Parahan, 2nd Edition Read online

  “Assistant Manager Choi!”

  “Yes?”

  “What will you do if the department is closed?"

  “What can I do? Can I do anything? I’ll do as I am told to do.”

  He laughed, revealing his front teeth. Sunghoon was convinced.

  Assistant manager Choi is not one of the ones staying with the new company…

  Sunghoon felt conflicted.

  When should I tell him?

  It would be better for him to know earlier rather than later so he could prepare for the next step. In reality, it was so, but considering he might be hurt by the revelation, Sunghoon did not dare to say anything.

  “Assistant manager Choi, aren’t you going to the bakery?”

  Sunghoon changed the subject to clear the air. He had to think about when it would be best to tell him the news.

  “It would be better to go now rather than later!”

  Assistant manager Choi changed his slippers to shoes and left the office.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The day flew by. Sunghoon was so distraught he couldn’t concentrate on his work. Memories of the company, his friends here and even thoughts on the values one holds dear in life spun through his mind. By the end of the day he was so exhausted he felt like he’d been on a battlefield instead of sitting in a business office. He turned off his PC. All he wanted to do was go home and rest; he did not care about his boss. On the way out, he did not forget to pick up the box of chocolates Choi had placed on his desk.

  Sunghoon hurriedly left and walked to the bus stop. His bus was parked across the street, waiting for the signal at a crosswalk just as it did in the morning. He quickened his pace while keeping his eyes on it. The green light was flashing now, indicating it would soon turn red. The bus on the opposite side was about ready to pass the crosswalk. He would miss the bus if he didn’t cross the road now as it would only stop briefly at the bus stop before leaving. Just then the signal changed to red so he rushed into the crosswalk without taking his eyes off the bus.

  He felt something massive slam into his left side. Suddenly he was flying through the air and just as suddenly he landed with a heavy thud.

  Did I get hit by a car?

  Sunghoon tried to sit up but felt a sharp pain penetrating his side, so he laid still. He could see someone standing at his feet. The by-stander was staring at him, his confused eyes filled with fear. Sunghoon tried to lift his arms in a plea for help, but they didn’t move. His arms responded, though, by sending a shooting pain to inform him that it received the signal. The man at his feet stared at him with blank eyes but did not try to help him. Sunghoon’s neck seemed to give out and his head rolled to the right, following gravity. In front of him, he could see chocolates scattered randomly on the road.

  Little by little the pain lessened. Now he just felt sleepy. Then Sunghoon recalled his wife’s face and realized she was awaiting him at home. He could not afford to think of anything else. Soon, what energy he had left in his body vanished and only a faint bit of spirit was left.

  This is not…

  Even though he had never experienced this before, he knew this was his last breath. Everything around him gradually dimmed and the background just seemed to fade away. There was nothing he could do but wait. The darkness approached in big strides as he grew cold in the depths of his body.

  Out into the World

  Out into the World 1

  “Taehan, you are discharged!”

  The thick bass sound beat against his eardrums. He could understand it, even if the words were not Korean. Sunghoon woke from a deep sleep and opened his yes. A bright light flashed before him and he closed his eyes against it.

  Taehan? Discharged?

  He repeated the random words he’d just heard. He knew these words, but could not understand their meaning. To be precise, he could not grasp the current situation.

  Sunghoon searched through the blur of his memories and found the one of him lying on the street.

  I am sure that I was about to die!

  He imagined the scenes. Two of them gradually became clearer and took on the clarity of photographs in his mind. A man, full of fear, stood at his feet. Chocolates were randomly scattered on the street. The appearance of the man was getting clearer as well - glasses, short hair, handsome, early thirties with a slender body. Sunghoon emptied his mind instead of jogging his memory more. He inhaled and exhaled through his mouth several times to clear his mind before slowly opening his eyes again.

  The light was penetrating, and now that his eyes had adjusted he could see the rounded patterns it made on the ceiling. He lifted his head slightly and look around carefully. He noticed he was lying in an elliptical-shaped container. It was concave on the inside with just enough room for an adult man. Sunghoon sat up and straightened his back as he observed the surroundings which seemed a little eerie. He thought the elliptical-shaped bed was strange and he’d have to get rid of it. The bedding was too deep; he felt trapped, especially since the whole bed was a dreary lead color that added to the desolate atmosphere.

  He looked around the room. It was full of the same beds arranged in a circle. It would look like a sunflower if he considered the empty center the disk floret and the beds as the ray floret. A huge sunflower covered with plenty of lead powder. All the beds were filled with people covered by transparent films. Several round-shaped lights on the ceiling illuminated the room with its gloomy gray floor and walls. It seemed like the sort of place they’d shoot a zombie movie. There was an empty spot in the circle of beds near the front of the room adjacent to a long, oval-shaped door. It seemed like a discolored petal had fallen from the sunflower and attached itself to the wall.

  After a short while, a hand-shaped 3D image materialized in the air before his eyes. All fingers were unfolded and held tightly together. It was flickering toward the doorway. The door automatically opened as if the timing was synchronized.

