Gurgle gurgle, a small breathing sound leaked out from inside the room. Woonghee was traveling through dreamland with his soft cheek buried in the sheets, sleeping soundly.
“Uugh…”
Then suddenly, the floor sank deeply. The cruise ship’s axis tilted violently. Tumble tumble, his slender body rolled off the soft mattress.
“Uurgh…!”
Thud, his head crashed into the bed leg. Only then did Woonghee’s eyes snap open. He looked around with his brow deeply furrowed.
“Ugh, cold! Fuck, what the hell is this now.”
As cold water soaked into his skin, his mind snapped back to clarity as if ice water had been poured over his brain.
Splash splash, his ankles were half-submerged in water. Seawater was rising all around. Swish swish, he turned his head and fixed his eyes on the window.
Wh-what the hell is that…?
A large rock was being crushed against the window. Water was flooding in through the cracks in the split glass.
Why? Why is there a rock lodged in the window? Could it be that the ship is sinking?
“What the hell is going on…”
At first, he thought he hadn’t fully woken up yet. Because pitch-black water was rising everywhere outside. The ship was being completely swallowed by cave-like darkness…!
Soon—crash! A massive rock smashed through the window and struck inside. Water came gushing in torrents.
Terror filled him in an instant, consuming his mind. His survival instinct, swollen to enormous size, writhed madly.
I have to live, I must live. Never mind my thirty million won, never mind my omega shots—the problem was Lee Woongju who would be left alone in Korea.
She’s only fifteen now.
At fifteen, without parents, without a guardian, how pitiful and miserable would that life be, having to survive alone struggling through everything.
“Fuck, I have to survive like a shithead.”
This room is closed on all sides. Because the door is completely shut tight. The only escape route is… just that window.
Woonghee’s eyes rolled. The broken window with water gushing through it. The hole is only there. He had to get out quickly before the ship filled completely with water.
Frantically, he grabbed a bottle rolling at his feet. Then he stuck to the window and smashed it down. Bang, crash, crash! The speed of seawater pouring in grew stronger, but Woonghee couldn’t stop.
No, he mustn’t stop.
“Uurgh…!”
He quickly threw his body into the black hole. His body broke through the window, and immediately surging waves rushed over him.
His head shook, his internal organs twisted. It felt like the organs inside his body were tangling together all slimy and messy.
He was being sucked into a massive whirlpool. Woonghee, like a slave with both feet bound tight, was dragged by the rough current.
An endlessly distant feeling dominated.
He couldn’t distinguish where the dream began and where reality ended. Life and death were stuck right next to each other.
‘Oppa, can’t you just not go to Cebu? I really have a strange feeling about this.’
The voice of Woongju that he’d heard last echoed in his head. Woongju, who had never thrown a tantrum in her life. Why had she clung to his pant leg like that?
It’s really strange. Why had he wanted to get life insurance so badly before coming to Cebu? Were we really being led by fate?
But Woongju, would it help if this idiot asshole of an older brother returned to your side? It seems like it would be much better for life insurance to take care of you.
Am I… going to die like this after all? Is my life going to meet its ending like this? Then please. If there’s a god, I don’t want to be born as an omega or anything like that in my next life.
I’d rather just be a fucking pebble. If it’s going to be a life of getting kicked here and there, I wish this damn head would just stop.
I want to not know anything about poverty, sadness, or despair and just be comfortable…
If there’s a god, please show me mercy just once…
It was when he was thinking that dying like this wouldn’t be so bad.
‘Woonghee, Woonghee, my baby.’
Suddenly a faint voice came from somewhere.
Ah, it’s Mom. It’s Mom’s voice.
‘Mom…’
Woonghee called for his mother with a voice on the verge of tears. His eyes grew moist with longing.
‘Do you remember when you were in Mom’s belly? I kept craving peaches.’
