I've Never Been Married
Avoiding the calls did not turn the plywood back into glass.
I selected the realtor's number from the missed-call list.
He picked up before the second ring.
"Mr. Seo, what happened? You weren't answering at all."
"There's been a change in the building's condition."
"A change?"
I answered while looking at the window boarded over with plywood.
"The shared kitchen window is broken, and one of the interior walls is damaged. The refrigerator will probably need replacing as well."
Silence on the other end of the line.
"It was fine in the photos from this afternoon."
"It happened this evening."
"An accident?"
If I explained that a government agent who broke in through the shattered window had fought South Korea's strongest swordswoman, we would first have to redefine the word "accident."
"Two Awakeners clashed."
"What?"
"I have on-site photos and confirmation texts from the parties involved. One minor injury, no further risk. The situation is under control."
The bandage on my neck pulled tight.
The one minor injury was me.
"Wait—what about the police?"
"I haven't decided whether to file a report yet. One of them is with the Gate Disaster Response Bureau. The other is with a guild."
"Which guild?"
"Baekya Guild."
This time the silence lasted longer.
When the realtor finally spoke again, his voice was lower.
"You mean that Baekya Guild?"
"Yes."
"What am I supposed to tell the buyer?"
"Tell them the truth. Damage occurred tonight, and they can re-inspect the condition before the main contract tomorrow."
"If I put it that way, they might walk away from the deal."
"If we hide it and they find out later, the problem will be much bigger."
I knew that already.
If I was honest now, the buyer might pull out. But I could not simply hang a curtain over the plywood and push a contract across the table.
The realtor clicked his tongue.
"Send me the photos. I need to check whether it's a structural wall first. I'll contact the buyer myself."
"Is tomorrow's schedule still on?"
"I can't promise anything right now. There's a good chance they'll want to redo the inspection from scratch."
"Please let me know as soon as you hear."
I hung up and selected the damage photos.
I hesitated for a moment over the ones where the sword marks were too clear, then sent them all. I could not conceal the cause of the damage while still claiming responsibility for it.
Once the messages went through, the strength drained from my hands.
I had thought it would all be over by tomorrow.
Hand over the house, clear the debt, and start again in a room I could actually afford.
That plan had been crushed between plywood and sword scars in the space of a few evening hours.
My phone rang again.
This time it was a text from Cha Yura.
She was outside.
I started to reply, then stopped.
A moment later the answer came.
She had corrected herself.
Apparently she remembered being told to separate her own judgment from confirmed information.
I switched on the small screen by the front door.
Baek Sion was standing under the streetlamp to the left of the gate, one hand resting on the handle of her travel bag, staring at the entrance to Haewoljang.
Cha Yura was across the alley.
Every time she looked up from her terminal, her eyes met Sion's. An alley separated them, but the distance felt closer than the shared kitchen had earlier.
If I left them like that, they might fight again.
I could not let them inside either.
I grabbed two bottles of water and two folding chairs and went out.
The moment the door opened, Baek Sion came straight over.
"Is something wrong?"
"I came out to give you water."
"I'm fine."
"You said you were fine when I offered barley tea earlier, too."
Baek Sion's feet stopped.
I set the water and chairs down outside the gate.
"I'm not letting you inside."
"I know."
"And the chairs aren't for tenants. I'm only lending them for a while."
"I know that as well."
Cha Yura approached from across the way.
"What about me?"
"I brought two."
"You're even looking after the one who put a blade to the victim's throat."
"If you collapse, you'll collapse right in front of my house."
Cha Yura picked up one of the bottles.
"Still not very good with the nice words, are you."
"Were you expecting kindness?"
"No. Didn't get any in the future either."
Baek Sion's hand tightened on the bag handle.
I unfolded a chair for each of them between the two women.
"Don't fight over the future. And don't touch each other's belongings."
"I will not move unless attacked first."
Baek Sion said it while looking at Cha Yura.
"That sounds to me like you'll attack the moment I move."
"Cha Yura."
When I called her name, she screwed the cap back onto the bottle.
"Fine. I won't touch first."
"And do not use your ability."
"I'll use it if I need to."
"Then tell me first."
Instead of answering, Cha Yura slipped the terminal into her pocket.
It was not full agreement.
At least she did not seem inclined to use it right this second.
I was about to go back inside when Baek Sion called after me.
"Seo Doyun."
"Yes."
