Choi Moo-gyeol discovered the disadvantage of the ability he gained after surgery.
“Ugh.”
“What’s wrong, Moo-gyeol?”
His seatmate asked.
“No, I’m fine.”
After continuously using ‘cognitive focusing,’ an intense headache came to his forehead.
It was intense enough to make his forehead feel stiff.
‘So using it too much causes a headache.’
After feeling the headache, Choi Moo-gyeol tested his ability alone.
The frequency at which no headache occurred was four to five times a day, or about two hours in terms of time.
‘It’s at a level where there’s no strain if I use it only when necessary.’
When he used it for a full two hours a day, and then used it again after 24 hours had passed, there was no headache.
‘If I keep practicing this ability, will the number of uses and the time available increase?’
* * *
About a month after returning to school.
Choi Moo-gyeol’s mother called the homeroom teacher.
—Hello, Moo-gyeol’s mother. What made you call?
“I was curious if our Moo-gyeol is doing well. Also if his physical condition is okay at school…… He says he’s fine, but.”
—I see. I’ve been watching him, and Moo-gyeol is very healthy. He actively participates in PE and does well when I have him try sports.
“Is Moo-gyeol good at sports?”
The mother asked as if surprised.
—Yes, he seems to have talent in both ball games and track. Looking at his school records, it seems he wasn’t particularly like that until last year?
“Yes, he wasn’t originally the athletic type. I was worried because of the surgery, so it’s a relief that there’s no problem at all with his school life.”
—Indeed. Oh, and also, Mother. Moo-gyeol’s performance assessments have gotten very good. At this rate, he’s at the top tier.
“Top tier in performance assessments?”
—Even though it should be hard to keep up with the curriculum progress during the period he was absent from school, he understands the classes well and answers promptly.
“I see…….”
The mother could not help but be surprised again this time.
‘What on earth happened?’
—The surgery must have given him a big shock. In a good way. It seems like he’s become a completely different person.
‘A completely different person…….’
—There is just a feeling that he’s become a bit more unsociable than before. If you parents could just pay a little attention and take care of that part, I think it will be fine.
“Understood. Thank you, Teacher.”
When the call with the homeroom teacher ended, Choi Moo-gyeol’s parents were happy yet bewildered.
First, it was hard to believe.
Suddenly becoming excellent in class and good at sports?
Can brain surgery change a person like that?
Because such a question arose.
And second, there was also this worry.
The worry that the child’s interpersonal relationships would no longer be as ordinary as before.
The child who originally had ordinary abilities but was sociable has now become a psychopath who is outstanding in ability but unsociable?
It feels like a golden balance issue in a VS game.
As parents, it had become a subtle problem that they could neither simply rejoice over nor simply be sad about.
Then one day.
On the way home from school with his friend Lee Dong-gyu.
Suddenly Lee Dong-gyu stopped Choi Moo-gyeol.
“There’s a stray cat over there. Wait a sec.”
“Where are you going?”
Lee Dong-gyu, having spotted a stray cat sitting as if it were its own spot on one side of the alley, went into a convenience store.
A moment later, Lee Dong-gyu came out of the convenience store, opened a can of tuna, and placed it in front of the cat.
As the cat crept closer and began eating the tuna, Lee Dong-gyu muttered.
“Because it looked hungry.”
However, Choi Moo-gyeol’s reaction as he watched the cat eating the tuna was unexpected.
“They say if you recklessly feed wild animals, it destroys the ecosystem balance.”
“What? Moo-gyeol, you also gave a sausage to a stray dog last time?”
“I did. But I don’t think it was a good thing to do.”
Lee Dong-gyu looked at Choi Moo-gyeol with an absurd expression.
“Why did your thoughts suddenly change from then?”
“Hmm.”
‘Right, why did my thoughts change?’
Choi Moo-gyeol, who had been pondering for a moment, could not shake the thought, ‘Is it because of the surgery after all?’
The fact that the surgery had changed many parts of him without him knowing.
It was a moment when that felt all too real.
* * *
Several months passed since Choi Moo-gyeol started attending school again.
The kids in Choi Moo-gyeol’s class were whispering.
“Moo-gyeol seems to have become a bit strange lately.”
“Right, he doesn’t communicate well. He wasn’t like that before.”
“Is it because he hurt his head?”
“Should I say he became cold after hurting his head. Sometimes he seems like a robot.”
“But didn’t his grades and athletic skills suddenly get better?”
“Maybe I should get into a car accident too.”
“Don’t even say such unlucky things.”
Choi Moo-gyeol’s best friend Lee Dong-gyu was also feeling an inexplicable sense of disconnect from Choi Moo-gyeol, just like the other kids in the class.
He used to be an ordinary kid who played with him, but these days he was becoming an outstanding student in the class.
He hated the feeling of the distance growing.
“……Right, lately he’s kind of creepy.”
There was a bit of jealousy in Lee Dong-gyu’s mouth when those words came out.
“Hey, he’s here, he’s here. Shh.”
