Prologue
“Teacher, something’s strange. I can’t hear other people’s thoughts anymore.”
At the child’s calm voice, Professor Park — who had been practicing his golf swing under the table — looked up. Across from him, a young boy sat with perfect posture, just as he always did before a test.
“You can’t hear people’s inner thoughts?”
“No.”
“Oh my. Has our Eunhu finally figured out how to control his ability?”
“No. It’s not like that — even when I look directly into someone’s eyes, I really don’t feel anything. No matter how hard I try, it just doesn’t work.”
“…….”
“It’s true!”
Professor Park stared at Seon Eunhu as he insisted on his innocence. The nine-year-old was a poor liar — even saying just a few words, he was already biting his lower lip.
Professor Park slowly blinked a couple of times, then removed his glasses and set them down. “Eunhu.” Just that one name, and the boy’s small shoulders flinched.
Why is our well-behaved little kid suddenly lying? He should know that if you lie to an adult, the police will come and take you away. Don’t tell me he actually wants to get locked up and get a really scary scolding?
He tried speaking to him inwardly while holding his gaze, but Seon Eunhu just stared back blankly, as if he truly couldn’t hear a thing. Normally, he would have grinned and started chattering away.
After three years of proving his mind-reading ability, now he wants to deny everything? Did some other research center offer him better terms? He didn’t seem like the type to be swayed by that sort of thing.
Professor Park glanced at the woman sitting beside Seon Eunhu. Unlike her heavyset husband, she was slight in frame, and the moment Professor Park’s wrinkled eyes turned to her, she opened her mouth as though she’d been waiting.
“Eunhu suddenly started saying this since last night. That even when he looks into his mom’s eyes, he doesn’t feel anything anymore, that he can’t hear inner thoughts anymore, so the world has gone quiet… He kept asking if this is what the world feels like to ordinary people…. Huu…! Oh, Lord….”
“Goodness, why are you crying again. The child is watching.”
Professor Park pulled out a few tissues and handed them to the woman who had suddenly burst into tears. He mimicked a gentle tone, but his dull eyes as he looked at her were colder than usual.
She’s the reason.
Professor Park knew it instinctively.
This was a woman who couldn’t even accept the fact that Seon Eunhu was an Alpha. Apparently she wanted her own child to live a normal life as a Beta.
In an era like this one, where trait-carriers were rare, this woman — who couldn’t see that being born an Alpha was a blessing — had fiercely denied reality when a special ability was discovered in Seon Eunhu. Professor Park clearly remembered Seon Eunhu coming to the research center draped in layers of cross necklaces. The couple, who would hold hands and pray in the waiting room, were convinced that an evil spirit had taken root in Eunhu.
Mind Reading.
The ability to see through another person’s thoughts — this was an Alpha ability that had existed only in theory. Which was why Seon Eunhu, who was seven years old at the time and had been brought in by his parents with complaints that something was wrong with their child, caused a sensation at the World Trait Medicine Council.
Council executives visited Professor Park’s research center multiple times just to see Seon Eunhu for themselves, and once they confirmed the ability, they promised substantial funding and entrusted Professor Park with the responsibility.
The child was too young to be handled by the overseas headquarters directly, and his parents were uncooperative.
Concerned that the very existence of Mind Reading would cause a massive ripple across society, the research had begun in secret in Korea — and three years later, it was still proceeding smoothly.
But while Professor Park grew happier day by day, sinking deeper into dreams of accumulating great wealth, the faces of Seon Eunhu’s family grew only darker. Seon Eunhu was the same. Like a child burdened by some household trouble, those young eyes always carried the trace of dried tears instead of any spark of life.
And now, it had finally come to this — he was lying outright. Not even knowing how famous his ability would make him, he was pulling this clumsy stunt just to get a little more love from his parents. It was terribly childlike.
Professor Park, a specialist in trait medicine, looked at the small Alpha sitting across the desk. This was the precious boy who would set him up for life.
