The blustering sound of the music started its journey through the room so suddenly I felt my body make a small jump and making me awake in a second. I sighed and closed my eyes again, waiting for it to stop, but it didn’t. It never did, this morning wouldn’t be any different. Someone knocked on the door. I ignored.

“Turn off” I yelled into the air, waiting for it to stop. It didn’t. I knew it wouldn’t, but I still yelled anyway. I sighed again, frustrated and shook my both arms and legs, removing the bed sheets, just like a small child in a bad mood. Three hours of sleep weren’t enough, not even close to that. I whined for a few seconds until I finally pushed my legs to bring my body up. “Stupid clock” I growled rubbing my eyes. “You can turn off you idiot!” I yelled again but the clock just ignored me again. “Aish… I’m gonna reboot you Siri!” I kept grumbling while I left the bed.

Someone forgot to turn on the floor heating, so I felt all my skin shiver when my bare feet made contact with the cold wood. I looked for my slippers and covered my feet once I found them. Finally, I could cross my room and open the panel, turning off the loud song playing, and all the sound followed.

< Clock turned off, Good Morning > The robotic voice spoke in a gentle tone and I rolled my eyes. Stupid Siri.

I stretched myself lifting my arms and then followed to the door, opening and facing the empty hallway. I could listen the little squeaks coming from different places around the apartment since most of the living humans in that place had already woken up and were ready to pretend and live another boring and normal day. I walked to the bathroom and closed myself inside, to take my morning shower and get ready; going back to my room right after.

“Alice!” I hear my name once again in Leslie’s loud and peached voice, making me almost jump. “Hurry up!” She added, still in her scream while I was actually trying to get ready faster. I hate rushed people, especially in the morning. If she was late she could have woken up earlier!

Finally, I finished getting ready and I found my supposed-to-be friends - do you call friends people who make you walk out of home without any breakfast? I don’t think so. – at the entrance hall of the apartment, taking off their slippers and exchanging them for their shoes. Apparently, it was now an habit for the four us to walk together to the campus, like someone could get lost – because we don’t live in the same place and don’t go to the same campus for the past 2 years or anything. Either way, all of us were foreigner students living together in one apartment and thankfully all speaking some kind of weird half Korean-half English language. Way was the oldest one, from Hong Kong and very carefree in life. He wasn’t scared of anyone and was very straightforward. Actually, sometimes I wondered if he really was Chinese since he didn’t really seem to enjoy living there; oh, and let’s not forget the 3 hours of gym almost every-single-day.  Taka was Japanese and quieter, even though he liked to party and have some fun, he didn’t talk much. But he was a good friend I could always count on. Finally, there was Leslie, a German-beauty-conceptual girl who lived basically to laugh, buy clothes and defend her friends. All that while detailing it on social media. But she had one of the kindest hearts I had ever met, so, no judging on her habits.

Taka stood his hand to me, handing me a sandwich and with a soft smile. I thanked him, feeling my bad mood slowly fading away and receiving a slight push on my back.

“You’re looking stupid” Leslie whispered to my ear and I realized I should have been smiling to his face for a whole minute. I guess they are not the only idiots living in that apartment.

We left the place and walked towards the campus which was on a too-tall hill, so lots of stairs had to be climbed and I always wondered – with so much technology in this world why did they have to forbid teleportation as well? Either way, my two only classes on that day were online so I didn’t feel like hurrying and worrying, but somehow, they made me worry and hurry for their schedules. When I finally separated from them I could breathe and walk slowly, almost lazily, towards my class and received a few educated “hellos” and “good mornings” from the colleagues I shared the subject with.

« Good morning, dear students, » the sweet voice of the robotic woman sounded into my ears once I plugged in the earphones and paid a half-attention to the screen attached to my table and let myself get lectured. I opened the digital note book and started writing what I could.

During lunch break I met my friends again in one of the open spaces of the campus with a few wood tables where we could share the food. We usually brought some different dishes in different boxes and put them on the table, and just eat until it was over. The Asian guys laughed a little because Leslie still had this weird way of grabbing her chopsticks; but she had learn to ignore them, eventually she would get the hand of it.

“What are you doing later?” She asked with an enthusiastic smile and ignoring the boys who were trying to grab the chopsticks the same way she did. She put some rice onto and turned her big blue eyes towards me. I had to think for a little, realizing I would probably do what I have been doing almost every week.

“Going to my brother’s apartment.” I answered getting some meat and kimchi from the boxes. Her smile faded away to be replaced by a worried look.

