episode_0058

Night at the library.

Just before it got completely dark, we all gathered in one place.

“You have to make a fire quickly before it gets dark.”

I pointed to the mountain of books with a wink.

While Jeong Hae-won brought Choi Se-rim, I gathered it in advance.

“Who has a lighter now?”

“Here!”

Daju falls down and raises his arms. A green lighter is held in a hand with many residual scars.

also. I thought that Da-ju Yoon would always carry a lighter in her pocket. This means you don’t have to bother searching through your bag.

I was about to take the lighter, but Da-ju grabbed my hand.

“Have you confirmed that it is a useless book?”

“Yes.”

“… … Well then, I’m glad.”

Daju closes his eyes and mutters.

The fuss is still there, but things don’t look very good. There are a lot of scratches here and there, and there may be a broken place somewhere from the fall earlier. Worst of all, my forehead is torn and bleeding continues to flow.

I need treatment quickly. To do that, the first thing to do is to start a fire.

“I checked it roughly earlier. Since I saw the title and a bit of content after flipping through a few pages, I won’t burn an important book.”

After answering, I called Jeong Hae-won.

“Hey, Haewon.”

“Yes?”

“Try to light a fire. Because I will be watching all week.”

“Yes.”

I opened the bag I had left at my feet. As heavy as it is, there is a lot of stuff in the bag I brought with me.

First, a water bottle.

I opened the bottle cap and let the water flow over Daju’s wounds.

“Ah, that’s it!”

“Be patient.”

The sawdust and dust stuck to the wound are washed away.

Next, disinfect with red medicine and apply pressure with a bandage to stop the bleeding.

“That’s it. You can take care of the rest.”

“Oppa is so heartless.”

“No… … .”

Normally I wouldn’t care what Daju says, but saying it in this situation makes me feel like my heart is being stabbed.

Are you doing this knowing everything?

just as expected. Daju, who had a really sad face, quickly changed her expression and was now smiling slyly.

“Hi.”

Daju smiles with a bruised face. As I watch that, I have mixed feelings.

“Ugh.” I sighed and turned around.

“I have to take care of Serim noona too.”

Choi Se-rim is still lying curled up.

I quickly checked his breathing because his eyes were closed, and it seemed like he was probably sleeping. When I tried to shake it to wake it up, it started to react like it was talking in its sleep. Looking at his expression, his condition seems to have improved a lot.

But suddenly my head hurts so much. Is there something in the library?

Saegeun, Saegeun.

Sister Serim is sleeping, breathing softly.

From the first time I came here, I couldn’t really get to know Choi Se-rim.

no. To be precise, the more you learn, the more new questions arise.

Cold sweat is forming on Choi Se-rim’s forehead. The place where I lie down is also damp with sweat.

I was about to walk to where my bag was to take out a towel, but stopped.

“Dabin… … .”

I thought he had just woken up and was calling me, but he was talking in his sleep.

“Library… … . The ending… … .”

Choi Se-rim muttered helplessly and turned over as if in pain.

Even if it is just sleep talk, conversation is possible in some cases. Maybe we can find out something?

I squatted down in front of her and asked.

“What is the ending?”

“Ending.”

Se-rim Choi repeats my words in a blank voice.

“There is only one.”

“By the ending, do you mean the end of the world? What does it mean that there is only one?”

this place. The apartment’s time zone is strangely twisted.

Se-rim Choi came into the apartment to escape a future disaster, but we meet in the same timeline as me.

The future disaster she talks about is when something unknown is released and the world is destroyed.

Could it be that the future has already been decided and we cannot change it no matter what we do?

But Choi Se-rim shakes her head.

“No.”

I lie down and shake my legs.

“No, ”

Arms with nowhere to go wave in the air.

Choi Se-rim opens her eyes and straightens up. As he screams, he grabs my shoulder with tremendous force and shakes me.

Choi Serim’s face is pushed in front of me. The whites of the eyeballs are bloodshot.