  Does it want me to go out the door?

  There were no other messages, so he decided to be courageous and go out, although doubt and anxiety tugged simultaneously at his heart. He stood up and walked to the door, but his movements seemed awkward and unfamiliar; it was more like dragging his legs rather than walking. He could see an empty, circular-shaped lobby outside the room where there were four more oval-shaped doors arranged at regular intervals. It looked like there were five rooms, including the one he just escaped. There were slightly smaller yet similar looking pathways between doors. The hand shape appeared again in front of one of the pathways; blinking to steer him in the right direction. He thought that it had to be a path going to the outside. Sunghoon went straight into the dark entrance without hesitation.

  A bright light poured in from the opposite side. As he got closer to it, the light became more intense and made it difficult to look straight at it. He felt like he was going outside after being in a dark cave. Sunghoon kept walking, looking at the ceiling and floor in turn to avoid the strong light.

  When he was almost at the exit, he could see the silhouette of two people waiting outside. Sunghoon squinted and tried to focus on them. Their figures became clearer as he came closer to them.

  Then the fog that had obscured his memories slowly lifted.

  He was standing on the planet called ‘Hoon’ and his name was Taehan. Memories surfaced of how he had constantly criticized and opposed the attitude of the leaders in the war effort. He was falsely accused of a conspiracy due to that, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment at the prison camp.

  Being born on Earth was the beginning of his imprisonment, and in being born there, he forgot all the memories of living on Hoon. Taehan had grown up on Earth and continued his imprisonment there for thirty-five years. After he died when that vehicle hit him, he was able to escape the prison camp called Earth.

  Taehan remembered both of the people standing in front of him – one man and one woman. He knew the man was his best friend Hanmoo, and the woman was Taehan’s lovely fiancée Sochan, Hanm
oo’s younger sister. Memories began flooding his brain. It was as if a mass of water suddenly burst from the gates of a dam and flooded his mind. The sheer foce of it knocked him out and he crumpled to the floor.

  Sunghoon came to, wondering how much time had passed. He felt comfortable, but then saw the two faces looking at him anxiously.

  “Taehan, are you okay?” Sochan asked in obvious relief before grabbing his hand softly, concern written all over her face.

  Taehan realized that most of his memories were back. ‘Taehan’ sounded more familiarly than ‘Sunghoon.’ He nodded, indicating he was fine. He drank a sip of water from the glass Sochan gave him and looked out the window without thinking. It seemed that he had regained only memories. His mind and body had not been fully restored. He still felt far from normal.

  Again, Taehan recalled the memories of the camp. The last day in the camp he remembered seeing the lovely face of his wife who saw him off to the work. He also recalled his childhood and the family he’d had when he was young. His memory went back to the past and revealed the moments he had lived as Sunghoon. He had lived for thirty-five years without knowing why he was sent to Earth, or that it was a camp.

  “How long has it been?” Taehan looked at Sochan.

  “Since you were locked up at the camp? You were sentenced to two years. You were released today, so it’s been two years,” Sochan answered without hesitation.

  So thirty-five years in prison was the same as two years in Hoon?

  Taehan felt confused.

  All of a sudden he recalled Santan. He was also sentenced to two years and sent to a camp.

  “How about Santan?”

  “Santan was released today as well. He recovered more quickly than you are; he is on the way here.”

  Hanmoo looked at a clock floating at one side of the room. “He will be here any minute.”

  “I am very eager to meet him. He is so adaptive. He would have had a good time in the prison camp,” Taehan joked with a smile.

  “He could have had a happier life in the camp, ” Hanmoo added. Taehan and Sochan applauded, and then laughed.

  “When was the last time we laughed together like this?” Sochan asked.

  “We didn’t have many chances to laugh before I went to the camp. We were not in a good mood…” Taehan answered.

  “No. But was it tough at the camp?” Hanmoo asked with a groan.

  Taehan thought for a minute. Tough did not accurately describe the situation. He could say that it was a tough time since it was all behind him now. However, what he experienced in the camp, without knowing anything, was not always hard. He was happy and enjoyed some parts of it.

  “I could bear it,”

  Taehan replied vaguely.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The bell blared out loud, marching music throughout the room. Taehan saw Santan waving his hand from the round shaped screen mounted next to his bed.

  “Santan, long time no see!” Taehan opened the door by pointing at the button on the screen. Santan entered, his mouth pulled back in a wide smile; his jovial facial expression had not changed at all.

  “Oh, it has been a long time. Two years seems like ages ago.”

  “Same for me. How do you feel, Santan?” Taehan asked.

  “Good, considering my body was abandoned for two years. They must have kept it well,” Santan replied looking here and there at his body.

  “How long were you in the camp?” Taehan asked again.

  “I was born there in 1978 and left in 2051 so it was exactly seventy-three years. How about you?”

  “I was born at the same time but released in 2013, so it was thirty-five years.”

  Taehan felt confused again after answering. He was more puzzled by the confusion than he was at being curious that thirty-five years in prison was the same as two years on the planet Hoon.

