I followed behind Ms. Kim as she walked down the hallway and opened a door next to Room 1.

She quickly ran the back of her hand over her forehead and turned to me.

“Takuya, you stay right outside this door, okay? I’ll check Seyoung to make sure he doesn’t have a fever. Please don’t go anywhere until I come back out.” She smiled at me. There was a growing look of fatigue in her eyes.

I slowly nodded, taking in all of her voice and face. “I’ll stay right here.”

“Excellent.” She helped Seyoung sit down in a chair inside of the room and begin pulling things out of the drawers.

I watched her every move. I felt my mind relaxing with every passing second I didn’t look away. I could stare at her all day…

Seyoung coughed a couple times quite forcefully.

I blinked and looked at him.

He was staring at me with a hard expression. It was almost like he was telling me to focus on him instead of Ms. Kim.

“Please open your mouth for me.” Ms. Kim stepped in front of him.

I quickly looked down.

I have to be careful…looking at her for too long will make me too relaxed…

My gaze slowly wandered to my left and I saw the closed door to Room 1.

I immediately thought of Wonho. I wanted to see him.

After one quick glance at Ms. Kim, I slowly moved away from the open door and grabbed the knob to Room 1.

“Wonho?” I opened the door and looked around.

He was sitting with his back to me at the tea table in his usual sitting position. He didn’t react to my voice.

“Hey Wonho!” I quickly moved over to him and touched his shoulder.

He slowly reached for the blue teacup on the table and brought it to his lips. His eyes were still widened and emotionless. He took a long sip of tea.

I bent down in front of him so we were at eye-level.

“Hey! Can’t you hear me?”

Wonho didn’t look at me or say anything.

I remembered his last treatment session and felt very scared.

N-no way…is he just not going to talk to me now?

I put my hands on his shoulders and shook him a little.

“Wonho! Say something to me! Please! Don’t ignore me like this!!”

Looking very closely at his eyes, I saw that his pupils were twitching slightly. After a couple seconds, I saw his eyes get wetter as he blinked slowly.

I took in a small breath, trying to keep myself together.

“I know you want to talk to me…I can see it in your eyes. Because of Ms. Kim…that’s why you’re not talking to me, right? She hypnotized you not to be my friend.”

Wonho held the tea cup firmly in his hands and didn’t move.

“Well that’s gonna change. I’m gonna give her a taste of her own medicine and I’ll get you out of this mess. Then we can leave this place and go drink tea together. Remember we promised to do that?”

Wonho slowly brought the tips of his fingers to his bottom lip and grazed it softly.

I nodded slowly. “Just hang in there a while longer. Soon you’ll be free. We all will be.”

I patted his arm and stood up. Before walking out of the room, I glanced back at him once more. His position didn’t change. I sighed a little and closed the door, making my way back to the open door.

Ms. Kim was still in front of Seyoung. I couldn’t tell what she was doing, but I kept my gaze away from her figure and waited for her to finish.

“There we go. You should feel much better now.” Ms. Kim smiled.

I looked up. Ms. Kim walked back to the drawers to put some equipment away. Seyoung looked very drowsy. He could barely keep his head up.

Ms. Kim walked back over to him and helped him to his feet.

I followed them back to Room 2 and waited outside the door for Ms. Kim to help Seyoung settle back down in one of the beds in the room.

Then we were both walking toward the treatment room. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer.

“Thank you for being very patient as I dealt with Seyoung.” She patted my shoulder and opened the door to the treatment room.

I let out a quiet rush of breath from her contact. “N-no problem.” I walked inside of the room but didn’t sit in the chair.

Ms. Kim closed the door and rubbed her forehead again.

I slowly looked at her. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Of course, I’ve just been feeling a bit lethargic for a while.” She smiled at me and motioned me to sit down.

“I don’t know Ms. Kim…maybe you should take a rest?” I slowly turned my gaze to the ground.

“I’ll rest after your treatment session.” She walked over to me and gently pushed me down into the chair, but as she tried to bind my wrists to the armrests, she couldn’t do it properly and continuously clamped her eyes shut.

I couldn’t stop a sly smile from forming at my mouth.

“You look really tired. Why don’t we switch seats?”

She was silent for several seconds, then slowly glanced at me.

“What did you do to me…?” Her eyes were half open but there was a tangible flame inside of them. It made my heart race.

“What are you talking about?” I asked innocently.

“I’m...very disappointed in you…you broke my rules…again.” She glared at me and slowly bent over, unable to hold herself up. I quickly caught her in my arms.

“The rules have changed. You won’t manipulate us anymore.”

My hand slowly ran down her back and caressed her bare arms. She fought with very little sincerity against my touch.

Holding her in my arms made my heart race with excitement. I slowly stood up and pulled her into the treatment seat. Her head was bobbing up and down and her eyes were slowly opening and closing.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to check your pockets.”

I ran my hands down her lower nurse dress and felt the chain inside her left pocket. I slowly pulled it out and looked at it. The ring was shining in the florescent light prettily.

“Y-you can’t hypnotize me…only I can do that…” Her words were a bit slurred. She was trying very hard to focus on me.

I met her eyes and smirked. “Like I said, the rules have changed. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I held the chain in the tips of my fingers and dangled the ring in front of her eyes. Her breathing started to get deeper and huffier.

“N-no…”

“Yes.”

I started to swing the chain back and forth in front of her eyes. Her head twitched from side to side, trying her hardest to look away, but very soon after, her eyes were following the ring’s every swing. I watched as her entire body relaxed and her breathing slow down greatly.

An exhilarating feeling of power swept over my body. I realized I could tell her absolutely anything and she would do it. So many possibilities ran through my head, some dirtier than the others. As much as I wanted to say those dirty things, I pushed them down and focused on Wonho’s condition and the others in Room 2.

“You have been a horrible nurse. You’ve manipulated me, Wonho, and the others in Room 2 for your own entertainment. We don’t want to live with hypnotized minds anymore. Take away our post-hypnotic suggestions and give our memories back.”

“Yes…” Ms. Kim slowly nodded, keeping her eyes on the swinging ring.

“Then confess everything to your boss and whatever authorities arrive so we all can leave this institution freely and go back to our lives easily.”

“Yes…” She nodded again.

I couldn’t help but smirk again. Wow, this is pretty easy…and fun.

“Then the instant this whole mess is over, you’ll forget about everything: me, Wonho, the others from Room 2, and everything you ever did to us.”

“Yes.”

“Now…uh, sleep.” I shrugged one shoulder.

Her eyes fluttered shut and her head fell back against the chair.

I watched her breathing deeply and slowly grasped the white chain in my palm.

I did it!

My expression slowly dropped the more I stared at her sleeping figure.

I…I didn’t tell her when to wake up…

Uh oh.