The Door to Earth
A peaceful night. A woman stood on the terrace of a beautiful mansion, gazing at the moon that illuminated the night sky, and let out a long sigh of complaint.
“Haa… I want to go back to Earth.”
It had been countless years since she crossed over to this other world. ‘I even defeated the Demon King. Can’t I just leave now?’
She had done everything imaginable to return to Earth—even slaying the Demon King—but five years had passed with no sign of a way home. All she could do was sigh.
“Of all things, why did I have to get struck by lightning back then…”
In her previous life, she had died after being hit by lightning. So, what were the odds of that happening? One in twenty-eight thousand. And she had managed to pull it off. That was how she had been transferred to this world in the body of a young girl.
At first, she had been shocked. Not only had she been transported to another world, but the ordinary middle-school boy she used to be had reincarnated as a girl. But as time passed, she grew used to it. Once she had calmed down, she looked around.
The girl had been an ordinary Romani. A common orphan who made her living through fortune-telling. What could a parentless young girl do in a strange new world? With no other choice, she continued living as a Romani, surviving on fortune-telling just as the girl had done before.
But now she had reached her limit. It was unbearably boring. ‘Games, fried chicken, kimchi stew…’ She missed all of it.
The only thing in this world that brought her any satisfaction was cigarettes. But even that had lost its charm. She craved stimulation. She wanted Korean food. She missed her family. She missed home.
Still, these were meaningless complaints. At this point, there was nothing she could do about it.
“Maybe I should take a walk…”
She grabbed the terrace railing and jumped down, heading straight into the forest. She wouldn’t be able to sleep with this gloomy mood anyway. A change of scenery was in order.
After wandering through the woods for a few minutes, she noticed something strange.
‘Why aren’t there any animals?’
Not a single creature was in sight. Not even the usual ants. Then—
Chirp.
“……”
When she looked up at the sky, she saw birds flying off somewhere. Sensing that something was wrong, she followed the birds deeper into the forest.
Once she reached the heart of the woods, she found all the animals gathered together, encircling something. It looked like every creature that lived in this forest had come. But something else caught her eye even more.
‘Is that… a door?’
Why would a door be here? It was a beautiful, pure white door. And with all these animals gathered around it, the whole thing felt incredibly suspicious.
She could feel countless animal eyes on her. It was as if they were urging her to open it quickly.
‘Could this door lead back to the Earth I used to live on?’
If so, one question was unavoidable.
‘Why did it only appear now?’
A door that hadn’t shown up even after she defeated the Demon King—why was it appearing now, of all times…?
‘Right. That’s not what matters right now…’
She grabbed the doorknob. What mattered was that this door represented her last hope of returning to Earth.
She hesitated. What if this door didn’t lead to Earth, but to yet another world…?
‘Does it even matter…?’
She had no precious ties in this world anyway. No lingering attachments. It was nothing more than a hollow shell of a world. If she wanted to cut it away, she could do so easily.
‘But…’
What if it led to a dangerous world? What if she could die there?
Death frightened her. She didn’t want to die without seeing her family again. She needed some kind of safeguard.
She lifted her head and gazed at the clouds drifting freely across the sky.
‘Today’s lucky color is white…’
She plucked a daisy blooming by the roadside, then turned the doorknob and opened the door.
“……?”
When she opened it, what spread out before her was a small alleyway. Flyers plastered on the walls, food waste, and a cat eating that food waste. It was the kind of alley you could find anywhere.
“This really is Earth, right?”
The doorknob she had been holding vanished. When she looked back, the door leading to the other world had disappeared completely. All that remained was a fitness flyer stuck to the wall.
‘Well, I guess it’s fine?’
She had reached Earth as intended, and she would never have to return to that world again. It was a good thing.
“Ugh, the smell!”
The moment she caught the stench of food waste in the air, nausea rose in her throat and she quickly pinched her nose. Looking around, she saw that even though it was nighttime, countless people were walking the streets.
‘Hmm. Is this Seoul?’
Looking at the buildings, they didn’t seem all that different from what she remembered.
‘At least it’s still 202X, right?’
She had spent so long in that other world that she had no idea how much time had passed.
‘First, I need to find my house.’
She couldn’t stay outside forever, so she had to locate her home. If she had returned to the right era, her family’s house should still be in the same place.
‘Mom and Dad hate moving.’
She couldn’t remember the exact location, but that wasn’t a problem. She picked up a stone from the roadside, cupped it in both hands, and shook it vigorously. It didn’t matter how long she shook it. When the feeling that it was about time hit her, she opened her hands and checked the stone’s position and number.
Three stones were tilted toward the southeast.
“Southeast, huh…”
Then there was only one thing to do. Head southeast. That was it.
She checked the direction the moon was setting. If southeast was to the right from here—
‘Let’s go. Wait, just a second…?’
