Rosa and Melati remained in awe, still absorbing the splendour and mystery of Felzein's laboratory.
Yet amidst the dazzling technology and impossible instruments, it was something far simpler that arrested their attention, a series of photographs affixed along one shadowed wall.
Drawn by quiet curiosity, the two young women stepped closer. And then they saw it.
One photograph, framed in quiet dignity, depicted Felzein receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Melati gasped, "Felzein… you won a Nobel?"
Felzein offered a modest smile, "Yes. That was four years ago now."
"Four years ago?" Rosa echoed, her voice faltering. "But… how old were you?"
"Twenty," he replied, almost sheepishly, the corners of his mouth quirking in gentle amusement.
"Twenty?!" the girls exclaimed in chorus, eyes wide with disbelief.
"You mean to say… you were still at university?" Melati asked, her brow furrowed in astonishment.
Felzein nodded, "I was in my fourth semester, as I recall."
"But that's impossible!" Rosa exclaimed, the incredulity thick in her voice. "You were barely halfway through your degree!"
Felzein tilted his head, a glimmer of mirth in his eyes, "Is it so strange? I've always been driven to innovate, especially in medicine."
Melati leaned in, her voice softer now, "So… what was your discovery? The one that earned you the Nobel?"
Felzein let out a low laugh, as though the answer were obvious, "You've already seen it."
The two women exchanged confused glances.
"Seen it?" Rosa asked. "When?"
Felzein's gaze shifted to Melati, "You remember the bruise on your cheek?"
Melati instinctively touched the spot, "Of course."
Felzein's expression grew almost mischievous, "I developed a serum. A treatment to accelerate bone regeneration. It can mend fractures in as little as three days, depending on the damage."
He paused, then added, "At the time, I used a trace of it on your bruise."
Rosa's jaw fell, "You mean that ointment..."
"Yes," Felzein interrupted, smiling. "The ointment I applied was my own creation. What none of you realised was that I had mixed in a single drop of my serum."
"What?!" the girls cried out in unison.
"You didn't even tell us?" Melati's voice was incredulous.
Felzein gave a theatrical shrug, "I thought it best to keep things… enigmatic," he said, grinning. "A little mystery never hurt."
"You sly devil," Rosa muttered, half-cross, half-impressed.
Felzein chuckled softly, "I've tentatively named it the Instant Recovery Serum," he said, gesturing to a nearby vial glowing faintly on the shelf.
"Elegant, isn't it?"
He drifted towards the glass cabinet with unhurried grace, fingers brushing the polished surface before opening it with a quiet click.
From within, he retrieved two diminutive vials.
Their contents a golden-amber hue that shimmered like sunlight caught in honeyed glass.
Turning to Rosa and Melati, he offered the vials with a knowing smile.
The two young women accepted them with wordless wonder, their eyes locked on the warm glow of the liquid within, as though it held some ancient secret.
"I've taken the serum further," Felzein began, his voice steady, touched with the quiet pride of a craftsman.
"Where once it merely hastened the healing of fractured bones, it now lends its touch to a wider range of injuries. Cuts, grazes, even deeper wounds. The formula within those bottles is far more... versatile."
"You'll see it for yourselves," he added, with the air of one inviting them not just to observe, but to bear witness.
Still, disbelief lingered in Rosa and Melati's expressions not out of dismissal, but sheer incredulity.
If such a remedy truly existed, it could upend entire industries, render aisles of ointments and bandages obsolete.
The notion alone was staggering.
Felzein, ever attuned to unspoken doubts, offered no argument.
Instead, he turned away, crossing to a nearby workbench where tools and instruments lay in studied disarray.
His eyes scanned the clutter until they settled on a slender object, a razor blade, glinting coldly in the low light.
He picked it up with delicate precision and turned back to face them, holding it aloft between two fingers.
Not with menace, but the calm assurance of a man about to make a point irrefutably clear.
"Observe," he said simply.
Rosa and Melati stared in horror, their hearts pounding as Felzein's actions veered sharply from the realm of logic to something far more alarming.
"Wh-What are you doing?!" Melati stammered, her voice barely more than a gasp.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Rosa added sharply, her tone laced with growing dread. "This isn't funny, Felzein!"
But Felzein only laughed, low and calm. A laugh that sent a chill through the sterile air of the laboratory.
"There's no need to panic," he said, the corners of his mouth lifting into a measured smile. "I simply want to show you something. You two will be the very first to see it in action."
He turned to Melati, his voice steady and assured, "Open the vial in your hand. Be ready. The moment I say so, drop it straight onto my palm. Understood?"
