The First Memory
I received an extra day off from Lucia.
I should have been at work, but arriving at the dorm at what felt like the crack of dawn was her way of showing consideration.
“Tired…”
Seowoo sat on the bed, blinking sleepily. His energy had been sapped all day, so he wanted to rest comfortably in the dorm today.
Although there were plenty of events from yesterday to forget, what worried him more was the change in his body.
What was the identity of the faceless boy?
An entity that forcibly expanded his power and stole control of his body…
It had to be related to vampires, but he couldn’t figure it out.
“Ha…”
There were too many tasks to handle. His head throbbed thinking about the dark future ahead.
To organize his thoughts, Seowoo moved to the desk. He opened the drawer and took out a blank sheet and a fountain pen.
Assuming the incident started with vampire transformation, the problem wasn’t to look at the beginning but to go backwards. That is, the time he met Gunter, not Faye.
Why had the inner boy awakened when he met him?
Recalling the conversations he overheard yesterday, he listed keywords.
Gunter, Yuria, the laboratory.
[What was the name…? It was really famous. Was it Yuria…? I can’t remember.]
[Yeah, that was the feeling. That scrawny-looking guy from earlier, if he was really the old one, I would have just killed him on the spot.]
[Gunter, be careful. Kid, you’re a noble now too. Sigh, when will you grow up…]
The tone of someone proudly saying they had swallowed a person lingered.
Gunter who worked at the laboratory. Yuria, who was expected to have trouble with him.
“…Yuria’s name is familiar. Ah!”
Where had I seen it?
It came to mind that the diary hidden at the bottom of the desk drawer.
“It must have been here… Found it.”
After rummaging a bit, I quickly found the one buried in the documents. As expected, my memory hadn’t faded, and it was written with the name Yuria.
When I first came to the dorm, it seemed like something the previous person left behind. It had a ominous feeling like a will, so I hadn’t looked at it on purpose.
The possibility of a namesake here was extremely slim. It had to be almost identical.
*Click.*
The binder opened, and the first page turned.
And the next page. The next page turned again.
The faster my fingers moved, the more I immersed myself in each character. The handwriting was slightly slanted, but it showed care. The warmth of rewriting the same words to make them easy to understand.
The feeling of my heart aching more than when I looked at the night sky on the magitech train.
Ink had spread over the tear marks visible here and there in this diary.
“…At first?”
No.
No.
It felt like there was a memory that I absolutely couldn’t forget.
Suddenly, the image of a woman wearing glasses smiling brightly flashed in my mind.
“Ah…!”
At the same time as the exclamation, a memory pierced my heart. Scenes that were unfamiliar yet nostalgic stretched out like a panorama.
“Junior, how is it? Tasty?”
“Junior~? Don’t sleep at the desk, sleep in bed~.”
“Junior? I think I need to go see the director for a moment.”
“My little brother Seowoo… I’m sorry I couldn’t stay with you until the end…”
The fragmented memories pushed in like waves, making my mind dizzy.
“Yuria…? Aaaah…!”
Crack.
Crack.
While memories seemed to come and go, something kept blocking in my head like noise. The woman’s face was blurry like it was covered in mosaic, so I couldn’t make out the details.
My head overheating rapidly. Accelerating blood flow. Even if I tried to recall it, I couldn’t anymore. It felt like my brain was being massaged by someone, throbbing with pain.
“This… memory… what is it…”
My eyes slowly closed without regard to my will. The brain, unable to bear the overload, forced itself into a short sleep. The consciousness that had been struggling for a moment was soon sucked into the darkness.
***
White Space.
[What? You’re back?]
Seowoo’s eyes snapped open at the boy’s voice he had heard sometime.
“…Again here?”
[Again here? That’s what I should be saying.]
The faceless boy shrugged as if it was unbelievable.
“Damn! Send me out quickly.”
Human brains are volatile. I should have taken notes to remember, but I didn’t have time to waste here. Especially since my expression management wasn’t good because I was disturbed at an important moment.
