The Family Trip That Shattered (1)
One day in August, Hyunwoo and his group were on their way to a mountain valley for a family trip.
He rolled down the window that framed the scenery whipping past, and a cool mountain breeze swept in, pleasant against his face.
After a long stretch of winding mountain roads, the private pension they had rented finally came into view.
Hyunwoo killed the engine, sank deep into the driver's seat, and stretched with a long, rolling groan.
"Ugh, my back. Weekend traffic on the way in was brutal."
"That's why I told you we should leave early this morning. You stayed up gaming all night and slept in—that's why!"
The passenger door swung open and his older sister, Hyunjin, shoved her sunglasses up onto her head and launched straight into a lecture.
Having practically raised her younger siblings in their parents' place since they were little, Hyunjin still dished out the occasional sharp scolding like this—never mind that she had lost rock-paper-scissors at every rest stop and left all the driving to Hyunwoo while she rode in comfort.
"Okay, okay, noona. Enough with the nagging."
Hyunwoo gave a dry little laugh and walked around to the trunk.
He popped it open to find a massive cooler and camping gear packed to the brim—food for the pension, equipment for playing in the valley.
Hyunwoo rolled up his sleeves and reached for the handle of the heaviest cooler—when a small hand suddenly slipped in beside his.
"Hyunwoo oppa, I've got it!"
It was Iseo, his youngest sister Hyuna's friend.
Before Hyunwoo could stop her, Iseo hoisted the enormous cooler as lightly as if it were cotton candy.
The box was packed full of meat, alcohol, and ice—heavy enough that even a grown man would feel it—yet Iseo's expression remained perfectly calm.
"Uh… Iseo, that thing's really heavy. You okay?"
"Yes! It's not heavy at all! I'm stronger than I look."
Iseo grinned bashfully and scampered up the stone steps toward the pension.
Hyunwoo could only stare after her, dumbfounded, watching her carry the cooler away.
Hyunjin gave his shoulder a sharp shove and scolded him.
"Kang Hyunwoo, what the hell? Making a girl haul the luggage? Have you lost it?"
"I didn't—she just grabbed it and took off. What was I supposed to do?"
"Whoa! There's a pool! Oppa, hurry up and unpack so we can grill some meat!"
She didn't know there was a pool? What was she even listening to when we picked the place together?
His little sister Hyuna was already clinging to the terrace railing, bouncing on her heels in pure excitement. It was her first valley trip since becoming an adult, and she clearly couldn't contain her overflowing anticipation.
"Oppa, I even bought bokbunja for you!!"
"What? Bokbunja? You bought that expensive stuff?"
"Kang Hyuna! Hold the railing—don't jump around, it's dangerous!"
"Hyunwoo, you must be tired from all that driving."
Soyul had appeared at his side, her voice warm and gentle. An old friend of his sister Hyunjin's, Soyul was the kind of person who always looked after everyone around her first—a comfortable sanctuary of a human being.
She also possessed a pair of visually devastating breasts that never failed to plunge Hyunwoo into quiet torment.
Soyul handed him a bottle of ice water from the cooler and lightly wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. The faint scent of apricot and the soft, full warmth brushing against his arm made Hyunwoo deliberately look away as he drank.
"Thanks, Soyul noona. It's nothing, really… I'm fine."
"Soyul, if you keep babying him like that, Hyunwoo's just going to get lazier. Kang Hyunwoo! Stop standing there gawking and come help prep the meat! And Soyul—stop shoving your chest in my little brother's face!"
Hyunjin was already muttering as she laid out the burner and lettuce on the terrace table, though a pleased little smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
Then something crashed and clattered inside the pension, and Hyuna came bursting out in pursuit of a fleeing Iseo.
"Iseo, you!! Get back here!!!"
"Kyaaaaah!!! Sorry sorry sorry!!"
Splash—
Iseo must have pulled some kind of prank on Hyuna, because Hyuna shoved her straight into the pool.
"Girls! You're supposed to put on swimsuits first!"
Swimsuits… I'd love to see Soyul noona's swimsuit too…
It was already this chaotic, and they had barely arrived. There clearly wouldn't be a dull moment on this vacation.
Time slipped by, and the sun began to sink low on the horizon. The mountain ridges slowly painted themselves in orange dusk.
Hyunwoo lit the charcoal in a corner of the terrace. Acrid smoke curled upward; thick cuts of pork neck, garlic, and mushrooms hit the grate, and the sizzle and rich smell of meat set everyone's appetite roaring.
"Whoa, that meat smell is insane! Oppa, can I have just one piece first?"
"No. It's not cooked through yet. You should've eaten something at the rest stop."
"I'm so hungry I'm getting dizzy! Hurry up and grill the meat!"
"Say 'please' first."
"Please grill it faster~~~"
Hyuna's whiny, cutesy pleading set the whole terrace laughing.
"So why didn't you eat, anyway?"
"I had to put on my swimsuit and take pictures for Instagram… If I eat anything, my stomach sticks out…"
"What exactly are you showing off that you need photos?"
"Oppa, you wanna die?"
"You'd need to be at least Soyul noona's level for that—ah! Ah! Sorry!"
"Hyunwoo…"
They bantered and chattered until, before they knew it, the meat was perfectly done and ready to eat.
