Saejin sat still in the chair, the smooth band around his wrist blinking softly. Somewhere behind the walls, unseen systems were recording everything: his breath, the rhythm of his pulse, and whatever else no one needed to mention.
Dr. Ashir arrived with no datapad in hand, just a memory lens behind his left iris and an unshakable calm. He crossed the room and sat down, hands folded on the table between them.
"We'll go slow" he said. "This is not a test, but we will move through several categories."
Saejin gave a short nod.
Ashir started with the basics: time, place, recent events. Saejin's answers came easily and accurate, he didn't think he knew much about what had happened anyway.
"You're being very guarded" Ashir noted aloud. "Would you say that's true?"
"Wouldn't you be?" Saejin replied.
"That wasn't judgment" Ashir added gently. "You can say whatever comes to mind here."
Then, after a pause, he changed tone.
"Walk me through what you remember from the last normal day, before the Gate event."
Saejin paused to gather his thoughts, then listed the events plainly as he remembered them: the route taken to ARC HQ, the sync scan that came back clear, the briefing.
Ashir interrupted once.
"You skipped lunch?"
"I usually do."
"Why?"
"Too many people in the main hall. I prefer quiet."
Ashir watched Saejin's posture.
"So even then, before the event, you were optimizing for silence."
"Yes."
"You've done that since childhood?"
Saejin paused a little then replied shortly. "Yes."
"Describe the Gate collapse. I'm interested in what it felt like... in your body."
Saejin's throat moved slightly as he swallowed.
"There was pressure at first, then something felt like... like everything around me started leaning inward. I remember feeling dizzy but I wasn't afraid."
"Why not?"
"Because it all felt separate from me in a way. Like it was happening around me, not inside."
Ashir nodded slowly. "Emotional depersonalization, this is actually common in extreme stress scenarios. But you've experienced Gates before without this kind of detachment."
"This wasn't the same."
"How?"
"I felt like I had… space. Too much of it. Like the world had stretched beyond anything I could measure. I don't have anything to compare it to."
Ashir's fingers tapped once on the table. "That sensation... did it precede or follow the resonance surge?"
Saejin hesitated: "Preceded."
Ashir made an intentional pause to make a point, then he subtly changed tone again.
"If I told you someone else had witnessed your body behaving in ways not consistent with your known cognitive profile, would that surprise you?"
"I don't think I've ever acted in a way they understood. So no, I wouldn't be surprised."
That earned Ashir's first real smile, it was faint but unmistakable.
"Good answer."
He adjusted in his seat.
"How long do you believe you were unconscious?"
"I don't know" Saejin admitted.
"What's the last thing you remember before the Gate collapse?"
"Yuwon was in danger... there was an explosion near his position. That's when everything changed."
"You don't remember activating any containment?"
Saejin lifted his eyes from the table. "No."
Ashir leaned forward slightly.
"We've reviewed footage of the event and we've measured the collapse itself. We've reconstructed the sync map as far as we could, but the one thing no one can agree on... is what we were looking at."
Saejin didn't move.
"You mean me."
Ashir nodded. "The version of you that stood outside the zone and contained a Gate. Through pure resonance sync. No shielding of any kind. Just a pulse drawn inward until nothing remained but you."
They didn't speak for a while.
"That version wasn't unconscious" Ashir said. "Or so it seemed."
"I don't remember doing anything" Saejin said quietly.
"We know" Ashir replied. "That's part of the problem."
Saejin's voice was quiet. "You think I triggered something?"
Ashir didn't confirm or deny. "We think the incident is worth understanding."
He adjusted the way his hands rested on the table, fingers interlocked.
"There's also your background to consider" he added, lightly. "You and Hara were both routed through early calibration programs. Pre-standardization. Your files were incomplete. War-era disruption, most likely."
"I don't remember much of those."
"You wouldn't. Most of those sessions were unrecorded or misfiled. They were testing how much pressure a mind could take, before we had models and before we actually understood the guiding process."
He watched Saejin carefully now.
"Very little of it was official. Much of it was buried when protocols were formalized, but some references did remain. Enough to see you were listed."
Saejin sat still, didn't say anything.
"You're not under suspicion" Ashir added with a neutral tone. "You're under observation."
"That's the same thing" Saejin murmured.
Ashir smiled.
"What do you think of Yuwon?"
The question was blunt and Saejin couldn't help but flinch a little.
"He makes it easier for me than it used to be... guiding."
Ashir looked at Saejin intently without saying anything, like attempting to retrieve a longer answer from his posture than the one he had given.
"Is he important to you?"
"I don't know... I think he might be... yes."