Onew is very sure that she has gone insane. He looks at her sister who is still struggling to get free from the nurses. He looks from far, because the medical staff won’t allow him to enter her sister’s room. She made an attempt to commit suicide, which from Onew’s opinion, is ridiculous. Why does she need to do that? Onew doesn’t understand, and he gets a severe headache when he thinks about that. He closes his eyes and leans against the wall. He sighs.
Swiftly, he could feel a tender hand of Taeyon pulls him towards a chair. He sits down. She gently massages his temple, as though she knows that he is suffering from the headache. Onew feels slightly relieve and he opens his eyes to find another bright eyes and a smile waiting for him. He cannot control himself anymore. He buries his face into her shoulder and cries until he feels his burden is slightly gone.
“I’m sorry. Your blouse is wet,” he says sorry to Taeyon right after he looks up.
“It’s okay. I understand,” Taeyon replies, smiling again. In fact, she forces that smile. She wants to cheer him up but she could do nothing. His sister, Emma has gone slightly extreme. She couldn’t believe it herself, that she is committing suicide. Luckily, a nurse found her in the bathroom and Dr. Jessica acted so fast and efficient. Taeyon recalls everything.
Emma was found bleeding excessively in the bathroom, with her wrist cut, very deep, until it reached her blood vessels. Dr. Jessica saved her, since she is her patient. Emma had been unconscious for a night, and for the whole night Taeyon and Onew accompanied her. Onew wept for uncountable times; showing the reason why his eyes look puffy. However, Onew was terribly shocked when she gained consciousness. She asked ludicrous questions.
“Why am I still alive?”
“Emma...why...why did you say that? You shouldn’t.”
“It’s hard...life without him...”
“Emma, he is still alive!”
“But...he is paralysed...”
“But Emma! He is alive! You can’t just kill yourself. Why did you do that in the first place? Answer me, Emma. There is no reason why you should commit suicide! He is alive!”
“Onew you don’t understand!”
“I understand more than enough, Emma. I’m your brother. I know that your life is difficult without him. But, for God sake, he is alive. He may be paralysed, but not die...”
“You don’t understand me enough, Onew! Not as Minho does! All this while, it is him that is always by my side, accompanying me best or worst! But, suddenly he is in this situation because of me Onew, because of me! I shall be the one who being hit by the car, not him! I shall be the one who is in coma! I shall be the one that paralysed! Not him! How stupid I am! I don’t deserve to live! I am such a useless person!”
“No! Emma, you need to understand that Minho saved you not for you to commit suicide, to die. But he hopes you will live. Trust me...”
“No! No!”
She screamed on top of her lungs and kept questioning why she is still alive. Taeyon swore she saw Onew almost fainted, but he managed to control himself. Emma tried again to find something that can help her to fulfil her wish, to help her die. But, Taeyon quickly pressed the button and nurses ran to Emma’s room, to help out. When the situation is intolerable, the staffs asked them to go out. And that is what they exactly doing right now, only watching from outside.
Onew could tell that his sister is completely insane. He doesn’t want to believe this, but it just happened right in front of him. He questions himself, why all these bad lucks are for him. He watches again, her sister is injected with tranquilizer and immediately, situation is under controlled.
“Why? Why all these happen to me in a moment. My sister and my brother involved in a terrible accident. Then, Minho is reported to have potential of being paralysed. Next, my sister is acting crazy. Why?” Onew says and crystal tears drop onto the floor.
“Onew...be strong. I believe everything is happening for a reason, right?” Taeyon says; encourage him, although through her trembling voice. She is in the verge of tears. She maybe not that close to Minho, but she has considered Emma like her own sister and seeing her in that situation shatters her heart into rubble.
But then, Jonghyun and Jessica come into rescue. Onew doesn’t know how to thank them already, for they had done so many things for him, Emma and Minho. They walk towards Onew and Taeyon, bringing along a friend of theirs.
“Onew, I’m sorry about Emma. But, Jessica and I bring a friend who is an expert in handling this. He is a psychologist and a psychiatrist. Introduce you, Kim Kibum,” Jonghyun says as polite as he always does. Onew shakes hand with the young psychiatrist, who is too obsessed with his Mohawk hair style. His smile is indeed very calming and Onew straightaway trust him.
“Just call me Key. I’m okay with that,” he says politely and friendly, the way Jonghyun and Jessica do. Sometimes Onew thinks; does doctors have to act like this, being polite the whole time, because that is what he saw in these three young and talented specialists.
“I’m Taeyon,” Taeyon introduces herself quickly when Key looks at her. Key nods, understands.
“Let me check on her,” Key says. Jonghyun nods and pats his shoulder, as a sign that he trusts him. Key nods to Jonghyun and enters the room. Then, it is only between Key and Emma, and the other will know the result later.