“Again?” She asked not believing my words and almost full turning to me, - since we were sitting side by side. Neither Taka nor Way interfered since they new it wasn’t much of their business my brother’s story, but also because we were talking our full almost fluent and fast English, making them confused. “You went there a billion times already. You never found anything, why do you keep doing this?”

“Because I need to find him.” I short-answered, annoyed by her attitude. She knew perfectly well I would never stop looking after him and if that took me a hundred billion times to go to the same places, I didn’t care.

“I’m sorry” she apologized and sighed, turning to the table again and proceeding her meal. “It’s just, you’ve been looking so hard for him and there are no clues of his whereabouts… I fear for your feelings.”

“Don’t.” I shook my head and left my chopsticks down. “I’m ready to know the worse, I know he might be somewhere dead, but I’d rather find that and give him a honorable goodbye, than just leave it to the side.” I explained once again not facing anyone on the table. Everyone had stopped eating, and even the boys were looking at me, either curious or pitying me, but I didn’t care. I made myself smile again, grabbed my chopsticks and stuck them on the vegetables box. “So I don’t care about what happens, I’ll never stop looking for my brother.” I finished bringing a piece of carrot to my mouth and gestured so they could keep their lunch.

They proceeded to another subject brought by Way and were laughing about something I didn’t pay attention to. I was looking around when my eyes caught someone hurrying up the yard stairs, running through the campus, towards the buildings on our right. His pinkish face indicated that his run was longer than those stairs and his panic expression were a symbol of what was about to happen. His life was depending on what would happen for the next minute.

No one dared to help, no one dared to take a step forward and I was able to see the girl at the bottom of the stairs strongly crying grabbing her friends arm. She wanted to interfere but the group around her didn’t let her, instead, they hid her, stopping the five men in black suits from seeing her and her state. I wasn’t surprised to see the tall group of men hurrying up after the boy and some other two coming from the opposite direction. Some were foreigners but all of them had the same theme: angry expressions and black suits. He was doomed.

The controllers finally were able to corner the runner and he pleaded for mercy. Took himself to his knees and brought his hands together. I don’t even think he was Korean. One of the man told him to shut his mouth in a loud scream and took his fist right onto the young man’s face. The punch was so strong I swore I heard his jaw break. Another man took out his immobilizer and aimed to the boy. He tried to run off again, by getting up and trying to push him in some kind of rugby move, but once he was free, his shirt was grabbed by another one and he was tossed to the floor. I instinctively stood up and noticed Way was about to do the same, but Leslie grabbed both our arms to remain in our places. There was nothing we could do now, it was over for him.

The man who had been pushed cursed several times and passed the back of his hand on his lips. He then asked for a few seconds to his colleagues and pressed his foot onto the boy’s back. The yell of pain from the youngest was disturbing and I saw some girls covering her ears and running away. Some other students looked inside their own backpacks and took slowly steps away from sight, others took off their watches and put them in the garbage bins. But still, no one dared to get in the mess. The indivudal made the student turn aside and tossed his foot towards his stomach, kicking him over, and over again. The boy’s mouth spilled out blood, making it fall and stain the floor.

“you little rat” the man kept yelling until he was grabbed by two of the others and was forced to stop. The boy cried and kept asking for forgiving, saying he would never do it again, that he had learned. But it was too late. The one who seemed to be the boss took the immobilizer and pointed it towards him.

“Kim Juwon, you’re under arrest by the universal time line controllers. You will come with us.” He then shooted the electric shock and the loud screams from the spanking turned into nothing compared to the shrieks and yells he made from the pain that he was feeling now. The body kept squirming from one side to another, the eyes shut strongly and the involuntary kicks were made by the electric current striking inside of him. I had to turn my eyes the other way and count to ten, feeling like I would throw up if I kept watching someone in such pain.

They say it’s worse then getting burned, worse then stop breathing. They say you get trapped inside of yourself unable to control anything but still feeling your body being cut and burned repeatedly. With so many good things coming from technology, I could not understand how someone would create such thing. I was ready to leave when the body stopped and the guy finally passed out, or died. The controllers took the body easily and left, like they were carrying a sack of potatoes.

“These kids are freaking crazy,” Way cursed shaking his head and turning to the table again. “They are so lucky they are in Korea, in China he would be dead even before he could plead for mercy!” He added putting his chopsticks inside the small pocket, not feeling like eating anymore. No one felt like eating anymore.

