World Chapter 4.7

The provisional national assembly fell apart as soon as it opened, showing differences in opinion.

I waited for Heo Seok with Eun Juhyuk at the entrance of the National Assembly. A mid-sized car, supposedly carrying Heo Seok, quickly escaped the National Assembly, protected by other cars. I had been so full of anticipation that I was speechless from the sense of futility.

I thought he recognized me…….

Eun Juhyuk said he had to file his article right away from the press booth and told me to go on ahead. I returned his ID card to him and trudged back to the dormitory.

Heo Seok definitely recognized me.

Why did he pretend not to know me? Was it because it would be troublesome?

Am I mistaken?

I finally met him, but in the end, I gained nothing.

I felt my body wasting away from depression. I was lying listlessly on my bed when my cell phone rang. The name on the screen was Kim Hanse.

“Hello.”

—Did you ask?

“……Yeah.”

—Hah, impressive. So, what did he say?

“He didn’t answer.”

—You must have said something weird again. I don’t know if you’re delusional or dreaming. I was an idiot to believe your nonsense.

“……I’m already feeling down, so if you’re going to talk like that, just hang up.”

—I’m busy too.

Click, the call ended. I glared at the innocent screen for a while, then went down to the first-floor convenience store because I was hungry.

I was sitting on a patch of grass near the dorm, pathetically eating a random assortment of things I’d bought to fill my stomach.

A shadow fell over my head, and I looked up.

“……”

I stared up at him blankly. He was a tall man in a dark suit. A stranger. He was clearly not a student. I glanced around.

It was an early summer day with pleasant sunshine. A few students were out on the lawn, chattering away; someone was lying down with only their face covered, listening to music with headphones on, and someone else was reading a book.

“Who……”

“The Assemblyman is waiting for you.”

“……”

The man turned his head. A black mid-sized car was parked in the dormitory parking lot.

I swallowed dryly, haphazardly swept the hot dogs, triangle kimbap, and drinks I’d laid out on the grass into a bag, and stood up.

I followed him. He opened the back door of the car for me. I got into the back seat.

It was a mid-sized car with a very spacious interior. Heo Seok was sitting with his legs crossed. A man who appeared to be his aide sat in the driver’s seat. Heo Seok gestured with his chin for the aide to get out. He quickly exited the car.

“……”

I stupidly stared at Heo Seok, who seemed to have leaped across an eternity of time. Heo Seok was staring intently at me.

I wonder if he recognizes me, who has leaped across all that time.

My heart pounded. My chest trembled, just as it had when I met Hyungjo.

Heo Seok asked, his gaze fixed on me, unwavering.

“You were among the reporters earlier, weren’t you?”

“……You don’t know me?”

“How would I know you?”

“Don’t you remember my face?”

Heo Seok’s expression was one of someone hearing utter nonsense. He didn’t remember me. No, perhaps I was a being that never existed in the real life he had lived in the 80s.

Why did the dead call for me?

Why did they make me come all the way to the living Heo Seok?

And why did they show me such things?

“You’re not a reporter.”

His voice was cold. It was a tone that hinted at his intention to use the fact that I, a non-reporter, had entered the National Assembly as leverage. I hesitated before answering.

“I, I had something I wanted to ask you, Assemblyman.”

“You had something to ask, so you forged an ID and came all the way into the National Assembly?”

“I’m sorry. But I had no other way to see you, Assemblyman.”

“That’s not the issue I’m trying to address. It’s about the question you asked me at the press conference.”

“Ah, yes……. By any chance, don’t you remember Mr. Lee Taewan? Mr. Lee Taewan and Mr. Ji Sungjoon. Mr. Ji Sungjoon who was in the art department.”

I emphasized Ji Sungjoon’s name over and over.

The Ji Sungjoon you loved, the Ji Sungjoon who drew you……. Don’t you remember?

I repeated it in my mind with a heavy heart, thinking he would say he didn’t know.

Heo Seok was looking at me with eyes that felt like they were suffocating me. It was a persistent, burning gaze, as if trying to catch any clue from my face.

In the end, he found nothing and asked.

“How do you know those friends?”

“You know them? You remember? You do remember, right?!”

“Of course. They were executives of the National Council of Student Representatives and also my comrades.”

His expression was solemn.

No, not comrades. You were friends and lovers.

I instinctively felt I shouldn’t reveal too much to him and shut my mouth.

He carefully examined my face again. He seemed to think that I, in my twenties, was probably a relative of Lee Taewan or Ji Sungjoon. He stared as if meticulously trying to figure out who I resembled.

