Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

Jinwoon pulled me away from the man. We ran with Yoona and Jungshin following us. Yoona is still screaming while Jungshin shouts order. “Get upstairs! Go into my room upstairs!” We reached Jungshin’s room and he immediately went to his things. Yoona and Jinwoon both pace the floor while I stood rooted in spot, the soft brown eyes who stared at me occupying my mind.

“What are we doing here? We should go out! We should call the authorities!” Yoona said, clearly on the verge of a panic attack.

“Are you looking for your phone? I can use mine, let’s call the cops,” Jinwoon asked Jungshin who is busy looking for something in the boxes on the floor.

“Will you get in trouble if we call the cops? Is this a matter of national security?” Yoona asked again but Jungshin ignored us all and kept muttering words like ‘Impossible!’, ‘It can’t be!’ and ‘It’s not true, no!’ while he rummages the boxes obviously looking for something. I walked closer to him and sat beside him. “Jungshin-ah, what is happening? Who is that man?” I asked him with my soft voice. Looking at Jungshin, it seems like he is also on the verge of a panic attack but with a different reason.
“Do you know him?” Jinwoon asked too.

“Of course I know him. You should know him too, Jinwoon,” Jungshin said, nodding his head slightly while gripping in his hands what looks like a picture.

“I don’t know that guy. It’s the first time that I saw him,” Jinwoon said.

“You said that the machine is more than forty years old. How come there is a human inside in it and you don’t know?” I asked, standing up. Yoona walked to me and linked her arms through mine.

“I didn’t know that there is someone inside because that machine is not mine. Uncle Jonghyun designed and made that machine. The guy inside is Jung Yonghwa, Uncle Jonghyun’s best friend. Jinwoon’s uncle,” Jungshin said, showing us the picture in his hands. We all huddled together and looked at the photo of Jungshin’s uncle, Lee Jonghyun in his mid-twenties together with the man we just saw who according to Jungshin is Jung Yonghwa, smiling brightly at the camera.

“Jung Yonghwa? As in Jung Yonghwa, MY uncle?” Jinwoon asked, his normal small eyes bulging out from shock. Jinwoon shook his head as if clearing the fog in his brains. “He can’t be my uncle. Dad’s brother died in an accident –“

“Exactly forty years ago. The same time when my uncle died,” Jungshin interrupted Jinwoon. “Did you know what accident? How exactly he died?”

Jinwoon kept on shaking his head. “I don’t know. Dad won’t tell. He just said that Uncle Yonghwa died in an accident.”

“Are you telling me that the guy we saw is supposed to be dead? That we just witness a dead guy rise from his death?” Yoona asked, looking back and forth to Jinwoon and Jungshin waiting for answers from the two.

“He looks alive to me. He is breathing,” I added my observation. “What exactly happened Jungshin?”

“I just realized that that machine is a cryotank. Uncle Jonghyun is studying cryonics back then. It is a preservation of human being or animal using a very low temperature. Uncle Jonghyun finished studying its effect on animals and went straight to human being. Jung Yonghwa was the test subject. He was supposed to be put to sleep for a year, preserving his body and freezing him making him unable to age. Before the year is up, an accidental fire erupted in Uncle Jonghyun’s laboratory. Uncle Jonghyun died trying to save Jung Yonghwa. Both of them are pronounced dead in the accident. Those things downstairs are the only things that were saved from the fire. The fire didn’t destroy the cryotank and Jung Yonghwa was left there frozen in time,” Jungshin explained.

“Oh my God! What should we do?” Yoona asked, looking at the glass window of Jungshin’s room and trying to locate Jung Yonghwa.

“We need to take him to a hospital. He needs to be checked,” I suggested after digesting what Jungshin said.

“We just can’t take him there. What will we say if they asks question? There is zero success in reviving a human who undergo cryopreservation all over the world until now. If this comes out, it will create a big mess and it won’t be good to Jung Yonghwa,” Jungshin said.

“Let’s call my dad and bring him to our hospital. Dad can make the arrangement so it stays quiet,” Jinwoon said.

“First, we need to get him. We need to talk to him,” Yoona said still looking for Jung Yonghwa. “I can’t see him. We need to go back.”

“You’re right. Come on guys,” Jungshin said. We went downstairs while Jinwoon talks to his dad. When we arrive at the back part of the laboratory, Jung Yonghwa was not there. The cryotank left opened but there is no trace of him.

“Where is he?” Yoona asked.

“Let’s look for him. I’ll check the CCTV cameras,” Jungshin said. “Guys, separate! So we can find him easily.”

We separated and each took different directions to look for Jung Yonghwa. I checked the back part, looking for his traces. I checked each curve and nooks of the back part of the laboratory, hoping to find him. I can’t still get his face away from my mind. His eyes which stared at me as if piercing my very soul with that look. I can’t explain why I am feeling light headed after my encounter with him. I can still feel the coldness of his hands in mine. A shiver run down my back as a cold wind passed and I rub my hands on my arms. I looked at the direction of the wind and noticed the open back door.

----------------------

I opened my eyes and saw a familiar pair of sparkling eyes. I feel her fingers on my right hand so I grip it tightly, holding her as we stare at each other. ‘How can she be here? Isn’t she supposed to be in the hospital?’ I ran my eyes on her face and then stared again at her eyes. ‘Hyunnie, how come you haven’t changed a bit? How come you look more beautiful than the last time that I saw you? Did you survive the accident?’ I asked in my head as I look into her eyes while holding her hands tightly, her warmth spreading into my cold hands, giving a proof that this is not a dream. I opened my mouth, trying to talk when a guy pulled her away from me and the four of them ran away. I tried to call her but my voice is not working. I tried to sit up using the lid as my leverage. I had a hard time trying to sit up and when I do, black spots appear in my eyes and my head aches as well as my whole body. ‘Where the hell is Jonghyun?’ Why isn’t he here? Isn’t he the one who opened the machine?’ I thought as I looked around the room slowly. I noticed the vast changes that happen in Jonghyun’s laboratory. ‘One year has passed and he became this successful? That guy, he is supposed to be helping me now!’ I tried to stand with the machine as my guide. I leaned on it heavily. I tried again to talk but my voice just won’t work. I looked around again hoping to see Jonghyun and wondering why Joohyun ran away from me and who is she with. From what I see, she is with a girl and two boys. ‘Yuri, Seulong and Jonghyun. Right! That makes sense. But why did they run away?’ I tried to walk a few steps, struggling to gain my balance. Thankfully, the black spots are disappearing in my vision. I did a fast inventory of my feelings as well as my whole body, trying to feel my arms and feet and my body, checking if something is wrong. The faintness is slowly decreasing and I don’t feel anything wrong. I tried to walk a few more steps. I noticed a pair of shirt and jeans and decided to put it on, wishing that it fits. Fortunately it did. Now that I think I am decent enough, I walked again trying to find Joohyun and the others. I saw the back door and thought that they might have gone outside. I opened the back door and went outside.
‘Where in the world am I?’ I can’t remember how many times I thought of those words as I walked outside looking for Joohyun. The buildings, the lights, the infrastr