> Some cages don't have bars. Some are built from silence, memory, and the echo of a promise.
---
[Undisclosed Location – Cryo-Zero Containment]
The world was blue.
Blue like ice.
Blue like forgetting.
Seungmin opened his eyes, barely. Frost clung to his eyelashes. His limbs didn't move. Couldn't.
A woman in white stood above him.
"Vitals stabilizing," she murmured. "Subject S004 is waking."
He wanted to scream—but all that came was a breath.
The cryo-liquid receded.
Machines hissed.
And the cold... stayed.
---
[Day 1 – Conscious Reacquisition]
He couldn't speak.
Couldn't think clearly.
Only fragments surfaced.
Laughter—Ellee's.
A boy with a fox grin—Yulseung.
Taerim's tiny hand clutching his.
Drip.
Drip.
The ceiling leaked in rhythm.
"Do you remember who you are?" asked a man with round glasses—Dr. Han.
He nodded. Then shook his head.
The doctor smiled, jotting it down.
"Good. It means the program worked."
---
[Day 23 – Compliance Conditioning]
Videos played on loop.
His friends screaming.
Then smiling.
Then dying.
Then smiling again.
His mind blurred the truth.
What was real?
What was fabricated?
They called it "recalibration."
He called it "breaking."
---
[Day 43 – Voice Command Integration]
A woman whispered in his ear during sleep.
"You will obey."
"You will return what was stolen."
"You will bring the girl back."
"The girl...?"
A name rose in his throat.
"Taerim."
Electricity surged.
Punishment.
"Names are weakness," Dr. Han reminded him.
"Only numbers survive."
---
[Day 90 – The Visit]
The door opened.
Dr. Kwon entered.
Hands clasped behind his back.
"You're doing well, Seungmin."
The boy flinched.
The name.
Still warm.
Still alive.
Kwon noticed. Smiled.
"I know what they meant to you," he said. "But they left you. Burned the lab. Escaped without looking back."
Seungmin said nothing.
Because part of him… believed it.
"I saved you," Kwon added softly. "I gave you purpose."
That night, Seungmin didn't sleep.
He stared at the ceiling.
And whispered, barely:
"You promised we'd leave together…"
A tear slid down frozen skin.
Even programming can't erase every promise.
---
[Day 200 – Extraction Prep]
He stood before a mirror.
Hair cropped. Eyes dull.
But inside—beneath the cold—something still burned.
A nurse scanned his wrist: S004 – ACTIVE.
"You'll be reunited soon," she said gently.
"Will they remember me?" he asked.
She hesitated.
"No. But you'll make them."
He looked down at his trembling hands.
"I don't want to hurt them."
"You won't."
"Then why… do I feel like I'm the weapon?"
Silence.
No answer.
---
[Final Entry – The Night Before Release]
A notebook was slipped into his cell.
Blank pages.
One pen.
He wrote only one thing:
> "I'm sorry. If I hurt you—it's not me.
But if you can reach me… please don't stop."