somebody ; minsung

XXVII ; all of us

This has to be a nightmare.

Everything Jisung is telling me — none of it sounds real. A lovers' quarrel and a government coverup, another meeting and another separation. I'm on my third life, my second do-over. I'm all that's left of Lee Minho.

"You okay?" Jisung shifts closer to me.

"I'm fine. Just feeling a little... not myself. I guess I've already been through this all once before. Back then — did I ever get deja vu?"

He shakes his head. "No. You were a blank slate. Memory erasure is a sensitive procedure, implementing it multiple times can have substandard results as there's already been damage to the hippocampus."

"Where memories are stored," Jai translates. He's still lingering at the edge of the room though the rest of us have settled down, Jisung and me on the bed, Haruko in a chair.

"Right," Jisung says. "Oracle knows it, they were probably unsure whether to dispose of you or risk the repercussions. I'm not surprised they decided dumping expensive resources is a worst-case scenario."

"Wait, you need to back up — a lot," says Haruko. "I don't understand why you would go back to Oracle after you'd both made it out."

Jisung glances at me. "It isn't important."

Jai snorts. Haruko narrows her eyes and moves on.

"What went wrong? How were you captured?"

"I'm not certain," Jisung says. "I think the lock system was altered so when I swiped my keycard, it set off a silent alarm. Bandi?"

"You... might be right."

"Was the whole system replaced or did they give everybody new keycards?"

He ughs loudly. "Stop treating me like your insider — I'm basically a hostage."

"So dramatic," Haruko rolls her eyes. "You know, you didn't have to come down here with us — you could've just looped the CCTVs and gone home. Why is that? Perhaps you just wanted to check in on your little ex boy—?"

"One more word and I will put you in stasis indefinitely."

Jisung clears his throat. "It's good he's here. He's part of your story, and I'm sure he has things he wants to say to you."

She turns back to look at him. "Well. Do you?"

"However Han sugarcoats it, you got yourself into this. And it was a mutual breakup."

"Bandi," says Jisung.

"I'm done, just tell the story."

"Fine. Look, Haruko, back then, you were in the same boat as us. You were an Oracle scientist feeling dirty and betrayed that outsiders were perverting our creation. Most of us kept our mouths shut and did whatever they told us, but you were more... vocal. Not just vocal, you took action.

"You approached a group of anti-war activists called 'Peace Universal' and offered information. You made yourself a mole. You told them everything about the Bionic Warfare Initiative, explained the mechanics and gave a list of every scientist on the project.

"Minho was a member of Peace Universal. He saw my name on the list, confronted me, and I... well, you all know what I did. Oracle cracked down on everyone, including you. I don't know why they didn't just kill you like the others. Maybe they decided to make an experiment out of you — 'does knowledge, even erased knowledge, muscle memory, make you a better soldier,' that sort of thing."

Haruko rubs her hands over her buzzed head. I look at her and try to picture us together, plotting Oracle's downfall. Then I try to picture her on the night of November 10, looking down at Jisung and me, knowing she was under orders to erase me. After I regained consciousness, the first time I saw her, I felt fear, but also curiosity. Now I understand why.