Mnemonics (must-know before continuing):

Virtual Paradise - a game that requires a person's subconscious while playing.
GROWL - Game Restrictions Officers World League, an international security organization aimed to protect the memos. They are shapehifters in Virtual Paradise, most oftenly in the form of wolves.
Alpha - just like in a wolf's pack, they are the leaders.
Beta - assistance to the Alphas, they consist of people with high intelligence and programmers.
Omega - the leaders and teachers of rookies, they are the soldiers of GROWL and they acquire certain specialties in weaponry and combat.
YG - Yes! to Gameover, a rebel group that threatens the government.
Memoirs - containment for memos.
Memos - people in Virtual Paradise, most commonly reffered to as dreamers or sleeper.

Welcome, to another day in Paradise!

8:00

The clock ticks, time moves on. Time never really stops for anyone, it just keeps going on and on.

Suho feels suffocated, uncomfortable even though he’s sitting down on a comfortable chair, a tall glass of Mango juice in front of him but he has no appetite for it.

He looks attentive, listening and understanding everything the president is saying in those sugar-coated words that is broadcasted throughout South Korea, to its small population of awake and suffering individuals that needed to survive after the war.

They are left to pick up the pieces of war and spoilt and broken things with little hope of finding a solution.

Hush. You have to listen.

He tells himself though he has already given up on listening.

“How long will I have to listen to his little of rainbows and unicorns?”

Suho looks to his fellow co-leader, Baekhyun fanning himself bored and has already drunk his second round of juice, leaving the glass full of ice cubes.

“Baekhyun, please give some respect to our president.” Good-mannered Lay looking relieved to have something to put his attention to; he is also one of the co-leaders.

“I don’t care.” Baekhyun says not even looking at Lay and waves him away like he’s an annoying insect flying around his head. “Chen! How many hours till my suffering ends?”

“3 more hours of killing your ear softly, Baekhyun.” Chen, Baekhyun’s beta answers from behind.

Baekhyun let out a noise which is either that of a dying mouse or a wailing whale.

“Juice. I need juice to fill my bladder.” Baekhyun says already looking forward for his trips to the restroom.

“I’m not your butler.” Chen says annoyed but stood up to get juice, because he too had finished his drink.

“You shouldn’t treat your beta that way.” Lay says looking at Chen who is walking away. “Betas are here for assistance not to have someone you can order around.”

“I have enough of your golden rules. Shut up.” Baekhyun as usual is ill-mannered towards everyone.

“And I have enough of your annoying noise. I feel like my eardrums just busted.” Kris, the last of the four Alphas finally joined in. He has the talent of making comical conversations with Baekhyun which is the amusement that they all need now.

“No one wants your opinion. It doesn’t matter, like your eardrums.” Baekhyun answers annoying Kris because it is one of his specialties.

“No one wants you here.” Kris curses glaring at the small alpha.

“I am the son of the Vice President, of course I am needed here. How else would we get a huge fund?” Baekhyun asks knowing all too well the benefits he gets, he looks back at Kris with a blank expression only to annoy the other.

“Ok. That’s enough now, hyung.” Chanyeol says when Kris almost stood up from his seat.

Kris swats away his beta’s hand in annoyance and sips on his orange juice.

“I want champagne. Do they know we’re adults? Not some teenagers who gets settled by juice.” Kris complains.

“The juice is a little too sweet.” Lay agrees.

“You are acting like a kid and Lay should never be drunk.” Luhan needed to lean closer, in order to be heard.

“I am not acting like a kid, I am acting like a king. Learn the difference.” Kris defends himself.

Luhan rolls his eyes and leaned back to his seat to whisper something at Xiumin, who is the only one who had been listening to everything the president is saying. The others are napping, not even bothering to hide their boredom anymore.

Suho is somewhat spared to listen more to these children’s dilemma when his phone alerted him of a call.

He excuses himself, walking out of his seat and swiftly making his way at the back of the hall where there is less noise to be heard.

He answers the call and was greeted by bad news.

“Sir, there has been a security breach.”

“Hey. You ok? We’ll be there soon.”

A voice. Strong but soft comforts her, she tries to open her eyes but is too tired to do so.

She fights of her sleepiness but loses.

.

.

.

“Relax. It’s ok.”

Her vision is blurry, her eyes are filled of moving lights above her but somehow she realizes the lights are not moving. They are the ones moving, the mechanical sounds fills her ears and she tries to stand up but she is still half-conscious, her body weak and jellified.

She closes her eyes once more.

.

.

.

Hushed tones awoke her but she is far from waking. The sounds are muffled to her ears; she couldn’t make out any single word from the sounds they make.

