The Heroes of Seoul

Park Jongseong is a simple sixteen-year-old student from South Korea who really loved adventures. He never sat still and always tried to find something new to do with his friends. As for them, there were four people: his classmate and best friend at the same time named Sim Jaeyun, and Jay and Danielle who are twins that were born in the USA. At the age of 4 they came to Seoul. Also Jongseong had a younger sister and her name was Chaewon. Her brother always said she’s really smart and, actually, he was right. They all lived in South Korea those days when something in the capital went wrong. One day Jaeyun came to the school without a good mood, and everyone noticed that, especially Jongseong. He came to his best friend and started talking putting the hand on his shoulder. “You look upset today, Jae”, Park said. “What happened?” “I lost my headphones yesterday”, Jaeyun answered. “You know I literally can’t live without music and this loss is terrible for me!” “Have you tried looking for them somewhere at school?” Park suggested. “Maybe it’s in the class or in your locker, for example?” “Not yet but I’m sure I’ve lost them at home.” “How do they look like?” “The wireless headphones in a blue case”, sighing Jongseong’s friend answered. “And also there’s an ink fingerprint on their lid.” “At first, let’s check your locker’, Jongseong said and opening the friend’s locker pulled out his headphones. “See? Here you are!” Looking at his headphones Jaeyun was extremely shocked. He stood with his eyes wide open and looked first at the fingerprint on the case, then at his friend. Park Jongseong noticed his friend’s concern. “Why are you so concerned about this?” he wondered. “Because I was sure I had lost them at home, in my room”, Sim answered. “I used them last evening, and they had been lost when I woke up!” Jongseong wanted to say something but then he heard the voices of Jay and Danielle who were arguing. “Where did you get them?” Jay asked angrily. “They were in my room!” “I found them in me closet!” Danielle irritably answered. “I don’t know why we have two pairs of them now. They’re absolutely the same, even this white paint stain on the frame!” “Hey, guys, what’s going on?” Park askedcoming to the twins. “Hi, Seong”, smiling Danielle said. “Jay and I discovered that somehow we had had two pairs of sunglasses in our house. By the way, they’re exactly the same!” “So now we’re really confused where we got the second one from”, Jay concluded. “But there are also positive sides because now we cannot borrow them from each other.” “I had lost my headphones in my room”, started Jaeyun, “but after that I found them in my locker! Don’t you think it’s really weird?” “Yes, we do!” twins answered in unison. “I can ask my sister if she knows what to do”, Jongseong said. “She’s really smart so she can help us to find out what’s going on”, he said and continued: “Let’s meet in my house after school!” After their classes, friends gathered together in the schoolyard. Everyone felt tense and shifted from one foot to the other waiting for Jongseong’s sister whose name was Chaewon. She was considered to be the best student at school even though she was only fifteen. Park Chaewon knew things even older people didn’t know, so all of Jongseong’s gang liked her. Just seeing Chaewon, guys had started running to her before she came to them. “Hi, boys, hi, Danielle!” she smiled and waved. “What happened?” “We wanted to ask you one weird question”, started Jaeyun. “How weird is it?” “Really weird”, her brother said. “Can things clone themselves if they were damaged while being used?” “What? Are you kidding?” Chaewon giggled. “This is anti-scientific! You can do exactly the same thing but it’ll look new, without any damage. You can’t just clone a thing that is ruined, for example.” “What if we actually can?” Danielle said and showed Chaewon two pairs of sunglasses with the same shape of a paint stain on the frame. “We had just one pair of sunglasses and yesterday we found another one that looks the same. How’s it possible?” Jongseong’s sister took the glasses and then became confused. She looked at them and then at her friends. “That’s really odd”, she said. “Did someone else have the similar situation?” “Jaeyun did”, Jongseong said. “He lost his wireless headphones at home but found them today in his own locker.” “I should take a look under the microscope”, Chaewon said, “and then I’ll try to find out what’s the problem.” And then everyone silently went to the Jongseong and Chaewon’s home to find out at least part of the answer to such an unusual riddle. Park Jongseong looked really confused but he wanted to help his friends with this odd situation. At home Chaewon let the guys into her room and then she walked in too. The girl started looking for her microscope but she couldn’t find it. “I think I left my microscope in the living room”, she sighed. “Jong, please, bring it from there.” “Okay!” the brother replied and went to the living room to find the sister’s microscope. Jaeyun, Jay and Danielle were standing in the middle of the room while Chaewon still was trying to find her research instrument when suddenly Jae started speaking. “What are you going to do with it?” “At first”, Chaewon started, “I want