(Jaejoong’s POV)

Kong ------- is a very special case. She has symptoms that only cartoon characters possess. Her mind works like a backwards horror. The things she tells me are incomprehensible. She does like to talk a excessively. Kong seems to hold no qualms about talking to the other nurses. I presume it is because she has grown used to the different people, but she never did seem like a little recluse. She tells me the most incredible stories.

Her imagination is wild and vast. I don’t know how she makes these things up. Kong tries to remind me of the times we were fighting for our lives, but I have no idea where she is coming from. I have never been in the danger she puts me in. She keeps begging me to remember. It was pitiful, sad. I felt sorry for this girl.

I committed to memory when she first moved into my neighborhood. All the ajumas were gossiping about her family. They said her brother wasn’t in school and she had been kicked out because she had episodes where she lost her self control. I didn’t like to hear the tales, but she is what led to my interest in psychology and therapy. I like to study how people think, but more importantly, I like to help those that need it. Kong just happens to be a girl that needs my help badly.

I wanted to get to the root of the problem. I asked her to tell me the full story. She lit up when, saying she hoped the stories would help me remember. It was just dismal. She first started off with telling me the names of the people she had met, other than me. There was a Kim Junsu, Choi Dae, Park Yoochun, Johnson Erika, Jung Yunho, Shin Amara, Shim Changmin, and Tawako Haruka. I recognized some of these names, and she was delighted when I told her. I didn’t have the heart to tell her how I knew of them. Most were famous for their own reasons. I started to connect her to these people, starting from Junsu.

He was a student at her previous school, the one she was kicked out of. When she was in her second year he was in his first. There are chances that they had met, but she only had a few months to know him. By the end of the first semester she was already gone, moved to a different part of Seoul. She might have remembered him from then and put him in her fantasies, or she had seen bits of the world cup and admired a player from Korea.

She probably did the same for the others. Jung Yunho is a rising star in the sports world. He has been in several events and won numerous awards. He even participated in the Olympics and won assortments of medals, gold was the prize shown often. Dae was an actress of the popular shows for people of Kong’s age. Erika was bringing more people into the dance world. She was dancing in many ballets, making her an internationally renowned artist. Another artist that was well known was Yoochun. The latest front man in the pop art world, Yoochun was racking in the dough with his realistic and abstract works.

Amara was an unusual person to bring up. I can only assume she is speaking of the same Shin Amara that was daughter to the supreme leader of North Korea. Kong must have been paying attention to the news or in history. She said the girl had died first. I won’t deny that she did die several years ago from a terrible disease, but not of murder.

There is no way I can put Kong and Changmin together. The only thing I could draw up is that Changmin now works at the convenience store across the street from where she used to take Tae Kwon Do lessons. She did only do it for a year, but at least that was a draw up. There is a possibility that they had met. Changmin did live in Seoul, even we could have crossed paths at one time.

I had a hard time accepting that Kong was pulling names from the media. She would somehow get hold of the missing persons lists and tell me how she had killed them. I just didn’t believe her when she told me that the voice had killed Haruka. I consider her schizophrenic on many levels, but she tells me that he only comes during these NIGHTMARES, and only a few of those. When she told me that Haruka was killed she wasn’t sad, she was happy.

“He killed Haruka, but he told me the most wonderful news! I almost fainted from joy when I understood the situation. The players, when they die in NIGHTMARE, they go back to their regular lives. That’s why you are here Jaejoong. It’s because QUEEN killed you. I just have to wait. One day I will be overpowered and killed, and someone else will take my place and I won’t remember a damned thing, but it’s okay, I will be safe again. Isn’t that the most perfect ending?”

“Haruka? Tawako Haruka?” She nodded. “The same Haruka that is in prison?” She bobbed her head enthusiastically. “The Haruka in prison for stealing funds from her company?” Then she stopped, because what I had said and what she had told me didn’t match up.

“That –I don’t get it. I heard her last words when she was taken away. She told me about the darts.”

“Haruka’s last words to the public were ‘if that virus hadn’t only lasted for a day I would never have been caught. Kora! Get that camera out of my face! I’m done talking! Kora!’ From what I understand, she has not died, or it would have been released to the public. It was a big scandal. She worked in an international company. The company was more famous than McDonalds and she stole trillions of yen from it.” She desperately tried to comprehend the moment, but she came to a wrong conclusion.

“It’s because she is leading a regular life now. Instead of making bombs she is hacking accounts. I get it. Just as you were a student before, she is serving a sentence as well. When I die I’m sure I will be in here for something. It was only the darts Jaejoong. I know I am a little off my rocker. It was the darts.” I didn’t understand what she was meaning about the darts. In her delusion she was pricked by a poisoned dart and started seeing things. The only people that didn’t make her psychotic were other players of NIGHTMARE. It wasn’t until she told me about the Russian side to her story that it became clear.