[Sorry, but I can’t send you out this time even if I wanted to.]
The boy showed regret. Then he approached Seowoo, who had some excitement, and patted his thigh as if to calm him.
“Why?”
[Because you forcibly tried to open the tightly closed door in your head. Probably because of the backlash, you won’t be able to get up for a while today.]
“Door…? What is that?”
[The seal of the memory in your head.]
“Seal of memory…?”
*Click.*
When the boy snapped his fingers, two giant doors appeared behind him. One half-open door and one tightly closed door lined up neatly on either side.
[See? Now you see?]
“…What is this?”
[This is why you can’t remember Yuria.]
“Yuria?”
Wasn’t that the owner of the diary I was looking at just now?
[Yes, the woman you were thinking of before coming here.]
“…Yes, that name.”
[You must be feeling it too, right? That you were forgetting something.]
“…”
The boy’s point was accurate.
[That’s exactly why this door.]
“Why is this in my head…?”
[Unfortunately, I have restrictions on my body too, so I can’t answer that.]
“I didn’t expect it anyway.”
To that extent, I didn’t believe it. Seowoo slowly approached the door and was about to grab the ring of the half-open door.
*Zzzzap!*
At the same time as a strong spark, Seowoo’s body flew into the air.
*Crash!*
“Cluck…”
[Ah, I forgot to tell you, that one can’t be opened by force.]
“…Why didn’t you say that sooner?”
Seowoo glared at the boy while holding his burnt hand. There was no visible damage, but the pain was considerable.
[Still, look at this. The left door is already half open.]
The boy chuckled as if it was fun and spread his arms to feel the openness.
[I hope you recover your memories quickly. It will take too much time for me to avenge my enemy alone.]
“…Avenge?”
Wasn’t the boy in front of me just a parasite growing inside my body?
[Gunter.]
The boy’s atmosphere became serious.
“Suddenly? Why did you kill him?”
A person with no connection except at the ball. Seowoo’s question was reasonable.
[So, find the memory. So I can explain it so you understand. Even if I say it a hundred times, it won’t be enough with just explanations.]
“Even if you say that…”
To kill someone without any grudge. No matter how unreasonable Nectar is, it was too unreasonable.
[Otherwise, I have no choice but to take your body.]
“…So this is what you meant when you said you had figured it out yesterday.”
[Yes.]
Using the body as a hostage to blackmail Seowoo and make him do as he wished. Surely that’s what the boy wanted.
[I believe me. This is also avenging my enemy, but also a way for you to find your memories.]
Who was I supposed to believe? Seowoo barely held back a smirk.
“…”
Although he didn’t show it outwardly, things were going poorly. Why did the boy want to kill Gunter?
To deliberately lead the human Yoon Seowoo to ruin? Or was it really for his own memories? There was plenty of room for doubt.
However, if it was really to kill Gunter as the boy said. So, if he manipulated the body. It wasn’t enough to dispel the doubt, but it was enough to say that the sequence of events matched.
Since I couldn’t ignore the blackmail with the body anyway, there was nothing Seowoo could do.
“…I understand.”
[Good thinking.]
[Still, I’m not just trusting you.]
[Yeah, that’s enough for now.]
Although the boy’s mouth didn’t show, it felt like the corners were curling up.
***
The alarm rang loudly, and his eyes opened. After sleeping for a night unconscious, it was already time for work the next day.
“Ugh…”
Because he had talked to the boy for a long time, Seowoo, who got up while rubbing his temples, didn’t feel refreshed. He grumbled as he prepared for work diligently.
Since he couldn’t go see Lize yesterday, he had to visit today. Although there was nothing wrong, the human heart worries for nothing.
*Tap.*
*Tap.*
The sound of footsteps was slow yet irregular. The owner was none other than Seowoo. Because his thoughts had become too heavy, he walked without thinking.
Soon, Seowoo arrived at the classroom where Lize was, opened the door without thinking.
But.
“Eh…?”
The place Seowoo entered was not the classroom but a completely different space. A dark space resembling a livestock pen. Seeing boxes stacked haphazardly, it looked like a warehouse.
