## Chapter 49
After finishing dinner, I helped the staff teachers with the dishes. Everyone tried to convince me to sit still, but I couldn’t do that. There were only three teachers working at “House of Dreams,” including the client. How could I just sit there while those three people washed dishes for more than ten people?
With my help, the dishwashing was quickly completed. As I was coming out of the kitchen with a sense of satisfaction, a young child, who looked like a lower elementary school student, was standing at the doorway staring up at me blankly.
“Big brother.”
“Yes?”
I patted the child’s head and was about to leave when the child suddenly stopped me. For some reason, there was expectation in the child’s eyes as they looked at me.
“Hey. Can you do magic too?”
“Magic?”
“You know. I saw it on TV. There were people flying around! And then they went into a black cave!”
“Ah…”
The child seemed to be talking about the K-pop concert rift from a few days ago. Since there had been no Espers showing themselves in public except for Director Kim Hyungjin, the Espers who appeared before citizens at that time became a huge topic of discussion. Videos captured by people on their phones spread across various media, including SNS. Everyone was excited by the fact that “Espers,” previously considered just an oral legend, actually existed.
“Wow! Can you fly too?”
Since I didn’t immediately deny it, the child seemed to take my hesitation as confirmation and shouted excitedly. Hearing this, the children around us came running over with sparkling eyes.
“What? This brother can fly?”
“Wow! Show us! Show us!”
“Ah, no. Wait, kids.”
“Everyone! This brother defeated monsters too!”
The children’s misunderstanding snowballed instantly. Belatedly, I waved my hands saying I couldn’t do such things, but the children believed what they wanted to believe regardless of what I said.
“Show us magic!”
“Sigh. I’m telling you, I’m not an Esper.”
“Aww. You can’t do it?”
I lowered my body to meet the children’s eyes. Seeing them looking at me with their bright, expectant eyes, I couldn’t bear to disappoint them.
“Okay. Come here.”
I spread my arms wide and embraced the child standing in front of me. The child in my arms looked up at me with wide eyes. I grinned and tousled the child’s hair.
“I have the ability to make people feel warm.”
“Woooow!”
“Me too! Me too! Do it to me too!”
It was a ridiculous ability I had just made up, but they all exclaimed in admiration and surrounded me. Only after hugging six children could I finally break free.
The client, who had been watching this scene, laughed heartily and gave me something of an apology.
“Oh my. I’m sorry. The children are being a nuisance, aren’t they?”
“Not at all. They’re too cute.”
“You seem to like children.”
“Well, I grew up with children too.”
Having looked after orphanage children since middle school, I didn’t dislike young children. Rather, I felt proud whenever they showed trust and dependence on me.
“Teacher, please have some fruit for dessert before you go. The melons are excellent.”
“No, thank you. I should get going now.”
The client tried to hold me back as I was preparing to leave. Having already come empty-handed and eaten a meal, I shook my head, feeling I couldn’t also accept tea.
“Huh?”
I took out my phone to check the time, but the screen still showed “outside service area.” By this point, I was starting to wonder if the problem was with my phone.
“Are other people’s phones not working either?”
“Just a moment. Oh? There’s no signal.”
“It’s never been out for this long before.”
The client’s wife standing nearby also checked her phone and looked perplexed. Even though cellular service might be down, Wi-Fi should still work, but even that wasn’t functioning.
“If you need to contact someone, would you like to use the office phone? The landline should work.”
“It’s okay. I don’t have any urgent business.”
When asked if I needed to contact anyone, I briefly thought of Heerim. Besides exchanging messages this morning, I hadn’t had any other contact with him. As much as I wanted to call him right away, I held back.
Rather than contacting him impulsively, it seemed better to go home first, organize what I had experienced today, and then tell Heerim about it.
“Then I’ll be going now. I’ll come back to talk again soon. Bye, kids.”
I said goodbye to the client and the children and headed toward the exit. Sad to see me leave, the children followed me out into the hallway. Though I hadn’t done anything special, I saw a glimpse of Heerim in these children who showed blind affection toward me.
“Should I give you one more hug?”
“Gasp! Can you really?”
“Why not?”
I knelt down on one knee and hugged each child. As the children wrapped their small, delicate hands around my back, I felt a tug at my heart. I gave the last child a tight hug, said goodbye, and stood up.
