The button beeped once and a cute female voice rang from it. “Please wait a moment~”

I looked at it strangely and laughed at little. “Well I wasn’t expecting that.” I glanced at Wonho.

He was staring at the button with the usual wide-eyes and his fingers were still touching his bottom lip. I think I was starting to get used to his figure. But when I looked closer at his eyes, I could see some kind of emotion.

I blinked. No wait. How is that possible? His eyes never change…

The door opened and Ms. Kim poked her head in. “Did someone ring the bell? Is everything okay?”

I glanced at her for a quick second before focusing on the button like Wonho. A big rush of adrenaline just shot through my entire body and I had to steady my breathing.

“M-Ms. Kim.” I cleared my throat. “I was just…we were just wondering. Can we talk to the newest patient here?”

“Oh? You’d like to talk to him? That’s very nice of you. He’s very edgy and he could definitely benefit from making new friends.” Ms. Kim smiled and walked closer to us.

“Great!” I exclaimed. “Where is he?”

“He’s in Room 2. I will take you there." I felt hands take my arm and I had to hold in a gasp. Every time this woman spoke or touched me, I felt so dizzy. But I fought through the dizziness and motioned to Wonho for him to follow me. He didn’t move an inch.

I looked at him. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Takuya. Wonho needs to stay in this room.”

I turned my head in her direction but didn’t look into her eyes. “Why?”

“His mental condition is…the most unstable out of all of the patients here. It’s best that he stays alone most of the time.”

My brow furrowed in confusion. “Then why am I in here with him?”

“He told me he likes you the best, so he promised he wouldn’t act up or do something he’ll regret.” Ms. Kim chuckled.

I looked at Wonho. He didn’t look back at me.

“Would you still like to talk to our newest patient?”

I slowly nodded. “Yes please.”

“Alright, please come with me.” She led me out of the room and down the dim hallway.

A part of me wished that she would take her hands off of my arm, but the other part enjoyed it immensely. That part wanted her hands to travel around my entire body and—I shook my head. What am I thinking!?

“Alright, here we are.” Ms. Kim opened the door the door labeled “Room 2” and motioned at me to go inside.

“Thanks.” I mumbled little and entered the room.

“What you’re doing is really sweet, Takuya. Our newest patient will be very appreciative.” She patted my back and closed the door behind me.

I had to steady my breathing again after he hand touched my back. Once I felt normal, I looked around the room. The first thing I noticed was the walls. They were covered in multi-colored graffiti. I saw a guy with yellow hair intensely drawing on the wall to my left. I remembered his wall-drawing hobby, but I couldn’t remember his name…

“Takuya!” My gaze moved to my front. One guy wearing a black magician hat with red hair ran up to me.

I blinked, slowly remembering his face. “It’s you.”

“Are you okay?” He looked me up and down and grabbed my hand. “Come here.”

I was pulled forward by him and looked at him surprised. “Why? What’s wrong?”

He led me over to two other guys. One of them was standing and looking down at the other guy who was staring ahead. He seemed to be in a daze.

The standing guy looked up and his expression brightened. “It’s Takuya!” He motioned me forward. “Can you help us? I think Sangmin died.” He chuckled.

Sangmin. Yes! That name definitely rang a bell inside my mind. I nodded and knelt down in front of Sangmin. “How long has he been like this?” I looked at the guy standing close to Sangmin. He was wearing a black, backward cap that I remembered as well.

“A long time. Like…an hour? Thirty minutes?” He glanced at the red-haired guy.

“Yeah, that’s about right. No matter what we did, he is still like this.” The red-haired guy replied quietly.

I waved my hand in front of Sangmin’s eyes. He didn’t move. I carefully placed my hand on his shoulder and shook him a little. “Sangmin? Hello?”

Nothing.

I felt a little frustrated. “Why are you like this now…? I wanted to talk to you.”

“Why did you want to talk to him?” The red-haired guy looked at me curiously.

“Because he’s the newest patient here, maybe he could explain some things to me.”

“Brilliant idea!” The yellow-haired guy shouted from behind us.

“But he’s not responding to any of us.” The cap-wearing guy sighed a little.

“Maybe…because of hypnosis?” I glanced at him.

Both guys stared at me.

The yellow haired guy turned around and smiled big. “Yes!! I have a believer!”

“I mean, it makes sense, right?” I said slowly. The red-haired and pink-haired guys looked at me as if I were crazy.

