By Zephyria The user Hidden in the Cracks
The green steel fence around the school shook slightly. Someone wearing a navy blue hoodie pulled low over their head was shaking the fence. After a quick inhale, the hooded figure nimbly climbed the fence and lightly jumped to the other side. As if waiting, the door of a black van slid open.
Min-gi Seo, leaning his head out of the passenger window, gave a thumbs up.
“You’re quite the fence-climbing athlete. Looks like you’ve done this more than once or twice.”
“N-no, it’s not that often.”
The student cleared her throat, got into the van, and took off her hood. Her unbound brown hair cascaded down. The door closed, and the van smoothly pulled away. Ga-eul adjusted her slightly crooked glasses.
“Why did you call me? Is there a problem?”
“Not exactly.”
A distorted voice suddenly spoke. Ga-eul startled and turned around. Something black was draped over the long back seat. The material looked like leather rather than a blanket.
‘What is it?’ Ga-eul tilted her head, and at that moment, gray hair and a black mask popped up from behind the seat.
“Thanks for coming out so quickly. But aren’t you supposed to be in night classes? Is it okay for you to be out like this?”
“It’s fine. I just put my long padding jacket like this in my seat…”
Ga-eul made a circle with her hand as if making a snowman.
“I made it look like a person, so it’ll be fine for a while. And the teacher on duty today isn’t strict.”
“I see. That’s a relief.”
Min-gi Seo chimed in as if he had been waiting.
“We’ll just be driving around the school, so don’t worry.”
The car quickly fell silent. Ga-eul awkwardly rolled her eyes before speaking to Eui-jae.
“Um, have you been doing well? I’ve been seeing you on TV a lot lately. You’ve been on a lot.”
“That’s good to hear. That I’ve been on a lot.”
Ga-eul fidgeted with her gym pants. Perhaps it was because she couldn’t see his expression behind the mask, but she couldn’t help but be aware of him.
‘I know he’s not that kind of person, but…’
Cha Eui-jae wearing a mask felt like a completely different person. In fact, even his hair color was different. His once jet-black hair had faded to a grayish color.
The atmosphere was also noticeably different. An unapproachable pressure, a sharp aura that seemed to reject any approach. It was hard to imagine that he was the same part-timer who nonchalantly greeted her in a loose hoodie and apron.
“Student Ga-eul. May I ask you a question?”
“Yes? Ah, yes! Go ahead!”
Ga-eul straightened her hunched back. Eui-jae asked, “You said you met a different Lee Sa-young in the Destroyed world. And that he took you to a safe place.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Do you remember anything about him?”
“Um, why all of a sudden?”
“Well, right now…”
Eui-jae pointed to the black leather covering the seat. Looking closely, the leather was slightly moving. Ga-eul stretched her neck out and widened her eyes.
The pale face visible between the black curly hair was Lee Sa-young. He was lying on the seat, using Cha Eui-jae’s lap as a pillow. Of course, his legs were awkwardly folded.
Eui-jae stroked the mask with his fingertips.
“Lee Sa-young woke up, but… something seems wrong.”
“In what way?”
“There are two of them. Two Lee Sa-youngs. In one body.”
“Huh?”
“H-huh?”
The second ‘huh?’ came with the screech of brakes. Screech! The black van stopped abruptly, and their center of gravity shifted forward. Eui-jae quickly supported Lee Sa-young’s head and glared at the driver’s seat.
“Hey, drive properly.”
“How can you not share such a critical matter right away? Two Guild Leaders? One is already terrible… ahem. He’s asleep, right?”
“Probably.”
“Ahem. Sweet dreams.”
Min-gi Seo cleared his throat. Eui-jae rested his arm on the window ledge and said, “I talked to him, and it was definitely a different entity. According to Hong Ye-seong, it’s Lee Sa-young from the Destroyed world, but Student Ga-eul is the only one who has actually met him.”
“Ah, that’s right…”
“What was he like? It doesn’t have to be anything significant, just tell me everything you remember.”
“Um…”
Ga-eul, choosing her words carefully, glanced at Eui-jae.
“Um… is it okay to use this expression? He’s asleep, right?”
“Yes, yes, anything is fine.”
“Well…”
“Well?”
“He was a jerk.”
Silence fell. Ga-eul diligently rolled her eyes, looking around. Min-gi Seo was slumped over the steering wheel, his shoulders occasionally shaking. He seemed to be laughing.
Eui-jae, unable to laugh or cry, stroked the soft curly hair.
‘Lee Sa-young is a jerk, but…’
“And he was a bit, um…”
She raised her head. After hesitating for a while, Ga-eul muttered, “Something strangely… even while talking and looking at him… I knew he was a jerk, but.”
