...The first thing Min-Sol felt was not pain, but cold....

...A metallic coldness seeped into her back, and the sharp scent of formalin pierced her lungs, reminding her of cadavers in anatomy labs. She tried to move her hand to rub her eyes, but something restrained her....

...She slowly opened her eyelids to find a stark white ceiling above her, fluorescent lights flickering in an irritating rhythm: buzz… buzz… buzz....

...“Where am I?” she whispered, but her voice came out hoarse, as if rising from the bottom of a deep well....

...“You’re safe now, my love.”...

...The blood in her veins froze. That smooth, gentle voice—the one that had whispered words of love to her only weeks ago—was now standing beside her bed. She turned her head with difficulty to see him....

...Do-Hyeon....

...He wore his perfect black suit, his hair neatly styled as always, holding a bouquet of white flowers that resembled funeral lilies....

...“Do-Hyeon? What happened? Why am I restrained?” she asked, panic beginning to rise in her chest as she noticed the leather straps binding her wrists to the metal bed....

...He stepped closer slowly, placed the flowers on the bedside table, and sat at the edge of the bed. His fingers brushed her cheek—yet the touch was not tender. It felt like a butcher inspecting a cut of meat....

...“You’ve had more than enough of your breakdown in Seoul, Min-Sol. Everyone saw how you tried to jump from the balcony. Everyone believed your fragile little mind couldn’t handle the pressure of work… and the pressure of my love.”...

...Her eyes widened in shock....

...“I didn’t try to kill myself! You pushed me! You put those pills in my evening tea!”...

...Do-Hyeon let out a soft laugh that sent chills down her spine....

...“Who would believe a ‘patient’ in Cheong-an Psychiatric Hospital? I signed the papers myself. You’re now completely under my guardianship… and now, it’s time to sleep.”...

...He pressed a button beside the bed. Two nurses entered, their faces fully hidden behind masks, their eyes empty of any human expression. One of them held a large syringe filled with murky yellow liquid....

...“No! Please! Do-Hyeon, I love you! Don’t do this!” Min-Sol screamed, struggling against her restraints, but her body betrayed her—weak from the previous sedatives....

...Do-Hyeon leaned close to her ear. His smile vanished, replaced by a cold, sinister look she had never seen before....

...“Love is a prison, Min-Sol… and I’ve decided to lock you in a place that suits your madness. Goodbye… to your new life.”...

...The needle pierced her arm. Heat burned through her veins, and the white ceiling began to spin and spin—until everything sank into complete darkness....

...Hours later (or days… no one knows time here):...

...Min-Sol awoke again, but this time the room was completely dark. The restraints were gone, yet the door was heavy iron, with only a small hatch....

...Suddenly, she heard a sound from the wall beside her bed—soft, steady knocking....

...Knock… knock… knock… knock....

...She moved closer to the wall and whispered fearfully, “Who’s there?”...

...A man’s voice came from the other side, low and hoarse:...

...“Don’t look at their faces, girl… If you stare into the nurses’ eyes for too long, you’ll forget your own name—just as I forgot mine....

...Welcome to Korean hell.”...

......................

A heavy silence fell after that terrifying sentence. Min-Sol pressed herself against the cold wall, feeling her heartbeat pounding in her ears like war drums. The room seemed to shrink around her, and the walls, lined with pale white, appeared to be sucking the air from her lungs.

"Who are you?" she whispered again, her voice trembling. "And how do you know I’ll forget my name?"

This time the reply came quieter, like a snake hissing: "I’m patient number 404. No names here, names are a luxury we don’t have. Here, you’re just a number in Do-Hyun and his family’s filthy records. Listen carefully… they’ll come back soon to give you the (stabilizing dose). Don’t swallow it. Hide it under your tongue, then flush it down the toilet."

"Why are you helping me?" she asked suspiciously. In her world, every offer of help was a trap carefully laid by Do-Hyun.

"Because I need someone whose limbs haven’t withered yet. I need (eyes) that the drugs haven’t dulled. Tomorrow, they’ll start the (cleansing session). Be ready… and don’t cry. Crying in Cheng-An is considered a sign of instability, and it will increase the dosage."

The voice cut off suddenly. She heard the metallic squeak of wheels approaching her cell. Min-Sol collapsed onto the bed and pretended to sleep, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.

The iron lock clicked sharply. A nurse entered, walking with military-like precision. She didn’t speak a word, placing a plastic tray with a cup of water and a bright blue pill beside Min-Sol’s head. She stood silently, watching her with terrifying scrutiny.

