Noise in the Silence

Everyone has experienced silence.

So, without needing to explain, you’ll know what it feels like to be here.

The office is silent at night.

A pitch-black night, with dawn just ahead.

Various sounds reach the ears of someone unable to sleep.

The hum of the refrigerator in the pantry.

The sound of the wind, entering through a slightly open window, stirring the office as it pleases.

Printed materials rustling, joining the chaos.

A storm in silence.

A storm of small sounds confuses my ears.

You could see them as unwelcome guests, but to me, they are welcome visitors.

Because they appeared after the terrible voices that always filled my head disappeared.

The various voices that cried out for a body.

Greedy, shameless, arrogant, and persistent, those voices vanished as cleanly as the autumn sky.

After entering Inho’s inner world, I felt a void as if half of my soul had disappeared.

It must be because of Kkumul’s absence. Since he was also the cause of the voices that tormented me, I can’t simply lament it.

Rather, it’s right to see it as liberation.

Of course, I don’t want to exclude Kkumul.

Whatever the case, he accompanied me and bore some of my loneliness.

It’s just that there were side effects.

Yes, that’s how I’ll organize it.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

I think I hear the ticking of an analog clock that shouldn’t be there.

Time keeps flowing.

I just stare at the dark monitor, doing nothing.

If someone saw this, they would scream that there’s a ghost working overtime in the office.

My back is getting sore, probably because I’ve been sitting in the same position for too long.

My pelvis is also stiff, so I must have been sitting for at least two or three hours.

If I had at least worked, wouldn’t time have passed faster?

I raised my hand to the power button for no reason, then put it down.

What’s the point of working in a world that’s meaningless anyway?

It’s ridiculous that I’m still thinking about work even after coming this far.

Very much so.

My ears become more sensitive.

More sensitive to sound.

In the storm of silence, I frantically search for any sound that will make my heart flutter.

If I hear even a slightly unusual sound, my ears perk up like a rabbit’s.

With a feeling of “[Hokshi… – Maybe…]”

Soon, when the sound fades, my excited heart cools down.

The sounds I hear are still the same.

The hum of the refrigerator in the pantry.

The sound of the wind, entering through a slightly open window, stirring the office as it pleases.

Printed materials rustling, joining the chaos.

Other sounds occasionally overlap, but they are not the sounds I want.

So, expectation and disappointment alternate.

They alternate again, intertwine, and create knots.

Finally, a piece of emotion falls into my heart like a fabric.

Its name is resignation.

Yes, I shouldn’t expect any more.

He won’t come to me.

While entering Inho’s subconscious, the Dimension Management God told us.

Only one person will be chosen.

Those who are not chosen will return to their original dimension.

After the selection, no soul will be able to Dimensional Shift.

“The original dimension.”

I’m already dead, so if I return to the original dimension, will I fall into that hellfire?

I try to recall the memories of that hell, which are now faint.

Rather than clear senses, I feel an emotional rejection.

“Still….”

It can’t be helped.

If he doesn’t choose me, the only end for me will be hell.

I unreasonably complained to Inho.

As if I committed murder because of Inho, as if I made a contract and crossed dimensions because of Inho.

When I think about it, it’s not Inho’s fault.

He was just caught up in it.

I was the one who made the choice.

And then I unilaterally blamed him.

[It’s all because of you that I committed sins.]

I had such a bad thought.

In fact, I was the bad one.

Even if life is full of unhappiness, that unhappiness shouldn’t become a privilege.

I could have just wiped the soot off the glass, but why did I deliberately throw it on the floor and break it?

While being pricked by the shattered glass shards, I resented the world.

I was the one who threw it.

When my thoughts reached that point, I felt sorry for him.

And grateful too.

[Because I was desperately lonely and wanted someone to understand my heart to be by my side. Because a large piece supporting my life was missing, and I felt empty. Because I wanted to be compensated for my emptiness.]

He painstakingly picked up the fragments of a woman he had no connection to, one by one.

Even while being pricked by the sharp fragments, he smiled.

So, I wanted to be a little greedier.

I’m not qualified, and I really did something terrible to him, but….

I wanted to be happy like crazy.

[Whatever it is, I’ll be there to help you, Mina.]

His figure, pulling my hand and climbing the stairs, flickers in my mind.

So, I prick up my ears.

In the sea of silence, I try to catch a new signal.

I shouldn’t expect it, but I want to expect it.

Please, come to me.

Please choose me.

May the fleeting moment of his happiness rest on me.

I desperately prayed to gods I didn’t even believe in.

Then.

Zhiing-

I heard a sound.

The sound of automatic doors opening. No doubt about it.

There’s no way I misheard it. It’s not a hallucination.

Step, step.

I hear footsteps, and my heart starts beating like crazy.

I feel a presence.

Slowly

Little by little

Surely

Coming

To me.

And stops.

Behind me.

I feel a gaze.

Ah.

How.

Really?

Is it real?

Don’t tell me it’s a delusion.

It wouldn’t be a cruel joke that it’s just a security guard after I turn around, would it?

Please.

Please.

It has to be Inho.

Inho has to be there.

Please.

Is it possible to feel both excitement and fear at the same time?

I catch my breath, feeling like my heart is being squeezed by a hand, as if it’s about to burst through my bones.

“Why, are you crying?”

His voice falls on my head.

It’s his voice.

I slowly get up and turn around.

I take a deep breath to accept the unbelievable situation, as if a dream has become reality.

I see his face.

Unfamiliar but certain….

A grateful face.

“Your face is a mess?”

He throws a joke, probably feeling awkward.

I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and answer.

“Because I’m happy.”

Ah, so this was happiness.

The emotion I had forgotten sparkled like glass beads reflected in the light.