A Brief Farewell
“Just in case, I’ve activated the surveillance turrets too. Probably nothing will happen, but… you never know with people.”
“Yeah, yeah. Got it.”
“But are you really okay?”
“Don’t worry, Suho! I’m fine.”
“Should I tell the siblings to drop by every now and then?”
Before leaving for the Academy, I’d tinkered with the lab’s security systems. First, I repaired the 22-inch machine gun that had broken during the transfer. Kang Naram had helped quite a bit, of course, but the malfunctions were all simple enough to fix. Thanks to that, she now had the means to eliminate intruders approaching from the entrance or the perimeter.
“It’s fine. Adam and Eve are probably busy anyway. Besides, I’ve got plenty of games and movies to keep me occupied here. Think of it as a short vacation!”
“Still…”
“You’re being overprotective. I’m not that fragile, you know.”
“Understood.”
Kang Naram kept reassuring me not to worry. Maybe I really was making too much of a fuss. Still, the unease was hard to shake. The Academy was quite far from the lab—well beyond the range of the transmission tower’s signals, and even drones couldn’t reach it. But as I’d told myself before, the solution was simple: get back as quickly as possible. No point overthinking it.
“And we haven’t even said goodbye yet.”
“True.”
“I’m going to listen to your voice a lot from now on. Hehe.”
“……”
I should’ve cracked a joke like an entertainment show host, promising to talk nonstop, but the words wouldn’t come. I started walking. When I reached the entrance to the Deadwood Forest, Lulu was waiting for me in her school uniform. The Academy’s uniform in this world was pretty awful. In most stories, they went for a modern design, but here it was just a pitch-black robe. Reminded me of Harry Potter.
“Let’s go.”
“What’s with all the stuff you’re carrying?”
“Magic props to enlighten the ignorant.”
I had a backpack slung over my shoulder, packed with various tools that would prove invaluable during our search for Hwanjong at the Academy. And so, we set off on our journey.
Originally, I hadn’t planned on introducing Lulu to Kang Naram. After all, we still weren’t entirely sure if she was trustworthy. But Kang Naram had stubbornly insisted she wanted to talk to her, and the result was this:
“Hi-tv!”
She was teaching Lulu the catchphrase she’d been pushing lately. The call was on speaker mode, of course. Unlike my suspicious nature, Kang Naram treated Lulu with genuine kindness. She acted as if this was exactly the kind of little sister she’d always wanted. Clearly, Lulu had made quite an impression.
Lulu had been startled at first, thinking it was some kind of supernatural phenomenon hearing a disembodied voice, but once she realized Kang Naram was another mysterious person like me, she warmed up quickly.
“H-Hi-tv!”
“That’s it! Exactly!”
“Otherworldly slang is really something else……”
She treated Kang Naram like someone she could open up to. With me, though, she still seemed a bit reserved. Even while chatting, she kept glancing my way, which only made the protein bar I’d brought as a snack—22 grams of protein—taste even drier than usual. I sat by the campfire, chewing blankly as I watched the two of them talk.
After reaching a reasonable agreement with me, Kang Naram had told Lulu the truth: that we were from another world. I’d been against it, but she’d disagreed. If we were going to rely on Lulu’s help, we owed her honesty in return. She’d also explained that the Hwanjong were beings from our homeland as well. At first, Lulu had been skeptical, but after witnessing people who died and came back endlessly, and a slasher killer butchering victims with a chainsaw, her doubts had nowhere left to go.
“So you two are trying to find a way back home?”
“Yep-tv.”
“Must be tough, being stuck in a foreign land.”
“Suho’s had it harder than me.”
“If you keep trying like that, I’m sure you’ll make it back someday. I hope things work out for both of you.”
“Don’t talk to Naram like that. Show some respect.”
In a country that prided itself on Confucian etiquette, this was unthinkable. How dare an eighteen-year-old brat speak so casually to Senior Researcher Kang Naram, a figure as lofty as the heavens?
“Naram’s eaten rice cake soup seven more times than you. By the time you’re twenty-three, she’ll already be thirty. Show your elders some courtesy.”
“Hey!! Woo Suho!!”
Why was she yelling at me all of a sudden? I was just trying to make sure Kang Naram got the respect she deserved. It was upsetting. Truly upsetting.
“If you bring up my age again, you’re dead!”
Night was slowly falling. I yawned and lay down to sleep. I hoped Kang Naram would appear in my dreams tonight. Her face was starting to blur in my memory.
“He… re… ugh, ah……”
Once we’d covered about two-thirds of the distance, her voice began to cut out. I’d thought modern science had limitless potential, but apparently not.
0_4_138 Woo Suho ▶ 「Naram…」
0_1_100 Kang Naram ▶ 「Aigoo… The signal’s getting really unstable…」
0_4_138 Woo Suho ▶ 「T_T T_T T_T T_T」
0_1_100 Kang Naram ▶ 「Can’t be helped… Still, do your best and come back safe! I’ll be right here waiting for you!」
The chat with Kang Naram cut off. Even after being transported to this world, even though I couldn’t see her face, I’d always felt like she was right there with me. We talked on the phone constantly, exchanged messages in real time. For most people, staying in constant contact from the moment they woke up until they went to sleep wasn’t easy. But it had never felt like a burden to me. Those moments had been genuinely enjoyable. That was exactly why the emptiness now felt so vast.
“Guess that artifact isn’t all-powerful either.”
“Yeah.”
“She must be really important to you.”
Kang Naram and I weren’t in what you’d call an ordinary relationship. I’d relied on her ever since I entered the lab. Back then, the situation had been different, but now she had no choice but to rely on me as well. In this world, I was the only person she could lean on. I wasn’t saying I was some great guy—it was just the reality of our circumstances. She could only talk to others through me. If I didn’t do something, she’d be trapped in that prison forever.
I felt responsible. She had been my only hope in that hellish lab. Now it was my turn to be hers. I would repay every kindness she’d shown me. Above all else, I wanted to see her smile again with my own eyes. Being able to look at that beautiful, radiant smile up close—that was the greatest blessing in the world. A smile more stunning than any sculpture, more precious than any jewel. Maybe that smile was what kept me going.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got someone like that too.”
“Who?”
“My amazing big sister.”
It was the first time Lulu and I had talked alone during the journey. Kang Naram had been chattering nonstop before.
“Who’s your sister?”
“Libertas.”
Libertas. I’d heard that name somewhere before. Where was it… Ah.
“The big shot from the arena?”
I remembered her as one of the four people the arena manager had been fawning over.
“Big shot from the arena? What are you even talking about?”
“No?”
“She’s got a much more impressive title than that, so don’t call her something so lame.”
Libertas, Master of the Clocktower. Thanks to having such an extraordinary sister backing her, Lulu had been able to learn about the supernatural phenomena.
“Another pair of siblings this time.”
“This time?”
“Just something that came to mind.”
The faces of the brother and sister working hard in the slums flashed through my thoughts. I wondered what they were up to now.
“You two close?”
“Very.”
“Must be nice, having a good family.”
“What about you? Bad relationship with your family?”
“Don’t have one.”
“You’ve got Naram.”
“She doesn’t count as family.”
Unless we got married someday, maybe. No matter how precious she was, I couldn’t call her family. Not that my feelings for her were shallow—there was that saying about bonds thicker than blood being forged by the heart. But when I said “family,” I meant the kind connected by blood.
“No parents either?”
“You wanna die?”
This brat was really pushing it with the parent diss. And so, we continued on toward the Academy.