"Where am I? Where is this place? What am I doing here?" Just like that, a whole bunch of questions popped out in my head. "Alexander, you finally woke up. Thank God you're still fine," said Harriet, "you have been unconscious for three days already. I'll call the doctor to check on you." "It's okay Harry. I'll be fine," I replied. The person I was talking to was Harriet. She was my lab assistance and one of my close friends since I was a kid. I usually called her Harry because it's shorter and she didn't seem to mind about that a lot. Then I realized, what did she mean calling the doctor?

I took a close look around the room. The room was painted white and the bed I was lying on was very uncomfortable. No doubt about it, I was in a hospital. "Why am I in the hospital, Harry? What did I miss?" I asked her in frustration.

Instead of answering my question, she just silently handed me a mirror with a look on her face like she was trying to say: "Find it out yourself man." I looked at the mirror. My face was covered in bandages. A flash of memory crossed my mind. It was blurred and unclear like it was hidden between a layer of mist. All I remembered was I knocked over something, my lab was on fire and the sound of the ambulance.

"You had an accident in the lab. In the process of creating your new compound, you had accidentally knocked over some chemicals and blew the lab up," she sighed, "I just left the lab for my one hour lunch and when I came back, the lab was on fire. If Lance wasn't there, you could have gone forever," She said as she was about to sob.

Lance was my closest friend. I could say that he was my BFF since we were in elementary school. We went to the same school, had the same passion and went to the same degree. But sadly, he chose to be a professor instead of being a scientist like me. "Where is he?" I asked.

Suddenly, the door swung opened. Then, Lance ran into the room and gave me a bear hug. He squeezed me so tight that I felt like my ribs just broke off. "Can't breath... Argh," I stuttered. He released me as I fell back onto the bed, gasping for air. "Sorry, I was very excited to know that you have woken up," Lance said as he scratched his head, "I ran here as soon as I heard the news from Harry." 

"Lance, I have a burn on my face and it would be appreciated if you don't break my ribs, too," I made a joke. We all laughed and I know how much they had missed that. My time in the hospital went away in silent and monotonous, maybe a bit of misery too. I was actually very worried about my half-done project and I really wanted to finish it.

Finally, after half a year, the doctor finally came to me and told me that I could leave the hospital. He brought me to his room to unwrap my bandages. But little did I know, a big shock was waiting for me. I called Lance and Harriet to come and pick me up after I after I finished unwrapping my bandages. After an hour, they arrived in front of my room and walked to the doctor's office with me.

The doctor slowly removed every layer of bandages out. Layer by layer, the bandages were soon removed. I looked back at Harry and Lance eagerly and asked: "How do I look?". Harriet looked away with her hand covering her face. I soon realized that a drop of tear was falling down her face. "What happened?" I asked Lance eagerly. "You looks great man. Better than ever," He lied, "you look great. Seriously." Something in his voice urged me to look in the mirror to find the truth myself. I looked back at the mirror behind me to find out that my face was ruined. My voice trailed off. "What is this Lance? Why did you lie you me?" I yelled as I collapsed and fell down onto the chair that I was on "doctor, is there any way to recover my appearance?" "There is a way to recover it but it would take you half a million dollars to afford for the surgery," the doctor answered me in a sad tone. My family had always been very poor. Beside from me, no one had has the privilege to go to university before and now, just because of my appearance, I had to waste half a million dollars? I looked at the blank space in front of me, thinking of my life after this. It wouldn't be so bad if I just look ugly right?

The next day, I went back to work. Everything was still the same as it was before. But the atmosphere of the place was completely different from what I've remembered. Everyone seems to whisper about something and for some reason, they stared at me as I walked past. I could sense that something was wrong. In other words, they were gossiping about me. I tried to ignore them and walked to my lab. Just like usual, I saw Harriet waited for me in her lab coat and goggles. "Hi Harriet, how is it going? Are there any problem?" I asked her in a cheerful voice. "It's going pretty well, Alex. The research was a real success. During your time in the hospital, our new lab manager, Michael Jenkins had led us to success," Harriet said, "I heard that he's going to be one of the chemistry Nobel prize candidates." I could feel a shock wave ran through my heart. I couldn't believe in my ears. All of those time in the hospital, when I just sat there doing nothing, someone had stolen all of my hard work and turned it into theirs. Even worst, my job as a lab manager had been taken away by another scientist. I was wordless. I collapsed on my chair and sat there like a dead person. "Are you okay?" Harriet asked in worried "you look like a dead person." "Harriet, what exactly is happening?" I asked in anger, "and who is the Michael Jenkins guy? Why am I getting replace? Answer me." "Alex, I'm very sorry to say this but the government demanded to exclude from this project. They considered you as a threat to this city," she replied, "and that also means that we can't work together anymore. From now on, I'm Mr. Jenkin's assistant. They had ordered you to pack up all of your stuff and leave the lab today. If you don't mind, I have work to do." After finishing the conversation, she left me there alone and looked away, avoiding my eyes. I dragged my feet to my locker and opened it. As I opened my locker to packed up my stuff, something hit my eyes. It was a small and pink letter that addressed to me.