“Don’t worry. He is the best I’ve ever found. The way he speaks is very gentle and he never fails to tackle a person to speak to him and always keeps situation under control. His talent in speaking is unbeatable. But, we shall see later,” Jonghyun says.
Onew thanks them. They are very prompt. He doesn’t ask for a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but they find one for him, a perfect one. He smiles to Taeyon.
“They are great, aren’t they?” he looks at her, while giving compliment to those three.
“They are,” says Taeyon, and both of them hug each other and walks towards the cafeteria. They realise that they have not been eating for two days already and only now they have the appetite to do so.
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“She needs him, exactly him. She needs Minho. That is what I can tell you,” Key says, after he is done talking to Emma, and after she is put into sleep.
“No other way?” Jessica asks.
“I’m afraid not,” answers Key shortly.
The five of them are together again, this time at the cafeteria. Luckily, Onew and Taeyon are done with their foods, or else, they will lose appetite and leave their food untouched. But, for Jonghyun and Key, even their drinks are at the same state, not even moved at all. Jessica as always, calm, but her mood is also changed after she heard Key’s words.
“How on Earth Minho can be with her right now?” Onew asks looking at Taeyon and then at the three youngsters. Then, all of them look at Jonghyun.
“I’m sorry, guys. I can’t do anything to wake him up. It is totally depending on himself,” he says, matter-of-factly.
“Don’t worry too much. I can keep her under my supervision while we wait for him to gain consciousness,” says Key, being considerate.
“But, not for long. I can understand her, we’re girls. You should know...we’re a bit sensitive and girls love to be loved,” Jessica says, telling her opinion in the other side.
“Don’t be too sexist Jessica,” Jonghyun says.
“She’s not being sexist. What she said is true. Girls care everything a lot. Emma may be good in Key’s supervision for a while. But, if anything happen to Minho, which I hate to say, things may turn bad as well. We’re girls. We understand girls,” Taeyon says.
“Yes, Jonghyun. You better keep quiet in this matter. You never had been in relationship with girls, so you don’t know how they care a lot. Amber is the same too is this matter,” Key says, telling a little bit about his sweetheart. Amber and Key have been together since school, and their relationship last long than anyone could have imagine.
“I’m sorry. My bad. But, what should we do then?” Jonghyun says while scratching his head and messes up his hair. Onew stares at nowhere for a while, spacing out with nothing in his head. He stares anywhere in the cafeteria until his eyes fixed on the television. The news last two days flashes in his mind. He remembers a boy with his thesis project, the human robot. Suddenly, Onew has an idea, although he is not very sure himself whether this will work well or not. Nonetheless, he determines to work on it.
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Onew knocks on the door. He waits for answer, but he just disappoints himself. He makes his way here not for strolling or sightseeing, but for any chance to improve her sister. She needs Minho, that what Onew has been told. However, Minho is not is his ability to be with her. He is unconscious, and if he awake, it is still unknown if he is able to move or not. Those things will only drag down the chance to cure Emma.
As a brother who wants his sister to live, and most importantly to be normal, he needs to find a solution. He heard a news bulletin about an absurd idea of a university boy, whom disclosed that he is working on a human robot. Before, he feels that it is totally impossible, but somehow, he feels like he would like to try the boy. Maybe he can help.
Taeyon, his sweetheart, who is also his secretary, finds information about this boy. At last, she managed to track this boy, and find his address. She gives Onew all the information he needs because she always supports what he does, despite the bizarre idea.
Onew knocks again and pushes on the doorbell, this time a little harder in case the owner of the house, or maybe the resident of this obsolete type of apartment to be precise, doesn’t hear him. But, he still doesn’t get any answer. He starts to feel creepy, the fact that the place is actually an old apartment, without many residents. In fact, this boy is the only one who stays at this topmost floor, while the others occupy only the first three floors of this fifteen-storey apartment. The place is very old and outdated, and Onew feels eerie being alone in the dark and quite corridor of the topmost floor, waiting for the unknown to open the door.
He feels somehow cold and starts to imagine ghost stories, which actually the apartment is not occupied by human, but something supernatural. He shakes his head, shooing away his thought. He doesn’t want to give up, for this boy is his only hope to save his sister, showing how desperate he is. He doesn’t want to knock anymore, knowing the result is the same, nobody will answer him. He twists the door knob only to find out that the door is unlocked from inside.
Bravely, he steps in. Although it is quite dark, he could see a table, full of papers with Maths and Physic formulae that is impossible for an entrepreneur like him to understand. He stares at them in bewilderment, wondering if it is the work of a human. Does Einstein still exist in this modern world? He looks at the other side of the table. It is full with thick books; Fundamental of Physics, Pure Maths, Advanced Biology and Chemistry for Experts and many more, just name it. He stares at them again, wondering who can ever finish reading those books.
