Chapter 130 – An Event of Someday
Some roam the area with faces free of concern, as though the occasion is a mere trifle to them.
“……”
They stand there, silently observed.
Lee Se-Young. The three-character name displayed before the funeral hall.
Following the tragedy, a grand funeral was held under the lead of the family she was born into.
Lee Se-Young, who once pouted that the dogwood tree’s flowers weren’t much to look at, departed this world enveloped in beautiful blossoms.
Intriguingly, Lee Se-Young seemed to be regarded as a hero in this country.
Even those with no connection to the incident joined the line of mourners.
Though she often self-deprecated, calling herself trash, it seems she was genuinely kind-hearted after all.
See, I told you she was too good for me.
Casting sidelong glances at a few individuals who had come from the broadcasting station, I lowered my gaze to the ground.
[Contacts]
The screen of the phone held weakly in my hand emits a faint glow.
The contact list, now reduced in numbers.
Scrolling down and down, I stopped at the three characters spelling out Lee Se-Young’s name.
“……”
It’s a dream. That thought has long since been abandoned.
Days have passed since that day, but I remain unable to return to the past.
I had to witness firsthand Lee Se-Young’s transition from the living to the dead.
“……”
The contact list is devoid of many numbers.
The number of my mentor. Sansuyu’s number is missing as well.
I couldn’t bring myself to ask those who might know what happened.
Their faces would turn icy cold whenever her name was brought up.
“……”
A bug lands on the back of my hand. With a crackling sound, its shell splits open, and its wings spread out.
A bug, one of its wings torn, unable to fly properly.
I stared at it blankly.
-Grumble.
A thunderous noise rumbled from my stomach.
My mouth was parched. Inside, it felt as empty as if a gaping hole had been punched through.
The soreness around my eyes showed no signs of healing.
The sky was blue. Still lofty.
The humdrum noises of living, like the outdoor unit, always cluttered my hearing.
Rocks were hard.
Soil was coarse.
The smell of pork cutlet lingering at the tip of my nose resonated sharply.
Everything proceeded as usual.
As if to affirm that this too is part of everyday life.
Remembering the slightly fishy touch of her skin that still lingered on my hand, I blinked my eyes.
-Flash.
The taste in my mouth turned bitter.
It tasted like blood.
-Rumble.
Once again, I looked around.
Dark clouds hung in the sky.
The tree I sat upon felt rigid to the touch.
The sand on the ground held onto its dampness.
The outdoor unit here was off, silent.
Sporadically, voices of people filter through. Laughter that rings with mockery.
An environment shifting without any understanding of the context.
Unable to acclimate, I swatted the side of my head with my hand.
-Sharp!
The numbness in my ears, finally, the clamor is imperceptible.
A bit of quietude at last.
Just when I thought I could free myself from distracting thoughts and sink into a stupor, blood began to drip from beneath my nose.
Did I stay awake for far too long?
I wipe my nose with my sleeve.
“Over here.”
Unexpectedly, a hand appears before my eyes.
I lift my sluggish head.
Azalea is staring at me, a handful of tissue in her grasp.
“How long will you remain like this?”
“…….”
“…I’m sorry. You probably haven’t had time to compose yourself.”
I clean up the blood with the tissue she handed me.
Azalea, her hand resting on her skirt suit, takes a seat beside me.
10 minutes, 20 minutes.
A silence stretches between us.
After what feels like an eternity, Azalea cautiously begins to speak.
“The Professor said… from long ago. It seems he contemplated death.”
“…….”
“I apologize for bringing this up, but I think you should know.”
Azalea looks at me and forces a bitter smile.
“Ever since his Academy days, he planned to oppose the Flower, assuming his own demise.”
…….
“The reason he suggested meeting other women… was because he needed someone beside him when he died.”
…….
“I never thought it would come to this. But alas, this is how it turned out.”
Recalling, Lee Se-Young…
“Really, she only knew you.”
Had she ever told me she loved me?
Even when we spent the night together, when she accepted the ring.
Lee Se-Young never confessed her affection for me.
It seems she had been preparing for our parting from some corner.
