Episode 3: Into Chaos
The car slammed into a utility pole before finally grinding to a halt.
Thick smoke billowed from the severely mangled car, and on the dark, deserted road, the lamp attached to the snapped utility pole swayed back and forth, flickering.
“Mmmph….”
In the eyes of Lee Juhyeok, who had barely regained consciousness, two men wearing black masks were visible approaching the car.
But perhaps because blood was flowing from his head into his eyes, he could only make out their blurry shapes.
Scrape, scrape.
Squeal.
Emerging from the darkness, the two men were straining to pry off the door on Kim Jincheol’s side using a cutter.
‘It’s a kidnapping!’
Sensing the danger, Lee Juhyeok tried to draw his pistol, but for some reason, his arm wouldn’t move at all.
One of the men had tried to secure the time machine from Kim Jincheol first, but he was struggling because Kim Jincheol was clinging tightly to it.
“He’s hugging that time machine or whatever and won’t let go.”
“We’ll have to take him with us to figure out how it works anyway. Just drag him out along with it.”
Juhyeok could only watch, helpless, as the men, having torn off the car door, dragged out Kim Jincheol, who was slumped over and clutching the box.
“Ugh… kuh… kuh.”
Lee Juhyeok desperately tried to call out for Shin Yongho and Kevin, but only groans escaped his mouth.
“This guy seems to be coming to.”
One man glanced at Lee Juhyeok, snickered, and pulled out a pistol fitted with a silencer.
“Let’s finish the rest quickly and go.”
It was dry Japanese, devoid of emotion.
Lee Juhyeok strained with all his might to meet that man’s eyes, but his vision kept growing blurrier.
In his unfocused eyes, beyond the gun barrel aimed at his forehead, he could faintly see Kim Jincheol, his entire body covered in blood, struggling to open the box with trembling hands.
Crash.
Flash.
Thud.
Then, suddenly, a flash of light blazed, and something purple pressed down heavily upon him, pushing him into the black, swirling ground.
And finally, Lee Juhyeok’s body, unable to withstand that heavy force, went limp.
* * *
He hadn’t wanted to avoid the gun pointed at his head.
He had wanted to die staring into the eyes of the man trying to kill him until the very last moment.
Because as an agent of the Republic of Korea, he had wanted to face death with dignity.
But at this crucial moment, his damned eyes wouldn’t open.
“Ugh… urgh….”
He had tried to call out Shin Yongho and Kevin’s names again, but only groans came from his mouth.
As he was moaning alone, the surroundings suddenly grew hectic, and he felt someone flip his eyelids with cold fingers.
All he could see with his forcibly opened eyes was white light.
“Please try to move your hand.”
Lee Juhyeok exerted every ounce of his dying strength to move his hand following the words he heard.
“Thank goodness!”
He heard an elated voice, but to him, an excruciating pain that felt as if his entire body were being hacked to pieces came flooding in.
Eventually, his consciousness faded once more along with the sensation of his body being sucked into the ground.
* * *
When Lee Juhyeok regained consciousness again, he felt his body was heavy, but he wasn’t in the excruciating pain like before.
As the pain subsided, thirst surged in.
“Waaater….”
He barely managed to part his parched, stuck-together lips and speak with difficulty.
“D-doctor! Doctor!”
At someone’s urgent shout, he heard the hurried sounds of several footsteps rushing over, and finally, moisture touched his lips.
Though it wasn’t enough, after replenishing even a little moisture, he could come to his senses to some extent.
The eyes that wouldn’t open no matter how hard he tried could now open halfway.
Between his blurry vision, he began to dimly see several people in white gowns leaning toward him.
‘A hospital? Then, am I not dead?’
“Water… more….”
One of the white-gowned figures skillfully dripped a few drops of water into his mouth.
Though it was only a few drops, after replenishing his moisture once more like that, he could come to his senses.
“Can you see me?”
Looking toward the source of the somewhat clumsy Korean, a blond Western man in a white gown was standing there.
He nodded briefly.
“Wow, thank goodness. You’re recovering faster than we’d worried.”
It was clumsy Korean, a mix of casual and polite speech.
“Where is this?”
