#154
Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon’s faces instantly turned pale at Nine’s words. The two had always been anxious whenever Lee Jaeha entered and exited dungeons. Even when they learned that he not only had guiding abilities but also possessed considerable power in his own right, they continued to worry. Not because they didn’t trust Lee Jaeha, but because they loved him.
They had worried even when he could use his powers fully, so it was difficult to stay calm now that his powers had disappeared and he could only do guiding.
“This won’t do. I have a bad feeling about this. It shouldn’t be a problem if my body gets a little wet, right?”
Hyun Dowoon stood up abruptly. Shin Haejun, who had risen unsteadily behind him, looked at Hyun Dowoon with wavering eyes. He didn’t care what happened, but he at least wanted to know what Hyun Dowoon was planning to do.
However, before he could ask, Hyun Dowoon grabbed Shin Haejun’s hand and suddenly used his power.
In an instant, their surroundings changed, and a vast ocean spread out before their eyes. Shin Haejun, who had suddenly found himself outside the plane, opened his eyes wide. The two were falling towards the sea from mid-air.
Shin Haejun quickly realized what Hyun Dowoon was trying to do and waited for the consecutive teleportations with a stern face. Hyun Dowoon had decided to abandon the plane and directly teleport in 10km intervals to save time.
Of course, it was an incredibly draining task, but it was worth trying since they could arrive faster than by plane. For the first time, Shin Haejun thought it was fortunate to have Hyun Dowoon.
“Huff… hah…”
Even for an S-rank Esper, teleporting hundreds of times is bound to be exhausting. In fact, he had never teleported this many times before. Hyun Dowoon, who had used his teleportation ability to its limit, looked completely pale.
The moment they finally arrived in front of the mansion, following directions from the map.
Suddenly, Lee Jaeha’s phone lit up brightly.
No…! Yeonsoo-nim, Yeonsoo-nim…!
What appeared there like a hologram wasn’t Nine. A hologram-like Lee Jaeha cried out mournfully in a tone similar to Nine’s.
“Lee Jaeha…?”
Shin Haejun, startled, carefully asked the figure that looked like a miniature version of Lee Jaeha.
It’s too late… The space-time will distort again now. All I can do is prevent ??? from approaching Yeonsoo-nim.
Hyun Dowoon and Shin Haejun were momentarily dumbfounded, unable to understand Nine’s words in Lee Jaeha’s form. Then tears started falling from the hologram’s eyes.
It’s so sad, even though it’s the second time experiencing this.
“What exactly is the situation right now?”
Hyun Dowoon asked, feeling ominous. The response was chilling.
Yeonsoo-nim has died.
***
Interfering like this again…!
It’s a woman’s voice I’ve heard somewhere before…
It’s no use trying to stop this! I have a duty to return this person to reality! Do you think you can get what you want by deceiving and holding onto them?
This scream I’ve heard somewhere…
But my head hurts so much it feels like it’s going to burst, and my body feels so nauseous that I can’t grasp anything.
I closed my eyes again, swaying like a small boat rocking on the waves.
***
“…Gasp!”
What’s this? Did I dream while standing? Surely there was a car accident…
I touched my cheeks and various parts of my body. It felt strange that everything was fine.
What I see in front of me now is an ordinary cafe, and I’m standing blankly in front of the counter wearing an apron.
“What’s wrong? You seem unusually absent-minded today. Are you sick?”
Someone spoke to me from the side. When I turned my head, I saw a woman holding a cup, dressed the same as me. Looking at her chest, I could see a small tag that said “Manager.”
“It’s lunchtime, so customers will be rushing in soon. How can you stand there so absentmindedly? Do you want to take a quick 5-minute break in the staff room?”
She pointed to a door on the side with her hand. Whatever it was, it seemed like a good idea to rest for sure. My head was still in a muddle, and I felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort.
She seems to be close to me… but why can’t I remember anything? Where am I standing? Everything was full of things I couldn’t understand.
I nodded and slowly opened the door with the nameplate “Staff Room” and entered. There was a small table and chairs where I could rest.
‘Surely my last memory was… saving a girl and getting hit by a car.’
As I recalled the moment of the accident, somehow my body started to feel painful again. More precisely, my nape hurt terribly. It seemed I had received a significant impact to my cervical spine.
But why is my body intact?