Iseo shyly sidled up next to Hyunwoo and fed him a massive wrap stuffed with meat and garlic. Beside them, Soyul mixed green onion salad and slipped a small lettuce wrap into his mouth.
It was a perfect weekend getaway.
Beautiful nature. Clear weather. Beloved family, close friends, and delicious food shared in peaceful company.
At least, until that moment, it was.
Crrrack… kududuk…
In an instant, the birdsong and cicada chorus that had been playing like background music through the mountains fell completely silent, as if someone had flipped a switch.
What followed was a rupture of a magnitude Hyunwoo had never heard once in his entire life.
KWA-AAAAANG—!
"……Huh?"
Hyunwoo jerked his head up.
Right in the middle of the sky, where the red sunset still burned, a massive crack began to spread—as if someone had flung black ink across the heavens. The fracture forked out in every direction like lightning, and then the sky itself shattered and came crashing down in pieces.
What lurked behind the sky was neither the blue of outer space nor the black of night.
It was a nauseatingly grotesque void of deep violet.
A color he had never seen in nature—a space that did not exist on Earth.
Ku-ku-ku-kukung—!
Before anyone in the group could even scream, the entire mountain ridge the pension stood on heaved under a colossal impact. It felt as if the building itself were being ripped free from its foundations by a landslide.
Their bodies floated weightlessly, as if gravity had vanished. The solid concrete floor and wooden terrace groaned and splintered, shuddering on the brink of collapse.
"Hyunwoo!"
"Oppa!"
Hyunwoo's vision lurched and plunged downward with the shock.
The pension was collapsing—no.
The ground they stood on had been sheared clean off and was plummeting into a darkness so absolute he couldn't even guess where it ended.
Hyunwoo clenched his teeth, fought down the primal terror that screamed at him to grab onto something, and stretched out his arms—pulling Iseo and Soyul, the two closest to him, hard against his chest.
Then he kicked the charcoal grill that was careening dangerously through the airless freefall, sending it flying clear.
At the same time, Hyunjin and Hyuna clung to the shattered remains of a terrace railing post, straining with everything they had not to lose each other.
The scenery vanished piece by piece. No sky, no mountains, nothing at all. Before long, only a thick violet fog filled every direction, swirling and churning.
And with the fog came pain beyond endurance.
"Khrrk!"
Hyunwoo bit down hard, but a groan of pure agony still forced its way through his teeth.
The moment the violet fog swirling all around touched bare skin, a vicious heat and pain seared through his entire body—as if he had been submerged in powerful acid. It felt as though soul and flesh alike were slowly melting from the extremities inward under that deep purple mist, a suffering no language could fully capture.
Was this what they meant by the worst pain a human could feel—the pain of burning?
"Aaagh! It hurts, stop! Oppa…! Unnie…! My body feels weird……!"
Hyuna curled in on herself, clutching her fingertips and wailing. Hyunjin bit her lip until it bled and broke into tears; Soyul and Iseo writhed in agony in Hyunwoo's arms.
We're going to die.
There was no room to wonder what the violet fog was, why the sky had torn open, why they were falling. But instinct was screaming a clear warning: if they kept falling exposed to this fog, their bodies would shatter into nothing and vanish without a trace.
Worse—the pension terrace and concrete foundation they were riding down seemed to be affected too, crumbling to powder from the edges inward.
No.
His lip split open; the copper taste of blood filled his mouth.
Absolutely not! I can't die here! I just got discharged, and Hyuna and Iseo haven't even gotten to enjoy college yet!
Survival instinct tangled with raw desperation and tore through his brain. He had to do something. They couldn't fall any farther. If he didn't act, they would all melt and die.
"Fuck… I have to… do something…"
Hyunwoo staggered and dropped to his knees. His palms slammed flat against the concrete floor of the pension—
And in that instant, a cold, unidentifiable power surged up from deep in his chest.
The force flooded through him like a tidal wave—racing from his shoulders down his arms—and erupted through his palms as threads of bluish light, like glowing strands of yarn, exploding outward in every direction.
They shot out like lightning. Blue threads of magic drove frantically into the cracked concrete, the broken rock, the heaps of earth, stitching and binding and fusing everything back together.
Binding
In that moment, Hyunwoo understood the name of this power—as if he had always known it.
The force pouring endlessly through his palms against the floor restored everything that had been falling and scattering, returning each piece to the shape and place it was meant to hold…
At last, the land bound into one piece found its balance in midair.
And in that same instant, the vicious heat and melting agony that had been devouring the group faded away as if it had never been.
"Haa… haa… hhk… hah…"
He stayed on his hands and knees, gasping for air, his arms trembling. The exhaustion was so total he felt he might pass out. But he couldn't. Not now…
"Hy-Hyunwoo……?"
Hyunjin, her face a mess of tears, stared blankly at him—and at the blue threads of light still radiating from the hand he had pressed to the floor. From start to finish, none of it made any sense. Her expression said she couldn't even begin to imagine what had just happened to them.
After a moment to catch his breath and collect himself, Hyunwoo swept bloodshot eyes across their surroundings.
Beyond the violet fog, countless other fragments torn free from Earth drifted in the void—just like this scrap of land he had barely managed to stop.
