Instinct

An American boy is stuck in South Korea without knowledge of the language or culture, but he does have a special ability that won't let people leave him alone.

American-born Noah has been sent to live with relatives in South Korea, and with his inability to speak the language, it might as well be purgatory. Instead of breaking out of his shell like he's supposed to, Noah develops an 'Instinct' that keeps some people at bay and attracts others that think he's one of the chosen few. But when he's about to break under the stress of everyday life, what makes anyone think he can change the world even for himself?

Noah Yu-shin Park- 15. A quiet, introverted boy who becomes virtually mute when he's sent to live with relatives in South Korea. Noah has the uncanny trait of being able to understand the Korean language but not to speak it. He eventually adds the Loner's Instinct to his repertoire, which causes his body to send out an electrical charge that repels physical objects.

Jo Hanuel- 17. The ill, home-bound boy that possesses the Martyr's Instinct, which heals others with an electrical charge at the cost of his own health. His incredible patience and endurance allows him to endure the deal he made with his mother, Ji-won, who has Munchhausen-by-proxy. He finally snaps when Ji-won breaks the deal.

Han Soo-hyun- 16. A mischevious, popular Internet idol who keeps himself annonymous behind a mask. He uses his Idol's Instinct, which produces an electrical charge to soothe people into a happy, suggestible state, to every advantage.

Jo Hyori- 15. Hanuel's supremely normal sister who has no idea of the trouble around her. To prevent their mother from using Hyori to garner sympathy, Hanuel made a deal to be Ji-won's source of sympathy.

Baek Chang-ui- A middle-aged detective who likes to jump to conclusions to amuse himself, but in reality he's more shrewd and logical than he lets on. He takes on a fatherly attitude towards Noah and the others, ignorant of their involvement in his cases.

Kang Iseul- The serene president of the Jiso Club, a group who believes it's their mission to stress out other teenagers until they develop an Instinct, thereby giving those people the ability to find happiness. He himself has the Leader's Instinct, heightening or suppressing emotions in others.

Do Soo-chae- 17. A member of the Jiso Club who is sent to add stress to Noah's life and force him to join. She possesses the Victim's Instinct, inspiring pity in others until they are gripped by the desire to save her.

Min Yong-hwa- 15. A boy who develops the Student's Instinct, charging his brain into temporary overdrive, under the pressure of both family and the Jiso Club. He uses his boosted intelligence to take over his own skyscraper and use technology to create a teenager's paradise.

Bae Yoon-sung- 12. A tough, optimistic young girl who accidentally put her parents in the hospital with her Coper's Instinct, using electrical charges to cause hallucinations. This combined with their poor finances put Yoon-sung in a group home where Kang Iseul offered her a safe place to get help.

Oh Shi-won- 16. The popular model who was targeted multiple times by Kang Iseul for his Model's Instinct, causing the electricity in other people's bodies to paralyze them.

~Episode 1: Shell Break~

 

'I guess you ignore the quiet ones, not watch out for them.'

     

-Noah Park

Fifteen-year-old Noah Park is sent to Daegu, South Korea, to live with relatives until he breaks out of his quiet shell. He's strangely able to understand the Korean language but not to speak it, and after a month he's virtually mute. Just when he's about to snap Noah is distracted by someone pelting him with a origami star, forcing a meeting with an apologetic girl named Hyori. Her brother Hanuel is the one who threw the star, thoroughly frustrated at being sick and home-bound, something that Noah can understand very well after being virtually abandoned by his parents in South Korea.

 

On another visit he catches Ji-won, Hanuel's mother, knock out Hyori with a blow so Hanuel must use a healing touch to save his sister at the cost of his own health. Noah refuses to believe Ji-won when she tries to portray herself as a mother to be pitied and admired for devoting such effort into caring for Hanuel, oblivious to the wrong she's committing by making him sick in the first place and using her daughter to do it. Ji-won goes into a rage when Noah refuses to believe her, seeming to ignore the woman in the effort to save Hanuel and Hyori.

 

She attacks Noah and nearly kills him, but he physically repels her with a unseen force coming from his body. Ji-won recovers only to feel a minor shock that puts her in a calm, contented, and highly suggestive state, during which a stranger tells her to confess all before putting her to sleep. He then makes an annonymous call to the police to report fighting noises from the Jo house.

 

~Episode 2: The Reason for Earning~

'The things you want most always come at a price. It's never given.'

   

-Kang Iseul

 

Ji-won is caught trying to poison Hanuel with anti-freeze by the police, who also finds Noah in a closet with handprints on his neck. He tells Detective Baek Chang-ui the partial truth that Ji-won attacked him when he came to visit her children but leaves out Hanuel's healing ability as his request. Thankfully Noah's awkwardness with the Korean language helps convince the police, and Ji-won does the rest by incriminating herself with her own talk.

 

Shaken by the events, Noah hides out at his relatives' apartment except to visit Hanuel in the hospital. A boy named Kim Iseul approaches him there, forcing Noah to follow him to a teen club where he explains about 'Instincts', electrical charges from the body that affects other bodies in different ways. In Noah's case he repels solid objects such as human beings. In Hanuel's case, he sacrifices the natural healing ability of his body to boost that same ability in others. In Iseul's case, he uses a random girl to display his Motivator's Instinct and control the intensity of emotion in others. Each of them has grown of out of suffering, and so they have a duty to help others suffer so they might obtain the ability of happiness as well. It is a rule of nature that people must struggle for what they want most, or else they will never get it. That is the purpose of Iseul's 'Jiso Club'.

 

Noah promptly declares him insane. There's no way he can drive people over the edge on the OFF chance that they might keep their sanity but not their normalcy, having it replaced by Instincts instead. Iseul is displeased by Noah's reaction because it means that he must suffer more to realize the truth. Noah laughs in contempt, seeing as he suffers already, and nothing Iseul does may be worse than what his parents have done. Iseul begs to differ.

 

 

~Episode 3: Supposed To~

'There's no such thing as being able to save someone...not completely anyway.'

    

-Han Soo-hyun

Iseul uses his Leader's Instinct to put everyone in the club into a near berserk state. Before he can unleash it on Noah, however, a girl suddenly bursts in and starts fawning all over him, throwing Iseul off guard. His Instinct does nothing more than snap her out of what seems to have been a hypnotic state, releasing his own victims so their emotions return to natural, controllable levels. In the quiet confusion Noah is plucked from the club by a boy wearing a half-mask. The boy leaves Noah without giving a name and only a random remark about sand castles.

 

 

On a visit to Hanuel in the hospital Noah bumps into an older girl, Do Soo-chae, who treats both him and her abusive grandmother kindly. As they meet multiple times Soo-chae expects Noah to treat her with kindness and pity, only to be baffled when he acts with basic courtesy and nothing more. Kang Iseul instructs Soo-chae to take a simpler course of inflicting stress on Noah, so she manipulates a group of young men into attacking him at a empty park, fooled into thinking that Noah is harming her.

The plan fails because Noah uses his own Instinct to repel them and he has some help from the masked boy from before. The young men simply leave after being lulled into the belief that they're going home. Noah tells Soo-chae that he saw her smile as she was being verbally abused by her grandmother, indicating that she enjoyed the assault as if it vindicated her, and so he never believed her pity-me act from the start. Soo-chae merely reminded him of another name, Soo-hyun, belonging to the boy who removes his mask. He congratulates Noah on remembering their one meeting years ago as children.

Author's Note

This is just a teaser. The real project is at