HRB 97

The inside of his family home was as familiar as could be. It seemed mostly unchanged from the last time he was here, yet there were a few subtle differences.

“Mom.”

Jeong-hoon called out for his mother, but the house was quiet.

“Mom?”

Where did she go? As Jeong-hoon was wondering, he suddenly heard a loud voice.

“What’s going to change if you keep doing this! It’s been months already!”

It was his father. He was half surprised that his father was home in the middle of the day, and half horrified that the person yelling was his father, who was usually known for being quiet and easygoing, so Jeong-hoon ran to the main room.

It was because Jeong-hoon knew that if he intervened with a smiling face, asking why he was yelling and why they were fighting, they would usually stop.

But Jeong-hoon couldn’t say anything as he burst into the main room.

He was shocked that his father, who usually liked things neat, had bloodshot eyes and was covered in stubble, and his mother was burying her face in the bed and crying endlessly.

His father, who had been yelling, was now practically begging.

“You need to get up now… We need to find our own lives now.”

“…”

“Jeong-hoon can’t leave in peace unless you get better. Please stop crying now.”

But as soon as Jeong-hoon’s name was mentioned, she started crying loudly again.

Father, as if frustrated but ultimately knowing there was nothing he could do, watched her for a long time before finally leaving the house.

Jeong-hoon stared blankly at his crying mother.

“Mom.”

Jeong-hoon called out to his mother. But she didn’t react at all, and Jeong-hoon reached out with a trembling hand, but couldn’t reach her.

Watching his hand pass through his mother as if she were smoke, Jeong-hoon was able to understand what was happening.

Ah. Ahh.

Jeong-hoon clenched and unclenched his hand, unable to grasp anything. It felt strangely unreal. But it was right that it felt unreal. Because he wasn’t actually present in this space right now.

Last time, he didn’t even have a form, but this time he had a form, and he was in the same state as the day he saw his own funeral.

He didn’t know exactly how much time had passed since that day, but it seemed like quite a bit of time had passed.

How long had Jeong-hoon been staring blankly at his crying mother? He heard the sound of the door lock being pressed, and then a familiar voice.

“Mom.”

It was Jeong-han.

Jeong-hoon ran out of the room without realizing it. He saw Jeong-han just entering the house.

Thank goodness.

He already knew that the Emperor wasn’t reacting to the name Jeong-hoon, so his brother hadn’t died and possessed him, but he was still relieved to see his face looking normal.

Of course, that face looked a little thinner than the Emperor’s smooth face.

“…Oh, you’re here.”

Mom greeted him weakly. Jeong-han looked at his mother’s face, which was clearly swollen from crying, but didn’t say anything and quietly cleaned the house.

The way he did the piled-up laundry and tidied up the scattered things was so familiar, as if he had done it many times.

“I’m sorry, son.”

“What are you sorry for?”

They had this conversation in the middle, but there was nothing else to talk about.

“Stop crying.”

She couldn’t respond to Jeong-han’s words, even though she had been answering well. Jeong-han didn’t seem to expect a response, and started vacuuming.

She was sitting blankly on the sofa, then staggered to her feet. Jeong-hoon, who had been standing by her side the whole time, followed his mother. He knew he couldn’t do anything, but he was too anxious.

She walked weakly and looked at Jeong-hoon’s room, which was open, and entered as if possessed.

A space where someone has stayed for a long time retains their unique scent. Even a scent that you don’t usually notice gradually disappears as the person leaves.

She stared blankly at the bed, which was so full of things that it was impossible to lie down on, and then slumped down next to the bed.

The familiar scent of her son’s room, which hadn’t completely disappeared because he often visited the main house, even though it was fainter than when they lived together, was gradually disappearing.

It would probably never be filled again.

Inside the room that her son had left, time seemed to have stopped, and nothing had been cleaned up.

When her son was alive, she used to nag him every time, asking why he couldn’t throw things away, and telling him to throw away what he didn’t need. But when the time came to clean everything up, she stopped him, telling him not to throw anything away.

