Shit, shit, shit - that word kept reverberating in his head. Why was this happening? His heart was racing without his consent. It was good that it was pumping out blood, but it was clearly overdoing it. He could feel his blood wildly circulating around his body. Thunderous noises echoed inside his body. He could hear loud thumping noises as though his heart was beating right next to his eardrums.

He emptied a whole 500ml bottle of water to suppress his nervousness, but his mouth became dryer instead. Did he even drink any at all? Chihwan looked at the empty water bottle in his hands in vexation. Was there only half of it left?

“Hey, when are you going to start?”

“Let’s get started already.”

His colleagues jokingly commented. Although they were just acting like usual, their words made him even more chaotic today. Their words were stretched out like an audio clip from a stretched videotape. After that, the noise slowly died down. The voices of his friends became smaller and conversely, the noise of his heart became louder to the point that he thought it was about to jump out of his mouth.

Chihwan bit on the flesh inside his cheeks and went back to the platform. The hall he thought he had gotten used to felt so unfamiliar as though this was the first time he came here. The reason was probably those ‘eyes’. Dozens of pupils looked right at him; the biological organs mixed with black and brown felt like they were sticking all over his body. He was suddenly reminded of when he saw a cockroach at home while he was alone. He was well aware that...