Love is an empty word. Love has no meaning if there is no speaker or no listener. Just like every “I love you” is spoken in exchange for an “I love you too”. Love demands answers. Just like every “I love you” is a call for response. There is chain reaction, there is action-reaction. Every romance is started by one person, and is most likely to be ended by one as well. But love has no definite equation. Love cannot be fully explained by science. But it certainly has its robotics.

Even time has slowly become meaningless. Every movement of the hands makes less sense to them. It is impossible to tell day and night in this facility. She barely has memory of ever being outside. They told her that they are the lucky ones – how the world would come and hurt them, how all these are going to make them better.

She was the third one to wake up, the doctors said. Thrilled, they all were as they rushed to her tank.

And she knows what exactly she is. Specimen No.8.

At first, people would not interact with her nor let her interact with other specimens. Still, she could see them whenever it was time to eat and the small mechanical door of her isolated chamber would open, revealing pairs after pairs of keen eyes, probably resembling her own.

There are thirteen of them. She was there when the rest of the ten specimens woke up. Specimen No. 11, No.9, No.3, No.16, No.27, No.7, No.10, No.1, No.14, and finally No.83. She remembers, she remembers because she is designed to achieve more, to be more. She remembers because she knows they are important to her, all twelve of them.

They waited until it was “stable” enough for all the specimens to “socialize”, all except one. That last specimen to wake up. They assured them it was because her development was slightly immature and they could fix it in no time. So, the twelve of them patiently waited as they bonded as a family.

It was what they were told to do. They would not suffice if they were not together, they said.

She followed the daily routine delicately just like the others. To be tested, examined, observed, trained, then tested again, examined again……. Over and over until the doctors announced they had all passed.

And so, the Witkin’s Experiment is said to be a great success.

The nurses, much like proud parents, congratulated them one by one and sent them off to a new facility with one last gift. A memory implantation. They would be given back their names, they would be given back their identities, they would be who they were again – but with new bodies. Advanced bodies, a nurse corrected them.

The thirteen of them entered the lab one last time, in the order of them waking up. She remembers Specimen No.26, who was the one leaving right before her, held her hand and said she really wanted to go and try seaweed when it was over. For Specimen No.26 heard it from a nurse that it was such a delicacy.

No, it wasn’t Specimen No.26.

She has a name now.

Xuanyi greeted her first with a bag of seaweed in her hand when she found herself in a secured house after her implantation. Where she smiled for the first time.

Jiyeon remembers because she always likes Xuanyi’s smiles.

Right then and there, they are given a new life.

Creations of The Noah’s Ark.

-

Sojung approaches her with a glass of brown liquid called chocolate milk. Her expression shows hints of exhaustion but her endurance has been proved to be one of the toughest.

“Here, have it. It should make you feel happy.”

Jiyeon gladly takes the glass from Sojung’s warm hands, the unfamiliar sensation of the skin contact only reminds her of the incident just a while ago.

“Will Juyeon be okay?”

The older girl just looks over her shoulder without a word. One can hardly imagine what just happened in this empty living room. The tranquility, that the two of them are sharing at this very moment, becomes scarce lately.

“Luda’s looking after that circuit of her arm right now. It should take some time but she’ll be just fine. Hyunjung’s with them as well.”

Noticing the unusual sweatiness on her palms, Jiyeon tries her very best to calm herself down to prevent another overdrive, “I…… I don’t know what really happened. I just-”

“It’s not your fault,” Sojung mumbles but the other girl still picks up the undertone in her voice. Worried, frustrated, annoyed, sorry…… Emotions that are so raw and perplex. And it is true. She could not put the blame on either Jiyeon or Juyeon. “It’s the guards. We all know it.”

Things have not been easy on them since the national guards have been out to hunt them. Never had they imagined themselves being mortal enemies of the government. They know those guards would not hesitate to terminate them, and they would do it by all means just like how they are well-known for. The incident Jiyeon and Juyeon had back there serves as a prime example of so.

And never had they seen the doctors again since they have been transferred to this house. Hyunjung, their oldest, once gained access to some old files about the experiment before they left the old lab and dug out some useful info about themselves.

