The leaves made crunching sounds under her rubber-soled shoes, the autumn breeze blew by, making Yujin shiver just a little, prompting her to place her hands inside her pocket. She was lost in her thoughts and her mind tried to make sense of everything that has happened in her life quite recently. The article she released regarding a supposed infrastructure that’s been tapping on the city’s electricity, the related small spurts of protests here and there, men in suits who wound up at her door looking for her three days ago for some interrogation, and Mr. Jang shrugging off her efforts to increase the security of energy sources. There was definitely something that didn’t seem to add up for Yujin; her brows drew together while she to solved the gap in the sequence of events that unfolded over the course of a month.

            Beside her, Minjoo saw how her girlfriend’s expression changed and she knew exactly what was happening. Yujin get moments of silence in certain parts of the day, silence that Minjoo has come to love and understand within the years that she’s known her best friend turned lover. Although, sometimes—most times, as Minjoo figured, the taller girl has the tendency to go so deep in her mind alone that she might drown. And in those moments, Minjoo was there to make sure Yujin could get to the surface just before she runs out of air.

"Jinnie," she said excitedly, cutting her lover’s over-thinking short; Minjoo intertwined her hand with Yujin's inside the latter’s jacket pocket as they continued to walk along the empty streets of Framont City. It was a little past eleven in the evening and Yujin's timer flashed a series of zeros preceding a single number one, she's only got a day left, and every passing second was a moment she made sure was accounted for. When her vision ran over her right wrist, she turned immediately to see Minjoo's face, she had a ready smile on her lips, her dimples deepened, and her eyes formed two half moons.

She ruffled her lover's hair, trying to lighten up the mood, "Excited for tomorrow's performance?" She asked her, shifting the topic to Minjoo's first concert with The Louvelle Orchestra, the most prestigious one in the world, and Minjoo was their most recent and youngest recruit. She simply smiled at Yujin’s question, totally running out of words on how to describe what she feels whenever she sees her smile. Their gazes meet, and they looked into each other's eyes, illuminated by the street lights that lined the road. They stopped briefly under one of the lampposts, stares not breaking, falling deeper into the presence of each other.

"I'm a nervous wreck," she answered honestly with a grunt at the end of her sentence, throwing her head back just a little, and leaning back lazily against the metal pole. She pouts unconsciously, eyebrows threading together like that of a child who was anxious on her first day of school. These gestures made the taller girl laugh, giggle at best. She placed both of her hands on Minjoo's cheeks, her eyes settled lovingly upon the wholeness of her face, their bodies grow closer together as Minjoo pulled Yujin by the waist, she felt the warmth of her girlfriend’s palms against her skin, and a smile automatically draws on her face.

"I'm sure you'll do just fine. I saw how much you practiced for this concert," she tucks in a stray hair, "So don't worry too much, alright? I'll be there with flowers after you get off stage like always." She had this calmness in her voice, the reassurance that no one could guarantee Minjoo but Yujin and Yujin alone— her heart was at peace, and that feeling was home.

She nodded firmly, agreeing with her girlfriend's statement. "You can't miss it, okay?" Yujin initially answered with a smile.

“I won’t,” she told her firmly, “ease your troubles, my love.” Yujin leaned in and planted a kiss on Minjoo’s forehead. A moment of solace, the world was quiet, and it seemed like no one could touch the two of them in their own realm.

It was the last time Yujin saw Minjoo. It was the very same night when she was abducted on her way home after accompanying Minjoo to her house. It was the last of her memories from the outside. She never made it to her girlfriend’s performance with The Louvelle Orchestra, and as she sat in the four-cornered room that appeared brighter with the pure white walls, Yujin couldn’t help but think of how differently things could have turned out if she just died the next day as her timer indicated.

ROOM 1421

“Ahn Yujin,” Dr. Baek called her softly, breaking through her personal flashbacks. “We have to focus on this session,” she told the younger girl, who was still staring at the grilled window, already aware that she was reliving a distant memory, but not ready to leave it just yet.

The doctor sat silently, waiting for her patient to show the slightest bit of interest. Slowly, Yujin transferred her gaze from the window to the woman in white coat who sat on the other side of the table. “I woke up clearer than ever before today, doctor.” Her voice was low and relaxed, so was her body which slumped just a little on the back of her chair.

“Well, that’s a good start,” she told her with a smile, “would you like to elaborate a bit more on that?” Yujin adjust herself on her seat, back straightened, and a serene expression dawned on her. Dr. Baek on the other hand, began to pick up the queues on her patient’s behavior, always taking into account that Yujin played the game just as good as the adults around her.

Just as she was about to speak, the light in Yujin’s eyes shifted into cold and empty orbs, the smile on her lips were more of a smirk rather than an expression of delight, she leaned in slightly, and then said, “Today, I could vividly remember how they abducted me.” Yujin picked on her nails subtly, her words sent a chill down Dr. Baek’s spine, but she knew better than to show the faintest change in her demeanor, albeit she was close on dropping her tough act. The way Yujin said her statement was enough for the doctor to waver; it was the first time in a year that the younger girl said something about recalling her memoirs correctly. Yujin had always been unsure ever since the simulations began; always leaving gaps in stories about her life, always searching for the pieces of her recollections that had been tainted with artificially made ones, but this session was different.

“Is there a particular reason for this change?” She kept her voice in modulation, still putting on a façade in order to prevent Yujin from gaining control.

A chuckle escaped the other girl’s mouth as she placed her elbows on top of the table, hands interlaced together. “I think I made a friend, Dr. Baek.” The doctor’s eyebrows shot up, surprised with the completely out of the blue confession by Yujin.

Dr. Baek looked into her patient’s eyes, searching for signs or anything that could give her a hint of what was going on. She couldn’t let the younger girl catch up with the fact that she’s just as clueless as her, if that happens, Yujin would certainly find the chance to turn things over in her favor, and it’s something that the doctor knows would infuriate the senator, Mr. Jang. “How did you meet your friend?” A safe question would do for now, she thought, carefully calculating her next steps.

“I talked to her,” Yujin began to say; “she’s stuck here just like me.” Her mind drifts to Yena, the girl over the wall, her confidant in nights when nothing else made sense to her because of watching the same simulation over and over again.

“Well, have you ever seen her?” It was a leading query meant to shake Yujin’s belief on what’s real, Dr. Baek couldn’t grasp the idea that Yujin was talking to someone else, since she has not heard of any other patient confined in the facility other than her sole patient. The facility can’t handle two simulations, it would be too power consuming, and this is an established truth that the doctor knows, which is why Yujin’s revelation had her doubting the whole setup.

“I haven’t,” the girl answered straight away, followed by a wave of impending realization. “But I was able to talk to her and she told me stories about her life,” she blurted rather abruptly, as if to make up for the first answer that didn’t make the cut for her.

            The lady saw this as an opportunity to get the upper hand once more, determined not to lose the battle of wits. “You see, the mind is a powerful thing,” she prompted, “it could make you see things differently, and sometimes, it can create things that aren’t there in the first place.” She was slowly getting back on track as the younger girl fell silent, obviously absorbed in her thoughts.

            Yujin’s eyes settled on the smooth and even surface of the table, following the scratch marks that have formed due to wear and tear in a year. Was it real to begin with? Did Yena ever exist? – but of course, she does, she told Yujin things about her past, her story, her struggles. Only a real living and breathing human could do that. These thoughts ran through her mind on a loop, convincing herself that the exchanges with the language and codes prodigy truly occurred. Finally, she raised her head so that she was looking into Dr. Baek’s eyes. “Are you leading me to believe tha