At the same time, something flows into my head.

An image of a book drenched in black ink.

Letters all around.

Broken information is spinning in the void without any meaning.

At the center,

I see stars.

I came back to reality in an instant.

A star that exists beneath a cliff that slopes endlessly downward.

It is a being no different from what I saw in my fantasy.

continue.

next.

If there really is a soul, there will be a sense of it escaping.

All surrounding light is distorted and goes downward.

The entire body’s strength is sucked into the abyss.

“Ah… … .”

When she came to her senses again, Serim Choi was lying calmly in her seat.

As if everything was an illusion, Da-ju Yoon and Hae-won Jeong, who were around, showed no reaction.

Should I take my time and figure it out slowly?

There were many questions that immediately came to mind, but I decided to put them aside at least until Choi Se-rim came to her senses.

I took out a towel and wiped Choi Se-rim’s face.

“Oppa.”

As I was about to finish wiping, Daju called me.

“Huh?”

“Can’t I light the fire? He’s so bad at it.”

“What is it? You still haven’t lit the fire?”

“Yes! Not yet… !”

I looked in the direction where the answer was coming from.

Tick, tick.

All you really hear is the sound of a lighter being turned on. The flame that should have been lit a long time ago is not visible, and instead, only a lot of acrid smoke is rising.

“What are you doing?”

When I looked to see what he was doing, I saw that Jeong Hae-won was recklessly holding a lighter to the cover of a book.

A book that comes into contact with a flame only smolders and does not catch fire.

“Get out of the way.”

I tapped Jeong Hae-won’s side with my hand.

When I went to the side and looked at him, I noticed that he was taller too. no. I must have become too small… … .

Feeling that my pride was being hurt for some reason, I snatched Jeong Hae-won’s lighter.

“Do you think they will stick to me if I complain like that?”

I opened a book and tore open a page.

Paper cut to appropriate sizes is piled on top of numerous books.

He piled up a pile of paper, picked up a piece of paper, and lit it on fire.

All you need to do is carefully place the kindling made this way on top of a pile of paper.

hook-

Hot air rushes upward.

“When lighting a fire, surface area is important. Got it?”

Crack. Crack.

The flames quickly grow in size, and now even the books piled below are turning into a heap of ashes.

“Yes, sister.”

“Now I’ll be watching the fire, so you can get some rest too. I’m sorry for asking you back and forth earlier.”

Amazingly, the surroundings become brightly lit.

Conversely, it also means that this place is dark. Because there is no other lighting in the library.

dump.

Jeong Hae-won sits down next to him and starts talking.

“Do you know Tomorrow? I used to play it at school.”

“What is that? Is it a movie?”

A lively voice speaks.

Daju sat down and pulled himself near the warm fire.

“Yes. Why doesn’t anyone know?”

“I know.”

Daju doesn’t know, but it’s a movie I’ve seen too.

Tomorrow. This is a movie about a disaster in the near future.

“The ice age came and everyone froze to death, so the survivors gathered in the library and started a fire.”

Thump, thud.

Books scream in the fire.

“But in the meantime, we are picking out valuable books separately.”

Gutenberg Bible. Nietzsche’s writings. Medical books, etc.

It is a famous scene that shows the survivors protecting human civilization and altruism even in the midst of a disaster, but in the end, the principle of survival of the fittest is also included here.

marketing. Tax accounting. statistics.

Books that weren’t that important right now literally became kindling. A disaster occurred, and in the end, only valuable information survived and was passed down to future generations.

“Yes. That’s right.”

Jeong Hae-won nods.

“Do you have a book that you chose separately?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t decide to burn just any book either. Books that seemed even remotely related to the information I was looking for were set aside and collected.

“Check it out if you have time. Or you can watch it slowly tomorrow… … .”

Hmm. A yawn comes out automatically.

I stretched out and stabbed the fire with a stick.

“It feels like a campfire.”

Daju lies down on the smooth floor of the bookshelf and mutters in a drowsy voice.

