Chapter 100
The red, burning ceiling collapsed. I stood frozen, unable to move.
I felt neither the sensation of being buried under rubble nor the sting of the fire. It felt like mild dizziness instead, my stomach twisting with nausea.
The pounding sound rang loudly in my ears.
I was afraid my eardrums would burst, but just as that thought crossed my mind, the world went dark.
“…Huh?”
It was like a switch had been flipped. The scene before me shifted instantly. I hadn’t even blinked, and an unbelievable sight unfolded before my eyes.
I stared blankly, then murmured.
“…Did I die?”
It was a reasonable question.
The place I stood in was a gray alley. It felt eerily familiar, reminiscent of the alley where I had encountered Yugyeom after fleeing from Senna.
However, the atmosphere here was different from my memories—something about it felt off. I soon realized why.
“The sky…”
Unlike before, when it seemed ready to pour rain, the sky was high and a clear, bright blue.
It had been so long since I last saw a sky this clear. I extended my hand towards the sky, entranced by its beauty.
A gentle breeze passed through my fingers.
That’s when I noticed something odd.
“What the hell?”
A tiny hand, like a child’s.
That wasn’t all. Suddenly, I began noticing more things I should have caught earlier.
The arms, slender and small. The hair that once reached down to my chest had disappeared entirely.
I quickly got to my feet. The lower perspective felt awkward. My steps were light, as if I were walking on clouds.
The ground was wet with puddles, as if the rain had just stopped.
I knelt down beside one of the puddles, reflecting my image in the water.
Our eyes met, and I couldn’t help but gasp.
A fair, young face stared back at me—a perfect image that hinted at an extraordinary future.
“Baek Hawon?”
My dark hair was short, bringing Baek Hawon to mind almost instantly. I tilted my head, puzzled.
“Or… Cha Yeonbyeol?”
At first, I thought it was a boy, but upon closer inspection, it clearly seemed to be a girl.
If that’s the case, Cha Yeonbyeol seems likely. Is this a memory of her?
But why is young Cha Yeonbyeol in this place?
A whirlwind of questions raced through my mind.
After all, entering a fictional world was already a surreal occurrence.
I brushed off the dust from my clothes and stood up.
Whether this was a memory flashing before my eyes or just a dream while unconscious, I didn’t know.
But one thing was clear—there was no time to waste in this place that felt neither real nor true.
Yugyeom is still trapped in the fire.
“Is anyone here?”
I called out loudly, but only the echo of my voice responded.
It felt strange. Even though this was just someone’s memory, the overwhelming sensation of suffocation was unsettling.
I had felt something similar in this alley before—something foreign, something that seemed to tighten around my throat.
“Eeek!”
Suddenly, something leaped in front of me. I stepped back in shock.
“Meow!”
“…A cat!”
It was a sleek black cat. The feline elegantly circled in front of me.
I felt an almost spellbound sense of affection for its mysterious violet eyes.
Had I always loved cats?
“Crazy. So beautiful.”
I was undeniably enchanted by it.
The cat stared at me silently before gracefully walking down the alley. I followed it, captivated by its elegant steps.
“Meow, do you live here?”
The graceful and regal cat didn’t even glance back when I spoke to it.
Lost in the gentle sway of its tail, I didn’t even notice how deep into the alley I was walking.
At some point, struggling to keep up with the increasingly fast pace became overwhelming.
“Hey! Where are you going, Kitty!”
The cat, after giving me one curious glance, suddenly leapt over a high wall.
I stood there, stunned, staring up at the sky beyond the wall, blocked by a dead-end.
“What the hell is that cat?”
I muttered, letting out a hollow laugh as I kicked the wall.
With my small frame, there was no way I could scale that wall, let alone express my frustration through a weak kick.
The vivid image of those violet eyes, staring at me, as if to say, ‘You can’t do this,’ haunted my mind.
That cat isn’t just a cat… there’s something more inside.
I kicked the wall again, but all it did was hurt my foot.
“When will I wake up from this?”
I complained, but beneath my words, there wasn’t a hint of urgency or desperation.
Like when you dream and don’t realize it’s a dream until you wake up, my sense of reality became blurred, merging with the memories around me.
It felt like this world was the real one, and this body was truly mine.
The sweeter the dream, the harder it is to acknowledge it’s a dream. While this wasn’t a happy dream, I still found comfort in the quiet serenity.
