7 years ago, 2012

"Here are the details of the trainees you asked for, sir."

"Excellent, thank you Eric. You may leave," he instructs as he's about to look through the stack of profiles on his desk, but leaves his stare lingering on his assistant as the latter seems hesitant to walk out. "Why are you still hanging around; don't you have other jobs to do?" He doesn't sound cynical, but genuinely curious on why the latter looks as if his feet are planted into the ground.

"I know this is not my place to say anything." He picks up pace as he stands before the man's work desk again. He holds onto his wrist in front, looking as if he's already convicted of being guilty without opening his mouth yet. "But is there a reason why you are interested in these particularly 9 trainees? I don't get the common denominator all of them have; their personalities seem to be very contradicting with each other, except for some. Sir, are you planning to put them in a team?"

Kim Hodong laughs, amused by his assistant's enquiry. Eric is the only assistant he has ever had who's brave in laying out these questions for him, but is it also contributed to the fact that he's the only Bifidensis board member who frequently visits the island so Eric figured that he's different from the rest? Most of the time, you may never bump into any of the Bifidensis board members on the island, because they feel like nothing is of interest once they sit here.

Kim Hodong is the only board member that is willing to go back and forth from the mainland to the island, even though it takes almost an hour of commute. He's always observing the trainees from far, as these trainees don't even know how the Bifidensis board members look like. To them, the members are only faceless people who have ultimate power over them.

He likes to visit the island almost every day because he's building towards something big on his own... and in order to do that he must select certain trainees, observe how they act, pick out their differences. The anomalies as he described, and right now, he might have just found them.

9 of them. 9 perfect candidates.

"Do you know who he is, Eric?" He takes out one profile and opens it as he lets the latter read it before his eyes rest on the profile picture.

"I believe he's your nephew."

"Correct. Kim Hongjoong, one of the special trainees I picked up. This trainee, this... this, this..." he keeps continuing until he has shown all of the profiles to him. "Do you see no similarities between them?"

"I'm sorry but no, sir. I still don't understand."

"Take a seat," he gestures towards the seat in front of him, and when his assistant remains rigid on the spot, he tries again. This time he utters, "I'm about to tell you a long story, and I don't know when it will end. You might get tired after this, so don't worry, take a seat. I don't bite," he says jokingly, but there's a grave undertone as both of them know that the other Bifidensis board members do bite.

"Very well, sir."

He waits until Eric has settled down before he powers up his laptop, projecting on the white screen a typical powerpoint of KTC's corporate profile. "Do you remember what KTC's tagline is?"

He doesn't miss a beat as the line has been engraved in every mind of the staff and trainees there, not to mention how they seem to manage to paint it everywhere where there are empty walls. "We provide you with a life, you provide us with your lives."

"And what do you think it means?"

"The trainees here are sheltered, given food, water and basic necessities; they are well cared for. So in return, they must work for the Bifidensis under a contract. Only after the contract they're allowed to be-" he pauses, thinking of the right word, "-free."

"And that's what they believe. What does it mean to be 'free' to them?" He puts up quotation marks at the word free.

"That they will be unshackled from the Bifidensis and KTC, finally getting on their own two feet without any surveillance from the higher-ups. In short, they are free from people like you, sir."

He chuckles, taking no offence at Eric's chance of jabbing at him. It's an unspoken phrase, but of course everyone knows. Every trainee hates the Bifidensis. The monsters that destroyed their previous lives in the pretense of giving them better ones.

"Correct. But that is their definition of freedom. The Bifidensis members have a different definition for that word, as you may have realized."

Eric's eyes travel downwards, looking at his own clasped hands. He feels as if it's a threat directed at him, that after their contract ends no trainee will have their lives spared. It feels heavy on how he's going to say it so his pink lips stay shut, uttering no words even when it seems that Hodong wanted him to continue the conversation.

He sighs, "Why these 9 trainees? Eric, in your opinion what do you think the KTC is trying to churn out?"

"Agents who obey the rules of the system and follow every single plan laid out for them. People who would continuously pledge their loyalty without even having a thought of stepping out of line. In short," he wrings his hands, "robots."

He nods, satisfied with his explanation. "All the trainees that we recruit into our system are the best that we can get; we snatch them before they manage to use their advantages in society. But, there can never be anything perfect, no matter how stringent you are with the procedure. What do you think these trainees lack?"

"I have no idea, sir."

He gathers the profiles. "Compassion. These trainees lack compassion towards other human beings, because they're not one themselves anymore. In this facility, there is no such thing as humanity being taught- no, you can't teach that. If you have compassion, this," he points a finger behind, the KTC tagline bearing a dark meaning behind them, "can turn around and bite us back. There is a thin line between having skilled and obedient trainees. You can either have both..." he points to one of the profiles, "or only one."

"Compassion," Eric echoes. "You've been observing these 9 trainees ever since your nephew entered this facility. What makes you decide that they are the ones worthy... of your definition of what human beings are supposed to be like?"

"That's a good question, because this is all subjective. Since I'm the only one deciding to pick out these trainees... my definition might not be as clear as it seems."

He picks out one profile- his nephew, Kim Hongjoong.

"I've known him since he was a baby, he was my favourite nephew because I had no son of my own. Wonderful, kind-hearted boy he is. But getting involved with me was possibly the worst fate he could have. The other Bifidensis board members... they know no mercy."

"They killed his parents," Eric adds. "In an instigated car crash, but no details were pointed out to them. With him turning into an orphan, they would have a reason to take him in as a trainee."

"He's a very talented boy that the other Bifidensis board members thought it would be a shame to let him go. I should not have been involved with his family; they killed my brother and took my nephew here, destroyed the only life he had. I should have stayed away from the family, minded my own business when I know getting appointed as a Bifidensis board member means that you should have no heart."

He closes the profile and takes out one and another, putting them beside each other and his assistant takes a look at them before coming to an understanding of what he's pointing out.

"Lee Eunbi and Jeong Yunho. You do know who Lee Eunbi is, don't you?" Hodong asks as a sad feeling creeps up onto him and he presses his lips together.

"She was the daughter of Mr. Lee Kyung." One of the previous Bifidensis board members. "The rest of the board members decided to collectively have him and his family murdered in the deliberate fire set up, because he got married and tried to start a new life. But she survived because Jeong Yunho saved her."

"Lee Kyung was like a brother to me, we shared a sentiment that the rest don't agree with."

"Both of you wanted to see the end of the facility," Eric decides. "To end this training facility which only gives prosperity towards the higher-ups while the trainees have to suffer."

"That was our goal, but it stopped when he was murdered in the fire, but I don't know what the rest was thinking of when they decided to take in his daughter. To tame her? When they killed her parents, then tried blaming her for the fire because she survived? The other Bifidensis board members are not humans," he utters. "We need to end this crazy facility, but in order to do that I need people who understand what I'm trying to do."

"You're trying to turn the system on itself, sir. Is that what you're trying to do? Assembling a team to bring this down. You find that these 9 people are the perfect candidates for that because they displaye