“How do you know them? Huh? Could you be Ji Sungjoon’s……”

It was understandable for him to misunderstand. It was because I resembled Sungjoon. That was the reason I had felt an instant liking for his urbane appearance the first day I met Sungjoon. He, with a similar appearance to mine, had the sophisticated look I had dreamed of.

“No, that’s not it……”

“How do you know those friends?”

“I just, well……”

“Just? It’s been over thirty years since they both went missing. You know something, don’t you? You, you know something, right?”

“I don’t know either. That’s why I came to ask you, Assemblyman.”

“Why did you try to ask me?”

“……That’s.”

“Why did you try to ask me that?”

“I found a record. The three of you were friends. In the same boarding house, together……”

His pupils seemed to shrink in an instant. His eyeballs looked like black dots.

I was momentarily scared. My body flinched. There was something dark and pitch-black about him.

Hunching my neck, I fumbled with the cell phone in my pocket. I had the illusion that his pupils were continuing to shrink. It felt like the whites of his eyes were about to flash. I didn’t dare look away and just stared at him.

He clenched his teeth as if suppressing his anger. His jaw was trembling. But in the end, unable to contain it, he suddenly shouted.

“How do you know that?! Where did you find it!”

Startled by his shout, I stammered in reply.

“Th-that, I was at the library……”

“The library? Where in the library? What did you see that made you say such a thing?”

“I saw Mr. Ji Sungjoon’s painting.”

“……Sungjoon’s painting?”

“Yes……”

“Where?!”

His face crumpled in desperation.

“I, I saw it by chance.”

“How do you know Lee Taewan? Did someone tell you?”

“That’s not it……. I just came to know.”

“You just came to know? Are you trying to mess with me right now? Are you making a fool of me?”

“No! No!”

I wanted to believe that Hanse was listening to this entire conversation. The call might not have even connected in the first place.

Terrified, I managed to reply in a shrinking voice, while Heo Seok grilled me as if he were interrogating me.

I couldn’t explain that I had seen ghosts and that they had told me. The only answers I could give were things like, I don’t know the details, just because, it just happened.

Heo Seok, who had been shouting in frustration, suddenly slammed his fist hard against the car door.

Thump! The car body shuddered.

“Heard some nonsense somewhere…, I’ve seen plenty of crazy people like you.”

He said, sounding dejected. It wasn’t crazy talk. Although they were ghosts, they were students who had clearly existed in the school records.

“I know. About the relationship between you and Mr. Ji Sungjoon, Assemblyman.”

“……”

A mistake.

My heart sank. It felt like someone had suddenly gripped my windpipe. I couldn’t take back the words I had already spoken. A murderous aura, as if he would slice the flesh from my bones at any moment, seethed in Heo Seok’s eyes. The murderous intent boiled over, making the veins in his eyes visible. Holding my breath, I slowly backed away. My back hit the car door.

“What do you know? A relationship? I’d appreciate it if you could explain it so I can understand.”

He said, twisting the corner of his mouth into a forced smile. The more I backed away, the more Heo Seok closed the distance, approaching me. He looked like a venomous snake with its maw wide open, ready to sink its fangs into me at any moment. A chilling sensation ran down my spine, as if I were sitting on a bare, razor-sharp blade. Cold sweat trickled down my forehead and back. My lips trembled.

“What I mean is……”

“……A relationship? Tell me. What kind of relationship?”

“Well……, th-that is.”

I stammered, helpless and foolish.

Heo Seok would never believe that I had been with them in their 80s. It wasn’t a story one could easily bring up, even with broad understanding and generosity.

Let alone to him, who was having a fit at the mere mention of Ji Sungjoon’s name, I could not tell the truth.

Seeing his face so close, I held my breath. I shoved him hard and jumped out of the car. The aide and bodyguard standing nearby saw me and rushed over.

I ran indiscriminately toward where there were more people. Running frantically, I glanced back. They weren’t chasing me but were standing at a distance.

I ran like a madman. An ominous feeling that something was wrong spread through my chest.

I ran out of the school’s main gate and, huff, huff, panting for breath, entered a nearby fast-food restaurant. I stood among the people waiting to order, catching my breath while keeping an eye outside.

People stared at me strangely as I panted heavily, but I didn’t even notice.

Seeing that no one was chasing me, I finally took out my cell phone from my pocket.

“Huff, huff, hello? Are you listening?”

—Where the hell are you!

Ah, Hyungjo.

I collapsed into a chair at an empty table and gripped my phone tightly.

I had ordered a burger set and was lying face down on the table when a hand touched my shoulder, and I jerked my head up in surprise. Hanse was standing there.

