By Zephyria Eui-jae lay sprawled on the shadowy floor. Ga-eul sat cross-legged beside him, placing her hand on Eui-jae’s chest. Soon, her hand began to be stained with countless colors. Eui-jae closed his eyes. Even with his eyes closed, the back of his eyelids instantly shifted through various colors. Just as his consciousness was fading away,
Something heavy landed on his solar plexus.
“Ugh?”
“Uh-oh? Cluck, no!”
Eui-jae strained his fading eyes with superhuman effort. Round Cluck was squatting right on his solar plexus, firmly in place. Get off, you crazy brat…. Before he could even utter the words,
Thud.
His vision went black.
…….
How much time had passed? Suddenly, his vision cleared. A pure white sea stretched out before him. A man in a black coat stood before the waves where white ash floated. Like a drop of ink in a pure white landscape. Tall and clad in a black coat, even without seeing his face, he could be sure.
It was Lee Sa-young.
Unable to contain his joy, Eui-jae tried to call out to him loudly.
However.
“Cough…!”
The pressure on his solar plexus intensified, and instead of a voice, only a suffocating sound escaped. Cluck, you crazy brat! Eui-jae flailed his hands over his solar plexus and stomach. But seeing his vision blur, it had no effect. Cluck still pressed down on his solar plexus.
‘Damn it…!’
His consciousness faded again. Like ink dissolving in water, Lee Sa-young’s figure blurred. Eui-jae desperately tried to imprint Lee Sa-young’s back view in his eyes. The black dot remained in his vision for a long time.
“…Huh?”
Lee Sa-young suddenly raised his head. A breeze blew from somewhere, scattering his hair. He thought he heard someone’s voice. The voice of someone who shouldn’t be here.
“……”
Another hallucination, probably. He quickly concluded. Thinking deeply would only increase his longing.
He roughly swept back his disheveled hair. The sea, dulled by the white ash, couldn’t even wet the Walker right in front of it.
The ash dulled the sea and swallowed even the sound of the waves. Even if he strained his ears, he couldn’t hear the sound of the waves, the sound of the water brushing against the sand, or the sound of the sand being swept away. He couldn’t hear anything.
He hated the sea.
He had hated it since he was a child.
Sa-young shoved his hands into his coat pockets and closed his eyes.
…His ears were ringing.
He tapped his ringing ears with his small palms and turned his head, seeing the wide expanse of mountains and sea beyond the airplane window. His mother, sitting next to him, whispered. We’ll be there soon. What will Sa-young do, feeling sad? We have to stay in Korea for a while. He remembered the thoughts he had then as clearly as if it were yesterday.
There was no reason to be sad.
His parents were businesspeople. He didn’t know what kind of business they did. Looking back, he realized they were quite well-off.
He could have found out something if he had looked, but he didn’t bother. He wasn’t particularly interested in the inheritance, and besides, they were already dead. If he hadn’t met J, he might have been curious about the traces his family had left behind. But once he met him, the past had no meaning. The moment he took his hand, the world was rewritten.
Anyway, his parents frequently went on overseas business trips, always taking their young child with them. They said he needed to experience many things from a young age.
The duration of the trips varied each time. A week, three weeks, a month, or even longer. Sa-young hated it. He just wanted to stay in one place for a long time. That’s why he hated the sea. The moment he saw the sea was usually the moment he was leaving home.
So when he heard the news that they wouldn’t be going abroad for a while, he was secretly happy.
His father, whose face was blurry, put the suitcase in the closet on the balcony and said.
‘…For a while, Korea will be safer than overseas. Every country protects its own citizens first. Embassies are useless. Monsters don’t attack based on embassy distinctions.’
‘That’s right, and I heard there are S-class Awakened in Korea.’
‘Of course, it’s much safer.’
‘Even for Sa-young….’
They never dreamed that their precious home, that they themselves, would be caught up in a Rift.
