The Boundary Between You and Me (2)
I discovered Seo Seyeong by the window on the upper floor of the hospital purely by chance.
“Huh?”
It was Seo Seyeong who had come to the convenience store while I was searching for trauma in the past. At that time, her face was as gloomy as if she were about to die at any moment. Emptiness, sadness, exhaustion. The her I met at the convenience store revealed those emotions without hiding them. It felt like she was forcibly suppressing a pent-up feeling that might burst into tears at any moment, but it seemed to express an excessive sorrow in its own way.
But the appearance of her that I discovered now was…
“Seo Seyeong……?”
A strange smile, but contrary to the raised corners of her mouth, her eyes looked as if they were about to pour out tears at any moment. In her trauma, the her I found was confused by a collision of unknown emotions.
“Wait!!!”
She, who had been looking at me through the window, turned her body and went back inside the hospital. At the sight of her disappearing from my view, I channeled the mana in my body to the tips of my feet. If Seo Seyeong couldn’t come, then I would go. I didn’t know what had happened to her, but I couldn’t just stand by and watch her succumb to her trauma.
Thud!
A leap unimaginable as human strength unfolded from the ground. Cracks formed in the solid concrete floor, and as small fragments bounced around it, people gathered nearby screamed at the unexpected roar. Before I knew it, there were citizens who had come to watch near the hospital and police officers who had been dispatched after receiving reports. People starting to get out of their cars one by one. But I paid no attention to what they were doing and kicked off the hospital wall to leap once more.
Thud thud thud!!!
Citizens took out their cameras, and the police picked up their walkie-talkies. Police officers reporting the situation due to my actions. Having climbed quite high in just two steps, I could see several fire trucks approaching with sirens blaring from not far away.
‘Just a little faster…!’
I could have gone to find Seo Seyeong using the stairs step by step. But the fact that she turned her head even after knowing I had come meant she was avoiding me.
Thud!
What could it have been? After meeting my eyes, the reason she turned her head……
Thud thud!!!
However, my thoughts didn’t last long. With Lv.40 agility and strength, there was no regret in climbing a height close to the 20th floor with just three or four leaps.
The space in the hospital I arrived at like that. The moment I saw the three people beyond the window, my body couldn’t help but stiffen.
“……So that’s what it was?”
Two middle-aged couples who looked exactly like Seo Seyeong. She was tightly hugging those two people, and Seo Seyeong’s parents, perhaps not recognizing that I was outside the window, were patting her back and offering words of comfort.
“Our daughter, you must have had a lot of hard times…”
“Don’t worry. Seyeong has done well so far and will continue to do well in the future.”
The words Seo Seyeong had always wanted to hear. Whether those words from the two of them were thoughts from before the tutorial or a longing for her parents that arose after the tutorial, there was no way to know. But what was important was the fact itself that they were stroking her back and saying the one thing she wanted to hear.
Creak.
I carefully opened the window and entered the hospital interior. Only then did the two people who discovered me try to hide their daughter behind them with wary faces, but Seo Seyeong stopped them and slowly stood up.
“Mom, that convenience store young man I mentioned last time.”
“Huh, huh…? But how through the window……?”
“……It’s a bit strange to say this, but is your name not Peter by any chance?”
At her father’s joke, Seo Seyeong chuckled and looked at them. Now it was time to choose. But the her I had seen so far was not a woman who would give up a certain future just because she had lingering attachments to one thing.
“……I’ll be going now.”
“Uh, Seyeong…… um.”
At Seo Seyeong’s words, her mother’s hand that was trying to grab her stopped. Her mother had many things she wanted to say but didn’t. And soon, her mother said nothing and just showed a benevolent smile. She didn’t beg her not to leave. She didn’t stop her by saying to eat an apple or something before going. Because she knew that would put her beloved daughter in danger. Her mother had passed away when she was 20, but the future mother created by the Constellation from Seo Seyeong’s memories was a strong person.
“Go carefully. Don’t lose. And you… no, young man.”
Her father extended his hand and asked for a handshake with me.
“Please take good care of my lacking daughter. Now that I see you, you look quite handsome, like seeing myself in my youth.”
He showed me a good-natured smile, and I extended my hand to shake his.
“I’ll do my best.”
