#165
‘Why did they replace my phone?’
If they had cut off the internet and not given me a new phone, I would have thought it was a measure for complete confinement. However, Shin Haejun didn’t do either.
I fiddled with the new phone I suddenly received and tilted my head. When I opened the phone, for some reason I couldn’t understand, the background was the theme I had been using, and all the apps were installed. It was a relief they weren’t logged in, otherwise it would have been creepy.
‘Ah, the phone number…’
Was the purpose to clean out the contact list? But even before, my saved contacts were unbelievably sparse.
Just in case, I checked the contacts and saw one number saved as “Me”.
Since the person who gave this to me was Shin Haejun’s secretary, could it be Shin Haejun?
After thinking for a bit, I called that number.
‘…They’re not answering.’
Only the dial tone rang, with no one picking up. I eventually gave up and went back to exploring my surroundings.
Having checked the entire second floor, I went downstairs to look at the first floor, and it suddenly occurred to me that there was no one here besides me.
Moreover, as I saw while riding in the car, there were no houses nearby in the mountains. I don’t know when Shin Haejun plans to come, but with no neighbors, convenience stores, or delivery restaurants in the area, I was truly alone. Somehow, it felt very lonely.
‘What on earth is going on today?’
Thinking about it, it wasn’t just Shin Haejun acting strange. Hyun Dowoon hadn’t contacted me at all during my journey here. I wondered if the two of them were plotting something together, but I immediately realized that was unlikely given how poorly they got along. They probably wouldn’t work together unless they had a common enemy.
With these thoughts, I wandered around the first floor, confirmed there was nothing special, and then flopped down on the living room sofa.
‘Even if I stayed here for a month like this, no one would know.’
I quit my part-time job, and I live alone… suddenly, I realized there really was no one who would look for me. If it weren’t for Hyun Dowoon or Shin Haejun, no one would know I had disappeared.
In any case, I didn’t feel like trying to escape from here, so I relaxed a bit. I just hoped Shin Haejun would come to get me when I started feeling lonely or bored.
Thinking I might as well watch TV, I rolled over to grab the remote and turned it on. The screen showed what seemed to be a rerun.
As I was staring blankly, suddenly a blue line appeared at the bottom of the screen with breaking news.
[Breaking News | Sudden snowstorm hits downtown Seoul, giant hailstones fall, 1 citizen seriously injured, 5 lightly injured]
My eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected news. It was the middle of summer, after all. Even if this happened in winter, it would be shocking… Is this a weather anomaly?
Has global warming become so serious that sudden weather anomalies are occurring? Even so, a snowstorm in midsummer was truly unbelievable.
“I hope no one was seriously hurt…”
Although it wasn’t my business, seeing breaking news about people getting injured wasn’t very pleasant. I turned off the TV, having lost interest, and accessed the internet on my phone to see how serious the incident was.
‘Wow…’
My mouth fell open involuntarily when I saw the giant ice pillars driven into the middle of downtown.
Can this be called hail? These smooth, massive pillars…?
While there’s nothing else to explain it besides hail, it clearly wasn’t that size. If anything, this looked closer to a natural disaster than ordinary hail.
As I scrolled down the article, I saw comments about the weather anomaly and a video news link as a related link. When I clicked on it absentmindedly, I saw a scene of a blizzard in midair, trees freezing, and an ice pillar slamming into the ground.
“Huh?”
But this feels familiar, like I’ve seen it somewhere…?
‘I’m sure I’ve seen something like this somewhere.’
Did I see it on a program like “The Earth is Sick”? Or in a movie or animation?
Given how strongly it was imprinted in my memory, it must have been quite impactful. I wracked my brain trying to remember what it was.
“Ah!”
And then it suddenly hit me – it was my “delusion”. The image of Shin Haejun launching an ice storm towards a giant monster.
‘There’s no way Shin Haejun could be there.’
It’s just a delusion anyway. Even if it weren’t, the Shin Haejun I know isn’t someone who would attack the general public like that. He had received thorough training, as espers were prohibited from using their powers against the public.
