"It's you." Hongbin breathed into the phone.

 

"You should be more excited to hear from me." The voice on the other end said. "Something is about to happen."

 

Just then, all of the streetlights flashed back on.

 

"How did you-"

 

"I told you I know things."

 

"Where are you?" He whirled around in the phone booth, looking for the girl he'd met earlier.

 

His eyes fell on a petite figure on the far end of the block. Her pink dress was replaced by a formfitting black jumper as she stood with her hands on her hips.

 

Wrong girl.

 

Hongbin flinched as her voice pierced the night air.

 

"Who do you think you are running away like that, Lee Hongbin?" She snapped her fingers and the lights went out again.

 

When they flicked back on, the distance between them had halved. He pressed his back against the wall of the booth and gulped. "What the hell is going on?"

 

"I told you something was going to happen." The voice almost sang. "You are going to do everything I tell you if you want to get out."

 

"Hell if I am!" He barked into the phone and was close to hanging it up when the lights went out again. She was getting closer.

 

"Hongbin, you're going to have to trust me."

 

He desperately pressed the phone against his ear. "How can I trust someone when I don't even know their name?"

 

"Just do it."

 

He closed his eyes and nodded.

 

"I trust you."

 

"I know."

 

A single streetlight, brighter than the others, beamed over Tiffany like a spotlight. She was only a few paces away.

 

Hongbin's breathing hitched and he felt himself being into the phone's receiver. He saw Tiffany's enraged face against the booth before everything went black.

 

 

 

When he awoke, everything was white. He laid on a cot in the middle of a room so bright he was almost blinded. His eyes ached and his skull felt like it was splitting in half.

 

"Look who's up." A man in the corner looked down at him.

 

Hongbin pressed his palms against his ears as if he was trying to hold his brain in. "Am I dead?"

 

"On the contrary," the stranger looked amused. "You've just started to live."

 

"Who are you and where am I?" He groaned and tried to get up.

 

"Take it easy, you're safe." The stranger clasped Hongbin's shoulder to help him stand. "You're in the Motherboard and I'm Jaehwan."

 

"How did I get here?" Hongbin soon learned that even simply scratching his head was too much pressure and he bit back a scream.

 

"Collect call. You answered the call," Jaehwan nodded. "So you were collected."

 

Hongbin leered as Jaehwan laughed at his own joke and attempted to straighten his posture.

 

"Anyway, I'm supposed to bring you to Ravi." Jaehwan slapped his back and Hongbin yelped.

 

"What's a Ravi?"

 

"He's a programmer. Nothing too special." Jaehwan waved over his shoulder and headed for the edge of the white room. Hongbin hobbled, not far behind, and stared at the seamless walls impatiently. A rectangular outline began to glow and slid to the side. The two exited the room and Jaehwan led the way down an expansive passageway.

 

Corridors branched off in every direction. A soft humming noise filled the atmosphere. Hongbin followed Jaehwan closely. His eyes were starting to adjust and he squinted to make out the upper curve of a zero printed on his guide's nape before it disappeared under the neckline of his shirt.

 

Jaehwan stopped short and the wall slid open. Hongbin noticed that he hadn't seen any doors in the passageway.

 

"It's more organized this way." Jaehwan said off-handedly. He led them into another white room. Hongbin looked around to find it empty. He shook his head and things started to materialize; huge monitors, tables full of lights and buttons, cables running along the floor and through the air.

 

Jaehwan through his head back and yelled, causing Hongbin to wince. "Where you at, man?"

 

"Stop trying to be cool." A deep voice called and the pair followed it. The air surrounding them flickered and soon a young man appeared, hunched over a desk.

 

Hongbin rubbed his eyes.

 

"You're having trouble seeing, aren't you?" Jaehwan asked. Hongbin nodded, frustrated and confused.

 

"Well how about you try using your damn eyes." Jaehwan flicked his forehead. "Newbies.."

 

"Leave him alone." Ravi said, eyes scanning the computer screen in front of him. "It'll take him a while to adjust. His brain capacity is much more immense than yours."

 

Jaehwan shot him a glare before leaving through a hole in the wall. Hongbin stood silently.

 

"I-"

 

"Hold that thought." Ravi held up a finger and continued watching the screen in rapt attention. When he was finished, he sighed and leaned back in his chair to size Hongbin up. "I'm supposed to log you in."

