#186: Found 2

The girl, nimble as a squirrel, climbed onto the long waiting room chair. The white towel wrapped around her head and her white dress created an odd harmony.

Soon, the girl’s eyes brightened as she spotted the doll sitting alone on the chair. She stroked the doll’s head with great care. A bright smile bloomed on her face, as if she liked the texture. The girl, toying with the doll’s feet with a covetous expression, then let out a deep sigh and shook her head.

<“She’ll say no...”>

Muttering softly, the girl hopped off the chair, opened the door, and ran elsewhere. The sound of the child’s bare feet hitting the floor grew fainter.

He was drawn by an unknown impulse and walked towards the door the girl had exited. But as soon as he stepped out of the waiting room, the hallway turned into smoke, and Cheon Geon-yeong was thrown into another space.

This time, he was in a car with Chairman Cheon. Chairman Cheon, with fewer wrinkles, looked at the young boy with benevolent eyes.

<“You haven’t been asked to do anything that hurts your body even a little, or makes you physically exhausted, have you?”>

<“No. Nowadays, I swim. Professor Yoon shows me my favorite animals in the swimming pool. Shiny, pretty fish.”>

<“And they don’t attack you?”>

A glint of caution briefly appeared in Chairman Cheon’s eyes. But the boy reassured him, saying they only practiced swimming with him.

When the car arrived somewhere, Chairman Cheon got out of the car himself and opened the door on the side where his grandson was sitting. He only got back in the car after confirming Professor Yoon’s face, who had come to meet them.

The car moved away from him. Cheon Geon-yeong, who had been quietly watching the car carrying his healthy grandfather, turned his body.

Professor Yoon and the boy began to stroll around the research lab. Cheon Geon-yeong followed them three steps behind.

<“I asked people, but they couldn’t find your doll.”>

<“It’s okay now. It’s been two months.”>

<“Didn’t you say it was precious because it was a birthday present? Shall I ask them to look for it one more time?”>

<“It’s okay. Mom said it must have gone to a new owner who can take better care of it than me.”>

The boy said in a spirited voice. Professor Yoon, who showed him unique plants while strolling along the path, led the boy to a room filled with screens. The boy spent time there, looking at screens full of geometric patterns or answering questions from researchers. He didn’t seem to be in any danger.

He turned his back on his childhood self, who was solving quizzes, and walked forward aimlessly. He wanted to see what would happen if he tried to leave the memory.

How long had he walked? A space that seemed like a coalesced light appeared. As he stepped into it, the world spun around, and his surroundings changed again.

Next, his feet touched the deserted cafeteria of the research lab. His childhood self and a female researcher were eating. Cheon Geon-yeong immediately recognized the face of the researcher talking to his childhood self. It was Researcher Hyeon Yi-jeong, who stood side by side with his mother in a photograph.

<“How can they be so alike? The atmosphere is very much like Seo-wan, but if you look closely at each feature...”>

<“He’s a spitting image of my mom. That’s the 500th time I’ve heard that.”>

His younger self replied. Hyeon Yi-jeong chuckled softly at the sassy answer. She moved a sausage from her plate to the boy’s plate and said,

<“Your mom must worry so much about her son. She keeps sending texts. Already thirty texts just this morning. About fifteen if you exclude the emojis.”>

<“Dad says Mom is like she’s been stolen by the teacher. Because she texts and calls the teacher all day. So he’s feeling down. Because Mom doesn’t play with him.”>

The boy said seriously, and Hyeon Yi-jeong burst into laughter.

<“Nowadays, Mom seems to worry more about the teacher than me.”>

<“Hmm? Me?”>

<“She said the teacher looks lonely.”>

<“She says whatever she wants in front of her son, doesn’t she?”>

<“I overheard her.”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong leaned her chin on her hand with an enigmatic smile and looked out the cafeteria window. Meanwhile, the boy cleanly emptied his plate.

After finishing their meal, they borrowed bicycles together and rode around the research lab. Hyeon Yi-jeong stopped occasionally to record the boy driving a four-wheeled bicycle on her phone. And she fiddled with her phone.

Soon, a notification appeared on the screen, and a call came in. Hyeon Yi-jeong answered the phone, putting some distance between herself and the boy.

Cheon Geon-yeong tried to follow her directly. But an transparent wall blocked him. Hyeon Yi-jeong’s voice on the phone grew fainter and fainter.

In this strange experience, Cheon Geon-yeong realized something. He seemed unable to observe events happening far away from his childhood self. Every time he tried to go there, a physical limitation appeared and blocked his path.

Left with no choice, he stayed by the boy who had leaned his bicycle against a bench and was tying his shoelaces. The boy wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief and plopped onto the bench. Cooling off in the shade of a tree, the boy soon turned his head at a rustling sound behind him.

