Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Father and Son III
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Shin Noah
5
"Follow me this way."
"Y-Yes, sir..."
A soccer stadium located in Busan.
Half-destroyed by monsters, the outer walls of the stadium had nearly collapsed. Amid the scattered debris of steel frameworks everywhere, I visited this place after a very, very long time.
The first time I came, it was with someone who was a father. The second time, it was with his son.
"Wow."
Kim Si-eun, who seemed to be visiting such a large stadium for the first time, looked around like a crane craning its neck.
"It's huge. On match days, do those stands fill up completely?"
"It's rarer than you'd think for them to fill up completely. Still, I recall the average attendance was around 10,000."
Though it had been over 500 years since my last visit, I found my destination surprisingly quickly.
In one corner of the stands, a crystal protruded as if it belonged in a deep cave. It was a massive crystal as tall as me.
A marker visible only to my eyes.
Personally, I called that crystal a "tombstone" or "gravestone." Since no one else could even perceive it, calling it "that thing" would have been fine too.
Even Kim Si-eun right beside me couldn't recognize the crystal practically in front of his nose.
"Now, take my hand."
"Ah, yes."
"I can freely enter the dreams of those I've sealed anytime. But you can't. You'll only be able to access the dream while holding my hand. So no matter what happens, never let go of my hand. Got it?"
"Got it. Big brother."
Kim Si-eun cautiously gripped my hand.
I nodded.
"Then close your eyes. Prepare yourself mentally."
"......"
"Here we go."
I pressed my left palm against the surface of the crystal.
With a squish, my hand passed through the crystal. The mirror-like, transparently gleaming surface accepted my body without resistance, as if it were made of water.
In that state, I took one step.
Another step, and after about six steps total, the surroundings rapidly turned pitch black. It was like some mischievous child had splashed black paint everywhere, or like we'd plunged into the deep sea.
"......"
It was a familiar sensation to me, but not to Kim Si-eun. The fear making him flinch was transmitted straight through his hand.
A moment later.
-Waaaaaaaaah!
Suddenly, a roar that shook heaven and earth erupted beside us.
"Eek!"
Kim Si-eun startled awake and opened his eyes. He reflexively scanned the surroundings. And then his eyes widened even more than when he'd heard the roar.
"Wh-What? What's going on?"
The roar was the supporters' cheers.
The stadium, which had been eerily empty except for us, was now packed with home fans and away fans.
In place of the ruins' debris were soccer clubs' flags, slogans, balloons, and above all, people.
"Attack! Attack! Hurry, hurry!"
Someone who looked like a coach yelled from the sidelines.
On the green field, players dashed like mad. Every time they dribbled, every time they slotted in a brilliant pass, every time they prepared a corner kick, cheers that shook the heavens erupted from the stands.
-Oh! Our club! Eternal hometown!
Before the world had crumbled like this.
Five years ago by others' standards, and over 500 years ago by mine—a fervor of support you could only taste back then.
-My love! My hometown!
-We will triumph again today!
The soccer club fans shook their smartphones and jumped in place. At the forefront of the stands, massive flags waved ceaselessly.
Beneath the flags undulating like evening waves in red, Kim Si-eun stood rigid.
"......"
"Look over there, Si-eun."
I pointed to the field. Kim Si-eun's gaze followed my finger.
Thud. The soccer ball bounced up from the grass. One player chested it down and dashed forward skillfully.
Kim Joo-cheol.
-Ooooh!
The crowd let out exclamations.
The image of Kim Joo-cheol, buried in the mists of time in my memories, ran across the field a bit younger, a bit sturdier.
Above all, Kim Joo-cheol's left foot freely nudged the ball, thump, thump, propelling him forward.
-Go! Hurry! Counterattack!
-No one's there!
-Kim Jooo-cheol!
Though a defender, Kim Joo-cheol crossed the halfway line without hesitation. Teammates and opponents alike chased after him desperately.
Kim Joo-cheol lifted the ball with his left foot, and a teammate barely managed to head it in. The ball hit the net, shaking it.
-Waaaaaaaaah!
Kim Joo-cheol had notched an assist.
But his performance didn't end there. In the ensuing corner kick, Kim Joo-cheol leaped high. This time, he headed the ball straight into the net himself.
The scoreboard changed from 1:1 to 2:1. A game-winning goal.
The defender had produced one assist and one goal in an instant.
-Gooooal! Goal! Goal!
-Kim Joo-cheol! Kim Joo-cheol! Kim Joo-cheol!
At that very moment.
Kim Joo-cheol glided toward the stands like a skater. The camera focused on him. He lightly vaulted the advertising board and approached a female spectator, planting a kiss on her.
The woman held a child in her arms. Kim Joo-cheol kissed the top of the child's head too. The stadium's jumbotron captured the scene perfectly.