Taka didn’t say anything, he just kept sitting facing nothing and unable to talk. He had seen this scene in a way worse perspective.

“Don’t talk like that…” I gently asked Way making an eye gesture towards the Japanese boy whom already had his eyes turning a slightly red shade. Probably remembering his sister, who had a similar fate.

“I’m sorry…” Way asked a little embarrassed and the smallest one finally looked at him.

“It’s okay, it’s not like you’re wrong. It’s stupid who still tries to do it.” He agreed starting to pack his things again. We all knew deep down he didn’t really want to talk about it, that he still cried every time he remembered the scene or every time he remembered the fact that he would never heard of his sister again. That she probably would never see the light of day again and that she ruined her entire life at sixteen. But he pretended he wasn’t affected and we had to respect his choice.

“Let’s go, lessons will start soon.” It was time for Leslie to talk and we all helped cleaning and closing everything, putting it on the lunch boxes each of us brought. Then took our paths to the classerooms and I was accompanied by Taka who shared this subject with me.

We walked in silence for a few minutes but then he sighed and made me take a look at him.

“I heard you are going back at your brother’s apartment. Again.” He spoke gently and I was surprised he took all sense out of mine and Leslie’s words. His English had improved so much since we started living together making him speak it everyday.

“Yes” I answered feeling my cheeks burn from embarrassment. He probably thought I was dumb for keep on going there.

“Do you want me to go with you?” He asked with a soft smile on his face almost making me choke on my own surprise. “I know what it feels like to lose someone you love so much. If you have a chance of finding and bringing that person back to you, I would like to help you…” He justified his question with no need of me asking. My heart skipped a bit and I felt my stomach protest from the speed of my blood in my veins.

The truth is Taka has been my biggest crush since I came to Korea and met him on the first day. He was always very kind and liked to have a big laugh. He opened up to me about his sister very easily and I felt like I could share with him the trust he had towards me. Not to mention he was reaaaaaally handsome. So, having him by my side while looking for my missing older brother was the best thing I could ask for.

“I don’t want to bother you, it’s okay.” I answered very shyly, afraid that the blood on my cheeks would give me away. His elbow hit my arm gently and he winked, making me surprised again.

“You don’t need to be like this to me,” he started explaining with a small chuckle. “I’ll come with you, you might get lost somewhere in the city.” He played, taking his hand on the top of my head and messing my hair lightly. I complained, it was so hard to brush my hair, why would he do this. I hit his hand to get away with a pout and he laughed harder. “Cute.” The comment made me raise my eyebrow and complain but he just ignored me. “No aegyo bla bla bla, I know.” He shoved it off with his hand and a small smirk entering the classroom and taking a place inside. He knew I didn’t like when people called me cute because I wasn’t the – I’ll do aegyo for you oppa – type, but I was glad he had said it, deep down.

 

:-:-:-:

I finished marking the code and I put my wrist on the reader screen, seeing the red light scan my skin for my chip. The door automatically opened and we got in.

“My brother put my chip as a resident last time I came to visit him.” I explained taking off my shoes and opened the central panel. My phone connected to the system and the house’s lights and heater . Taka nodded and followed me inside, taking off his shoes as well. The apartment got warmer in a few seconds.

« Welcome home » Once again I heard Siri’s robotic voice and we walked around.

“This is the living room, here’s the bathroom. Those two rooms are empty, and this one was my brother’s,” I kept showing the house and Taka followed me with small nods. “The kitchen is here and there’s the office where he had his computer, documents and books.” I pointed to the doors from the living room and he looked around, curious and watchful.

I left my bag on the couch and pulled my hair behind my shoulders, walking towards the office door.  “I’ll start here.” I stated, pushing the dark wood to make a path towards the room I had searched innumerous times. Taka followed me closely behind, maybe he was afraid of staying alone in this unknown house.

I started with the drawers, opening and closing them, while looking between the files. Something that might have been missing, something that I didn’t notice before. There should be something, it had to be.

“Have you tried to recap every step he took on the day he went missing?” Taka asked when I seat on the chair, after a full hour of searching through that room. Everything was a mess, the drawers, the floor, the desk. I had to mentally prepare to put everything back into place. I nodded to his question and explained that it had been the first thing done by the police as soon as we had contact them. Everything was fine and he had a normal, tiring day. All his friends said he looked normal and there was nothing out of ordinary. Except for the fact that he went inside his apartment and never came out again. The police considered contacting the controllers but somehow the head of the police station decided there was no indication nor need to do so.

