Chapter 68: something about us

“You said you didn’t know that the girl, Kang Sun-ah, was a murderer.”

“Yes.”

“Then why were you with her at that time?”

“She asked me to come out.”

“Why did you respond to her call?”

“Well, she and I were in the same class.”

“Same class…? Did you notice anything suspicious about her while you were at school?”

“She often dozed off, but other than that, I don’t know.”

“I see… Then what was your relationship with her?”

“…What do you mean, our relationship?”

She hesitated for a moment, as if thinking about how to answer, then slowly opened her lips.

” I think we were friends.”

“Sia, are you really okay?”

“I’m fine. But I’m tired. I’m going to bed first.”

“Sleep

Leaving her sister’s worried question behind, she slams the door shut. Then her voice trails off. She knows it’s wrong, but she’s too tired to care.

The smell of blood still covering her face doesn’t matter anymore.

She doesn’t even have the strength to crawl to the bed, so she leans against the door and slowly collapses. The cold air from the car wraps around her hips.

However, it doesn’t wake her blurry mind, and her whole body feels sluggish, as if she were drunk.

She just stares blankly at the window across from her. After hours of interrogation, the moon that had been high in the sky began to set.

Suddenly, the cry of a newborn baby could be heard. It was probably the sound of a stray cat prowling nearby.

As if triggered by that cry, the image of a pure white dress dyed a piercing red suddenly came to mind.

Bloodstains everywhere and a lifeless body lying on the asphalt. The last image of her I saw just a few hours ago.

Under normal circumstances, I should be feeling nauseous by

now… but strangely, my stomach feels calm.

“…Goodbye. I hope you’ll be happy without me.”

“Ugh…”

Her last words were to be happy, but that’s a difficult request. I stick my index and middle fingers down my throat and force myself to vomit.

But my stomach remains calm. Have I really become strange? No, I think I’ve just become too indifferent.

They say that if pain continues, you don’t even realize it’s pain anymore, so it’s kind of the same thing.

“Sia is kind. No matter how bad I am, if I die in front of her… she’ll remember me forever, right?”

Her last words come to mind. I’m not a good person or anything, but you asked me to remember you forever.

It’s truly an unforgettable memory. That was your last gift, and yet you cursed me to be happy.

I want to burn her already cold corpse. I want to tear out her heart and rip out her beautiful eyes. And I want to hold her one more time.

The human heart is truly disgusting. I want to cut the knot of tiresome memories. I want to turn off the switch of my quiet yet chaotic mind.

I want to go to bed, but I don’t care if it’s not a soft mattress. I’m tired, but I’m not sleepy.

My eyes are wide open. I just close my eyes where I am. But thoughts continue to flow, betraying my will. The events of the past few days unfold like a panorama.

The more I recall them, the more reality is overlaid with unreality.

Everyone is going mad. Like a dream.

“Dream…”

Did I take the medicine again? I rummage through my pocket, wondering if there might be any of the dried mushrooms Isaka gave me left, and absentmindedly cover my lips with my finger.

Suddenly, a funny thought occurs to me, and I curve my lips into a smile. I

f this were a manga, a lightbulb would flash above my head in this situation.

Maybe this is all a dream, and I’m repeating the game while I sleep. The fact that the characters are all idiots is either a distortion of my lowbrow mind or maybe some crappy sequel came out.

Yeah, a dream. Ahaha, the top is spinning. I laugh out loud at the unfunny joke. It’s not funny at all, but I pretend to be cheerful with all my might.

If all of this were really a dream, would I be able to laugh it off like this?

“…”

I thought it was just a boring idea, but when I think about it, it’s not that strange. Maybe my basic premise is wrong. I feel like something important has been off from the start.

Why did I ever think this ridiculous world was real? A world based on a third-rate romance game? Becoming a complete stranger overnight? That’s the kind of thing that only happens in the mind of a delusional addict.

Upon reflection, it is filled with things that could never exist in reality. A serial killer who has murdered over twenty people walks the streets boldly in broad daylight, and a mentally unstable white exchange student addicted to drugs shoots up the school.

My so-called older sister has been using my childhood photos as masturbation material for years.

It’s as if someone scripted it—everyone around me is crazy.

Maybe everyone from the screenwriter to the distributor who released this game has lost their minds.

This is the kind of trashy plot you’d see in a morning drama, but there’s no way this is real, right?

Right, there’s no way this is real.

“…”

I clearly said, “Games are different from reality.” I want to smack my past self, who was so confidently spouting off, hard on the head.

Because this can’t possibly be reality. No matter how absurd reality may be, there are things that happen and things that don’t.

The sun can’t suddenly rise in the west.

As if to counter that line of thinking, the image of my sister, who was hit by a car instead of me, comes to mind. Her smaller body than now, her left arm bent at an angle it shouldn’t be, and her expression gradually losing its vitality.

The beautiful sight of her sacrificing her life for her beloved family. That was the moment I realized this place was another reality.

But now, even that is in doubt. Can it truly be called the truth? Even in a horror movie from 20 years ago, the makeup was so well done that it was hard to tell at first glance, so is my imagination in the 4D IMAX era really that inferior?So it’s a dream.

I am simply having a long dream. When I wake up from this dream, I will be in my familiar room, in my male body. And my real family will be there too.

Yes, my family. Not my sister who dreams of incest or my mother who rarely shows her face, but the faces of the family I left behind come to mind.

My kind mother and father, and my younger sister who is always nagging but not really that bad. A typical family, like something a child would draw. I tried to forget them to let go of my regrets, but I couldn’t bring myself to erase them.

I want to see them. I want to see those people I’ve been trying so hard to ignore. I clench my chest, which feels like it’s about to burst, so tightly that it feels like it might shatter. Even this soft sensation feels too unreal.

A sharp pain settles around my heart, but such a minor pain won’t wake me from this dream.

Then, how can I wake up from this relentless dream?

I bang my head against the wall once, then rise to my feet, feeling as light as if I might fly away at any moment.

The darkness that has engulfed the room pushes me forward, and I open the door.