A sharp throbbing pain hit him as soon as his mind registered an overwhelming scent of anti-septic in the air. Lee Jun slowly opened his eyes, letting out a pained groan as he adjusted to bright synthetic lights. He rolled his eyes around, taking in unfamiliar surroundings.
'Where am I?' through the pain, his senses readjusted, 'a hospital?'
He was on a roll-up bed on bare floors, where the strong antiseptic smell originated. Around him, he could see white walls and medical machinery, as well as people.
'People? Who are? What is going on?'
There were around ten people, including himself were crammed into this small hospital room where the door was left open. All of them looked and dressed different, yet, like him, they were all laying on mass-produced roll-up beds and appeared to be sleeping.
Lee Jun looked around and noticed the few hospital looking machinery he could see were not attached to anyone, they weren't even powered on.
'Did I pass out?' he tried to remember.
Bright searing light. That awful sound.
Lee Jun's head throbbed again, slightly more intensely than ever before causing him to wince loudly and hold his head. His memories felt scattered and disjointed. He reached for his pocket and felt his phone still there.
As he rose, Lee Jun pulled out his phone and saw firstly that he was very, very late for work. There were also missed calls from Rin, Manager Kim and oddly enough, from Hei Lin.
"You're awake!" someone suddenly said causing Lee Jun to nearly drop his phone. He looked up to see a tired looking nurse standing in the doorway with a metal tray filled with medicinal bottles and paper charts.
"G-Good morning." Lee Jun called back. He found his throat dry making his voice hoarse. "Uh- Where am I? I think I passed out, but I don't remember having an accident or anything like that."
"You don't remember?" she spoke softly, sigh,"just like all the rest."
"What are you talking about? I-" Lee Jun caught himself as the memories returned with another painful throb. He winced "I saw a strange light, heard … something. I passed out?"
The nurse nodded. "Emergency services must have found you and brought you here. Do you have any family to contact Mr." she flipped through the files, clearly looking for his chart, but he answered before she found it.
"Lee Jun. And, no. My parents are late and I don't really have extended family I'm close to." He told her.
"I'm sorry about that." The nurse suddenly leaned against the door, using the chat with him as an opportunity to rest her feet. She had been on the move throughout the night, working well past her shift change due to the Emergency. Two other nurses sped past her and they exchanged nods.
She sighed deeply. "We don't know what happened honestly. Suddenly people started calling in that their loved ones had fainted. It was a few people at first then..." She paused and shocked Lee Jun when tears suddenly clouded her eyes as she spoke next. "It was bad. No matter what they were doing at the time, people just instantly lost consciousness. Even if they were doing something important or dangerous. The car accident victims alone..." She clasped her hands over her heart as a few medicine bottles and charts fell off the tray. The nurse fought back her tears.
Lee Jun was stunned. He moved quickly to pick up the fallen materials , but nearly lost his footing as a wave of throbbing headache hit him anew.
The nurse wiped her face and straightened. She bent down to help him up before picking the items up.
The PA systems suddenly blared. "Doctor Cun to Emergency room 7. Doctor Cun please report to emergency room 7."
Her face got serious suddenly.
"Some people have been waking up. But, they all complain of a persistent headache they didn't have before." She then looked at him closely. "You should get examined before you leave. When you were brought in-" she paused briefly, "You and many others affected were discovered to be bleeding from your… head orifices."
"Head orifices?" he asked, puzzled.
"Head, eyes, nose and ears." She said quietly, "you need to get checked out. You might have slumped, but something else caused that bleeding."
Finally, she straightened up, took a deep breath, followed by a sweeping glance at the other unconscious patients before walking away leaving Lee Jun to make a decision. While normally she would have insisted on accompanying him to the nearest ward for a check-up. She knew the hospital staff was just too busy with victims of accidents and emergencies, who at the time needed to take priority.
Lee Jun was left alone. Soon another hospital staff rushed past without even glancing into the room.
'If so many people suddenly lose consciousness…'
His head throbbed again.
Lee Jun made his way through random hallways feeling lost at the overwhelming buzz of activity from hospital staff. As he passed by open wards, he saw bandaged people, weeping people, unconscious people and exhausted hospital staff.
He reached a nurse station and waited a few minutes before a tired looking nurse attended to him.