When Choi Moo-gyeol appeared in the classroom, the kids who had been talking behind his back fell silent.
However, Choi Moo-gyeol had already heard their conversation.
“Lee Dong-gyu. Did you just say I’m creepy?”
“Uh, no.”
When Choi Moo-gyeol stared intently, Lee Dong-gyu felt that gaze was chilly.
“I definitely heard it that way.”
“No. I said that about another kid.”
“Another kid, who?”
Lee Dong-gyu flinched in confusion and hesitated.
“In the next class, why that…….”
“Don’t change the subject. Have I become that strange?”
As Choi Moo-gyeol continued to press, Lee Dong-gyu got annoyed.
“Ah! It’s true that you’ve changed……!”
Even if emotions had disappeared, memories had not disappeared.
Lee Dong-gyu, who had been his best friend until before the accident.
To Choi Moo-gyeol, it was Lee Dong-gyu who had completely changed.
He had started keeping his distance at some point, and these days he tried to go separately during commute times, making all sorts of excuses.
As a result, it was not long before they stopped going together.
If a best friend was like that, there was no need to mention the other kids in the class. They also subtly kept Choi Moo-gyeol at a distance.
Choi Moo-gyeol asked back.
“Isn’t it you who has really changed?”
“…….”
Lee Dong-gyu gave no answer to that.
Then.
A tingle.
A strange sensation was felt near his forehead.
A peculiar sensation different from a headache.
An empty feeling as if some emotion that should be there was missing.
‘How would an ordinary person feel at a time like this?’
If it were an ordinary person.
No, what would it have been like for Choi Moo-gyeol before the accident?
He would have felt hurt.
Or he might have felt anger and gotten upset.
But for the current Choi Moo-gyeol, other than a slightly tingling sensation on his forehead, he felt no particular emotion.
Because part of the brain governing emotions had been completely damaged.
The void in the frontal lobe.
That sense of void was felt merely like phantom pain.
‘It feels strange…… but this is not something I can do anything about.’
That day, when he returned home, Choi Moo-gyeol confided the problem to his parents during dinner.
“Mom, Dad, have I changed a lot since the accident?”
“Why did you suddenly think that?”
“Lee Dong-gyu says I’m creepy.”
“Why would Dong-gyu say that…… Weren’t you two the closest?”
“To a friend, saying he’s creepy! That little brat says such things?”
Choi Moo-gyeol’s father flared up in anger.
Choi Moo-gyeol himself was indifferent.
“I guess we’re not friends anymore.”
The conversation at the dinner table caused ripples in Choi Moo-gyeol’s parents’ hearts.
They thought he was getting along reasonably well even after the frontal lobe damage.
The homeroom teacher had also said not to worry too much.
But it was not so.
The problem they had been worried about had not disappeared.
After Choi Moo-gyeol fell asleep, they talked late into the night and reached a conclusion.
“It was something we expected, but hearing it actually happen is more shocking.”
“Dear, I think we should try the method the attending physician told us about.”
“We should, right?”
They thought they should deal with the situation more actively.
The next evening.
The father, who had come home from work and connected the laptop to the TV screen, said.
“Moo-gyeol, from now on you may continue to have difficulties socializing with people.”
“What are you preparing?”
Choi Moo-gyeol, looking puzzled.
When the setup was complete, the mother grabbed the mouse and clicked a file on the desktop.
“We want to reduce as much as possible the situations where you get into trouble because of interpersonal relationships. So we prepared this.”
“Hm?”
Soon a person’s face was zoomed in on the screen.
The mother asked Choi Moo-gyeol.
“Can you tell what this person’s emotion is right now?”
“I don’t really know.”
“This expression is a sad expression.”
“Sad…….”
It was clearly a word he knew, but it did not connect well with actual emotion.
“Even if what kind of emotion sadness is doesn’t come to mind, you can think that something bad must have happened to this person, right?”
“Ah. I think I know that.”
Not empathizing, but recognizing.
Click.
He moved to the next photo.
“What is this person’s emotion now?”
“Well, this one also seems not good.”
“This is an angry expression. Can you tell the subtle difference from before?”
“The face is more contorted.”
The photos continued to flip. Happy expressions, surprised expressions, fearful expressions, etc.
“Ah…… I think Lee Dong-gyu also made that kind of expression at me.”
“So that friend who said you were creepy made a fearful expression at you. Why do you think that was?”
“Because I’m different from him in some way?”
“Yes, people generally become afraid of and wary of those who are too different from themselves. So you need to be able to read others’ emotions, at least to the extent that it doesn’t interfere with your life.”
“Have I changed too much because of the accident?”
“It’s true you’ve changed. But that’s not your fault.”
Now, for Choi Moo-gyeol, others’ emotions were not something to ‘feel’ but something to ‘memorize.’
Click.
After expressions, it was time to memorize reactions.
“When someone talks to you, even if you’re not interested, give an appropriate response.”
“How much is appropriate?”
Young Choi Moo-gyeol asked that with an infinitely innocent expression.