“It’s Severance Hospital.”
“Yonsei? Sinchon Severance?”
Then, does that mean I was transported back to Korea?
“Then what about my colleagues?”
“…….”
“I’m asking what happened to my colleagues!”
No matter how much he shouted, the blond doctor only looked at him with a strange gaze, offering no answer.
‘Don’t tell me I’m the only one rescued?’
Because he had been shouting, when he put strength into his body, his chest felt like it was tearing apart and his head felt like it would split.
The blond doctor patted his shoulder, trying to comfort him.
“You need to rest for the time being. You should recover quickly, if only for the sake of your mother, who has been nursing you tirelessly by your side.”
‘Mother?’
Come to think of it, since he had regained consciousness earlier, a middle-aged woman had been sitting beside the bed, holding his hand tightly.
“Do you recognize your mother?”
An unknown middle-aged woman was holding his hand tightly, her eyes brimming with tears, gazing at Lee Juhyeok affectionately.
‘Haah, then is this all a dream?’
* * *
Even after three days had passed and he could move his body to some extent, all of this was still confusing to Lee Juhyeok.
When he asked the people around him, they said it was February 1935.
He was nineteen years old.
Furthermore, they said this was not that Severance in Sinchon, but a patient room at Severance Hospital in front of Seoul Station.
Carefully asking around and piecing things together, his name was indeed Lee Juhyeok, and come spring, he was supposedly to enroll in and attend the Law Department of Keijo Imperial University.
He had apparently been severely assaulted by someone on his way home in the evening, but fortunately, a passerby had found him quickly and he had been transported to the hospital.
The one issue the doctor had hinted at was that due to the head injury, he might have slight symptoms of amnesia.
His father was Lee Sanghyeon, his mother Min Jeongsuk.
Judging by the fact that his hospital room was a private room, they seemed fairly well-off; he was an only son, smart enough to get into Keijo Imperial University, and liked exercise….
He organized the suddenly given situation and was lost in thought for a long while.
* * *
After a few more days, upon being discharged, an old-fashioned black automobile was waiting in front of the hospital.
Everyone boarded the vehicle naturally and informed him they were heading home.
Having arrived home, Lee Juhyeok silently followed where Min Jeongsuk led.
In the spacious garden, several people who appeared to be servants were hanging laundry or grooming, and it was a Korean-style house large enough to have separate detached quarters and servants’ quarters.
It was certain that this was a fairly well-to-do household.
From the moment he entered the house, a man ran up, repeatedly bowing at the waist, took his luggage, and led him to the detached quarters.
Supported by Lee Sanghyeon, he climbed onto the wooden veranda, slid open the door, and entered the room.
“This is your room; do you remember?”
Seeing Lee Juhyeok enter the room and look around here and there, Min Jeongsuk dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
“Ahem, there she goes again. Didn’t they say you’d be fine after a few more days of convalescence? Now then, rest.”
Patting the shoulder of Min Jeongsuk, who was sniffling with her head bowed, Lee Sanghyeon went outside.
Looking around the room, the furnishings were simple: a bed, a bookshelf, a wardrobe, and two chairs with a low, round wooden table.
Lying sprawled on the bed, he looked at the ceiling and then slowly closed his eyes.
‘Is this a dream? What on earth is going on? Could it be that time machine?’
But if all this was truly because of that time machine, shouldn’t he have moved through time with his previous body intact?
Could this be the malfunction of the prototype Kim Jincheol had mentioned?
Had a machine malfunction caused him to be reincarnated into someone with the same name?
“I don’t know. I’ll find the answer after living here a few days, I suppose.”
Shortly after, the outside suddenly grew noisy, and a middle-aged woman came into the room crying.
“Oh, Young Master… you’ve finally been discharged. *Sob.*”
By her expression, she seemed to be someone who worked in this house; perhaps she had been doing laundry, as her cold hands repeatedly caressed Juhyeok’s hands and face, gazing at him affectionately.
“Yeojudaek! Come out quickly. The Young Master needs to rest too.”
The woman called Yeojudaek squinted toward the yard.
In the yard, the man who had taken his luggage earlier was deliberately turning his head away as if avoiding her glare, and beside him stood a shaggy-haired boy.