"Felzein! No! Don't..." But her words came too late.
With a sudden flick of his wrist, Felzein raised the razor-sharp blade and sliced it across the open expanse of his left palm.
The sound was sickening, not loud, but visceral.
The skin parted instantly, blood spilling forth in a vivid rush, trailing down his fingers and dripping onto the pristine laboratory floor.
The gash was deep, cruelly so, and Felzein's face contorted as a wave of pain coursed through him.
Rosa and Melati screamed in unison, a raw, instinctive cry of disbelief and terror.
Their bodies recoiled, hands clutching their chests, eyes wide in horror.
Felzein's breathing grew ragged, his forehead damp with sweat, but still he managed to speak through gritted teeth, his voice taut with pain but unwavering.
"Melati… now. The serum. Quickly!"
Snapping from her frozen state, Melati fumbled with the bottle, her hands trembling as she uncorked it and let the golden liquid fall gently onto the torn flesh of Felzein's palm.
Felzein hissed sharply as the serum made contact, the pain flaring anew.
His jaw clenched, muscles tightening, his knuckles white with the effort of holding himself steady.
"It hurts like hell," he muttered, his face pale, lips drawn tight.
"Why isn't it healing?!" Rosa cried, unable to tear her gaze away from the wound.
"It will," Felzein said softly, almost serenely, his eyes never leaving the slowly closing gash in his palm. "Give it a moment. You'll see."
Moments passed tense, suspended as the golden serum began to work its quiet magic.
Though the blood still poured from the deep gash in Felzein's palm, the droplets mingled with the luminous liquid now glistening across his torn flesh.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the golden fluid began to spread, curling like sunlight through clear water, and soaking into the jagged wound.
Beneath the surface, the transformation had begun.
Where pain and trauma had rent the skin, now came an urgent, elegant repair.
The serum, a marvel of molecular alchemy, set the cells dancing to an unheard rhythm.
Layers of skin, which by nature's slow pace would require days or weeks to heal, began to reform themselves with uncanny haste.
The outer layer, the epidermis, responded first, drawing together as though remembering its former shape.
Damaged cells were swept away in silence, replaced by new growth rising swiftly from the basal strata. But the miracle ran deeper still.
In the dermis below, capillaries shrank to stanch the flow of blood, while fibroblasts silent artisans of the body sprang into action, weaving fresh strands of collagen to bind the sundered flesh.
A fine shimmer of regeneration passed across the palm like a veil being drawn.
The wound, moments ago gaping and raw, now narrowed with each heartbeat, as though unseen fingers were sewing the skin with thread made of light.
Red blood cells, once vivid against the carnage, faded into the firming tissue, reabsorbed into a matrix that no longer needed rescue.
Before the eyes of Rosa and Melati, stunned into silence, the wound was sealed.
The last trace of trauma dissolved into a faint flush of rose, no more than a whisper of what had been.
Even that blush began to fade, leaving skin smooth, unmarred, untouched, transformed utterly by the alchemy of invention.
It was not merely healing. It was rebirth.
"Huff…" Felzein breathed out, a deep sigh of relief escaping him as he watched the wound upon his left palm close with astonishing rapidity, the sharp sting of pain fading into nothingness.
"Well?" he inquired, casting a glance towards Rosa and Melati, who remained rooted to the spot, their faces etched with an expression too complex for words, part disbelief, part wonder, and something quietly profound.
"Extraordinary…" Melati murmured at last, her voice still trembling with amazement, struggling to grasp the reality of what they had just witnessed. "But…"
"Felzein!" Rosa's voice broke through, laced with a mixture of exasperation and concern, her eyes shimmering as if fighting back tears.
"You must never do such a thing again," she implored, her tone fraught with an emotion she barely contained.
Felzein chuckled softly, an easy, light sound, "I only wished to demonstrate the serum's power to you," he said, his voice calm, trying to soothe their rising anxiety.
Yet, despite his intentions, events took an unexpected turn.
He had come simply to share his invention. But Rosa and Melati, what moved within their hearts, he could not know.
Without warning, Rosa stepped forward, her motion swift and sure, and embraced Felzein with a warmth that spoke more than words ever could.
Melati, caught off guard, felt an irresistible pull in her chest.
Compelled by the same silent urge, she too drew close and wrapped her arms around him.
Thus, like a rose and a jasmine entwined, Rosa and Melati nestled together in Felzein's embrace.
Three souls bound in a moment of quiet grace, the world beyond momentarily hushed.