You woke up feeling oozy, your head heavy as you tried to push yourself up to a sitting position. Now you understand why people describe it as "being run over by a truck". This is definitely one hell of a big trailer that ran over you.

Just that you hadn't been ran over, you had fainted in your apartment, the last number you dialled was Kyungsoo's. Your eyes darted around, taking in the strange surroundings.

Wait.

This isn't your house.

And Kyungsoo was nowhere to be found.

 

You suddenly heard a light female voice chirping out: "Are you awake? I'll call the doctor." And she disappeared through the glass doors.

You were lying on a hospital bed in what looked like a laboratory of sorts. There's two connectors stuck to you, one to your arm, where you figured was transfusing liquid into your body, the other a tiny patch on your side of the head.

You blinked and was wondering whether you should lie down again because, man! Though you were't anywhere close to fainting, your head felt incredibly sore. Just when you were debating with yourself, someone came in and you recognized him almost immediately.

 

Dr Kim?

He was the one who tended to you when the mind reading first started.

"Hello ___________ , feeling better? Well, not that a throbbing headache is good to begin with, but at least you aren't blacking out." He gave you a sympathetic smile.

"So... what happened?" Your voice came out muffled and foreign to yourself.

"I'll let my colleague do the explaining to you later on, he is the better candidate especially since he's more well-tuned to your case."

My case? This wasn't making any sense and you were about to probe further when another person walked into the door.

 

The first thing that struck you was his height. He must be about the same as Chanyeol or even taller. And even though he looked young, the way he strutted towards you made you slightly intimidated, like a father about to lay punishment on his disobedient child.

You broke away from your trance when he spoke, "Hello _____________ ". He had a slight foreign accent you couldn't quite pick out. "How are you feeling?"

"Ok, I guess... except for a really bad headache."

"That's inevitable, considering how much damage was done to the chip, it could have been worse."

You raised your eyebrows. At the same time, you couldn't seem to read their minds at all.

 

He frowned as he looked towards the other doctor: "She doesn't seem to remember."

"Remember what?" You chipped in.

"I see that you are feeling a bit confused. I'm Wu Fan, you can call me Kris. And as you've already known, Dr Kim Joonmyun, my assistant in this case. You were roped in to help us in a mind reading experiment three weeks back. A microchip designed to translate people's brainwaves into intelligible words was planted in your brain. In the process, some cognitive changes mildly affected your memories. You might find yourself remembering your car keys, but don't remember when's the last time you drove. Or the name of your childhood friend and school teacher."

 

Like the apple crates, you thought to yourself.

 

"But all these are temporary and comes back to you gradually, though there are instances where some subjects' don't. The memories usually affected first are the most recent ones, including your visit to the lab and myself, who had performed the surgery on you. The first phase of your experiment barely ended, which probably explains why you couldn't remember yet."

 

"The first phase?"

"The first phase is the observation phase, where we monitor how well you respond to the brainwaves transmitting process. The chip records all the readings which was then sent to us here..." He points to a computer at the end of the room. "Where we diagnose and analyse the neurotic changes. When necessary, we step in and stop the experiment especially if the brain is reacting negatively with the chip. When the first phase ended, you'll be called in to share your experience with us."

You nodded, still dumbfounded from the surreality. Seeing that you've no questions, the doctor continued.

"The second phase, which lasts anywhere from 3-7 days, is usually the realization of empowerment. The user will find themselves able to manipulate this new ability to their own advantage. Unless detrimental actions are employed, we usually don't interfere until after the experiment ended."

 

"Detrimental?"

"You must understand that, mind-reading is a highly coveted ability, when misused, it can cause great harm to others and oneself. That's why our studies are always conducted over a fairly short period. In the event the individual is recognized by having such powers, having mentioned or deduced by others around him, we will step in to halt the experiment."

"H-How do you guys know?"

"Besides recording brainwaves, the chip also registers all the speech and sounds tranversed through your brain."

"Meaning...?"

"We can hear what you are talking and what people are saying to you."

 

You widened your eyes at that.

"This is important because such intelligence should never be exposed to others, in, and out of the country, especially parties who might be interested in developing this technology themselves. Your life could be in danger just by letting others find out what you can do. You were made to consent to this when you first volunteered yourself by the way.

"I can't believe I actually allowed myself to do this."

"All the volunteers have their own reasons,  ___________ , and my job is to study the effect of brainwaves technology used in everyday terms, not interfere in their personal decisions."

 

You nodded. "And what did you say about the damage of the... chip?"

The doctor sighed and looked at Dr Kim, who shrugged and replied.

"The person who accompanied you here, Mr Do Kyungsoo, is one of the test subjects, like yourself."

 

You held one hand over your mouth to stifle the gasp that came through.

"This was something we had expected but the probability was low. When two microchips comes together, they fight for dominance to decipher the brainwaves. This is usually inconclusive but under extremely close proximity, can cause huge damage resulting in cognitive disturbances, which in your case, is that the chip was negatively affected and in turn caused confusion and your blacking out. We had been prepared for a acquaintance but... didn't guess you two would become lovers."

 

You blushed slightly. "So, I can't get near Kyungsoo?"

"You can, but probably not within a metre." Dr Kim continued.

"So this is going to last... 3-7 days?"

"For yourself, because the chip was slightly damaged, I'll be removing it next morning." Kris replied.

"How about Kyungsoo?"

"He'll follow through the phase 2 examination."

 

You nodded again slowly. "O-K..."

"I'll see you in the morning. You'll be staying here for the night. Dinner will be served shortly once you are transferred to the recovery ward. You'll be eating earlier for preparation of tomorrow's surgery, so, good night, _____________ ." Kris smiled wanely and walked off.

 

Dr Kim took over the seat Wu vacanted next to you and asked warmly, "So did you do what you set out to do?"

You were befuddled by his question. "What I wanted to do?"

"Well, you told Dr Wu you are doing this to find out the answer to a question. I heard that whilst reviewing the video of the cross-examination, so did you?"

"I-I'm not sure."

"Well, you mentioned someone's brother, whom you believed hold the answer to your question."

"What was the... name?"

 

"Chanbyul? Chanyeol?"

 

_________________