The moment she tried to step onto the street, her outfit caught her attention.
‘Going out dressed like this would definitely stand out, wouldn’t it?’
What she was wearing was ordinary sleepwear, but wandering the streets in pajamas at night would draw far too much attention. She had only just returned to Earth—she couldn’t afford to stand out.
She looked around for something to wear and spotted a green used-clothing donation box.
‘Thank goodness there’s a donation box.’
It really had been smart to follow her lucky color. She reached into the box, pulled out whatever clothes she could grab, and changed into them.
‘No one’s watching, right?’
Luckily the alley was narrow and it was a dark night, so she wasn’t seen. After quickly changing, she left the alley and stepped onto the street—only to feel something strange.
‘There’s a lot of Great Misfortune today, isn’t there?’
She could sense the aura of Great Misfortune on every single person on this street. That usually didn’t happen…
In that case, there was only one possibility. A natural disaster. If it was a catastrophe capable of killing everyone on this street…
“We’re fucked?”
Of all places, a natural disaster had to strike right where she arrived. This was the worst possible Great Misfortune. And the farther she went southeast, the stronger the aura of misfortune grew.
‘…Should I still go?’
But she couldn’t afford to doubt. If she just kept heading southeast, good luck would surely come.
She continued walking southeast without looking back.
“Kyaaaah!!! It’s a monster!”
“……”
It didn’t matter. Everyone except her turned around and chose the exact opposite direction from where she was going.
As she kept walking straight ahead, a man grabbed her shoulder.
“It’s dangerous that way! There’s a mon—”
“Move.”
“……!”
At her words, a chill ran down the man’s spine and he instinctively let go.
‘What the hell was that…?’
The moment she spoke, an inexplicable wave of terror had washed over him.
“Kiiiieeeek!!!”
“……!”
The man heard the monster’s cry and immediately ran away. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and brushed off the shoulder he had grabbed.
“Tsk. Why’d you have to grab me?”
As she continued straight ahead, an unidentified monstrous bird landed in front of her.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this even in the other world…’
A creature like this in the middle of a city—could this really be the Earth she knew?
“Kyaaaak!!!”
“Ugh, the wind…!”
The monstrous bird flapped its wings, and a sudden gust of strong wind made her close one eye. There was no helping it…
Just as she reached into her clothes to pull out a talisman—
Boom!
An unidentified woman fell from the sky, and a long spear pierced straight through the monstrous bird’s head.
The woman glared at her with fierce eyes.
“Are you crazy?! You knew the monster was coming and you just—”
“…Puhahahat!!!”
“……?”
Laughter burst out of her. As expected, her fortune-telling was never wrong. She never imagined she would meet her little sister here.
After the situation was resolved, she had a brief conversation with her younger sister.
“So you’re saying you’re my brother?”
“Yeah.”
“What the fuck, you crazy bitch?”
Her sister looked at her with an incredulous expression and hurled an insult. She understood. A complete stranger was claiming to be her older brother. It was a little annoying, but as the older sibling, she supposed she should show some generosity.
“Ask me anything from the past. I’ll answer whatever it is.”
“……”
It was faster to prove it with actions. Her sister asked with a suspicious look in her eyes.
“What elementary school did I go to?”
“Hwayeon Elementary.”
“What are my family members’ names?”
“Mom is Kim Su-im, Dad is Lee Chul-soo, you’re Lee Ha-im, and your brother is Lee Seong-woo. Thirty-eighth generation descendant.”
“Hmm…”
The questions continued after that, but Ha-im still looked at her as if she couldn’t quite believe it. This wasn’t working. She hadn’t wanted to bring this up, but…
“At fourteen, you confessed to the church oppa and got rejected.”
“……!”
“At fifteen, Mom and Dad caught you sneaking out at dawn to go to an idol concert and kicked you out.”
“H-how do you know that?!”
“Your chest size is 70A—”
Ha-im’s face turned bright red as she clamped a hand over her mouth. Was it really that embarrassing?
“It’s grown to a B now!”
‘Oh! So it grew after all?’
That was a relief. She had been ready to tell her to give up on marriage if it was still an A in her twenties.
Ha-im slowly lowered the hand covering her mouth, fidgeting awkwardly before she spoke.
“S-so… you really are my brother?”
“Of course. Is there a fake one?”
She looked at her little sister with a pitying gaze. What kind of obvious question was that…?
“But your appearance is completely different?”
“Is it?”
Honestly, aside from the gender, had anything really changed? Well, she couldn’t even remember what her old face looked like anymore.
“So you don’t like it?”
“……”
Ha-im stared intently at her chest. What? Was there something on it?
“Why are your boobs bigger than mine?!”
The long-awaited reunion with her little sister was the absolute worst.