LeMoSc

V1 C5 - tGWLW

“Damn… it’s day again.”

Early in the morning, Lee Hyun was already deflated.

The South Korean Parliament, more prudent than His Prudence, had passed an unwanted bill nicknamed Leave No One Behind, which was devised to weed out social outcasts and misfits.

The whole stupidity was founded on a theory that asserted that those who were born and brought up in defective backgrounds created a higher rate of violent crimes and divorces.

According to the law, all Korean citizens who were twenty years old or above with noticeable defects in their background were required to visit a psychiatrist occasionally for a mental exam.

In short, Lee Hyun was eligible for it as he had lost his parents in his childhood, and his adolescence had been haunted by the loan sharks.

Lee Hyun went to the Great Society Rehabilitation Center.

“I feel like I’ve time traveled back to the sixties. Great Society, how lame.” Murmuring complaints, Lee Hyun walked into the rehab. The name suggested romantically decorated interiors. The reception room was filled with the twenty year-olds who came take medical tests under the Socially Inept Law, so he had to waste another hour waiting for his turn to register.

“Hi, I’m Lee Hyun. I’m here to take a mental test under Leave No One Behind.”

“I see. Please fill out this form.” A nurse in a white gown handed a piece of paper to Lee Hyun.

“What is this?”

“We will create a complete analysis of your mental state based on your answers to this questionnaire. If you fall into the category of the socially inept, you will be ordered to enter the rehab center and receive periodic treatment. In that case, the government will send a monthly check to your family in compensation.”

What an inhumane law. The government had done virtually nothing to support the disadvantaged when they were suffering horrifying childhoods, abused by their parents or cast out from school.

Now they had to accept a handicap if they wanted to apply to an undergraduate school when they were out of high school. Worse still, they were not even eligible for government jobs. The War on Terror presented a viable excuse to segregate the have-­nots from the haves.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Lee Hyun took the form and filled it out quickly. The pen didn’t leave the surface of the paper. Lee Hyun had thought of those questions for many years, so the answers were flowing from his heart.

“I’m done. Can I leave now?”

“Sure. Take this to cover your bus fare.”

At least, the government showed a small token of pity. Lee Hyun took the coins and left the asylum. Meanwhile, the questionnaire submitted by him started a row among the psychiatrists in the center.

* * *

Cha Eunhee, Ph.D. in psychiatry was laughing her head off as if her neck was broken. The doctor whose attitude earned her the nickname of Ice Queen, was laughing mindlessly in public was a rare sight to nurses.