He was sleeping, time ran across his sheets. Couldn't call it hearing, but he felt their voices at some point. Could recognize Yoochun's warm tears over his hand, and Jaejoong's silent sighs. 

And then, they were gone.

Couldn't call it seeing, but he knew he was in a clear room. He felt the days passed by but couldn't tell one from another.

"You are looking good, junsu-sshi."

His narrow eyes opened just a little bit, winked a couple of times, and went back to sleep. The nurse's voice felt warm.

"...Needless to say they are putting all of their resources to keep him going..."

His mind drifted over things that weren't even ideas, and everything became silent. Heavy piano notes were trying to break through, but couldn't become sound.

So he felt sad.

So sad.

He woke up to ringing bells.

Opened his eyes widely and looked at the unfamiliar ceiling, tall ceiling, that wasn't the same as before. Instead of his clear room, he found himself laid down on a metallic stretcher and then found out that the bells ringing were nothing but an annoying beep next to him. He sat straight, letting his legs hanging down the stretcher and shook his head a little bit confused. Immediately after, grabbed the bridge of his nose because of a growing, stitching headache.

"It's okay to lay down."

Said a woman's voice through a mic, on top of her desk. The woman was close to him, but he assumed she was using the mic to let everyone in the room listen to her. He saw about twenty people, all dressed in white robes filling the huge room, with him at the center, his stretcher over a metallic plate delimited by a banister. All in bright silver.

Everything was so clean and tidy. Reminded him of a lab.

Still in the stretcher, he saw everyone get up their seats, leave aside what they were doing and broke up in applauses. The woman who spoke before, smiled together with the two people right next to her and bowed, thankful.

These weird people gave him a room and clothes.

He took a shower, got dressed, and sat in the bed, staring at the garden outside of his window for half an hour, until someone knocked at his door.

Three people got in, all in white robes, IDs on their front pockets that he didn't notice before. Medics, and a nurse.

He was diligent when these people checked his pulse and made him healthy recommendations, glancing at each other from time to time, without him knowing what to do exactly.

"Do you have memory problems?"

He shook his head.

The white robe next to the door, who had remained silent until then, raised a very old folder and looked for something written inside of it. He read:

"Kim Junsu.... sshi, right?"

He didn't nod this time. He just kept staring, going from one to another.

"He seems lost."

"It's a very common symptom."

Reassured the one next to the door.

That night he didn't sleep at all. Alone in his tiny room, he knew he was there, but couldn't feel it that way. He'd just stare at the ceiling, like... waiting.

The next days he would take long walks through the entire site. He found out he was at a health center, and met half of the people working there. He bowed every time someone new was introduced to him. There were nurses monitoring him everyday and he became closer with the lead doctor, the woman with the mic. She explained the besics to him.

"We are very proud, for you are the first person to be 'recovered' in this health center. We are now working on our second case, all thanks to the optimum results shown with you. Bio-engineering is so advanced nowadays, that we were able to 'recover' a 100% of Junsu's body."

The nurse next to her chuckled.

"I'm sorry, she's a foreigner, you can see there are a lot from abroad here, so she might not know, but doctor, you need to adress him with a -shhi at the end."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Junsu's fine."

His voice startled  the nurse, who rarely heard him speak.

"He seems... a little off, don't you think?"

The doctor pat him in the shoulder, confidently.

"He'll regain his self in no time."

Nurses rotated by weeks, but every one of them were willing to keep him company, because Junsu was so adorable, even though he didn't speak much. A few of them were charmed by him already. He would know them by numbers in his mind, as he lacked interest in names.

"He is a very healthy young man."

The lead doctor was always interested to know more about him.

"He never makes a noise. He's silent even when he's eating."

In a few weeks, everyone talked about him, and he would visit the 'recovery' room from time to time, watching from outside now, the process he had gone through to make his 'recovery' possible.

Through a thick glass, he watched a new patient laid in the metallic stretcher, being taken care of.

"The woman had an accident too. She'll recover completely like you, Junsu-sshi. She's very lucky."

After the 'recovery' session, the lead doctor introduced him some people.

"This is team F. This is the team that recovered your arm and part of the thorax. There are no signs of damage, so their work is pretty much that of a jeweler. This is team B. They work on the lab mostly, and they're more involved in research. And as for team C, they were the ones in charge of restoring vital organs tissue and lungs to- "

"My lungs?"

The lead doctor smirked to the sudden interest his patient had shown.

"You have to understand that your accident left you with little possibilities of surviving. Your organism was severly damaged. Without their teamwork, we would've never been able to 'recover' you to this extent."

"Are my lungs okay?"

Everyone gazed each other in awe. He seemed a bit worried.