“Eunhu.”
“Yes.”
At Professor Park’s quiet call, Seon Eunhu looked at him steadily and answered. His eyes drooped gently at the corners, but there was spirit in those light brown irises. He couldn’t even begin to count how many future victims would be taken in by those seemingly innocent eyes, unaware that their thoughts were being read.
Professor Park continued inwardly.
You must have had a hard time walking on eggshells around your parents all this time. I fully understand how you feel. How heartbreaking it must be that the adults around you don’t recognize what you’ll grow up to be — a hero who will do great things. I, for one, understand and empathize with our Eunhu completely. That’s the problem with adults. Humanity can only advance through change, but they choose to stagnate just because they dislike standing out a little from the crowd. And yet here we have such a magnificent talent growing right before our eyes.
“…….”
Right. I understand what you want now. Let’s keep the fact that you’re lying between the two of us — I’ll play along in front of your mother, so just cooperate when you go in for the test. It’s hard on me too. Understood? If you understand, give me just a little nod.
“…….”
Or you can wink at me secretly. That works too.
But Seon Eunhu showed no reaction whatsoever.
“Haah….”
Professor Park let out a long sigh and pulled his chair closer to the desk. It was irritating to have a normally well-behaved child act like this.
Eunhu. I’m a busy man, I don’t have time to play games with you. Just do what you always do, and after the test I’ll give you some chocolate without your mother knowing.
“Professor, are you — are you doing something to the child right now?”
Seon Eunhu’s mother asked suspiciously, eyeing the Professor who was sitting in silence. He raised a hand — a gesture to tell her not to interfere.
“Eunhu. Seon Eunhu. Look carefully into your teacher’s eyes.”
Professor Park spoke with a warm smile. “Yes,” the child answered softly. Holding the boy’s gaze directly, the Professor continued the rest inwardly.
Teacher has told you before, hasn’t he? That you’re going to become famous worldwide. Your name will be in every Alpha research paper, and foreign journalists will race to cross oceans just to see you. You’re in elementary school right now, aren’t you? Is there anyone you like? Before long, not just that person, but every single one of your friends will be desperate to get close to you. Isn’t that wonderful. Being able to hear what others are truly thinking.
He was calmly trying to persuade the child at eye level when it happened. The boy, who had been slowly blinking, opened his mouth.
“Teacher. I really can’t hear anything. I mean it.”
“Oh for — you little—! …I’m sorry.”
Professor Park, who had lost his temper without thinking, just barely stopped himself and apologized to Seon Eunhu’s mother. He let her furrowed brow be and looked back at the child. Seeing that shameless face pretending not to have heard a thing made his blood boil.
Can’t hear, my foot! Did you go and get yourself imprinted on someone or something? The only way to extinguish the ability is to do that — so how on earth would a little kid barely old enough to think for himself have managed to knock an Omega off their feet? Hm? Do you even know what imprinting is?
Unable to contain his rage, Professor Park had gotten so worked up he was even bringing up imprinting to a young child. He was rationalizing it to himself in the pettiest way — well, if Eunhu’s claim was true, then it wasn’t like he could hear it anyway.
And yet, when Seon Eunhu still showed absolutely no reaction, Professor Park was gripped by the urge to do the boy harm. Up until just recently, he’d found the child so endearing he’d wanted to smother him with kisses — but now all he wanted was to make him cry and put him in his place. A child who dares to make a fool of an adult needs to be taught some manners before it’s too late.
“Hmm….”
Professor Park let out a low mutter and dropped his gaze to the desk. Among the documents related to Seon Eunhu, a professional golfer’s business card caught his eye. He had just been thinking lately — now that his golf game was really coming along — about cutting back on his clinic hours and taking private lessons.
Thinking about this tiny little brat holding in his hands the wealth and prestige that should have been his, his anger flared again.
Professor Park forced himself to tamp down his temper.
