Chapter 2

I lay on my bed, staring blankly at the wall. Photographs of seon-jae filled all the walls of the room. My favorite person died, and not a single person asked me if I was okay.

Because you didn’t show it. I was a very successful public cosplayer. No one really knew me. You completely deceived them all. Thinking about all those things made me tear up and cry.

At that moment, I heard a buzzing sound next door. I wondered how much the volume was tuned up, a voice saying,

“Student Im-sol, the last examination showed that the anemia level was a very low acute anemia, and if left untreated, it would be dangerous so prescription for iron pills are necessary.”

I was right.

“Have you ever had a blurred vision or stumbled when you sat down or stood up?”

Standing in a daze, I looked at the health teacher like he was strange.

“Im-sol student?”

“……yes?”

“Are you all right?”

I can’t be alright in this situation.

I turned my gaze and scanned the playground through the hallway window. The maple trees planted outside the playground were reddish. At the left end of the playground, a construction screen was installed due to the cafeteria’s reconstruction.

School cafeteria reconstruction.

If students complained about construction noise, the student-supervisor would say that you guys with bad grades even dare to complain and shout, ‘you guys don’t even take classes anyway!’.

As if to destroy my miscellaneous thoughts, dust flew over the curtain with the noise of building debris falling.

I know this scenery.

Because this was my past.

***

Sitting on the bus, I shook my legs with nervousness. I bit my thumbnail and chewed it with my teeth.

– This stop is Jagam High School. The next stop is Jagam Street.

I looked out of the window with my face facing my knees. A long road was lined with Ginkgo trees, and when I passed a pedestrian, a road that I had once walked unfolded.

I had come here once when I wanted to step on the school ground where Seonjae attended. I misread the map and kept hovering near this overpass.

I pressed the exit bell and stood in front of the back door. My heart was pounding. A steady flow of time, a heartbeat felt throughout the body. Is this called a lucid dream? Is it supposed to be this vivid?

I left my health teacher, who kept asking me if I was okay and ran out of school. This past was six years ago.

I wondered if it was possible to reproduce things from six years ago in this order.

But if this is a dream of the past, if I’m rewinding the past regardless of my will, maybe I’ll be able to meet a Seonjae I didn’t know at this time.

A while ago, I came out of school and tried to reach out like a habit to catch a taxi, but there was not a single note in my goddamn wallet.

My dream was so solid that even my wallet at the time remained the same. So I had no choice but to take the bus.

On the way to Jagamgo, the glass door of the commercial building reflected my appearance. Short bangs, hair tied back, and pink knit socks, which were worn out over stockings. It was six years ago.

Awesome, the sound just came out.

I strode along and ran at high speed. With some expectation, my heart was about to burst with the earnest wind.

Since it’s a dream, I wanted to let Sun-jae know something if I met him. There are so many people in this world who love you, but they just weren’t as loud as I am. You’re such a lovely person.

When I breathed with my chin raised down, my side ached, and my back bent. As I exhaled and raised my head, I could see a signboard inscribed with “Jagam High School.”

Wow, this is something crazy.

Slowly I crossed the school gate of Jagam High School. It was a dream, and even though I thought there was no need to be scary, my heart fluttered.

Crossing the playground, I saw a student standing in front of the sink in distance.

Gray pants, white shirt, beige knit vest.

No matter how much she blinked and squinted at him, he was standing alive, right before her.

Oh, my God.

“Seon-jae!”

She ran at full speed toward’s Seon-jae.

His head, accustomed to my loud, resonant voice on the playground, turned to my direction.

I can see a face clearly looking at me. It’s Seon-jae.

Seon-jae, a high school student who she only saw in pictures.

In an instant, she crossed the playground and hugged seon-jae.

Did I run too fast?

Well, sometimes you can even fly in your dreams. Seon-jae was pushed back because I could not slow down.

I burst into tears with my face buried in Seonjae’s vest.

“Seon-jae, that’s Seon-jae. Ah, it’s him. He’s real.”

“What, what?”

Seon-jae’s surprised voice came out, and someone pulled me and grabbed my shoulder.

When I looked at Seon-jae with a tearful face, I saw the owner of the hand that grabbed my shoulder.

It was Baek In Hyuk.