Just as he turned around thinking he had taken the wrong path.
*Whoosh!*
“…Who is it?”
To prevent another intrusion, he frowned and muttered a curse with his mouth. Then he entered the warehouse again.
“Assistant Yoon Seowoo~ Is there anyone here?”
To get out of here quickly, he searched a bit actively. As he wandered in a place where he couldn’t see well, his foot caught on a box.
“Wah!”
*Clang!*
Seowoo fell coolly and lay there quietly.
“Ha… Even if there’s no reaction, it was just me hearing wrong.”
He wasted precious time. Now, about to get up and go back to Lize.
A girl facing Seowoo directly in front.
“Hiieek!!”
The girl’s face had clear tear marks. Was this little one the one who made the whoosh sound earlier? Was she an escaped experimental subject? She didn’t look that young for that.
No way.
“Ah!”
The profile of the other person Seowoo had to take care of with Lize flashed in his mind.
“Twelve!”
I had forgotten for a moment, but to meet her like this. Yuria saw the hand Seowoo was extending in greeting and covered her head with both hands.
“Sorry! P-please don’t hit me!”
“Ah… sorry. I wasn’t trying to do anything…”
It was still the first time. Approaching too casually would be a premature judgment. There was another unfamiliarity with Lize that was felt on the skin. Her pitiful appearance made Seowoo’s heart ache a bit.
“Um…”
Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. It would have been a bit easier if she was as bold as Lize. Suddenly, the image of Lize suffering from PTSD came to mind. The appearance of shouting while apologizing.
“…Wait a moment.”
Seowoo went to a place out of Yuria’s reach, took off his assistant coat, and entered again. Should I say there was a lack of consideration? Suddenly, such a thought came to mind. Would a human who wears the same clothes as the researchers and talks be seen as harmless?
Yuria covered her face with her palms, but looked at Seowoo through the thin gap.
“Y- no. Friend, if it’s okay, can you tell me what you were doing here?”
Lize had said that too. If I say “Eleven” one more time, she’ll split my head. Taking that day’s incident as a lesson. Approaching as the human Yoon Seowoo, not the lab assistant. Seowoo also sat next to the crouched Yuria with his dad legs.
“…Whoosh. I was just… because it was hard…”
“Yeah…? Is it hard here?”
“Yes…”
“I know that feeling too. Even though I didn’t do anything wrong, I get scolded, and I have to act like a dog under dogs…”
“Ah, do you get hit a lot too…?”
“Should I say I get hit a lot…?”
There’s a lot of blood.
“Eh… I live painfully. For now, I’m human.”
“Y- yes…”
The effect of taking off the coat was clear; the way he treated people changed noticeably.
“…Still, with a friend, I can live.”
“Friend…?”
“Yes, a really grateful friend.”
Seowoo has Suyeon, who is the only friend. So, how wonderful it would be if Yuria had a friend to share joy and sadness.
“Ah, I happen to have a little brother too, do you want to meet? It’s Lize, the one I mentioned.”
Although a bit rude, there was a cute side. Seeing Yuria here, it was hard to just leave her. I didn’t want to do that either. Or was it too hasty to say that? At that moment, a thought came.
“Y- is that real…? That I have a little brother…?”
“Yeah, or I can take you here.”
Yuria shook her head instead of answering.
“Eh… then what should I do…”
This was unexpected. The reaction seemed positive, but it wasn’t.
“I- I’ll go.”
“Eh? But it’s okay?”
Yuria nodded.
You can’t do that. Where was the room for a stranger uncle to believe?
“Well, if you like it, it’s fine…”
“Ah, I feel a bit comfortable with the uncle…”
“Yeah…?”
It might be a bit grateful.
“Then, can I ask for your name too? I have a numbering title, but… I find it a bit rude to call you.”
Seowoo held Yuria’s hand and stood up from the seat together. The girl who had hesitated for a moment slowly opened her mouth.
“I- I’m Yuria.”