Ch.170Side Story) Left Alone (3)

I have no memories.

I sat up in a room that felt strangely familiar.

I look around.

First, I went to the bathroom and examined myself in the mirror.

A woman with a delicate impression and a young face is looking back at me.

This face that looks so easy to push around has caused me many troubles before.

Once while studying at a library, someone rudely tried to get my number.

That trash who tried to get a student’s number. I wonder what he’s doing now…

Anyway.

The reflection in the mirror is me.

“My head hurts.”

I muttered to myself while clutching my head.

I feel like I’m forgetting something important, but I can’t figure out what it is.

“Wait a minute.”

I rushed back to the mirror.

“I was… originally a man…”

“And…”

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Someone is pounding on the door violently.

I don’t remember anything. I’m in an unfamiliar place.

I should probably check who’s outside first.

“That’s strange?”

I opened the door and looked outside, but there was no one there.

“Did someone knock and run away?”

Since the sound didn’t continue, I went back into the room.

How should I put this?

It feels like unfamiliar memories are scattered in pieces throughout my head.

“Was I originally a man?”

Clearly, my memories of being a woman are more vivid.

Memories of hanging out with other girls when I was young.

Memories of tying my hair up.

Memories of wearing a school uniform and chatting with friends at school.

They’re all there.

But somehow, a sense of discomfort won’t leave my mind.

“I’m definitely a woman.”

Come to think of it, this isn’t the first time I’ve had these thoughts.

Since I was young, I’ve often had this strange feeling.

‘Wasn’t I originally a man?’

This bizarre thought.

“That can’t be right.”

I shook my head while talking to myself.

This habit of speaking my thoughts out loud. I need to fix that too.

Anyway, my surroundings are my room.

My small place that I barely managed to get in an old corridor-style apartment building.

I wondered if it might be dangerous for a woman to live alone since it’s in the suburbs. But my bank balance was the more dangerous concern.

“If only I had made it into that webtoon contest…”

“Ah, seriously!”

I irritably brushed away the hair that kept falling in my face.

If I keep talking to myself like this, I’ll look gloomy. It’s annoying.

That’s why I’ve never had a boyfriend.

Actually, it’s more because I’ve been drawing pictures in my room all the time.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

That sound again.

I carefully got up and tiptoed toward the entrance.

I didn’t think much of it earlier, but I’m starting to get scared.

I shouldn’t let them know someone’s inside.

Slowly.

So my footsteps don’t make a sound.

Carefully.

There’s a small hole in the front door.

A peephole to see who’s outside.

I went up to the front door and quietly put my eye to the lens.

“Huh…?”

I can’t see anything.

A sinking feeling in my heart. I pulled my face away from the door.

“Huh?”

My vision feels strange.

I closed the eye opposite to the one I had put against the door.

I can’t see anything.

“Huh…?”

I can’t see anything.

“What’s going on.”

When I opened my eyes again, I could see.

But my vision still feels different from usual.

Warm, clear water flows down my face from the eye that can’t see.

Feeling a throbbing sensation, I placed my palm over it.

The water overflows between my fingers and tickles down my wrist.

I ran to the bathroom to check the mirror.

The first thing I noticed was my eye.

Under the palm covering my eye, something round was hanging.

“…”

I carefully removed my hand.

That round thing was…

My eyeball.

My eye had been pulled out.

Though crushed and shriveled, unable to maintain its original shape, I could tell it was my eye.

The stem extending from the eyeball is connected to the inside of my face.

Nerves. Blood vessels. Muscles.

And blood.

Clear blood covers my face and palms.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

“Huk.”

Question marks fill my head.

At the same time, pain like a knife digging into my eye socket rushes in.

The pain is more intense for being delayed.

“Aah…”

“Aaaah!”

“Huk…”

I can’t even understand what’s happening.

What just happened?

Should I go to the hospital?

No. 119. Should I call emergency services?

But that sound outside the door.

What is it?

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Click.

THUD.

An unbelievably massive THUD sound reverberated throughout the space.

I didn’t have the courage to look back.

No. Even if I tried to turn around, my body wouldn’t move.

I slowly turned my one remaining eye to check the mirror.

I couldn’t see clearly because of the angle, but the door was broken.

Gulp.

I swallowed.

Through the mirror, I could see the dark hallway.

Someone was standing there.

I could see the figure of a man at least 180cm tall through the mirror.

A man wearing his hat pulled down low. Strangely, I couldn’t make out any detailed features.

Gradually.

He comes closer.

An intense feeling of terror wraps around my body.

I can’t stay like this.

I need to escape quickly.

Move my body.

Turn around.

Run outside.

That’s the only way to survive.

…

I couldn’t.

In what felt like an eternity, I just stared at the “figure” approaching me.

He, no.

It wasn’t human.

What will happen to me now?

I didn’t even have time to think about it.

Crunch-

***

The body of “Lim Dabin” lying on the bed begins to tremble.

There’s no consciousness in his body right now.

