Episode 371,
No. 802.
“It was the lake where I lived when I was about 13 years old.”
Ha Seong-yoon encountered his younger self’s past in the apartment in Building 119.
“It was peaceful. I was happy. “I don’t think I thought much of it at the time when I was young, but when I think about it now, it was the most peaceful time of my life.”
Ha Seong-yoon did not think his life was particularly ordinary.
His two parents were people who could rightly be called saints, and Ha Seong-yoon grew up in the right direction under them. It was natural for great new talent to grow under an average talent.
Nevertheless, I think I lived a pretty normal life at the time.
“…Well, what could have happened when I was only 13 years old?”
Except for the fact that his parents were both busy and couldn’t see each other often, 13-year-old Ha Seong-yoon’s life was normal. My daily routine involves doing homework from school, playing with friends, playing a little prank, and greeting my parents when they get home from work. Room 802 of Building 119 contained a stable life as if it were depicted in a picture.
“For the only time in my life, um…”
“The only time?”
“It was a quiet and comfortable time.”
Ha Seong-yoon, now older than his 13 years, became a proper young man without a brief period of rebellion, and became a professor after going through the internship/resident/fellow program, where he was said to run away from exhaustion. In the process, Ha Seong-yoon performed countless good deeds regardless of whether they were at home or abroad. He became a good adult.
But not when I was 13.
“He was a child you could see everywhere.”
“Ha Seong-yoon?”
“I was a bit of a model student, but I didn’t suffer from a sense of duty or duty like I do now. It was different from just a few years later, when I was in middle school. “At that time, I was just an ordinary neighborhood kid, playing around without any burden.”
That was Ha Seong-yoon when he was a ‘person’.
“When I saw that, this thought came to me.”
Since when did I become a ‘doctor’?
“…Why were you so obsessed with the doctor?…”
You didn’t have to do that.
Ha Seong-yoon’s parents were people of great character and would have supported him without stopping him even if he wanted a career other than being a doctor. Nevertheless, Ha Seong-yoon insisted on only one path: becoming a doctor. When I think back on that long and painful process, the child’s stubbornness seemed extremely stubborn.
“I thought it was a little strange.”
“What is it?”
“I was a really ordinary kid back then.”
“You said yes.”
“…I don’t remember what my 13-year-old dream was.”
“….”
“How did I live an ordinary life?”
From some point on, Ha Seong-yoon was not a person but a doctor.
“Isn’t it too soon to say you were distraught over your parents’ death?”
In room 802, Ha Seong-yoon was able to discover traces of himself as a child.
He likes sweet drinks, stays in front of the TV rather than books, and focuses his attention on his parents’ sparkling fame rather than the burden on their shoulders. There was a 13-year-old child there who was gentle but could be seen anywhere.
Ha Seong-yoon smiled, touching his eyes with his hands.
“Mr. Jeong In-ho and Detective Hong Gyeong-jun were also embarrassed… It seemed like they couldn’t relate the traces to who I am now. “I was embarrassed that this ordinary kid grew up to become such a disgusting doctor.”
However, it did not mean that he suddenly changed from a person to a doctor. I knew Ha Seong-yoon after he was 13 years old. When I was a middle school student trying to find my own identity, I talked to my parents about various things, listened to their advice, decided on a career path, and gradually became obsessed with it.
When I came to my senses, the only person left was Ha Seong-yoon, a doctor.
“So I was a little scared.”
“Which one?”
“I… this is what happened now.”
“yes.”
“It’s not just because I was preoccupied with the death of my parents…”
It wasn’t because of their deaths that Dr. Ha Seong-yoon was completed.
“…I feel like I was created from the beginning to be like this…”
I wonder if someone created him to be a ‘doctor’.
“….”
“….”
I was scared.
scary.
“…I may have been out of my mind lately, but even though I thought it was nonsense, I couldn’t escape this agony. I know, I’m thinking too much. It was too much. I’m stuck with a victim mentality. The only thing I know is whether God exists or not, so why do you even doubt the secret of my birth? “It’s funny.”
But when I thought about Jung In-ho, I couldn’t just keep laughing.