They barely exchanged a few words as multiple landlines on the station desk rang non-stop. Eventually, she thrust a bottle of painkillers into his hand and told him to return if he notices other symptoms aside from the headaches. The hospital was still overwhelmed so the best they could do was manage their pain while they attended to others with more obvious life threatening situations.
He called Rin once he was out of the hospital and in a more quiet area. Lee Jun reassured her that he was fine and was even discharged from the hospital. He didn't mention the headaches as he didn't want her to worry too much. Despite what had happened, he still needed to go to work. She understood his situation and promised to see him soon.
Next, Manager Kim was unexpectedly emotional on the phone. He thanked the Heavens when he realized Lee Jun had indeed passed out but was unscathed. Apparently, Manager Kim had known someone who lost consciousness while returning from a night out in town. An unconscious driver behind the wheel of a speeding car led to Manager Kim calling off work for the day. He had been checking in on his staff.
Lee Jun found a nearby shop and quickly bought a can of water, which he used to take two pills. What followed was him dragging himself to his apartment, which was fortunately within walking distance. Unfortunately, painkillers did nothing to ease the pain so Lee Jun would wince and groan with every other step.
Eternally grateful for a working elevator, Lee Jun almost dozed off while waiting inside. He staggered to his home.
His bed felt softer than it ever was, prompting Lee Jun to forget about breakfast. He found himself staring at his ceiling, counting the seconds before another wave of pain hit him.
Lee Jun's mind began to wander. He thought of work, of Yang Rin. His body felt light and weak. He thought of home, way back in the Heun village, so long ago, when he was so very happy, before the fire that took his parents, before his hard life in foster care.
His parents had been somewhat simple folks. His father practiced holistic healing, taught meditation as well as sold spiritual healing items such as incense, medicinal paste and spiritual talismans from a small store that was part of their home, while his mother was a local school teacher. The authorities claimed the fire was a result of a incense stick that wasn't properly put out leading to an inferno that consumed their home. His father had dragged Lee Jun out of the fire before going back for his wife, neither ever returned.
Tears filled his eyes as memories of his parents would return. Yet, he smiled as he thought of how his father would claim that illnesses and aches could be solved by meditation and inner focus. He remembered Lee Jun Senior's teachings as well as the box of meditation manuals under his bed, it was the only thing salvaged from his store that wasn't eventually sold off or scrapped.
These memories comforted Lee Jun, his headache hadn't stopped or eased, so Lee Jun began to measure his breathing as his father had once taught him.
'Thousand for One Meditation Technique' It was Lee Jun Senior's lasting legacy to his son. So Lee Jun practiced it.
He breathed in-
'Calm your mind'
He breathed out-
'Pull your consciousness to your temple'
Thoughts of Hei Lin stoning him with a pen in his temple crossed his mind yet he shook his head, instantly regretting that action, but still successfully banishing away all other distractions.
'I am Lee Jun' He breathed in-
Silence.
Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
Lee Jun's eyes opened slightly as he felt something that made no sense, so he softly shook his head.
He focused again. Taking his time to lose himself in his consciousness. Removing all distractions from his mind.
Thu-thump. Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
A wave of headache. He allowed, through gritted teeth, the pain to wash over him. He didn't reject it, neither did he fight back against the pain.
Thu-thump. Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
It felt like his heart was beating, yet, in his temple?
As Lee Jun focused, as he lost himself in his own mind, he suddenly grasped onto something. There was a strange pressure, present within his head. Lee Jun suspected it was the source of his headaches, throbbing every time a wave of increased pain washed over him.
As he focused more and more on the unusual source of pressure, Lee Jun felt the sensation of holding something. While he knew his hands were empty in reality, yet he felt an imaginary weight in his hands… so, he imagined moving whatever this was away from his head. If it was the source of his headaches, then he didn't need it in his system.
Eyes shut firmly, Lee Jun pulled with his mind at this imaginary force. He had sought to pull it sideways, out of his head where he could throw away the illness.
Suddenly, he felt this imaginary force slam into the side of his skull, causing his ears to grow numb as well as losing his imaginary grip and allowing it to slam back into its source.
Lee Jun saw white for a few seconds accompanied by numbness in his head, followed by a realization.
'The headache really went away when I moved that… energy?.'
Lee Jun immediately decided to rest and try again.