"I... was shot. My chest hurts. It's covered in blood, and... dead? But I'm still alive. This isn't in front of Trisakti... Where am I? Why do I look... Chinese?" his mind screamed.
He slowly lifted his body. Pain. His left chest felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer. But he forced himself to sit up.
His hand—white. Too white. His eyes caught something on the wall across from the bed.
A calendar.
He squinted, then staggered toward it. The heart monitor began beeping faster.
The calendar was filled with strange writing. But the large numbers at the top were undeniable.
2024 5 – 오월 – May
Urip stood still, mouth half-open.
"Two thousand... twenty-four?"
He shook his head. Slapped his own cheeks. Once. Twice. Pain. This wasn't a dream.
His eyes glanced at a small digital clock on the shelf.
15:12 – May 15, 2024
"Impossible. Must be a printing error... it has to be…"
His hand instinctively reached into the pocket of his hospital gown. An ID card hung on a metal clip.
He pulled it out and stared at the neatly printed text:
"Seoul Hope Medical Center"
Name: Lim Gabriel
Position: Medical Intern
Urip froze.
Beep–beep–beep–beep–beep!
The door swung open. The same nurse from earlier entered, holding monitoring equipment.
"Lim Gabriel-ssi! Don't get up by yourself! You're not stable yet!"
Urip said nothing. He didn't know what to say.
The nurse pressed a button on the wall. A man entered with a syringe.
"Sorry, but you need to rest. Your heart is still weak."
"I'm... in Seoul? In 2024?" he mumbled.
Urip closed his eyes. His breathing shallow.
The heart monitor kept beeping rapidly. The nurse injected something into his IV. Slowly, Urip's consciousness faded again.
But before everything went dark, his heart screamed:
"Siska. Where are you? I… didn't get to save you..."
Urip opened his eyes slowly. No longer suffocating. His heartbeat felt more stable. His hand touched his chest—monitor cables still clung to his pale skin. A needle embedded in the back of his left hand.
Without hesitation, he began pulling everything off. Cables, sensors, IV.
His hands were deft. Trained. He was a final-year med student the last time he remembered. But this… this wasn't his body.
"Gabriel-ssi!" a nurse shouted, suddenly walking in. "Don't remove those! You're not—"
Urip merely glanced at her, then got out of bed. He stood slowly. His frame was tall, upright—taller than his old body. His steps were slow but certain.
"I just need the bathroom," he said briefly.
The nurse tried to stop him, but he was already moving. His footsteps felt automatic, like this body knew where to go.
He passed through hallway after hallway. He even knew when to turn, go down one flight of stairs, turn left, turn right…
Until he arrived at a room marked: 의과 실습생 탈의실 – Medical Intern Changing Room
He entered. Empty.
His body stopped in front of a locker—one of many metal lockers lined up. He stared at the one labeled Lim Gabriel.
His left hand instinctively pressed a combination into the digital lock. Click. The locker opened.
How do I know the code? he thought.
Inside:
A digital watch. Strange design. Square, with a long, dark screen. He put it on his left wrist. The screen lit up automatically.
Heart Rate: 84 bpm
Sleep: 2h 12m
Stress Level: Medium
"What the hell… a watch that knows my heartbeat?"
He stared at the screen like it was some device from the future. Then...
He looked down. There was a small mirror on the inside of the locker door.
His reflection appeared.
He went silent.
That face... wasn't his.
Slanted eyes. Sharper nose. Flawless pale skin. But... something familiar. The cheekbones. The facial structure. Like...
"Young Siska's dad...?"
Gabriel Sulaiman—Siska's father's Indonesian name, taken from the Chinese surname Lim.
"This isn't my face! Who… who am I really?! Why am I in Seoul in 2024?"
His breath trembled.
He reached into the locker again. Grabbed something.
A phone. Slim and shiny. The screen lit up with a touch. He slid his finger across. A photo appeared—his face, or rather, this body's face. Wallpaper. Messages, apps, strange icons followed.
"This isn't a phone. This is a mini computer…"
At the bottom of the locker, he found another strange item: a car key. But no key blade—just a small piece of metal with buttons.
