#Side Story, The Day of Fate (4-2)
No. In the moment when Min-yeol felt the children had "vanished," one boy appeared floating in the air where time seemed to slow infinitely before his eyes, then fell helplessly after flying forward several meters. The truck's wheels, having changed direction, passed over him.
Crunch.
In that moment, Min-yeol thought he heard the horrific sound of a human body being crushed, though it couldn't possibly have been audible to him. And when all that tension reached its limit at zero point,
"Huh, uh, ahhhhh!"
After a silence where one second felt like a hundred years, accompanied by the smell of burning rubber, what was heard was the truck driver's scream bursting through the half-open window. Only then could Min-yeol barely comprehend this terrible reality.
When he staggered toward the side of the truck in shock, he saw blood flowing out from under the wheels. He couldn't control his trembling body. When he finally managed to approach the front of the vehicle, he saw a boy in kendo uniform about a meter away, eyes wide open, frozen mid-roll.
'That boy...'
Only then did it flash through his mind that only one person had been thrown into the air. As he hurriedly examined the face of the unharmed boy, he realized it was the boy who had first brushed past Min-yeol and had been shouting at the winner boy. At that moment, another fact automatically surfaced in Min-yeol's mind.
'Then the one who was hit...'
He didn't want to look. But he had to.
Where Min-yeol turned his head, gritting his teeth, lay a person at the center of a pool of blood, like a wooden doll bent at strange angles. One of his legs was invisible, caught under the large wheel of the truck that had twisted sharply while changing direction. No sign of life was visible from that body.
At this accident scene that was eerily quiet despite the terrible accident that had occurred, Min-yeol alone took out his mobile phone from his pocket. His fingertips trembled violently as he pressed the buttons.
"...Hello. There's been an accident... a traffic accident. This is..."
All that silence felt like screaming.
After making the call first, Min-yeol checked on the truck driver. The middle-aged man in the driver's seat was unconscious, bleeding from where his forehead had hit the glass.
After confirming that he was at least breathing properly, Min-yeol approached the second boy who, though fallen, was clearly alive. The boy had no injuries except for some scratches, but his pupils were dilated.
"Hey. Hey! Look here!"
As Min-yeol laid the boy flat and tried to bring him to consciousness by slapping his cheeks, the boy's eyes flickered after a moment. Haah. Min-yeol sighed in relief and shook the boy's shoulders.
"Are you conscious? Are you alright?"
Then the boy, who had been lying motionless as if barely hearing his words, suddenly flipped over and got up like a ghost crawling up from hell.
"Hey!"
Pushing aside the startled Min-yeol with giant-like strength, the boy's wandering eyes soon fixed on the pool of blood.
"...Heon..."
As Min-yeol was surprised, blood rushed to the boy's eyes as he muttered blankly.
"Kang... Mu-heon, Kang Mu-heon!!!! Kang Mu-heon!!!!!!!!!"
Then, before anyone could stop him, the boy crawled and struggled toward the winner boy lying in the pool of blood, and without caring that his clothes and body were getting soaked in blood, seemed to examine him before embracing him and wailing. It was truly the most horrific scream Min-yeol had ever heard in his life.
Right then, urgent siren sounds rang out from afar...
Unlike Min-yeol, who briefly stated the accident situation in the quickly dispatched ambulance, the boy named Jeong Seung-jo only revealed their names and said nothing more. What made Min-yeol disbelieve was the fact that the injured boy, whom he had thought dead on sight, was actually holding onto a thread-like seed of breath. However, that face, soaked in blood all over his body, merely lay pale while receiving emergency treatment in the ambulance.
Even in that chaotic emergency treatment, Seung-jo absolutely wouldn't let go of the winner boy Kang Mu-heon's head cradled in his lap, so they had to treat him that way.
Though he had moved away from the terrible expression that made one wonder how a human could contain so many emotions in one face, the difference now was that he wore a corpse-like expressionlessness instead. In some ways, that expressionlessness was even more terrifying.