Suddenly, a gasp escaped me. Maybe something happened to my body after the accident! Looking at this situation, it seems like I’m living a normal life, but maybe I lost my memory due to the aftereffects of the traffic accident… or something else went wrong?
Looking at the clock hanging on one side of the wall, it was still 11:30 in the morning.
‘I guess I got fired from my company.’
No matter how I look at it, the clothes I’m wearing are an apron embroidered with “Cafe,” and since I’m not at the company at this time, I must have been fired while receiving treatment at the hospital. I used to think every day that I wanted to quit my company and work even at a convenience store part-time, but it seems the new job I got is a cafe part-time job, not a convenience store.
If I don’t think like this, everything is full of questions, so for now, I had no choice but to organize my thoughts as if fitting pieces together.
‘Ah, my neck hurts.’
They say the aftereffects of traffic accidents are dangerous, and it’s certainly true. Getting fired from the company and finding a new part-time job means quite some time must have passed, but my neck still hurts.
It should be fine, but I don’t know why it hurts so much. Is there a scar left?
As I looked around, I saw a mirror hanging on the wall. I stood up abruptly and approached the mirror. If there’s a wound that has opened up, I need to check and treat it…
“Aah!”
An extremely beautiful… person was standing there with a dumbfounded face and mouth wide open.
“…Me?”
I approached the mirror as if I was about to fall into it, raising my hand and even slapping my cheek, going through the process of confirming if it was really me. Unless I was possessed by a ghost, the person in the mirror was definitely me.
But the face I recognize as mine isn’t this… or is it?
‘Is this also an aftereffect of the traffic accident?’
Looking closely, it felt both unfamiliar and familiar. Surely the image in my head isn’t this face, but examining it carefully, it also felt like this face was right.
I must really have a problem with my memory. Seeing that I can’t even remember my own face that’s right there.
Feeling as if I was possessed by a ghost, I unbuttoned my shirt slightly to examine my nape.
‘Is it an internal injury?’
It feels like a wound is splitting open, but strangely, there was no wound on my nape. It was just straight and extended, not only without a wound but looking rather intact. Except for some red marks near the collarbone.
What could have happened to leave such traces? It felt familiar yet still strange. Anyway, my face suddenly turned bright red, and even though it was happening to my own body, I couldn’t understand what was going on at all.
“Jaeha-ssi, it’s almost 5 minutes!”
As I was staring at the mirror with a strange feeling, thinking how odd everything was, it seemed time had already passed, and I heard the manager knocking on the door and calling out.
‘Jaeha?’
Lee Jaeha? Was my name Lee Jaeha? Wasn’t it Lee Yeonsoo?
‘But both feel familiar.’
I guess it must be Lee Jaeha, considering I can casually recall even the surname. I don’t know why I’m having these strange thoughts.
I tilted my head and searched my pocket to check my phone before leaving the staff room.
The smooth phone that felt familiar in my hand had a notification from a messaging app.
Dowoon hyung♥
[I can’t wait to see Jaeha-ssi soon. Just waiting for 2 o’clock.]
Checking the app, there was a message saying they missed me, from a name with a heart attached.
‘Dowoon hyung?’
Hyung… Dowoon hyung… Hyun Dowoon hyung? This name also felt familiar yet strange. But somehow, although it’s an uncommon surname, Hyun seemed to fit.
Calling him ‘hyung’ suggests we’re close.
Looking at the photo attached to the message, I couldn’t help but smile. It was a picture of a heart drawn on a post-it note on some documents, with a heart made with fingers placed on top of it. It felt incredibly cute.
‘He doesn’t look like the type to do this sort of thing…’
The fact that such a thought suddenly came to mind confirms that this person is indeed someone I know. Not just know, but someone I’m close to.
‘But… are we dating?’
The hearts are strange, the content of the message is suggestive, and the fact that I keep feeling happy and smiling…
But why is it a man’s name?
‘It’s not strange to fall in love with a man, right?’
I keep feeling like something is wrong, but anyway, the important thing right now is to go out and work so I don’t get fired from my new job. This person seems to be close to me, and it looks like something will happen at 2 o’clock, so I can figure it out then.
I put my phone away and went outside to see the manager handling customers at the POS.
“Ah, Jaeha-ssi. Here.”
The manager slid an order receipt towards me.
It had one Java Chip Frappuccino written on it.
‘Java Chip… Frappuccino….’
How do I make that again? Why can’t I remember anything?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
