CUBE ASYLUM

Psychiatry refers to a field of medicine focused specially on the mind, aiming to study, prevent, and treat mental disorders in humans.

 

 

 

 

Choi Gina had Just arrived from her conference in Canada. She had accepted the invitation of an old friend to visit his psychiatric clinic. As a friend, she was amazed by the invitation, but as a doctor…

 

“Mr. Hong, I’m truly honored by your choice but I am not sure if I should take the responsibility over the clinic. I am not experienced enough.”, Gina tried to refuse her ex-mentor’s offer.

“At least come to visit. I’ll show you some of the patients who’s been here the longest.”, the old  man on the other side of the line insisted.

“Ok… just a visit.”, Gina gave up and they hang up the phone.

 

 

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“Gina, my child.”, Mr. Hong greeted as the pretty young woman walked in his direction.
“You look more beautiful as time passes.”, he complimented her as a grandpa spoiling his granddaughter with words.

“Mr. Hong, I missed you too. I missed everything about this country.”, Gina hugged him and sighed as she looked around , not realizing the dark atmosphere around the area of the asylum.

They chatted for less than half an hour. Mr. Hong wanted to show his possible successor everything about the clinic. He needed Gina to understand why no one else could take care of his patients but her.

 

 

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FIRST PATIENT – YOON DOOJOON, THE LONELY MAN

 

Through the corridors of Cube Asylum the two doctors walked in silence. Gina remembered well the first time she had been there, in that clinic. She was young and had just started her studies in college. She was thirsty for knowledge and she wanted to understand and then help people that had suffered like she had, people who had had problems that seemed to be bigger than themselves.

 

“Here, this is the first patient you must meet. He is constantly talking about his girlfriend. He says she is coming to take him home but nobody had ever came looking for him.”

Gina looked at the man through the big glass window. The room looked like a big white square, with a white table, a white chair and a white bed. There was another small room that she assumed was a toilet. Everything was stupidly clean.

 

“What’s he doing?”, she asked with curiosity when she noticed the patient was murmuring something she didn’t understand while writing something on a paper. Actually… he was drawing.

“He does it all the time.”, Mr. Hong said and pocked the glass, catching the patient’s attention.

Gina froze when the patient locked eyes with her. It seemed like he could read her mind but at same time he seemed so shocked and impressed.

“You…”, the patient mouthed and Gina couldn’t listen to his voice. The glass was soundproof.

He put a paper on the glass, revealing what he was drawing. It was a perfect humble portrait of herself.

“Is it…?”, she started.

“Oh! It looks like you.”, Mr. Hong completed, fixing his eyeglasses and smiling at the young woman beside him while the patient looked at her with a very impressed expression.

Gina touched the glass, her  fingertips on the drawing that was so similar to her. She admired the piece and smiled and the patient.

 

“It… does.”, she said low and the two doctors continued their walk as the patient smiled, his eyes following the female figure until he couldn’t see her anymore. 

 

 

SECOND PATIENT –  JANG HYUNSEUNG, THE TROUBLEMAKER

 

   “When he arrived he said he listened to someone talking to him, telling him to do things. He said it was a girl.”, Mr. Hong explained, looking to his patient through a perfect clean glass window.

“Is he taking any medicine?”, Gina asked, taking a fast glance at the patient’s historical.

“Shhh…. He seems to be talking to her.”, Mr. Hong interrupted and watched as the patient laughed at a joke they didn’t hear.

“Hi, doc.”, the patient mouthed and waved. He looked to his side, as if there was someone there and said something the doctors didn’t understand. He laughed once again.

 

“Is he getting better?.”, Gina talked, watching the patient as he got up from the bed, always talking to an insivible someone.

“He is ok now. When he arrived he looked terrible. He was not eating, not sleeping, not drinking water… he had tried to kill himself several times. Such a troublemaker.”, Mr. Hong explained.

“Was it the voice telling to do so?”, Gina asked, trying to hide her interest in the patients.

Mr. Hong looked at her with a fierce gaze. He then looked back at the patient, who was now drinking a cup of water, still talking to this invisible friend.

“This voice… the girl was telling him not to do it. She was trying to help him. He said her name is Hyuna.”, Mr. Hong said and walked a few steps. Gina followed him.

 

 

 

THIRD PATIENT -  LEE KIKWANG, THE ONE SENTENCE SONG DANCER

 

“Da-da-da-da-dance… put your dancing shoooooooes!!!”, the patient danced the same steps non-stop.

“He doesn’t know who he is and he keeps on forgetting things in a short period of time.”, Mr. Hong explained before Gina could ask.

They watched as the patient repeated the steps five times more.

“Is it Alzheimer?”, Gina guessed, not expecting the patient to change the moves.