He looks everywhere on the table; calculators, stationary and mathematical instruments are anywhere to be seen. He finds a laptop and also a small notebook, written on the book, Lee Taemin. His laptop is left on and shows a webpage on Pure Science. He walks and gets deeper into the house, only to find a ragged couch. However, there is someone on it, lying and sleeping. He has long, light brown hair with his bangs almost covering his eyes, and he is so thin, looks like he is a bit underfed. He looks messy and untidy, but Onew could tell that his sleeping face is beautiful.
Onew looks at the boy, and at once he feels sympathy towards him. He looks like a loner, staying alone at the topmost floor of this outdated apartment only accompanied by his odd works. However, he looks undoubtedly genius. Again, he meets another one young prodigy today. Onew for once thought the boy is sleeping until he speaks and breaks the silence.
“What are you doing here, huh? Everybody is avoiding me, ‘cause they thought I’m freaking crazy with my idea of human robots, or cyborg (cybernetic organism), or whatever you call that. They isolated me, but you?” he speaks, still lying on the couch and his eyes still squeeze shut.
“I’m looking for you instead, Lee Taemin,” says Onew, not knowing the best answer to give to the boy. He smirks when he hears his name correctly pronounced by Onew. He looks a bit offended, for Onew entering his house without permission. But, if Onew wait outside, he won’t answer him, will he?
“Why? Whaddayawant?” he says, a little bit too fast. He then opens his eyes and looks at Onew. His bangs nearly cover his eyes, but never seems distracting his sight. He changes position, from lying down to sitting position and he faces Onew.
“I seek for help. Only you can help me...so please,” Onew says and bows his head. He doesn’t dare go near him, scared that the unorganized boy will just act violently towards him.
“How?” asks Taemin, with knitted eyebrows.
“I need you to make a cyborg similar with a person. In fact, just imagine you’re making a clone but more in a mechanical way instead of biological,” Onew says.
“I understand. But, can you trust me?” he asks. His question sounds like he never had been trusted before, but Onew just knows that Taemin is reliable.
“Sure. Why not?” Onew says coolly. Taemin nods and for the first time Onew sees his smile, and he is beautiful more than ever.
“Follow me then,” Taemin says and lead the way to a room. There, Onew could see tubes attach from the ceiling to the floor, there are about three of them. All of them are filled with greenish-pink sticky fluid, which Onew believes he can puke the moment he makes a contact with the fluid.
“My lab,” he introduces. He modifies his house into a lab and his workplace? How absurd this boy, Onew thinks. Onew keeps on looking, and he notices something in the three tubes and they look like...foetus? This Taemin boy seriously grow foetus in tubes? Unbelievable.
“Is that...”Onew says and not finishing his word.
“Foetus,” Taemin helps him to finish his word.
“What is that for?” he asks with curiosity.
“The immature cyborg. It is still not fully grown, unless I shape them into the shape I like and trigger the growth on them. If you want me to modify this foetus into the person you want, you need to give the person’s physical traits. Thus, you need to give me the person’s features, can you?” Taemin says straightforwardly, and Onew takes time to digest the information in his brain. He understands at last, but, that only makes his life terrible. He adds another work for himself. He just met a weird boy that he thinks can help him, which of course he can, but with demand of another unusual thing. Onew sighs and thinks of the next step.
“Then, how are you going to turn it on. I mean robot usually have their on and off button, am I right?” Onew says, as far as he can think and know about technologies around him.
“Huh,” Taemin smirks and continue, “That is not my robot. My robot doesn’t need wires, fuel or batteries. I mean...come on. This is meat robot we are talking about. It used organs as human does. The only different with human is the brain works when I implant a microchip that controls the vital organs, languages and human’s act. It is not that usual robot that people always think about,” Taemin says coolly. He is not showing off, but he just wants Onew to understand the way his cyborg works.
Onew stares at him in awe. He just couldn’t believe what he just saw. The young lad in front of him is surely a whiz kid. His way of thinking is different from anyone else. He is obviously intelligent, and Onew has no doubt that his plan will actually work. However, he plans on another thing, to employ this boy to work with him, since he is doing business on intelligence. And surely, Onew is going to drag along Jonghyun and Key in this, to share their brains in making the most perfect robot in the world.
Taemin doesn’t know what Onew is thinking about, but he looks at him and a smile is drawn on his face. He believes that this is the only chance for him to prove to the public how his idea works. He knows Onew seek for his help, and he definitely will use Onew to publicise his work. And Taemin knows that his plan will work, or should he say, perfectly work?
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