“But I heard that Mr. Jeong In-ho is the main character. Didn’t you say you were the main character of this world? If there is a main character, are there any supporting characters next to him? What about extras that are only shown briefly? If Jung In-ho is the main character, then who am I? “Is it true that I should have come out of the flower shop alive that day?”
“….”
“I was next to Garam that day. He had a notebook in his arms with information about the underworld. Garam is a strong child who realized his abilities before anyone else. The notebook in which I wrote down the information I heard from my friend would definitely have been helpful to any survivor in the underworld. There is no need for doctors in the underworld. It’s useless. Unlike me, Grandma Azalea has unrealistic healing abilities. “Even if I had died at the flower shop that day, this world would have gone on just fine.”
then?
“Mr. Lee Jae-heon saved the life of ‘Doctor Ha Seong-yoon’…”
Then what is the ‘Lee Jae-heon’ who saved me?
“…What is your role in this world? bug? Cheat…? Is it true that even though there is already a main character named Jeong In-ho, a person named ‘Director Lee Jae-heon’ is in charge of such a large role? Don’t ordinary stories revolve around one axis?”
“Are you excited?”
“…Maybe…”
Ha Seong-yoon was scared.
“…I miss my parents.”
“Oh my.”
“I don’t remember what they look like.”
“Do you have any pictures?”
“We didn’t take any pictures.”
“aha.”
“That’s really….”
It’s scary.
“…Isn’t it too much?”
When I was a human, I couldn’t remember the parents who hugged and loved me to their heart’s content at the young age of 13. As if it was natural for them to disappear, it is now so difficult to find even a trace of them.
Ha Seong-yoon was a doctor.
“I was a person too.”
I will continue to be a doctor in the future.
“I can’t even remember what kind of person I am…” If
even my memories of that time when I was 13 have become blurry.
What if all of this was not Ha Seong-yoon’s choice but the actions of the person who created ‘Ha Seong-yoon’? Now that even his qualifications as a ‘doctor’ have faded and he is nothing, what on earth is he? Ha Seong-yoon, who was neither a person nor a doctor, but went crazy for my parents’ death, had a very clear purpose.
Ha Seong-yoon should have died at the flower shop that day.
“….”
A tool for the awakening of Garam Yoon, who only passed on information about the hidden world to the protagonist and became the protagonist’s friend or enemy.
That was the role of ‘Doctor Ha Seong-yoon’.
“…Jaeheon Lee is a person, right?”
“It’s a person.”
“It’s okay to be a monster, as long as it’s alive.”
“I’m still alive.”
“I feel like I’m going crazy.”
For some reason, killing a living thing isn’t that shocking.
“People don’t look like people.”
Was it because it was all an illusion?
Was that why I couldn’t treat people who weren’t ‘patients’ like people? Because it is God, not humans, who makes this world run? Because we are just tools and props?
“…Jaeheon Lee.”
“Please speak.”
“Will this get better when we return to reality?”
“I guess so.”
“We… are people, right?”
“you’re right.”
“Then that’s it.”
What on earth did God want to create such a cruel world?
“Then I’ll hold on.”
“yes.”
“I can endure it….”
For whom?
Did you make me?
* * *
Lee Jae-heon thought as he looked at Ha Seong-yoon asleep next to him.
‘…Damn it?’
I think it won’t be long before Ha Seong-yoon finds out that this is a novel.
In fact, even if he knew that, it didn’t really matter to Lee Jae-heon. There has never been a time when he wasn’t ‘Lee Jae-heon’, and Lee Jae-heon is not an easy person to let the modifications he has made so far be revealed. The original work has already been sufficiently destroyed. Even if something went awry, I was confident enough to deal with it.
If there was a problem, it was his dear writer.
‘Honey, what are you going to do with this?’
This world is either a novel itself or was created based on a novel, and the person who wrote the novel was his widowed wife. I couldn’t even imagine how Ha Seong-yoon would react if he found out that the god of the secret world was a real adult woman.
“….”
…A woman with substance.
“…I miss you.”
