The Interpretation Matters More Than the Dream
The boy would often dream of that day whenever he closed his eyes. It was the most memorable day of his life—a birthday party for a certain girl. An extravagant affair attended by every prominent figure imaginable, including the president himself.
As the celebration reached its peak, the girl’s father raised his glass and offered a toast. Something about harmony between the ruling and opposition parties, about peace. But the only part that truly mattered came at the end.
“Your Excellency, to symbolize the eternal harmony and alliance between our Seonam Group and the Liberty Party, how would you feel about betrothing my daughter Gaeul to Your Excellency’s grandson?”
The boy’s breath caught in his throat. Seo Gaeul was the girl he secretly longed for. Nam Sanho was his longtime friend and rival. The possibility of losing his crush to that rival filled him with frantic anxiety, yet he couldn’t utter a single word. There was no need to.
“Docheol, you’re a fine man who takes after your father. A diligent worker, just like him. However, I’m sorry. Even if the times have changed, a dog and its master cannot be engaged, can they?”
The atmosphere turned ice-cold in an instant. No one laughed for the rest of the party. It was a truly nightmarish time.
“Haaah!”
When the boy woke from the dream, his bed and pajamas were drenched in sweat.
“It was just a dream.”
He threw off the covers, stood up, and was gulping water straight from the bottle he’d taken from the refrigerator when he noticed a woman sitting silently in the corner of the kitchen.
His fiancée. Jin Eunbyeol.
......
The boy, Wang Jayeon, couldn’t bring himself to speak to Jin Eunbyeol as she stared vacantly into space within the darkness. An indescribable sense of unease and revulsion had wrapped itself around his entire body.
What was she doing, sitting in the corner of the kitchen at four in the morning? If he listened closely, he thought he could hear incomprehensible mutterings slipping from between her lips.
Do I really have to spend the rest of my life with a woman like that?
To inherit the Je-wang Group—and beyond that, to join forces with the Samjin Group and one day aim for the presidency—Wang Jayeon would have to share a bed with Jin Eunbyeol. Yet every time he looked at her, a subtle fear crept over him. He kept asking himself whether he truly wanted to spend his life with such a terrifying woman.
“What are you doing?”
Jin Eunbyeol suddenly asked him. Even in the dark, her eyes looked unnaturally black, bottomless in a way that sent chills racing across his skin. When Wang Jayeon froze like a mouse before a snake, Jin Eunbyeol let out a soft “Pfft.”
“Another nightmare? Was it the one where Nam Sanho knocks on your door again? All charred black, banging away—bang, bang, bang.”
Wang Jayeon recalled the nightmare he often had. The one where his long-lost friend appeared before him in a horrifying state.
“Aww, was our little Jayeon scared? Come here. I’ll hug you.”
She spread her arms. Wang Jayeon had zero desire to enter that embrace, but when she said “Hurry up” in that tone, he couldn’t refuse. He buried his face against her chest.
Jin Eunbyeol stroked his head and whispered, “You hated Nam Sanho, didn’t you? Back then he used to catch cicadas or mantises and shove them right in your face. If you got scared, he’d call you a coward and laugh.”
......
Nam Sanho took after his grandfather and possessed a bold, manly personality. Wang Jayeon, on the other hand, had been slightly frail and emotional since childhood, so he’d often been dragged around by the other boy.
Stroke, stroke. Jin Eunbyeol continued gently petting his head. Then she leaned close to his ear and whispered, “It’s okay. Nam Sanho isn’t here anymore. He’s dead. Horribly so.”
“What?”
The hand gripping his head tightened. Terror flooded Wang Jayeon and he struggled, but he couldn’t break free.
“L-let go!”
That was when it happened.
Click.
The sound of a switch flipping, and the kitchen light came on.
“Jayeon, what are you doing over there?”
When he turned his head, a girl with a distinctive mole beneath her eye—Jin Eunbyeol—stood there in her pajamas, staring at him.
......
Wang Jayeon lost all words as he looked at the Jin Eunbyeol who had just appeared. Then who in the world had been holding his head until now, and where had she gone?
Truthfully, he wasn’t curious. He didn’t want to know. Instead, he cautiously asked the real Jin Eunbyeol, “Eunbyeol, you said you’d help find Seo Gaeul at Chairman Seo’s request, right?”
“Yeah. Once I find Seo Gaeul, your name will be cleared too. Things got messy because you happened to meet her that dawn.”
She smiled brightly.
“Jayeon, since you asked me a question, I’ll ask you one back fairly. Do you happen to know who Ha Namjin is?”
He nodded instead of answering aloud. That was the end of the questions. He had no idea why she’d asked about Ha Namjin, but Wang Jayeon didn’t press for a reason. Jin Eunbyeol’s interest was never a good sign.
Just as well. He had always disliked Ha Namjin anyway. The bastard reminded him of the missing Nam Sanho.
Today’s exploration of the Great Labyrinth went smoothly. Jang Hyun-ah and Jeon Som-i were both absent, so it was basically just self-study for me and Ppang-daeng-i.
It did get a little dangerous when a monster popped out. It was a tiny lion that looked like a cat, but when Baek Yeoul started hurling chopsticks at it like a madwoman, the thing turned tail and ran.
The Great Labyrinth where monsters lived was, in truth, the land of the fairies. I was still marveling at how amazing that was when Baek Yeoul spoke up.
“Some kid from F-class told me there are still fairies living in this labyrinth. So if you wander around, you can apparently find traces of them.”
“Fairies?”
“And apparently fairies love sweet things just like monsters do. If we leave candy here and hide, maybe we’ll actually meet one?”
Baek Yeoul pulled a green-grape-flavored candy from her bag, set it on the floor, and giggled with delight. Then something incredible happened. The candy she had just placed down vanished in the blink of an eye.