At that moment, Min-yeol's phone rang, unable to read the atmosphere. Though no one paid attention due to the chaos, he couldn't help feeling embarrassed. Min-yeol picked up his phone and turned to a corner as he slid it open.
[ Hey, Jeon Min-yeol! Where are you that you're still not home? You're on dinner duty today! ]
The caller was his troublesome older brother, the eldest son Jeon Ju-yeol.
"Damn it... How can you not understand what kind of situation this is..."
When he swore for the first time in years out of agitation, his hot-tempered brother's voice burst out from the other end of the phone.
[ What? What did you just say to your brother? ]
"I'm going to the hospital now, so you do it today."
[ ...What are you talking about? Why are you going to the hospital? ]
"What good would it do you to know!"
Min-yeol shouted, exploding with the nerves he had been forcibly suppressing until now. After a moment, his brother's low voice came through the phone.
[ ...Alright. You seem pretty worked up, so I'll hang up for now. I'll have Do-yeol handle dinner, so call me back when you reach the hospital. I'll come right out. ]
At his brother's words, acting like a proper older brother only at times like this, Min-yeol finally felt his mind calm a little. As he felt relieved, a sigh escaped naturally, and he found himself answering as usual.
"Okay. ...I'll call back later."
"We've arrived!"
At the paramedic's urgent shout just as he hung up, Min-yeol startled and looked up. At that moment, the doors opened, and the paramedics pulled out the bed where the patient was temporarily secured, heading toward the emergency room visible before them. In the process, Seung-jo had to helplessly let go of the head he had been holding.
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Jin Soram, the top-ranked hunter representing South Korea's Rift Phenomenon Management Headquarters, is stronger than anyone else and lazier than anyone else. As soon as he arrives at the office, he buries himself under a blanket and falls asleep. When he goes out on a mission, he causes accidents and returns to the office, often shirking his duties.
"Do you know how it feels to play a game that's already messed up? ...Anyway, the next round will come, so this time, I'm just going to play it recklessly."
In fact, his true identity is someone who has regressed through three lives, trying to save the world from the Great Rift but failing each time. After repeating a life where he couldn't sleep peacefully even for a day, he became completely exhausted before this life even began.
"I know. You worked hard, Jin Soram."
And then there's Han Tae-un, the man who saved Soram and died in all three previous lives. As he did in every life, he comes to Soram's side once again. The Great Rift is approaching soon. It's impossible to resolve it in this life without any preparation. Soram vows to save Tae-un in this life and die himself. At least, he won't let Tae-un save a failure like himself again.
"For now, until then, let's sleep..."
As Soram sluggishly lives his life waiting for that moment, a gradual change occurs in his heart.
'I thought this was a messed-up round... but I want to live a little longer here.'
Leonardo Blaine, the true war hero of the Raina Logia Empire and the commander of the Armsilver 11th Squad, is dishonorably discharged for disobeying orders during the final battle that could have led the Empire to victory in the territorial war. People criticize and point fingers at him, and after being released on parole from prison, he disappears without a trace.
Three years later, his name has been forgotten by the world. The Council has been persistently pursuing him, but he has proven difficult to capture. Frustrated by this, Hugo Agrizendro, the commander of the Council's army, decides to personally apprehend him.
"Since when have you been watching me?"
Leonardo was calculative and astute, so it wouldn't be surprising if he had been observing Hugo for some time now. However, Leonardo's answer was something that even Hugo had not anticipated.
"From the very beginning."
Graduate student Yi-han finds himself reborn in another world as the youngest child of a mage family.
– I’m never attending school, ever again!
‘What do you wish to achieve in life?’
‘I wish to play around and live comforta-‘
‘You must be aware of your talent. Now go attend Einroguard!’
‘Patriarch!’
My future would be guaranteed once I graduate. For my future!
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