Second Road

Episode 5: What is the function of pain?

These few days I fill up again by lying down and staring at the sky room. I can't do anything else because of my condition. The pain was very unpleasant, and I never knew what the function of this pain was.

If I could ask God, I would want all pain removed from the world. Pain only causes suffering. It brings about death and separation. It's an irony.

Not just physical pain. Some have also said the term heartache. Like the story in the book I read. A character experiences heartache after being abandoned by his best friend. Or a girl who is hurt by being decided by her boyfriend.

More or less like that. Because the same contains the word pain, it seems heartache is also a serious thing. People say that pain is related to feelings.

So, what is the definition of pain? If I just interpret it as damage to body tissues, then where is this hurt position?

Hey, tell me. Have you ever felt hurt? Maybe I have experienced it too. It's just that I'm not aware of what I'm feeling. You know, right? I used to be a very stupid person who could not even determine his own way of life.

Thinking about the meaning of the pain made my head even more dizzy. It's been two days that Grandpa's been struggling in his study. I only met him when I ate and never mentioned the medicine he promised.

Maybe I expected too much, it is a little difficult to find a cure that matches my symptoms. Moreover, he never knew the truth of my pain with the strings of the past.

Should I tell him something? But I don't want to remember it anymore. I buried it in the deepest part of my memory, I don't want to date it anymore.

Clamps

My bedroom door opened, grandfather walked in from behind the door carrying something I had predicted as medicine.

And sure enough, he succeeded. There were a few grains of pills inside the small porcelain cup. I was immediately told to swallow the pill-shaped medicine with a doronagn from a mouthful of water. The pill slid down my dry throat with the drinking water.

After two hours, the effects of the drug began to show. The pain all over my body was gone and my temperature was back to normal. But I can't say fully healed. You could say this is like a painkiller. But thank God, I can stop eating porridge now.

Grandfather also could not say what to see my condition recovering quickly. The rest of the day was filled with smiles of pride for successfully healing me.

"It's all thanks to Grandpa, I can recover because of you. I owe you." I put together a proper sentence as a token of gratitude.

"What did you say? Like I'm someone else." She laughed a little, then rubbed my hair for the umpteenth time.

"After I thought, I had something to say to Grandpa." I started the conversation again.

In that place, there were only the two of us and the atmosphere was quite quiet because it had shown at half-seven p.m.

"But Grandpa promised not to hate me or dump me after this." I put forward a condition that could keep me on the safe line.

"Did you steal bread from the cupboard like you used to?"

My face flushed red, why did grandfather even discuss that? I look like a fool.

"Mom.not. Grandfather promise me first."

"Yes, I promise. So, now say."

I was confused where to start. I also feel a little uncomfortable about saying this. But I already started it. So for now, maybe I'll just say a small part of it.

"I'm actually from a place called chincilla."

"The chincilla? Isn't that a rodent?"

"yes, that's true. And chincilla is a research center. They named it chincilla because of the tightness of the surveillance there. Just like chincilla animal fur is so tight that their bodies can not live lice."

I took a deep breath to think about what to say next. Grandpa looks enthusiastic. I could see her slightly enlarged pupils.

"And actually.me..."

I hesitate to say it. But since I've come this far, maybe a little lie will be used again.

I exhaled slowly, feeling a little worried about Grandfather's reaction to my words.

"So so. Then why did they dump you?" Grandpa still looks a little confused.

"I am one of their objects. And they dumped me, probably because I was a failed experiment. It's no big deal anyway, I never liked it there."

My heart was pounding saying that, suddenly I remembered some events from my past when I was still there.

"There it is hell. Every day there is a scream and death. All I get is pain, and I can only take it. Every week I have that pain for one to two days, after which it heals and hurts again."

I bowed my head, all those bad memories swirling around in my head.

"You've been through something difficult. I don't have a problem with your past. Now you have a grandfather ready to take care of you, so don't worry."

He put me in a hug. This is the first time I've been hugged like this. I could hear his heartbeat from this position. But this feels a little embarrassing.

"And I want to say one more thing." I let go of her embrace.

"When they were there, they put a strange liquid into my body once a week. Then the pain will come after. At that moment my symptoms were similar to those of earlier. And I can't grow up either."

I ended the sentence doubtfully.

"Why can't you grow up? Haru, how old are you now?"

"fourteen years. It was also the result of their experiment. And it's hampering my growth." I said briefly.

"really? I think you're younger than that. It's really unbelievable."

Grandpa looked at me from head to toe. He doesn't seem to believe what he sees. So what's because I think I look younger, so he likes to wipe my hair?

"But since they've stopped putting in that weird liquid, so I thought I was free. Sorry for not telling you before."

" That's okay, don't you think about it. Do you want me to do something to those people in Chincilla?"

That's a good idea, but looking at the current situation feels impossible. Those at the research center were completely different. After all, if they knew where I was, maybe I'd be dragged back there.

"I beg you not to do it. I mean they're dangerous. They're not just researchers, they're crazy people."

"Oh, so now you're worried about me huh? Haru, you're so sweet."

I think I mispronounced. But let it be. With this, our relationship became closer as a family.

After that, grandfather decided to continue his research because he knew I would be sick again and I also asked him to find a way so that I could grow up.

And after a month, he found a way to shorten my illness from one to two days to an hour. Then it was refined again into half an hour and finally managed to shorten it to fifteen minutes.

The method is the same as what I experienced at the research center first, only the goal is to shorten the period of illness by accumulating weights at one time and reduce the growth and development of inhibiting substances in the blood.

Grandfather had also started to describe the compound they were using on me. Then find a suitable compound to be the inhibitor.

From that moment on, my treatment began. We call it therapy. Even so, it turned out that this was beyond my expectations. Fifteen minutes of pain accumulated for a day turned out to be very painful. This made me cringe so that grandfather had to tie my body to the bed while doing this therapy.

Grandfather had told me that with this method my death rate had increased by 15% while doing this therapy, but to me it was a small number.

Then we continued to do this method of therapy every week and hoped that I could stop feeling pain every week and I could grow up later.

Seriously, take all the pain in the world. I don't want to suffer anymore...