“……So, it’s like that.”
After several days, words finally escape my parched lips.
My voice is thicker, rougher, choked up more than before.
Azalea, startled as if she didn’t expect me to speak, wears a mournful smile.
“This is already the third time… this kind of thing. It’s not your fault.”
The third…
My dry eyes drop to the floor.
I alone had to endure the ceaseless flow of time.
Night falls, morning comes. Then follows the moon.
Fewer and fewer people come.
Still, I remain.
Fortunately, the mournful voices around me occasionally jolt me back to consciousness.
There were words of gratitude, and words that felt like a knife carving into my heart.
-But it’s still good fortune.
The most detestable words to hear.
* * * * * *
I believed I could make it through.
I held a steadfast belief that whatever came my way, I would eventually find a happy ending. This confidence I clung to, perhaps naively, allowing others to navigate the course of my life… I suppose I was at ease with this passivity, from the outset to the final act.
…In my own perception, I considered myself an unfortunate soul.
My kidnapping, the constant threat to my life — it was all a persistent irritant. I found myself consumed by these inconsequential matters.
However, such worries no longer hold power over me. An irrevocable event has occurred, and I have come to understand my situation more deeply than anyone else possibly could.
I realized that the unfolding drama did not, in fact, revolve around me.
I knew this. It’s a lesson that could have been ripped straight from a children’s fable. I could have understood it with a little contemplation.
Yet I paid an exorbitant price to learn this mundane, practical wisdom bestowed by adults.
“…Are there any photos left?” I wondered.
There were scarcely any occasions where I had managed to forge lasting memories. In this regard, our love had been profoundly naive and youthful.
We didn’t truly know each other. Our connection was centered around sex, and a mere hint of sentiment.
We had surrendered our lives to a naive first love, the kind that might be experienced by adolescents. I didn’t entirely despise it. However, as I dredged up the past, I couldn’t help but find my emotions intensifying.
Resentment burgeoned within me, asking why you left me. Questioning why such a plan had been set in motion.
“A laugh,” I found myself emitting a hollow chuckle.
I can’t dispute being labelled a fool. Reflecting upon it, I’ve always been impotent.
From my seclusion within a single-room flat, burdened by my trauma until now, my own indecisiveness and the lack of firm determination have led to this outcome.
My current situation is like a grain of sand stuck to a windowpane. Despite efforts to cling to the glass, I am swept away effortlessly by the rain. That is my exact plight at this moment. Damn it all. Pathetic wretch.
In the dim room, I tightly clenched a shard of broken glass. The emotions I had suppressed overflowed their bounds and gradually erupted.
“You have something good, don’t you?” That was our first encounter.
Our meeting was criminal, with each party harboring malevolent intentions. It was a romance that wouldn’t be categorized as a decent encounter, only suitable for a low-grade movie.
“Tastes good, right? That’s how you brew tea, dimwit.”
Through such exchanges, we gradually grew closer. We occasionally expressed concern for each other.
Our bodies, once occasionally intertwined, began to harbor deeper emotions towards each other.
“Fine, you’re a rapist. You understand that, don’t you?”
It’s a tale that anyone would scoff at.
“Eat this. For the annoying one, one more rice cake. I bought it because you probably haven’t eaten.”
“No, I have eaten.”
“Shut up and eat. You need to eat well to grow.”
From the beginning to the end.
“Really, how do you plan to live without me?”
“I can live well without that woman. I’ve survived without a woman for 20 years.”
“You certainly look the part.”
“……”
And so it went, one after the other.
“Still, it’s a delight to encounter you after such a long time,” a sly chuckle escaped. “Why not take me entirely? I may not offer a return, but I can promise a lifetime guarantee.”
“Have you gone senile, teacher?”
“Empathize, dammit!”
“…”
A sigh slipped out, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“So, I am to accept all the rings.”
“Do you object?”
“As if that would be the case.”
He paused, organizing his emotions.
“Thank you.”
The sea of memories and stacked emotions evaporated, becoming nothing but froth in the ocean’s depths.
The past, elusive even in one’s grasp, irreversible once the course had been set.