I still love that person, but it was such an old feeling. After killing his wife with his own hands, Lee Jae-heon did not have any family by his side. His children left him and there was a wall between him and his colleagues. For a moment, I imagined what it would be like if there was substance again in the place that had been empty all along.
If I hold your slender fingers, cup your soft cheeks, and hide your warmth in your arms…
“Are you foolish?”
그래도 이 세계에 미련한 개새끼를 집어넣은 건 당신이다.
That would mean I don’t have to give up this feeling. After regaining a life I didn’t want, all my motivation to pursue fame and fortune came from there. In that he couldn’t let me go and my feelings were also allowed. That was all.
“Then…”
Lee Jae-heon’s job was decided.
Struggle and struggle until I meet my wife again.
“What should we do now?”
How can I become peaceful?
“….”
Let’s get a little more serious.
That’s it.
* * *
Ha Seong-yoon, who complained to Lee Jae-heon rather than complaining, seemed to have sorted out his mind.
“So let’s kill the final boss before I go crazy.”
“Why is the conclusion like that?”
“Oh, now that I’ve mentioned it, the detective is holding my scalpel too. “I’ve been going crazy lately, so I might stab an innocent person.”
“….”
Hong Gyeong-jun closed his eyes and took a deep breath, nodding as if he had a lot to say but would hold it in for now. Anyway, in the underworld, the scalpel was a tool for attack, not treatment, so there seemed to be little pressure on taking the scalpel away from doctor Ha Seong-yoon.
asked Hong Gyeong-jun, who had wrapped the blade of the scalpel with a cloth and stored it in his pocket.
“…So you’re in bad condition.”
“Can’t you tell by looking?”
“I asked out of courtesy.”
Hong Gyeong-jun nodded and continued speaking.
“I was already worried. No matter how much I adapted, the other side of the world was not a place to stay for long… I was guessing that there would be a monster ready to escape from Unhak High School right now. “If there are no major problems, the next destination will be school.”
“You’re quite active, aren’t you? “I thought there was no need to move right away since something big happened.”
“….”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who briefly glanced at Lee Jae-heon, answered.
“…I changed my mind.”
“It’s worth it.”
Although his attitude has not changed noticeably as he has not yet experienced it himself, Hong Gyeong-jun was pleased to learn that all survivors can return when they die and that, except for a few, they do not remember the previous episode. Compared to the past, when people were cautious because they didn’t know who would die and how and when, Hong Gyeong-jun showed a quite proactive attitude.
Ha Seong-yoon naturally agreed because he desperately wanted to return to reality, and Jeong In-ho, who had had a change of heart, returned to his old self and nodded willingly. There was no need to say anything about Jaeheon Lee.
“…Are you saying we should start exploring the school already? “Did something like that happen?”
Of course, there were people like Vivian who expressed doubts or opposition.
“I’m not asking you to go kill the monster right now. The idea was to prepare step by step by gathering information about the inside of Unhak High School. “It’s not like how long this many people will be locked up in a small police station, right?”
“But…”
“Only some who can afford it and are willing will enter the school. Until I learn a clear strategy, I will limit my contact with monsters as much as possible. “There won’t be any major problems.”
There was no survivor who could beat Jeong In-ho’s verbal abuse after he regained his sanity.
It is only a preparatory step for escape, not an all-out battle, and those who do not wish to do so do not have to participate in the search team. The survivors nodded one by one at the generous conditions in many ways. What reassured them was that their free will was definitely respected.
“Well, I also want to go home soon.”
“Wouldn’t it be possible if we just had Pompitz?”
The desire to go home and the body that was released through a big incident. And the emergence of another useful tool called pompitz played a role in raising the motivation of the survivors.
Up to that point, things had gone smoothly according to Lee Jae-heon’s intentions, but…
“….”
“….”
“Wow, crazy.”
I didn’t intend for this kind of upheaval to happen.
“Can I be happy?”
“…Let’s catch that bastard first.”
“It’s been a really long time, everyone!”
The mountain behind the back gate of Eonhak High School.
I met Song In-myeong, a natural disaster sufferer from art disease.
(Continued in the next part)
