Keeping the container of liquid sedative in my palm, I approached the door to Room 2 and pressed my ear against the door. There was calm talking on the other side so I carefully turned the knob and poked my head inside.

Casper and Yongseok were sitting together and drinking tea out of small blue teacups. Seyoung was positioned at another area of the wall and was drawing on it again. Sangmin was sitting close to the set of cupboards closed to the door.

“Hey Takuya!” Casper waved at me. Everyone else looked at me as well.

I looked around the room. “Where are the guards?”

Sangmin wordlessly opened the cupboard doors and motioned to them. Both guards were unconscious and looked like they were stuffed in there carelessly. They were probably going to wake up very sore.

I nodded and stepped into the room, closing the door behind me. “Good job.”

“Did you get the sedative?” Yongseok stood up.

“Yeah.” I walked over to him and Casper and held up the small glass container. Sangmin joined us.

“It looks like water.” Sangmin mused.

“We’ll pour some into a cup of tea and offer it to the nurse.” I walked over to the small square table and picked up the pitcher of tea. “Then when she takes a sip, we’ll start Phase Two of the plan.” I poured the liquid into the cup until it was half full.

“Was she in the treatment room when you went to grab it?” Casper asked.

“Yeah.” My expression fell thinking about Wonho.

“Wow! You must have been really quiet for her not to see or hear you!” Yongseok exclaimed.

“She was…busy.”

“With the other patient?” Sangmin asked.

My expression sank even more. “We have to save him. Ms—the nurse hypnotized him again. She told him to only love her and forget about me.”

I opened the container and was about to pour the entire dose into the cup.

“No, wait!!” Seyoung grabbed my wrist and took the container out of my hand. “Don’t pour the whole thing in! Just one or two drops will do.” He carefully let two drops of the liquid fall into the cup and stirred it with a small spoon. “We want the nurse to be drowsy. If she falls asleep, hypnosis and post-hypnotic suggestion won’t work.”

I blinked and turned to him. “How do you know that?”

Seyoung opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He just kept stirring the cup awkwardly.

Everyone else looked at him.

My eyes widened slowly. “Seyoung…are you…aware that you’re hypnotized?”

Seyoung acted as if he didn’t hear me and put the spoon down slowly, not looking at me.

Casper looked at me. “What are you talking about?”

“When I talked with the other patient…he spoke of things he knew about hypnosis that I didn’t know. I didn’t even know I was hypnotized. Did you three know?” I looked from Casper to Yongseok to Sangmin.

They all exchanged glances and slowly shook their heads.

My gaze turned back to Seyoung. “But you know about hypnosis just like the other patient.”

“I don’t know…” Seyoung slowly lowered his head. “I’m just crazy. We live in an insane asylum after all…”

“No.” I slowly shook my head. “It’s her. She’s the one driving us insane. She’s reprogramming our minds so we will eventually become crazy! Hypnosis is dangerous if done too many times, right?”

Seyoung continued to keep his eyes down. “I don’t know.”

“You do know.” I stared at him hard.

He sighed loudly and moved away from us. “Just leave me alone, okay!? Geez!” He pick up a red crayon and started drawing roughly on the wall.

We all looked at him for several seconds.

“Takuya…are we going to lose our minds?” Sangmin asked quietly.

I slowly shook my head and picked up the small tea cup.

“No. I won’t let that happen. Come on, let’s focus back on the plan. Everyone ready?”

Casper, Yongseok, and Sangmin nodded. Seyoung didn’t turn around.

“Okay.” I nodded, took a deep breath, and pressed the small button on the corner of the table.