Take crossed his arms under his chest and nodded too, like understanding my words. While I rubbed my own face with my hands and sighed. Then turned to the table and opened his laptop searching inside, once again. All social media, messages, e-mail, everything looked perfectly fine and normal. No weird talks, no threats. Everything seemed like a path with no way out. But that path seemed to become smaller and smaller every second, like its walls were slowly coming towards me and ready to crush me. I felt my eyes burn while small tears of frustration were coming up at the corners.

Taka let go of his arms and came closer to me, leaving a warm hand on my shoulder.

“Hey,” he called making me look up at him. “It’s okay, something will come up soon, we just need to think… maybe through another perspective?” He added with a warm smile and looking at the clock over the door. “ You said the police never contacted the controllers?” He asked suddenly.

“Yes”

“Do you have the video?” He then looked back at me curious and I raised an eyebrow.

“What video?”

“The surveillance video, your brother coming back to the apartment” He explained pointing at the computer like it would magically come up in there.

Oh, that video.

I nodded once again and pulled up my phone out of my pocket, dialing fast and connecting it to my brother’s laptop. In a minute we were watching the building’s surveillance videos, showing my tired brother coming back from work and climbing the stairs until he reached his apartment door. Taka took more attention to the screen, bringing his face closer and analyzing every details he could. The image of my brother showed him in front of his door and searching something inside his backpack and he took out something we couldn’t see what it was. But he shortly opened his home entrance and walked in.

“We can’t see…” he shook his head frustrated and made small sounds with his tongue, like he wasn’t approving something.

“What?” I wanted to know but he seemed not interested in sharing the information with me.

“Do you know what he takes out of his bag?”

“His… keys?” I asked confused. What else would he take at the door of his apartment that would allow him to get in?

“Your brother has a chip reader and an entrance code, why would he need his keys to enter his place?” He asked slowly taking a step back and crossing his arms again. He was thinking, so focused on every solution he could find in his head. He was working hard to help me and I couldn’t measure in words how thankful I am and how y he looked.

What?

“I need to make a phone call, please wait here” He suddenly uncrossed his arms again and took his own phone and started dialing a foreign number. I raised my eyebrow along with my body from the chair and followed him to the living room.

“What’s going on? Do you know something?” I started shouting the questions but he just ignored me, waiting for his call to be answered and walking away.

My heart was beating too fast. So fast I could feel it almost ripping off my skin and trying to come out to the open. My hands were shaking and sweating and a hurricane of thoughts seemed to have settled inside my mind. The blood was like a storm going through my veins and every single cell inside me was screaming for answers.

Once the call was answered Taka started talking really fast in Japanese and I understood he was talking to one of his home’s friends. I tried to understand a little but my Japanese was too basic and they were talking too fast; making me eventually give up and accept the fact that I would have to wait until they were done.

Frustrated, I went back to the office in order to take another look into the video and maybe find out whatever Taka did. But nothing. What was I missing?

A strange sound then made my heart skip a beat again and I almost jumped out of the chair, looking back at the origin. It came somewhere behind the shelves and drawers my brother had at the far back wall. I looked at the open door and heard Taka’s voice, still on the phone. Was I going crazy?

The sound came up once again and my body reacted the exact same way. Was it a rat or something? I thought those had been exterminated from the cities.

I slowly walked towards the source of the sound and moved aside one of the shelves.

Nothing.

The back of the shelf was clean and nothing on the wall nor the floor. Everything seemed fine and I wondered if my frustration and sadness had actually made me go officially crazy. Maybe it was a central system of the house? I should check up on th-

My own thought was interrupted by the sound coming up again but stronger from the end of the wall. A small shriek formed at the bottom of my throat without me even realizing it.  I ran to pick up my phone and I almost screamed when my suspicions were right. Something came up on the skirting board of the wall. Letters… no… numbers?

Where the hell did this come from?

I pointed my phone's flashlight to the dark wood and covered my own mouth with my hand, feeling it shaking aggressively. I could have sworn my whole life as that wasn’t there before. Nothing was there. It was plain and clean like it had always been, just a few seconds ago.

07-11-2017 was now written on the skirting board with a clumsy and gawky handwriting. Like it was carved there somehow. But why would anyone carve a date like that in there? Why something so specific? Why so random?

And coincidental…

I looked up at my phone’s screen and gulped facing today’s date. I wasn’t crazy, was I?

07-11-2047