In the absence of regret, he watched the clock’s second hand—slowly ticking, marking the passage of time.
“Click.”
A tissue, once damp with tears, dropped to the room’s floor. Everything felt futile.
“Damn it… Others seem to shake it off easily.”
Day after day, it was the same. Was he alone in his misery? The thought of the deceased Lee Se-Young visiting him, unable to release her grip on life, was unbearable.
As if to admonish him, she might hit him on the back of his head, saying, “Miss me a little, you fool. Was I that irresistible to you?” Perhaps she’d utter those words with a wicked smile. How he wished for that. Sincerely.
“…There’s no path for change.”
“Snap.”
A sound echoed in his mind, like something breaking.
“It’s all in the past now.”
“Crack.”
Something that shouldn’t have broken, unexpectedly shattered.
“Choke, gulp… Sigh.”
A trembling sigh escaped his lips as cold air filled the room.
The air was freezing. It was winter. A year had passed, or was it just this year? Or had even more time slipped away? Who had she fallen to? It was Flower. Lee Se-Young had perished while trying to claim Flower. They were the ones who had targeted me. Cheondo and Sansuyu had also vanished without a trace.
He examined the shard of glass in his hand. The sharp fragment, once threatening to tear his skin, had crumbled to dust.
“Did I mention needing a motive?”
He recalled the words of the Heavenly Demon from some time ago.
“…”
As he scattered the glass dust into the air, a realization dawned on him. His surroundings became hazy. One by one, the objects in his house evaporated into dust. His disoriented mind slowly realigned itself.
“Ah…”
…it was a dream.
“Have you opened your eyes?” asked the World Tree.
He immediately curled up upon hearing the words.
“Ting, ting, ting, ting.”
The sound of insects, carried on the saturated steam, echoed as if they were right beside his ear, even though he was indoors.
A wave of relief washed over him. Truly.
…
“Mmmmmm.”
When he opened his eyes in the forest, the sound of the insects was still echoing.
The pool of blood where he had lain was absorbed into the earth, leaving behind only a grotesque stain. The sky above was slowly beginning to brighten.
“…It was a real dream.”
It didn’t feel like a dream.
I was momentarily ensnared in shock, believing I had misplaced a portion of my memories.
[Are you well?]
The voice of the Temporal World Tree was noticeably feebler than before. It resembled a wavering candle, its flame flickering weakly, seemingly on the brink of extinction.
I queried her.
‘Was that event we just witnessed real?’
[…….]
No reply came forth. Silence was response enough.
[It might be advisable for you to return now. I apologize for subjecting you to a scene beyond your endurance.]
‘I won’t leave.’
[Lee Si-heon. It would be best now to reunite with your beloved ones-]
‘Do I appear perturbed to you?’
[…No.]
I expelled the breath I had been staunchly holding in, as if trying to extinguish the earth itself. Beneath my cool-headed exterior, my emotions remained tranquil.
This was a sentiment I could control. It was inconsequential compared to the harsh reality I had been forced to accept during the lengthy epoch within my dreams.
There was a singular pressing matter at hand.
Did I thoroughly revisit the future?
I won’t allow past occurrences to dissolve into oblivion.
‘So many perished.’
I had never thought such a catastrophe could transpire.
‘Time.’
[Yes.]
‘How many days can you endure?’
[If we consider the real world as a reference… Two days.]
Greatly reduced. I wondered if the dream she shared with me was an immense burden to her. If so, I must dwell longer in this past. Within the past, the lifespan of the Temporal World Tree is extended.
– Thud, thud.
Finally.
An elderly man was approaching from the distance.
“Have you resolved yourself?”
“Yes.”
I responded without the faintest trace of hesitation.
“You won’t break under yesterday’s insignificant torture, will you?”
The old man’s face registered surprise. Let’s see. He retrieved an ancient-looking flask from his pocket and placed it atop a rock.
“This is a rare elixir, one that’s challenging to acquire even if you scoured the entire world. It can rejuvenate your body instantly.”
Mana flowed, coiling around the old man’s hand.
“Now, give it a try.”