"What's that? Who's that?"
"Kim Joo-cheol's player's wife!"
-Ooooh! Kim Joo-cheol! Kim Joo-cheol!
Despite the excessive celebration earning him a yellow card from the referee, the players, the fans, and Kim Joo-cheol himself paid it no mind.
Beside me, Kim Si-eun murmured softly.
"Mom...?"
He seemed to recognize the identity of the woman kissing the soccer player. He couldn't close his gaping mouth.
"No way. Then really..."
Kim Si-eun's faint murmur couldn't continue long. The supporters' chants filled the air.
-Kim Joo-cheol! Our iron wall!
-No one can break through Kim Joo-cheol!
-Kim Joo-cheol! Our iron wall!
The face of Kim Joo-cheol, embracing the young child, looked utterly happy. The child in his father's arms beamed with a huge grin too.
A past you could never return to.
A glory you could never reclaim.
"......"
"That was the happiest moment of your father's life."
I said quietly.
I spread my aura, creating a barrier between us and the surroundings. The fans' cheers faded into a distant echo. As the sound dimmed, the scenery before us blurred like a dream.
"And it's a moment that's been repeating eternally."
"Th-This is weird. He looks so happy. So why did he erase himself from this world? Huh? Why abandon his family and trap himself in a dream like this?"
"......"
Because before long, Kim Joo-cheol's left leg would shatter completely.
Because he fell into alcohol and gambling, abandoned his family and collapsed in Macau or Gangwon-do, and his wife, left alone to raise their son, died.
But instead of answering that way, I asked this.
"Want to go ask your father directly?"
"......"
Kim Si-eun chewed his lip.
"...Yes."
This world had become Kim Joo-cheol's domain, but as the caster, I had some power to intervene.
When the match ended, Kim Joo-cheol finished his MOM interview and headed to the locker room. Holding Kim Si-eun's hand, I followed. No one perceived our presence.
"Huh?"
Only Kim Joo-cheol noticed me. He turned toward us mid-bounce with his teammates, his face beaming with a bright smile.
"Who are you? A fan? You can't come in here!"
"It's me, Mr. Kim Joo-cheol."
"Huh? Who?"
"Undertaker. The one who trapped you in this moment."
I stared straight into his eyes.
"Don't you recognize me?"
"......"
The smile vanished from Kim Joo-cheol's face.
At the same moment, all the colors painting this world turned to gray. The players chanting in the locker room, the coach and staff about to enter, even the champagne popped by one player—all froze in midair.
"Ah..."
Only Kim Joo-cheol's sigh flowed quietly.
"Yeah. That's right. It was a dream."
"......"
"This is a dream. Yeah, all of it was a dream..."
Kim Joo-cheol quietly looked around. He gazed at each of his former teammates with eyes full of varied emotions. Then he let out a sigh.
"Now it's a lucid dream. Good timing, actually. Since it's come to this, I should go see my wife and son's faces one more time. No reason to stay in a locker room with these annoying bastards."
"No need for that."
"Hm?"
"Once this moment passes, you'll forget everything anyway, Mr. Kim Joo-cheol. Even this meeting with me, even our conversation. Just as the world remembers nothing of you, you'll accumulate no more memories of the world."
"Oh man. Really? That's brutal..."
Kim Joo-cheol plopped down on the bench. Wiping the sweat streaming down his body with a towel, he said.
"So why did the Undertaker come looking for me? Is this meeting something that's already repeated countless times without my knowledge? Some annual ritual? Here to watch my epic highlight reel live?"
"It might mean nothing to you, Mr. Kim Joo-cheol, but it could mean something to your family."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The young man who came with me is your son."
"What?"
Kim Joo-cheol finally looked at my companion beside me, as if only now perceiving another person's existence.
Kim Joo-cheol blinked.
"Si-eun?"
"......"
"Si-eun? Is that really you? Wow, how'd you get so big!"
Kim Joo-cheol jumped up and rushed to Kim Si-eun. Kim Si-eun flinched but didn't refuse the embrace.
"My god! You're a full-grown man now! Wow, last I saw you, you were a baby, a newborn! How old are you? Middle school? High school?"
"...I'm 20."
"What? 20? No way, why're you so scrawny! What've you been eating to end up that short! What kind of genes did I pass on!"
The tall defender seemed shocked by his son's height.
"Um... Dad?"
"Yeah? Don't call me Dad. Makes me embarrassed. Just call me like always, Daddy..."
Kim Joo-cheol suddenly shut his mouth.
He peered into Kim Si-eun's face. Then looked at mine. Worry clouded his expression.
"...Hold on. Sorry, but when did my wife... your mom pass away?"
"...Seven years ago."
"......"
