BRAINWASHED ~ Jisung

Prologue: Simon Says

“Please believe me. I swear I didn't know what I was doing.” Jisung pleaded to the officer who sat before him.

Sitting at a wooden table positioned in the middle of a small interview room in the Hongdae Police Station, sixteen year-old Park Jisung faced the officer sitting opposite him with wide eyes and cold blood pumping through his veins.

“All the evidence points straight to you Park Jisung. Are you saying you didn't do it?” The officer asked, growing increasingly impatient with the boy. 

He had introduced himself as Officer Qian, and though he looked gentle and understanding with a youthful face and warm brown eyes, Jisung quickly found out that he was anything but.

“No, that's not it─” Jisung started, but Officer Qian cut him off.

“So you're confessing then?” Officer Qian’s eyes were trained on him with a hard stare, but Jisung needed him to understand.

“No, I didn't know what I was doing, I d-don't remember doing it, any of it.” Jisung replied desperately, “Please, you have to believe me. I w-was brainwashed or something.” he begged.

The handcuffs around his wrists rattled against the steel bar that chained him to the desk as he brought his palms together. He felt like pale blue the walls of the small interview room were closing around him, ready to suffocate him at any moment.

“Officer it wasn't me. I wasn't in control.” Jisung pleaded again, rubbing his hands together, trying despairingly to get him to understand.

Officer Qian rolled his eyes at him and exhaled deeply before standing up from his chair and looking down at Jisung through narrowed eyes. The cold look in his eyes made all the blood drain from Jisung’s face; that was the look of someone who believed they were looking at a criminal.

“I'm going to take a coffee break. I suggest you think carefully about what you want to say next, Jisung.” he muttered before leaving Jisung alone in the small, cold room.

Panic was eating away at Jisung and fear strangling him, making it hard to breathe. How could he make them understand? What did he have to say to make them believe him? 

His eyes shot nervously around the room, shivering under the watchful eyes of the security cameras placed in every corner of the room. Finally, he looked towards the large mirror along the wall in front of him. He had seen enough cop programs on TV to know that it was a one-way window, and that they were watching and recording him. He knew they could hear him.

He stood up and his handcuffs jingled ominously at the movement. He stared wide-eyed at the mirrored window and saw his own frightened face staring back. 

“PLEASE!” he yelled, “I wasn't in control, I didn't know what I was doing! It wasn't me─ I would ne-never h-hurt someone!” He stuttered as the last words fell from his lips and reality sunk in, chiling him to the bone. 

He dropped his head, staring down at the shiny handcuffs, the discernible sight of something rust coloured caked under his chewed fingernails.

His vision started to blur as tears fell from his eyes, hitting his hands softly and he began to tremble.

“I could never hurt someone… I could never kill someone.” he whispered to himself in disbelief.

In his head, an all too familiar tune began to play, causing a deep sob to wrack through his body.