He too turned his body with the boy. Just then, a teddy bear suddenly popped out from the overgrown bushes. The boy’s eyes widened. It was the very doll the boy had lost in the waiting room.

<“Oh?”>

The teddy bear swayed. The boy, who had stood up, stared with wide eyes at the doll moving on its own.

Cheon Geon-yeong, whose eye level was higher, first noticed that the doll was being carried on the back of a young girl. The boy soon realized it too.

<“Hey!”>

The boy shouted with delight and surprise. Then, the girl, who was carrying the doll like a baby on her back, swiftly turned her head. Her eyes widened like a rabbit’s. It was the same girl who had been searching for Lee Hae-kyung with a towel wrapped around her head.

The girl’s cheeks were flushed, as if she was playing some kind of game. Her clothes were covered in leaves and dirt, and she was still barefoot. A stethoscope, stolen from somewhere, hung around the girl’s neck.

<“Who are you?”>

<“In-injured transport under enemy attack! Emergency!”>

The girl lifted the chest piece of the stethoscope, shouted into it, and then instantly turned and ran.

<“Alpha Team, respond!”>

With her vigorous running, the doll hanging on the girl’s back dangled as if its neck would break off. The boy stood motionless, staring blankly at the girl who had kidnapped his doll, until she became a tiny speck in the distance.

Finally, Hyeon Yi-jeong returned, having finished her call. She looked at young Cheon Geon-yeong’s face and asked curiously,

<“Geon-yeong, are you very hot? Your face is red.”>

The boy, who had been lost in thought, rubbed his sweat-free, smooth face with a handkerchief.

<“Even your ear tips are red? We should go back somewhere cool.”>

Cheon Geon-yeong frowned, feeling a stinging sensation on his own face for no reason.

A moment later, Hyeon Yi-jeong and his younger self rode bicycles forward together. The horizon towards which they were heading began to ripple slightly.

The vivid surroundings, as if he were in a movie, changed into a sketch composed only of black and white lines. Scenes detached from reality filled his eyes.

These were all memories he had lost. They were disordered, not in chronological order. Yet, each memory felt strangely familiar.

Soon, he sank into a space filled with darkness. His consciousness was clear, but he saw nothing. Then, Chairman Cheon’s voice came from afar.

<“If he has these memories, this child will be in danger too. Someone is cleaning up. Everything he saw and heard at the research lab when he was young must be erased.”>

Chairman Cheon’s voice trembled with sorrow. Another voice responded.

<“But, Chairman. I don’t know how to precisely tamper with memories. Good memories, or memories that could be helpful in the future, will surely be damaged or disappear.”>

<“I haven’t yet revealed the identities of the bastards who killed my son and daughter-in-law, and I can’t lose my grandson too...”>

After Chairman Cheon’s pained voice, all sounds vanished from his world. He was sucked into pitch-black darkness. It felt as if someone was strongly pulling his magnet-like body.

After being pulled downwards for a long time, Cheon Geon-yeong opened his eyes with intense thirst and a head-splitting pain.

________________________________________

Cheon Geon-yeong blinked.

The space filled with darkness, the park where he rode a bicycle with Hyeon Yi-jeong, the white laboratory, and Professor Yoon’s office were nowhere to be found. He was lying on a hard cot.

As his five senses gradually returned, he could smell a pungent medicinal odor. His head was still hazy. The blanket on his chest felt suffocating, and as he tried to throw it off, the IV needle inserted in the back of his hand caught his eye.

He casually pulled the needle out of the back of his hand. Drops of blood seeped out. Then, a sharp scream came from behind him.

“Patient!”

A military doctor, with a mixture of surprise and wonder on his face, rushed over. He quickly checked Cheon Geon-yeong’s condition, then gaped in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Cheon Geon-yeong buried his face in his palms, trying to clear his head.

The giant snake that spewed fire and turned the forest to ashes. The helicopter flying through pillars of fire. People’s screams. How long had he been unconscious since that moment? Most of all, what he was most curious about was the whereabouts of the woman who had entered the forest first.

After a brief examination, the military doctor ordered a soldier to fetch someone. The soldier hurriedly went outside. A moment later, Oh Ki-cheol appeared, looking startled.

“Geon-yeong!”

Oh Ki-cheol strode over to the side of the bed, gripped the cot’s railing, and spoke in a rapid-fire manner.

“Are you okay? Do you have any pain, or hear or see hallucinations... anything like that? Like ghostly voices? First of all! Do you recognize me?”

Finally, cutting through his floating consciousness, Cheon Geon-yeong slowly opened his mouth.

“Yoon Tae-ha... Please call her.”