The Russian darts were a rising fad among the younger generation. From battles to the normal dart board, the toy was growing in popularity. It was being advertised around the world. It was no wonder she talked about it. I even played with the things a few times at college parties. But the way Kong talked about them; it was as if she didn’t know of their real use. She said that Yoochun had relayed the information about the darts to her when he was in Russia, but I seriously doubt the two have ever met.

I discussed Kong’s history with her mother. She was a caring old woman, already in her fifties. She had been teaching special education students during her career. She worked with young children, but when her daughter became sick, she dropped everything to help. The woman cared for ------- deeply, I could see the love flowing from her. I spared her the gruesome details and stuck to lighter subjects. I wanted to know if they had ever taken her out.

“There were many days when she begged to see the city. I often didn’t want to take her because she would get so frightened of meeting new people. It was hard to move, but we had to do it, and I am happy she met you and got along. On the good days, we would take her for a drive. There was one day when she was especially well and her father and I with her brother went to see an art show.”

“Were there any of Park Yoochun’s paintings there? Was he there himself?” It must have been hard to remember something from so long ago. I’m sure she wasn’t looking at the art; she must have been preoccupied by Kong.

“I believe we did see his works. He had many of his girlfriend, now wife. If he was there, we didn’t find him.” Had Kong thought of herself as his lover? She often described the paintings of her that Yoochun and put up. Had she loved the man? I can’t imagine how lonely she is.

It came upon me to gather these people and let them meet Kong. Then I realized it would be impossible. I could get Junsu and Changmin, if they were willing, but the others would be too difficult. Amara was dead, and Haruka was in prison. Yunho was in some country doing a triathlon and Erika was currently In Europe doing a performance. Yoochun was working as well. Dae was filming a new movie and there was no way to interrupt her schedule. I tried my best despite the hardships facing me.

I succeeded in bring Changmin and Junsu to the mental institution. They were each reluctant to meet a woman that couldn’t hold her bearings. Junsu remembered her from High School, and his recollection wasn’t pretty. Changmin knew nothing of her, but agreed with possibly selling a ramen or three to her.

Her reaction to the males was filled with hysteria. She shrieked upon seeing them and shunned them from her presence. I don’t know what she thought of them, but they laid a heavy blow to her. I calmed her down to the best of my capabilities. After she scared the two boys she tried to make amends with them. She lifted her covered wrist and showed them her bare skin, insisting the number 367 was on it. We couldn’t see anything but her finger traces the numerals onto it. It wasn’t there like she believed.

They left without any help being made to her mental state. I realized I hadn’t made much progress with her. It was then that I decided to push the reality onto her. It was difficult to tell her that these people had never died. She fought against my resolve, pushing that the voice was real, that I just couldn’t remember. Kong was fixed on her own make believe world. Nothing I said got passed her defenses. She was stuck and I couldn’t reach her, but I kept trying.

She started to attack people one morning, and she was put under a drug that knocked her out for a good portion of the day. She had the most remarkable awakening. I was by her bed when she rose, stretching her arms lightly and beckoning for me to come closer. I easily complied. Her arms softly wrapped around my shoulders and she hugged me affectionately. “Jaejoong oppa, what brings you to my room on this lovely day?” Her eyes were clear and void of any insanity. It was miraculous. My testy efforts to make her understand must have worked, maybe too well.

I brought up the nightmares, but she gave me a blank look. There was no recollection at all of her previous episodes. Using her own choice of words, she had died and forgotten all her horrors. I myself believe that she had an epiphany and finally saw the real truth. Her change was almost too unreal though. I can’t logically understand it, but I try my best.

In my thesis, one that has been considered for many awards, I state that the mind tries to make sense of everything, even the unexplainable. We created the world by giving ourselves a god. There are phenomenons that we put the supernatural in play to explain. And even when we are insane, we try our bests to keep on the understandable side. Kong gave reasonable explanations to her irrationality, even if she herself was not rational. If there was a way that we could be drawn into a world of nightmares, if we could meet people that we had never known before, if we could speak any language and die at any moment, if that was true, then she made the most sense in the world.

But I have never heard of this sight MidNightmare, so I can’t say there is any evidence behind it. There are no records of her arrest, and none of any of the other people she mentioned other than Haruka. I can never prove that there was a man named OUTLANDER, nor can I prove that he didn’t exist. We can never tell how much is true, we can only dream.

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Finished. Just a note I am giving a few years later. I wrote this story before I ever saw the movie Shutter Island or Battle Royale or any other movies you might relate to this. I literally based this entire fanfic off the little saying "You have until MIDNIGHT to crown me as your DICTATOR" thing. 

So, yeah, it's done, and I hope it didn't irritate you too much.