His parents, whose faces he’d barely seen a few times, worked day and night because of Woonghee’s medical bills. Since he’d been weak from childhood, they had to constantly go from hospital to hospital.
His parents opened a fruit shop at dawn and were busy doing farm work.
‘Mom…’
I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have come to Cebu. I acted like an idiot again, even though I said I’d take good care of Woongju… Woonghee bit his rolled lip.
Hearing even Mom’s voice like this, he could feel that he’d really gotten close to death.
His parents had already passed away. As usual, they’d gone out to do business at dawn and got into an accident with a mixer truck whose driver was drowsy.
It’s because of me. It’s because of me that my parents died like that. They were kind and warm-hearted people, but they left the world too quickly. And his eight-year-old younger sister lost her parents overnight. Since that day, guilt had clung to Woonghee and wouldn’t let go.
Woonghee’s age then was nineteen.
‘Ha… But fuck.’
I want to rest now too. Actually, I’m so exhausted and worn out. Even rags get replaced with new towels when they’re frayed and worn, but my misfortune never ends. It was a continuous chain. If I can’t break it, it would be better to just end like this.
Woonghee relaxed his body as if resigned.
‘Woonghee…!’
And then his father’s voice echoed. Like cold water slapping his face, like an assault on his entire body, it struck him.
“…Cough, cough, cough!”
Woonghee’s chest heaved continuously. Seawater burst out, gush, gush. He vomited out the salty water that had filled his belly to the brim.
“Uurgh…”
A faint beep sound consumed the tinnitus. Soon after, beep, beep, beep, warning sounds rang out frantically.
“Not a service area, not a service area, not a service area…!”
The frantic warning sounds tried to shatter his confused mind.
“Uugh…”
His head throbbed as if beaten with a hammer, and his body ached as if it had been trampled on.
“Where is this…”
Where is this place?
Splash splash, the waves knock him down like a beast. Pushed by those waves, he came here, to this island.
His head was buried in the sandy beach, his limbs were mangled as if turned inside out. Where on earth is this place he arrived at like this?
“…Fuck, what the hell.”
Before his eyes was an ocean of unknowable depth. Behind his back was an even deeper darkness. No, it was a dense jungle. Winding stems and blade-like leaves blocked everything on all sides.
What is this, really? Where is this?
He couldn’t understand with his head what kind of situation this was at all. A world where everything familiar had disappeared.
There wasn’t a single common road, apartment, or building.
Had life ever been kind to him even once? No, not even once. His luck had always crawled along the ground like an earthworm.
Just when he barely endured, another ordeal struck. He thought there was no more rock bottom.
Like this, it mocks him and pushes him into a new pit. As if even sewers have a bottom.
Why the hell, why am I here…!
“Wh-what’s happening right now…”
Could it be he’s come to some filming location again?
But there’s not a single camera around…
While his mind was completely scattered like this, something came floating along, pushed by the waves.
“Uh, uuh, uh…!”
Th-that was definitely a person. Woonghee crawled on all fours frantically. He dragged the body being pushed along. Even though his limbs were trembling violently, he squeezed out every last bit of strength.
“Ha, haa, haa…”
Soon the other person’s head was buried deep in the sandy beach. It was the Assistant Director hyung. He was completely pickled like salted seafood in the salty seawater.
“Hy-hyung, hyung…!”
Woonghee quickly splashed seawater on his face. Splash splash, as if striking his cheeks with seawater.
“Snap out of it, open your eyes quickly!”
He grabbed his chest and shook violently. Soon, with a start, hyung opened his eyes. Then he exhaled with a “Keuuurgh!” and like Woonghee, turned over and started spitting out water frantically.
“Th-thank goodness…”
Woonghee gasped, huff, haah. His rough breathing evened out. His soul had truly left him. It was like riding a carousel with broken brakes. Like watching a screen spinning madly 360 degrees with a camera stuck between his legs.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Then from one side, a scream that could burst eardrums erupted.
