Before the world knew the word virus, before cities shook and labs became places of conflict, life was just ordinary. Han-kyum remembered it well. He heard the morning trains rushing past his apartment window.
He smelled the sharp scent of alcohol wipes in the lab. He felt the comforting clatter of glassware. Mrs. Jana reminded him to slow down. Jae teased him about working too much. Kim Gael tapped his pen on Han-kyum's shoulder whenever he needed help. Back then, life had a rhythm. It was predictable, safe, and easy to take for granted. Yet, even in those calm days, something odd lingered just beneath the surface an anxiety he couldn't name. It started with whispers of disappearances in break rooms.
An empty desk that hadn't been empty the day before. A missing researcher from another department. A report he wasn't meant to see. Footsteps in the hallway long after the building had closed. Little things. Almost nothing. But enough to make the back of his neck prickle. He brushed it all aside. He told himself he was overthinking. He was just a chemist with too much work and not enough sleep.
Yet sometimes, late at night, he felt eyes on him. Not from someone, but from something inevitable coming closer. He didn't know, then, that behind those locked doors, decisions were already being made decisions that would twist his world into something unrecognizable. He didn't know that soon, people would disappear without explanation. That the city would hold its breath.
That his name would appear in documents he had never been meant to see. He didn't know this quiet, ordinary life was the last bit of peace he would ever feel. He had no idea that far away, two brothers he had never met were preparing to change his life forever. For now, he could only remember the warmth of a normal morning. The weight of a lab coat over his shoulders. The soft hum of machines. A life untouched. Days before everything turned into sirens, rumors, locked doors… and the first shadow that stepped into his world. This was the world before. The last breath of calm. The silence right before everything broke.