Enhanced || JJK

I. Natural

Hi, I'm Luna and I'm a natural.

Sometimes I need to specify it, even though most of the time people can tell. I'm not extremely beautiful, I'm not extremely smart, nor athletic, nor special. I'm just a natural.
This word used to have a positive meaning a few decades ago, before I was even born, but now it has become a common insult.
'Oh look, she can't do it, she's such a natural!' followed by giggles is what I've been hearing for most part of my life.

I was born in 2056 and genetic engineering was something pretty new at the time, at least legally speaking. Few years before then there was a ban on the genetical modification of embryos, but look at us now. I see always more and more GM kids nowadays. At first glance you wouldn't notice the difference, but taking a second look, you can pretty much tell them apart from the natural kids like me. Today is way less expensive than it was when I was born and my parents were simple middle class people.
I don't blame them for not making me perfect or even trying to, I don't really like the word "perfect" nor the concept of perfection. What could possibly be your goal in life if you're already perfect and everything you attempt to do is never a failure?

But on the other hand I understand those parents who do modify their children. After all every parent is trying to do what they think is the best for their kids' sake. I'm not sure I want to be a mom in the future, because that would mean having to choose if I want to genetically modify my kid or not and I don't want to make that choice.

But anyway, it's still too early to think about kids. I'm just 21 and I'm still enjoying my student life. I'm at my third year of university. I'm majoring in genetic engineering. I know, it's funny. A natural studying how not to be a natural. As I said, I like being a natural and I wouldn't want to be any different from how I am. But this field always attracted me, it's just amazing to me how nature was able to create this almost-perfect machine which is the human body and how we were able to understand how to modify it and make it even more perfect. Sometimes I wish I was born a few decades earlier, just to witness the first embryos modifications, even though at the time everyone in the scientific community condemned those who did it.

This is my last year of university and I have to do a internship in a laboratory. I have to work with real genetic engineers and see with my own eyes how they modify the human genome and also work on a project to finally get my degree and become like them. I'm so excited for this experience and I can't wait to start.

"Honestly though... I never even understood why you like it so much..."
"Tae, are you serious? How can you not be fascinated by it? That's how YOU were created!"

My best friend, Taehyung, was laying on my bedroom's floor like every Sunday afternoon. He isn't a natural and he was probably the most successful genetic engineering product I had ever seen. Or maybe his genes were already good to begin with.
He's extremely handsome, you could say he looks like he just got out of a painting. And speaking about painting, he's a great artist. He draws, paints, makes sculptures. It's his passion and also his major. His parents didn't really mind what his profession was going to be, that's why they didn't modify him to be smart or good at any particular activity, they just wanted him to be handsome and healthy. But he is still very intelligent, he just likes to play dumb, he says it adds charm to him.

"I know but it just doesn't mean that much to me..."
"You say that only because now it's so normal, but if you were born earlier it would fascinate you too! It's just amazing what we are able to do with our genomes, don't you think?"
"Yeah, whatevs... I don't see the point if there's still plenty of people dying because of diseases that we either don't care enough to eradicate or we created by making mistakes with this technology..."

Tae is also really sensible, he feels the pain of others as if it was his own. He had always been like this and he never changed since middle school, which was the time when I first met him.
And he was right, by the way. Even though we got so far in genetic engineering, there are still terrible diseases around. And this is because of money. It's always because of money. Poor people still can't afford this type of technology and rich people don't really care and use it for trivial things. That's why he hates being a GM and doesn't want people to know he is one, but that's impossible unfortunately. Just by one look you can tell he is one.

"I promise you that I'll work hard to make the world a better place! Consider me as your insider! I'll fight the system from the inside! For you!" I said smiling, hoping to bring a smile to his face too.
And I wasn't lying, my goal was to study how to make deadly diseases disappear, hopefully starting from this internship, even though it's not that simple, but I studied really hard for this and I'm not going to give up.

"Done!" He said after a while, lifting the pencil from the paper on which he had been drawing for the past hour. Most of the artists nowadays use technology to create their works, but he's an old-fashioned type of guy, he likes to get his hands dirty with pencils and acrylics and paint and clay. Such a fascinating character, my best friend.
"Do you like it?" He held the paper in front of my face.
I looked at the drawing. It was me, with a dreamy expression, my messy hair and my glasses slightly tilted.
"Are you sure they didn't give you the painter gene?" I asked in awe of that piece of art.
"Yep... All natural talent, I can assure you that!"
We both laughed at that.

People think that greatness can only be achieved artificially by us, but actually nature has done a pretty good job in the past thousands of years. We have had the greatest artists and the greatest minds even before being able to create them. In fact it was natural people who invented genetic engineering, no artificial tricks, only natural great minds.
I know it may sound like I'm against it at this point, but I think that even genetic engineering is natural if you think about it. Because it was nature that drove us to this point, so why not using what we naturally discovered, hopefully for a greater good?

"So, you're starting tomorrow! Are you nervous?" He put down his notebook and focused back on our previous conversation.
"Are you kidding? I'm shaking! What if I'm a failure? I mean I studied so hard all these years but I've never really put into practice what I learned... What if I'm not able to?"
I was really scared to embarrass myself in front of competent scientists during my internship.
"Don't worry... You'll be fine... And if anyone makes fun of you, just call me,  okay?"
"Stop being like a protective older brother... You're technically younger than me!"
"You're still holding onto those 53 days? Honestly, I don't know how much more wisdom you could have possibly acquired in those 53 days before my birth..."
"Well, you never know... You can do a lot of things in 53 days..." I scoffed.
"For now you need to think about the next 90..."
"Don't remind me that! Three months of internship! I was really enthusiastic, but I'm not sure anymore..."
"Seriously, just stay calm and be yourself! People will like you and you're gonna do a good job..."

Tae's words were really comforting, but they didn't stop me from staying up all night, tossing and turning in my bed.
I didn't know why I was so anxious. Well, I knew, but it wasn't a good reason. After all it was just an internship, it's not like it's a real job. I'll have a mentor, who'll help me, so there's not much to be scared of... Right?