#109
Shin Haejun’s eyes, which held me tightly, curved gently. His gaze sparkled more than usual.
“But… it felt so real…”
I mumbled a rebuttal, unable to understand the sensation. No matter how I thought about it, it seemed too real to be a dream. I had never had a dream that felt this realistic, so I couldn’t just believe Shin Haejun’s words.
‘But… everything around is too normal.’
The moment when the whole world collapsed was so vivid, how could the building be this intact?
I bit my lip and got up. It was so hard to accept that I felt I needed to check outside the window.
“Uh…”
The ground that had crumbled like a huge sinkhole was perfectly intact without a single crack. The world was exactly as it had been, with no trace of the burst sewers, fires, or people’s screams.
I could see people moving like ants below the building. It was too vivid a scene to be an illusion.
“You’re strange today. Was the dream that vivid?”
Shin Haejun approached me and asked, lightly grasping my lower back. The fear of falling, the dread of never seeing these two again rushed in madly – could that simply be described as vivid?
“It was… a really scary dream.”
I sighed and answered, having no way to explain.
‘I can’t say… that I was more afraid of being separated from the two of them than of people dying or the world collapsing.’
It was the truth that came out when pushed to the extreme. I didn’t have the courage to speak honestly, fearing Shin Haejun might think strangely of me.
The feeling was so clear, but I decided to think it was fortunate that it wasn’t reality.
“I’m glad it was a dream.”
I unconsciously hugged Shin Haejun back and whispered. Really, really, thank goodness.
“You had a nightmare.”
The door opened, and Hyun Dowoon came in with an ambiguous smile. He must have heard our conversation from the next room.
“That’s right. It was a frighteningly realistic nightmare. But I’m fine now. More importantly, nothing happened like Kim Sehyun being resurrected while I was asleep, right?”
“If that had happened, we couldn’t be this peaceful.”
“That’s a relief.”
I nodded. Anyway, the important thing was that the author’s will hadn’t been fulfilled.
‘Then the future story will be a complete failure without content… I wonder what will happen.’
Judging by the intact world, it seemed the author hadn’t given up yet. Since I couldn’t predict how things would unfold, it seemed best to check the author’s Twitter first.
“So there were no signs of the world changing or… anything like that, right?”
“It’s been completely ordinary.”
“Then… I’ll lie down a bit more.”
I crawled back onto the bed to check my phone. I covered myself with the blanket and lay on my side to hide from the two of them as I turned on Twitter, my heart pounding again.
‘Will that notice… be there?’
Maybe it was déjà vu. In the dream, the world started collapsing after I saw the content about discontinuing this story.
@Green_baby01
Account does not exist
Try another search term.
What? The account disappeared…?
‘Did they… delete the account?’
Is there a case of removing it like this, especially for an official notice account? I used to only check the author’s circumstances through Twitter, what should I do now?
‘Nine… you’re not pretending not to know again, are you…?’
I turned on Limitless Nine, hoping that it was Nine who had told me to do the Guiding. But I saw the same empty game home screen without Nine.
In a situation where both Nine and the author had disappeared, I didn’t know what I should do.
“Why are you making that expression?”
“Is there something on your phone?”
The two asked me. I pondered how to answer, then said, ‘I want to receive a revelation, but it’s not working well.’
“That… constellation?”
“Yeah. I want to know what the author is doing, whether the current situation is over or not…”
I answered dejectedly, and Shin Haejun gently stroked my head.
“You always received revelations when we weren’t around. Won’t it appear if you’re alone?”
Is he serious? I carefully examined the faces of the two. In fact, I had put it aside while urgently doing the Guiding, but I was worried about how the two of them thought about Nine.
Are they really believing the lie that I told about the constellation? After showing them my crying and wailing state, I couldn’t tell if the two truly had no suspicions, or if they found my behavior dubious but were pretending not to.
“Do you really think so?”
“Well, we can’t know for sure. But it’s not like there will be a problem if we step out for a moment, and trying might make you feel better.”
Shin Haejun answered lightly, as if he knew nothing of suspicion. I watched their reactions for a moment, then nodded. Certainly, since I had never seen Nine appear when multiple people were around, it wouldn’t be bad to experiment.
“Okay. Then I’ll be alone.”
“Call us if you need us.”
Hyun Dowoon said in a kind voice, then left the room with Shin Haejun.
I stared blankly at the silent phone with its screen off, then slowly turned the game on again.
: Nine is sleeping
Then I saw Nine in a sleeping state. This time, the emoticon was displaying normally.
‘Thank goodness!’
Whether sleeping or doing anything, I was very grateful just for its appearance. I gently stroked the emoticon moving with ‘zzz’, then spoke to Nine.
“Nine.”
: Snore
“Wake up. I have something to say.”
As I shook the phone and spoke in a desperate voice, Nine’s face changed to a half-asleep expression.
: What’s the matter, Yeonsoo-nim?
“Stop pretending to sleep.”
: Tch.
Nine grumbled softly, then opened its eyes wide. Then it asked me once again what was wrong.
“What’s… going on with the situation now? I finished all the Guiding as you instructed.”
: I didn’t instruct anything though?
“What?”
I opened my eyes wide in surprise. I recalled the thought I had in the dream. That maybe the one who sent the message wasn’t Nine.
‘It didn’t identify itself as Nine, the way of speaking was completely different, and there were no expressions…’
Then who gave me such instructions?
I chewed on my fingertips with a serious face, then asked Nine.
“Then who could it have been? There was a message telling me to do Guiding as fast as possible and completely deplete my power. There were no expressions, but I naturally thought it was you.”
: Perhaps, did you meet ??? -nim?
“What?”
I was startled by the mention of ‘???’. I had thought the voice I heard in the dream was naturally ???… no, since it was in a dream, I didn’t actually hear it…
My head was still confused because the dream had been so realistic. Anyway, since it was a dream, that didn’t happen…
‘Then was that message really… from ????’
: ??? -nim, no, ??? is a traitor!
“A traitor…?”
Nine fired off messages as if very angry. It was very strange to see Nine suddenly show such an attitude when it had always respectfully called ??? ‘??? -nim’ and spoken as if ??? was working hard to stop the author.
“What happened?”
: ??? did something bad. You were almost in big trouble, Yeonsoo-nim!
“What big trouble?”
: Almost disappearing even your soul… it’s too cruel to say!
I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed ??? had tried to do something very bad to me. Then… was the strange dream I had a premonition to warn me about this?
“Then was it a bad choice for me to use up all my power?”
: Unless we turn back time, there’s no way to revive Kim Sehyun! ??? lied and gave those instructions to steal Yeonsoo-nim’s power and achieve some purpose!
Some purpose?
I tilted my head, feeling more and more lost the more I heard. What could ???’s purpose be to try to steal all my power?
And… can it really be stolen? The power would return after resting anyway. Was it to use it temporarily?
‘Something seems off…’
But Nine had no reason to lie to me… It must have said ‘some purpose’ because Nine didn’t know the reason either.
: You shouldn’t listen to ??? anymore. I thought ??? was naturally on Yeonsoo-nim’s side until now, but it turns out that wasn’t true!
That gentle voice I heard in the dream… it really was just my dream.
I nodded at Nine’s persuasion.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