The house submerged in the Poisonous swamp melted away in an instant. He heard people’s screams and cries from around him. His parents hugged Sa-young and climbed onto the marble dining table. But even the thick table legs couldn’t withstand the Poison and slowly melted away. The marble was the same. The skin that touched the Poison burned and ached. As the pressure of the embrace from both sides slowly disappeared, there was a thought that preceded the pain.
I’ll never see them again. My parents.
Meeting J was a miracle.
In fact, Lee Sa-young had known J before. J’s story was on TV every time he turned it on. Announcers raved about the Monsters J had caught, the Dungeons he had closed, and the Rifts he had sealed. The J on TV was less like a human and more like a ‘god’ created from the collective wishes of humans. A god who could do anything and was not bound by anything.
That god took his hand and pulled him out of hell. It was a warm, human hand.
…J was surprisingly talkative. He chattered away to himself in front of a mummy who couldn’t answer or express himself. Looking back, he might have been lonely. At the time, he was only about twenty years old. An age when he should be meeting people and socializing. But he was a hero, and he couldn’t take off his mask. So he must have been excitedly chattering away in front of a mummy who couldn’t see anything. Like talking to a Marionette.
Well, even if that was the case, it didn’t matter. He liked the sound of him chattering. In the midst of tedious pain, listening to his voice, imagining his expression, and observing his actions with his blurry vision was his only joy.
One day, J asked.
‘Have you ever been to the sea?’
It was a ridiculous question. Did he think he was some country bumpkin? Sa-young glared with his unseen eyes and mumbled. Noticing his displeasure, J quickly added.
‘I don’t mean to be rude. I was just thinking, if you get better, maybe we could go to the sea.’
After that, J rattled on and on again. He went to Gangneung to catch a Kraken or a squid, and the suction cups were really big…. J, babbling like a child, whispered gently.
‘The sea there is beautiful. Let’s go together when you get better.’
‘…….’
‘Blink if you want to go.’
How fortunate that he wasn’t deaf. Sa-young blinked immediately. A clear laugh rang out.
‘It’s a promise. Even if you don’t want to go later, I’ll carry you there.’
They intertwined their little fingers. They pressed their thumbs together. That warmth was precious.
…From that day on, Lee Sa-young fell asleep dreaming of going to the sea. Someone, somewhere, treated him like a child who had never been to the sea, but Lee Sa-young sometimes smiled as he recalled that time. Did Cha Eui-jae know? That Lee Sa-young had been abroad more often than Cha Eui-jae, and had seen the sea much more often.
He wouldn’t know. Because Lee Sa-young hadn’t told him.
He wouldn’t know in the future either. Because Lee Sa-young wouldn’t tell him.
This was the first time going to the sea with Cha Eui-jae.
That was enough.
At that moment, he liked the sea….
Swoosh, swoosh, he heard the sound of footsteps treading on the sand. Sa-young opened his closed eyes. Hong Ye-seong, wearing a green tracksuit, was walking towards him hesitantly.
“Meditating or something?”
“…….”
“No, your expression is too goofy for meditation. Were you having a good fantasy or something?”
Sa-young sighed softly and looked at the sky. The sweet feeling evaporated and flew away in an instant. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw the blue of the sky. The world on the verge of destruction had lost all its colors. Hong Ye-seong shrugged.
“How is it? Worth the wait?”
“Faster than I remember. Maybe because of Mackerel….”
Mackerel, whom Cha Eui-jae had personally salvaged from the sea. Scales had now sprouted on his cheeks, and webbing had formed between his fingers. Faint gill-like lines had also appeared on the back of his neck. Nevertheless, the reason he remained human was probably because he was in charge of the clinical trials. Mackerel was not only diligently cooperating, but also filling the void left by Marionette. He even carried Nam Woo-jin, who couldn’t walk for long.
Whatever the reason, it was a good thing. The more cooperative Mackerel was, the faster the development of vaccines and treatments would be.
“…….”
Sa-young rummaged through the memories tangled in his head. While staying here, memories that were not his own became his one by one. Hong Ye-seong began to retrace his footsteps. Sa-young followed him out of the sea. Lee Sa-young murmured in a low voice.
“It’ll be over soon, this place too.”