A vast field stretching straight ahead. The grass blades on the floor I stood on barefoot rustled in step with my walk.
‘Where is this?’
When did I come to such a place? Once I began to harbor such doubt, my drowsy reason gradually became clear.
“…A dream?”
The sound of small muttering couldn’t spread far and scattered in the air. I took one breath inhaling the unfamiliar air, then slowly blinked and looked around.
Wherever I looked, it was a strange space where inescapable awkwardness couldn’t cease. A warm sun floated above my head, but that sky was filled with dark blue colors as if it were midnight, and the grass field I stood on was also dyed in golden phosphorescence rather than common green.
It was definitely a scene I was seeing for the first time. Not only in reality but also in videos like movies. It was even a vast landscape I’d never imagined or pictured in my head after reading books.
However, for some reason, it also seemed vaguely familiar. My head seemed to have broken down in this unknowable situation. Through the sensation of wind touching me, through the clumsy combination of various colors captured in my two eyes, subtle comfort bloomed and confused me.
In fact, perhaps such a space suited me well. A desolate grassland where vehicles running on roads, shops and buildings standing densely, the noise of crowded people, or bustling streets didn’t exist in the first place.
I’d always felt heterogeneous. It had been that way since the moment at the orphanage where my first memory existed. I’d been seized by a strange sense of discomfort as if dropped alone on a remote planet.
Adapting to survive in that world wasn’t difficult, but empathizing with others’ worldly lives was difficult. So I deliberately didn’t face them. Since they also regarded me as a person who didn’t exist, I thought it was beneficial for both sides.
It had definitely been like that, but at some point two people who suddenly appeared boldly dug into my side and…
Meow-. Grrr-.
A low cry suddenly heard tickled my ears. That weighty noise echoed as if shaking the ground.
Before I could turn my head following the sound, my body swayed due to a huge existence charging at me recklessly. My body that had lost its center couldn’t endure anymore and fell helplessly, buried in the grass.
Pain wasn’t felt. I couldn’t tell whether it was because this place was a dream world, or if there was another reason.
As I blinked blankly looking up at the sky, there was a head appearing boldly in one side of my vision. A huge fellow twice the size of my head pressed down my upper body with its front paws, then shamelessly raised its chin and looked down at me.
A cat. It was a lifeform that looked like a cat made gigantic as is. Two triangular ears perked up, and several white whiskers twitched sensitively. Vertically narrowly contracted pupils interestingly scanned all over my face.
Soon, just as I thought it was opening its mouth wide and yawning, it suddenly buried its head on my chest. Then it rustled as if arbitrarily rubbing its scent on me and made a pleased throat rumbling sound.
‘…Is it a monster?’
Since the number of monsters I’d encountered very closely was countable on one hand, it was hard to be certain of anything. Though there were quite a few I’d seen from a distance beyond windows, among them I had no memory of seeing one that looked like a cat. Perhaps because of that, somewhat subtle emotions seemed to bloom.
Originally, I wasn’t someone who would be scared seeing monsters or show disgust recklessly, and step forward saying they must be killed immediately. Of course, I didn’t advocate universal pacifism saying not to kill monsters either, but it meant I didn’t harbor ill feelings toward them like other survivors.
If cute, they looked cute, and I had memories remaining of the wolf-type monster that had even licked my face with its damp tongue being quite affectionate too. But now a monster in truly cat form without any modification appeared and acted cutely like this, really…
‘At least this one seems quite docile.’
Perhaps I was going crazy too. I’d thought since I’d already been crazy long ago, that madness wouldn’t overlap.
Swallowing a sigh silently, I reached out my hand. When I gently rubbed the monster’s forehead with my thumb, the sound it let out rumbling its throat deepened.
Then a memory suddenly came to me.
‘…Cha Jeoh.’
The sensation under my palm stroking the monster seemed to overlap with the fluffy sensation of stroking Cha Jeoh’s head before opening my eyes here. When I stopped my touch without warning, the monster urged me by touching me, but I couldn’t respond.
Had he come to his senses by now? Even in the midst of being surrounded by monsters, of course he wouldn’t have been injured at all. Even if he made some mistakes, it wouldn’t have been a threat enough to die.