Something like The Witkin’s Experiment was only meant to create the perfect specimen to sustain an ideal life form, not any sort of robot helpers or war machines the government claimed them to be.

The Order is coming anyway. At least that is what Dawon got from sneaking into a military post last week. If there is a war, they have to fight it on their own.

“Hey, I think you two should look at this.” Meiqi makes a timely entrance and connects herself wirelessly with the computer station in their living room.

Tactical cameras footages of multiple locations are shown, which seem to be taken during recent operations as indicated by their dates. There is one particular screen that catches Sojung and Jiyeon’s eyes.

“They raided the lab.” Juyeon, whose arm’s skin regeneration is yet to be completed, bursts out from Luda’s room waving her metallic limb.

“And that’s why Juyeon and Jiyeon went on an ‘overdrive’ just now,” Meiqi gestures Juyeon to sit down as they really cannot risk any more casualties. “The guards hacked us ‘cause they know they can’t take us down. So, they want us to take down ourselves.”

Sojung interjects in a heartbeat, “How did they find the lab in the first place?”

“Xiao’s on it. But I might have a lead.” The blonde skips the footages to a certain time stamp where a containment breach broke out in the laboratory. It was some time after they had been sent off. Details of the containment breach have been deliberately deleted but they could still see the damage it caused. Most personnel from The Noah’s Ark evacuated but a few died right on the scene. A troop of national guards arrived and assisted with the cleaning up soon afterward.

Perhaps too soon for their liking. As far as they know, there is zero connection between the government and The Noah’s Ark.

Rubbing her tired eyes, Hyunjung makes her way downstairs after resetting some of their firewalls, “It should be ‘The Rupture’ I read somewhere before.”

Juyeon, the hotheaded one, jumps a little on her seat, “Wait, I don’t understand. The government was helping the lab to cover it up but now they are hunting for our heads? Who’s on which side?”

“The Noah’s Ark had another experiment going on, other than ours. It was what the government was in favor of, not us.” Hyunjung sighs, settling down next to Juyeon. “Therefore, when ‘The Rupture’ happened they did everything to intervene. And then they found out about us too.”

“How much do you know about ‘The Rupture’?” Not bearing to see the guilt and dejected look on Juyeon’s face, Jiyeon distracts herself by focusing on the big question at hand.

The oldest simply shakes her head, “Too little to make sense out of everything. But I do know that it was one of the expected results of that experiment. Even though the actual damage was far underestimated. And it has certainly attracted the government’s attention.”

Meiqi disconnects herself from the computers and enters a string of code that should secure their data from another wave of hacking, “In short, the government wants whatever created ‘The Rupture’ or it created. And to them, we are just by-products that are in their way of initiating The Order.”

“But are we?” Soobin emerges from a hidden back door of the compound, followed by Yeonjung and Yeoreum who just finished scanning their perimeter.

“No. We are what we are.” Ever so swiftly, Sojung stands up to take a good look at the girls, her family. They have been staying hidden, unknown, vigilant as if they were criminals and it is not the life they want, let alone the life they are supposed to be given.

Sojung knows because The Noah’s Ark has made their promise.

The other girls remain silent for emotions are still too overwhelming to them. However, it could be some sort of special detection or just telepathy when Dayoung shouts from the kitchen, “Dinner’s ready!”

Food always brings people good mood. Having the gloomy look on their faces chased away by the thought of good food, everyone goes on to get ready for a feast except Juyeon – who has obviously had lost her usual enthusiasm. Jiyeon knows just what to do and hands her the untouched glass of chocolate milk that Sojung prepared. For good mood, they said.

“I’m sorry.” Mutters Juyeon with her eyes fixated on the tip of her slippers.

“Here. Just take it.” Jiyeon grabs a hold of her dear friend’s hand and wraps it around the glass.

She then takes a quick sip but still refuses to look elsewhere, “Aren’t you angry with me?”

“Why would I? If so, I should be the one who is sorry.” To be frank, she does not really remember what exactly happened this time. Maybe Juyeon was the first to attack her out of nowhere, but she certainly was the one who almost ripped her whole arm off. If it wasn’t Hyunjung and Dawon who managed to reboot them just in time, God knows how that would have ended up. Such a scary thought, Jiyeon summarizes.