Min-Sol slowly opened her eyes, feigning lethargy. Her trembling hand took the pill and put it in her mouth under the nurse’s watchful gaze. She drank the water, then opened her mouth to show the nurse, as if she were a child in school.

The nurse nodded and left without uttering a word. As soon as the door closed, Min-Sol spat the pill into her hand. It was sticky and bitter, like a piece of nightmare. She ran to the corner of the room and threw it into the drain.

In the middle of the night:

Min-Sol couldn’t sleep. She watched the pale moonlight reflecting from the small barred window. Suddenly, she heard a strange sound… not knocking this time, but a metallic "scraping."

She looked under the door and saw a small folded piece of paper being pushed through the narrow gap. She grabbed it quickly and opened it. It contained a carefully hand-drawn map of the floor, ending with an arrow pointing to the "old morgue," with neat, trembling Korean writing underneath:

"Do-Hyun didn’t bring you here to heal you.

 He wants to erase the (memory) that threatens his political future. Tomorrow, the doctor will ask you about the night of May 10th… Don’t tell the truth. Say you don’t remember. Lying is your only ticket to survival."

Min-Sol froze. May 10th—the night she saw Do-Hyun washing his hands of blood that wasn’t his own. The night her so-called “madness” began.

Suddenly, the lights in the hallway flickered on. A human scream ripped through the adjoining room… Room 404. The sound of brutal beating, and the crackle of an electric prod discharging into a human body.

"No! Please! I remember! I remember everything!" pleaded her mysterious neighbor.

Min-Sol pressed herself against the door, putting her ear on the cold metal, tears silently streaming down her cheeks. She realized now that Cheng-An was not a clinic, but a grinder of souls—and her survival depended on becoming a monster cleverer than the cage she had been placed in.

......................

...Min-Sol did not close her eyes all night. The echo of Patient 404’s scream reverberated through her bones, and the buzz of the electric prod seemed to tear through the silence of her room. She realized that the trap Do-Hyun had set for her was far deeper than mere walls and medication; he was seeking to assassinate her mind entirely....

...At seven in the morning, the iron bolt was yanked open violently. It wasn’t the silent nurse this time, but a large, broad-shouldered man wearing a faded green medical uniform, accompanied by Doctor Park, who smiled with icy detachment behind his glasses....

...“Good morning, Min-Sol. It’s time for the ‘purification.’ We want to help you leave your painful past behind,” Doctor Park said, gesturing to the large man to unlock the restraints at the sides of the bed....

...They led her through the long corridors of the institution. The lights flickered above her head like the pulse of someone dying, and the sharp scent of disinfectant grew stronger. They passed Room 404; the door was open. Min-Sol glimpsed a small puddle of water on the floor and burn marks on the wall, but the room was empty. Her heart froze… Had they killed him?...

...She was taken into a circular room in the basement, its walls covered entirely with mirrors. In the center stood a leather chair fitted with complex wires. They forced her to sit and fastened metal electrodes to her temples....

...“Min-Sol,” Doctor Park began, standing behind her so that his reflection appeared in every surrounding mirror, “tell me about the night of May tenth. Were you imagining blood on your husband’s hands? Or was it merely a delusion caused by your exhaustion?”...

...Min-Sol remembered Patient 404’s message: Lying is your only ticket. She looked at her pale reflection in the mirror and, behind it, saw Do-Hyun’s face forming in her mind, wearing his arrogant smile. She pressed her teeth into her lip, then spoke with carefully crafted trembling:...

...“May tenth? I… I don’t remember any blood. I remember being in my room, and the rain was pouring heavily. Maybe… maybe I imagined things because of the medication I was taking.”...

...Doctor Park exchanged a quick glance with the nurse. He increased the power of the current in the device but did not release it yet. “Think carefully. Do-Hyun says you screamed at him and accused him of murder. Were you out of your mind?”...

...“Yes!” she cried, feigning hysterical sobs. “I was sick! I didn’t know what I was saying! Please, Doctor, I just want to forget… help me forget!”...

...Doctor Park smiled in satisfaction. “That is the right beginning to treatment.”...

...They returned Min-Sol to her room, where she staggered convincingly, pretending to be dizzy. The moment the door closed, she wiped her tears away instantly. Her gaze turned sharp as a blade. She had forgotten nothing; instead, she carved the image of Do-Hyun washing the knife into her memory to fuel her fire....

...She moved toward the air vent and whispered, barely audible, “404? Are you there?...

...No reply came. But she noticed something strange beneath her bed… a small, sharp piece of metal wrapped in cloth stained with dried drops of blood. This was the “key” he had promised her before he disappeared....

......................