‘The voice I heard at the end, I think it was probably Cha Woodan.’
Whether his intuition was good, or he felt something strange in the movement of monsters suddenly running to one point and followed. Either way, since Cha Woodan was also a mental-type ability user, he would have used his power to help Cha Jeoh come to his senses.
So.
‘…Isn’t it not the time for me to be here right now?’
As soon as I carelessly chewed over that thought, a strange sensation of my eyelids flickering closed without fatigue covered me.
***
I opened my eyes sharply. After staring blankly at the ceiling of familiar material, I belatedly struggled to raise my body.
The fluffy blanket that had been wrapping me rustled and flowed down. As if I’d been lying down for quite a while, I moistened my dry lips with my tongue and calmly turned my head.
The art room located on the third floor of the school main building, that was where it was. Where there was the infirmary bed and blanket Cha Jeoh had moved, and a wide space was created thanks to Cha Woodan pushing desks and chairs to one side. Our residence different from the bizarre yet comfortable dream landscape.
I was the only one in the art room. After listening carefully even beyond the door and to the hallway, I slowly lowered my head. My slightly changed appearance was captured in my vision.
The pants were the same, but the top wasn’t. The vest and necktie I’d always worn weren’t visible. The shirt one or two sizes larger than my size seemed the same as what I’d worn before at a glance, but from the lack of bloodstains, I could quickly deduce the fact that it was new clothes.
I stopped fiddling with the clean shirt and raised my body. Perhaps because of the dream I’d just had, the moment I stepped barefoot on the floor, I unknowingly hesitated. Instead of grass pleasantly wrapping my feet, a floor that was only cool and hard supported my soles.
I belatedly moved my steps again. Soon reaching in front of the firmly closed window… wait.
‘A lock?’
A lock radiantly emitting a blue light. That was definitely a form, an ability I knew.
‘Lee Geonwoo must have locked the window… why?’
All the windows stretching long horizontally occupying one side of the art room were in this state. Each was locked holding one blue lock. Just in case, I closed my eyes and tried to open the window, but it just rattled without any particular result.
That meant Lee Geonwoo had excluded me from the condition to unlock it. So it couldn’t help but be even more questionable. He should know the art room was the territory of me and the twins, and the space I stayed in most among them. It was even more puzzling because Lee Gojun usually wasn’t someone who would act arbitrarily without caring about others.
As I continued my thoughts, I turned my head at a shallow anxiety grazing my mind. But fortunately, the lock form wasn’t visible on each door at the front and back of the art room. Only after confirming that fact did I release the tension that had stiffened my body even slightly.
Though there was no way the twins or the Lee Gojun brothers would have confined me, I’d checked just in case. Because you never know what will happen with human affairs.
Swallowing a pointless sigh, I turned my head again and stared outside the window. Pools of blood not yet wiped spread here and there on the schoolyard. But no more corpses or survivors continuing the fight were visible.
I’d been guessing since I noticed my lips were dry. It seemed I hadn’t woken up in just a few hours. Then the brawl that had been taking place in the schoolyard would have been concluded long ago, and there was a high possibility that even the corpses piled like mountains in the meantime had been moved outside.
After scanning the schoolyard, I turned the focus of my vision to illuminate something else. Instead of the schoolyard beyond the dusty window and the sunset sky, I examined the appearance reflected in the hazy glass window.
A boy with an emotionless face was facing me. After fiddling with hair that seemed to have increased in white parts compared to before, I moved my hand and fumbled the left side of my nape. It was that area where Cha Jeoh had bitten as if tearing.
Naturally, there was no blood staining it. Looking at how there was no particular pain either, Lee Gojun must have already visited and completed healing.
I undid the top two buttons and pulled open the shirt. My slender neck was fully revealed, and soon my clearly lined collarbone and round shoulders were reflected in the window. Nowhere on that skin was even a scar remaining from healing visible, let alone a wound.
It was natural since it would have gone through Lee Gojun’s ability. If even a faint teeth mark had remained on the fine skin, the twins probably wouldn’t have left him alone.
‘…I wanted to see what state it was in.’
Chewing over useless thoughts, I tidied the shirt back and turned around.