She could see their blurred figures above her and she blinks and gasps for a word, for something but with no success. Her tongue remains limp inside her lips, her vision unfocused and mind uncontrollably hazy.

She blinks a few times before drifting back to sleep.

.

.

.

“Our rebellion has officially started.”

YG as they call him had proclaimed to the leaders of each memoirs that are facing him. There are 12 of them, one leader for each group of people who works on each memoir monitoring the 12 memoirs of South Korea, one of the leaders missing.

Everyone is calm, but the atmosphere tensed. A year of no development but now they had something to work on, a progress, a possible solution to Virtual Paradise which is the very cause of war and suffering of their country. It must be put to stop.

“From now on, we have to be more careful and be precise of our movement. We plan before doing actions because what we have been able to build in a whole year can be destroyed in a day. We cannot afford to lose everything now.” YG continues his eyes scanning the members of his rebellion. “The virus is killing memos, the government blinds our remaining population with words of encouragement and does nothing to shut down Virtual Paradise even though they had promised to do so, they will cause a slaughter of the entire memoirs but we will not let that happen.”

Everyone agrees some nods and most utter a “yes”.

CL went in, head up high as she walks towards her empty seat.

“Late as always, I see.” YG says eyeing CL.

“Sorry sir. But I needed to talk to my group; we succeeded in taking memo 88.” CL says which gains whispers from the leaders, some looking at her in disbelief.

“We only needed the data, we know that. But it has been encrypted. We had to improvise and since her brain contains most of the data we stole her from GROWL.”

“You stole a memo? That is reckless, too risky. You just made GROWL come after us.” Lee Hi from memoir 3 says in disbelief.

“Yes. I did less than an hour ago. As I said we needed to improvise, we couldn’t take hold of the data and neither should GROWL have access to it. The odd thing is she has survived from the virus.” CL continues to amuse her fellow rebels. “We don’t know how but we will find out as soon as she wakes. She still needs to wake herself up; she has been sleeping for too long.”

“How certain are you that we will not be detected?” G-Dragon from memoir 1 asks.

“A hundred and one percent, the betas weren’t there it was easy enough for me to hack their system. Bom and Minzy did their magic and we are lucky enough that yesterday is the monthly meeting of the government. We had enough time to cover our tracks.” CL answers. “We thought about this thoroughly.”

“Seems like it.” G-Dragon muses.

“Memo 88 is our key on understanding this virus. We will modify it so that we’ll be able to shut down the game without killing every single one of the memos. All I need is time; we cannot underestimate GROWL we have to distract them. Any distraction is good enough as long as it keeps them away for a while.” CL continues.

“So this is your plan? Divert their attention?” ­­Tablo from memoir 2 questions.

“Yes, drop false tracks and connection keep them away from here.” CL answers.

“And what makes you think we’ll agree?” PSY asks.

“I didn’t think you will, PSY. I know you will. This is the closest we have in discovering a cure to stop this addiction.” CL utters confidently looking to every single leader, her eyes stopping at YG.

“This could be our only chance.” CL eyes each and every one of them, with a newfound hope. “You will help me right?”

“There’s no need to ask. We are family, we help each other.”YG confirms and it ends their meeting with everyone’s agreement.

They all act as one family after all.

This time she’s fully awake, her eyes stinging and swollen from too much sleep her limbs almost stiff but she moves them and stretches before she sat up.

The sudden motion causes her dizziness, her head suddenly pounding with pain like being hammered repeatedly and she groans as her stomach rumbles in protest.

A glass of water and a small pill awaits her on the bedside table; she took it without hesitation and swallowed it with a big gulp. Feeling a wee bit better, she stands up feeling small in the huge shirt and pajamas barely hanging onto her frame.

She thinks this time, ignores the aching of her head and wracks her brain to remember what happened and where she is.

She vaguely remember the glimpses she has trying to wake, and all she remembers are the moving streaks of light above her and she isn’t sure if they were stars or actual light.

The door opens silently from behind her which she is oblivious to.

“Hey.”

She jumps in surprise, her heart pounding.

She looks at the stranger, a young lady with long blonde hair and strong steady posture that suggest she works in the military fills her eyes.

“I’m CL. Do you remember your name?” She asks expecting an immediate answer.

She opens to answer but her mind stays blank, she stares at CL.

“I-I don’t know.” She starts to panic, her heart unable to calm down by the sudden revelation. “I don’t understand. I don’t remember my name, I—

“Stay calm.” CL walks towards her, letting the confused girl sit down and CL sat beside her.