"Hey ugly, how is it going?" a voice behind me said, "I heard that you got excluded from your project and they currently need a new lab manager. Oh yes, I forgot. They replaced me for you." My blood boiled and my face was as hot as if it's going to explode. I had been through failure, mistakes, and pressure but nobody had ever humiliated me like this. "Who are you calling ugly?" I said as I looked back. I was completely wordless. Suddenly, a piece of memory came back to me. Michael Jenkin was the jerk who hated me and had always tried to humiliate me when I was in high school. I couldn't understand what did they think when they let him replaced my place. What a humiliation of science. "Oh, I'm calling you ugly. Do you have any problem with that? Did you check the mirror this morning?" he humiliated me as he laughs. "At least I'm not a failure," I tried to fight back but it was hopeless. "If you are not a failure, then why did the government expelled you?" he mocked me, "and sorry but I'm not a failure. I'm going to receive the Nobel prize sooner or later." It would be a shame if they actually let Michael lay his hand on that prize of honor.

After a long verbal fight, I decided that I'm too tired to do anything so I headed home by bus. When I finally got on to the bus after a long waiting line, I collapsed down on the bus seat. Suddenly, I heard a conversation between a mother and her daughter who sat opposite to me. "Mom, what happened to his face, it looks so scary?" the child said as she pointed at me. "Olivia, don't be so rude, that's not nice, dear." My mind was filled with the image of my face being hideous and scary. I couldn't stop thinking about that fact that I scared a child. I acted like I had heard nothing. That afternoon, I came back home in tears. I couldn't believe that one mistake had taken away my fame, my job and my appearance at the same time. Now, even Harriet couldn't look at me straight in the eyes. Why does it have to be me? Why not someone else like Michael? All of those feelings bothered me for the rest of the day. But little did I remember, the pink letter inside my backpack was still there, unopened.

The next morning, I woke up with a surprise. "Alex, are you home?" Harriet called me from the pavement in front of my house. "Yes, I'm here. Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be with that jerky Jenkin?" I shouted out from my bed, tried not to get out of my bed. "Alex, don't be a meany like that. Get out of your bed and open the door for me. I have something to tell you," Harriet called again. I finally gave up. How could I let my one of my best friend standing alone in front of my house, waiting like that? Without a thought, I jumped out of my bed and unlocked the door.

"So why are you here for?" I asked. "Alex, don't be so grouchy like that. What did I do wrong?" she pleaded me with her innocent face looked at me. "What did you do wrong? Oh, nothing Harriet. You just broke my heart. I thought we were friends! I couldn't believe that you ignored me," I snapped in anger, "and let me guess, you're here today to tell me how wonderful that jerky Jenkin is, right?" "I'm sorry for breaking your heart, Alex. But I'm not here to tell you about Jenkin. I quitted the job because of you. I wouldn't be happy if I have to work for someone who humiliated my friend," Harriet slowly explained. Did I hear it wrong? Did she quit the job? How was that even possible? She continued: "Alex, I'm here today to tell you that no matter what happened or how bad you look, I'm still your friend and nothing's going to change that. I like you a lot. You are a good friend. I wouldn't know how to deal with problems without you. In other words, you are very important to me, Alexander. Please don't be like this!" she said as her eyes swollen up, "Alex, Lance and I have found us a new job in another lab in another city, where nobody will criticise you because of your appearance. Will you go with me?". "Yes, I will Harriet," I said as my eyes get watery, "let's leave this city behind and start a new life."She suddenly yeared over and hold my face. The next thing I knew was she kissed me.

The next day, a postman came to a house to deliver a mail for a man name Alexander Williams. He found himself confused as he saw the sign in front of the house which said: "For sale". Somewhere on an airplane, there was a couple sitting together, hand in hand.