In Five Minutes, My Friend Lee Seora's Secondary Awakening Begins!

And what on earth was that supposed to mean?

On top of it, the status windows stacked up like a list of missed notifications weren't making much sense to me either.

The right eye and the right arm?

There were only two things here I could say I knew for certain: that the 'friend' these windows referred to was Nabi, and that if you compared Nabi's true form to a human body, it was shaped like a right hand.

Which meant…

If I took those words and applied them directly to what I knew — Nabi had acquired a right eye at some point without my ever knowing.

And apparently I'm the one who helped him find it?

When? Where? How?

On top of that, I never even imagined Nabi had anything more beyond his current form.

……The moment I started rapidly retracing my steps — all the way back to what I'd eaten that morning — the memories came rushing back to that day.

Don't tell me… when I was kidnapped?

Out of nowhere, I remembered the moment during that ritual on the altar, when Nabi reached his hand into the washbasin set out on the dais.

The image of that black hand, pulling something out and holding it up to the light through the flames, was still vivid.

He had no expression, but it looked like he was seeing it.

Nabi's face, gleeful as a little kid's.

That was it, then?

Nabi's actual eyeball had been sitting in that washbasin? I'd assumed it was the kind of thing those roaming devil rumors got embellished into scripture…

So those cult frauds actually had the real thing on hand to shove in people's faces.

Of course, Nabi is not a devil.

Probably… probably not. No child who speaks of such things and then beams so innocently while hunting for candy could possibly be a devil.

Anyway, apparently as a thank-you gift for my accidental help finding the eye, Nabi had shared his skill with me.

But still…

I had no real idea what the skill called Advent was supposed to be.

Whether I was confused or not, however, the skill was already manifesting through the status window in midair.

The status window kept growing.

By the time it had swelled to the size of a large TV screen…

Footage began to play — tinted like an old film reel.

The angle was like peering through a crack in a deep closet.

A dark audiovisual room in the annex building.

In that place, fully submerged in water, Seora was curled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up and sinking deep below the surface.

There was no one beside the child.

She simply pressed her hands together, squeezed her eyes shut, and held her breath — alone.

Then a few bubbles floated up past her head, and I could see the strength leaving the child's body.

Seora sank all the way to the floor…

…and the footage ended.

Only after confirming the video was over did I exhale the breath I'd been holding. And in the same moment, I understood.

What I had just watched was…

The future, five minutes from now, in which Seora dies.

"……"

The footage had ended far, far too quickly. Objectively, only a few dozen seconds had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠passed for my brain to process reality — but it felt like tens of minutes.

"……"

Before my thoughts could catch up, my body was already moving. I shot up from the sofa and flung open the door to the staff room.

But I couldn't move any further.

……Kwon Haeseong?

Because Kwon Haeseong was gripping my arm, eyes wide with alarm.

"Teacher… what's going on?"

Only then did my brain, which had frozen from the shock, begin to turn over again.

I looked down at his hand wrapped around my arm.

"……"

Right.

Damn it.

This was exactly the moment to proceed calmly, step by step. Charging off on my own would be reckless — there were children from other classes in that audiovisual room too.

I pulled out my phone while still standing.

First, this secondary awakening business.

The moment I typed awakener secondary awakening into the search bar, a flood of posts appeared. I pressed my sweaty, slippery fingers down and scrolled fast, then clicked on the post with the highest view count and the most likes.

A short clip of a man in a white training uniform throwing a punch played first… then, true to its unofficial internet origins, the post itself opened in a breezy, casual tone.

But the content was cleanly organized, with the academic papers it referenced even attached throughout — it actually looked reliable.

This is the part I need.

Figures.

I'd half-remembered hearing something like this at the awakener training facility.

According to the training manual, Seora had only ever shown a single element — fire — among the four classical elements of a natural-type awakener.

Which meant the element manifesting now was water?

It made sense.

The water filling the audiovisual room wasn't about to come raining down out of the sky for no reason.

Then it hit me — the water-play equipment we'd stashed in the storage room for the upcoming overnight camp.

I flung the door open and ran out, shouting to my fellow teachers.

"Everyone, follow me! We need to get to the audiovisual room right now! The kids are in danger!"

Winding the clock back a little further…

Young Lee Seora was blinking her wide eyes, listening attentively to the origami teacher on the stage.

"Hello, friends~ Today we're going to do a very special origami craft."

Out of the origami teacher's bag burst papers Seora had never once seen in her life!

Papers patterned with water droplets, gold and silver colored paper, even fluorescent neon paper…

Seora swallowed hard.

Wow… so sparkly…

Inspiration had already begun popping up in her head, one idea after another.

"But wait! Just making things wouldn't be much fun, right~? So once you fold your paper, you're going to put on a paper puppet show with the friends sitting next to you!"

Fold the colored paper neatly, attach a wooden stick to the back, then take the stage and perform a puppet show — that was today's lesson!

Getting up on a stage to perform a puppet show.

It lit the fires of ambition in the hearts of children who were at the peak of their hunger for the spotlight.

"What story should your puppet show tell?" asked Cheonji, holding the basket full of scissors, glue, and colored paper.

Cheonji, Noah, and Seora.

Those three became one puppet-show team.

"Me~ I'm an alien! It's about moving to an alien planet! Earth gets totally wrecked, so we pack up our bags and cry our eyes out as we become neighbors with the aliens. How's that for a sad story?"