As if to prove that time had passed, dust had accumulated in various places.

It had been several months since her youngest son had died.

But her time had stopped on that day and no longer flowed.

If anything had changed, it was that she had turned over or laid down the small frames and photos of her son that had been everywhere. She couldn’t bear to look at the photos of him smiling brightly in his childhood, so she had done that.

Of course, that didn’t make her longing any less intense.

“Jeong-hoon.”

She called out her son’s name. Knowing that there was no way she would hear a reply, she cried endlessly.

It was then.

“Yes, Mom.”

Her eyes widened and she lifted her head sharply.

She didn’t care that her vision was blurry from the tears and that her eyes were swollen and red, and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Even though her vision was clear, there was no one in the room, of course.

But, but just now.

She definitely heard her youngest son’s voice just now.

“Jeong-hoon!”

The moment she realized that, she jumped up from her seat and called out her youngest son’s name.

“Jeong-hoon!”

When there was no one in the room, she rushed out of the room. Jeong-han, who was now mopping the floor in the living room, was surprised to see his mother suddenly run out, calling out his younger brother’s name.

“Mom? What’s wrong?”

“Just now, did you answer?”

“Answer what?”

Jeong-han was just puzzled, not knowing what was going on.

“Mom…”

She opened her mouth as if frustrated, but she couldn’t form a sentence and eventually closed her mouth.

‘I heard Jeong-hoon’s voice.’ No one would believe her if she said that, and it would only make them worry. Because there was no way that could be true.

She then felt the excitement that had momentarily filled her body quickly subside.

“No, it’s nothing.”

It didn’t make sense logically. She must have misheard. She was just mistaken for a moment because she missed him so much, because she wanted to see him so much.

“…Mom must have misheard.”

She now knew that it was impossible, no matter how much she wished for it.

“Jeong-han, Mom’s going to get some sleep.”

“Okay, sleep well.”

Instead of returning to her youngest son’s room, she went back to the main room.

Since her son’s death, she had been having nightmares of the moment she received the phone call, waking up screaming every day, so her body, which hadn’t been able to sleep properly, was finally begging for sleep.

She buried her face in the pillow, which was wet from crying.

“Yes, Mom.”

For some reason, she felt like she could fall asleep without having a nightmare this time.

***

Eddie slowly opened his eyes.

He saw the ceiling of Eddie’s Inn, his room, which was now familiar even with the decorations, instead of the ceiling of his family home, which he had felt a little unfamiliar with just now.

He groggily sat up. He had fallen asleep without covering himself with the blanket, so the air, which he usually felt was just right, felt particularly cold. But he didn’t feel like covering himself with the blanket.

“…”

Eddie sat blankly on the bed for a long time, only having raised his upper body.

Unlike the first time he had a dream of his past life, tears didn’t flow uncontrollably. It was just that one corner of his heart was coldly sinking, beating slowly.

Is it just a dream? Is it just my imagination? Is it because I saw my brother’s face for the first time in a while?

He thought the same thing he had thought in the past, but just like then, Eddie quickly came to the conclusion that it wasn’t.

It’s real.

It’s not just a dream. It must be real. Just like the day he saw his own funeral.

The sight of his family falling apart and suffering from his death must be real.

At the end, when he heard the voice calling out to him endlessly, he unconsciously replied, “Yes, Mom.” But he woke up from the dream before he could properly confirm whether Mom seemed to react to his reply.

Ah.

What am I? What am I worth?

Eddie buried his face in his hands.

Why are you suffering so much instead of shaking off the fact that your useless, unfilial son went first and living well? I shook it all off in two days and I’m living well, smiling. You can just live well, missing me occasionally, just occasionally.

Of course, he knew. He hadn’t shaken off the pain of losing everything in an instant and being dropped into this world himself. But at least he wasn’t living in so much pain that he couldn’t function in his daily life.

But his family.

Especially his mother.

“Ah, seriously.”

It hurts. His heart hurt so much that he felt like he was going to die.

Eddie looked around with trembling eyes and then jumped up from his seat.