 

"Log me in where?" Hongbin shuffled from foot to foot under Ravi's calculating gaze.

 

"The Mainframe?" He scoffed as if it was obvious. "Oh right, you know nothing."

 

Hongbin's eyes narrowed and his jaw set in a straight line. First, two strange women tell him he's too smart and now he knows nothing. To top it off, he steps into an empty room only to learn that it isn't empty; he's just blind.

 

"N would probably be better at explaining this than me." Ravi said, mostly to himself. "Basically, the life you knew? It's not real."

 

Hongbin stumbled back. How could it not be real?

 

"I knew I couldn't do this." Ravi grumbled at the newcomer's shocked expression. "Everything you've ever known, thought, or even felt has been a lie."

 

"I think I'd rather have this N person explain it to me." He said stoically to hide his fear. Ravi shrugged and slapped a button on the side of his desk and another person entered the room within seconds.

 

He smiled effortlessly and his eyes seemed like they were hardly open.

 

"The walking shadow is N, our leader." Ravi titled his head toward him. N shot him a look and smacked him in the head.

 

"I'm not really that dark!"

 

Hongbin wondered what it took to be referred to solely as a letter of the alphabet.

 

"Welcome to the Motherboard!" N stretched his arms out to his sides. "This is the base for the operatives for the Mainframe."

 

"What's the Mainframe?" Hongbin asked in a hushed tone.

 

"Oh right, you know nothing."

 

'Here we go again..' Hongbin rolled his eyes.

 

"I think it's best if you sit down for this one." N said lightly.

 

In a flash, two antique armchairs appeared. Set in the middle was a low end table with two glasses and a crystal decanter about halfway full of a rose colored liquid. N threw himself down on one of the armchairs.

 

"It would be easier to start from the very beginning." He rubbed his hands together. "With the System."

 

"What's the-"

 

"Sit."

 

Hongbin complied.

 

"The world actually fell apart a long time ago. Humans became too dependent on machinery; it eventually numbed their minds and over-ran the whole race." He pressed his palms against one another. "The System is an agency founded specifically on hiding that fact from the public. The public which continued to thrive but not really live."

 

N scanned the newcomer's expression before continuing.

 

"You were born long after the world fell. Your whole life has been formulated by the System."

 

"That can't be possible." Hongbin shook his head and leaned against the back of his chair.

 

"It is." N said finally. "The Mainframe was built to liberate the minds of those controlled by the System. It takes a lot of time and effort but it'll be worth it in the end."

 

He seemed like he was trying to assure himself with the last statement.

 

"You you guys are like the resistance?" Hongbin looked over to where Ravi was. He was gone.

 

"Kind of like that." N grinned. "We're gathering the strongest minds first in order to break down the walls of the System. Once they fall, the public will be free."

 

Hongbin nodded slowly, soaking up the information. "And I'm here because..?"

 

"I said we're gathering the the strongest minds first." The leader leaned back in his chair smugly. "The agents of the System even took an interest in you.

 

'Tiffany.' Hongbin thought.

 

He  was looking at the commander of a mental rebellion and he wasn't sure if he'd gone a bit mental himself.

 

"If you agree to join us, you can have all of the knowledge in the world. Everything you could ever want to know."

 

N watched Hongbin's eyes light up and he pulled a mobile device out of his pocket. It looked like a sleek, black iPhone but once he pressed a button a pocket shot out of the bottom.

 

"In my hand, I have two pills." He unfolded his palm. "The black one keeps you in the dark. You can go back to your old life, or what you thought was your life, and forget this ever happened."

 

Hongbin looked at the pill intently. Everything would go back to normal.

 

But was that what he really wanted?

 

"The white pill will tell you the truth. Take the white pill and join the Mainframe."

 

He reached his hand out but hesitated.

 

Joining the Mainframe meant unlimited knowledge and a chance to prove what he was really worth.

 

But would he be able to handle knowing everything?

 

He snatched a pill from N's hand, throwing his head back and swallowing.

 

The leader grinned, replacing the black pill into it's secret compartment.

 

"Follow me and prepare to install the Intersect."

 

---

||Author's note: chapter two! Sorry the fun stuff just started ><

subscribe, upvote, and comment! I like opinions. Opinions are cool.

-Mickey