“Yes!! That’s what I’ve been trying to say all along!” The yellow haired guy ran up to us waving the crayon in his hand.

“How do you know for sure?” The red-haired guy kept his gaze on me.

“You know the other patient here? The one that has to be alone a lot because of his mental condition?” I looked at all of them.

They looked at me blankly. Even the yellow-haired guy.

“There’s another patient here?” The cap-wearing guy asked.

“Yeah. He told me about post-hypnotic suggestion.”

“I must talk to this person.” Yellow-haired guy breathed.

“Was he hypnotized too?” Cap-wearing guy asked.

That thought actually never occurred to me. In my head I just knew that he was a mental patient. But now that he mentioned it…

“I’m not sure…” I said quietly.

Suddenly, Sangmin’s head dropped a little and lifted back up. He blinked several times and looked around in confusion.

“Sangmin!” Red and pink-haired guys both touched his arms. Sangmin looked at their faces in shock.

“W-who are you? Where am I?” He leaned back a little.

“We told you! I’m Casper and that’s Yongseok.” Cap-wearing guy said quickly.

“You were staring ahead for a long time.” Yongseok added.

Sangmin rubbed his eyes. “My eyes hurt…”

“You weren’t blinking.” Casper patted his shoulder.

I moved closer to his front. “Sangmin?”

Sangmin looked at me after rubbing his eyes.

“My name is Takuya. I think we met before.” I spoke softly.

Sangmin slowly nodded. “Yeah…I think we did too.”

“Ms. Kim, the nurse that works here, you remember her, right? Didn’t you have some kind of ‘treatment’ that she administered?”

Sangmin’s eyes widened when I said Ms. Kim. “Some…kind of treatment?” Sangmin asked slowly.

“You don’t remember?” My face fell a little.

He slowly shook his head. “I…I don’t remember, but I know who she is.”

 “Do you remember anything at all before this moment?” I asked.

Sangmin’s face remained unchanged. “I want to see her.” He said lowly.

I blinked and touched his arm. “Do you remember anything before this moment? Anything at all?”

He seemed to have an inner battle with himself and closed his eyes tightly. “I…want…to…see…her…” He groaned a little as his head dropped and his hands tightened on the chair rests.

All of us backed away a little.

“S-Sangmin?” Casper stared at him wide-eyed.

“C-calm down. We’re just worried about you.” Yongseok looked just as scared at Casper.

Sangmin took several deep breaths. I think he was trying to calm himself down. After several seconds, he relaxed and shivered a little.

“Are you okay?” I took a step forward.

“I…” Sangmin slowly looked up at me. “I’m so confused…”

“Welcome to Hell!” Yellow-haired guy waved at him.

I shot him an annoyed look and took a step closer to Sangmin. “I’m just as confused as you, but I think we can help each other.”

“How?” Sangmin blinked.

“We have to escape from this place. Away from…the nurse.” I avoided saying Ms. Kim’s name so he wouldn’t tense up again.

“How can we possibly do that? She checks in on us a lot and there are guards.” Casper looked at me.

“If we all work together, I’m sure we can escape successfully.”

“Do you have an idea?” Yongseok asked me.

I thought for a second. Wonho’s explanation of post-hypnotic suggestion rang in my head. Then my eyes widened. “Wait…what if we turned the tables a little?” A smirk formed on my face.

“What do you mean?” Sangmin asked quietly.

I looked at all of them with a gleam in my eyes. “Why don’t we show her how it feels to be helplessly under someone else’s control?”

Yellow-haired guy’s mouth dropped slowly. “Brilliant…!”

Casper looked at the both of us strangely. “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting we hypnotize the nurse!” I exclaimed.

Everyone stared at me.

“Well, that’s a clever idea, but none of us are experienced.” Yongseok said.

“Aren’t you a magician?” Sangmin glance at him.

Yongseok slowly looked down. “None of my tricks work…”

“What experience do you need?” I was getting more and more excited by the second. “Come on, you guys! It’s perfect! We can make her stop messing with our minds and let us go. Then we can erase her memories of us and we can go back to our normal lives!”

“I’m in!” Yellow-haired guy placed himself at my side excitedly.

Yongseok and Casper shared glances.

“I’m in too.” Sangmin slowly stood up and nodded at me.

After a moment, Casper slowly nodded at me. “Alright. It’s worth a try.”

“But how are we going to do it?” Yongseok asked me