"Who am I? Tell me, right now."

Haruko sighs, leaning back against the shower wall. "You have to promise not to get too curious."

"What? What the fuck, how could I not be curious?"

"I'm not gonna tell you if you can't keep calm. Act up and Oracle might erase your memories for a third time."

I blink. "A third time?"

She twists an imaginary dial. "Volume — lower. Explaining now." She kneads her head. "Okay. About a month ago, Dr. Song woke us up in the middle of the night. He said our first real assignment was about to start. We had been training nonstop back then, we hadn't even been outside the building. All Dr. Song told us was that an enemy of Oracle, a disgraced former scientist, was trying to break into the lab with the help of the fifth cyborg — Subject 17, Park Ujin."

She looks at me. I'm probably gawking.

"We were instructed to wait in an ambush outside the building," she continues, "in case the augmented cannons couldn't take you down." She drops her hand and makes a splat sound. "You landed right in our trap. Your body was damaged, your accomplice was shot up. As a last effort, you made a shield of your own armour to protect yourself a little longer.

"The shell was harder to break than I expected, but eventually we punched through. Lý was the one who shut down your system while I collected your accomplice. I recognized him — he was there when I first regained consciousness. He was always buzzing around the lab like he had a fire under his ass.

"You... you protected him till the last second, cradling him. He was murmuring your name as I took him away. But the name he called you, it wasn't Ujin. It was Minho."

I recognize the name. It rings more bells than 'Ujin' ever did. The words just won't come. What the hell happened to me? What happened to the human I cared about?

"What was his name?" I whisper.

"Dr. Song never told us. But he was important enough to be saved."

"He's alive?"

"I think so. Doctors were all over him as soon as we got him to the medical ward. Unless they've disposed of him since, he's probably still in the Sub-levels, below the lobby and parking garage. That's where they keep the old subjects in comas and torture monkeys and all that fucked up shit."

"Who knows about this?"

"Everyone."

"Why didn't Lý and the rest want me to know?"

"They're afraid you'll cause more trouble. You've already made a huge mess for Oracle. The rumour mill says the higher-ups are scared; the second memory wipe can be weaker than the first. After you went berserk in the gym back there, they were considering just disposing of you altogether."

"How do you know all this?"

"It's... a long story. I'll summarize. Seoyeon made the mistake of telling me her cigarette supplier's name — Jai Bandi, a scientist from the 79th floor. I approached him, applied a little Haruko magic and the rest is history."

"'Haruko magic'?"

"You know, threats. I said I'd tell Oracle he was sneaking in contraband unless he did me a favour." She blows out a breath. "Look, you're not the only one of us with a... past. When my consciousness was restored, Dr. Song was there in the incubation room. He showed me my signature, telling me it was proof of my willingness to cooperate, but all I could think was... if he's lying to me, how will I ever find the truth?

"When a chance came along, I took it. Jai looped the CCTVs and infrared heat detectors while I went to the file room. My name was the same, my age and height looked accurate, but the picture attached — it looked like the ID Oracle scientists wear around their necks. I think I worked here before my memory was erased.

"Have you talked to anybody else about this?" I say.

"I asked Jai if he recognized me, he said no. The subjects just tell me to let it go every time I mention it. Those guys... they don't know who they were, they don't care. But I can't let it go."

I clench my fists. Everyone has been lying to me, lying to Haruko, brainwashing us in an attempt to silence us. If we're going to be Oracle's weapons, we should know the truth. We have the right to know who we are.

"I want to meet him," I murmur. "The one I was protecting."

"I thought you might."

"You should come too. If you worked in the building, he could probably tell you."

A smile buds on her face. "That's... kinda rad, Ujin."

I smile back. "Call me Minho."