“Ppang-daeng! The candy on the floor disappeared! Look!”
“It must’ve been taken by a fairy! A real fairy! Ha-Nam-jjin! There really is a candy-loving fairy! Where did my candy go? Huh? You didn’t see where it went?”
“I saw exactly where it went. Straight into my mouth. Ah—”
I opened my mouth wide to show her the green-grape candy still sitting on my tongue. The ability to snatch and eat candy without anyone noticing—one of my greatest superpowers. According to my own personal ranking system, it’s an S-rank skill.
“Why did you eat it, you jerk! I really thought a fairy took it!”
Ppang-daeng got angry at me for devouring her candy. After that she kept shouting “I’m going to find the fairy!” and rampaged through every corner of the labyrinth, but she found neither fairy nor monster.
I suppose that’s just how the entrance area of a labyrinth is.
Time passed, and before I knew it, it was already afternoon. I was thinking it was about time to wrap up the exploration and head back to where Yu Yeoleum and Seo Gaeul were waiting when Baek Yeoul suddenly declared, “I’m going to look for Seo Gaeul too!”
“You?”
“Yeah! Because you like her, right? So I’ll help you find her. Even though I hate Seo Gaeul… I’ll do it for you, Ha-Nam-jjin!”
“Ugh, Ppang-daeng, you—!”
I was genuinely moved. For her to work so hard to find Seo Gaeul just for my sake—she was basically Cupid incarnate!
“Deok-sun and I came up with a really good plan. There’s this incredibly accurate fortune teller, so I was thinking of asking her to locate Seo Gaeul.”
The only problem was that I was the one who already had Seo Gaeul. The situation was honestly hilarious. At least being around her kept things from ever getting boring. For a moment I wondered what it would have been like if, in that ruined world, Ppang-daeng and I had scavenged scrap metal together. We would have made excellent partners. We could have fed ketchup to Ing-ing together, too.
But we never got that chance. Carrying the Bad Luck concept, surviving the destroyed world would have been nearly impossible.
When I returned to the princess’s room, Yu Yeoleum and Seo Gaeul were sitting with perfect, ladylike posture. The solemn looks on their faces as they stared at me felt strangely heavy. Then Yu Yeoleum spoke.
“Ha Namjin, you kidnapped Seo Gaeul because of the N-Mart arson case, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“The N-Mart fire happened because of Seo Gaeul and Nam Sanho. In the end you lost your family there. So you kidnapped her to get revenge on Seo Gaeul, the root of all evil—right?”
My tongue went stiff from pure shock. While I was just opening and closing my mouth like an idiot, Seo Gaeul’s face turned bright red with embarrassment. She bowed her head to me.
“A lot of people suffered because of me. Ha Namjin, you wanted an apology from me, didn’t you? That’s why you kidnapped me. You wanted me to truly reflect on what I’d done.”
How on earth had they reached this conclusion? I was dying to know what kind of conversation the two of them had while I was gone. There were so many things I wanted to say that I couldn’t organize them properly, but there was one thing I absolutely had to clarify.
“Who the hell is Nam Sanho? What does he have to do with Seo Gaeul? This is literally the first time I’m hearing any of this.”
Just who was Nam Sanho supposed to be? I didn’t even know what kind of guy he was.
Seo Gaeul looked slightly flustered by my question. “…What? Weren’t you already aware of everything?”
“I don’t know what kind of story you two cooked up, but the reason I kidnapped you guys isn’t anything that serious. Do I really look like some heavy, serious, boring person?”
I’m lighter than a fluffy cloud Ing-ing. The overly serious atmosphere was actually making me uncomfortable.
“Haaah—!?”
“…Boring person?”
Both Seo Gaeul’s and Yu Yeoleum’s faces crumpled instantly.
“Hey! Yu Yeoleum! He said it wasn’t because of the N-Mart thing! Damn it, I lost out by saying anything!”
“No way… Then why? Why did you kidnap us in the first place?”
Why did I kidnap them? At this point I was the one getting frustrated.
“I’ve told you over and over. I need to train Seo Gaeul, don’t I? In that sense, Gaeul, today before bed you’re definitely awakening at least one concept. If you can’t, I’ll discipline you with the Rod of Love.”
I lifted the Rod of Love.
“Shall we start with the soles of your feet today?”
Seo Gaeul—who loved the Rod of Love far too much—suddenly screamed like she was having a seizure.
“That’s why I’m asking why you’re training me! Why! Why! Whywhywhy! Why!”
A nonstop barrage of “why.” It sounded exactly like a desert frog croaking.
“What the hell is going on! I don’t know who you are or what you even want!”
Seo Gaeul was especially hysterical today. Her face, which had flushed bright red, huffed and puffed until finally tears began to spill.
“It’s unfair! Why do I have to be the only one going through this!”
Her will seemed to have completely shattered under the incomprehensible training curriculum. The problem was that I had hidden too much information out of wariness toward the ‘Traitor of Humanity.’
“Do you want to know the truth? You might regret it.”
“Tell me!”
She sounded confident. Fine. It was probably time to reveal at least some of it.
“Starting from now—in one year. No, in even less time than that—more than half of humanity is going to die.”
Spitting out the secret I had been carrying alone felt incredibly refreshing. It was like finally vomiting up something that had been lodged in my chest. At my shocking ‘truth,’ even Seo Gaeul stopped crying.
“What are you talking about? Did you have a dream or something?”
I slowly closed my eyes. Whenever I closed them like this, I would often dream of that day. Roughly the day the world ended. The moment when three colossal monsters that tore through earth, sea, and sky appeared, opening their massive maws and devouring people like the maw of a star—!!!