 

“Yes, a very precocious case of Alzheimer syndrome. I have never seen such a young case and such a complicated one.”, Mr. Hong told.

“He is improving through treatment though. He can almost  remember the whole choreography for this sentence of the song.”, he proudly explained.

“For how long has he been here?”, Gina asked, excited for the patient’s recover.

“Almost one year.”, Mr. Hong’s smiled faded away as fast as it had been formed.

 

For this patient there was no hurry. He didn’t know what day it was, he didn’t remember the month of the year and he didn’t care about the time of the day. It seemed like he was locked in this same moment where he’s learning the choreography for this song and he’ll never leave.

“All we know about him is what is written on his ID card and documents. He had the address of the clinic written on a piece of paper and he probably forgot why he came and where he was before that.”, Mr. Hong sighed tiredly.

They walked a few meters until the next patient's room in that corridor.

 

 

 

FOURTH PATIENT -  YONG JUNHYUNG, THE TWO FACED LOVER 

 

“This one is a  problem.”, Mr. Hong started right away as soon as they could see him through the glass window.

“Double personality…”, Gina read the patient’s historical and looked at him, expecting to see the personality twist.

 

“I had to lock him once, I had to put chains in his bed.”, Mr. Hong told, remembering the last nurse he had employed there.

“He got a little too aggressive one night and it was... complicated.”, he explained.

“Did he hurt anyone?”, Gina asked, she was concerned about violent patients.

“He… He tried to kill the other personality. Go Hara, his girlfriend, the only person he has for him. She brought him here some weeks ago, she said he was almost living two different lives. She found out by accident, when she got to his house and there were… things there.”, Mr. Hong looked at Gina with a suspicious look.

“Women, guns, dirty money, drugs… he had cheated, lied and cheated again. The girl was trying to save him. Guess she cares about him more than about their relationship.”, he completed.

“One persona was trying to sabotage the other.”, Gina understood.

 

 

 

 

FIFTH PATIENT – YANG YOSEOB, THE SCARED KITTY

 

“Well, this patient needs a little bit more of atention."Mr. Hong started.

He is afraid.”,he simply said.

“Afraid of us?”,Gina asked, confused by the doctor’s words.

“He is afraid of everything.”, the doctor looked at he with a not funny expression.

 

They observed as the patient kept himself inside an invisible square on his bed. He looked around once in a while as if he was afraid the walls would fall, revealing a terrible creature that would devour him.

“His family brought him here 4 months ago. They said he kept on locking himself in the room.”, Mr. Hong sighed.

“But everybody likes to spend some time alone.”, Gina shrugged.

“True. They got concerned when he started packing food, water and clothes in an underground cave he himself prepared. He was talking about a zombie apocalypse and he wanted to be prepared.” , the elder told her the story.

“He seems a little fragile.”, Gina smiled tenderly to the patient when he looked at her. He blinked a few times and finally smiled at her back.

“Hello.”, she could almost listen his sweet voice. He seemed so innocent. Even the thought of harming one single stripe of hair from that young man should be a crime.

 

Fear keeps you aware of things that may hurt you, but when fear is bigger than the things that can hurt you won't you just stop living because you're afraid to die?

 

SIXTH PATIENT -  SON DONGWOON, THE ALWAYS SICK MAN

 

“This patient is the most recent one. He is hypochondriac.”, the doctor explained, handing Gina a file with the patient’s historical.

“He takes this amount of medicines?”, she asked in shock.

“No, of course not.”, the doctor denied.
“He just thinks he does.”, he completed.

 

The patient was cleaning his hands with alcohol, he had said he had lots of germs so he wanted to keep at least his hands clean.

Gina noticed his clothes were different from the other patients.

“Why are his clothes different from the others’?”, she asked.

“Because he said he is allergic to some fabrics and must wear only this very specific type.”, Mr. Hong said, not taking his eyes from the patient.

“Now, look.”, he said.

 

Both doctors watched as the patient took a cup of cool water and a pill. He stopped for a minute before throwing the plastic cup in the trash can.

“He just took his vitamin C, he says he’s got the flu.”, Mr. Hong smiled.

“But hypochondria is not such an issue to be treated here, is it?”, Gina asked, once again confused by her mentor’s words.

“It is not. His mother called me one day and I agreed in keeping him here. He had prepared everything for his funeral without telling anyone. He said he was sick and he was about to die soon. He said to feel pain and many other symptoms of the most rare illnesses. “, Gina heard and stared at the patient.

 

Thinking you’re sick is even worse than being sick for real. If it’s true you can take medicines, rest and get well. But if it’s only in your mind it doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll always think you’re still sick.

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While walking back through that same corridor, Choi Gina looked at every single patient she had just met.

They were all so special in their own ways…

 

She should accept Mr. Hong's invitation. Who would be crazy enough not to work at a place like that?