"Hmm… but spaceships and aliens seem really hard to fold, though."

"Oooh? You think so?"

"Seora, what do you want to do?"

Cheonji asked, turning to Seora, who'd been standing quietly with an excited face.

Lee Seora was beyond thrilled. The truth was, the moment she'd laid eyes on that blue paper the color of the ocean, and the silver paper beside it, she'd already decided exactly what she was going to fold.

"I wanna make a fisherman story! Sailing and fishing all across the ocean!"

Sure, a few days ago she'd dreamed of suffering three days and nights adrift on the vast open sea…

But an ocean trip with friends would be a whole different thing.

"Nice. A boat's easy to fold, too. Noah, how about an ocean adventure story?"

"The ocean? Oh~ yeah! Actually, I was born in Yeosu, you know? My mom says I'm a man of the sea!"

"Really? Then I'll be a woman of the sea!"

"Seora, you were born in Yeosu too?"

"No! I was born in Seoul!"

"Huh, me too. Then I guess it's fine if I'm a man of the sea anyway."

After that, the three of them sat down on the floor and threw themselves into folding.

Cheonji crumpled blue paper in rippling waves to make the sea.

Noah drew a fisherman on his boat and cut him out of the paper with scissors.

And Lee Seora folded a small silver sailboat, beautifully.

Will it be visible even from far away?

The boat she'd sailed in her dream had been a dark brown, so the people passing by had never spotted her.

Each time, Lee Seora had been so, so sad.

But this boat will be easy to see!

She had to decorate it even better. If she colored it in some more with her pencils, it would really stand out.

She was just about to get up from her seat with that thought… and in that instant, her heart went cold.

Why is my heart cold?

It felt as though her heart had been wrapped in ice, frost drifting off it in flurries.

……Gasp! No way — did I catch a cold?

"Seora, did you finish your boat?"

But at Cheonji's question, she once again forgot all about the strangeness in her body.

It was fine. Being healthy was her greatest strength, so she'd be fine.

The puppet show comes first right now!

"Alright, lights out, everyone."

-Click.

At the teacher's signal, every light in the audiovisual room went dark. Only a round, sunset-colored lamp switched on over the little desk on the stage.

All eyes converged.

A moment later, blue paper shaped like the sea began to ripple across the desk.

"Whoooooshhh…"

"That day was the day we went fishing on the night sea."

Cheonji's soft narration carried on.

All the while, Lee Seora held her breath, waiting for her cue to appear.

"Today I'm gonna catch the biggest squid in the whole world!"

This was the timing for the boat and the fisherman to enter.

A figure in a straw hat emerged onto the beach.

But for some reason, the gleaming silver boat she'd proudly prepared never made its entrance.

"……Ugh……"

Lee Seora collapsed to the floor, doubled over by a nauseating pain.

I'm gonna throw up.

"Seora? Why aren't you coming out?"

"Seora, it's your turn now."

The urging didn't reach her. Her fingers and toes had gone numb, and a chill shivered through her whole body.

"Seora? What's wrong?"

"Is Lee Seora sick?"

……Thud.

Lee Seora fainted right where she was.

The little silver sailboat still clutched in one hand.

When she opened her eyes again…

She was floating on the surface of the water.

What is this?

Everything in every direction was dark. It was cold, and frightening, and lonely.

"Oppaaaaa… Seorooooo…"

The tears came streaming down. Her body wouldn't move an inch.

Why is this happening?

She'd just been doing a role-play. How had it come to this? Her body had been acting strange for days now — was it because she'd kept it a secret from her oppa that she'd ended up like this?

What if nobody can find me?

The worry, once a single droplet, swelled into an ocean in an instant. The panicked child began thrashing the arms and legs that had been floating limply, without even realizing it.

"Ah!"

Splash.

"Kehok! Kehok!"

Water flooded her mouth and nose.

Her insides burned, her throat stung. Her body lost its balance and began to sink beneath the water.

She flailed her arms and legs upward on pure instinct, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but it was useless.

Water kept pouring into her nose and mouth.

Scary! Scary!

Then, at some point, she realized her entire body had gone under.

……The dark surface of the water was visible above her.

As her grip weakened and the sailboat began to rise toward the surface, Lee Seora instinctively clutched it tight with both hands.

Then she curled her body into a ball. Instead of reaching her arms toward the surface where nothing could be seen, she clung to the thing already in her hands — an act of pure, raw instinct.

Lee Seora could feel her aching eyes and chest gradually easing.

Her eyes kept fluttering shut, and when she opened them again without meaning to…

Above the surface… she saw a glimmering light.

During that dream, sailing across the endless sea, she had suffered three days and nights without crying even once.

Because she'd been scared and sad, but never lonely.

There was a light.

In the sea of her dream, a bright beam of light had always been shining toward her, wherever she drifted. If she remembered what Seoro had told her, something like that was called a lighthouse…

A beacon of hope and safety, built to comfort the humans adrift on the sea.

And then, just before her consciousness slipped away completely, a hand reached down beneath the surface.

"Seora!"

A bright light in the darkness.

The lighthouse?

Before she knew it, she had been pulled out of the water.

She blinked her waterlogged eyes, and in that moment, the voice of the person ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠holding her reached her, blurred and distant.

"Ah…… Pa?"

Lee Seora opened her eyes again. And through the sharpening clarity of her vision, she saw the figure before her.

Bright light was pouring out from behind the teacher's soaked hair.

A human lighthouse…