Even my short hair seemed tolerable now.
I glanced once more at the deepened sky, rich with hues, before turning away.
Then I stopped breathing.
“…”
There are moments in life when colors seem unusually vivid. Moments that, even if you try to erase them, leave behind a lingering imprint.
Looking back now, it feels like those moments always had you in them.
‘Are you living here?’
The voice of a woman brushed through my mind. I stood frozen, unable to move my lips.
The expression on the child’s face before me froze too.
A single beam of sunlight fell from the sky, illuminating hair and eyes of the same color, making them even more distinct.
The child hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly.
‘Lost my way. You know the way here?’
The voice returned, softer this time.
‘Are you a foreigner? Can’t understand my words?’
And again, another voice.
Now, I was sure.
The voice I was hearing was Cha Yeonbyeol’s. If I were to speak, her voice would flow out naturally, like a reflection.
I was standing in the memory of Cha Yeonbyeol. So, those words being said were from the past, something young Cha Yeonbyeol once said.
Before me stood a child that resembled Yugyeom in his early years. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
Younger by two years, yet their frames were almost identical. His pale face was expressionless, like a porcelain doll.
He didn’t seem uncomfortable, but more like someone who had never experienced a variety of emotions.
Yugyeom seemed uneasy, his gaze observing me with cautious curiosity as he stepped forward slowly, one deliberate step at a time.
Everything was too vivid.
The bright sky, the afternoon sun, the gentle breeze.
But you sparkled brighter than all of those combined.
The world surrounding me felt blindingly radiant, and I couldn’t gather my thoughts.
A small hand touched my cheek. Our eyes met at the same level.
Yugyeom gazed into my eyes with his clear, earnest gaze.
“…Like a princess from a fairy tale.”
He smiled. His pale face, like a flower blooming after winter, radiated warmth.
That smile shattered something within me. At that moment, I felt it with every fiber of my being.
This is my memory.
If someone were to ask why I believe so, I wouldn’t be able to provide an answer.
Just like how one knows they are human instinctively, I simply knew that this was my memory.
The ground beneath me gave way, and the wind howled fiercely. The world around me distorted, becoming blurred in the storm.
A wall I didn’t know existed shattered, and memories flooded my mind like waves.
Looking back, it’s strange.
From the moment I entered this story, this absurd situation of being pulled into a fictional world, I never thought to yearn for the world I came from.
Yet, I couldn’t explain why I always became so desperate, why I couldn’t stop.
It was as if an unstoppable force was pulling me toward a destiny I couldn’t escape.
‘But how do I?’
As I retraced my steps, the memories of Yugyeom and Baek Hawon reading stories came back to me. The fact that I had entered this body, carrying someone else’s life, was vividly clear.
I couldn’t remember who I was before this body, what my name had been, or what kind of person I had been.
If this were truly a memory from my childhood, not just a possession of a fictional character’s life.
If this body had always been mine, not borrowed from some fictional world—what had happened to make everything so disjointed and unreal?
‘I’ll come again tomorrow.’
The alley where I had first met Yugyeom disappeared, leaving only a void behind as Cha Yeonbyeol’s voice echoed through the empty space.
Everything was dark. It felt as though I was trapped inside a black cube.
‘Okay, I’ll wait.’
Yugyeom’s voice answered.
‘I’ll keep waiting for you here.’
My breath grew short, suffocating like there wasn’t enough air. The voice alone made memories flood my mind, images forming as if right before my eyes.
I punched the black wall in front of me.
‘So make sure you come, no matter what.’
I punched the wall again, and tears fell silently.
The sound of Yugyeom’s voice pierced through my ears as memories crashed over me like waves.
With one final blow, the wall shattered. Black shards rained down like glass falling in a storm.
“….”
And the world turned a crimson hue.
The alley where I had faced Yugyeom was engulfed in flames. Towering flames and thick smoke obscured the sky.
“…No.”
I ran into the burning alley, toward the source of the fire.
‘Thank you! The path here is really confusing. But do you really not know ice cream? I’ll buy some next time. I live near here.’
‘Hey! I snuck out without telling my mom! But do you really have no name? How do you live without a name?’
With each step I took, memories stabbed at my heart. I kept running until I reached a house engulfed in flames.
There, a child—Cha Yeonbyeol—stood before the house.
I, who had been holding Yugyeom’s hand, was consumed by the fire.