"Yeah, they're in top condition."

Her colleagues immediately assaulted her with questions when Junsu's eyes wandered around.

"What do you think?"

She knew they had their doubts about the success in Junsu's recovery.

"A patient of mine jokingly called it 'synapsis syndrome'. Information doesn't seem to travel normally."

She snapped her fingers in front of Junsu's eyes and he didn't show any signs of any kind.

"Patients go through a period of adaptation. You don't have to worry, this is completely normal, and 'recovery' is very common these days, right? Many lives could be saved since the Great Disaster from this treatment alone, so we can be very accurate when saying that 80% of the 'recovered' subjects go through this. There's nothing physically wrong with him, but his mind... or feelings if you prefer, need a trigger."

After chatting a little while with his doctors (in his own way), his nurse took him back to his room. Even though he did not show signs of relief, the lead doctor felt he was a bit more cheerful when he left.

Junsu's nurses talked to him a lot, even if there was no reply. Some days, the designated nurse would blabber all morning and Junsu... was not amused.

"Do you hum?"

Blurted out suddenly, and the nurse shut.

His voice was something special. His high pitch was very cute to listen to.

"Eh?"

"You don't like humming?"

He was looking at her, very interested.

"Why would I hum?"

Over her morning coffee, the lead doctor heard someone knock the window behind her. She opened the door to let Junsu's nurse in.

"He wants to sing."

The lead doctor sat at her chair, behind her desk and frowned.

"I didn't know Junsu sang."

The visitor shrugged, wondering.

"Maybe it was a hobby of his."

Since everyone knew Junsu there, all of them were excited by his desire of singing and thought of gathering to listen to what he had to show. Junsu agreed, very humble, and decided to use an old room in the second floor. the idea grew larger, and by the end of the week, in the hallways one could hear the people talking about it. Junsu had become like the child they were proud of and wouldn't hesitate to spoil.

"We don't have a piano."

The nurse said. Sitting at a table in the dinning room, Junsu was writing something in a tiny notebook.

"You should try to smile, Junsu-sshi."

His eyes drifted, apart from the notebook now and he looked at his nurse.

"Why?"

"Just try."

He obediently did so, and a mechanic smirk slowly formed in his face, the nurse's eyes widened as she smiled, surprised.

"W-what?"

His smile disappeared, but hers didn't.

"You look so cute!"

"...Gamsahamnida." -he said very shyly and went back to writing.

Another week passed and the comments in the hallways, once cheerful about Junsu, now had withered. The lab team was very curious:

"What happened?"

"Did Junsu drop the idea?"

They chuckled at the thought of hearing Junsu sing. His nurse stopped for a brief moment, apologizing.

"Haha. He said he needed some time, since he hasn't rehearsed. And he needs to write down the lyrics."

The doctor laughed.

"Oh, that Junsu..."

"The lyrics are beautiful, really. I read them. I didn't ask where he got them, though. Really, beautiful...!"- yelled as she disappeared around the corner.

So the day finally arrived, and without much to do, since it was weekend, a couple of Junsu's medics, a larger number of nurses, and people of the health center staff in general, gathered at the old room that the lead doctor used from time to time to brief his team about procedure schedules.

Junsu appearead when the place was already packed.

"Why is everybody here?"

He asked the lead doctor, who was outside the room, having her morning coffee.

"Didn't you invite them, Junsu?" -she asked with a smile.

"Junsu-sshi...! Junsu-sshi...!"

Nurse number two went running to him, with a large board in her right hand. She tried to recover, gasping.

"Look what i found. The hospital wing has a patient, a little boy, who lent me this."

She delivered him the flat, thin board with a huge smile on her face, and stared at how Junsu was checking the surface. A little impatient, the nurse touched the board's surface and a piano note tingled in the air and disappeared right after.

"Oh! It's a keyboard."

His reaction was priceless. He totally looked like a 5-year-old child.

Still amazed at the toy, he entered the room and went to examine it over the desk, touching the screen carefully. he associated the toy with a huge PC tablet. The lead doctor seemed a little bit worried and stopped her team before following Junsu in.

"Please be nice to him. He seems a bit lost and probably is having a hard time... When he finishes, receive his efforts with a warm applause."

She stopped, turned again to face them and added:

"Don't be too harsh on him."

Junsu was playing random notes and chords on the keyboard. His nurse pulled closer a chair and a table abandoned in the corner, where Junsu placed the keyboard. And after sitting and exchange a few words between them, he said:

"Yeah, I think I can do it. I got it now." 

The keys visible over the board's screen.