"How is your neck?"
"The bleeding has stopped."
"You should go to a hospital."
"It's a shallow cut."
"That is not for you to decide."
I turned while still holding the doorknob.
"If I can't judge my own wound, who can?"
Baek Sion's lips pressed shut.
"I meant a medical professional should confirm it."
"I'll go if necessary."
"And who decides whether it's necessary?"
"If it swells or I run a fever by tomorrow morning."
Baek Sion looked dissatisfied. Even so, she did not try to follow me in.
"I'm locking the door."
"Call if there's danger."
"If you come in without ringing the bell, I'll treat you as a danger too."
I closed the front door.
After checking the lock, I returned to the shared kitchen.
I finished transferring the ingredients I had moved while emptying the refrigerator. The small fridge had originally held only drinks and side dishes, so space was tight.
One block of tofu.
Six eggs.
Two containers of kimchi.
The soy-braised beef I had made a few days ago.
If I forced everything in, the door would not close.
I took out the braised beef container and set it on the table.
While two national-disaster-level hunters stood guard outside the house, the landlord was calculating refrigerator space.
For me, right now, this was the more realistic disaster.
The wall clock passed eleven.
Still no word from the realtor.
I disinfected the neck wound again and checked the floor once more for glass shards. Where wind leaked through the gaps in the plywood, I stuffed towels.
As time passed, my body grew heavier.
I sat on the sofa for a moment and nearly closed my eyes.
Ding-dong.
The front doorbell rang.
The phone screen showed 11:36 p.m.
When I turned on the camera, a woman I had never seen before was standing at the gate.
Her long hair was tied low, and a hospital uniform showed beneath a light-colored coat. She carried only a small bag; no weapons.
The problem was the people on either side of her.
Baek Sion had already stepped between the woman and the entrance.
Cha Yura had her terminal out, blocking the rear escape route.
The woman who had rung the bell looked from one to the other, then back toward the entrance camera.
"Is Seo Doyun there?"
She knew my name.
The third one today.
I opened the door with the safety chain still fastened.
"Who are you?"
The woman confirmed my face.
Her eyes stopped on the bandage at my neck.
The bag slipped from her hand.
"Honey."
The space in front of the gate went quiet.
Baek Sion's hand moved toward her sword hilt.
Cha Yura looked at me before she looked at her terminal.
I did not unfasten the chain.
"I think you have the wrong person."
The woman tried to take a step closer.
Baek Sion blocked her.
"Stop."
"Please move. He's hurt."
"What is your relationship to Seo Doyun?"
"Who are you, for that matter?"
Her voice was gentle, but she showed no sign of backing down.
Cha Yura cut in from the side.
"We'll ask the questions. Name, affiliation, and why you're here. Start with those."
The woman checked Cha Yura's ID badge, then took a wallet from her bag.
"Yun Sera. Seonggwang Foundation Hospital. S-class healing-type Awakener."
The name brought a face to mind.
She appeared on the news after every major gate disaster. The hunter who directed medical teams at scenes with hundreds of wounded and was called the "Saint."
That made three S-class hunters at my house today.
"How did you know about this place?"
When I asked, Yun Sera's gaze returned to my neck.
"May I treat you first?"
"Answer the question, please."
"I remembered Haewoljang."
"Is this your first time here?"
"The current me is here for the first time."
Yun Sera let the sentence trail off.
Then she folded her hands neatly in front of her stomach.
"I apologize for the form of address just now. I failed to properly separate the present from my memories."
Baek Sion asked,
"What memories?"
"I will explain first."
"Speak only to Seo Doyun."
"He's a subject under investigation right now."
With Cha Yura joining in, the conversation began to tangle again.
I opened the door a little wider, leaving the safety chain in place.
"Yun Sera."
"Yes."
"Can you treat the wound on my neck?"
"I'll need to examine it, but from what I can see, it shouldn't be difficult."
"Is there any danger during treatment?"
"Contact is required. And I'll need permission to place my hands near the wound."
Unlike the other two, she asked for permission first.
I unfastened the chain.
"I'll accept treatment only. This is not permission to move in or stay."
"Understood."
"Baek Sion and Cha Yura, come in as well."
Both pairs of eyes turned to me at once.
"But leave your weapons at the entrance, and do not leave the seats I assign you in the shared kitchen. If you fight again this time, I will call an outside agency immediately."
