Episode 197
After opening his eyes, Jaeheon Lee just lay in bed for a while.
“…I’m tired.”
And it was comfortable.
That comfort was similar to the sweetness of the air you can feel when you finally get better after being sick for three days. It is a time when you feel grateful, even just for a moment, for a subject that you take for granted as part of your daily life and whose value you soon forget. That was Jaeheon Lee’s condition right now.
There was something about this world that drove people crazy just by breathing. It was difficult to stay sane in a world where the noise of stepping on thin branches made me shudder, my brain whined at the howling of animals, and the greatest fear a person had ever known appeared before my eyes. Even powerful game characters have difficulty moving if they are under the curse debuff.
But after just escaping from that other side of the world, breathing normal air and lying on a soft bed…
“Huh.”
It sounded like it was melting on its own. To be more precise, it was the sound of air leaving the lungs.
Jaeheon Lee lay on his side, holding the edge of the white blanket. Still, I felt a little relieved to be lying in my own room in a familiar house. I felt like I had successfully completed a boring project, had a company dinner, returned at dawn, and woke up late in the afternoon. It wasn’t refreshing, but it was comfortable.
Lee Jae-heon, who was curled up as if he was taking a nap, got up from the bed only when he felt sleepy. Outside the window next to the bed, I could see the pitch-black night sky. The bright lights made it difficult to see the Milky Way or even a few stars, but it was the night sky. There is color.
“…He did come back.”
Lee Jae-heon, who once again confirmed his own survival, stretched out his arms high and stood up. There were a lot of things I had to check before I could fall asleep like this.
He checked his watch.
“11:42 p.m…..”
Lee Jae-heon died in the other world
. “No.”
Correct. Although he didn’t die, the last time he was conscious was around 6 o’clock at the latest. If Lee Jae-heon had died, he would have returned, so the green algae monster died while he was alive and was able to escape from the other world, but there was also a certain amount of error in time.
I muttered softly as I looked at the digital clock with white numbers flashing on a black background.
“Are the settings the same?”
There is a slight difference between time in the hidden world and the real world.
This was the conclusion I came to after going back and forth between the other world and reality twice in the story. That’s because in the other world, there are almost no means of checking the exact flow of time. It’s understandable to be confused.
‘I think it was said that things change a little every time you leave the other side of the world.’
When I checked it myself, it didn’t seem to be much different from what Jaeheon Lee knew.
“So, did everyone come back safely here?”
He turned on the cell phone that was lying on the table and checked the noisy message window and the disgusting missed call log.
“hmm.”
I quietly turned the power off.
Because there was a difference in rank and there was no one to talk to in private with the old manager, my personal cell phone was quiet, but the cell phone I used for work was a different story. In this case, there are young people who don’t say hello to this sacred business number.
‘…I could just make a phone call before I go to bed.’
Anyway, I confirmed that he was alive.
Lee Jae-heon, who did not change the silent setting, placed his phone on the table and walked away. It was to check the things I was most curious about.
“This and this… This is still there…”
Bedroom, study, guest room. After searching every corner of the house, he reached the kitchen and muttered.
“…Have you eaten?”
There were traces of dishes being washed in the sink, and some food items were empty in the pantry next to the kitchen.
Immediately after that, Jaeheon Lee searched the bathroom and looked at the floor, which was now almost dry because someone had taken a shower in the morning. When I shook the shampoo bottle, I felt that the weight had become lighter, as if the amount had decreased slightly compared to before I went to the other side of the world.
“I was really only active to the bare minimum.”
This was said to the monster who had imitated Lee Jae-heon in his place.
‘In reality, the only monster that can have a clear form is the mannequin monster.’
The mannequin monster has no face. However, it has hair and ears and is said to be similar to the egg ghost in a ghost story. And most of the time, they imitate someone and are active in the hidden world and the real world. In the behind-the-scenes world, they generally exist as ‘guards’ to protect the rules inside the building, but the mannequin monsters that come out in reality replace the absent survivors.
If the person he was imitating dies inside the other world, he will remain in his place, but if the survivor comes out
alive …
I blinked when I looked in the mirror for the first time.
“Why am I like this?”
Inside, the face of a previous life was imitating Lee Jae-heon’s expression.
“Oh, it’s gone.”
This was the same setting as in the story.
The mannequin monster that enters the mirror often surprises and harasses the survivor I was following inside, but I cannot enter the survivor’s gaze every time. Occasionally, it will imitate the survivor’s facial expressions or move of its own free will, only lowering its mental power. As long as survivors actually exist, the mannequin monster has no right to pop out into reality, which means that even survivors can usually look at ordinary mirrors.
“….”
Inside the pure white bathroom, Lee Jae-heon wiped the corners of his mouth as if covering his mouth.
‘…Didn’t they originally say that mannequin monsters can’t eat…?’
The only time the mannequin monsters could eat was when they took the place of survivors intact. When the survivor you’re imitating dies, a mannequin sits in their place and lives as that ‘human’. Only then can the mannequin monster eat like a human.
