NCT : The Dream Lab

VIII : The Origins of NCT 127

Seoul, South Korea. 2016.

Day 2 after the accident.

Taeyong woke up covered with sweat, shouting at the top of his lungs.

Almost immediately, his sister barged into the room, worry painted all over her face. He didn't pay any attention to her and ran to the bathroom, nauseated. As he was vomiting in the toilet, his sister put a headband to prevent his hair from falling over his face during the process and patiently waited until he was done to hand him a towel to wipe his mouth.

- Are you okay ?

He stubbornly kept his gaze on the floor, unable to look her straight in the eyes.

- Did you take sleeping pills ?! she yelled, noticing the open box on the shelf.

Taeyong jolted, suddenly remembering this.

Was the medicine responsible for the chaos in his dreams ? Did they affect his subconsciousness ?

That would explain why he lost control, why the atmosphere was so gloomy even before he created his sister's doppelganger...

That's for sure he would never touch this evil substance again.

He shivered.

- How many did you take ?

She kept on nagging until the student felt his blood boiling. She couldn't even let him time to process what had just happened.

- Please, shut up ! he exploded, frantically turning the tap on and washing his hands compulsively.

He had felt disgust and had wanted her existence to end.

- It's my fault that you died, he mumbled.

He repeated this sentence without even noticing, each time feeling more hurt and disappointed with himself. His hands were getting redder and redder as he scratched them. Soon, he also attacked his wrists and arms where the sensation of the blood drying on his skin remained.

The young woman watched him do, completely helpless. She quickly exited the room to wake her parents up. She obviously couldn't manage Taeyong on her own, he was completely losing it.

Stage 5 of Taeyong's dream : lucid dream.

Night 3 after the accident.

The night before had been very troubled and unpleasant and the nervous breakdown he had waking up put his whole family on alert. Taeyong loved them with all his heart but at times like this, they just felt like an unnecessary burden. Always forcing him to eat when he didn't feel like it, begging him to stop writing or drawing plans, asking him to open up... He really wished he had his own apartment.

He had fallen asleep with a bit of apprehension this time, still feeling the bitter taste of last time's tragedy.

The seaside was a bit cloudy, but not as trippy as the day before. It was all too silent, there really was something off.

As usual, he headed to the dog's house. His sister's body was nowhere to be found quite fortunately, but the grass was all gray and dry on a few meters, like the blood that penetrated the soil was toxic and contaminated the greenery. The worst in this scenery was the puppy hopelessly clinging to the roof of its house, trying to escape from the huge amount of worms wiggling everywhere.

Taeyong shivered but remained calm. Yesterday's panic attacks only made the painful experience worse. Deep down however, those worms gave him goosebumps. He didn't create them. Was it an effect of the sleeping pills or did he in fact not control everything in this parallel universe ?

This thought bothered him as he busied himself cleaning up the mess. He called a few creatures for help, birds, green dragons and hedgehogs to feast on the worms. Meanwhile, Taeyong caressed every centimeter of the grass to revive it.

Unfortunately, the process was extremely tiring. At the moment his work was fully done, he completely collapsed, feeling like dying from exhaustion. Reviving something destroyed required much more energy than creating it.

He didn't pass out, however. His dream didn't let him go back to his comfortable bedroom. Instead, he just lied on the floor, blankly staring at the sky while his puppy licked his hand, checking out if he was still alive. After a certain amount of time, he was finally able to sit again. A crazy idea was gradually blossoming in his mind.

He visibly didn't have enough imagination to create a human with freewill, but he could still create a humanity to serve him. They'd keep on building a new world when he'd wake up, so Taeyong could save his energy for other things.

But how could he do that ? Should he create a man and a woman ? Accelerate the evolution of his monkeys ? The woman in black who appeared when he was in coma, where was she now ? Maybe she'd accept carrying his children ? But wasn't it disturbing to conceive humans who'd have his blood but still be brainless, imaginary beings designed to serve him blindly ?

Although those questions couldn't find any answers, he still looked around him imagining villages and cities inhabited by humans who would have two life goals : be happy and do their assigned tasks.

His new obsession wasn't to create new animals anymore, but to build the biggest, most bustling city ever.

Seoul, South Korea. 2016.

Johnny still hadn't gotten over the jet lag and on top of that, his mad curiosity for the mystery that surrounded Taeyong kept him awake even when he shouldn't be. It took him over two days and a half to go through Taeyong's diary, his plans as well as his index of existent species.

He slouched on his chair, sighing heavily before checking his emails. Three days ago, he had contacted several real estate agencies. One property in particular interested him and a visit was planned within a few hours.

The scientist sincerely wondered how he'd get his gentleman appearance back in so little time. He felt like a human garbage, the lack of sleep didn't help at all.

A notification suddenly popped up on his screen.

From : markleeminhyunggmail.com

" Dearest Dr. Seo,

It's a true honor for me that you request my help for your patient's case. The story looks very exciting from a neurological point of view. As you know well, I am writing my thesis in neuroscience at the moment, and the changes in the electrical frequency of an NDE patient's brain is completely in my field of research. I will gladly join you in Seoul within two weeks, because I still need to take care of a few things before I leave Toronto. Since your project will bring me valuable knowledge for my career, I will finance all the medical installations that I will need and support you with the rent of our laboratory.

Thank you so much for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,

Sincerely,

Mark Lee from Toronto University. "

Johnny couldn't suppress his smile reading the enthusiastic email from his soon-to-be-colleague. He met this promising student at a conference in Toronto and they immediately clicked. Obviously, distance and their mutual obligations didn't allow them to meet again after the event but they regularly exchanged emails to keep each other updated about their progress and personal lives. Mark was one of the very few who didn't think of him as a mad scientist and actually took serious interest in his project. Unfortunately, he was young and busy with his life, Johnny couldn't blame him.

But now, their interests finally seemed to converge.

🌹🌹🌹

Hiiii !
FINALLY another character appeared ! It took a bit of time, but I promise it will be worth it. 🤭
I hope you like it, and that you won't hesitate to give me your personal feedback and impressions !
Have a nice dqyyyy !