Chapter 260: What is Responsibility?-3
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 260: What is Responsibility?-3
It was a coincidence. Or, since a god existed and the concept of causality was real, was this perhaps inevitable?
In-ho bit his lower lip. His legs trembled anxiously inside the taxi.
*
After eating a late-night snack with Yun Si-a, he had returned to his room and turned on the phone he’d been ignoring.
He had expected several messages from Shin Jeong-ah.
Since he hadn't yet decided how to deal with her, he intended to organize his thoughts while reading whatever she had sent.
However, there hadn't been a single message from her since she was handed over to the police.
It was strange. He had expected the usual barrage of hundreds of messages.
Just as he was about to tap the screen in confusion, a notification popped up, and In-ho’s finger brushed against it.
Before he could stop himself, he was pulled into their chatroom, where a faint, blurry photo awaited him.
It was a dark room, and in the upper right corner, there was a bright mass.
Perhaps the camera had shaken when the photo was taken, but the focus was off, leaving the image pale and hazy. It was clearly not a normal photo.
[Ah, you saw it right away?]
As soon as the '1' disappeared, a message flew in from the other side.
"……."
In-ho waited for Shin Jeong-ah’s next words.
[It’s pathetic... but I wanted to stay in your memory like this.]
Another photo arrived. This one was in sharper focus than the last.
It showed her hands covered in something red, and a room engulfed in flames.
[Goodbye. I really loved you.]
The conversation ended there. In-ho felt the blood drain from his face.
Kang In-ho bolted upright from his bed.
He kicked his door open and rushed from the second floor to the first. Yun Si-a, still sitting at the dining table, looked at him with a startled expression.
"W-what’s wrong?"
"I have to go to Jeong-ah."
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"A taxi, I need a taxi first..."
In-ho’s hands moved busily as he called for a ride.
"In-ho, why are you acting like this? Did something happen?"
Yun Si-a grabbed him as he headed for the front door.
*
"What’s going on? Is there a fire?"
The taxi driver muttered as he looked at the fire trucks swarming the entrance of the alleyway.
"Please let me out here."
In-ho held out his card with his good arm, and the driver took it.
Stepping out of the taxi, Kang In-ho and Yun Si-a passed the fire trucks struggling to enter the narrow street and arrived at Shin Jeong-ah’s villa.
Perhaps because it was a crowded residential area with buildings packed tightly together, many people had come out even in the middle of the night, hovering anxiously.
Because of illegally parked cars and handcarts, the fire trucks couldn't get through. In the distance, firefighters could be seen running toward the scene with hoses in hand.
Looking at the building that was burning most fiercely, Kang In-ho took a step forward.
Then, Yun Si-a grabbed his arm.
"What are you doing?"
Reading something in his eyes, her face hardened.
"……."
"You’re not, right? Surely, you’re not?"
She asked again, sensing what In-ho was about to do.
Pop! With the sound of something exploding, the flames grew more intense.
"If you go in there, you’ll die for nothing! Can’t you see those flames?"
Yun Si-a urgently grabbed his shoulders and shook him, but his sturdy body stood like a pillar, unmoving.
"Is this a movie? A novel? Are you some kind of hero? Don't be reckless! You’ll die if you go in!"
She hugged him desperately. Her arms wrapped around his waist like a lock.
"No. I absolutely can't let you go. What is this? Are you crazy? Why now, for a girl who deceived you?"
"Teacher. Please let go."
At In-ho’s words, Yun Si-a tightened her grip.
The heat from the roaring fire licked at her skin.
"No. No... Your arm and leg are in that state, and you’re going in there? Don't be reckless. You’re a student. You’re just a student."
She buried herself deeper into his chest, muttering the same words over and over.
His arms slowly began to push her shoulders away.
Yun Si-a tried her best to hold on, but she couldn't stop herself from being pushed back by his overwhelming strength.
Soon, a distance of about two steps opened between them.
"……."
Kang In-ho swung his arm against a crudely built brick wall.
With a dull thud, a crack appeared in his green cast.
He grabbed the gap with his other hand and violently pried it open, tearing the cast away.
With both hands free, he easily dismantled the cast on his leg as well.
"I’m not doing this out of guilt."
"Then why?"
"When I thought about it, I realized all of this is my fault."
"What does that mean?"
"You wouldn't understand. It’s a concept you’re not familiar with."
He repeated the words he had once heard from Solaris, slightly modified.
"Teacher. You like me, don't you?"
At the sudden question, Yun Si-a’s eyes widened and her face flushed.
"What does that have to do with this situation—"
"...Right?"
When In-ho asked again, she fell silent and gave a small nod.
He turned his body toward the villa.
"That’s why I’m doing this. If I’m here, if I stay here... things get twisted."
With those words, Kang In-ho sprinted at full speed toward the burning building.
"If my very existence creates problems and warps things just by being here... then I have to take responsibility, don't I?"
"Student!! Student!!"
Many voices tried to stop him, but Kang In-ho never looked back.
That was the last Yun Si-a saw of him.
*
"That was the last time."
On the second floor of a cafe, in an area crowded with students studying.
Yun Si-a murmured as she recalled that moment to the person sitting across from her.
Half a year had passed since that day. The season had turned warm, and people’s clothing was growing thinner.
"Was there nothing unusual?"
"I only found out later by asking around... but they said there was a deep stab wound on In-ho’s neck."
It was hard to confirm because everything was burned, but that much was certain, she added.
"A stab wound?"
"Yes. In-ho was found at the entrance of Shin Jeong-ah’s unit, and Shin Jeong-ah was found collapsed on top of him..."
"Then that would mean the girl named Shin Jeong-ah stabbed him."
"Circumstantially, yes. This is just my theory, but... I think In-ho miraculously found her and was carrying her out when she stabbed him from behind..."
"……."
The person listening to her explanation closed their eyes and crossed their arms.
They seemed to be suppressing a surge of anger.
"But... you said you were In-ho’s family? I didn't know he had a cousin. He was a child who never spoke about his family."
"It’s just... well, something like that."
The woman started to explain but then fell silent.
Taking it as a sign that she didn't want to elaborate, Yun Si-a moistened her throat with a sip of coffee.
"You’re from his mother’s side, right? Since your surname is Lee."
The moment she spoke, the woman opened her eyes.
"Anyway, thank you for telling me. Thanks to you, I’ve learned things I didn't know."
The woman, who had maintained a dry expression, offered a slight smile.
"Yes..."
As Yun Si-a’s voice trailed off, the woman stood up as if she had no further business.
"Yes, you were good to him."
The woman, who was about to leave the cafe, seemed to change her mind and turned back.
"Pardon?"
"Though the story might have been different if he had stayed with you a little longer."
With a smile more vivid than before, the woman departed.
Yun Si-a felt an inexplicable chill run down her spine.
She had clearly been looking into a single pair of eyes, yet for some reason, it felt as though hundreds of gazes had been fixed upon her all at once.
\- The Nature of Possession, Part 1 (End) -