Midnight.
Han Areum clutched her pillow, gasping for air.
It happened again.
A dream—but too vivid to be fiction.
She was inside a lab.
Wires in her skull.
A voice whispered instructions.
And in front of her—Raon, older, colder, in a white coat… smiling.
She screamed.
But only silence came out.
---
Morning. Classroom 1-B.
Areum stared blankly at the board as the teacher droned on about history. But her hands trembled beneath the desk.
She looked at Raon, seated beside her. Calm. Beautiful. Perfect.
He glanced her way, as if sensing something.
"Nightmares again?" he asked softly.
Her throat went dry.
"How does he know?"
Raon tilted his head, voice quiet.
"You know… sometimes, dreams are just echoes of someone else's truth."
Areum's heart stopped.
Someone else's…?
---
Meanwhile. Elsewhere.
Daehyun stood at the gate of the burned-down NeuroLink lab.
Half the building was rubble.
But the basement remained.
He forced the lock, flashlight in hand.
Down the stairs.
A wall of scorched metal.
But behind a broken panel, a hidden cache.
Files. Video tapes. A preserved server drive.
On one, labeled in black marker:
"H.E.R. Project – Subject 001: A.R."
Daehyun's hands trembled.
"Areum…?"
---
Evening. Rooftop.
Raon sat alone, fingers tapping his wrist where a neural band once had been.
His system buzzed in his mind.
> [Subject Sync: 89%]
[Emotional Leakage Detected]
[Risk of Early Awakening: HIGH]
He closed his eyes.
Too soon.
---
Meanwhile, Areum sat in the school nurse's office.
She had passed out in class.
She woke to the ceiling fan spinning slowly… and a voice.
Not hers.
A whisper in her mind.
> "You were never meant to be real. But I gave you life."
Tears welled in her eyes.
Was she going crazy?
Or remembering something she should never have known?
---
Final Panel:
Daehyun watches a recovered video.
On-screen: a lab, full of children.
One child sits in a pod, crying.
A scientist walks up.
Raon.
He places a hand on the child's head.
> "Don't be afraid. When it's over, you'll be the most perfect human I've ever made."
The timestamp?
Seven years ago.
The child's name?
Areum.
---