Cha Yura was first to set her dagger on the entrance shelf.
Baek Sion hesitated briefly, then laid down her scabbard.
Yun Sera started to remove her shoes, then noticed a glass shard on the entrance floor. Without a word she bent, wrapped it in a handkerchief, and placed it on the shelf.
Once inside the shared kitchen, the three of them took in the damaged wall, the plywood, and the unplugged refrigerator in turn.
Yun Sera's eyes flickered slightly.
"What happened here?"
"These two fought."
"Who started it?"
Baek Sion and Cha Yura spoke at the same time.
"Cha Yura broke the window and came in."
"Baek Sion swung her sword first."
I pulled out a chair and offered it to Yun Sera.
"Please treat me first."
Yun Sera washed her hands, then sat across from me.
"I'm going to remove the bandage."
"All right."
"It may sting."
When the bandage came off, cool air touched the wound.
Yun Sera examined it, her jaw tightening a little.
"It's a cut from a blade."
Cha Yura did not look away.
"I did it."
"Why?"
"Excessive force while securing a person of interest."
"You're admitting that yourself?"
"I put it in the record too."
Yun Sera asked nothing further.
Instead she raised her hand toward me, then stopped.
"I'm going to place my hand on your neck. Is that all right?"
"Yes."
Her fingertips touched the skin around the wound.
A warm current wrapped my throat. The throbbing pain that had flared every time disinfectant touched it faded quickly.
There was no light, no dramatic display.
Simply, the parted flesh under her fingers closed, and the tension locked in my shoulders eased.
Only after confirming it had fully closed did Yun Sera withdraw her hand.
"Don't rub it hard for a while. The wound is closed, but the skin isn't immediately strong again."
"Thank you."
"You said you were fine with a wound like this?"
Baek Sion looked at me.
"It was minor."
"You always—"
Baek Sion stopped herself.
Perhaps it was something she had meant to say to the future me.
Yun Sera was watching me with a similar expression—looking at the present me while overlaying someone from her own memories.
"Now please explain."
I stepped back and stood on the far side of the table.
"Why did you call me 'honey'?"
Yun Sera looked down at the hands resting on her knees.
There was nothing on the ring finger of her left hand.
"Around 10:31 tonight, the memories returned while I was at the hospital."
"Memories up to when?"
"Up to 2047."
Baek Sion's expression hardened.
Cha Yura uncrossed her arms.
The me who had died in 2044.
The me who had sealed off Seoul in 2045.
And now a me who had lived until 2047 had been added.
At least two of the three had to be wrong.
Or all three were experiencing the same kind of lie—or the same kind of memory anomaly.
Yun Sera reached into her bag.
"This appeared along with the memories."
A small object rested on her palm.
A worn silver ring.
The surface was scuffed from long wear, with fine scratches here and there.
Baek Sion's hand moved over her coat pocket.
Inside it was the half-melted key to Room 201.
Cha Yura pressed the place where her notebook sat.
"May I examine the ring?"
When I asked, Yun Sera hesitated for a moment.
In that brief instant the fingers holding the ring went white.
Even so, she finally held out her hand.
"Yes."
I took the ring.
It was neither heavy nor specially luminous. It looked like an ordinary wedding band.
"What does this have to do with me?"
Yun Sera looked at me.
This time she did not call me "honey."
"In my memories, Seo Doyun and I were husband and wife."
"I have never been married."
"I know."
"I have never even met Yun Sera."
"I know that as well."
"Then you cannot apply a future relationship to the present as if it still holds."
Baek Sion and Cha Yura watched us without a word.
Yun Sera did not take the ring back.
"Yes."
The answer came faster than I expected.
"I have no right to claim I am the wife of the present Seo Doyun. Having memories does not mean the relationship continues."
Yun Sera rested her empty left hand on her knee.
"Even so, I want to confirm whether the person I remember is truly you, and why this ring came this far."
I looked down at the ring on my palm.
Baek Sion remembered me as her commander.
Cha Yura remembered me as a mass murderer.
Yun Sera remembered me as her husband.
None of them knew the present me.
And yet all three had first confirmed that I was alive, and each carried one object they claimed to have brought from the future.
Yun Sera added quietly,
"I didn't buy that ring."
"Then who gave it to you?"
"Seo Doyun put it on my finger."
On the hand of a man who had never been married lay a wedding ring he himself was said to have given.