Silence fell.
After a long pause, Kim Joo-cheol murmured "Ah."
"That's why."
His gaze flicked toward me briefly.
"That's why you warned me. That's why... that's why."
I didn't answer him. I just gave a small nod.
I knew full well how horrific it felt to be forgotten by the most precious person. But while I always had a chance to start over, Kim Joo-cheol never would.
Eternally.
"......"
"...Si-eun."
The father grasped his son's shoulder—Kim Joo-cheol gripped Kim Si-eun's. It wasn't a forceful grip. It was more like the frail pressure of a willow leaf.
"I'm sorry."
"......"
"Your dad... your father was a weak man. Really weak. I never thought you'd survive in a world like this. No, even before the world turned like this... I just drank, gambled. A total bastard. Ignored your mom's calls, just got mad. Really..."
Kim Si-eun listened to Kim Joo-cheol's apology with an expression unsure of what face to make. It wasn't his fault. To him, Kim Joo-cheol was just someone he was meeting for the first time today.
Seeing his son's face, Kim Joo-cheol could only shudder again.
"This... this is hell."
"......"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Si-eun. Daddy's sorry."
The soccer player trapped in his prime repeated "I'm sorry" like a broken music box.
6
I don't want to talk much about the aftermath of this story.
But I believe readers now fully understand why I hate the [Time Seal] ability so much.
Honestly, I never wanted to deal with [Time Seal] ever again. It was that much of a black history. But on the other hand, I'm relieved to finally spill about my ability to you all now.
Yes. I sealed not just Kim Joo-cheol, but countless others' time.
Back then, I thought it was right.
But looking back after the years passed, those people—and I myself—had given up on the world far too early, far too hastily.
The reason I call my life story a "failure tale" is partly because of [Time Seal]. No matter how many regressions I repeat, there were just too many people who could never reach another ending.
"Feels kinda weird."
Yet the survivors have no choice but to carry on with the bonds they still have.
Having left the stadium, Kim Si-eun kept looking back. The stadium, its outer walls destroyed and guts exposed, stood precariously in the distance.
"Regretting coming?"
"No! Absolutely not. It's just... a guy I can't even remember cries saying he's family, but I can't recall who he is at all. Yeah. Weird feeling."
Kim Si-eun readjusted his backpack with a grunt.
"Just makes me think I gotta live hard."
Leaning on his cane, he bowed his head toward me.
"Anyway, thanks, big brother! Thanks to you, I found Mom's hometown and got to see Dad on this trip. Bit bittersweet, but it meant something."
"Where to now?"
"Gonna somehow catch a boat to Japan! Pretty much toured the whole country by now."
"Japan, huh."
Truth be told, Japan wasn't a place to recommend lightly these days.
If someone asked me to name the two most dangerous places in the world excluding the Korean Peninsula, I'd unhesitatingly say the Japanese archipelago and the Indian subcontinent.
Because the beings treated as "gods" there loved humans so much they decided to personally look after them. And their favorite genres? #Confinement #Training #Gore.
The whole world was dangerous, but those two spots were perilously so in a different way. Think apocalypse vs. horror genre.
But that's a few years from now. The Japanese islands were still relatively safe.
I didn't stop the young backpacker's youthful vigor.
Instead, I gave this advice.
"If you hear weird sounds on the road, see strange objects, or feel any odd sensations—don't investigate. Just clasp your hands in greeting, pretend you saw nothing, and keep going. Especially, never enter tunnels."
"......?"
"You'll probably end up in Fukuoka—steer clear of the provisional government folks unless you have to... Anyway, keep it in mind; it'll come in handy someday."
"Yeah. Got it!"
I didn't know what end Kim Si-eun met after crossing to Japan. Probably something gruesome, high odds.
But I wasn't too bothered. From a regressor's viewpoint, life isn't a sports match that ends after 90 minutes with a whistle—it's a journey that stops briefly at a station before hitting the rails again toward the next destination.
Unlike his father, he still had chances to travel to new places.
"See you next time, big brother!"
For the record, I trusted Kim Joo-cheol's sincerity.
I had no desire to distort the will of the man who murmured "my son" even as he vanished from the world. Setting aside whether he was strong enough to uphold that heart to the end.
If his apology was truly for his son, wouldn't he be happy seeing Kim Si-eun now, unburdened by the past and heading to new horizons?
Wouldn't he bless him?
Looking back once more, the stadium with its collapsed outer walls came into view.
-Gooooal! Goal! Goal!
-Kim Joo-cheol! Kim Joo-cheol! Kim Joo-cheol!
There, an unnamed soccer player forgotten by the world played on forever. With a healthy left leg. Amid the crowd's cheers.
And eternally dashing to perform his ceremony for his family.
- Father and Son. End.