The shaggy-haired boy, meeting eyes with Lee Juhyeok, gave him a shy smile and bowed at the waist.
“I’ve prepared plenty of the Young Master’s favorite dishes for dinner, so please sleep soundly until then.”
Yeojudaek looked at Lee Juhyeok once more with eyes full of worry and went outside.
‘Phew, my mind is a complete mess.’
As if to prove Yeojudaek’s confident words, the dinner table was overflowing with all kinds of greasy dishes.
‘All of this…?’
The inside of his mouth was still dry and coarse, so he had little appetite, but the moment he picked up his spoon, he couldn’t bear to ignore the affectionate and earnest gazes of Lee Sanghyeon, Min Jeongsuk, and Yeojudaek watching him warmly.
Lee Juhyeok forced the food down his throat and returned to his room, taking stock of his appearance in the mirror hanging on the wall.
His height was a little over 180 centimeters, and while not at a satisfactory level, he had quite a bit of muscle, likely from exercising consistently.
His face could be said to resemble Lee Sanghyeon and Min Jeongsuk in equal measure.
He wasn’t a strikingly handsome man, but if one were generous, one might call it a warm, friendly face.
Looking through the bookshelf, books in English, Japanese, and other languages were lined up.
He opened one of the Japanese books.
Back then, he had been naturally good at English and decent at Japanese, but he had never been able to read and understand a Japanese book this fluently… It was strange.
He perched on the edge of the bed and tried reading slowly, but it was some kind of philosophy-related content, and the text was written vertically, which was difficult and utterly unfamiliar, so he closed the book, tossed it beside the bed, and flopped down.
When he touched his stomach, it bulged out, perhaps because he had eaten too much at dinner.
‘Once my body gets a bit better, I should start with exercise first.’
* * *
After dinner and before going to bed, Lee Sanghyeon and Min Jeongsuk were sitting in the living room drinking tea.
Yeongsu Abeom, who had taken Juhyeok’s luggage earlier, was also standing before them with his hands neatly clasped.
“Yeongsu Abeom, what is Juhyeok doing now?”
“He seems to have fallen asleep early, perhaps because he was very tired.”
“It must have been hard on him… Hmm.”
Lee Sanghyeon let out a long breath.
“Dear, our Juhyeok will be alright, won’t he? I’m so worried I’m dying.”
Min Jeongsuk, who looked utterly exhausted from nursing Juhyeok for several days without proper sleep, reddened at the corners of her eyes.
“Ever since the hospital, he’s felt somewhat different… especially his gaze. It’s become very sharp.”
Now that he thought about it, Lee Sanghyeon too had several times felt his heart sink at the frightening gaze in Juhyeok’s eyes whenever he glanced at him, so different from before.
“Madam, it’s likely that his nerves have become sharp from exhaustion. Please don’t worry too much. I, as well as Yeojudaek, will watch over him with all our hearts. Then, please rest well.”
Yeongsu Abeom bowed and went outside.
“It’s probably because the shock was great since the accident was severe. The doctor also said that with time, everything will return to normal, so let’s not worry or be too impatient and just wait.”
Lee Sanghyeon gently took Min Jeongsuk’s hand, caressing it as if to console and reassure her.
Min Jeongsuk nodded, but she couldn’t shake off her worried heart.
* * *
The next morning.
Having eaten a breakfast that Yeojudaek had likely prepared—enough to satisfy five people—Juhyeok was slowly walking around the house to work off his full stomach.
Behind the inner quarters, there was a fairly spacious courtyard, and busy servants, each occupied with their own tasks, happily bowed at the waist whenever their eyes met Juhyeok’s.
Near the back wall, beneath a large pine tree, a fairly large pond caught his eye.
Inside the pond, several carp were visible, and when Juhyeok clapped his hands, the carp rushed frantically as if they knew he was going to feed them.
While Lee Juhyeok was blankly watching the carp for a long while, Yeongsu Abeom, who had carried his luggage yesterday, approached him with quick strides.
“Young Master, a guest has come. They are in the living room with Madam now.”
When he turned around, Yeongsu Abeom was smiling.