  In the end, the time spent at the camp was not related to the actual time here?

  No matter how many years one spent in the camp, the duration of the sentence in Hoon was fixed. On the other hand, the duration of camp was from birth to death - regardless of the time on Hoon.

  As he sorted his thoughts somewhat, Taehan felt that his curiosity was answered to some degree. But another curious thought quickly filled the vacant spot.

  “I stayed in the camp much longer, even with the same two year sentence; it is not fair,” Santan said with a sour face.

  “Were you sick?” he asked, “or did you have an accident?”

  “A car accident. It was an unexpected accident,” Taehan replied briefly.

  “I see. Well, at least you suffered less than me. Should I call it a happy ending?”

  “Happy ending, seriously? If you are so jealous, I can give that happy experience to you.”

  “Haha, I am kidding, Taehan. I didn’t think you were scary, but you are from time to time.”

  Santan took a sip of his drink and asked again. “What did you do for a living while you were in the camp?”

  “An office worker. In South Korea.”

  “Oh, is that right? A comfortable, white-collar job. I’ve done all sorts of things. It would be hard to find something that I did not do. The longest job I had was cleaning tables at a fast-food place in Vancouver, Canada; hamburgers. My arms are still stiff.”

  Santan smiled again and asked, “Did you get married there?”

  Sochan, Taehan’s fiancée, carefully watched Taehan’s face and waited for him to speak.

  Santan still behaves tactlessly.

  Taehan wasn’t a good liar. Santan pretended to not be concerned with what Taehan was about to say, but he was watching Sochan’s expression out of the corner of his eye. She knew Taehan better than anybody. It seemed as if she interpreted the silence as “Yes, I was married. She was a nice, pretty woman,” for her face suddenly became flushed.

  “I lost all my memories while in the camp,” Taehan babbled, trying to fix the situation. “I didn’t even know I had a fiancée.”

  “Did you not want to remember? I understand. What could you do, since you could not remember? I have to understand!” Sochan replied, her voice rising. Taehan looked into her eyes and he knew she could not comprehend how it had been.

  “I think he got married only once,” Santan said. “He lived in a conservative area.”

  Santan smiled and rolled his eyes with a ridiculous expression on his face. It was unclear if he was trying to improve the situation, or exacerbate it. Taehan quietly stared at Suntan. He could not think of anything more he could say. Santan’s smiling face reminded him of his friend, the assistant manager Choi who he worked with while he was at camp. But at least Choi was tactful…

  “Well, let’s go home and rest. Taehan, you must be exhausted. Sleep tight, and get out for a drive tomorrow. It will be a nice day,” Hanmoo said.

  “That is a good idea,” Taehan said.

  “I will come around lunchtime tomorrow.”

  Hanmoo got ready to go. Santan left in a hurry, as if he was fleeing.

  “I will walk you out.”

  Taehan quickly followed Sochan who turned to him and said, “Rest well and dream of your wife in the camp.”

  She spoke the harsh words in a way that made Taehan decide he would have to console her the next time they saw each other, and he plodded out alone. He came back to his room after saying goodbye to them and stretched his legs out on his bed.

  For the first time in two years.

  Taehan closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but sleep would not come, for distracting thoughts filled his mind. He tried to clear them, but nothing seemed to work.

  Out into the World 2

  Taehan thought about ‘the camp (the Earth)’ he had been living in for so many years. The appearance was amazingly similar to that of Hoon. The camp was also a planet with the Sun at the center of the planet’s revolution. There was infinite space around it that was scattered with many stars. There was little difference between the two places other than that Hoon had been ac
tively interacting with other universes while prison camp (the Earth) had no interaction with or even knowledge of life in other universes. To be precise, neither of them knew how to interact with such things. All their efforts were focused on observing and studying the meaningless infinite space. They would certainly flounder in a corner of the universe with that kind of effort, even after billions of years.

  In some aspects, people living in the camp were less intelligent than people living in Hoon. People tend to think being locked up means being confined to a small space, which is a common prejudice. What better way to lock someone up than to put them in complete isolation without their knowledge?

  Who designed the camp?

  Taehan felt goosebumps when his thoughts touched on this question.

  The camp is truly a scary place.

  Hoon’s prison camp was used by other universes, as well. It was not something of which to be proud, but the camp was very famous. One reason was because it could hold an enormous number of people. But, even so, the number of people in the camp was excessively large; the population went beyond the commonly acceptable amount. Taehan thought not all of them were there because they had been sent to the camp.

  Labor was another peculiar fact of the camp. People there used the term ‘work.’ However, Taehan thought labor was more appropriate since they had to work for a living. It was similar to forcing prisoners to labor, which is a form of punishment.

  On the planet Hoon, dorans (a humanoid robot developed for the labor force) took care of the majority of labor. Humans rarely did any labor. Dorans covered all fields of business. This included agriculture, commerce, service, and the general manufacturing industry. For some time, dorans had been in charge of the mid-level manager jobs in each field. Humans had been working in confined areas of specific fields such as top managers, political leaders, and researchers. They were called ‘professionals’ on Hoon.