Chapter 1

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November 2018

«Excuse me-» whispered the old man as he tried to reach for the empty seat but got interrupted by other men sitting in the line behind him, telling him to hush.
The lady moved her legs and eyed him with annoyance, the men gestured him to sit down so they could see better.

The congress had long ago started, it was rude he was the last one to attent, but most importantly, he missed her introduction. Every little sound was bothering everyone in there, they wanted to hear clearly every single word of hers.

Her, Linda Evans.
The girl everyone in the job knew for couple of years now. She was only 13 when she was accepted in the Harvard University, 15 when NASA offered her a job which she refused because of personal reasons she had never talked about. She had majored in neuroscience and informatics in her 18's while she was studying astrophysics and nanotechnology at the same time.
The 20 year old girl was now known as the "child-miracle" of the 21st century, she was truly a genius. She was already famous when she was 5, since she could speak English, German, Russian and Korean fluently.

«Let's say this world is a single cosmic string and so is every other parallel world or universe. Cosmic strings are either infinite or they’re in loops, with no ends. The approach of two such strings parallel to each other would bend space-time so vigorously and in such particular configuration that might make time travel possible, in theory.» said the young woman, everyone was paying close attention to her words. Some were keeping notes, others were filming her.

«A theory I really love and support; the grandfather paradox.» she said and smiled shyly. «If I for example, went back in the time my grandparents were still alive and killed my grandfather, this means I could not be born in the future. At that moment, our world's cosmic line got divided in two, one world my grandfather lives and so do I, another one where neither my grandfather or me exists.» she kept talking while looking directly at the audience. She was shy indeed but she would leave aside all of her shyness when the time for her to talk about what she loved came.

«Does this mean that, if I go to the past and kill my past self, I will die too?» said a woman from the front line, Linda smiled and shrugged.

«Well, scientists think it's impossible to coexist in the same timeline with another self of yours. Basically, if you were to go back in time, let's say 10 years, you would find yourself in your 30 year old body.» she slightly tilted her head to the right without being sure if the approach of the woman's age was accurate. «I would rather stick to the Grandfather paradox.» she said and some of the audience laughed kindly.

- - -

«I'm telling you her IQ is 200!» said the man and his friends gasped.

«It's more less than that. I got 134 and she seems less smarter than me.» said the other and smirked, the other men felt offended.

«Mrs Evans is way nicer than you!» said the first and looked away, annoyed.

«It's 237.» said a familiar voice and all three turned to him, as the man approached the small group of fanboys.

He was very tall and handsome. He smirked and passed by them without saying anything else. He headed to another group of scientists who were enjoying their drinks since the congress was over.

«Tsk! I hate those CERN guys...» said the one and crossed his arms.

«His IQ is negative, ha!» said the other and rolled his eyes.

«Congratulations Mrs. Evans.» said the tall man and Linda turned to him startled. She tightened the grip of her cup and smiled awkwardly at the gigantic figure.

«Thank you Mr. Kim.» she said and stretched her back, looking more relaxed.

«Oh you know my name? That's something I wasn't expecting, to be honest.» said the man and scratched the back of his head. He smiled so widely that the girl could see his bicuspid, it was sharp like a dog's.

«Kim Mingyu. One of the biggest scientists under CERN. You have contributed in every experiment that took place there these last 2 years, you came up with the idea of designing capsules with liquid nitrogen and the ones meant for time travel as well. You studied not only science but-» she stopped when he moved his hands in front of her, gesturing her to stop.

She started talking endlessly, she was informed very well about the famous scientists but not because of them as people, but for their inventions and discoveries.

«Don't tell me things I already know.» he said and chuckled, he was very surprised.

«Don't try to tell me things I have already taken under my consideration.» said Linda and looked away, she slightly turned to the side.

«Wait no, I am not here to convince you to accept the invitation for joining CERN.» he said and stretched his hands in front of her face, trying to earn her attention but she eyed him strictly.

«I am not joining. It's only about this specific project, experiment.» she said in a serious, strict tone. She wanted to make it clear to him although the contract was emphasizing it anyways.

«I wanted to say that I found your speech very interesting and it's an honor for me to meet you. I would like to talk more about time-lapse if that was possible...» he said and smiled.

A tall woman and man approached Linda and she looked at them. The next second her eyes widened and her hands shook all of the sudden. Mingyu noticed and grabbed her cup along with her hands.

«Don't hurry Linda, we still have a lot of time. No need to feel anxious.» said the woman that seemed like her manager and smiled. Linda exhaled and laughed at herself.

«I thought we were late... I can't miss this flight.» she said and Mingyu let go of her after he made sure she was fine now.

«Thank you Mr. Kim but I have to go now. It was an honor to meet you as well.» she said and smiled at him, then followed her two managers very quickly, avoiding his eye contact.

«Ahh those damn CERN guys!» said the short man that was watching their conversation from afar and clenched his fist.

«He got noticed by Mrs. Evans! I wish I was in his place...» said the other and frowned, although he was pissed.

A lot of people actually would had like to meet her personally and talk with her but she seemed busy and left way earlier than usual.

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