𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐗 ✓

10: BEFORE THE SUN SETS

"All lies and the truth is just you..."

...

Who is humbler? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the galaxy has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal validity and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?

...

Some Random Rundown Apartment, Cambridge
Seven Post Merediem, Year 2076

"Mr. Kim, stop this nonsense! This doesn't make sense, why are you doing this? Why?"

The junior researcher couldn't really infer the real rationale behind the whole stance his senior held, why would he even do something like that to his own family?

"For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is immutable? If both the past and the superficial world prevail only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable, what then?"

Mr. Kim kept mumbling things, to himself. Things that did nothing about the question, the things that did nothing about the predicament, things that were scientific.

"Professor Kim!"

"Jaden, buddy! Remember what Sir Stephen Hawkins said?" Smirking coyly, Mr. Kim waddled to the chair near him, plopping down on it. He curved his face and bent his neck, he crooked his arms and then, imitated the computerized voice of the said scientist, "One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away."

"I-"

The junior researcher stuttered, unable to make out what did he even mean by those words? How did that relate to anything he was doing?

"Ain't I preserving my love?"

Jaden barely shook his head, he could never deny his professor, but could he deny what his eyes saw? Those big specimen cylinders held bodies of the deceased, held bodies of his family, held bodies of his professor's wife, and child. Those specimen cylinders undid death, it mockingly trapped death and those people were alive, alive in a wholesome world of their own.

That dark room situated in the cellar of the ragged apartment in the outskirts of Seoul held deeper denials and deepest secrets. It held theories, and it held hypothetical equations.

It held love, love in the most toxic way.

"In my humble opinion, the human mind's commendable ability to conveniently ignore the connections between its thoughts is a true blessing. One day, if we ever dare to stitch together the fragments of our scattered knowledge, brace yourselves for mind-boggling revelations that will either drive us bonkers or send us running straight into the cozy arms of a delightful dystopian nightmare!
Junior, buddy! Come here, turn on the Artificial intelligence on the PC676. She should be up now and good to go!"

Jaden nodded, following his teacher to the said table, ready to start his day.

"Isn't she pretty?" Mr. Kim muttered, staring at the face that plopped on the screen.

"Indeed, she is professor, but why are you hurting her?"

"What is love without a pinch?"

Love and faith are like universal celebrities, adored by all. However, the bizarre techniques used to decipher their secrets are as random as choosing which socks to wear in the morning. Some pray to Jesus, a few go to Mecca, some even study subatomic particles. In the end, everyone is just searching for truth, that which is greater than humans and even souls.