# Chapter 7
“It’s a very, very slim probability, but why are you asking?”
“So, you’re saying it could happen?”
“The probability is close to impossible, but…”
“Is the probability that low?”
“The time between when a wormhole is created and when it closes is very short. Even if both entrances were formed across the external universe reaching Earth, if you don’t escape in that moment and get trapped, you’d be destroyed along with the wormhole.”
“Is it that short?”
“It forms in an instant. It opens briefly and then closes. That’s why we need to use exotic matter to maintain the wormhole wall, but the reality is we don’t even know what that exotic matter is. And if what Hwiseo says is true, there would need to be not only a multiverse but also another version of me in a different world, and the probability of all this happening simultaneously is close to impossible.”
Misha asked again why he was suddenly curious about this. “Have you developed an interest in quantum physics? Or is this from some movie?” His voice sounded friendly. Hwiseo didn’t know what exotic matter was needed to keep a wormhole from closing. But right in front of his eyes was the man.
“Anyway, if he came here, doesn’t that mean he could go back too?”
“That’s true. If his civilization is highly advanced and has the technology to create and keep a wormhole open, then coming and going would be possible.”
“If he could go, would he go to that world where he came from?”
“Both sides would have different flows of time. The time in this world and the time in whatever world that person came from would be different. But time inside the wormhole is stopped. So if there are connected entrances, it means you would experience the same flow of time.”
“Could you explain it more simply?”
“If there’s a wormhole you can go in and out of, then you can go to the place it came from.”
From across the phone, Hwiseo heard someone calling Misha. He could imagine Misha hurrying at the urging to complete departure procedures. The airport was noisy, and the call ended with his friend’s voice telling him to hurry. After looking at the disconnected phone for a moment, Hwiseo shrugged his shoulders toward the man and said, “Seems like you could go back.”
* * *
Hwiseo visited the beach where the man had collapsed and where he had scattered his father’s ashes. The area near the rocks was still deserted, with only waves slapping against the rocks. Perhaps there was something like the wormhole Misha mentioned somewhere nearby. Hwiseo walked around, recalling the conversation he had with the man.
“Even if all of that is true, I won’t go back.”
“What do you mean? Don’t you want to go home?”
“Why do you think I fell into the Han River?”
It wasn’t hard to guess. For the man, it was like falling onto a planet where his star had been erased. No family, not a penny to his name. He was surprised and bewildered, but that was all. He looked tired and numb. Hwiseo had seen someone like that when he was young. His mother. The mother Hwiseo remembered was helpless. She was always lying down, covered with blankets, watching TV.
You’d think someone who gave their child a name like “Bongdeok” would be playful and energetic, but that wasn’t the case. It was his father who was playful, immediately registering the name his mother had found amusing in an uncharacteristic moment. His mother was a depression patient, and eventually she turned her back on the world.
“Then what will you do here? Try to die again?”
“That’s none of your business, is it?”
The man answered sharply. As he said, whether he lived or died was none of Hwiseo’s concern. It seemed inappropriate coming from someone who had been living off Hwiseo so far, but he didn’t bother pointing it out. Even if this was a person who resembled him, possibly even another version of himself, Hwiseo didn’t have the energy to worry about what he would do. Hwiseo had his own problems.
“Do as you please. I’ll leave here as soon as my affairs are in order. I can’t stay any longer since I’m already imposing on others.”
The man simply turned his back and lay down, not giving any further response. Hwiseo’s eyes sank deeply as he looked at the coast. Standing in the sea breeze for a long time made him cold. But he didn’t have a winter coat or a scarf. Without a home, how could he have even a single glove?
The man said that in the world he came from, Hwiseo’s father was still alive. He was even an actor, and seemed famous enough to play lead roles. For whatever reason, their father-son relationship seemed distant, but just the fact that he was alive and not dead made Hwiseo deeply envious of the man. Looking at the sea, Hwiseo imagined his father living on Earth in another universe.