to take a sample of the material which both pairs of Jay and Danielle’s sunglasses are made from. Then, as I’ve already said, I’m going to look at them under a microscope and find out if there are any differences. Oh!” the girl was opening the bedside table when she found her microscope. “Here it is! Hey, Seong, come back, I found it!” The phrase thrown by the guy from the living room made the girl turn pale with fear. Her brother’s voice said: “I found it here too!” “Oh God…” Jay said quietly. “This can’t happen but it’s happening… Oh, what should we do? What’s going on?” “Nothing good, I’m sure…” his sister Danielle said. Jongseong walked in Chaewon’s room showing her microscope which was exactly the same as the one the girl was holding in her hands. “Well”, Chaewon said being confused, “there’s no need to take a look under the microscope. It’s definitely a cloning because I have only one microscope!” “What if it’s something paranormal?” Danielle suggested. “I don’t really believe it but this is a really weird situation!” “I know one story about cloning”, Jaeyun said. “Some people say that if a hole is formed in the matrix, then things begin to clone themselves. In general, a lot of odd things happen after this, and cloning is just one of them. You can see another version of yourself, but unlike you, it can be extremely aggressive and cruel. Also some objects can disappear and appear again in a random place of the planet. There are many more strange things happen when there’s a hole in the matrix but they’re too frightening to talk about them.” Everyone of the Jongseong’s gang stood with their mouths and eyes wide open and looked at Sim Jaeyun. Jay spoke first. “It sounds weird but also logical at the same time.” “It could be true”, Danielle said. “I don’t have any other explanations of this situation.” “So where can this hole be now?” Jongseong asked. “I’m sure there are some signs of where it is.” “I can look up in the laptop where the highest magnetic field is in South Korea right now”, Chaewon suggested and turning on her laptop continued speaking: “I read about it in the childhood. Let’s check it out!” She opened the weird map where spots of different colors were depicted, indicating the strength of the magnetic field. The whole of South Korea on the map was covered in blue, but in one place there was a medium-sized spot of a maroon color. “Here, near the W&F Labels building!” Danielle said and pointed at a dark spot. “Yes, the magnetic field is too strong here”, Chaewon confirmed. “It’s Saturday tomorrow so we can get to this place and try to find out how to get rid of this matrix hole.” “I think that’s a great idea!” Jongseong said. “No, it’s not a great idea, Seong”, Jay objected. “I can suggest it’s not safe at all. What happens if we get into a trouble? I want to live, and this, as you say, a great idea seems like a great chance to take a life!” “That’s why all of us should go, Jay. If there are five of us, the chances of survival increase by several times! We must seriously prepare for this, of course. We’ll be together, and nothing’s going to happen. Together we can handle anything. Do you believe me?” Surrounded by his friends, Jay stood silently in the middle of the room, his head was down. The situation still seemed incredibly dangerous to him, but both his friends and his sister were willing to risk their lives. The decision was hard for him to make, but he finally looked into Jongseong’s eyes. “Okay, let’s just do it…” “Then we can meet at the Minato Café tomorrow at 9 AM and head to the west to the W&F Labels building”, Danielle said. In the morning friends felt terrible. They had to go through the danger to ensure the safety of their homeland. The gang was concerned about what they were going to have to do. Everyone took the most important things: warm clothes, food so they wouldn’t starve, and, of course, some water. “Are you ready, guys?”Jongseong asked and seeing everyone nodding said: “Then let’s go! Let’s catch a bus to get to that place.” No one wanted to talk or smile because this case seemed exhausting. Even Chaewon was worried about this. But after a couple of minutes friends finally took a bus and then started talking. “In some films and TV series”, Jaeyun started, “I have seen people close holes like this by reducing the magnetic field. It may help us, don’t you think so?” “Yes, it could help”, Danielle said. “But how can we do this?” “I think we need some kind of large magnet that can offset one magnetic field with an opposite magnetic field”, Jay suggested. “We were taught something like this in Physics.” “But what if it’s the other way around?” Jongseong said and everyone immediately fell silent. “What if there was something out there that created a strong magnetic field that caused the matrix hole?” “You’re such a genius!” Chaewon exclaimed. “Then we must get rid of this!” When Jongseong’s gang got out off the bus at their stop, they noticed many oddities near where the holes in the matrix were supposedly located. Next to the W&F Labels building, it was raining on the one side and snowing on the other, but it was a sunny day and the temperature was 22 degrees Celsius above zero. “Okay, let’s go”, Chaewon said. “Danielle and I are going to check the area for