So it couldn’t be Shin Haejun. It couldn’t be… but why did it appear?
Even in my delusion, I couldn’t figure out why I had left Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon’s side. Without the last memory, it was difficult to grasp the exact situation. No matter how much I thought about it or tried to recall my memories, this looked more like Shin Haejun’s attack skill than hail…
Checking the news articles a bit more, I saw discussions about whether it was appropriate to call this hail. For one thing, such large ice masses don’t suddenly form at that altitude.
Certainly, something that could crush several people and break the ground couldn’t be explained simply as a weather anomaly. In any case, in this scientific age, they would somehow try to make sense of even inexplicable phenomena.
‘This alone doesn’t prove it’s Shin Haejun.’
But somehow, I kept recalling how strange Shin Haejun had been this morning. If he had met a doppelganger that looked exactly like him, his odd behavior wouldn’t be incomprehensible. Anyone would be shocked by such an encounter.
I desperately wanted to believe that the person who created this situation was the esper Shin Haejun. It seemed like I wanted to believe that regardless of reality. It must be due to my desire for him to come and get me. Because of my delusion, he always felt out of place among people.
Without doing anything, he gained the goodwill of others, received love, and was met with cheers and praise. Everyone treated him kindly, and he even met the family he had lost. Nothing could be happier than this.
However, even amidst this happiness, I kept feeling a sense of alienation. I just felt like a stranger floating in this place.
Aren’t the people who say they love me ultimately approaching because of the previous Jaeha’s image? The strongest thought was that this wasn’t my world. Maybe that’s why I stopped telling my psychiatrist about the things I recalled and took a defensive attitude.
‘…A call!’
As I was staring blankly at the phone screen, suddenly a call came in. Checking the phone, it was the number saved as “Me”. I suddenly became alert and sat up straight on the sofa.
“Hello?”
When I answered, the other person didn’t speak for a moment, and I heard heavy breathing. Of course, I couldn’t understand anything from just that, but somehow I was certain it was Shin Haejun calling.
“It’s you, Shin Haejun, right?”
– …Yeah.
Shin Haejun honestly agreed. I could sense an inexplicable confusion and distress in his voice.
“What’s going on? I’m suddenly sent alone to a villa, and locked inside the house.”
– It will be over if you just hang in there for a moment.
Shin Haejun mumbled. More accurately, it was a mumble close to expressing a hope. Hearing his voice completely stripped of its usual confidence, I hit the nail on the head.
“Do you really think it will be okay if I just hang in there for a moment? If you’re in the situation I think you’re in, this kind of escape absolutely can’t solve anything.”
– Then what are you saying I should do? I’m powerless. There are things that can’t be solved with money. I just want to… protect you a bit.
Shin Haejun, with all his venom gone, made me think deeply. Usually, I would just ignore him, but when he came out with such a serious and gentle attitude, I felt there was nothing I could do.
“Explain in a bit more detail.”
– Hyun Dowoon told me to come, so I went to his house. There was another man there…
Shin Haejun mumbled as if rambling. Somehow, waiting for each of his words made me very anxious.
– He had the same face as me. Looking closely, he wasn’t exactly the same person… but he was the same person.
Shin Haejun continued to ramble. I imagined how he must have felt. Although this was what I had been waiting for, he must have been shocked when he first saw it.
The fact that there was another person exactly like him, and inadvertently seeing what kind of things they said and how they behaved, must have shaken the rather sensitive Shin Haejun’s heart.
Moreover, the other person was literally a one-man army. I knew how extraordinary Shin Haejun’s abilities as an esper were. It was a power that shouldn’t exist in this world.
“Why did you confine me here?”
– To protect you from that man.
Shin Haejun said solemnly in a serious voice. I wanted to tell him to take care of his own sanity first instead of thinking about protecting me, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it and just quietly listened to Shin Haejun sigh over the phone.
“Why did you make me come here alone?”
– To confuse our movements in case we were being tracked.
“Then how long do I have to stay here?”
When I asked what I really wanted to know, Shin Haejun’s voice suddenly cut off on the other end of the phone.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