I knew he was an illusion created by the Constellation. But somehow, it felt like I had to do this, and I wanted to. After the greeting, his head turned back to his daughter. A face I would never see again once we parted. That’s why it was more precious, and that’s why I couldn’t stay here any longer.
“I’m really going now. Both of you, take care. And…”
Seo Seyeong showed a bright smile without hiding the tears flowing.
“I love you…”
Her parents raised their hands to see us off as we tried to exit through the window, and she turned her head to gaze into my eyes.
“Siin, let’s go now.”
Her eyes, now twenty years old, had regained the uprightness of the Seo Seyeong I knew. There was no trace of the spoiled appearance from a moment ago. Only a woman who had swallowed her sadness and was trying to live for the future was there.
Like that, with her in my arms, I leaped out the window.
***
“Th-there! It’s that person!”
When I leaped down while holding Seo Seyeong, the people waiting in the parking lot looked at us with expressions as if they had witnessed a monster.
“I saw him lift a car and throw it earlier!”
“How can you believe such absurd words……”
“Damn it! Then how do you explain jumping from the 20th floor without any equipment?!”
“Th-that…”
A police officer who had rushed over due to a report from a brave citizen briefly refuted his words and hesitated. Regardless of what the citizens had seen, the police were also human, so the current situation was bewildering and frightening.
Crackle.
But it seemed the police also felt some sense of crisis, as they carefully picked up their walkie-talkie and began requesting support. The police requesting support from armed police. But I nonchalantly turned my head and only looked at Seo Seyeong.
“You overcame it.”
“Thanks to you.”
What was important was that we would soon leave this place. And as proof, a portal that could only be seen when clearing the tower was forming in front of us.
Zzzzt……
A portal of dense mana emitting a blue light. The moment we passed through that portal, we would enter the 5th floor of the tower, and once we entered, there would be no way to come back down here.
“Will you be okay?”
At my question, she smiled faintly.
“I’m fine. I overcame it well, didn’t I?”
The mission of the 4th floor was to overcome trauma. And the opening of the portal meant that she had safely cleared the mission given on the 4th floor.
“By the way, how did you get here? And what’s with those clothes and the sword? Is it some kind of perk?”
“Um…… Actually, it’s hard for me to explain either, so let’s just say I found a gap. I’ll tell you in detail later.”
“Okay.”
I lightly escorted her. Now that crossing the portal would clear the 4th floor, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.
But a moment later.
“Seyeong, would you go up first?”
“…Yes?”
I didn’t want to stop walking if possible. It was because I discovered a little child at the convenience store where I had worked in my early twenties, on the other side of the hospital.
“What’s wrong all of a sudden……”
“Can you see over there?”
Seo Seyeong looked at the child my fingertip was pointing to. A child wearing loose clothes that a boy might wear, holding crumpled bills from who knows where.
“I’ll take Gamin too.”
“……”
“Chul, Cheonho… and the others who have climbed the tower with us so far. I don’t want to lose a single one of them.”
“Then…!”
At my words, Seo Seyeong continued without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’ll go with you too! Once my abilities return, I’ll definitely be of help!”
A woman saying she would help me. One of the few people who tried to stand side by side with me without fully relying on me while climbing the tower. But I firmly shook my head. I was grateful for her feelings, but since I caused an error, I didn’t know what restrictions the Constellations might have placed again.
“Don’t worry. I’ll follow soon.”
I didn’t want to lose someone after coming this far. And that feeling was the same for Seo Seyeong, and she, who couldn’t not know my heart, carefully nodded.
And.
“You have to follow for sure. And…”
Hug.
At the sudden hug, I couldn’t help but be flustered.
“Thank you so much.”
Seo Seyeong whispered quietly while wrapping her hands around my back and waist. Warmth. As a comfort I couldn’t feel even for a moment while climbing the tower spread throughout my body, I had to forcibly hold back my voice from trembling due to an inexplicably emotional feeling.
“……Yes, go ahead.”
“……I’ll be waiting.”
She carefully let go of her hands and walked away slowly with her head bowed deeply.
Vrrr. Vrrr.
Like that, she entered the portal. I stared blankly at the disappearing portal for a moment. An unfamiliar sensation, but since I couldn’t delay any longer, I shook my head and immediately headed towards the morgue in the annex building.