“Sandara Park. That’s your name so please calm yourself.” CL says and the panicked girl nods. “Ok. Go and get dressed, we have a lot to talk about.”

Sandara can only nod in response, the aftershock of realizing she had no clue what her name is and she doesn’t understand what is happening to her and she doesn’t want to trust anyone but she doesn’t really have any choice but to obey.

She didn’t take too long to change. She is given a white medium sized t-shirt that hangs loose on her thin frame; her pants are too long but fit her waist perfectly. She glanced at her image in the bathroom mirror; she brushed her hair with her fingers a bit conscious on how much of a mess her long brown hair is.

“Where am I?” Sandara asks, finally calm and collected, needed information on where she is.

“I’ll answer your questions later. For now, let’s get you something to eat.” CL says motioning Sandara to follow.

Sandara is reluctant but follows anyway; filling her eyes with the unfamiliar location she is in. She wonders if she is in trouble but terminates the idea, she didn’t want to be negative. She needs to know what happened to her and why for some reason she does not remember anything about herself, she tries to remember but as soon as she can almost grasp a clear memory it completely disappears leaving her mind hazy.

CL brought her to a dining hall, where only a few occupies the empty tables and seats and those few stares at her with newfound interest which leaves her uneasy being the subject of their attention.

“Bon appetite.” CL gives her an assuring smile.

She has plenty of questions but Sandara is undeniably starving so she ate in quick biting and swallows filling her hunger, and the food is delicious so poise is forgotten as she gulped down the last of her water.

“So where am I?” She asks.

CL looks at her as if bracing herself for whatever reaction she will have… “Welcome to Reality.”

“What do you mean?” She asks confused.

“I meant reality. The real world, out of paradise.” She answers clearing . “Don’t freak out, please. I need you to listen and believe me.”

CL eyes Sandara as she pulls out a touch pad, transparent. Her nails were clean cut and somehow it doesn’t match her.
She shows up a photo of Sandara Park, description at the side. The girl stares at her photo, her hair was shorter the tips resting on her shoulders. Sandara unconsciously runs a hand through her long waist length hair, tangled and dry.

“This is you, your profile.” CL explains and points at one of the description.

“Memo 88.” Sandara reads.

CL nods. “As a player you are called or named memo 88 and by player I meant, gamer someone who plays games on a digital console. Games from oculus rift upgraded to Virtual Paradise, where in a drug is injected into your system in order for the gamer to feel that he is in the game Virtual Paradise which gives a lot of options, depending on the player’s reference.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Sandara asks though she already guessed why. She needed to hear it from CL’s pretty red lips.

“You are a memo, a gamer in Virtual Paradise.” CL hesitates to continue but she does. “You’ve been in the game for almost seven years.”

Sandara felt light headed, but she calmed herself swallowing the lump of confusion in . She suddenly found herself shaking her head, refusing to believe this woman, a stranger’s words.

“That’s impossible.” Sandara exclaims earning a few eyes on her. “Is this a joke? It’s not funny.”

“No.” CL keeps a straight face.

“And what makes you think I will believe you? A total stranger I just met?” She asks fist clenched in denial to the reality offered in front of her.

“You will believe me because I know you more than you know yourself.” CL states confidently. “You don’t remember anything, remember?”

“I- I—" She is shaking burying her face on her palms. She closes her eyes opening them to look at CL, hands removed from her face.

“I know it is too much for you.” CL says and she sounded warm, considering. “Here. It contains everything you need to know.”

She receives the touch pad and a black envelope, hands shaking afraid the light gadget she would drop.

“I don’t think you need more sleep but restraining yourself wouldn’t be good either. The best you can do is to rest your limbs.” CL motions her to follow and again, she follows her feeling lost and uncertain on what to do.

She figures that she would listen to CL for now. She doesn’t feel in danger after all, just lost and confused eyes focused in each turns they take just in case she needs to escape.

But to where?

She asks herself since all she knows is going to the dining hall.

She was left alone in the same room and she started getting to know herself.

The information is too much, she doesn’t really remember a thing about every bits of thing typed and printed on the papers she is looking at. Her head began to ache a bit from confusion. She tries to remember, almost grasping a concrete memory but it flies back to the back of her mind.

It frustrates her.

She hadn’t notice that she had crumpled a piece of paper, she quickly uncrumpled it soothing the paper down though it wasn’t the same before.

It shows the photo of her family containing herself, her father, her mother and her brother, a brother she doesn’t even remember.

Author's Note:

Yes, Sandara and Cheondung/Thunder's father in our story is Cha Seung Won and the mother is none other than Jjangmae ♥