“…?”
Wait. Was the air freshener smell this strong before?
As soon as I stood up, the air freshener smell, which I thought had dulled, hit me intensely. The scent was so strong it made me dizzy.
“Ugh.”
I instinctively covered my nose and looked around when I heard something falling right behind me.
Turning around, I saw the children who had been behind me collapsing one by one. I was so shocked that my mind went blank.
“Kids!”
I hurriedly checked the condition of the collapsed children. Fortunately, their breathing and pulse seemed normal. Seeing them breathing peacefully, they seemed to be simply asleep.
“H-how can they fall asleep so suddenly?”
It was abnormal. I immediately ran into the room where the client and other teachers were.
“Sir! The children suddenly… Oh!”
The client and the teachers who had just been offering me fruit were collapsed in the room. Not only that, but all the other children were also fallen asleep, just like the ones in the hallway.
“What’s going on here?”
Trying to calm my pounding heart, I took out my phone. I needed to call an ambulance immediately. Even in an area with no service, emergency calls should still be possible.
With trembling hands, I dialed on my phone.
“It’s not connecting…”
To make matters worse, I couldn’t connect to emergency services. Thinking I should first go to an area with cellular signal, I frantically ran toward the exit. Then suddenly, I became suspicious of the unknown air freshener scent that had spread throughout the orphanage.
“Could it be?”
I had an almost certain suspicion that people had collapsed because of this smell. I immediately turned my steps toward the nearest window. But before I could reach the window, my vision blurred. The moment I felt like the ceiling and floor had been flipped, I lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor.
I don’t know how much time had passed, but when I opened my eyes, the sun had completely set. The window outside, which had been bright, was now dark.
“Ugh…”
Perhaps because I had collapsed suddenly, my entire body ached as if my muscles were shocked. Groaning, I raised my impossibly heavy body and looked at my phone. The battery had died and it was turned off. I was in a daze, and it took several minutes just to understand what had happened. As soon as my foggy mind returned to some degree of clarity, I immediately checked the condition of the other people.
“Director! Director! Are you okay?!”
I vigorously shook the bodies of the sleeping people, including the client, but no one woke up. Everyone seemed to have fallen into an extremely deep sleep.
I was in a panic. Though I had regained consciousness, my thoughts weren’t functioning properly to decide what to do first. I tried to calm my trembling breath and think clearly.
First, I should go somewhere with a signal and call an ambulance… Oh, my battery is dead. What should I do then?
“Right! The office, the office phone!”
The mention of a landline phone in the office struck me like lightning. I immediately ran to the office. Without having to search, I saw a white telephone on the office desk.
I picked up the receiver and dialed 119. I worried that even this might not connect, but after a few rings, the call went through.
“H-hello! This is House of Dreams orphanage!”
I shouted, almost screaming.
“People have collapsed… Hello? Hello?!”
Before I could explain the situation, the call was cut off. Having not even heard the voice on the other end, I stared blankly at the disconnected receiver before trying to call again. But this time, there wasn’t even a dial tone. By this point, it seemed like someone was intentionally cutting off all means of communication.
Who could it be?
From the strangely disappeared children to the suddenly collapsed people—trying to process all these situations overwhelmed my already confused mind.
“Stay calm. Stay calm.”
I had survived falling into a rift and encountering a three-headed monster. Compared to that, the current situation wasn’t as dangerous. At least my life wasn’t being threatened. Thinking like that, my anxious mind calmed down a bit.
It seemed there was nothing I could do inside here. I decided it would be best to leave and seek help from others.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong with the condition of the sleeping people, I left the orphanage building. Or rather, I tried to leave but couldn’t. The door wouldn’t open.
“Why is it like this!”
The door structure clearly allowed it to be locked only from the inside, so it shouldn’t be lockable from the outside, but the door wouldn’t open. I pushed the lever-type handle down and pushed the door with my shoulder.
“Ugh—!”
I slammed my body against the exit door with all my strength, but the door didn’t budge. Thinking I might be able to break the handle, I immediately went into the room closest to the exit to find something solid.
“…?”
I was frantically looking for something that could break the door handle.
From somewhere, an acrid smell wafted through the air.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