Juyeon is always her closest friend, like a sister she never had. Ah, her sister. There are still traces of her in her chip, but she tends to bury them in the back of her head. Jiyeon always tiptoes around those memories, she would have locked them away if she could.

But to delete them, well, she has never had the heart to. She can still hear her sister’s voice whenever her head hit the pillow at night. They used to sleep in the same old bunk bed until Joohyun went to middle school. Jiyeon remembers the wooden smell of that bed still, and how Joohyun sometimes climbed down and snuggled up to her side in the middle of the night.

And then, Joohyun left. Her sister left her and her parents to achieve something bigger that the small town they grew up in could never offer. Joohyun left her alone in the dark where no one would tug her blanket or hold her close when it was cold.

Jiyeon had asked her to stay, or just to take her along. But Joohyun refused. Jiyeon had never seen Joohyun being so resolute. As if she had been forged and hardened into someone she barely knew. And she used to hate Joohyun for that. She even locked herself in the room they once shared the day Joohyun got on that damn train.

“The next time we meet, I’ll take you to that dessert place in Seoul where you’ve always wanted to go.” Joohyun promised Jiyeon so before she left, hoping to win her little sister back with the offer. Jiyeon still remembers it. And she wonders if this offer is still up…… If only Joohyun is still alive.

Juyeon has been a sister figure to her even though she is nothing like Joohyun. Not only she is younger than Jiyeon, but she is also the most direct and forthright person she has ever known. Juyeon never hesitates to do the right thing, the brave one who weeps when no one is looking.

It took Juyeon a long time to make Jiyeon understand that Joohyun has been doing the same thing as well. Everyone loves in a different way. Joohyun loves Jiyeon in her own little ways. Joohyun might not be able to fend off the bullies like Juyeon did for Jiyeon who was harassed by a test subject from another project (who did not make it in the end); but, Joohyun was the one who woke up one hour earlier than usual to go to Jiyeon’s school and convince her sister’s homeroom teacher to keep an eye on the weird injuries on different students lately, who listened to her silly little stories in school all night despite having tests the next day, who did all the chores when Jiyeon was too tired or simply too lazy.

Juyeon seems to know a lot but Jiyeon is certain that Juyeon is dumber than her sister. At least Joohyun knew it when she fell in love, as she once told Jiyeon to keep a secret about her first crush at the former’s fifteenth birthday. Juyeon, however, is too dumb to tell that she herself is basically grown inseparable from someone who also cares a lot about her. Jiyeon knows it is love because she is feeling the same for someone else.

“But, like, maybe I could’ve stopped it.” Juyeon, now just a kicked puppy instead of a ball of raging destruction, takes a long deep breath before continuing. “I keep thinking about it. You know, that one second right before it happened. I saw it coming. I blanked out. I could have warned you all right away but I didn’t-”

Jiyeon just gently taps her friend on the shoulder, “You silly, there’s no way you could’ve stopped it. You were hacked, we both were. And it’s over now.”

They are now a family, and nothing is going to change that.

“Is it?”

“Yes, it is. So, we cool?”

Softly nudging Sojung who is already eyeing the soup on the table, Hyunjung can’t help but lifts a motherly grin as soon as she sees the smiles on Jiyeon and Juyeon’s faces.

“Aren’t our kids so cute?”

Sojung agrees on the cute part but Hyunjung’s way of wording things sometimes confuses her, “What do you mean by ‘our kids’? None of us gave birth to them.”

The oldest throws her a look while Yeonjung is stifling a laugh, “Eh, whatever. Shut up and eat your soup.”

Yes, I would say The Witkin’s Experiment is a great success.

They have created a great family.

Sorry for the small delay.

Part Two should be out soon (where some pairings will make their appearance!?)

I hope it has been an interesting read so far.

All the characters in this series will be introduced in the main story, "The Ungodly Moments: The Rhapsody" soon (and yes, I have made Irene and Bona sisters).

So, all the events here basically happen before the timeline of the main story.