However, there were clearly traces of someone eating in the kitchen of Lee Jae-heon’s house. Even if it was the bathroom, this, along with the face of his past life that he had just seen in the mirror, was not something that could be ignored.
“…I don’t know.”
However, it was not a problem that could be solved immediately.
Lee Jae-heon came out of the bathroom and walked quickly to the living room. There was a slight smell of blood, which was probably because his blood had not been properly cleaned up during the panicked weekend. It’s the traces of self-harm to see if I inherited the abilities from my previous life.
“If this bastard is going to eat what I bought without paying for it, he should clean it up…”
Lee Jae-heon, who actually said that, didn’t even bother to wipe away the remaining blood. There was nothing I could do about it because both Lee Jae-heon in his past life and Lee Jae-heon in his current life hated working diligently. However, I can’t call a cleaning company to remove the blood stains, so I will have to clean them someday, but not now.
Jaeheon Lee collapsed on the sofa and gazed lazily at the ceiling.
“….”
In some ways, it was abnormal behavior.
I just confirmed that the story did not go as I knew it would. Perhaps the personality of his past life came out and filled the empty spot of the old manager. Looking at the minimized movement route, it seemed like that was probably right. But I still wasn’t sure.
Despite such an anxious situation, Lee Jae-heon fell into a strange sense of comfort and could not shake off the haziness that had invaded his brain. I didn’t even want to do that. Because the house was on a very high floor and expensive, Lee Jae-heon was just silent inside the quiet white walls. Time passes, but Lee Jae-heon does not change or move.
“…therefore.”
I pursed my lips.
“…Why am I here…?”
Just like when I first remembered my past life, I felt a strange sense of floating and fear at the same time.
“Why am I here? Seriously…”
My fingertips trembled slightly.
Lee Jae-heon felt nauseated by the emotions boiling inside him. I reflexively bent my back and pressed my hands together as if to cover my face. I felt a chill rising from my toes, as if my body temperature, which was originally low, had caused a problem. My shoulders were shaking slightly from the cold.
I didn’t want to be here.
“My home is not here.”
I didn’t want to be there anymore because it wasn’t where I was supposed to be.
But then what? Even if Lee Jae-heon in his past life rejected it, even if Lee Jae-heon in his current life rejected it, even if the old manager who ran away from his parents’ house when he was young refused, this was Lee Jae-heon’s house. It was a house he bought himself, decorated himself, and put his name to.
Nevertheless, Jaeheon Lee was fed up.
“This isn’t mine, you fucking bastards…”
What kind of house would a house be if it didn’t have anything I love?
Jaeheon Lee recognized that he was in panic again, but there was nothing he could do. Perhaps the lingering feeling of having just escaped from the other side of the world is slowly fading away. So, I guess I’m being foolish when faced with reality. I guess they’re making this mess because they don’t want to wake up from their dream.
There was nothing here that Jaeheon Lee loved.
“….”
He slowly removed his hand and raised his head, but unlike his shaken voice, his face was clear. It was because I was too old to cry about things like this.
“…under.”
Still, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t terrible.
Maybe it doesn’t have to be like this every time. Just like he did in his past life, the current Lee Jae-heon will also get used to the repeated deaths in the other side of the world, and will not be reminded of the faces of his beloved family every time.
I am experiencing this reaction simply because this time, I saw my family for the last time, saw the life back then, and brought the comfort of that time into reality. That was clear.
So this was no different from simply immature complaining.
“There’s nothing here.”
It also meant that Lee Jae-heon wasted his age.
“huh? “There’s nothing, honey…”
Lee Jae-heon in his past life could be satisfied even if what was in front of him were his own mistakes and regrets. In the end, there was nothing left around him, who was terrible, but even that could be called a trace if it was a trace. At least I could look at pictures or smoke a cigarette in front of the grave.
Lee Jae-heon, who didn’t realize his past life, was fine too. He taught me to be happy about everything in my life. I thought I would live a life of wealth and fame, showing off my wealth. As a result, even though what was left was a vain life without family, friends, or anything else, I enjoyed it. I thought I was happy without knowing anything, so that was it.
However, there was nothing left for Lee Jae-heon, who realized his past life.
“I wish I had your picture here and I decorated this house.”
Both his past life and his current life were Lee Jae-heon, but they couldn’t be exactly the same. I had the awareness that it was ‘me’, but I didn’t think that ‘I did it’. There was nothing left next to Lee Jae-heon, who recalled his past life.
The other side of the world was better.
“I can at least see your face there.”
The curse-like atmosphere weakened reason, and the monsters that hated humans made their survival instincts stand close by itself. This means that Jaeheon Lee never had to look closely at himself and look into his own life. This means that there was no room for that.
Lee Jae-heon could not hate such a hidden world.
“….”
That’s what you left behind.
It was there that I could remain as ‘me’….
* * *
Jaeheon Lee, who went to work the next day, frowned at the sight of the main character giving me a chewed expression without even unpacking his luggage.
“…Are you having a snowball fight with me now?”
“…Why didn’t I contact you?”
“ah.”
I blinked.
But what can I do?