strange objects. Boys, you try to ask local residents about odd things happening here. Got it?” “Yes!” everyone said. After that, the guys went their separate ways. The boys went to the stores and eateries and asked the locals what odd things could be seen. First of all, of course, everyone mentioned the strange weather, situations with cloned objects, and incomprehensible behavior of birds and animals to the residents. But one elderly woman’s story truly frightened them. “Last evening I was cooking dinner in the kitchen when I saw a silhouette in the mirror hanging on the wall”, she said. “I turned around and saw a copy of myself. It was standing by the door reading a weird book. Then I quickly ran to my room and locked myself in. In the morning, the doppelganger was gone.” The boys glanced among themselves. Jay looked like he was ready to run home right now, and Jaeyun was already looking for something on the Internet. Jongseong sighed, wrote the story down in his notes and bowed. “Thank you so much! Your story can really help us”, he said and went away with his friends. “I told you about the doubles!” Jaeyun exclaimed. “Let’s tell Chaewon and Danielle this story!” While the boys were talking to the locals about the oddities, Danielle and Chaewon were walking the nearby streets looking for an object that could cause matrix holes. The girls checked the area almost everywhere and even went into the W&F Labels building but they found nothing. Danielle was sitting on the armchair in the hall of the building when Chaewon was walking from one side to another in front of her. Jongseong’s sister tried to find out what the problem is and how to solve it. “Are you still trying to come up with something?” Danielle asked her. “Let’s just stop this case. We haven’t found anything to help us figure it out. I even doubt the information that Jay, Jongseong and Jaeyun can bring us later. This is just getting unbearable…” “We won’t stop, Dani”, Chaewon said. “We have to deal with it!” “Do you have any ideas?” Danielle was getting angrier when an unfamiliar voice interrupted their dialogue. “Do you need some help?” “Yes! Yes, we do!” Chaewon exclaimed and turned around to see the man who owned the voice. It was a young man who supposedly worked in the W&F Labels building. “Actually I tried to find out what’s going on too”, he said, “and fortunately I got some useful information. Listen”, the man started speaking quieter, “There’s an abandoned railway line under the surface. Rumor has it this was the first line to run electromagnetic rail. The plates on the train were also magnetic, which is what propelled it. But the rail wasn’t made correctly so it created a lot of troubles. There was the same problem as that time – electromagnetic train had caused a strong magnetic field, and odd things had started to happen. I can suggest something made the rail work again, and that’s why the magnetic field is too strong. That’s all I know. I got to go, sorry. I helped as much as I could”. The man went away and the girls started smiling. It was the answer of this riddle, and the only thing left to do was to get rid of the problem that can ruin the whole city. Danielle and Chaewon went from the building and saw their friends. “Hey, guys! We know the answer!” Danielle exclaimed. “And now we can make up how to handle the situation.” “Are you for real?”Jongseong smiled. “That’s amazing! So what should we do?” “We have to find the way to go down under the surface”, Chaewon said. “There’s an abandoned railway line with an electromagnetic rail that caused the matrix hole.” The girls started telling friends the story which they heard from the W&F Labels worker. All of the boys stood shocked, and after the story, Jongseong spoke first. “So the rail is somehow switched on”, he concluded. “Consequently”, Jaeyun continued for him, “the plates on the train and the rail itself create a strong magnetic field which caused the hole in the matrix!” “That means we should find the way to switch it off”, Jay finished. “I think I know how to do this. I knew something about this railway line but I couldn’t imagine how those things about the matrix holes could be true. In fact, it’s not that hard to switch the rail off. The switch is located on a stone block of the rail that’s not in contact with the solenoid system itself. The space between the train and the platform wall allows something long to switch the rail off.” “My brother is a genius…” Danielle said quietly. “I saw a stone superstructure with a door not far from here” Jaeyun said. “It might be a way to that line! Follow me!” The Jongseong’s gang went to look for that superstructure Jaeyun had mentioned. As they moved in the direction the boy was showing, Jongseong got in line with Jay and looked at him. It seemed as if he was trying to determine his friend’s condition from one look. “I didn’t realize there was so much you could know about it”, he finally said. “Then why are you so concerned now?” “Just because I have some useful information doesn’t mean I’m not scared to go there now”, Jay answered. “The doubles still could be there, and that’s not a relief, you know. Also, if the rail is on, it means there’s someone on the line – someone who could get in our way.” “You’re right. But still