Blinded By The Lights | Sungjoy

Act 1 - Chapter 21: Everyone Has A Secret

If Joy was surprised when Seulgi walked into the observation deck after Eunkwang, she didn't show it. Irene was still looking through the window, down into the operating room, observing something that only she could see. Only at the sound of incoming footsteps did she finally turn away from the window.

"How did you feel during the surgery?" Irene asked softly, slipping a hand into her pocket.

"I think it went alright," Joy answered, slightly confused. "Everyone worked really well with each other, just as I expected from a synchronized team."

Irene's mouth quirked slightly. "I asked about you. Not about the surgery.

"What emotions were you feeling during the surgery?"

Joy's face became even more perplexed as she thought long and hard about Irene's question, while Eunkwang watched her with a knowing smile. Even Seulgi had begun to catch on, her eyes fixed on Joy.

"I felt... as though... I could do anything with the team," Joy said. "As though I knew what everyone else was doing before, they did it, as though we had worked together forever, as though..."

"As though you were synchronized," Irene completed, softly.

"Yes," Joy swallowed hard, her heart pounding erratically. "But isn't that because your team already acquired synchronization."

"Not exactly," Eunkwang said. "Yes, our team possesses synchronization, but we can't just pull in someone new into the fold. Acquired synchronization takes time to build, remember?"

"But that means..." Joy was trying to process what Eunkwang had just told her, her confusion mounting. She turned to Irene. "What about the surgery a few weeks ago. The one that you came to see? With Namjoo, Ilhoon, Minhyuk, and Sohyun? They were a synchronized team too."

"Different synchronization," Seulgi answered. "Yes, they were a synchronized team, but they were led by innate synchronization at first, then built on it, creating an even stronger bond, but their synchronization wouldn't have worked if Sohyun was there because she wasn't a part of their original team."

"But at the Busan campus..."

"I called the director down there and asked for your surgical records," Irene waved her hand dismissively. "Your average surgery time is lower than average, and the techniques are consistent throughout each surgery, even with different surgeons.

"You possess innate synchronization, Joy," Irene said firmly. "And it's time that you learn how to control it."

--

They had patiently answered and explained all her questions to the best of their ability, but those that have acquired synchronization will never be able to understand how innate synchronization works.

"The best way for you to learn is to have another doctor that possesses innate synchronization teach you," Irene had told her.

Unfortunately, there was no one within the Yeoreum Network that currently possessed a complete mastery of it, according to Irene. The last doctor who had it left the hospital almost six years ago and no one had heard from him since.

"It almost seems as though you don't want to believe that you possess it," Seulgi commented dryly.

"Humble to a fault," Irene crossed her arms. "Other doctors would kill for that ability."

"Would you?" Eunkwang asked.

Irene looked pointedly at him. "Between innate and acquired synchronization, which one do you think is better?

"Wouldn't it be innate synchronization?" Eunkwang answered. "The ability to work flawlessly with someone that you've just met."

"Flawlessly?" Irene raised an eyebrow. "You think that people working together for the first time can work flawlessly together?"