He sat down in front of me, stared intently, and then asked.

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Yeah……”

“What happened? A minute ago…, that was Assemblyman Heo, right?”

“Y-yeah. I’m scared. I’m scared to death.”

“Tell me straight. What on earth happened?”

“……”

If it were possible, if he had the authority, Heo Seok would have killed me right there without a shred of hesitation. Recalling Heo Seok’s eyes, I felt a blue chill. I tried to calm my shivering shoulders and gulped down the completely flat Coke. My hands were soaked with sweat.

“What did you say earlier? What in the world did you say to Assemblyman Heo?”

Hanse shouted out of frustration. Hiding it wouldn’t solve anything. I had to ask Hanse for help.

I haltingly told him what I had experienced.

“After I came up to Seoul, I was looking for a place to live……, and I met a certain man. That man found me a room to rent. There……, I met Hyungjo, Taewan hyung, Sungjoon hyung, and Seok hyung.”

“……”

Hyungjo was twenty. Taewan, Sungjoon, and Heo Seok were also young, twenty-three, twenty-two, around that age.

Haltingly, I spoke of that time. Hanse’s expression was strange. He didn’t seem to believe me. It would be unbelievable.

His brow furrowed from time to time, and at times he looked angry.

“My belongings were found in an abandoned building waiting for redevelopment. They said I lived there for three months.”

In the end, at my story of meeting the dead, he rubbed his temples like a sick person. It was a gesture of disbelief, but it was a situation where he had no choice but to accept it.

He had heard my entire conversation with Heo Seok over the phone.

“So you’re saying my father’s soul flew into the past while he was in a coma, and you lived in an illusion created by the ghosts of the past? And you met my father there and fell in love?”

“……Yeah. I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

“You have to say something believable for me to believe it.”

“It’s not a lie. It’s real. It’s the truth! I’m telling you it’s the truth! I definitely saw him. That person was Heo Seok. I even called him Seok hyung!”

“Heo Seok didn’t recognize you.”

“I don’t know how that happened either. But Taewan hyung was a person who definitely existed. The same goes for Sungjoon hyung. They were people who definitely existed, just like Heo Seok. There was even a text written by Taewan hyung left in the library. Professor Ahn remembered Taewan hyung too.”

“……”

Hanse cast a vague gaze toward the people bustling by, no, toward the empty air. He looked at the empty air, then at me once, and for a long while, he repeatedly scrunched and contorted his face, as if trying to shatter his own reason, logic, and prejudices.

I watched him with an anxious heart. I desperately wanted him to believe me. Hanse had to believe me. It was obvious that if he didn’t, no one else would.

Only after a long time had passed did Hanse speak as if he were in a daze.

“In any case, it’s a fact that my father held you.”

“……”

“This is just ridiculous.”

Feeling suffocated, he irritably yanked off his tie and undid a button. Then he took the Coke in front of me and drank it all in one go. His Adam’s apple bobbed each time he swallowed the lukewarm Coke. He slammed the empty cup down on the table with a thud, and Hanse stared at me for a long time.

My whole body felt like it was shriveling under his gaze. It was a persistent gaze, trying to discover something within me.

He was probably picturing his father with me. Perhaps he was even seeing me and Hyungjo kissing. A wave of embarrassment slowly washed over me.

Hanse opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Maria Callas, she was my father’s favorite opera singer.”

“……I know.”

“You said a finger was cut off?”

“Yeah. Someone cut off a finger. It was Sungjoon hyung’s finger, the ring finger.”

I didn’t talk about the love triangle between Sungjoon, Taewan, and Heo Seok. That wasn’t the important part.

Hanse scratched at his brow. It seemed to be a habit of his when he was thinking.

“When you found the house again, there was nothing there?”

“……You don’t believe me, do you?”

“How can I not believe you? Assemblyman Heo’s reaction……”

“When I brought up Ji Sungjoon’s name, Heo Seok definitely reacted. When I said I knew about their relationship, it was like, like he was going to kill me……”

“What relationship?”

“No, just, that they knew each other.”

“Is there something else you’re not telling me?”

“No, nothing special.”

“……”

“No, I’m telling you there isn’t.”

“In any case, stay with me today.”

I nodded and was about to stand up from the chair, but my legs gave out and my knees buckled. Hanse held out his hand. I took his hand.

Hanse’s hand was like a gateway, a border crossing from the underworld to reality. For me, who had been reminiscing about the ghosts, it was the very first door to reality.

The hand I held was the hand of Kim Hanse, Hyungjo’s son.