But he’s screaming with his eyes tightly shut, clutching his eyes, and clawing at his own face.

I hurriedly grabbed his arms and legs and held on.

“No!”

I have to stop him.

If this continues, his physical body won’t be able to withstand the mental strain and will collapse.

“Unnie! Help me!”

“Got it!”

Serim unnie, who had been looking for something like rope to restrain him in the back of the break room, rushes over in alarm.

Until then, holding him down was entirely my responsibility.

Another me exactly like me is lying on the bed, struggling.

Wrestling with my body overlapping his was quite a bizarre feeling.

“Unnie, grab him from the left! I’ll keep holding his right arm!”

“I just need to hold him down, right?”

“Yes! But absolutely don’t use your ability! You’ll get caught up in his side too!”

After exchanging shouts for a while, we finally managed to subdue “Lim Dabin.”

“Huk. Huk.”

“Haah…”

The other “Lim Dabin” completely stopped moving for a moment.

Just when we thought the seizure had ended.

“Ah. Aaah…”

Lim Dabin raised his hands again and completely covered his face.

“Aaaaaaaaaah!”

A blood-curdling scream echoed through the break room.

Continuously. Over and over.

“Aaaaaaaa-“

Thump.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

I covered his mouth with my palm.

“Mmmmmmph!”

“…Is this really okay?”

“Why? Are you worried?”

“This is Dabin too, you know.”

“…”

“No, no! Of course I like you, Dabin. But since you look exactly the same, seeing him hurt like this inevitably reminds me of you getting hurt. That’s why I said…”

While still covering his mouth with my palm, I looked at Serim unnie and spoke in a cold voice.

“He’s the one who killed you in another worldline, unnie. Not just you, but Daju and everyone else too.”

“…I know.”

“So, honestly, I didn’t really want to save him. If only he hadn’t tried to override the ‘contract’…”

“Still. I think it’s fortunate.”

“What?”

“No matter what, he’s still another Dabin who made different choices. Even if those choices were wrong, I wouldn’t have hated Dabin.”

“…”

“And that’s why I like you, Dabin. In the end, you saved all of us. Even if you had to push yourself too hard. This Dabin went in the wrong direction and did terrible things, but still.”

Serim unnie smiles at me.

“I can forgive him.”

But I can’t forgive myself.

The fact that another “me” from a different worldline exists means that I had at least some potential to become like him.

A Lim Dabin who killed Serim unnie, killed everyone, and tried to survive alone.

He could have been me.

No.

It’s just a possibility that didn’t happen in this worldline. He was already myself.

That’s why I can’t forgive…

That’s what I was going to say.

But I couldn’t say anything.

Even when I tried to speak, my mouth just opened and closed. I couldn’t think of anything to say.

Lim Dabin’s seizure gradually subsided, and I relaxed my grip.

Even until stability returned, I just kept looking at Serim unnie without saying anything.

Poke.

Serim unnie poked my cheek.

“Dabin’s face is red.”

“…I’m just thinking.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I’m telling you it’s true!”

“Hmm… Okay.”

Serim unnie smiles and changes the subject.

“So this Dabin just died once in the apartment?”

“Yes. I didn’t expect him to die so quickly. I thought he would have all the memories of surviving in the apartment. So I thought he would survive much longer. I even thought he might escape in one go.”

“This Dabin can only wake up if he escapes the imaginary apartment.”

“That’s right. But there’s been a slight discrepancy. Now…”

He didn’t survive as long as I expected.

Even saying “as expected” might be wrong.

Almost instantly, he lost his life in the apartment.

Which means…

“There’s a high possibility that this Lim Dabin has no memories at all.”

It’s not hard to guess the cause of the discrepancy.

“In the final moment, he tried to twist the contract I had created in order to survive alone. In the process, he tried to use everything he could—the Librarian’s power, the price of the contract, and so on. Fortunately, I intervened and was able to maintain the contract, but there’s a high possibility that memory loss occurred due to the backlash.”

“What should we do…”

Serim unnie unconsciously expresses concern, then notices my reaction and covers her mouth.

“It’s okay.”

“Huh? What is?”

“This Lim Dabin is exactly like me. I was just nitpicking because I didn’t want to admit it.”

“…I see.”

“Yes. Actually… I’m worried too.”

Another me lying on the bed with eyes tightly shut.

I held his hand firmly.

Lim Dabin died once in the apartment.

Despite it being just that, his body was gradually growing cold.

“Unnie. Please find some cloth or rope we can use to restrain him again. I’ll keep watching him here.”

“Okay, Dabin.”

I thought he would wake up soon.

Things have become much more difficult.

How many more times will he be able to endure?

For now, we don’t even have a good way to help him.

***

“Huk.”

I opened my eyes with a gasp.

It feels like my lungs are filled with water.

“Huk.”

I startled and stepped back a few steps.

I’m still in the room.

Carefully, I raised my hand and brought it to my eye.

It’s fine.

My eye. My vision.

Looking around, I was back in the room.

And.

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

The sound starts coming from outside the door again.