The next morning

You get up early in the morning. In fact, you were even surprised that you woke up before the alarm time. You don't forget to look at the mysterious black remote that sits beside the alarm clock, repeating what you see is not a dream.

"I can't believe it's true," you mumbled to yourself as you grab the remote and take another look at it before starting to wash your face and shower with your routine.

When you walk down to the ground floor, you see a notepad on the lid of the refrigerator. There was a familiar handwritten message on it.

"Dear, I'm sorry that I won't be at home for a while. Mom and Dad have important tasks to complete this month and have to go to Paris. Mom will leave cash and will transfer money every week for the child to buy food, or the child will choose to eat food that mom made in the refrigerator. If not enough, you can buy more. If you have any problems, you can contact your mom or dad anytime. I will hurry to work and return as soon as possible.

Love you,

Mom.

P.S. Do not use money to buy games to play. That money is for other expenses only."

You read the written text and just laugh dryly before trying to dial your mobile number to call your mom and check for sure.

"Oh, Lasse, what's wrong, dear?" You hear your mom's voice, along with the crowd in the background.

"Oh.. hmm. I just wanted to know how mom is doing. Sorry to bother you," you reply.

"Oh, it's okay. I'm sorry, dear, I rushed ahead without calling you. I just got off the plane and was waiting for my bag. You must have read the note I wrote on the refrigerator?

So do that. The cash was kept in the same place in the house. You probably already know."

"Yes, I know. So I don't bother anymore. This is it, mom. Bye."

You hang up, and nothing is wrong. You start to open the refrigerator and put food in the microwave to warm it up. You manage to wash the dishes and turn off the water after finishing them. Your cell phone is ringing. You wipe your hands and swipe the answer button without looking at the contact number.

"Hello? Tim?"

"Are you worried about mom, Las?" said a monotone voice from the other end of the line.

"...you...! " You couldn't believe the sound you heard.

"Calm down and don't call me rudely. Ah.... call me Paul for now. It's definitely not my real name, but it's better than not knowing what to call it, right?"

"What do you want, 'Paul,' if you do anything to my family-"

"What are you going to do?

Call the police? or Superman?

No, Lass, no one will do anything to your family.

I've already told you that even if the Department knows it's you, I've dealt with them. I am a person in the department. So the only person who will know about you is me for now. As for your family, don't worry, they must be busy with the little things I sent them to do. Sure, good money, good job too. It's important to keep them away from the problems that are about to happen to you, that would be safer, right?”

The voice on the other end of the line spoke very carelessly. As for you, you begin to calm down.

“So what do you want me to do for now?” you say.

"Huh, you look like you're easy to teach and not fussy anymore. So let me introduce you to something.

Even if I tell you that I have handled the document information concerning you, I think there must be some stubborn, unwilling people of the Department keeping an eye on your family. and maybe even looking at you in your friend group. I want you to try the device on your friend, Las, your friend.

I don't target anyone because I just want to be sure. But you can try it with one of your friends. Best of all, you lead a normal life.

But don't tell anyone that you have that magic tool and tell what it can do. In fact, even normal people can go and use it themselves. Their brains are broken. If they accidentally press the brown button too much and inject other people's memories into their own brains, their brains go haywire, or they lose their minds. But me, I guess you might be able to find a way to avoid problems like that. So you just keep this to myself. Be very careful not to stand out. Oh, look for someone who is suspicious. I thought there was someone close to you who was replaced by the people of the Department. I will contact you again if anything progresses. Goodbye."

A mysterious man named Paul hangs up the phone, leaving you with doubts about what he said about your friend, someone you know has been successfully replaced.

You feel worried about whether you should even go to school now. If you go, will you face someone who's going to catch you? You still feel bad for what Paul did to you. But what can you do?