“Alright, Eunhu. How have you been feeling lately? I think today we’ll need to test whether your ability fluctuates depending on your physical condition. Let’s work together to identify the cause of this temporary hormonal disruption. First, go to the examination room and get your blood drawn. In the meantime, your mother can wait outside.”
He guided them warmly, making an effort to appear as natural as usual. The moment the two left his office, his pleasant expression hardened into something cold.
“Honestly — talented individuals always have to be born into ignorant families like that. When your child is special, you’re supposed to push them forward, but instead they’ve just gone and crushed that spirit completely.”
The thought of wasting days dealing with Seon Eunhu’s lies was suffocating, but it wasn’t a major concern. Children’s whims never lasted that long anyway.
But contrary to Professor Park’s expectations, Seon Eunhu continued to insist at their next meeting, and the one after that, that his ability had vanished.
At first, Professor Park hadn’t believed him and merely went along with it — but as time went on, he grew increasingly anxious that the boy might actually be telling the truth. So at some point, he began working to prove that Seon Eunhu could still read minds. He had dreamed grand dreams through this child, and he needed to restore Eunhu to his original state no matter what.
The method of proof was simple and direct.
Starting with childish curses that would land on a young kid, he didn’t hesitate to unleash threats and insults harsh enough to wound even an adult. Of course, none of it was spoken aloud. Determined to see tears well up in those young eyes, he seized every opportunity to meet the boy’s gaze and let loose violent words in his mind.
But Seon Eunhu only looked back at Professor Park with quiet composure. He would sit and stare, unblinking and steady, and when the test was over, he would smile and bow politely as he left. It was impossible to believe this was a child who had just spent hours being subjected to a torrent of vile words — and so in the end, Professor Park had no choice but to accept the boy’s claim.
The testing sessions, which had originally been held weekly, gradually became less frequent.
Once every ten days. Once every two weeks. Then once a month.
By the time Seon Eunhu entered middle school, he was going to the lab once every six months. By high school, it had been changed to a single attendance each spring.
The overseas researcher who had been dispatched returned to their home country. The substantial funding that had been promised by the World Trait Medicine Council all but dried up. And Professor Park, who never managed to cut back his clinic hours, never did improve his golf game.
In the end, the year Seon Eunhu turned twenty, the follow-up examinations were concluded and the paper was brought to a close.
It was around that time that Seon Eunhu’s report was leaked online with all identifying information removed.
The internet buzzed for a while over what sounded like something out of a movie — but only briefly. The argument that it was from over a decade ago and therefore insufficiently verified, combined with the fact that the subject had been a young child, became grounds for dismissal. Before long, public opinion had concluded that it was simply adults being played by a precocious child’s lies.
The title of “the mind-reading Alpha boy” was forgotten just that easily. The boy had long since grown into a young man, erasing his past and living an ordinary life.
<Mind Reading Observation Report>
[Research Subject]
Name: Seon Eunhu
Sex: Male
Observation Period: Age 7 – 20
Trait: Alpha
[Summary of Observations]
- The Mind Reading ability is presumed to have manifested from birth.
- Able to accurately discern the emotions and intentions of others. (Accuracy rate: 98.1%)
- Can read a subject’s thoughts when making eye contact within a range where the subject’s pupils are visible.
- Ability functions normally even when wearing transparent glasses or lenses as long as the pupils are visible, but is impossible when the eyes are obscured by dark sunglasses or similar.
- The ability is not restricted by language differences; however, it cannot be used on video footage captured through a camera.
- Demonstrates excellent performance across academic results and social activities in general.
.
.
.
[Changes in Results]
- Over time, the Mind Reading ability naturally dissipated.
- As the ability ceased to manifest after the age of 8, follow-up examinations were concluded upon the subject reaching adulthood.
[Special Notes and Theoretical Implications]
- It was previously believed that Mind Reading could only be eliminated through imprinting with an Omega; however, this observation case suggests that natural dissipation is possible even without the imprinting process.