"This is a key? Where's the actual key part?"
His hands shook. He sat down slowly on the small bench inside the changing room.
"I'm... no longer Urip… but not fully Gabriel either…"
He changed out of the hospital gown into the white coat of a medical intern. Long pants. Sneakers. As he put on the pants, something hard in the back pocket caught his attention.
He pulled it out.
A wallet.
Inside was an official ID card.
Lim Gabriel
Date of Birth: May 12, 2002
National ID: 041203-xxxxxxx
Seoul Mirae University Hospital – Medical Intern
Urip stared at the photo.
The same face as the one in the mirror. But those eyes… lifeless. Not his.
Urip walked to the intern room where other med students gathered. He sat at one of the desks. He opened a laptop that somehow felt like it belonged to him.
His fingers typed the password as if they had muscle memory. The screen turned on.
Windows—but not Windows 95. Not even XP. Everything looked... too advanced. Flat. No classic buttons.
A soft blue-green menu. Dozens of strange icons. And—
"Where's the Start button?"
He opened a browser. A search bar appeared.
He hesitated. But finally typed:
Stefanus Urip Mulio
Enter.
The results loaded fast. Way faster than any lab computer from his time.
First result:
"List of Students Missing After Trisakti Tragedy and 1998 Riots"
He clicked.
An article appeared. Dated: 2023. Major news site. The headline:
"25 Years Later: The Faces Lost in Bloody May"
Midway down the page: a row of black-and-white photos. One of them—
Him.
His own photo—with center-parted hair and a university jacket.
Caption: "Unknown." Missing since May 12, 1998.
He read quickly. Another name appeared.
Muhammad Sujono (Jojo) – Faculty of Medicine, Trisakti University
"Both were presumed victims of clashes between protesters and the military. Bodies were never found."
He squinted. Jojo. His roommate.
"So… I was declared missing? Presumed dead?"
He leaned back. Staring at the ceiling.
"Reincarnation? Madness. I'm Javanese. Catholic. That's someone else's belief system—not mine."
But the facts were undeniable.
He was in another body. In the future. In Korea.
As someone named Lim Gabriel—son of Siska Sulaiman.
And crazier still: that boy was born May 12, 2002.
Exactly four years after Urip was shot.
His hand moved to his neck. The crucifix necklace was still there.
"Dear God..." he whispered. "What are You trying to tell me…?"
This time he typed:
Lim Gabriel
Dozens of results popped up. But one instantly caught his eye—a small round icon, a selfie with the sea in the background. Text below:
@lim.gabriel
Followers: 38.2k
Bio: Med Intern | Runner | Seoul | Coffee > Sleep
He frowned.
"What is this… @lim.gabriel?" He clicked.
An Instagram page opened.
Photos flooded the screen—square format. Food, sky, coffee, shoes, selfies in a doctor's coat, and… a gym mirror selfie captioned: "On call last night, no sleep. Still pushing."
"This… is a picture-based MIRC?" he mumbled, wide-eyed.
He scrolled. Every photo had numbers: 130 likes. 205 likes. 490 likes.
"Likes? What? They… like these pictures?"
He clicked a post. Comments popped up.
kdrmnurse_82: "Oppa fighting!!"
suhyeon_j: "When are you visiting Busan again?"
yoonsic.lim: "My son the future doctor! 😍 #TeamLimForever"
His eyes froze on that last comment.
"My son the future doctor." He clicked the username: yoonsic.lim
A new page loaded. A woman's profile—about mid-40s. Many family photos.
In one, she stood with Gabriel and an older man in front of a large house, smiling.
Caption:
"With my beloved son, Gabriel, and his father—Lim Woo. My little hero, born on the day I almost lost everything."
Urip stood frozen.
"Yoonsic… that's Siska? And 'I' am her son?"
He zoomed in.
His eyes knew instantly. That was Siska Sulaiman.
Her face had changed—older, fuller—but those eyes… were the same.
He looked at the man beside her—Gabriel's father, Lim Woo. A Korean man. Dressed neatly. Faint smile.
"So… that's 'Gabriel's' father?"