In his improvised stage, Junsu was left alone, and a slight whispering ran across the audience. Nurse number two sat in the front row, very excited and eager to listen to him.

A profound silence preceded the first piano notes, and along with the generalized thought of 'Wow, Junsu plays the piano beautifully', there was also 'the room's acoustic is good enough'.

His face just transformed: he closed his eyes, as if moved by the piano notes, his expressions full of feeling. Nurse number two let her jaw drop when he sang the first line:   (x)

When you said I...

 The line alone led the mood, changing the room's atmosphere. A lot of them in clear awe, were moved by the sound Junsu had pulled.

Owe you it was sad

But i see how empty

you are at your core

So there's no hard feelings

I know that I'm meant for so... much more

They became proper audience then. The room nearly disappeared, leaving Junsu's voice mesmerize their senses. He couldn't see it, but their eyes were shining like stars in some warm night, too moved to make a sound, too afraid to brake the spell.

I gave and did above what i had to

So forward no more to prove

I'm free to fly

And that is exactly 

What I'm gonna do

Cause I

I'm right here standing

"Who is this man?" -managed to wonder herself the lead doctor.

That's how i know i can withstand

Anything that may come

A wind or a fall

I can soar

His act just perfect.

Surprinsingly, he smiled at the beginning of verse two, pleased with himself, melting the girls hearts. He regained his sorrowful expression immediately after, pulling a performance paired up with that of a professional.

I know I can't go back

To that dark place I'd want...

His voice just kept doing amazing things. his audience at the verge of tears, moved by some celestial voice.

...I'm free to fly

And that is exactly

What I'm gonna do

Nurse number two was definitely crying, but couldn't take her eyes off Junsu.

...Anything that may come

A wind or a fall

I can soar...

And the last piano notes.

His hand performed a light movement over the keyboard and the silence was complete. He relaxed, and went back to being the empty shell from before.

Nobody clapped their hands, though.

Junsu faced the audience and like a disappointed kid, frowned.

"Mwo? You didn't like it?"

"No, not at all..."

Said his nurse as she stood up and wiped her face, turned around to face the packed room and bowed looking at Junsu.

"Don't you do this when you finish, Junsu-shhi?"

"Eeh."

He left his chair with a slight smile, and bowed next to nurse number two. Aplausses filled the whole room, and his smile widened.

"Gamsahamnida. I'll do it better next time."

His nurse couldn't believe his words.

A few minutes after, everybody was leaving, between heated coments and flattering.

"Junsu, boy, some talent you were hiding."

"I'm looking forward to a next time, but I don't think it will be this room..."

When almost everyone was gone, he missed one person.

"Where's the lead doctor?"

Since it was weekend and most of the staff had their day-off, she didn't encounter a single person in her way through the hallways of the lab wing. She got in her office, grabbed the phone and dialed two digits only.

"I need a patient's record. Basement record."

"Junsu-sshi... why didn't you sing this one instead?"

His nurse showed him the tiny notebook, opened it in a page with rushed and messy lyrics.

"This song is amazing."

"I lack the voices." -his eyes darkened as he said it.

Putting the notebook really close to her face, she managed to read the tiny letter.

"'Love in the Ice'... What are you talking about? You have an amazing voice."

"Thank you, but it's still one fifth of -  " - he stopped and his eyes drifted.

"Of what?"

"Yeah..." - Junsu said as if making a resolution, while he handed back the board to his nurse.

He got up and left the room.

Straight to the lead doctor's office, he didn't find her there. He went to the lab and found no one, so he took the elevator and immediately after getting down, he saw through the thick glass of the 'recovery room', the woman in the metallic stretcher was sleeping as she was dreaming. The doctor was checking her vitals, so he waited patiently until she had finished.

When she let him in, Junsu saw his name in the cover of an old folder resting in her table.

"Please have a seat."

She typed some things in her laptop according to the woman's vitals lecture she received through several monitors. The room was empty except for the both, so all the sound was coming from the monitors. The rest was silence.

"Where are my brothers?"

His voice let his sadness show. The doctor stopped typing, turned to look at Junsu and with a big sigh, grabbed the folder, opened it and read:

"Your twin brother Junho. He died in the Great Disaster, 50 years ago."

Junsu's eyes saddened. He stared at the floor. His doctor felt sorry for him, but she explained further.

"In order... to prevent cellular death, the majority of 'recovered' patients had to be preserved. Some of them for a long time... Junsu, you were preserved until science could deal with your injuries."

His hand moved to his nose, he recalled this was a gesture of him when he cried, but for some reason, tears didn't run down his face. Nevertheless, his voice cracked when he spoke again.

"Where are my other brothers?"

His doctor was confused by the question. She turned the pages rapidly.