“Oppa, didn’t you bring marshmallows?”

“Who takes care of that.”

“I brought it with me.”

There is a bag of marshmallows in Daju’s hand.

I was told to get rid of all unnecessary things, but it looks like I secretly packed them in my bag.

“Wow. Noona’s readiness.”

Da-ju smiles and hands out marshmallows to Jeong Hae-won, who opens her eyes wide.

“Oppa, aren’t you going to eat it?”

“… … .”

Daju picks up a stick from somewhere and starts roasting marshmallows.

A sweet smell spreads through the night air.

“Just one bite.”

“Here!”

“But don’t those monks smell it too?”

“Then we have to fight. You can’t come all the way here and not eat marshmallows.”

“That’s true, but… … .”

This is at the bottom of a cliff anyway, so even monks won’t be able to come down easily.

From what I saw earlier, it didn’t seem like my sense of smell was that good.

Between reason and emotion.

After struggling for a while, I made a decision.

ah. I don’t know.

I put a well-roasted marshmallow in my mouth.

Moist, melted warm marshmallow. It’s super delicious.

In fact, if this were the case, wouldn’t it be possible to risk one’s life?

Choi Se-rim is also sleeping comfortably near the fire.

Burning flame.

If you stare blankly at this, you will feel very relaxed.

It was around the time when drowsiness slowly set in.

The wind blew.

For a moment, the light shook violently, and darkness fell for a moment even where we were and then disappeared.

That alone left ominous traces around.

Strange letters engraved on the floor.

Symbols soaked in red ink on the surrounding paper.

The wind was whispering.

There is information that has evolved solely to survive. Contains an anomalous meme.

I got up from my seat to protect the fire.

“Be careful. We were so relaxed, we.”

“… … Yes.”

It didn’t take long to create a fire pit by stacking books high around the fire.

After eating, everyone went to sleep. I keep looking at the fire and supplying it with firewood.

Completely dark surroundings and a loud, burning flame. They often created the illusion that I was completely alone.

At times like that, I raised my head from where I was sitting and looked to the side.

Da-ju Yoon and Hae-won Jeong are lying in their respective seats, fast asleep.

Being on alert is very difficult.

Shift time doesn’t come. I’m constantly sleepy, but if I fall asleep, everyone will die.

Nod. Nod.

I felt uncontrollably drowsy, so I decided to do anything other than sleep.

Since this is a library, there is enough paper. There is also a ballpoint pen in the bag. I took out a ballpoint pen and drew a picture.

hmm.

Is it because I took a break from practicing for a while? The feel of the picture seems to have changed slightly? However, it’s not that my skills have worsened, it just feels like something is different from before.

As I look down the paper, I see my hands.

Small hands again. It feels amazing that your fingers are holding the pen so tightly.

“Did I draw it?”

I gasped and looked back.

Choi Se-rim, who had been asleep for a while, raised her upper body and was looking at me.

“Sister. Are you awake?”

“Yes. I’m glad everyone is safe.”

“Why did you do that earlier?”

“He said he had a headache,” I explained.

Choi Se-rim smiles and shakes her head.

“I don’t know. Just suddenly.”

“Then, what about [the ending]?”

“What?”

“I heard it earlier when my sister was talking in her sleep.”

The smile quickly disappears from Choi Se-rim’s face. A visibly nervous look filled the place.

“What I’m looking for in this library is about [the ending]. But it didn’t seem like it was the end of the world. Also, the images my sister showed me unconsciously at that time… … . So, there is something different here.”

I paused for a moment and glanced to the side.

Da-ju Yoon and Hae-won Jeong. The other two are still fast asleep.

“Sister. Tell me.”

I quietly got up from the fire and approached Serim Choi.

Jeez. Jeez.

Torn pieces of paper are trampled under my feet.

I come next to Choi Se-rim, and this time, it’s me. We made direct eye contact.

“So that we can solve it together.”