longer than an hour to save his life, and you used to always joke that he had ADHD or something.

“Hey, don’t be so pessimistic. You just need to show passion for research.” Hoseok says, walking over and plopping down on the chair next to you. He drags his laptop over to show you the webpage that was currently open on the screen.

“Youngest MD-PhD graduate in neuroscience history?” You say as you read the brief intro at the top of the webpage.

“You know those programs take a minimum of 8 years AFTER undergrad right?” Hoseok says, trying to spark your interest.

“Yeah, I know, since it’s 4 years of medical school combined with 4 years of graduate research” You say, not even looking at him because you were still engrossed in the article displayed on his laptop screen.

“He’s only 26, and I heard he’s also smoking hot,” Hoseok says, playfully wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

You look at him and roll your eyes, softly punching him in the arm to get him to stop messing around. “And his appearance matters because…?” You scoff and turn your attention back to the article.

“Hey if you don’t want him, I’ll gladly-“

“What does he research anyways?” You ask, cutting him off and scrolling down the page.

“Something about cognitive perception, consciousness, and the entire universe being a reflection of our brains.” Hoseok says, trying to recall the actual reason why he was interested in this professor in the first place.

“Well, here it says he’s a skilled neurosurgeon.” You remark, pointing at the virtual words on the screen. “Man, I have to admit that’s really impressive.” You whisper, but it’s barely audible as you continue to read more in depth about his actual research.

“Yeah, neurosurgeons make more bank than any other kind of doctor. Those brain surgeries are the hardest kind there is, and if that wasn’t hard enough this guy also has the duty of spending hours in a lab AND give lectures to university students…….”

Hoseok’s words begin to get drowned out as you’re being absorbed by the section talking about this neuroscientist/surgeon’s research:

The human brain is the most complex structure in the universe, and understanding consciousness has been one of the most difficult unsolved problems in the field of neuroscience today. My research focuses on uncovering how the electrochemical signaling between neurons paired with the neural circuitry of our brain allows us to ultimately perceive the world. As the father of neuroscience once said “As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the structure of the brain will also be a mystery.” My team uses a computational approach to explain the mechanisms of cognitive perception and consciousness, a topic that continues to be shrouded in mystery. This breakthrough research could change everything we know about the universe and deepen our own understanding of the human mind.

“Y/N?”

You snap out of your trance as Hoseok waves his hand in front of your eyes.

“Didn’t I tell you it was cool?” He grins, proud that he got you interested in the article he found.

“Well, if we want to have a chance at becoming his students, we’d better ace those finals” You say, sighing and turning back to your developmental neuroscience textbook.

Hoseok, whines in protest, but gives in because he knows there’s still a lot of material to go through.

But even as you were reading the chapter on Hox genes and how they control gene expression in the early embryonic stages, half of your mind is still thinking about the article you had just read.

Reflection of the structure of our brains…….

.......