Jun exhaled deeply. His eyes swam for a few minutes as he recovered. The headache had lessened following his interaction with that strange sensation, yet now he could feel a painful throbbing rising and falling with each heartbeat.
Minutes later, feeling stronger Jun pulled out a dusty cardboard box from under his bed. It was lightly charred in a corner and he stared at it with a heavy heart for a few moments, letting the sensation wash over him.
It was the remnants of his father's manuals, recipes and techniques that had been salvaged after the inferno. He half remembered watching concerned townsfolk search through rubble and cold ash as they aided emergency fire rescue workers sift through the remnants of his home. In the end, he had been given this box of gathered manuals, taking it with him on his journey through foster care then community college.
Lee Jun mostly half remembered the contents of these manuals. While he loved and missed his parents dearly, there was no use for his father's collection of pseudo-scientific documentation during his years studying the computer sciences.
His stomach grumbled as he leafed through various diagrams of unproven meridian channels that supposedly existed in the human body. He found the manual he was searching for; the Thousand for One Meditation Technique. It contained more complete diagrams of unproven research than any other salvaged set.
It took him a few minutes to read through the ten page manual. It mostly instructed the user to begin by imagining or feeling an invisible energy which supposedly existed within the human body. The user was required to take hold of this energy and circulate it through the many thousand meridian pathways of the human body. During his period, the user was required to relax and sit in a comfortable position as well as make repeated mental reaffirmations of their own well-being and good health.
'Dad, I can't believe you actually sold this to people' Lee Jun chuckled to himself.
Lee Jun began as the book instructed, focusing on this mysterious energy which may or may not exist in the human body, except, in his case, he could feel a mass of pressure somewhere in his temple.
The more he sensed this pressure, the quieter everything got. His eyes closed, his senses pulling inward and shutting out all other external stimuli. Suddenly, his finger flexed as he felt something in his hands. In his mind, Lee Jun pictured these meridian channels as the manual instructed. Then, he pulled.
The pressure moved. Movement behind his closed eyes lids indicated he tracked something unseen. It moved down, leaving his skull and moving down his throat.
He got to the chest and felt lost for a moment. There seemed to be many routes this pressure could follow and Lee Jun wasn't sure of the correct one. The manual flashed in his mind again and he attempted to pull this pressure towards the Jiache pathway along his right arm, yet, there was immediate resistance.
A strange freezing sensation rapidly concentrated around his shoulder where he imagined the pressure to be. Immediately, Lee Jun panicked and did two things in quick succession. One; he let go of pulling the pressure, two; he immediately regretted it and then attempted to gently stall it.
Immediately, Lee Jun noticed a strange reaction. This pressure, this energy, it did not want to be pulled. He let his mind hold onto the energy, but he no longer imagined pulling it anywhere, instead in that moment he simply didn't want it to go back.
He felt a sudden difference in this pressure's motion. So, Lee Jun called to it, relaxed himself and mentally bade the pressure to go where it needed to be.
Like a magnet it moved, albeit slowly, further down his chest than what the manual would have described. It pooled in the center of his chest for a fleeting moment before suddenly bursting into four separate directions.
Lee Jun felt a warm sensation flood his arms, lower back, legs and head.
His fingers tingled, his blood thrummed, his heartbeat quickened while his senses became a jumbled mess of bright lights, loud noises and alternating sensations of cold, hot, dry, moist and dusty. Minutes passed. Until everything slowed then stopped.
Lee Jun slowly opened his eyes. His hand moved to stroke his head. The headaches had become nothing but a minor pressure he could easily ignore.
"Oh my-hrrup"
His stomach lurched mid-sentence and Lee Jun was forced to clutch his mouth tightly shut or he would have puked out all over his bed.
As he fled to the bathroom, he felt nothing but a punishing agony as the vomit was the most bitter thing he had ever experienced to date. His mind even refused to think too much on the matter as the bitterness was truly overwhelming.
He yanked open his toilet with a free hand and unleashed a torrent of red and brown bile into the toilet, yet even as he did, Lee Jun panicked as he felt a familiar, yet, furious pressure rapidly form in his lower bowels.
He barely made it.
As the last of the bile left his mouth, he swiftly spun around and dropped another round of foulness. He cursed that the nearest window was closed.
Lee Jun had wrung himself empty in a few minutes. He stood shakily, tired and sweating yet feeling lighter and more energetic than he had ever felt.
As he left, he stopped at the bathroom door as he noticed that another foul odor was emanating from, himself!
He wiped his head. The sensation was wrong. The sweat was sticky to the touch. He immediately panicked and jumped into the shower not even taking off all his clothes before turning on the water.
As he scrubbed, a layer of sticky sweat swiftly washed off his whole body finally allowing Lee Jun to exhale.
'What is this ehn? I feel great, but what is happening with my body all of a sudden. Is it the manual I used? Or … something, else?'
Lee Jun quickly got dressed. Physically, he never felt better, however mentally, he was drained. He wanted to jump into bed and sleep, yet,
Gggrrrrrrrr
His stomach had awoken.
'I feel like I should have seen that coming after emptying, well, everything.'
He looked around his room, considering the fastest way he was going to get some food. Yet his stomach didn't seem to like his indecision.
GRRRRRRRROOOUU
Lee Jun actually grabbed his stomach and bent over.
He dashed out of his bedroom heading for the exit then returned to grab his wallet and keys. In his mind he had already plotted the fastest route to the nearest food stall, and when he found himself briefly include jumping down a window as a more expedient route, Lee Jun's eyes widened in fear, so he increased his speed. He didn't even bother locking his door with the key.
The elevator was too slow in coming up so he dashed for the stair well. Lee Jun had always been fit but never athletic. He could run if he needed to, yet he wasn't the fastest nor the strongest or even one with a great amount of stamina.
Today however, Lee Jun cleared entire floors in large jumping steps. He sped by a few people doing who-knows-what in the stair well. Lee Jun didn't care. He only registered them as obstacles to avoid colliding with.
Soon, he felt the morning sun on his face. He vaguely heard the security doorman greet him, but Lee Jun had sped away before they could lock eyes. He shouted a greeting over his shoulder as he sped down the street.
He found a noodle shop and sped past it. He couldn't imagine sitting with such aromas while waiting for a meal. He soon found his target and his heart sank as he saw three other customers in front of the Gilgeori Toast vendor.
Lee Jun almost barked out his order when it was his turn, shocking the auntie who served him. She remembered him from before, so she had begun to pack up a single order for the nice young man who never seemed to have many friends but was always nice, respectful and helpful at any opportunity. Three orders of toast, identical fillings, of meat, eggs and more meat. He had to make it four orders when his stomach grumbled almost as if in direct revolt. He also bought a soft drink.
Despite this large order, Lee Jun sighed in worry as he passed the noodle shop on his way home.
He had already wolfed down his sandwiches and now sat in the noodle shop awaiting an order of a large bowl of Guksu.
Lee Jun made mental calculations, his dates with Yang Rin would be in jeopardy if he continued eating like this.