we all are here. We can help each other so don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay.” Jay smiled weakly at the friend, thanking him for his support. A few minutes later the Jongseong’s gang was standing near a stone superstructure with a metal door. Chaewon tried to open it and was surprisingly successful because the lock was broken. Beyond the door there were steps with rusty railings, and a faint glow of white flickered light was in the darkness of the space away from the door. The guys looked at each other, and then Jongseong took a deep breath and stepped inside. He was followed a few seconds later by the others. It smelled damp and metal inside, and the walls were cold, so the guys pulled warm sweaters out of their small backpacks and put them on. Each of them stepped very quietly so as not to make a noise, but Jaeyun still managed to break off a piece of ceramic tile from the wall, which echoed throughout the abandoned station. Somewhere in the back of the long hallway there was a rustling sound. Hearing this, the students walked slower, and when they got a little closer to the platform, Jongseong noticed the silhouette of a man standing behind a marble column. Then the figure came closer, and the boy could make out the famous South Korean singer in it. The girls seemed to see him too, so they immediately shouted with excitement and rushed toward the singer. But Jay and Jaeyun stopped them. “Don’t do this!” Jay said quietly. “It’s just another double so you can get into a trouble.” The double came closer with his wild smile and tried to catch someone of the students but they all reacted quickly. The girls scurried back, and Jongseong, tossing his backpack aside, ran around the copy of the singer, trying to distract him from the others. “Jay, find the switch and turn the rail off!” Jongseong shouted. “I’ll try to distract him!” “Okay!” Jay ran to the end of the platform and peered into the space between the train and the platform wall. He looked closely and saw the stone block and the switch. The floors were dusty, so the boy immediately realized who might have turned the rail on. Looking around, he only then noticed that the belongings of the people who had probably been at this station for the last time were lying thrown in various corners of the room. Among all the women’s leather bags and dusty children’s school backpacks, he spotted a craft, probably made by some child in kindergarten. It was a cardboard house the size of the head, with a couple of plastic figures of animals – a cat and a dog – lying next to it. Next to this little house the teacher’s pointer laid. Jay picked up the pointer and reached over to the edge of the platform again to reach the switch. A few seconds later, he heard his friends shouting for joy, who must had realized that Jay had succeeded, because the double of a singer had disappeared. “Jay, you did it!” Danielle said smiling. “Yes!” Jaeyun exclaimed. “Jay is the best!” “But who turned on the rail?” Park siblings asked in unison. “The rats did it”, Jay answered. “There’s really dusty floor and no human footprints. But we have to block the switch or even break it to not to allow these animals make a problem again.” Jaeyun, without hesitation, picked up a rock from the platform floor, found the switch and broke it with a rock. Then he shook off his hands and looked at Jay, who had picked up the cardboard house and looked at it with sadness in his eyes. “Jay, what happened?” Chaewon asked. “I just remembered that day”, the boy answered still looking at the little house. “I was six, and I was at this station on the last day this train passed through. Then we were evacuated, forced to leave all our belongings behind. And daddy didn’t come home… I made this house in kindergarten and was just about to go home with my dad. Dani was sick that day, so she doesn’t know about the situation – our mom didn’t tell her. I remember the day of the disaster as if it were only yesterday, even though ten years had passed.” Jay’s friends looked at each other and then at the boy. They all immediately hugged their friend and smiled. “And now you’re definitely a hero”, Jongseong said. “We are all heroes”, Jay objected. “Let’s go home, guys, we should celebrate our win!” * * * One month later Jongseong was sitting in the school cafeteria with Jaeyun and Chaewon and was talking about some great things such as paragliding and hiking in the mountains. Jaeyun was laughing and Chaewon was looking at him with a wide smile, when the twins came to them. “Hi, guys, hi, Chaewon!” Danielle said happily. “What are you laughing at?” “Seong is eager for adventures again!” Chaewon answered. “I suggest we end our adventures for this year”, Jay giggled. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of the abandoned station.” “And now everyone in Seoul can sleep easily”, Jaeyun concluded. “Let’s live a life without adventures for a little while.” Friends continued talking to each other with smiles on their faces. They had a lot of experience from the last adventure in the abandoned railway line; they saved Seoul with a Seong’s bravery, a Jay’s courage, a Chaewon’s smartness, a Jae’s helpfulness and, of course, with a Dani’s fearlessness. They’re definitely the Heroes of Seoul.