“……”
“He just didn’t seem like a living person.”
“……”
Eui-jae paused his breathing for a moment.
Lee Sa-young of the Destroyed world, who didn’t seem like a living person. Lee Sa-young, who exuded such a bizarre atmosphere that he couldn’t be considered alive without tears and warmth. An important point had been made. Did something go wrong, preventing their Souls from merging?
Then Ga-eul raised her hand.
“Ah, and I think I should mention this separately. It’s not related to Lee Sa-young Guild Leader, though.”
Ga-eul clenched her fist and said,
“Actually, I’ve been hearing a voice since I first Awakened. It was that voice that told me to find J at the Hanover Soup Restaurant… when we first met.”
Eui-jae blinked. Then, a memory came to mind.
‘Ah, are you really going in? Really? Am I really going in? Ah, this is too much…’
‘What? Look behind me? Ah, seriously, don’t lie. I hate that kind of thing…’
Wearing a long padding jacket and carrying a heavy bag, she had been pacing back and forth in front of the restaurant like a bagworm, clearly alone but talking to someone.
It was around the time when only Lee Sa-young and Min-gi Seo knew that Cha Eui-jae was J. And yet, Yoon Ga-eul had suddenly come to him late at night without any connection, saying that she knew he was J.
Ga-eul fidgeted with her fingers.
“It’s like a friend, and it gives me a lot of helpful advice. And it comforts me.”
“Do you know whose voice it is?”
Min-gi Seo, sitting in the driver’s seat, interjected. Ga-eul slowly shook her head.
“I don’t really know. It’s familiar, but I stopped trying to think about it because it gives me a headache.”
“……”
“Anyway, that voice always said one thing. That I have to stop Doomsday. And…”
Yoon Ga-eul and Eui-jae’s eyes met. Her eyes were shining gold, just like the day they first met.
“That I can’t let J die. Absolutely.”
“……”
They knew very well what had happened when Cha Eui-jae had died.
The Cha Eui-jae of the second world had died fighting the swarming Monsters. Doomsday had come to the world, they had failed, and Lee Sa-young had used himself as the axis to turn back time…
They had failed.
Ga-eul shrugged.
“But… I haven’t heard the voice even once since I went to the Destroyed world. I’ve been thinking about it. The Artisan said that Souls merge, right…?”
“Are you saying that the owner of that voice is Student Ga-eul from another world? And that she merged with you in the same way as the Guild Leader?”
Min-gi Seo asked. The brown head moved up and down slightly.
“Since coming back from that world, the Fragments I see in my dreams have become more vivid.”
“…Thanks to that, it’s become clear. Something is wrong with Lee Sa-young.”
Eui-jae muttered, brushing back his hair.
“Student Ga-eul’s Soul merged without any problems, but why do two Souls coexist in one body for Lee Sa-young…?”
Something was clearly off, but they couldn’t figure out what that ‘something’ was. Asking the person involved would be the quickest way, but the Lee Sa-young of the Destroyed world, whom they had briefly encountered…
‘Doesn’t seem like he’d be cooperative.’
A headache came as he recalled the eyes that mirrored himself. Eui-jae leaned his head against the window and groaned. Ga-eul asked, “What about asking The Artisan?”
“…What would they know?”
Distrust was mixed in the distorted voice. Ga-eul blinked.
“Um… aren’t they really smart? They might be a bit impulsive, but The Artisan was the first to figure out Lee Sa-young Guild Leader’s situation.”
…That was true.
Well, they might as well borrow a hamster’s paw now. Eui-jae took out his phone and called Hong Ye-seong’s number, hoping that he was in a state of intermittent genius.
However.
Hong Ye-seong did not answer the phone.
A vein popped out on Eui-jae’s hand.
‘This bastard… he whined so much about being bored because I didn’t call, and now he’s not answering?’
He was beyond reproach. Eui-jae unilaterally broke his promise to send a text message. It seemed that he was destined to go through Jung-bin after all.
‘I didn’t want to bother him.’
Thinking that he should just take this opportunity to get the talisman that acts as a pass to the Artisan Village, Eui-jae called Jung-bin.
Ringing…
Ringing…
Just before the basic ringtone without a custom ring stopped and went to voicemail, beep, someone answered the phone.
―What is it, who is it?
It was a voice he had heard before. Of course, it was much more brusque than the voice in his memory. Before Eui-jae could say anything, the other person snapped, ―I don’t know who you are, but Jung-bin isn’t here, so call back later.
“Wait!”
Eui-jae hurriedly said, and the other person fell silent. Then, there was a rustling sound as if the phone was being adjusted. A suspicious voice asked, ―…J?
It was Nam Woo-jin.