Hwiseo took out his phone and tried calling his father’s number. As he heard the message saying the phone was turned off, he closed his eyes. His father had always answered his calls, regardless of whether it was late at night or early dawn. And he always ended with “I love you, Bongdeok.”
At first, Hwiseo regretted not confronting that troublemaker through CCTV, not pretending he didn’t know about the electronic ankle monitor. But the person who committed arson and murder was the bastard, and the crime itself was wrong. Hwiseo knew well it wasn’t his fault. Then he imagined killing the arsonist. Even at the end of that imagination, his father didn’t come back to life. He couldn’t hug Hwiseo or tell him “You’re strong, so stay strong.”
Though they looked exactly alike, he knew that just as he and the man were different, his father would be a different person too. Nevertheless, if only he could see him, if only that were possible, he missed his father. That was Hwiseo’s honest feeling.
* * *
Hwiseo got up at dawn, washed, and went to the soup restaurant to get food. The grandmother patted his bottom, saying he was admirable. Sitting across from the man eating breakfast, he thought about today’s schedule. He was supposed to meet with an insurance company employee in town. They had said he just needed to prepare and send documents, but since Hwiseo had nothing except his phone and ID, he decided to visit in person.
On the TV they had turned on to break the awkward silence, they were talking again about the meteorite that had seemed quiet recently. It looked like they were finally starting the recovery operation tomorrow.
“Yes, that’s right. They’ll leave the other sunken fragments around it as they are. They plan to recover only the Gyeongbuk Chilam Meteorite, but it’s expected to be a difficult operation because the weight is enormous and the size is irregular.”
“Ah, so they’re doing separation work.”
“They’re not separating it from the beginning. It would be best if it could be recovered in its original shape, but anticipating that might not happen, they’ve planned for whether separation occurs by accident or on purpose.”
A photo of the meteorite that was separated into three parts during the Russian recovery operation appeared as a reference. Hwiseo put down his spoon to watch, and the man also stared at the TV.
In the world where the man lived, there was no news about a meteorite fall. All kinds of strange things were happening. A star falling from space, him being here in this place. Maybe dragons or vampires exist too. Perhaps they were normal beings in their original worlds, but became alien existences when they came to this universe. If he could come here, why not them? The man chuckled at his own imagination.
Just then, the phone rang. It was Hwiseo’s college friend. A friend who had come all the way from Seoul to cry together with him. He seemed to have called because Hwiseo had texted that he was coming to Seoul.
“Oh, Sangwoo.”
“You’re coming to Seoul? When?”
“I have some things to take care of here first. Once that’s done. Can I stay with you for a few days until I find a place?”
“Of course. I was the one who suggested it first.”
“Thanks. It’s a crime that you’re earning money and doing so well.”
Ko Sangwoo was a classmate from the same school. He had appeared in a low-budget horror movie that was invited as the opening film at a famous domestic film festival this year, causing a buzz. Along with it, Sangwoo, with his warm boyfriend-like appearance, also became famous. Recently, he was reportedly busy appearing in a drama broadcasting on a cable channel. Despite that, Hwiseo was just grateful that he was still paying so much attention to him.
“Ko Sangwoo, thank you for everything.”
Sangwoo said something in response, but Hwiseo couldn’t hear clearly because the man in front of him suddenly started crying loudly. It was a greater emotional reaction than when he first saw Hwiseo, or even when he heard that this wasn’t the world he lived in. Hwiseo ended the call and pulled out a tissue to hand to the man.
“Is there a Ko Sangwoo in your world too?”
The man cried even louder. Hwiseo didn’t ask anymore. He suspected that the biggest reason the man had fallen into the Han River was related to Ko Sangwoo. Hwiseo recognized there was a strange twist between the man and himself. Basically, he and Hwiseo had many things in common. Even the people around them were the same. But those relationships seemed slightly off somewhere. For Hwiseo, Ko Sangwoo was just one of the few acquaintances he made in Seoul, a grateful friend who took good care of him, nothing more. But for the man, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