"You only had a twin brother, Junsu."

Again, his eyes looked at the floor, but drifted over, thinking about things the woman could not guess.

Worried over him, she gave him space, and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled something on it.

"Your ID number. Go to archives department. Global nets crushed a long time ago, so massive information is not available anymore, but they might find something in our servers system. Ask them whatever you want."

He took the piece of paper.

Junsu remained silent as he stood up and left.

"Did you know?"

"Mm?"

"Junsu was part of some famous group or something back in his days."

"No wonder he's so good at singing."

"I didn't know there were such good singers in the past."

The dinning hall was empty, so Junsu picked that place to talk with the guy of the archives department.

"The person who gave the funds for Junsu-sshi's recovery, no... rather, the people, were involved in several 'recovery' projects you might be interested in."

Not pleased with the lack of information, his mouth clenched as he grabbed a bottle of water from the table in front of him.

"Go ahead."

"They go by the name of 'The seven sisters', a charity organization created after the Big Disaster. They helped building a couple of health centers like this one, and supported further research on 'recovery' treatment in Korea, Japan and China."

He handed a sheet of paper with a list on it. Junsu took a brief look at it.

"Um... we got confirmation of this person being a patient in health center number 3 in the list, as you requested from our servers. Here you go."

He handed a tiny picture to Junsu, and when he flipped it, his eyes widened and he stared at the image with his mouth slightly opened. He mumbled something, but the other guy didn't dare to ask, because he was about to give him bad news.

"We also found one more thing, Junsu-sshi."

He looked at the guy over the picture he held in his hand.

"Where are we going?"

Asked Junsu while he sat at the back seat of a car, tresspassing the center's main gate. The path was rough and vegetation was a little bit wild.

It was the first time leaving the center, but the ride didn't last long. Twenty minutes later they were crossing another big gate, and passing by a great plate outside of the silent, old, main building, he read: Cemetery.

Junsu felt uneasy.

"Why are we here?"

"Please."

Invited the archives office guy, into hallways filled with plates. Silver, golden ones, thousands and thousands of plates in the walls, in monoliths, in statues and quiet hallrooms.

Junsu's companion stopped in a very simple, but big monument, in the middle of a hall. All in pure white, there was a huge block with silver plates all over. Junsu read the plate his companion was pointing at, and grieved over the name writen there.

As his eyes denied what they were seeing, his logical side forced him to go through it and accept it, with the strenght that the picture he had in his pocket gave him. His eyes got teary, but he couldn't let a single drop to fall.

"I'll leave you alone for a moment."

"No... "

"It's ok."

He hardly could swallow, but manage to get a grip.

"I'm done here."

When he went back to the center, now more convinced than ever, he had a long talk with the center's lead doctor. When he finished, she had nothing to say, except for:

"You are a free person, Junsu."

She smiled warmly after that.

That same afternoon, nurse number one became really interested in Junsu's notebook. She'd turn the pages, amused at the flood of ink, filling every page, from top to bottom. Junsu folded his clothes quietly. A few minutes ago, the room was a mess, with clothes everywhere, but now it was tidy as usual.

"Why is it messy? What language is this? Is it chinese?"

"It's japanese."

He grabbed a green backpack in the bed and zipped it.

"I was afraid of forgetting the lyrics. I don't want to forget."

"Japanese... and the song title?"

"It's there."

"Um? Where? I only see a 'W'."

He smirked looking at nurse number one. He took away the notebook from her hands as he put his backpack over his shoulder.

"Eh? Where are you going with that?"

"I'm leaving."

He opened the door of his room, as nurse number one mumbled things at his back trying to say 'wait, wait'.

The lead doctor, three nurses, and the lab team were outside the main building, just right next to the lobby, in their white robes, facing Junsu, who intently bent forward.

"Gamsahamnida."

He bowed full of gratitude and stayed there for a couple of seconds. He could not express himself the way he wanted, so keeping it plain and simple helped his departure.

As soon as he stood up, nurse number two handed him a black wallet. The lead doctor explained.

"This has your ID in it. You'll need it to move around..."

Saying goodbye was somewhat hard. She nodded, without knowing what to say next, but:

" ...Take care, Junsu."

He smiled at her, and nurse number one burst crying.

"Will you be ok?"

His smile widened, but didn't say anything. He just turned towards the main gate, tresspassed it, and thought it had to be ok. He wouldn't be able not to do this. Grabbing the picture out of his pocket, he looked at it and smiled.

"Are you ok?"

Said, walking at a good pace, in the path he wanted to go through, in the middle of that wild vegetation.

A dark skinned boy looked back at him from the tiny picture.

Aitakute...